问灵十三载 等一不归人

No one likes or hates luo binghe the best. He was abandoned at birth because someone had issues with his birth parents. He was abused and thrown into hell because of a dude's own issues that he was projecting and there's nothing lbh could have done about it. His wives all have various motives for marrying him and the author, and possibly original!lbh himself, know they don't love him. In the divergent story, where tlj tries to merge the realms, even that isn't about lbh, it's about the memory of sxy and what happened to her.

And then into the story comes shen yuan, with the baseline, bedrock assumption that literally everything is about luo binghe. He is The Protagonist and sy never for a second takes his eyes off of that fact: even when he's in the abyss, lbh is the center of the universe, because to shen yuan, it always has been and always will be his story. Of course lbh loses his mind about him.

"I'm sorry," Xie Lian said. "Something like this has to be made clear."

He fucking did, tho?

Did you skip the fourth of the novel that spells out that Wei Wuxian fucking did owe Jiang Cheng something?

He owed him a goddamn ✨✨explanation✨✨ for suddenly going rogue, then seemingly insane, then murdering his brother in law and then losing his mind and their sister to the powers WWX assured everyone and anyone he could control 100% no biggie.

And that this is ultimately all Jiang Cheng wanted from Wei Wuxian? An explanation and an apology for being lied to and abandoned without a word? He wanted him to come back home, apologise to the dead, and explain himself.

How is that a hard concept to understand to some people?

If your friend keeps telling you "Hey, let's open up a bakery and I will do half of the work, and its gonna be great!" but then, once you open the bakery, the friend keeps skipping his part of the job and ultimately, without an explanation, goes to support your flagging competition while pissing off every other shop owner in the city - demanding an explanation is the least you'd do.

How the hell can you look at the guy desperate to ask "What happened to make all our lives go so wrong?" and think "Eugh, entitled!"

Jiang Cheng and Jin Ling are THE people deserving answers the most in the whole world post WWX's ressurection. He pretty much destroyed both of their lives - not on purpose, no, but inadvertently that's what happened. There was more people and interests at play, but the things that impacted these two the most were of Wei Wuxian's lies.

these are such good tags!

If you want to go back home - do so and work on that relationship you want. "We will meet somehow as long as we walk the earth" bullshit, weaksauce, shidi-less behaviour=_=

What struck me is how the authors always blamed themselves for not being cautious enough or being led astray by their financial needs, but nobody put the blame on the unjust rules and the greed of the authorities that led to their arrests - not that they would dare to. It's an utterly bizarre situation that, as a new danmei English license seems to be announced once every few days here on the other side of China's Great Firewall, within China the persecution keeps getting more rampant and the danmei community feels more and more cornered and frightened. Reality is always more surreal than fiction.

I translated some of the author's weibo posts, please see below:

“I knew I was being naïve and over-optimistic (about the repercussions of writing danmei), so I can’t blame anyone. Sometimes I want to resent society but then I’ll give up the thought. As for the criminal punishment, my view on it is still the same - I even feel that I’m different from those who engage in prostitution; after all, I made all this money by typing my stories word by word. Yet when I got into trouble, people talked about it as if I didn’t have to work for my income.” - This is from an author who wrote danmei because her family’s poor and she wanted to save money to travel. She got into a master’s programme before this and the programme kicked her out because of her arrest.

“Ever since I was little, I’ve always been the well-behaved golden child in my parents’ eyes. I had the best grades among my peers and won scholarships in both high school and university. When we visited family during New Year and other festivals, my parents were always proud of me in front of our relatives. But that day I shamed them thoroughly and the shame will always stick around...I love the characters I wrote very much, planning and creating their stores always brought me so much happiness and fulfillment. But a mistake is a mistake. I want to use my personal experience to admonish others - don’t try to go against the regulations in any way ever, don’t put yourself in the slightest bit of risk.”

“I’ve never felt this horrible in my entire life. I’ve always firmly believed that nobody in this world could be that bad. My rose-tinted glasses were broken along with my romantic expectations for the world. My values and outlook on life were shattered. When something like this happens, perhaps only the family of the author involved and the author herself would be hurt deeply! It’s just business for everyone else!”

This one’s written by the author’s sibling: “Another sleepless night. Tomorrow is the Dragon Boat Festival, and it’s been three festivals since we could be together...I’ve felt remorseful for countless times that I didn’t contact more people and I felt that I haven’t done enough. I prayed to the gods and the Buddha for more times in the past two months than in the past 30 years. Besides asking for the Heaven’s protection and blessing, what else can we do?...You supported yourself financially during university solely by doing part-time jobs. We’ve always put too much importance on money, and that’s how we allowed you to make a mistake.”

Like, it was always there, he always had it in him. He was shy and awkward and shoved it down, but it wasn't unknown to him or happenstance because he died in violence.

He was not just a poor little guy that repressed everything and wasn't aware he had it in him - I think he knew exactly how much he had it in him.

I think Wen Ning had a deep, dark well of anger and rage in him, knew and acknowledged it and chose to be a better person, but that didn't erase it in any way and THAT'S why he was so immediately and completely powerful as a fierce corpse and why partially why he was able to regain sentience.

Wei WuXian did something remarkable returning his sentience, cognition and free will to him, absolutely, but I honestly think at least part of the work of that was that Wen Ning was able to keep his balance in the middle of all that resentful energy from the inside.

The only other sentient fierce corpse we see is someone who seems to have a similar trait of being extremely controlled despite a lot of nursed anger - Song Lan - so I think that for that technique to work it requires someone who's gone emotionally through the ringer enough to have been steeped in resentful/angry thoughts, larger and deeper than average people, and had the mental and personal strength to rise above it.

So, Shen Yuan groggily wakes up and the first thing he sees is that traitorous asshole Shang Qinghua's relieved face and disheveled appearance. Ugh. And then first thing that the An Ding Peak Lord says is: "Wow, and I thought the System hated my ass. It had it OUT for you, bro."

What the fuck.

At which point, Shen Yuan sits bolt upright because what the hell happened? The last thing he remembers is not moving, the weight of the sword in his hand, the thunder of his heart in his ears, not being able to go through with it, hoping against all reason that this was all some sort of sick test and that the System wouldn't really-

"Where's Binghe?" Shen Yuan demands.

Shang Qinghua winces. "About that..."

And Shen Yuan's heart falls because Binghe ended up in the Endless Abyss anyway, obviously. There were apparently two transmigrators all along and neither of them could truly change the story.

"He got arrested for your murder and the invasion of the conference," Shang Qinghua says, scratching the back of his neck. "It was ugly. So ugly. I probably would have died if Liu Qingge hadn't shown up to put him down. The Palace Master is saying that this is obviously revenge for Tianlang-Jun's sealing and Yue Qingyuan has pretty much stopped talking-"

"What."

Like giving Shang Qinghua his credit card so Shang Qinghua can take him on an indulgent shopping trip

Only he's buying incredibly practical and sensible (expensive) things so no one takes this as a trophy hubby spending spree. But it is one in his head so he's happy. Even though he's the one paying for it

I think Mobei likes the romance and pageantry of being a gorgeous bit of arm candy for his hot husband who provides for him but is too practical and too much of a control freak to live it out which is fine because he interprets his life that way anyway.

What Shang Qinghua Actually Says: I have finalised the report and rearranged all your other meetings so you can attend the dinner function with Luo Binghe and finally take out that rival you've been hunting

What Mobei Jun Hears: Don't worry your pretty little head about all those icky details. Daddy has everything under control. You just need to go party and let off some steam

What Mobei Says in his head: Oh Daddy! You let me have all the fun! It's so nice to know I can rely on Daddy! *Giggle*

What he actually says to Shang Qinghua: Understood. The function is at 7, double check the guest list and make sure our info is up to date.

Keyly, PiDW is still told largely from the PoV of Luo Binghe- so neither he nor the audience is at all aware that it's now Isekai story. Instead it's billed as this heady romantic drama about prejudice, the passage of time, and redemption- where a big part of the appeal is trying to piece together the otherwise enigmatic Shen Qingqiu's motives.

Was he harsh on Binghe initially because of he sensed/knew about Binghe's demon heritage (as it's now possible to find hints that he may have in fact known all along)? Or because he saw Binghe's potential and wanted to do the tough-love training thing? Or was it because he was trying to chase Binghe away from Cultivation because he knew it would lead Binghe to misery one day? Did he throw Binghe into the Abyss because he was genuinely shocked and disgusted by the Demon reveal? Or because he knew Binghe would be killed if he stayed and he was trying to 'protect' him? Or was it because he genuinely wanted Binghe to fulfill his demon Emperor destiny and thought a clean break would do it? The fandom has no idea but lovvvvvves arguing about it.

Taking notes only he can read only because his handwriting is abysmal

Highlighting information like he's learning for an exam

Practicing dirty talk and seductive lines

All completely shamelessly because he must know all these things. Not that dianxia would ever do such things with him, dianxia's so holy and pure, but just in case! Just in case! This is just in case!

Architecture

The Blade

Governance

All of History

How to read a dead language

Whatever He Xuan's got going on

How To Do The Sex

Calligraphy

Sure, we all love eunuchs. But have you ever found yourself with an emptiness in your heart because you were unable to objectively measure your eunuchs? Well, now you can! Thanks to our handy Eunuch Measuring Scale, you can visualize your eunuchs and even see how they stack up against other eunuchs. Enjoy this handy demonstration of how it works!

The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty

Sleuth's eunuchs are absolutely unmatched in the complexity and fuckability departments, and also get full schemesy marks. Their style is sharp but not particularly varied, and while they do call on their beloved emperor, they don't particularly get a good solid holler going about it. Still, Sleuth's little meow meow eunuchs are high-quality, top-of-the-line eunuchs, practically the industry standard.

The Blood of Youth

Imagine -- eunuchs that not only have stunning outfits of their own, but that coordinate with their coworkers! Hats with architecture that defies logic! It's the style score that makes the Blood of Youth's eunuchs truly stand out. While they are admittedly less fully realized than their Sleuth counterparts, one must chalk this slight deficiency up to how difficult it is to get any screen time in a show with eight billion other characters. They're still full of schemesy goodness, though, leaving you always wanting more.

Nirvana in Fire

Nirvana in Fire presents a special eunuch challenge, as there's only really one eunuch to speak of: Gao Zhan, the emperor's loyal attendant. While his primary function in the show is to feign ignorance so he doesn't get into trouble, he can fretfully wail for his head of state like none other. It's tough to singlehandedly bear the responsibility of all eunuch represenation in a property, but Gao Zhan performs admirably in all areas an emperor could desire.

Story of Yanxi Palace

In contrast to Nirvana in Fire, Yanxi Palace has a substantial number of eunuchs, and every one of them is absolutely plotting something at all times. While the sex appeal of these identically dressed eunuchs is on average low, Yuan Chunwang brings the fuckable score up single-handedly by being the rare canonically fuckable eunuch. Note that the Yanxi Palace eunuchs lose a few points on a technicality: By the time they're around, the emperor is a huángshàng, not a bìxià, and it's much more difficult to get a good mournful cry going when you can't exploit the natural trajectory of two falling tones in a row.

Sleep better at night knowing you can now objectively measure your eunuchs along these six important axes! I know I will!

The penisest of tunes.