Hey! I was wondering if you could talk about the conversation in the cave when lwj says to wwx "Don't flirt with someone if you don't mean it"? I was really surprised because it feels like it's acknowledging wangxian in a super obvious way. And not only for the show, but also for lwj as a character, to say that directly to wwx. So I was wondering if there were any differences or nuances in meaning in the original Chinese? Is it really as blatant as the subtitles made it sound?
thank you for following up with the timestamp, anon! it was super helpful <3
all right! all right all right all right, some jealous Lan Wangji coming right up--
It might help contextualize the line if we put it in context of the conversation wangxian is having in the moment about scars, which is a topic that comes directly out of Lan Wangji scolding Wei Wuxian for being reckless and getting himself hurt:
Lan Wangji: 既知疼痛，下次便不要莽撞。/ Since you know it hurts, don’t be so impetuous next time.
Wei Wuxian: 你以为我想啊？我这不是没办法吗。谁知道王灵娇这个女人这么狠毒。你说绵绵一个姑娘家 -- 长得还挺漂亮的啊 -- 要是被那个烙铁在脸上留下来什么痕迹，这可一辈子留在脸上多不好啊。/ You think I wanted [to get hurt]? I had no other option. Who knew Wang Lingjiao was such a venomous woman? Mianmian is a girl -- a pretty one at that -- and if that brand had left a scar on her face, how awful would it be for her to have that on her face for her entire life?
Lan Wangji: 你身上这个东西 一辈子都去不掉了。/ The one on your body will also be there for life.
Wei Wuxian: 那不一样。反正又不是在脸上。而且我是男人 -- 哪个男人一辈子不受几次伤， 留几个疤？再说了，就算这个东西一辈子去不掉，但它也代表我曾经保护了一个姑娘，而且这个姑娘一辈子都忘不了我。这样想一想，其实还是挺美好的, 对不对？/ That’s not the same. Anyways, it’s not even on my face. And I’m a man -- what man doesn't get hurt a few times in his life, gets a few scars? Also, even if I can’t get rid of this scar, it still proves that I once protected a girl, and this girl will remember me for the rest of her life. Thinking of it that way, it’s actually quite wonderful, don’t you think?
Lan Wangji: 你也知道 她一辈子忘不了你了。/ You know, then -- she’ll remember you for the rest of her life.
Wei Wuxian: 诶，你干么这么生气啊？/ Ei, why are you so mad?
Lan Wangji: 你要是没那个意思 就不要随便去撩拨别人。/ If you don’t have the intent, you shouldn’t tease others.
Wei Wuxian: 我撩拨的又不是你...除非... / The one I’m teasing isn’t you... unless...
Lan Wangji: 除非什么？/ Unless what?
Wei Wuxian: 除非蓝湛，你喜欢绵绵？/ Unless, Lan Zhan... you like Mianmian?
hastily kicks ‘I’m not re-translating the entire show’ under my desk
so! some fun things to look at in this exchange:
Wei Wuxian’s self-sacrificial tendencies and habit of covering it up once again making itself known
This happens early enough in the show that we don’t realize how symptomatic this conversation is of Wei Wuxian’s... everything -- his unthinking willingness to throw himself into the path of danger, in front of a smoking brand, to protect others. You think I wanted to get hurt? he says to Lan Wangji, pouting. I had no other option.
Actually, you dumbass, you did -- you didn’t have to defend Mianmian at all. You could’ve just stood by, like Jiang Cheng keeps begging you to do.
But remember -- Wei Wuxian’s whole thing about being hurt is that if it’s minor enough, he’ll whine and complain and kick up a fuss about it, but if it’s serious, he’ll shrug it off and say it’s all fine (see: the gut wound inflicted by Jiang Cheng, Jin Ling’s transferred curse mark, his entire goddamn golden core). We know this, 50 episodes later, but this is still early enough in the show and in their relationship that when Wei Wuxian throws up a smokescreen, Lan Wangji falls for it.
And that smokescreen is... double standards for physical appearance based on gender?
Well, kind of, but more importantly we see what Wei Wuxian’s priorities are here, and they go: other people, first; his physical safety and intactness, second. As long as the other person ends up fine, what’s a few more scars on his body? These are his glorious battle scars, after all.
Lan Wangji, jealous soul that he is, gets hung up on Wei Wuxian’s previous line -- the offhand mention that Mianmian will remember him forever. That kind of devotion -- Wei Wuxian literally throwing himself in front of a burning brand for a girl -- is an act that should reside at the highest tiers of romance for Lan Wangji. This is wangxian we’re talking about, after all -- their love language, aside from bunnies, music, and baby names, also includes self-sacrifice. But what a younger Lan Wangji doesn’t understand yet is that Wei Wuxian will do this for pretty much anyone who walks by, that what Lan Wangji reads as an incredibly romantic and devoted act is really just another Tuesday for Wei Wuxian.
okay hunxi, that’s very nice, but what about the line anon actually asked about?
the line in question is this one:
Lan Wangji: 你要是没那个意思 就不要随便去撩拨别人。/ If you don’t have the intent, you shouldn’t tease others.
The key word here being 撩拨 liaobo, which Pleco offers ‘to tease, banter, incite, or provoke’ as possible translations. It doesn’t quite mean ‘to flirt,’ though it absolutely can be used in that sense. I chose to translate it as ‘tease,’ which is just ambiguous enough that it can fall in either direction.
Remember, this is Lan Wangji we’re talking about -- the curse and the tragedy of the Lan Clan is that when they fall in love, they fall in love for life. No takebacks. No second chances. If you don’t have the intent, Lan Wangji says: if you don’t really mean it, if you don’t intend on following through, then you shouldn’t go around giving people false hopes, leading them on, deceiving them, because some of us can’t move on from a broken relationship.
The directness of Lan Wangji’s line might also make more sense when considered in context of the different ways the two of them interpret Wei Wuxian’s defense of Mianmian. Wei Wuxian thinks that it was the right thing to do, regardless of the cost, and the side bonus of ‘a pretty girl will remember me forever, sweet’ is just that -- a side bonus. Meanwhile, Lan Wangji thinks that Wei Wuxian has essentially declared his undying devotion to Mianmian by permanently etching his protection of her into his skin, and for Wei Wuxian to dismiss it so casually in conversation is unbearably flippant for a love-cursed Lan.
This may or may not make a difference, but in the MDZS audiodrama version of this scene, there’s also a hefty dose of ‘no homo’ in this conversation, primarily following the whole clothes-stripping-bait-and-switch. Wei Wuxian, after he scandalizes Lan Wangji into spitting out bad blood, tosses out a don’t worry, I don’t like men that way, you’re safe from me which isn’t present in the CQL version of the scene. So part of what makes this scene seem so obviously about how superbly gay the two of them are is that it’s explicitly about how superbly gay the two of them are in MDZS, except the CQL production team takes any mention of queer love and shoves it into subtext. In doing so, they also jettison Wei Wuxian’s ‘no homo’ comment into oblivion, which means that what we’re left with in CQL is some delightfully gay content.
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