Chronic Shixiong Enjoyer

Rare aesthetic: you and your soulmate laughing after getting beat up by a food obsessed immortal because his identity as Evil Ghost Guy™ got revealed

They're so unhinged I love them

The Blood of Youth (2022) - Extra Epilogue Tang Lian is back!

original picture from this xhs post of 10th anniversary exhibition

List of locations on the map containing short descriptions:

木玉坊：木玉坊晏家，西南道两大霸主之一，与顾家并立。 Mu Yu House: Mu Yu House Yan Family, one of the two major bosses of the Xi Nan Circuit, alongside Gu Family.

望城山：道门魁首，精通卜卦，道剑双绝。 Mount Wangcheng: Leader/Best of Daoist Sects, master of divination, unparalled in Daoism and swordwork.

天山派：北離正道名門大派，以刀法聞名 Tian Shan Sect: Major righteous sect in Bei Li, known for bladework (dao)

黄泉当铺：看起来是一个神秘的钱庄，收納了江湖各大门派与组织的宝物与战骆物奇。 Yellow Springs Pawn Shop: Appears to be a mysterious money shop (bank), holds the treasures and weapons of various major jianghu sects and organizations.

金錢坊：金錢坊顾家，西南道兩大霸主之一，位于柴桑城。 Qian Jin House: Qian Jin House Gu Family, one of the two major bosses of the Xi Nan Circuit, located in Chai Sang City.

名劍山庄：天下第二的造劍坊，三年一次試劍會。 Famous Swords Villa: Number two sword-forging house in the world, holds sword testing(?) meeting once every three years

药王谷：醫道聖地，代代神醫，醫術天下第一，其實醫毒不分家。 Medicine King Valley: Sacred place of the art of medicine, producing many generations of miracle doctors, its medicine skills are the best in the world, and actually medical skills and poison skills are not separate.

暗河：江湖第一殺手組織，具體位置不可知，由蘇、謝、慕三家組成。 Dark River: Number one assassin organization in the jianghu, its specific location is unknown, composed of Su, Xie, Mu three families.

鎮西侯府：位于北離王朝的西部邊境乾東城，偵責鎮守邊關，扺御外敵，世代忠烈，却與江湖關系密切。 Marquis of Zhenxi Mansion: Located at the Beili dynasty's western border, with the responsibility to scout and guard the border, defend against external enemies, loyal and martyr for many generations, but has a close relationship with the jianghu.

唐门：雪月城背后三大门派之一。精通暗器與毒药的宗門，與雷家堡水火不容。 Tang Clan: One of the three major sects backing Xue Yue City. Master of hidden weapons and poisons, does not get along with Lei Clan Fortress.

錦城：可類似成都，重慶。生活氣息很濃的城池，靠近大片的山地。 Jin City: Analogous to Chengdu and Chongqing. The sense of livelihood is very strong, located close to a large mountainous region.

岭南溫家：雪月城背后三大門派之一。毒術冠絕天下，但行事低調。 Ling Nan Wen Clan: One of the three major sects backing Xue Yue City. Its poison techniques are unparalleled, but keeps a low profile.

南安城：可類比蘇杭，秀丽的江南小鎮。亭台樓台，水榭小築。水遠帶着氤氣的烟雨氣息。 Nan An City: Analogous to Suzhou and Hangzhou, beautiful town in Jiangnan. Pavilions, terraces, waterside pavilions and small buildings. The waterside has the flavor of misty rain.

天啟城：皇城，恢弘大氣。 Tian Qi City: Imperial City, grand and imposing.

寒水寺：雖小但深不可??的佛彿門古刹，歲有佛門禁地羅利堂。 Han Shui Temple: Although small but cannot ?? the old Buddhist temple, for many years it has the forbidden Rakshasa hall.

無劍城：已毁滅。昔日城主卓雨落被称为“剑神”，号称此剑一出，天下無劍。 Wu Jian City: Has already been destroyed. In the past, city lord Zhuo Yuluo was known as “Sword God”, his reputation was: once this sword is drawn, there are no other swords in the world.

影宗：守衛天啟的影子，更是在紅湖建立起了影子，称暗河。 Shadow Sect: The shadow guarding Tian Qi, and also established a shadow in the jianghu, called Dark River.

無雙城：曾經的紅湖第一城。號稱武城。住着的都是無雙城的弟子。城池風格也是恢弘霸道。 Wu Shuang City: The former number one city in the jianghu. Known as martial arts city. The residents are all disciples of Wu Shuang City. The city style is also grand and imposing.

四淮城：無雙城的“衛星城市”里面住着很少的普通城民，其他的都是来往各地的江湖客、武器商人、逃亡者等等。城池生活氣息比较浓。但靠近南地，建筑风格比较秀气。 Si Huai City: It is the “satellite city” of Wu Shuang City. The residents are a very few normal city people, the rest are all jianghu wanderers from all over, weapons merchants, runaways, et cetera. The flavor of the city livelihood is relatively strong. However it is close to the southern region, the architecture style is relatively graceful.

稷下學堂：儒門魁首，由李先生建立學生遍佈天下。 Jixia Academy: Leader/Best of Confucian sects, established by master Li, the students are all over the world.

九霄城：北城之城，因為劍仙傳說，被稱為劍客之城，里面來往者大多持劍，江湖各客多。 Jiu Xiao City: The northern city, because of the legends of sword deities, it is known as the city of swordspersons, the coming and going residents are mostly sword wielding, and many wanderers from the jianghu.

雷家堡：雪月城背后三大門派之一。也稱江南霹雳棠，封刀掛劍，天下第一火器世家，與唐門水火不容。 Lei Clan Fortress: One of the three major sects backing Xue Yue City. Also known as Jiangnan Thunderbolt Sect, hanging up the dao and sword, the number one gunpowder weapon family, does not get along with Tang Clan.

百曉堂：天下第一情報組織，同時也評定天下高手。 Bai Xiao Hall: The number one information organization, simultaneously also evaluating the world's experts.

劍心冢：天下第一鑄劍世家，剑阁錢剑三百柄，每有一柄更好的剑出现，便会折去一把无法列入剑阁的剑扔入剑冢。 Sword Heart Tomb: The world's number one sword forging family, the sword pavilion holds three hundred valuable swords, every time a better sword appears, then a sword that cannot be kept on the sword pavilion's list will be snapped and thrown away into the sword tomb.

Locations without short description: 昆仑山：Mount Kun Lun 天外天：Tian Wai Tian 千里冰原：Thousand Li Ice Field 北闕：Bei Que 雪域：Snow Region 北蛮：Bei Man 离海：Li Ocean 蓬莱：Peng Lai Island 钱塘：Qian Tang 雪落山庄：Snowfall Villa 慕凉城：Mu Liang City 三顾城：Three Gaze City 乾东城：Qian Dong City 佛境三十二国：32 Buddhist States 西楚：Western Chu 水夜叶城：Shui Ye Ye City 十万大山：Hundred Thousand Large Mountains 千山集：Thousand Mountain Range 柴桑城：Chai Sang City 南诀：Nan Jue 隆中城：Long Zhong City 雪月城：Xue Yue City

The determined girl and delicate boy -

Well, this is horrifying. I just realized that the newlywed room Jiao Liqiao had planned to marry Di Feisheng in is the same room she had him kneel at her feet in after crippling him and trying to destroy his martial arts.

(CW/tw: threat of rape)

Here’s the room in ep. 34 when he’s forced to kneel in front of her (and is in tons of pain and dissociating).

Here’s the newly wed room in ep. 38:

Notice that the bed is now where the chaise longue was. This means that she was planning on forcing the consummation in EXACTLY the same place that she had humiliated him in front of her men earlier (forcing him to kneel and calling him “Furen”). The screen behind the bed is even the same pattern as the screen that was behind her chaise longue, which means she planned to surround him with the same decorations, so there would be nowhere he could look where he wouldn’t be reminded of the earlier trauma and of his powerlessness.

Here’s something even more disturbing: the wedding bed is actually her bed, since it was already in that room, just in an alcove off to the side in ep. 34. 

Here’s the bed in episode 34.

And here it is in the newly wed room.

That means she moved it from its normal, more private location, and put it front and center of the room where her surrogate throne was. It’s now the focal point of the room and very deliberately staged, as though she was expecting an audience for the forced consummation, just like she had an audience when she forced him to his knees in front of all her men.

And if that weren’t enough, here’s another disturbing detail: do you see the decorative frame she’s using to hold up the curtain?

Guess where that’s from? Di Feisheng’s BEDROOM.

We saw it once before: in the scene where Jiao Liqiao tried to undress Di Feisheng. He had let her help him with the outer robe and wrist guard and then stopped her, looking furious, when she starts to undo his belt while saying that she will help him shower and change his clothes. She doesn’t listen to his very clear and furious no, and she only stops after he threatens to fire her. The curtain holder is the biggest piece of scenery in the background of the shots where she is reacting to being turned down, so much so that it practically becomes associated with her rejection.

Given this, it’s very telling that she ripped it away from the rest of his bed (which it matched) and put it with her bed; she took something that she’d associated with his rejection of her and put it with her (non-matching) bed, which she turned into their wedding bed, to symbolically destroy that resistance and to be a stark reminder that, now, unlike back then, he’s helpless to stop her. 

Everything about that room was designed to (possibly publicly) mock him for his helplessness and to revel in her triumph over him. 

So it’s even more powerful (and even more of a relief) that instead of that future, what actually happens in the newly wed room is that Li Lianhua carefully places Di Feisheng in the spot where he had previously been publicly humiliated and was in danger of worse, and heals him instead. Li Lianhua gives him back his power and agency, and even shares the mental codes for Yangzhouman, turning what was supposed to be a symbol of his defeat and helplessness into a symbol of respect, care, of sacrifice for another (because LLH gives him Yangzhouman that he needs to keep himself alive), and the strength that true cooperation and union can bring. 

Two possibilities immediately come to mind for an audience:

Her men lined up and attending her the way she had initially when she first dragged him into the room in that other scene

Li Lianhua/Li Xiangyi. Maybe even wearing the uniform Shan Gudao had made for him.

And wouldn't that be somethimg? I'm still convinced that through the 10 years, she and Shan Gudao workshopped their ideas together for how they were going to dominate their respective objects of... obsession. Him because of his hatred is so great that his desire to humiliate verges on sexual. She who 'loves' to the point it's like hatred (and she clearly enjoys humiliation too). The merge point is this weird fetishistic need for pagentry and witnesses.

Oh, I guess that's a 3rd possibility. If she and Shan Gudao came up with their ideas together (which is mentally and emotionally intimate), maybe she would have let him watch from a position of comfort nearby too. 😱

I'm really glad LLH got DFS out of there and they (dfs and llh) 'rewrote' what that room was for.