Lostpai

There was one perfect ringlet hanging next to his ear, and he couldn’t even tease him about it. 

His chest ached. 

????

Based on that one tiktok art trend

(Lineart version under cut!)

With X literally making his hero appearance out of nowhere, without even a name, with no one knowing anything about him... That seems like the antithesis to what we know about how heroes get power in this world. If he's using the trust system, someone needs to believe in him- a Lot of someones if how he just snapped his way through the most popular heroes is any indication

I mean, maybe he's from somewhere else- his fan base is just not around our normal characters. Maybe it's word of mouth, people on the street rather than the normal social media centered fanbases of the regular heroes. Maybe he's not using trust at all, but some other power.

But

What if he is using trust and his fans are, well, believing in him because of a very snappy trailer from a few years ago? One with excellent animation that has almost 2 million views at this point?

HAPPY LIN LING DAY!!

Shang Chao who trusts him. Shang Chao who expects things from him. Shang Chao who clearly states what he wants from him without beating around the bush. Shang Chao who patiently explains why he is worthy of trust and love. Shang Chao who loudly cheers him on. Shang Chao who shows him a path he could take. Shang Chao who supports him every step of the way. Shang Chao… who loves so honestly and bravely, he literally glows

and Yang Cheng feels like it’s all just a dream because… how could it be so good and bright and warm—

but then suddenly it’s raining

and suddenly the lights are off

suddenly he’s gone,

and Yang Cheng’s back to being on his own.

If he had been as brave and honest,

if he had kept loving without worrying—

—about gains and losses (拿得起放得下),

would he have reached him?

would he have saved him?

NOT SHANG CHAO’S HAND TRANSITIONING INTO YANG CHENG’S HAND RIGHT AS THE LYRICS IN THE SONG GO “LET ME PASS MY COLOR TO YOUR HEART”

And yet, it was Xia Qing who was shown inviting Yang Cheng over to that spot:

What’s also interesting is that right before this scene we have this:

Yan Shu (Rock) no longer looks as enthusiastic/supportive of this date, even though he was the one who suggested it to Yang Cheng. And since when was “love level” code for sugar level? And answering “half” (or 50%) for “love level” in a scene that’s supposed to be the first date? That doesn’t sound right.

Yang Cheng also didn’t end up confessing to Xia Qing despite being in the perfect spot for it. Instead, he was busy looking at his phone:

The typical straight scene of a guy ignoring his lover during their date. If Yang Cheng really loves Xia Qing, shouldn’t he be paying attention to her? They’re in the romance spot!

The only actual “confession” we got is this:

But I believe this is just a lie made by Xia Qing in order to spur Yang Cheng into making a move on her, because right afterward she says this:

She clearly wants to hear Yang Cheng confess to her, but Yang Cheng...

...says he has nothing to say 🤨

In contrast to the “date” with Xia Qing, we have these:

Yan Shu is “matchmaking” Yang Cheng with Shang Chao, looking more enthusiastic than he was during the Xia Qing date.

Yang Cheng is also reacting like how a normal person with a crush on someone would react on a first date. He looks shy and lowkey complaining to Yan Shu for “teasing” him 🤭

And why is he looking so shy with his “bro”? Yang Cheng, I know what you are...

His attention is now fully on Shang Chao. He even asks him what he wants to drink instead of just deciding it by himself, as he did with the Xia Qing date.

But alas, we never got to see Shang Chao sit in the romance spot. We can infer that he did sit there off-screen, but it could be that they chose not to show it to send out the message that Yang Cheng’s love for him is unrequited. Or, it could just be foreshadowing for the doomed yaoi 😔

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"Mafia Wanted" - excuse me how did I miss this before-

Look beneath Lu Guang's foot. It's RIGHT THERE

Close up:

saying that this is the LAST chance Lu Guang has to save him (implying more chances were had and they were fucked)

and there IS the implication that Lu Guang has done dives outside of what we see because

this is an insane little diary to have of some of the EXACT TIMES that certain things happen. like, if you asked me to make exact timestamps for something that happened to me a WEEK ago I probably couldn't do it. maybe Lu Guang is just built different, but this to me implies that other dives have happened

but the thing i'm proposing today is: could Lu Guang have been implying that he has done many dives to save Cheng Xiaoshi, but maybe possessing Cheng Xiaoshi HIMSELF?

we've always just kind of assumed that Lu Guang was diving back into his own body and re-living as himself (and in Yingdu, specifically, he does) but if he received CXS's power from him, does that not give him the power to possess ANYBODY who's taken a photo? and why NOT choose Cheng Xiaoshi, the professional photographer and active social media user. he would have a ton of options to choose from right in the studio.

and if YOU received the power to possess people in the past and YOUR best friend had just been killed, wouldn't occam's razor suggest that the easiest solution to prevent them from being killed is to possess THEM and remove them from harm's way?

maybe that's what Lu Guang had been talking about. maybe, using photos Cheng Xiaoshi had taken, he had possessed him as many times as he was able to to try and prevent him from being killed by Vein. fought Vein, hidden Cheng Xiaoshi, run away, etc etc, but somehow Cheng Xiaoshi always ended up dead as a result