just a humble bear doing laundry

episode 40 of MLC is so much about life and living, from the opening scene, where a vision of li lianhua's shifu tapping the wine gourd calls back to what he had once said about living a good life, to li lianhua taking back on the mantle of li xiangyi to save yun biqiu, twice over, and telling him the full story of those early days growing things, to using the flower to save the emperor and, by extension, attain his real goal of protecting fang duobing's family, to him noticing and saving even a bird by the roadside. the whole episode brims with it. and i think, in this context, there's really something to be said for what fang duobing does at the end, when everyone else on that beach is mired in the past and indulging in memories of a li xiangyi who has broken his sword and said his final farewell. fang duobing walks away, and, just as li lianhua had once done, chooses to live his life on his own terms; his departure to search for any hope of life is an active, vital choice, and it honours the themes of the show that come out so strongly in this final episode. everyone else on the beach is left passively standing around with the vanished legend, but fang duobing actively leaves to look for the possibly still living person.

li lianhua and fang duobing just love each other so much. and they like each other so much too.