oof

“Nice sword.”

While most modern wuxia/xianxia dramas have teenaged main characters, Zhou Zi Shu and Wen Ke Xing are both actual adults… well, okay, the jury is still out on whether WKX qualifies as an adult, but as far as their ages go, they’re around 28-30.

Both are also essentially relatable villains. ZZS is trying very hard to spend his remaining days being an ex-villain and just chill in the sun in his hometown (but instead he gets to almost instantly adopt a teenaged disciple/son). Similarly, WKX has his reasons for the things he’s doing, but he’s also… a bit unhinged.

Speaking of the adopted son Cheng Ling, he’s essentially the typical wuxia protag whose family gets murdered because of some mystical mcguffin, which makes ZZS the reluctant mentor who loves his wine.

Neither of the two really have anyone (else) in the world. WKX has Gu Xiang, but her being his servant/sister/daughter, she’s someone to look after rather than someone to rely on. And as for ZZS, who knows how long it’s been since he’s been just himself with anyone? He goes from reacting to WKX with suspicion and annoyance to making the decision to stop pretending, which is kind of a bigger deal than WKX probably realizes.

And you’d think that with how persistently WKX chases after ZZS he knows what he’s doing, but he really does not. WKX is very quick to be all “soulmates!”, but very slow to understand what that actually means. It makes for a fun dynamic with him pestering ZZS about dropping his mask, without realizing he himself needs to do the same.

WKX makes precious attempts to manipulate their yuán (which gets translated as “fate”, but is something much more complex than fate, it’s more like a natural/cosmic affinity that not only leads two people to meet but also to somehow connect/bond when they meet.) Yuán is a beautiful concept and I especially love the way it relates to the idea of found family, but even so, the fact that rather than see if their yuán holds, WKX puts great effort in arranging their “coincidental” meetings is something that speaks to my soul.