#btct

Okay so when Mu Qing sees Bai Wuxiang. I had tossed around this idea for a while, since in the past Mu Qing had his loyalty questioned by others. As Mu Qing begins to struggle, I kinda as if he would also begin to struggle with maintaining his perception of reality as well, especially with how much his kind actions go unnoticed by others, making him wonder if he's just never going to be liked, if he's just never going to know peace, if he's actually doing as much as he feels he's doing (spoiler alert - he's doing even more than he feels he's doing).

Plus this helps me to incorporate my headcanon that he has slight insomnia and, as shown in chapter 6, Xie Lian and Feng Xin find it impossible, especially if Xie Lian himself hadn't yet been tormented (since that's who BWX would go to if he DID come back), so they basically tell him it's in his head, he's not getting enough sleep, he's hallucinating, etc. Which is an easier truth for Mu Qing than hearing that BWX has come back, so of course he goes along with it.

Even as, at the very end, he doubts that the ghost fire following him is real, even though it's the person he's been yearning for and wishing to see again after all this time. He assumes it's another hallucination in his stress and grief of having left in such a way, but also being stressed from having seen that he really can't continue to live with FX and XL. If they keep having outbursts when they're disrespected, they're never going to be able to get jobs. If they keep being so proud, some of the jobs they could get will be brushed aside.

(But yeah, BWX is actually a really really scheming little bitch in this one! I tried to imply that he's already taken on Qi Rong to his side/forced ghost fire!Qi Rong to be with him - like in the scene where the fire vanishes and is replaced with the image of BWX - since...it's a special tool that'll help us later~ Plus he really does plant bugs in MQ and QR's heads! He makes MQ doubt reality, which in turn makes MQ ignore the ghost fire, which.........well we all know how QR feels about being ignored-)

Chapter 7 is going to go more into MQ's nightmares as well, but with that scene or shortly after I think I implied that he has nightmares pretty regularly, worsening his insomnia as he loses the desire to sleep. Really one of my favorite things about Chapter 6 is that it makes all these obvious (and some more hidden) loose threads to unravel Mu Qing with, because I sincerely doubt he left FX and XL easily and without stress of a guilty conscience. The guy still looks for a coral pearl that everyone else forgot about and beats himself up for it! Of course he's going to beat himself up for leaving and probably have nightmares about things going very very wrong while he's gone or even because he left at such a time.

Also there's these two small details that might seem insignificant initially, but I was excited about them. At the very end, it's said that the cherry pit is MQ's "last tangible memory of Prince Xiao Jing after he gave away the others in order to provide Feng Xin and the Xies with whatever “wealth” it was that Feng Xin shouted about". Now if you remember, earlier in the chapter, it was said that the locket had a tiny drawing and a small cloth tucked into it as well. (The locket I imagine is incredibly big-) MQ did trade those away as well (he really only got pennies for that sort of thing anyways), but it happens off scene because...well the chapter is so already long and I felt it was more significant to show MQ giving away the locket since it was a one of a kind, custom locket QR gave him (And now it's going to some random kid for her birthday) which...remember, the ghost fire is following MQ around quite a bit— But yeah. MQ finally had something of monetary value and he had to give it up...but no one saw (except...maybe the ghost fire~).

And then...there's the QR side of things. I'm only going to bring up the times it is explicitly mentioned that he's QR (even though we know who the ghost fire is - Hua/lian parallels my beloved) because otherwise I'm going to end up writing way way too much and giving away wayyyyyyyy too much.

His devotion to Mu Qing is really shown and implied to more clearly overtake his devotion to Xie Lian in this chapter, which...valid (I also think the one time that MQ isn't mentioned first was when he lied to himself to make himself feel stronger. He knows it's a lie that MQ and XL will save him at that point - he's already dying - but he doesn't want to curse MQ with the weight of that. So instead his cousin is mentioned first.) MQ actually chose to hang out with him, XL was sorta obligated because...blood. I tried to make sure that, whenever asking for blessings/help was mentioned, MQ would be the first mentioned. Whenever there was some mention of QR's favor for certain people, MQ would be the first to be mentioned. Because MQ really is all he can think about!

I also tried to make a lot of references to QR and hunger, eating, and pains of the stomach - him biting Lang Ying and the "Hunger only hurt when someone remembered what it was like to eat" were the more obvious ones - but there was also him scraping his stomach as he crawled, soldiers feeding him medicine and food to prolong his suffering, even Mu Qing's mother feeding him. I'm not sure if I wrote it explicitly here or if it'll be mentioned later, but BWX stabbed QR in the gut. So For QR, hunger and eating is beginning to be a blessing and a curse. It prolongs his suffering but gives him a moment of being full, annnnnd sets the stage for his gluttony and cannibalism-