I've been thinking about it a lot, and I'm curious about your opinion/thoughts, but only if you have the time!
What do you think would have been the breaking point, or turning point for Zhan Junbai to help Jiang Yuelou and the others against his uncle/turn against his uncle for Yu Tangchun? Or what do you think should have/would have had to be different in canon for that to happen?
We see how much he clings to his ideas/beliefs (and my own thoughts on this is because the guilt was too overwhelming to deal with if he had to face that it was in fact wrong) but what if he could face what he did and was able to understand both his feelings for Yu Tangchun and his true feelings for what he did to him and his family, how would he be able to do that? And what would be the fallout? What do you think?
Ooooo, I love this. Oooo, I love this, okay.
I honestly think the breaking point was when Yu Tangchun blew himself up. Like, we saw how devastated Zhan Junbai was afterwards...like look at this man's face
Homeboy is devastated. And then the literal next scene is where he smashes a fucking vase because he's both angry and super hurt. And then his uncle has to show up acting all high and fucking mighty and I'm pretty sure it takes everything in Zhan Junbai not to fucking throttle him.
And I think you're right, he's holding onto his beliefs/everything because he doesn't want to admit that what he did to Tangchun's family was wrong, he wants to think that he was doing the "right" thing which it obviously was not...
Like, the first real crack was when Zhan Junbai figured out who Yu Tangchun really was and then shit just sort of spiraled from there. It didn't fucking help that Yu Tangchun tried to fucking shoot his uncle because that just made the crack bigger and then the straw that broke the camels back was Yu Tangchun blowing himself up. I think that really would have been Zhan Junbai's wake up call. Once he realized that there really wasn't a point to life if Yu Tangchun wasn't in it, I think he definitely would have told Jiang Yuelou about his uncle's plan and done everything in his power to stop it.
I don't think he would be able to come to terms with his feelings right away...I think he knows they're there, both for Yu Tangchun and for what he did to his family, but it might take a while to recognize them. If Jiang Yuelou arrests him and places him in jail, he'd have plenty of time to think it over and come to terms with what he did and what he felt for Yu Tangchun.
Because lets be honest, they both felt something for each other. We know they did. Problem was, they both thought that it was a bad idea to have feeligns for the other, mainly because it was like "falling in love with the enemy" so to speak.
I honestly think the fallout for everything is that Zhan Junbai would have to live the rest of his life...alone. With the knowledge that he's the reason not only for Yu Tangchun's family's death, but for Yu Tangchun's death as well. And I think that thought is going to haunt him until he goes to the afterlife to meet Yu Tangchun. If they ever meet at all