#ruyue

okay welcome to the danger zone

some notes: I do not speak or read Mandarin outside of a cursory knowledge and read the webnovel using g-translate so some details will be off but I have done this with multiple untranslated webnovels (looking at you, Ancient Love Poetry) to decent result. The original full novel can be found here

also there will most likely be changes in the cdrama including those made for censorship (people overstate how much censorship happens although supernatural themes are a huge target), but scripts based on novels or manhwa tend to adhere to the original works with few changes, because if you thought fans were sticklers for canon in Western audiences try disappointing netizens

I’ll keep editing this as I get more info as well, it’s easier than correcting myself on twitter

summary

In the 25th year of the Republic of China (1937) during the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War [Northern China has been occupied since 1931] and Shanghai split into foreign concessions, vampire Shen Zhiheng has been secretly working against Japanese occupying force and has incidentally offended the young head of a construction company working with the Japanese, Li Yingliang, who attempts to assassinate him. After his dead body disappears and Shen reappears very much alive not long later and tries to eat him, Li begins to suspect him of being inhuman and colludes with the Japanese authority to capture him and experiment on him using his friends as bait.

cast

Gao Weiguang as Shen Zhiheng - 115+ year old vampire, he was originally human and turned at the age of 14 when his entire family was slaughtered by a foreign woman who married into his family, had a child, and then murdered everyone by infecting them with vampirism. He was the only survivor, and has looked for his younger brother* ever since. Note: brother could mean younger cousin this is a common term in families but I read them as half-brothers with a shared father who had multiple wives. Due to his old age (he’s Qing dynasty old) he has many foreign connections and owns/partially owns many of Shanghai’s newspapers. He lives alone in the French Concession and survives off of blood he gets from his one and only friend. He’s notably tall and quiet and while he tries to keep his humanity turns into a feral monster when he is starvd.

Dong Sicheng aka Winwin as Dr. Weilan “Google translated his name as William” Situ - a foreign doctor, friends with SZH for 3 years, who supplies him with blood from the local hospital where he works in exchange for petty cash to fund his partying habits (he’s poor but trying to get with rich socialite Jin Jingxue). He’s witty, charming, feckless, and sometimes really uncertain of human behavior. ***massive spoiler***: 10/34 chapters or so he’s shot to death by Japanese soldiers and is revealed to actually be a vampire, the dìdì that SZH has been searching for. Unlike his brother he is a born vampire, meaning he is stronger and faster, can eat human food, and is less prone to losing his mind when he’s hungry. SZH is notably upset when he finds out he’s been lied to for years, leading to a hilarious series of requests for forgiveness (and money) as well as being kicked out of big brother’s house and life multiple times only to come skulking back. Their reconciliation is a stronger love arc than the ML/FL

Ouyang Nana as Mi Lan - a 16-year-old blind girl, daughter of a general who is alluded to be collaborating with the Japanese, her mother is a physically abusive alcoholic who beats her to the point that she is suicidal at the start of the story. She is wandering in the snowy night looking for a place to freeze to death when she stumbles on a severely injured SZH and saves him by contacting Weilan, but gets deathly ill in the process. Once he’s recovered SZH takes care of her and ultimately takes her in as his ward, with the text clearly stating he does not know what to do with her but feels he owes her. Mi Lan develops a deep attachment to her vampire protector and eventually (unreciprocated) romantic feelings. ***massive spoiler*** midway through the story she is killed by gunfire meant for SZH and turned by William, curing her blindness

Maggie Huang as Jin Jingxue - an extremely rich socialite, her family adopted the orphan Li Yingliang after he had already achieved some status. Being in love with her foster brother she’s convinced that she will eventually marry him even though he has come to hate her for her advances and teasing and only maintains a relationship with her out of respect for her family. She toys with other men and lives an extravagant life with lots of dancing and indulgence. Currently playing with the good doctor and making him spend more money than he can afford.

Ren Shihao as Li Yingliang - not your typical antagonist, he’s the polar opposite of SZH in terms of being born an orphan and forced to work from childhood, advancing in life and career by having absolutely 0 scruples about working with the Japanese. He becomes obsessed with gaining SZH’s interest and friendship and when rejected enacts petty revenge, only to have it horribly backfire when he is alternately captured by SZH and then the Japanese, playing both against each other and constantly having a scheme to save his skin.  He immediately clocks SZH’s weaknesses in Mi Lan and Dr. Situ and manages to kidnap them to manipulate him but is out of his depth. A complete coward with no loyalty to speak of, he fails so often that in the end the main characters feel sorry for him enough that they pass up multiple opportunities to kill him. ***massive spoiler*** William turns him in the end out of what I can only assume is pity

 Tang Jingmei as Mu Liuhua - a Japanese collaborator who finds out about SZH and plays the ultimate big bad when Li Yingliang gets a (sort of?) redemption arc

fun vampire facts

vampires in this version are not affected by sunlight or anything else besides blood loss, they are effectively immortal but can be incapacitated by being injured or, in SZH’s case, drinking a lot of blood at once and going into a food coma

everyone gets massively injured many many times: as just one example, SZH is ran over by a car twice, shot in the head and body, and trapped outdoors in freezing temperatures for 2 days and that’s just in the first chapter. Every WWII era injury including flamethrowers, grenades, and machine gun fire hits them but they still get better with a little blood

they can drink animal blood but prefer human blood

none of the vampires are shown to hunt regularly except William in an emergency and when they’re in battle

SZH needs to feed every 2 days or so, William less

they don’t need to sleep

they move super fast and are super strong

they can breed with each other (rarely) or humans (a little less rarely)

older “infected” vampires vs. true vampires lose their ability to consume any food or drink without vomiting, but true vampires can still eat

somehow they age, just very slowly? stop at 20s-30s? not explained at all!

“The Shadow” seems to refer to SZH’s feral state when he goes murder-mode but translation was uncertain

being turned apparently can cure blindness but not old scars *shrugs*

favorite little details

SZH’s brains and eyeball are literally hanging out of his head when he meets Mi Lan but fortunately she can’t see it

Li’s obsession with SZH being downright gay

the first time Li and SZH face off after the failed assassination SZH breaks his arm, stabs him in both legs with wooden chopsticks, and would have eaten him if they weren’t interrupted

there’s a cool train escape early in the story when the three leads are being transported to the unfortunately very real human experimentation hospitals/labs in Manchuria

SZH pretending to be the ghost of a Mi family ancestor and scaring Mi Lan’s drunk mom so badly she runs off with the chauffeur

William begging for money in every single scene, which in hindsight should be clue enough he’s a baby brother

there’s a massive fistfight between the two female leads and the vampire brothers that’s played for laughs

William feeding SZH chewing gum so he vomits uncontrollably before an important meeting

Li’s constant and inevitable betrayal

SZH getting so fed up with the constant backstabbing that he locks up Li in a warehouse for weeks to die only to find Li’s escaped by scratching through the walls like a rat

an incredibly awkward sex scene and cigarette smoking scene after between JJX and Li

the absolute ineptitude of the enemy, including trying to burn down a mountain to flush out a vampire and caving in tunnels by using grenades in enclosed spaces

the ending is a prison break with a lot going on including Mi Lan going feral to protect SZH

ongoing questions, I’ll update these as I find they come up:

does anyone die? 

technically everyone but Jin Jingxue, but all the mains get better (by becoming vampires or in William’s case being born one)  

the tags on the novel and drama say romance, why are you saying it’s not a romance?

there’s always a possibility the drama will be tweaked to be more romantic, but in order for me to qualify the novel as a romance I would expect it to fit more standard tropes and plot progressions, which it really does not. narratively the relationships between SZH and his brother and his enemy are given equal if not more weight with more internal and external changes than between him and Mi Lan, who he continues to treat as his ward vs. a romantic partner by the end of the book

does Winwin’s character William get a romance?

a toxic barely requited one with a hot older woman, but yes

Li basically tries to get him to sellout his brother by promising his foster sister’s hand in marriage, which William rightly responds with by saying she has rights and agency and also are you nuts? they all end up as friends in the end, who’s to say it’s not an OT3

is there vampire age-gap romance?

yes, kind of, thank you for asking, let me explain

note: I’m a fan of age gaps*, especially supernatural age gaps but I also obviously strongly believe in age of consent laws so reading this I was just as curious if there would be uncomfortable developments and would warn people if so because this is incredibly triggering for many. From my interpretation, even with sensitivity considerations, this is not a reciprocated romance but ends with the potential for one in time. 

There are people who are deeply uncomfortable with relationships where one party was underage growing up and forming a romantic attachment to someone who was emotionally indifferent to them but acting as a protector (see: Rin and Sesshomaru in Inuyasha) because it reminds them of grooming. That is incredibly valid, but it’s also true that reading it as such is personal interpretation--not authorial intent, and not a universal application. I have been in fandom for over 25 years and I strongly believe in this difference, do not @ me.

I’m not gonna pull quotes (there’s a ton of them) but throughout the novel it’s shown Mi Lan has a deep attachment to SZH, wanting to protect and save him as he protected her. It’s also well established that SZH has never once thought about Mi Lan (or anyone) in this way and is deeply confused by these feelings in addition to finding them childish. He’s also described as being emotionally stunted with the habits of a teenager despite having the appearance of someone in their early 30s, which from a vampire genre perspective is a standard trope that makes it work really well (think Twilight’s Edward being a century old but still a dumbass boy). 

Mi Lan’s unarticulated desire is normal, even if it screams daddy issues, and SZH not even considering her as an object of anything but paternalistic/brotherly affection is really the key to everything feeling satisfactory. If you are a sucker for slowburn, up-to-interpretation future love, it’s incredibly good. It reminds me of the physically dead (heh) but clearly implied romantic vampire/human or vampire/vampire dynamic of early shoujo vampire anime like Hellsing, Vampire Princess Miyuu, and Blood+. I suspect author Ni Luo was influenced but even if not her work is now embedded in the genre in my mind. As a fem author it’s clear what she was aiming for--in addition to throwing a bone to us slash shippers with the enemies-to-lovers tête-à-tête of Li and SZH. Note for the new: webnovels as a serial medium share many of the trope-heavy and exploratory facets of fanfiction and of course are commonly adapted into comics.

So they have a relationship that is borderline romantic, barely there, and if that upsets some people it’s understandable but it also shouldn’t be assumed as the norm, or used as a way to moralize against people who do appreciate it.

Moving on, it should be noted the only person who does make it weird in the book is William, reminding both of them that she’ll be of age in 2 years (although she’s technically dead at 16 forever) and forcing Mi Lan to admit she has feelings. Here’s the only two instances of textual admission of romantic feelings  for your judgement and interpretation:

I do think they will update this in some way in the drama, whether it’s upping her age or the dialogue, but even if they heighten Mi Lan’s feelings I strongly doubt they’ll actually have SZH respond. Here’s the very last part of the novel, in which she confesses to him. I can hear the Wii music in SZH’s head just reading it: 

Other reasons I don’t think this will be a full-fledged romance. If you are unfamiliar with cdrama tropes in general, thanks to established family values almost every hero portrayed as stoic and mission-oriented like our lead is voluntarily celibate--in some instances you’d think they’ve never once considered the possibility--and only breaks this vow by agreeing to marriage. As a vampire this is even more a canon facet of SZH’s character. He was turned young and he just never stopped to think of a relationship, physical or otherwise, as a possibility. 

Finally, Gao Weiguang’s two most famous roles have been older virgin monks pursued by feisty younger women who tricked them into marriage so this role is tapping into an established zeitgeist I don’t see them breaking, but if they do then well . . . I guess I’m just gonna put the disclaimer that I am not personally responsible for a disappointing turn in a drama and if you want to complain about it please please please make a Weibo account to @ the creators rather than harassing people who enjoy it online.

*for your consideration, my favorite canon age gap: somewhere in the 100,000 year range

Update 10/27: I received questions from @_linowin on twitter and am adding them to this post, I think they are exceptionally good for others who may have been wondering the same things so thank you as a fellow stay/czennie

the whole thing between jin jingxue and li yingliang i know they aren’t exactly related by blood and the whole being in love with her brother is part of the storyline. but i was wondering…does the novel fully or explicitly portray this, or is it mostly implied? [ed. are there any incest themes,  implied or explicit, for tw]

Li Yingliang is at least a teenager or young adult when he's adopted into the Jin family so their relationship is very much not actual siblings. 

Here’s the excerpt from their first conversation about how her mother took pity on him after being a regular at what’s basically the sweatshop he worked in:

Also I’ll note that cdramas tend to have far more “found family” relationships  based in the modern prevalence of single-child families so less emphasis is placed on foster relationships as being actual sibling dynamics and rarely if ever touch incestuous themes. Commonly second male leads are the “brother” the female lead grew up with who was seen as an obvious shoe-in for husband material, which tends to backfire. Childhood friends-to-lovers and foster siblings are valid relationship archetypes but not my jam, either. 

I should note you do get a lot of resentment from LYL (who grew up poor) against JJX including him wanting to strangle her, etc. which was honestly more upsetting to me! He gives into her advances but hates her still and it's very messy but from my old person's perspective I feel kind of realistic to their dynamic and peak love triangle fodder.

you mentioned an awkward sex scene between [jin jingxue and li yingliang]. i’m not too familiar with how cdrama works, but do you reckon that the drama adaptation will omit this out for censorship and broadcast rules, etc? just to play it safe to, since i’m most probably gonna watch this drama when it airs with my mom who’s a fan as well lol and she’s a bit more conservative

Great question. Cdramas absolutely never show sex scenes (they always cut away from any prolonged kissing to a candle burning or a rainy window, lol) and kissing scenes are rare and generally chaste. You aren't going to have a problem watching any show with family, I watch most of them with my grandmother! This drama especially will not have anything that isn’t PG-rated.

for winwin’s character, i’m super excited since i love these kinds of tropes who are kind of not your typical main character yet has so much depth and development to them. this isn’t exactly a question, more of a discussion or thought sharing haha. it’s kind of mindblowing that this is winwin’s first acting role on-screen, yet he’s been assigned a role that is so significant in the story, and as you said, the heart of the drama. that’s got to put some pressure on him, but surely the director saw something in him (maybe) for him to be casted in this role. it’s quite exciting to see how he’ll portray william/weilan.

I’m a huge fan of Winwin after getting into NCT/WayV last year and learning about and then feeling for myself the disappointment of him returning to China and no longer being a part of 127 (the irony of a vampire concept song dropping on the same day as I was reading the webnovel). He's such a beautiful person in all the live and reality content and I've wanted to see more of him! The pipeline of actors from music careers to acting is just as robust for c-ent as korean entertainment and he has the visuals for it but also he has the sort of "appears soft but is secretly very smart and deliberate" personality that works well for both this path and this role. He's playing a younger brother to an older established actor who also worked hard and broke into acting much later in his career than most (the standard is pretty young nowadays, with leads in their early 20s)

For not being the lead star it will be his breakout role because he has the opportunity for the full spectrum of emotional expression (unlike SZH, who sort of grumpily deals with everyone and everything). When I said he’s the “heart of the drama” it's because within the narrative he's often explaining things like love and idealism to the other characters (Mi Lan and SZH have both given up on having a real life for their own personal reasons). 

In many Asian dramas but especially cdramas where they aren’t the romantic rival, the second male lead is that person, the emotional touchstone that checks in and cares for the male and female leads in times of turmoil, so really it's a better spot than the lead role in this instance.

William/Weilan is the most unique character in the drama. He'll present as a secret second lead at first, he's introduced as the best friend who is playful and charming but prone to partying and not even really working as a doctor in the hospital he's at, he just stays on as one to get blood for SZH. It's after quite a bit of action, including him being kidnapped along with Mi Lan to entice SZH to surrender himself to the Japanese to be experimented on in the North and their escape from that into the wilderness that he's revealed to be a vampire. 

SZH feels betrayed (rightfully) and pushes him away and at points you think he's defected to work with LYL but he's always loyal to his brother and vice versa. Later on SZH admits he was just putting him through the ringer for lying to him for 3 years while watching him struggle with his vampire nature and his attempts to find his brother who was in front of him the whole time. As a born vampire whose mother taught him their history and heritage he also has access to more knowledge and in the novel he's lived abroad most his life so is fluent in English and other languages and is able to adapt better as well. I think in the drama they are making it so he turned SZH when he was a boy about to die, and he also turns Mi Lan and Li Yingliang in the story (I don't think SZH can? Or knows how?) so again, he's the most important character. 

There's several points where he almost dies and I was intensely worried for him only to be pleasantly surprised so you will see that as well! It will make for good airing drama if people think he can actually die when he has the strongest plot armor of the entire crew.

does the novel ever explain how william and mi lan become friends? since she contacts him when trying to save szh. it’s interesting to know how those two became “friends” if it was alluded or mentioned in the novel 

They have an understanding from the start, just their personalities are mutually distrustful for very separate reasons

SZH is practically dead when Mi Lan finds him and he tells her to find William but she's constrained by her family and social status and the fact that it's the dead night of winter so it takes awhile for her to get to him.

SZH later notes they have similar personalities, which doesn’t make sense from a surface level because how cold Mi Lan is but rather because they are both very separate from society and humanity

I think in the drama adaptation (vs. the novel where she is at a different hospital) William will be taking care of Mi Lan when she gets sick from almost killing herself in the cold (she even gave up her jacket for SZH in their first meeting). He's constantly questioning both of them about their feelings for eachother and why they persist in having a relationship, mostly because Mi Lan is a huge liability as an unmarried young woman of this dangerous family and SZH being an older, rich bachelor but also the target of assassination by the Japanese. 

Mi Lan gets shot and spends a lot of the time in the hospital only to be killed in an attack in the street and William saves her by turning her, so he’s also the one to make sure she understands her new life. They aren't close but they have a found family relationship and I think it will be neat to see play out

so…everyone eventually ends up a vampire (credits to william lol) except for jjx? hehe i wonder if that’ll be adapted into the drama

oh yeah it will, Li Yingliang becoming a vampire is the coolest part in the end

you think William is going to eat him to recover from his injuries (William kills his underling/right hand man to do so earlier) but they have a thieves' bargain with regards to JJX and have several interactions that cement them working together while not trusting eachother before and it makes sense. The end of the novel is them going to meet JJX together

side note: “William feeding SZH chewing gum so he vomits uncontrollably before an important meeting” is ironically funny idk why but it has so much brother energy in this

the translation errors did not negate the hilarity at all. it's even funnier because William knows that he will probably accidentally swallow the gum or at least ingest the juices which are toxic to SZH at this point in his vampire evolution

what does happen in the very end of the novel for william and szh? like how does it end for them?

they're separated during the final fight but both return to Shanghai. SZH has made it clear earlier that he was never really mad enough to abandon William he just wanted to make him suffer for lying to him so he will always have a home with him and Mi Lan whenever he returns

also, since you’ve explained the relationship between the two main leads as well as the love triangle thing going on for the other three [. . . ] were there any like couple-y or romantic scenes going in with william and jjx that were genuine or less…toxic? i know she just toys or plays with him, but it’s fascinating to know that jjx is said to be the one who kind of changes his perspective? 

Jin Jingxue likes William I think, she just is in love with Li Yingliang and banking on him for her future marriage 

When LYL says she has to marry William she initiates the love scene where he resists but ends up giving in. She’s in an impossible situation but she’s also an incredibly smart woman who knows how to hedge her bets with both men, she shows her true heart and vulnerability even if it will hurt her in that scene.

Also William knows he doesn't have her heart but explains to SZH that vampires like himself are romantic creatures (he mentions his mother and their father as an example) and that it might be part of their survival instinct and why they've survived as a race by breeding with humans. The translation is a bit funny but it suggests that he knows he's in an unrequited relationship and that if LYL is in danger she will choose him but he wouldn't choose not to even if given the chance. Here’s a great interchange on the subject highlighting this:

William understands love better than SZH and explains that it’s not about possession but allowing choice and an end, which is honestly very sexy of him but also very commonly reiterated in cdramas. Possessive love destroys the agency and outcome of romantic love because it doesn’t allow either person to grow and experience change.