Prompt of that one scene in the first book of The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish, the misunderstanding of the century, as a thank you to @melons-n-cocoa for their donation with @danmei-action for g4g!

so when he suddenly transmigrates to the world of the webnovel, he immediately takes the opportunity to get some sweet sweet catharsis and enters the prince's household as a concubine in order to use his knowledge of the novels to help prince jing on his path to becoming emperor

li yu doesn't really expect to fall in love with prince jing and he knows that the prince is eventually going to meet and fall in love with chu yanyu, but his good looks are the only thing he really has going for him in this world so he figures what's the harm in enjoying some good sex and some pampering from the prince? all he cares about is helping prince jing on his warpath

li yu is fluent in sign language because of his sister, so as he starts getting closer to prince jing, he starts teaching him some signs here and there - it starts off simple, with words that he uses often, things like "food", "water", "paper", and a name sign for wang xi. prince jing picks up the signs with startling ease, and as time goes on, the two of them are able to hold more and more complex conversations.

wang xi watches from the sidelines, and sees the way that his prince warms up little by little the more time he spends with li yu, and how much good it does prince jing to have someone around that he can converse with easily.

so with prince jing's blessing, wang xi enlists li yu's help to teach the rest of the jingtai household sign language as well. the servants all jump at the opportunity to be more useful to their master, and when prince jing sees how much effort his servants put into being able to communicate with him properly, he starts opening his heart more to them. he becomes fiercely protective of them, not tolerating any disrespect towards his household members, and this ends up earning him their undying loyalty.

as time goes on, the emperor begins to notice how formidable prince jing is, now that he has a way of easily and efficiently communicating with other people, and when he sees the way that prince jing inspires loyalty in his household, when he sees servants refuse to betray their master when faced with blackmail and bribery from the other princes, he realises that his ideal heir has been right under his nose this entire time.

Li Yu: *visibly wilts* oh. That makes sense.

Wang Xi: ... It really just wouldn't be practical...

Li Yu: *sniffs* No you're right...

Wang Xi:............ok we'll take the ducks.

not sure if i'll remember to do this every month, but i thought it could be fun!! always looking for an opportunity to show off the songs i like ahdha and writing TLs for each of them wld take too long. if you listen to/have listened to any of these pleaaaase please tell me omg i'm always down to talk cpop

zhou shen stuff

okay. getting this out of the way first bc some people may know this but i am a shengmi 👉👈 the new zs songs which i listen to are either A) the new releases of the month (ofc) B) performances from the current zs show i am 补ing C) songs i find that i've grown to like despite maybe not falling in love at first listen! these are from when i put on my designated 'haven't downloaded these zs songs yet' playlist (i use my discography list to keep track of what i have downloaded/listen to at least semi regularly and what i haven't/don't).

A) 万里 (spotify)

what can i say. that riff towards the middle sweeps me off my feet 100% of the time. it also helps me remember what the song is like without having to play it whhdha with these new songs it always takes me a bit to be able to do that

B) 有点儿意思 (medley)

frothed at the mouth abt this one here. i had finished 补ing 挑战好声音 during my hoodie-making and tbh it was surprisingly enjoyable?? the show, that is. will talk abt it more on the nice hoodie post!! i adore this medley for many many reasons some of which u can definitely infer if you know me.. one of these normal reasons is that i thought it was an incredibly brave performance by zs both as his first on the show and the first of the show in general!! 宝贝好牛☺️☺️

C) 问花

truly the type of song i relistened to and thought, why didn't i save this one the first time around 😭? but that's why i keep track of these zs songs that haven't spoken to me yet. 问花 has such a cold tone whahdhah reminds me a bit of 独白 or 许卿安 in the way that 若梦 and 河 remind me of each other (my brain likes to splice their lyrics together in misremembering one or the other 😭 心不由我 情字总无法逃脱………. 往事流转在你眼眸…???.??.?)

2. misc music artists

yes. thats what i call everyone else. u have to understand that all my playlists r titled 'zhou shen' and 'not zhou shen'

A) shan yichun's 还我茉莉 (spotify) and 我表示理解 (spotify)

heard these for the first time during her jstv 跨年 performance!!! i was a big fan of her costuming and song selections 😌😌 i remember thinking to myself that it was suchh a syc performance so finding out that those two songs were from her new album (纯妹妹) didn't surprise me at all.. having listened to the whole thing, these remain my favs!! i'm not a dedicated syc fan (i barely qualify as a 路人粉) but quick register changes and whistle notes seem to be her signature moves rn and they were both very present ^^ 还我茉莉 (which she sang tonight actually) and 我表示理解 are both maximalist, playful and fluid in a way that is sooooo so so so syc ahfhhahd

B) menni's 巴拉莱卡/The Rod (spotify) and 21克博物馆/Full of Empty (spotify)

贵族: Part.2 is the second part of menni's newest album, 门尼3: 贵族 (Money III: The Greed). once again, i chose my favourites!!! i'm really enamoured with menni's writing style (shoutout to 罗曼蒂克乌托邦) and these two (but 巴拉莱卡 especially) struck me as rather 爱丽丝卿-reminiscent. loveddd the violins. always a fan of seeing this mildly nervous, forcefully wretched style from him ^^

C) wang xi's 微醺23点08分 (spotify) and 多听有益 (spotify)

i swear this wasn't originally a 'spotlight two songs from the recent non-zs albums you've listened to' thing. one song each next time!! trust. it just happens that when i make an effort to listen to new music outside of events and shows, typically it's when an artist i follow has a new album/EP out 😅 and they're all familiar faces.. this is what i mean when i say my cbiz 摸鱼ing tag shld be renamed my '2 degrees max of zs separation' tag