Focus on Li Qian

[extrapenguin]

(I, and consequently the details mentioned in this post, are drama only.)

Li Qian! Shen Wei's PhD student* who quit, only to join Professor Ouyang's serum research half a year later. Raised by her grandmother alone, she sacrificed something of herself with the Longevity Dial to bring her grandmother back after a stroke – only for the grandmother she got back to not be the same one who raised her.

* Given that Shen Wei is officially 32 and already a professor, he's almost certainly just started. In the experimental sciences, professorial group building starts with a PhD student or two before expanding into postdocs. Li Qian's age bears this out as well.

When we first saw her, she was run down and tired trying to earn money to pay the medical bills by e.g. handing out leaflets. As a result, she's at the end of her rope, doubting whether it was all worth it, and when her grandmother commits suicide by overdosing on Li Qian's sleeping pills, Li Qian tries to follow her by jumping off a roof. Later, at the Department of Supervision's secret lab, she's much less ground down, and seems happy in her rolse as Institute Director a bit over a year later.



Questions!
1. What do you think the effects of the Longevity Dial are on her?

2. Do you think she has other family beyond her grandmother? (In episode 6 at about 38:25, Shen Wei mentions contacting her parents before letting her drop out.)

3. How do you think the Longevity Dial came to her family?

4. What do you think is her opinion of Dixingians? Multiple ones tried to kill her, and she was happy enough to join Professors Ouyang and Zhou for the serum research. However, she appeared conflicted later on – did she acquire ethical qualms?

5. Had she known what would happen when she held the Longevity Dial in her hands when her grandmother was in hospital, do you think she'd have done it?

6. Do you think she ever found out that Shen Wei was Dixingian?

7. How much do you think she knows about the Longevity Dial's operation? What about the other Hallows? How do you think she found out – experimenting with the Longevity Dial in the year between her activating it and canon starting, research in Professor Ouyang's lab, something else?

Fanwork recs:
[Fanvid] Let Them Eat Cake by reishiin – this is a Li Qian/Science vid, with excellent scene choices, and is a tribute to all the mad science going on. Be sure to turn on the subtitles!

Diverging Paths by spinningthreads – this is a canon divergence set in episode 1, where the SID doesn't turn up at the end. It's short but savoury, and

Every Other Solemn Life by draconicsockpuppet – this is a series of short snippets of Li Qian's life, pre-canon to post-canon happy ending AU, that really make up a nice arc for her.

So - come and talk about Li Qian! Share links to meta, picspams, and related fanworks, new or old! Self-recs whole-heartedly encouraged. Basically, this is the place for anything you want to say or link to about Li Qian.

Important: If you're commenting with meta/discussion/thoughts, please say whether you're coming from a novel perspective, a drama perspective, or a blend of the two, so we don't end up talking past each other. Thanks!

Comments

[extrapenguin]

She might still keel over at 40, having given half her life away, but it doesn't seem like her aging process has been accelerated. I also don't remember any particular gifts or allergies she displays that could be connected to it. So... yeah, if I were her, I'd expect to die young and suddenly, but meanwhile, things are good?
Yeah, given canon, I expect this is what she'll have. Unless there's further Hallows fuckery postcanon.

I found his mention of the parents very surprising, given how focused she is on the grandmother, but maybe they just shared a very special bond. (Though it's also odd, given filial piety and all that, that looking after the grandmother was left to Li Qian.) Maybe these parents life abroad...
One option I heard aired was that (in some intersection of the one-child policy and the preference for sons) her parents dumped her on grandma and went on to try for a son again; idk how realistic this is or what it implies about Li Qian's financial background.

I think the conflict comes into it when Prof. Ouyang seems willing to release the serum when it's not fully developed yet, and that way endanger human lives. And him injecting an unwilling Guo Changcheng is just not on.
Nodnod. Having had a positive interaction with Chu Shuzhi, who was later revealed to the public to be a Dixingian, might've added to the scales on the sides of going against Professor Ouyang. Or it was just her aligning herself with the SID, who'd saved her life already.

I doubt it very mucb, because neither she nor the grandmother got anything out if it. It's not like the grandmother had any quality of life that would have made the sacrifice of Li Qian's life energy and her happiness worthwhile.
Perhaps. It'd be a source of constant doubt and second thoughts for her nonetheless.

I wonder if she guessed. But I don't think she ever fully knew; who'd have told her and to what purpose? Especially while she was still working with the Ouyang team.
If she was told, it was either post-canon by a SID member – Lin Jing or Guo Changcheng, perhaps – or something she discovered by going on a dive through the file on the Black-Cloaked Envoy and reading that he has a civilian identity called Shen Wei. (Her security clearance probably wasn't that high, but...) Or Professor Ouyang found out and tried to discredit Shen Wei in her eyes?

[solo]

One option I heard aired was that (in some intersection of the one-child policy and the preference for sons) her parents dumped her on grandma and went on to try for a son again; idk how realistic this is or what it implies about Li Qian's financial background.

I remember that now too! That is of course possible. And if the parents managed to have a son, and they aren't that rich, it might also explain why she has to work to keep herself going.

Having had a positive interaction with Chu Shuzhi, who was later revealed to the public to be a Dixingian, might've added to the scales on the sides of going against Professor Ouyang.

Oh yes, that too - it would have allowed her to at least mentally query the 'all Dixingren are a danger to humans' narrative.

Post-canon, I don't think much stand in the way of her discovering about Shen Wei; after all, the secret no longer matters. And I'm sure she'll still be in touch with the SID a lot so yes, someone will definitely tell her.

Or Professor Ouyang found out and tried to discredit Shen Wei in her eyes?

You mean post-canon? There wouldn't be much point? If Ouyang had known during the show, I'm sure he'd have used it as a weapon in many ways.

(Also, I always assumed Ouyang was dead after his little serum hulking incident.)

[extrapenguin]

You mean post-canon? There wouldn't be much point? If Ouyang had known during the show, I'm sure he'd have used it as a weapon in many ways.
Oh, no, I meant in a canon divergence way! I agree that had Ouyang known, he'd have swung it around like a mallet.

Post-canon, I don't think much stand in the way of her discovering about Shen Wei; after all, the secret no longer matters. And I'm sure she'll still be in touch with the SID a lot so yes, someone will definitely tell her.
I wonder whether she'd feel guilty about some of her attitudes, if she learned that Professor Shen was Dixingian?

[trobadora]

One option I heard aired was that (in some intersection of the one-child policy and the preference for sons) her parents dumped her on grandma and went on to try for a son again

Yeah, I read somewhere that that's what happens in the novel, but I don't know for sure either.