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sid_guardian2020-06-06 09:55 am
nnozomi) wrote in sid_guardian2020-06-06 09:55 am
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Focus on Zhao Xinci: I don’t want you to die stupid!
[Drama only below, because I haven’t read the novel; please mark drama vs novel as needed in comments. Also, I’m sorry this is so wordy; believe me, it started out MUCH longer.]
Who he is
Zhao Xinci is the Director of the Xingdu Bureau, the first chief of the SID, Zhao Yunlan’s estranged father, Shen Xi’s widower, and a reluctant headspace-sharer with Zhang Shi. In his field agent days he shared his son’s propensities for denim jackets and comfort over formality; as a senior bureaucrat he dresses like a dandy to rival Shen Wei (can I have a small fic about the two of them running into each other while purchasing ascots, please?) and favors a purple coat Zhu Jiu would envy. He is either Minister Gao’s direct superior, or has the upper hand anyway due to a long history of working together, greater competence, and a stronger personality.
After becoming the first SID chief, Zhao Xinci became more and more absorbed in his work, inflicting lasting damage on his relationship with his wife Shen Xi and their son, to which the coup de grâce was the death of Shen Xi as a hostage in the hands of Dixingren criminals. This (according to Zhang Shi) turned Zhao Xinci’s general law-enforcement dislike of Dixingren into an active obsession with putting down Dixingren criminals.
After a complex and tortuous path through the second half of the series, he ends up as part of an excellent triumvirate with Guo Ying and Li Qian, supporting the SID in extremis and providing competence, compassion, and smarts in administration as of the epilogue.
What he’s like
Zhao Xinci is a fascinating character: complex and ambiguous, ruthless but not beyond empathy, capable but lacking some of his son’s crucial skills, on the wrong side often but not necessarily a bad guy, inflexible but not humorless. He thinks on the fly almost as well as his son, but is much less inclined to change his behavior accordingly. Competence and efficiency are his watchwords; in episode 16 he reels off Guo Changcheng’s personal information effortlessly from memory, and assigns each SID member an investigative task suited to their specialties (including willingness to make use of Da Qing as a Yashou). He is not unwilling to shoot to kill, but not without provocation; he considers the Guardian Writ to back up the death penalty. He tends to follow the letter of the law where Zhao Yunlan is more likely to be concerned with the moral right of the matter. Zhao Yunlan notes, distinguishing him from Zhang Shi, that he’s a pragmatist with no concern for larger moral issues.
(He also has an incongruous name: 心慈, heart’s mercy, almost feminine (help me out, proper Chinese speakers?) and certainly far gentler than you would expect from a man of his demeanor.)
Two for the price of one
Zhao Xinci has shared his head with the Dixingren Zhang Shi for the last twenty years or so. Although initially promising “I won’t control you or take you over,” Zhang Shi tends to speak up in his host’s person at essential moments to soften Zhao Xinci’s approach to the SID and Dixing, but his ultimate morality is, to put it kindly, questionable. Zhao Xinci does give his consent to having Zhang Shi live more or less rent-free in his head, but it’s a) after the fact and b) very much a case of “we can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way, up to you” (Zhang Shi implies that Zhao Xinci could hurt himself by trying to expel ZS forcibly, and ZXC has just seen ZS’s last host kill himself after “intermittent psychosis.”). Zhao Xinci, a pragmatist if ever there was one, accepts that he’s screwed and makes the best of it by getting ZS to provide Dixingren support for his work. It’s implied that ZXC’s mental cohabitation with Zhang Shi was actively bad for his health, with Zhang Shi’s activities as a source of cardiac stress leading to his emergency surgery on Reunion Night.
Notable moments
In Zhao Xinci’s conversation about his involvement with the superpower serum with Shen Wei (a bravura exercise in expressing large emotions through subdued restraint on both parts) he refers ominously to “protecting…the one both of us care about,” implying that a) he loves his son, and b) he knows Shen Wei does too (based on Zhao Yunlan’s defiant “He’s good to me” when he’s blind?).
In episode 29, we see a younger Zhao Xinci giving little!Zhao Yunlan instructions on proper investigation: an interesting combination of dad’s mania for efficiency with something of his son’s empathy. However, modern-day Zhao Xinci on his son: “that brat,” Zhao Yunlan on his father: “that old jerk.” When Zhao Yunlan offers on the rooftop to give his life in his father’s place, Zhao Xinci responds with dizzying venom, rendering his son completely speechless for almost the only time in forty episodes, even though he may know it’s not exactly true. When he can catch his breath, Zhao Yunlan retorts “I’m not like you. Instead of having regrets for twenty years, I’ll follow my heart [the advice younger!Zhao Xinci gave him] in the first place. Let me tell you that a sacrifice for family is worth it!” (consciously quoting Shen Wei?)
In episode 38, ZXC and ZS get a heroic entrance in time to help Zhao Yunlan overcome Professor Ouyang. Zhao Yunlan and his father get one last hug before the former heads off to Dixing, and Zhang Shi helpfully twists the knife: “How did it feel to hug your son? You’ve waited twenty years.” Zhao Xinci basically tells him to fuck off and I’m sorry to say I can’t blame him.
After forming a battlefield alliance with Li Qian and the patient Guo Ying to support Zhao Yunlan and the SID, Zhao Xinci fights with the Yashou in the big messy struggle of episodes 39 and 40. Sending Lao Chu, Zhu Hong, and Da Qing off to Dixing, ZXC tells them that it’s an honor for his son to have them as colleagues, a major admission for the prejudiced Zhao Xinci to make to two Yashou and a Dixingren. He provides Da Qing with the serum which will be a key part of defeating Ye Zun.
In episode 40, we see ZXC thriving, still in purple, along with Minister Guo and Director Li. A flashback shows him explaining the Lantern sacrifice to Zhao Yunlan, with an excruciating instant of silence between father and son in which Zhao Yunlan understands and accepts that he may be the one to step into the Lantern, and Zhao Xinci turns away from him in pain. Zhao Yunlan asks him to promise that if it does happen, Zhang Shi will step in for him and live his life well, Zhao Xinci accepts, and they have a horribly awkward, tearful hug. It could be that this is all Zhang Shi here, given “how did it feel to hug your son?” later on, but I really hope not.
Discussion questions
1. What are the similarities and differences between Zhao Xinci and his son?
2. How did Zhao Xinci and Zhang Shi interact over the years? Did they learn from one another? Was Zhao Xinci resigned to having Zhang Shi in his head forever, or what? What did Zhang Shi think of Zhao Xinci? (If Zhao Yunlan had actually shot him with the dark-energy gun, would it have killed ZS without harming ZXC, or what?)
3. What is Zhao Xinci’s relationship with Da Qing in particular? We talk a lot about Zhao Yunlan having been raised by cats; Da Qing and Zhao Xinci “worked together for ten years”—from the time the SID was founded, when Zhao Yunlan was, what, eight or nine on? How did ZXC and DQ get along?
4. Do we ever find out what “Xingdu” is anyway, as in the Xingdu Bureau? It looks like the hanzi are 星督, basically “planetary supervisory/Haixing Supervisory,” which is helpfully vague.
5. When does Zhao Xinci figure out that Professor Shen (or his earlier editions as grad-student Shen Wei, etc.) is the Black-Cloaked Envoy? Was he in fact instrumental in setting up this cover identity?
6. What, if anything, does Zhao Xinci know about Zhang Shi’s plans for the Lantern wick? If he knows, what does he make of it? Is he present in the episode-40 flashback to Zhao Yunlan learning about the wick, and/or did he condone the conversation?
Fanworks
I haven’t managed to sort through everything in which Zhao Xinci appears, so please rec and/or self-rec your favorites! I chose a handful here, trying to sort for some different takes and perspectives:
Purple (Like the Shadows in Your Heart) by anecdotalist
If someone were to ask Zhao Xinci later, he wouldn’t have been able to say when it was that things changed between him and his wife.
Prince of Thorns by Sylvia
A rose thicket encages the SID, Zhao Yunlan is trapped in unnatural sleep, and Shen Wei is forced to rely on Zhao Xinci’s assistance.
make up for my regrets by china_shop
Zhang Shi takes stock of his new life.
Light for light by lately
How Zhao Xinci saved the day and his son. A canon fix-it.
filled my lungs with oxygen by egelantier
Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei are enjoying their happily ever after together. But there's a price Shen Wei has to pay, over and over again, for both of them staying alive. Zhao Yunlan is prepared.
(N: Zhao Xinci just has a cameo in this one, but it’s a really good cameo.)
Also a shamefaced self-rec because I put a lot of my ideas about Zhao Xinci in here: Thinking Outside the Box
(Quick note just in case: Zhao Xinci and his relationship with Zhao Yunlan in particular can cut close to the bone for a lot of people, and he may be the most divisive character we’ve talked about yet, even including Ye Zun. Different opinions on him are FINE by me; let’s call this a place to share ideas rather than to try and convince one another of anything.)
Who he is
Zhao Xinci is the Director of the Xingdu Bureau, the first chief of the SID, Zhao Yunlan’s estranged father, Shen Xi’s widower, and a reluctant headspace-sharer with Zhang Shi. In his field agent days he shared his son’s propensities for denim jackets and comfort over formality; as a senior bureaucrat he dresses like a dandy to rival Shen Wei (can I have a small fic about the two of them running into each other while purchasing ascots, please?) and favors a purple coat Zhu Jiu would envy. He is either Minister Gao’s direct superior, or has the upper hand anyway due to a long history of working together, greater competence, and a stronger personality.
After becoming the first SID chief, Zhao Xinci became more and more absorbed in his work, inflicting lasting damage on his relationship with his wife Shen Xi and their son, to which the coup de grâce was the death of Shen Xi as a hostage in the hands of Dixingren criminals. This (according to Zhang Shi) turned Zhao Xinci’s general law-enforcement dislike of Dixingren into an active obsession with putting down Dixingren criminals.
After a complex and tortuous path through the second half of the series, he ends up as part of an excellent triumvirate with Guo Ying and Li Qian, supporting the SID in extremis and providing competence, compassion, and smarts in administration as of the epilogue.
What he’s like
Zhao Xinci is a fascinating character: complex and ambiguous, ruthless but not beyond empathy, capable but lacking some of his son’s crucial skills, on the wrong side often but not necessarily a bad guy, inflexible but not humorless. He thinks on the fly almost as well as his son, but is much less inclined to change his behavior accordingly. Competence and efficiency are his watchwords; in episode 16 he reels off Guo Changcheng’s personal information effortlessly from memory, and assigns each SID member an investigative task suited to their specialties (including willingness to make use of Da Qing as a Yashou). He is not unwilling to shoot to kill, but not without provocation; he considers the Guardian Writ to back up the death penalty. He tends to follow the letter of the law where Zhao Yunlan is more likely to be concerned with the moral right of the matter. Zhao Yunlan notes, distinguishing him from Zhang Shi, that he’s a pragmatist with no concern for larger moral issues.
(He also has an incongruous name: 心慈, heart’s mercy, almost feminine (help me out, proper Chinese speakers?) and certainly far gentler than you would expect from a man of his demeanor.)
Two for the price of one
Zhao Xinci has shared his head with the Dixingren Zhang Shi for the last twenty years or so. Although initially promising “I won’t control you or take you over,” Zhang Shi tends to speak up in his host’s person at essential moments to soften Zhao Xinci’s approach to the SID and Dixing, but his ultimate morality is, to put it kindly, questionable. Zhao Xinci does give his consent to having Zhang Shi live more or less rent-free in his head, but it’s a) after the fact and b) very much a case of “we can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way, up to you” (Zhang Shi implies that Zhao Xinci could hurt himself by trying to expel ZS forcibly, and ZXC has just seen ZS’s last host kill himself after “intermittent psychosis.”). Zhao Xinci, a pragmatist if ever there was one, accepts that he’s screwed and makes the best of it by getting ZS to provide Dixingren support for his work. It’s implied that ZXC’s mental cohabitation with Zhang Shi was actively bad for his health, with Zhang Shi’s activities as a source of cardiac stress leading to his emergency surgery on Reunion Night.
Notable moments
In Zhao Xinci’s conversation about his involvement with the superpower serum with Shen Wei (a bravura exercise in expressing large emotions through subdued restraint on both parts) he refers ominously to “protecting…the one both of us care about,” implying that a) he loves his son, and b) he knows Shen Wei does too (based on Zhao Yunlan’s defiant “He’s good to me” when he’s blind?).
In episode 29, we see a younger Zhao Xinci giving little!Zhao Yunlan instructions on proper investigation: an interesting combination of dad’s mania for efficiency with something of his son’s empathy. However, modern-day Zhao Xinci on his son: “that brat,” Zhao Yunlan on his father: “that old jerk.” When Zhao Yunlan offers on the rooftop to give his life in his father’s place, Zhao Xinci responds with dizzying venom, rendering his son completely speechless for almost the only time in forty episodes, even though he may know it’s not exactly true. When he can catch his breath, Zhao Yunlan retorts “I’m not like you. Instead of having regrets for twenty years, I’ll follow my heart [the advice younger!Zhao Xinci gave him] in the first place. Let me tell you that a sacrifice for family is worth it!” (consciously quoting Shen Wei?)
In episode 38, ZXC and ZS get a heroic entrance in time to help Zhao Yunlan overcome Professor Ouyang. Zhao Yunlan and his father get one last hug before the former heads off to Dixing, and Zhang Shi helpfully twists the knife: “How did it feel to hug your son? You’ve waited twenty years.” Zhao Xinci basically tells him to fuck off and I’m sorry to say I can’t blame him.
After forming a battlefield alliance with Li Qian and the patient Guo Ying to support Zhao Yunlan and the SID, Zhao Xinci fights with the Yashou in the big messy struggle of episodes 39 and 40. Sending Lao Chu, Zhu Hong, and Da Qing off to Dixing, ZXC tells them that it’s an honor for his son to have them as colleagues, a major admission for the prejudiced Zhao Xinci to make to two Yashou and a Dixingren. He provides Da Qing with the serum which will be a key part of defeating Ye Zun.
In episode 40, we see ZXC thriving, still in purple, along with Minister Guo and Director Li. A flashback shows him explaining the Lantern sacrifice to Zhao Yunlan, with an excruciating instant of silence between father and son in which Zhao Yunlan understands and accepts that he may be the one to step into the Lantern, and Zhao Xinci turns away from him in pain. Zhao Yunlan asks him to promise that if it does happen, Zhang Shi will step in for him and live his life well, Zhao Xinci accepts, and they have a horribly awkward, tearful hug. It could be that this is all Zhang Shi here, given “how did it feel to hug your son?” later on, but I really hope not.
Discussion questions
1. What are the similarities and differences between Zhao Xinci and his son?
2. How did Zhao Xinci and Zhang Shi interact over the years? Did they learn from one another? Was Zhao Xinci resigned to having Zhang Shi in his head forever, or what? What did Zhang Shi think of Zhao Xinci? (If Zhao Yunlan had actually shot him with the dark-energy gun, would it have killed ZS without harming ZXC, or what?)
3. What is Zhao Xinci’s relationship with Da Qing in particular? We talk a lot about Zhao Yunlan having been raised by cats; Da Qing and Zhao Xinci “worked together for ten years”—from the time the SID was founded, when Zhao Yunlan was, what, eight or nine on? How did ZXC and DQ get along?
4. Do we ever find out what “Xingdu” is anyway, as in the Xingdu Bureau? It looks like the hanzi are 星督, basically “planetary supervisory/Haixing Supervisory,” which is helpfully vague.
5. When does Zhao Xinci figure out that Professor Shen (or his earlier editions as grad-student Shen Wei, etc.) is the Black-Cloaked Envoy? Was he in fact instrumental in setting up this cover identity?
6. What, if anything, does Zhao Xinci know about Zhang Shi’s plans for the Lantern wick? If he knows, what does he make of it? Is he present in the episode-40 flashback to Zhao Yunlan learning about the wick, and/or did he condone the conversation?
Fanworks
I haven’t managed to sort through everything in which Zhao Xinci appears, so please rec and/or self-rec your favorites! I chose a handful here, trying to sort for some different takes and perspectives:
Purple (Like the Shadows in Your Heart) by anecdotalist
If someone were to ask Zhao Xinci later, he wouldn’t have been able to say when it was that things changed between him and his wife.
Prince of Thorns by Sylvia
A rose thicket encages the SID, Zhao Yunlan is trapped in unnatural sleep, and Shen Wei is forced to rely on Zhao Xinci’s assistance.
make up for my regrets by china_shop
Zhang Shi takes stock of his new life.
Light for light by lately
How Zhao Xinci saved the day and his son. A canon fix-it.
filled my lungs with oxygen by egelantier
Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei are enjoying their happily ever after together. But there's a price Shen Wei has to pay, over and over again, for both of them staying alive. Zhao Yunlan is prepared.
(N: Zhao Xinci just has a cameo in this one, but it’s a really good cameo.)
Also a shamefaced self-rec because I put a lot of my ideas about Zhao Xinci in here: Thinking Outside the Box
(Quick note just in case: Zhao Xinci and his relationship with Zhao Yunlan in particular can cut close to the bone for a lot of people, and he may be the most divisive character we’ve talked about yet, even including Ye Zun. Different opinions on him are FINE by me; let’s call this a place to share ideas rather than to try and convince one another of anything.)
no subject
Phew! I was afraid I might have been too wall-of-text-y. *g*
Ah, thank you! (I screencapped that scene for my icons; I really should've remembered.) So yeah, for some unspecified length of time, Shen Xi was married to ZXC while Zhang Shi was ~present~ (for some value of present). I wonder if she knew... *squinches eyes at potential dubcon aspects*
Maybe because they never show us finding out? It's like, that could have been a significant plot beat, and the fact that it was omitted implies it wasn't needed because he already knew. (I had been assuming too, until I wrote that fic.)
Oh, but at least ZXC did get a goodbye hug. And the fact that ZYL gave it suggests he knew the other one was with Zhang Shi, right? *has not watched those scenes in a while* So that actually makes me feel better. Thanks!
I mean, the whole "Wick Substitution 101" contingency plan sucks, obviously, but I can see why ZYL might not have been capable of having that conversation with his dad at that time, under such pressure. I just really wanted them to get a reconciliation beat, and they did.
Yes, I think that's exactly why it's so powerful. And to some degree, you know, there probably are a few tiny grains of truth buried in there -- that's why those are the things that come out of ZXC's when he reaches for verbal weapons. Maybe they're waiting to be said, and that's one of the reasons they hit home so hard. But they're not The Truth, and ZYL totally can't hear that.
So do you think there was any good that came out of their connections? Like, I feel like Zhang Shi might have prompted ZXC occasionally to at least try to step outside his rigidity and be supportive or kind to young!ZYL, and Zhang Shi loves ZYL (we know that from the library scene in ep 16, when he's talking to Sang Zan), and ZXC isn't left entirely alone after Shen Xi dies... There has to be some good there, right? For all of them? The real pain comes from the secrets.
And, whoa, okay, now I'm thinking that to an outsider (to ZYL in some lights, perhaps?) Zhang Shi and ZXC are an analogue of the Envoy and Shen Wei -- the hidden Dixing alter ego (that had to be forced to reveal itself) -- though obviously it's not at all the same for Shen Wei (he is both identities, and the hiddeness is very different, too). Only the Zhang Shi revelation is so much worse because it was right there in ZYL's own family, right under his nose, while he was being brought up to think that Dixingren were all criminals and needed to be hunted down, even if he didn't completely buy that line. (I don't know if that makes any sense. I only just thought of it, and it's laaate. But I'll leave it here anyway.)
Ooh, yes, that too. But in some ways, "He's good to me" is actually more important for a parent to hear, more salient, than "He loves me", I think? Like, lots of people treat people they love really badly, you know? Being treated well is just as rare and precious. And maybe more valued, in a society which has an emphasis on marriage as a duty (which, I don't know how much Haixing has that, but maybe a bit?).
Or maybe it's just that ZYL still hasn't fully grasped that he's lovable at that point, and he doesn't think of framing it that way. Or saying the L-word to his dad, in any context, is unthinkable. *rueful*
Haha, very true. Maybe he's playing some kind of enemy-of-my-enemy gambit to get the team to unify even more? Who knows?! (Though it is pretty early days at that point. Guo Changcheng doubts Chu Shuzhi's loyalty to their chief, and not entirely without reason, given how anti-Dixing ZYL reportedly was earlier in his career.)
Yeah, though he's also advocating shifting the blame to someone else. (Lao-Chu?) /o\ /o\ /o\
It's glorious! *hearts you* But I have to go to sleep now. *waves goodnight*
no subject
That's how I always saw it!
no subject
I was wondering that - if for Zhao Yunlan falling in love with someone who has this kind of dual identity was connected in some way with having it in his family, even if he didn't know it. Like, on some level he was looking for someone who had a Haxing/Dixing dual identity to love him, even if he wasn't aware of where that came from or why he might want that.
no subject
no subject