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sid_guardian2020-08-01 09:50 am
china_shop) wrote in sid_guardian2020-08-01 09:50 am
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Focus on Ji Xiaobai, Zhou Weiwei and the other Zhou Weiwei
Ji Xiaobai, Zhou Weiwei and the other Zhou Weiwei are the characters in the Mirror Girl case in episodes 5 and 6. (If I understand correctly, they're not in the novel.)
Zhou Weiwei is miserable and hates her life. One day, in her room, she declares, “I don’t want this face anymore. Whoever likes it can have it!” Her mirror reflection, a Dixingren, jumps at the opportunity, and they agree to swap places for a year.
Once out in the world, Mirror Weiwei gives herself a makeover, meets a boy and falls in love. They move in together. They get engaged. She’s scared it’s all an illusion, but he reassures her.
Ji Xiaobai and Mirror Weiwei cuddling, in love.
Original Weiwei trapped in the mirror, watching ‘her’ life improve without her.
Original Weiwei is jealous, thinking the life Mirror Weiwei has made – and the boyfriend she’s found – should be hers. When the year is up and Mirror Weiwei won’t swap back, Original Weiwei attacks her in the bathroom. They're interrupted by Xiaobai. Then Xiaobai comes home to find his fiancée missing. He calls the police, who pass the case on to the SID.
After some investigating, Zhao Yunlan leaves and Changcheng and lao-Chu take Ji Xiaobai to a nearby park. They hear a magpie sing, and Changcheng encourages Xiaobai to make a wish that Weiwei will come home. In the way of fairy tales, this returns the wrong Weiwei to him.
Xiaobai soon realises she’s not his Weiwei. She tries to gaslight him, but she’s distant, she doesn’t drink her milk, and she’s not wearing the ring he gave her.
Xiaobai approaches the SID again, via Changcheng. Zhao Yunlan & co arrive at the flat, but Weiwei is gone. Following advice from Shen Wei, they all go into the trippy mirror dimension, where they hear the Weiweis arguing over the ring. Mirror Weiwei says, “I gave you everything. Why can’t you leave me with a souvenir?”
The ring floats by, and Ji Xiaobai catches it.
Original Weiwei appears and throws herself into Xiaobai’s arms. Then Mirror Weiwei shows up. He recognises her and goes to her, but Zhao Yunlan points out she has no shadow.
Mirror Weiwei is tearfully glad Xiaobai recognised her.
Xiaobai is scared to see his Weiwei has no shadow. (Apparently he hasn’t been paying close attention to all the photos he’s been taking.)
Frightened, Xiaobai recoils back to Original Weiwei. Mirror Weiwei says, “I’m the Weiwei you love.” He responds, “When did you start pretending to be her?”
Original Weiwei calls Mirror Weiwei a monster in a successful attempt to discredit her in Ji Xiaobai’s eyes.
Incensed, Mirror Weiwei summons energy and threatens to blow them all up. The Envoy arrives in a three-point landing, restrains her and takes her to Dixing.
Mirror Weiwei trapped in the Envoy’s dark energy coils.
Later, Zhao Yunlan confirms Original Weiwei isn’t Xiaobai’s fiancée. Xiaobai leaves her. Everyone is miserable.
Original Weiwei gives Xiaobai a back hug, to stop him leaving. It doesn’t work.
Moral: People are not interchangeable like snow mobile parts. /gratuitous Due South reference
Original Weiwei
Original Weiwei is jealous of other girls, and depressed and dissatisfied with life to the point where she’s willing to stay in the mirror dimension for a year, watching the world instead of living in it. But her jealousy extends to her replacement. As the ‘real’ Weiwei, she feels entitled to everything Mirror Weiwei gains, including her boyfriend. When the year is up, Original Weiwei tries to take her life back by force and later calls Mirror Weiwei a monster. Afterwards, she feels no remorse about breaking up the happy couple, and she’s hurt when Ji Xiaobai leaves her.
Mirror Weiwei
Mirror Weiwei is the daughter of one of Shen Wei’s mission team who searched Haixing for the Hallows (I think?). The Envoy calls her an orphan, but she did live with her father long enough that she remembers things he used to say, and presumably had a pre-Weiwei name. We don’t know how she ended up in the mirror, but she’s there for years, dreaming of the world outside but not making a move until Original Weiwei agrees to swap places. Once out in Haixing, she makes the best of her new life, but she’s afraid someone will notice her lack of shadow and keenly aware her agreement with Original Weiwei is running out.
Disappointingly, she and Original Weiwei have their hair parted on the same side.
About Ji Xiaobai
Tearful Xiaobai knows he’s choosing badly.
Ji Xiaobai is sweet, naive and mostly a good boyfriend. He reassures Mirror Weiwei when she worries, and her cares deeply for her. (Though he does say, “I thought she had pre-wedding jitters and planned to take her to a psychologist.” And he tells her she has to be “a wonderful and perfect bride.” No pressure!) They have a playful, loving relationship. He takes loads of photos of them and makes plans for their future, and he notices immediately when something’s wrong (ie, when it’s not her). Ultimately, he can’t accept that the woman he loves isn’t human, but he also isn’t willing to settle for her human lookalike.
This case marks the first time Zhao Yunlan consults Shen Wei about a case, not as a suspect. It also spurs the Envoy to weigh in on the Treaty and the SID’s policy towards Dixingren.
Zhao Yunlan visits Original Weiwei and traps her with specific questions, to which she can only give vague, made-up answers. Caught out, she complains, “Are you saying I’m that monster? Open your eyes, I have a shadow.” “I never questioned the fact that you’re human,” responds Zhao Yunlan, “but I think you are not the Zhou Weiwei who was with Ji Xiaobai for a year and almost married him.”
Turns out this conversation is for Ji Xiaobai’s benefit.
Zhao Yunlan: You already know who you were really looking for.
Ji Xiaobai: To be honest, I’m lost and confused. You say this is the true Zhou Weiwei, and the other one was just an illusion. But I still feel that I’m closer to that illusion.
Zhao Yunlan: However, you’re afraid to admit it and believe it. Am I right?
Ji Xiaobai: After all, I’m just a normal person. But she—
Zhao Yunlan: All right, now everything is clear. We’re done here.
As he leaves, reminds Xiaobai that Mirror Weiwei isn’t coming back. I wonder what he would have done if Ji Xiaobai had begged for her return, instead of equivocating and being fearful.
Cut to the Envoy lecturing Mirror Weiwei before taking her to Dixing. “As you can see, people are usually defeated by their own heart. You and he are from different worlds,” he says, taking entirely the wrong moral from this episode. If she’d come out to Ji Xiaobai as Dixingren earlier, under less alarming circumstances (or if Dixingren were known and had standing in Haixing) maybe it wouldn’t have turned out this way, but naturally Shen Wei doesn't doubt the wisdom of keeping secrets.
Mirror Weiwei being lectured in the park, before deportation.
“If you had stayed hidden in the mirror and not used your powers, I could never have found you, but unfortunately, you took the same path as your father. You were greedy for prosperity and seized love by force. That is the reason for your current misfortune,” he adds, pouring salt on the fresh wounds of Mirror Weiwei’s sucky situation.
The usually insightful Changcheng sums up the case in his diary, but he’s completely missed what happened and is confused by Zhu Hong’s contempt for Ji Xiaobai.
The Mirror Girl story resonates with several of Guardian’s themes:
Other observations:
There are only a few fanworks for these characters on AO3 (including a flashfic I wrote while compiling this post):
The Influence of Mountains (4603 words) by![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
Branch
Summary: The SID introduce Dixing to the police as ordinary citizens. The Supervisory Bureau may be having heart attacks in the background.
the world outside, the world below (500 words) bychina_shop
Summary: She always knew it was too good to be true.
Once Upon a Time in Dixing (5891 words) bychina_shop
Summary: “Chief Zhao.” Shen Wei turns to the man who was and will one day be again his indomitable brother in arms, his lover and his friend. “I need you to stage a jailbreak.” (This is mostly a team caper, but it contains a fix-it for Ji Xiaobai and Mirror Weiwei.)
So - come and talk about Ji Xiaobai, the Mirror Girl and Original Weiwei! 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 them.
The story
Zhou Weiwei is miserable and hates her life. One day, in her room, she declares, “I don’t want this face anymore. Whoever likes it can have it!” Her mirror reflection, a Dixingren, jumps at the opportunity, and they agree to swap places for a year.
Once out in the world, Mirror Weiwei gives herself a makeover, meets a boy and falls in love. They move in together. They get engaged. She’s scared it’s all an illusion, but he reassures her.
Ji Xiaobai and Mirror Weiwei cuddling, in love.
Original Weiwei trapped in the mirror, watching ‘her’ life improve without her.
Original Weiwei is jealous, thinking the life Mirror Weiwei has made – and the boyfriend she’s found – should be hers. When the year is up and Mirror Weiwei won’t swap back, Original Weiwei attacks her in the bathroom. They're interrupted by Xiaobai. Then Xiaobai comes home to find his fiancée missing. He calls the police, who pass the case on to the SID.
After some investigating, Zhao Yunlan leaves and Changcheng and lao-Chu take Ji Xiaobai to a nearby park. They hear a magpie sing, and Changcheng encourages Xiaobai to make a wish that Weiwei will come home. In the way of fairy tales, this returns the wrong Weiwei to him.
Xiaobai soon realises she’s not his Weiwei. She tries to gaslight him, but she’s distant, she doesn’t drink her milk, and she’s not wearing the ring he gave her.
Xiaobai approaches the SID again, via Changcheng. Zhao Yunlan & co arrive at the flat, but Weiwei is gone. Following advice from Shen Wei, they all go into the trippy mirror dimension, where they hear the Weiweis arguing over the ring. Mirror Weiwei says, “I gave you everything. Why can’t you leave me with a souvenir?”
The ring floats by, and Ji Xiaobai catches it.
Original Weiwei appears and throws herself into Xiaobai’s arms. Then Mirror Weiwei shows up. He recognises her and goes to her, but Zhao Yunlan points out she has no shadow.
Mirror Weiwei is tearfully glad Xiaobai recognised her.
Xiaobai is scared to see his Weiwei has no shadow. (Apparently he hasn’t been paying close attention to all the photos he’s been taking.)
Frightened, Xiaobai recoils back to Original Weiwei. Mirror Weiwei says, “I’m the Weiwei you love.” He responds, “When did you start pretending to be her?”
Original Weiwei calls Mirror Weiwei a monster in a successful attempt to discredit her in Ji Xiaobai’s eyes.
Incensed, Mirror Weiwei summons energy and threatens to blow them all up. The Envoy arrives in a three-point landing, restrains her and takes her to Dixing.
Mirror Weiwei trapped in the Envoy’s dark energy coils.
Later, Zhao Yunlan confirms Original Weiwei isn’t Xiaobai’s fiancée. Xiaobai leaves her. Everyone is miserable.
Original Weiwei gives Xiaobai a back hug, to stop him leaving. It doesn’t work.
Moral: People are not interchangeable like snow mobile parts. /gratuitous Due South reference
The characters
Original Weiwei
Original Weiwei is jealous of other girls, and depressed and dissatisfied with life to the point where she’s willing to stay in the mirror dimension for a year, watching the world instead of living in it. But her jealousy extends to her replacement. As the ‘real’ Weiwei, she feels entitled to everything Mirror Weiwei gains, including her boyfriend. When the year is up, Original Weiwei tries to take her life back by force and later calls Mirror Weiwei a monster. Afterwards, she feels no remorse about breaking up the happy couple, and she’s hurt when Ji Xiaobai leaves her.
Mirror Weiwei
Mirror Weiwei is the daughter of one of Shen Wei’s mission team who searched Haixing for the Hallows (I think?). The Envoy calls her an orphan, but she did live with her father long enough that she remembers things he used to say, and presumably had a pre-Weiwei name. We don’t know how she ended up in the mirror, but she’s there for years, dreaming of the world outside but not making a move until Original Weiwei agrees to swap places. Once out in Haixing, she makes the best of her new life, but she’s afraid someone will notice her lack of shadow and keenly aware her agreement with Original Weiwei is running out.
Disappointingly, she and Original Weiwei have their hair parted on the same side.
About Ji Xiaobai
Tearful Xiaobai knows he’s choosing badly.
Ji Xiaobai is sweet, naive and mostly a good boyfriend. He reassures Mirror Weiwei when she worries, and her cares deeply for her. (Though he does say, “I thought she had pre-wedding jitters and planned to take her to a psychologist.” And he tells her she has to be “a wonderful and perfect bride.” No pressure!) They have a playful, loving relationship. He takes loads of photos of them and makes plans for their future, and he notices immediately when something’s wrong (ie, when it’s not her). Ultimately, he can’t accept that the woman he loves isn’t human, but he also isn’t willing to settle for her human lookalike.
Outcome of the case: the Envoy and Zhao Yunlan
This case marks the first time Zhao Yunlan consults Shen Wei about a case, not as a suspect. It also spurs the Envoy to weigh in on the Treaty and the SID’s policy towards Dixingren.
Abusing powers is wrong. However[...] in everything, there is Yin and Yang, good and evil. Whether Haixing or Dixing, identity is only skin-deep. One’s heart cannot be judged by identity alone. – The EnvoyAfter this speech, the Envoy departs, leaving Zhao Yunlan looking dissatisfied with the outcome of the case.
Zhao Yunlan visits Original Weiwei and traps her with specific questions, to which she can only give vague, made-up answers. Caught out, she complains, “Are you saying I’m that monster? Open your eyes, I have a shadow.” “I never questioned the fact that you’re human,” responds Zhao Yunlan, “but I think you are not the Zhou Weiwei who was with Ji Xiaobai for a year and almost married him.”
Turns out this conversation is for Ji Xiaobai’s benefit.
Zhao Yunlan: You already know who you were really looking for.
Ji Xiaobai: To be honest, I’m lost and confused. You say this is the true Zhou Weiwei, and the other one was just an illusion. But I still feel that I’m closer to that illusion.
Zhao Yunlan: However, you’re afraid to admit it and believe it. Am I right?
Ji Xiaobai: After all, I’m just a normal person. But she—
Zhao Yunlan: All right, now everything is clear. We’re done here.
As he leaves, reminds Xiaobai that Mirror Weiwei isn’t coming back. I wonder what he would have done if Ji Xiaobai had begged for her return, instead of equivocating and being fearful.
The Envoy’s hot take
Cut to the Envoy lecturing Mirror Weiwei before taking her to Dixing. “As you can see, people are usually defeated by their own heart. You and he are from different worlds,” he says, taking entirely the wrong moral from this episode. If she’d come out to Ji Xiaobai as Dixingren earlier, under less alarming circumstances (or if Dixingren were known and had standing in Haixing) maybe it wouldn’t have turned out this way, but naturally Shen Wei doesn't doubt the wisdom of keeping secrets.
Mirror Weiwei being lectured in the park, before deportation.
“If you had stayed hidden in the mirror and not used your powers, I could never have found you, but unfortunately, you took the same path as your father. You were greedy for prosperity and seized love by force. That is the reason for your current misfortune,” he adds, pouring salt on the fresh wounds of Mirror Weiwei’s sucky situation.
Changcheng’s conclusion/confusion
The usually insightful Changcheng sums up the case in his diary, but he’s completely missed what happened and is confused by Zhu Hong’s contempt for Ji Xiaobai.
Themes and observations
The Mirror Girl story resonates with several of Guardian’s themes:
- Identity porn/hidden identity/lack of personal identity: Mirror Weiwei has no face or name of her own (cf. Zhang Danni, Zhang Shi (for the face part), and even, sort of, the Envoy before he’s named and takes off his mask).
- Relatedly, twins and doppelgangers.
- Stolen time, love with a time limit, love across dimensions: the agreement between Mirror Weiwei and Original Weiwei is only for a year (cf. Shen Wei/Kunlun).
- Inter-species relationships (cf. Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, Guo Changcheng/Chu Shuzhi, Lin Jing/Sha Ya, Wang Yike/Zhang Ruonan, Zhao Xinci & Zhang Shi, Tan Xiao & Zheng Yi).
- Life in Haixing is difficult for Dixingren/Dixingren as victims: reaction to the sun, fear of discovery or expulsion, being considered a monster. It’s hard not to pity Mirror Weiwei.
Other observations:
- Presumably while Mirror Weiwei was AWOL the first time, she was in the mirror dimension with Original Weiwei. Either they were fighting for hours, or time moves differently in different dimensions. Maybe, as in Dixing, time doesn’t exist in there?
- Mirror Weiwei's story has a definite fairytale quality: she is a ‘monster’ making a bargain for a year in another's shoes; Ji Xiaobai promises to be her prince, her night and her shadow; a wish that goes wrong. But alas, true love does not save the day.
- This is one of the few early cases where Zhu Jiu doesn’t show up to take at least partial credit for the chaos.
Fanworks
There are only a few fanworks for these characters on AO3 (including a flashfic I wrote while compiling this post):
The Influence of Mountains (4603 words) by
Summary: The SID introduce Dixing to the police as ordinary citizens. The Supervisory Bureau may be having heart attacks in the background.
the world outside, the world below (500 words) by
Summary: She always knew it was too good to be true.
Once Upon a Time in Dixing (5891 words) by
Summary: “Chief Zhao.” Shen Wei turns to the man who was and will one day be again his indomitable brother in arms, his lover and his friend. “I need you to stage a jailbreak.” (This is mostly a team caper, but it contains a fix-it for Ji Xiaobai and Mirror Weiwei.)
Questions
- Ji Xiaobai says Weiwei never went out alone, especially when it was sunny, because she hated sunlight. Was that actually the case (because Dixingren have grown used to living in the dark), or was she trying to hide her lack of a shadow?
- Mirror Weiwei and Ji Xiaobai seem to have had a close, sweet relationship. Do you think she wanted to tell him she was Dixingren, or she preferred to pretend everything was ‘normal’? If she’d told him earlier, might things would have turned out differently?
- Why is there a huge mirror in their flat? Is it an escape route, for if things get too much to handle? Is Mirror Weiwei offering Original Weiwei what she herself would have wanted (a better view of the world)? Did it just come with the flat?
- Although the girl from the mirror has been living and loving as Zhou Weiwei, and we never see her use any other name, Original Weiwei is original. In the way of fairy tales, Changcheng’s magpie wish backfires and calls forth the ‘real’ Weiwei, instead of the Weiwei that Ji Xiaobai loved. Should we take this as part of Haixing’s cosmology (wishes and prophesies come true), or is it simply a TV/fiction trope? If phrased more carefully, could the SID have used magpie wishes for other things?
- Mirror Weiwei’s energy looks reddish/golden, rather than dark.
Do you think this is significant? - What do you think of Original Weiwei? Is she simply the villain of the piece, or is it more complicated than that? How must it feel to see someone living your life so much more successfully than you did?
- Directly after this, we see Zhao Yunlan asking Da Qing, “Damn cat, what do you think about Shen Wei?” and starting to investigate him in earnest. What lesson do you think Zhao Yunlan took from the case? (Love is more important than species? Secrets are bad for a relationship? Dixingren can easily pass as human? Other?)
- How does Mirror Weiwei and Ji Xiaobai’s relationship compare to the other human/Dixingren relationships we see in the show?
So - come and talk about Ji Xiaobai, the Mirror Girl and Original Weiwei! 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 them.
no subject
I haven't done a rewatch but this strikes me more as "if you hadn't used your powers to leave the mirror, you'd've stayed hidden, but you came out of hiding and caused a disturbance."
no subject
We don't really know what sounds his internal(?) alarm and makes him show up at crisis points, do we?
no subject
But if it's a spidey sense on using her power, wouldn't it've gotten triggered when they did the initial switch? Or is it only purely destructive power?
no subject
My feeling is that ZYL is complaining that the all-powerful Envoy keeps showing up after people have been hurt or when the SID has had to work hard to contain the danger, rather than the Envoy arriving in time to control the situation from the outset himself and prevent harm (which is presumably in his job description). It's "late" as in, "if you'd arrived ten minutes earlier, Lin Yusen might still be alive" (for example).
I don't think we know if the SID knows how the Envoy is alerted to situations that need his attention.
Maybe just the balls of furious explosive rage? Otherwise Shen Wei would have known about Wang Yike when she murdered the rapists, right?
/speculation and extrapolation :-)