Focus on: Guo Ying and Yu Jinlan

[maggie33]

Guo Ying and Yu Jinlan are Guo Changcheng’s uncle and aunt. They raised him after his parents died, and Changcheng still lives with them.

Let’s talk about Yu Jinlan first, since there is less about her in the drama. She appears only in two episodes – once when Guo Changcheng brings Chu Shuzhi home for the Reunion Festival dinner. And a few episodes later when Sha Ya tries to force Guo Ying to tell her the schedule of the top officials at the Haixing Inspectorate and Xingdu Bureau, and she attacks Guo Ying and Yu Jinlan in the street. Yu Jinlan tries to warn Changcheng of danger shouting at him to run.

We don’t get anything more about her from the drama, but Guardian Wiki says that she is a head of the Women's Association office.

From what little we see of her she seems to be a nice and warm person. She’s the one who decided to ask Chu Shuzhi for Reunion Festival dinner, because she didn't want him to be alone on holiday. She says:

“Changcheng says that you take really good care of him. That’s why I said to ask you over to our house. On this big holiday you’re alone, and that’s just sad, right?”

And it seems that they both came to like Chu Shuzhi, even with all his eccentricates. Like Guo Changcheng says after dinner: “My uncle even complimented you. It’s not just pleasantries.”

And one more pic from that dinner, because that selfie is so funny with Guo family being all so happy and smiling and Chu Shuzhi glowering in the background. 😊

We know a bit more about Guo Ying. He’s the Deputy Minster at Haixing Inspectorate and he works for Minster Gao.

Guo Ying seems rather strict. He didn’t know that his nephew was transferred to work at SID. And when he found out he didn’t have any qualms about arranging a meeting with Zhao Yunlan and asking him to transfer Changcheng’s out of the SID over his nephew’s head.

“He’s my nephew. I know him well, he’s not meant to be a detective. Such a heavy burden is really not one he can bear.”

He says this in his nephew’s presence, but completely ignoring him, and when Changcheng protests he shouts: “I’m doing this for your own sake! Do you know how dangerous it can be? Every day you’ll be fighting monsters! Risking your life!”

It seems his shares Zhao Xinci’s sentiment about Dixingren, at least at first. In that scene later he lets himself to be convinced by Changcheng’s passionate defense of the SID and drops the subject of his nephew leaving his current job.

But Guo Ying also seems to be a good and decent person. He refuses to tell Sha Ya the schedule despite him and his wife being in danger. And when he overhears Minister Gao talking about redistributing Professor Ouyang’s serum, he urges Minister Gao to reconsider. His plea doesn’t work and only makes Minister Gao suspicious of him, and he gets locked up on Minister Gao’s order. Later he helps Li Qing and the SID to cancel Minister Gao’s order of deploying the reserve forces during the fight with Ye Zun and his followers.

After Ye Zun is defeated, Guo Ying becomes a new Minster at Haixing Inspectorate and former Minster Gao gets demoted as his secretary. He must be an attentive secretary, because he notices that Minister Guo is worrying about something and asks about a reason. The reason of course is his nephew’s arranged date. 😊


A few questions:

Guo Ying clearly knows about Dixing and Dixingren in Haixing because of his work. In episode 14 we see that his opinion about them is unfavorable. Does he know one of them works at the SID? Does he know that Chu Shuzhi is from Dixing? Does his words to Chu Shuhzi during the dinner in episode 21 “You are one of us” mean that somewhere between those two episodes he changed his mind?

Does Yu Jinlan know about Dixing? Did her husband tell her?

And most importantly will Guo Ying continue to arrange another dates for his nephew, after the fiasco that was the first one? 😉


Fanworks:

I wrote a Chu Shuzhi/Guo Changcheng fic when Yu Jinlan plays an important part:

Changing what we mean


There is one other fic tagged with her name:

Comes a Time by wrote_and_writ

It’s a lovely fic about the talk Guo Changcheng has with his aunt the night before he starts his job at the SID.


And the series Changes by Branch has Guo Ying as a secondary character in a few parts.


So, what is your opinion about them?

And if you have any recs or links for more fics, picspams, icons or fanart they are very much appreciated.

Comments

[maggie33]

Guo Ying is pretty patronising towards his nephew here, but you can tell he means well. Does he think Guo Changcheng is too naive to understand the risks? But I really appreciate that when Guo Changcheng pushes back, he actually listens and gives in. It would have been better if he'd asked what Guo Changcheng thought before pushing the issue with Zhao Yunlan, but still. *g*

Oh, I think he means well, too. Absolutely. He just worries a lot about his nephew. He probably does think that Changcheng is too sensitive and naïve for work at the SID. Guo Ying clearly thinks this is a very dangerous job (and it is sometimes :)). The way he goes about it is wrong, but it’s mitigated for me that yes, in the end he listens to Changcheng and stops pushing him to resign.

I do wonder what he'd have made of the Black-Cloaked Envoy.

And now I wonder about that, too. He met Professor Shen after all. :)

That's a very good question! But even if she didn't know before, after Sha Ya's attack I think he would have told her.

I always had the impression that she already knew by the time she asked Chu Shuzhi for dinner. I don’t know why. I think I imagined that Guo Ying told her about the SID when he found out that Changcheng was working there. And she’s scared when Sha Ya attacks them, but she doesn’t seem to be surprised by Sha Ya’s power.

[trobadora]

And she’s scared when Sha Ya attacks them, but she doesn’t seem to be surprised by Sha Ya’s power.

Yeah, that's a good point - she's not shocked or anything. Either she's just got nerves of steel, or she knew.