This is such a great post, and a wonderful scene! I love it!
Thank you! I just love this scene so much.
Rewatching the scene, I feel like Shen Wei starts off quite professorial at Zhu Hong, like he's coaching a student through a logic problem as if they're in a tutorial.
I like this framing. It really is very professorial, his detached explanation of how there was another person, and nevermind the reason Shen Wei was in that part of town.
It's not until she challenges his steely-nerved reaction to the crime scene that he changes strategy and comes at her. When he drops his head, it's like he's deciding that yes, she's right, his mild-mannered professor cover is blown, and there's no point trying to recover it. From them on, he's just trolling to provoke her. And oh, he plays lao-Chu like a fiddle. *loves*
Haha, yes, if he can't be a mild-mannered professor, then he'll just be a superlative troll.
This whole thing is performance.
Yes! I really love this aspect of the scene.
I would say more unusual. We know Professor Ouyang is investigating dark energy, so Dixing is known in science circles, if not widely spoken of outside them. But Yashou seem to be completely off the human radar, I think? When Dixing come to the surface, they seem to come to Dragon City, but we only know of four Yashou that have entered human society -- Da Qing, Ya Qing (presumably, at some point, given her computer and driving abilities), Zhu Hong and Zhu Hong's father. Yashou are so strongly isolationist, they're not a threat to humans. I could easily buy that almost no one in Dragon City knows about them, especially outside the Xingdu Bureau, the DoS and the SID.
Oooh, what an interesting perspective, and not one I've considered. Makes sense, too, since Dixing is a research topic that has government backing, and the Yashou are, or at least were, staying off the radar.
Oh, is that what he's saying? Thank you! I've always had trouble parsing that.
I can't take any sort of credit. That's from the Viki subtitles. I did check it using the Baidu translation website, several dictionaries, and my almost non-existent smidgeon of Chinese before posting though, because it's so different from the other subtitle versions, and I'm pretty sure this is the correct translation.
Aside: two scenes after this, ZYL and CSZ are talking, and it's revealed that CSZ is tracking someone with his puppet -- to ZYL's approval. Is the someone being tracked Shen Wei? Does this ever pay off?
Ah, I think I just assumed he was tracking Lin Yusen. I don't think it's mentioned again.
There's such a gulf between her life and the traditional Yashou life that every single other person in her tribe is leading, I don't see how she could not be insecure about it. She's caught between worlds, in some ways. And her saying, "I'm the one holding back the Snake tribe" sounds to me like she's paraphrasing/interpreting Fourth Uncle's complaints to her -- or maybe her own feelings.
This is similar to my own reading. Shen Wei's words touched a nerve because Zhu Hong has complicated feelings about Yashou life, and an equally complicated relationship to Yashou life.
Thank you for the links. I haven't checked out the fic yet, but the poll is hilarious.
no subject
Thank you! I just love this scene so much.
Rewatching the scene, I feel like Shen Wei starts off quite professorial at Zhu Hong, like he's coaching a student through a logic problem as if they're in a tutorial.
I like this framing. It really is very professorial, his detached explanation of how there was another person, and nevermind the reason Shen Wei was in that part of town.
It's not until she challenges his steely-nerved reaction to the crime scene that he changes strategy and comes at her. When he drops his head, it's like he's deciding that yes, she's right, his mild-mannered professor cover is blown, and there's no point trying to recover it. From them on, he's just trolling to provoke her. And oh, he plays lao-Chu like a fiddle. *loves*
Haha, yes, if he can't be a mild-mannered professor, then he'll just be a superlative troll.
This whole thing is performance.
Yes! I really love this aspect of the scene.
I would say more unusual. We know Professor Ouyang is investigating dark energy, so Dixing is known in science circles, if not widely spoken of outside them. But Yashou seem to be completely off the human radar, I think? When Dixing come to the surface, they seem to come to Dragon City, but we only know of four Yashou that have entered human society -- Da Qing, Ya Qing (presumably, at some point, given her computer and driving abilities), Zhu Hong and Zhu Hong's father. Yashou are so strongly isolationist, they're not a threat to humans. I could easily buy that almost no one in Dragon City knows about them, especially outside the Xingdu Bureau, the DoS and the SID.
Oooh, what an interesting perspective, and not one I've considered. Makes sense, too, since Dixing is a research topic that has government backing, and the Yashou are, or at least were, staying off the radar.
Oh, is that what he's saying? Thank you! I've always had trouble parsing that.
I can't take any sort of credit. That's from the Viki subtitles. I did check it using the Baidu translation website, several dictionaries, and my almost non-existent smidgeon of Chinese before posting though, because it's so different from the other subtitle versions, and I'm pretty sure this is the correct translation.
Aside: two scenes after this, ZYL and CSZ are talking, and it's revealed that CSZ is tracking someone with his puppet -- to ZYL's approval. Is the someone being tracked Shen Wei? Does this ever pay off?
Ah, I think I just assumed he was tracking Lin Yusen. I don't think it's mentioned again.
There's such a gulf between her life and the traditional Yashou life that every single other person in her tribe is leading, I don't see how she could not be insecure about it. She's caught between worlds, in some ways. And her saying, "I'm the one holding back the Snake tribe" sounds to me like she's paraphrasing/interpreting Fourth Uncle's complaints to her -- or maybe her own feelings.
This is similar to my own reading. Shen Wei's words touched a nerve because Zhu Hong has complicated feelings about Yashou life, and an equally complicated relationship to Yashou life.
Thank you for the links. I haven't checked out the fic yet, but the poll is hilarious.