There was nothing. No way. I tend to be with you on that. At this point we've seen Zhao Yunlan being willing to bend the rules past the point of breaking in favor of mercy/compassion before (wanting a hopeful outcome for Wang Yike despite her murders; not wanting Zheng Yi to face harsh justice for the people she killed/follow-on attacks she was pressured to commit; working to talk Ye Huo and his companions down rather than throw the book at them despite their violence and hostage taking), but Ye Zun goes way beyond just acting in direct retaliation for grievous harm, or just in his own defense... Zhao Yunlan has seen how he directs indiscriminate killing to benefit himself and knows that as the person working behind the scenes his primary goal/ motivation is to incite (another) violent invasion of Haixing and seize power for himself in the doing... unless Ye Zun was able to convince him somehow that there was a misunderstanding, that his involvement in these things was not true to begin with/are no longer his intentions now (which is probably impossible for him to do because they actually *are* and always were his intentions and Zhao Yunlan is sharp enough to see the truth), then his effort to persuade Zhao Yunlan to be sympathetic to his cause and potentially create a crack of divisiveness/seed of doubt in the ranks of his enemies was doomed from the start.
how much of it is tactical because Zhao Yunlan is the Lord Guardian and has some of the Hallows, and how much is hitting at someone Shen Wei loves. Oh, very much me too! It struck me all over again when capping this scene, that this isn't some chance encounter or side-operation... pretty much the first thing he does when able to project out is send Ya Qing to specifically fetch Zhao Yunlan to have a face-to-face chat with. I think a fair amount of it must be just the ego of it, introducing himself to the SID leader as a major player on the stage, insisting on that recognition for himself as a Great Power to be reckoned with by Zhao Yunlan, rather than him just seeing his intermediaries and not knowing/respecting/fearing him, the true power behind them. Zhu Jiu was very focused on both Hei Pao Shi as a threat, but also on the SID as a real adversary, and he would have conveyed that to Ye Zun. But I also agree, I think there's definitely a certain amount of poking at this 'weak' spot that his brother has, as well. You can see how borderline gleeful he is about it when Shen Wei shows up at the end, so pleased that his attack against this specific person provoked such a dramatic reaction.
I believe it's dawning horror at what he did Conveying horror with a hand over one's mouth is certainly a possibility! There's a lot of places where one could go with this gesture and what it means; could be shame, horror, involuntary reaction to one's own deceit, surprise/disbelief at what someone else has said... or some combination of any of these.
a mix of practical concerns regarding what he can reveal without endangering the timeline and his own guilt regarding what happened to Ye Zun in the past. Also habitual, pathological self-reliance. I can easily see all of this being at play, and would probably pile on in addition to those, some deep-down part of him being afraid that Zhao Yunlan and the other SID members might judge him for/associate him with Ye Zun's atrocities if they knew how closely he was connected to him.
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I tend to be with you on that. At this point we've seen Zhao Yunlan being willing to bend the rules past the point of breaking in favor of mercy/compassion before (wanting a hopeful outcome for Wang Yike despite her murders; not wanting Zheng Yi to face harsh justice for the people she killed/follow-on attacks she was pressured to commit; working to talk Ye Huo and his companions down rather than throw the book at them despite their violence and hostage taking), but Ye Zun goes way beyond just acting in direct retaliation for grievous harm, or just in his own defense... Zhao Yunlan has seen how he directs indiscriminate killing to benefit himself and knows that as the person working behind the scenes his primary goal/ motivation is to incite (another) violent invasion of Haixing and seize power for himself in the doing... unless Ye Zun was able to convince him somehow that there was a misunderstanding, that his involvement in these things was not true to begin with/are no longer his intentions now (which is probably impossible for him to do because they actually *are* and always were his intentions and Zhao Yunlan is sharp enough to see the truth), then his effort to persuade Zhao Yunlan to be sympathetic to his cause and potentially create a crack of divisiveness/seed of doubt in the ranks of his enemies was doomed from the start.
Oh, very much me too! It struck me all over again when capping this scene, that this isn't some chance encounter or side-operation... pretty much the first thing he does when able to project out is send Ya Qing to specifically fetch Zhao Yunlan to have a face-to-face chat with. I think a fair amount of it must be just the ego of it, introducing himself to the SID leader as a major player on the stage, insisting on that recognition for himself as a Great Power to be reckoned with by Zhao Yunlan, rather than him just seeing his intermediaries and not knowing/respecting/fearing him, the true power behind them. Zhu Jiu was very focused on both Hei Pao Shi as a threat, but also on the SID as a real adversary, and he would have conveyed that to Ye Zun. But I also agree, I think there's definitely a certain amount of poking at this 'weak' spot that his brother has, as well. You can see how borderline gleeful he is about it when Shen Wei shows up at the end, so pleased that his attack against this specific person provoked such a dramatic reaction.
Conveying horror with a hand over one's mouth is certainly a possibility! There's a lot of places where one could go with this gesture and what it means; could be shame, horror, involuntary reaction to one's own deceit, surprise/disbelief at what someone else has said... or some combination of any of these.
I can easily see all of this being at play, and would probably pile on in addition to those, some deep-down part of him being afraid that Zhao Yunlan and the other SID members might judge him for/associate him with Ye Zun's atrocities if they knew how closely he was connected to him.