Focus on: the Envoy healing Wu Tian'en (episode 5)

[trobadora]

Location of scene: episode 5, 30:47 - 33:05 (with a tiny bonus at 34:24 - 34:52)

This is a pretty short scene, so I'll recap it in detail.

Scene recap

Prior to this, Wu Tian'en got shot with a dart protecting his son from one of Huang Chaoyang's men; then Wu Xiaojun went after Huang Chaoyang, and Zhao Yunlan found him there.

Zhao Yunlan: "For the crime these people committed, the law will punish them. Right now your main concern should be your dad."

(I would like to believe the law actually did something, but alas, I see no evidence here or in the Huang/Li wedding episode.)

Now our scene begins. Wu Xiaojun (not restrained, even though he is the perpetrator in the case the SID was investigating) is leaning over the back of the couch where his father is lying unconscious. Wu Xiaojun is crying and pleading with Zhao Yunlan: "I beg you, save him."



Standing around the couch are Zhao Yunlan, Zhu Hong, Lin Jing, Da Qing and Xiao-Guo. Note Lao-Chu sitting in the background, feet up on a desk, watching.

Zhao Yunlan looks at Lin Jing; Lin Jing shakes his head. Whatever that dart was loaded with, it's apparently fatal. (Not that that's much of a surprise - the Huang/Li duo were trying to get rid of Wu Xiaojun, after all.) So there's nothing to be done.

But Xiao-Guo isn't having it. He storms out, goes to the lab and grabs the Sundial. (There's a loud alarm when the cover over the Hallow is taken off! I had forgotten that.) Because the SID is made up of self-sacrificial people.

Xiao-Guo: "Chief Zhao, permission to use the Longevity Dial to save Uncle Wu's life?"

Xiao-Guo is almost crying, and Zhao Yunlan looks very emotional himself. His facial muscles are working. It doesn't take him long to make a decision - he rips the Sundial out of Xiao-Guo's hand and holds it over Wu Tian'en's head. Because, as I said, the SID is made up of self-sacrificial people. *g*



Zhao Yunlan is breathing heavily, and his hand trembles with effort. But the Sundial doesn't light up at first, giving Lin Jing a chance to hang a lantern on the Hallows' inconsistent behaviour: "That's strange; what are the principles of the Longevity Dial? Sometimes it lights up and sometimes it doesn't."

It's not until Zhao Yunlan shouts, "Someone's life is at stake here!" that the Sundial starts glowing.

Literally five seconds later, a portal opens and the Black-Cloaked Envoy steps out. Lao-Chu immediately drops his feet from the desk and gets up. The Envoy walks up to the group.

Shen Wei: "Chief Zhao. Do you know the consequences of activating a Hallow? What's more, do you know how to use the Longevity Dial to revive someone? Shortening your own life to save a Dixingren, is it worth it?"

The Sundial stops glowing somewhere in the middle of this.



Zhao Yunlan: "He's not dead yet. If we just let him die, what's the difference between us and the dead?"

The Envoy is clearly touched by this - and then it really gets going: Wu Xiaojun begs him to save his father; then Xiao-Guo, too, and Lin Jing after that. Finally, Zhao Yunlan himself speaks up as well. (The others don't speak up, but are clearly in support.)

Zhao Yunlan: "Ordinary person or Dixing person, a person is a person. Please, Hei-laoge, save him."

Shen Wei thinks: "The SID is not like it used to be."

He steps up to the couch and holds a hand with dark energy over Wu Tian'en's head. Zhao Yunlan smiles when he sees it working.



(And then we cut to Zhu Jiu, who is not happy with how things went with Wu father and son.)


Bonus scene

After we see the Envoy take Wu Tian'en and Wu Xiaojun to Dixing, there's a brief scene with Zhao Yunlan in the lab, staring at the Sundial under its cover. He remembers the Envoy saying:

"Chief Zhao, you only saw the single life in front of you, but if the Hallow is activated again, no one can predict the consequences."

Presumably this happened after the healing, so I'm counting it as part of that scene.


Thoughts

• I love this scene so much. It really shows how far everyone's come on the subject of Dixingren. It's not just Xiao-Guo; it's not just Zhao Yunlan; it's everyone. They all want the Envoy to help Wu Tian'en, and you can see how touched Shen Wei is by that.


• When Wu Xiaojun pleads for his father, Shen Wei isn't particularly affected - it's clearly nothing new to him. But when Xiao-Guo and Lin Jing speak up, when Zhao Yunlan does, it's a world of difference. Have a comparison:
  
  Wu Xiaoyun pleading with the Envoy, and the Envoy's reaction:
  
  
  Xiao-Guo/the SID pleading with the Envoy, and the Envoy's reaction:
  
  
  Zhao Yunlan pleading with the Envoy, and the Envoy's reaction:
  


• Zhao Yunlan has come very far from "I will arrest every Dixingren I find". He's not just sympathetic towards Wu Xiaojun (a kidnapper, nearly a murderer) and Wu Tian'en (an illegal Dixingren, if nothing else); he's willing to sacrifice part of his own life. And when he talks to the Envoy about Dixingren, this time there are no qualifications, no "most are evil, few are kind" - this time, it's just "people are people". ♥


• Considering this scene, it's not at all surprising that no one thought about anything possibly going wrong when Shen Wei healed Zhao Yunlan's blindness with the Sundial. Two of them were willing to use it here, for a total stranger, without any misgivings!


• When I watch this scene and Shen Wei says, "Shortening your own life to save a Dixingren, is it worth it?", every time I immediately flash back (or, well, forward) to Zhao Yunlan in episode 34, telling Ye Zun-masquerading-as-Shen Wei: "You are not Shen Wei. The things you say would never cross his lips. 'Is it worth it?' We never do things based on whether it's worth it or not."
  
  Yes, those words - or almost those words; it's 值得吗 here and 值不值 in episode 34, but same meaning - have in fact crossed Shen Wei's lips! But Zhao Yunlan is completely correct nevertheless that Shen Wei would never mean them. He obviously doesn't want Zhao Yunlan to risk himself, but he is completely on board with the sentiment underlying the attempt, he is incredibly touched, and his question here isn't suggesting it's not worth it, but instead pushing Zhao Yunlan on the issue of Dixingren. Which he's done before - but this time, Zhao Yunlan doesn't sidestep the question or qualify his answer. Shen Wei gets exactly what he wants to hear. (What Kunlun would have said.)


• Actually, another thing I love is that ambivalence of Shen Wei's, both wanting Zhao Yunlan to be safe and wanting Zhao Yunlan to share his values (which means he won't be safe because he will risk himself). And I think it matters that while Shen Wei does occasionally get frustrated with Zhao Yunlan taking risks Shen Wei considers needless, he never actually tries to stop him. He warns him - as he does here - but Zhao Yunlan wouldn't be the man Shen Wei loves if he weren't willing to take those risks for others' sake.


• Seriously, I adore this little scene so much. ♥

Questions

• Why didn't the SID get medical attention for Wu Tian'en? It's not like he was shot with some dark energy weapon; the Huang/Li duo didn't even seem to know about Dixingren. Lin Jing is not a medic by any stretch! (I know, I know, narrative convenience, but in-story, any ideas?)


• Why does the Sundial fail to activate at first? Did Zhao Yunlan not mean it enough, or is it just playing coy?


• Shen Wei appears at the SID literally five seconds after the Sundial activates. Two questions in relation to that: a) Can he sense the Hallows activating, or does he have a tracker on Zhao Yunlan? and b) Was it just lucky timing that he could appear on the spot (and wasn't, say, in the middle of a lecture) or does he use time-bending abilities for that? We do see him freeze time when he first appears on the rooftop in episode 1, after all.


• What's going through Zhao Yunlan's head when Xiao-Guo asks to be allowed to use the Sundial? What does he think the Sundial will do to him?


• When Zhao Yunlan says, "If we just let him die, what's the difference between us and the dead?", what exactly does he mean?


• It's no surprise that Xiao-Guo speaks up in front of the Envoy; even the first time they met, when Xiao-Guo was a hell of a lot more scared, he still didn't keep quiet when he felt something was wrong. But why do you think that out of all the others, it's Lin Jing who also speaks up out loud?


• What must Chu Shuzhi be thinking, seeing this evidence of changed SID attitudes? What is he thinking, seeing Xiao-Guo and Zhao Yunlan both willing to sacrifice for a random Dixingren?


• What would Shen Wei have done if they hadn't begged him to save Wu Tian'en? My own take is that he wouldn't have saved him in front of them; he'd have done it behind the SID's back, like all his more merciful acts in the early episodes.


• What do you think happened during the part of this scene we didn't see? Has anyone ever written a fic that features it?

So, come and have your say! Share links to meta, picspams, and related fanworks, new or old! Self-recs are wholeheartedly encouraged. Basically, this is the place for anything you want to say or link to about this scene.

Comments

[nnozomi]

This is a fascinating discussion! All the details are so clear.
Right now your main concern should be your dad." ... Wu Xiaojun is crying and pleading with Zhao Yunlan: "I beg you, save him."
oof, you could draw some nasty parallels with episode 29, couldn't you? Poor Zhao Yunlan (and, from my biased viewpoint, poor Zhao Xinci)

Note Lao-Chu sitting in the background, feet up on a desk, watching. ... the Black-Cloaked Envoy steps out. Lao-Chu immediately drops his feet from the desk and gets up.
Lao Chu, in self-defense, deliberately not expecting his teammates to show care for a Dixingren? (I wonder if this scene was one factor in his changing views of Xiao Guo?) And then, of course, respect for the Envoy takes precedence.

Those Envoy reaction shots are wonderful--so much expressed with tiny shifts in the set of eyes and mouth. (HOW.)

Lin Jing is not a medic by any stretch!
lol, Lin Jing's role seems to be very flexibly defined, given that he's called on to be the expert on everything from dark energy machinery to video games to the language of flowers...
It's no surprise that Xiao-Guo speaks up in front of the Envoy; ... But why do you think that out of all the others, it's Lin Jing who also speaks up out loud?
I can think of a couple of possibilities, but one that occurs to me is that not only are Xiao Guo and Lin Jing both basically emotional and easily moved people (Lin Jing has a better public face than Xiao Guo, but see: his reactions to Lai Su's behavior, Sha Ya etc. etc.), they're the only Haixingren there (other than Zhao Yunlan himself). They are/have been, in a sense, less at risk than their Dixingren and Yashou colleagues, and so it's easier for them to put themselves out there without feeling they need to worry about self-preservation, giving something away, long-term consequences, etc. etc... Not that this makes them bad people, the reverse if anything! (I mean, as a Lin Jing fan my immediate answer to the question is "because Lin Jing, while sometimes a jerk, is a sweetheart and everyone should know it," but I'm not sure that covers the points at hand :) ).
Thank you for the lovely writeup!

[trobadora]

oof, you could draw some nasty parallels with episode 29, couldn't you?

Oh wow, I never thought about that before! OUCH.

Lao Chu, in self-defense, deliberately not expecting his teammates to show care for a Dixingren?

Yeah, it looks like he's very deliberately distancing himself, trying not to get emotionally involved. He's already warming up to people - there's a bit in the same episode where he pokes fun at Zhao Yunlan and Zhao Yunlan comments that he didn't use to - but I do think this scene probably solidified that change.

not only are Xiao Guo and Lin Jing both basically emotional and easily moved people (Lin Jing has a better public face than Xiao Guo, but see: his reactions to Lai Su's behavior, Sha Ya etc. etc.), they're the only Haixingren there (other than Zhao Yunlan himself).

That's a very good point! And also agreed that Lin Jing can be a sweetheart and that he's easily moved. Really, my question was less "why does Lin Jing speak up" than "why is it ONLY Lin Jing", and I'm totally adopting your theory. It makes perfect sense to me that it's easier for a Haixingren to speak out here than a Yashou. And of course Lao-Chu wouldn't - he knows the Envoy can be merciful, but he doesn't think it's his place to speak up, and definitely not in front of the whole SID.

[trickytricky]

Ahhhhhhhh, I love this scene, too!

Just, Shen Wei's little silent thought aside about how much the SID has changed... it tells the audience so much in such few words...

Why didn't the SID get medical attention for Wu Tian'en? It's not like he was shot with some dark energy weapon; the Huang/Li duo didn't even seem to know about Dixingren. Lin Jing is not a medic by any stretch! (I know, I know, narrative convenience, but in-story, any ideas?)
I guess thinking back now I don't recall for sure, but I thought the family heads did know about the Dixing thing? Maybe not all the details, but when they saw the kid using manifested water powers, they definitely knew something was up with him. Would they have been able to create a Dixing-specific dart-bio-weapon which would make a conventional hospital visit useless based on that limited knowledge? I wouldn't think so... but it's also not the most farfetched thing that would have been written into this show. Or, alternatively, and probably more likely, it has something to do with keeping Wu Tian'en out from under the eyes of the authorities; presumably if they took him to the hospital with an injury from an attack there'd be questions outside the controlled channels of the SID... so maybe either to protect Wu Tian'en from that scrutiny or just under a general mandate to avoid exposing the existence of Dixing people to the civilian populace, they didn't take him to the hospital to avoid that.

Why does the Sundial fail to activate at first? Did Zhao Yunlan not mean it enough, or is it just playing coy?
Yeah, if I had to say, I'd go with Zhao Yunlan hadn't tried to connect with enough conviction up to that point.

Shen Wei appears at the SID literally five seconds after the Sundial activates. Two questions in relation to that: a) Can he sense the Hallows activating, or does he have a tracker on Zhao Yunlan? and b) Was it just lucky timing that he could appear on the spot (and wasn't, say, in the middle of a lecture) or does he use time-bending abilities for that? We do see him freeze time when he first appears on the rooftop in episode 1, after all.
On the first I would definitely vote that Shen Wei has some ability to detect when one of the hallows are activated.... maybe in general, maybe just by Zhao Yunlan. We saw it in episode 20; it was the moment Zhao Yunlan flings up his hand to use the Sundial to block Ye Zun's attack that the scene cut to Shen Wei arriving at the Ministry, and suddenly looking aside in alarm before nyooming off. And when Chu Shuzhi and Guo Changcheng are locked in the freezer and Zhao Yunlan notices the hallows are glowing and reaches in to take one and sees the vision... he passes out for a short while and when he wakes up it's to find that Shen Wei has apparently materialized in the lab to glare at him accusingly, shake him by the lapels, and freak out about his nose bleed.

On the second, that's a fascinating question, and I hadn't even considered that he might be bending time to arrange his quick pop-ups. It's a really cool potential thread to pull... but I think it's realistically more likely that it's a similar situation to what happened when we saw the scene with the Sundial use in the park... Shen Wei happened to be standing with someone right there, about to head into a meeting, but he murmured a few quick excuses and then just straight up nyoomed away. He could have probably made similarly quick vague excuses and then ducked/zipped away to the first private spot he saw and portaled in pretty quick if there had been a need.

What's going through Zhao Yunlan's head when Xiao-Guo asks to be allowed to use the Sundial? What does he think the Sundial will do to him?
I think Zhao Yunlan understands enough about how the Sundial works from seeing the effects on Li Qian and her grandmother that he was never going to let one of his subordinates take that kind of risk/damage rather than taking it on himself; definitely a reflection of his leadership style that's reinforced throughout the show.

When Zhao Yunlan says, "If we just let him die, what's the difference between us and the dead?", what exactly does he mean?
I took this as sort of a 'what are our lives for if not to make a positive difference where we can and take action to help others' kind of thing. Zhao Yunlan is all about charging forward with what he thinks is right... convictions and morality mean nothing if they're not followed up with concurrent actions. Like, 'If you're not going to take meaningful actions to back up your convictions and not willing to take risks for what you know is right, what's even the point of being alive?' kind of thing.

It's no surprise that Xiao-Guo speaks up in front of the Envoy; even the first time they met, when Xiao-Guo was a hell of a lot more scared, he still didn't keep quiet when he felt something was wrong. But why do you think that out of all the others, it's Lin Jing who also speaks up out loud?
I'm with nnozomi! I think Lin Jing is a totally emotional softie and it makes sense he would have been moved by the scene and joined in with another plea as soon as the silence was broken... he just seems slightly less so because we're looking at him standing next to someone like Xiao Guo... but he's no slouch in the Loudly Feeling his Feelings department either!

What must Chu Shuzhi be thinking, seeing this evidence of changed SID attitudes? What is he thinking, seeing Xiao-Guo and Zhao Yunlan both willing to sacrifice for a random Dixingren?
I never got much of a sense from Chu Shuzhi that he strongly identifies with the Dixingren they interact with at all, so I don't know how much he'd be projecting here, if anything. As you pointed out, he was the least engaged team member in the scene from the start, with his legs relatively casually propped up on a desk. I don't think he's unfeeling in general, but I do think he has deliberately cut ties mentally and emotionally so thoroughly with Dixing as a whole that he's able to keep himself rather detached, even more so than anyone else in the room, rather than projecting himself into it to make it relevant to his own situation/identity.

What would Shen Wei have done if they hadn't begged him to save Wu Tian'en? My own take is that he wouldn't have saved him in front of them; he'd have done it behind the SID's back, like all his more merciful acts in the early episodes.
100% concur. He would have swooped away with both of them, saved Wu Tian'en on the downlow and let him walk free in Dixing, and still worked to reduce Wu Xiaojun's sentence like he did in canon.

[trobadora]

Just, Shen Wei's little silent thought aside about how much the SID has changed... it tells the audience so much in such few words...

RIGHT????

but I thought the family heads did know about the Dixing thing?

I think if they had known about Dixingren they wouldn't have kept Wu Tian'en around for 20 years - they'd have known he had to be Dixingren himself.

it has something to do with keeping Wu Tian'en out from under the eyes of the authorities

Yeah, that makes sense to some degree! Not if he could have been saved otherwise, of course, but if not ... Well, Lin Jing at least seemed pretty certain.

On the first I would definitely vote that Shen Wei has some ability to detect when one of the hallows are activated.... maybe in general, maybe just by Zhao Yunlan.

Yeah, good point on the other instances - I could never decide if it was the Hallows activating or Zhao Yunlan in particular, but he can definitely sense it when it happens.

but I think it's realistically more likely that it's a similar situation to what happened when we saw the scene with the Sundial use in the park... Shen Wei happened to be standing with someone right there, about to head into a meeting, but he murmured a few quick excuses and then just straight up nyoomed away.

Yeah, that makes sense! Just lucky he wasn't surrounded by too many people and could quickly get away, I guess. But I'd love for him to be able to use that time-freeze for something useful, not just for dramatic entrances. *g*

I think Zhao Yunlan understands enough about how the Sundial works from seeing the effects on Li Qian and her grandmother that he was never going to let one of his subordinates take that kind of risk/damage rather than taking it on himself; definitely a reflection of his leadership style that's reinforced throughout the show.

Yeah, agreed. He was never, ever going to let Xiao-Guo do that. It was him or no one. (He and Shen Wei are so very much the same on that front!)

he's no slouch in the Loudly Feeling his Feelings department either!

Hee! I love that description!

I don't think he's unfeeling in general, but I do think he has deliberately cut ties mentally and emotionally so thoroughly with Dixing as a whole that he's able to keep himself rather detached, even more so than anyone else in the room, rather than projecting himself into it to make it relevant to his own situation/identity.

That would make sense! Though I get the feeling from him that he's trying very hard to come across as distanced and unaffected mainly because he doesn't want to show how any deeper feelings. He's grumpy and distant at least in part as self-protection.

He would have swooped away with both of them, saved Wu Tian'en on the downlow and let him walk free in Dixing, and still worked to reduce Wu Xiaojun's sentence like he did in canon.

Right? I just love that about him. He's such a good person.

[amedia]

Trickytricky: On the first I would definitely vote that Shen Wei has some ability to detect when one of the hallows are activated.... maybe in general, maybe just by Zhao Yunlan.

Trobadora: Yeah, good point on the other instances - I could never decide if it was the Hallows activating or Zhao Yunlan in particular, but he can definitely sense it when it happens.

Good thinkings here!!! I suspect he's got a "hallows-activation specifically by Zhao Yunlan" trigger on his internal alarm, in large part because it didn't activate when Chu Shuzhi used the Longevity Dial to save Guo Changcheng near the end of the Nightmare Master arc. As I recall, Shen Wei is sitting on a bench with Zhao Yunlan enjoying the sunshine (and the company) at the time.

We might rescue a hallows-activation-by-anyone trigger by saying that he was too drained of energy for the alarm to work when CSZ used it on GCC. On the other hand, no one seemed to realize at first that Li Qian had used the Longevity Dial on her grandmother. That happened about a year before the first episode, right? If Shen Wei was in Dragon City at the time, and could sense any use of the Hallows, I would think he'd've known about it, maybe even in time to warn her. (I didn't get the impression he was new to the city or to the university in the first episode, especially since one of his colleagues is also one of his former instructors.) He also didn't seem to sense the use of the Merit Brush when it was used to strengthen the doctor's mysterious healing abilities.

Besides, it totally makes sense that he would set an automatic alarm for "ZYL is recklessly endangering himself AGAIN," because, well, Zhao Yunlan needs a lot of supervision.

Back to Chu Shuzhi and Guo Changcheng - the show never tells us what Chu Shuzhi's price for using the Longevity Dial was. Obviously they left that out so fans could leave it in! There are a couple of fics that I can think of off the top of my head that deal with it--they're also really good fics! ♥ ♥ ♥
To Awake as Living Flame" by Dorinda
"constant tides" by hesselives

[trobadora]

in large part because it didn't activate when Chu Shuzhi used the Longevity Dial to save Guo Changcheng near the end of the Nightmare Master arc

Oh, good data point! Yeah, there could be other explanations, but it would definitely make sense for it to be Zhao Yunlan-specific.

So true, Zhao Yunlan definitely needs supervision. :D

(I want to know so much more about what price people paid for using the Sundial ...)

[trickytricky]

I was watching some episodes with a friend (who's watching for the first time... so fun!) and this scene in episode 30 really caught my eye for how it tied back together with the moment you called out in your question about what Zhao Yunlan means when he says, "If we just let him die, what's the difference between us and the dead?"

There's a scene in episode 30 where Shen Wei is escorting Sha Ya and Hua Yuzhu back to Dixing and he brings them to the throne room; he knows Ye Zun has escaped at this point, but at first he doesn't know he's already taken control of the palace... everyone's pretending things are normal. The guards start to take away the prisoners, but Shen Wei senses something off, realizes Ye Zun has already wiped the poor guys' minds, halts them and confronts the Regent. There's a scuffle, he's shot at, and ends up actually wounded by the bullets, which surprises everyone involved. Then there's this:


I take it as him basically saying, 'Even if I die, my life was meaningful; the impact of what I've done/chosen/left behind will live on; I truly lived. You might live longer, but what are you doing with it? Your life is empty, you are helping/connecting with no one; you may as well be dead.' And it's said in response to the Regent being scornful that Shen Wei has willingly weakened/endangered himself in order to save/protect someone else.

Man, I love this show and its powerful character themes/cinematic parallels! And I love how soul-deep the shared values are between him and Zhao Yunlan.

[amedia]

Oh, wow, that fits *perfectly*!!! Looking at the gifs (yay), the Regent is cloaking his nastiness in pretended courtesy as usual, but the Envoy goes in honestly with his claws out. What a great moment.

[china_shop]

I take it as him basically saying, 'Even if I die, my life was meaningful; the impact of what I've done/chosen/left behind will live on; I truly lived. You might live longer, but what are you doing with it? Your life is empty, you are helping/connecting with no one; you may as well be dead.'

Ooh, that reminds me of this exchange in Ye Olde Haixing Era, too:

young!Shen Wei: But this is not what I want. If I have a choice-
ZYL/Kunlun: You will still do the same thing. Even it is not what you want, you will still fight with the bad because of your conscience and for the sake of everyone. If you don't like it, then it's better not to live in this world.
(ep 35, orig. subs)

The whole point of existing, for both of them, is to do good. ♥___♥

[trobadora]

It's a whole thematic thread! :D

♥ ♥ ♥

[trobadora]

Oh, great catch! Yes, you're right, it ties right back into that. I'm so pleased you found this scene!

Man, I love this show and its powerful character themes/cinematic parallels! And I love how soul-deep the shared values are between him and Zhao Yunlan.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS it's so good. :D :D :D

[trickytricky]

Ohhhhh, thanks for bringing up those other examples too, yeah, it really does seem to be pretty specific to Zhao Yunlan, but still seems tied pretty specifically in response to him using the Hallows rather than a more generic ZYL-in-danger sense... fascinating!

[amedia]

it really does seem to be pretty specific to Zhao Yunlan, but still seems tied pretty specifically in response to him using the Hallows rather than a more generic ZYL-in-danger sense

That makes sense. After all, ZYL puts himself in danger an awful lot! Also, tying it to his use of the Hallows makes it seem a lot less stalkery than just keeping tabs on ZYL 24/7.

[imashoe]

What a great recap! It's such an interesting scene, and I loved reading your thoughts on it.

When Wu Xiaojun pleads for his father, Shen Wei isn't particularly affected - it's clearly nothing new to him.

I think this is particularly well-observed, and I really appreciated seeing all the screenshots with the difference in expression.

Why didn't the SID get medical attention for Wu Tian'en? It's not like he was shot with some dark energy weapon; the Huang/Li duo didn't even seem to know about Dixingren. Lin Jing is not a medic by any stretch! (I know, I know, narrative convenience, but in-story, any ideas?)

Like trickytricky says above, they don't have any official channels to deal with Dixingren beside sending them back to Dixing. I don't know if that would necessarily stop them, though. If it looked like medical attention could help, I think they would take Wu Tian'en to the hospital and then deal with the fallout. So it all comes down to the fact that they trust Lin Jing to know when the situation is hopeless. It's far-fetched, but maybe he can tell using some sort of dark energy scan, or something that doesn't rely on medical expertise.

In any case, Lin Jing is that special brand of jack-of-all-trades TV scientist, so at least they're consistent in their approach.

Shen Wei appears at the SID literally five seconds after the Sundial activates. Two questions in relation to that: a) Can he sense the Hallows activating, or does he have a tracker on Zhao Yunlan? and b) Was it just lucky timing that he could appear on the spot (and wasn't, say, in the middle of a lecture) or does he use time-bending abilities for that? We do see him freeze time when he first appears on the rooftop in episode 1, after all.

He can probably sense the Hallows, but it's not outside the realm of possibility that he's actively using his powers to keep an eye on Zhao Yunlan. As for the second question, I'm amused by all the possibilities. Maybe he does stop time in the middle of a lecture, and leaves all the students frozen to go see what Zhao Yunlan is doing now, or maybe he's like, "Student Jia Jia, please come to the blackboard and complete this Punnett square while I--I go get more chalk." Or he just leaves without a word.

What's going through Zhao Yunlan's head when Xiao-Guo asks to be allowed to use the Sundial? What does he think the Sundial will do to him?

I think it's established that the Sundial will affect a person's life span, but it's not clear (to me, at least) how. I mean, in the case of Li Qian and her grandmother, it's not Li Qian who's ultimately affected, but her grandmother. In any case, I love that Zhao Yunlan doesn't even think about letting Guo Changcheng use it. There are risks involved, no matter how uncertain, so he's going to shoulder them himself.

It's no surprise that Xiao-Guo speaks up in front of the Envoy; even the first time they met, when Xiao-Guo was a hell of a lot more scared, he still didn't keep quiet when he felt something was wrong. But why do you think that out of all the others, it's Lin Jing who also speaks up out loud?

nnozomi and trickytricky have already mentioned that Lin Jing is kind-hearted, and I want to add that he's also generally not shy about voicing his opinion. I'd expect his voice to be among the loudest in any situation where he felt strongly enough.

What must Chu Shuzhi be thinking, seeing this evidence of changed SID attitudes? What is he thinking, seeing Xiao-Guo and Zhao Yunlan both willing to sacrifice for a random Dixingren?

I have so many feelings about this, mostly of the incoherent variety. You make a note of "Lao-Chu sitting in the background, feet up on a desk, watching," and it's almost a parody of disinterest. To me, that's a man who has resigned himself to things going wrong, and is not going to exert any effort that could go to studied indifference instead. And then he's proven wrong! Xiao Guo and Zhao Yunlan are prepared to go above and beyond to save Wu Tian'en.

What would Shen Wei have done if they hadn't begged him to save Wu Tian'en? My own take is that he wouldn't have saved him in front of them; he'd have done it behind the SID's back, like all his more merciful acts in the early episodes.

I think so, too. He would have healed him once they weren't at the SID. It must be such a relief for Shen Wei to stop hiding from the SID.

Another thing I find remarkable about this entire scene is that it's so early in the show. It works on raw compassion, and it's beautiful.

[trobadora]

If it looked like medical attention could help, I think they would take Wu Tian'en to the hospital and then deal with the fallout. So it all comes down to the fact that they trust Lin Jing to know when the situation is hopeless.

Yeah, I can't quite make sense of it with Lin Jing's actual expertise, but I agree that that's the most likely interpretation. We're definitely supposed to take Lin Jing's word here.

I'm amused by all the possibilities. Maybe he does stop time in the middle of a lecture, and leaves all the students frozen to go see what Zhao Yunlan is doing now, or maybe he's like, "Student Jia Jia, please come to the blackboard and complete this Punnett square while I--I go get more chalk." Or he just leaves without a word.

Yeah, all the options are fun, aren't they? But I'm so intrigued by that stopping-time effect we only get to see that once. It's got to be good for something!

I mean, in the case of Li Qian and her grandmother, it's not Li Qian who's ultimately affected, but her grandmother.

I always understood it that Li Qian had also paid a price and given up part of her lifespan. How exactly that manifests, no clue, but it's not like you'd be able to tell now if she was going to drop dead at age 50 ...

In any case, I love that Zhao Yunlan doesn't even think about letting Guo Changcheng use it. There are risks involved, no matter how uncertain, so he's going to shoulder them himself.

He and Shen Wei both! They're so very much the same. ♥

he's also generally not shy about voicing his opinion. I'd expect his voice to be among the loudest in any situation where he felt strongly enough.

Yeah, that's a good point. He's not someone who holds back without a very good reason. (Though he obviously can keep things under wraps when he wants to!)

and it's almost a parody of disinterest. To me, that's a man who has resigned himself to things going wrong, and is not going to exert any effort that could go to studied indifference instead. And then he's proven wrong!

Yes! That's how I see it too. That whole "sitting in the background with his feet on the desk" is so deliberately setting himself apart, I really feel he thinks he needs that distance. And then it turns out he doesn't! ♥ ♥ ♥

Another thing I find remarkable about this entire scene is that it's so early in the show. It works on raw compassion, and it's beautiful.

YES. And it's such a tiny scene - less than three minutes! - but it's so hugely meaningful. For Shen Wei's perspective on the SID and for everyone else's view of the Envoy both, it's a big turning point.

[imashoe]

But I'm so intrigued by that stopping-time effect we only get to see that once. It's got to be good for something!

The time-stopping is such an impressive power, it makes sense that we don't see a lot of it. That's a game-changing power if there ever was one. But I agree that it would have been cool to see it used again.

I always understood it that Li Qian had also paid a price and given up part of her lifespan. How exactly that manifests, no clue, but it's not like you'd be able to tell now if she was going to drop dead at age 50 ...

You're definitely right.

Though he obviously can keep things under wraps when he wants to!

Ha! True.

And it's such a tiny scene - less than three minutes! - but it's so hugely meaningful.

It's a great scene!

[trobadora]

Or! Maybe it isn't a time-stopping power - maybe what he can actually do is speed up time within a certain bubble, while the outside only seems to stand still in comparison. So if he used it he could easily extricate himself from whatever situation he's in and still zoom over in seemingly no time ... *g*

[imashoe]

That's even better. Maybe he uses it all the time, but we can't see it because we're outside his time bubble. :D

[sakana17]

This is a great post!

It's interesting that it comes 2 episodes before Zhao Yunlan's "most are evil, few are kind" comment, and I was thinking how this scene leads to that -- he sees Wu Tian'en as an individual who should be saved, and is not lumping all Dixingren together.

Why does the Sundial fail to activate at first? Did Zhao Yunlan not mean it enough, or is it just playing coy?

As a kind of take on not meaning it enough, I interpreted it as Zhao Yunlan not having a sufficient emotional connection to Wu Tian'en to get it to activate in that particular way. The other times we see it used to revive/heal someone, there are deep emotional connections. Zhao Yunlan can activate the Sundial in other circumstances, but maybe to use it in this way is different.

[trobadora]

Yeah, it's super interesting that this happens so early! And going from "a person is a person" to "most are evil, few are kind" (which he presumably wouldn't say about Haixingren) feels like backtracking, even if it isn't necessarily ... *ponders*

he sees Wu Tian'en as an individual who should be saved, and is not lumping all Dixingren together

Yeah, when he says, "Ordinary person or Dixing person, a person is a person," it's in answer to Shen Wei poking him about Dixingren in general, but he probably means "this person should be saved, regardless of where they come from" and not "Dixingren in general (good/evil/other) are worth saving". But I don't think he's really aware of those nuances himself.

I interpreted it as Zhao Yunlan not having a sufficient emotional connection to Wu Tian'en to get it to activate in that particular way.

That would make a lot of sense!