Ep 30, Zhang Shi takes Zhao Yunlan home, and Zhao Yunlan confronts him

[china_shop]

ep 30, 40:29 to 42:02

Background
Team Ye Zun has released classified info about the SID onto the internet to stir up trouble. Vice-Minister Guo (Guo Ying) comes from the Department of Supervision to collect Zhao Yunlan and escort him to a shiny official vehicle parked outside the SID.

The scene (or scene fragment)
Zhao Yunlan stops on the SID steps and says, "The Old Man came here in person. What exactly does he need from me?" 这是有何贵干 老爷子这都亲自来了 Guo Ying says, "Let's talk about it once we get back to the Xingdu Bureau." 赵处长 咱们还是回去再说吧

Zhao Yunlan agrees. He walks over to the car, loses momentum briefly, then settles into the back seat next to Zhao Xinci without a word.


ZXC: Zhao Yunlan, you've made me so disappointed. 赵云澜 你太让我失望了


Zhao Yunlan nods, entirely unsurprised, while I facepalm. Oh Zhao Xinci!

GY: Director-General Zhao, do we go back to the Xingdu Bureau or the Department of Administration? 赵局 回星督局还是海星鉴

There's a fractional delay as (I think?) Zhang Shi takes over and answers in a slightly higher register than Zhao Xinci's deeper, firmer one(?).

ZS: Go to his home. 去他家


Zhao Yunlan is surprised -- by the tone or the choice to keep this unofficial?

They arrive at Zhao Yunlan's flat. Zhao Yunlan flicks on the light, throws his keys on the side-table with the (empty?) goldfish bowl, and unceremoniously plants himself on the couch, propping his foot on the coffee table and crossing his legs.


Zhang Shi and Guo Ying exchange glances, and Zhang Shi thanks Guo Ying and tells him to leave.

Vice-Minister Guo: Are you planning...? 你是打算


ZS: (smiles in a totally un-ZXC way) I have investigated it. Even though important secrets have been revealed, it wasn't the doing of the SID. 已经调查清楚了 重大机密虽然已经被泄露 但泄露源不是特调处


Zhao Yunlan listens to this and draws his own conclusions.

ZS: (cont.) Regarding Chief Zhao, I'll mainly educate him through criticisms.
至于赵处长 我会以批评教育为主

ZS: (cont.) After this, I will let him go back to work. If I was really going to punish him severely, we wouldn't be talking here.
一会跟他谈完了 会让他回去继续工作 如果真的要对他言责就不会在这里谈了


Guo Ying is totally here for this soft-parenting approach. He politely exits.


Zhang Shi looks around. The place is Shen-Wei-approved levels of neat and orderly.

ZS: It's tidier than I pictured. It seems you didn't overindulge too much.
比我想象的要整洁多了 看来你倒是没有放纵过度

 
ZYL: (calmly, without looking up, while picking earwax from under his fingernail) You are not him. 你不是他


ZS: Oh? How can you tell? 可以见得

[Zhao Yunlan's explanation is elided here; it appears at the start of the next episode]


Zhao Yunlan calmly pulls his gun.

Thoughts and reactions

1. I wonder how many times, especially as a teenager, Zhao Yunlan was summoned into his father's presence and greeted with "You've made me so disappointed." I'm guessing lots, given how unsurprised and unmoved he is by it. (Honestly, it always makes me laugh in a "Really, Zhao Xinci? You're leading with that?" way.)


2. Do you agree Zhang Shi takes over in the car? If so, it's pretty subtle.


3. Is Guo Ying surprised by the direction to take Zhao Yunlan back to the flat, and the implicit decision not to officially intervene? Does he agree with it? He, too, must have mixed feelings about the whole situation, given his position at the DoS and (I presume) career aspirations versus hearing praise of the SID from Changcheng.


4. At what point does Zhao Yunlan realise Zhao Xinci is not himself? Is it in the car and he bides his time to make the challenge, or do his suspicions crystalise when he hears Zhang Shi talking to Guo Ying?


5. This scene always strikes me as evidence that however much Zhang Shi claims to have been a sort-of-parent to Zhao Yunlan and was there for his childhood, he can't have been actively involved or said much -- otherwise his speaking now (and on the roof during the kidnapping, and in the scene during the blindness arc) wouldn't strike Zhao Yunlan as definitively OOC.


6. I wonder how differently Zhao Yunlan would be reacting if a large portion of his brain weren't busy screaming with worry about Shen Wei.


7. And speaking of Shen Wei, the flat is so tidy! I feel like Zhao Yunlan has been making a real effort to respect and preserve Shen Wei's standards of cleanliness in his absence. asdklfa;dslkf

Comments

[trobadora]

Sounds right, as far as I can tell! I think 长辈 is "elders" or "the older generation", which is a bit funny when talking to Zhang Shi, who is older than almost everyone. *g* Idk if he means ZXC specifically, but he's included in that, yeah. ZYL is asking Zhang Shi to live a sort of idealised virtuous life on his behalf, I guess.

[china_shop]

which is a bit funny when talking to Zhang Shi, who is older than almost everyone.

Ha, right? But it does sound to me like ZYL regrets his resentment of ZXC, even if he couldn't bring himself to let it go sooner. (Not that letting it go would include agreeing with him! Just that sometimes you have to accept that your parent is the person they are, doing the best they can, even if that best isn't very good...)

ETA: And thanks for checking! <3

[trobadora]

I'm not sure what he's thinking. But ZXC does come around in the end, working with the rest of them and supporting ZYL as he goes to Dixing - I'm sure that is a big contributing factor. So perhaps it's not so much regret at ZYL's previous resentment, but putting it very firmly in the past?

[china_shop]

Maybe, but I think the resentment didn't start with ZXC's attitudes so much as what happened with Shen Xi, and that hasn't changed. So perhaps they could have reached a detente sooner? Not warm, necessarily, but not seething and raw? Idk.

[trobadora]

Yeah, but IMO it wasn't just what happened with Shen Xi - that's the inciting incident, but every time ZYL is confronted with ZXC's inflexible attitude afterwards, it gets reinforced. So having that changed makes a huge difference. ZYL could have found a way to get to somewhere "less seething and raw", as you put it, earlier, yes - but it would have been a one-sided thing. And I'm not convinced that if ZYL had been less hostile towards ZXC, ZXC wouldn't have taken that as an opening to push him harder on all the places where they disagree ...