Childhood flashback character ages

[rheasilvia]

A quick question for people who know about kids!

About how old is Zhao Yunlan when we see him as a kid?

I would say the various instances he appears in flashbacks all fall into a span of time that's about a year long (ideally, I would like to place the hospital scene with Zhao Xinci even later, but I doubt that's plausible). Given the rate at which children grow up, does this seem vaguely believable to you or would you say it has to be shorter for him to look more or less the same all the way through?

And while I'm asking: How old are Shen Wei and Ye Zun in their childhood flashback?

Comments

[asya_ana]

This is so weird. Are they canonically identical twins? I also thought it was bizarre that they seemed to have an age gap as kids and don't seem to be identical twins. It makes no sense one way or other other.

[extrapenguin]

Canonically, they're brothers, and Shen Wei is older; however, since they look identical even in the past time travel bits, they must be identical twins???

Given that Ye Zun had a terrible cough as a baby, I guess I can just handwave this as Dixing biology meaning protracted illnesses can delay growth spurts. Shen Wei just had one, while Ye Zun's got delayed a bit more, so they look like they have an age gap!

[jo_lasalle]

Given that Ye Zun had a terrible cough as a baby, I guess I can just handwave this as Dixing biology meaning protracted illnesses can delay growth spurts. Shen Wei just had one, while Ye Zun's got delayed a bit more, so they look like they have an age gap!

I like this theory!

(I'm pretty sure they're identical twins. It just still seems to matter who was born first (hence the 'older'), especially if you have a language that differentiates between 'older brother' and 'younger brother'.)

[extrapenguin]

Dixing biology gives us so many opportunities to handwave!

Yeah, Chinese doesn't have a way of saying "brother" without commenting on the birth order. They're identical twins, Shen Wei merely popped out into the world a few minutes earlier.

[trobadora]

They don't seem to me to have an age gap as children? It's just one of them is sickly and the other is healthy.