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sid_guardian2025-05-11 10:25 am
china_shop) wrote in sid_guardian2025-05-11 10:25 am
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Guardian Readalong: Vol. 3, Chapters 1 & 2
Hi, and welcome to this week's installment of the Guardian novel readalong - in this post, we're starting volume three!
Here are last week's chapters, and you can find all previous discussions in the schedule posts (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4), or via the !readalong tag.
This week's chapters:
Chapter 1: Guo Changcheng's uncle learns that Changcheng is working at the SID, and he calls Zhao Yunlan to invite him to dinner. Zhao Yunlan's being exhausted doesn't put a damper on his seduction attempts, but a leg cramp does. While Shen Wei massages him, Zhao Yunlan questions what he saw in the Great Divine Tree and questions Shen Wei about it. Shen Wei lets his hair down.
Chapter 2: The Magistrate and one of the Ten Yanluo Kings discuss whether Kunlun has been reawakened; if not, they might have to kill Zhao Yunlan's mortal body. Zhao Yunlan takes Shen Wei to his parents' for a meal; his dad isn't home. Zhao Yunlan tries to buy Shen Wei 5000 flowers and is flirty, then realises how much Shen Wei suffered while waiting for him. They track down Zhao Yunlan's "dad" at a teahouse, and Zhao Yunlan learns that his father is sharing his body with sentient dinnerware. Zhao Yunlan asks Shennong's mortar if it forged his memories in the Great Divine Tree. Zhao Yunlan's real dad appears and is kind of a dick, too. Zhao Yunlan fails to oust Shennong's mortar with a god-banishing talisman.
The corresponding chapters in the Chinese version on JJWXC and the fan translation are chapters 79-80.
Excerpts:
1) Guo Changcheng's uncle and aunt find out where he's working
Overflowing with worry, Guo Changcheng’s aunt asked, “What does this department investigate? Surely not important high-profile cases?”
Guo Changcheng opened his mouth, but before he could speak, his second uncle rapped his chopsticks on the side of his bowl. “Keep your questions to yourself. Everything the Special Investigations Department handles is top secret. Don’t make him slip up and say something he shouldn’t. But this is truly bizarre! How did you end up there?”
Only now did Guo Changcheng finally process what he was hearing: his acceptance into the Special Investigations Department really had been a mistake all along, just as he’d suspected. Given his below-average intelligence and people skills, no relative with even a shred of self-awareness would’ve ever recommended him to such a prestigious position.
Guo Changcheng, passive introvert that he was, only ever told his family good news, leaving out the bad entirely. Every time he’d called to tell them how he was doing, it had always been the same report: “I’m doing well.” As a result, over six months had passed without them realizing that he ended up working in the wrong place.
2) Zhao Yunlan tries to be seductive
After a conversation in which he barely seemed to register who was calling or what he himself said in response, he reeled off a bunch of auspicious blessings and hung up, feeling even more drained. Burying his face back into his pillow, he whined, “My head hurts.”
Shen Wei was beside him at once, holding him close in a supportive embrace. After carefully feeling his forehead, Shen Wei said, “You’re a little warm. What brought this fever on so suddenly?”
“What do you think?” Zhao Yunlan’s voice was weak. “Get me some antibiotics and fever meds, will you?”
Shen Wei blushed and obeyed without a word.
After choking down the handful of little pills Shen Wei brought him, Zhao Yunlan rolled up his pajama sleeves and abruptly launched himself forward, pinning Shen Wei down on the bed. Expression fierce, he demanded, “Did this lowly one serve you well last night, my lord?”
Q uickly moving to support his waist, Shen Wei pulled Zhao Yunlan’s gaping pajama top tightly closed around him. “Don’t kick the blanket—you’ve let the heat out! Now you’re going to catch a cold.”
3) Shen Wei's hair
Shen Wei rubbed the sore spot gently. He answered with surprising candor, as if the absolute physical intimacy they’d shared had loosened his tongue. “It’s true. My heart was swept away the first time I laid eyes on you. I’ve never forgotten it for a single moment.”
“Love at first sight, huh?” Zhao Yunlan flashed him a smug, lascivious smile. “Hey, you’re supposed to have long hair, right? Take off your glasses and let your husband have a look.”
Shen Wei obligingly removed his glasses. As he shifted back to his true appearance, a cascade of ink-black hair spilled across the bed.
Some men had an inexplicable obsession with long hair. Whether or not that was true of Zhao Yunlan, the sight of Shen Wei’s hair tumbling down around him went straight to his id—a flawless example of the kind of thing he was into.
At first, he just gazed, struck speechless. Then he carefully reached out one greedy hand to caress a silken lock of hair. This life was truly worth living.
[Help! I want to quote this whole scene!]
4) Shen Wei describes their life in the past
Softly, Zhao Yunlan said, “Tell me more about what happened after we met in the grove.”
Shen Wei paused before replying. “I didn’t really understand anything at the time,” he said, his voice low. “I only knew how good you were to me. You took me to see all the great mountains and rivers. We traveled all over, stopping here and there. But you kept saying how unfortunate it was that Nüwa hadn’t yet mended the sky. You said that the unending torrents of rain had robbed even the great mountains and rivers of their beauty. I didn’t mind, though. They were still beautiful to me—the most beautiful sights I’d ever seen.”
Zhao Yunlan’s brow furrowed. “ Was I good to you? I was the one who forcibly elevated you to godhood.”
Shen Wei laughed. “There’s no place for the likes of me between the earth and the sky. You brought me out of the Place of Great Disrespect to protect me, not to do me harm. I’m grateful to you for all of that. The time we spent together was all the life I needed; having had that, I would’ve died willingly.”
“Shut up,” Zhao Yunlan said. “Don’t talk such nonsense.”
5) Zhao Yunlan asks who "dad" is and explains why his tree-vision can't be true
“What are you, then? Don’t tell me you’re Shennong himself.”
“No, no, I’m no one so mighty.” His “dad” smiled. “I’m nothing but a stone mortar left behind by Shennong. During the Battle of the Creation of Gods, I hitched a ride. Through sheer fortune, I managed to successfully cultivate a consciousness. I’ve done many things to offend Kunlun-jun in the past, but I truly had no choice. My apologies.”
“So what are you doing in my dad’s body? Did you forge the memories I saw in the Great Divine Tree?”
The man’s brows tightened. “Oh?” he asked slowly.
“I’m not some edgelord, and I’m not the Monkey King who turned the Heavenly Palace upside down.” Zhao Yunlan drank the high-quality tea in one gulp, as if it were water. “Sure, I can be a little arrogant, but most of the time I’m pretty easygoing. If something drove me to rebel, it would have to be something as vast as the sky—something that filled me with the fury of the earth. But those things I saw in there? Those memories? I didn’t relate to them at all. There’s no way that was me. Besides, Kunlun was charged with all the mountains and rivers between the earth and the sky. He was the protector of every living spirit within those mountains. I’ve basically been an animal rights activist in all my lives. There’s no way I’d ever blind a divine dragon for no reason.”
His “dad” glanced at Shen Wei and nodded in agreement. “That makes sense.”
Questions:
Is it reasonable for Guo Changcheng's uncle and aunt to freak out at the news of his job? What's your favourite Weilan moment in these chapters? (There are so many!) Should Shen Wei wear his hair long all the time? How does the Netherworld expect to get away with killing Kunlun-jun's mortal body, given how obsessed the Emissary is with him? How do you feel about jealous!Shen Wei? What was your first reaction to finding out about Shennong's mortar? Any thoughts about how moments in these chapters affected or were remixed in the drama adaptation?
(As usual, these are all just conversation starters - feel free to answer all, some, or none, and to say as much or as little as you like! You don't have to be keeping up with the readalong!)
Our schedule for this round -- please sign up to host a post if you can!
no subject
Hah, I think even irl people are sort of automatically in awe of secret government agencies and the people who work there? (When they're not terrified of them or wanting to fight them, that is, but that's also awe in a way.) No one from the outside has to know that it's actually just a handful of weirdos snacking on fish all day. ;D
"Re antibiotics, I remember reading somewhere that antibiotics are more widely and casually used in some parts of Asia, as a kind of cure-all. (Googling turned up this.)"
Ah, that makes sense, thanks! And it makes me feel better because it means it's clearly just the fever/headache/exhaustion that he gets from being too close to Shen Wei.
"Oh, okay, so SW hasn't been stalking ZYL in this life, because he doesn't have a detector... he just knows where he works, and occasionally liaises with him, and they have a good working relationship... I mean, it wouldn't have been that hard to just stalk him. ;-p"
I'm pretty sure he stalked him in this life too (he knew his address for one, and I swear there was this scene where he just popped into his bedroom to look at him for a moment but I can't find it right now? though that was obviously after they met). :D I think the function of the detector that was messed with was only so that SW couldn't avoid getting too close to ZYL, not that he couldn't find him at all. (The quote is "At the time, I didn’t realize you were there." To be precise, he’d been unaware because the shit-stirring Chaos King of the Gui had purposefully interfered with his ability to sense Zhao Yunlan’s location.)
"Maybe that's why the Emissary has his mist veil: so a) his expression won't give him away, and b) ZYL won't fall for his beauty and start wooing him. :D (I mean, he started immediately after meeting Professor Shen, and I don't know that the Emissary's ~everything~ would slow him down that much if he wasn't completely blindsided by it like he was in canon.)"
That makes far too much sense - I know he's probably had his mist veil for a long, long time and it's not related, but I'm still 100% sold on this headcanon. :D And now I want to see two things - This canon-divergent AU where Zhao Yunlan can't resist hitting on the Emissary when he can see his face. :D :D And also canon exploration of all of Shen Wei's feelings about their actual first meeting and all the further professional meetings! (The drama solves it by 'ZYL has simply never met the Envoy until now' and that's very reasonable of them. :D And obviously the entire story is different, with the reasons to avoid ZYL just not being there at all.)
"I was thinking just from the novel: Shen Wei, Ghost Face, Shennong's Bowl, the Magistrate, Chu Shuzhi... just off the top of my head."
Lol, INDEED. *applauds Sang Zan for being incredibly chill and mentally stable by comparison, all things considered*
no subject
Yeah, that's what I was thinking - that it's the top-secret-ness of it that makes it seem prestigious.
I'm not quite clear on when/how long SW has been stalking ZYL, and when/how long his ZYL-detector was broken. But ZYL has been the Guardian for some time, so that should have made the stalking easy with or without being able to personally detect him, right?
This canon-divergent AU where Zhao Yunlan can't resist hitting on the Emissary when he can see his face. :D :D
Hee! I want that!
no subject
Yeah, true, once he knows where ZYL works, he doesn't need any supernatural abilities to just physically follow him home or anywhere else.
>> This canon-divergent AU where Zhao Yunlan can't resist hitting on the Emissary when he can see his face. :D :D
Hee! I want that!
Ikr, just imagine Daqing's absolute exasperation in this situation. :D :D And just ZYL trying to control his impulses and entirely failing at it, that's always good entertainment. ;D
no subject
No one from the outside has to know that it's actually just a handful of weirdos snacking on fish all day. ;D
LOLOL! At the taxpayer's expense, too.
And it makes me feel better because it means it's clearly just the fever/headache/exhaustion that he gets from being too close to Shen Wei.
Oh, good point. Thanks for putting that together. <3
I'm pretty sure he stalked him in this life too (he knew his address for one
True, I wasn't clear if that was from pre- or post- their first non-Emissary-flavoured meeting. I guess it doesn't make that much difference. The fact that ZYL liaised with the Emissary pre-canon muddies the waters so much.
(Now I'm wondering what kind of role the Guardian played before the SID was established. Did his previous incarnations liaise with the Emissary? Did he get involved in cases? *mild confusion*)
but I'm still 100% sold on this headcanon. :D And now I want to see two things - This canon-divergent AU where Zhao Yunlan can't resist hitting on the Emissary when he can see his face. :D :D And also canon exploration of all of Shen Wei's feelings about their actual first meeting and all the further professional meetings!
\o/! And ooh, yes, both of those things!
And obviously the entire story is different, with the reasons to avoid ZYL just not being there at all.
And with ZYL presumably not being the Guardian until he takes his position as SID chief.
*applauds Sang Zan for being incredibly chill and mentally stable by comparison, all things considered*
LOLOL!! :D
no subject
They are saving the world between the snacking tho, they deserve the funds. :D :D :D
"Now I'm wondering what kind of role the Guardian played before the SID was established. Did his previous incarnations liaise with the Emissary? Did he get involved in cases? *mild confusion*"
These are excellent questions, and ngl, I have no idea?? The SID and the role of the Guardian are supposed to be completely unrelated, but they both have to do with the Netherworld, so it's really hard to tell what the Guardian even does? He's more like a superhero than a cop, but what does it entail? Can the Emissary even not be involved in what the Guardian does, at least sometimes? Wow, I want all the worldbuilding for this now, and I've never thought of it before! (Also if they worked together in at least some of the previous incarnations, then this may in fact be the actual reason why the Emissary hides his face!)