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sid_guardian2025-06-22 01:09 pm
china_shop) wrote in sid_guardian2025-06-22 01:09 pm
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Guardian Readalong: Vol. 3, Chapters 13 & 14
Hi, and welcome to this week's installment of the Guardian novel readalong!
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 13: Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan untangle the truth about the past. Zhao Yunlan recaps the whole saga back to Shen Wei to verify his understanding. Shen Wei recounts his promise to guard the Seal and stay away from Kunlun, and he confesses that he orchestrated all the visions and other events (including Zhao Yunlan seeing him drawing his heart blood) so that Zhao Yunlan would stay with him and they could die (ie, cease to exist) together. Back at the flat, they start making out, then stop to talk about the blood-drinking. They decide to live together like mortals for the next few decades.
Chapter 14: Guo Changcheng and Chu Shuzhi stake out a motorway off-ramp in the freezing cold and search a number of buses to look for a ghost's missing daughter. Chu Shuzhi calls Daqing to ask about Guo Changcheng's flame-coloured merits. Chu Shuzhi slaps a talisman on Changcheng to check he's human. Changcheng finds the missing girl, and Chu Shuzhi arrests the kidnapper.
The corresponding chapters in the Chinese version on JJWXC and the fan translation are chapters 92 to 94.
Excerpts:
1) Primordial Wei looked for Kunlun before they met
“Actually, the day of my birth should’ve been the first time I saw you. But you were standing too far away, unwilling to take even a single step closer to me—as though I were something filthy. My eyes hadn’t fully opened yet, so all I could see was the vague shadow of a green robe.”
Shen Wei shut his eyes. Gently, longingly, he rubbed his cheek against Zhao Yunlan’s hand. “But from birth, I was more ferocious than my brother. I had consumed more of our brethren than he had. At that point, I could already hear, and could vaguely understand, what you and Shennong were saying…so right from the beginning, I knew exactly what I was. Later, I searched the world for you, resisting the temptation of the flesh and blood of the living. I ate only the things that crawled out of the ground—other gui, which I felt were just as disgusting as I was.
“I searched for you because I desperately wanted to ask you what life is.” When he said this, Shen Wei felt Zhao Yunlan’s grip on him tighten. “But then when I finally met you at the edge of that grove, when you were about to climb up Penglai… As soon as I saw you, the words all died on my tongue.”
2) Wei's deal with Shennong
“Then I confined your primordial spirit and went down to the Reincarnation Cycle to plead with my enemy, Shennong,” Shen Wei said. “He was the only one I ever begged for anything… At that point, the Reincarnation Cycle already had its own order, and the Netherworld had just been established with its own set of rules. I begged him to let you into the Reincarnation Cycle like a mortal. That way, even though you would never remember me, you would still exist. But he wouldn’t do it. He said primordial gods could not enter the cycle because it was his own primordial spirit that was supporting it. It could accept all sorts of souls—humans, yao, gods, demons—but it would not be able to hold the true Mountain God…unless he sealed all your divine powers himself and washed your souls completely clean, turning you into a mortal. If he did that, Shennong’s own primordial spirit would fade away too…like exchanging one life for another. His life for yours.”
“What did you agree to that made him do that?”
“I swore to protect the Great Houtu Seal forever. As long as I existed, the Seal would exist too. If the Seal broke, then I would meet my death along with the rest of the gui.” Shen Wei’s fingers were ice cold. “And…for all of eternity, I could never see you again. If I couldn’t help myself, then I would drain your life force and you would die, your souls shattering into a million pieces.”
[There's an enormous chunk I desperately want to quote here, omg. *resists*]
3) Negotiating the blood drinking
“Hey, wait!” Zhao Yunlan grabbed Shen Wei’s hand. “I’m not drinking your blood.”
“It’s no worse than a mosquito bite to me.”
“That’s all well and good for you, but it’s nowhere near the same to me.” Zhao Yunlan pushed him off and tried to feel for the bedside light, but his arms were almost immediately pinned. Shen Wei’s tongue flicked over his Adam’s apple, and Zhao Yunlan panted quietly, unable to hold it in. “Stop messing around.”
“Even if I dug out my entire heart, I won’t die at once. I’d still survive longer than the Great Seal.” Shen Wei’s voice was terribly low. The scorching heat of his breath caressed Zhao Yunlan’s collarbones with each word. “I did consider it at the time—would it be more effective to cut out my heart for you? But I was afraid you’d be too badly frightened, so I only let you see my blood being drawn.”
After a silence, Zhao Yunlan said dryly, “Thanks so much for remembering that I’m a scaredy-cat.”
4) Chu Shuzhi and Daqing on the phone
Lowering his voice, Chu Shuzhi quickly asked, “And you’re sure xiao-Guo is human?”
“Mmph. Of course he’s human,” Daqing said. “Wang Zheng even has a copy of his ID.”
“I want to find his proof of birth, the kind that says, ‘x year x month x day, a live male infant was born’—the kind you get from a hospital,” said Chu Shuzhi.
“Huh?” Daqing exclaimed. “Holy shit. Humans are such weirdos. They have something like that?!”
5) Changcheng takes being 'killed' surprisingly calmly
Guo Changcheng’s reaction time was always a little slow, but by this point he understood that his soul had just left his body. According to his understanding, “soul leaving body” was no different from “death”—which to him meant that Chu Shuzhi had nearly killed him with a talisman. He cowered back against the car door. “Ch-Chu-ge… W-what’s this about…?”
“Are you human?” Chu Shuzhi asked.
Guo Changcheng gaped at him, not at all sure if Chu Shuzhi was being literal or insulting.
Questions:
Do you understand the primordial past backstory now? Who comes off worst in this real version of events? How do you feel about Shen Wei going to these lengths to deceive Zhao Yunlan and guilt-trip him into staying with him? What does it mean that Zhao Yunlan called Shen Wei his husband, rather than wife? Would you prefer to be on a stakeout with Guo Changcheng or Chu Shuzhi? Do you have 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!
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Hah, I actually wondered for a second what it meant too but I didn't get to any conclusions, I just know that I like it a lot better. :D
"Would you prefer to be on a stakeout with Guo Changcheng or Chu Shuzhi?"
Definitely GCC because he's a sweetheart, but also both of them + Daqing, for maximum chaos. xD :D
"There's an enormous chunk I desperately want to quote here, omg. *resists*"
Hah, relatable. :D :D (Though I don't think there's such thing as quoting too much. xD :D) Awesome excerpts, all of them, btw! ♡
Liveblog time. :D
"Kunlun-jun could only lean slightly forward and carefully support him."
Aw, just like Zhao Yunlan helping the apparition of Shennong carry the heavy basket. :)
"There was a passive-aggressive note in the noise Kunlun-jun made in response."
I find this line really funny, like, he's so ~angsty teen mode~ that he's not even using words and you can still tell he's being passive-aggressive. :P
"All life fears death, and one shouldn’t joke about it."
For how much Shen Wei dislikes Shennong, he sure agrees with 'no joking about death' a lot. :P
"But I should tell you that the Great Divine Tree has borne fruit. Only two fruits have ripened in the last century. I gave one to my furball and saved the other for you."
Aw, I entirely forgot that Daqing has extra immortality on top of being a yao? :D :D
“There will be hope, though.” As they were about to leave, Shennong took another long look at the gui, who carpeted the ground. “If life could spring forth from even this most barren of places, surely nothing remains impossible.”
AW OMG! ♡ This is the exact opposite of inauspicious.
"From the lowest to the highest among us, from the cradle to the grave, all we can do is instinctively consume and plunder."
SRSLY SHEN WEI, just look at yourself and at how much you CAN indeed do a lot of other things, the entire time. (And not only after becoming half-god.) OUCH.
"Zhao Yunlan slung an arm around him from behind. “C’mon, get to the point. Less of this bullshit.”
Through the embrace, his body heat flowed into Shen Wei. It felt like the first sip of warm porridge after being frozen to the very bone. It was enough to make one tremble."
'Less of this bullshit' is indeed what I just said, LOL, and also this is the the sweetest damn thing. ♡♡♡
"Gently, longingly, he rubbed his cheek against Zhao Yunlan’s hand."
AWWW. ♡
"Later, I searched the world for you, resisting the temptation of the flesh and blood of the living. I ate only the things that crawled out of the ground—other gui, which I felt were just as disgusting as I was."
Oooh, food issues continue - eating other gui was the BETTER option after all.
"Only the wu ignored it completely. In their hurry to claim a spot on the mountain, they offered neither respect nor worship."
I would love to know more about the wu than this, like, what were even their characteristics?
"Back then, I didn’t understand anything. I didn’t understand what they were fighting about. I just thought it was wasteful that you killed without eating."
Damn, bb!Wei's view on wars is a whole lot smarter and more sensible than
the people's who are waging the warsjust about anyone else's."No sooner had she spoken than Kunlun-jun felt the immense pressure crash down upon his shoulders. But he didn’t move an inch. Not even the King of the Gui behind him noticed anything wrong."
Hiding any kind of problem from each other goes way back with these two. :P
"Two voices spoke as one, as the young king by Kunlun-jun’s side and Shen Wei by Zhao Yunlan’s side opened their mouths at the same moment. To Zhao Yunlan’s ears, the youth’s bright, clear voice and the man’s richer, lower timbre formed a strange duet."
This is so cinematic and I can practically HEAR it. ♡
"As he heard the entire conversation at last, Zhao Yunlan finally understood how Shen Wei had cherry-picked from such a compassionate, lamenting speech and given it a completely different flavor."
Why tho? So that Zhao Yunlan wouldn't know that everyone actually felt quite bad for the gui and no one blamed them all that much? Shen Wei just really WANTS to feel bad about being a gui, doesn't he. (I mean, in that line from before, yeah, he kinda really does. "For the first time, Shen Wei realized that he felt a kind of pleasure in saying it aloud. It was the kind of enjoyment someone might feel when squeezing their own wound or cutting into their own flesh with a knife.") OUCH.
And it's not even the gui who screwed up the whole world, it's the fall of the Buzhou Mountain/the sky, and the remnants of the war?? Which only stopped because the sky fell, lol, otherwise it would continue to screw up the whole world even worse. The gui just ate some people, which is honestly very tame compared to everything else that is happening at the same time. :P
"The earth gently quaked, steadied by the Mountain-River Awl. The Reincarnation Dial atop the Three-Life Rock began to spin, and the Merit Brush floated above the Ancient Merit Tree."
This is so neat!! (And then there's the Guardian Lantern too. :D)
"My soul fire set the Place of Great Disrespect alight. Its flame spurred the gui out of the mud, yet I left them to their own devices rather than caring for them."
AW! He just inherently IS the person who adopts entire species, or at least wants to. :D ♡
"Kunlun’s primordial spirit left his body; the mighty mountain winds swept past the little King of the Gui, who was crying himself sick. Then they both went down to the Huangquan River to guard the gate of the Great Seal."
OH WEI, BB. At least they still had decades/centuries before Kunlun had to leave for real. ♡
"Oh, right, I wanted to ask. Legend says the two of them were a couple. Is that true or false?"
LOL, he really is interested in "the romantic relationships of the great ancient gods" (the joke line that got removed from a few chapters back and is not in the official version), and not just his own. xD :D :D
"Kunlun-jun had a stupid gluttonous cat that unknowingly licked some of Chiyou’s blood. That meant Kunlun-jun had to come out and return the favor, and he finally agreed."
I wondered what the 'favor' related to the blood drinking was the first time this was described, and I'm still wondering, lol, but now I think that 'the blood blessed Daqing in some way' is probably the answer.
"He wanted to obliterate all the gui. Shennong couldn’t believe that soulless beings could possibly exist in the world. Without a soul, how could one be considered alive?"
Wow, someone doesn't fit his definition of a living being -> destroy them. HARSH. Very realistic, but damn.
“I swore to protect the Great Houtu Seal forever. As long as I existed, the Seal would exist too. If the Seal broke, then I would meet my death along with the rest of the gui.” Shen Wei’s fingers were ice cold. “And…for all of eternity, I could never see you again. If I couldn’t help myself, then I would drain your life force and you would die, your souls shattering into a million pieces.”
Um, so 1) the life force drain is a part of the promise, not something inherent? 2) Shen San did die, but clearly Kunlun's souls didn't shatter because he's still fine? Is the entire 'SW is inherently harmful to ZYL' thing a scam?
"and all of it to make you feel too much guilt to ever leave me, to make you joyfully and wholeheartedly choose to die with me."
And this is where I kinda wish Zhu Hong was more wrong when she was dissing Shen Wei. :P ("Forcing you to be unable to leave him!" she blurted. "Forcing you to feel like you could never bear to give up on him, until he’s all you can see and nothing else matters!")
But of course there is no question for Zhao Yunlan that he WANTS to stay, even after he learns the truth, so there's no forcing involved in the end. But Zhu Hong knew pretty much literally nothing about anything and she still got this right somehow. xD
"Such a heavy heart, full of such heavy calculations…” He sighed. “You sure are hard to take care of. Come on, we’re going home."
They're so messed up but this is SO SOFT. ♡♡♡
"Shen Wei’s tongue flicked over his Adam’s apple, and Zhao Yunlan panted quietly, unable to hold it in."
Oooooof, this is a GOOD makeout scene. ♡♡♡
"I did consider it at the time—would it be more effective to cut out my heart for you? But I was afraid you’d be too badly frightened, so I only let you see my blood being drawn."
ALSO THIS. ♡__♡
"It was as if Shen Wei weighed thousands of kilograms, but Zhao Yunlan distinctly remembered picking him up before."
I'm mostly just ignoring the ending because (unlike these two, clearly xD) I really don't care who tops, but now I want to see Zhao Yunlan pick up Shen Wei. :D :D (And I'm wondering if it's an actual scene I forgot. :D)
"He thought to himself that there must be something wrong with Guo Changcheng; seeing how elated he was, Chu Shuzhi couldn’t help but rain on his parade."
I adore GCC for being ELATED that he gets to endlessly wait outside in the middle of the night in winter. :D :D And lol, Chu-ge complains and complains, and then does what Xiao Guo says. :P
"Guo Changcheng instantly blossomed from a frost-wilted eggplant to a freshly watered sunflower and eagerly ran after him."
How did they even manage to convey this exact extremely specific vibe in the drama, lol, the casting was A+++ at all times. :D ♡
"In the mornings and evenings, it was still below freezing outside, and spending time out there would quickly turn someone to ice. Under the circumstances, Guo Changcheng and Chu Shuzhi had little choice but to stay huddled in the car."
Oh hey, they get to freeze together in the novel too, just a lot less dramatically. xD :D
"And yet he was covered in more merits than you could see through. Collecting that many should’ve required saving the world seven or eight times."
I'm amused that there is apparently some relatively specific number of merits you get for saving the world. xD
Daqing's dream of eating an entire whale is hilarious, good for him. :D Or bad for him, being woken up, lol.
"At this point, Sangzan was clearly aware that “slutterer” was a rude word. He’d completely stopped saying it ages ago…except with Daqing. Sangzan, the troublemaker, kept cheerfully saying it to the cat, and even managed to pronounce it more and more like “slut.”"
Bwahhhhhhhhh. ♡ I love that this is where this situation ended up, and that Daqing doesn't mind, I guess because he knows that deserves it. xD Sangzan's glee is adorable. :D
"Fuck off, old corpse,” Daqing grumbled. “Are you looking to die?"
I think he already died. :P :P
“Of course,” Daqing huffed. “Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and purple—I’ve seen all the colors of the rainbow. When you collect all seven, you can summon Shenron to perform the acrobatic trick of tying himself into a bow in midair.”
:D :D My favorite Daqing quote from my first read. :D
“I want to find his proof of birth, the kind that says, ‘x year x month x day, a live male infant was born’—the kind you get from a hospital,” said Chu Shuzhi.
“Huh?” Daqing exclaimed. “Holy shit. Humans are such weirdos. They have something like that?!”
Daqing has some fantastic lines in this chapter. :D :D
"According to his understanding, “soul leaving body” was no different from “death”—which to him meant that Chu Shuzhi had nearly killed him with a talisman."
D: The whole experience doesn't sound pleasant at all, even without this part where he doesn't understand what's happening. (He is indeed surprisingly calm about it, probably because he's so focused on his mission that he forgets to be fully terrified. :P)
"Then he recited his prepared lines about needing to inspect the passengers, much as though he were reporting the news."
I adore him and his anxious diligence. :D
"After that, he passed the phone to the girl as though it was the most natural thing in the world. “Your mom’s out of her mind with worry! She called me in the middle of the night and asked me to find you. Here, speak to her.”"
Aw, he's passing on dead people's messages to the living in the novel too, just in a different way. :D
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You and me both! I'm really not fond of the "wife" thing (when it's not a pun).
For how much Shen Wei dislikes Shennong, he sure agrees with 'no joking about death' a lot. :P
LOL, I hadn't even thought about that, but you're totally right!
I would love to know more about the wu than this, like, what were even their characteristics?
巫 wu means witch or shaman, but I have no idea what that means in terms of a separate species of being. I'm more used to it being applied to humans.
Damn, bb!Wei's view on wars is a whole lot smarter and more sensible
*high fives* My thoughts exactly!
Hiding any kind of problem from each other goes way back with these two. :P
Haha, oh dear, you're not wrong.
Why tho? So that Zhao Yunlan wouldn't know that everyone actually felt quite bad for the gui and no one blamed them all that much?
I have so many questions about SW's edits to the truth! So many of them are baffling to me.
LOL, he really is interested in "the romantic relationships of the great ancient gods" (the joke line that got removed from a few chapters back and is not in the official version), and not just his own. xD :D :D
OMG, he totally is! LOL!
I wondered what the 'favor' related to the blood drinking was the first time this was described, and I'm still wondering, lol, but now I think that 'the blood blessed Daqing in some way' is probably the answer.
Oh, that's a cool idea, that may be it!
“I swore to protect the Great Houtu Seal forever. As long as I existed, the Seal would exist too. If the Seal broke, then I would meet my death along with the rest of the gui.” Shen Wei’s fingers were ice cold. “And…for all of eternity, I could never see you again. If I couldn’t help myself, then I would drain your life force and you would die, your souls shattering into a million pieces.”
Um, so 1) the life force drain is a part of the promise, not something inherent?
Huh, I didn't think that was the case, and I still don't think it is, but it sure does sound in this passage as if that were part of the deal he made with Shennong! How bizarre.
2) Shen San did die, but clearly Kunlun's souls didn't shatter because he's still fine? Is the entire 'SW is inherently harmful to ZYL' thing a scam?
I grow more confused by the moment, LOL!
"It was as if Shen Wei weighed thousands of kilograms, but Zhao Yunlan distinctly remembered picking him up before."
And I'm wondering if it's an actual scene I forgot.
I don't remember either, but I thought it must be!
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Oh, very cool, thank you! :D But yeah, to be a separate species they also need to have some biolgical characteristics, not just a 'function' (and a pretty unclear function at that). We don't even know if they're humanoid - but probably not, since they're grouped with the yao so much.
"I have so many questions about SW's edits to the truth! So many of them are baffling to me."
Same! I really want to know how and why he decided what had to be edited, so that I can marvel at his wonderfully messed up thought processes, but that's the difference between 'this makes sense to Shen Wei and absolutely no one else' and 'idk why this makes sense even to Shen Wei'. :P
"Huh, I didn't think that was the case, and I still don't think it is, but it sure does sound in this passage as if that were part of the deal he made with Shennong! How bizarre."
I'm having many, many thoughts and questions about this now!
Is it ever indicated anywhere that Shen Wei's presence is harmful to any other humans? (Shen Wei's presence specifically, not any of the 'the gui will always drain the living' stuff, which is always part of some ancient myth or some straight-up lie or some 'of course everyone knows that' factoid. It's never anything tangible.)
He doesn't seem to be worried at all about sitting all day in a car and sleeping shoulder-to-shoulder with a bunch of humans during the road trip. Which obviously may be because it's not long enough. But he also doesn't seem to be worried at all about the people he teaches and works with - which obviously may be because they are physically farther away, but they do spend time with him in the same room every day for many years. He also learned how to drive (and the driving instructor is presumably fine) and probably did many other one-on-one close-quarters activities in his human life.
It's not the sex (even though that's around the time where the illness seems to start for Zhao Yunlan) because for Shen San it started a lot earlier, and it's unclear if they even ended up having sex at all before his death.
So if the physical proximity of a gui is not what kills people by default after all, does it really only affect Kunlun's reincarnations? And if so, is it because of the feelings Shen Wei has for him (which would make some sense - it's all magic after all, and he doesn't have feelings for any other human), or is it because he's cursed to specifically affect him (which would make even more sense if it was part of the deal
and Shennong is an asshole)?(no subject)
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I feel like I'm missing something here. Because I read that line as SW thinking people should be eating each other if they were going to kill each other anyway. Is that what you're both agreeing with? o.O
Huh, I didn't think that was the case, and I still don't think it is, but it sure does sound in this passage as if that were part of the deal he made with Shennong! How bizarre.
I thought it was like a warning? Like, if Shennong is going to give up his life so that Kunlun can enter the reincarnation cycle, then SW isn't allowed to come along and fuck it up? (But like I said elsewhere, I keep giving Shennong completely unwarranted benefit of the doubt.)
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Hah, I actually wondered for a second what it meant too but I didn't get to any conclusions, I just know that I like it a lot better. :D
It made me wonder if he'd accepted his role as bottom. ;-p
Definitely GCC because he's a sweetheart, but also both of them + Daqing, for maximum chaos. xD :D
Hee! Even though GCC would insist on staying on a stakeout in freeeeezing weather? ;D
(Though I don't think there's such thing as quoting too much. xD :D)
I didn't want to breach copyright too much. Heh.
I find this line really funny, like, he's so ~angsty teen mode~ that he's not even using words and you can still tell he's being passive-aggressive. :P
Ha, I know. I keep interpreting it as "uh-huh", but I don't know if that translates.
Oooh, food issues continue - eating other gui was the BETTER option after all.
/o\ /o\ /o\
Hiding any kind of problem from each other goes way back with these two. :P
Oh, true! Great point!
The gui just ate some people, which is honestly very tame compared to everything else that is happening at the same time. :P
LOLOL, you are firmly on Team Gui, I take it?
And this is where I kinda wish Zhu Hong was more wrong when she was dissing Shen Wei. :P
Oh, true. Great point! /o\
but now I want to see Zhao Yunlan pick up Shen Wei. :D :D (And I'm wondering if it's an actual scene I forgot. :D)
Was it after SW yeeted himself out of his body? (*is too lazy to check, sorry*)
I adore GCC for being ELATED that he gets to endlessly wait outside in the middle of the night in winter. :D :D And lol, Chu-ge complains and complains, and then does what Xiao Guo says. :P
Chu-ge can't help himself -- he has to look after GCC. :D
Oh hey, they get to freeze together in the novel too, just a lot less dramatically. xD :D
LOLOL!
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He's clearly trying to flip them over to ~the right configuration~ tho, so probably not. xD xD
"Even though GCC would insist on staying on a stakeout in freeeeezing weather? ;D"
Hee, I don't mind freezing weather all that much, and also I'm not CSZ with his crush on GCC so I could just go home if I had enough. ;D
"I didn't want to breach copyright too much. Heh."
AH, good point!
"LOLOL, you are firmly on Team Gui, I take it?"
Hahah, I may be. :D :D But also the literal rivers of blood, and the dead souls burning in the sun, and all the mass drownings and other horrors were caused by the wars and then by the Buzhou mountain being destroyed. The gui hunting because they were hungry is both a lot more understandable and a lot less apocalyptic, in comparison. :P
"Was it after SW yeeted himself out of his body? (*is too lazy to check, sorry*)"
I only skimmed, but it doesn't seem to be (SW stayed in bed until the ambulance came). ZYL does lead him to the room before, but that's not quite picking him up, just a lot of leaning. :P
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I just found it - it's in vol. 1 chapter 10, when ZYL hypnotises SW to forget the supernatural shenanigans:
Zhao Yunlan leaned down, picked him up, and walked out.
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He’s fucking insane, and damn lucky that so is Zhao Yunlan. I’m loving these two❤
What does it mean that Zhao Yunlan called Shen Wei his husband, rather than wife?
In Chinese, I’m pretty sure he refers to himself when he says husband here. The line is
但是我得振振夫綱 – "But I have to be a good husband", according to google translate.
He calls Shen Wei his wife several times, using both 內人/neiren (in chapter 53) and 老婆/laopo (every other time).
He calls him husband only once, in chapter 80, using 老公/laogong.
Unless I missed somethingI think he just says whatever feels right in the moment. A good approach!
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:D :D TRUE FACTS. ♡
"In Chinese, I’m pretty sure he refers to himself when he says husband here. The line is
但是我得振振夫綱 – "But I have to be a good husband", according to google translate."
Oh, that's so interesting, thanks! I like that the official translation just randomly called Shen Wei a husband one extra time. xD ("Spending our lives together is a nice thought, but I need to lay down some rules for my husband.")
"內人/neiren (in chapter 53)"
This was such an A++ pun, one time I actively liked the wife thing. :D (And the official translation just said "partner" here because you can't make a pun like that in English. :P Vol 2, chapter 6 ftr.)
"He calls him husband only once, in chapter 80, using 老公/laogong."
And I totally didn't pay attention to that (vol 3, chapter 2), probably because I was distracted by Zhao Yunlan being wonderfully inappropriate while he does it, lol - thanks for pointing that out! :D
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I'm not caught up, so no further comments, but this is so weird - when I plug the Chinese into google translate, I get "But I have to reassure my husband", with alternate suggestions "But I need to assert my authority as a wife" and "But I need to keep my husband in line".
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He’s fucking insane, and damn lucky that so is Zhao Yunlan.
Haha, so true! :D
Thanks so much for all the wife/husband references. <3
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But I should tell you that the Great Divine Tree has borne fruit. Only two fruits have ripened in the last century. I gave one to my furball and saved the other for you.
Oh, that's so neat about Daqing, his longevity isn't just due to his cultivation!
"Ah, little Kunlun, you don't understand. If one doesn't die, doesn't perish, then one cannot become a god. Perhaps once we're all dead, you'll understand."
And there's that line again! Also, a question - does the "we" in "once we're all dead" encompass Kunlun, or not?
"If life could spring forth from even this most barren of places, surely nothing remains impossible."
Aw! The gui as a symbol of hope! I like that.
What kind of shitty life is this? I think you're just senile.
LOL, and Kunlun is also right, this is shitty and will remain shitty because of Evil Worldbuilding™!
I'm glad we have ZYL to explain Shennong's intentions, because so much of this goes right over my head.
"He couldn't create the Reincarnation Cycle because there is only emptiness in Chaos. The gui born from Chaos don't have souls."
What even is a soul in this context? It's even 魂魄 in Chinese, as in both hun and po. *baffled*
But very effective quoting/repetition of that warning about SW!
From the lowest to the highest among us, from the cradle to the grave, all we can do is instinctively consume and plunder. The craving for the freshest flesh and blood drives us.
Yeah, that's very obviously not true, SW! It wasn't true about you before Kunlun changed you, and it isn't true about Ghost Face now. (We don't see enough of any other gui to be able to tell, right?)
I became an anomaly-neither human nor god, neither devil nor ghost. In all the world, I alone was entirely unlike anything else in existence.
Damn, he needs a hug, or fifty.
Zhao Yunlan slung an arm around him from behind. "C'mon, get to the point. Less of this bullshit."
Yeah, I'm with ZYL on this!
Actually, the day of my birth should've been the first time I saw you. But you were standing too far away, unwilling to take even a single step closer to me-as though I were something filthy. My eyes hadn't fully opened yet, so all I could see was the vague shadow of a green robe.
:( :( :( He's projecting so much of his self-hatred on Kunlun! And it all comes down to what he took away from what he heard from Kunlun's and Shennong's conversation when he was born, ouch.
Later, I searched the world for you, resisting the temptation of the flesh and blood of the living. I ate only the things that crawled out of the ground-other gui, which I felt were just as disgusting as I was.
So he did resist his supposed nature right from the start! And double ouch for his self-hatred projected on his own kind. :(
Of the humans, the wu, and the yao, the mountain could hold only two.
So that part was true, and oof, Kunlun basically tricked the wu into dooming themselves. Which, Kunlun himself (and ZYL after him) has no ground to stand on when it comes to disrespecting gods, even if they're your benefactor. Not to mention how long it took for Kunlun himself to even listen to Chiyou begging for help.
Shen Wei suddenly stopped for a moment. "'Up to the Heavens.' I despise that phrase."
The Heavens suck, yeah.
From Kunlun Mountain to the peach blossom grove, and from the grove to Penglai Mountain, I watched you save people, slaughter gui that were feeding upon humans, and get dragged into the war between the different races. We gui had always viewed each other as things to be consumed. We had no sentiment for our own kind. Back then, I didn't understand anything. I didn't understand what they were fighting about. I just thought it was wasteful that you killed without eating.
Glad to hear Kunlun was actually trying to save some people there. But also, Xiao-Wei's self-hatred aside, him seeing the fighting and killing as wasteful and pointless says so much about his supposed destructive instincts, LOL.
But look. Every day that they are alive, they struggle fiercely for warmth, food, power, riches, love, another day to live-anything you can think of.
I don't see how that distinguishes humans from other beings ...
"I don't understand what you're saying." Two voices spoke as one
I'm pretty sure past!SW said "I don't understand" but present!SW is saying "I didn't understand", only Chinese has no tenses, and so it's the same words. *g*
And that effect of past-and-present overlapping, and Kunlun's words then coming from ZYL's mouth is so cool!
Its flame spurred the gui out of the mud, yet I left them to their own devices rather than caring for them. I decided all on my own whether the gui should live or die. It truly is a great sin.
Same as making that decision about the wu!
Kunlun's primordial spirit left his body; the mighty mountain winds swept past the little King of the Gui, who was crying himself sick. Then they both went down to the Huangquan River to guard the gate of the Great Seal.
Aha, so that's how that hangs together.
Your lies are all over the place, but there's a glimmer of truth in every direction. Trying to make sense of it is giving me a headache.
I FEEL YOU, ZYL!!!!!!!
And I really appreciate ZYL reciting the history again, so we can see the sequence of events, even though too much is still up in the air as to whether it happened as we saw it or not.
Kunlun, my past life, was a little dumbass with zero filter who was barely out of diapers
Kunlun-jun was the type who's too lazy to rotate the ring of flatbreads around his neck to eat the next one
Hee! I love the way ZYL talks about Kunlun. :D
also, Kunlun-jun had a stupid gluttonous cat that unknowingly licked some of Chiyou's blood. That meant Kunlun-jun had to come out and return the favor, and he finally agreed.
I'm still not sure how Daqing licking Chiyou's blood qualifies as a favour that has to be returned.
he unfortunately got caught in the crossfire when Gonggong carried out the world's first suicide bombing
LOLOLOL!
And ZYL is right that SW has a grudge against Shennong, but is he wrong? I think he's right and Shennong dropped the soul fire on purpose.
He wanted to obliterate all the gui. Shennong couldn't believe that soulless beings could possibly exist in the world. Without a soul, how could one be considered alive? But since he was the one responsible for the gui's existence, he couldn't escape the blame. He wanted to 'fix' his mistake.
That's so confusing since earlier (and NOT in one of the faked visions!) we saw Shennong say the gui were part of the natural order, and speak of them as a sign of hope. WTF.
Then I confined your primordial spirit
Right. So easily said! How the hell did Xiao-Wei do that?!
"I swore to protect the Great Houtu Seal forever. As long as I existed, the Seal would exist too. If the Seal broke, then I would meet my death along with the rest of the gui." Shen Wei's fingers were ice cold. "And...for all of eternity, I could never see you again. If I couldn't help myself, then I would drain your life force and you would die, your souls shattering into a million pieces."
Ouch ouch ouch!
Now that the Great Seal is almost broken, I'm at the end of my road.
So is he saying the Seal breaking is inevitable at this point? He only has a choice about how he dies?
I deliberately placed fake memories in the Great Divine Tree to mislead you; I let you see me extracting my own heart's blood for you; I left you so that you would come down to the Huangquan River to find me, then led you to see the edited version of memories in the Great Houtu Seal...and all of it to make you feel too much guilt to ever leave me, to make you joyfully and wholeheartedly choose to die with me.
Yeah, unfortunately that doesn't clarify a lot about what's real or fake, or even his reasons for changing some of the things he changed in the fake visions ... including the crucial blinded dragon that tipped ZYL off!
"Even now, even after you have seen through every lie, I'm still forcing you." Shen Wei's voice was very, very low. "Will you choose to die with me and return to Chaos for all eternity? Or would you rather I strip away your memories of this life, so that you would never know or remember me, leaving not a single thread of connection between us?"
I need more explanations here, tbh - I'm still not getting it. If the seal breaks, SW dies, and he wants ZYL to die with him, all right. But what's the alternative? If the seal breaks, wouldn't everything return to chaos anyway, ZYL included? *confused*
Zhao Yunlan reached out and gently stroked Shen Wei's hair. "Such a heavy heart, full of such heavy calculations..." He sighed. "You sure are hard to take care of. Come on, we're going home."
Awww! ♥
"Hey, wait!" Zhao Yunlan grabbed Shen Wei's hand. "I'm not drinking your blood."
I'm honestly not sure why exactly ZYL is so resistant about this.
He tightened his grip on Shen Wei's waist, moving to push him to the side and flip them over...and nothing happened.
LOLOLOL!
At this point, Sangzan was clearly aware that "slutterer" was a rude word. He'd completely stopped saying it ages ago...except with Daqing. Sangzan, the troublemaker, kept cheerfully saying it to the cat, and even managed to pronounce it more and more like "slut."
Hee! So great that Sangzan gets his revenge. :D
And so fascinating that Chu Shuzhi is only now starting to figure out some things about Xiao-Guo, and looking into it all. I have no idea what it means that GCC apparently has turbo-powered merits, but I'm sure we'll find out. *g*
"Are you human?" Chu Shuzhi asked.
Guo Changcheng gaped at him, not at all sure if Chu Shuzhi was being literal or insulting.
LOL!
"Your mom's out of her mind with worry! She called me in the middle of the night and asked me to find you. Here, speak to her."
It's so cool to me that this is where they got drama!GCC hearing the last wishes of the dead from! And the girl's dead mother looking out for her is similar to Li Qian's dead grandma looking out for her, too, right?
Incidentally, regarding the girl - there's something weird going on with her name.
According to chapter 12/91, her name is Cui Xiuyun 崔秀云. (This is the same cui as in her village's name, incidentally.) But in chapter 14/94, her mother calls her Cui-er - 翠儿, with a different character for Cui, as if that were her given name. There's clearly a mistake there. And the translation faithfully preserves this, but because it's all "cui" in pinyin, it now sounds like the girl's mother calls her by her surname for some reason. *g*
Do you understand the primordial past backstory now?
NO. *flails*
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What even is a soul in this context?
A part of them that can reincarnate? /random guess
Yeah, that's very obviously not true, SW! It wasn't true about you before Kunlun changed you, and it isn't true about Ghost Face now. (We don't see enough of any other gui to be able to tell, right?)
But we know SW and Ghost Face are special / not like other gui. Is it wrong for SW to identify with the other gui, then, do you think?
> > Kunlun's primordial spirit left his body; the mighty mountain winds swept past the little King of the Gui, who was crying himself sick. Then they both went down to the Huangquan River to guard the gate of the Great Seal. > Aha, so that's how that hangs together.
Yeah, but it's weird how in the Seal vision, Kunlun treats Shen Wei like a stranger (and in some ways, like a random gui who's trying to escape the Seal) -- after they've been travelling around together and everything??
I'm still not sure how Daqing licking Chiyou's blood qualifies as a favour that has to be returned.
I think it's the combination of the kowtowing and Daqing calling attention to it by licking the blood? Kunlun couldn't just pretend to ignore it? Unfortunately, the god kneeling and kowtowing up the mountain every step of the way like he was worshiping heaven and earth was just a little too much, and also, Kunlun-jun had a stupid gluttonous cat that unknowingly licked some of Chiyou’s blood. That meant Kunlun-jun had to come out and return the favor, and he finally agreed.
including the crucial blinded dragon that tipped ZYL off!
Was he deliberately tipping ZYL off? I've lost track, LOL.
I'm honestly not sure why exactly ZYL is so resistant about this.
Idk, I totally get why this would be a hard DNW. Especially since can he even trust SW to say if it hurts him or not? Of course SW's going to downplay the cost to him. (But even if not, I think DNWing blood-drinking is completely fair. ;-p)
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How on earth do they manage without them? Does every verb have to be qualified by a clue as to when it happened? (If this is a huge can of worms, please ignore me!)
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That's a fantastic question because it could totally be either, and now I want to know too, lol. I originally read it as 'once you are left all alone', but he did only understand it when he was dying (whatever there is to understand in this line - I still have no idea myself xD), so maybe it does encompass him.
"Aw! The gui as a symbol of hope! I like that."
Ikr, I love it so much!! ♡ (And then I'm also incredibly confused by the change of heart he had! But I've said that elsewhere already. :P)
"What even is a soul in this context? It's even 魂魄 in Chinese, as in both hun and po. *baffled*"
I am equally baffled, fwiw! Like, the gui are clearly alive, does it even matter if they have souls? Having a soul doesn't make someone good or not-evil, otherwise there would be no evil before the gui were created. And if it doesn't even make someone alive either, then what even is the value in having a (po) soul?
"Yeah, that's very obviously not true, SW! It wasn't true about you before Kunlun changed you, and it isn't true about Ghost Face now. (We don't see enough of any other gui to be able to tell, right?)"
IKR??? I'm so glad that Zhao Yunlan says it's bullshit because IT IS. Really, really obvious bullshit too. :P (There's going to be at least one sentient youchu later. Pretty violent, but definitely capable of making decisions and doing things other than eating someone.)
"Damn, he needs a hug, or fifty."
I love that right after you said that, the next quote is "Zhao Yunlan slung an arm around him from behind." :D There it is, the hug, sort of. :D
":( :( :( He's projecting so much of his self-hatred on Kunlun!"
Indeed. :( This made me go back and look at the quotes, and wow, Shen Wei says "But you were standing too far away, unwilling to take even a single step closer to me—as though I were something filthy.", but the description of Kunlun first encountering the gui is "Through Shen Wei’s eyes, Zhao Yunlan watched as the handsome—beautiful—young Mountain God of the Great Wild peered around curiously. There was even some innocent childishness to his face." So Shen Wei literally saw it this way, and then interpreted it the opposite way.
"So he did resist his supposed nature right from the start!"
Yes! ♡ (And if not eating 'the living' = only eating other gui, then regular non-sentient animals count as 'the living'. Eating them wouldn't even be wrong at all, and yet he still resisted it. His reasons are heartbreaking, but his willpower is incredible.)
"But also, Xiao-Wei's self-hatred aside, him seeing the fighting and killing as wasteful and pointless says so much about his supposed destructive instincts, LOL."
I know I talked about it already, but YES THIS, it's so precious how he has less desctructive instincts than humans and gods. ♡
">> But look. Every day that they are alive, they struggle fiercely for warmth, food, power, riches, love, another day to live-anything you can think of.
"I don't see how that distinguishes humans from other beings ..."
I think what this is trying to say is 'they don't just lie down and give up because they're gonna die so soon anyway', but also yes, the emotional/moral distincions between different species and ways of being are always so arbitrary and the descriptions apply to pretty much everyone. :P
"I'm pretty sure past!SW said "I don't understand" but present!SW is saying "I didn't understand", only Chinese has no tenses, and so it's the same words. *g*"
:D I didn't even think of that! (Though they both repeat word for word what was said back then, so maybe present!SW is not really 'saying' anything - the words come out but they're all from the past.)
>> Its flame spurred the gui out of the mud, yet I left them to their own devices rather than caring for them. I decided all on my own whether the gui should live or die. It truly is a great sin.
"Same as making that decision about the wu!"
He does admit this much. :) ("Sealing the gui away was indeed unjust, but when the wu were trapped and washed away by the flood, the sin of their destruction fell upon me.")
>> Then I confined your primordial spirit
"Right. So easily said! How the hell did Xiao-Wei do that?!"
He is half-god at this point, so that's probably one of the things he can do now? :D
"So is he saying the Seal breaking is inevitable at this point? He only has a choice about how he dies?"
I think it's said somewhere earlier that it's inevitable, and it can only be temporarily mended. (Found it! Volume 2, chapter 9. "Shen Wei again knelt down as he silently chanted the Sealing spell, temporarily fortifying the decaying seal. Slowly, the shaking calmed, but his expression remained deadly serious. How long could this peace be maintained?")
"Yeah, unfortunately that doesn't clarify a lot about what's real or fake, or even his reasons for changing some of the things he changed in the fake visions ... including the crucial blinded dragon that tipped ZYL off!"
My thoughts exactly! The dragon especially - this is such a random thing to change, and it caused the whole plan to fail.
"I need more explanations here, tbh - I'm still not getting it. If the seal breaks, SW dies, and he wants ZYL to die with him, all right. But what's the alternative? If the seal breaks, wouldn't everything return to chaos anyway, ZYL included? *confused*"
I think the difference is just 'they die together' vs. 'they die separately' (and possibly also this version of ZYL just lives out his life without SW, and the next incarnation will already be around when the Seal actually breaks?), but I definitely can't always follow Shen Wei's logic, so maybe there's something more to it. :P
"Hee! So great that Sangzan gets his revenge. :D"
Yes. :D :D :D And Daqing doesn't really mind because he deserves it. xD (Wait, what is the "slutterer" pun in Chinese? :D If you already said it somewhere in old posts, I'm gonna find it, but I don't remember ever seeing it, so I'm asking anyway. xD)
"According to chapter 12/91, her name is Cui Xiuyun 崔秀云. (This is the same cui as in her village's name, incidentally.) But in chapter 14/94, her mother calls her Cui-er - 翠儿, with a different character for Cui, as if that were her given name. There's clearly a mistake there. And the translation faithfully preserves this, but because it's all "cui" in pinyin, it now sounds like the girl's mother calls her by her surname for some reason. *g*"
I noticed that her name is the same as the village name, but didn't notice the 'calling her by her surname' thing, and it's even funnier to know that it's not actually the case. xD Thanks for looking this up! :D
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Ha, yes! Me too. And he would actually acknowledge the suffering involved, instead of accepting it as a matter of course, like Changcheng. :D
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I enjoy how Shennong is like this old, grandfatherly god, but Kunlun is much more impressed with Nüwa ("I can't believe you're even mentioning Nüwa. If she knew you'd accidentally burned through the Great Fuxi Seal, you'd be lucky if she didn't try to hunt you down!")
I have some mythology fatigue, so I'm going to skim over some of this. I will say that the fact that I kind of sympathise with Shennong wanting to hit Ctrl-Z on the gui makes me wonder if some of his characteristics got transferred to drama!Zhao Xinci, who was also "They do not belong!" and who I also find understandable, while recognising his viewpoint is skewed and limited.
What happened to the other fruit of the Divine Tree? I hope we find out (but I'm happy to wait and see).
Kunlun-jun rolled his eyes and glanced around, as if hoping to find something to stuff into Shennong’s yammering mouth.
LOLOL, zero respect. :D
Shen Wei gave a light laugh. “Shennong wanted to use the darkness beneath the Great Seal to separate out the yin and yang on the edge of true death, thereby creating the Reincarnation Cycle.”
“But he obviously didn’t succeed,” Zhao Yunlan said. “If he had, Nüwa wouldn’t have died for the Great Seal.”
“Do you know why he failed?” Shen Wei stopped walking. A peculiar smile appeared on his face, and he continued before Zhao Yunlan could answer. “He couldn’t create the Reincarnation Cycle because there is only emptiness in Chaos. The gui born from Chaos don’t have souls.”
Great evil. A soulless being…
The last para here is ZYL remembering consulting the Book of Life in vol 1, ch 27.
I find it interesting that again and again we see the gods coming up against limitations. They don't get to do whatever they want; metaphysics keeps getting in their way.
I do enjoy ZYL's "Less of this bullshit." Yes, please!
It's interesting that Shen Wei says, "from birth, I was more ferocious than my bother. I had consumed more of our brethren than he had. At that point, I could already hear, and could vaguely understand, what you and Shennong were saying" -- it suggests that eating more gui accelerated Shen Wei's development, right? But he's developed so much more since then. How? (Does he ever pop down below the Seal for a snack when he can't stand the hunger anymore?)
“From Kunlun Mountain to the peach blossom grove, and from the grove to Penglai Mountain, I watched you save people, slaughter gui that were feeding upon humans, and get dragged into the war between the different races.
This does not sound like Seal!Kunlun. IJS.
*We had no sentiment for our own kind."
This reminds me of Zhang Shi saying that he's Dixingren too, and he doesn't want his own kind to be killed. IOW, I'm so glad they changed that for the drama. (I find it so hard to know anything about the gui, because everything we hear is either filtered through Shen Wei's self-loathing or Ghost Face's taunts.)
So... Nüwa drops responsibility for Penglai Mountain on Kunlun on top of all his other mountains. I'm so interested that he feels this as a burden, not an empowerment or anything. And why "the crushing weight of the heavy sky and earth pressing down on him"? Is the sky part of "this piece of land"? I can't make sense of any of this. *gives up*
Okaaay, so Kunlun compares the gods' struggle to manage things with humans' "struggl[ing] fiercely for warmth, food, power, riches, love, another day to live--anything you can think of. They escape from the jaws of death countless times only to perish in their final struggle, completely exhausted." He says, "if we've failed, if we're wrong, if we've created an even greater disaster...then it was simply a failed attempt in our continued struggle." So, yeah, the gods aren't any better than humans -- they're just longer lived and a bit more powerful. And "If 'death' is Chaos, then 'life' must be endless struggle."
(Which, you know, Shen Wei is constantly struggling. ;-p)
The ghost of dimples showed on his face. But if his smile was like that of a child, his eyes were those of an old man. “Nüwa, go ahead. With me here, you don’t need to worry about anything you leave behind.”
This is why Shen Wei is jealous, lol.
As he heard the entire conversation at last, Zhao Yunlan finally understood how Shen Wei had cherry-picked from such a compassionate, lamenting speech and given it a completely different flavor.
When was the abridged version? I've lost track. /o\
I love how there's this complicated explanation of Nüwa's death: stones flash, there's thunder and months pass and auspicious clouds, and her various souls have turned into different useful things, and it's all epic, and then we get:
At some point, Shennong, old and doddering, had climbed up to the peak. “I’m leaving too,” he told Kunlun-jun.
LOL! So anti-climactic. Such a footnotes. (Also, wtf is a "corporeal soul"?)
Life and death became a circle, and life and death were no more.
Except when Shen Wei slays a city-full of ghosts.Aww, poor heartbroken Wei. :-(((
When Shen Wei says Shennong was more like a god than Kunlun or Nüwa, what does he mean? In what way?
I share ZYL's headache. ;-p But also, at some point I started going, wait, who's explaining what to whom?
Since there were more humans, wu, and yao around this time than there had been before, more of them died, providing Shennong with more specimens.
Specimens? Is Shennong doing reincarnation experiments?! Is he Professor Ouyang now? ;-p
There's so much repetition in this chapter. How many times do Nüwa and Shennong die? /o\ Anyway, I think the difference between everyone else and the gui is that, sure, everyone else has wars, but those wars end. There are peacetimes. The gui are (seen as) just endless, endless appetite, and they'll eat anyone, not just each other.
If Shen Wei is a reliable narrator about Shennong wanting to obliterate the gui, I think Shennong is definitely Prof Ouyang. Like, he started off a reasonable scientist, and now he's lost all perspective.
"He was the only one I ever begged for anything..."
Is Shennong Dr Feng now? LOL! (This might be where the kneeling in the rain came from, anyway.) Anyway, from Shennong's POV, he agreed to die so that Kunlun could reincarnate, in exchange for Shen Wei protecting the Seal; that's pretty selfless. He didn't have to do that. He either took pity on Shen Wei or he valued Kunlun highly enough that it was worth it. Or he didn't want to guard the Seal himself. ;-p
The greed in my heart is bottomless. My inner demons drove my actions. I deliberately placed fake memories in the Great Divine Tree to mislead you; I let you see me extracting my own heart’s blood for you; I left you so that you would come down to the Huangquan River to find me, then led you to see the edited version of memories in the Great Houtu Seal…and all of it to make you feel too much guilt to ever leave me
So Shen Wei knew ZYL loved him enough to chase him alllllll the way down to the Seal, but he still thought he had to trap him into staying together. (And then he was so upset about the Dragon Pearl that literally let ZYL get to the Seal!?) I wish it wasn't about ~guilt~.
“You’re not allowed to think it over,” Shen Wei said. “You must answer me now.”
That is such bullshit. Of course he's allowed to think it over. ;-p But I love that his response is, sigh "You sure are hard to take care of." LOL.
The conversation about the blood-drinking! At last they're talking about it. I think ZYL starts off going, "Nope, no, DNW!" because he's thinking in terms of a regular-person relationship. They've just agreed to live like mortals! And then we get:
“I did consider it at the time—would it be more effective to cut out my heart for you? But I was afraid you’d be too badly frightened, so I only let you see my blood being drawn.”
Which reminds him they're in Standard Operating Procedure Does Not Apply territory. I think his dry response (“Thanks so much for remembering that I’m a scaredy-cat.”) is him giving in? :D
Phew! (This is already so loooong! I said I was going to skip over stuff, but apparently I had things to say and many questions to ask. ;-p) Now on to the easier stuff.
Changcheng blossoming is always a thing of joy, and I love the description. Also, Chu Shuzhi's contemplating Changcheng's merits and his nature. <3 <3 <3
Sangzan, the troublemaker, kept cheerfully saying it to the cat, and even managed to pronounce it more and more like “slut.”
Yes!! :D :D :D
Many people who cultivated had something of a sixth sense.
Is it drawing too long a bow to connect this with Shen Wei claiming to have a sixth sense in the drama?
Of course, due to his unique work situation, the Corpse King had never actually used handcuffs before. Unfamiliarity with this particular aspect of the job meant it took him some time to successfully lock the cuffs.
Hee! Love this.
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Do you understand the primordial past backstory now?
Not even a little bit.
Who comes off worst in this real version of events?
I mean, Shennong isn't great, but I do feel like he's doing his best. He's just wrong about some things.
How do you feel about Shen Wei going to these lengths to deceive Zhao Yunlan and guilt-trip him into staying with him?
I still don't understand whyyyy. Like, ZYL pursued him ruthlessly and is openly obsessed with him. How is SW still insecure?
Will anything satisfy his insecurity?Would you prefer to be on a stakeout with Guo Changcheng or Chu Shuzhi?
I feel like Chu Shuzhi would make sure we were relatively comfortable, so I pick him.
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Only SOME? LOL.
The last para here is ZYL remembering consulting the Book of Life in vol 1, ch 27.
Yep! I really liked that callback.
But he's developed so much more since then. How?
Cultivation?
(Does he ever pop down below the Seal for a snack when he can't stand the hunger anymore?)
I really can't imagine him doing that, AT ALL. He's all about the self-denial.
This does not sound like Seal!Kunlun. IJS.>
Yeah - did getting disembodied regress him to being a kid again, or what?
I'm so glad they changed that for the drama.
This, 10,000%!
I find it so hard to know anything about the gui, because everything we hear is either filtered through Shen Wei's self-loathing or Ghost Face's taunts.
Yeah, same here - it's hard to know anything for sure. Which is a bit frustrating, tbh.
And why "the crushing weight of the heavy sky and earth pressing down on him"? Is the sky part of "this piece of land"?
This is before the sky is repaired, right? I think that's why?
When was the abridged version? I've lost track. /o\
When he went underwater and down to the Merit Tree. Nüwa's "what if we're wrong" line is in there as well.
(Also, wtf is a "corporeal soul"?)
Po soul.
When Shen Wei says Shennong was more like a god than Kunlun or Nüwa, what does he mean? In what way?
More otherworldly, and less like just some overpowered person messing around making things out of contaminated mud and peeing on people's tails? :p
If Shen Wei is a reliable narrator about Shennong wanting to obliterate the gui, I think Shennong is definitely Prof Ouyang. Like, he started off a reasonable scientist, and now he's lost all perspective.
Huh, I could see that!
Is Shennong Dr Feng now? LOL! (This might be where the kneeling in the rain came from, anyway.)
Yeah, it has to be, right?
Which reminds him they're in Standard Operating Procedure Does Not Apply territory. I think his dry response (“Thanks so much for remembering that I’m a scaredy-cat.”) is him giving in? :D
Huh, that didn't occur to me, but it might be! I guess we'll find out.
Is it drawing too long a bow to connect this with Shen Wei claiming to have a sixth sense in the drama?
Honestly, with these writers I would totally buy that they picked up some little detail like that and found a way to use it! They're amazing with the puzzle pieces, I've never seen anything like it.
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Probably why Shen Wei is jealous of Nüwa. xD
"I do enjoy ZYL's "Less of this bullshit." Yes, please!"
ITA! xD
"So... Nüwa drops responsibility for Penglai Mountain on Kunlun on top of all his other mountains. I'm so interested that he feels this as a burden, not an empowerment or anything."
Oh, true, I didn't think of that! It feels more like a physical burden than an emotional one, so maybe everything else is also a physical burden but he's already used to it, and now he just got more of it?
"And "If 'death' is Chaos, then 'life' must be endless struggle."
(Which, you know, Shen Wei is constantly struggling. ;-p)"
Which means he's very alive I guess, hah. :D :D
"This is why Shen Wei is jealous, lol."
Lol, we had the same thought just at a different moment. :D :D
"I love how there's this complicated explanation of Nüwa's death: stones flash, there's thunder and months pass and auspicious clouds, and her various souls have turned into different useful things, and it's all epic, and then we get:
At some point, Shennong, old and doddering, had climbed up to the peak. “I’m leaving too,” he told Kunlun-jun.
LOL! So anti-climactic. Such a footnotes."
This is so funny omg. xD :D :D Fantastic observation, I never would have caught it myself. :D :D
"When Shen Wei says Shennong was more like a god than Kunlun or Nüwa, what does he mean? In what way?"
I wondered about that too, and my conclusion was 'more of a pompous asshole', but that doesn't have to be correct. xD
"If Shen Wei is a reliable narrator about Shennong wanting to obliterate the gui, I think Shennong is definitely Prof Ouyang. Like, he started off a reasonable scientist, and now he's lost all perspective."
I am BLOWN AWAY by this observation omg, this is fantastic! Because 1) I can totally see that this exactly where Professor Ouyang's story came from, 2) this is the first explanation for Shennong's change of heart that I found so far, and it's a very good one! (Also Shennong the scientist was a thing before already, in chapter 9 - "Back when Chaos had first settled, the great sage Shennong had personally descended to the Mortal Realm, where he tasted hundreds of herbs and saved many lives. He had become an old herbalist, spreading his teachings among humanity." It's all coming together and I love it. :D)
"Is Shennong Dr Feng now? LOL! (This might be where the kneeling in the rain came from, anyway.)"
And another fantastic observation, ahh! :D ♡
"Anyway, from Shennong's POV, he agreed to die so that Kunlun could reincarnate, in exchange for Shen Wei protecting the Seal; that's pretty selfless. He didn't have to do that. He either took pity on Shen Wei or he valued Kunlun highly enough that it was worth it. Or he didn't want to guard the Seal himself. ;-p"
All three reasons sound equally plausible tbh. :D (And another possible reason - he wanted to die, so maybe he just didn't want his primordial spirit to endlessly hang around either?)
"And then he was so upset about the Dragon Pearl that literally let ZYL get to the Seal!?"
I didn't think of that, damn, this logic doesn't logic indeed. :P
"The conversation about the blood-drinking! At last they're talking about it. I think ZYL starts off going, "Nope, no, DNW!" because he's thinking in terms of a regular-person relationship. They've just agreed to live like mortals!"
Lol yeah, and he wouldn't live very long and he'd be very, very mortal with this DNW. xD
"Of course, due to his unique work situation, the Corpse King had never actually used handcuffs before. Unfamiliarity with this particular aspect of the job meant it took him some time to successfully lock the cuffs."
You quoted this and it reminded me that I forgot to ask in my own comment - what is CSZ's unique work situation that results in never using handcuffs? I feel like I'm missing something. xD
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