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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!
no subject
As much as I don't see this in Wei's statement, I would also personally prefer to be seen as a meal than as an enemy? At least I'd know that I'm safe when no one around me is currently hungry. :P And it's kinda just more fair and less personal than (unwillingly) being involved in a conflict where people would kill me for no reason whatsoever, just because someone told them to. So generally cannibalism > war, but again, that's my personal preference. :P
"Yeah, Shennong's dead at this stage, but it would mean he'd died in vain, and that SW had broken his promise."
I only meant that if SW keeps making the reincarnations die and then they just keep getting reborn with no consequences, it's not really Shennong's business because nothing is in vain, from his POV. If Kunlun's souls get contaminated in the process, that's obviously a different story. And your headcanon definitely makes a lot of sense, with the information we currently have!
no subject
I would also personally prefer to be seen as a meal than as an enemy?
Entirely fair! I feel like, historically speaking, from a big-picture perspective, there have been great swathes of time when war was normalised (while always stressful and awful for the actual people involved), but none where predation on humans was; I think we have pretty deep-seated, hind-brain DNW feelings about being prey. But obviously everyone's different.
(Also, I tend to read the great wars of the gods as metaphors for devastating natural disasters, so I don't really blame them for them? Which may be me reading in the wrong genre again. ;-p)
At least I'd know that I'm safe when no one around me is currently hungry. :P
When SW and GF are born: All at once, every one of the gui—the running, slaughtering, feeding gui—stopped what they were doing and looked in that direction. None of them are doing anything that isn't food-related (assuming the running means chasing or running away)...
no subject
Humans are prey during wars too, except for no reason. And it's not like anyone can know what happens to their body after they're killed. /morbid
But humans hunting humans aside - humans being prey to animals is a lot older and more evolutionarily ingrained than wars, and it only stopped irl a few hundred years ago at most (and it obviously still depends on where you are). What is happening in-world is 'a new predator species just dropped'. It may be more vicious than the ones they had to deal with until now, but otherwise it's nothing new. Especially since most of the gui are non-sentient, and even the ones that are sentient are seemingly hunting completely at random, so it's not like the people can tell the difference.
"When SW and GF are born: All at once, every one of the gui—the running, slaughtering, feeding gui—stopped what they were doing and looked in that direction. None of them are doing anything that isn't food-related (assuming the running means chasing or running away)..."
I think this is just when they're newly created - SW and GF also do nothing but consume more gui at the beginning. They're still building their bodies, and maybe also figuring this whole 'being a living organism' thing out. Later it seems like they only eat when hungry, and do other things in-between. (Even if the other things are mostly fighting and/or having sex, for the non-sentient gui at least.)
no subject
And it's not like anyone can know what happens to their body after they're killed.
They might still have to watch their kids and other loved ones get ripped apart and eaten, though...
But yeah, war is also brutal, no question. (But at least there is the possibility of peace?)
Idk, maybe I'm still fundamentally misunderstanding what the gui are. Taking the talking points too much at face value, probably.
no subject
I really gotta stop being dark, but I don't feel like taking "and eaten" out of this sentence makes it any better.
*stops being dark* :P
(And hey, it's always very possible that I'm too nice to the gui. :D)
no subject
(I do feel like we might be polarising each other a little, lol. I'm going to stop now and wait to see what happens.)
no subject
no subject
(Not upsetting. No worries! ♥ ♥ ♥)