Guardian Readalong: Vol. 3, Chapters 13 & 14

[china_shop]

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!)

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Comments

[facethestrange]

"What does it mean that Zhao Yunlan called Shen Wei his husband, rather than wife?"

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 wars just 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

[autodach]

How do you feel about Shen Wei going to these lengths to deceive Zhao Yunlan and guilt-trip him into staying with him?

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 something

I think he just says whatever feels right in the moment. A good approach!