Guardian Readalong: Vol. 3, Chapters 15 & 16

[trobadora]

Welcome aboard for this week's chapters of our Guardian readalong!

Here are last week's chapters. You can find all previous discussions on the schedule post (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5), or via the !readalong tag.

This week's chapters:

• Chapter 15: Daqing comes searching for Zhao Yunlan, finds Shen Wei, and is dispatched to buy breakfast. Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei learn that Lin Jing is missing, and receive a delayed message from Lin Jing. Earthquakes from the Netherworld shake the city, and the team heads towards the resort Lin Jing was investigating, which is deserted.
• Chapter 16: Zhu Hong reacts badly to being sent off with Xiao-Guo, and takes off after Zhao Yunlan. Zhao Yunlan, Shen Wei et al. investigate the resort and discover everyone's been turned to dust by something escaping from beneath. Zhao Yunlan realises this is a trap - and then gui come climbing out of the ground, and Shen Wei uses his blade ...

The corresponding part in the Chinese version on JJWXC/the fan translation are chapters 95-97.

Excerpts:

1) Daqing buys breakfast

"Wait a moment." Shen Wei's smile seemed a little embarrassed. Politely, he said, "I have a favor to ask of you..."

Daqing, sensible cat that he was, darted back at once. Head raised high, he said, "Just say the word."

Ten minutes later, the door to the breakfast shop downstairs was pushed open by an outrageously fat cat. The cat's face was much too round, and his eyes were almost completely obscured by the fat, giving him a somewhat vicious look. A waitress nearly tripped over him and started yelling at once. "Hey! How did this cat get in?! Get it out! Hurry and get it out!"

The large black cat raised his head, leveling a contemptuous gaze at her. Then he jumped right onto the service counter and knocked on it with his front paw. Astonished, the cashier behind the counter watched as the cat spat out a piece of paper. The cashier shakily opened the note, which turned out to read, in very tidy hand­writing, "Half a liter of soy milk, one basket of steamed buns, three fried dough sticks. Please put them in a sturdy bag. You'll find the money on the cat's neck. Please take what's needed and put any change back in the same spot. Thank you."

The cashier looked up, trying to locate the cat's neck by sight. The cat rolled his eyes and lifted his head, revealing a collar beneath his double chin. The cashier found 30 yuan tucked in there, hidden under the plush fur.

"Everyone, look at this!" The cashier's voice rang out loudly. "This is incredible! Even cats know how to buy things now!"


2) Shen Wei, hologram generator

Fossil that he was, Shen Wei had never used a smartphone before. His eyes swept over what Wang Zheng had written, and then he looked carefully at the photos of the scene. Being unused to touchscreens, he was unfortunately unable to figure it out even after a few attempts.

With a glance at Zhao Yunlan, who was currently gulping down his soy milk, he said, "Look away for a second. Don't peek."

Holding his palm above the phone screen, Shen Wei made a grabbing motion. The photo of the victim floated out of the screen, hovering in midair like a 3D projection. The visual effect was ­viscerally shocking. For a moment it was like the corpse, with its eggplant-purple face, was lying right there on the dining table.

Curiosity had kept Zhao Yunlan from obediently looking away, and now he was reaping what he had sown. He choked on a mouthful of soymilk, nearly spitting it all out onto the face of the corpse. This was a stellar example of feudal era superstitions triumphing over modern technology.

Shen Wei carefully examined the corpse's face, then reached out to "pinch" the eyes. It was as if he'd turned the very air into a 3D touchscreen, enabling himself to zoom in and out on different parts of the image!


3) Zhao Yunlan vs. Shen Wei vs. modern tech

"You used to keep up a facade, like a god among men who was above mortal desires. I'm tired of watching you pretend. I get tired on your behalf just from watching." Zhao Yunlan casually stuck his sticky note on the back of one of Shen Wei's lesson plan drafts. "Come, Adonis, there's a scanner beside the computer on the desk. Scan this for me and send it to the office. Tell them to find out as much as they can before I get there."

Shen Wei accepted it, only to wind up standing stiffly in front of the computer. After turning it on, he just stared at the contraptions in front of him. This "god among men" essentially only knew how to do two things with computers: turn them on and off and deliver PowerPoint presentations that other people had prepared for him. Everything else was his TA's job. He wasn't even sure which device was the printer and which was the scanner.

Zhao Yunlan suddenly came up behind Shen Wei. Wrapping his arms around Shen Wei, he guided his hands through the steps, starting with putting the sketched outline into the scanner. That done, he deliberately blew into Shen Wei's ear under the noise of the machine. "You should've said something if you didn't know how to use it. Why didn't you ask your husband to teach you?"


4) Turned to dust

Walking over, Shen Wei swiped a finger through the dust on the ledge. He rubbed it between his fingers and then said, "It hasn't been here long."

"The dust?" Zhao Yunlan asked. "You can tell from just that? How?"

Shen Wei dusted his hands off. "With most types I wouldn't be able to tell, but this is human ash that collected here within the last two or three days. It's still very fresh." [...]

Chu Shuzhi chose his next words carefully. "It sounds as though my lord knows how these people died...?"

Shen Wei gave a polite nod. Humbly, he said, "I'm not ­terribly knowledgeable, but I do happen to know a little in regard to this. In the ancient past, after Gonggong knocked down Buzhou Mountain, the sky burst and the earth split. The gui surfaced in the Mortal Realm for the first time, dripping with the ruthlessness of their birthplace thousands of zhang below the Huangquan. When that happened, every human and beast within a ten-li radius turned to dust in a heartbeat, just like this, and within one hundred li, not a single blade of grass grew."


5) The blade strikes

Zhao Yunlan hurriedly said, "Shen Wei, hold on. This doesn't seem like-"

But it was too late. The Soul-Executing Blade grew several ­meters, effortlessly cutting down countless gui. Shen Wei's expression was glacial. With a flip of his wrist, the blade pressed down with ­thousands of tons of pressure, far too sharp for anything to block. He split the thick black mist beneath the resort with one swing, and it dispersed before disappearing entirely. Then the blade struck the ground, opening a long, narrow crack dozens of meters deep. A bloodcurdling scream rang out. Shen Wei glared viciously down into the fissure. "Get the hell out here!"

With the astounding force and lightning speed of his attacks, it wasn't until then that Zhao Yunlan, who was not even five steps away, finally managed to grab his arm and hold him back. "This doesn't look like the Great Seal breaking! I think it's some distorted kind of Ghost Army Summons! Don't do anything rash!"

Laughter echoed from all around them before he was even done speaking. "Yes," a voice said. "Too bad the Guardian's brain and mouth aren't as fast as the Lord Emissary's blade."


Questions:

What's your favourite part in these chapters? Which SID member gets the best moment? What do you think about Shen Wei's carefree fatalism here? And about Zhao Yunlan's treatment of Shen Wei? How well are you following events here? Any thoughts about the parts that made it into the drama?

(As usual, these are just conversation starters - feel free to answer all, some, or none, and to say as much or as little as you like!)

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Comments

[trobadora]

Amazing they managed to include something of that arc (the deliveryman) in the drama.

I'm looking forward to seeing that!

Reminds me of that video where someone sent a remote controlled toy car to the shop for fish feed.

Hee! Poor Daqing, being compared to a remote-controlled toy. :p

Wait... it that... the novel equivalent to the meteor in the drama??

Yeah, I think this combined with Kunlun's soulfire crashing down is where the meteor must have come from!

(Now I wonder if the meteor also created life in some way - mutations perhaps. Maybe that's where the drama's youchu come from???

[facethestrange]

"Hee! Poor Daqing, being compared to a remote-controlled toy. :p"

Lolol, he would be so offended that the workers' reaction to a cat and a toy is the same. :D :D :D

"Now I wonder if the meteor also created life in some way - mutations perhaps. Maybe that's where the drama's youchu come from???"

Ahhh, this is a fantastic idea!! They seem like such a random addition - maybe they ARE a random addition in-world too, just like novel youchu. :D

[trobadora]

They seem like such a random addition - maybe they ARE a random addition in-world too, just like novel youchu. :D

Hee, yes! New headcanon. :D