Jiang Ying knows how to set her trap and make her prey walk into it too.
Her handy trick with the shawl, though, beckoned not only the Dad (who isn't really the Dad) but also the Young master to her. And Xunyu Du has enough sense to recognize danger when he sees it.
Maybe that's the first hint that he's not really this old guy's son- smarter and less lecherous.
Very hot and very much scandalous! Young master, Mr. Du, knocking off the rogue in his haste; the gold of the rogue soiling their hands; the water droplets on the tips of his hair; one of them sliding down her collarbone; the pearls on her dress; and the pattering of rain outside. Everything about the scene is aesthetically pleasing, sexually charged, scandalous, and forbidden. And I loved every bit of it. Right down to Dad's bullet hitting the mirror and shattering the reflection of the clandestine lovers.
And this is just the introductory scene of all of 3 mins max.
Hi there TT! Hoping this trip of yours gave you the much needed break and the strength to deal with this unbearable show that remains only in FFs for me now. On that note, have you, by any chance, read this short story on RiKara by Sakura24 called 'Everything I Do' on IF? It's one of those exceptionally written pieces, with its fair share of angst, romance and emotion. If you haven't read it, I'd highly recommend it, and love to hear your take on it! Balti bhar bhar ke Tia's Reikis your way!
Hi anon!
I *don’t think* I have, but definitely bookmarked for lunch break reading! 🤓🤓🤓
Selected excerpts from Xiao Zhan's Global People interview
Our interview with Xiao Zhan took place in the depths of the night. During the day, he had been busy with training camp for a new movie, and at night he attended a taping of a promotional program for his new show which ran until almost midnight. In the lounge which had been converted into our interview space hung the two outfits he wore today. Two pairs of white trainers sat on the ground. Once the equipment and the lights had been set up, there was almost no space to move.
After he finished the taping, Xiao Zhan changed as quickly as he could, fixed his hair and hurried to the lounge. Near the door, he stopped for just a moment, slowed his steps, came in. Greeted me coolly, sat quietly. Staff bustled around him, adjusting lighting, checking the mic. As he picked up and carefully read through the interview outline, there seemed to be a spotlight beaming down from above his head, separating him from the noise of the outside world, leaving only a man immersed in thought.
It seemed to be a habit of Xiao Zhan's to have some paper on hand. Acting coach Yang Xu, who has worked with him many times, once described him as "constantly with a script in hand". This comes partly from anxiety about the role, and also the respect he has for the character. As an actor with no professional training, Xiao Zhan still maintains a conscientious approach to performance.
This attitude, lurking beneath the surface, has been crucial to quietly helping him make the transformation from quantity to quality. In the past three years, Xiao Zhan starred in the play A Dream Like A Dream, with more than ten thousand characters of dialogue; there have been a steady stream of releases, ranging from costume to modern dramas, from fantasy to realist; when the TV series Where Dreams Began was released in June, audiences saw a more mature "actor Xiao Zhan".
"I think the way in which I'm most like Xiao Chunsheng is that if we decide on the right thing to do, we will persist with it all the way. In the show, Xiao Chunsheng had to make a lot of different choices as society changed around him, but the core of what he insisted on never changed, including how he is with his friends, family, and his life's work. He's kind of an obstinate person," Xiao Zhan told us.
"When people talk about you in the future, what do you hope they'll say?" We asked him.
"That show he was in recently was pretty good," Xiao Zhan says, smiling.
This is his intent, to be an actor who is known for his work. In recent years, Xiao Zhan has increasingly felt the special connection an actor has to the act of performance. At the end of the work day, back in his hotel room, he would often think back on the day with a strange sense of satisfaction.
"I'd feel really pleased, like oh, actually that scene was decent, all that hard work was worth it." Or he'd reflect, "that scene wasn't my best, if I could do it again I'd do better."
"Audiences tend to have a harsher, more critical view of non-professionally trained actors who attract a lot of attention like yourself. How do you view these comments?"
Three years ago, at an event to commemorate 110 years since the birth of the playwright Cao Yu, Xiao Zhan had a conversation with Cao Yu's daughter Wan Fang. Xiao Zhan asked her: "is truthfulness the most important thing in doing creative work?"
"With equanimity. Like the line from Where Dreams Begin, 'the more difficult road is the one heading up'. If their comments have merit, then I'll take them on board and make changes next time. For me, an actor speaks through their works, so everything should serve the work."
Wan Fang replied with a line from her play 'Winter's Journey': "There's no single path toward truth, truth is its own path."
Xiao Zhan carried this answer with him. He knew that this was also the attitude one should take to performing - there are no shortcuts on the way to a good performance; it can only be achieved through sincerity and persistence.
Spiders. Flickering, dangling lights. A world angularly tilted between light and dark, winter and draught, beneath a torn sky.
There are snowflakes on his shoulders, in his hair – beads of perspire gathering on his brow, beads of sweat rolling down his throat. A man of contradictions, who remains calm when his eyes speak of chaos.
It might have taken trillions of codes or more, to make something so surreal look almost true, almost terrifying, almost heartbreaking and almost human.
The thought seems to hang between them.
Almost human.
A slacking grip, a damp palm, and the steel beneath it. It makes all the difference between then and now, between fear and fight, between vulnerability and control - between nightmares and this.
There is no winter on her, no shadows where the beams of light bounces over her. Yet she feels the draught, feels the distant claws of her own nightmares running along her spine.
He takes a step, crosses that perfect point of angular contrast.
Her grip on the weapon tightens.
His face is no longer obscured by the shadows – or the gap in her own memory. She waits a beat for the terror to kick in, for the thumping blood – the scattering heart and the chill.
None comes.
Some distant, still coherent and firmly planted in reality – part of her brain wonders if the system had failed to stand up to its promise, if there was an error somewhere.
The man takes another step and she stumbles.
He reaches out with a hand – unexpected – a glitch – and grips her elbow. Against leather she feels those fingers – and her flesh doesn’t crawl.
The movement brings them closer, close enough for the steel barrel to press against its target. It is not quite the way she expects to hunt down her nightmare – she’d not see the bullet finding its mark. It feels wrong somehow – like one code in those trillions had gone awry, creating variables that were not supposed to exist in this instance.
In the flickering light she takes in those chaotic eyes, replicated from the data of her own suppressed memories, and marvels at the casual ease with which a systematic replication of her deep-rooted fear holds her gaze.
As if it is not a pre-written function, an encoded scenario. As if there was an intelligence behind those eyes making minute decisions on its own.
NEMESIS doesn’t glitch. She remembers the assurances, the stats, the repeated training. The greatest innovation of the century, the zenith of human intelligence – the revered system was glitching in front of her.
When she is still wondering how screwed up the program is at this point – how to execute a forced logout with minimum damage – the phantom smiles and speaks, completely out of its programmed functions.
“Hello Dutch – hunting me - are you?”
*
Continued in short chapters. Follow tag #nemesis to read.
Very annoyed over what happened. A few YXH started dragging in an actor from a movie that XZ had nothing to do it, and 🏍 /antifans started pulling in XZ for essentially *blocking the gun* aka divert the attention, and it's tiring.
To dearest 🏍, not every paid YXH who drags your idol is a XFX (No hate to your idol here). Pulling in XZ as some sort of a flex to block attacks to your idol is never right.
And quit spreading XZ fans are running away. No they aren't. None of us are climbing the walls.
Anyways after many days today many fansites esp XFX fansites stood up together. Proudly. Vowing never to follow anybody but their idol XZ.
Just wanted to tell you that you have a beautiful way with your words. The way you weave them into sentences and paragraphs makes me feel like I am actually their watching the plot ‘Agni Parva’ unfold in front of my eyes. A small question, can we expect an update soon?
Thank you! Ah...music to my ears. I'm working on the next update, but a little under the weather at the moment so can't promise exactly when it would be.
Watched the longest promise, had multiple break downs. SY is gorgeous, fuck we don't deserve his elegance. Also ZY is such a good character and their chemistry and story was *chef's kiss.
Saw an edit on twitter of SY and WY being twins. Had another break down. Came up with this disastrous and silly AU. (A mix of cql and mdzs novel) (Feel free to use it 😁)
When Baoshan Sanren took little Shi Liu to her mountain, she gave her the courtesy name Cangse and officially dubbed her as her disciple.
Years later Cangse Sanren gave birth to a twin, Shi Ying was born first, easily getting calm when put into changze's arms, named after her mother's maiden name. Then a minute later came wei ying, hollering and bawling his eyes out. Named after his father. It took a while for him to calm down in cangse's arms.
When changze asked her why the character for wei ying's first name was different than shi ying's she laughed and said he was the youngest, so of course he is my "baby".
They had four happy years together until fate decided to take away the twins parents from them.
The twins waited a year in the streets of yilling, starved homeless but having each other as company. Until one day shi ying went to find food for them but didn't return.
The rest of the story happened the same.
In the battle of nightless city wei ying jumped off the cliff ready to die, but then later he opened his eyes staring at his face looking back at him.
Later Shi ying told him that when he went to get food for them all those years ago, dogs attacked him and he was injured badly, when he finally gained his consciousness, he was told that he was brought in to the mountain by their mothers master baoshan sanren. It took two years for him to convince her to look for wei ying but by the time she went back to yilling wei ying was gone.
Shi ying then swore to become a powerful cultivator like their parents and to help people, he eventually managed to reach immortality and baoshan sanren left him the mountain and ascended to godhood. He got married to another discipline named zhu yan. He told wei ying his wife and had a similar personality to wei ying so they became fast friends :).
I guess then wei ying told him about his life and what he went through and shi ying helped him develop another core and told him he would be by his side if he ever wanted to revenge but wei ying told him there's no reason for him to get back to the cultivation world.
13 years later when a curse appeared on wei ying's arm, the twins, with zhu yan accompanying them, went to mo village together to solve the mystery of the mo manor.
Then lan zhan dealing with the fact that apparently we ying is alive(??) And has a twin brother(??) Who's literally second in power compared to immortal(now a heavenly official/god??) baoshan sanren (also shi ying is so much like him based on his manners that shufu would qi deviate again if he learns cangse sanren had another son), and tries to get along with his brother in law.
