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kimonobeat

Utada Hikaru Lyrics: Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro (誰かの願いが叶うころ; When Someone Else's Wish Comes True)

English translation and romanization below the cut.

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chengyi

220907 | CHENG YI STUDIO WEIBO

madamadragon

How to be a good boyfriend: a Fang Duobing guide

N.1 help him find the mother bug for his mind-controlling insects collection

N.2 use your puppy eyes to convince him to wear matching masks

N.3 buy him a Gucci fur coat when he's sick and carry him to his master to cure him

N.4 praises his cooking even though it's awful

N.5 go to the grocery store when he asks you to

N.6 If you argued with him ambush him to clear the matter

N.7 Protect him ALWAYS

Bonus. Don't stop looking for the asshole when he ghosted you for months

qilingxiong

Sometimes you see a picture of Cheng Yi from a certain angle, and have no choice but to 發瘋. Ever so slightly.

"On your knees," Li Lianhua says, voice like soft thunder, and Fang Duobing goes.

He barely registers the impact, the collapse of himself like a slack puppet down to the floorboards; the world has narrowed to become Li Lianhua and Li Lianhua alone. His hair falls warm from his shoulder in this lamplight, figure sculpted from the dark in flickering amber. Light and shadow travel across his skin with the tilt of his head, the swallow of his throat. The rise and fall of his chest where his robes fall undone, already tugged away by Fang Duobing at his prior bidding.

A hand reaches to cradle Fang Duobing's jaw, delicate if not for its brush callouses, forcing him to look upward. Li Lianhua's thumb traces along his lip, gentle tease of pressure, and Fang Duobing's mouth parts for him before he can register his own movement. Reaching, pleading for any taste of Li Lianhua, anything—

yilan-meiyuan

so, how does li lianhua define his relationship with fang duobing, if at all?

i once read a comment under a fanghua fic that li lianhua is like a fish swimming in a stream. one moment, under the rippling surface, you can see him clearly; in the next moment, he has gone on his way.

but, to extend that thought, in those moments he is here with us, one can absolutely see the shades of his beautiful colours, if one only pays close enough attention.

li lianhua actually tells us a lot:

"if li xiangyi knew that 10 years later, there would be someone who understands him this well, he would be very happy." (xiaohua, you indeed look very happy 😭💕)

"then, henceforth, i redress the grievances from my past actions. here is to my new friend — my best friend."

there are countless moments where li lianhua implicitly communicates such friendly sentiments towards fang duobing; however, not even one post but a hundred posts wouldn't even be enough to document that in its entirety. so, let's look at what he says explicitly for now.

this is the one and only time in the entire show xiaohua says there is someone who understands him.

it can only be someone special for one who speaks of himself as a wandering lone ghost, who has lived well alone for 10 years, to say this and make room for a new addition in his life. here, he names fang duobing as not only the person who understands li xiangyi, but also, he names him as li lianhua’s very best friend. about both his past and his present selves, xiaohua happily drinks to this and officially lets xiaobao in.

we see xiaohua communicate this declaration, though quietly (but i'm not sure if you're like me, when xiaohua smiles, it's literally so loud because my heart is full every time and i remember every single one of such moments), again at the end, when every part of his identity has been laid bare to xiaobao. their multiple breakups did not weaken their bond at all. in fact, they strengthened it, as couples who do the work and argue constructively do, and they are stronger than ever.

"to prove what you had done and didn't do, the one named li xiangyi had no choice but to return alive from the bottom of the sea, and the one named li lianhua, from now on, can no longer be that carefree jianghu physician he wanted to be."

everyone, as usual, had forgotten to consider the physical and emotional labour that costed xiaohua to appear here today — except for one person. and, xiaobao is not afraid to say it, in front of the entire sigu sect and jianghu members who got together for this trial, of what they missed and took for granted, that is, to have sect leader li always come in and solve their problems.

listening to xiaobao's words, it's that same smile xiaohua had when he realized this young man in front of him who cooked a full-course meal and more waiting for him in his home, who treated him as exactly the ordinary physician li lianhua he wanted to live as, also understood and spoke for li xiangyi all the same in a way no one else ever did.

but, does that affection only extend as far as a professional relationship between a teacher and a student does?

i'm not here to blow up or go into your space to tell you what you're allowed to ship romantically, i'm too old for that (and can only hope that people would give me the same courtesy). what i will say is that there have been many heterosexual tudi/shifu romantic relationships on screen in the past and present that audiences cheered for, cried over, and loved wholeheartedly.

for instance, there is the legendary yang guo x xiaolongnv of the return of the condor heroes, my loves cui shiyi x zhousheng chen of one and only (2021), and li tongguang x ren ruyi of a journey to love (2023) who took first place in the fictional shipping weibo supertopic ranking during the show's air. so, why would romantically shipping fictional fang duobing x li lianhua who simply met as kids for one meeting and made a promise to meet again in the future to train together be a problem? they did not even hold an official apprenticeship ceremony to be deemed formal student x teacher.

if you are fine with the former fictional couples but not when it is two men, then that is perhaps something to personally reflect on.

is it age gap then — well, wei yingluo x the emperor in story of yanxi palace (2018) were 16 years apart and audiences embraced their spicy and romantic cat and mouse dynamic. i was more of a wei yingluo x the empress shipper, which had a 15 years age gap, and us 令后cp shippers back then shipped this sapphic relationship in a way that would be defined as pure love warrior today. the age gap of fang duobing x li lianhua is half of that. they are 20 and 28, 8 years apart.

ship what you like in fanon, but for me, i like to go back to canon and let it inform me. plus, what xiaohua communicates and wants matters to me above all.

when madam qin asks xiaohua if the talented young man outside is his disciple, xiaohua clearly answers, "shiniang, he is not my disciple. and, i didn't teach him much." this rejection of the formal teacher-student label is indeed something both fang duobing and li lianhua communicate. as a dear friend said to me, if li lianhua does not lie to his shiniang about his dying body, when he tricks everyone else that he has recovered, why would you assume that he is lying here about whether he has a disciple? the only logical conclusion is that yes, xiaohua is speaking from his heart here. he does not recognize he and xiaobao's relationship to be a professional one.

if you look carefully at the future incidences from this point where teacher-student is brought up between xiaohua and xiaobao when they are alone, xiaohua is purposely bringing it up because he knows it will get a reaction out of xiaobao. xiaohua uses this break as a way to distract xiaobao from further noticing his deteriorating health and seeing through his lie and peaceful visage.

then why did li lianhua explicitly name fang duobing as his disciple at the very end if not for keeping him at a distance?

if you didn't notice, xiaohua is dying. he depleted his last bit of yangzhouman at sigu sect. here, he does not know if he would wake up the next day should he lose consciousness. in a person's last moments, they would often look at their life in review. days and weeks if given the time to, or in a quick flash. when xiaohua looks up one final time to see xiaobao fussing and worrying over him, ready to do whatever it takes to save him, he says, "taking you as my disciple was not in vain." the act of taking xiaobao as his disciple was the start of their entwining fates that led them to now. this is what xiaohua thinks back to in what may have been his last moments.

what he means is: if there was one thing i did in this life that was not in vain, that got for me as much, if not more than, as what i had given, it is meeting you.

to finish off on a lighter note, xiaohua and xiaobao do quite a bit of play in their relationship. whether it was a "hero saves beauty" scheme weaved by the beauty li lianhua himself in their first meeting as adults, detective fang and sly physician li trying to get second chances and escape, or their matching leaf masks, the two of them are an absolute joy, and they love to have fun together. what is teacher-student if not yet another one of their games?

a moment of silence for alliance leader di for walking in on fanghua's (terrible, i say lovingly, these are my children) roleplay. xiaobao tried so hard and even used a formal "you." 😂🙈 the dynamic of rejecting to others a teacher-student label from being used to define their relationship while also teasing and having fun with it in private is so incredibly fun, and chinese-language romantic fanghua fan works certainly do have a lot of fun with it.

all in all, however you wish to see li lianhua and fang duobing's relationship, the canonically base level for them is that formal toast to each other at lotus tower: they are best friends. you can build from there. that is the most simple and straightforward fact of the story.

hualianisms

finding out that in the original script for mysterious lotus casebook ep 19, after FDB passionately argues that LLH wasn't arrogant, but had good intentions and simply wanted to establish a more just and moral sect in the jianghu and LLH says:

then in the original script deleted line, LLH calls FDB his 知交 zhi jiao*, not just "best friend", in this dialogue here:

*知交 zhi jiao is a term that has a similar meaning to zhi ji. something like a companion who Knows you on a profound level. for a detailed explanation of what zhi jiao means, see this twitter thread by forhenjun which talks about how zhi jiao is specifically mutual and reciprocal.)

so LLH called FDB his zhi jiao first, even way before FDB calls LLH his zhi ji... because FDB alone understood LXY's true character and intentions, unlike everyone around LXY who put him on an unfair pedestal, called him arrogant and unfairly blamed him for the fall of sigu sect. FDB, the only person who LLH felt always treated him like a regular *human being*, whether it was LXY or LLH.

(source credit: forayuarchive's translation of the ep 27 original script on twitter, which has a flashback to the original ep 19 scene with the deleted line saying zhi jiao)

yeonbam

me when I was watching this drama: damn new wifeguy just dropped

hualianisms

Not father & son, not master & disciple, but a secret third thing

First of all, let me preface this by being clear that everyone is free to headcanon anything they want and like/dislike anything they like/dislike! That being said, sometimes I see international fans interpret FDB as LLH's son, or their dynamic as parent-child or otherwise familial, and as a native chinese speaker, I just wanted to share some reasons why I personally did not interpret them as familial.

Granted, at the start of the show, FDB is kept in the dark and also not up to LLH's level of skill in solving cases. However, FDB quickly catches up in crime-solving skills, intellect and maturity by the 2nd half of the show, after a well-written growth arc. I think the beauty of the characters and relationships in this show is that they grow & evolve, and are meant to do so. The dynamic that LLH & FDB had in episode 1 is quite different from their dynamic at the end of the show. By the later episodes, they are 2 adults who are very much equals.

Why I don't read them as father & son:

LLH & FDB act and speak in a manner that is far too informal & familiar with one another, which would be extremely inappropriate for any kind of parent & child, even a surrogate one. Several times, FDB calls LLH by just his first name "Lianhua", and sometimes even calls him "Damn Lianhua" when he is angry/upset at LLH. This would be extremely rude for a disciple to call a master, or a son to call a father. No son talks to his father the way FDB talks to LLH, and no disciple talks to their master like that. Unless the son/disciple hates the father/master, and is outright rejecting his father/master altogether. As we see in the show, not only does FDB not hate LLH at all, he instead cares deeply for LLH and would do anything to save him. Why, then would someone scold/curse someone they care about? Does the trope of the upset spouse/partner sound familiar?

For comparison, see FDB's interactions with He Xiaohui, who he is close to - he is informal & affectionate with her, but never calls her anything other than "娘 niang" ("mother"). I can't emphasize enough how taboo it is in Chinese culture to ever call your parent or parental figure by their name under any circumstance.

2. In ep 31, FDB himself explicitly rejects the idea of LLH as his shifu and himself as LLH's disciple, responding that he is too old to be LLH's disciple and it was merely a joke. He clearly sees LLH as an equal, and rejects the notion of their relationship being anything other than that of 2 adult equals. LLH also tells his shiniang that FDB is not his disciple, and a few episodes ago LLH told FDB that he has never understimated FDB.

Coding/hints as something other than platonic:

Zhiji/zhijiao - FDB calls LLH his 知交 zhijiao in ep 19, and 知己 zhiji in ep 34. "In this life, I, Fang Duobing, recognize you as my only zhiji." is practically a love declaration. And this bond is reciprocated by LLH, bc in a deleted line in ep 19, translated by forayuarchive on twitter, LLH is the one who first calls FDB his zhijiao.

To clarify, Zhiji is not specifically a romantic term, but it's what was used in both The Untamed and Word of Honor - both dramas based on danmei novels with canon gay main pairings - to bypass censorship, to code the bond between the main duo as deeper than your typical platonic male friendship. (See this post for a detailed explanation of the significance/history behind the term zhiji, and see this twitter thread for an explanation of the meaning of zhijiao in MLC - especially how zhijiao is specifically mutual, reciprocated).

2. Married bickering - forayuarchive on twitter has discussed in these twitter threads how the tone of many of LLH & FDB's interactions (especially FDB) is similar to how married couples or romantic partners speak to one another bc of the level of familiarity, tone and language. For my fav example, see this note (translation by forayuarchive) that FDB left LLH in ep 35, which reads pretty much like a note that a spouse/partner might write when leaving their shared house in a hurry.

3. "Xiaobao" - Personally as a native Chinese speaker, LLH calling FDB "xiaobao" in front of everyone is a level of intimacy that genuinely would make me feel embarrassed to hear as a third party. 小宝 xiao bao (literal meaning = "little treasure") is usually something you call actual babies/children AND is FDB's family nickname for him, so if you're calling a grown man that in front of everyone including his colleagues, family and even strangers, then one might assume he is likely either your biological family or your romantic partner. (For comparison, just imagine calling your s/o their parent's special childhood nickname for them at work.)

4. Deleted lines where FDB calls LLH "xiaohua'er". 小花儿 Xiaohua'er ("little flower") is very intimate and feels like something someone might call a lover. Or, at least, definitely not a platonic shifu, even less so a parental figure. (For meta on the names that LLH & FDB use for one another, see forayuarchive's twitter thread.)

5. More deleted scenes (translated by forayuarchive on twitter), perhaps cut due to censorship, which make apparent LLH's high regard and deep care for FDB. For e.g., a line of internal monologue by LLH in ep 40, translated here by forhenjun, shows that LLH thinks of FDB as the only person in his two lifetimes who has always treated him as a human being rather than putting him on an unfair pedestal.

6. Official MLC accounts act like as if they ship them.

As murderedbyhomework mentioned, there is a song in the official soundtrack of MLC called "Fanghua's Day-to-Day Life" (yes, the exact same words as their ship name). Sounds like a couple's daily domestic life, doesn't it?

The official iQiYi Romance youtube channel lists clips of LLH & FDB under the romance category.

hualianisms

on twitter here and here, forayuarchive has been talking about how LLH & FDB really act like an old married couple, and i couldn't stop thinking about it too. as a native chinese speaker, the level of informality, familiarity and bickering, in how FDB and LLH speak to one another (especially in the later episodes) are reminiscent of how bickering old married chinese couples are often depicted.

when FDB is angry/upset at LLH, he calls him "死莲花" - "Damn Lotus/Damn Lianhua". the way FDB says it is in a manner where you might imagine old spouses scolding one another when nagging/bickering (to clarify, it's not romantic per se, but it's extremely informal & familiar).

for example, in ep 35, FDB calls him Damn Lotus in the note he left LLH when he went to look for the styx flower. CN fanghua fans on weibo managed to painstakingly transcribe the note (see forayuarchive's tweet about it here with the eng translation) - it's extremely informal and reads like a short note a spouse/partner would write when leaving their shared home in a hurry.

yilan-meiyuan

what gets me the most every time is that li lianhua remembers the day li xiangyi and fang duobing met as kids, too. fdb is not alone in reminiscing their first meeting.

in the script, more background information is given: it was on a day when lxy was eighteen, and sigu sect was bustling in preparation for their next selection of new recruits, that their young leader decided to take a stroll to the edge of the mountains away from the chatter alone. in the secluded peace and quiet, he stumbled upon and gave a ten-year-old boy arduously practicing swordsmanship by himself his word, and that boy saw the glimpse of a smile as clear and pure as spring waters he would remember forever and follow into the jianghu when he grew up.

zeng shunxi said in an interview that lxy had taught ten-year-old fdb equality then. so what if fdb used a wheelchair and needed more time than others? granted, lxy never came with the intention of changing someone's life, just that it was engrained in his values to treat all he cared for as intrinsically worthy of being equals. that was the meaning of the name he had given his sect: 四顧 (sigu) means to consider and take care of everyone in your surroundings. having a disability should not disqualify one from getting to dream to become a hero, too.

diving further into how the gifted wooden sword came about, lxy would not just happen to have a wooden sword from his childhood carried on his body. logically, he must have seen fdb training alone more than once and chosen to return to his chambers to his chest of belongings to have come back with a sword personally engraved with his name, "xiangyi," to give to him.

sigu sect had countless disciples they would select year after year, but lxy was never known for wanting to take one of his own. except for one — fdb was lxy's exception and forever would be lxy's one and only personal disciple.

moreover, within lxy's last words to fdb then was a notable line: "come and find me." when lxy died and was reborn as llh, no one in sigu sect, no one from his past was capable of finding him. this flashback is the one instance of lxy asking for someone to find him in a story where llh doesn't want to be found by the world.

lxy had asked fdb to find him, and here fdb is ten years later, at his heels and then side by side, together under the full moon, that classic symbol of reunion. this is the first of many full moons the show uses to depict llh and fdb.

as well, this is the first of many parallels and contrasts drawn by the show between llh's relationships with fdb and qiao wanmian. in this flashback, we hear the soundtrack titled 阿娩的月光 ("a-mian's moonlight") play in the background in its first rendering. related is the term 白月光 (white moonlight), often used to describe one's first love, for better or for worse because your white moonlight is often one you would hold your future relationships up in comparison to (sometimes perhaps a bit unfairly).

as people say, those who have departed will always be more beautiful in memory. fdb and qwm are indeed paralleled in that lxy occupies an irreplaceable spot in their hearts, but they are also contrasted in the same breath because when fdb gets to meet lxy again, it is ten years later as his partner-in-crime(solving) llh he can have fun with and mess with to his heart's content.

in addition, we get the first shot of lxy secretly eating candy, an image and motif that will keep coming up. as we will see in front of lxy's portrait, fdb bridges the gap to the white moonlight everyone had viewed as an unattainable goal they wanted to chase, compare to, and surpass. people forget how young lxy was back then. he was a kid who loved sweets. he is the moonlight twenty-year-old fdb wants to warm.

to conclude, mysterious lotus casebook is a story about the realisms of interpersonal relationships, of their trials and tribulations, and of endings and new beginnings.

you could have a group of comrades around you fighting for seemingly the same goal only to have them give up your ideals the moment trouble arises and then slander you relentlessly in public. you could be in a relationship with someone for ten years and accept their family engagement heirloom yet not know them at all. one instance could brew envy in a moment of vulnerability and lead to utter contempt you had no inkling of was just sleeping in the bed next to yours.

so then, how beautiful and hopeful is fanghua thematically because at the same time elsewhere where one action and one word could spark an endless battle and storm of hate, one action and one word could also be the light in someone else's life and they would in return remind you ten years later that you did do something great. lxy may not have been able to save the world as he had strived, but he protected ten-year-old fdb's dreams, and to fdb, that had meant the world.