I've been hoarding Huang Ziteng content for awhile, and his 520 douyin finally shook it all loose from my stash.
If you're a fan of The Untamed (a good guess if you're even seeing my tumblr posts), then you know Huang Ziteng as the actor who plays Lan Qiren, the very uptight and upright leader of the Lan sect.
He's a wild man with no Fs to give and I adore him.
So anyway... in contrast to Lan Qiren, who very much disapproved of his nephew's association with Wei Wuxian, Huang Ziteng has for years shown his support for Wang Yibo and Xiao Zhan... and whatever relationship they have.
For 520 this year, he showed his support by posting a douyin at 18:23 of him digging around in his Magsafe and eventually pulling out an image of a green and red heart and mole:
Why did people get so excited about this? A few reasons: First, when Yibo went to Los Angeles for a Chanel event, he posted (and then deleted) a photo of himself holding a phone with a Magsafe wallet attached to it.
It's not an unusual phone accessory, but fans took notice because Xiao Zhan had posted photos from his trip to Europe that showed he has the same Magsafe wallet on his own phone.
It ended up being an even bigger thing because Yibo deleted his image from Instagram (landing him on a Hot Search), so one has to wonder whether Huang Ziteng knew this when he posted his douyin. It's a safe bet that he did, since, you know, he spent 10 seconds rooting around in his Magsafe to pull out that green/red heart image... like... why.
Second, that green/red heart with a mole! Why is that significant? For that, we go back exactly one year to 520 in 2022, when Huang Ziteng posted that same image to Weibo at... wait for it... 18:23.
Huang Ziteng posted at 18:23 this year on 520 AND last year on 520? 520 is, of course, a day to celebrate love in China, since it means "I love you" in kadian.
And turtles know the 18:23 timestamp as a siren-loud kadian that means "Yibo loves Zhan" ... and then we have this green/red heart mole image too?
I mean, LOOK AT IT... it has the same shape as the heart mole that Yibo first drew in October 2018, after The Untamed wrapped, down to the way the point of the heart turns to the left. It's pretty uncanny.
And the heart is both red (Xiao Zhan's favorite color) and green (Yibo's favorite color). On top of that, the heart is bisected by a little car and a swab. Why is that significant?
For that, we have to go back to mid-May 2022, when Yibo had wrapped Born to Fly and then drove some absurd distance (reportedly 12-16 hours) to get to Beijing, where Xiao Zhan was filming Where Dreams Begin.
Back then, Beijing (like most cities in China) was in lockdown because of the pandemic, and residents were required to take daily Covid tests. Xiao Zhan was no exception.
According to rumors then (the truth of which I never tried to confirm), Yibo and Yanyan's test results came up among the test results for Xiao Zhan and his Where Dreams Begin co-stars. If true, this was a horrifying violation of privacy for all the people involved. And if the rumors then were to be believed, this happened more than a couple of times in May.
True or not, it was A Thing last year, and so when Huang Ziteng's post went up on 520, it caused a big stir because it appeared to validate the rumors that Yibo had driven to Beijing to be with Xiao Zhan and that they took Covid tests together on multiple occasions. (I remember at the time that mtjj were insisting that Yibo had not gone to Beijing at all, which made the rumored test result leaks even more contentious.)
Read here for a fan theory that the green/red heart mole was actually drawn by Xiao Zhan himself and given to Huang Ziteng to post for plausible deniability.
So let's look at Huang Ziteng's 2022 520 post again:
Putting aside the loud timestamp and the green/red heart mole image, the caption read to me like a fist-in-the-air cry for queer rights:
"Love is a flower growing at the edge of cliff, one must have courage if they wish to pluck it, if you hope for love that blossoms splendidly, you've got to love bravely love fiercely love boldly! On 520 let's love bravely!"
I mean, let's be honest... het couples don't really need to be encouraged to have the courage to love, to love bravely and boldly. And apparently, "love bravely" is indeed a common catchphrase to show support for the queer community in China.
And if there were still doubt that this was meant to refer to Yizhan, Huang Ziteng also posted a douyin of the green/red heart mole, and captioned it, "Free as the wind, love without reason [using a homonym for fear]"... and then he added the hashtags #520romantic and #shufuismoved.
Shufu is moved??? There's no reason to call himself "Shufu" unless he's referring to his CQL role and his connection through that drama to Yibo and Xiao Zhan.
So to me, this is all clearly about Yibo's rumored all-night drive into a locked-down city to be with his love, despite the risk that the daily covid testing could expose them. And whether Huang Ziteng created the image himself or agreed to be the vehicle for getting it out there, he was clearly moved by the grand and brave love it demonstrates, and I am so soft for that.
But here's the thing... these two posts weren't even the first times Huang Ziteng posted coded messages about Yizhan using the 18:23 timestamp. He's done it at least two other times, in 2020 and in 2021.
In 2021, he posted pictures of himself wearing blindingly-bright yellow pants (the color of Yizhan's CP), and recited the catchphrase, 北京有雪 (or BeiJing You Xue), which means "Beijing has snow" and is another way to say BJYX.
And the 18:23 timestamp? Just call him Uncle Turtle, honestly. Please enjoy this delightful douyin of him dancing in those bright yellow pants.
Then in 2020, he posted this eye-popping post on 9/13 (Yizhan day), also at 18:23:
The caption says, "Xiao pengyou [I don't know who this refers to but I giggled because it means "little kid" — something Xiao Zhan has called Yibo before in bts] and I received a gift, so happy." And then Huang Ziteng says this: "You can't see the essence of things with your eyes, you have to use your heart."
What does that mean? Is he referencing a hidden, secret relationship? And what's with the Little Prince and rose? Both Xiao Zhan and Yibo have a connection to the Little Prince — it has been an icon on Xiao Zhan's Weibo page for a long time, and Yibo was recorded reading from the book shortly before filming CQL.
And why do these trinkets in the post look like wedding favors? Is that what he meant when he said he got a gift that made him happy? Inquiring minds want to know!
Not long before the Little Prince post, Huang Ziteng posted another doozy of a douyin, just a few days after Yibo had performed his dragon fist dance, which featured a giant dragon animation as part of the staging:
Huang Ziteng's douyin didn't just feature a dragon animation, but also an animation of its legendary mate, the phoenix. Why is that significant?
For the new year's celebration at the end of 2019, Xiao Zhan and Yibo performed on separate stages, but with complementary staging... Yibo performed Wugan on a water-soaked blue stage, while Xiao Zhan performed Shen Qi on a fiery-red stage.
Water and fire. And in 2020, the imagery of Xiao Zhan as a fiery phoenix rising from ashes was never more meaningful... in August of that year, he was still largely hidden from the public eye.
So for Huang Ziteng to post a douyin of the dragon and phoenix, right after Yibo's dragon fist dance, and to use Xiao Zhan's vocals from X-NINE's song, "May I Have Your Heart" as the background music (while dancing down a street dressed in pink, Yibo's color of love)... it felt very much like a statement.
Huang Ziteng made an even more pointed statement in support of Xiao Zhan in June of 2020, at a time when many could or would not speak up for him. Huang Ziteng bucked that trend and praised Xiao Zhan, saying he hoped to see his flawless smile again soon. I adore Huang Ziteng for having the courage to stand up like this.
A couple of other delightful posts from Huang Ziteng... here's one from January 2020 featuring an image of a red envelope where he congratulated Yizhan for getting rich... he might be depicting himself as Lan Qiren (as the god of wealth, perhaps?), but the congratulations are obviously directed at Yibo and Xiao Zhan:
And when Hidden Blade was released, Huang Ziteng posted a photo of his movie ticket stubs in a show of support for Yibo's movie debut:
But he didn't forget Xiao Zhan, even in this post about Hidden Blade... note the timestamp: 17:23 (一起爱战, or yiqi ai zhan... "together love Zhan") and the funny coincidence of his showtime being 10:05 (Xiao Zhan's birthdate).
And finally, in April this year, Rufeng released an interview of Huang Ziteng, in which he reminisced about filming CQL... in particular the fun that Yizhan had together that first day.
As Huang Ziteng says in the video: "Remember the blooper, 'Don't think Lan Zhan is your mother!' I didn't know why after I said it Yibo laughed so happily. I was wondering what was wrong. Then afterwards he did what mothers do, so concerned about Wei Wuxian, he chased him and fed him wontons. Yes, they had the most jokes that day when they were kneeling. The ground was slippery that day, and then later on, Xiao Zhan ran over and fell very hard. We didn't dare to laugh, because I didn't know them well at that time, it was the first day. If this had happened later, we would have laughed so hard. Didn't it come out? It's a pity. This should be all there, right? It's all recorded."
It's so lovely to see in this interview how fondly he remembers Yizhan from that very first day of filming... the laughs they had, the care they had for each other (and oh my god, he even referenced the wontons, he's such a blatant turtle haha). It's no wonder Huang Ziteng has been such a steadfast supporter of them over the years.
Everyone should have such a loving uncle to encourage and celebrate them like he has. ❤️💚
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