💭 well you knew this was coming :) headcanons about hmmmm. idk, literally anything relating to shiguang that you haven't already talked about! :D
Okay so I know I'm insanely late on this, buttttt, I did write a lot of them to hopefully make it up to you! They're all about their college years because I'm still fascinated by the concept of what their lives look like outside of the photo studio.
(Even though I can't think about it too hard because why the heck would they live in the dorms when their college is seemingly in the same town and they already have a place to live?? I guess it hasn't actually been confirmed that CXS and LG lived in the dorms, only QL with Xu Shanshan, right? And somehow QL is a year older and LG is younger but they all graduated at the same time? And was college two or four years if they're 21/22 but have been out of college for two years?? I've stopped trying to make sense of it...)
So without further ado, Shiguang College Headcanons™:
Lu Guang majored in business because that’s what his parents expected and he really had no prospects for himself otherwise. He minored in photography both because he was inspired by Cheng Xiaoshi and to share classes with him.
Cheng Xiaoshi always knew he’d major in photography, but after he decided to open his parents’ studio he decided to also minor in business.
So at any point during their college years they were sharing at least two classes.
LG was always jealous of the passion CXS had for photography - he was interested, sure, but he found he wasn’t passionate about *anything*, really. But photography was soothing, especially because he couldn’t read the ones he took, and he enjoyed spending that time with CXS so he kept taking the classes instead of switching to something else.
As part of their photography assignments they spent a lot of hours in the darkroom. Sometimes Lu Guang would just hang out there silently or take a nap while Cheng Xiaoshi finished developing photos for his more advanced classes. It’s also where they had their first kiss.
Lu Guang definitely had to help Cheng Xiaoshi with the business classes. Qiao Ling took accounting and finance, so they had one or two classes that overlapped, but either way they tag teamed Cheng Xiaoshi and gave him shit for how bad he was with numbers.
Cheng Xiaoshi drove them crazy because he always had a camera on him, which meant going *anywhere* with him inevitably took twice as long because he kept stopping to take photos of things that caught his eye. Usually this wasn’t a problem unless Cheng Xiaoshi was being quiet, because that meant it would take them a moment to realize he’d been left behind at the last corner taking a picture of something interesting he found.
Lu Guang secretly finds CXS’s leather camera harness extremely hot.
Cheng Xiaoshi had a phase where, finally freed from being in school with people who knew about his parents and his behavioral problems, he tried to befriend as many people as he could and go to parties and generally revel in his charm. Eventually, he realizes those superficial moments and relationships don’t leave him anywhere as fulfilled as a movie night with LG and QL, and somehow he also ends up second guessing how much he’s actually wanted and welcome at these parties and so he feels just as lonely as before. Unfortunately, Lu Guang has to deal with a drunk and maudlin CXS way too many times before he figures it out and stops.
QL, being a year ahead of them, tries to impart all her wisdom onto CXS and watch out for him more or less as she always has - and is surprised when LG has basically beaten her to it. Announcement that student IDs need to be replaced by end of the week? LG has already told CXS. Reminder to fill out the form to change a class to pass/fail grading in time? LG’s already reminded him. CXS wakes up hungover? LG already gave him aspirin, water, and some solid food by the time QL shows up. It leaves her feeling off kilter and oddly jealous for a bit until she accepts this is a good thing - and LG’s not perfect so he *does* need her help with him still.
CXS is on the basketball intramural team - LG occasionally joins during practice or if they need an extra player, but he’s on the literature magazine club instead, reading entries and voting on what will make it to this year’s publication. QL doesn’t stick to one club for long, but volunteers across several, which means she has a huge network of people she knows. At one point she serves as the student council treasurer.
So uh... there you have it, some scattered college headcanons lol
