#lang junxia

[ratkingdotsai2]

[image ids contain light joyful reunion spoilers]

rough joyful reunion sketches I've done today, as you can see the brainrot is still very real

[cranky-otaku]

Done with Joyful Reunion.

I don’t think I’ve felt like this in a long while after finishing a story. If ever? It’s quite novel to still feel devastated after a happy ending …

But overall I think I have to rank this pretty high not just on my list of favorite Feitian novels, but even in my top 10. Though that means I’ll have to bump something off the list then. But which one?

Story wise, I’m reminded a lot of Luan Shi Wei Wang because of the wars and imperial shenanigans. In terms of characters though, I think Joyful Reunion has an edge - LSWW has one of my most beloved MLs in Li Zhifeng, and I loved You Miao for his brilliance. But other than the leads, I didn’t get attached to any of the side characters. (In fact, I wasn’t a fan of Zhao Chao at all.) Now with JR … not just Duan Ling and Wu Du, but Li Jianghong, Li Yanqiu, Mu Qing, Chang Liujun, Batu, Zongzheng, Helian Bo, Xunchun, Ding Zhi, Master Fei, even Sun Ting and Shulu Rui … but most of all LANG JUNXIA. This may be the first time my favorite character from a story was not one of the leads. Without spoiling much, let’s just say that the angst I felt was because of Li Jianghong and Lang Junxia.

[foxghost]

Hello, I just want to let you know you are the best for translating Joyful Reunion. I can feel your love and dedication to this novel with your translations, thank you so much for translating it. Now on to the question - why was Lang Junxia so enigmatic and why wouldn’t he answer Duan Ling’s questions about his intentions?

Because some people would rather die than talk FEELINGS O_O (I'm putting the spoilers under this cut)

Lang Junxia initially decided against telling Duan Ling anything after seeing the fear in his eyes when they saw each other face-to-face again in the alleyway in book 2. His first priority was Duan Ling's safety. Was he safe? Yes, he was staying with Wu Du under the chancellor's roof under an assumed name. So he needn't worry -- until he left for Tongguan.

Then books later on, when they're essentially working together, he didn't think there was a need to tell him. By then, he knew he had to "die" officially because the court officials needed their pound of flesh and he was glad to give it, just not literally since he knew Duan Ling would have need of him during the war. But if he allowed Duan Ling to get any more attached to him, Duan Ling would ask for leniency on his behalf -- this isn't good for his status as heir or the future emperor, so he kept his distance.

(Well of course Duan Ling was going to ask for mercy anyway, so Lang Junxia had to beat him to the punch)

I think he may have told Duan Ling in Luoyang inside that interrogation room. If Duan Ling had acted even more like his father and deduced all of Lang Junxia's actions during the poisoning and afterwards, then just throws them in his face not as questions but as statements, Lang Junxia would have admitted to it all with his silence. But Duan Ling wasn't Li Jianhong and didn't have his ability to sacrifice his underlings when necessary, so he just held his tongue again.

To figure out what's in Lang Junxia's head, since Feitian isn't going to tell us, we have to keep him mind that Lang Junxia will always consider "would telling Duan Ling the truth be good for his growth as the ruler of the empire", and I think that by the time he planned to leave, he'd decided that telling him would be unnecessary. (Even that letter is OOC -- but it needed to be there for OUR benefit.) By assuming that the person he trusted most had betrayed him, Duan Ling had matured in ways that he never would have by depending on everyone around him. This is further proven by his lack of character growth in the Watchtowers extra.

[ratkingdotsai2]

I slept three hours last night and I'm about to make it everyone's problem so I present

joyful reunion characters send you a valentine's day card

cw: spoilers for ending and extras, multishipping, terrible jokes, knives

duan ling: it's a very pretty card, the paper has flower petals and rare plants embedded into it. in it, he reveals that he's the crown prince of your kingdom, and begs you to never treat him differently, even after he ascends to the throne

wu du: he personalized the card with pictures and drawings of things you like, and it smells very good (almost too good if we're being honest... and you start feeling a little drowsy after opening it). he put some trinkets he thought you'd like inside the envelope as well. however, the post scriptum asks you to remind him what your name is

lang junxia: there is a card, but he hid it so well that you won't find it until six months after you two break up. inside there are all the words he didn't tell you while you were together. you find yourself wishing you'd never broken up with him, and go stargazing on your own

zheng yan: there's no card. he's already in your house, naked covered only by a bouquet of flowers, and a five course meal with accompanying wine menu is ready on the table

A LOT more under the cut dkdkfkf but this post is already too long

chang liujun: the card is plain and the handwriting on it is terrible, but it's fully handwritten, and you can tell how much effort he put into it. it asks if he can bring his son protegé on your date

borjigin batu: there's no card. he kidnaps you and takes you to his house, where he gifts you a dagger and begs you to become his anda

helian bo: he bought an over the top card from a chain, but his handwritten note inside is very thoughtful. however, it says that he has been promised in marriage to your distant cousin, and you can't be together

cai yan: the card is very cute, covered in little doodles he drew while overthinking what he should write in it. several versions of the same message are crossed out, and you think the crossed out versions are better than the final message. it begs you to never leave him

yelu zhongzhen: it's a beautiful, handcrafted, and clearly expensive card. the words inside are concise, but will remain with you for a lifetime. you understand that you will never see each other again, unable to forget the little time you had together

li jianghong: it's an anonymous piece of paper with a cryptic poem instructing you where to meet him at midnight on valentine's day. the last words are 'burn after reading'

li yanqiu: it's handwritten on expensive paper with the imperial stamp on it. it summons you to the palace with utmost urgency. are you getting executed or married? who knows, probably not even him

lang junxia: there's no card. he attempts an assassination on you on valentine's day three years in a row. it fails each time

li yanqiu: there's no card. he sends zheng yan to kidnap summon you

zheng yan: the card is plain but tasteful. inside it he promises you the marquis of huaiyin's loyalty to the li family

wu du: the card is blank, but as soon as you touch it, the poison enters your bloodstream and you drop dead. as you draw your last breath, you remember that one time when you were a little too friendly with duan ling

cai wen: it's a store bought card, but exactly to your taste. he asks if you mind if he brings his little brother on your date

li jianghong: it's another anonymous scrap of paper. it asks if you can find his son and raise him for five years

lang junxia (again. sorry): there's no card. he makes you a shrine instead. yes, the whole building, including a hand painted mural. it's unfinished though

duan ling: you happen to both be at an event together, and he asks you to speak in private. you think he's going to give you a card, but he slaps you and calls you an ungrateful, unfilial, unworthy corrupt official instead

yao zheng: you haven't spoken with her in years after a disagreement. in the card, she apologises for that, and then talks herself into another argument with you

duan xiaowan: you two never really dated. she left you a sheet of paper informing you that she's pregnant and that she'll raise the child on her own, good luck finding them. thankfully you happen to know a guy

mu kuangda: the card asks if you want to be his co-conspirator and overthrow the government with him (old man yaoi rights)

fei hongde: it's not a card, it's a ten page essay on how to manage the city you govern

li xiao: the card is expensive and beautiful. inside, it says that she holds the vast majority of the military power in huaiyin and to tread very carefully if you want to keep your head on your shoulders (for a character with no more than three lines of dialogue I love her very much)

bian lingbai: the card is very friendly and flattering. he invites you to see his secret stash of gold. you're certain there's no nefarious intent behind this (sorry if this is inaccurate, it's been a while since I read this arc sjdkfkf)

xie you: it's not a card, it's a letter with the shadow guard's stamp on it. all it does is ask if you know the location of the other half of the jade arc

lang junxia (sorry I have to exhaust all the lang junxia ships): the card promises that no matter what happens, you'll go through it together. you really want to believe that he won't abandon you like everyone else did, but deep down, you know he will. you accept anyway (I'll be so fr i can't remember if this is novel canon, audio drama canon, or a fic I read. if it is a fic and you're the one who wrote it, fuck you thank you for getting me into langcai)

duan ling: there's no card. he barges into your house screaming that someone is trying to kill him and you're completely lovestruck. you ask him to marry you right there and then (zhongling my precious underappreciated ship)

borjigin batu: the card is anonymous. you open it and there's no message, only a picture of a dog made of lettuce leaves

chang pin: the card just asks you for help to find some guy you've never heard of. you think it's very suspicious so you accept just to keep an eye on him. he mysteriously disappears a few days later

han bin: the card informs you that he burnt your birth certificate

zheng yan: the card relentlessly makes fun of you. it informs you that, if only you were a decade younger, he'd happily go at it with you for three days and three nights straight (listen that part is too funny not to use it skdkfl we have langzheng rights in this household)

I'm pretty sure I exhausted all characters in foxghosts' reference index that have actual dialogue lmao (plus duan xiaowan bc she's a queen and she simply must be included anyway)

[ratkingdotsai2]

"maybe I should reread xjh" I say in between sobs

[foxghost]

can you tell me more about langjun TT I really like him even though there is very little information about him, or his past. I hope someone writes fics about langjun please.

An opportunity to go off about Lang Junxia! Thank you, anon! =3=

When Feitian wrote our Langjun he left us a lot of blank spots — which means you're free to headcanon a lot of stuff. Here's what I am sure of (spoiler alert! and all that):

He was Prince Wuluohou Mu, of the Empire of Wuluohou, before it fell. (although Feitian seems to have made it more than a nomadic empire), which means he's probably one of the Shiwei people.

They fled into the Xianbei Mountains, and when he was 8 years old, a great battle (War of Chang Forest) between Yuan and Chen, and he was adopted by Li Xin of Tempered Sword Terrace (Li Xin was working for the general who led the attack in the Xianbei Mountains) as a disciple, and that's probably the man who named him "Lang Junxia".

BTW, according to the last book in the series, one half of the jade arc went to the Prince of Xianbei, to be kept for perpetuity and for there to always be peace between the two empires. So it may be possible that Langjun had that one half of the jade arc — which explains how Li Jianhong ended up with both of them. (It wouldn't make sense otherwise --- either Li Yanqiu or his dad should have been holding the other one) That's my headcanon anyway. It's unconfirmed.

He probably doesn't remember being a prince at all. He's a sentimental person, and his memories of being loved come from living in the Xianbei mountains.

He was engaged to someone before he was 8 years old, and she died during the Battle of Chang Forest; she was Mrs Feilian's daughter. Whenever he passes by the area, he would leave flowers on her grave, and they would be the rare kind of flowers that grow on a side of a cliff that is hard to get to without climbing.

Somewhere between the age of 8 and 18, Lang Junxia killed his adoptive father and his entire martial arts school and took the Qingfengjian to avenge his family.

His first meeting with Li Jianhong was likely an assassination attempt.

Somewhere around this time period, he saved Duan Xiaowan's life. They're very close, but it was only platonic. There's some fanon floating around that he was in love with her, but later extra hints that the one he was in love with was Li Jianhong.

The guy is TOUGH. Recall the Battle of Shangjing, for instance — after getting wounded during his fight with Xunchun, he chased down Helan Jie and chopped off his arm, and then searched all over the place killing Mongolian soldiers the whole way tracking down Duan Ling. During the battle of Tongguan, he was heavily wounded, poisoned, and then days later he's hopping all over the battlefield.

His love for Duan Ling has always been a combination of ruler/subject and father/son.

He's 19 years older than Duan Ling.

All four houses of White Tiger Hall was given a pill that can bring someone back from the verge of death. He gave his pill to Duan Ling the minute they met.

He lies often and expertly. This is a man who lived with an adoptive family for years and killed them overnight, probably in their sleep. He probably walked out of this not feeling like vengeance mean anything either, because for someone who's supposed to be a cold-blooded killer he gets attached real easily.

He can paint very well, and he has wonderful handwriting. He was educated like royalty.

He is very good with kids and can be very charming — notably, Yao Zheng would much rather go play with Lang Junxia than Wu Du.

He's also a very good flautist and this is def not just about being royal, bc Li Jianhong is AWFUL at it.

You can name more people Lang Junxia failed to kill than successfully killed in the book, see: Li Jianhong (3 attempts), Fei Hongde (1 attempt), Ding Zhi (almost slit her throat), Duan Ling ... (actually none at all but I'm sure you guessed that already)

So, traditionally, the two halves of the Li family jade arcs were kept by 1) the ruler 2) his guard. A tradition passed down from before the founding of the previous dynasty. In the case of Yingnu's Li Qingcheng and Zhang Mu, they were also lovers.

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER alert: Lang Junxia will spend the last years of his life painting a fresco of Li Jianhong as the White Tiger constellation god with his hand outstretched, a jade arc in his palm. Make of that what you will.

[bellaroles]

What if he did all this because of curiosity? No attachment, no reasons, nothing. Just pure curiosity to see what'd happen next when inserting certain variables?

[foxghost]

Hello ^^ I just finished this novel and my heart is bitterly aching. Take me aboard the LJH x LJX ship with you. I’m so devastated by the epilogue and LJX’s death, but was wondering, was that a suicide move on his part? In the Poppies extra, when he turned to the painting and said, I’m leaving, and then I’m coming… did he mean to say that he was uniting with LJH?

There's plenty of room on this canoe! We can trade up for an actual boat at some point 😭

imo, every mission Langjun chose to take on after book 1 has been a suicide mission --- from wrestling Helan Jie at the edge of a cliff to almost jumping off a cliff that time he got kidnapped by Bojigin Batu to volunteering to kill Han Bin (the time Duan Ling vetoed him) while he was wounded, he's disregarded his own survival in ways that the other assassins just haven't.

So yes, in the extras, it is very much implied that he was telling Li Jianhong he was coming to him, that he knew he was heading to his own death, but it was just one thing in a long string of actions --- he's had this death wish for a long time, but if he was going to die, he was going to die protecting Duan Ling.

(If it makes you feel any better, he's just gone back to being one of the stars in Li Jianhong's constellation now ...)