When I rewatched the Bridon Arc, I noticed that each time Lu Guang has a nightmare (once in episode 3, and again in episode 4), his watch is stuck on the exact time and date that he chose to abandon his original timeline to try to save Cheng Xiaoshi. More specifically, it's the date and time that he associates with Cheng Xiaoshi’s death: September 13, at 00:05.
Link click is also about finding a place to truly call "home" again, especially with the expression of "home is not a place, it's the people you're with"
AND DARE I SAY THIS SCENE ALSO EXPLAINS IT. The way "Home" is on Lu Guang's side as he has his hand reached out to Cheng Xiaoshi who is on the "Away" side,,,
This can also be interpreted by how Lu Guang just wants Cheng Xiaoshi to come "home", but he's (cxs) "away" because of the "time" that's stuck between them a.k.a. because of Cheng Xiaoshi's death node and Lu Guang having to dive back and basically restarting their relationship with each other again.
Maybe the reason why too that all scores, times, fouls on the board are zero because technically Lu Guang "restarted" so the sins he committed (which were to break the rules of time traveling) and the experiences they are yet to experience were technically never recorded in time yet
and the fact that Cheng Xiaoshi here has "forgotten" (as what has been revealed in the s3 trailer) or never met him yet, literally all is zero because none of that has happened yet
And with how so many of the episodes and characters depicting just wanting to have a happy home and life with their family/that one person...
That's all Cheng Xiaoshi wanted. He just wants to be with his parents again, to have that "home" again. He DIDN'T EVEN HAVE PROPER FRIENDS BECAUSE HE WAS TEASED FOR NOT HAVING A MOM OR A DAD!
But instead, the home that he so awaits for is the home with Lu Guang and Qiao Ling; the ones who chose to stay by him no matter what.
THE Link Click yap that has ever happened to me ever :) I love this show so much, this has made me feel so at home and in love and devoted in ways I can't explain
But then later when he approaches XF, he's shown with those yellow eyes of his, like he's activating his power.
Interestingly enough, this outfit also has goggles—which, you know, obv connected to sight. But he isn't wearing them over his eyes, because they'd obscure his vision/purpose, which is helping XF at the moment.
If ya couldn’t tell from the title, this post is probably going to be sad, but if I’m being completely honest, the other possible outcomes for the ending of the show seem even more sad, and not to mention depressing! And uh, this will be depressing enough so let’s just get into it because holyyyy shit, do I have things to say!
Mkay to start this off, I wanted to talk about something that we were shown in s2, in the last episode of that season when Li Tianxi passes her ability to Qiao Ling, one of the memories that Li Tianxi shared with her was Lu Guang witnessing Cheng Xiaoshi’s death, and later on she questioned whether he had actually seen Cheng Xiaoshi die or not before she got interrupted by their return home, I do think that Qiao Ling will end up finding out exactly what Lu Guang has been trying to do eventually, and so will Cheng Xiaoshi, however what I don’t think Cheng Xiaoshi will find out until it’s too late is that if Lu Guang succeeds, it will kill him.
Sorry, when I say “if” I actually mean when, and this scene from the 1st s3 trailer is just one out of the several reasons I have for why.
I remember the first time that I saw this, and of course my mind went to it being a suicide attempt- hey, this is Link Click, I wouldn’t necessarily put it past the show to do something like that! I did rewatch the scene a few times over however and I realised that there was no train, all that there was was lil Lu Guang and lil Cheng Xiaoshi balancing on the train tracks for what hopefully seemed like fun…? Then Lu Guang started to overbalance, and he would’ve fallen if Cheng Xiaoshi hadn’t caught up and saved him before that happened.
I will say that I don’t think that they were childhood friends, maybe they knew each other a little while before going their separate ways and then meeting each other again in university like they did, and Cheng Xiaoshi forgot not because Lu Guang messing with the past caused him to but because he just forgot considering how much time had passed and he hadn’t known him for that long in the first place, but that moment must’ve been important to Lu Guang for some reason.
Cheng Xiaoshi saved Lu Guang from falling all those years ago, and then again many years later when he quite literally took the bullet for him, and now? Lu Guang will be the one to save him, not from falling but from death.
And don’t think I’d forget about Qiao Ling, I know that the show has so far only been focused on him saving Cheng Xiaoshi, but he has been trying to alter both of their deaths after all, and at first I thought… how would that work with my “life for a life” theory I had? Because if he’s already gonna have to trade his life for one of them then surely someone else would also have to willingly trade their life for the other, right?? Well I think I figured it out, if the time traveler, the lawbreaker dies then all would be right with the universe.
This is where the time sickness comes in, he’s not meant to have stayed so long in this timeline, and he’s most certainly NOT meant to alter a death node let alone 2 of them, the timeline’s been trying to kill Cheng Xiaoshi and Qiao Ling, whether it’s the day of or before then doesn’t really seem to matter as long as they die, seeing as they’ve already had some close calls, and assuming that s3 is approaching upon the day they got murdered, if they manage to survive then Lu Guang will practically be handing over his own life as compensation.
And he hasn’t realised this yet.
“The future may not change due to a ripple in the past, but I don’t care. I don’t believe I can truly change anything by coming back, all I want is to be with them, and head into a new future together. Because I know that this is the last time.”, this quote came from the near end of the Bridon Arc, he says that he knows this is the last time, I’m sure there’s a double meaning here because I think what he meant when he said that was that he will get it right, there will be no more failed attempts… and he will in fact get it right this time, and they will head into a new future together… but he’s not going to get out of this mess scot-free.
I did say that Lu Guang hasn’t fully realised this yet right? Well he will and when he does, he’s going to try to make sure that they don’t find out, especially Cheng Xiaoshi, at least not the full thing- because if he found out what the cost for saving them is then Lu Guang’s plan would probably end in failure, I do think Qiao Ling will end up not only knowing the bits and pieces about what he’s seen and what his plan is as I’ve mentioned before but knowing everything, and she would know and understand the gravity of the situation, unlike Cheng Xiaoshi, who wouldn’t see the full picture, because in the moment he’d only be thinking about how much of a toll it’s taken on his best friend.
And when Cheng Xiaoshi and Qiao Ling are finally out of the woods, this is when it’ll all hit Lu Guang at once… and unfortunately there is no way in hell that he’ll survive.
Which reminds me, I’ve yet to discuss why Cheng Xiaoshi is the one who will live, and I cannot think of a better time to talk about it than now!
In one of the recent-ish chibi shorts, Li Haoling was asked to describe season 3 in 3 phrases and one of those phrases was “Cowherd”, I hadn’t heard of the myth before, although I did read a handful of comments saying that “we’re cooked” so uhm- I will admit that did concern me just a bit! So I thought I’d do some reading.
Now in the myth, the Cowherd Niulang and the Weaving Maid Zhinu fall in love, and for a while the Queen Mother of the West didn’t know but after eventually finding out, she orders her troops to abduct Zhinu, and due to not wanting to take any chances on the possibility that Niulang were to save her, the Queen Mother of the West drew her hairpin and blew on it, creating the heavenly river thus permanently separating them.
Oh, and we also got this.
Lu Guang is the Cowherd, Cheng Xiaoshi is the Weaving Maid, and that’s not all! I’m certain that the Queen Mother of the West is the timeline itself, and those who are after Cheng Xiaoshi are the equivalent of her troops while the hairpin is the time sickness and then we have the heavenly river, which is the price.
Ya may be wondering “Why so sure that it’s Lu Guang? What about Cheng Xiaoshi?”, and so I want to push aside all that I’ve talked about so far for just a second to explain.
CXS is the immortal one, immortality essentially means to “live forever”, obviously he isn’t literally immortal, my point is that immortality doesn’t equal mortality and vice versa, he’s the one whose death node will be altered by LG, who has broken the laws of time, the one who the timeline is fighting against, his death is the final measure to ensure they’re separated.
So, Lu Guang will save Cheng Xiaoshi and Qiao Ling, and once their death nodes have been successfully altered, the timeline will go straight from the punishment which is the time sickness, to the price aka Lu Guang’s life.
But I doubt that he would drop dead instantly, if anything it’s more likely that he’d collapse, only just having long enough to talk to Cheng Xiaoshi and Qiao Ling one last time before he succumbs to the time sickness… and hey, that’s alright, because he’s finally succeeded in what he’s been trying to do this whole damn time, Lu Guang saved his found family, he’s with them and he knows that they’re safe.
I think I’ve talked about Cheng Xiaoshi’s feelings regarding this enough already so I want to focus on Qiao Ling’s for a second, she’s like a big sister to the both of them, so her losing one of her brothers like this? Heartbreaking, like seriously though what the frick? None of them can ever catch a break it seems.
And with their last chat, I do think that Lu Guang will also get Cheng Xiaoshi to promise not to go back in time and change things, and Cheng Xiaoshi will do exactly that, he knows it all now and he isn’t about to throw away everything that Lu Guang has done to save them for the chance that he might be able to stop him from dying since it would be pretty much impossible.
Unfortunately this means that their time travelling gig will have to come to an end since Cheng Xiaoshi would no longer have Lu Guang to guide him, meaning any dives he does would be extremely dangerous and could seriously screw up the timeline.
And after everything, the time photo studio will become just like any other regular ol’ photo studio.
Alright everybody, buckle up! This theory has been rotating in my mind for nearly eight months, and this post has been stuck in my drafts for over a month. Now, I can finally release it 😭
While Yingdu was still airing, the idea that “Xia Fei is key” was already on my mind. But back then, I didn’t have any strong evidence to support this. I was relying on 50% visual metaphors which left too much room for other interpretations, and the other 50% on gut feeling. And with majority of the fandom convinced that Xia Fei is “disposable”—a victim, a pawn, a walking dead flag—voicing my opposing views on him might appear delusional. A part of me had also considered that my insistence on Xia Fei’s importance is just me hoping he won’t die in season 3.
However, as Link Click releases more promotional materials for season 3, my Xia Fei is Green theory has thankfully held on and my wish for a green and gold outfit for him to match has also been fulfilled through his portrayal in the Map of Dreams album. I am now feeling more confident about Xia Fei being the key to everything.
But what really sealed the deal for me is this frame at the end of the PAIN MV:
The position of their hands makes it look like Xia Fei is throwing literal yellow keys to Liu Xiao.
All this time, I’ve been saying “Xia Fei is key” in a metaphorical way, but then Link Click just shoves actual physical keys into my face, eliminating all doubt and ambiguity. You cannot begin to understand how vindicated I’ve been feeling since the Pain MV dropped.
Yellow is Key. Xia Fei holds the Key. Xia Fei is Key.
Before I elaborate on this idea, let me just introduce some context to those new here:
This post is part of a series of posts called Traffic Light Theory, where I analyze the significance of colors and directions beginning from the Yingdu Chapter. You don’t have to read all the previous posts in the series to understand this one, especially since my past interpretations are in need of an update. However, I do require you to at least read the Introduction, VeiFei: Blood and Fire, and Red and Green; Up and Down (and its sequel, Left is Up; Right is Down). Otherwise, what I’ll talk about here will make little sense to you.
Now, this idea has been brewing in my mind for so long that organizing my thoughts on it is difficult. Let me just start from the very beginning—
At first, I was just using the word “key” to refer to the thing that is “the most important.” I thought of Xia Fei as the key puzzle piece that, if put on the right spot, would complete the picture in Lick Click that is currently full of blank spots.
He’s just so full of mysteries.
Xia Fei and Fire
He is not revealed to have any abilities, nor was he documented as a survivor even though he was at the abilities-school Bahati—which was burned down.
His song lyrics are heavily associated with fire.
And he also has this particular frame in Burning Palace that looks like an eye with flames for the iris:
The lore drop from the PAIN MV also includes this info on Xia Fei:
A great fire consumed his memories. He has no kin, no place to return to.
And a staff member who worked on Xia Fei’s script even said this:
Natural diamonds may dazzle, but what truly endures is wild grass, which no fire can extinguish.
Xia Fei is somehow very much associated with fire. And fire is an important element in Link Click.
For one, although the title of Liu Xiao’s song with the Li Twins is officially translated as Prometheus (written as 普罗米修斯 in cn), in Chinese, the song’s title is explicitly written as 盗火者, meaning “fire thief.” So, there is a clear emphasis on the fire here.
Two, fire has been used many times to depict a character’s death, such as Li Tianxi’s fall and Cheng Xiaoshi’s eyes going out like a flame:
The meaning of Fire in this show warrants its own long meta, but I’m going to summarize it here as simply: Fire is Power. Specifically, their eye abilities. And going by the Prometheus myth, Fire originally belongs to the gods. Those who are able to awaken their own abilities are thus akin to gods in Link Click, unlike those who had to take it from someone else.
Given all the fire imagery surrounding Xia Fei, he becomes even more strongly associated with the god metaphor (and also the dead flags… but let’s not talk about that).
Xia Fei is Green and Yellow
He may have been Blue and Yellow throughout Yingdu, but his MOD album portrayal and all his official art since then have been Green and Yellow. I reckon those will be his s3 colors too.
If you’ve read my previous posts, then you’d understand the significance of Green in Link Click. But TLDR to those who haven’t: Green is the color associated with the Down direction, which, in Chinese, is associated with the Future.
As for what Yellow means—
Cheng Xiaoshi’s eye power is yellow, and it’s what allows him (and Lu Guang) to dive back in time and affect the timeline. Shao Yuanyuan also shares that power.
Cheng Xiaoshi’s MOD art also shows him winning through a Yellow mahjong tile:
All the other tiles in this image are Green, but he won because of the sole Yellow tile. CXS’s reaction to winning also suggest that he won out of sheer dumb luck.
Yellow as Opportunity? Luck?
I thought long and hard about what Yellow could represent in the visual language of Link Click, and finally I’ve settled on Light. Yellow should be the Light that’s captured in a photograph—the key element for a photo to develop.
Without Yellow/Light, nothing happens; there is no photography.
Throwback to this title card in Xia Fei’s Rent a Shell PV:
The text are colored Red (Past) and Green (Future). It looks fine as the Yellow light passes it, but at the brief moment the light is withdrawn, the text cracks.
This leads us to the next most important point...
Xia Fei and his Image
As a model, Xia Fei is naturally in a lot of photos, but Link Click goes beyond photographs to highlight how important his image is:
Like photos, a reflection also requires Light. But unlike photos, which can only ever show an image of the past, a reflection is a live image of the present.
In the Pain MV, Xia Fei’s reflection is highlighted even more through the use of mirrors:
Translation by qhqfeihuo
Furthermore, in this AU, Xia Fei is a vampire, which is commonly depicted as having no reflection. His profile here also says that he cannot see himself in the mirror. All these stand contrary to what’s in canon, bringing more attention to his reflection.
This frame in YE3 also stands out:
While being the most Yellow in that raincoat of his, Xia Fei faces a poster that reads “Secure your Future today!” while a Red (Past) bus passes behind him. Note also how the top part of the poster is Blue and Xia Fei’s eyes are right over the word ‘Future.’ Blue + Yellow = Green (Future).
Xia Fei, as Light/Yellow, is indeed “securing his future” in this frame. He’s turning the Blue Present into the Green Future, through his Yellow, while he stands at the intersection between the Red Past and the Blue+Yellow (Green) Future.
And this won’t be the only time he does this (more on this later).
Xia Fei and Videos
Videos are essentially just multiple photos played one after another fast enough, which is why ShiGuang can still use security camera footage to dive back in time. However, despite this precedence, we’ve never actually seen them use personal videos for a dive. Is it because videos recorded by a person will just result in them diving into the recorder’s body? Then, that would make it no different from just using a photo.
And yet, Xia Fei is specifically portrayed as a vlogger in his MV:
When he went missing in YE6, the news also explicitly stated his identity as influencer, not model.
It’s not subbed, but the term used on the headline at the bottom is 网红—literally meaning “net red,” and it’s the Chinese equivalent of “influencer.”
Is him being a model in multiple photographs not enough to make him a live target for ShiGuang’s diving shenanigans? Why add another layer of videos to that?
The emphasis on Xia Fei’s reflection, coupled with his identity as a vlogger, all suggest that there is some significance to Xia Fei’s live image. Or in other words, just Xia Fei himself as a person.
Although I don’t think Link Click is going for this parallel, I can’t help but think of The Truman Show in regard to this point. Like Truman, being in front of the camera is Xia Fei’s whole thing. When the first Yingdu trailer dropped, a big part of the beginning was even Xia Fei just doing different poses in front of the camera.
If Xia Fei is the “protagonist” in this “show,” then any changes involving him would drastically alter the story.
As such, any minute changes on the past would reflect heavily on him.
Xia Fei and Timeline Discrepancies
Timeline discrepancies are not unique to Xia Fei, but on him it shows up in a grand scale even when he is so far removed from the source.
Take the billboard above, for example. (Although a part of me thinks the billboard change was simply because Link Click wanted to retcon some stuff, let’s just roll with it since it’s included in canon.)
Now, a professional billboard photo isn’t something you take on a whim and can just take down whenever. It’s something that has to be discussed by a whole team, and once installed, is seen by millions of people. It’s no surprise that Lu Guang was so shocked when the billboard photo was changed. That’s a Big thing.
In S1, the changes around Emma can be attributed to ShiGuang who were messing around with her photo. In YE2, ShiGuang’s conversation being interrupted by a notification of Xiang’s arrest can be traced back to Liu Xiao’s manipulation behind the scenes. In both scenarios, the agent of change (person with abilities) has purposefully interacted with the victim of the effects.
But what about Xia Fei’s billboard above? Why was it changed? If he’s the victim of the effects, then who is the corresponding agent of change responsible for it? The billboard photo being the one changed, of all things, also suggests that an ability user is messing around with Xia Fei’s photoshoot—but the point of which, I honestly can’t see.
So, instead of there being someone in the past who tried to mess with Xia Fei specifically, it’s more like any minute changes wherever in the world would just show up on him in the next timeline.
Another timeline discrepancy surrounding Xia Fei is this scene in YE3:
CXS, LG, and XF were supposed to escape from the Right, but it was changed in this timeline. They went to the Left instead, where a Yellow lamp stands at the intersection. (Light/Yellow is once again at the Intersection)
Lu Guang didn’t try to change anything here, and I doubt Liu Xiao would try to manipulate them into a dead-end when the three of them are of more use to him alive. The one responsible for the changes here should be Shao Yuanyuan. Li Haoling has also confirmed in an interview with Hui Xiao Hui that key timeline changes were caused by her.
But then again, SYY’s target for the changes should not be Xia Fei (and especially not her son and his friend who were both with him). It was more likely Vein, who was called to the scene by Xia Fei. Vein’s disappearance from wherever he was before must be beneficial to SYY in some way. Xia Fei, and by extension ShiGuang, were just affected by the changes on Vein.
If small changes on the timeline unrelated to Xia Fei already reflect on him in a Big way, then how much more the big changes on the things that are more closely related to him?
Because of Vein’s “death,” Xia Fei disappears years later and ends up on the global news. His disappearance then becomes the catalyst of the events in s3:
Full Chinese s3 summary for reference (taken from Bilibili):
Xia Fei always comes in two’s or caught between two things:
His hair has been duo-toned since birth
He’s ambidextrous
Cheng Xiaoshi says he looks like a mixed-race man
Both red and green traffic lights in the ED are on while his ad plays in the background
His character color is the liminal traffic light color
He's the second survivor in a fire that was said to have only one survivor
And now this:
This is from the Pain MV. Note how the elevator buttons are at his Right while the door is closing to the Left*, and how XF is holding a Red apple Up while the camera angle is from Above.
Remember, in Left is Up; Right is Down, we have established that:
Past = Left/Behind = Up
Future = Right/Ahead = Down
Elevator #1 is thus an elevator to leading to the Past.
*the Past is considered “past” from the POV of those in the Future
Then, look at this:
Elevator #2 is a mirror image of Elevator #1. Buttons on the Right, door closes to the Left*.
And Xia Fei stands in the middle of these two elevators, with his Green cape draping Down while the camera angle is Below.
Elevator #2 is an elevator that leads to the Future.
*Those in the Past head towards a Future
More importantly, regardless of how far or near this XF art is from the viewer, he is always aligned with the Light in the Middle.
Yellow. Light. Intersection.
Interestingly, the caption on Wang Qing’s Yingdu poster says this:
枪口指向的她，是过去与未来的交界点
Source: SGDLR official Twitter
translation by qhqfeihuo:
The gun is aimed at her—the point where the past and future converge
(And Wang Qing is also Yellow and looks a lot like Xia Fei)
Summary
Yellow is Light. It stands at the intersection of the Past and Future and is the Key element needed to develop a photo/video—a permanent record of an event. Without Light, there is no Past or Future, and time shatters like a mirror.
Xia Fei is that Light.
Whoever wants to take control of the timeline needs to control the Light. They need to control Xia Fei.
I’ve noticed something. In the official art/pv’s of characters, most of them have light in their eyes.
As you can see, even the villains have light in their eyes.
But there are two characters who do NOT have light in their eyes.
Lu Guang:
Which makes sense, as he has gone back in time over and over to try and save Lu Guang. The light that the others have faded out over the despair of seeing CXS die over and over. The others have definitely faced terrible things, and while LG does have hope, I believe that before the most recent timeline, it has felt more like LG went back in time because he was already to Deep.
it’s really the second character with no light in their eyes which is interesting.
Jae Lee
Through his reactions in the pv, it’s unlikely that he’s met LG and CXS before, but perhaps he’s aware of time in a way most aren’t, or he is simply very traumatized.
I’m going with the idea that his ability shows him to see something others don’t, perhaps like LG sees the past, Jae Lee sees the future. Maybe even only events that can not be changed. So he is doomed with the knowledge of someone’s death with no ability to stop it.
It can easily be something else, but I find it interesting that only these two do not have light in their eyes.
i may have just understood link click on a level i thought was impossible (i had a small epiphany that was probably obvious to everyone but me)
So. for context; sth that confused me for a while, is that the CXS deaths always happen in S1 fits, which are Gone after LG gets stabbed - so I thought that LG must have already succeeded delaying CXS' death, but then his reaction to Emma in 1x11 wouldn't make any sense (i.e. if he's already succeeded at delaying CXS' death by over a month why would he assume that Emma is "saved" in a matter of seconds?)
Additionally, the paper cutout style in 2x1 really seemed to hint a sort of "overwriting"? Which I thought meant it was originally CXS dying while LG was facing off against someone (that being vein, with yingdu knowledge).
BUT. "it seems that everything is changing" (2x1) !!!
I've been looking at that line wrong.
SO new theory - he didn't delay it and he didn't mean that THIS exact moment was when CXS died and THAT is changing, but EVERYTHING is changing from now on.
so this whole plot is new to LG. the stab never happened in the timeline where vein kills CXS. that's why they still have their s1 fits (didn't have to discard them because of the blood) in CXS death scenes, and that's potentially why LG reacts to things in the ways he does starting 1x11. (tho those could just as well be trauma responses. He's very hard to read)
If that is really the case, this implies that 1x11 is potentially the first big divergence we've (and perhaps even LG has) seen (Yx1 with "everything happens the exact same").
I think this implies that when whatever they meddled with in Yingdu doesn't happen, that somehow leads Liu Xiao to kickstart the whole LTX and LTC (twins) thread.
+ anyway here's the 3 dates I grabbed for this thinkening:
