#reading dmbj

[thatlittlemouse]

xiao hua helping out in the kitchen is actually so important to me 🥺

(from "a day in the life of xie yuchen" and "the fishing king" extras)

[thatlittlemouse]

So much of the story of Southern Archives or actually Zhang Haiyan's story is about loss: loss of people, loss of places, loss of identity

He's such a funny guy that he kind of makes you forget that he's tragic as heck

The obvious loss is Zhang Haixia, it's a devastating event that shakes Zhang Haiyan to his core, that grief colors a good chunk of the story. But Zhang Haixia carries so much more with him when he dies, Zhang Haiyan's childhood, his home, everything he thought he was is lost at the same time

Xiamen is home to the two of them, a home they long after for 10 years and expect to not see for another 20 (or the other way around, i'm fuzzy on the timeline). Zhang Haiyan gets the chance to return, but when he arrives he finds that the southern archives that he expected to find there never existed in the first place. Many of the things in his life growing up were actually lies and the place he wanted to go back to, that he wanted to go back to WITH Zhang Haixia, was gone. The temporary home he had in Malacca was also gone, without Zhang Haixia there was no point to go back

On top of all these profoundly destabilizing events, he also gets the revelations from Zhang Haiqi about what the Zhang family actually is, he has to readjust his whole world view with barely any breathing space

In the end, Zhang Haiqi is the only thing he has left that offers him some certainty (despite the foreshadowing, i'm taking the crumbs, she's still alive!!)

After all that, it kind of makes sense how motivated he is to find Zhang Qiling and how he sticks to him, he needs that purpose, he needs something to belong to, something to make sense again

[thatlittlemouse]

i should not be going off based on vibes and spoilers with just 2 episodes watched but anyway

there's this weird need for punishment going on in the SA drama, like there are heavy handed remarks about zhang haiyan's recklessness and how the consequences of his actions are going to catch up to him and most importantly he needs to be punished for all of that, whether directly or through the narrative

which probably has something to do with censorship, can't have a guy that's not morally upright not get his comeuppance

but this is not something i saw much of in the book. sure, zhang haiyan is reckless and some bad things happen as a direct result of his actions, but other bad things that happen couldn't have really been avoided. and that's part of the larger point i think

if there's a lesson that zhang haiyan is given it's not so much that he needs to Act More Responsibly, but that he's not superhuman and there are some things he cannot fix or prevent. it's about hubris, not recklessness

because the character the story starts with is a guy who thinks he has the world in the palm of his hands, he's smart and skilled and believes he can face any kind of situation and somehow win. this is rooted in a strong survival instinct that he got when he was very young and had to survive a plague and famine

the story hits him over the head again and again and what he eventually realizes in the worst way possible is that some things are outside his power. That he's just a guy swimming in a vast ocean and there are some violent waves that even he can't swim against

but who he is doesn't change, it's very hard to change. even with a deeper understanding of the world's limits, he'll still push against them. it's part madness part inspiration

[thatlittlemouse]

is he blind or not? does he have night vision? infrared vision? what do the books say: a compilation of quotes about how Hei Xiazi's eyes work and how he sees the world

credit to xiajibaqu77668 on lofter for collecting most of the quotes (they have extensive posts on heihua's appearances in the books, quotes, timelines etc). I used the equivalent quotes from merebear's translation + added a few from Flowery Night.

Sand Sea, chapter 12

Sans Sea, chapter 105

Sand Sea, chapter 137

Blind Tomb Extra, chapter 10

Moving Forward Through the Flowery Night, chapter 2/3

Flowery Night, chapter 11

[thatlittlemouse]

I have to share that one time Wu Xie wrote pingxie prison AU fanfiction for absolutely no reason (yucun biji 4, ch 18)

[thatlittlemouse]

another post where i don't really have anything to say, just staring at the ceiling and having heihua thoughts

I thought about instances where one of them talks about the other or the narration says something on their behalf, that sheds light on what they think about each other. I have certain perception of them and their relationship but I was like "wait what specific bits of text can I think of?"

this isn't comprehensive or very articulate really

anyway, when I was thinking, mainly sand sea and flowery night came to mind, and one instance from queen's banquet that stuck with me

let's start with xiao hua re: hei xiazi

he talks quite a lot about hei xiazi in his conversation with wu xie in sha hai. he gives him mostly factual information, what he knows about xiazi's background

then he says something interesting at the end there "he's reliable because there's nothing in the world that can threaten him anymore". wu xie doesn't really get it, and honestly I can't really say I got it either

my interpretation is that xiao hua thinks xiazi is very steadfast, no person and thing can threaten him, manipulate or convince him unless he allows it. and this makes him reliable, something that xiao hua values

then he says this a bit later. again someone "set in his ways" that had "hardly changed over the years"

xiao hua also talks about him in reboot, but he doesn't really say anything that's a description or an opinion. the way he talks really shows how much he cares about him though

and I think from this conversation it also looks like hei xiazi is a very stubborn guy. xiao hua wants him to stay put but he won't listen even to him so he's reaching out to wu xie and particularly xiaoge for help convincing him

then there are a bunch of interesting things in flowery night

this is so funny actually and part of their charm. xiao hua is a very careful and discrete person, hei xiazi is not. he's reliable, he'll get things done, but he'll make a mess. it's third person narration, but you can tell xiao hua is a little annoyed about it 🤭

and a little later, exactly that in action. "he didn't ask questions because he knew that it was useless" again, he's a stubborn guy, xiao hua knows he can't change his mind so he just gives him A Look to make sure he knows he disapproves

then there's this part which is really interesting

there's so much in there. xiao hua sees him as someone who is always prepared and never taken by surprise. part of that is also behind his usually very laid back attitude. so xiao hua is taken off guard when he sees xiazi unsure, because it's so rare for that to happen

those were all the parts that came to my mind and that i could find in half an hour. so what do we get from that? hei xiazi to xiao hua is someone who is reliable, stable and steadfast (downside is he's stubborn also when he shouldn't be), ready for any situation and practically impossible to surprise, but also reckless and prone to property damage. except for that last part, the key word I think is "reliable"

okay part 2, hai xiazi on xie yuchen

this first one isn't really descriptive, but I just like it and I think it's the first thing you get from xiazi on xiao hua

key word: trust!

next are a couple from flowery night

a few mentions of how xie yuchen is meticulous, careful, observant

this next one, also from flowery night is funny and also interesting taking into account some stuff a few quotes above about hei xiazi

xiao hua sees him as a person who is always prepared for any situation, but here he is feeling in over his head and really wishing he could talk to xiao hua about it. "this often left him" makes it sound like this has happened before

part of why he needs help is that he's right in the middle of a lot of weirdness and can't think clearly but I also think he values xiao hua's reasoning abilities really highly, so that when he feels like he can't figure something out he can rely on xiao hua to do it

and another one from queen's banquet

again with the logic & reason, xie yuchen is logical even to his detriment, when facing things that are too bizarre, xiazi is worried he'll have a hard time (which is exactly what happens to wu xie)

and another funny part I just remembered from flowery night

your mouth is too scary - he says that in admiration 🤭 xie yuchen can convince or manipulate the hell out of anyone

so keyword from most of those: xiao hua is a Smart Guy

I have no final point, I just thought it was interesting to collect some quotes (maybe there's also something interesting in a thousand faces, nothing came to mind though) and see what they say about each other. for sure this is only scratching the surface, but I think the way they rely on each other and trust each other says a lot

[thatlittlemouse]

book readers know that it takes heihua forever to actually interact in the books (heihua-ists are god's strongest soldiers), the characters are introduced in the main story (volumes 5 and 7 respectively) but it takes until sha hai to confirm that they know each other and until even later for them to actually be in a scene together

heihua firsts timeline from what I can tell (spoilers):

first time one talks about the other / it's confirmed that they know each other: sha hai

based on sha hai, first time they met: xiao hua tells wu xie a story starting in chapter 112 and you can deduce based on roughly when this conversation takes place that they probably met before the main story starts, in the early 2000s, when xiao hua was in his early twenties

first time in a scene together: from what I can tell, and this is crazy, I think it's in reboot where hei xiazi catches xiao hua in that scene where he's unconscious and beat up; if you don't want to count that then the dinner in reboot part 2

first time they have dialogue on the page: the dinner in reboot part 2, they mostly talk with other people but also exchange some lines with each other

(I thought a thousand faces might come first, but it was written after reboot; that would have been funny because literally the first line xiao hua says to hei xiazi there is "don't people your age usually get gout?" when answering the phone and hearing the sound of a beer can opening)

you can also count the above as first one to one conversation they have on the page I guess?

(note if you haven't read it : a thousand faces takes place sometime during the main story, probably before volume 4 but it's unclear exactly when)

I don't know what other firsts there should be, so I'll stop here

[thatlittlemouse]

the zhh drama's way of portraying the zhangs is very... weird, even with the obvious lore-breaking things aside (tianshou bug curse)

I just finished southern archives which has more zhangs per square meter then anything else I've read put together, which gave me a bit more info on what was going on in the family, and especially with some of the side branches/fringe groups in it

at no point in the book do the zhangs really feel like a community. not like how they're portrayed in the drama, with so many of them living together in the same place. none of the zhang family members seem connected to a "home" that's common among them

there are zhangs that are trying to bring the family back together, and zhang haike I think has the biggest group of them based on wu xie's accounts (zhang haiyan is also on the revive the family agenda but he's mostly collecting weirdos and freely adopting people into the family, which i guess also works)

but other than that the zhangs are incredibly scattered and have been for a very long time. we already knew from other books that the family was falling apart, but looking at southern archives, the status at the beginning of the 1900s is that: there is a group of zhangs in south china and around south east asia under the "south sea archives" organization, but only the high ranking officers know who the zhang family really is (and even then they don't know everything). this group gets almost completely obliterated by a local warlord and only 2 people survive. the south zhangs have lost contact with the main family in the northeast. zhang qishan formally broke away from the zhang family. the patriarch is wandering through south xinjiang and nobody knows his exact location. enter zhang qianjun, an example of a random zhang placed somewhere with the sole purpose of waiting for a signal from the main family to act, a guy that barely knows anything about anything.

this is speculation, but I think that's likely the majority of zhangs that are still around in modern times: people that have only vague knowledge of the family they're part of, don't know its history or purpose. They're not a group, they're scattered individuals.

so the way they have a whole closely knit community living in one place in the drama feels very off to me.

side note that every new zhang that's introduced is weird as hell in new and interesting ways, none of these guys are normal