On a whim I decided to check out a yesteryear's murder-mystery cdrama "The Truth Within" starring Luo Yunxi, because I remember @lunarriviera gushing about it at some point. And I thought I'd just watch an episode or two just to feel out the vibes and then drop it and remove from my bookmarks, like I did with Gong Jun's similarly named "The Truth" (our vibes simply weren't matching), and -
- it's really good? And I'm enjoying it a lot??...
And idk, maybe I'm just on a roll with mystery genre at the moment, as I'm also neck-deep into "Cases Between Us", but the writing and acting are solid, cinematography is great, the murders are bizarre, and there's something that really pulls you in almost immediately. I really like it!
Basically -
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THE CHARACTERS
This is Han Feng, a former undercover narcotics operative(?) turned detective:
And this is Qi Sizhe, the resident medical examiner who is also a severely traumatized genius (as they tend to go of course), with occasional PTSD flashbacks:
And these two cannot fucking staaand each other, as you can see by their faces here☝️when they meet for the first time in an unnamed amount of years. There was some kind of tragedy in the past that broke them apart, and since then, I guess, they were just, like that.
And together with a very tired Zhu Qingyue 👇
they are up to some very interesting bullshit
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THE STORY AND THE CASES
The trio is trying to solve various genuinely quite interesting cases (right after proving Qi Sizhe innocent of a murder of course), and as of episode 5 (out of 21 total), we are on a second one, and it's very good, although I must warn the folks with arachnophobia to better to be prepared or skip these episodes entirely
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THE DYNAMIC (bc of course)
I really thought that Han Feng reaaaly wanted to put Dr. Qi behind bars no matter what... for about 2 episodes, and then they - well, they didn't work everything out exactly, but at least managed to come to some sort of an understanding, and currently are working as a well-oiled machine, together with the rest of the team ready to bulldoze over every criminal straight to justice (or something, I'm too lazy to think this metaphor through)
And just a warning, this is not the drama with lots of shipping potential (for this anyone is welcome to "cases between us" because oh god), HOWEVER!
There's a little something there.
I don't know how to articulate it well, but there's this... familiarity with each other. It's clear that those two are used to work together and were friends, so despite everything there's this particular something which makes me go mildly feral
(only like 2.5 other people can understand the reference, but Han Feng and Qi Sizhe's whole.. thing reminds me a PingXie dynamic (without the initial animosity ofc) specifically in that Misty Creed movie, where there's barely anything, but that anything is still THERE and I'm obsessed with it)
The Ghost Within We all have them within us whether we wanna acknowledge the fact or not. We all carry them around or have them tucked away like skeletons in our closets. We all talk about them to friends, to family, even to strangers without even knowing that we connect and compare what happened to us as a ghost that's just merely an event from our past. They haunt us and they follow us and sadly they don't really go away. We just tuck them away in the smallest crevice in our closets or we pack them away in a box and store it on the highest shelf we can find in our houses. These ghosts come in all shapes and sizes. A secret that a friend shares with you can be considered a ghost latching onto you. A little white lie you tell you're friends or family that's considered one of your ghosts. It's considered a ghost because it's something that stays with you forever. Something that you now have to deal with. Now I know everyone carries at least a ghost or two with them. They carry an event from the past that was traumatizing for them and that still haunts them to this day. Some people are more open about it than others but I'm going to be sharing a story with you about one of my most brutal ghosts that still exist with me to this very day. I could just use the term "My Ghost" but I'll use s term that's more commonly understood. I guess you can say the other name for "My Ghost" would have to be what every person dreads: Abandonment. Growing up I've always had abandonment issues ever since my father walked away from me, my father was never really present in my life and my mother took after him. Even though there were there they were never really there. They were constantly going out or constantly drinking to much to pay attention to their daughter. Growing up as an only child was horrible since I was always alone and always basically abandoned. Growing up alone basically forced me to teach myself everything I know today such as how to clean and care for myself. I'm not going to go into full detail because than we could be here for hours. Let's just say that by the age of about 5 I was already using cleaning chemicals, using the stove/oven and operating the microwave. I was trimming and pulling weeds and mowing the lawn. I was basically the keeper of the house you could say. My abandonment issues spread like a disease infecting my life anywhere I went. It started with my family and than slowly moved on to my friends at school. Losing friends was the worst because not only had I lost my family but I had also lost the closest thing I could create to a second family which was friends. All in all, abandonment still rules as a number one factor in my life today and it really truly sucks majorly. Everywhere I go I'm abandoned. Everyone I meet pushes me away or just walks out. Due to this ghost that has followed me through childhood, my teen years and now my early 20's it has shaped the person I am today. It has taught me that I can't rely on other for my happiness or to live my life for me. It taught me that independence is the strongest power one individual can ever hold. Ghosts such as mine which is abandonment doesn't define who you are it only helps you better yourself and helps you shape yourself into the best you that you can ever be. Yes I might complain about having this "ghost" but at the same time I'm glad because if I didn't have it I wouldn't be where I am today. -The Ghost Within//Abandonment
