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.
