HAPPY TOGETHER (1997) - dir. Wong Kar Wai.
ETERNAL SUMMER (2006) - dir. Chen Zheng Dao.
HISTORY2: CROSSING THE LINE (2018) - dir. Tsai Mi Chieh.
YOUR NAME ENGRAVED HEREIN (2020) - dir. Liu Kuang Hui.
STAY WITH ME (2023) - dir. Chen Su You.
THE ON1Y ONE (2024) - dir. Liu Kuang Hui.
Psych-Hunter (or, as we have taken to calling it, House Haunters), is a very silly show. It has all the doofy charm of a USA Network shoestring-budget wacky buddy detectives series. It has some great aesthetic ideas, and then it just wanders off and gets real invested in the most damp-toast heterosexual romance ever. All of the teenagers are in their thirties. The main character jingles everywhere he walks, like a belled cat. I choose to interpret the setting as Dragon City, 1929. How do you say "Characters Welcome" in Chinese? It's that.
Anyway, I want to look at pictures of the actors when they're not in their weird steampunk outfits, so you're going to join me.
Neo Hou/Hou Minghao/Mr. Tuff Paws - Jiang Shuo (and I'm only going to do a few pictures of him, because he's Kind Of A Big Deal, and knowing what he looks like out of costume is no great accomplishment (even if it's genuinely impressive how quickly he can go from Didi to Rough Trade))
Liu Dong Qin - Qin Yi Heng/Dr. Qin, Medicine Woman (Does he get extras because I think he's hot? Listen: yes.)
Zhu Xu Dan/Bambi Zhu - Yuan Mu Qing, who looks so much better without the hideous bangs they use to pretend she's like twelve years old or whatever she's supposed to be
Welcome to another round of W2 Tells You What You Should See, where W2 (me) tries to sell you (you) on something you should be watching. Today's choice: 心宅猎人/Psych-Hunter.
Psych-Hunter is a 2020 drama about a hot young amnesiac who, accompanied by a rich psychiatrist with major daddy issues and a rich girl who cosplays as a cop, uses his Inception-style psychic powers to solve crimes that are part of a shadowy conspiracy orchestrated by a mysterious figure.
True story: Once I couldn't remember the English name of the drama, so I called it "House Haunters," and now my brain insists that's the real English title. If only!
Do not, under any circumstances, labor under the impression that this show is good. It's not. It's incoherent. The writing is bad. The villain is absurd. The vibe is comically melodramatic. People make inexplicable and out-of-character decisions all the time. Countless complex mysteries get set up with no way to resolve them. There's a thin lampshade hanging over it that blurs the line between bad decisions made on accident and bad decisions made on purpose, but the net result is largely the same. This is the show that first inspired my wife to declare something dumb as a guinea pig in a roller skate.
But it's fun. It's a sea of colorful chaos with brilliant pieces that shine through like strange gems. It knows how to work an atmosphere and does so to create some legitimately creepy moments. It spins a wild yarn filled with bizarre and loveable characters. And it has some twists that truly have to be seen to be believed. In the mood for some beautiful nonsense? Here's five reasons that despite everything I warned you about in the previous paragraph, I think this one's worth watching.
1. Psychonauts for Jazz Age homosexuals
Honestly, that phrase alone should let you know if this is the thing for you. But just in case, let me explain the basic premise of the show:
Jiang Shuo, a man who has lost his memory and been adopted by circus folk, is capable of jingling his keys and diving full-body into someone else's subconscious, represented by lovely and thematic dreamscapes. He does this to solve crimes. Sometimes he takes along a handsome doctor who seems like he might know more than he's letting on, by literally tying their hands together with a red string.
Also, when they do this, they get gorgeous steampunk magical girl costume changes, complete with the cutest little pony nub you've ever seen.
This show can be stunningly beautiful. It knows how to manifest dream logic eerily well. Most of these cognitions are gorgeous, and many are done with primarily practical effects, like it's a stage play. ...And it's good it relies on that so much, because the CG it has is kinda cheap and terrible! So, yeah.
(Side note for the DMBJ fans: This is directed by the same guy who directed Sand Sea, which I assume is related to how this both is a visual treat and completely falls apart on the back end.)
The reason I'm a bit surprised that this hasn't taken off more among the creative set is what a great piece of worldbuilding this Psych-diving is. These boys (and, once, the girl) get to short-term manifest bodily in someone else's materialized mental state, where the person whose brain they’re in neither controls the experience nor remembers what happened after it’s done. Were you writing weird Arthur/Eames fic a decade ago? I got a new best thing for you. Can you say freaky dream sex? Because I can.
The base premise should be more than enough to get your gears going. Come ready to get weird with it. There's so much potential here, and so much of that potential is incredibly gay and wearing impeccably tailored suits.
2. Your friendly neighborhood circus family
As I mentioned before, Jiang Shuo lucks into the best possible fate that can befall an amnesiac: being picked up by carnies.
The troupe includes Ventriloquist Man, Really Big Dude, One-Eyed Acrobat, Other Acrobat, Cheerful Fat Girl, Boy Who Looks Like A Kid But Is Actually Played By An Adult So I'm Not Exactly Sure How Old The Character Himself Is Supposed To Be, and Silver Fox Circus Dad, who manages the whole crew. They're a ragtag bunch of performers who all live together in this cute little compound in some very nice slums, and sometimes they open the gates to their lavish compound and put on a circus show for all the common people!
Now: You know this is not going to be the wokest, most sensitive portrayal of body differences, because of course it isn't. But damn, it's pretty not-bad. The show treats all the circus members as valuable people worthy of affection, whose (occasionally exasperating) quirks are no more or less exhausting than those of the non-circus weirdos in the rest of the supporting cast.
I was half-expecting them to disappear after the first arc, but no! They’re a constant fixture through the show! They’re mostly there to support the show’s more comedic moments, but some of them get wrapped up in more emotional plotlines as well. And every now and then you get to see them actually do their circus shit, which is great.
I will admit that my fondness for them is related to how much I generally love fictional Freaks — you know, misfits who have banded together because society considers them unacceptably weird, but together their weirdnesses make them strong. When you find them, they’re usually the bad guys (e.g., the Gung-Ho Guns from Trigun, the Scorpion crew from Word of Honor) whose freak statuses make them formidable and occasionally sympathetic antagonists. But not so here! The Psych-Hunter Family Circus is good guy support all the way through to the final episode.
I know "found family" is a term that suffers from overuse, but that's the best way to describe what's happening here -- really, it's a family that's already found itself even before the show starts, and now they all live together as an unconventional collective of astonishingly flexible people. How did they find one another? Doesn't matter! What matters is that they all love and would do anything for their newest member, and they think it's great when he comes home with his attractive rich friends, who often arrive bringing snacks, which is really the best use for rich people, if you think about it.
3. Two hands, one ring
Now, if you've seen the series already, you know the moment I'm talking about. But if you haven't (and, statistically, you haven't), know that what I mean is the relationship between these two losers.
Together, Qin Yiheng and Jiang Shuo form the emotional core of the series. They're both drawn to one another because of mysterious circumstances that have started to align. Jiang Shuo's memory is missing, Qin Yiheng's dad has vanished, and all signs point to those absences as having something to do with one another.
Very early in the show, we see Qin Yiheng pull a "come with me if you want to live" on Jiang Shuo, giving the impression that he knows just what's going on in this crazy city. Except, no, he doesn't. Or does he? No, we're pretty sure he doesn't. Or he does, but he's forgotten what he knows, if he ever even knew it in the first place. Anyway, time to tie their hands together and jump into someone else's brain!
I'd say they're in love, but that's not quite it. Dr. Qin Yiheng, high-class homosexual, is in love with Jiang Shuo to the point where he's about to murder someone (possibly Jiang Shuo himself) out of frustration about it. Jiang Shuo, on the other hand, is much more sticking his fingers in his ears and going LA LA LA YOU CAN'T CATCH ME GAY THOUGHTS while trying get a girlfriend in an effort to pretend that all the shit they get up to together isn't tremendously romantic.
That is, until the scene that leads to the which-hand ring guessing game, at which point the burden of their relationship falls on Jiang Shuo (and the Inception parallels get unignorable) for exactly as long as the show will allow it to, before it freaks out and has to add another girl love interest just to make sure all the homos got no'd.
It's not textually gay, because seriously, have you met Chinese television? But it's pretty gay. Or, rather, I think Liu Dongqin (Qin Yiheng) is playing his character as a dedicated homosexual on purpose, and Hou Minghao (Jiang Shuo) is just ... kinda like that? I mean, everything I’ve seen him in, he gets real dreamy-eyed around strong men who pay close attention to him. Maybe it's just his thing as an actor. I'm not judging.
However, the main cast isn't just the two of them. One of the things that led me to this show was the promise of an OT3. And does it deliver on that promise?
Well ... sorta.
Qin Yiheng, Jiang Shuo, and Yuan Muqing are a pretty standard MFM not-love-triangle trio of Male Bestie, Main Guy, and Girlfriend (respectively). There's about five seconds at the beginning of the series where it looks like Yuan Muqing might be into Qin Yiheng, but no, that evaporates almost instantly and is never spoken of again -- and with it disappears most of their interactions with one another, period. So it's less an OT3, and more a case of bisexual cutiepie Jiang Shuo getting both a boyfriend and a girlfriend in a world where censorship will only let the latter relationship exist textually.
But damn if these boys aren't made for one another. Sure, there's a level of conscious comical queerbaiting to it -- I mean, there's straight-up an "only one bed" moment, so you know the show isn't stumbling into rainbow territory on accident. No matter how sexual or nonsexual or whatever you read it as, though, their dynamic is the spine that holds the story together. Really, it's almost sad how often the relationships are set parallel to one another, because when you do that, it becomes obvious how intense Jiang Shuo's bond with Qin Yiheng is, and how largely lackluster and comphet most of his canon romance with Yuan Muqing is by comparison.
Like so.
sidebar: The Girl
I am not going to go into a full-throated defense of The Girl this time, as I am wont to do, mostly because I think Yuan Muqing is full of potential in concept but so badly executed that there's really no hope for her. Her entire personality is whatever they need her to be in any particular scene. It's just that once in a while, what they need her to be is completely insane -- like, seeing-things-that-aren't-there insane -- and it's so great that it makes me mad! She could have been like this all the time! But noooooo
As it is, she has a perfunctory canonical romance with Jiang Shuo that's about as endgame as anything is capable of being (see point 5), and it actually gets pretty cute when it finally gets to the point where it's not just awkward obligation! But alas, it only does that so late in the series that it's not even worth it getting invested in it.
She is a creation of the show. She has no novel counterpart. Her entire function in the drama is to un-gay the dynamic between the boys. You can tell that she was initially supposed to have a different role -- to be the muscle of this trio -- but the narrative forgets pretty quickly that she's got that skill set, and she regresses to being The Girl. She makes dumb decisions that forward the plot. She gets put into danger whenever it's convenient. She demands Jiang Shuo do manly things for her because that’s what a girl is supposed to do, I guess? And then there are moments where she’s cool and crazy and it’s awesome! But they never last.
So if you are going to watch this, be prepared for the fact that the female lead is badly written to the point of frustration. I feel her actor is doing the absolutely best with what she's got; the problem is that what she's got is pretty crappy. Still, Muqing gets some pretty charming moments here and there, and I think it's worth hanging onto those and imagining the character she could have been, if the writers had cared just a little more, or even at all.
4. Powerfully surreal worldbuilding
I'm not even talking about the way people's psyches are structured according to dream logic -- the "normal" waking world is almost equally bizarre. The story takes place in sort of the real world c. 1930, except that a lot of things are off. For example, Japan and England are real locations, but China kinda isn't -- instead, the show takes place in a Shanghai-like city-state run by this moustachioed generalissimo with a faux Latin American dictator aesthetic. The place has its own flag and government and police force (where all the cops have coordinating surnames) and diplomatic relationships with other countries, so it’s clearly its own thing. But what that thing is? What it’s even called? Look, don’t worry about it. Nobody else is worried, so you shouldn’t be either.
You will, at every point in the series, be wondering if the show is trying to telegraph to you that Something's Not Quite Right Here, or if it's just making weird decisions for the sake of artsy weirdness. But don't worry -- there's absolutely no way to tell the difference between the two! Just roll with it.
There's a weird mix of universe rules happening throughout, where everything is mostly period-appropriate for a while, and then somebody builds a clock with levitating parts, or causes someone else to have very specific memory loss — or, again, swings some coins in front of a person’s face and gains the ability to treat their subconscious like a VR amusement park.
You can sort of reconstruct the evolution of this weirdness: The book has actual factual ghosts in it. Well, that’s fine for books, but TV isn’t allowed to have ghosts. But TV can have people who imagine ghosts, so long as it’s all in their heads. Okay, but you know jumping bodily into those imaginations isn’t actually a thing real people can do, right? Well, then let’s make it scientific. How can that be scientific? I don't know, it’s psychiatry. I don’t think that’s psychiatry. Look, it could be. Well, it’s definitely not psychiatry in 1930s Shanghai, and that’s the set we’re allowed to film on. Okay, what if it weren’t actually Shanghai? What if it weren’t actually 1930? What if all of this were at best a weird approximation of the period that adheres to no rules except the ones we want?
Once you’ve thought that, the sky’s the limit.
The show has a very inconsistent grasp on reality, and I am listing that as a pro instead of a con because I am choosing to embrace it as a deliberate choice rather than assume it’s the result of craven incompetence. There's something to be said, though, for how pervasively inconsistent it is. It'd be one thing if there were just a few plot holes here and there (and there are), but this is more along the lines of: We woke up in a mysterious boat and got taken to an island with a giant sea monster skeleton on the shore! What's that all about? Couldn't say! Was it real? Maybe! Moving on!
Let the number of "it's fine! who knows!" comments I've made throughout this rec indicate how much this is the kind of show you just have to roll with. If you are a nitpicker or someone who is troubled by unexplained nonsense, this is not the thing for you. If you love artistic magical realism and high strangeness, you will eat this up with a spoon.
And the lampshade that hangs over all of this worldbuilding is...
5. THE STUPIDEST POSSIBLE ENDING EVER
Okay, usually I am coy about when I think an ending has problems. I am going to drag this one out front and center: Psych-Hunter has an ending so jaw-droppingly, head-clutchingly stupid that I'm actually listing it as a selling point, because it has to be seen to be believed.
When I first watched it, I suspected the show ran out of time or money or something and just had to slap together the quickest possible ending ever. But no! This is the ending they meant! If you go back to the rest of the series, you can see that this is what they were (kinda) setting up the whole time! They just set it up so poorly and decided to make the twist hit at such a late point that not only is it complete nonsense, it actually renders moot the entire emotional stakes of the show! Absolutely incredible!
Now, as I've said before in other places, I don't begrudge the actual twist itself. I mean, it's stupid on its face, but I think they could have done something with it — if they'd had it happen halfway through the series, when the characters would have had time to adjust to the new knowledge. Instead, they slap it on at the last possible moment, when there's no time to have any reaction to it. It's just jarring and baffling, and then the whole thing's over.
I've seen lots of people say "season 2 when???" Season 2 never, friends. There was never going to be a season 2. The only reason you think this was an even remotely acceptable narrative move was that you were assuming that this would be the midpoint, not the end. You're having the same reaction I did, only I can tell this was always meant to be their spectacular dismount.
(To me, it's clear what happened: They J.J. Abramsed themselves into a cool premise for a mystery with no idea how to solve it, hoping they'd figure it out along the way. When they got to the end and still hadn't figured it out, they simply ... opted out of solving it.)
Now, if you want a normal viewing experience out of this show, watch to the end of the next-to-last episode, close your browser window, and have imagination adventures about how you think all the mysteries should resolve. But you're not going to. You are going to continue on to that last episode, and you are going to realize that nothing I could have said here could possibly have prepared you for this. And somewhere, I am going to feel the urge to cackle wickedly and not even know why. Except I'll know why. We'll both know why.
Want to watch this hot mess?
That baby's an iQiyi exclusive! But you can watch the first episode on YouTube, if you feel like getting a taste that way.
Look, I know I may have spoiled my pitch somewhat with that last selling point. After all, why would you bother watching a series if you know it has a shit ending?
I refute your objection thus: Knowing it has a shit ending changes the whole game, because it removes the feeling of betrayal that hits upon your discovering that the ending isn’t what you wanted. You know that already now, so there can be no betrayal. The ending goes from being an unpleasant surprise to being exactly the unexpected thing that you expected. With that in mind, you can dive right in (ha ha) knowing that you’ll never get the closure you crave, and therefore whatever you make up along the way is perfectly valid.
This is obviously a turnoff if you prefer shows that are like seeing someone start a magic trick, perform it without breaking a sweat, and walk off calmly, leaving you wondering how on earth they accomplished such an amazing thing. Think of this more as someone starting a magic trick, accidentally letting the rabbit fall out of their hat, saying “I meant to do that!” like thirty times, and suddenly vanishing through a trapdoor, leaving you wondering what the trick was even supposed to be in the first place — but they were really good-looking and well-dressed, so at least whatever they were doing was nice to look at while it was happening.
Prompt: Jiang Shuo drunkenly kisses a girl and then kisses her boyfriend so he won't get left out. He finds out later that the man is a doctor and his neighbor. Said neighbor clarifies that the girl Jiang Shuo kissed was not his girlfriend and swear she would punch Jiang Shuo if she saw him again. Jiang Shuo said kissing her was a mistake, but kissing him wasn't. (Then maybe steals another before closing his apartment door 😘)
I've never written something like this before, so I will do my best
Jiang Shuo knew he shouldn’t have drunk so much at the bar, but he had a really shitty week and he honestly just kind of wanted to drown it in alcohol. Problem was, now that he had drowned his sorrows in alcohol…he was too damn drunk to even fucking get up the stairs to his apartment complex. So now he was sitting at the bottom of the steps, leaning his head against the wall because 1) it felt cool and 2) his head was beginning to pound. As he sat there, letting the cool concrete soothe his pounding head, he heard footsteps and voices coming closer until there was a hand on his shoulder that gently shook him.
“Hey. Hey, are you alright?” a voice asked. Jiang Shuo grumbled and swatted at the hand, causing the voice to huff as another voice, a female one, scoffed.
“See, I told you, Yiheng. He’s just drunk. We should just leave him and head up for the night” the female voice stated. The first voice, ‘Yiheng’ Jiang Shuo’s brain provided, huffed.
“I’m not just going to leave him here, Mu Qing. Come on, help me help him up” he instructed. The female that was with Yiheng, Mu Qing, groaned before she knelt down beside Jiang Shuo and wrapped an arm around him as Yiheng wrapped an arm around him as well before they both hoisted him to his feet, Jiang Shuo nearly pitching forward the moment he was on his feet.
“Oh Jesus” Yiheng breathed, quickly placing a hand on Jiang Shuo’s chest, steadying him.
“Why don’t you just…take your time? Take some deep breaths” he murmured, gently rubbing Jiang Shuo’s chest. Jiang Shuo hummed and did as he was told, taking a few deep breaths before he cleared his throat and nodded drunkenly.
“I’m…fine. We can go” he slurred. Yiheng and Mu Qing looked at each other, small frowns on their faces, before the three of them began to slowly walk up the stairs of the apartment complex together, pausing every once and a while whenever Jiang Shuo made a gagging sound or whenever Jiang Shuo nearly buckled. Thankfully, however, they were able to make it up the apartment complex stairs to Jiang Shuo’s floor, Mu Qing looking over at Yiheng.
“I’m going to leave him in your care, since my apartment’s one floor up” she stated. Yiheng nodded and Mu Qing made to slip out from under Jiang Shuo’s arm when Jiang Shuo grabbed her by the wrist, halting her.
“What?” she asked. Jiang Shuo then yanked her forward and crashed his lips against hers, Mu Qing and Yiheng’s eyes widening in shock before Mu Qing quickly shoved Jiang Shuo away and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” she hissed before she spun away and headed towards the stairs that led to the next floor up. Jiang Shuo and Yiheng both stared at her retreating back before Yiheng gave Jiang Shuo a tug.
“Come on, let’s get you home. You clearly need to lie down and sleep” he murmured. Jiang Shuo hummed as he and Yiheng continued down the row of doors until Jiang Shuo suddenly stopped before one of them, making Yiheng look at him.
“What, is this your house?” he asked. Jiang Shuo nodded before he began patting his pants pockets, frowning slightly.
“Damn it, where did I put them?” he grumbled. Yiheng looked at him before he sighed and shook his head as he removed his arm from around Jiang Shuo and grabbed him by the shoulders, turning him so that he was facing him.
“Pardon my touch” he murmured before he began patting Jiang Shuo’s pants pockets until he felt something in one of them, causing him to reach inside before he pulled out a pair of house keys and held them up to Jiang Shuo.
“Looking for these?” he asked. Jiang Shuo blinked before he smiled almost dumbly and nodded, reaching out to take the keys when Yiheng held them out of his reach, causing him to frown.
“What are you doing? Give me my keys” he demanded. Yiheng shook his head.
“You’re too drunk. Let me do it” he offered. Jiang Shuo blinked before he nodded and semi-stumbled out of the way so that Yiheng could step forward and unlock his door for him. After he had unlocked the door, Yiheng pushed it open before he stepped back and handed Jiang Shuo his keys.
“Here. Now go inside, drink some water, then go to bed” he ordered. Jiang Shuo chuckled and nodded, taking his keys back from him before he headed into his apartment, about to shut the door when he paused.
“Oh wait” he murmured before he turned and reached out, grabbing Yiheng’s wrist, making the man look at him with a raised eyebrow.
“Eh? What is it?” he asked, just as Jiang Shuo stepped forward and kissed him on the lips, just like he had Mo Qing. Yiheng’s eyes widened but instead of pushing Jiang Shuo away, he just stood there, stunned, until Jiang Shuo pulled away and smiled drunkenly at him, patting his cheek.
“A kiss for the boyfriend too” he cooed before he turned and headed inside his apartment, closing the door behind him. Yiheng stared at his apartment door with wide eyes before he shook his head and headed down the row of doors before stopping two doors down from Jiang Shuo’s apartment, unlocking the door before heading inside.
~*~*~*~*~*~
The next morning, when Jiang Shuo awoke, he let out a groan and clutched at his head.
“That’s it…no more drinking…holy fuck my head” he grumbled before he slowly sat up and took a deep breath.
“Maybe a shower will sober me up” he murmured. He then pushed himself to his feet and headed to the bathroom, quickly stripping before standing under the hot stream, just allowing the hot water to relax his muscles while also healing him of his throbbing headache. After he showered and toweled off, he stepped out of the bathroom, letting out a soft sigh.
“Thank God it’s the weekend” he murmured as he walked over to his closet and put on something relatively nice since he decided to head to a café for coffee (since he didn’t have any coffee in his apartment at the moment). After he had gotten changed, he grabbed his phone (which he was grateful that drunk him remembered to actually charge), his keys, and his wallet before he stepped out of his apartment, about to head out when he looked to his left to see a familiar face.
“Oh! It’s you” he called out, making Yiheng, who was also stepping out of his apartment, look over at him in surprise.
“Oh…good morning” he replied as he walked over to Jiang Shuo, standing before him.
“Are you feeling better?” he asked. Jiang Shuo nodded before he grinned and held out his hand.
“Jiang Shuo. I never properly introduced myself last night” he stated. Yiheng looked at him before he huffed and shook his hand.
“Dr. Qin Yiheng” he replied. Jiang Shuo looked at him in surprise.
“Doctor? Ah, no wonder you were all like “I can’t just leave him, Mo Qing” and “go inside, drink water, then go to bed”. Makes a lot of sense” he mused before he blushed embarrassedly.
“Uh, about last night…sorry. Didn’t mean to kiss your girlfriend” he apologized. Qin Yiheng looked at him with a raised eyebrow before he huffed and shook his head.
“Mo Qing’s not my girlfriend, but she is my assistant at my clinic. And she texted me this morning that if she ever sees you again, she’s going to punch you straight in the face for that kiss. So…it would be best if you avoid her at all costs” he stated. Jiang Shuo chuckled, nodding.
“Noted” he murmured before he looked at Qin Yiheng and smirked.
“Wanna grab coffee with me? I was just about to head to a café to get some” he explained. Qin Yiheng blinked before he shook his head.
“Maybe another time. I have some work to do at the clinic this morning” he stated. Jiang Shuo smiled.
“Well, how about I walk with you? If you don’t mind, that is” he replied. Qin Yiheng stared at him for a moment before he shook his head.
“No…I’d appreciate the company” he replied. Jiang Shuo grinned before he and Qin Yiheng began to walk towards the stairs and head down them, heading out of the apartment complex and down the streets.
“So, what kinda doctor are you?” Jiang Shuo asked as they made their way to Qin Yiheng’s clinic. Qin Yiheng huffed.
“Just a normal doctor, why?” he replied. Jiang Shuo shrugged.
“I don’t know, most doctors that I know have like…specialties and shit” he stated. Qin Yiheng chuckled.
“No, I’m just an M.D” he assured. Jiang Shuo hummed as they continued walking, walking in silence for a while before Jiang Shuo looked over at Qin Yiheng again.
“You’re not…mad about last night?” he asked. Qin Yiheng looked over at him and raised an eyebrow before he huffed.
“Should I be?” he replied. Jiang Shuo shrugged.
“I mean…if I was kissed by some random drunk dude, I’d be a little pissed” he stated. Qin Yiheng hummed.
“I mean, yes, it caught me off guard, but I just chalked it up to you being drunk…I tried not to think too much about it” he replied. Jiang Shuo chuckled and shook his head.
“You’re strange” he murmured. Qin Yiheng smirked.
“I’ll take that as a compliment” he replied. Jiang Shuo chuckled again as they continued towards Qin Yiheng’s clinic and once they reached the clinic, Qin Yiheng stepped forward and unlocked the door, about to step inside when Jiang Shuo grabbed him by the arm, making him look over at him with a raised eyebrow.
“What?” he asked. Jiang Shuo smiled.
“If we’re gonna be honest, kissing your assistant was a mistake” he stated before he looked him in the eyes.
“But kissing you wasn’t. I was definitely a lot soberer when I kissed you then when I kissed her” he declared. Qin Yiheng’s eyes widened as Jiang Shuo smirked and leaned forward, pecking him on the lips.
“Have a good day at work, Qin Er” he bid before he released his wrist and turned, walking away from the clinic when Qin Yiheng took a step towards him.
“Jiang Shuo!” he called out. Jiang Shuo stopped and turned back, raising an eyebrow as he looked at him.
“Yes, Qin Er?” he replied. Qin Yiheng blushed.
“Maybe instead of getting coffee…do you…want to get lunch?” he asked. Jiang Shuo’s eyes widened before he grinned.
“What time?” he replied. Qin Yiheng blinked.
“Uh…how about 1:30?” he suggested. Jiang Shuo grinned wider.
“You’ve got yourself a date, Qin Er!” he declared before he turned and walked away, Qin Yiheng staring after him before he chuffed and shook his head as he turned and headed into his clinic, a small smile on his lips. He was looking forward to lunch.
While I’m happy that Psych Hunter is getting positive reception, I still haven’t gotten over the shock upon seeing the character designs in the trailer 24 hours ago 😂 Especially the design of my ever-favourite Qin Yiheng... and what’s that coin thingy weapon that Jiang Shuo is carrying...
Just for some fun background info, here’s how the duo most likely look like in the original novel, through the eyes of various artists. And that coin thingy weapon of Jiang Shuo is actually a coin bracelet in the book (look at his wrist), with a very sentimental bromantic background, but let me not spoil you too much 🤭.
Also, a very important point I need to scream about: Completely opposite from the show, in the book, the feng shui master is Qin Yiheng, Jiang Shuo has zero knowledge regarding the matter [how else do you think he’ll get into trouble for Qin Yiheng to rescue him then? (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧]
Here’s a piece that I really like, bonus a quote taken from canon.
“Jiang Shuo, it’s been a while that I last had a cigarette given by you.”
——
Images are credited to artists (left to right, top to bottom): 雨打吟耳汤, 无糖紫虚子, 速度复活, 埃森 and 阿费是条大咸鱼 @ Lofter
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