BLzebub

The lotus seed scene was one of best scenes in the series. The lighting, the perfectly timed music, Sasin's deep slow-mo voice praising the seed as sweet, Saenkaew's face, the fact that Sasin let his intrusive thoughts win, the fact that such a simple act was so intimate. I kept replaying it in my mind for days 🥰

He has a beautiful singing voice and hearing his pronunciation of Thai words, especially his pronunciation of words containing ร (ror reua), is great.

She is stunning in "Love in the Moonlight." She gave micro-expressions so well. Hope to see her in more significant roles.

Absolutely. I'm so glad you enjoyed this too 😊🥰

Oh, that makes sense. Thank you for informing me.

What I saw:

"She couldn't possibly have done it because look how pretty she is and I liked her in the drama!"
"There is a corroborating witness to the bullying incident and she lied about why she had to transfer schools so she seems guilty"
"You want her to commit suicide, don't you? Some people commit suicide in Korea so we need to ignore anything bad she may have done and badmouth her accuser to keep her alive. How dare that accuser want an apology from her? How dare he counter-sue when she sued him first?"

It does look thin tbh. The agency is claiming "regular health check ups" but I don't know if I should believe them. I hope it's the truth.

On a sidenote: Why did they sensor the joint of the thumb?

It's May, like the month of May.

What was the meaning of the final scene where they showed the jug of honey lemonade in the sunlit kitchen?

This current rather skeletal photo does not do her justice. She was gorgeous in "Stay With Me."

Hello friend! I just finished watching "Stay With Me." Thank you so much for recommending it. I couldn't stop watching and I wish there were more episodes. I loved the family themes, I loved the love and care in Wu Bi's found family and I liked the messages communicated by the series.

This was my first time watching what MDL terms "censored adaptation of same-sex original work." There were times initially when I was watching and I thought "hmm...that's not something two dudes who are 'friends' or 'brothers' would typically do, seems to be venturing into romantic territory" and then I remembered it was a censored BL lol.
But in later episodes, the series was so unmistakenly a BL and the romantic moments were heartwarming. The series acknowledge the existence of homosexuality, Chinese BL literature (danmei), BL fandom (loved the selfless and adorable fujoshi character!) and after episode 20, they even started hinting at a physical relationship between the two male leads and I thought how did this get past censorship? 😅 But I'm glad it did as it was wonderful. The leads were both very handsome (or "帅/shuài" as they kept being aptly called in the series) and their chemistry was amazing! I wish China made BLs more frequently. I would love to see Zhang Jiong Min and Xu Bin together in more series.

I read some comments on the series' MDL page criticizing the ending so it primed me for a tragic ending but, while I agree the ending could be better, I was relieved it was a cliffhanger and not a sad ending. I also understand now that this was just half the story and in the original novel, the story continues and ends on a happy note.

I was thinking of watching 'Addicted' after this series but I realized a few days ago that this is a toned down version of 'Addicted.' Which means I already know the plot of that series so now I'm not sure if I should 'Addicted' right away, or watch a Thai BL (to give me happy vibes after that heart-wrenching last episode of "Stay With Me") or maybe start another iconic Chinese BL like "The Untamed." 🙈

Regardless, thank you so much again for your empathetic comment above and for recommending "Stay With Me." ❤️

Hello. I came across this link shared by user AquaticKiss above in this comments section which shows that Wu Suowei called himself the Mandarin Chinese term for aunt (or more precisely, mother's brother's "wife") when speaking with Duo Duo (Chi Cheng's sister's son):
https://www.tumblr.com/secriden/791536741358125056/i-need-everyone-to-know-that-dou-dou-is-calling-wu
So I think when talking to his own parents, Wu Suowei centred himself in the conversation and called Chi Cheng his "wife" but when talking to Chi Cheng's relative, he centred Chi Cheng and referred to himself as his "wife." No machismo involved.

A slight problem for my generalization though: Mandarin Chinese has different terms for "father-in-law" depending on whether the speaker is a man or a woman. Traditionally, 老丈人 (Lǎo zhàngrén) is what a man calls his wife's father while 公公 (gōnggong) is what a woman calls her husband's father. When Wu Suowei woke up after being kidnapped, he called Chi Cheng's father 老丈人 (Lǎo zhàngrén) but I think that term can be used by man for his husband's father too, because it doesn't contain any radical that means "wife" or "woman" (in contrast to, for example, 儿媳妇/érxífù which literally has the radical 女 meaning "woman" twice in its spelling).

BUT I don't know Mandarin, I could be wrong so take this with a grain of salt. I'm just enjoying speculating why this or that word was used.

Wu Bi looks so much like Takara from "Takara's Treasure."

I see. Thank you, I understand now. Then the rumour explanation for the censorship sounds quite plausible.
Now that the "secret wife and kid" rumour has been laid to rest, I hope Tian Xuning does not face any further censorship and his career continues to soar.
BL has a significant following in China and there are so many danmei stories that can be dramatized so I also wish that in the near future, Chinese authorities adopt a more tolerant attitude towards the BL genre and actors who perform in BL dramas.

Yes, I read some comments speculating that the reason for editing him out was the false "wife and kid" rumour. But I wonder: why would they edit him out for that? It's not bad to have a wife or kid. Is there some crucial information that I'm missing?
I know in some East Asian countries, popular actors and actresses are expected to be single and their fan following plummets if it is discovered that they are in a relationship. Is there a similar expectation in China?

True, it becomes a male pride thing. Wu Suowei wanted the chance to top Chi Cheng for the same reason (though his request was denied). So perhaps that also played into him using érxífù rather than nǚxù.

I did find two gender-neutral terms for spouse in Chinese: 伴侶 (bànlǚ) and 配偶 (pèi'ǒu). Apparently, bànlǚ is an increasingly common gender-neutral term for "partner" so you could refer to your son's husband as "我兒子的伴侶" (wǒ érzi de bànlǚ), which means "my son's partner." Pèi'ǒu is a more formal gender-neutral term meaning "spouse" used in legal documents.

Oh you're very right! Wu Suowei used the longer term for "son's wife" or "daughter-in-law," 儿媳妇 (érxífù), once and the shorter term, 媳妇 (xífù), twice in reference to Chi Cheng in that conversation.
The subs I used translated 儿媳妇 figuratively as "son-in-law," which is why I didn't pick up on this. Thanks for informing me. Based off this, your interpretation is quite plausible, and I want to believe it more than my own earlier interpretation 😊
(On a sidenote: It's interesting that Wu Suowei didn't call Chi Cheng the Mandarin term for son-in-law, 女婿 (nǚxù). I think because 女 means "woman" or "daughter" and implies the person being referred to is related to the family via their daughter, which does not make sense in the case of Chi Cheng because he is related to the family via their son, Wu Suowei).

That's interesting! It wouldn't be the first time something has been lost in translation. I don't know much about Mandarin colloquialisms; I hope a Mandarin speaker can also give their two cents.

I went back and watched the scene again. I think now that Wu Suowei's mother understood at the hospital that Chi Cheng and Wu Suowei were in a relationship and that Chi Cheng was serious about Wu Suowei but she didn't know if Wu Suowei felt the same about Chi Cheng. So when she asked Wu Suowei at home later when he would give her a daughter-in-law (儿媳妇; érxífù), she did it to check if Wu Suowei was seriously interested in Chi Cheng too. When Wu Suowei made a sad facial expression in response to that question, his mom got the confirmation and so she suddenly brought up Chi Cheng and told Wu Suowei that Chi Cheng is a good person.

The kids talk happened further back in the past, before the hospitalization, though yes, even at that time Wu Suowei was serious about Chi Cheng and only said that to make his mother happy at a time when she wasn't feeling well.

Thank you for the recommendation. I have added Stay with Me to my Plan to Watch list and will view it soon. I'm glad we agree so much about Asian vs. Western/American series.

You are very right about Mrs. Wu's not wanting to make Wu Suowei uncomfortable in any way. We saw examples of that in Wu Suowei's flashbacks of his mom in their home after she passed and most clearly in Mrs. Wu hiding her cancer diagnosis from her son so he doesn't feel anxious and sad. I can see her not mentioning that she knows the nature of the relationship between Wu Suowei and Chi Cheng unless Wu Suowei states it himself. And I don't know how I had forgotten about when she said Chi Cheng was better than a wife; it is the clearest evidence of her approval of the relationship. Thanks for reminding me of that.

Thank you for the kind things you said and your heartfelt well-wishes in the last paragraphs. Your parents are blessed to have a loving, caring daughter like you. I hope we can both live our lives the way we want, care for our parents and may our parents and their love remain in our lives for a long, long time.

I noticed that you mentioned that you haven't completed the series yet so what I'm about to type next is going to be a spoiler but I wanted to clarify something (do not read beyond this point if spoilers bother you):
In a later episode, when Wu Suowei's mother is in the hospital and near death, Chi Cheng visits her when Wu Suowei is away and she tells him that she understands that Chi Cheng and her son are in a relationship. She didn't tell Chi Cheng to break it off or that the relationship itself was "bad." She only said that she was worried they were going to have a harder life due to society than other couples. This was their final conversation before she passed away.
In the scene of Wu Suowei's mother's funeral, Chi Cheng recalled her words and it was clear he understood them as her approval for the relationship.

Just before she died, Wu Suowei's mother requested her son to take her back home from the hospital. This was after her conversation with Chi Cheng. Once at home, she asked Wu Suowei when he was going to give her a daughter-in-law, but I felt like she asked that to see if Wu Suowei will finally admit to his relationship with Chi Cheng in front of her. Once he gave a vague response, she immediately praised Chi Cheng in front of Wu Suowei, I think to signal that she approved of Chi Cheng and their relationship, though I don't think Wu Suowei understood that because he was unaware of his mother's earlier conversation with Chi Cheng.

I agree with you that she seemed conservative and may not have been approving if she found out in her first interaction with Chi Cheng that he was into men and especially if she knew he was into her son. The boys hid their relationship from her for a reason. But she was a loving, understanding mother too and in her final days, she figured it out and accepted the relationship.