Daffodils

We understand. Last weekend I finished re watching for third time. I thought well that's fine I have already processed this story....famous last words. I was so sad by the end. So, no, it does not get better with every re-watch, but it is always interesting to notice more, to be opened to more details. I like your expression "so painfully good", yes I believe this series is worthy of our tears.

Fanfare and reality - ZheXu and MiJin in Hengdian
Yesterday Jin Jin went to visit ZheXu to his hotel where everybody that is attending the award is staying*. There were paparazzi and they were the fans who recorded every moment and sell/post the videos in the internet. We know this. He was "ambushed" leaving the hotel after 4 hours by both paparazzi of the other actors (in the confusion) and these fans. He was so tired and stumbled a bit. Of course all sort of tasteless comment have followed. In every fandom, there is this obnoxious fans that create the most absurd posts. Jin Jin is working already, with those punitive recording schedules typical of Chinese productions. He visited Xu not to have a honey moon. They both have staff with them. He went to work for the fandom. To record those vblogs that we so much like. All these efforts should be respect. They can be an "item", but the tiredness is, by common sense, not because a passionate affair, it is because overwork.
This morning, also ZheXu was "ambushed" in this case that's fine. It must feel good to have all this attention. The only that I wish is that this raucous that people produce be reflected in more serious attention to them. In Weibo, Jin Jin have aprox 200,000 followers and ZheXu 100,00 which in China is nothing. In Insta Jin has 22,000 followers ZheXu 24,000. With no disrespect intended Kipuka Qiu (ABO) which acting skills are not at the pair of XuJin and who did not have an Insta account before ABO has 329,000 followers. So there is still a steep hill to climb and I hope they really get the economical/professional reward that justify all this aggressive fanfare around them. Jin Jin who normally is such good sport and cope with a lot was so disoriented yesterday. Bless him.
I could not find a good video of Jin Jin leaving the hotel, I saw more yesterday.
https://x.com/jambool_D/status/1984441792532791310
This is ZheXu this morning
https://x.com/gukki_DalYeo/status/1984502698159587613
This is Mi Jin in set (next to him is Xia Zhi Guang)
https://x.com/Namfon28_/status/1984524167639896192
*Wenrong Awards were founded to recognise and encourage outstanding works and talent in the film and television industry, especially young creators, behind-the-scenes crew, and grassroots contributors. Zhe Xu’s name appears in the list of “青年演员” (young actors) under the Wenrong Awards program. The Wenrong Awards are important regionally/industry-wise. It is relevant to the Hengdian region were most dramas are filmed in China.

This is great River, thank you. I was surprised by the tamed reaction of ShuHe to HuoYing confession a completely opposite to SQ. This is what they were and archetype of opposite poles. I really like your idea about the possibility of Hua Yi being an assassin too. yes, agree he was not a psychopath, he has this very dark side to his personality but he was not a narcissist like ShuHe brother.

Thank you! crossing fingers

I do appreciate why you find redeemable qualities on Shu Qian, but narcissist are capable of "doubting" themselves too and could display flashes of empathy, this does not deny that fundamentally they are incapable of genuine love. I agree with you, when we watch Chinese period dramas we learn about this total devotion to a "boss".

I do enjoy reading your contribution to a subject Y!! I should point out people to your excellent look at the character HY here and thank you for adding my comment to "deep dives" above. @Yerisina look at ZiAng brother is a must read:
https://kisskh.at/discussions/788946-shan-he-yong-ji/145662-duan-huai-yi-beloved-long-lost-brother-or

Will it be a BL? or they would make it a bromance? One of the actors is mainstream actor.

Many thanks for this Rainbows!!! It is really interesting. This is great that your husband was able to give context to the phrase too. Yes I remember he said, I only can say I love you to Jin Jin.

ShuQian was a psychopathic narcissist character. He rejoiced in making people suffer and fear him. In my books, he did not feel an ounce of affection for HY, but his pleasure was in the control and be witness to HY submissive feelings gave him joy. As a psychopathic narcissist he could be magnanimous too. It is all a way of exercising power. The "love" that he felt for ShuHe was like that too, a way of control. When a narcissist looses a toy he may want it back. Hence why he wanted to find the antidote. Cause and consequence - he gave him the poison, he wanted to cause pain - wrong in all account, now he wanted to put him right??? Please! - There is a healing phrase that it said to recover from narcissist abuse: The one who broke you, cannot heal you.

The Brothers - unsettling emotions:
An earlier @Yerisina post prompt me to write this post that I have been thinking for a while and is the relation of our CP with their brothers.
Shu He and Shu Qian:
This relationship is so multi layer and gives me an unsettling feeling. They way that they related to each other is a bit incestuous. The words they use, the expectations, jealously could have been framed in a different narrative and it was not. Everything is very obscure, the string symbolising their love and their break down. Shu Qian looking desperately for the string when he himself tossed it in the pond. Shu Qian was a psychopathic narcissist and that could not be helped, but his father contributed to his blind jealously for his half brother. this is why he hated his father so much. ShuQian shallow love for his brother was a way of control. ShuHe was taken by this love. After being tortured at some point he said to ZiAng, "my brother know me the best". His grieve for a brother that he was always scared of and who hated him was just disproportionate. Another very symbolic moment is that when he was drunk in the restaurant waiting for Shu Qian he confused ZiAng with ShuQian, so in a way ZiAng -also symbolically- replaced Shu Qian
ZiAng and Hai Yi
This is the most confusing of all the relationships in this series. Hai Yi was a Duan, so in fact he was not blood related to ZiAng. Of course ZiAng did not know in the beginning. I am not sure how much he wanted to find this brother and how much was an excuse to meet ShuHe, but let's believe that it was genuine. I think he actually said it in the second part of the series. Now, how he found him? Big question, more I watched the series and more I confirmed that both ShuHe and ZiAng were played by Jibei people on this matter. They "planted" Hai Yi there to be found by ShuHe. So, was this Hai Yi, really ZiAng Duan brother? Or he was also an impostor? He was very hostile towards ShuHe since the first moment he met him and his later behaviour was appalling, where that hatred came from? Was this brotherly love or a bit of a different obsession too? I don't believe for a second HY was guided by Buddhist principles, I know there has been a discussion along the line, but I am sorry no way this person has anything from that set of believes on him. He was capable of a very dark cruelty. ZiAng deserved a better brother.

Cause there is not many post about Elliot here

Many thanks. Do you have the link to Superbuy?

Great observation River? Love make him a poet :-)

New vblog!!!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQeDeO-D6nz/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Airport - There are videos of ZheXu in the airport today in RedNote. Looking so dashing in a long leather coat. he is going to Hengdian to the award ceremony. It happens Jin Jin is in set there. Hopefully they will meet for more vblogs!
https://x.com/derrurru_season/status/1984112713745006788
he confirmed, he is visiting Jin Jin:
https://x.com/derrurru_season/status/1984144815714656366

I have been here from day one but i left the forum because it was awfully toxic. mainly due to the crazy RL fans. I come from time to time to check any update on Elliot who is the only one who interest me, but it is a waste of time.

Interesting. I have access to both Weibo and Red Note and i did not see any single comment about it so I was surprised about it.

I abandoned Revenge Love in ep 5. The plot did not interest me at all. I was aggravated by these two thrash handsome rich men giving the boyfriend of one of them to be abused. I did not thing that the acting was great. One actor have 2 face expression the other have like 20. Yes, ABO has not the greatest actors but it was very watchable I found the Enigma character really original and suit the actor very well. Fortunately, Kill to Love came along with actors from the best performance academies in China, well that's amazing acting. They managed to save the honour of the Chinese BL genre single-handedly.

Yes, I know what you meant. Good news is that a lot of actors male and female keep being good friends after their dramas finish. They are just not friendly in public to avoid fan wars. There was a popular ML in China that has a very successful female CP. So they have lots of shippers. Years down the line this ML married his fiancee and the shippers even sent death threats to his future wife. Yibo committed the mistake once to say in an interview that he was closed friend with Xiao Zhan (after the promotion of The Untamed finished) the hate that he received from XZ solo fans was terrible. So never ever more, their agencies even coordinate for them not to be in the same award ceremony at the same time. There are many examples like this, so actors try to avoid disclose any liaison of any sort. China it is not like Japan. In Japan, BL CPs can overtly continue their friendship outside work. They have dinner together, they get drunk together and rather than hide it they put all the photos in their Instagram 😂 They know Japanese fans are measure and don't get crazy about these things. I am 100% sure that Xu and Jin will keep their relationship going for many years to come. We may not be able to witness it, but their bond look solid and it would be difficult to break.

BG CP marketing does not happen at the level of BL CP marketing, so you don't have to be too worried about it. Bear in mind that the female actors need to keep their reputation and they have a very rotten deal in that sense. So what they do is they play games, talk about their roles nothing like a BL CP. In BL the boys keep the illusion of the characters going on , this is what they sell, we see this in all the Asian BL countries, except in Japan. I am more concern with them getting roles in high rate productions. I prefer this that they go for the cheap ones. Why? because the script in high end production is better and although they still could be getting support roles they would receive more respect. It is important to distance ourselves emotionally when they start a new production. When I saw Jin Jin in his last production it did not bother me the "fake marriage" it bother me that this is an actor that could give so much and here he is doing such a simple role. This hurts me more. Let's also remember that CP fan service in Asia is unavoidable. You have to be very top rated to stop it. It is strongly believe that Yibo and Xiao Zhang have no CP fan services clauses in their contracts. They could promote the production but not CP fan services. It is the same with other MLs that have the power to negotiate this. This is applicable to FLs too. To add a very highly paid actor will have choices of scripts sent to him/her so they now decide carefully which roles they would like to play.

I totally agree with you. This is a different BL CP because they are very special human beings. First of all they are super smart, to enter to those universities is really difficult. Secondly, they have real talent, they are amazing actors. Thirdly, they are very candid, genuinely "good boys" - no scandal, nothing has cropped with any of them. Finally, I have seen tones of BL CPs doing fan service what XuJin is doing is really original. It really warms our hearts. We are really lucky to witness this.