Me: *scrolling Tumblr*

Me: *scrolling tumblr*

Castiel: I love you

Me: Dear god what’s happened now

Mysterious Lotus Casebook - A Summary of Sorts

"I have only one opponent in my life. That is Li Xiangyi. I only have one wish in my life. That is to beat him."

Mysterious Lotus Casebook | Lian Hua Lou | 莲花楼 | Episode 5

Poor thing. None of the people she loved loved her. And none of them wanted to leave her alive.

[Do not repost. Do not remove caption. Thank you!]

Gif IDs and meta babble under the cut.

[ID: Three gifs of Li Lianhua from episode 5 of Mysterious Lotus Casebook. He is shown from mid-chest up in the first gif and from the shoulders up in the last two. He is speaking of the murder victim in the case they are investigated (text in the main post). He looks a little sad, also a bit resigned. There is a brief cut in the first gif to Fang Duobing looking equally sad.]

So this rewatch is going... SO WELL. I keep finding these ridiculous parallels in places I don't expect to find them and losing my entire damned mind about it. This episode struck me the first time as existing mostly to establish that LLH is, in fact, a good detective. He's wily as hell and has the knowledge to back it up. It's also the avenue by which we're introduced to the Jinyuan Alliance and some of the other side players that come back later on. But I didn't think much of the mystery itself. Of the parallels that are going to be drawn later on.

Yu Qiushang died twice, victim to the people who supposedly loved her most, because she was in the way. Because it was too dangerous to leave her alive with the things she knew.

...kind of like Li Xiangyi.

Only it wasn't about what he knew, it was about who he was. He was inconvenient, and too righteous to be left alive to interfere. And he, too, was killed multiple times over the course of the story:

Once by Jiao Liquiao and Yun Biqiu with teh Bicha Poison.

Twice by Di Feisheng over the Eastern Sea.

Thrice by Xiao Zijin and the rest of Sigu Sect when they disbanded the Sect rather than try to rebuild.

And one final time when Shan Gudao set out to destroy his legacy and reputation.

All people he loved (yes, I'm counting Di Feisheng in that category, fight me ^_^). All people who didn't (or at least who he thought didn't) love him back in the same way. All people who betrayed him.

And if you watch that last gif: there's a breath that gets punched out of him; that hitch before he says those final words; that twist to his features like he's just now seeing this parallel himself.

This one hit home.

And then to find Di Feisheng in the back mountain so soon after when he's helpless to confront him? The way his fist clenches because he's practically DRIVEN by the need to do SOMETHING... but he can't. He isn't strong enough. He's hurt. It would be suicide.

But this case has brought all of that roaring to the surface and he's not ready for it.

It's no wonder he passes out.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have an appointment to go cry in a corner about this man YET AGAIN. 😭🥺😭

(ep 37) can't believe it's just li xiangyi's current boyfriend, ex-boyfriend (no hard feelings) and ex-girlfriend (they made up) standing up for him. imagine having that kind of impact as a lover.

Actually. Actually in pain thinking about Li Lianhua, who thought he had wasted 20 years and then lived a half-life for another 10 just to make it mean something. And then he finds out that this singular purpose he had was pointless too. His Shixiong never loved him and actually engineered his death with the express purpose of breaking him, defeating him. And suddenly all the three decades of his life feel so pointless and false that all he can do is walk away. He is so tired of trying to live for something that ultimately turned out hollow, he doesn't see the people running after him, the people whose lives he did change for the better, the people who love him. He doesn't have the energy to fight to live all over again. He doesn't realise that if he chooses to stay, there are so many who would lend him the strength to build another life.