Mysterious Lotus Casebook - A Summary Of Sorts

Mysterious Lotus Casebook - A Summary of Sorts

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. 😭🥺😭

Li Xiangyi | Mysterious Lotus Casebook

"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."

(ep 38) li xiangyi was ready to die and did not care at all about escaping or fighting back, until he heard that di feisheng was so heavily injured that he cannot fight back against the forced wedding. to which he instantly and immediately tricked his captors into letting him go and sneaked out to go rescue his husband, despite the fact that 1) he is near death due to poison, 2) half-blind, 3) has not eaten or had water in who knows how long.

the way li xiangyi loves his enemy who "killed" him so much that he would save him from this cruel fate, risking his own life? my heart hurts

(ep 37) are you... are you telling me that di feisheng had to spend five days after seeing li xiangyi dragged in seriously wounded and near death, five days in which li xiangyi wouldn't wake up, five days in which he did not know if the love of his life had passed away in his sleep mere metres from him? i am sick and unwell