Them!

them! 🥰🥰🥰

Commission for @the-wintry-mizzenmast

Sarah jie jie, In Blossom rec or no?

this is a real tough question to answer hooooo boy where do i start??

i mean, for starters, the premise of the show is actually really fun, and i like it a lot so far!! let's talk a little about this:

(spoilers for the first 2 eps in its entirety which covers the background/setup of the story)

this is yang caiwei. her dad was a minister who was framed for one thing or another, demoted, and subsequently murdered. she was disfigured in the process, and ended up in the city of heyang where she grew up to be a corpse bearer training under a coroner.

yang caiwei has been betrothed since she was a little girl to:

pan yue. this boy is the son of a concubine so his relationship with his dad is very meh. when yang caiwei's family got into trouble, pan yue's dad quickly cut off all ties with them. this led to yang caiwei being turned away at the door p harshly when she came to pan yue for help. pan yue himself though has loved her since he was a boy, and has been looking for her for 10 years!!

ANYWAY these two find each other. he wants to marry her. ofc he does!! she's his 白月光, and he wants to love and protect her!! he's disowned his family so that he can do this, he is ALL IN BABY. he's only found her again for all of 10 minutes and he's already planning their wedding in his head lbr.

she is calm and composed and v sensible because of the way she had to grow up. this whole thing seems too good to be true, and also she might be harbouring some ~feelings over the way he just cut her out of his life when she needed him the most. the yang caiwei she is now just wants to live her life as normal.

the chemistry is 😘 at this point, and i am so invested in their relationship. at this stage, i was still thinking she was the second female lead and was like. huh. this is going to be one of those shows where i'd ship these two more than the official couple i guess??

anyway enter:

shangguan zhi. sister of pan yue's best friend, who is obsessed with pan yue, putting it mildly. she also has this ~thing about her own physical appearance - essentially, she thinks she needs to look and act perfect to be worthy of pan yue's love. this involves a lot of witch doctors and v unhealthy dieting and scrolls on how to smile the perfect way and walk the perfect way. y'all get the gist.

shangguan zhi hears that pan yue is getting married (to someone ugly at that!!!) and loses her shit. she decides the way around this so she can be with her yue-gege forever is-

(you guessed it!!)

-body-swapping with yang caiwei, and pushing yang caiwei (and also the shaman who actually helped her with the swap) off a cliff so that nobody ever finds out.

to her credit, it actually works!! she swaps bodies with yang caiwei, and marries pan yue.

what she didn't account for was being murdered on her wedding day.

ANYWAY. the actual yang caiwei, now in shangguan zhi's body (😭), survives the fall from the cliff, rushes to the wedding with the intent on stopping the wedding and getting her goddamn body back, and reaches just in time to kinda sorta witness shangguan zhi's murder.

cue her thinking that it was pan yue who killed shangguan zhi (she knew the whole wedding thing was too good to be true) and pan yue thinking that shangguan zhi had something to do with yang caiwei's death (after all, she was obsessed with him and had a whole fit over him wanting to marry someone else).

everything about this premise was *chef's kiss*. give me a bucket of popcorn and some comfy pillows, i can watch this all day.

EXCEPT.

except my dudes shangguan zhi (and subsequently yang caiwei-in-shangguan-zhi's body, let's call her shangguan caiwei for now) is played by ju jingyi. 😞 zhhz played yang caiwei TOO WELL my friends, so that when jjy took over, shangguan caiwei felt like a whole different character. it's a bit difficult to reconcile yang caiwei and shangguan caiwei tbh, which made watching the third ep onwards a bit jarring, especially after zhhz set the character up so well.

it's not like......fatal to the show. i mean. i went in expecting nothing from jjy (rightfully i think 😑) and i wouldn't say i am disappointed by it just because i was prepared to be ehhhh about her going in. i'm still watching the show mainly because i like the plot and also, and this is a big factor that i truly cannot stress enough:

liu xueyi looks so good in this show hoooooo boy

look at this!!! is this a face i would suffer 30+ episodes of jjy for??? apparently it is!!

tl;dr: love lxy + like the plot + dislike jjy = still watching and will likely finish the show. is it a rec?? conservatively, i'd say soft yes??? i mean. a huge part of me watching this show is because i'm entertained by the shenanigans, 😍 over lxy, and daydreaming about an alternate universe of the show where we have zhhz instead of jjy as the female lead. it's not something to watch seriously though!!

wow

A Queshan struck iron firework (打铁花; da2tie3hua1) performance to welcome the Year of the Dragon. Queshan struck iron fireworks differ from other iron fireworks due to the two-layered pergola and space required. This particular performance also features dragon dancing.

Please see my post here (my pinned post) for the full journey of how OP learned to strike iron fireworks as well as some other information and details about the art. (This is the video OP is referring to at the beginning of the video.)

*Before the countdown, OP is quoting the poem 青玉案·元夕 by 辛弃疾.

[eng by me + edited an ad out]

i keep asking people for their dihua first kiss headcanons (feel free to tell me yours!) so i figured it was about time i wrote mine out. reminder that requests are open, so please don't be shy about sending some in.

*

so, a'fei kisses him. it doesn't quite feel familiar but it doesn't feel wrong, and after a moment li lianhua parts his lips and reciprocates. it's a sweet, slow thing, exploratory and with a tiny hint of teeth. a'fei tries to chase it when li lianhua pulls away, but a firm hand on his chest stops him.

"ah," li lianhua sighs, regretful and faintly aggrieved, "no, no, that won't do at all."

"you liked it," a'fei says. "why not?"

"oh," li lianhua says, schooling himself into a somewhat proper posture and not the dreamy slump of the recently kissed, "you'll understand when you're older."

a'fei squints at him.

"there are a lot of reasons," li lianhua amends, aiming to sound prim and not quite succeeding. "you'll remember them someday."

"i don't think i'll care," a'fei says, and li lianhua smiles at that.

"well, that's for the you of then to decide, not the you of now."

*

"if you say so," a'fei says, doubtful, but doesn't try to stop li lianhua when he makes his escape toward the tower door.

"well," li lianhua says with the sly look he gets when he's sure he's got a winning hand, "it wouldn't be the first time di-mengzhu kissed me."

di feisheng's scowl is thunderous. "i wasn't myself," he says, "it doesn't count." it doesn't! a'fei had done a lot of things di feisheng wouldn't, and even if this, perhaps, was not one of them, it doesn't count.

"don't deny it, you'll wound my maiden heart," li lianhua says with an exaggerated swoon.

"did you like it that much," di feisheng says, frown deepening. li lianhua had quite liked it, hadn't he. di feisheng feels vaguely wronged, as if something has been taken from him.

"why, lao di," li lianhua says, sounding positively delighted, "are you jealous? of yourself?"

"preposterous." di feisheng crosses his arms. he is a man who simply takes what he wants; he does not get jealous! especially not of some other version of himself taking initiative that he hasn't.

"you are, aren't you," li lianhua says, nearly glowing in the moonlight. it's a terribly good look on him.

"they'll find us if you get any louder," di feisheng says, deflection as threatening as he can make it sound. li lianhua makes a show of covering his mouth as he laughs.

"come now, lao di," he says, crossing over to di feisheng's side of the table. "it's a fairly easy problem to solve, isn't it?"

di feisheng glares at him. li lianhua doesn't seem to notice, easing himself down onto the bench and twining his arms around di feisheng's neck. "isn't it?" li lianhua repeats, smiling up into his face.

it's awfully unfair of him, some beleaguered corner of di feisheng's mind notes, but they're kissing before he can finish the thought. his hands come up to anchor themselves on li lianhua's too-thin waist, squeezing possessively. it's less gentle this time, more teeth and more tongue, the edge of frustration making him impatient. li lianhua nips back gamely, and it isn't long before they settle into a rhythm of give and take, retreating and pursuing.

di feisheng drags li lianhua's lower lip out between his teeth as he pulls away, surveying li lianhua's blown pupils and flushed face with an air of proprietary triumph. he brings one hand up to cup li lianhua's face and trace his spit-shiny lips with his thumb.

"that," he says, "is our first kiss."

i love them so much 🥰

Episode 17 and 18

I have to say, I really enjoyed this little storyline because it spoke volumes about Di Feisheng and Li Lianhua. It's like he's finally letting go of the woman he's been holding a torch for, the one who wrote him a 'Dear John' letter a decade ago, and who's been lingering around like a growly cat, fighting and hissing? —Di Feisheng. And who's there at the very end of the episode, when it's clear that Li Lianhua isn't doing so well, giving him his energy once again? Di Feisheng. Honestly, all of his actions just scream 'I love you, I care a lot,' without Di Feisheng even realizing that it's love. What is it with me always falling for the trope of 'idiots in love'?

Also I just looooove the colour scheme in the final scene. Both of them wearing green...just lovely

i love this!

The Spring Poplars of Summer (ch. 1 of 8)

fandom: 莲花楼 | Mysterious Lotus Casebook

rating: mature

relationships: Fang Duobing/Li Xiangyi, Di Feisheng/Li Xiangyi, Di Feisheng/Fang Duobing/Li Xiangyi, Di Feisheng/Fang Duobing

(select) tags: post-canon, misunderstandings, humor, light angst, caretaking

also ft.: Huli Jing

by: Aerlalaith and reasonablyaloof

“Well?” Di Feisheng rumbled. “Ah,” Li Lianhua said, now sounding short of breath. “Well, if Di-Mengzhu is recalling the sweet promises we made to one another after drinking the wedding wine then I guess–” Fang Duobing froze. The what promises made to who after the what? (In which Fang Duobing eavesdrops, comes to several incorrect conclusions, and can’t stop drinking vinegar about it. Or thinking about it. Or–)

new fic with aerlalaith just dropped >:)