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snowblossomreads · 5 months

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Exhibit 4: Maybe, Just Maybe

Previous Chapter: Art of Starting Over

Pairing: Sinclair Bryant x Amiee Huang (OC)

Summary: Amiee and Sinclair rush to the hospital while trying to figure out their place in each other's lives. Another life precious to Amiee hangs in a precocious balance.

Tag(s)/Warning(s): Implied Attempted Suicide, Hospitalization, Drug Overdose, Alcohol Abuse, Drowning, Depression

Word Count: 6.7K

A/N: Hooof, is all I can say LOL! This chapter is a bit heavy so do bear with me! Also yesterday from when I'm posting this was Close My Eyes anniversary so happy bday to the movie that gave us a puppy dog (ignores everything else) Anyways enjoy and I'll see you at the end!

A/N+: Jk hold up just in case there is confusion with all the names going on here is a quick blurb for name explanations when it comes to Amiee.

Amiee - English Name , Xuemei (雪梅/Snow Plum) - Chinese Name, Xiao Xue (小雪/Small Snow) - Chinese Nickname

Angela/Angie - English Name and Nickname, Quixiang (秋香/Autumn Fragrance) - Chinese Name

Alright NOW let us continue.

Whatever intrigue Sinclair had about who was calling at this hour had been pushed aside in his mind. He was still busy unraveling from the shock of the delicate yet fleeting kiss that Amiee had placed on his forehead before slipping away. It had caught him off guard yet he also wished that it lasted longer.

Brushing his fingertips along his forehead he couldn't help but let out an irritated sigh at the complicated feelings that were bubbling up.

"Selfish, Selfish, Selfish!" He chided himself quietly as he sunk further back into the couch. "What are you doing Sinclair? You're still technically married so why are you rushing her into something like this? You think you would have learned-."

His self-flagellation was cut off mid-sentence when he heard a sharp wail from the kitchen that caused him to freeze and look down the hallway. It was then followed by Amiee shouting something that he didn't understand before the loud slam of the telephone rang throughout the flat and he watched her fly out of the kitchen into her bedroom.

Something was most definitely wrong and he was up from his seat in an instant as he heard loud rustling coming from her bedroom along with what sounded like sobbing as he approached.

“Amiee what are you doing? What’s going on are you okay?”

His line of questioning was met with silence but before he could poke his head in her room, she had reappeared and he felt as if the wind was being knocked out of his body. Her eyes were rimmed red and tears had begun to wet her cheeks as she kept swiping at her face to clear her vision. But the tears only came quicker.

He had long established that he didn't like it when she cried. She had only done so once in his vicinity and he had gone mad trying to figure out how to stop her from doing so. It wasn’t that it bothered him, well yes, it did bother him, it bothered him a lot actually. He had always seen her as a calm and steady person. Someone he would go to when he needed to complain and she always had a knack for bringing him down from any proverbial ledge.

Yet she was also always a lot of fun to be around, indulging him in his eccentricities and never belittling him for his behaviour that a few would call childlike. She was sweet and an absolutely lovely human and now she was upset. And he wanted to fix that in any way possible because she was Amiee and he wanted her to be alright.

“Sinclair please I need you to take me to Manchester,” she blubbered quickly trying to go past him only for him to gently but firmly grab her shoulders and hold her in place scared that she would run into something with how out of it she was. "I ha-have to go please I'm so-so sorry.”

“Wait! Wait you’re going to hurt yourself darling! Slow down tell me what’s wrong! What’s happened?”

“It’s Angie,” she panted unable to catch her breath as she sobbed again at the thought of her little sister in hospital. “I have to go Sinclair somethings wrong please can you bring me there I need to go p-please.”

A grave look appeared on his feature when she said that and he instantly understood why she was so broken up. With no hesitation, he immediately nodded at her as the thought of not helping never once crossed his mind.

“Yes of course I’ll take you whatever you need!”

It was the last thing said before they rushed out of her apartment, she was barely able to lock her door as she fumbled with her keys only for Sinclair to take them from her and do it for her.

Guiding her to his car with a hand on her lower back he opened the door and let her get situated before he was jogging over to his side to get going. Both were so overwhelmed with the situation that a familiar noise sounded in the air yet neither paid attention. Most of the drive was quiet, in contrast to the one they took hours ago. Sinclair didn’t even think of turning the radio on and he was surprised at himself again when he couldn’t find anything to say to her.

The only sound that accompanied them was the soft hiccups coming from Amiee that would sometimes turn into little whimpers and the bumps in the road as he sped up the M1. He was sure if they got pulled over the fine would be astronomical but it didn’t matter. What mattered was getting to the hospital as soon as possible as he was unsure of the condition of her sister as he sped down the motorway. It wasn’t until maybe an hour or so into the drive when Sinclair glanced in Amiee’s direction to check in on her and found her slumped into her seat. Her arms were wrapped around the bag she had bought with her and her head was slumped in the direction of the window.

She had fallen asleep.

With all the adrenaline that had been rushing through her and the clock now showing almost one in the morning, he was not surprised that she had.

‘She gets cold easily remember?’

The thought floated in his mind when he saw her and he automatically began reaching behind him to pull his jacket off the back of his seat. With one hand on the steering wheel and eyes fixed on the road, he somehow managed to pull the jacket loose. Holding it in his right hand, he carefully leaned over and was able to lay it on her without too much fuss and without driving off the road. A win for everyone he thought as he heard her let out a small sound before going silent again.

Giving her one last glance over, Sinclair went back to concentrating on the quiet roads even though his mind was less quiet with various thoughts that he couldn’t decipher. While he was used to his mind being loud, he was also used to it being clear, but at the moment it was as clear as London’s foggiest days.

That was a novel sensation.

So, he sat in silence most of the drive which was also a novel thing and only when they were about 30 minutes out from Manchester proper did he decide to nudge Amiee awake. It only took a shake of her shoulder and the call of her name before she was stirring in her seat and coming back alive.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only thing coming alive as her head began to pound and her eyes hurt even in the dark. To compare this to a bad hangover was accurate, except for the part where she didn’t even have the chance to have a drink.

“Sin-hiccup-clair w-what where are we, did I fall asleep?” She questioned as she wiped her eyes which felt sore and tried to blink away the drowsiness that seemed to want to stick around.

“You did, I didn’t want to wake you until we got near, I’m sure you’re exhausted,” he chattered as he rubbed the sleep from his own eyes.

Sitting in silence had gotten a bit dull after a bit so he had turned the radio on to a low buzz to ward away any exhaustion. It had helped if only a little, but he was starting to feel drowsiness attempt to bubble up again and was glad to now have someone to talk to.

“We just passed the sign saying Manchester’s about 30 miles away and thought better to wake you up now and make sure that I’m going to the right place. I assume we are going to the Royal Infirmary but I haven’t been here in so long that maybe they built a new hospital somewhere and we need to go to one of those?”

“No you’ve got it right,” Amiee quipped her voice a bit low and raspy as her throat felt dry like sandpaper from all the crying she had done for almost an hour. She could use some water but that would have to wait.

Shifting in her seat because she needed to stretch, she noticed that she had something soft lying on her front that wasn’t there before. Eyes flickering down, she could tell that it was a suit jacket that was engulfing her smaller frame and keeping her from getting too cold. Not only that, but the scent that wafted from it was the same dark citrus that was distinctly Sinclair and she couldn’t help but want to wrap it around her like a blanket.

“Sinclair?”

He hummed his acknowledgement before flicking his eyes in her direction and noticed she was tugging at the jacket.

“Oh! I wanted to make sure you stayed warm,” he explained glancing over at Amiee who was playing with the neckline of the jacket and pulling it close so that it was under her neck. “I know the cold makes you feel bad, and well…,” he paused for a second, “you’re already feeling bad right now so I didn’t want you to feel any worse so I hope it helps even a little.”

She could see the timid smile that broke on his features as he said it and for a moment there was another emotion other than sadness and confusion that swirled in her mind about what was going on.

“It does,” she whispered before adding a soft, “thank you.” It was almost inaudible but by the way his smile grew and the way he sat up in his seat, exhaustion fading suddenly, she was sure he had heard it.

They talked some more as they approached the centre of the town. It was mindless chatter, yes but she let him talk to her, keep her from thinking too hard and he seemed plenty happy to do so. As he spoke the empty motorways became empty side streets but the scenery changed from forest on each side to houses, shops and all types of large buildings.

It wasn’t long before they were following signs to the hospital and within a few more minutes they were pulling into the lot for the emergency department. Even on a Friday night, technically early Saturday morning there were unsurprisingly quite a few cars as even if it was the weekend people didn’t stop getting hurt or becoming ill.

Oh, if only.

As soon as the car was put into park, Amiee quickly unbuckled herself and put the jacket aside before she leapt out of the car and began to walk briskly towards the entrance. Sinclair followed suit once he turned the car off, jogging to catch up to her as she was already across the parking lot. Once inside the hospital, they made a beeline to the receptionist who was not paying any mind to the coming and going of people or the people sitting in the waiting room.

“Excuse me,” Amiee asked as she approached the counter “My sister is here and I was told I needed to come as soon as possible. Is there any way you could tell me where I could her?”

Not even looking up at her, the receptionist began to shoot her down by saying,

“Visiting hours are over you’ll have to come back-”

“No no no you don’t understand,” Amiee interrupted, panic starting to bubble up suddenly and the urge to just run and look through every room to find her sister growing stronger. “My mum called, said it was an emergency they are up there already with her if you could just let me go up.”

Finally looking up at the two, the woman examined Amiee for a movement before she looked at Sinclair who had just come from behind and absentmindedly placed his hand on Amiee’s lower back. It caused her to look up at him with a worried expression before she turned her attention back to the older woman behind the desk who eyed them curiously before asking,

“What’s the name?”

“Angie-, no sorry Angela Huang they came in just a few hours ago I think.”

Turning to her computer, the woman began to click around and type something while Amiee bit the inside of her cheek and began to shift her weight from one foot to the other. Even with the clicking noises of the mouse and the sound of keys clacking her mind refused to stay silent and began to spiral again.

Was Angie okay? What had happened? Did someone do something to her? What if it was too late what if she-.

“Ah,” the sound of the receptionist brought her back as the lady turned back to them. “Ms. Uhm. Ms. Angela is in room 437 which is in the ICU bay. You and your husband can take the lift behind the doors up to the fourth floor,” she directed pointing towards a door that was diagonally behind them, “and then cross the bridge over to get there.”

While they had heard her, they both were frozen at her statement about Sinclair being Amiee’s husband. Did they look like they were a couple?

“Oh, erm we’re not-.” Sinclair began to fumble his words but thankfully the receptionist seemed to continue to go about what she had been doing earlier too busy to pay attention to them.

Wanting to keep it that way, Amiee interrupted with a, “thank you so much!” Before grabbing Sinclair and pulling him in the direction that they had been told to go.

The lift ride up was practically silent other than the sound of the mechanical gears of the machine working to pull the metal box. Both of them were too busy thinking about what the woman had said and also thinking about what to expect once they reached Angie. Did they seem so familiar with each other that they looked like they could be married? Sure, they were comfortable around each other having dated and all. But there had to have been something else that the woman saw to cause her to think they were married.

Right?

So caught up in their thoughts, the sound of the lift dinging to let them know that they were on the fourth floor startled them though both tried to mask it as they exited the lift and began to almost jog in the direction they had been told.

They had only made it a few feet before Amiee flew from Sinclair’s side with a loud cry of,

“Mama! Baba!” Leaving her lips as she ran towards an elderly couple who he could only assume were her parents as he had never met them.

They were both sitting alone outside of what they guessed was the room that they were directed to. Neither of them were speaking as the older man was slumped over with his head in his hands and the older woman was staring straight ahead. It was only when they heard Amiee’s voice did they seem to be pulled out of their stupor.

“Xiao Xue!” The older woman gasped standing quickly as Amiee ran towards her before giving her mother a tight hug.

Her father a bit slower to rise ambled over to the two women and offered Amiee a small pat on the shoulder as he stood beside his wife and eldest daughter. He had never been one to show a huge amount of affection so it didn’t surprise her too much when he didn’t embrace her as her mother had.

“What happened, what’s going on?” Amiee spoke in rushed Mandarin, pulling away from her mother and looking between both her parents trying to get as much information out of them as she could. “Why are you both sitting outside? Are the doctors in the room right now?”

Nodding, her mother began to explain what had happened all while barely keeping at bay fresh tears that threatened to spill from her once more. Apparently, when they had come home that night from the neighbours, they had noticed that some of the lights were on and the sound of running water in the bathroom.

Assuming rightly that Angie had come home from wherever she had been, they both didn’t think anything of it until they wandered into the hallway and noticed that there was water pooling out from underneath the bathroom door. That’s when her mother started to call out to Angie and when there was no reply the second or third time, she opened the door to find her youngest, unconscious slumped in the tub with water covering the lower half of her face.

“She wasn’t moving or breathing,” her mother wept and Amiee was close to joining her while her stomach tightened and twisted itself in knots. She increasingly thought she was going to be sick with each passing moment and each word that was spoken.

There had to be a reason. This wasn’t her sister. She had seemed fine when they had talked a few days ago. Happy about school starting in just a few weeks. Happy about moving to London and being near Amiee. No no no this was all wrong. Not Angie, she would never do something like that.

She would never k-.

Amiee couldn’t even complete the sentence in her mind as she stood there listening to her mom’s recount.

“I told your baba to call the ambulance and I turned the water off and tried to keep her head up as the water drained but why?” Her mother wailed loudly and stomped her foot in confusion and frustration. And most of all pain. “Why would she do this?”

There was no answer Amiee could give to her, only wrapping her arms around her mom in an attempt to console the weeping woman as she didn’t know what else she could do feeling as confused and lost in the situation as she was. Hugging her tight Amiee glanced up at her baba who seemed unnerved. While it was expected in this situation there was something odd about how he had barely said a word to her. His eyes averted from her own and trained on the ground as if he didn’t wish to look at them.

“Baba-.”

“Excuse me are you all the family?”

Before she could ask him how he was, a voice from right behind them called out causing Amiee to let go of her mom who dabbed at her tears as a man in a white coat, who they assumed was the doctor came up to them.

“Yes we are doctor,” Amiee answered now in English while going to shake the doctor’s outstretched hand. “I’m Amiee the sister and this is mom, Grace, and dad, Andrew,” she introduced pointing at the respective parent who also shook the man’s hand and said their hellos.

“Wonderful, I’m Dr. Davies and I apologize for having you all wait for so long but I first wanted to let you know that Ms. Huang is currently stable and doing fine right now so you all can breathe easy,” the man stated. And god did they all let out an audible sigh of relief. “But,” he continued, looking down at a chart in his hand, “we did have to put her on a ventilator because she was going through respiratory failure and wasn’t getting enough air. We think she'll be on it for maybe a week or so but with how young she is we’re hoping for a shorter amount of time.”

“What is um ventilator? Respiratory failure?” Grace asked in a slightly accented English, puzzled as she and her husband seemed a bit unfamiliar with the term the doctor had been using.

“Ah I’m sorry your daughter was having trouble breathing on her own and so we currently have a machine helping her do it,” the doctor explained as the older couple nodded while Amiee anxiously raked her hand through her hair barely able to listen to the man speak as the only thing on her mind was her sister. “Once her lungs gain their strength again, we’ll be able to take her off of it.”

Understanding shone in their eyes, but before either of the parents could thank the man, Amiee had dropped her hands to her side only for her to cross it against her chest before speaking.

“And her being underwater for a long time I guess caused this?”

There was a brief pause for a moment at her question as the doctor looked at her with an unreadable expression that had more questions suddenly forming in her mind.

“Well, yes that is what we think at first glance.”

At first glance?

“What do you-”

She wanted to ask him what he meant by ‘at first glance’. Was it or was it not the drowning that put her in the hospital it was a simple yes or no question to Amiee but it apparently wasn’t meant to be answered at that second as before she even finished, her mother interrupted.

“We can go see her yes?” Grace asked already making a move towards the room anxious to see her daughter to make sure that she was okay even if the doctor insisted she was.

“Yes of course but please understand that when you go in your daughter will have a, um, mask over her mouth and nose that helps her breathe she isn’t in any pain but some people are shocked when they first see a loved one in this manner,” the doctor assured them before continuing, “also we usually only let two people go in at a time so if it would be possible could one of you stay behind?”

Seeing that her parents were about to protest, Amiee cut them off speaking up for herself before they could,

“It’s fine I can wait! My parents can go in first.”

Even if she wanted to see Angie right then, she didn’t think she could handle it at that very second with how fast everything had been moving. And then the way the doctor seemed to be holding something back when she asked him her question. She needed to know what was going on.

“Xiao Xue,” her father finally spoke his voice raspy and tired; it was borderline fragile sounding which had her eyes widening just slightly as it was not at all like him.

“Baba it’s fine, I’ll be here waiting and will talk to the doctor,” Amiee replied in his native tongue trying to assuage the thinly veil concern in his weary eyes that she could finally see.

His expression had her already queasy stomach twisting more as it was a familiar look she had seen before but she couldn’t quite find it in her memories. It was an uncomfortable look to say the least as her mother began to fuss wanting him to come on so that they could see her sister.

Giving her one last glance, he turned around and followed his wife who was hurrying to the room. She watched as they started to enter the room, pausing only for a moment at the doorway before going in and closing the door behind them.

When they did, she felt her entire body slump, the tension in her muscles giving out immediately and the self-restraint that she had been holding in on the verge of collapsing. But she couldn’t collapse, not yet, she wanted her questions answered. And it seemed as if the doctor sensed that too as he was quick to grab her attention once her parents were out of earshot.

“Amiee, yes?” Dr. Davies questioned, pulling her from her thoughts and focusing her back on him. “About your question earlier,” he started a bit cautiously and seemingly nervous as he spoke. “I’m sorry if I seemed to beat about the bush regarding it. I was just a bit unsure if it be doing more harm than good trying to explain the full situation considering well…” He paused as he tried to find the right words and Amiee who had gone through this a million times before only let out a sigh that was accompanied by a slight shake of her head.

“You mean my parents?” She offered her tone a bit irritated already knowing what he was trying to imply. “I appreciate it doctor but I think I would have appreciated it more if you did try. Just because English isn’t their first language doesn’t mean they wouldn’t understand with some effort.”

The words had more bite than she intended to and she could see from the way the man’s face twisted that he didn’t miss the aggression and impatience that had been stewing in her during the whole ordeal. If he was offended by it, he seemed to quickly shrug it off before making an attempt to explain why he had hesitated initially.

“I understand and I apologize I just thought with the already delicate situation of things it be better if there’s a clear understanding of well…the whole matter.”

“I’m assuming the fact that my sister almost drowned to death isn’t the only situation you’re talking about is it?”

“No, unfortunately, it isn’t,” the man said as he looked at this chart once again before back at her with his eyebrows drawn together and a slight frown on his face. “We took some blood samples when she was first admitted and the labs came back fairly quick. Her blood alcohol content was at a .30 which is incredibly dangerous as that much is technically classified as alcohol poisoning.”

This had Amiee taken aback for a moment. .30? No that was not right and she wanted to ask him again if he had read those numbers correctly. Sure, her sister and she liked to have a glass of wine or something every now and then but Angie was never one to indulge more than necessary.

Even at family gatherings where drinking games were aplenty, she had never been one to partake in excess always complaining about how she didn’t like the way it made her feel. She didn’t have time to ask him though because he continued explaining what else they had found from the labs.

“That’s not all, there also seemed to be a high level of a class of medication called benzodiazepines, or benzos as most people call them in her system when we ran the test.” He continued and she could feel the bile in her stomach try to slowly make its way up her throat because she knew what was about to come even if she didn’t want to hear it.

Angie would never. She would never. Never. Never.

The words were chanted over and over in her head as the man continued to speak, yet she could barely hear his words over the noise in her head. If she was truthful, she didn’t want to hear those words only if to save her from the immense buildup of guilt that she had long thought she’d thrown away.

How had she not known?

“I’m not aware if you know this but these types of medications do not react well with alcohol even in normal doses and the amount that was in her system was more than enough to render her unconscious and even put her in a coma had she not been rushed here. Because of those two things even after she wakes up, we would like to keep her for some psych evaluations just to be on the safe side.”

Had her heart been a glass object it would have shattered in a million pieces at his words. Oh how she wished it was though because at least once it was shattered there would be nothing left to hurt.

But it wasn’t and the stabbing pain that she felt in her heart had her breathless. At a loss for words, Amiee could only stare at the doctor who wore an expression of pity, or concern or something of the two. Yet she couldn’t discern it, too busy trying to not allow the giant hole of despair to drag her into its depths and drown her.

“Are you saying that she tried to k-.” The words caught in Amiee’s throat as her mind felt scrambled and her eyes began to burn with the familiar sensation that seemed to come more easily these days.

How many times would she be on the verge of crying this week she wondered as she tried to swallow the tears down yet they refused to hide. Seeing her struggling to get the words out, it was easy to make an inference of what she was trying to say and the man tried to ease her mind even if it didn’t.

“While we don’t want to jump to conclusions,” he spoke choosing his words carefully, “we do want to make sure that she is okay both physically and mentally. Could it have been an accident absolutely but it’s something we take seriously.”

As much as she had wanted to believe that it could have been an accident, a mere coincidence she couldn’t help but let her mind wander to the negative. With everything he had just told her, from how much alcohol was in her blood, to the medication, which she had no idea she had been on, how could it have been an accident?

Yet the thought that it was purposeful, the thought that her sister, her baby sister, would do this. It refused to stick in her mind and she could only nod in understanding as she feared if she talked the strength that she had left would fade and she would only be left in a puddle of tears.

“I’m terribly sorry this happened Ms. Huang but the good news is that she’s stable now and we don’t expect that to change,” the doctor said as he went to pat Amiee’s shoulder.

She wanted to brush his hand off of her. The gesture, she knew, was meant to be in goodwill, in comfort maybe, and she knew it wasn’t anything but that. Yet she was so hurt, so confused. Angry, and tired as it felt like everything was crashing onto her and she just wanted it to stop. Why couldn’t it all just stop for a moment and let her breathe? It’s all she wanted to do.

“Thank you doctor,” she finally rasped out, her voice not sounding as her own as he gave her one more pat before dropping his hand.

“Of course,” he answered shuffling his clipboard under his arm, “if you all need anything don’t hesitate to call for a nurse at the front desk and I’ll make sure to check in at the end of my shift to update you all on anything.”

Nodding, the doctor gave her a tight smile before retreating down the hall in the direction she and Sinclair had come rushing from just moments ago. Yet as she stared in that direction, she couldn’t help but ponder briefly that something was missing. Her mind whirling and whirling trying to overcome the haze of everything that had been dumped on her while trying to remember what that missing thing was.

Until it finally dawned on her that she wasn’t missing something but someone.

“Oh god! Sinclair!” Amiee half shouted half croaked as she forgot for a second that she was in a hospital and didn’t think the staff would appreciate her screaming in the hallways.

Her feet began to guide her faster than her brain could think and before she knew it, she was turning down a corridor where the unmistakable sound of her lost friend chattering could be heard. He had a knack for making his presence known to everyone and it seemed as if a poor nurse doing her job was the victim of it as she turned the corner and saw him.

What they were talking about she didn’t know but it seemed as if the nurse was trying to get away but Sinclair continued to talk. And as she got closer, she could hear him telling her about the Human Genome Project that had really begun to take off at the start of the decade.

“And did you know that with the help of human genome sequencing, the hope is to be able to develop more medical techniques that can help cure all kinds of diseases along with better protocol to take care of people! I think that’s wonderful, don’t you? And with the amount of money we’ve sent over to help fund it I think it’ll be a great success!”

Enthusiasm dripped from his words as he spoke to the nurse who seemed to be trying to get away but to no avail, as he kept talking not letting the poor woman get a word in. Deciding that it would be for the best to free the nurse, Amiee approached and went to get his attention.

“Sinclair there you are!” She exclaimed, causing him to stop talking and turn in her direction. “I was wondering where’d you run off to I thought you had up and left me!”

There was a joke in there somewhere but she didn’t think it had quite landed as his smile faltered at the sight of her. Or rather at the sight of how red and puffy her eyes were, an easy telltale sign that she had been crying. With his attention on her, the nurse high tailed it away silently not even offering a goodbye. It would have been funny to Amiee if the mood was lighter but it was anything but.

“I got so caught up talking to the doctor I hadn’t even realized you gone missing until I looked around and you weren’t nearby,” she explained, giving him the tiniest smile she could muster when she noticed that he was holding a little tray with four paper cups in it once she was beside him.

“Oh I was just fetching some tea for us and then I got into a lovely conversation with, Nancy here-,” turning to introduce the nurse, Sinclair paused when he noticed that she was gone but it didn’t seem to bring him down at all as he turned back to Amiee. “We talked, well mostly I think I talked about the human genome project because she said her cousin or uncle one of those is working on it at his university!”

“Really? That’s brilliant,” she responded despondently not in the mood to fake enthusiasm as she was too tired to put on a face.

She just wanted to see her sister and go to bed in hopes that when she woke up everything would be okay. That when she got up her sister would be healthy and alert even if that was the very opposite of what she would be according to the doctors.

Sinclair noticed and immediately his expression darkened a bit as he went to put a comforting hand on her shoulder and it took everything in her not to rest her cheek on it. His touch was the opposite of the doctor’s. It was the only touch she could stomach right now and she wished it would stay even if she didn’t dare say it. So instead, she made no move to remove it, only moving forward to close the distance between the two of them.

“Is Angie okay? I’m sorry I didn’t stay, should I have?” He bumbled unsure of the correct answer in a situation like this. “It seemed like it was something that some stranger shouldn’t put their nose in and I didn’t want to intrude so I told myself I should maybe get everyone some tea because I’m a bit knackered and I’m sure you all are too!”

Looking down at the drinks briefly, Sinclair turned his gaze back onto Amiee and she couldn’t stop the way her heart swooped into her stomach. It ached yes, but it was different from the painful sort that had plagued her the entire night.

“You’re not a stranger Sinclair you know that,” she whispered not wanting to answer his initial question right that second as she was still processing what she had been told and was unsure if she wanted to even tell him.

Not only that but she was unsure if she could tell him without just breaking down completely. But otherwise to her, her words were true, even if they hadn’t seen each other for years he didn’t feel like a stranger and if he was well, she had never felt so comfortable with a stranger before.

“I should be the one apologizing for dragging you all the way out here in the middle of the night. I didn’t even say thank you yet.”

“Nonsense you think I would tell you no and make you wait until the Tube was running in the morning?” He asked a bit indignity a pout forming on his lips that had her feeling something other than the dread and sadness that had plagued her. “Of course not, I was there and I could help so of course I did! And even if I wasn’t I would have come. I’ll always help you Amiee you’re my friend!”

‘And I love you!’

Those words he left unspoken for the fear of being misinterpreted worried him more. Yet he did love her, she was his friend and he loved her so much that he hated seeing her so hurt and broken up. He loved her like a friend. A friend that he never wanted to be away from…a friend he wished had stayed. And a friend that he wanted to be as close to as they had been all those years ago.

Yet he would be silent. He had learned because of her how to be silent and not always let his feelings be known even if it was learned in the worst way possible. And plus, this was not the time of place. Amiee had enough to worry about, he didn’t want her to be under more pressure. So he stayed silent as she looked at him though unbeknownst to them both their thoughts were almost on the same plane.

For her, he had proclaimed his care, and his friendship with such convection and such honesty that for a moment she wondered why she had done it. Why she had run away so long ago. Maybe because it was how honest he was, how truthful he was that she was afraid that it would have been seen as her using him. Maybe he could have helped her, maybe if she had stayed things would have turned out differently.

So many maybes because she hadn’t been brave. But she had also been so young and the situation she had been put into still had her wondering what would have been the best approach. But still, maybe he could have helped if she had just told him and not tried to take the burden on herself things would be different. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.

There were too many of them to deal with and while her past kept trying to linger, the present was where she was needed even if it was equally daunting. She would have time one day to sort her past out. But she needed to be here.

Taking in the softness of his expression that was directed at her, she felt a strange surge of relief begin to flow in her. Even if she was exhausted, desperate for answers, and still confused by everything at least he was there. Someone she could trust, someone who had a place in her heart that no one else could take. He was there and she was thankful for that least.

So with a smile that was less forced than the one she had given him earlier, she reached her hand up and brushed his cheek gently. A puzzled expression blanketed his features as he stared at her curiously though he made no move to push her away.

And with it, she spoke words that weren’t exactly what she wished to say but she at least hoped he understood why, and hoped that the gesture was enough. For now.

“Thank you for always being a wonderful friend,” she paused before adding a soft yet audible, “love.”

His amber eyes lit up and his puzzled expression began to morph into one of joy. With each second that passed, the way his smile grew wider and brighter had her thinking that maybe, just maybe everything would be okay.

A/N: I hope you all are still here with me! I promise the story isn't going to be all doom and gloom but my brain was like we have to have some semi balance of plot and the plot was attempted murder of a sibiling. Ahaha…anyway tell me how you're feeling and if you enjoyed it (even if it was a downer). Probably won't update until next year as i have some other fics I want to write but dont worry we'll see these two again!

#sinclair bryant x oc #sinclair x oc #sinclair bryant #alan rickman character #the art of entangled hearts #blossoms writing

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dulcesiabits · 10 months

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Hi! I'm really sorry if this seems rude but I have a concern about your recent Jing Yuan fic. Shouldn't his nickname be A-Yuan instead of just Jing? (Jing is his last name. His nickname for those he's close with, like family and friends, should be structured like A-[Insert First Name Here]. In a Chinese context, it's very uncommon for close friends, much less lovers, to call each other by their last name as a sign of familiarity. It's usually A-[First Name].)

(referencing this fic)

Hi!!! So I actually discussed the issues of names and naming conventions with Miya (@wangshengs) and Mao (@itoshisoup), who are also Chinese diaspora like myself! Before I get into the specifics of our conversation, I want to explain my own thought processes behind the choices in my fic. It's going to be long, so I'll be putting it under the cut (TDLR also below) :D

So, I'm not going to pretend to be a very expert on Chinese culture. I have a very specific experience with it, and, though I might find commonalities with other Chinese diaspora, I can't say mine are universal. First and foremost, my experiences of being Chinese is colored by being Chinese American. I grew up in America with Chinese parents, and that is completely different from being either "Chinese" or "American." My relationship with the culture is different.

For example, in my family, we more commonly use (xiao name) or (name name) as nicknames. We also call my uncle (xiao last name) LOL so it is common, in my family at least, to use last names as a sign of familiarity. My littlest cousin is affectionately called "little girl" in our regional dialect, and (a-name) is something only my mom does. Hell, my mom's nickname is "three" in Chinese because she's the third sister, and my grandma uses a diminutive of the Chinese zodiac animals my cousins, my brother and I were born under for our nicknames. So, there is a lot of variation for Chinese nicknames, at least in my personal experience!

Why didn't I bring any of this into my Jing Yuan fic, especially when I said in my author's notes I wanted to try to bring a bit more of my own culture into it? Well, that's because, again, I have a complicated relationship on what it means to be Chinese. When I write a more "Chinese fic" I still take a blend of inspiration from other sources: Korean manhwa, for example, and common American/western fanfic troupes. My fic contains a blend of different influences, and I feel that speaks to my experience as a Chinese American woman running around on the internet. I didn't lean into traditional Chinese cultural or historical factors in the fic, either, outside of choices like food and architecture somewhat (I mean, I did make up all those courtship behaviors: I doubt it's acceptable for a nobleperson to throw themselves so boldly at a common foot solider in ancient China LOL. Also, can Jing Yuan actually win a noble title from the war? That idea I borrowed from manhwa troupes.). So, part of the things you see in the fic are stuff I made up, and not ascribed to Chinese culture, as well. That's why I chose to use a more American naming convention: it was a personal choice, especially because I figured a lot of my audience was non-Chinese, or non-East Asian, and might not be as familiar with Chinese nicknaming conventions.

Now, to go into the whole naming conventions: I took Jing Yuan to be his first name, not his (surname first name). After discussing with Mao and Miya, we settled on the fact that 1. Hoyoverse naming conventions for translations are kind of inconsistent (some characters are named like Ningguang, with no space between the characters, and then you have Hu Tao, who has a space. And in Chinese, the "space" between characters doesn't really exist, making it unclear what is a first name, last name or whole name). And people will still use first names only with titles (like "Lady Ningguang" instead "Lady (last name) Ningguang," which would be more polite/"correct"). So, it's a bit confusing as to which is which, and we decided it could be left up to individual discretion on which fit best.

Secondly, Jing is a bit of an awkward nickname for Jing Yuan. But, again, I was working under the assumption it was his first name (I first saw it on twitter where the hashtags made it look like it was spelled Jingyuan, not Jing Yuan lol). It is an awkward nickname from a Chinese nicknaming convention viewpoint, but I chose to use an American-style naming convention for my own purposes. And, if we would like to take it as his last name, it still is an awkward nickname to use, but isn't like... completely unacceptable/weird, haha. A-(name) also isn't the only way to do nicknames, either, like I stated before! I had toyed with calling him "Jing Jing," "Xiao Jing," "Yuan Yuan," or "Xiao Yuan" (Miya also suggested doing a silly nickname like how you could call me "xiao li" or "little plum" bc the "li" in my name can also be read as plum LOL) but decided against it because of (1) audience, and (2) my personal feelings towards my own Chinese identity. Again, I talked to Miya and Mao about a lot of these things, to get the opinions of other Chinese diaspora, with experiences different from my own!

TDLR: Jing isn't the worst nickname to use; it's a bit awkward by Chinese nickname conventions, but makes a bit more sense for American nickname conventions, especially because I thought Jing Yuan was his first name, not full name! Additionally, there are a variety of ways you can nickname someone in Chinese, not just a-(name). I draw from a variety of inspiration and influences for my writing, some of which I made up, so the fic isn't intended to be accurate to a single "Chinese" culture (and Chinese culture itself is extremely varied. 5000 years of history will do that to you). When writing the fic, I considered both my complicated feelings towards my Chinese American identity and my potential audience, so made some authorial choices that I felt fit best!

#liya answers #ig if you consider reader and JY's rls in context of the fic #IT KINDA FITS THEY WOULD ONLY USE HIS LAST NAME LMAOOO #hes malding like my beautiful spouse do you not want to use. an intimate nickname #and reader is like no <3 #and then he goes. ok i love u that makes sense

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thecapturedafrique · 2 years

Text

HLAW: Day 6—Flowers/Throwback

Good evening everyone and happy Hana Lee Appreciation Week! For day 6 I’ll be sharing the character page I created for Hana since her name itself means flower lol. As with the page I shared for Liam during his appreciation week (here), there will be notes below the read more explaining the points specific to my AU.

Tagging @hanaleeappreciationweek and the marvelous hosts @lizzybeth1986 and @sazanes!

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Full Name: Hana Lee Hua

In Hànyǔ: 李花 (Lǐ Huā)

In Greek: Ανθεια Λι (Anthea Li)

Nicknames: Meihua (Xinghai), Xiao Hua (Bao), ánthdáki (Floure), Ánnáki (Liam), Flora (Ally), Han (Maxwell & Penelope)

Noble Title: HG Hana Lee of House Ryuka, The Duchess of Chrysopolis, Guardian of the Realm, DOS, RC

Charge and Colors: sunflower; murrey and or (w/ bleu-céleste)

Epithet: The Ideal/Idol → Psyche Anthea

Age: 24

Date of Birth: September 24th, 1994

Place of Birth: Shanghai, PRC

Zodiac: Virgo ♍️ (Sidereal), Dog 🐶 (Chinese)

Gender: Cis woman

Pronouns: She/her

Sexual Orientation: Biromantic Demisexual

Enneagram: 9.3 (w1; Negotiator)

Optimistic, reassuring, supportive: have a healing and calming influence—harmonizing groups, bringing people together: a good mediator, synthesizer, and communicator.

Height: 5'6"

Race/Ethnicity: Han Chinese, Agni Hito, Malayali Nair

Nationality: Chinese and Cordonian

Face Claim: Vanessa Tevi

Education: Balissande Finishing School; Swiss Grand Diploma in Pastry & Chocolate Arts from Culinary Arts Academy Switzerland

Languages: Putonghua, Shanghainese, English, Cantonese, French, Italian (intermediate), Greek (novice), Latin (studied)

Favorite Color: pink

Tattoos: apple stylized as a heart with an A in its center on right shoulder blade; flowers growing from a book on inner left wrist

Piercings: single lobe; left nostril

Partner: Kiara Theron (girlfriend)

Best Friend(s): Ally Romiere

Family: Lorelai Lee (mother), Xinghai Lee (father), Floure Ryuka† (maternal great-grandmother), Bao Lee† (paternal grandmother), Qinghai Lee (paternal uncle), Yawen Lee (paternal aunt-by-law), Aparna Nair (maternal cousin once removed), Ganesh, Karthik, Ganga, Jyoti, and Manikantan Nair (second cousins)

Character Notes:

Hana’s Greek name is a transliteration based on the meaning of her given name 花 and her Western name Hana, as Anthea also means “flower”

As her House name indicates, she is a descendant of Sei Rhuka; I changed the surname to the correct spelling and covered up PB’s mistake in canon as being in-universe an incorrect romanization

Liam’s nickname for Hana is based off Anthea, which he chose to use in part due to the similarity between Ánnáki and the common Cordonian pet name “ánthdáki,” Greek for “little blossom” and previously used by Floure. Bao’s nickname 小花 was the Chinese equivalent, and her father called her 梅花 (“plum blossom”) when Hana was little.

Not so coincidentally, the plum blossom is one of her favorite flowers next to the lotus and the moonflower

Ally (my TRR MC) actually nicknamed Hana after the character Flora from the Winx Club due to their resemblance in both looks and personality

Since Liam mentions his desire to revitalize the old unclaimed duchies, I head canon that he also bequeathes one to Hana at the end of TRR2, both because she’s proven herself to be an excellent candidate and also because, like with the MC, he wants to ensure that she always has a home in Cordonia

Duchy Chrysopolis in particular is also significant because it was formerly held by his mother Queen Eleanor

Guardians of the Realm are members of the Order of the Seven, a knighthood which confers upon Hana the title of Dame (DOS)

The other post nominal letters RC indicate her status as a member of the Royal Council

Under Eleanor, Chrysopolis’s house sigil was a sun, and Hana chooses a sunflower as an homage to the late queen as well as her own House

During her engagement to Viscount Peter, the media dubbed Hana “The Ideal Woman” or “The Ideal” for short, and after an interview where she names Astrid Leong a fashion inspiration, the homophone “The Idol” becomes another version of her epithet when comparing her to Astrid (who is known as “The Goddess”)

Upon becoming a duchess, she’s given the new epithet “Psyche” (the goddess of the soul) appended to her Greek name, which she shares with the goddess of gardens

Hana’s enneagram is type Nine, also known as “The Peacemaker”: the easygoing, self-effacing type described as receptive, reassuring, agreeable, and complacent. She is a One-Wing, who are generally more idealistic and serious than other type Nines, and her level 3 is the level of social value.

Like their founder Sei, House Ryuka are members of the Agni Hito, the Fire Tribe’s name for their people; their lands are the regality of Antirrhinum, and their sigil is the cherry blossom

Lorelai’s father was born into the regality of Samsara’s noble House Nair, whose founders were Malayali of the Nair caste

In order to attend the Queen Charlotte's Ball, debutantes must be preparing for or enrolled at a university, so Hana is allowed to attend the Culinary Arts Academy in Switzerland where she earns her degree

In my HC, her parents disown her earlier in TRR2 during the Shanghai leg of the trip, and in a moment of pure impulse she winds up exhibiting her new freedom by getting her first tattoo while in NYC; it’s based on the ace of apples, one of the Cordonian card suits that is used within the queer community to represent demisexuality

Hana gets her next tattoo done by the same artist after Liam gives her Chrysopolis, this time choosing a regularly visible part of her body (symbolic of her sense of security)

When a body piercing is offered for free as part of the second tattoo deal, she elects to get her left nostril pierced, having always admired her mother’s own but not being permitted to have one since her parents feared it would “ruin her appeal”

Aparna is The Baroness Samsara and cousin to Lorelai, both of whom inherited the feud between their two Houses; as such, Hana doesn’t meet her until during TRR3’s timeline, and those details will be shared in Hana/Kiara’s love story B&tR

#playchoices #choices #the royal romance #trr #hana lee #hanaleeappreciationweek #hlaw #hlaw day 6 #character page #late again but i am embracing the idea that late is better than never!#not quite sure this totally matches the theme but i wanted to share this anyhow #especially bc i’ve thought of a great idea for tomorrow 😁

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haylorology · 1 year

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I’ve read where mei mei could mean “gorgeous” or “plum” or “I didn’t” and so on.

Sidenote: I was curious what it meant in Latin- which she took in high school (@15?). I read in bbc website that a teacher’s handbook referenced Disney & TS lyrics to help teach Latin. Fun way to learn language roots- kinda like puzzles & codes. I know she appreciates historical subjects and items- she visits museums, renovated BH home, wrote songs kinda drawn from previous generations or hinted at (Starlight, Getaway Car, Marjorie, Epiphany, Mad Woman)- “90s trend”, designed mv sets on past eras/times, and is known to collect vintage items.

Latin- Mei -noun (me); Google Translate: mei (mine), mei mei (my my), meimei (of myself)

Lol, now I see ME! From Lover a bit differently. Kinda looks like MEI now.

Charlie’s-names website: The meaning of name - “In Chinese, Mei means “beautiful”, “beauty” (from “měi/美”) or “Chinese plum” (from “méi/梅”). In Japanese, Mei is a combination of “me/芽” meaning “bud” or “sprout” and either “i/依” meaning “reliant” or “i/衣” meaning “garment”, “clothing” or “i/生” meaning “life”.”

Yeah, (excerpt of) domino Chinese website posted:

‘Unlucky’ Taylor Swift conquers China

by Daniel Maxwell – Sep 12th, 2019

Not content with shaking up the music industry , kickstarting the me-too movement and becoming the world’s highest-paid celebrity, Taylor Swift has now conquered the music charts in China, with her latest album, ‘Lover’, selling 1 million units in the first week!

Few American artists are as universally popular as Taylor Swift, and selling 1 million units in China during the first week of release has doubled the previous record for a new album, which incidentally was also held by Taylor Swift. The 29 year-old singer’s success in China even surpasses that of her popularity in the US, with Chinese fans buying more units of her latest album than US fans.

Chinese fans have their own nickname for Taylor Swift, ‘mei mei’ (霉霉) – not to be mistaken for ‘mei mei’(妹妹) which means little sister or ‘mei mei’ (莓莓) which means strawberry. Taylor’s Chinese nickname, 霉霉, actually means ‘moldy’ or unlucky which is not exactly the most flattering nickname.

According Taylor Swift fans in China , Taylor Swift was first known as ‘xiao mei nu’ (小美女) meaning little beauty but after many of her early songs failed to hit number 1 on the Billboard 200, fans started to believe she was unlucky. In Chinese unlucky is ‘daomei’ (倒霉) so little beauty “xiao mei nu” became unlucky girl ‘mei mei’ (霉霉). Taylor Swift is now referred to as 霉霉 by Chinese fans and the mainstream media.

The article goes on with more interesting information.

For example, her 1989 gear was subject to Chinese censorship because it “inadvertently refers to the year Chinese authorities undertook a violent crackdown on protestors in Tiananmen Square during which thousands of students died.”

Wow I had no idea the 1989 got censored haha that’s funny how they just try to erase that year from history lol not the reason tho…

#thank you for this ask #wow anon you know more about Taylor than me haha and I’m literally OBSESSED #I’d like to know who u is haha #ask #anon

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tc-doherty · 2 years

Note

Good day, my friend!

🎃🦇 Trick or Treat! 🎃🦇

Treat!

Since we're watching Chinese things together, I'll talk about my untitled xianxia-shonen comic idea and my characters' names! I just put a lot of work into picking them LOL

林铭显 - Lin Mingxian

The characters in his name mean engraved, remembered, or honored, & noble, honorable, or illustrious. The intended meaning is that he should always remember the honor of his family, which is hilarious for a character whose story starts when he gets disowned from his family because he fundamentally disagrees with what they want him to do. I suppose his own interpretation of his name is that he should never lose sight of what's honorable and what isn't.

徐晓岚 - Xu Xiaolan

His name means early morning mist. Because he's a dragon I wanted him to have a water related name, and I thought mist was appropriate because he's hiding quite a few things~ but also it's a peaceful name, as I'm sure his mother would've wanted him to live a happy, peaceful life.

Bonus! The xiao in his name is pronounced the same as 小 (little/young) which is often used in affectionate nicknames. In his diary Lin Mingxian refers to him as 小岚 instead.

李木槿 - Li Mujin

Her name means hibiscus. It's a pretty flower name which is appropriate for a young lady from a good family, but it also symbolizes some interesting things like friendship, happiness, and seizing the moment. Li Mujin is a very determined person who never hesitates when it comes to a chance to achieve her goals.

楊雪景 - Yang Xuejing

Her name means snowy scenery. Another dragon, another water related name. Snow is appropriate for her because she has a beautiful but cold appearance, although she's a warm person actually. Her name also has connotations of steadfastness and peaceful times, which is appropriate for her status as the current Dragon King's oldest daughter.

刘腾飞 - Liu Tengfei

Both characters in their name have to do with ascending and flying, with an undercurrent of speed and agility. The chief meaning is that the child should have a positive, successful life which did come true since they're Princess Yang Xuejing's partner. But it's also appropriate since they are a "gentleman" thief.

Since Liu Tengfeu is a fox spirit but didn't introduce themselves to the main characters for quite some time, Lin Mingxian mostly refers to them as 狐狸兄 or 'brother fox'.

🦇Writeblr Halloween🦇

#writeblr #thanks!!#Untitled 2

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bluexiao · 3 years

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Bestie imagining these men with their kids is a blessing I swear to god!!! I may hate kids but having kids with fictional men hits different. On that note I raise you this: Zhongli and Xiao believing that they won't be able to have children with their partner/wife because of their past deeds/karma but then oop surprise she gets pregnant and they almost faint. I see Zhongli having twin girls that are identical to each other and have his eyes and it makes him so happy bc he sees himself in his girls but also they're a carbon copy of their mother. Xiao also has a little girl who is an exact copy of him. Shy, reserved and only likes certain people. Her dad is always by her side and if he could he would never let her leave his arms. She has his pretty eyes and hair, the mother/reader had none of her genes transferred lol *this is all based on that one post you made about the boys and their kids so if you aren't into these types of asks anymore delete this and I won't send another one in for the rest of the husband squad lol*

Being a Parent — headcanons

Character/s: zhongli, xiao; implied f!reader

Word count: over 2k can you tell how dedicated i am to this post

Note/s: so a reminder that this is purely fiction and a headcanon. i named the kids and believe me i’m not well versed at chinese names so i’m sorry if i ever did something wrong with it or so. i’ll place the meanings below if you’re curious about them^^ also i’m so sorry this is REALLY long i did not expect that i’d write a lot until i’m halfway thru zhongli’s and realized i’m at 800 words. and wow…. you could tell who’s my favorite between the two if you read this whole. anyway thanks for those who requested! this is totally one of my personal favorites. enjoy!

also to the person who requested for venti, it’s coming soon! i literally forgot about scanning my requests so these two are the only ones i finished writing today don’t worry i’ll write for venti too!!

ZHONGLI

First things first, I can't believe we have the same image in mind! i also had imagined before that zhongli would have twin children or at least two and they will grow up with him whilst being half adeptus

Of course, he had thought of the consequences before; maybe an ancient god like him wouldn’t be able to reproduce, like the other adepti, maybe this is dangerous for you. However, after being proven that he can indeed produce a child, he couldn’t help but feel a swell of pride and joy in his chest.

I can see your family to be composed of twin girls and a younger son, a new addition to the family just a few months ago after your twins turned two. You and Zhongli did not expect him to come, but alas the gods had decided to bless you two with another one, and the both of you couldn’t be much happier.

The twin girls, Meiyin and Meilin, usually called Yin and Lin fort short, look a lot like you, but they have their father’s eyes and his personality. They may have body features of a dragon, however, you were quite surprised when you saw the tiny, golden horns that the twins have on their forehead. But then, it’s not like you two did not expect it. Zhongli is a dragon, of course his children may embody features that were like his.

They are the calmest babies you have ever seen and they grew up to still be as calm as they were when they were babies. They rarely had tantrums but if they would, your eardrums would hurt. It’s to the point that your husband will be the only one who would have the capability of calming them down.

“Must be an adepti trait?” you lightheartedly say, whilst still holding onto one of your ears, leaning by the door frame of the twins’ room, looking at Zhongli who held both of his daughters in his arms, one of them clinging onto his neck while the other leans on his chest.

You see him softly smile, and you thought it was because of your words, but it was because of you. You who still thought positively about the situation even if you probably knew that this kind of tantrum is not much of a positive trait that one should have—but they do because of their blood, blood that came from him and his past.

Yin and Lin can be quite different at times. Despite being twins, there are certain qualities in their personalities that differ. For example, Yin is really good with money, and she has her own savings at the age of, what, five? On the other hand, Lin is a huge spender, especially when she grew up. When Lin was a kid, she’d throw a tantrum if you won’t let her buy a toy or a dress she likes. Sometimes, Zhongli indulges her with her desires, but it would be Uncle Childe who buys a lot of “gifts” for her. Also, he’s the twins’ favorite uncle (poor Xiao).

As for your youngest son, Jianlei or Lei, he’s a total carbon copy of his father, from head to toe. If you’ve never seen him cry, this would be one of the rarest times you would. He felt happy when the girls came, but when he saw a little version of him, sleeping softly in your arms? That is a sight to behold and something he’d cherish until the end of his days.

Lei doesn’t have horns though. He’s the one who has the least noticeable features since he only has a set of fangs. They weren’t too big but they’re not that of a mortal one. However, Zhongli did mention that it might change when he grows up. You still haven’t asked him about it but you have an idea as to why he said that.

Your youngest son’s personality is kind of a mixture of you and Zhongli but his maturity sure came from his father. He doesn’t rush on things and solves problems in a tactical and orderly way. However, he can be pretty stubborn because he wants to go things his way—you’re actually debating in your mind if it came from your side or your husband’s.

Shockingly, it is Jianlei who likes Uncle Xiao the most. Even if the yaksha rarely visits, Lei remembers him very clearly and admires him a lot.

Only a trusted few knows about Zhongli’s identity and even so, the children were gems of the harbor. People believe their golden eyes are very intriguing and they are all beautiful. A photographer may even try to get your family as models or so and ever since, Lin would be interested in being photographed whereas Jianlei, your son, would grow up to be surrounded by girls who have a crush on him. Like his father however, he’s very dense. Yin on the other hand will be the one who’s interested in history that she may even ask if she can study at Sumeru someday when she grows up.

Zhongli is the type of father who is not too strict on his children but he would surely be protective of them behind the lines. If someone ever does wrong to any of his precious kids, there are heavy consequences for such actions—maybe except if they’re children or so. Either way, I see him as a family man and he’s a natural at it. Your children will always feel the genuine love and support from their father no matter which path they take. As for you, of course his attention may be divided but he’ll always look at you the same way he had always done so ever since. You are part of his family, and he’ll prove it to you every single day.

MeiLin can mean “beautiful forest” or “beautiful, fine jade/gem” or “plum jade”

MeiYin can mean “beautiful money/silver”

JianLei can mean “building/establishing a pile of stones” or “strong/healthy pile of stones”

XIAO

Ironically, I agree that Xiao will certainly have an only daughter. I mean you can have more but he really hates seeing you in pain during labor. He doesn’t like it when he couldn’t do anything but wait outside or sit by your side, urging you to hold his hand and squeeze it to somehow ease the pain—as if it would.

He’s extremely overprotective during your pregnancy, and yes that’s to a very high extent. He would be like that at the very start and also when you’re nearing your due for the sole reason that you eased him into thinking that he should calm down for a bit. He did, but when you get more vulnerable by the months pass, he’s back at it again, and you’re fine with that because it’s for the right reason anyway.

At first though, he was really hesitant and scared, you could see it in his eyes. The moment you revealed to him that you’re pregnant, no matter how hard he tried to mask his emotions, it’s still obvious.

“Y-you’re what?”

He stiffened in your hold and your eyes instantly saw the change in his own. If you didn’t know better, you would have seen this as a negative note, but you waited patiently in front of him, nodding your head and a reassuring smile forming on your lips.

You then caressed his hand slowly with your thumb and gently pulled it to your clothed stomach, letting his open palm rest on it while your comforting hand stayed on top of his.

“We, Xiao. We’re expecting.”

He visibly gulped as his gaze drifted down to where your hands were linked and you wouldn’t have to look closer to see that his eyes were tearing up. You could say that he was holding them back but a tiny, single tear made him lose. However you didn’t have time to raise your other hand to brush it away when he pulled you into a loose embrace—might be because he thinks if he held you tighter, something might happen.

You wouldn’t see, but you could tell that Xiao is now crying.

He wouldn’t say anything about his worries but you’d know it, especially if you had been with him for a long time.

When your daughter, whom you named Annchi, arrived, she peaked her eyes up to you and the moment you saw them, you saw her father. Xiao on the other hand noticed her great resemblance to you, from hair to nose to lips—except for the eyes. That one feature was what made him tear up again. Although he did not cry, it was obvious that he was close to anyway

He would be wary of holding her at first, but then Verr, the one who assisted you and the doctor during labor and the whole pregnancy, insisted him to since you had fallen asleep at that time. When he held your baby the first time, Verr guided him at first, but he got the hang of it in a minute or two. He’s uncomfortable at first but when his baby looked up at him again and reached out her small hands to play with the tips of his hair, he melted. It felt as if his world lightened up more once his daughter arrived.

He has a soft side on his daughter and you would always catch him looking at her with a gentle look on his eyes, sometimes even paired with a small smile.

There are times when you have to reassure him still, especially if he’s still suffering from his karmic debt. He wouldn’t let himself hold his daughter and even so far as be close with her. It will hurt looking and seeing him like this, but he’s doing it to protect her. Although it’s not like your daughter was very fragile like a normal mortal would—she has an adeptus’ blood, his own blood.

Deep inside him though, he hopes that his suffering did not pass onto his daughter. He’d worry about it sometimes but when he sees her smiling up at him, those thoughts would instantly vanish.

Like the previous children, Annchi also has a feature that came from her father’s blood and it's the wings on her back. It was quite small of course but as she grew up, it became more noticeable. Of course there were people who questioned it, and it was one of the reasons why your husband were more alert, especially when she started going to school. Too many people are quite interested in knowing your daughter that you two eventually decided to have her home-schooled instead—of course with the permission of your daughter. Surprisingly but kind of expected, she accepted. As long as she thinks it’s reasonable, she doesn’t mind going along with it.

She also has a tattoo on her neck. It was not quite obvious when she was a baby since it only became more visible during her toddler years and by the time she was a teenager, the tattoo was clearly of an image of a bird.

Your daughter is reserved, just like her father, but she can be a mixture of you and him at times. Although, it’s quite obvious that she and her father have more understanding towards each other. Even if her father wasn’t saying anything, she clearly knows what he thinks.

She will be closer to you in an emotional aspect though. She respects her father that she understands that he is not like an ordinary mortal who can understand emotions, that’s why it’s probably best to talk to you about those.

Lastly, since this is getting longer than it should be Xiao is the type of father who would stand at the sidelines and watch his child grow. He’d support her, sure, but he would like to see them independent and not blinded by the dark side of the world. He will keep his karmic debt from her and she won’t even know about it but she might see it a couple of times but she won’t question it. It’s unknown whether he has knowledge about these times but going back to the point, he wants to protect her and he would from other people, but he would show her that the world is harsh and cruel, despite its beauty. He wants her to learn to fight and protect herself because there might be a time when he wouldn’t be there to do so. Thus, it is only best that he shall pass on his strength, so that she may live longer and have a happier life than his.

Annchi means “amazing, peace, angel” or “angelic peace”

Trivia: I kind of based my own family on Xiao's part. I’m an only child and my family works exactly that way. Me and my dad are introverts and we understand each other in a different way than me and my mom would. Only at that aspect though lmao.

#genshin x reader #genshin drabbles #genshin oneshots #zhongli x reader #xiao x reader #zhongli x you #xiao x you #xiao headcanons #genshin headcanons #zhongli headcanons

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demonsfate · 3 months

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tbh the xiaoyu hate is getting old i agree. she keeps getting called a "stalker", "useless", and people also bitch about her gameplay in online matches because they want a stupid tekken god prime rank or some shit. A shower thought: the sad thing is that if let's say xiaoyu had bigger boobs like mai from kof or kasumi from doa she would probably way more popular. Fucking hell, if she was a skinny twink boy named Xiao (like Rule 63! Ling Xiaoyu) - Jin X Xiaoyu would have been the most popular ship in the Tekken fandom. I mean the Fujoshis would adore the twink Chinese man who loves amusement parks being paired with the buff serious autistic Asian Japanese guy.

🙄

honestly the whole reason people call xiao a "stalker" is the same reason why people call jin an "edgelord" - tekken 6 (big surprise!) because if you look at her from any other game, she acts completely normal about jin. (and no, trying to find him isn't "stalking" when she has legit reason to be concern for him. he legit disappeared from her in the first place after he was murdered btw).

also yes, xiao is a hard character to fight against - i usually have a much harder time fighting against her, usually 'cos i'm weaker to lower attacks LOL. but like... just learn how to fight against her LMAO. get gud!

but yeah - the male fanbase tend to prefer the "sexy female fatale" characters (one reason why reina is bursting in popularity, i imagine) and they don't tend to like the more bubbly girly characters. meanwhile, like you said - the fujoshi fanbase prefers male ships and often dislike the Female Characters for potentially getting in the way of their ship.

really i think the dev should hand us all out formal apologies for the damage and character assassinations tekken 6 did.

#✏️ - ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴏsᴛ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴏsᴛ // (ooc)#✏️ - ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ? // (inbox)

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dragynkeep · 2 years

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Twiins: "Respect ALL Asians!!!"

Also Twiins: "But not dark-skinned Asians!!!"

Twiins: "Stop erasing light-skinned Asians!!!"

Also Twiins: "Yang Xiao Long, Taiyang Xiao Long, and Sun Wukong are NOT Asians! Their skin is too light!"

*Blake is not Asian Coded. She was designed with European features and clothes, an English first name and an Italian last name, and was based on a French fairy tale - meanwhile her background was openly based on specifically the African-American background and civil rights, and they did it TERRIBLY but still, so arguably Blake is way more "black-coded" than anything else. Twiins is probably just going REALLY HARD on denying it so that she can continue to plug her ears about Adam after the tone-deaf white-ass stuff she said about him.

*Meanwhile, Sun was one of the darkest-skinned characters within the first three seasons, and his skin was only lightened later (which is racist) and his character allusion that he SHARES HIS NAME WITH is from one of the most famous works in Chinese literature, and his weapon is based on that exact Chinese character's weapon. He IS Chinese coded, it's just that Rooster Teeth are so racist that they didn't handle it respectfully from the start and then tried to retcon it out of him later. To a much lesser extent, Taiyang and Yang are also at the very least "Asian-Coded," because of their names and because one of Yang's character allusions is a character in Japanese Anime, WHO WAS HIMSELF BASED ON THE ORIGINAL SUN WUKONG FROM CHINESE LITERATURE. Admittedly, I do not consider Yang and Taiyang to be actual Asian representation in canon (though I too always attempt to respectfully portray them as Chinese and half-Chinese in redesigns of my own) BUT THEY'RE MUCH CLOSER THAN BLAKE IS!!!

*The only "Asian Coding" given to Blake is that she has an inaccurate katana and inaccurate pajamas. So why is it that people look at Adam's Katana and call it "cultural appropriation of Blake's culture" but then they point to Blake's katana as the ONLY PROOF that she's "part of that culture?" If having a katana is appropriation for Adam, it's appropriation for Blake, because THEY HAVE THE EXACT SAME FEATURES, CLOTHING DESIGN ELEMENTS, AND FAIRY TALE.

*One could presumably argue "But Blake's Parents are Asian!!!" And to that I say a) Blake's parents were kind of a retcon in the first place lol. b) Blake's parents also have an unfortunately high amount of European features in their designs (since they had to make them look like Blake) and the only thing that "codes" them as Asian are their clothes, names and house, so that's sus. c) Blake's parents are based on Indian-Asian culture, not Japanese, so if we're just going by aesthetics alone, they do not have the same culture as their daughter for some reason, and I'm counting that as both "Blake's CLEAR English/French/Italian design" AND as "The three or four instances in which she was drawn to hold or wear a vaguely Japanese item." AND FINALLY d) - racism CW for the rest of this paragraph - Ghira was based on the fictional character Bagheera, from the racist novel "Jungle Book," which appropriated South-Asian culture and was written by a white colonialist - not ONLY a white colonialist, but a pro-war, pro-invasion, pro-colonialism white man who was famous for writing the horrifically racist poem "White Man's Burden" in which he literally paints non-white cultures as subhuman devilish half-animals and laments how "sad" it is that White people "aren't shown any gratitude" for "rescuing" such "inferior" people from themselves. imo that fact makes Ghira's entire character more racist than if he'd just been white like his daughter, rather than "good rep," and the entire concept should be thrown away.

*If having a katana and Japanese-inspired clothing is the ONLY THING that it takes to call Blake "Asian-Coded," THEN RAVEN BRANWEN IS ALSO "ASIAN-CODED" (even though she also is given European features and names and her character allusion is partly from Welsh mythology and party from Norse) WHICH MEANS THAT YANG HAS TWO "ASIAN-CODED" PARENTS JUST LIKE BLAKE!!!

*I was under the impression that Twiins' original statement was something along the lines of "it's okay to re-design fictional characters to reflect a more diverse background, but the problem is that it's ONLY Blake who gets this treatment, when she's the ONLY Asian-Coded character among the main four." BUT NOW that people are informing her "Actually, two of the other four characters have MORE Asian-coding than Blake does, and they frequently have that background represented in redesigns," she's changing the discussion. The points she made were proven wrong: "Blake is the only Asian-coded character," "Blake is the only character who is drawn as non-white by fans." SO NOW she's trying to DISPROVE THAT YANG AND SUN WERE ASIAN-CODED (so that she can pretend she was correct in saying Blake was the only one) and she's IGNORING THAT YANG AND RUBY ARE DRAWN AS HALF-CHINESE IN REDESIGNS (so that she can pretend she was correct in saying Blake is the only one.)

*And yes, she is also COMPLETELY ignoring the numerous works of art which depict Blake as a dark-skinned Asian character or an otherwise non-white character.

Twiins seems to have this weird disconnect, where she does not understand that her experiences are not universal. She constantly just announces things that "EVERYBODY" "ALWAYS" "ONLY" does, with absolutely no regard or consideration for people who don't do that?? It's so weird. She did that with her Adam video, and now she's doing it about Blake, too. And then when she gets called out for being dead wrong, she gets so fucking fragile and defensive, and she DOUBLES DOWN ON BEING WRONG because she refuses to admit it's even an option - and thus ends up being super bigoted as a bonus. :/

It really sucks because I did like her before she started showing this side of herself. Funny how often the things she says go right in line with the words of people she condemns though lol like where's the self-reflection???

Thank you for putting it all out so I didn't have to do so, anon.

I personally think that even Yang is shit as Asian rep, and after the whitewashed Sun debate, we really are running low on actually good Asian characters in this show.

BUT, if Twiins is adamant that Blake is "Asian-coded" (which is a term I absolutely hate, it's like calling Weiss "European-coded", it sounds dumb as fuck), then Yang, Sun and Taiyang absolutely count as Asian-coded too, which just blows her whole argument out of the water.

If they are Asian too, then Blake isn't the only one having her skin darkened in redesigns, because Yang and Ruby has that done to them just as much. But Twiins can't accept being wrong, so she'll move the goalposts and scream at the fans who point that out.

The amount of cognitive dissonance in this whole thing is wild, because she holds herself as the Mighty Whitey protecting the poor Asians, but when actual Asian people tell her she's wrong and being racist, she'll immediately start being racist towards them. Make it make sense.

#rwby #rwde #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #sun wukong #taiyang xiao long #twiinsiink #answered #luke.txt

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shijiujun · 3 years

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ANOTHER REC from the author who wrote The Wife is First 妻为上! I’ve actually read like six of her novels so far (will do a compilation soon heh) and 绿野千鹤 (the author) is very fond of transmigration, going back in time, reincarnation, revival and everything, and she’s also very fond of historical settings where men can marry men, in varying degrees, and this is one of them!!!! This is a very feel good novel, just like The Wife if First - considered a sweet, not complex novel.

(And for those asking about reading difficulty levels, this is actually not very complicated, so if y’all wanna read in Chinese, you can actually try this!)

- Part of Min’s ‘Why You Should Read’ Series -

Summary:

At his deathbed in his 20s, emperor Yu Jin Tang tells his male empress Song Xiao to die with him right before he passes away from a severe injury sustained from war. Devastated and also willing to die with him, Song Xiao is about slit his own throat when Jin Ling, Jin Tang’s younger brother who’s next in line for the throne, reads out the imperial decree to have Song Xiao be given a wangye title and assist Jin Lin in his rule, a decree that Jin Tang made before he died, of course not expecting Song Xiao to die with him.

Song Xiao slits his own throat anyway after killing the man who dealt his husband with the fatal blow, and wakes up in 16 year-old Song Xiao’s body in the modern world. He’s in the hospital after an accident, and is entirely confused with this world. He also wonders where Jin Tang is, if he also travelled to this world after his death, but Song Xiao first has to get used to the modern world, to his father, who is the CEO of an entertainment company, unofficial stepmother (who is an actress under the company and had an affair with Song Xiao’s father) and stepsister.

After recovery, Song Xiao gets to school and becomes tablemates with someone who looks exactly like Jin Tang, called Yu Tang, who is the heir to the wealthy Yu family.

Cue Yu Tang and Song Xiao trying to test each other out to see if they really transmigrated to this world and have memories of their past life, navigate their families and find other transmigrated people from that dynasty in their current timeline. Yu Tang and Song Xiao also reaffirm their love for each other after clearing up the misunderstanding that led Yu Jin Tang to go off to war suddenly that year, which inadvertently led to his death after.

Read:

Novel (Online) | Novel (Print) - Not Available | Novel Translations | Manhua

Characters:

1. 宋箫 Song Xiao - In his past life he was a scholar who first met YJT at a palace feast, and YJT fell in love with him at first sight and was adamant on marrying him as his empress. The previous emperor caught wind of this and wanted to execute Song Xiao, but his grandfather begged the emperor to spare his grandson in exchange for his life. He loves YJT but in his past life was always carrying the burden of the empress title and was never close to YJT in public, and in private, he repeatedly refused to sleep with YJT because he was scared of the pain, but also did not tell YJT that this was the reason for his rejection, leading to YJT thinking that Song Xiao must really hate him/not love him.

After he commits suicide and transmigrates to the modern world, he’s the 16-year old son of the CEO of a huge entertainment company, and lives with his father, stepmother and stepsister. Before he transmigrated, the current him was diagnosed with autism and he was non-verbal, until his stepmother/stepsister hurt him and led to him being in a coma. He wakes up from the coma having transmigrated after, and is so confused at all the nurses, plus he has all his ancient traditional habits - the way he talks, his hand gestures etc. He was caught calling his stepmother a concubine LMAO in public, and only has two months to get used to the modern world before he’s tossed into school, where he meets YJT again. And as expected he forgets himself frequently and ends up greeting people traditionally like this LOL:

Considered to be a real pretty boy HAHAHAHA as expected, but before he transmigrated he was often the subject of bullying. He ends up rooming with YJT, and they start second-guessing whether each other has transmigrated. It’s hilarious because even before confirming that he is indeed YJT, Song Xiao is so used to things like feeding YJT chicken wings, helping him with his clothes etc. from back in his days as empress, and YJT in modern world is also like used to it and then when they realize their actions they’re like ???? hold on, are you...

Totally doesn’t get Math (like all of us), but luckily he’s so smart and picks up all his academic material quickly.

2. 虞锦堂/虞堂 Yu Jin Tang/Yu Tang - Went against laws and his father in his past life to marry Song Xiao, and really, really loves him. He always doubts that Song Xiao loves him back, however, because of the way he basically forced Song Xiao to marry him, and did not take in any concubines etc. in the year they spent together before he died. They argued over this, which led to him going to war in anger, and to his eventual death. On his deathbed, out of spite and anger at his impending demise, he asks Song Xiao to die with him, but does not mean it, having already planned Song Xiao’s future for him.

He wakes up in his new body as an 11 year-old named Yu Tang, 5 years before Song Xiao transmigrates despite their deaths being minutes apart. At some point he goes to read historical books and is furious and devastated when he reads that Song Xiao killed himself after he died, and wonders if it’s because Jin Lin didn’t tell Song Xiao about the decree.

He’s been waiting for Song Xiao to turn up, and when he does, Yu Tang finds himself testing Song Xiao to see if he really has his memories or not, and even plots for Song Xiao to room with him because Yu Tang gets pissed at the thought of someone else seeing Song Xiao’s body as he comes out of the bath everyday HAHAHA.

In this modern world, he no longer has to deal with the burden of country etc., and one of the possible heirs to the Yu fortune and empire, he now only has to deal with greedy relatives and a grandfather who may oppose same-sex relationships, but smart Yu Tang knows what he’s doing and is more than familiar with fighting for the throne in his past life, and now in this life. Because he lost so much in the previous life, he’s now plotting to keep everything, including Song Xiao.

3. 虞锦麟 Yu Jin Lin - YJT’s younger brother, who also transmigrated to the modern world the year Song Xiao does, but in his past life he dies much later than his brother and Song Xiao did out of natural causes. He is reborn as Yu Tang’s baby brother, and this baby has ALL THEM MEMORIES.

4. 独孤暗 Du Gu An - Yu Tang’s current same-age bodyguard, was picked up from the streets by Yu Tang when they were both younger. He was the head of YJT’s secret army in his past life, who transmigrated over.

Other Things I Like in the Novel:

In private, Yu Tang and Song Xiao refer to each other frequently as emperor and empress, but they’re conscious to not say it in public because they know people will wonder if they’re insane hahaha

Yu Tang ran for President of the Student’s Club, won, and then changed all the names of the different committees in school (cleaning committee, disciplinary committee etc.) into historical ministry names like, Ministry of Rites, Ministry of Justice etc. hahaha

They acknowledge each other quite early on in the book and it’s so sweet from then on! Technically even though they’re 16 year-olds here in spirit they’re like... they’ve lived another lifetime together, so Yu Tang refers to Song Xiao as his wife and empress, and keeps stealing kisses etc.

The man who killed YJT in his past life was reborn as Yu Tang’s literal dog in the modern world, and a lot of characters transmigrated/were reborn as well, including YJT’s eunuch gonggong, who is actually a high-ranking butler now in the main Yu family branch and who has also been waiting for YJT to turn up in the modern world. When Song Xiao first meets him, his eyes automatically go to the butler’s crotch LMAOOO

YJT’s sister was also reborn as his sister, and because he wasn’t able to protect her in his past life, he’s very thankful that he can do so now

It’s really cute because there’s even an overseas academic exchange part. Outside of school they also try to navigate their relationships with their families, and it’s impressive to see how Song Xiao and Yu Tang deal with their pesky relatives, work etc.

Song Xiao has to defend himself (with the help of Yu Tang) against his stepmother, and another woman that his Dad had another affair with etc., but all these tactics are elementary to him as he recalls how his siblings in his past life were much more merciless and scheming than this towards him LOL

#danmei #danmei recs #emperor don't bother me #皇上别闹 #绿野千鹤 #huang shang bie nao #another one for yall!!!#min's why you should read #written by the same author who wrote the wife is first

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kolachess · 3 years

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DMBJ Names and Honorifics Explained - Don’t trust the subs!

I’ve no idea if someone has already made such a post, but I really like explaining Chinese as it’s also good practice for me, so here we go.

If you are a non-Chinese speaker, you might have noticed inconsistencies in subs when referring to all the different characters. And / or that the names don’t seem to match up to the sound of the name.

So here’s a little cultural and character guide to understanding DMBJ names.

Why are there so many names, nicknames, and honorifics for one person in a Chinese drama? To chalk this all up to nicknames is... grossly over-simplifying things. The thing with names / honorifics is very rooted in Chinese culture itself. Chinese culture is one heavily indexed on relations and hierarchy, so depending on your place in the ‘hierarchy’, whether it’s society or family, you will refer to each other as different things. As an example to illustrate complexity, where in English, ‘uncle’ refers to all male siblings of either of your parents, in Chinese, your father’s younger brother is addressed differently from your father’s older brother and also different from your mother’s brother.

Chinese names and translation to English - Space? No space? Hyphens? Last name first?

So Chinese is a pictographic language. Each ‘character’ is one word, and one syllable exactly. Hence, you don’t need spaces or hyphens or anything in Chinese. Spaces and hyphens when romanized are purely for English speakers’ convenience.

For example, in Chinese, the names would be written as wuxie, wusanxing, wangpangzi, etc. (And no such thing as capitalization either.) As a general rule of thumb, because for documentation purposes, the surname is separated out, Chinese people generally end up writing the given name all smushed together even if they are 2 words.

And yes, the surname always goes first. Other way is just... weird. Never happens.

Can you space out two words of a given name? Sure I suppose. Probably less seen.

As for hyphens with honorifics... sure? I’m not sure if smush together or hyphen is more official actually...

What are Chinese names? How do people pick a name?

Unlike English names, Chinese people compose their names. Which means... you can have anything from names that have literary eloquence and deeper meaning，like ‘Wu Xie’, where ‘Wu’ is homonymous with ‘Without’ and ‘Xie’ means ‘Evil’, so Wu Xie’s name carries the meaning of ‘no evil’...

...to names that have little to no deep meaning and sometimes downright stupid sounding, like ‘Wang Pangzi’ which does indeed translate to Wang Fatty lol.

That’s why if you ask Chinese people to provide common Chinese names, they’ll stare at you blankly. Of course, that’s not to say there aren’t some popular names, given people sometimes name themselves after famous people and there are plenty of generic ones as well.

But this is also why, when meeting for the first time, you might hear a lot of people explaining how their name is written (i.e. with which word), because there are a looooot of homonymous words and it’s impossible to tell how write someone’s name without them ‘spelling it out’.

How do Chinese people call each other by name?

Most Chinese names (surname + given name) will form 2-3 syllables (very rarely there will be 4).

General rule of thumb:

- Using someone’s full name is always generally acceptable (not to be confused with addressing them... that’s a whole different game).

- You never refer to someone with one syllable. Which means if their given name is only one syllable, you pretty much always say both surname + given name together (Hence why Wu Xie is always Wu Xie and never ‘Xie’). If their given name is two syllables, you might call them by given name only if you’re familiar.

Of course, there are tons of ways to give people nicknames (more explanation below), so you might end up only using one syllable of someone’s name, but in conjunction with another prefix / suffix of sorts.

So yes, the subs say ‘Zhang’ for Zhang Qiling but that’s BS no one has ever referred to him as simply ‘Zhang’. And for that matter, no one ever refers to him as simply Qiling either, though that’s more out of habit than any rules of names. And finally, they rarely refer to him as Zhang Qiling at all... more explanation below.

Basic ‘prefix’ / ‘suffix’ / ‘honorific’ introductions relevant for DMBJ

These aren’t really prefixes and suffixes and honorifics. They’re simply words. But for sake of simplicity, let’s just treat them as that.

-ye (sounds like ‘yeah’) = ‘Grandpa’ of the generic ‘old man’ sense, but also ‘master’ or ‘lord’ to indicate status / respect.

Example usage: Wu Sanxing (Wu Xie’s third uncle) - People like Pan Zi call him Sanye, which means ‘Third Master’.

It can also be casually used by someone to refer to themselves in third person and indicate their ‘prowess’. Again, due to Chinese cultural relations, there’s a lot of emphasis on hierarchy, so people often humorously refer to themselves in third person with a title of more seniority (’this ancestor’ or ‘this old miss’).

Example usage: Pangzi always referring to himself as Pangye. ‘Make way, Pangye is coming in clutch with the bombs!’.

-shu (sounds more like ‘soo’) = ‘Uncle’. This can be an uncle related, or not.

Example usage: Wu Sanxing (Wu Xie’s third uncle). Wu Xie and his peers will generally call him Sanshu, because they’re of the same generation and need to call Sanshu with some level of respect. Of course, Sanye is also respectful, so certainly Pangzi can call him Sanye. But Pangzi calling him Wu Sanxing would be disrespectful. (Zhang Qiling on the other hand, technically can call him whatever since he’s the oldest haha).

-ayi (sounds like ‘ah-yee’) = ‘Aunt’. Similar as uncle.

Example usage: Chen Wenjing (in Ultimate Note, Sanshu’s former girlfriend). You’ll notice Wu Xie addressed her as Wenjing-ayi. Of course, since she was a bit less familiar with them, and wasn’t always around, he and others will refer to her as simply Chen Wenjing... it’s complicated. The nuances of when it’s ok to leave off the suffix is an art form lol.

-ge (sounds like ‘guh’) = ‘older brother’. Can also be related or not. Can be used alone, or doubled up (which tends to be cuter).

Example usage: Huo Xiuxiu refers to Wu Xie as ‘Wu Xie-gege’ and Xie Yuchen as ‘Xiao Hua-gege’. Pangzi told Yun Cai (the girl he crushed on) to call him ‘Pangge’. And yes! This is the ‘ge’ in Xiaoge. More explanation below.

Xiao (sounds like ‘shall’) = ‘Small’ or ‘Little’. This is often used in creating a nickname and used first before a name.

Example usage: Wu Xie’s second uncle will refer to him as ‘Xiao Xie’. Wu Xie refers to Xie Yuchen as ‘Xiao Hua’, which translates to ‘Little Flower’ and is a nickname based off his stage name, Jie Yuhua. And yes! This is the ‘xiao’ in Xiaoge. More explanation below (because translating it as ‘little older brother’ makes no sense I know).

Lao (sounds like ‘lao’ lol) = ‘Old’. Similar usage as ‘xiao’.

Example usage: I think I remember Granny Huo perhaps referring to Wu Laogou (Wu Xie’s grandfather) as ‘Lao Wu’? But also, yes, his actual name has that word too.

Numbers - Numbers are very commonly used in nicknames.

Er (sounds like ‘are’) = Two / Second.

San (sounds like ‘san’ lol idk) = Three / Third.

Hence why Wu Xie refers to his uncles as ‘Sanshu’ and ‘Ershu’. (And yes, their names themselves also conveniently carry the numbers...)

You’ll never say ‘one’ though. Instead, ‘da’ or big / large is used.

Names of the characters

Wow so only after all that can we begin to explain the many names... Let’s begin.

Wu Xie - Wu Xie is actually the most straightforward thank god. Most people will call him this, Zhang Qiling included.

AKA Tianzhen or even Xiao Tianzhen - This is nickname provided Pangzi gave him meaning ‘naive’ or ‘innocent’, and what Pangzi calls him most if not all the time. There’s a phrase in Chinese too called ‘tianzhenwuxie’ to mean innocent, carefree, and pure. The ‘wu’ there is a different but homonymous word with Wu Xie’s ‘Wu’, but the meaning and reference is clear (Chinese has looooots of homonyms and puns). This is also why that phrase ‘My lifetime, in exchange for you a decade of innocence and purity.’ from Zhang Qiling to Wu Xie is so heart-wrenching, because those last four Chinese words are ‘tianzhenwuxie’, a poetic play on his two names. 😭

AKA Xiao Xie - Called by his second uncle, Wu Erbai

AKA Da Zhizi - Called by his third uncle, meaning ‘big nephew’. ‘Da’ here just means the oldest really. Wu Xie is Wu Sanxing’s oldest (but also only) nephew. And ‘nephew’ here too specifically refers to the son of your brother.

AKA Xiao Sanye - Called by Pan Zi, Bai Haotian (from Lost Tomb Reboot). Sanye here is in reference to how he dogs his third uncle’s footsteps all the time. And he’s the younger version so... there.

AKA Laoban or Wu-laoban - Called by Wang Meng, business partners because laoban means ‘boss’.

Zhang Qiling - Whew OK honestly, I don’t think of him as ‘Zhang Qiling’ much at all, because very rarely do any of the other characters refer to him as Zhang Qiling. Most of the time it’s...

AKA Xiaoge - This is what Wu Xie and Pangzi refer to him a lot as. Xiaoge literally translates to ‘little big brother’, but that meaning is weird in English. So don’t think of it that way. Xiaoge is just a generic term for a young guy. Like... ‘lad’? Lol. But he’s all mysterious and stuff so the generic term just stuck. This is also why in Tomb of the Sea, someone referred to Li Cu as ‘xiaoge’, because he was indeed a xiaoge. But in Wu Xie’s heart, there’s only one Xiaoge. ❤️

AKA Menyouping - The name of this ship! Pingxie! This is what Wu Xie referred to him mostly as in his first POV novel. It means ‘stuffy oil bottle’ and communicates the sentiment of ‘poker face’ or just someone with no expressions.

Note on Zhang Qiling: This name is actually a title rather than a name. Qiling is the title given to the Zhang patriarch responsible for handling the spirits of their ancestors... eh it’s complicated and warrants its own post if you want to know more.

Note on ‘Kylin’: I know this is what the official translations had it, but like... wtf. What, no. Like, idk what happened here, but this is a terrible mistranslation. ‘Kylin’ or ‘Qilin’ is the name of the mystical beast of which Zhang Qiling has a tattoo of, but it is two entirely different words from the ‘Qiling’. Don’t let the similarity in English spelling fool you. Completely different words. Some translator thought Kylin might market better probably. But... no. It’s just wrong. I have to do a double-take when I see people writing ‘Kylin’. Come on translators, have more faith in your English speaking audience. Fans can adapt! Don’t butcher the name for sake of marketability!

Wang Pangzi - Yes, ‘Fatty’ is the accurate translation haha. Most people refer to him as Pangzi, including Wu Xie and Zhang Qiling.

AKA Pangye - Referred to by Pangzi himself, but also sometimes people who are trying to suck up to Pangzi.

AKA Pangge - Referred to by his love interests.

Wu Sanxing - Wu Xie’s third uncle. See, I don’t even know what to call him by default because I’m not sure what the subs tend to say.

AKA Sanshu - Wu Xie and his friends will call him this.

AKA Sanye - Pan Zi and other people in the industry will call him this.

Hei Yanjing - Again, I’ve no idea which name to use as his primary. Translates literally to ‘sunglasses’. Not technically ‘black sunglasses because that’s redundant’. See, even the spacing between his name here is unnecessary because this isn’t his official name, only a nickname. I don’t think we have his real name. But this version is generally called by most others I think?

AKA Hei Xiazi - This means ‘black blind person’, and is what Xiaoge refers to him as... and some others.

AKA Heiye - Just a more respectful reference. Called by Xie Yuchen.

Xie Yuchen - Called by Xiaoge and others less familiar.

Jie Yuhua - His stage name.

Xiao Hua - Called by Wu Xie, as it’s a nickname built off of his stage name.

Huaye - Called by Hei Yanjing and Pangzi, but more so out of humorous flattery than anything.

Whew that was a lot. Just be glad this isn’t MDZS where people had courtesy names on top of all these names... I think I’ll stop there, but feel free to shoot me any questions about other characters!

#daomubiji #dmbj #daomu biji #wu xie #zhang qiling #wang pangzi #iron triangle #the lost tomb #chinese names #pingxie #dmbj meta

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fishylife · 3 years

Text

Street Dance of China, Season 4, Episode 10

- Ahhh I can’t believe the first competition song was 亂世巨星 by Jordan Chan, one of the two most popular songs from the Young and Dangerous movies (the movies were about gangs in Hong Kong, so most people associate the song with cool looking bad boys). (Actually Huang Zitao ALWAYS requests this song when he wants to look cool lol)

- Okay but the short hair is cute here

- Teacher Zhang’s lesson on how to be a bad boy

- The HK mobster vibes XD

- The Gogo Brothers were in leather jackets, classic bad boy looks :P

- And they danced to 友情歲月, which was the other very famous song from the Young and Dangerous movies too :D

- Taotao said that he was pretty confident in this song (maybe because it was a more emotional one), but he admitted that he found the combo of Xiao Jie and Xiaoji to be annoying.

- Xiaoji is messing around to 囍 that Taotao and Cici had performed last season.

- FKM entertainment duo. Taotao and Cici said that whenever they got really into their practises, the other team would annoy them, so much so that Taotao couldn’t focus and returned to his own studio to work on the choreography lol.

- Henry heard a mistake in the piano music and pointed it out. We call this occupational disease lol.

- Taotao and Cici’s performance was very strong, which was expected, because this is their specialty.

- What makes Xiaoji and Xiao Jie a good duo is that Xiao Jie is very athletic and can keep up with the flips and tricks to match Xiaoji.

- Of course, they wouldn’t be who they were without a little bit of the funnies, no matter how serious their performance is.

- Xiaoji and Xiao Jie ACTUALLY included part of 囍 in their music X’D They really aren’t letting Taotao and Cici live this down

- Baby X3

- Huang Xiao said that Taotao and Cici’s performance was very good, but they were up against two crazies

- Xiao Jie and Xiaoji STILL making fun of Taotao and Cici in the post-performance talk.

- God, Xiao Jie and Xiaoji are so goddamn entertaining. I love that the producers KNOW to give them the mic more, because they KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH IT!

- Yibo was like, man, Xiaoji has really grown so much during this season, I really did you dirty by not letting you shine more last season, and Xiaoji was like I also wasn’t this good last season lol.

- Momo said MT-Pop and Poppin’C look cute and she’s right.

- The boys stressing lol

- MT says he gets more ideas when he eats so here the bros are munching on some mooncakes. Side note about MT-Pop, the Chinese subtitles always show his name as 阮武明俊 which I’m guessing is his Vietnamese name written in Chinese.

- Poppin’C said he wants the world to know they can be cute. Looking forward >3

- Shitou explained to us what “Boogaloo” included, which was a long suit and wave moves.

- The battle between MT-Pop + Poppin’C vs. Shitou + Acky-san was danced to Peaches (by Justin Bieber). Anyway Poppin’C said they were gonna be cute and it’s already looking that way.

- Their performance was so much fun! The inclusion of the peach tool was nice, especially since they incorporated it in their dance both for dance purposes and for shenanigan purposes :3

- Shitou and Acky-san went with a more serious performance, and their version of the song was a little more chilled out and mature. And they do look very cool :D

- Acky-san trying to do a heart and Shitou missing the memo XD

- Yixing said MT-Pop and Poppin’C’s performance was too cute and the producer played with Poppin’C’s headscarf lol. Then Yixing said that MT-Pop’s expression was like Xiao Yueyue, who I think is a comedian? Basically he had very entertaining expressions, which we knew already.

- Poppin’C had a heart and a peach on his stomach and Yixing was like “I wonder if you’re showing off the pictures or your abs” lol. Why not both?

- Yibo was asked for his opinion last, and he basically said “I endorse all of the above.” And when the producer asked for him to expand on other good points between the times, Yibo was like “they have already been said.” Spoken like a man who wants to say as little as possible.

- Poppin’C describing his discussions with MT-Pop and acting out both of their roles XD MT was like “bro we can use all these cool props” and Poppin’C was like “bro we gotta be SEXY” so I guess he was really excited to show off his abs because he said he’d worked on them for five years XD This guy, the ultimate bro.

- Poppin’C and MT-Pop won, but all the poppers are family on this show X3

- Omg the next song being danced to is Old Town Road. I LOVE that all of these popular songs are being used. I guess it kind of hypes them up for the audience. Also, I love that the dancers edit the music to suit their own style, rather than being stuck with the original soundtrack.

- Bouboo and Tuzi was the first duo. They said that they’d choreographed their performance rather quickly, which didn’t sit well with them, so they tried to add more shenaniganery to make things amusing, including Bouboo being the horse.

- Rochka explained that they went with a Rush Hour theme with a love rivalry storyline lol.

- Tuzi and Bouboo’s performance was basically about Tuzi trying to tame his horse and his horse having none of it

- Lmao the disgust when they realize they’re going to have to fight each other

- In the romantic rivalry story line of their fight, Chika is the girl, who already has a man, Han Yu XD The ship continues sailing into the night lmao

- Of course they play out the gag to the end

- Henry was like “guys, guys, guys, show’s over”

- Bouboo disciplining his student lol

- Poppin’C laughing about Bouboo dressed like a horse ^^;;

- When asked for his opinion, Yixing said “agree with all above observations” lol. Man learns fast.

- And then he cheered for San’er and Rochka because it had Chinese influences (martial arts and Rush Hour). Is he just trying to be a meme of himself? Maybe.

- Cute Yixing

- For the second round of the battle, all of the contestants were wearing Chinese-style clothes and the judges were like wow Yixing this is totally up your alley

- Yixing being like “no matter who wins I will love them.” So easy to please lol.

- I’m also distracted by the fact that he’s wearing an Aries T-shirt despite not being an Aries

- Team selfies

- Producer Zhang at work

- Not gonna lie, ever since I saw that Huang Xiao was in Yixing’s MV for Flying Apsaras, I’ve been more curious about their relationship. Clearly they respect each other a lot, but the fact that they’ve collaborated on multiple occasions is interesting to me.

- Do these guys know the meaning of chill

- The title is something like...”Master Qiao goes fishing, it something wants to, it will take the bait”

- Wait okay what

- I don’t think it would be a surprise to me if Yixing had a big part in the ideas for this performance. Obviously Huang Xiao did the choreography, but in terms of the “concept,” including the story and title? That seems like something Yixing would have a lot of fun with.

- Thumbs up from Poppin’C! He said that even though he wasn’t Chinese, he always appreciates Huang Xiao’s work. Also, he refers to Huang Xiao by a different name, but I couldn’t catch what his other name is.

- Lots of votes!

- Yixing also had a “subtitle” for the title he’d already created for the performance. This one was a pun, meaning water under a little bridge, but using the characters for Huang Xiao and Qiao Zhi. He was so amused lol.

- Henry was asked for his opinion the last and he simply said “I agree.”

- Han Geng was like, which part specifically? And Henry’s like “aaaall of it”

- Ma Xiaolong had choreographed dances to three of the four arts, so this one is going to be the one about painting/visual arts :o They’re going with an embroidery sort of story.

- The performance was so cute!!!!!! I love the idea of these five busy worker bees working on an embroidered painting.

- This picture that they used was actually embroidered, wow

- Ma Xiaolong said the picture was expensive, and Han Geng said he’d reimburse for it, and then when asked, Ibuki said she liked the picture, so Han Geng said he’d gift it to her lmao.

- Ibuki said that she learned a lot from Ma Xiaolong about dancing in Chinese style, such as learning how to make these little steps

- Chika, Han Yu, and Li Chunlin had a martial arts themed performance! Chunlin represented Wingchun, Han Yu was drunken fist, and Chika was Taichi. I love how they managed to showcase the styles of the three martial arts forms they’d chosen. Like when Chunlin was leading the dance, the steps would be more exacting and striking, when Han Yu was leading the dance, they’d be a little more meandering, etc. Not to mention I just love how the three of them go together. Chunlin and Chika have more hiphop styles which Han Yu can keep up with, and they were so in sync. Super badass.

- Xiao Jie had some criticisms about Han Yu’s drunken fist. I think basically he thought that he didn’t do enough to combine the drunk part with the body movements.

- Xiao Jie said that Yixing was able to combine drunkenness with dancing, i.e. showing that you’re drunk through your body movements.

- Yixing being cheeky like “their performance was good, but not quite as good as my team’s performance!”

- Yibo said Chunlin’s outfit looks a bit like pajamas ^^;;

- And Henry was like “but a very cool set of pajamas”

- Han Geng said if this performance was a continuation of Rochka and San’er’s performance, it’d be like a battle for marriage (which I guess is kind of like, when the winner of a fight gets the hand in marriage).

- Chika was asked why she always picks Han Yu and she was like “uhhh he’s like a dad? like a brother?”

- Ye Yin, Hilty & Bosch, and Momo performed a tea-themed dance. Yibo mentioned that there were four tea cups, so it didn’t make sense for them to have a story line where four of them would be fighting over four tea cups. They were performing a song by the Twelve Girls Band, which is a band consisting of players of traditional Chinese instruments.

- So apparently Ye Yin got the idea for tea as a theme after he was drinking tea with Qiao Zhi and saw that he had a lot of wares and habits and stuff. So I guess Qiao Zhi is a tea aficionado?

- When Ye Yin was asked about the choreography, he explained it IN DETAIL (as in a play-by-play) and everybody was like “no, not like that”

- And then the producer was like “were you worried we didn’t understand your very clear choreography?” and Han Geng was like “do NOT give him the micro- oh, jeez”

- At the beginning of the show Han Geng basically said that he’d changed from being quiet to chatty. The captain says 萬象“庚”新 which is a pun on 萬象更新 which means like, new in a lot of different ways? But the 更 is pronounced the same as Geng in Han Geng. So basically saying Ye Yin is too different now.

- The producer just kept giving Ye Yin more and more opportunities to speak lol. It was probably because he was the only Chinese-speaking member of their team but like, this guy doesn’t know how to do succinct.

- Henry’s team got the fewest points in this round, but I liked that Han Yu was very optimistic and chill about it. He was like dance itself is very objective. His team got 77 votes, which was the lowest, but he was like, that means that 77 people liked our performance, which is still a good thing.

- In the battle round, each team was to send out two representatives. Han Geng was like “I sent out Eleven and Ma Xiaolong!” and everybody was like OH SHIT!!!!!!!! Except they were only announcing the actual representatives lol. Anyway, their announced reps were Acky-san and Ibuki-chan. I kind of love how the Chinese-speaking members will still use the Japanese honourifics. This is definitely a thing though. When I was very young I went with a tour group to Japan, and even though our tour guide was Chinese we all just called him Ken-san lol. Like, I think the Japanese honourifics are just very easy to remember and use for Chinese-speaking people.

- Ahh I missed Rochka freestyling. He’s such a versatile dancer. He was dancing to a song that sounded very much like a locking song. But he is so good at making the music his own, and he is so insanely athletic.

- Poppin’C being like “nuh-uh, we are NOT letting Yibo’s team get away with this!” He straight up just called Rei-san Gogo ^^;; but also, he starts ALL of his sentences with “bro,” and that is so rad XD Bro culture

- And he did it! He dethroned Yibo’s team. Here he was saying he and Rei-san needed to win 7 points straight because he didn’t want to lose members X3 Poppin’C really being like “ain’t NO ONE taking apart MY found family!!!!”

- Ok but why has Henry never been able to catch a SINGLE break this show?!?!?! Noooo!!!!!

- Hexing Wuqi got to seven points first! A small but might team. (Yes I did take a million screenshots because their faces are all hidden in the group hug and I needed different angles lol)

- Ibuki is so small lol

- Like what is this height difference? Is Ma Xiaolong that tall?

- Henry cheering on his team v.v

- Because Hexing Wuqi won first, they got to keep all members

- Yibo and Han Geng’s teams were tied in second place, and each team had to eliminate two members. Henry’s team had to eliminate four members.

- Yibo eliminated Xiaohai and Tuzi

- Han Geng eliminated Fanfan and Xiaoji. I actually didn’t expect Xiaoji :(

- Tumblr deleted my edits again >(

- I’m so glad that we got at least one JJ brothers performance. Xiaoji is truly one of a kind, he shall be missed v.v

- Fanfan telling Shitou he wasn’t allowed to cry lol. I think Fanfan had a very positive message. I think she just enjoyed being a team player.

- Henry eliminated Taotao & Cici, Chika, and Han Yu (which was a shock to me).

- Taotao had a very positive message, which was comforting.

- Cici said she wasn’t going to cry but she saw Rochka crying and she started crying T_T BABIES

- Taotao and Cici comforting Rochka in the background

- Chika started crying too T_T

- :(

- Chika also had a really positive and put-together speech, I don’t know how she did it while crying lol. Also, she’s only 22 years old? What?? I legitimately thought she was older because she seems so mature.

- Hugz

- See you again was playing and Henry was singing along to it lol

- The next battle will challenge each team to combine street dance with older styles of dancing, and I think will involve famous dancers from those disciplines. The disciplines are ballroom, contemporary, Chinese classical dance, and ethnic folk dance.

- So here are the matchups.

- Contemporary dance battle.

- Because Henry and Han Geng’s team have an odd number of members, Chunlin and Eleven are forming a temporary duo.

- Ballroom dance battle

- Traditional Chinese dance battle

- Folk dance battle. Liu Fuyang, the dancer who is performing with Han Geng’s team, is Han Geng’s junior (in their folk dance studies), and is also a friend of Xiao Jie’s :o

- On the hotpot show, the captains were asked about which performance they liked. Yixing of course said Qiao Zhi and Huang Xiao’s performance was his favourite. He said how it was based on Jiang Ziya, who you may know, was known for fishing with no bait at the end of his rod. He was famous for other stuff too but that was one of them. Then Yixing went on to explain the three important points of the story. One was that the fishing rod was straight, signifying an upright person. Two was the idea of not begging (i.e. not having bait at the end of the rod, waiting for the fish to come). He forgot the third thing but one of the producers said the third thing was the idea of not hiding.

- Yibo liked his team’s last performance, which I’m guessing was the Momo + Ye Yin + HB performance. Han Geng really liked his team’s Acky-san + Shitou Boogaloo performance. And Henry really liked Chunlin + Han Yu + Chika’s performance because it was completely without props. But alas ^^;;

#thinking out loud #cvariety #street dance of china #screencaps

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