#and what li lianhua believed he was freeing fang duobing from is what he will spend the rest of his life mourning | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

potahun · 5 months

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Mysterious Lotus Casebook and the Analogies to Being Queer

this is not breaking new grounds or anything, there seems to be broad consensus in the (tumblr) fandom that LHL is a lot about being queer. there is also this brilliant meta by @seventh-fantasy about the jianghu being a queer space, which i love, and which dealt with the gender perspective for li lianhua in particular

having that in mind, i want to say how much i love that li lianhua and fang duobing's stories feel like analogies to two different queer experiences

we see li xiangyi in a few flashbacks and in how others viewed him before the east sea battle 10 years ago. we know he became the n°1 swordsman in the world, established a para-judiciary system and order in an otherwise lawless jianghu, that he used to duel just to win the right to pick flowers from someone's garden as gifts for every single lady in the sigu sect, and that he dated qiao wanmian and intended to marry her (judging by that flashback where he's seen drinking with shan gudao and the boys)

a lot of it is very heteronormative, and even a bit performative. and i don't want to say it's not genuine, i actually rly like the idea that many of those actions felt perfectly real to him at the time, and i genuinely think he had that show-off streak in him when he was a teenager

but regardless, everything about li xiangyi follows the heteronormative expectations of society, including his achievements, which command, among other things, admiration for his fighting prowess and his ability to establish rules. which is of course, ironic, as pointed out in the meta referenced above, since the jianghu itself does not follow those rules (and we slowly learn in the story that there was criticism of him for this even in-story).

but then we get to li lianhua, who does not fight, but cooks, learned to sew, to plant flowers, turns down every lady who looks his way, and who does not interfere in jiang hu matters if he can help it. and in particular, we get the conversation he has with qiao wanmian in ep 18, where she confronts him about his identity and asks him:

"if you'd already come back, why did you never reunite with us?"

and his reply is:

"all of this is so far in the past, now. i'm very tired. i just want to be free."

li lianhua is constantly put in contrast with li xiangyi. where li xiangyi performs, li lianhua just exists in the jianghu. where li xiangyi fulfils expectations and surpasses them, li lianhua turns his back to expectations. where li xiangyi establishes a domain and protects, li lianhua wanders freely, all by himself. where li xiangyi conforms to heteronormative standards, li lianhua doesn't.

we know that li lianhua is an unreliable narrator in that his opinion on his own past is biased, his knowledge incomplete. and he lies. almost compulsively. but there are also truth bombs that he drops between the lies. i personally believe that his willingness to detach himself from all the expectations thrown upon him and to finally exist away from norms, is part of those truths.

and this is very close to a type of queer experience, where you come out of some event or another in your twenties, suddenly realise you're queer and oh my god, it's time to live differently. and you start rejecting the norms and maybe your old friends wonder what got into you.

in the same conversation in ep 18, the following exchange happens between li lianhua and qiao wanmian:

LLH: "when we met each other, I was young and ignorant. I didn't understand what the feelings i felt for you were, either." QWM: "what do you mean? are you saying... you never loved me?" LLH: "back then, we were young. nothing of what we said then can still count now."

it can be interpreted in different ways, but it sure fits a queer narrative extremely well. the feelings were real, but he didn't understand whether they were romantic or not, he just followed the norms. but things are different now.

enters fang duobing

fang duobing feels like a different queer narrative. by family background, fang duobing is a person who has equal ties to the imperial court as he does to the jiang hu. the emperor and his family wants to engage him to the princess of the court, a perfectly normal thing in the societal context he lives in, and a luck few can hope to have. what does he do?

flee

i often joke that fang duobing's sexuality is to be a detective on the jianghu, but it really does feel like that kind of narrative. fang duobing never has any doubt that his place is away from the rules of the imperial court. In ep. 1, he tells his servants:

don't worry. once your young master makes a name for himself as a renown detective on the jianghu, they {his parents} will understand that, compared to the imperial court, i am much more suited for the jiang hu.

and yes, this is about escaping the rigidity of the court as such, but it's also analogous for the freedom to be who you are, to be queer, to not conform.

and fang duobing never backtracks. his parents want him to conform, and they want him to have the comfort that comes with this lifestyle. he rejects it thoroughly and consistently.

it's also interesting that in ep 25, once they meet the princess and they have gone through a case together, fang duobing still rejects the idea of the wedding. when li lianhua tells him "the jianghu is a place full of grudges and sinister schemes. why not become a carefree consort prince?"

fang duobing only looks forlorn and retorts "li lianhua, can you never say that again, please?"

in contrast, though, he has no qualms planning his whole life on the jianghu with li lianhua in ep. 15. so this is not about settling down with someone.

it feels very close to being confidently queer and knowing it from a very early age, and then rejecting the heteronormative expectations thrown upon you with assurance.

...

anyway, so what i want to say is: li lianhua is a tired millenial who discovered he was queer in his mid-twenties after a mild depression; fang duobing is a gen-z baby queer who doesn't know his queer history but is so confidently queer and he's never looking back

#fang duobing #li lianhua #lhl #mysterious lotus casebook #meta #lhl meta #mlc meta #mlcb #mlc #li xiangyi

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eleanorfenyx · 4 months

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I have finished Mysterious Lotus Casebook, and here are some of my thoughts! (Obviously not spoiler free)

The cases are absolutely batshit insane and I loved it every single time they were like 'we totally collected this evidence that incriminates a secret suspect, just believe us and also don't question when the fuck we had the time to do this or when we figured out that we needed to look for it'. 10/10 no notes, that's a hilarious way to have a genius detective. Show us nothing, tell us everything, YES king.

That being said, I could have done with a lot less standing around having the supporting cast repeat whatever Li Lianhua and Fang Duobing announce, maybe in an attempt to make sure their genius is clear for the audience? I get it, but at the same time it felt a little too hand-holdy for me, especially in scenes where LLH and FDB had already discussed their findings between themselves before presenting them to the concerned bystanders. I can read between the lines (or else understand what has just been explicitly stated) without having every conclusion filtered through a slightly different sentence structure to make sure I got it.

Di Feisheng amnesia arc my fuckin beloved

Di Feisheng destroying his 'father' and freeing everyone in Di manor in a vicious act of catharsis that tied nicely into the main Nanyin bug-mind-control-thing narrative my beloved

Di Feisheng my beloved

The amount of times I was like...genuinely surprised he and Li Lianhua didn't kiss is both embarrassing (because I do in fact understand censorship and what I sign up for with these dramas and yet and yet) and numerous enough that I could...possibly...theoretically..write a 5+1 fic of every time I want them to kiss about it. No one hold me to that but it's something I think I'd like to do.

Re: the above point: because what the FUCK was that ending?!!! EXCUSE ME?! I gotta FIX THAT SHIT.

There will come a day when the strength of my hope for an unambiguously happy ending in a queer(-coded? is the source originally bl or is this its own thing?) wuxia drama is rewarded....but it is not this day. I must fix this myself.

Jiao Liqiao's laugh is one of the most annoying things I've ever heard. I was reaaaaally hoping someone would just up and stab her during one of her little evil laughing fits. At one point I was shouting "KILL HER, KILL HER" at my screen because I could NOT take anymore of her (unfortunately, I did in fact have to take more of her).

I still think her insistence on being obsessed with DFS is hysterical when he is so VISIBLY only interested in LLH. Explicitly STATES that his only life purpose is to fuck fight LLH again. Babygirl (derogatory) he is so fucking gay let's get you a nice knife to the gut instead, okay?

I thought the whole Shan Gudao plot was interesting, going from looking desperately for his body -> putting him to rest -> hunting for his murderer -> finding out he's alive/the mastermind behind everything going wrong (which I was proud of myself for realizing before the reveal, I'm normally bad at that) -> thwarting him with sass and superior martial arts at every possible turn -> killing him stone fuckin dead with beginner level skills because he's so up his own hole he can't see that's what's happening - was really fun!

He also has a SUPER annoying laugh he can fuck off

OH OH OH MARTIAL ARTS SKILL OF TRANS YOUR GENDER?! I MARRIED HER SO HER AFFAIRS ARE MY BUSINESS NOT YOURS??? ASKING YOUR WIFE FOR HER FORGIVENESS AND UNDERSTANDING AS YOU LAY DYING AND SHE GIVES IT TO YOU?????? OKAYYYYYYY

The twist at the end that LLH is the one with royal blood was so funny to me. Like it's a good twist and I love that Shan Gudao was just quite literally always a fuckin try-hard loser in ways he didn't even know, but also it was SO funny. Granny coming in clutch at the last fuckin minute with secret knowledge she just literally never shared.

LLH is such a smooth motherfucker. Shame about his insistence on dying when quite literally everyone (bar the people who suck) is begging this man to just live. Just LIVE DAMN IT!!!!! I really liked it when FDB begs him to just consider his own life as important for ONCE and remember that people care about him because YES his self-sacrificing and committment to Chilling Out Farmer Style was not the mercy he thought it was!

LIVE AND GROW OLD WITH DI FEISHENG YOU DAMN IDIOT (the likelihood of me resisting the urge to write at least the one fic for them is zero to none)

Unironically love spitting up blood as a plot device and this show is no different. The Drama. The Panache. The desperation of everyone around you because you have BLOOD coming out of your MOUTH and you are FAINTING. Poison acting up? Spit blood. Someone bitch slap you with their magical palm ability? Spit blood. Get stressed? Spit blood. Get stabbed? Spit blood. It's always good!

Okay I think that might be all I've got for now, if I think of anything else I'll add them in a reblog. I thoroughly enjoyed it, would definitely recommend!

#mysterious lotus casebook #my thoughts #for whatever they're worth #it was nice too because unlike say Word of Honor I didn't mind the overarching plot about the jianghu #and the magical cures/objects that everyone is racing/fighting each other to get to first #WOH was just plain boring outside of the interpersonal relationships in my opinion #but in this there were only a few times I really just did not care about the latest fetch quest and wanted to get back to the relationships

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bbcphile · 4 months

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WIP Wednesday

I've finally worked up the courage to post the opening of one of the Mysterious Lotus Casebook fics I'm writing (Li Lianhua/Di Feisheng/Fang Duobing), specifically, from my post-canon fic where LLH's shiniang tried to sacrifice herself to cure him.

Tw/cw: suicide attempt, mention of off-page non-consensual medical procedure, internalized ableism

***

Li Lianhua crashed to his hands and knees on the ground as the last trickle of his borrowed qi abandoned him, the densely-packed sand doing nothing to cushion the blow. The impact rattled through his spine and ribs, shaking loose a bout of coughing that forced him to swallow down the burning flare of copper trying to escape from his mouth. He couldn’t cough up blood now, not here, too many steps away from the water’s reach. It would leave evidence of his route, a trail that his shiniang would undoubtedly follow once she had broken free from the immobilization. He couldn’t let her find him until the job was done.

He pushed himself to standing, his arms and legs shaking hard enough to nearly drop him back to his knees, and he blinked to will the dancing black spots from his eyes. The waves awaited him, and he refused to crawl to meet them. He took a staggering step toward the sound of crashing water ahead of him, far fainter now than it had any right to be, and squinted against the sunlight to get his bearings.

A large gray lump on his left snagged his attention, disrupting the blur of gold and blue that filled up the rest of his view. Why did that look familiar? He took an unsteady step closer, pressing his palm against his chest to convince his lungs to hold back a cough one more time, and the gray lump resolved into a rock.

A rock that had once served as a pillow that was soft only in comparison to how hard the rest of the day had been.

Of course. He’d landed at Donghai beach. He swallowed back tears with a bitter laugh. Never let it be said that the universe didn’t have a sense of humor.

He’d returned after all: three months late for the duel and over a decade late for bringing his decrepit body back to the waves that had so decisively spat him out. But surely this time, with all the mysteries solved and no business left unfinished, the sea would accept the offering of his broken frame. Li Xiangyi was long dead and it was past time for Li Lianhua to follow his example. He was already a ghost in every way that mattered. And this was the only way to guarantee his shiniang would live.

She would be furious, of course, but wasn’t furious better than dead? How could it be unfilial to make sure she lived on? Too many people had died for him; he refused to let her join those ranks. Dying to save her was already a far better death than he deserved.

As for the others, Xiaobao would have his teachings and would be too busy climbing the heights of the jianghu to miss the weak physician he once protected.

And a-Fei—

—well, how could he still fixate on defeating a ghost with Xiaobao shining more brightly than Li Xiangyi ever had?

No, this end was far better for everyone, and best of all, no one would sacrifice their life or be forced to play caretaker to an empty husk of a man.

A familiar chill seared through his veins and meridians, despite the warmth of the fur of his outer layer, stealing away his breath and the amorphous blue blur before him. He took another stumbling step toward where it had been, his heart stuttering painfully in his chest.

Not much longer now. It seemed his frenzied dash here and self-shattered heart meridian were more efficient for what he had in mind than the weight his waterlogged fur coat would have offered.

Perhaps he didn’t need the coat for this at all. His body would certainly float further without it. And not even his shiniang could save him now, so what harm could it do to leave some evidence behind? Xiaobao might not believe the beggar’s words, but surely this fur cloak at the water’s edge would put to rest any lingering futile hopes. And then Xiaobao would tell a-Fei.

And if it brought them peace, if it let them say goodbye, then how could he not leave it behind?

It was decided, then.

He lifted his hands to the coat’s laces, then paused. Were those voices? For a moment, he could have sworn he heard—

—Ah, no, the hallucinations must have started again.

He smiled. At least he had heard a-Fei and Xiabao one last time, if only in his mind.

He untied his laces with fumbling, stiff fingers, and let the coat fall behind him.

His heart and lungs clenched with another spasm, and a wave of dizziness broke over him, threatening to drop him to his knees once more.

He fought against it, muscles shaking as they never had during battles. He couldn’t surrender now; not until he reached the water. He could manage three more steps. He had to.

He tried to lift his foot again.

The world swam before him, and darkness dragged him under.

#mysterious lotus casebook #mlc fic #my fic #Li Lianhua #Di Feisheng #Fang Duobing #Feihua #tw: suicide attempt #the fic will end happily I swear!#This is just about the lowest point for everyone #This is my first time really sharing my creative writing publicly in about 4 years #I am sooooo nervous omg #yay for at least temporarily being healthy enough to write!#wip wednesday #the POVs of the fic alternate between all 3 of the MCs #and they are all unreliable narrators in different ways

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omgpurplefattie · 2 months

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WIP Wednesday

Here's a bit from the third episode of Research Vessel Lianhua Lou, my MLC Star Trek AU. They're on the ship, in transit to their next adventure.-

Throughout breakfast, Li Lianhua didn’t stop grumping at both of them, and when they finally ran out of pancakes and porridge, he told them to go invent something; he had reading to do. Nanyin lessons after lunch, okay?

“He’d have to be really sick to forget about his old dead languages for a bit,” A-Fei sighed as they both stood, meekly taking their crockery to the dishwasher. Li Lianhua held out his cup for even more raktajino, which Fang Duobing poured for him, before getting out his terminal and starting to read right where he was. After about three seconds, he looked up again and made a shooing motion with his free hand.

“Yes, yes, I'm going,” Fang Duobing said. “I have a date with the warp engine anyway, as there are a few inhabited systems coming up on our route soon. I’ll ease the warp bubble through that by hand.”

“You’re not telling me that rocks with people on feel different to the warp engine than just rocks do?” Li Lianhua said, with another eye-roll. “That is a new degree of warp mumbo jumbo even for you. You won’t believe the way he talks about that thing, A-Fei. One time, when he explained about the engine settling into just the right speed for the sector of space we were crossing, he claimed it felt like putting me inside himself in bed.”

“Your prick has a very amenable shape,” A-Fei said, deadpan; and Li Lianhua threw the spoon with which he’d been stirring his raktajino at the Klingon’s forehead ridges.

Fang Duobing hotly remembered what he’d read about throwing things in a Klingon sex context, grabbed his mug of tea, and fled to the engine room, thundering down the steps.

#wip wednesday #mysterious lotus casebook #star trek AU #rv lianhua lou #fang duobing #di feisheng #li lianhua #cw mentions of sex #cw cultural prejudices

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madamadragon · 7 months

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my insomnia has struck again, here's a very small fic

don't take it seriously

-------------

A GREAT SOLUTION

Nobody. No one had shown up. They had opened more than two hours ago and there wasn't a soul there.

He Xiaohui, Fang Duobing's mother, had recently paid for a spa that was once renowned for its miraculous springs.

She believed that by renovated it, it would return it to its former glory bringing great profits but not a single person showed up at the inauguration.

Fang Duobing sighed, his cheek resting on the palm of his hand. He was sitting in the lobby waiting for customers who clearly would never come.

His mother had asked him to help her welcome the guests but at this rate he would die of boredom. His mother always made bad investments.

"Your mother must have been disappointed," a voice called from the entrance.

He looked up at it and as soon as he saw who it belonged to he jumped up.

"Li Lianhua! What are you doing here?"

"Master He had invited us to the inauguration but we were late," explained Li Lianhua, reaching the boy followed as always by Di Feisheng.

Those two had a strange relationship, something Fang Duobing couldn’t figure out. They were always next to each other and I often exchanged long looks and half smiles.

He shook his head, freeing himself from that thought, now the priority was the spa.

"The opening was two hours ago," Fang Duobing scolded him.

"There doesn’t seem to be much lost," Di Feisheng grinned, looking around.

"You!" Fang Duobing exclaimed outraged, trying to kick him.

"Ayo, leave him be" Li Lianhua said, grabbing the boy by the arm and blocking his attempt to hit the former Jinyuan alliance leader.

"It would be better to find a way to help your mother, Xiaobao"

"It’s a kind thought Li gongzi" thanked him Master He entering the lobby.

Li Lianhua made a slight bow in greeting.

"We can discuss this over a cup of tea," Tian Ji Hall’s master continued, urging a waitress to bring the trays.

While passing the cups to the various guests, the young maid, intimidated by the presence of Di Feisheng, accidentally poured the hot drink on his clothes.

"I’m s-sorry!" She stuttered in panic.

"It’s nothing serious," the doctor comforted her with one of his gentle smiles.

The girl made a quick bow and then ran away.

"You scare everyone," Fang Duobing muttered as he followed the waitress with his eyes.

Di Feisheng did not answer and simply took off the top layer of clothes that had become wet.

Fang Duobing at that sight wided his eyes. The great leader of the Jinyuan alliance stood almost shirtless in the atrium of a spa at the sight of all.

And what a sight. Broad shoulders and abs sculpted.

"Xiaobao, close your mouth or you’ll get bugs in it," Li Lianhua laughed.

Fang Duobing turned to him sulking. The doctor did not seem to be surprised by the sight of Di Feisheng’s body, as if he was used to seeing it that way.

That those two were having an affair?! This explained Li Lianhua’s nocturnal visits to Di Feisheng’s room when they stayed at an inn or disappeared for several hours and then returned as if nothing had happened.

Fang Duobing stared at the doctor in astonishment with an exaggerated expression of betrayal on his face.

"I just had an idea," exclaimed his mother.

He turned and noticed that she was grinning as she looked towards the door.

He followed her gaze and saw several girls who had stopped in front of the spa and who giggled among them eyeing Di Feisheng in all its beauty.

"I need to borrow A-Fei," smiled Master He.

Fang Duobing snapped at her perplexed.

"A-Fei?" Since when did she call him that?

"If my son calls him A-Fei, I don’t see why I can’t do it!"

Master He approached Di Feisheng with a big smile and then wrapped her hands around his bicep.

"I feel this will be a great idea"

------

And so it was that shortly after the new spa was flooded with customers.

"I can’t believe it," Fang Duobing said in disbelief as he watched people go in and out.

His mother’s plan was to put Di Feisheng at the entrance and show off his chest, thus attracting women and girls, thus creating an interest in the spa by bringing other customers.

And so it had been. Di Feisheng was leaning against the counter with his arms folded with a bored expression on his face, drawing everyone’s attention.

"But how did he convince A-Fei?"

"I convinced him," Li Lianhua explained as he positioned himself next to him.

Fang Duobing turned to him curious.

"How?"

"A favor in exchange for a secret"

Fang Duobing raised a confused eyebrow.

"I thought you were done keeping secrets."

"Let’s say it’s not really a secret"

Fang Duobing was about to push the issue when his mother called him across the hall.

"Fang Xiaobao, I have another idea, take off your clothes!"

Li Lianhua next to him burst out laughing.

"Mother!" the boy exclaimed, turning red on his face.

"Oh come on, put all your hard work into martial arts in to use!"

"MOTHER"

#mysterious lotus casebook #mysterious lotus casebook fanfiction #di feisheng and his broad shoulder #i dream of them at night #li xiangyi #li lianhua #cheng yi #cdrama #mlc #di feisheng #chinese drama #fang duobing #xiao shunyao #zeng shunxi #difanghua

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shamera · 5 months

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NaNo day 21

...i took the day off writing yesterday and used my free time to read, whoops. it seems my brain doesn't want to do the writing thing anymore, so i moved back to the time loop story!

short update, but i think i just missed dfs even if he sure didn't miss me and the frustration i like to put him through.

“Here,” Di Feisheng indicated on the map Wuyan brought. “Cross out all the places above. And one more thing.”

Wuyan didn’t dare object, and bowed before he left.

—

“Where is everyone?” Fang Duobing asked as they walked through the village. He was peering around, craning his neck around corners as if the townsfolk were merely playing a game that he might win should he find them. It was strange mostly because there were stalls already out, and some food gone cold yet no people to eat or man the area.

On an otherwise brisk but beautiful day, the entire village was silent.

“Who knows?” Di Feisheng offered casually, looking away specifically. He didn’t have to look back to know that Li Lianhua was giving him a suspicious stare, but by the time he glanced back at the others, the physician was already studying one of the empty tables with interest.

Li Lianhua ran a finger down the wooden grain of the table, and then lifted it up to check, rubbing his fingers together.

“There’s ash,” he said with surprise, bringing his hand up to sniff delicately. “Trace amounts, but something was burnt here earlier. Not too long ago. The people might have evacuated thinking there was a fire.”

“Very effective.” Di Feisheng observed.

Li Lianhua gave him another look, but didn’t comment further on the words. “I suppose we’ll have to investigate the area for today and wait until the people come back to ask about the missing travellers.”

“Tomorrow?” Fang Duobing’s voice was dismayed, but he merely scowled as he crossed his arms. “I’d rather take care of it today.”

Li Lianhua flicked his fingers. “There’s no rush.”

They searched through the village with far less hassle this time around, but also coming up with far less clues as to what happened to the travellers.

“Let’s head down this path,” Di Feisheng suggested after the other two refused to rummage through the abandoned homes of the villagers. It meant they hadn’t found key items, but at the same time it meant they weren’t hassled by aggressive strangers.

“Why?” Li Lianhua asked suspiciously from where he was resting next to a lopsided wooden fence. “You’ve been behaving strange all day, A-Fei.”

Luckily, it seemed Fang Duobing was a little too preoccupied poking through a fire pit a little too large and close to the village centre. Di Feisheng had seen the pit enough times to know that it was there normally and therefore not the source of whatever fire Fang Duobing was looking for.

“A hunch,” Di Feisheng responded, and turned to leave, knowing the other two would eventually follow him.

He leads them (suspiciously) to the well and the cavern where the dungeon was, and then (suspiciously) refuses to say how he knew that would be there. For all the times Di Feisheng had quietly attempted to get them to believe that he was repeating the same day over and over, he didn’t want to have that conversation today.

He generally didn’t want to be called upon to explain how the previous iteration of ‘today’ ended. He just wanted to finish searching through the dungeon to see if they could find something particular or strange, and then perhaps take the next several iterations of ‘today’ away from this place.

He wasn’t even looking to end the repeats. There were still things he wanted to accomplish if given the extra time. The distant sense of urgency to find a solution to the repeats from the previous day had already faded, but Di Feisheng’s irritation concerning this village had yet to do so.

“Don’t,” he warned as they searched, “go into the cells. There’s an incendiary trap in there.”

Now it was Fang Duobing frowning at him. “How do you know that?”

Di Feisheng thought for a moment, and then replied, “Ask me this tomorrow.”

They found nothing of use, and when they returned to Lotus Tower for the night, Wuyan reported in the negative and Di Feisheng crossed out another section of the map.

He spent the late evening practising his sword forms, an uneasy feeling building within as he took his frustrations and uncertainty out on the trees surrounding him. Even as the candle light of Lotus Tower was blown out, he stayed out under the moonlight until he fell asleep resting against the roots of a tree.

—

Di Feisheng opened his eyes to an unoccupied bed the next day, and frowned. The birds were still chirping, but there was the smell of rice cooking and the distinct sounds of murmuring and footsteps below him.

He wasn’t… he was still staring up at the roof of Lotus Tower, but was it the next day?

He lifted an arm. He was back in his sleep clothes, although he was certain he fell asleep outdoors in full wear the previous night. He brought the sleeve to his arm and sniffed. No. Unless someone managed to wash him of the sweat accumulated from his training last night, it was just another loop.

Yet this time, he overslept.

Judging from the sounds, the two downstairs were trying not to wake him up in a surprisingly thoughtful turn. Di Feisheng moved out of bed slowly, taking stock of his own body as he moved. Nothing seemed amiss, and he certainly wasn’t feeling the exertion from the day previous. He felt as he had each morning for each repeat, and as the bed creaked and his feet hit the floor, he could hear the noises below him change.

After dressing and strapping his sword to his back, Di Feisheng made his way down the stairs to Fang Duobing attempting to not so subtly push Li Lianhua away from the kitchen area with a spatula as he held onto the pan over the flames and Li Lianhua stirring a pot on a burner with a frown.

“A-Fei!” Fang Duobing called out cheerfully as he pushed through the door. “You sure slept in this morning. Just in time for breakfast, though.”

With bowls of watery congee and a plate of stir-fried vegetables, they sat and discussed the disappearances of several travellers in the village they were heading toward. Di Feisheng stayed quiet during their discussion, watching them for cues. Luckily, that was not unusual of him, although they gave him confused glances from time to time.

“We probably could have been on our way already,” Fang Duobing bluffed (they never left this early, not in all the iterations) with a sly smile, leaning over the table. “If someone hadn’t overslept!”

Di Feisheng gave him a flat look and set down his empty bowl.

“I’ll join you tomorrow.” He said. “Something came up today.”

Immediately, Fang Duobing’s smug expression melted into concern instead. It was unfortunate that his emotions were always so clear on his face, as Di Feisheng couldn’t understand how the young man could be a detective when he couldn’t bluff his way out of a wet paper bag.

Li Lianhua, sitting opposite him, merely took the statement in stride.

“Good luck on your endeavours,” the man told him, his bowl still more than half full. Half because he ate so slowly, and half because Fang Duobing kept piling more vegetables into it.

“Wait, wait,” Fang Duobing waved his arms as Di Feisheng stood from the bench, catching their attention. He looked between Li Lianhua and Di Feisheng with concern. “Did something happen? I thought we agreed yesterday to do this together? We spent a week getting here!”

“Something came up,” Di Feisheng repeated, but then amended with a thought, “Go tomorrow. I’ll join you. Do something else today.”

“Like what?” Fang Duobing asked, bewildered.

“There’s a leak in the corner upstairs. Fix that.”

At that, Fang Duobing’s concern slid toward irritation. “Why me? It’s your room, too! You should help!”

“A-Fei,” Li Lianhua interjected smoothly, and Di Feisheng looked down toward him as he set his bowl down to pick up a cup of tea. “You’ll be back tomorrow, then?”

Underneath the cool nonchalance were sharp eyes turned his direction, and Di Feisheng didn’t bother to acknowledge or deny it.

“Or today.” He said, because it was true. Should the day pass over to the next, he would be back. Should it not pass to the next day, then he would wake in Lotus Tower regardless.

He called for Wuyan once he was a good distance away, and when the man appeared, Di Feisheng told him, “Today, I will join the search.”

That day, he directed his people around and up a stream, and that night he slept in an unfamiliar inn at an unfamiliar town, surrounded by those of the Jinyuan Alliance in the adjacent rooms, yet his heart continued to be uneasy over the difference in how he woke that day.

—

Di Feisheng wakes in Lotus Tower to the sound of early morning birds chirping and sunlight just starting to peek through the horizon through the blinds of the room. Fang Duobing’s elbow was jabbing him in the side, and the sense of relief he felt was so acute it was nearly a physical sensation.

He goes downstairs in his night clothes and once more stares until Li Lianhua drags himself out of bed with sleepy complaints.

“I have been living this day again and again.” Di Feisheng told him quietly as they waited for the water to boil for tea. “I have found different ways to predict events, and different secrets you have told me to help me in the next repeat, but I don’t believe you need to know any of that to believe me.”

“So you’re not going to tell me if a lightning strike suddenly breaks through the clouds?” Li Lianhua asked, a hand holding his sleeve back as he scooped tea leaves. The gesture was elegant, sure, and Di Feisheng watched as he carefully poured the near boiling water into the teapot, and then lifted the teapot to swirl the liquid around before emptying the first pour into a bowl to be dumped later.

As he refilled the teapot, Di Feisheng responded, “That doesn’t happen. I thought I would need proof for you to believe me, but now I realise you’ve never disbelieved me.”

“You’re not the type to lie,” Li Lianhua said. “Especially not about strange events.”

It was true, but not merely in the sense that Di Feisheng didn’t waste time bothering with petty lies and made up stories. Every single time he revealed the repeat of days, Li Lianhua and Fang Duobing went along with whatever he said. If he claimed he was living the same day over and over and they needed to go elsewhere, then the three of them went elsewhere. If he claimed to know what happened and that they should delay a day, then they delayed a day.

It was a heady feeling, knowing that he could say something and they would go along with it, no matter how strange.

Or perhaps, because of how strange his explanation was.

Li Lianhua directed the second pour into two small teacups, and then set the teapot back down, releasing his sleeve and flicking his wrists to smooth out the cloth, actions so perfunctory he likely never noticed just how fussy he looked.

Di Feisheng smiled at the action, picking up a teacup to savour the warmth and smell of it.

Li Lianhua narrowed his eyes. “What?”

“Nothing.” Di Feisheng told him, still smiling. He imitated Li Lianhua’s movement to draw attention to the superfluousness of it. It looked even more ridiculous when he did it, with his sleeves coiled up under his bracers. “You’re exceptionally vain.”

The other man looked affronted. “Is it vain to keep a clean appearance? I think you’re not using that word correctly, Lao Di.”

Di Feisheng downed the tea in one swallow like wine, savouring the burn on this tongue. It was a warmth that spread down his throat and through his chest, and he savoured it.

Setting the cup back on the table with a click, he said, “Come with me today. We’ll untether the horses and ride out.”

Li Lianhua raised a brow, hands cradling the warmth of his own teacup without drinking it. “You want me to leave my house?”

“We’ll be back tomorrow,” Di Feisheng stated. One way or another, it would be true. We’ll go now.”

“We should wake Xiaobao up if—”

“He’ll find us.” Di Feisheng interjected. He hadn’t planned on keeping their tracks secret, and if Fang Duobing couldn’t find them, then… well, that would be a lesson to the young man to learn better tracking skills. Already, he pushed himself up from the bench and reached out a hand. “Another thing to teach that disciple of yours.”

Li Lianhua gave him a strange look at the extended hand, but then allowed Di Feisheng to pull him up off the seat.

Di Feisheng was smiling again, with the cool, calloused hand within his own.

Li Lianhua sighed. “At least let me leave a message before he accuses us of leaving him behind again.”

#NaNoWriMo #mlc nano 2023 #less than 6k words left before i cross the finish line #I'll try to go as far as I can beyond that of course #but everything's growing busy end of November so we'll see #also I kinda wanna sit and vege watching shows for a while lol #but i also want to at least finish THIS story #the time loop one wasn't even supposed to be long!!

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bbcphile · 7 months

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It’s interesting that Di Feisheng has a reputation in fandom for being incredibly straightforward, aboveboard, and against lying/manipulating others/acting out a role (unlike Li Lianhua) when he actually spends more time withholding information, keeping his agenda hidden, and playing a role to get what he wants than he does being straightforward and direct.

Here’s a list of things Di Feisheng has lied about/misrepresented:

Pretending to care about the jinyuan alliance (he says the only people who know he set it up to reach the top of the jianghu are the 3 kings)

Disguising his identity for the Yipin tomb (by pretending to be a child)

Disguising his identity to Fang Duobing when traveling with Li Lianhua (he pretends to be a-Fei the former nanhai sect disciple because Li Lianhua tells him to)

Threatening to kill Qiao Wanmian (as part of a threat to make Li Xiangyi agree to fight him; we know he doesn’t kill women, so this is absolutely an empty threat)

Claiming to heal Qiao Wanmian (Li Lianhua did it and he is covering for him)

Pretending to not be mad at Jiao Liqiao for poisoning Qiao Wanmian

Pretending to forget the time between his seclusion ending and waking up after wuxin huai is cured

Pretending to reciprocate Jiao Liqiao’s affections (once his wuxin huai is cured)

Pretending to support Shan Gudao (he was always planning on betraying him once he got rid of the mind control bugs)

And here are lies by omission/information he withholds from people (especially Li Lianhua):

That “Shan Gudao” was dead before the 3 kings met him for their battle

That he ordered his body be taken away to be examined by a coroner because he thought it was suspicious

That someone had framed the jinyuan alliance for Shan Gudao’s death (he keeps these first 3 a secret from Li Lianhua until the spiritual snake cave, and even then, Li Lianhua doesn’t believe him until after the opal skull case a few episodes later)

That Fang Duobing was Shan Gudao’s son (he only tells Li Lianhua this after all his other attempts to convince Li Lianhua to want to live have failed)

That he wanted to break into the 188 prison to rescue his subordinate who was framed for killing Shan Gudao to provide Li Lianhua with evidence that the jinyuan alliance wasn’t responsible

That he’s working with Shan Gudao to get the mind control bug (and then the wangchuan flower) to free himself and the other Di prisoners

There are also plenty of times he does less-than-aboveboard things:

He spies/eavesdrops on people by hiding his qi all the time

Even though he promised to keep Li Lianhua’s identity a secret, he still tries to manipulate things behind the scenes to unmask him (eg. Shoving him into the fight to hold his old sword and then flicking a coin at the sword once it’s unsheathed, either to shatter it because he knows it’s fake or to trick Li Lianhua into wielding the blade and giving away his identity)

So, basically, he has a habit of hiding his true motivations from people, of letting Li Lianhua/Xiangyi think the worst of him and his motivations because he wants to gather evidence/solve the problem before sharing intel, of saying whatever threat he thinks will motivate Li Lianhua to live and not give up (especially after the truth fails), of embracing his reputation as a villain to protect Li Lianhua (even if the “protection” is from Li Lianhua’s own people who want to know he is alive), and of scheming to gather the info he needs to protect himself and Li Lianhua.

(Given these patterns, I think it’s also likely that Di Feisheng was lying about planning to force Li Lianhua to eat the yin leaves of the Wangchuan flower that would give him strength for a fight and then kill him, but that’s a meta for another day; I’m sticking to facts here rather than theories.)

Di Feisheng obviously doesn’t like lying or withholding information—just look at his face at the manor with all the lotuses when Fang Duobing is asking him how he knows so much about the Jinyuan alliance to see how viscerally uncomfortable it makes him! But he will absolutely do it, especially if he knows someone is lying to him and it is a way to level the playing field, and most of the time, his poker face is so flawless that you probably won’t even realize he was lying until later when you have more facts to put together. (Which means that his visible discomfort at Fang Duobing’s questions was a choice! Was it to try to convince Li Lianhua to tell the truth? To encourage Fang Duobing to think about it more and arrive at the truth on his own? So many options!)

So, yes, Di Feisheng believes strongly in having fair fights (as opposed to the abusive fights from his childhood), in not poisoning people, in not killing women, in not betraying people, and in being honest and direct when possible. But if his safety or Li Lianhua’s well-being is at risk (even if the latter is because of Li Lianhua’s own actions), he will absolutely lie, manipulate, and withhold info, or lean into the role of villain to ensure a better outcome. And he does it with a skill and commitment to the deception that Li Lianhua usually doesn't muster.

#mysterious lotus casebook #mysterious lotus casebook meta #Di feisheng #li lianhua #lhl #lianhua lou

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