#c. cheng fengtai

[girllovescomic]

Winter Begonia recap episode 22

The beginning of the episode is a recap of the last episode, where XIao Zhouzi begs Shang Lao Ba to take him away from Si Xi’er and Er Ye promising to save him from the clutches of that old bish.  They shooed away by the skittish guide.  Outside, Shang Lao Ba asks Er Ye to confirm whether he will help out find a way to get the young talented singer out of his ongoing nightmare.  He discuss how abused the young singer is by his master, who is keeping him from performing and forcing him to do hard labor. The skittish guide takes his leave, but not before Er Ye buys off his silence.  LOL, Shang Lao Ba’s face.

OMG its MY QUEEN.  She is engaged in a fierce gunfight and I doubt it is with that stuttering Gu. One of her men falls, hit by the bullets and confirm my suspicions.  He claims the opposite side is not from the common army.  He urges her to leave since she is pregnant.  Awww, my queen is crying.  She is loyal and fierce.  MAH GIRL. As she wipes her tears, she states with resolve in her face they will fall back while searching for a solution.  We see what appears to be soldiers shooting at them as she escapes.  Hmmm could they be from a private army?  It is night and she is lurking near some kind of base ready to break into like a boss, but is stopped by a coming car.  She smirks as she realizes the golden opportunity to hide under the truck. OHHH, looks here!  Her hub hub, Cao Jr. listening to a report from adjutant Sun about Nanjing mobilizing a separate battalion of two hundreds to come to Beijing for some kind of economic and social order.  LOL, what?This is what you waste your time on instead of protecting the country against potential invaders? Cao Jr is not quite impressed by this news and asks who is the commander.  Sun tells him it’s Liu Hanyun, our penguin’s godfather. Hmmm..Oh, so we learn that Liu Hanyun has defeated many bandit groups and wheels start turning inside my head.  Could he be responsible for the attack on Gu Dali’s group? Oh, our hub hub is asking Sun if Laozi Mountain has been hit.  Unfortunately, Sun is a bit lost by the question, prompting the hub hub to dismiss him. While he paces, worried about the whereabouts of his mountain queen, she barges inside his room ready to pounce on him.  LOL, is he running away from her?  BWAHAHA, I cannot! He asks how she got inside his compound and she is like, why are you asking. He asks why she is bloody and she accuses him of being the cause of her current state.  As she is about to stab him, he blocks her hand and asks if Laozi Mountain is really in trouble, which stuns her.

A couple of very cute boys are practicing their poses while Zhouzi is singing for Si Xi’er. Oh these cute boys are as petty as their master, no likey. Geezus xrist, there is only young good looking troupe members, smh. Si Xi seems dissatisfied by what he hears and asks the young singer to sing again.  He does and Si Xi claims his vocals sound annoying.  As he is about to beat him with that wooden sword, someone calls out for him.  He tells Zhouzi he should practice more if he ever wants a chance to sing on stage, which I doubt he will ever let him do so, and sends him back to the courtyard to do some more hard work.  

At the freight agency office, Fan Lian barges in at the same moment Manager Ma is giving CFT a report of the business. He tells CFT that Si Xi is too sly for him, having uncovered Fan Lian ruse to send his people and pose as wealthy patrons interested in borrowing some of his performers.  Instead of putting his best performers, he chose the tone deaf and ugly ones.  LOL. His men were too afraid to make it obvious they were there for Zhouzi, especially as Si Xi claimed he was selling out any one for private performances.  In order to get Zhouzi out, they are going to have find another way, like a complete strange with no connection to the opera circe, since Si Xi will sniff them out.  CFT is afraid that Si Xi may get wind of Shang Lao Ba’s interest for Zhouzi and kill him before they have a chance to snatch him. Fan Lian wonders who would qualify for that role of being a wealthy loafer who could easily host an opera performance without raising suspicion.  LOL, Fan Lian would have fit the bill if he was not linked to Shuiyin. He suggest that CFT goes to the Chamber of Commerce, which I have to admit is a good idea, but unfortunately it is shut down as CFT informs him that none of those members would agree to help his foreign sexy ass.  Right at this moment, Cao Jr and another guest are announced.  

It turns out the other guest is the fierce mountain Queen who is ready to pounce on Cao Jr, angry that he is telling her to stay put instead of seeking revenge immediately.  Our lonely warrior is looking mighty fine in a gray western clothing, I would also be pouncing on him if I was Gu Dali.  He promises to seek revenge but he wants to do carefully since his opponent is a government official.  She pushes him away clearly unhappy with his inaction.  He turns to CFT hoping he could mediate between the two, but CFT seems lost somewhere, lol, hopefully thinking of his penguin. LOL. Cao Jr asks him to seek a safe place for his mountain queen, which befuddles CFT.  He asks why isn’t she staying in his military base, since she is such a soft butch (and looking good as one).  Cao Jr drops the mini bomb on CFT, informing him that he is going to be a papa.  CFT is stumped by the news and then burst into a giggle.  I laugh along with him at how prodigious our lonely warrior was.  He congratulates him with a thumbs up for getting it at the first shot while our Amazonian and lonely warrior looks at him like he was cray cray.  LOL, I cannot with this show.  He states he will send congratulations to the Commander for becoming a grandpa which gets our Amazonian Queen taking her badge of honor as tough single mum-to-be.  No one is going to raise mah son but me, f them Cao men, this baby is going to be king of the mountain!  This gets the sexiest laugh out of Cao Jr.  Seriously, he is looks so hot when his face is relaxed, le swoon. He asks what if it is a girl, and of course our Amazonian Queen puts him in his place by stating the girl would be like her momma.  Seriously, why even bother asking that question Cao Jr? Unless...someone wants to keep his badass queen next to him. CFT is looking at the incongruous couple like it was a comedic opera and struggling not to laugh.  Cao Jr kicks him in the shin to get him to support his point.  CFT tries to tamper our two rugged warriors, bringing some levity to the situation. He urges the amazonian queen to not be rash and lay low in a safe place of his choosing, while they await for news about Liu Hanyun. Cao Jr informs him the politician will be in the city under the guise of inspecting economic and social order, but it is in fact an opportunity to investigate CFT’s smuggled weapons side business and the Cao’ involvement.  They both comment this visit is suspicious af and may not have good intentions, which will harm both families. He asks our lonely warrior for another assist with something, which I have the sneaky suspicion has to do with his penguin.

A woman is walking dressed in a velour cheonsang and OMG, it my Amazonian QUEEN.  She’s at Yunxi Troupe and Si Xi asks where she’s from.  She tells him she’s from Shandong and is the wife of a powerful businessman.  She is looking for a performer to relieve her boredom.  Geez, it sounds like he is selling a rent boy as he tells her what his young cast can do for her, like take her to the best places in Beijing to entertain herself. She’s like, stop buttering me up with these subpar candidates, asking him about a boy she saw with him at Huibin House called Xiao Zhouzi.  Ohhh, is that white lie going to work on slick Si Xi? His face change and tells her that Xiao Zhouzi is too disappointing to be up here.  Yeah, I doubt it. She tells him she will decide for herself, whether the young performer is worthy or not. One of her ‘guards’ shows him the money, which makes him change his tune real quick.  They head to where Zhouzi is being held.  Upon seeing them swapped money, he is terrified and gets on his knees, begging Si Xi’er not to let him go. Geez, as he been in this situation before? When Zhouzi said he will do anything as long as he gets a chance to perform on stage, Si Xi’s pettiness tells him tough break.  Gu Dali and her ‘goons’ take Zhouzi despite his protestation, knocking him out to make sure he complies.  LOL asks himself whether Mrs. Wang (Gu Dali’s disguise) is a bandit and I SQUEAL.  He looks on at his ‘disciple’ and basically wax poetic to say ‘tough luck buddy’.

He is dropped off in front of a building and hears someone singing opera.  He stumbles and we see our cute penguin on stage.  OHHH, so they dropped him off at the Royal Theater! Nice.  Our cute penguin being absolutely adorable while asking Zhouzi how old is he. The boy answers 14, which impresses our penguin for the innate talent the boy has.  He promises him he will help him soar if he is willing.  Our poor baby Zhouzi is so overwhelms, he faints.  Apparently he was starving and he chows down on a pig trotter like life depended on it. Er Ye comments that their adoptive son is much like his other father.  LOL, indeed.  The cutie hubby tells his son to not listen to his other dad, and eat to his heart’s content.  Apparently Si Xi never let his harem of young boys eat meat because he doesn’t want them to get fat.  LOL, the face on our chipmunk upon hearing this.  He replies that if that was true, Cai Lao Ba would not sell tickets since he is fat.  Er Ye reprimands him, telling Cai Lao Ba is plump, not fat and tells Shang Lao Ba to be careful not to say this aloud or offend someone again.  LOL, it fell on deaf ears as Shang Lao Ba basically curses Si Xi with an early death, saying to Zhouzi that as soon as the old bat is six feet under, he will be free to make his name.  Best girl Xiao Lai is like OMG leader, please don’t say such ominous things.  Once again, Er Ye tells him not to teach their kid awful things like this, especially if Si Xi does survive past the age of 90.  Shang Lao Ba replies that all of his effort (hmmm...you mean all of Er Ye’s efforts) to snatch Zhouzi is because he believes he will have immediate success and that will ensure he will be protected from any abuse.  Er Ye smiles at his baby and we get a smile from Shang Lao Ba in return.  Is this the first time they both smile so openly to each other? You can see an enormous shift in their relationship as both are so relaxed with each other.  Shang Lao Ba wonders about Zhouzi’s stage name, clearly dissatisfied with his current name.  Er Ye is like, honey, you suck at naming people, giving names like Red January, Red February and so on.  Shang Lao Ba is like, bae, the only reason why my troupe members have such sucky name is because I was not really putting too much attention to it, but when he does, the performer would greatly benefit from it.  LOL, Er Ye is like, ok honey, go ahead and see what that pretty head of yours come out with. Shang Lao Ba says the name must have a flowery flow especially since Zhouzi is a dan ju’er while hubby looks at his beauty like he is the most beautiful flower he’s plucked.  Seriously, those gazes are killing me. Shang Lao Ba gives the name of Zhou Xiangyun. Sigh, how I wished I understood the meaning of his name.  

Hubby writes their son’s new name and shows his beautiful calligraphy to his wifey.  Wifey comments the writing has both the flow of grass and grain, and hands the paper to his adoptive son so he can learn his new name. Zhou kowtows in front of his new leader/father, so grateful by the gesture, he tells Shang Lao Ba he doesn’t know how to repay him.  LOL our penguin tells him to repay him with daily serving of pig trotter since he devoured today’s serving.  He sends best girl to help settle Zhou at Shuiyin House, while hubby asks how is Zhou going to buy pig trotter for him when he barely makes any money. Wifey answers that best girl will give him the money.  Er Ye asks his bae if their bouncing baby boy is ready to become a ju’er.  Our penguin says it is complicated to say, twirls while doing his elegant opera gestures and sashay away from the room while his suave Er Ye smiles, probably thinking how cute his wifey is. 

Best girl brings Zhou Xiangyun to the dormitory where the younger male members are sleeping.  Oh boy, you can already smell the bullying as they basically said they would not sleep around Si Xi’er former disciple. Best girl tries to wield her authority with the boys, getting them to clear up an area for the bouncing baby to sleep.  They seemingly comply but you can tell they are going to push him out as soon as she turns around and leaves. My poor baby, can he catch a break? Especially since they treat him like he has the plague.  Finally La Yuehong helps him out, putting our baby’s things next to him.  Zhou Xiangyun spots the beautiful golden bracelets that LYH kept from his senior sister.  Zhou glances at his benefactor and I ship it.  Later at night, ZXY is kicked out of the bedroom, drawing attention from his new leader.  Shang Lao Ba asks who did this to him, but the already broken boy is not willing to snitch.  SIGH, he is too sweet, is he going to survive in this cutthroat world of opera? Shang Lao Ba goes inside to investigate and admonish the other boys. Dasheng pretends to be sleeping, prompting Shang Lao Ba to throw his shoe at him.  Each one, except for LYH who remains quiet, act innocent as if ZXY threw himself out.  SXR knows they are lying, telling them they are wasting their acting talent on this issue instead of the opera. One of the performer asks why he is so protective of an outsider, especially Si Xi’er disciple.  He tells them ZXY is far better than all of them, which gets them rankled. One of them is like, how can this kid be better than me when I came from a proper academy while he came from the cesspool that is Yunxi Troupe. SXR decides they will have a contest to prove ZXY has more chops than all of them; if he loses, he will give them an additional wage.  ZXY wants to back out, but Shang Lao Ba is like how are you going to prove you have what it takes if you cannot even perform in front of them?

He takes him to his room and have a father/son talk.  SXR tells him how he uses to fight against bullies, but since Si Xi’er abused him, his spirit has been broken.  AWWW. He tells him not to worry and sing his best, even if SXR ends up losing money. As our little puppy is talking about repaying him for all the good things he’s done form, SXR falls asleep.  LOL.  Our penguin snores so loudly.  The next day, the boys ask LYH to represent them against ZXY in the little contest, which he declines at first, stating he did not participate in the bullying, but relents as the other performer convinces him with the promise of extra wages.  This gets SXR snickering and he tells his newfound prodigy to remain calm and sing accordingly.  If he wins, he will treat him to good food; if he loses, he won’t beat him.  ZXY is still hesitant, scared of singing in front of a gathering, but SXR tells this is small compared to the size of a real audience.  LYH introduces himself as a laosheng ju’er while our hesitant baby boy struggles to introduce himself and his role.  SXR comments on that, predicting he will probably lose. LOL. He asks them to perform Meilongzheng (The Emperor and Country Girl), the same opera he sang back in episode 2 when he saw his future husband for the second time and got married on the spot, after being rescued by his dashing prince from the rich spoiled brats. At first, our broken little puppy is unable to sing properly, sounding like a cat whose tail was stepped on.  Like seriously, what the hell was that?  He stops telling SXR he was too nervous.  SXR tells him not to be so anxious and let his voice flow from his throat, not by forcing it. He starts over again and it sounds much better.  LYH sings along and everything looks great, while our suave hubby comes to the courtyard to bring his bae breakfast.  AWWWWWWW, I can’t!  Where is my Er Ye???? Btw, the lyrics are quite interesting and seems to describe our main couple’s relationship: “This Begonia brings out the romantic.”  This freaking show is dropping hints so loud, you have to blind and deaf not to see it glaringly clear. Our suave prince stands in the entrance, away from everyone’s gaze and watches the show right as as ZXY loses the plot.  LYH is exasperated with the kid, believing he was worth the trouble and storms out.  Best girl yells at LYH and defends ZXY for being inexperienced, which gets one of the sheng performers to accuse her of being swayed by the kid’s good looks, which gets Shi Jiu hot under the collar.  I guess all she can insult people like that.  LOL.  SXR tells everyone to stop arguing, informing them he knows of ZXY potential and what he is capable of. The same performer tells his leader to stop giving the kid excuses, more interested in knowing if he will get the additional wages. At this time, our suave dashing hubby steps in, steps in, calling his wifey out for breakfast. RAWR, what a good hubby! 

Shang Lao Ba asks why hub hub is here so early.  LOL, this reminds me of the novel and how much of night owl CFT is while SXR is an early bird. Er Ye explains that he was standing there watching the performance and wanted to know how Shang Lao Ba was going to judge this contest.  Shang Lao Ba states the kid’s performance was not that great, sounding like a couple of cats’ howling.  LOL.  Er Ye cautions his wifey on how he is going to judge ZXY, worried this will increase the bullying if he is declared a loser, but Shang Lao Ba replies favoring the potential prodigy will actually draw more ire from the rest of the troupe.  I am with Shang Lao Ba on this.  It is clear these performers respect only one thing and that is talent. He tell Er Ye about his own case of stage fright, which surprises the hubby, probably thinking his babe was born on the stage.  Shang Lao Ba replies that anyone with pride has stage fright and he is right about this.  Because you tend to want to be perfect, you actually get inside your head and get so nervous you forget how to perform. Er Ye asks how he was able to face his stage fright and once again we are reminded of the horrible abuse our penguin suffered to reach the top.  His dad actually paraded him naked in front of everyone, from the backstage to home.  Er Ye is disgusted by the poor treatment his baby went through, stating he would never used this kind of treatment.  Shang Lao Ba casually claim the embarrassment is so extreme that you will never be scared or cowardly. Er Ye urges him not to use this method with ZYX because the broken boy would probably be so traumatized, he might jump off a bridge.  Yeah, I believe it.  Shang Lao Ba is like, oh is it because I am thick-skinned while ZYX is thin-skinned. Well despite you being physically abused, you were never told that you would amount to nothing, especially get on stage. Er Ye laughs and replies that he needs to find another method.  Seriously, sounds like an old married couple talking about how to raise their kids.  I CANNOT SKHHKHKHFLKJ

SXR gets out of the house and announces LYH is the winner, therefore the performers will get an additional wage.  He calls out ZYX to follow him.  They end up at the noodle restaurant and our broken boy starts the mea culpa.  Shang Lao Ba tells him not to worry, he won’t scold him for failing, reassuring him it will take sometime to get good, He orders a cornucopia of food claiming the boy is too skinny.  LOL.  Seriously all that food!  ZYX is like, boss, this is too much, but SXR replies he can take his time to eat all of it.  ZYX tells him he is a good person and will repay him with hard work, but SXR is like don’t worry, just eat.

There was so many cute ChengShang moments, I melted into the ground.  To see them talk as if they were an old married couple discussing their son’s education was the sweetest thing. It was interesting to find out that SXR did not put that much thought in naming some of his troupe members, which tells me he did not see them as more than supporting cast.  This does not mean he doesn’t care, in fact, he considers them his siblings in the troupe, since they grew up together, but Zhouzi is the first true disciple he actually recognized, one he can elevate to surpass him.  Let’s not forget, this is someone who is extremely passionate about the art, who can even get lost listening to other performers, so him recognizing someone’s innate talent is on par with his behavior. 

I was also so happy to see my other ship, Gu Dali and Cao Guixi in their bickering self.  Seeing Gu Dali in a dress again, OH MY QUEEN can rock a beautiful cheongsam when she wants too.  I love her independence, even in front of the lonely warrior, telling him in no uncertain way that she will be the one raising their little bundle, he can step aside.  The fact that Cao Jr actually needs his little uncle to help deal with this Amazonian Queen, BWAHAHA.  This is so refreshing to see a woman, especially in that period, stand up and declare that she needs no dude to help her raise her family. What a contrast to the demure Er Nainai whose own strength was subdued by societal pressure.  Yes, Gu Dali is a bandit, who probably do not ascribe to the set set of customs as Er Nainai, but nonetheless, it is somewhat disconcerting to see when framed in this context. 

What do you guys think?

#winter begonia #episode recap #spoilers #chengshang #cheng fengtai #huang xiaoming #andrew yin #Yin Zheng #MY SHIP #Bromance #romance #chinese drama #chinese novel #Danmei #C drama #shang xirui #go watch this show

[lovefrombegonia]

This is my first post in tumblr and I wanted to talk about a c-drama that I have been recently watching called Winter Begonia. This drama is based on a BL novel of the same name.

I have fallen in love with this drama. I love all the characters and it's so well acted, especially the lead characters. Even the "villain" characters are amusing.

I have never seen a bromance drama like this before. Something about this one feels so...mature...idk if it's the right word. And so beautiful. The production, the writing, the costumes are impressive. The plot is engaging. The direction is good. The technical aspects are overall well done.

Now...about the main bromance couple: Shang Xirui and Cheng Fengtai...I swear...I am going all uwu over them, just like I did for hualian and I rarely go uwu over anything!! These two are definitely soulmates. They have so may differences yet they are similar in other ways. They are both flawed and layered characters who complete each other on a spiritual level. In short, I LOVE MY SONS.

But Shang Xirui is my boi. My sweet, sweet, food loving, opera obsessed, ridiculously talented, short tempered, butt kicking chubby boi. I adore him.

The side characters are interesting, or atleast loveable. Even if I don't like them particularly, I still understand their actions and point of view.

Winter Begonia is almost perfection to me!

That's all...that became a really long post. Hehe

To anyone who reads it, stay safe!

#winter begonia #shang xirui #chang fengtai #mention of hualian #cdrama #bromance #i am in love with this drama #first post