Guardian novel thoughts

[waterscroll]

I just read through it a second time, and I still feel like I'll need more work to understand it. I'll also need to read more about Chinese traditional creation mythology, because the novel seems to be doing very clever things with it that I didn't quite understand. But even with my limited understanding, I am still stunned by the highly beautiful love story. If you know me, you know I'm here (in fandom generally) for the redemption by love arcs. And this was truly a great one.


Back when Zhao Yunlan was the mountain god Kunlun, he declared his love for the young Ghost King like this:

I am rich with all the mountains and rivers of this world, but if you think about it, that's hardly anything special: just an old bunch of pebbles and some wild creeks. There is probably only this one thing of mine that's worth a little something: my sincere heart. You want it? Take it.

And he is not fucking kidding about his heart being worth something. On a lot of levels, really. But one that is striking to me is how resolutely Zhao Yunlan insists on loving Shen Wei despite all the shenanigans that novelverse Shen Wei gets up to. Which are serious business. Novelverse Shen Wei is a demon from hell - to be accurate, a ghost from the profane lands - made of nothing but violent impulses and love for Kunlun. (Guess which wins in the end.) Here's how it starts:

The Profane Land held little of interest, barren for a thousand miles without even a blade of grass. The usual pastime was nothing more than to capture two lesser hell beasts together and watch them tear each other apart. The last one standing would eat the other.

But the young Ghost King didn’t like this, and of course Kunlun Jun would like it even less.

So the Ghost King wracked his brains, and collected 36 large hell beast teeth thinking that they’d symbolize the 36 magnificent mountains and surging rivers of the Kunlun mountain pass. He wove a few strands of his own long hair into thread, strung the teeth upon it to create a necklace so strikingly original that its existence quite challenged the ability of others to accept it, and gave it to Kunlun Jun.

This is the scene that made me fall completely for the young Ghost King, and I can see why it would do that for Kunlun as well. He has so very little to work with but wants to love so very badly. Kunlun isn't impressed with the necklace but does give him a kiss on the forehead, which is enough to sustain the Ghost King through many years of trying to do better until he finally does.

Thousands of years later, by the time he meets Zhao Yunlan, Shen Wei has grown into someone living in a near-constant state of self-repression. He knows, by the terms of the contract that he made with a different god, that he can't be with any of Kunlun's reincarnations without endangering him. He keeps to that, more or less, stalking these reincarnations from a distance and keeping pictures of all of them in his bedroom. But then Zhao Yunlan comes along and throws himself at him and won't give up and *buys him a house* before they even really know each other.

So Shen Wei shows Zhao Yunlan a *highly* edited set of Kunlun's memories to make him feel ok about the inevitability that if they are together, Yunlan is going to die.

And look, this is terrible, and shows that on some level Shen Wei is still a hell demon ghost from the profane lands. (It's also major whiplash after coming from the drama, because tv!Shen Wei would never, and when he jokes about erasing ZYL's memories it's a joke.) What makes it somewhat better is that Zhao Yunlan figures out nearly right away that his memories are being mucked with. And that when Shen Wei does his tearful confession at last, Zhao Yunlan's response is, well, when you say I'm going to die, do we at least get a few decades together, like humans do? Yes? Ok then let's stop worrying about this and go home and have more sex.

He was not kidding about his heart being worth something.

In the end Shen Wei sacrifices himself, because of course he does (I mean he's not *totally* different from tv!verse version) and in order to save ZYL's life he removes his memories of their relationship. But then a miracle happens and not only is Shen Wei saved but all the ghosts are able to enter the cycle of reincarnation. (Because a good redemption arc has implications beyond the people involved, yes, I approve.) Shen Wei falls unconscious into ZYL's arms, who kisses his forehead.

And I keep thinking of that forehead kiss from the beginning, and those damned hell-beast teeth, and how Shen Wei is *still* trying his very best to love with the very limited resources that he has. It's just that instead of hell-beast teeth it's now deception and manipulation and mind-wipes. But there's still love in it, and ZYL can see that. And it's taken lots of work and thousands of years but they are now in a place where they can take that love and build on it.

So yeah, I loved the novel. It is different from the drama but gorgeous in its own way. I feel like the drama and the novel each meet part of the emotional needs that I am bringing to the canon(s), so I'm glad to have both of them.

Comments

[scytale]

The reason Zhao Yunlan buys a house for Shen Wei nearly immediately is that when he looks at him he feels like home. Which in turn is probably because his past-self gave the Ghost King his heart a long time ago

Oh, this sounds lovely and amazing. It also sounds very satisfying in a different way from the dramas.

And poking around that translation a bit, it looks a lot better than the one I started with! Grabbing this, thank you. :)

[waterscroll]

Re: translations, I also like this:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/16899375

It's partial but lovely and the translator explains some of the translation problems and some of the nuances of the language in original.

[scytale]

Whoa, this is amazing, thank you! And the translation is absolutely gorgeous.