Lang Ya Bang / Nirvana In Fire

[x_los]

ONCE AGAIN, excaliburedpan and I both happen to be reading the same formerly danmei but then hastily rewritten to be plausibly-deniable, while remaining, in all emotional senses, still danmei book at the moment, so I thought I'd throw up a post for any comments if anyone wants to read along now or later, and shove my locked-twitter read-along thoughts somewhere more accessible. I'm going to break it up by blocks of chapters, then do an Overall Thoughts subsection. Assume spoilers.

There are 174 novel chapters.

Comments

Book 1: Mr. Mei of East River; Chapters 1-5 (Modified Version)

[x_los]

Levvy doesn't give chapter titles here.

Re: Book 1: Mr. Mei of East River; Chapters 1-5 (Modified Version)

[x_los]

- First off, do you think they call their fic challenge Langya Big Bang? Because if not, truly a wasted opportunity.
- Is Changsu's tutor's death a change from the show canon, or are these different men? I didn't think about it at the time, but the absence of major Confucian scholars from the court is probably a tacit rebuke of the Emperor, isn't it?
- Was it the execution of beloved scholarly Lin Shu and the crown prince that cemented their dissatisfaction, or some other great idea of World's Meh-est Dad's?
- Compared to some of the rough rides out there, this initial translator is fucking gold
- It's interesting that copies of the emperor's calligraphy/handwriting are referred to as his calligraphy: he did not come out here and paint this house. Struggling to think of another visual art where we'd say that of a lay reproduction?
- Jingrui is the product of a poly quartet idk why we're being shy about this let the people know the truth. Their moms play go together, and if Hikaru No Go has taught me anything--
- Here in chapter 2 the emperor made a decent judgment of Solomon (is that a familiar enough coordinate this writer would know it?). Don't get comfortable, he will never make a good decision again.
- Reading this after watching the series has the weird effect of making you feel LIKE Changsu. You know the Marquess of Ning is fucking awful before everyone else in the room, it's v weird.
- YUJIN, MY FAVOURITE SON! Well, one of. I used to just call him Tigger before I properly learned his name.
- was Xie Bi this central in the first ep of NiF? If so, I don't remember it. Duchess Mu apparently pushed to the fore at this juncture for the tv version. Otherwise I guess we've just spent 2 chapters... having some congee, which Fei Liu did not like
- how did people KNOW this novel was where it was AT? the opening gives very few fucks about your interest level
- 'Yan Yujin was the eldest son of the Royal Uncle, the Empress’s nephew' Oh for real, not her brother anymore?
- Yujin needs to stop calling Mei Changsu just 'Su' I have spent too long learning never to abbreviate a Chinese name to anything 1 syllable to let him give me bad habits
- “who we saw outside the little town where we met Su?” [...] “Ah, those envoys sent by the Yu empire to Liang! Weren’t they throwing a fit in the restaurant saying how they lost their letter of credence? They were smashing things and searching people."

CHANGSU.
- you stole their letter for your fake contestant to use while you picked up your hapless cousins?? Mei Changsu's Busy Day over here
- 'Yan Yujin glared at Mei Changsu in resentment. He said bitterly, “Su, even though your intelligence is really something to be admired, this bad habit of correctly guessing everything is really tiresome. It makes people feel very unfulfilled!”' yujin, bb, you have no fucking idea
- '“Sorry, I will reflect on it. I won’t be like this anymore,” chuckled Mei Changsu.'

b i t c h
- “I think so too,” said Yan Yujin smugly. “You all know that the Princess has always liked me best…”

yujin, no one alive ships this. i don't even think you really ship this? like the MOST i could see is one wild hook up, Nihuang just raises an eyebrow&you promise to never tell
- 'Mei Changsu looked at Yan Yujin with great interest and asked, “How are you certain that someone gave them this idea?”'

Changsu never thought stage 18/57,000 of his Plan was so obvious that even *Yujin* could see it, but then the last time he saw Yujin, he HAD been teething--
- 'Mei Changsu laughed in spite of himself. “I’m not a fortune-teller. How could I know?”'

fuck you Changsu
- Changsu is like oh yeah guys i straight up robbed those envoys and everyone's like oh fair fair they were Foreign so--
- '“Oh, you don’t need to worry about it, I’ve already signed him up.” Yan Yujin grinned impishly.

“Oy… You two…”'

and so the fifth great cdrama jewish wank arose, when the precise nature of yujin's 'oy' was called into question-- (I bet that was an 'aiyah')(No, apparently it's a 'wei')
- 'Princess Liyang, the only living sister of the Emperor' *living* doing a lot of work, here
- So what's up with Liyang's manor? Is it just so she can have property in her own right, as status or economic protection device, or does it play a ritual role that enables her to visit her family in the palace and perform religious devotion? The book mentioned it in re Buddha.
- I like this weird little wrinkle of tension between the brothers, where Xie Bi is more assuming and less gracious. Not in a mean way, more, he's the younger brother, he works hard but lacks Jingrui's delicacy
- Rolling my fucking eyes at 'o no somehow I lost the weiqi game' Changsu, bitch I'm sure.
- What no one is saying, bc of how tight the author is keeping the arc plot at this stage&bc the Emperor is a Queen of Hearts model, is that marrying Nihuang has to be a REAL FUCKING WEIRD prospect bc her last fiancé was Lin Shu