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Chapter 20
Date: 2024-07-19 12:42 pm (UTC)Bian Jin evades the embrace, and is pondering whether to kick Diwu Que away when Shen Ni shows up and gives Diwu Que a shove. Shen Ni introduces Diwu Que to Bian Jin as a former comrade who has an inexplicable habit of hugging everyone she meets. Diwu Que objects mightily to the latter part of the description. Bian Jin realises that Shen Ni has set this whole thing up to subtly let her know that she’d misunderstood Shen Ni and Diwu Que’s relationship. She feels much better about having Shen Ni’s arm around her waist.
Shen Ni then introduces Bian Jin to Diwu Que. ‘This is my—’ She pauses, allowing Bian Jin to fill the gap, and Bian Jin obligingly finishes her sentence with, ‘Wife.’ She reflects that, after all, she’s never denied that cunning little fox Shen Ni anything. Shen Ni’s expression doesn’t change, but her fingers twitch slightly on Bian Jin’s waist.
Diwu Que hadn’t realised, until Zeng Qingluo told her the previous day, that Shen Ni’s imperially-bestowed bride was Bian Jin. At the time, she was so shocked by the news that she dropped her spoon into the boiling hot soup she was eating, splashing so much of it on her boss (who was sitting next to her) that her boss literally kicked her in the ass.
In the northern territories, both Bian Jin and Shen Ni are venerated like gods; people hang paintings of them side by side in their homes as protective spirits. Seeing the two of them right before her eyes gives Diwu Que the urge to offer up some incense.
Diwu Que wishes the pair of them congratulations on their wedding, and Bian Jin, slightly embarrassed by the frankness of her words, shakes Shen Ni’s arm from her waist and excuses herself, announcing that she’s going to see how Auntie Wan is getting on with preparing lunch. Shen Ni invites both guests to join her for tea.
As they walk along, Shen Ni gets a message from her contact in the north, telling her that Bian Jin’s bone whip was last sighted in the Xuanzhou Empire. She looks up to see Bian Jin talking to a serving girl, and thinks about all the rumours linking Bian Jin to the Emperor of Xuanzhou.
Meanwhile, Bian Jin has been thinking about how weird she’s felt the last few days, and how she sometimes seems to lose her grip on the passage of time. She thinks about asking Shen Ni, but then recalls the sensations of last night.
Zeng Qingluo catches up with her, and we’re told that Zeng Qingluo had always felt warmly towards Bian Jin ever since Bian Jin expelled an inner disciple — the son of their shibo no less — for bullying her. Zeng Qingluo considers Shen Ni to be the only possible match for someone as good as Bian Jin, and on the day of their wedding, she rushed off to a temple to offer up prayers for them.
Zeng Qingluo is concerned that her two shijie don’t seem to be getting on, making them vulnerable to the condemnation of their military and political enemies. As she and Bian Jin walk along, she tells Bian Jin all about her adventures with Shen Ni when the two of them were fighting side by side in the north, and is concerned that Bian Jin doesn’t seem to be taking any interest or asking any questions.
They reach the study, and Zeng Qingluo, slightly embarrassed to go on speaking, makes the excuse that she’s thirsty. As she sips hot cider brought by one of the maids, she starts to turn on the TV, claiming that she needs to catch up on the news. Just then, Bian Jin urges Zeng Qingluo to carry on with the story of what Shen Ni was doing in Lili Crater #3. Zeng Qingluo then realises that Bian Jin had actually been listening closely to her all along.
The Lili is a fantastical creature from the Classic of Mountains and Seas, and we’re told that the book itself was included in the reverse time capsule seemingly sent from the future. The four largest meteorite craters in TangPro are all named after it, with Lili Crater #3 being the largest — and most dangerous, as it’s still filled with radiation.
Zeng Qingluo explains that Shen Ni had gone in there to collect rare meteorite elements to use as raw material for chip construction, though Zeng Qingluo isn’t sure what type of chip. When Bian Jin hears this, she suddenly loses her grip on her own cup of hot cider, sending it splashing over her glove and exposed wrist, leaving a burn on the latter.
Bian Jin, however, doesn’t really feel any pain from the burn; she only removes her gloves. She reflects on the fact that Shen Ni went all the way into that hellish crater to retrieve the elements she needed to craft Ni’s Heart, and on all the risks of radiation that come with it (up to and including liquefaction of the human body).
Zeng Qingluo adds that Shen Ni had had a very high fever for days after her visit to the crater. Bian Jin asks why Zeng Qingluo and the other Shuangji Hall disciples didn’t let her know: after all, that was before she disappeared, and while she was on the front lines, she was still the main decision-maker for Shuangji Hall. Zeng Qingluo replies that Shen Ni forbade them to. Bian Jin doesn’t say anything in response, and Zeng Qingluo, recalling how much Shen Ni had suffered then, sighs that it wasn’t worth it. To which Bian Jin responds, ‘Yes, it wasn’t worth it.’
At about lunchtime, Shen Ni and Diwu Que emerge to find that a whole host of fellow disciples (all female) from Shuangji Hall have also turned up, following Zeng Qingluo’s example. They’ve surrounded Bian Jin and are chattering away. Shen Ni sees Bian Jin smiling politely at them, and reflects that all she’s ever gotten from Bian Jin since their wedding are cool stares.
Shen Ni looks at Bian Jin, thinking about how she’s so aloof that no one could ever hope to possess her heart or body — or could they? Her mind goes to the mysterious Emperor of Xuanzhou again. She wonders whether, in their six years apart, Bian Jin’s unstained hands had ever willingly embraced another, or caressed another’s body with desire.
Bian Jin, for her part, isn’t particularly interested in the chatterings of her various shimei, and is only being polite. Her eyes fall on Shen Ni, and she’s once again struck by how hot Shen Ni is as she remembers — not to put to fine a point on it — Shen Ni’s breasts rubbing against her back the night before. Shen Ni happens to meet her gaze, and Bian Jin hurriedly looks away and stops smiling. This makes Shen Ni even feel more hard done by than before.
Their assorted fellow disciples start questioning Bian Jin about whether Shen Ni is treating her well (they all remember the whipping Bian Jin gave Shen Ni, and are concerned that Shen Ni might hold a grudge). Bian Jin is about answer awkwardly, when Shen Ni pops up next to her.
‘My wife,’ Shen Ni calls out sweetly. ‘What are you doing here? Didn’t you say you would look for me? I waited for you for so long, but you never turned up.’ She puts on an aggrieved an expression, looking like a poor little puppy who has just found her mistress.
Bian Jin is fairly sure that Shen Ni is up to something. Sure enough, Shen Ni then exclaims how cold it is, and rubs her hands together and blows on them for warmth, leaning closer to Bian Jin as she does. Their assembled shimei are startled by this: not even ordinary married couples are this clingy, surely?
Diwu Que lets out a mental ‘ew’, recalling how Shen Ni once hunted down and killed a decomposing electronic tiger in minus twenty degree weather.
Shen Ni’s heart sinks when she realises that Bian Jin isn’t wearing gloves. There’s no way her shijie is going to touch her now, she thinks. Then suddenly Bian Jin puts a hand on top of hers, and asks if she’s cold. And then she blows warm air onto Shen Ni’s hands and rubs them carefully.
Shen Ni’s vision shrinks to encompass Bian Jin alone. She notes that Bian Jin’s fingertips are slightly pink, but given that her hands are so warm, she’s sure that the pinkness isn’t from the cold. When Bian Jin asks if that has made Shen Ni a little warmer, Shen Ni replies that her hands are still cold and she needs Bian Jin to blow on them again.
Bian Jin, slightly surprised, looks up to see laughter in Shen Ni’s eyes and realises that Shen Ni is teasing her. Shen Ni, noticing that her shijie is probably at the end of her patience, decides to end the little show there, only to be taken aback when Bian Jin puts an arm around her waist and somewhat inexpertly draws her close. ‘How about that?’ asks Bian Jin, so tenderly that Shen Ni is momentarily dazed.
Tech watch: Television.
Named men: 7 (added a 0.5 for the ‘fifteenth shixiong’ that Bian Jin kicks out of the sect after he bullied Zeng Qingluo)
Reverse Bechdel passes: 0
Re: Chapter 20
Date: 2024-07-19 12:48 pm (UTC)In the northern territories, both Bian Jin and Shen Ni are venerated like gods; people hang paintings of them side by side in their homes as protective spirits.
ohmygod
The Lili is a fantastical creature from the Classic of Mountains and Seas, and we’re told that the book itself was included in the reverse time capsule seemingly sent from the future
So exactly how far back in time are we (and TangPro)?? Given that the present version of the Classic of Mountains and Seas dates from the Han Dynasty.
Love that Bian Jin gets a chance to surprise Shen Ni back!
Re: Chapter 20
Date: 2024-11-30 09:28 am (UTC)(But also, this and the whole thing about how in the north the people don't care about whatever charges have been levelled against Bian Jin, and worship her as they believe is correct... the part of me that is obsessed with weaponisation narratives looks at this and goes: she is a blade, or she is a god, but does she ever get to be human?)
- Wild theory time. 1) the fact that the time capsule from the future goes back at least as far as the Classic of Mountains and Seas and 2) the four craters, at least one of which contains rare metals and dangerous levels of radiation from a 'meteorite'. I'm so tempted to theorise that this is in fact a post-nuclear-apocalypse future, and the time capsule is in fact from their past, left as civilisation was on the brink of collapse as an attempt to save or rebuild future civilisation. Probably that is not where the story is going. But still. Adding those craters to the murder board.
- Bian Jin's little thought spiral there at the end about how, looking at Shen Ni playing up being cold in order to get Bian Jin to rub her hands, she can hardly imagine Shen Ni feverish and refusing to let anyone know, enduring it alone... Bian Jin, you wanted to field medicine your own spine. You are in no position to talk.
- Love Shen Ni starting the game and being entirely unprepared for Bian Jin to finish it XD
Re: Chapter 20
Date: 2024-12-03 09:17 pm (UTC)More fodder: someone on Weibo compared Bian Jin to Yue Fei which yeah, I can see it (well, without the xenophobic poetry about eating enemies' flesh and drinking their blood).
- Love Shen Ni starting the game and being entirely unprepared for Bian Jin to finish it XD
I so love it when the supposedly straitlaced one startles the teasing one with stuff like this.
Re: Chapter 20
Date: 2024-12-05 08:09 pm (UTC)oh no.