A.

I'm still alive! Here are three quick things:

(1) Remember when I wouldn't shut up about The Way Home, the humble little drama that nobody watched and that was the only thing I put into my eyeballs this year until Legend of Zang Hai*? Remember the RPF ship it spawned, briefly mentioned (with pictures) in this post?

Anyway, the actors did a brand livestream last month, in which they mostly played couple games and talked about the skincare on offer for about two minutes total, and one of the gifts they received from the brand was a beach vacation FOR TWO anywhere in the world. Also, they live together. From this massive sigh, I think we can safely assume that Zhang Kangle does most of the cooking and cleaning. (Also, when asked for something that recently made them happy, Ma Boquan said they went on a walk late one night, with very few people around, and it made him feel very content. Then later he posted this video of Zhang Kangle doing a cartwheel on the deserted sidewalk.)

So like. You tell me. What this is.

--
* Enjoyable, very pretty, writing a bit uneven, DMBJ easter eggs very fun, warning for some gruesome bits, 8 stars



(2) I'll be in Singapore and Hong Kong later this year! Flights are booked, hotels are booked, I wish it was November already! I haven't had an overseas vacation since, uh, 2019. 😬 Not looking forward to the flights, but oh, the food and the fandom friends and the change of scenery! 😍



(3) Three years ago, I made a daily Zhu Yilong calendar for myself, which turned out to be a lot more work than expected, but resulted in something very nice (I think) and endlessly reusable. I mean, until the corners get too scuffed, or the colors fade, or something. It looks like this (brand new vs. in use, plus some inside pages):

Four pictures

I mentioned to marycrawford that I was trying to make an updated version, with new pictures and only using photoshoots and no drama/movie characters or events mixed in, and she said she'd be interested in buying one once it was done. It's not done yet (365 pictures is SO MANY), but if you're also interested, here's my offer.

I use this company to print the calendar, which usually costs $75, although they frequently have sales (usually around US holidays) where things are 15% or 20% off. If interested, let me know, and I can ping you when a) it's done, and b) there's a sale going on. Then I can just ship it to your address. Obviously I make no money from this.


And that's all for now. Hi! <3

Siiiiiigh.

I had such high hopes for this show. And then Youku went and removed a bunch of scenes, and the whole ending was very disappointing, and here we are!

*sad jazz hands*

I opened the MDL page and saw a comment about how the creepy shippers ruined everything by practically FORCING Youku to delete everything from the show that could be remotely construed as gay, even though there was nothing gay about this touching, platonic, NORMAL relationship between brothers we got to witness in the first few episodes. Before, you know, Youku deleted all the scenes.

So then I closed the MDL page again.

I'm not gonna list all the ways in which the show very heavily leans into BL tropes and visual cues to assure us that, if you wanted to, you could read something a little non-platonic into this relationship. I trust you to believe me that it did. It also did a lot of things to assure us that this was a show for kids and these were definitely a sweet, innocent teenager and his supportive big bro. But I mean. We all contain multitudes.

Anyway, I still want to talk about this show, just for closure, so here's my final review, with spoilers for the ending. Again, this entire drama is an 8-hour commitment, you're not going to be on tenterhooks between episodes. (I still want someone other than me to watch it. 😩 Please!)

( SIGH. )