Death Be Upon Ai Art

has been lately watching

I am not immune to sun/moon star crossed doomed lovers <:

A dragon twist on Warring States period hanfu

the ideal Daisy/Hazel dynamic 🤗

reference image under the cut ⬇️

all done up in your borrowed shades of autumn

xie’er and qianqiao for @wohzine

Thinking about how in a way, the identity of Li Lianhua dying was actually for the best, especially if he truly wanted to live for himself.

Li Xiangyi was the street kid unaware of his bloodline, who's adopted by a loving if not slightly dysfunctional (settling your couple quarrels through having the brothers fight to hone their skills was not healthy change my mind) family. And then as a teenager, he defeats this random villain and now he's not just a person, not anymore. He's the fastest sword in the land, he's the leader of the Sigu Sect, and maybe he did establish the sect with the noble intentions of helping people just like his childhood self, but in the end he's a teenager and he becomes a figurehead, a banner, and one command from him could move troops, and he doesn't know how to deal with this much responsibility but he can't delegate it because no one else is competent enough is expendable enough. In the end, Li Xiangyi wasn't living for himself, but for the powerful Sect he established and the ideals he's unwittingly become the figurehead for.

And then he becomes Li Lianhua, and this time it's more obvious that he's not living for himself. His one motive for surviving is to find his shixiong Shan Gudao's corpse, and it's my personal belief that if he'd found his corpse 5 years earlier, he would've buried himself next to his shifu and shixiong within a year. He says he's happy with his more relaxed life, and I'm not saying he's lying, but I also feel like the only way he could enjoy that life without the guilt crushing him was to tell himself "this isn't forever, this doing nothing will end. I can enjoy this because this helps me find my shixiong before I die." But then he finds out that instead of finding his shixiong's body, and therefore neatly tying up all his strings in life, most of what he thought was true is a lie. In a way, he survived only for Shan Gudao, then realized his one motive for surviving was a lie, so really, is there any reason for Li Lianhua to exist anymore, especially when this identity has gotten tangled up with his old life again?

And maybe, a few months after Li Lianhua is publicly considered dead, fortune teller Li will start following Di Feisheng and Fang Duobing around, but that's not part of the narrative. The point is, in order for the narrative to complete itself, Li Lianhua had to die.

Can't have the sun without the moon, so here's the lass <:

(Contemplation, Search for Truth, Loneliness, Isolation)

The fairest maiden is sitting

So marvelous up there,

Her golden jewels are shining,

She combs her golden hair.

With a golden comb she combs it

And sings a song as well

Whose melody binds a wondrous

And overpowering spell

Heinrich Heine "Lorelei", eng by A. Z. Foreman

The Four Seasons Zine @wohzine has been sent out to all the wonderful supporters and I can finally set this free onto the interwebz!!!

I call this piece "Business Rivals :)"

Also I forgot to add strings to xie er's pipa what is life am i rite