#山河令

and here’s part 2

The fact that it’s an actress from the actual show who plays the role of a ghost in charge of ghost weddings that posted this video will never not be funny and absolutely amazing.

Basically, WenZhou married, it’s canon

I’m not even gonna lie, I start laughing uncontrollably every single time I watch this goddamn video.

So backstory to this video (this is only half of it, I’ll post the second half too), Chen Zihan, the actress for Xi Sang Ghost, posted this video on her Weibo and has since deleted it. The thing is, if you recall, Xi Sang Ghost is in charge of officiating weddings for ghosts and since her first appearance with Wen Kexing, netizens have been joking that the reason Wen Kexing gives her so much leeway and respect is because he’s expecting her to host his wedding with Zhou Zishu.

I think you get what I’m implying here.

So anyways, a few days after the finale on Saturday, Chen Zihan posts this video on her official Weibo account and she edits it in a way that shows WenZhou’s proposal, Zhou Zishu preparing to get married to Wen Kexing, with her as host for their wedding.

The fact that she starts with the whole hairpin giving scene is just (remember, hairpin is a token of love). I swear no one in that entire cast and crew is normal. They’re all shippers and she’s actually insane for this because “Chen Zihan hosts Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu’s wedding” reached number 1 trending on Weibo after this video dropped.

btw, I hope y’all are aware that Chen Zihan (the actress who plays Xi Sang Ghost) posted (and deleted) a video of her officiating Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu’s wedding

they are literally married and I’m ready to take is as canon (I’ll try to post the video after, it’s just very long and I get annoyed with tumblr’s 100MB size limit )

popping by here to just share this random edit I made ahdjdhajdj

When I say.

That this man is sculpted by god.

Like, not only does his face look like That, his body’s also like This.

I am: Done.

By the way, I’ve been posting a lot more SHL updates, interview translations of Zhang Zhehan and Gong Jun on my Twitter (@manggaetteok96) so if you’re interested in faster and smaller updates about Word of Honor, you can go check my account out.

It’s mainly because Twitter allows longer videos to be posted whereas Tumblr is constrained by the 100mb limit. I still use Tumblr because there’s no word limit here so all of the massive word barf posts will continue to be done here

So I haven’t made any posts yet today but I’m here with something very good this time.

Namely, further proof that the Word of Honor team really did film a happy ending, they just couldn’t fully show it. Fans noticed that Chengling’s explanation of what happened to Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu as they practiced the LiuHe skill did not match his lips at all (honestly any Chinese speaking person can tell, the dubbing is pretty obvious).

The video below is actually a fan’s re-dub of Chengling’s explanation which, compared to the mess of dubbing in the aired version, pretty perfectly matches his lip movements. Can’t blame the original dub though, the explanation is way too different to match his lips ;)

There are two sets of subtitles: the set on top is what was aired in the finale and the set below is what Chengling is supposed to have originally said (pre-dub over).

I have translated both:

Broadcast version:

Chengling: To master the LiuHe skill, there must be a person who wholeheartedly accepts turning their body into a furnace which they use to turn their own hard-earned cultivation into energy that is passed on to the practitioner. No matter how good your cultivation is, even if death is not immediate, the veins will still be cut off eventually.

Kid: So… did they master it?

What should have been the original script (and basically what is said in the video above):

Chengling: To master the LiuHe skill, the two must share the same heart/feelings, watching over and protecting each other. They must also whole-heatedly recognize the other as their soulmate, for only by maintaining their love can they pass the most critical stage by transmitting their internal qi (energy) to the other, thereby getting through the difficulty. Once the skill is mastered, the two will then become each other’s immortal protector.

Kid: So… they both survived?

-

So.

I dunno if that makes it obvious now but from Chengling’s original explanation, nowhere does it say that a sacrifice is needed to master the LiuHe skill. The two people just have to wholeheartedly love each other and be willing to give to each other completely, which would allow them to transmit the necessary energy to push pass the critical stage without holding anything back. In the end, they become immortal and protect each other forever.

This “theory” (I really should use “fact” but whatever) is completely supported by Ye Baiyi’s words as well. In a flashback, he tells Wen Kexing that he has a method to save A-Xu, but it would cost him his life and asked if he would still be willing. Wen Kexing didn’t even hesitate before agreeing, to which Ye Baiyi let out a pleased smile and replied with “You’ve answered well.”

According to my “theory”, this was merely a test to ensure that Wen Kexing would not have any doubts because if he did, he’ll hold back during the LiuHe cultivation process which could cost both of them their lives. It’s only by being wholeheartedly devoted to each other and willing to give each other their all that they can pass the critical stage.

Also yes, I know he said a bunch of stuff in voice over while the camera panned over WenZhou mid-cultivation but because I didn’t actually see his lips say that (meaning, I don’t have video proof of his lips actually uttering those words), I’m more inclined to believe what I do see. A voice over can be recorded at any time to fit broadcasting needs so ‍♀️

Anyways, all this just to reiterate what I’ve been saying this entire time: WenZhou have a happy ending where they both become immortal and are each other’s forever for eternity. No, they did not die. No, I don’t think it’s a bad end and no one can convince me otherwise

Translation: (clip explaining how the “Is it beautiful?” and “It’s perfect.” was born from an adlib)

Zhang Zhehan: For example, that scene with the old fisherman. They kept saying that I was a “beauty beauty beauty”, eventually I couldn’t hold it in anymore so I turned my head around and asked him, “Is it beautiful?”

I just thought, you see me looking like this, how can you keep saying that I look beautiful? In reality, I was asking it in a very sarcastic way, purposefully trying to probe [him out with] “Am I beautiful?”

Unexpectedly, very quickly, Gong Jun was able to answer, he said “Perfect.”

Oftentimes, it’s these small details that pushes a role towards a certain direction, towards a certain character development. I feel like this is, when everybody sees it, they will find out—

Gong Jun: It’s interesting.

Zhang Zhehan: —Yes, there are many interesting parts.

//end

So the producer specifically asked for actors for the leads (as opposed to idols) and you can really see how that decision paid off with these two.

I’m honestly amazed by Zhang Zhehan and Gong Jun. If you didn’t know, they actually filmed the scenes mostly chronologically (all the beggar scenes filmed first). It worked very well in their case because they weren’t quite familiar with each other back then just yet, so any heavily emotional scenes wouldn’t have had as much of an impact given the underlying awkwardness.

That being said, despite their unfamiliarity, they already had enough chemistry between them to come up with legendary adlibs like “Is it beautiful?” “It’s perfect.”

Honestly, I haven’t been this affected by a pair of actors as I have been by these two.

By the way, I’m an absolute clown that didn’t realize that Youku actually has subbed episodes on their website which you can access by searching “Word of Honor” instead of “山河令”

That being said, you do need to pay for VIP to get access to episodes 18-32 with English subs so if you’re strictly non-paying, then you’ll still have to wait.

I also don’t know when episodes 33-36 +special ep is going to be available to VIPs in subbed, but I’m assuming it’s probably going to be around the same time normal VIP get access to them so hopefully around Saturday? If not, then I actually have no idea what Youku’s plans are lol

holy fucking shit oh my god I am in utter awe at the production team for Word of Honor

turns out the whole fight in the special episode was a parallel to one of their first fights

note how at first, they miss each other and go their own separate ways but now, they meet each other in the middle and stay connected

THIS FREAKING PARALLEL

EVERYBODY TAKE FKN NOTE BECAUSE THIS IS HOW YOU DO A MEANINGFUL PARALLEL

Wen Kexing saying that his entire life, his timing was never right and now, he finally has more time than he could ever ask for with A-Xu.

His timing is finally right because now, he has his forever for eternity.

Yeah just thought I’d specify since I see some people being very uncertain about the concept of “forever”:

It’s only “forever” until they get tired of it. If one day, they get sick of living like that, they can always pull a Ye Baiyi and rejoin the human realm.

As soon as they ingest human food, their body will start deteriorating and they will eventually die. But it won’t be instantaneous, so they can roam the world, fully enjoy all it has to offer first before finding a quiet and peaceful place to spend their finals days and eventually welcoming death together.

But until that day comes, Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu have forever at their disposal and they can spend their days doing whatever they want.

I need you all to understand that WenZhou literally gave up everything and chose to be with each other for eternity. And I don’t mean that in an exaggerated way, when I say eternity, I really do mean eternity.

To save Zhou Zishu, Ye Baiyi taught Wen Kexing the art form that allowed himself to live for so many years without aging. However, nothing comes without a price, especially when we’re talking about attaining something close to immortality. In this case, the sacrifice is that the practitioner is pretty much confined to living in areas of extreme cold and they can only feed off on ice and snow as human food would deteriorate their body (yes, that’s why Ye Baiyi’s hair started turning white, he’s tired of living for so long and wants to end it all so he’s been eating a lot of food).

If they can maintain this restrictive way of living, then they pretty much live forever, with no end in sight (per Wen Kexing’s own words).

After Wen Kexing explains this to him, A-Xu makes the following comment:

“To live like that, or to die right here… I’ll have to seriously weight [the pros and cons].”

This is an important comment because recall, this is the man who willingly nailed 7 nails into his body in exchange for 3 years of freedom, that’s how much he values being free. 

And yet, even though his words appear to indicate that he needs to consider his options, it seems more like he’s already made up his mind and he’s just teasing Wen Kexing at this point because to Zhou Zishu, all the freedom in the world means nothing to him when compared to the choice of more time than he could ever ask for with Wen Kexing. 

That being said, you might remember the following scene from episode 14, where Zhou Zishu said that he’d rather live freely for 10 days than spend 10 years living against his own will. 

Originally, I understood this scene as highlighting the importance of physical freedom to Zhou Zishu; however, now I realize I was wrong. The wording here is so important because his choice at the end of episode 36 isn’t out-of-character or something that goes against his previous claim from episode 14. If anything, it reinforces it because to him, choosing eternity with Wen Kexing IS his own will.

To Zhou Zishu, being able to roam the world and enjoy all the liquor and food it has to offer is just materialistic freedom. Being physically constrained to one location is not living against his own will, nor is it “losing his freedom” because true freedom is the option to choose where he wants to be and to him, where Wen Kexing is is where he wants to be.

This is supported by the following comment made in the special episode: 

“The two have been fighting for a whole lifetime. When immortals start fighting, who knows when it’ll end.” 

This implies that Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing have forever on their hands, which they spend a lot of sparring.

If they have forever, that means that they willingly gave up roaming the human realm and chose to stay in a place of extreme cold, feeding on nothing but ice and snow.

Together.

Forever.

Oh my god I’m so fucking thankful and in love with the scriptwriters of Word of Honor. They put in so much consideration into the script and small details that might get glossed over or taken for granted actually hold so much meaning.

Namely, in the scene following the reveal that the hairpin was in fact the real key to the vault (surprise!), A-Xu asks Wen Kexing what they would have done if he hadn’t brought the hairpin.

To this, Wen Kexing replies with the following:

“You came here to die, of course you would wear it.”

This simple sentence holds so much underlying meaning because it implies that they both know the importance and meaning of that hairpin. Also, A-Xu’s lack of reply (but just look at his face) to Wen Kexing’s words shows that he knows he was caught and Wen Kexing hit the nail right on the head.

Without it, it would have been so easy to turn the whole hairpin giving scene into “Oh, Wen Kexing only gave the hairpin to A-Xu because he wanted him to safeguard the real key”. But with this, the writers committed themselves to showing that the hairpin is first and foremost a token of love that A-Xu would bring to his death.

Because he wasn’t aware that the hairpin was the real key, all he knew was that this is the hairpin that Wen Kexing had given to him (knowing full well the meaning behind that gesture). And on Wen Kexing’s side, he knew with certainty that A-Xu understood the significance and thus would bring the hairpin with him to his death.

There isn’t any room for debate: Wen Kexing knows A-Xu well enough to know that he would bring an item of such sentimental value to his death, and A-Xu proved him right by doing exactly that.

Maybe!Chengling: Okay, time to head back and eat.

Child: Father, did I not do well? Mother said I’ve been practicing very well.

Maybe!Chengling: It has nothing to do with you. These two have been fighting for a lifetime. When immortals start fighting, who knows when the end will be.

-

AHHHHH THIS IS SUCH A PERFECT ENDING IM ACTUALLY SOBBING

WenZhou have chosen each other and spend their idle time teaching and sparring each other. They are literally together for eternity holy shit what kind of celestial ending is this I’m deceased

This series has officially immortalized itself into my all time favourites ever holy shit I’m so blessed to have been a part of it

THEY ARE SO FUCKING BEAUTIFUL

I AM SOBBING FOR REAL

THERES A FKN SPECIAL EP AND I DIDNT SEE IT WHEN I FIRST REFRESHED IT

YOUKU GIMME BACK MY FKN TEARS IM READY TO BEAT YOU UP

THIS ENDING I CANNOT

IM SO ????

Didn’t expect knives from Zhang Zhehan’s weibo but here we are:

His account is set up to only show the past 6 months of content so by the time the final episode of Word of Honor comes out, his goodbye to Zhou Zishu will also disappear.