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Guardian Readalong: Vol. 2, Chapters 9 & 10
But first, a reminder that sign-ups are open for the 520 Day Guardian Reverse Exchange! ♡
The 520 Reverse Exchange covers the Guardian novel, drama and RPF. And it's multimedia - see our info/rules/schedule post for the kinds of offers you can make.
As it's a reverse exchange, it has a two-part sign-up process: first you make your offer, and then you choose from everyone else's anonymised offers to make your requests. Part 1 of sign-ups (offers) is open until 11:59pm UTC on Friday 28 March 2025. (What time is that for me?) Only people who’ve signed up with an offer can participate and make requests.
Sign up with your offers here!
Hi, and welcome to this week's installment of the Guardian novel readalong!
Here are last week's chapters, and you can find all previous discussions on the schedule post (vol. 1 part 1, vol. 1 part 2, vol. 2), or via the !readalong tag.
This week's chapters:
The corresponding chapters in the Chinese version on JJWXC and the fan translation are 57 to 60.
Excerpts:
1) Daqing is worried about Zhao Yunlan
“I’ve never seen this book before.” Daqing patted the book, unconsciously turning in circles on the spot and chasing his own tail with anxiety. “Where did it come from?”
Who had put the book there? Why was Zhao Yunlan the one who’d come across it?
Of course, if Daqing didn’t know the book’s origin, there was no way Sangzan would. The black cat and ghost stared at each other until, finally, the cat lowered his head and leaped to the floor, feeling uneasy. As he left, he found he wasn’t even in the mood to eat his favorite food: jerky soaked in milk.
Zhao Yunlan was doing well for himself. He had food, shelter, and more—he even had some spare time to think about love and lust. Things were going smoothly for him. The black cat was lazy by nature, and many human concerns were beyond him, but seeing Zhao Yunlan simply be a dumbass youngster with many joys in his life was very gratifying for Daqing. This wasn’t a boat he wanted to see rocked.
2) Zhao Yunlan loses the fight to the crow yao
It was clearly a bad idea to let Zhao Yunlan continue guessing. The bird person started to ring the golden bell, only for Zhao Yunlan to suddenly brandish his hands after hiding them behind his back. At some point, during everything that happened, he had cut his own finger and used the blood to draw a complicated motif across two paper talismans, half on each one.
Now, as he brought the pair together, they were flawlessly aligned and had already burned more than halfway. One pointed to the sky and the other pointed to the ground.
Zhao Yunlan abruptly let go. A thunderous explosion arose out of nowhere as a dragon of fire took shape. In an instant of flashing lightning and flying sparks, the entire hillside of graves was scorched black. Countless ghost fires were silently swept up in it; the huge flame ignited the hem of the Crow tribe member’s shirt.
But the short, ugly crow didn’t even flinch. Though he was gaunt and slight of stature, for a moment, an awe-inspiring sternness showed on his unpleasant face.
In spite of himself, Zhao Yunlan paused and stared.
Within the fierce flames, the crow’s face was split between human and bird. Pitch-black feathers appeared on his body. His shriveled, deformed wings spread and immediately caught fire—an ugly, pitiful sight on his back. With a scream up to the sky, he transformed into a cloud of black mist within the fire and disappeared into the golden bell.
The color of the firelight surrounding the bell suddenly changed, as though thousands of spotlights had converged. Zhao Yunlan closed his eyes at once, but it was already too late. Molten pain seared his eyeballs. Holding his arms in front of himself, he swiftly backed away, unable to see a thing.
The sound of bells rang out, as if hunting down his soul. It was like a nail being driven right into his ear.
In his daze, it seemed as though he could hear the sound of mountains collapsing. The center of a huge pillar that reached all the way to the sky fractured, and from someplace up high, an endless stream of boulders tumbled down. They rumbled and roared as if the sky itself were on the verge of falling.
And from somewhere far away, at the edge of the world, a booming voice seemed to call out. “KUNLUN—”
3) Zhao Yunlan adjusts to his blindness
After half a day of being withdrawn while adjusting to his new blindness, Zhao Yunlan was blossoming again. As he got settled in the car, he began messing with the seat controls. First, he made it lie down flat, then he put it back up. Next, he explored the entire car with his hands. “Hey, I just realized that the passenger seat is indented. How come I never noticed it when I could see? Turns out there are some fun things about being blind. Did you know there’s a darkness experience exhibit downtown? The tickets cost 40 yuan, so really, I’m saving 40 yuan.”
This kind of revolutionary optimism was beyond Shen Wei’s comprehension, and he could only manage a faint semblance of a smile in response.
As he dropped Zhao Yunlan off right outside his building, Shen Wei told him to stay put. But after parking, he came back only to find that Zhao Yunlan had already made his way to the curb alone and was practicing walking in a straight line, though he was about to fling himself into the embrace of a utility pole.
Shen Wei rushed over and grabbed Zhao Yunlan around the waist before he could knock himself out. Suddenly being lifted into the air was an exciting experience while blind; Zhao Yunlan actually let out a delighted whistle, as if wanting Shen Wei to do it again.
Patting his arm, Shen Wei leaned forward. “There are stairs up ahead. I’ll carry you on my back.”
Zhao Yunlan responded by stroking Shen Wei’s back and smiling, but he made no move to obey.
Gently, Shen Wei asked, “What is it? Get on.”
Feeling around for Shen Wei’s hand, Zhao Yunlan bent down to kiss the back of it. “How could I bear to let you carry me? What if I crush you with my weight?”
He began slowly walking forward. If he hadn’t bumped the first stair with his foot, Shen Wei might almost have believed his eyesight had returned. His pace was steady, and his steps were even. When he reached the elevator, he felt around for the buttons and pressed the right one. Then he turned slightly, waiting for Shen Wei.
Shen Wei made sure to step heavily. “How did you know where the elevator was?”
Without a trace of shame, Zhao Yunlan boasted, “With how observant I am, did you think I’m not familiar with my own place of residence? I don’t need eyes to know the number of stairs or how many paces the stairs are from the elevator.”
That was, of course, absolute bullshit. Forget the number of paces—Zhao Yunlan was the kind of rough, careless person who couldn’t even find his own teacup and slippers without scrambling around first.
The truth, as Shen Wei knew perfectly well, was that he must have been silently counting while being led downstairs that afternoon. Perhaps it was simply his personality, but somehow, no matter the circumstances, Zhao Yunlan always gave off an impression of “it’s no big deal.” Sometimes, even when whatever was happening was a big deal, people around him couldn’t help being affected by his attitude.
4) Daqing's bell
“Ugh, don’t even ask.” Zhao Yunlan waved dismissively. “It was all because of that damn bell…”
Daqing abruptly got to his feet. “What kind of bell?”
“I have it,” Shen Wei offered, pulling a little golden bell covered in dust from his pocket. “Are you talking about this?”
Daqing’s pupils constricted. “Why do you have it?”
“What is it?” Zhao Yunlan asked.
Daqing circled Shen Wei’s hand a few times, focused intently on the little bell. Finally, in a very low voice, he said, “That’s mine.” He stole a glance at Zhao Yunlan.
“My…first master…tied that around my neck himself. Centuries ago. There was an accident… I lost it.”
Zhao Yunlan extended a hand. “Let me see.”
Instead, Shen Wei moved the bell out of reach. “I’m afraid you won’t be able to pick it up.”
Recalling what had happened the night before, Zhao Yunlan gloomily blew a smoke ring.
Daqing ducked his head and grabbed the bell from Shen Wei, then left through the window without another word. It was rare for this steady tank of a cat to be so obviously weighed down by his thoughts.
5) Shen Wei, as seen by Zhao Yunlan's Heavenly Eye
Zhao Yunlan “looked” down at his own body and saw white light coursing through him. His left shoulder was empty, but on his right shoulder was a bright ball, radiant with beautiful light and colors—that must be his soul fire.
Something about the light of his soul fire was…familiar. He felt sure he had seen it somewhere before.
A sudden realization made him spring to his feet. His knees slammed into the coffee table, but he didn’t even take the time to grimace as he stumbled into the kitchen. He could hear the sound of vegetables being chopped, but Shen Wei was invisible to him, perfectly blending in with the darkness—or maybe not so perfectly. A moment’s study showed him to be even darker than the surrounding blackness. The only light about him came from the tiny pendant around his neck. The ball of fire in the pendant was identical to the sphere of light on Zhao Yunlan’s right shoulder.
Shen Wei was prepping a head of cabbage. At the sound of movement, he glanced at Zhao Yunlan. “It’s too chaotic in here. Don’t come in.”
Zhao Yunlan ignored him. Following Shen Wei’s voice, he walked in carefully, then slowly reached out and hugged Shen Wei from behind. Resting his chin on Shen Wei’s shoulder, he shut his eyes and tried to look at the cutting board with his newly acquired Heavenly Eye. But—perhaps because those vegetables had lost their vitality while being uprooted and frozen—he didn’t “see” anything. There was only the faint scent of vegetable juices.
Then he looked down at Shen Wei, who was in his arms.
From the moment he’d embraced Shen Wei, a bright blood red had begun spilling outward from Shen Wei’s heart. It flowed throughout the absolute blackness of Shen Wei’s silhouette like molten lava, outlining a slim, graceful figure in Zhao Yunlan’s ink-black vision.
It was as if life had suddenly burst into existence.
Zhao Yunlan silently took this in for a while. When he finally spoke, it was to casually grumble, “What are you chopping? I don’t eat this. I want meat. I’m not a rabbit. As an injured person, I am petitioning for an improvement to my meals.”
Shen Wei chuckled indulgently and lifted the lid of a small pot beside him. A hearty aroma of meat wafted out. “Don’t be picky.”
As he said it, the fiery colors on his body softened. The bright flow of crimson took on a strikingly warm orange hue, like the first glimpse of the sun after the break of dawn.
6) Zhao Yunlan's dream
Perhaps because Shen Wei was holding him too tightly—it really was a little uncomfortable—when Zhao Yunlan did drift off to sleep, he started to dream.
He dreamed that he was in a cloudy, misty place, walking in circles. He was surrounded by ruins and debris, and there were countless people praying toward the sky. He spared them a glance and kept walking, eventually arriving at a place that was utterly dark and desolate.
For some reason, he felt a surge of annoyance. He snapped his fingers to summon fire, but the fire went out before it could catch.
Someone sighed deeply by his ear. “Why did you have to go through all this effort over an offhand comment?”
The voice was difficult to describe. It seemed to bypass his ears entirely and pierce right through his heart. Zhao Yunlan gave a violent shudder, and then he was awake.
It seemed like the sun must already be high in the sky. Shen Wei wasn’t beside him anymore. He’d probably stepped out to buy something.
Zhao Yunlan saw darkness when he opened his eyes, and darkness when he closed them. His heart beat like thunder, cold sweat beading on his back.
Who had been speaking in the dream…?
Why did it sound like his own voice?
Questions:
Which of the supernatural imagery is your favorite - the fight with the crow yao, the warm light inside Shen Wei, the Great Seal, something else? Did you enjoy the Daqing and Sangzan interaction, or do you think Sangzan deserves better treatment? Do you think Shen Wei should have known that Zhao Yunlan didn't listen to him and went to West Plum Village? Which contents of Shen Wei's pendant do you prefer - soul fire or a lollipop wrapper?
You can answer as many or as few questions as you like, or just comment without answering any of them at all! And if you see this post and you're not actually reading the novel: As always, I would love to know what you think about any of this with limited context. :D
And here is the schedule, and that's where you can sign up to host a post.
The 520 Reverse Exchange covers the Guardian novel, drama and RPF. And it's multimedia - see our info/rules/schedule post for the kinds of offers you can make.
As it's a reverse exchange, it has a two-part sign-up process: first you make your offer, and then you choose from everyone else's anonymised offers to make your requests. Part 1 of sign-ups (offers) is open until 11:59pm UTC on Friday 28 March 2025. (What time is that for me?) Only people who’ve signed up with an offer can participate and make requests.
Sign up with your offers here!
Hi, and welcome to this week's installment of the Guardian novel readalong!
Here are last week's chapters, and you can find all previous discussions on the schedule post (vol. 1 part 1, vol. 1 part 2, vol. 2), or via the !readalong tag.
This week's chapters:
- Chapter 9: Shen Wei goes to the Netherworld to temporarily mend the Great Seal that is falling apart. Daqing visits Sangzan in the library. Daqing's cultivation is too low to read Soul Book, which Zhao Yunlan has learned sorcery from. In West Plum Village, Zhao Yunlan encounters and fights a crow yao, who uses a bell to blind him and force some of Kunlun's memories on him. Ghost Face brings unconscious Zhao Yunlan back to Shen Wei.
- Chapter 10: Zhao Yunlan wakes up blind, but adjusts to his blindness very quickly. It turns out that the bell that hurt him used to be Daqing's before it was lost. Zhao Yunlan gains access to his Heavenly Eye, watches Shen Wei with it, and locates his missing soul fire in Shen Wei's pendant. He tries to seduce Shen Wei when a reaper visits his apartment. He hides Shen Wei from the reaper, and then falls asleep in Shen Wei's arms and has a mysterious dream.
The corresponding chapters in the Chinese version on JJWXC and the fan translation are 57 to 60.
Excerpts:
1) Daqing is worried about Zhao Yunlan
“I’ve never seen this book before.” Daqing patted the book, unconsciously turning in circles on the spot and chasing his own tail with anxiety. “Where did it come from?”
Who had put the book there? Why was Zhao Yunlan the one who’d come across it?
Of course, if Daqing didn’t know the book’s origin, there was no way Sangzan would. The black cat and ghost stared at each other until, finally, the cat lowered his head and leaped to the floor, feeling uneasy. As he left, he found he wasn’t even in the mood to eat his favorite food: jerky soaked in milk.
Zhao Yunlan was doing well for himself. He had food, shelter, and more—he even had some spare time to think about love and lust. Things were going smoothly for him. The black cat was lazy by nature, and many human concerns were beyond him, but seeing Zhao Yunlan simply be a dumbass youngster with many joys in his life was very gratifying for Daqing. This wasn’t a boat he wanted to see rocked.
2) Zhao Yunlan loses the fight to the crow yao
It was clearly a bad idea to let Zhao Yunlan continue guessing. The bird person started to ring the golden bell, only for Zhao Yunlan to suddenly brandish his hands after hiding them behind his back. At some point, during everything that happened, he had cut his own finger and used the blood to draw a complicated motif across two paper talismans, half on each one.
Now, as he brought the pair together, they were flawlessly aligned and had already burned more than halfway. One pointed to the sky and the other pointed to the ground.
Zhao Yunlan abruptly let go. A thunderous explosion arose out of nowhere as a dragon of fire took shape. In an instant of flashing lightning and flying sparks, the entire hillside of graves was scorched black. Countless ghost fires were silently swept up in it; the huge flame ignited the hem of the Crow tribe member’s shirt.
But the short, ugly crow didn’t even flinch. Though he was gaunt and slight of stature, for a moment, an awe-inspiring sternness showed on his unpleasant face.
In spite of himself, Zhao Yunlan paused and stared.
Within the fierce flames, the crow’s face was split between human and bird. Pitch-black feathers appeared on his body. His shriveled, deformed wings spread and immediately caught fire—an ugly, pitiful sight on his back. With a scream up to the sky, he transformed into a cloud of black mist within the fire and disappeared into the golden bell.
The color of the firelight surrounding the bell suddenly changed, as though thousands of spotlights had converged. Zhao Yunlan closed his eyes at once, but it was already too late. Molten pain seared his eyeballs. Holding his arms in front of himself, he swiftly backed away, unable to see a thing.
The sound of bells rang out, as if hunting down his soul. It was like a nail being driven right into his ear.
In his daze, it seemed as though he could hear the sound of mountains collapsing. The center of a huge pillar that reached all the way to the sky fractured, and from someplace up high, an endless stream of boulders tumbled down. They rumbled and roared as if the sky itself were on the verge of falling.
And from somewhere far away, at the edge of the world, a booming voice seemed to call out. “KUNLUN—”
3) Zhao Yunlan adjusts to his blindness
After half a day of being withdrawn while adjusting to his new blindness, Zhao Yunlan was blossoming again. As he got settled in the car, he began messing with the seat controls. First, he made it lie down flat, then he put it back up. Next, he explored the entire car with his hands. “Hey, I just realized that the passenger seat is indented. How come I never noticed it when I could see? Turns out there are some fun things about being blind. Did you know there’s a darkness experience exhibit downtown? The tickets cost 40 yuan, so really, I’m saving 40 yuan.”
This kind of revolutionary optimism was beyond Shen Wei’s comprehension, and he could only manage a faint semblance of a smile in response.
As he dropped Zhao Yunlan off right outside his building, Shen Wei told him to stay put. But after parking, he came back only to find that Zhao Yunlan had already made his way to the curb alone and was practicing walking in a straight line, though he was about to fling himself into the embrace of a utility pole.
Shen Wei rushed over and grabbed Zhao Yunlan around the waist before he could knock himself out. Suddenly being lifted into the air was an exciting experience while blind; Zhao Yunlan actually let out a delighted whistle, as if wanting Shen Wei to do it again.
Patting his arm, Shen Wei leaned forward. “There are stairs up ahead. I’ll carry you on my back.”
Zhao Yunlan responded by stroking Shen Wei’s back and smiling, but he made no move to obey.
Gently, Shen Wei asked, “What is it? Get on.”
Feeling around for Shen Wei’s hand, Zhao Yunlan bent down to kiss the back of it. “How could I bear to let you carry me? What if I crush you with my weight?”
He began slowly walking forward. If he hadn’t bumped the first stair with his foot, Shen Wei might almost have believed his eyesight had returned. His pace was steady, and his steps were even. When he reached the elevator, he felt around for the buttons and pressed the right one. Then he turned slightly, waiting for Shen Wei.
Shen Wei made sure to step heavily. “How did you know where the elevator was?”
Without a trace of shame, Zhao Yunlan boasted, “With how observant I am, did you think I’m not familiar with my own place of residence? I don’t need eyes to know the number of stairs or how many paces the stairs are from the elevator.”
That was, of course, absolute bullshit. Forget the number of paces—Zhao Yunlan was the kind of rough, careless person who couldn’t even find his own teacup and slippers without scrambling around first.
The truth, as Shen Wei knew perfectly well, was that he must have been silently counting while being led downstairs that afternoon. Perhaps it was simply his personality, but somehow, no matter the circumstances, Zhao Yunlan always gave off an impression of “it’s no big deal.” Sometimes, even when whatever was happening was a big deal, people around him couldn’t help being affected by his attitude.
4) Daqing's bell
“Ugh, don’t even ask.” Zhao Yunlan waved dismissively. “It was all because of that damn bell…”
Daqing abruptly got to his feet. “What kind of bell?”
“I have it,” Shen Wei offered, pulling a little golden bell covered in dust from his pocket. “Are you talking about this?”
Daqing’s pupils constricted. “Why do you have it?”
“What is it?” Zhao Yunlan asked.
Daqing circled Shen Wei’s hand a few times, focused intently on the little bell. Finally, in a very low voice, he said, “That’s mine.” He stole a glance at Zhao Yunlan.
“My…first master…tied that around my neck himself. Centuries ago. There was an accident… I lost it.”
Zhao Yunlan extended a hand. “Let me see.”
Instead, Shen Wei moved the bell out of reach. “I’m afraid you won’t be able to pick it up.”
Recalling what had happened the night before, Zhao Yunlan gloomily blew a smoke ring.
Daqing ducked his head and grabbed the bell from Shen Wei, then left through the window without another word. It was rare for this steady tank of a cat to be so obviously weighed down by his thoughts.
5) Shen Wei, as seen by Zhao Yunlan's Heavenly Eye
Zhao Yunlan “looked” down at his own body and saw white light coursing through him. His left shoulder was empty, but on his right shoulder was a bright ball, radiant with beautiful light and colors—that must be his soul fire.
Something about the light of his soul fire was…familiar. He felt sure he had seen it somewhere before.
A sudden realization made him spring to his feet. His knees slammed into the coffee table, but he didn’t even take the time to grimace as he stumbled into the kitchen. He could hear the sound of vegetables being chopped, but Shen Wei was invisible to him, perfectly blending in with the darkness—or maybe not so perfectly. A moment’s study showed him to be even darker than the surrounding blackness. The only light about him came from the tiny pendant around his neck. The ball of fire in the pendant was identical to the sphere of light on Zhao Yunlan’s right shoulder.
Shen Wei was prepping a head of cabbage. At the sound of movement, he glanced at Zhao Yunlan. “It’s too chaotic in here. Don’t come in.”
Zhao Yunlan ignored him. Following Shen Wei’s voice, he walked in carefully, then slowly reached out and hugged Shen Wei from behind. Resting his chin on Shen Wei’s shoulder, he shut his eyes and tried to look at the cutting board with his newly acquired Heavenly Eye. But—perhaps because those vegetables had lost their vitality while being uprooted and frozen—he didn’t “see” anything. There was only the faint scent of vegetable juices.
Then he looked down at Shen Wei, who was in his arms.
From the moment he’d embraced Shen Wei, a bright blood red had begun spilling outward from Shen Wei’s heart. It flowed throughout the absolute blackness of Shen Wei’s silhouette like molten lava, outlining a slim, graceful figure in Zhao Yunlan’s ink-black vision.
It was as if life had suddenly burst into existence.
Zhao Yunlan silently took this in for a while. When he finally spoke, it was to casually grumble, “What are you chopping? I don’t eat this. I want meat. I’m not a rabbit. As an injured person, I am petitioning for an improvement to my meals.”
Shen Wei chuckled indulgently and lifted the lid of a small pot beside him. A hearty aroma of meat wafted out. “Don’t be picky.”
As he said it, the fiery colors on his body softened. The bright flow of crimson took on a strikingly warm orange hue, like the first glimpse of the sun after the break of dawn.
6) Zhao Yunlan's dream
Perhaps because Shen Wei was holding him too tightly—it really was a little uncomfortable—when Zhao Yunlan did drift off to sleep, he started to dream.
He dreamed that he was in a cloudy, misty place, walking in circles. He was surrounded by ruins and debris, and there were countless people praying toward the sky. He spared them a glance and kept walking, eventually arriving at a place that was utterly dark and desolate.
For some reason, he felt a surge of annoyance. He snapped his fingers to summon fire, but the fire went out before it could catch.
Someone sighed deeply by his ear. “Why did you have to go through all this effort over an offhand comment?”
The voice was difficult to describe. It seemed to bypass his ears entirely and pierce right through his heart. Zhao Yunlan gave a violent shudder, and then he was awake.
It seemed like the sun must already be high in the sky. Shen Wei wasn’t beside him anymore. He’d probably stepped out to buy something.
Zhao Yunlan saw darkness when he opened his eyes, and darkness when he closed them. His heart beat like thunder, cold sweat beading on his back.
Who had been speaking in the dream…?
Why did it sound like his own voice?
Questions:
Which of the supernatural imagery is your favorite - the fight with the crow yao, the warm light inside Shen Wei, the Great Seal, something else? Did you enjoy the Daqing and Sangzan interaction, or do you think Sangzan deserves better treatment? Do you think Shen Wei should have known that Zhao Yunlan didn't listen to him and went to West Plum Village? Which contents of Shen Wei's pendant do you prefer - soul fire or a lollipop wrapper?
You can answer as many or as few questions as you like, or just comment without answering any of them at all! And if you see this post and you're not actually reading the novel: As always, I would love to know what you think about any of this with limited context. :D
And here is the schedule, and that's where you can sign up to host a post.