Don’t Be a Kept Man

irst snowfall happened about half a month ago, but unfortunately it was only snow mixed with rain.
As the snowflakes fell, they disappeared into the void alongside the raindrops.
The next morning when they woke up, there was nothing to see, as if it had never happened.

Fu Xiu Nian was pouting and walked faster, purposefully leaving Chen Yi behind for a distance.
He walked and walked and then he couldn’t help himself and stopped, turning his head back to wait for Chen Yi.
The moment he did however, he discovered the faint blurs on the top of the streetlamps, as if there was a tiny bit of snow falling down.

When Chen Yi caught up, he saw Fu Xiu Nian with his head up, looking at the streetlamps.
He was like an idiot, not moving and just staring at who knows what.
Both of Chen Yi’s hands were holding bags which meant he didn’t have any hands free, so he could only walk up behind Fu Xiu Nian and use his head to lightly bump into the other’s head, 

“Big dummy, it’s snowing and you’re just standing here? Waiting to become a snowman?”

Fu Xiu Nian came back to his senses then, 

“Ah? I was waiting for you.”

Chen Yi chuckled again, 

“And haven’t I come now? Let’s go.
It’s going to be troublesome if it rains.”

Fu Xiu Nian agreed with his thoughts and reached out to grab a bag from his hands, 

“But I don’t think it will rain.”

Chen Yi avoided his hands and walked behind Fu Xiu Nian like his shadow, pushing him and stepping forward at the same time as the latter, 

“Yes yes yes.
You are the Emperor.
Whatever you say is right.”

Fu Xiu Nian said, 

“There is a very small chance of rain in this kind of weather.”

Chen Yi gave a very perfunctory acknowledgment, 

“Sure sure sure.
Let’s go home, home home.”

Fu Xiu Nian: “What are you in a hurry for?”

Chen Yi flew by like the wind, 

“I don’t think you’re holding anything?”

This light snow turned into a heavy snowstorm and before long, the ground was covered in white.
Following the close yet distant shadows, they were soon gone within the snow, leaving only a set of footprints illuminated clearly under the light of the streetlamps.

The entire winter, Fu Xiu Nian and Chen Yi holed up in their home and when it was spring, << Minister >> was finally set to be broadcasted.
The marketing team first posted behind-the-scenes pictures and more promotional material to catch the eyes of the public with the few main actors and actresses all resharing them onto their weibo for their fans.
Which in turn caused the show to become more widely known.

If it was just on Chen Yi’s acting skills, then he would definitely not be up on par with Cen Qing or the other older actors.
But the character role was too closely related to him, and to a certain extent, it could be counted as acting as himself.
So each camera angle, each frame, it was him in the scene.
Handsome and vicious, so much so that the viewers were spitting at their monitors with their anger at his schemes and also wu wu wu crying, wanting to marry him.

Never be afraid of a villain being bad, be afraid that he’s handsome, especially Chen Yi, this kind of hormone inducing, ovary exploding existence that no one can deny!!!

Fangirls who chase after idols and celebrities have many skills and talents under their belt.
Stanning CPs meant that there were always the fine details to grab the “sugar and honey” from.
Billion Year fangirls silently held their fists, thinking that their time had finally come, and indeed they were soaring through the heavens with their many numbers. 

Only a few episodes had aired and videos had already been cut and edited until almost every second was used; from ghost to love stories, you name it, there was probably already a video out there.

Chen Yi in the drama as Meng Yu had the boldness and the scheming down, but the only thing he could not be was overly ruthless, which caused an internal clash in the character. 

Fu Xiu Nian’s Lu Shuang was mysterious and hard to read, always that white robed young man, smiling warmly and seemingly close, but you could never tell if he was good or evil.
The only thing certain about him was that he wanted to support a righteous emperor in these turbulent times.
Although his relationship with the crown prince seemed a bit too close, with indications of even sprinklings of love, he had never made it clear whose side he was on.

Meng Yu: That Yan Dao Ning is so detestable.
I cannot leave him alive.

Lu Shuang: Your Highness please wait!

Meng Yu: Qingzhou has fallen into a famine and our Father has sent the crown prince over with food and money to help.
Hmph.
I will not allow him to get there with a single grain of rice.

Lu Shuang: Your Highness that can’t be!

Meng Yu: Now that the military tally is in my hands, divert all the men and horses quickly to my hands.
This prince will revolt and no one can do a thing!

Lu Shuang: Please reconsider……

In the beginning, Lu Shuang poured his heart and soul out to urge and redirect Meng Yu to a straight path, but in the end, he only stayed silent, listening to every word and, even purposefully letting Meng Yu do as he wished.
As if Meng Yu was dangling on the edge of the cliff, and he had struggled with his life to pull him back but found out that he was powerless to do anything and so instead, pushed him off the cliff himself.

Lu Shuang was a bad man with good aspirations for the world.
He gave all his generosity to the good of the citizens on this earth, and in return, he gave all his terribleness to Meng Yu.

At first the scriptwriter wanted Meng Yu in the beginning to be assertive, making his own decisions in front of everyone, but with Lu Shuang, he would be attentive and hang onto his every word.
Thus, showing how much Meng Yu craved in his ambition and how much he craved for highly intelligent schemers to be by his side.
This kind of internal conflict and “reverse cuteness” in this pairing really brought out the feelings of people who “loved each other but wanted to kill each other”. 

Following the episodes of the drama being released, those who stanned the CP began to increase and increase, and the fans had a hope that the two would have a good ending.
But when Meng Yu revolted, when Lu Shuang’s sword stabbed right through Meng Yu’s body, he had shattered their hearts through their monitors, along with the end of Meng Yu.

Billion Year fangirls and Yu-Lu CPs all cried on their floors, wailing on one hand and on the other, scouring through the glass shards to find some sugar hidden within, wanting to see if any of these remnants, if licked, could be sweet……

Some fans were into the brotherly feelings of Meng Yu and the crown prince, and they spread many possible things to nibble on, and so the more they posted, the more others thought that this pair could work too!

Yu-Lu CP fans: Go away!!!

 

Others stanned Meng Yu and Yan Dao Ning’s relationship as archenemies and those CP fans also started sharing their videos and pictures and stories which made it super easy to get into.
Stan with them?

Yu-Lu CP fans: Fuck off!!! Rather nibble on melon seeds than nibble on your CP!1

There was a quite high levelled and knowledgeable editor who could edit videos with such a perfect grasp on the precision of camera pans and cuts, having a great sense of the timing and emotions of the scenes that she had amassed quite a lot of fans.
When she fell into the hole of Yu-Lu CP, she used her skills to find all the sugar bits hiding in the camera frames and at last released a video filled with nothing but sugar and more sugar.

The video highlighted the uncontainable like of Fu Xiu Nian, and he was almost always smiling during the whole drama, but only towards Chen Yi.
It was a smile that came from the heart; one that could even gentle his eyes as he looked upon Chen Yi.

Yu-Lu CP stans who were in the midst of nibbling on their CP watched this video to heal their shattered hearts.
But then they discovered that this high tech boss editor had actually put out a video that would take their lives away at the very end.

In his all white robe, Lu Shuang, stood in the sea of blood and death and raised his sword at Meng Yu.
In that frosty glimpse as the sword fell, fresh blood spilled at his feet.
Meng Yu’s body finally couldn’t hold up anymore and collapsed with a thunderous sound, with only his eyes sealed with the image of that white robed shadow.

The background was full of soldiers bowing on the ground and yelling out for their new emperor, protecting the crown prince as he took his throne.
Only Lu Shuang stood, standing in his original place and only when Meng Yu finally closed his eyes, did he use his sleeves to slowly wipe that blade tainted with blood.

A white robe not even tainted with dust had now been seeped with blood.

The video slowly faded, leaving only a warm male voice in a voice over, which was from the first episode, a line from Lu Shuang —

“I want to be a loyal official, helping a righteous Emperor to his rightful throne.
This is something Lu Shuang should do.”

And yet at the end, he was not his loyal official, and he was not his righteous emperor.

Yu-Lu CP fans suffered a heavy and fatal blow from this edited cut.
They coughed up blood and yelled out: Someone… Someone … call the ambulance and also send this video covering itself in a façade of sugar and sweet love but is instead full of glass shards away……

Also, this editor must have been a spy that infiltrated our headquarters!!!

 

 

Notes:

*1 what the title implies and this sentence implies, kind of taking on how “nibbling on melon seeds” is like enjoying or snacking on this thing you like so hence “nibble on CP”.
In this way, a bit different from the popcorn as I like to compare this saying to, melon seeds are very addictive.
You don’t stop with just one (nor with just a handful), and of course, having something to nibble on is a common pastime.
In this case, “nibbling on cp” means you can’t stop consuming the cp and all related things about them, and you basically just enjoy the cp just like melon seeds.

TL Tidbits:
Maybe not so interesting note, you may have already noticed but the ending here is a bit of a play on historical dramas where usually a high status person like the Emperor hears something bad, something that makes them cough up their blood and they are technically calling for their “servants” to come to deal with the mess.