Chinese GL

Shen Ni gets another message, and she thinks it might be Bian Jin — but no, it's a standard message to all residents of Chang'an inviting them to the Shangyuan lantern festival, at which something called the Great Wheel of Fire will be unveiled alongside a host of the usual entertainments. Shen Ni checks her palace account, which only shows that Li Ruoyuan still hasn't given her the requested security clearance. Then she gets another message — which still isn't from Bian Jin, but from an old comrade during her Yanluo days, telling her that they're coming to Chang'an on official business and would like to take the opportunity to visit her and congratulate her on her wedding. Over the course of the day, Shen Ni receives message after message, but none from Bian Jin. She wonders if it's because Bian Jin is busy at the archive.

Bian Jin is indeed busy. She was about to try and explain to Shen Ni that Shen Ni had completely misunderstood her meaning, when the chief archivist Cheng Zhe tells her to help store away damaged cyborg bodies (it's one of the things the archive preserves). Cheng Zhe has a major grudge against Bian Jin, who refused his application for a promotion back when she was still in charge of the northern border, pointing out that someone like him — who had abandoned his first wife and their daughter in favour of marrying another woman who could help further his career — was sure to betray his responsibilities for his own ambitions. He had been looking forward to making her life hell once she was transferred to the archive; unfortunately for him, she's now married to Shen Ni, and he doesn't dare to touch Shen Ni's wife.

In the file room, Bian Jin finds today's duty officer, a young, petite woman named Meng Chu, struggling to maneuver the cart containing the heavy cyborg bodies. Bian Jin whisks the cart away silently and effortlessly; Meng Chu is surprised, and also struck by her beauty. Bian Jin demonstrates to Meng Chu has to efficiently use a giant mechanical arm to lift up the bodies and put them away. Meng Chu asks her name, is told it, and has a brief blue-screen-of-death moment as she recognises the name.

Back at home, Shen Ni decides to make lunch for Bian Jin — soup, steamed fish and a strawberry cheesecake. When she arrives at the archive, with said lunch packed away in an insulated lunchbox, she overhears a couple of men gossiping about Bian Jin. The thrust of the matter is that she still has a lot of former comrades and subordinates who remain loyal to her, and who petitioned the emperor to pardon her. One of them wonders how Shen Ni, who is known to hold a grudge against Bian Jin, tortures her behind closed doors. They also talk about how Cheng Zhe has been arranging for the staff canteen to add grease and salt to the food they prepare, and how he is right this minute treating all of the archive staff — with the conspicuous exception of Bian Jin — to tong sui.

Shen Ni marches into the archive, pausing to ask a female official where her wife is, and charming her completely in the process. In the main room, everyone is eating the tong sui which Cheng Zhe has bought, except Bian Jin. Bian Jin wouldn't have noticed that she was being deliberately left out if Cheng Zhe hadn't been staring at her, waiting for her to realise it. Then she hears a voice calling sweetly, 'my lady wife', and thinks the speaker must be addressing someone else — until Shen Ni bends over her and asks 'what's my wife so engrossed in?'

As far as Bian Jin's colleagues are concerned, Shen Ni's appearance, complete with lunchbox, puts paid to all the rumours about her harbouring a grudge against Bian Jin. Then Shen Ni exclaims in puzzled tones, 'Why are you the only one who didn't get any tong sui?' The text notes that she's always been like this since she was little: the wickeder she intends to be, the more innocent she seems. Cheng Zhe, of course, understands the meaning behind her words, and hastily hands over his own (as yet untouched) portion of tong sui, making excuses all the while. Shen Ni pushes it away, telling him that her wife rarely eats outside food.

Shen Ni then takes out the little box with the cheesecake in it, wipes her hands with an anti-bacterial wet wipe, scoops up a small piece of cheesecake with a spoon and brings it to Bian Jin's mouth. Bian Jin is about to tell her that she needn't go that far with the 'loving wives' act, when Shen Ni suddenly says, 'It's your favourite dessert, I made it for you especially.' On hearing that, Bian Jin's eyes soften.

Shen Ni leans closer to Bian Jin and says, in a whisper only the two of them can hear, 'Play along with me.' The text tells us that Bian Jin is used to being the one to give commands, and rarely receives them; on hearing Shen Ni's words, her eyes take on a certain glow. Meng Chu, staring at them from a corner, is so surprised at the sight of killing machine Bian Jin being so docile in front of her wife that she can barely blink.

Bian Jin compliantly removes her face mask (set to transparent) and slowly leans closer to the spoon in Shen Ni's hand. Her breath tickles Shen Ni's fingertips. The text tells us that Bian Jin has always been beyond Shen Ni's control; now that she's looking down at Bian Jin, and Bian Jin's looking up at her and doing as she says, Shen Ni is experiencing a sensation that she's never had before; a wicked electrical current seems to be running through her.

Perhaps because she's not used to being so close to another person, Bian Jin misjudges the distance and ends up pressing her lips against Shen Ni's fingertips.


Tech watch: mechanical arm thing; retina scanner (on the door to the file room); e-cigarettes (being smoked by the gossipers); anti-bacterial wet wipes.
Named men: 2.5
Reverse Bechdel passes: 0