Scum Villain's Self-Saving System: Novel Chapters 93 & 94 Reaction!
Added 2024-12-23 14:00:02 +0000 UTC*FLASHBACK HEADPHONE WARNINGS*
Y'all, we have a FEAST of a reaction today! While Chapter 93 with the Q&A gives us some interesting insight, the REAL star of the show is Shen Jiu with Chapter 94. As we get a TON of new backstory on him that has me just in AWE with MXTX and her flashback writing ability!
This chapter set was a TREAT and I hope you enjoy this extra large reaction & discussion today! I hope you all enjoy!
Thank you for watching with me and for all the support!
Comments
QiJiu DEFINITELY grabbed me by the haunches and launched me over the bridge alongside it this week! And ugh, my heart breaks for both of them! Just ANGST CITY! Honestly, I feel YQY knows *something* has happened and that the SQQ in front of him isn’t the one he feel in love with, but doesn’t obviously know all the details, and that just is so sad! UGH. I’m so glad that MXTX did this side story with YQY because all of my suspicions of him melted away this week! All of the things you talked about in this comment I was nodding vehemently with! It’s so sad to see someone with the flaws that YQY has had, and how it’s affected him throughout this story. I agree, I think telling SJ the truth in the end, as much as we would like it to, would not be a “cure” for them. By that point, SJ was just so far gone…but it might have helped! I hate how unkind they are to themselves. I just want to hug them both…and gently headbutt them. *gently* I could see SJ as gay as well but he’s just so broken that he doesn’t think he probably even deserves or is capable of being worthy of YQY’s love. UGH. MXTX, she is a CRUEL MISTRESS in this one! I definitely agree that the red string of fate was between YQY and SJ - that’s been my theory since day one with them, and it just makes it all the more heartbreaking after this chapter set! Thank you for the comment and the great breakdown of these two!!
Romaniablack
2024-12-29 03:30:29 +0000 UTCThank you for the comment and for breaking down chapter 93! That makes a lot of sense with it being around the time that this story was published. It definitely reminds me of the interview that MXTX has done about her own series! Ahh, see, when LBH answered the question, he was basically saying he didn’t have any other friends or want them – so when SQQ said, “me neither,” naturally that would seem to mean that he feels the same. But it could be a translation from Chinese to English as well. But I appreciate you explaining that! Ahhhh, that’s an interesting connection there between those two scenes! That makes sense now! MXTX definitely knows how to flesh out a side character and incorporate so much trauma and angst – I would TOTALLY agree that this feels along the lines of the Yi City arc! I feel the Water/Wind/Earth arc was more integrated into the main story with XL and HC there and active participants and connected more to the overall plot of the entire fic, so I would say this compares more to Yi City in the end, but I get what you mean! Thank you so much for the comment and kind words!
Romaniablack
2024-12-29 03:22:54 +0000 UTCAs much as I love Shen Yuan so much, the story of Shen Jiu is SO fascinating and the angst with him and Yue QingYuan broke my heart! And yes, the women are just for safety to them - which is a theme that MXTX repeats with MDZS to a less...traumatic extent. I really enjoyed getting more with Shen Jiu's character and how he emphasizes that sad cycle of abuse we should strive to stop. I felt for him! Thanks for the comment!
Romaniablack
2024-12-29 03:15:41 +0000 UTCSome things to be noted in this chapter set: For chapter 93: the 100 question is a common fanfic AU back around 10 to 15 years ago, just around the time svsss is published so mxtx decided to dump it into the extras. It's basically writing a fanfic abt 'depending on the couple interviewed and the interviewer, what'll be the answer to this 100 questions and what'll happen at the interview' and the questions being from most basic ones like name,age,sex etc to personalities, hobbies to eventually love life, both sfw and nsfw. And by SQQ claiming 'Me neither' after LBH saying that he doesn't have friends, I think it's more like 'I also don't have friends that would ask for s*x like that' rather than friends in total bc what LBH said was "I don't have friends like that, in fact I don't even have or want friends" For chapter 94: the brothel SQQ/SJ and og! LQG almost got a fight at is the same one SQQ/SY visited with ZZL where he first listened to the ballad 'resentment of chunshan' and the pipa player is that one who got dressed and rushed out when YQY arrived at the scene in this chapter, so she recognized SQQ/SY during the main story. MXTX is good at writing a side character trio filled with trauma and death, often reflecting a little of the main couple but not really. In svsss it's clearly SJ/YQY/og!LBH, in mdzs it's the yi city and in hob it's the water/wind/earth arc.
sqqlbh1314
2024-12-24 14:06:25 +0000 UTCGahhhhh this is why I love Qijiu so much. The communication trope was done so well, not because they resolved their issue, but because it is a cautionary tale about why this problem can end in utter tragedy. They passed each other by, in BOTH universes. This one is so tragic already, but think about what YQY in the other universe must think. The person you failed to rescue did heal and become better, but he has forgotten everything about your past with him, and loves another man. But YQY doesn't even know that Shen Jiu is gone, the person you love is gone. And he is the only one that missed that person. Gahhhhhh. I don't even know if it's crueler to leave him in the dark or let him know. And YQY died in the original universe thinking he has utterly failed SJ and that he hates him. He brought out the sword to let SJ kill him in their last meeting and SJ said that even his death would not fix anything. YQY is my favorite and since we never get to hear his inner thoughts, and can only read between the lines, this is my reading on him. I think the reason YQY doesn't meddle in SJ's problem but just silently protects him from the background is because of what SJ said to him before. Reading back to the flashback when YQY promised to come back, SJ blames him that if YQY had not tried to save the other boy, SJ would have not been captured, he told YQY to keep calm and become less impulsive. And YQY did blame himself for it. This is from that scene: " Some time passed, then Shen Jiu sighed. “Qi-ge, you really gotta be less impulsive in the future. You mess up every single time. This time I was the unlucky one, but if you’re still like this in the future after joining those immortal sects, what are you gonna do? You gotta keep calm!” He was lecturing someone older than him, and at such a tender age too. It was somehow comical. Yet the other youth didn’t seem the slightest bit unhappy. Instead he said earnestly, “I’ll remember.”" And this is when he confessed to Shen Yuan: “Even though I wanted to return as soon as possible, even though I wanted to come get you immediately…I made a mess of things instead. You were right. In the end, I’m an impulsive person…" ... “However…those times at Jin Lan City and during Luo Binghe’s siege of the mountain, I kept calm and took the big picture into account… Thinking back on it, it would have been better…to be impulsive.” YQY also has problems expressing his emotions. It was from a young age: "According to the orders given to them, Yue Qi should have wailed and wept, but no matter what, he never could manage to cry. Therefore, this task had instead fallen to Shen Jiu" He could not cry, he could not express his vulnerability. While SJ also has problems expressing his feelings, he covers his vulnerable sides with bitterness and hateful remarks, YQY uses his calm demeanor to do so. He is so broken, so hurt, so guilty inside, but he has to always "keep calm" and "less impulsive". Because that's the reason why he failed SJ the first time right? When SJ asked about his traumatic year in the cave, he became quiet and silently shaking. It scarred him so badly but he still thinks that is just his failure and he needs to be better. The only times he let himself show even a bit of vulnerability is when he thought he was dying and confessed to Shen Yuan, and in this chapter set when SJ said that there was no chance of redemption, meaning to YQY that no matter what he did, he could never saved SJ from the very beginning: "All of Yue Qingyuan’s composure, poise, and demeanor had disappeared, as if he’d aged many years in an instant. And when Shen Qingqiu saw this, a strange sensation suddenly welled inside his heart. It was probably pity. The stalwart mountain that never changed, the eternally calm and collected Sect Leader Yue of Cang Qiong Mountain, was at this moment so wretched, so browbeaten, that Shen Qingqiu couldn’t help but feel pity." I don't think if YQY had told SJ the truth about why he did not come, it would not resolve all of their problems. They both have so much trauma and problems communicating. But it would help out a bunch!! It would at least give them a chance!! They are both soooooo incredibly unkind to themselves. SJ thinks he is rotten to the core and there is no chance for him to get helped, he thinks that getting comfort is shameful. And YQY is so guilty to the point that he thinks confessing that is just making up excuses, and that his failure can never be forgiven. They can never heal if these are not addressed. The reading you have on Shen Jiu being SA is also very common among the fandom. His reaction with men and the way he copes with it hints very heavily at that. SJ can be read as straight as you said, there's nothing wrong with that. However, I read SJ as gay and did love YQY back, but he is so heavily traumatized by men and his relationship with YQY is so broken that we cannot even discuss love at this point before getting through the other stuff. Their love for each other cannot fix their issues. MXTX uses "They pass each other by" in volume 3 to talk about three relationships: Tianlang jun and Su Xiyan, Luo Binghe and Shen Yuan, and finally YQY and SJ. The other two are romantic and I don't think Qijiu is an exception here. His tendency to be beside women is to be comforted. He came to Qiu Haitang to be comforted after his beating. He came to the brothel to be comforted by the women there. I didn't read it as anything romantic. More evidence to support this is when we looked back when Shen Yuan and LQG went to have their love fortune read, there was this bit: "The longer Madam Meiyin looked at the petals, the more solemn her expression became. Finally, she said, distressed, “Sir, about the red thread from your past—my skill is insufficient, so I can’t…see it clearly. At first glance, it seemed like you were alone, but if I look carefully, I can catch a faint glimpse of another thread.” She concluded regretfully, “This thread has been cut… Such a pity.” Shen Jiu had once had a fiancée, but Shen Yuan was a single dog! Their two threads were tangled together, so it was no surprise that the madam couldn’t see it all clearly. Shen Qingqiu expressed his understanding. “Don’t worry about the past. If the madam doesn’t mind, please look into my future.”" The popular interpretation of this is that Shen Yuan did not know about SJ's past at that point. The string that was broken was not between Qiu Haitang and SJ, but it was between YQY and SJ. That's why you can see a lot of fanworks with a broken red string of fate. There was love there, they were fated to be together, but the thread was faint, it was cut, and it ended in disaster.
Pancake
2024-12-23 17:41:24 +0000 UTCHonestly I’ve always found the story of shen jiu and yue qi to be more interesting than binghe and shen yuan. Also another parallel between shen jiu and binghe in theoriginal plot is how they surround themselves with women, seemingly out of sexual desire when really women represent safety to them but they are too ashamed to admit it. Shen jiu is such a well written character and a tragic example of how trauma can shape a person. Also he perpetuates a cycle of abuse that goes from the brother to Shen jiu to luo binghe. Hurt people hurt people. It’s sad that no matter what Shen jiu can never have a happy ending.
Zachiel
2024-12-23 16:31:07 +0000 UTC
