How cute is that part in the ending where CXS sees his carefree and innocent self from back then, while now he realizes how much LG was suffering at that moment? Oh, I can’t wait to see this in the series.
Guys, I recommend listening to the full version of the new ending because after listening to it a couple of times, I have to say it really grew on me. (It doesn’t beat Overthink or The Tides, but it’s really nice), especially the ending part.
I just wanted to share my translated version of "Time" with you all (just to make you cry a little), especially for anyone who hasn't had the chance to listen to or read the full song yet, because I honestly think it's absolutely beautiful.
I have to admit that I was a little disappointed at first because, personally, I was really hoping we'd get another hip-hop/rock track. Some songs from this series are among the most-played tracks in my playlist. But I completely changed my mind. After listening to it several times and translating it myself, I can only admit how incredible it is. It's so emotional that it almost makes me cry, and the singer is absolutely perfect for portraying Cheng Xiaoshi.
That said, I want to point out that this is my own personal translation, so some parts will differ from the version on the wiki. I'd say mine is a bit closer to the original Chinese, although depending on the line I sometimes had to choose between staying faithful to the wording or conveying what I felt (and, well, AI agreed haha) was the intended meaning.
You'll probably notice that some repeated lines aren't translated exactly the same way every time. That's because Chinese is an incredibly challenging language (I translate song lyrics as a hobby, so I've learned that the hard way haha). It often leaves the subject unstated and rarely marks verb tenses, so it's frequently impossible to tell whether a sentence refers to the past or the present, who is performing the action, or whether it's meant to be reflexive, and so on. Whenever the lyrics repeat, I like to take the opportunity to express a slightly different nuance in English so that, together, the repeated lines capture the full range of possible meanings.
I also want to mention that I normally translate into my native language first and only afterward translate my work into English so that more people can enjoy it. Since English isn't my first language, I apologize if some parts sound a little unnatural or less fluent than they would in everyday English.
This video is copyrighted, so please do not upload or repost it anywhere.
I want to share a few thoughts, but they're in no particular order, so apologies if it all comes out a bit messy. These are considerations that came up after rewatching the series ahead of Season 3, now with the knowledge of everything we currently know — and also from the songs, which I've personally translated over time and uploaded to a YouTube channel.
Fair warning: this will be a very long post, since I preferred to put everything into one instead of making several separate ones.
1) Bridon — was it really Lu Guang's first attempt?
A lot of people have (rightly) pointed out that it's unclear whether Lu Guang went back to Bridon for the first time in that arc, or after many previous attempts. Haoling has said that the events of Bridon lead directly into S1 and S2, to the point that Lu Guang is convinced Vein died in this timeline. This confused a lot of people, because Lu Guang's reactions in Bridon made it seem like he was going back for the first time — which isn't possible, so it felt a bit inconsistent.
I used to think those reactions were simply exaggerated for the sake of the plot, since it would've been less emotional to watch an unfazed Lu Guang reliving the exact same events for the umpteenth time. But I noticed a detail I somehow missed before: Lu Guang has that mental "gear" imagery, like he's built himself a kind of mental whiteboard of events. I think that the threads he connects to the various photos are his attempts to change things — he's marked with those threads where every attempt led.
As for the "threads of fate" leading to Bridon, they're blocked. The gears have been locked (presumably by Lu Guang himself), and every time Cheng Xiaoshi "gets close" to Bridon (like when he finds the photo), those gears seem to want to start moving but can't, because the threads are holding them back. It's only when Lu Guang tells Cheng Xiaoshi he'll go with him to Bridon that we see him snap one of those threads, finally freeing the gears to move — and he says, "This time I can't fail."
So my theory is that Lu Guang tried to change the events of Bridon before, more than once, and it always went badly — so he decided to stop bringing Cheng Xiaoshi to Bridon at all (hiding the photo, for instance), hoping to protect him that way. He "locked" that part of fate for a long time, until he realized that if he wanted to succeed, he had no choice but to face that section without failing — and since this was his last attempt, he was forced to go through with it. So I think Lu Guang hadn't gone back to Bridon in a long time, and that for him it's always been a huge trauma, which is why we see him act the way he does. Just a theory, but it would make everything make sense.
2) Is Lu Guang a fugitive — or someone being hunted?
This one's more personal and interpretive — I tend to build a lot of theories from the song lyrics (which, honestly, spoil half the plot), but then there aren't always enough elements in the show itself to support them. Maybe I'm reading too much into a few lines.
That said, I've noticed several references to Lu Guang "staying off the radar," almost like he's a fugitive. The song they released for him in M.O.D. touches on this too. So I wonder if Lu Guang hasn't always been a time traveler — or at least someone heavily pursued by people wanting to study or seize these abilities.
There's just one line in the show that made me consider this: in S2, they specifically point out how he never posts anything and is completely invisible on social media. It felt oddly deliberate to highlight that so directly — especially since other things they underlined in that season (Lu Guang's phone PIN, or the line about "stealing abilities" that Li Tianchen says, which visibly scares Lu Guang even though he denies it) ended up being important later. I don't know, but it would be really cool either way — I'd love to see that kind of development.
3) The lyrics keep being eerily predictive
Not really a thought or a theory, just wanted to point out again how beautiful and predictive the song lyrics are. The full version of "Vortex" ends with these lines:
"I've held promises unbroken Even when the night has fallen Shattered mirrors our reflection Should you keep the light on reason? I've held promises unbroken (Ooh) Shattered mirrors our reflection Let it un', let it un', let it un', let it unfold"
This is clearly Lu Guang's POV, keeping the promise he and Cheng Xiaoshi made to each other, even though Cheng Xiaoshi no longer remembers him — and there's that recurring reference to the "long night" they're facing together, which keeps coming back, even in the newest opening.
The new OP opens with Cheng Xiaoshi saying: "How am I supposed to answer?" I honestly think this is a callback to "Lull," where Lu Guang keeps asking how he can find relief from such a painful feeling, and eventually says:
"When will it finally be as I wish? Returned to the starting point countless times What words Could ever bring me comfort?"
So I think Cheng Xiaoshi is answering him in this new song, basically saying "how could I ever answer that." Nothing else, just wanted to make you all a little depressed — don't thank me.
4) The recurring falling leaf motif
I just wanted to note the recurring imagery of falling leaves that keeps popping up. In "Overthink": "Unconsciously looked at my right hand / That fallen leaf brushed past my sleeve / Didn't have time to collect this day / How did my gaze get stolen again?" I think this is Cheng Xiaoshi speaking, because "gaze" in Chinese is mùguāng, which can also mean "light of the eyes" — and Lu Guang's name means "light." So I think it's a play on words meaning his "light" was stolen — his best friend.
In "Lull": "That crimson maple leaf? / Its falling point impossible to predict / Spreading through the seams of time" — and again in the new OP: "It was only when I picked up that fallen leaf that I realized: I myself had never been able to change."
I just find it an interesting recurring reference — I think it might be a metaphor for death (Lu Guang's, maybe?). Curious what you all think. As for the train tracks references, I won't even get into it, since they've been there since the very first OP and clearly mean something — we'll find out soon enough.
5) Plot holes and things I'd like explained
The characters' ages still make absolutely no sense to me, and I think it's the show's biggest plot hole. How can Cheng Xiaoshi be 21, have gone to university, and be friends with Xu Shanshan, who — on top of university with them — also did two more years of grad school? Lu Guang is even younger, so it's even worse. I tried looking into how this could work in China, but it's genuinely hard to make it believable.
Another thing — not really a plot hole, but something I wish they'd address — is why they don't just go back and take unlimited photos to get unlimited attempts. Fine, I get that they can't change anything, and that applies to Cheng Xiaoshi. But Lu Guang, who by this point has thrown every rule out the window and says this is his last chance (I'll assume he doesn't have other photos) — why not just take 100 more? I get that the show would become impossible to write if he could, but they could at least say something like "you can't go back into the same 12-hour window with a different photo," or whatever. Tell me I only have 12 hours and I'll believe it, tell me you can't take photos of the past and I'll accept that too — just say it, haha.
6) A random bit of trivia
Something I often see people asking about on YouTube: when Chen Bin's wife says doctors aren't allowed to reveal the baby's sex, it might seem strange to a lot of us — but China has a very patriarchal history and also enforced the well-known one-child policy. Because of this, families wanting a son sometimes chose to abort if they found out they were expecting a daughter. To prevent this, it became illegal for doctors to disclose a baby's sex without proper justification. I'm not sure if this is still the case today — the show is recent, so maybe it still is — but either way, that's where it comes from.
Sorry, I have a real illness when it comes to the songs in this show.
I don’t think I’ve read this opinion around. Let me explain better, I don’t think he had planned it beforehand or anything like that, I simply think that in that moment he couldn’t do it anymore and stopped singing.
I’ve read pretty much everywhere that Till let himself die because without Mizi his life had no meaning. Purely logically, I don’t think that’s the case. First of all Till doesn’t know whether Mizi is alive or dead, he knows she disappeared, sure I’d say he can probably think the worst but since the alternative to losing in Alien Stage means instant death, actually the perspective of “disappearance” should give a bit of hope. Anyway this isn’t that important.
Till hits his own image when he sees his pairing against Ivan, I assume he is not comfortable at all facing him. It’s true that he appears depressed and sings for Mizi but it’s also true that the direction shots make us understand that Till is listening to Ivan while he sings but absolutely does not look at him (well, summary of their whole relationship, obviously), however I think this has to do with the fact that he is in extreme difficulty facing him and listens to him in pain, so at a certain point he stops singing. Ivan immediately notices and takes action.
I think this because anyway, against Luka, Till gives everything of himself despite now having lost Ivan too besides Mizi. We know he starts the match already in an emotionally suffering state because the light of his microphone is red from the beginning, despite this he gives it his all even if he then gets overwhelmed. So Till wants to live in my opinion, he absolutely does not want to die, sure he is suffering and traumatized but he still tries to face it.
I can’t see Till as someone who does not cling to life and gives up, even after losing everyone he faces his trauma, works to save other children and somehow “heals.” So simply for me he stopped singing and let himself be overwhelmed by Ivan without resisting (when he was strangling him) because it was Ivan and not because he had given up on living and that’s it.
A bit as if he thought that there wasn’t much point in trying hard to win if then he would be the cause of his friend’s death, regardless of what Ivan thought of him. I simply think Till couldn’t handle facing him and froze because of this, not because of Mizi.
Anyway obviously it’s many things together not just one, but even without Mizi’s disappearance in my opinion Till would have done the same and Ivan too.
Maybe it’s a stupid post but I’ve read so many times the idea that Till was simply surrendering to death because of Mizi’s disappearance that it almost feels like I’m the only one who made this reasoning, and it feels strange to me because this way it seems like the match against Ivan is irrelevant, as if he were just another one and Till were in his “Mizi bubble” and barely cared about who his opponent was.
I’m curious to know what other works are favorites among Link Click fans, and whether there are recurring names or similarities. I think it’s interesting for understanding the fandom better and, why not, maybe discovering new things that match my tastes. If this is off topic, I’ll delete the post.
I have the feeling there will be a lot of recurring names, and I’m really curious to see if I’m right 😂. I'll start:
In general, I don't restrict myself to any specific genre and I'm always looking for something different. I didn't include it in my favorites, but another donghua that truly resonated with me is Scissor Seven. Highly recommend it!
Hi, I watched this mini-series yesterday, and I had absolutely no idea it even existed. I tend to watch random things and it just happened to appear on YouTube — it completely enchanted me. So I have a couple of questions for the community:
1 — First of all, have I seen everything there is to see? Is it just the music videos on YouTube? Are they planning a sequel or something similar?
2 — Is there anything similar you could recommend? I absolutely loved the format.
3 — Can someone help me understand the ending? Because I’m still confused. >!Is Till alive? The pink-haired girl hears his heartbeat and asks the people who I assume are part of the revolutionary group to take him away and save him. Is there any news about her and Luka? Are they dead or alive? Adult Till helps save other children — is it a coincidence that they look so much like them as kids? Are they clones made from their blood or is it just a coincidence? Honestly, the whole clone thing isn’t very clear to me.!<
>!Why did they shoot Luka? Sure, he’s not exactly trustworthy, but he’s still a victim just like them, so why shoot him only to end up killing their friend too?!<
>!And lastly (sorry, I know that’s a lot of questions), what exactly did the pink-haired girl do at the end? I understood that she turned against her own companions to take the computer and destroy everything, but then I wondered what they were actually trying to do, because I thought that was their goal too.!<
Thanks to anyone who has the patience to answer me (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)