Back on my shuangjie agenda but like I feel that WWX and JC do not ever call each other “brothers” “martial brothers” or “friends” “liege/subordinate” in the novel, and it’s for a reason. Their relationship cannot really be described in words.

If I call you my brother, it ignores the fact that you’re my best friend. If I call you my best friend, it doesn’t convey that you’re the closest thing I have to a brother. Neither does justice to the bond they have, and shi-xiong/di and liege/subordinate don’t for sure.

Thus, they refer to ea other exclusively by name and not by relation, and the times they’ve ever been like “he’s my shidi” or “he’s my shixiong” (if these instances exist at all) seem rare and limited to trying to explain to OTHER PPL what their relationship is in nameable terms.

With shuangjie, there are so many conflicting and intertwined ties of brotherhood, friendship, fealty. The hierarchy is all fucked up. Is JC the superior bc he’s the liege? No, bc WWX is also his older brother figure. It WWX the superior bc he’s the older bro? No, bc JC is liege.

But would you say they are equal? Not really because there’s the fealty thing, and also the older-younger brother thing. And even tho their friendship seems to transcend these hierarchies, they aren’t JUST friends. They are also all of the above. They all overlap.

Idk have y’all ever had a person so important to you that you don’t actually know the right word to call them? I once had someone who it never felt right calling “my friend” “my best friend” “my sibling”. We used to call each other “my twin” in private actually.

Sometimes when you care so deeply about someone, it really transcends your own understanding of platonic/romantic, and the ability to of language to convey emotions. It’s defo not romantic, but it doesn’t seem platonic either. It’s not just familial, but it’s also not friendship.

So I feel I’m projecting a little here but. FOREVER PUSHING THE ALTEROUS CHENGXIAN AGENDA.