Grand Unified Theories of Shen Xi

[extrapenguin]

I have sent out inquiries about house showings! Only two places at first, but: progress.

To tide me over the anxious wait, I invite you to tell me your grand unified theories* of Shen Xi, Zhao Yunlan's mother, based on the few scenes of drama evidence we get of her! She wants her husband to pay more attention to her son, but how much arguing with one's husband over one's son is considered normative in the modern age? I, personally, find her strong-willed, but do you think she'd be strong-willed about things other than the proper treatment of her son? Do you think she shares her husband's prejudice against Dixingians? Did she know about Zhang Shi? /has perhaps unwisely chosen to tackle something related to her in fic

* Small sub-theories also welcome.

Comments

[jo_lasalle]

Woo, house inquiries! Exciting!

I don't get enough of an impression of Zhao Yunlan's mom to have strong views. I do think it's heavily implied that they were close, and my impression of her is "generally positive", which would include her having her own views and standing up for her son. But that's circumstantial from how Zhao Yunlan seems to feel about her, and sons of dead mothers are probably not super objective.

Since we see no indication that she knew about Zhan Shi, my default assumption would be that she didn't. I think you could spin fic based on that idea, but in the absence of a canon indication, I don't think this would be my "standard" assumption.

Do you think she shares her husband's prejudice against Dixingians?

Interesting question! No idea...

[extrapenguin]

But that's circumstantial from how Zhao Yunlan seems to feel about her, and sons of dead mothers are probably not super objective.
Yeah. I assume that what we see in canon isn't too super biased, so she was a decent enough mom, but we don't exactly get much backstory for her. I don't think I'll have her already know about Zhang Shi – that'll be a thing she only discovers during the fic. :D