Guardian timeline

[extrapenguin]

Based on the 2019 rewatchalongs (links). The duration in days is an estimation, and generally doesn't include any of the non-case matters in the episodes, which might've taken up a day or so.

Months from start	Case	Episodes	Lasts (days)
0	Sundial/intro	1, 2	4?
	Rapid aging	3	2
0.5	Face stealer	3, 4	2
	Bathroom kidnappings	5	3+
	Mirror girl	5, 6	4
	Webnovel murder	7	2 (3?)
1	Ding Dun	8	2?
	Hanga arc	9-11	3?
	Doom sounds/identity reveal	11-14	4?
	Cong Bo	14, 15	2
3	Soil/Dixing trip	15-17	3-4
4
5
6	Fight Club/Zhu Jiu endgame	17-20	3
6.5	Miracle doctor	21, 22	5?
	Dixing's new king	22, 23	2?
	Video game	23, 24	2
	Personality change	24, 25	4
	Da Ji/MOMB identity	26	4?
	Merit Brush endgame	27-29	5-ish
	Shen Wei pillar BDSM	30	-
	Zhu Hong dream	31	2
	Chu Shuzhi dream	32,33	3
	Shen Wei pillar rescue	33	(6? days of BDSM)
	SID disbanding	34	1
	Time travel	34-35	2 (in the present)
9.5	Mi Lu/Yashou branch (wick search)	37, 38	1?
	Endgame showdown	38-40	1? 2?
21.5	Epilogue	40	1?

Other notes:

• I'm relatively sure that there was a timeskip between the doom sounds/identity reveal case and the visit to Dixing, beyond the canon minimum of 2-3 days, since Zhu Jiu needs time to heal up a bit and the doom sounds seems to flow straight from the Hanga stuff, which flows straight from the 1-month marker. So the identity reveal would be under 2 months in?


• The time travel segment in the past was probably about a month, since that's the amount of time it takes to make baijiu, but they were excised from the present for 2 days.


• The endgame showdown with Ye Zun is probably on the same day as the Yashou branch thing, and the entire stretch from the Merit Brush endgame to the end is one segment without significant timeskips.

Comments

[cyberbrain]

This is amazing! Thank you for putting it together! <3

[extrapenguin]

I hope you get lots of use from it!

[ratbones]

Ooh, I started trying to make one of these and then got fed up. Thank you for doing the hard work for us!

[extrapenguin]

Ha, yeah, it's definitely something best done as a rewatchalong byproduct rather than for itself. I hope you have fun with it!

[trobadora]

Thanks for putting this together!

[extrapenguin]

<3

[plingo_kat]

Aa, so useful! Thanks for putting it together!

[extrapenguin]

I hope you get lots of use from it!

[maggie33]

This is very useful for future fic writing. Thanks for making it. And "6? days of BDSM" made me laugh. Great description. :D

[extrapenguin]

I'm happy to hear it's useful! And yeah, Ye Zun did just noncon BDSM his brother for several days. I'd have to rewatch the cases to see just how the bondaging overlaps with the Zhu Hong case, but it's Zhu Hong + Chu Shuzhi dreams at least, plus an extra 1-2 days depending on the cutoffs.

[china_shop]

Ooh, this is awesome! \o/

and the doom sounds seems to flow straight from the Hanga stuff

There's a couple of days between them, I think? According to solo's subs:

Zhu Hong: Lao Chu went [to the bathroom], too?
Lin Jing: These last two days, the two of them have been living on the toilet.

And Da Qing says to ZYL, "Since you got back, have you been in touch with Professor Shen?" which sounds to me like it's been more than a day.

[extrapenguin]

...yes? The doom sounds seem to start immediately after the tail end of the Hanga arc, which is 1-2 days after Zhao Yunlan left an unconscious Shen Wei in the mountains with the students. (As opposed to there being a week+ of time in between.)

[waterscroll]

Oh thank you! This will help me follow what is going on as I finish the rest of the series.

...but it's so sad that they have so little time together...

[extrapenguin]

I'm glad you like it! ...yeah, they know each other for a total time of less than a year. Poor things. Well, that's what canon divergence is for?

[solo]

This is an amazing resource, thank you so much for doing all that hard work!

[extrapenguin]

I hope you get lots of use from it!

[tinny]

so basically, the thing that took the longest *in the whole show* was Shen Wei being tied to a pillar. /o\ Yeah, that sounds about right. *sigh*

Also: I love the "this is how long it takes to make baijiu" explanation! Yes! Finally a scientific argument for how long he was in the past. Thank you! \o/

[extrapenguin]

I mean, that's also the thing with the greatest uncertainty, since it depends on the transitions between cases, not just the case lengths themselves. I'd have to rewatch to see whether the Zhu Hong case starts on the same night that Shen Wei gets tied to the pillar, frex. But at least 4 days? (And Shen Wei was very aesthetically appealing while tied to a pillar! He made a bunch of excellent noises as well.)

[tehfanglyfish]

THANK YOU for this!! You made my life a thousand times easier <3

[extrapenguin]

I'm glad you found it useful!