Alright, so most of us have been going off of the assumption that the primary reasons why Lu Guang isn’t saying anything about the time traveling and their impending deaths are 1.) to not derail the timeline any further and keep as much control of it as possible, and 2.) to try and shoulder all these burdens by himself, which are of course true on many levels…but the scenes of Lu Guang’s flashbacks in the new episode also suggests a secret third, evil option (or at least, as I’ve interpreted it), because of course it does:
…that perhaps, Lu Guang has actually already tried to open up about it in a previous timeline, and Cheng Xiaoshi didn’t take it well, which could be another, major reason why he still won’t say anything about it even when it’s already clear to both Qiao Ling and Cheng Xiaoshi that he is hiding things, because he feels like they (or at least Cheng Xiaoshi) won’t believe him, or possibly deal with it in a way that is detrimental to Cheng Xiaoshi’s own survival. That is the possible, currently implied context behind his “I’m perfectly fine, why won’t you believe me!?” line.
It’s also—god—I’m sorry to point this out, but it also reminds me of Lu Guang completely shutting up when Lu Dashan confronts him about the information from a photo that he had failed to talk about, or when he secretly tries to learn more about his own background, and how he was treated as a disobedient failure and a scheming liar for these.
Of course, these aren’t at all the exact same situations as his fight with Cheng Xiaoshi—for one, Lu Guang is purposefully hiding things that others should know about this time, which probably makes him feel even worse about it—but I also don’t think that the parallels to be drawn here are entirely coincidental, and this could very well be another part of the reason why Lu Guang won’t say anything, why he’s avoidant of this kind of confrontation in general, and why he tends to keep things to himself and go behind everyone’s backs as a way to deal with and/or avoid issues—e.g. him hiding Emma’s death, the Sichuan Earthquake case, him taking Cheng Xiaoshi’s place in S2, and the time-traveling in general—because confrontation has been accompanied by severe retaliation and violence in the past, which taught him to shut up about and hide things. And all of this makes it even more painful that it’s Cheng Xiaoshi who’s confronting him right now, and that they have possibly fought about it in a worse way in a previous timeline, even though Cheng Xiaoshi’s reaction is pretty understandable because this would all still be a fucked up, hard-to-accept thing to learn about.
And it’s very interesting to me how Qiao Ling knows that something is very wrong, she’s already tried to voice this out, and yet she’s also willing to momentarily cover for Lu Guang when it’s Cheng Xiaoshi who confronts him about it.
She tells Cheng Xiaoshi not to rush it, that they need to take a break, and she even tries to make an—although honestly weak—on-the-spot excuse for Lu Guang, saying that he could’ve just forgotten to mention very important information about how their powers work. It’s like, she wants to talk about it, but not like this, so she’s trying to do some damage control by attempting to make Cheng Xiaoshi to put it down for the moment.
Perhaps she already knows on some level that Cheng Xiaoshi might not take Lu Guang’s secret very well (both through knowing him, and very possibly through having seen Lu Guang’s memories of their fight about it, among other things), at least not initially. Even though she still doesn’t have direct and concrete confirmation of what’s happening, Lu Guang’s own memories I’d say are enough for her to put the big pieces together, though it’s also very possible that she herself is on some level in-denial about it.
It also feels as though Qiao Ling has done some recalibration about how to approach this entire situation, not just because of Cheng Xiaoshi’s possible unfavorable reaction to it, but also probably because of seeing Lu Guang cry when she first tried to confront him about it,
which I feel is probably a rare thing for her to witness given how calm and composed Lu Guang usually presents himself as. And if what she’s been able to see goes as far back as his childhood, then that could easily add to it as well.
…he’s struggling even harder to keep it all in.
