时光代理人 – 091305

The following analysis draws screenshots, quotes, lyrics, themes, characters and evidence from 时光代理人 Season 2 Episode 12, Yingdu Arc Episode 1, Season 3 Episode 4 and Season 2 Episode 1.

时光代理人 is owned by Li Haoling, and produced by LAN studio and CMC media with the help of Haoliners Animation League. The donghua airs on Bilibili with the assistance of BeDream Studios.

First, a short disclaimer. I haven’t been active as I have been working on a series of blogs studying Lu Guang’s character, but also because I found myself wanting to sit back and process Part 1 of Season 3 as a whole before making any judgements on individual episodes. During the break before Part 2, I will start writing blogs regularly again. Until then, I will work at my own pace. Thank you for your understanding!

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Happy 091305, everybody. I thought I’d post a little something for the occasion, but also because there is new knowledge on this particular scene, meaning it’s time to revisit. I know we’ll be seeing more at a later point, but there’s only one chance at posting this on the 13th, so let’s just go for it.

The first time we see – I’ll be blunt – Cheng Xiaoshi dying, it’s in the first episode of Season 2. I never saw anybody really talking about it, because it was only shown briefly during a sequence where everybody was convinced Lu Guang was under threat of death instead. A clever deviation, considering it was never brought back up. Genuinely, we still haven’t seen that particular rendition of the scene. Here, Lu Guang remembers holding Cheng Xiaoshi on his lap as he bleeds out. In the one we’ve seen, they’re not that close to each other, holding hands instead. What’s actually interesting about the entirety of the first part of this episode is the sort of glitched, sketchy style it takes on. It also adapts this on Lu Guang’s expression, where at precisely 2 minutes and 35 seconds into the first episode, you can see a red outline break free from his face and scream. You can hear the scream as well, distorted, and even see that the outline is crying very heavily. I think this is a memory of some other timeline where he reacted this way, possibly even the first. I’ve included the most obvious image below and also a drawing, albeit a bad one, for those who can’t see the vision.

Depending on whether Lu Guang’s real expression in this is current time or a flashback, this short clip alone could be depicting two other timelines that have already been shown to us before it was even revealed Cheng Xiaoshi is dead.

The next time this whole scenario presents itself again is in Season 2 Episode 12, where in the last few minutes it’s revealed via the imagery of Lu Guang clapping that Cheng Xiaoshi must be dead. That activation is purely for Xiaoshi’s power, and in that same episode we learnt powers can only be transferred through death. Lu Guang solidifies this fact with a speech about how he’s sorry, how he’s breaking his own rules, but he must save him. This moment happens at 00:05 on the 13th of September, marking that date as the reoccurring moment of Cheng Xiaoshi’s death. This number came up earlier in the season as 091305, Lu Guang’s phone passcode.

Ever since then, the show has been very focused on this, with Yingdu Arc serving as a prequel all about Lu Guang, Cheng Xiaoshi and this ‘death node.’

There are theories about how powers transfer, but it seems to be through physical touch. I don’t think there was one moment where these two let go of each other that entire scene, which must of served as a sort of gateway for the power to be exchanged.

Actually, I think the composition really puts a direct focus on it. The shot of their eyes is pretty symbolic also, I once read it was like the yellow in Cheng Xiaoshi’s eyes was snuffed out like a flame, and the yellow in Lu Guang’s welled up like tears. A spark fading and the grief that started as a result of it.

Now, if we backtrack a little, I want to talk about timelines. Our favourite thing. I’ll try and make it as easy to understand as possible, but as far as I’m aware, we have been shown multiple different timelines already – just fragments of them.

First of all, in Season 2 Episode 12, when Lu Guang claps out, that’s entirely different from Yingdu Episode 1.

Now, you could argue it’s because it’s different animation studios, or a different season. Both of those would be valid. But a huge one for me is that in Season 2, the one below, I don’t think Lu Guang is actually injured himself. Instead of a hole, the blood on his shirt looks like a stain. It’s likely Xiaoshi’s blood instead of his own. Say this is the timeline where he held Xiaoshi’s head on his lap, it would explain the position of the blood on his shirt. In Yingdu, the top, he is panting and actively clutching what does look like an open wound in his stomach. Even more so, his eyes are yellow there, unlike Season 2. Sure, it could be for plot reasons. But in Season 2, when he claps, both hands are clean. In Yingdu, one is bloody, because he was holding his wound. Only an open wound would cause active blood flow, no wonder both hands are clean in Season 2 – he wasn’t clutching a wound, it’s a dry stain.

In Season 3 Episode 4, instead of standing still, Vein starts kicking the door to the darkroom and shouting. When Lu Guang presses up against the door, one hand is bloody already, probably from contact with Cheng Xiaoshi. When he steps outside, it is 23:13 on his watch (Xiaoshi dies at 23:11) and he immediately goes over to pick up a piece of wood and follow Vein. He has no wound, and we can now see that in fact, both of his hands are covered in blood.

Outside, Wang Qing kills Vein in front of Lu Guang, who is stunned. These events take place in 2021, the usual time of the node, if we look at their outfits. Lu Guang explains how this was the first time he realized Wang Qing was capable of killing Vein. This means, Lu Guang did not kill Vein in Yingdu, making these events in S3 another timeline. In fact, this same timeline is shown again later by Lu Guang, where instead of taking to Vein to delay him, he grabs him – which initiates violence.

For a moment it looks like the death node is about to happen early. Vein and Lu Guang are posed in exactly the same positions. But, like always, Xiaoshi intervenes. After seeing what Wang Qing can do, on his next loop, Lu Guang takes advantage of this by delaying Vein with pointless chatter to ensure Wang Qing kills him at exactly the moment he wants.

That still leaves the question of his injury, and the hour between Xiaoshi’s death and Lu Guang’s dive. I saw people asking in regard to Season 3, if Vein is now dead, who injures Lu Guang? But who’s to say that happens, if it only happened before in another timeline? So far, Yingdu is the only version where Lu Guang has an injury.

Let me get one thing clear. Yingdu’s 091305 cannot be our current timeline. It’s not. Because if it was, Cheng Xiaoshi would already be dead. They are in their Season 1 outfits. That was the last timeline. When Lu Guang dives at the end of this, he dives into our current timeline. Which means this flashback from Season 3 and the ones in Season 2 are already from a couple of timelines ago.

After the events of Yingdu, Lu Guang makes his choice to kill (indirectly) Vein, which is why Cheng Xiaoshi is not dead, and did not die in our Season 1. He was able to delay this node. But considering Wang Qing’s power is only temporary, Lu Guang as only just realized in the last episode – Season 3 Episode 6 – that Vein is alive and this node is now approaching again a year late, in 2022.

Now, a few timelines ago, in the flashback Season 3 showed us, Vein also died, but he died after Cheng Xiaoshi. This could mean he does actually have a death node by the hands of Wang Qing, and all Lu Guang needs to do is shimmy it forward a bit, which he succeeded in. But it seems that Vein’s death node does not prevent Cheng Xiaoshi’s. We know that Xiaoshi dies on the 13th of September every timeline, but is it always in the hands of Vein? What makes it a node and how much can it be altered?

In the latest episode, it’s implied Lu Guang has some sort of scheme to try and sabotage Vein as a child now he has access to him through a dive with Xiaoshi. There’s… so many reasons why this is the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard, and it’s pretty damn shocking as well to see Lu Guang – who’s supposed to be a good person – debating something so dark. I’m working on a blog about the morality of Lu Guang’s character, but I will wait until Part 1 is over to post it.

Most of this blog has been a bit of a ramble rather than an analysis, which is fine, I just wanted to get my suspicions out about the timeline situation. There’s far too many plot holes regarding Vein, Wang Qing and even Cheng Xiaoshi himself to make any complicated analysis on 091305 just yet. The only motives we know are from Lu Guang, which makes the situation unreliable and one sided. For example, how did Cheng Xiaoshi even know the specific moment to jump in front of the bullet to save Lu Guang? There’s a theory that both of them are revisiting this moment, unknown to each other.

Once I get my hands on even the slightest bit of extra information, I can try and formulate a proper timeline. Until then, thank you for reading!