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history3_trapped
It's time for all of us to come together and discuss our favorite pouty fox, Andy!
All we know about him is that he's the owner of a bar and club that Tang Yi frequents, he's one of Tang Yi's closest friends, he's got a boyfriend (who is apparently even closer to Tang Yi than he is), and he and Tang Yi might have had a thing going back in the day.
He's also not going to refuse an opportunity to one-up Meng Shao Fei whenever possible.
There's not much that is ever verified in canon, but there sure can be a lot of speculation!
The first time we encounter Andy, he's hanging off of Tang Yi's arm at the same bar that Unit Three are staking out so they can catch a drug dealer. Meng Shao Fei becomes immediately jealous of Tang Yi's casual intimacy with Andy.
Andy and Tang Yi are so close and comfortable with each other that sharing a kiss is NBD, and Andy doesn't even complain that much that Tang Yi is obviously using him to get at somebody else.
Later that night, when Shao Fei and Tang Yi go out to have some midnight tea(?) (is that even a thing?), we see Tang Yi string MSF along for a while. MSF's disappointment is palpable until TY finally reveals that he and Andy are just friends. He even shows an adorable picture of Andy and his partner, which allays MSF's fears and reassures him that yes, TY is single and available.
We encounter Andy again later when he's meeting up with Tang Yi to give him some information on who really abducted them, but not before he riles up both Li Zhi De and MSF with one little smirk.
The show uses him masterfully against LZD and MSF both, before giving us one of the funniest exchanges in the series where there are three grown men fighting over Tang Yi's attentions.
He's a great narrative foil for MSF to realize that he does have a crush on TY and that he is, maybe, a little jealous, but there could be much more to Andy's character that we never get to explore.
Who is he? How did he and Tang Yi meet? How long have they known each other?
Andy's character is wide open for exploration in fandom, so let's get talking!
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Date: 2 May 2020 12:56 (UTC)My headcanon is that Tang Yi absolutely definitely has slept with both Andy and his boyfriend. You don't get that kind of casual intimacy with someone unless you're *very* well acquainted with them in a naked way....
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Date: 2 May 2020 15:28 (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2 May 2020 15:57 (UTC)Hmmmm, running with this, maybe the other way around? Tang Yi saw this pretty, effeminate teen being bullied at school and was like uh, no??? and after growing up with fighting lessons from various henchmen in the gang, he wiped the floors with the bullies. Thus began the eventual Gay Posse!
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Date: 3 May 2020 15:48 (UTC)That's my take on it, and I'm always for more bi folks in media, so yay on that!
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Date: 3 May 2020 13:19 (UTC)That's my headcanon, too. I always read Tang Guo Dong as gay or bi. I also thought that he had feelings for Chen Wen Hao, but he probably never told anyone about it (including Chen Wen Hao).
Tang Yi saw this pretty, effeminate teen being bullied at school and was like uh, no??? and after growing up with fighting lessons from various henchmen in the gang, he wiped the floors with the bullies. Thus began the eventual Gay Posse!
This is a great idea. I love it. I'm here for for Tang Yi's Gay Posse, too. I would read all the fics. :)
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Date: 3 May 2020 15:49 (UTC)That seems not unlikely, imo. Which makes the keeping him in prison "for his own good" and the issues with Lizen that much more heartbreaking.
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Date: 3 May 2020 05:20 (UTC)and co-signed so very hard on the past naked!times.
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Date: 3 May 2020 15:51 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2 May 2020 15:50 (UTC)Love that pic of Tang Yi holding him while he fiddles with Tang Yi's collar. That casual comfort
I think Andy's completely on board with being used to get Tang Yi laid. Such a good friend! And also ugh ugh ugh their hands on each other's necks like that for the kiss makes my knees weak.
Do we ever learn what Andy's BF does for a living, like we do with Dr. Jiang's (which is uh, geology, right?)?
My headcanons:
Tang Yi floated Andy a significant amount of the start-up money to open the bar.
For years before Meng Shao Fei started moving in, Andy and BF happily served as Tang Yi's maintenance men.
After Tang Yi and Meng Shao Fei get married, Andy frequently teases MSF about a foursome because it makes MSF's ears go red and he gets all flustered and defensive. I don't know if MSF ever decides to go for it, but if he does, it's to try to bluff his way out and then realizes that uh-oh, he's really really turned on by all the attention.
I'd love to hear ideas on how Tang Yi met Andy, and how he met Andy's BF.
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Date: 2 May 2020 16:01 (UTC)Yes, this. So much this. Guh.
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Date: 2 May 2020 16:20 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2 May 2020 20:23 (UTC)I must have missed the geology thing? I thought that Dr. Jiang's boyfriend was working with some NGO, but I'm probably misremembering? (Was this in the novelization?)
I don't think we ever learn that Andy's BF does for a living, so we are all free to make up our own!
My headcanons:
Tang Yi floated Andy a significant amount of the start-up money to open the bar.
HEADCANONS ACCEPTED.
After Tang Yi and Meng Shao Fei get married, Andy frequently teases MSF about a foursome because it makes MSF's ears go red and he gets all flustered and defensive.
This is absolutely perfect and so totally what Andy would do.
I don't know if MSF ever decides to go for it, but if he does, it's to try to bluff his way out and then realizes that uh-oh, he's really really turned on by all the attention.
Just so you know, I would read the hell out of a foursome like that.
I'd love to hear ideas on how Tang Yi met Andy, and how he met Andy's BF.
I'd like to headcanons that Tang Yi and Andy are actually childhood friends, and that Andy's parents are former higher-ups in Xing Tiang Meng. I'd like to think that Andy's BF and Jiang Jin Tang joined up when they were in school, and they were like...this little gay mini-mafia running a lunch hustle in high school or something.
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Date: 2 May 2020 20:30 (UTC)I don't remember anything other than BF's away on business (in...Bali? oh dear) and he flies out (literally) in a jealous fit of pique. For some reason I thought this had to do with something? involving? digging? lololollll GUESS I'LL HAVE TO REWATCH IT.
Alas, I don't think I'm up for writing group sex where more than three people share pronouns. That sounds stressful af tbh. 😂
LOVE THE LUNCH ROOM GANG IDEA omg Tang Guo Dong would be so amused and fake-angry at finding out. (I bet Hong Ye's the one who starts it tho)
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Date: 2 May 2020 20:47 (UTC)Oh no, you're actually right! Hong Ye is actually the one that starts the school lunch hustle, and she actually has all the boys working for her! Tang Yi keeps them in line (and threatens the ones who can't pay for their orders), but Hong Ye has the organizational scheme and schedule. It involves a rotating timetable for who takes the orders in the morning, who the money goes to, and who has to leave class early so they can go to the local cafes and restaurants and pick up the food without the teachers figuring out what's going on.
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Date: 2 May 2020 21:01 (UTC)no subject
Date: 3 May 2020 01:35 (UTC)(i also remember that tang yi thanks dr. jiang at one point for his help and says something like "your family always comes through, and so do you" or something like that... so it's possible the doctor's family is/was connected to the mob at some point too?)
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Date: 3 May 2020 15:53 (UTC)no subject
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Date: 3 May 2020 12:31 (UTC)Also, the doc has a similar name and same surname to some characters in the other History series; so more relations?
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Date: 3 May 2020 15:54 (UTC)no subject
Date: 3 May 2020 18:08 (UTC)thank you for this info! (also i love your icon <3)
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Date: 3 May 2020 05:37 (UTC)Tang Yi floated Andy a significant amount of the start-up money to open the bar. - ooooh, tell me more about this pls? on the one hand, it would be so lovely if their "prequel" included andy turning away from mob life and going legit with tang yi's help. on the other hand... i also kinda like the idea of andy achieving his current status by his skills and wits and connections, because the vixen persona is almost too easy to put in the same box with dependence on others/lovers specifically. and i kinda like the idea of him as an independent agent in his life, perhaps even stubbornly so. and that he'd flirt so freely and shamelessly because he doesn't have to - ever.
For years before Meng Shao Fei started moving in, Andy and BF happily served as Tang Yi's maintenance men. - YES PLEASE. tho it feels like this arrangement probably stopped quite some time before, given the way andy reacts when tang yi kisses him? he's immediately suspicious and doesn't think for a moment that it could be genuine interest. so it feels like there was a definite ending to that part of their involvement at some point, and everybody was cool with it.
we hear the rumor that tang yi sleeps around quite a bit with both men and women. we also hear him say that his life consists almost entirely of connections with people within the gang. maybe he limits his involvement with andy and his bf because it's safer not to draw attention to them, and instead keeps his sex life sort of limited to hookups with gang members bc that's more practical?
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Date: 3 May 2020 16:03 (UTC)given the way andy reacts when tang yi kisses him? he's immediately suspicious
I think it's not unlikely Tang Yi has used Andy to make people jealous before. Andy being Andy is fine with anything that gives him an excuse to put his hands and mouth on Tang Yi in public.
we hear the rumor that tang yi sleeps around quite a bit with both men and women
I read that as a rumor that the police used to discredit him further. Hong Ye teases him about not finding women attractive, after all.
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Date: 3 May 2020 18:13 (UTC)Andy being Andy is fine with anything that gives him an excuse to put his hands and mouth on Tang Yi in public. - he is SUCH a relatable character :D :D :D
I read that as a rumor that the police used to discredit him further. Hong Ye teases him about not finding women attractive, after all. - this is a good point, thank you.
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Date: 2 May 2020 15:53 (UTC)They definitely had a relationship that was serious on Andy's part and casual on Tang Yi's part and they both knew that going in, and while they later realised it would never work out, Andy still sees flirting with Tang Yi as his right and Tang Yi... doesn't object? Pre-MSF, Tang Yi went to Andy's bar whenever soomeone else from another gang tries to beauty-trap Tang Yi, and the resulting catfight(s) pisses Andy off because he needs to re-decorate on account of all the broken furniture.
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Date: 2 May 2020 16:23 (UTC)LOL, who would? (not me, anyway)
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Date: 2 May 2020 17:37 (UTC)Perhaps some school bathroom dick inspection gets more interesting...?
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Date: 3 May 2020 04:45 (UTC)we meet andy in the last scene of episode 3. tang yi visits his club (we never learn its name, do we?) and asks him to find out who attacked him and msf. andy scolds him for staying away so long... but quickly remembers that every time tang yi visits his club, bad stuff happens, and that evening is no exception. the first scene in ep 4 wraps up the raid at andy's; he shows up again at the end of ep 4 / beginning of ep 5 with a follow-up to tang yi's request for info. so andy is technically in just two scenes in the show, but he makes quite an impression.
his few appearances firmly establish that tang yi and andy are the kind of close friends who do a LOT of casual touching, and that andy is THE homme fatal of the show's noir thriller component.
i love him with all my heart, y'all.
the show doesn't offer much information but it does provide some hints about andy's background:
1) in the glorious cinematic tradition of bar owners who also trade in information (from rick's cafe in casablanca to maz's tavern in star wars), andy is tang yi's main source of info - to the extent that when tang yi says he already knows something chen wenhao-related, andy gets professionally jealous that he's getting info from someone else. which means andy has insight/contacts in the mob world, but he stays out of it and wants to keep his club out of trouble too.
2) while watching the gangsters' arrests via club's security cameras, andy says something like "these people trying to sell drugs on my territory must really be tired of living" - which is 100% mob speak, so not only is he connected, he also apparently has the firepower at his disposal if any serious shit goes down.
3) however, when tang yi shows his picture to msf later, he says it's rare for him to have any pics of his friends on his phone - because very few of them can be photographed. so tang yi's friendship with andy and his bf is not the kind of connection that would implicate tang yi with any illegal activities... but it's obvious that andy is connected, and his bf must be VERY knowledgeable if not connected himself if he's an even closer friend of tang yi's than andy.
4) he may be a super aggressive flirt, but he also gives a much gentler massage than dr. jiang :D (cue shades of ken, the level three reiki healer from magic mike xxl, bless his earnest hippie socks).
now, for the headcanon:
there is NO DOUBT IN MY MIND that tang yi and andy totally hooked up, and probably wayyyyy more than once. it's hard to frame their current relationship with zero knowledge about their shared past tho, and even harder to do so when we know that canonically andy's bf (how i wish we knew his name!) is an even closer friend to tang yi than andy, but... here's one theory:
i think andy's bf was tang yi's school friend from childhood, probably one of very few kids willing to hang out with him due to 1) tang yi being an adopted kid of a mob boss, and 2) the likely rumors about tang yi himself since he did live on the streets for at least a while. but i think andy's bf was kind and sweet and also had the rare insight that maybe tang yi, who put up a tough/cold front, needed protecting more than other kids needed to be protected from him. and i think it took some time, but they became friends for life.
tang yi had figured out at some point that he was into both girls and guys (as the show tells us). and he knew his buddy was queer as well, but it's anybody's guess whether they ever tried being together. maybe they did some adolescent experimenting with each other, or maybe they thought of each other as family/brothers so it was never really an option in their minds - ymmv and i would honestly read either take.
then maybe tang yi goes to college and meets andy, who is unapologetically fabulous and flirts with everyone in sight but doesn't fall in love easily (much like tang yi himself), and the two of them have a whole lot of casual sex while also sort of accidentally becoming friends. ALSO: i'm totally here for andy knowing that he's the crown price of the tianmeng group and initially approaching him for that reason, but then he eventually realizes that the friendship is real.
(but there was definitely sex. i mean come on.)
(side note: tang yi laughs SO MUCH when he's around andy, it does things to my heart y'all)
then at some point they realize that friendship is the best they can hope for, and one day tang yi introduces andy to his buddy from childhood and the two of them fall truly madly deeply for each other, and tang yi is genuinely happy about this development. :)
meanwhile, maybe tang yi observes the way andy has built a life for himself outside the mob while still utilizing some of its resources for his own network of information, and perhaps it's not exactly the blueprint for what he needs to do with his own group but it's a good reference point. oh - maybe andy's club is an example of using a(nother) crime syndicate's resources to develop a legitimate business, one without ties to the mob but with an owner who is savvy enough to deal with them.
i also have this headcanon that, after tang guo dong's death, the gay posse circles the wagons around tang yi: dr. jiang is around all the time for those 2 weeks he spends in the hospital, and everyone else is visiting daily and being super supportive after his release. plus, tang yi's style changes DRASTICALLY between the flashback scenes from when tang guo dong was alive and the present, so i love to imagine andy being his makeover guide as he assumes the role. tang yi is repeatedly described as cold and closed off, so in those days of the gang's probably difficult transition of leadership, going shopping for clothes would have been a practical yet intimate way for any to be there for him and help him feel less vulnerable.
p.s. my headcanon claims that's why the tailor shop becomes the first of tang yi's legitimate businesses:
aaaaaaaanyway, this is the LONGEST COMMENT EVER SO I HAVE TO STOP TYPING. but as you can see, I HAVE A LOT OF THOUGHTS AND FEELS AND SCREENCAPS OF ANDY, so.
♥♥♥
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Date: 3 May 2020 16:07 (UTC)no subject
Date: 3 May 2020 22:11 (UTC)OMG, I must be the most unobservant person ever
Date: 3 May 2020 12:21 (UTC)Anyway, yay Andy. And everyone has such great headcanon I can't think up anything new?
And I support the theory that Tang Yi and Andy once hooked up.
Re: OMG, I must be the most unobservant person ever
Date: 3 May 2020 16:10 (UTC)I think it's not unlikely they've had some really hot hate-sex.
On one of the early posts here I went on about how I desperately want to be the friend they both have in common who gets to hear them gripe about the other every other week bc they had to be in each other's presence at yet another one of Tang Yi's parties/dinner/events and oh my god GIRL you would not BELIEVE what he said.
AHHHH. It would be delightful.
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Date: 3 May 2020 13:34 (UTC)I headcanon that Tang Yi definitely had a thing with Andy in the past. And I think it was a casual thing for both of them. I think that they met as young men probably, maybe at the university, or maybe, as a few people said above, in the mob world? But I also like the idea that they met much earlier in school.