Jian Lan & Cuocuo - Extra Topics
Some discussion of topics I couldn't fit in the previous sections:
- Appearances
- Ghost abilities
- Connections to other characters
- Cuocuo's motivations
This instalment will include more of my own interpretation as I try to link together small bits of evidence.
Jian Lan - Appearance & double life as Lan Chang
Like most TGCF characters, Jian Lan first appears in disguise, as a woman named Lan Chang.
This woman was in an exceedingly revealing dress, her makeup terrifyingly loud. The white powder was uneven, and when she opened her mouth, clumps of it would flake off her face. Her bosom was stuffed full, as if something were packed under her flesh. Truly, a shocking sight. (ch13)
In ch46 it's further stated that 'Lan Chang usually dressed in an extremely revealing fashion'.
Her manner of speaking is vulgar, especially when she is angry, and she's also very bold when attempting to pick up Xie Lian.
“Oh, don’t go! Little gege, I like you. Come and have fun with me all night, I won’t ask for money!” She pouted and winked. “But I will charge. Hee hee hee hee hee…”
What a sin, Xie Lian repented inwardly, then kindly but firmly pushed her away. He chided gently, “Miss, please.”
Yet the woman suddenly appeared to be annoyed and screeched, “Stop calling me ‘Miss.’ Ain’t no one who cares for it! Quit wastin’ my time—are ya comin’ or not?”
To tempt Xie Lian further, the woman suddenly unlaced her already-revealing shirt. (ch13)
(note: she didn't recognise Xie Lian at this point, because she only visibly recognises him after being taken to heaven in chapter 46.)
Lan Chang seems to be something of a notorious figure in Ghost City, since she got into a random argument with Butcher Zhu soon after and someone on the street commented, 'That ghost woman Lan Chang is startin’ shit again!'
As we later find out, Lan Chang is a name chosen to create distance from her past self.
However, Lan Chang hurriedly covered her ears. “Don’t say it! Don’t say it out loud! Don’t use that name to address me! I…changed my name a long time ago.”
(...)
The daughter of a noble family from bygone years was now a prostitute in the Ghost Realm. She probably changed her name because she was afraid of bringing shame to her dead family, and she didn’t want to admit that the woman she was now was still that same girl. (ch75)
She also lies about her age; in Chapter 46 the other female ghosts gathered for the investigation are shocked that she is 800 rather than 200-300 years old.
She has another side to her, which we see for the first time when she speaks to Hua Cheng.
“It was out of desperation that Lan Chang set fire to Paradise Manor and broke the rules of Ghost City!” she continued. “I am ever so sorry! Pray Chengzhu will not hold it against me.”
She had always been a sauntering shrew, but when she spoke now, it was like she was a different person. Many of those familiar with her watched in shock. But Hua Cheng appeared unstirred （...） (ch46)
Personally I would connect this to the way she is described for the first time without makeup i.e. out of disguise:
The lady’s figure was slender and sensual, and her face was unpainted. Although she had the air of a fighting cock, she was nonetheless wholly a woman. She clicked her tongue, rolled up her sleeves, and continued to curse.
(...)
The woman raised her brows impossibly high, then lifted her hand as if ready to strike. “I don’t care if it’s a misunderstanding or a meeting! Leave now or this grandmama will grant y’all a nice tub of bathwater!”
(...)
She wasn’t covered in heavy makeup for once and showed the world a plain face. While there were quite a number of wrinkles around her eyes that made her age apparent, unexpectedly, she was rather elegantly beautiful. Xie Lian almost didn’t recognize her. (ch74)
It's not that she only acts vulgar while playing Lan Chang, since she also loses her temper, curses etc. towards others while they know her identity as Jian Lan. It just seems like Lan Chang is shameless and acts unhinged to the point that people don't take her seriously, while Jian Lan retains her dignity and acts more prideful. Not that there's a super clear distinction between them.
Going back to her speech patterns, she sometimes refers to herself as 'this bitch' or 'this grandmama' (originally 老娘) when she's being rude, which is a feminine way to speak arrogantly, similar to how characters like Qi Rong and Feng Xin sometimes refer to themselves as 'this ancestor' (originally 老子).
Jian Lan - Abilities
Jian Lan is a nü gui (女鬼, female ghost in Chinese folklore) who can seduce men and drain their yang energy. This is why when she was trying to pick up Xie Lian in Chapter 13 she mentioned that she didn't want his money but would 'charge'.
Since her face is described as 'elegantly beautiful' without makeup (ch74), she's presumably not one of the ghosts (as seen at the start of Xie Lian's first trip to Ghost City) who needs to constantly spend money on repairing their face. However, she is still an 'ordinary ghost' who 'didn't possess a grudge of equal weight' to Cuocuo, and would have not have been able to stay in the corporeal world for 800 years without the golden belt. She can also use the golden belt to restrain Cuocuo in her belly while appearing to not be pregnant. (ch46)
Her only special power seems to be that she can act as a charging station for Cuocuo:
Every time it returned to its mother's womb, it recovered enough energy for another round of mayhem. (ch74)
I originally thought she could be quite strong for comic relief purposes because at one point in Chapter 75 she's beating up the tied-up Qi Rong and he says 'PUT DOWN THAT BOULDER!!'. But I checked the original text and he just says 放下那块石头 so the rock she picked up was not necessarily a big one. </3
Hua Cheng and the prostitute ghost
Hua Cheng seems to be familiar with Lan Chang/Jian Lan's dignified side since he was 'unstirred' by her change in behaviour when she formally apologised to him during the ghost fetus arc. Or maybe he just doesn't know or care about her.
It's possible that MXTX intended the prostitute ghost from this anecdote to be Jian Lan (considering it's a bit random and she appears a few pages later):
Decades ago, a prostitute ghost seduced my shixiong and sucked him dry—turned him into human jerky. That Hua…Hua…that ghost king dared shelter her.”
The criticism was flaming down below, but above it, Hua Cheng looked bored out of his mind, not even bothering to give a taunting smirk.
“I think I’ve heard of your shixiong before,” Heaven’s Eye said. “Wasn’t he the guy who would force himself on married women under the pretense of conducting rituals and ceremonies? The one who got locked up for three months?” (ch74)
Then again maybe it's not her. We have no other evidence of Jian Lan doing heroics (if sucking a guy into jerky counts as heroics).
Fetus spirits and Cuocuo's origins
According to Xie Lian in Chapter 43, fetus spirits can be the result of a miscarriage and after coming into existence, they want to return to their mothers' bellies. This leads them to seek out living pregnant women and take the place of their babies. However, they can't do this out of nowhere. Cuocuo was only able to replace the merchant's wife's baby after tricking her into responding to his calls of 'mom'.
Fetus spirits created on purpose are said to be obedient to their creators:
[Xie Lian] had once heard of individuals who searched for pregnant women who had not yet come to term. These people cruelly cut open the women’s wombs to transform the unborn children into little ghosts to cast spells on their behalf. The ghosts could be incited to do harm, ordered to protect the caster or a dwelling, or kept for general luck. (ch44)
Going by Jun Wu's habit of causing problems in canon and Cuocuo's obedience towards him, it's likely that Jun Wu/White No Face was the one who killed Jian Lan and created Cuocuo.
Ling Wen also mentions that fetus spirits can be controlled by their blood fathers.
The fetus spirit in your womb is restless and your powers aren’t strong enough to contain it. Only its blood-bound father can calm and discipline it. (Ling Wen, ch47)
However, Cuocuo is never obedient to Feng Xin so either Feng Xin is actually not his blood father, or this is not true.
side note: fetus spirits (ying ling 婴灵) are a real thing in Chinese mythology but the details seem to be pretty different.
Cuocuo's appearance
Cuocuo usually doesn't speak, only makes noises, and has a distinctive laugh.
The child spirit saw him fall for its trap and cackled slyly. Though the voice was tender, it was a sound that couldn’t have come from a small child but rather a malicious grown man. (ch43)
However, he also has a cute voice which he uses to trick people. He had 'a child's laughter', sang a nursery rhyme in Chapter 3 and said "Mom, hug me" to Xie Lian in Chapter 43.
His physical form is... he's a wretched little funko pop
It could hardly be considered a human fetus—it more resembled a diminutive, deformed monster. Its skin was blanched, so starkly white it was like it had been coated in a layer of powder. Its eyes were abnormally large and shone with a peculiar light. Atop its head there sprouted a few sparse, yellowing strands of hair. Two rows of razor-sharp fangs gnawed at Feng Xin’s arrow; when it noticed him looking its way, it rapidly reduced the arrow to splinters and then spat out the shimmering arrowhead to nail it into the ground next to Feng Xin’s boots. A long, thin, dark-red snakelike tongue slithered out of its mouth, as if it was taunting him. (ch 75)
His form doesn't appear to be super stable.
Something ghastly pale peeked out of the bundle and bared its teeth and claws before Jian Lan stuffed it back inside—here a part that somewhat resembled a hand, there a part that somewhat resembled bones. (ch 111)
Inside the pot lay something that resembled a fetus. Although the arms and legs were grown, they were weak and powerless, and the head remained obscured in shadows. All in all, it was no more than a malformed lump of organs.
This was its true form! (ch 44)
Abilities
Cuocuo is classified as a Fierce level ghost.
As seen as various points in the story Cuocuo does in fact understand human speech (e.g. in chapter 115 he 'seemed thoughtful after hearing Jian Lan's words'), but he never replies verbally. As mentioned earlier, he can speak in a cute voice to trick people, but he doesn't use this voice for himself; it seems more like mimicry.
Apart from flying and having a strong bite that can chew wood to splinters (ch75), he can manifest a needle made of resentful energy (ch44) and has a vomit throwing attack (ch124).
Don't say I never did my research for this post lmao.
Cuocuo's two dads & motivations
Both Feng Xin and Jun Wu seem to have played a part in creating Cuocuo. I get the impression that in Cuocuo's eyes Feng Xin is the deadbeat dad and Jun Wu is the cool stepdad.
Even before being brought to heaven, Jun Wu had already formed a relationship with Cuocuo, shown as he got him to sing to Xie Lian on Mount Yujun. It's likely that Cuocuo's false accusation of Mu Qing was also a suggestion from Jun Wu (at least, in Chapter 111 Mu Qing seems pretty convinced that Cuocuo does indeed know that he's not the killer).
After Jun Wu's villain reveal Cuocuo appears and explicitly disobeys Feng Xin in favour of Jun Wu:
(...) A small white shadow leapt forward in a flash and latched onto Jun Wu’s foot, then started nuzzling his boot.
When he recognized it, Feng Xin cried angrily, “What are you doing?! Get back here!”
That thing was the fetus spirit. Not only did it disobey the words of its own father, but it even maliciously snaked its tongue at him. (ch112)
Cuocuo enjoying himself (while Jun Wu is in the middle of choking and threatening Xie Lian):
Jun Wu remained seated, petting the fetus spirit with calm composure; his hand brushed through its sparce hair and caressed its smooth, round head. The fetus spirit seemed to be enjoying the treatment and cooed with strange cheer while dark energy oozed from its palms. (ch115)
Although Jun Wu is affectionate towards Cuocuo, he doesn't show any serious care for him, treating him more like a pet. He tosses an unwanted radish to Cuocuo "like he was feeding a dog" (ch115) and does not acknowledge or protect Cuocuo from danger even when he risks his life to defend him in the final fight (ch128).
Meanwhile, Cuocuo seems to resent Feng Xin, probably seeing him as having neglected Jian Lan and himself.
Cuocuo's response to XL calling FX his dad:
When the fetus spirit heard “your dad,” it snorted. (ch124)
Cuocuo having a great time when Feng Xin is severely injured by Jun Wu:
The fetus spirit was howling in demonic elation, jumping up and down around him before stomping wildly on Feng Xin’s face with one foot. (ch129)
Despite this, he still seems protective of Feng Xin, such as when defending his passed out body from Mu Qing (ch125) or enduring danger and harm to save him from being pulled into lava (ch130). Leading Xie Lian & co. to Feng Xin's body in Chapter 124 might also fall into this category.
Cuocuo also 'seemed to be waiting for [his] mother's praise' after bringing Feng Xin one of the Rain Master's radishes in Chapter 115. So, one explanation is that he protects Feng Xin for Jian Lan's sake. Cuocuo seems quite protective of Jian Lan in general (e.g. defending her from Mu Qing in ch73 or baring his teeth at Xie Lian in ch131).
However, all this was back when Feng Xin hadn't figured out how to deal with Cuocuo and only ever shouted at him and ordered him to behave (e.g. ch115, ch128). The moment that Feng Xin actually acknowledged Cuocuo, called him by name and stuck up for him, Cuocuo was instantly won over.
[The fetus spirit] was howling in a ghastly voice, not pitiful in the slightest and inspiring only horror, but Feng Xin exploded in outrage.
“A bunch of adults bullying a child; how fucking shameless! Cuocuo! Come here!”
The fetus spirit couldn’t defeat so many vengeful spirits, and fear had already sprouted in its heart. Hearing that someone was going to stand up for it, it let out a strange cry and jumped onto Feng Xin’s shoulder. With longbow in hand, Feng Xin yanked the arrows from his own chest and shot round after round, overturning the lava stream with their explosive impacts. As he did so, the fetus spirit hopped and screeched on his shoulder like it was jeering and cheering. (ch130)
After the battle is finished we see that Cuocuo hasn't lost his attachment to Jun Wu.
The fetus spirit jumped down from Feng Xin’s shoulder and crawled to Jun Wu on all four limbs to touch him cautiously. Its attitude was completely different than when it was stomping on Feng Xin’s face, and Feng Xin stomped his own feet in anger at the sight. (ch130)
If I had to guess at Cuocuo's motivations I would say he primarily wants affection and wants to be helpful towards those who show it to him. That also fits with his activities pre-canon: replacing other women's babies and receiving their affection.
That's all I have for this canon review in general!
P.S. Thank you to Betty for talking with me about Cuocuo and making me contemplate him a bit more.