Link Click pays tribute to the victims of the Great Wenchuan Earthquake
Link Click Episode 4 uses a subtle moment to honor the victims of a terrible 2008 tragedy.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Link Click Episode 4, now streaming on Funimation.
Getting involved in time travel isn’t as easy as it first seemed Click on the link. In Episode 4, Lu Guang explains that special circumstances must be met for the future to change. As long as a certain node in a timeline isn’t changed, anything Cheng Xiaoshi does before the node won’t affect what happens after it. If the node is changed, then everything after that point will be rewritten and therefore change the future.
But, faced with the impossible choice of saving the lives of his loved ones or sacrificing his future, Cheng Xiaoshi learns that time travel isn’t all it’s made out to be.
After the events of Episode 3, Cheng Xiaoshi is horrified when he reaches out to Lu Guang, only to be left with radio silence. Unsure if Lu Guang still exists in this new future, he is about to return to the present when a voice stops him: it is Lu Guang, who has decided to prank Cheng Xiaoshi by ignoring his call when he went to get Chen Xiao’s note.
Unfortunately, the coach tells Cheng Xiaoshi that the school is still planning to tear down the gymnasium, win or lose. At Cheng Xiaoshi’s request, the coach decides not to tell the rest of the team. As they all ride home, Cheng Xiaoshi rides Hong Bin home on his bicycle and meets Hong Bin’s sister, Liu Meng, who turns out to be Chen Xiao’s first love. The two are shy towards each other, and although it seemed like unrequited love, it’s obvious to Cheng Xiaoshi that Liu Meng is as attracted to Chen Xiao as he is to her. Once home, Cheng Xiaoshi gets scolded by his mom for playing basketball instead of studying, but knows he’s (sort of) forgiven when his mom hands him all the chicken she boneed. .
At this point, Cheng Xiaoshi realizes that he has jumped back in time to May 12, 2008: the day of the Great Wenchuan Earthquake that killed over 80,000 people and would later claim the living in Hong Bin, Liu Meng and Chen Xiao’s mother. . This explains why it didn’t matter what Cheng Xiaoshi was doing – because it wouldn’t change the end result: the important knot that Lu Guang was referring to was death.
Chen Xiao’s biggest regret that day was not being able to tell his loved ones everything he wanted to say before it was too late. Episode 4’s air date was only a few days after the 13th anniversary of the Wenchuan earthquake, and the director made an artistic choice to leave Chen Xiao’s words inaudible to viewers. We can only infer from their expressions that Chen Xiao said something that made them happy. According to a Twitter account who translated some comments from Link clicks Chinese streaming platform, some viewers thought it was about making room for Wenchuan earthquake survivors to fill in the blanks. It gives them the chance to say the words they couldn’t say to their friends, first loves, and mothers, like the episode title: “Confession.”
Below the title is an excerpt from a poem by Liu Bannong called “How can I get rid of her”, where the narrator asks how they can stop thinking about someone who has died when everything seems to remind them from her. How to stop the pain of missing someone?
When Cheng Xiaoshi realizes what is about to happen, he descends into a panic attack as he remembers his own past and the (presumed) death of his parents in the earthquake. He manages to get out of it and he runs out of Chen Xiao’s house to find a way to save them. Immediately, Lu Guang yells at her to stop. If he tries to save those from the past, he might accidentally change the future to a world where the current Cheng Xiaoshi, Lu Guang, and Qiao Ling never existed.
This is not the first time that Lu Guang deliberately hides information from Cheng Xiaoshi. While not malicious, this might be the cruelest example of Lu Guang not telling Cheng Xiaoshi exactly what he was walking into – was he aware of Cheng Xiaoshi’s past trauma? Cheng Xiaoshi was unable to save his loved ones, but now that he knows exactly what will happen and has the ability to save Chen Xiao, he will have to consider whether he stays away. or not. Is he really ready to sacrifice his life and that of his friends for the past?
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