Slo-Mo Rewatch: Guardian episode 9, part 1

Welcome to 2026’s first installment of the Guardian drama Slo-Mo Rewatch! Watch half an episode a week, and then come and chat about it here in comments. Or you can just jump into the comments without rewatching, of course!
Here is the post for the previous installment.
Episode 9 to 22:52
Summary
Lin Jing traces an energy surge linked to the Hallows to a northwest location that also happens to be the area Wang Zheng wants to travel to. Guo Changcheng tries his best to help and inadvertently buys a sex doll for Wang Zheng to travel in. On their way to the mountains, the SID come across Shen Wei and his students who are experiencing car trouble on their field trip. Coincidentally, they are also headed to the mountains. Shen Wei endures Zhao Yunlan fishing for information from Jiajia and using him as a pillow as they continue on to their destination. When their car gets stuck, Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan get out to investigate and Zhao Yunlan not only insists that Shen Wei wear his jacket, but also wrangles him into it. As Shen Wei contemplates this development, they hear a scream back at the car and turn to hurry back.

Quotes
Zhu Hong: “I’m just practicing hypnotism. You’re so lucky to be the first guinea pig.”
Zhu Hong: “I’ve never seen [Zhao Yunlan] like this before. Why is he so keen on Professor Shen of all people?
Zhao Yunlan: “Normally I’m the one who gives the orders. This is the first time someone’s ordering me around.”
Detail
Shen Wei awkwardly adjusting Zhao Yunlan's cushion when Zhao Yunlan flops on him remains one of my favorite things.
Questions
How do you feel about the drama’s version of their journey to the mountains versus the airport meetup in the novel? What do you think Shen Wei was thinking when Zhao Yunlan’s convoy rolled up to help with the car trouble? Which Guardian character(s) would you like to go on a long-distance car ride with? What do you think Shen Wei did with the boyfriend jacket after they returned to Dragon City? What is your favorite part of this episode so far? Do you think Zhao Yunlan will become more involved in reviewing purchase orders after the whole doll incident?
(These are just meant to start discussion. Feel free to discuss whatever stood out to you in the first half of this episode.)
Here is our schedule for the current batch of episodes - please do sign up to host a post if you can!
SFBB15: Preliminary List of Fandoms & Reminders
( Preliminary List of Fandoms: )
Announcements & Reminders:
More Artists & Pimps: I want to thank the 16 artists who have signed-up and checked-in and remind all of you that WE COULD USE MORE ARTISTS!! As you can see from the list, we have a large number of potential fic in quite a diverse bunch of fandoms, and not enough artists for all of them, so please, if you haven’t already done so (or even if you have), pimp us out!
I do not belong to communities for all of these fandoms, so your help would be greatly appreciated. If you belong to any fandom-specific communities for the fandoms listed above (and such announcements are allowed by the mod), please make an announcement! Or pimp us in your own journal or Tumblr! And if you know some artists who are up for a challenge, please mention us to them. Artist sign-ups are still open!
If you are interested in signing up as an Artist, please do so at the Artist Sign-Up Post.
Rough Drafts: Also, please remember that rough drafts are due at the end of this month. (The submission rules post will go up on the 24th, but you will have until the 31st to get them in.) There is no extension on this date because I need the information for artist claims. HOWEVER, I am very flexible regarding ‘percent completed’ so long as you will have the final draft done on time and will have a substantial amount of story to submit to an artist, you’re good. Additionally, there is the option to opt-out of art, should you wish to take that route.
When submitting your rough draft:
1. Remember that your story description should be at least one or two paragraphs, not a clever one-liner. This description is for your artist, not [necessarily] the summary you’re going to include in your story header when you post. (Hint: If you don’t think you can come up with a longer summary, think about dividing your story into parts and give a summary of each part.) If you don’t turn in a nicely fleshed out description the first time, I’ll ask you to re-do it, so start thinking about that now.
2. Please be sure to warn about anything that might squick or trigger your artist. This includes things like character death, extreme violence, non-con/rape, heavy angst, dark themes, genderswap, mpreg, BDSM themes, A/B/O, etc. This is not the warning you need to give to your readers; this is a warning for your artist, so please list anything that might trigger or squick them.
This additional requirement is not meant to shame the author, but to protect the artist and author both. You won’t put an artist in the position of having to work with a story they won’t enjoy, and run the chance of possibly ending up with art you’re not satisfied with.
Thank you!
Round 157 Dates
| GMT | EST (Toronto) | CST (Chicago) | PST (Seattle) | CET (Berlin) | AEST (Brisbane) | Designated Mod | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour -23 | midnight | 7pm Thu | 6pm Thu | 4pm Thu | 1am Fri | 10am Fri | xandromedovna |
| Hour -17 | 6am Fri | 1am Fri | midnight | 10pm Thu | 7am Fri | 4pm Fri | |
| Hour -11 | 12pm Fri | 7am Fri | 6am Fri | 4am Fri | 1pm Fri | 10pm Fri | |
| Hour -5 | 6pm Fri | 1pm Fri | 12pm Fri | 10am Fri | 7pm Fri | 4am Sat | |
| Hour 0 | 11pm Fri | 6pm Fri | 5pm Fri | 3pm Fri | midnight | 9am Sat | |
| Hour 1 | midnight | 7pm Fri | 6pm Fri | 4pm Fri | 1am Sat | 10am Sat | |
| Hour 6 | 5am Sat | midnight | 11pm Fri | 9pm Fri | 6am Sat | 3pm Sat | |
| Hour 12 | 11am Sat | 6am Sat | 5am Sat | 3am Sat | 12pm Sat | 9pm Sat | |
| Hour 18 | 5pm Sat | 12pm Sat | 11am Sat | 9am Sat | 6pm Sat | 3am Sun | desertvixen |
| Hour 24 | 11pm Sat | 6pm Sat | 5pm Sat | 3pm Sat | midnight | 9am Sun | desertvixen |
| Hour 30 | 5am Sun | midnight | 11pm Sat | 9pm Sat | 6am Sun | 3pm Sun | |
| Hour 36 | 11am Sun | 6am Sun | 5am Sun | 3am Sun | 12pm Sun | 9pm Sun | |
| Hour 42 | 5pm Sun | 12pm Sun | 11am Sun | 9am Sun | 6pm Sun | 3am Mon | |
| Hour 47 | 10pm Sun | 5pm Sun | 4pm Sun | 2pm Sun | 11pm Sun | 8am Mon | xandromedovna |
| Hour 48 | 11pm Sun | 6pm Sun | 5pm Sun | 3pm Sun | midnight | 9am Mon | xandromedovna |
| Round Ends | midnight | 7pm Sun | 6pm Sun | 4pm Sun | 1am Mon | 10am Mon | xandromedovna |
Sign Up January 9 - 11!
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Need to get some words in? The Weekend Writing Marathon (WWM) is a writing challenge designed to help you do just that. You set your own writing goal for the weekend and work to achieve it before reporting back to the group on Sunday night.
How do I participate?
1. Reply to this post with your weekend writing plans–be as specific (or not) as you’d like.
2. Start writing on Friday 12:01 am local time. Work to meet your goal by Sunday night at 11:59 pm local time. You can work on whatever you want during this time.
3. Post your accomplishments to the Finish Line post at the end of the weekend (even if you didn’t reach your goal).
How do I report my accomplishments?
A Finish Line post will go up on Sunday. Reblog that post with your final word count/accomplished goal(s) by Monday at midnight local time. Totals from the weekend will be posted on Tuesday.
This challenge is currently running on 2 platforms: pillowfort, and dreamwidth. If you sign up on this platform, please respond to the Finish Line post on this platform.
Let us know if you have any questions!
Writing Sprints January 9-11
what’s a 1k1h?|| time zone converter || 1k1h Calendar
All sprints are run on Discord only. You can find our Discord server here.
Friday ( time zone converter)
5am PT/ 8am ET/ 1pm UTC Mrsimoshen
8am PT/ 11am ET/ 4pm UTC Max
11am PT/ 2pm ET/ 7pm UTC LittleMissTPK
1pm PT/ 4pm ET/ 9pm UTC LittleMissTPK
5pm PT/ 8pm ET/ 1am Sat UTC Treefrogie84
7pm PT/ 10pm ET/ 3am Sat UTC Alec
Saturday ( time zone converter)
4am PT/ 7am ET/ 12pm UTC PreciousAnon
7am PT/ 10am ET/ 3pm UTC Treefrogie84
9am PT/ 12pm ET/ 5pm UTC Treefrogie84
12pm PT/ 3pm ET/ 8pm UTC LittleMissTPK
5pm PT/ 8pm ET/ 1am Sun UTC Treefrogie84
7pm PT/ 10pm ET/ 3am Sun UTC Joe
Sunday ( time zone converter)
4am PT/ 7am ET/ 12pm UTC PreciousAnon
7am PT/ 10am ET/ 3pm UTC Treefrogie84
9am PT/ 12pm ET/ 5pm UTC Treefrogie84
11am PT/ 2pm ET/ 7pm UTC PreciousAnon
1pm PT/ 4pm ET/ 9pm UTC Treefrogie
5pm PT/ 8pm ET/ 1am Mon UTC Treefrogie
7pm PT/ 10pm ET/ 2am Mon UTC Joe
Guardian pinch-hit for Amperslash
Here are the exchange rules, and you can claim a pinch-hit here if you can help out!
Round 157 Runoff
No but actually, when should we have the next Round?
9-11 Jan
7 (38.9%)
16-18 Jan
10 (55.6%)
neither, ask again in February
1 (5.6%)
I literally could not care less
0 (0.0%)
[CLAIMED] Just the Tip! Flash Exchange pinch hits due January 12
Event link: Just the Tip Collection
Pinch hit links:
Due date: January 12 at 10 PM EST
Claim by sending a PM to