Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

 AH :

Have you encountered Chineasy? https://youtu.be/T5FNvW19GbA?si=ee0UpDxQmQLxgL_N&t=344

Ohhh that’s brilliant, thank you!!

 liddi:

Found what appear to be S2 leaked scripts on Weibo, breaking down which scenes show up in which episodes (but apparently it ends at Ep20?). Haven't had time to read in detail, but from what I see, A Nian will be the one to give the big bellied doll to Xiao Yao as an "extra" gift for her wedding..

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that is a completely bogus leak.  Too many things I've heard I don't like.  Especially if it has only 21 episodes.  I want the full 35 episodes.

 AH :

That matches what another user said. They mentioned that, according to the leaked script, Ah Nian will basically replace Sir Bi and do the things he did.

Nooooooo!  I'm flatly striking that from my mind.  Give me Sir Bi!

Though ... was the scene with XL enlisting A Nian's aid to get XY in the water once she turned into a woman in the book?  Also, does his transaction with her come up?  I mean does he collect on her promise to do something for him?

Speaking of open tabs and unwritten posts, I need to get back to...

@AH  VIP

XY wanted someone who was committed to her and who would put her first. Someone who could abandon everything else for her. Someone who would live a peaceful life and raise a family with her. 

XY has known that XL is on the opposite side of a war from her since the beginning. She knew he was not someone she could have a peaceful happy ending with. She comes to find out that, in addition to being her family's enemy, his loyalty to Gong Gong and the remnant army is unshakeable. He will not abandon them for her. He wouldn't give them up to go and wander the world with XY. 

So XY tries not to let herself fall for XL, and later XL tries to push her away too (for her sake). XL was never a real option for XY. And when it seemed like she was leaning towards pursuing something with him anyway (e.g., by sending him the ice crystal ball) he didn't let her choose him. And throughout their whole relationship he hid his feelings from her. XY was probably aware, on some level, that they both had unspoken feelings for each other. But she could also see XL's behaviour. He wasn't offering himself as a romantic option. He was hiding his feelings (e.g., XY was aware that XL didn't want her to know about the things he did and said during her 37 years of healing) and put boundaries between them. 

So, IMO, it wasn't just a matter of being unsure of XL's feelings. She knew that the remnant army was his priority. She knew that he could not abandon them, even for her. She knew he was not someone who could have a peaceful happy ending with her. And he didn't let her choose him.

I still maintain that XL wanted to share his life with XY, otherwise, he wouldn't have taken on the Poisonous Love Bug.  But the whole situation changed radically before anything could be said or done, when her real identity was revealed.

Also I feel like the crystal ball message was interesting and perhaps not as clearly obvious, as well as FFB/XL's handling of her wedding.

 Kokuto:

Nooooooo!  I'm flatly striking that from my mind.  Give me Sir Bi!

I know, I loved his character :(

 Kokuto:

Though ... was the scene with XL enlisting A Nian's aid to get XY in the water once she turned into a woman in the book?  Also, does his transaction with her come up?  I mean does he collect on her promise to do something for him?

The other user (I feel bad, I can't remember the username...) said that the changes included Xing Yue backing Hou's murder of TSJ rather than CX. So XY never poisons him or herself (and apparently the iconic scene from the trailer is just a dream sequence). Meaning that XL doesn't need to save XY's life again and doesn't need to invoke Ah Nian's promise to have her send his clam shell to Jade Mountain to preserve XY's life in the meantime. So in the drama they will apparently have him invoke the promise later to get her to deliver the big-bellied laughing doll to XY as a wedding present without telling XY the truth about it.

 Kokuto:

I still maintain that XL wanted to share his life with XY, otherwise, he wouldn't have taken on the Poisonous Love Bug.

I know the casting sheet said something along these lines, but I'm skeptical. He fought with the remnant army for hundreds of years. He lost count of the number of comrades he personally cremated, but he says he remembers every single one of them. I've posted the excerpts a few times in this thread already so I won't post them again now, but the narrative was pretty clear... the idea of surviving the war and living on remembering his comrades after all of them were dead sounded to XL like a fate worse than death. I can't get that side of XL to match up with the idea of XL seriously picturing a nice little domestic future for him and WXL when the war was over. 

We can all speculate about the reasons why XL offered to take on the bug and I'm sure we could come up with many plausible reasons, but I personally really don't think his reason for doing so would be because he really thought it would allow him to share a life with WXL. Really the bug would only allow him to share WXL's pain and to share death with her. IMO, some more likely reasons why XL might offer to take the bug include:

(1) To Protect WXL from a CX-Related Death. He thought WXL might die if the bug stayed in CX, so he suggested transferring the bug from CX to himself to protect WXL from that possibility. I can think of three possible ways (some more likely than others) where the bug being in CX might lead to WXL's death.

(A) First, the possibility that WXL worrried about. Someone who wanted to kill CX might try to use the bug connection as a tool to facilitate an assassination against CX (similar to what XL and FFYY did). If that happened (people hurt WXL so that CX would feel WXL's pain - making it easier to kill CX) enough times, WXL would very likely eventually end up being killed instead of just hurt. But if the bug was transferred out of CX such that the bug connection could no longer be used against him, then WXL wouldn't be in danger of being hurt or killed by people who wanted to kill CX. 

(B) XL knew that the bugs were Lovers Bugs. He also knew that the bug had not been successfully planted in CX because CX did not willingly accept it. Presumably this means that although CX could feel WXL's pain and sensations through the bug connection and WXL could sense CX's rage and presence when he was about to attack through the bug connection, the bugs had not successfully become Lovers Bugs that tied their lives together. So presumably the bugs were not in danger of turning into Heartbreak Bugs that might kill CX and WXL. But perhaps that much wasn't completely certain. Perhaps XL worried that the bugs might somehow become Heartbreak Bugs that would kill WXL (and CX). And perhaps he was sure enough in his feelings for WXL that he felt confident that if the bug was trasferred from CX to XL then there would be no risk of the bugs turning into Heartbreak Bugs (that would kill WXL) because of XL's feelings. And perhaps WXL would be safter that way. If this was the case, his confidence was not misplaced, as we saw that the bugs were able to remain in XY and XL for 120 years without turning into Heartbreak Bugs, despite everything. 

(C) Similar to B, although XL knew that the bug had not been successfully planted in CX because he had not willingly accepted it (and therefore the bugs presumably had not tied CX's and XY's lives together), perhaps XL still worried that there might be a small possibility that if CX was killed while the bug was inside him and connected him with WXL in any way, there might be a risk that WXL would also die. Moving the bug from CX to XL would take care of that risk. Since XL had so many extra lives to spare, he had a huge amount of control over when he would die so WXL's life would be safter if it was tied to his life/lives than if it were tied to CX's life. Especially if (as I believe) XL already knew how to break the bug connection without killing WXL before the bug transfer happened. 

(2) To be in a Better Position to Protect WXL in General. He wanted to protect WXL in the future, and taking on the bug would allow him to do that in two ways. First, he would be able to feel her pain and come to her aid when she was hurt. Second, her life would be tied to his and he has multiple lives, which he could use to save her life if necessary. We know from the epilogue that at some point he definitely assigned himself the role of being someone in her life who stands watch to protect her. He might have already had that mindset when he made the offer, since he already had feelings for WXL at that point. 

(3) To Get to Know WXL Better. He wanted to know more about WXL and understand her better, and being able to feel her heart and her emotions would help with that. By chapter three he's already telling her that he's more and more curious about her past. And throughout the novel XL occasionally asks questions that make it clear he wants to know more about her thoughts and feelings. 

As an aside, the other notable thing about that encounter in chapter 3 when WXL is upset about YSQ abandoning her... XL has no reason to seek WXL out at that point. It's way before the bug and even before XL finds out that WXL's blood can heal him, and yet when he finds WXL clearly upset, XL basically offers WXL company, shares his wine with WXL, asks WXL what has upset him, keeps up their usual banter, rolls with WXL's howling and skydiving, and agrees to swim race with WXL. Of course that excursion (like their next excursion) ends on a sour note, which makes it easy to forget everything that happens before the first bite. But in hindsight it seems so obvious. It was so early on and already he was keeping her company, comforting her when she was upset, and turning her sadness into happiness. 

(4) To Have Confirmation of WXL's Feelings. Basically an add-on to (3), if both hosts have to have love in their hearts for the bugs to work, and not having love would mean that the bugs would turn on them and maybe kill them, then taking on the bug would allow XL to confirm (with a very high degree of certainty) whether or not WXL had some level of love for him when the transfer happened, and because of the bugs XL would always know whether WXL still had some love for him after that point. If she didn't, they would both suffer the consequences. 

(5) To Have a Way of Being Close to WXL. Probably not a main reason, but maybe a factor or a bonus... whether it's the bites early on (e.g., when he's comfortable stroking WXL's neck or keeping his lips on WXL's neck longer than necessary as long as he's also pretending to be threatening and menacing at the same time) or the archery later on, I feel like XL doesn't mind seizing an opportunity to be close with WXL. The poison making is another tie between them that he seems to enjoy. Although I don't see the bug providing much of a shortcut to a romantic relationship, I do think it fits a pattern of things that give XL a nice excuse to be close to or connect to WXL.

(6) Jealousy / Possessiveness - WXL Raised the Bug for Him. Again, not a main reason, but maybe a minor factor or a bonus... I kind of felt like XL was a bit jealous when WXL planted the bug that she had prepared for him in CX instead. Later on, he definitely enjoys being the only person who can enjoy her "cooking". So part of him maybe felt like the bug was "his" from the beginning, and it had basically been stolen by CX. In which case, transferring the bug to XL would be like putting the bug in its rightful place.

---

That's not to say that I think XL never longed to share his life with WXL. I just don't think he ever considered a peaceful happy ending (with anyone) to be an actual possibility for himself.

 liddi:

Feeling down after reading what little I have seen of the leaked script.

I'm afraid to ask ^^" ...

 AH :

!!!

The tear pearl?

Yes they did. I mentioned some of the things I remember in the post above. The original comments are buried somewhere in the 40,000+ posts in the main comment thread >.<

This is why I wish there were some place that kept track of your 'likes' or responses to posts, so we could go hunting for stuff without having to dig through everything. :(

 Kokuto:

Also I feel like the crystal ball message was interesting and perhaps not as clearly obvious, as well as FFB/XL's handling of her wedding.

?