Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

I really hope they include this part from the novel: 

[Xiang Liu's personally taught archery skills along with the priceless one of a kind bow hand forged by the Jin Tian family, and the two were not far from each other, so in a split second the arrow embedded itself in Xiang Liu's chest. 

Xiang Liu's body visibly shook slightly but he continued to walk towards Xiao Yao. 

"Don't forget I'm called Nine Lives Xiang Liu! If you want to kill me then you need to shoot a few more arrows! And you have to be more accurate! Right here!" Xiang Liu pointed at his heart and then spread his arms wide.

"You think I won't dare!" 

Xiao Yao pulled back another arrow.

But the blood was spreading like a plum blossom on his white robe and Xiao Yao's heart hurt so she closed her eyes and in that moment her arrow flew forward and missed, grazing his arm. 

Xiang Liu stopped in his tracks and he smiled at Xiao Yao, it appeared to be mocking but was in truth hiding his joy.

Xiao Yao wanted to pull another arrow but her heart was jumbled and she couldn't do it anymore. 

*** skip forward a bit *** 

 Xiao Yao stepped onto the waves and walked towards Xiang Liu.

"What are you going to do now? Kill me and bet with the heavens whether the Lover's Bug legend is true or not?"

Xiao Yao walked right up to Xiang Liu and looked up at him. 

"I'm sad and angry, that's all true, but in the end I still can't kill you to avenge Feng Long. But you listen to me - if you try anything against Zhuan Xu, I will go assassinate Gong Gong! My archery skills were taught by you, you know what you taught me was all about killing. My poisons, you've sampled it all and even if it's useless against you but it'll kill Gong Gong easily!"

It appeared that she triggered Xiang Liu's real anger and a red demon haze appeared in his eyes as his hand reached out and encircled Xiao Yao's neck.

 She wasn't scared and instead coldly scoffed, "If you don't have the guts to kill me then stop it with such useless crap! The Nine-tailed fox demon was way more creative than you in devising tortures on me, I endured it for thirty years, no way I'm scared of any little wee torture from you.”

The red haze disappeared in Xiang Liu's eyes and he smiled while stroking the blood vessel on Xiao Yao's neck, 

 "Nice! You finally got some sliver of the fierce personality you had when I first met you. Good to see that Zhuan Xu hasn't turned you into a pampered pet."]

Lmao this scene is sad but at the same time…I’m loving it ???

 Kokuto:

But this makes me even madder that we aren't getting to actually SEE that in the series, cause it shows so much.

Tbh this drives me nuts too. We should at least see this man at least once. And his interactions with XL. But limited amount of episodes ?

 Kokuto:

Of course, we don't if Invisible Gong Gong has the same issues, because he's not in the damn drama!  grrrrrrr.

I don't know if XL's relationship with Gong Gong is one that is defined by deep understanding, and it seems like it's not really a patron/subordinate relationship either. Gong Gong saves XL's life but XL runs away. Over 200 years later, XL returns to Gong Gong (after taking on FFB's identity and looking after FFB's mum, so he's learned about a parent's love) at a time when everyone else is abandoning Gong Gong. Eventually, Gong Gong adopts XL as his son. Their relationship is clearly incredibly deep, but I don't know if the key to that relationship is "understanding" or "recognition". 

I'll copy two excerpts from the novel (the drama adapted both scenes pretty closely). 

---

Xiang Liu said “When I escaped from the slave death match arena, I was gravely injured all over. I almost died in a whirlpool but it was my adoptive father who saved me. Back then, the Flame Emperor was still alive and the Sheng Nong Kingdom hadn’t yet been toppled. My adoptive father, along with Qi Yo and Zhu Rong, were the three greatest generals of the Sheng Nong Kingdom. He saved a runaway slave like me and I injured him. He didn’t mind because he saw I was gravely injured and might not survive. He taught me a method for healing through training my powers. He even wanted to take me to the Flame Emperor for medical treatment. But I didn’t trust him so I ran away.”

Xiao Yao wanted to hear more about Xiang Liu’s past with General Gong Gong but Xiang Liu didn’t continue and instead took Xiao Yao safely away from the whirlpool.

A long time later, one night Xiang Liu took her to the surface and Xiao Yao felt little bits of icy cold hit her face. Xiang Liu softly brushed away the snow on Xiao Yao’s face “It’s snowing. Where is the most beautiful snowfall you’ve ever seen?”

Xiao Yao thought and said inside: The North Pole where it’s millions of years of ice and cold gathered into the most dangerous yet most beautiful place!

Large snowflakes the size of goose feathers floated down and landed on Xiang Liu’s body.

Xiang Liu said “The snowfall in the North Pole is the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. To avoid my attackers, I escaped to the North Pole and hid there for over a hundred years. The snow there not only saved my life, it awakened an understanding in me and I transformed the healing technique my adoptive father taught me to learn a new powerful fighting style.”

Xiao Yao thought: No wonder each time seeing Xiang Liu fighting it was as beautiful as snowflakes dancing!

Xiang Liu smiled “People think it’s just a weird quirk that I wear white all the time. But it’s actually just a habit gleaned from survival. In the North Pole, white is the color that is best for concealment.”

Xiang Liu stopped talking and Xiao Yao was so anxious inside. She thought that he must’ve decided to leave the North Pole after meeting Fang Feng Bei there. But by then the Sheng Nong Kingdom had fallen and General Gong Gong was leading a paltry resistance army with all his family and friends abandoning him. Yet a certain Nine-headed demon actually willingly went to him, perhaps initially it was to repay a debt, but then Gong Gong truly bonded with him so adopted him as a son. One could repay a debt, but the bonds of love and affection are impossible to ever fully repay.

When she thought to here, Xiao Yao actually hated Gong Gong a little, but she felt her hatred really made no sense. So she just pouted and was angry at herself for being angry.

---

“Then why do you still want to kill him?”

“My position. Knowing that he’s right under my watch and not killing him, I feel like I’m not doing my part.”

“You have some sort of principles?”

“To Sheng Nong I do.”

“Laughable!”

“It is laughable, and even I think I’m pretty pathetic. If I didn’t have principles, then I would go talk to the Yellow Emperor and personally lead him to destroy Gao Xing.”

Xiao Liu was silent and looked up at the crescent moon like a biscuit with a bite taken out of it. After a long time, he asked “What is General Gong Gong like? To lead to a demon like you giving him your allegiance?”

“He’s an idiot!” Xiang Liu quieted down for a while and then said, “He is a pathetic idiot. He leads a bunch of idiots, doing something pathetic.”

Xiao Liu said “The most pathetic one is you! They are all willing to do it, they don’t think they are idiots. They think they are doing something they would be proud of to tell their family in the grave. To let their descendants be proud. They are happy to go down in a blaze of glory. But you – you mock it yet you do it.”

“Who let me have nine-heads? Of course it gets complicated and contradictory.”

 Sirry Usly:

Tbh this drives me nuts too. We should at least see this man at least once. And his interactions with XL. But limited amount of episodes ?

If the drama was really being true to the novel, we would've already seen him. 

In the novel:

The deep mountains outside Qing Shui Town.

Inside a room, Xiang Liu was discussing with his adopted father about the Spring rations for the army when suddenly he bolted upright and his face changed.

Gong Gong stared at him oddly “What is it?”

“I need to leave for something.”

Xiang Liu left with just one word and whistled as he sprinted outside. Before a white and gold condor had even landed Xiang Liu had vaulted on its back and directed it Northwest.

Gong Gong and another general in the room stared at each other and then looked out the door.

---

At minute 7:38 of episode 30, XL is with two men when he feels XY being attacked. The one on the left addresses him like a subordinate would... so he's definitely not Gong Gong. I would have guessed the one on the right is supposed to be Gong Gong, but he looks way too young!

I wish we could embed images directly from our phones in here but I saw something pointed out on TikTok that I thought would be interesting to mention here. 

During this episode where FFB aka XL sneaks into XY's room and he's laying on her bed, he initially moves very far away from her past the red line on the pillow. But in the next scene when XY has woken up and is staring at him you can see that he moved closer because he's past the red line on the pillow. So they most likely slept side by side throughout the night. I wish we got to see her reaction waking up next to him but the addition of her thoughts while staring at him was nice too. 

 Sirry Usly:

I wish we could embed images directly from our phones in here but I saw something pointed out on TikTok that I thought would be interesting to mention here. 

During this episode where FFB aka XL sneaks into XY's room and he's laying on her bed, he initially moves very far away from her past the red line on the pillow. But in the next scene when XY has woken up and is staring at him you can see that he moved closer because he's past the red line on the pillow. So they most likely slept side by side throughout the night. I wish we got to see her reaction waking up next to him but the addition of her thoughts while staring at him was nice too. 

Sniff

I saw a few people saying stuff like XY moved the pillow under his head, but it does look like he's more in the middle of the bed.  Which makes sense.  It was cold.  I'm sure both of them moved toward the warmth.  Especially since SOMEONE hogged all the covers.  Especially XL.  Snakes don't generate heat like mammals, they have to absorb it. ;p

They probably had to censor out the waking up next to each scene. fans myself.

Never thought the day would come when I'd want a pet snake for my birthday. Yet here we are.