Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

@HeadInTheClouds

Yes, when Xiao Yao asked Cang Xuan to find a husband for her, all her requirement was this: someone who can live with me and be loyal to me alone. When I saw this, I couldn't help but complain in my heart: then why not consider Miao Pu?? She is simply the most suitable candidate, and you don't even have to “perform" desires with her, which saves the audience a lot of embarrassment. Isn't it perfect? I think Xiao Yao doesn’t understand romantic love at all, but she arrogantly believes that she has seen through it and therefore will definitely have a happier life than her mother's. But she never thought that maybe Ah Heng had never regretted loving her father till the last moment.

And, yes, there will be a day in the rest of her long life when she will clearly realize what she has missed... Speaking of this, I suddenly remembered the famous line in "Ashes of Time": "At that time, I thought I won, but one day I looked in the mirror, and suddenly realized that I had actually lost. In my best years, the person I loved most was not by my side." It's a pity that people always meet the person they should cherish the most at their stupidest time, and then spend the rest of their lives looking for someone who is a bit like him/her. Xiao Yao doesn’t even have this option anymore, because she has already "sold" the rest of her life to Jing, I can only wish her the "safety" she wanted.

 liddi:

Chae Young-shin would be pretty different from Xiao Yao though... she does not live with abandonment issues (though she suffers from panic attacks), nor was she forced to eek out an existence all by herself from her childhood - if anything, she had always enjoyed a very loving childhood, treasured by her adoptive father and his colourful staff at the café. So I am not as certain her approach to such an arrangement would be reflective of Xiao Yao's choices.

I agree that Chae Young-Shin would make different choices than canon!XY. Their issues, traumas and circumstances are not totally the same. But I do still see a ton of parallels between the two characters that would be fun to capitalize on in order to give XY and XL different circumstances where they could have a happy ending together.

Major Healer spoilers ahead for those who haven't watched it. 

Chae Young-Shin / Oh Ji-An	Wen Xiao Liu / Xiao Yao / Gao Xing Jiu Yao / Xiling Jiu Yao
When Young-Shin was a young child, her mother left her in the safest place she could in the circumstances before disappearing. All at once her mother disappeared, her father died, and she was permanently separated from her male childhood best friend and everyone else she previously knew. As a result, Young-Shin survived but felt like she was thrown away and later in life she feared being abandoned by others. Later in the story, Young-Shin reconnects with her mother and learns the truth about what happened, which gives her some closure.	When XY was a young child, her mother left her in the safest place she could in the circumstances (Jade Mountain) before disappearing. Her mother disappeared (and unbeknownst to her, her birth father died) and she was separated from her male childhood best friend and everyone else she previously knew. As a result, XY survived but felt like she was thrown away and later in life she feared being abandoned. Later in the story, XY reconnects with her mother and learns the truth about what happened, which gives her some closure.
As a young child, Young-Shin was "adopted" by a man who ruthlessly physically abused her (when she returned to the orphanage, she had broken bones and bruises all over her body), leaving her deeply traumatized. Although she escaped from him when she was still a child, the experience had lasting impacts on her as an adult. Even as a grown up, when she witnesses physical violence, she is rendered powerless by crippling panic attacks. Despite this difficult handicap, Young-Shin still finds herself in situations where she's up against groups of men who intend to harm her on multiple occasions. At those times, Seo Jung-Hoo / Healer's alter ego Bong-Soo secretly helps protect her and inspires her to be brave in order to protect him.	As a child, XY was briefly taken in by a mortal human pedophile and later was captured by a nine-tailed fox demon who kept her in a cage for 30 years. During that time, the nine-tailed fox tortured her by forcing her to eat horrible concoctions that caused her spiritual power to be transferred into her blood, a process that was extremely painful. Although she escaped from him when she was still a child, the experience had lasting impacts on her as an adult. As a result, XY lost her ability to use her previously high spiritual power in fights. Although she always had some poison skills to fall back on, this left XY feeling like she had no means to protect herself for a while. Despite this difficult handicap, XY still finds herself in situations where she's up against high-powered people who intend to harm her on multiple occasions. But after Xiang Liu's alter ego Fang Feng Bei helps teach her archery, secretly commissions a world-class bow for her, and pushes her to further develop her poison skills, she is better equipped to protect herself.
Someone connected to Young-Shin's parents tries to kill Young-Shin by luring her into a trap and having her die in an elevator "accident". Healer saves her life and Young-Shin initially views his actions in a certain way (a way that leads her to let him kiss her without letting her see his face) but later is misled into thinking that he only saved her because of a transaction that he entered into with Kim Moon-Ho.	Someone connected to XY's biological father tries to kill Young-Shin by luring her into a trap and having her die a violent death with all traces burned away by fire. Xiang Liu saves her life and XY initially views his actions in a certain way (a way that leads her to cry bitterly when he doesn't meet her after she wakes up) but later is misled into thinking that (or at least questioning if) he only saved her because of a transaction that he entered into with CX.
In order to lure Young-Shin to the place where the elevator "accident" would occur, her would-be killer leaves a message for Young-Shin on her phone and fakes Kim Moon-Ho's voice.	In order to lure XY to the ocean where she could be killed (via the whirlpool) without a trace, the seagull demon (who was hired by Xing Yue to kill XY) sent a message to XY via a magical jewel and fakes TSJ's voice.
Seo Jung-Hoo had his own remote secret hideout, like Superman's fortress of solitude. His hideout included a giant wall that featured an image of an island and an ocean, as well as a large bed with all-white pillows, all-white sheets and all-white bedding. At one point in the story, Seo Jung-Hoo is in a bad way (freezing, starving, and sick), but Young-Shin finds him before it's too late. She climbs into bed with him to warm him up, cooks for him and brings him back to life, in a manner of speaking. When Seo Jung-Hoo has mostly recovered, he tries to make Young-Shin leave him. He says she should be scared of her - he's hiding so much from her and he could hurt her. But Young-Shin firmly rejects all of his attempts to push her away and stays with him. They both cry, but are both happy after Young-Shin stays.	Xiang Liu had his own giant clam shell that he usually kept in the ocean, far away from his life with the remnant army and his life as FFB. The clam shell included a bed-like area and was all-white. At one point in the story, when XY was near death, Xiang Liu got to XY in time and brought her to his clam shell for healing. Among other things, he used his essential soul blood to heal and revive her, which XY senses as warmth entering her body. Through his efforts, XL basically brings XY back from the dead. When XY has recovered, XL disappears and sends Furball to take XY back to TSJ without meeting her. He doesn't give her a chance to reject his decision. Presumably both XL and XY are saddened after XL sends XY away, and we know for sure that XY cries.
Young-Shin's biological parents were very much in love and, as a young child, Young-Shin was doted on by her biological parents when they were around (although they were often away). Her parents' best friends had a son who was about her age whom she was very close with. They were constant companions and often fell asleep beside each other. They were often looked after by a man (Kim Moon-Ho) who deeply cared about both of them and who was in love with Young-Shin's mother. Many years after Young-Shin disappeared, that man was the person who ended up finding Young-Shin again in order to protect her, which led her to discover her birth identity as Oh Ji-An later on. Later in her childhood, Young-Shin was adopted a second time and raised by a man who was not her biological father, but he loved her and doted on her anyway. Her adoptive father (a criminal lawyer and cafe owner) would not hesitate to use his small army of reformed criminal friends to help protect his adoptive daughter.	XY's biological parents were very much in love and as a young child and XY was doted on by her biological parents when they were around (although they were often away). Her mother's brother had a son who was about her age whom she was very close with. They were constant companions and often fell asleep beside each other. At different stages of their lives, they were cared for and raised by a man (Shao Hao) who deeply cared about both of them and who was in love with XY's mother. Many years after XY disappeared, that man was the person who ended up finding XY again in order to protect her, which led her to regain her identity as Gao Xing Jiu Yao. In her early childhood and after she regained her true identity, XY was raised by a man who was not her biological father, but he loved her and doted on her anyway. Her adoptive father would not hesitate to use his power as an Emperor and his literal army to help protect his adoptive daughter.
After being separated from Young-Shin, Young-Shin's mother's health was seriously jeopardized and she became disabled and wheel-chair bound, which made it harder for her to find Young-Shin. She was led to believe that Young-Shin was likely dead. It was only when Young-Shin was an adult that she was finally brought to her mother and learned the truth about her parents' story and identities.	After being separated from XY, XY's mother nearly died and she turned into a monster-like desert beast who was forced to stay in one location to avoid causing widespread destruction, so she could not go to XY. XY was led to believe that her mother was dead. It was only when XY was an adult that she was finally brought to her mother and learned the truth about her parents' story and her biological father's identity.
The powerful and talented night courier / man-for-hire "Healer" / Seo Jung-Hoo initially has a rough encounter with Young-Shin, but finds himself strangely drawn to her. He uses work as an excuse to get closer to her and to protect her. After initially only interacting with her as Healer, he creates a less threatening alter-ego (Bong Soo) to approach her so he can be by her side in a different way (as her work junior).   Seo Jung-Hoo is mostly the lone wolf type, but he has a sidekick (Jo Min-Ja / hacker ahjumma) who helps him with missions and a mentor / teacher / father-figure (Ki Young-Jae) who was close with Young Shin's parents and Seo Jung-Hoo's parents when they were alive. At the beginning of the drama, his dream is to make enough money to buy his own private island in the ocean off the coast of Panama where he can live alone in peace. Near the end of the drama we find out that this dream may have been inspired by a game that he played with Young-Shin as a child, when they would pretend to escape to Moru Moru island together. At the end of the drama, Seo Jung-Hoo no longer feels the need to pursue that dream, because he's found happiness with Young-Shin and wants to try to live a normal life with her instead of running away.	The powerful and talented military advisor / assassin-for-hire "Nine Lives" / Xiang Liu initially has a rough encounter with XY, but finds himself strangely drawn to her. He uses work as an excuse to get closer to her and to protect her. After initially only interacting with her as Xiang Liu, he uses his less threatening alter-ego (Fang Feng Bei) to approach her so he can be by her side in a different way (as her archery teacher and temporary companion). Xiang Liu is mostly the lone wolf type, but he has a sidekick (Furball) who helps him with various tasks and a mentor / teacher / father-figure (Gong Gong) who knew XY's parents when they were alive. Half way through the novel, Xiang Liu takes XY to escape from the troubles of her life to temporarily seek happiness in the ocean. Their date ends with XL telling XY about the Ocean's countless beautiful islands, and XY wishing she could go explore them. At the end of the novel, XL dies as the last man standing on an island out in the ocean, and because of him (and his gift that allows her to breathe under water and feel like a daughter of the sea) XY decides to leave Dahuang to explore the Ocean's islands per her previous wish.

.

 liddi:

The thing though... is that I don't believe Xiang Liu would ask her to accept him, even as Fangfeng Bei and follow it through with a commitment, knowing that he would never abandon the Shen Nong remnant army in the end. Everything he ever did with her, he always predicated it with the repeated reminder that theirs was merely a transient relationship, so that she would not view it as anything more, and place any hope in it. Not because he did not wish to have a lifetime with her, but because he could not, would not do that to her (even through an alter-ego) and later abandon her once more through his imminent death, in very much the same way she understood cerebrally that her mother's death was in defense of their people, yet keenly felt abandoned by that same death.

I also agree that canon!XL would not confess to XY like that, even as FFB. The idea behind the AU concept is that the circumstances would be significantly altered to align more closely with Healer's plot in order to create a situation where Fang Feng Bei could confess like that. The remnant army would probably need to go completely (and CX and TSJ would not be separate characters... elements of their stories would be given to Xiang Liu / Fang Feng Bei to the extent necessary). Like Ki Young-Jae, Gong Gong would probably die. Xiang Liu would no longer have an army that he planned to die with, but like Seo Jung-Hoo, Xiang Liu would feel like he was not able to be / worthy of being with XY / Young-Shin, especially at the point where Seo Jung-Hoo's father was accused of killing Young-Shin's father. And just as Young-Shin convinced Seo Jung-Hoo that he was wrong and they should be together, XY would convince Xiang Liu that he was wrong and they should be together. For me, that altered dynamic would be so satisfying. 

Ooh and I'd love a snow first kiss. 

Wow. Thanks so much for sharing! @AH 

I've heard of Healer but never watched it before. The amount of similarities is crazy, from the FL's parent backstory, ML's alter ego, adoptive father, childhood friend...

Now you got me wondering if I should watch Healer just to see the parallels. LYF making me do crazy things hahaha

 liddi:

The following are the differences in my version:

Thanks for sharing your translation liddi. ^^

 song:

Wow. Thanks so much for sharing! @AH 

I've heard of Healer but never watched it before. The amount of similarities is crazy, from the FL's parent backstory, ML's alter ego, adoptive father, childhood friend...

Now you got me wondering if I should watch Healer just to see the parallels. LYF making me do crazy things hahaha

The two dramas are very different (in terms of genre, setting, language, country, etc.), so I'd caution against watching it only for its similarities with LYF. I'm afraid you might be disappointed on that front. ^^" 

It's almost 10 years old and probably a bit dated now, but it has some great elements that IMO make it worth watching. If the genre, premise or actors appeal to you, I do recommend giving it a try. 

 HeadInTheClouds:

Regardless of any similarities or parallels with LYF, Healer is worth a watch in and of itself. If nothing more than for Ji Chang Wook :-). 

I second that. ^^

The 2019 revised edition reflected changes that aimed to improve on, or address regrets that Tong Hua had from the original novel. The prologue was an addition, as well as changing of names (characters, kingdoms, places) and prose here and there. For the most part, I am not particularly bothered by the name changes. However, it is regrettable that name change loses its added nuances in several instances.

Gao Xin king

In the 2013 edition of the novel, the Gao Xin king was originally known as 俊帝 Grand Emperor, but changed his title to 白帝 White Emperor a year after he abdicated the throne to Cang Xuan. 

In the 2019 edition, the Gao Xin king never had a name change. As such, the implications that were evident in the original text are unfortunately lost:

2013
一年多后，俊帝移居轩辕山，入住朝云峰的朝云殿，废俊帝之称，改称白帝。白帝这么做的原因连颛顼也猜不透，也许只是因为他想彻底摆脱过去的噩梦，也许是因为他想告诉天下从此再无高辛国君。
More than a year later, the Grand Emperor moved to Xuan Yuan mountain to take up residence in Chaoyun Palace at Chaoyun Peak. He discarded the title of Grand Emperor, and took up the title of White Emperor. Even Zhuan Xu could not comprehend the reason for his action. Perhaps he merely wanted to be completely free from the nightmares of the past, or perhaps he wanted to tell the world that henceforth, Gao Xin no longer had a king.

2019
一年多后，高辛王移居轩辕山，入住朝云峰的朝云殿。
More than a year later, the Gao Xin king moved to Xuan Yuan mountain to take up residence in Chaoyun Palace at Chaoyun Peak.

-- Vol 3 Ch8  (Chapter 41)

Cang Xuan

Cang Xuan had the title of Black Emperor in the original novel. This was totally removed in the revised edition, including the anecdotes behind its name.

2013
在婚典上，神农馨悦按照神农族的传统，尚红，吉服是红色，颛顼却未按照轩辕族的传统，尚黄，着黄衣，而是穿了一袭黑衣，点缀金丝刺绣。
没有人知道颛顼此举的含义，但这套黑色正服显得威严庄重，金丝刺绣又让衣袍不失华丽富贵，以至于婚典过后，不少贵族公子都模仿颛顼穿黑袍。
丰隆戏称颛顼为黑帝，开了尚黑的风气，丰隆的戏称在一群和颛顼亲近的臣子间很快传开。因为黄帝仍在世，人们为了区分二帝，暗地里都跟着丰隆他们称呼颛顼为黑帝，颛顼听闻后，笑道：“我正为称呼犯愁，既然如此，以后我就是黑帝吧！”
从此，黑帝颛顼的名号正式确定。
During the wedding, as was the custom of the Shen Nong tribe, Xin Yue wore red, an auspicious colour. However, Zhuan Xu did not wear all yellow according to the custom of the Xuan Yuan tribe. Instead, he was dressed in black embroidered with gold thread.
No one knew the meaning behind Zhuan Xu's act, but the black formalwear was imposing and real, while the gold embroidery gave the robes an air of splendor and luxury. As such, many young nobles started imitating Zhuan Xu in wearing black.
Feng Long teasingly nicknamed Zhuan Xu as Black Emperor for making black fashionable, and the nickname he gave started to spread among Zhuan Xu's courtiers. Since the Yellow Emperor was still alive, they secretly followed Feng Long in calling Zhuan Xu the Black Emperor in order to distinguish between the two kings. When Zhuan Xu heard of it, he laughed and said, "I had been worrying what my official title should be. In this case, I will be the Black Emperor henceforth!"
From then on, the official designation of Black Emperor Zhuan Xu was determined.

2019
The highlighted section was totally removed.

-- Vol 2 Ch13  (Chapter 30)

---------

2013
“没有！” 颛顼冷笑，讥嘲地说，“明日不是一般的婚礼，可是轩辕黑帝迎娶高辛王姬的婚礼，高辛国内和边境上的军队加起来有上百万，事关重大，我哪有资格喝醉？”
"No!" Zhuan Xu coldly laughed, and said sarcastically, "Tomorrow is no ordinary wedding, but when the Xuan Yuan Black Emperor marries the Gao Xin Princess. The armies within Gao Xin and at the border combined total up to more than a million men. The stakes are high. What right do I have to be drunk?"

2019
“没有！” 玱玹冷笑，讥嘲地说，“明日不是一般的婚礼，可是二世轩辕王迎娶高辛王姬的婚礼，高辛国内和边境上的军队加起来有上百万，事关重大，我哪有资格喝醉？”
"No!" Cang Xuan coldly laughed, and said sarcastically, "Tomorrow is no ordinary wedding, but when the second Xuan Yuan king marries the Gao Xin Princess. The armies within Gao Xin and at the border combined total up to more than a million men. The stakes are high. What right do I have to be drunk?"

-- Vol 3 Ch 8  (Chapter 41)

 liddi:

The 2019 revised edition reflected changes that aimed to improve on, or address regrets that Tong Hua had from the original novel. The prologue was an addition, as well as changing of names (characters, kingdoms, places) and prose here and there. For the most part, I am not particularly bothered by the name changes. However, it is regrettable that name change loses its added nuances in several instances.

Why would she eliminate those Emperor parts?  Those are great!  Are the Black and White Emperors very much historical names?

 Kokuto:

Why would she eliminate those Emperor parts?  Those are great!  Are the Black and White Emperors very much historical names?

I think it boils down again to censorship concerns, because these titles were based on Chinese mythology, and Tong Hua changed the characters and their relationships liberally, as you can see here:

颛顼 Zhuan Xu (renamed to 玱玹 Cang Xuan) was also known as 黑帝 Black Emperor, among other names.

黄帝 Yellow Emperor (renamed to 轩辕王 Xuan Yuan king) is the actual historical name, and grandfather to Zhuan Xu.

The Gao Xin king's name in the novel is 高辛少昊 Gao Xin Shao Hao.  In mythology,  少昊 Shao Hao (whose title is 白帝 White Emperor) is the oldest son of the Yellow Emperor; uncle and predecessor to Zhuan Xu. 

Also according to mythology, 蓐收 Ru Shou was one of Shao Hao's sons.

俊帝 Grand Emperor (Gao Xin Shao Hao's original title in the novel) is slightly different. There is no 俊帝 in mythology, but there is a 帝俊 Emperor Jun (words are reversed), the ancient emperor of heaven described in the early chapters of the Classics of Mountains and Seas, which some scholars take it to refer to the Yellow Emperor's great-grandson via Shao Hao.