Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

I don't know what to say about TH creating a poll about XL, but I personally find it hard to believe that XL's fans would go against the idea of him revealing his feelings to XY. I don't know about others, but the most frustrating thing for me after I have finished reading the novel was precisely the fact that XY didn't get to know everything XL did for her. 

"So what do you ladies think? How would things have played out if XL confessed his feelings to XY? A happy ending for our lovebirds or will it still be the same outcome?"

I believe the ending would have been the same for XL.  I mean,  I don't see XL running away with XY în the end even if XY went begging him to do it. However, I believe XY's ending would have been different, that's why XL went to great lenghts to keep his feelings hidden from her IMO. 

 blabla100:

"So what do you ladies think? How would things have played out if XL confessed his feelings to XY? A happy ending for our lovebirds or will it still be the same outcome?"

I believe the ending would have been the same for XL.  I mean,  I don't see XL running away with XY în the end even if XY went begging him to do it. However, I believe XY's ending would have been different, that's why XL went to great lenghts to keep his feelings hidden from her IMO. 

Agree. Only when Xiao Yao accepts that he continues to stay in Chenrong army, and is willing to bear any consequences of their relationship, Xiang Liu will accept her love. She has to prove she is mature and strong enough, but apparently she can't.

@blabla100

But what if XY let him know that she'd rather have it once than never? I think a woman who is mature and strong enough would think that. Eventually she would look back on him with pain and more happiness and realize that she doesn't regret it. But if she misses him, I don't think she'll ever find another person in her life that she loves so much.

A friend said that LYF was not made into an online series, it was immediately released as a physical book. What is meant by online series is the additional chapter of Xiaoyao that Liddi posted previously.
Legend has it that the author posted it during the Jinjiang serialization before the publication of paper books, but deleted it immediately after posting. At that time, VIP users could see it first, but ordinary users could not see it.  Some friends also said that they heard the second episode of the radio drama ten years ago, and it was narrated with plot explanations.
another friend who has watched the second episode online say The last sentence of the second episode was that Xiang Liu never came back and that the ghost Fang Bei was alive. I hope they can meet again without question marks.
And a few months before the 3rd book was published, a friend predicted 3 things, one of which was that XL would die and xy would have children.

@blabla100

Yes, I also can feel her despair sometimes, especially when Xiang Liu snatched her from the wedding and then gave her to Jing. If it were me, I'd just walk away, go back to being my wandering doctor, and let those two assholes marry each other! If he wants to kill me, then kill me. If not, I'll go. If he comes back to me later, I will ask him to clarify, but if he still wouldn't admit his feelings for me after I had confessed my feelings and said I would accept any outcome, then I would just assume he doesn't love me and let it go. The reasons why Xiao Yao missed Xiang Liu, one is that her fragile heart caused by the shadow of childhood makes him have no confidence in her ability to withstand his death, another is her "you must confess first" ridiculous principle. 

Also, I don't think missing out on friends is exactly the same as missing out on love, because if you don't choose to be friends with a dying person, you can be friends with someone else, but if you miss out on the one you love the most in your life, a unique soul mate, where are you going to "move" to?

@ZYHJL

I could also felt her despair when she wanted to jump în the water to follow him, after the Voodoo king told her the specifics of the bugs. The way I see it she was desperate to hear an explaination from XL, to confirm if what Voodoo king told her was the truth or not. Or when she chase after him through the town, în chapter 37. Also in chapter 43, she literally grab his hair to not let him go away. Half angry, half desperate, it was like all her frustrations and despair went into that grab, I kinda felt she wanted to ruin his perfect righteous imagine who kept them from having a future togheter. 

I don't know if it was only XY who missed XL, I think they both missed eachother because they met too late. Their relationship was bond to be doomed from the start. But regardless of them not ending up togheter, I still believe they got to experience eachother while it lasted. The only thing a confession would have change would have been XY's ending, IMO. 

It's true that missing on friends îs not the same as missing on love, but XL and XY were quite similar în some aspects. XL wasn't able to forget his comrades and their past togheter and move on to have an happy ending either - with or without XY, his loyalty for them was greater. That's why he made everything between them look as a transaction, so everything between them to appear even. His way of saying you don't own me anything, move on with your life, but I am not sure if that's only because he knew XY's biggest fear is being left alone or because he knew as well how it is to be unable to let some things go and move on to have your happy ending because you've already tied yourself to something else. Might as well be his own experience that came into play and not only XY's traumas. He didn't let XY pick him, because he couldn't pick XY either. 

Tong Hua had spoken about her initial plans for a book between Once Promised and Lost You Forever, and another that takes place after Lost You Forever. To date, there has been no indication that she would ever revisit those stories and write the last two books, which means we would probably never get to see it in any form. 

Someone commented in surprise that there was a story in between [Once Promised and Lost You Forever]? Yes, there was. One mountain, two kingdoms, three royal families, four noble families. Xiling was featured in Once Promised; Chishui and Tushan in Lost You Forever; the Guifang clan was supposed to be featured in this story! Apart from this, the story of the two kingdoms have not been written, but that should be in the very last work (the one after Lost You Forever). In this story, there should only be glimpses of the two kingdoms. (I suddenly feel the panic of not being sure whether all the stories could be told before I finish writing...)

However, after writing over 200,000 words, I felt that I did not fully think through what the story was trying to express. I attempted to express the theme of life and death, which is not an easy theme to convey. My experiences and ideas were not enough for that attempt, so I decided to shelve it.

I skipped over the story of the Ruler of the Underworld, and started writing Lost You Forever, which took more than a year.

-- Tong Hua, 13 Oct (year unknown)

Apparently the title of the story that took place between Once Promised and Lost You Forever is 千方相 Thousands of Directions/Sides. 

As such, it is by a rare miracle that someone (曰白酱) once took a screenshot of Tong Hua's Weibo post from way back when, which includes an excerpt from 千方相 and some of her own footnotes. 

The following is the translation of that leaked excerpt which features Xiang Liu in one of his transformations, and is very likely the only prose we will ever get from the two books that remain uncompleted.

千方相 Thousands of Directions   (Lost You Forever prequel) excerpt

Hou Tu* looked down at everyone and said with a smile, "The only ones in the Central Plains able to mobilise so many highly trained soldiers all at once to hunt me down, can only be Gong Gong's rebel army. However, Gong Gong's character is very upright and unyielding. If he came to Zhi Yi City, he would not stay in the background and have Xing Tian lead the attack. I believe the person leading the troops this time must be military advisor Xiang Liu."

"Lord Hou Tu is able to predict matters with great accuracy. It is indeed I who have led my troops to take your life." A man wearing a black cloak came out. He removed the cloak and black hair cascaded down his back, neither tied nor drawn up, save for a white forehead band. His robes were as white as snow, untouched by even a speck of dust and his features were delicately beautiful except for his very strange eyes which glowed red, making people fear to look longer at him.

With a clear shout, he vaulted on to a large condor and flew up. Golden feathers on top of the large condor's head stood up like a golden crown. The feathers all over its body were black** except for a pair of white wings.

Xiang Liu smiled and said, "I have long heard of the bravery of the black-winged snake. Today, I can see that it is not an exaggeration indeed. My white-winged golden condor usually feeds on venomous snakes, and is very adept in catching snakes."

Hou Tu smiled, "Military advisor, you sent Xing Tian to deal with me. Whom did you send to deal with Little Zhu Rong?"

Xiang Liu's eyes flashed with red light. "You need not worry. I dispatched fourteen people to meet up with Little Zhu Rong. After I have taken your head, I will bring it along with Little Zhu Rong's head to Xun Mountain to be offered up as a sacrifice to Zhu Rong."

While everyone's attention was on Hou Tu, Jiang Li*** made her escape.

The loud cry of the golden condor reverberated from the sky. It was said that Xiang Liu was a demon with nine heads and great spiritual power, was cunning and vicious. Jiang Li's heart trembled at the thought that the golden condor was the natural enemy of snakes. However, she did not look back, but crawled even faster. The faster she could escape, the greater the help it would be for Hou Tu.

Upon entering the thick forest, the sounds grew more distant. From time to time, lights of different colours flashed across the sky, illuminating the forest every now and again...

(At this time, Xin Yue and Feng Long were not yet born. Their father was being methodically hunted down by Xiang Liu, and very nearly lost his life. Zhuan Xu was unsure whether to advance or retreat, while Xiao Yao had just run away from Jade Mountain, and Jing had just started to learn how to manoeuvre between different conflicting powers... several hundred years later, everyone finally came together in Little Zhu Rong's manor...

In addition, Xiang Liu's appearance in this scene is fake, so its description is different from in Lost You Forever.)

* In Once Promised, Hou Tu, once a Shen Nong general, was the first to surrender to the Yellow Emperor. Out of the four great generals of Shen Nong, Zhu Rong (Yan Zhuan) burnt the mountain and died for his country; Chi You (Chi Chen) died in the great battle; Hou Tu (Luo Jia) led his armies and surrendered to Xuan Yuan; while Gong Gong (Hong Jiang) continued to resist to the end.  

** The large condor (Furball?) was described as having black feathers all over, except for its wings which were white, and golden feathers on its head. This is different from Lost You Forever, which described it as a white condor. Unless even Furball's appearance is fake, just like Xiang Liu's, or this was not Furball, but another condor?

*** 江篱 Jiang Li appears to be a new character in the story