Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

 H19279:

I don't see that XL always push her away. The fact is their steps and romantic progress didn't synchronize. When XL was willing to move forward, she retreated. And when XY finally had some gut (and decreased her requirements for partner), he had already withdrew.

 H19279:

He only understood the feeling of losing loved one, feeling of "scarier than death" when he experienced her assasination.

I am seeing truth in these statements. The assassination attempt does seem to be the turning point in their relationship where XL decided to retreat. Before this, there is no evidence of XL making any deliberate attempts to push XY away. On the contrary, XL took steps to show her his fun-loving, patient, easy-going FFB side without his battle armor, acted jealous when she agreed to meet with TSJ for CX's sake, let her know that XL and FFB were the same person, opened up to her about how he became FFB, acted hurt when she didn't let him drink from her neck, and became upset when XY had him buy a bow for her to make TSJ jealous. Those don't seem like distancing actions to me.

However, after the assassination attempt, we see him telling her to erase her memories of him in the gorilla mirror, refusing to see her after she wakes up from her coma, intentionally scaring her into TSJ's arms when she told him she wished she could have saved him after his escape from the slave death match arena, ending their archery relationship, and avoiding letting her air kiss him along with other distancing behaviors during their under sea excursion. This was all before XY became engaged to FL and CX became emperor.

@solarlunareclipse

"Before this, there is no evidence of XL making any deliberate attempts to push XY away."

The way I see it, there is. I honestly believe FFB purposely let XY aknowledge him poiting an arrow at CX on their first meeting. I am convinced that if he really didn't want her to sense him, he could have easily avoided it. XL knew what CX means to XY, he basically took himself off the list of being seen as a candidate by XY by letting her sense him poiting that arrow at CX. 

Chapter 16

"I’m bored. I can see you’re bored. Two people bored together is better than one.”

That night, the spectre of death radiating from the tip of his arrow, Xiao Yao still remembered it vividly.

... 

Even Zhuan Xu teased her “I just got you back and want you around a few more years. Don’t get lured off by that Fang Feng family playboy.”

Xiao Yao stuck her tongue out at him “As long as he can shoot you with an arrow, I’ll never run away with him.”

@H19279

Discussing this already doesn't mean that anything was proven either way. Is debatable and even though I can't actually prove I am right, no one can actually prove me I am wrong either. It's up to everyone's interpretation, but I was re-reading parts of chapter 16 earlier and I came across these 2 quotes that I forgot of and I kinda wanted to add them to the topic, since last time only the fragment  from chapter 15 was posted. 

@blabla100

Yes. That legendary rumor

 liddi:

My apologies - there was a typo in my post.  Both 朱萸 (the name) and 茱萸 (the plant) are pronounced the same but do not actually have the same meaning.

茱萸 refers to cornelian cherry or dogwood.
朱萸 (the name) is not a term in itself.
Individually:
   朱 Zhu can either be a surname, or cinnabar / vermillion / bright red
   萸 Yu refers to cornelian cherry / dogwood

As such, Aunt Zhu Yu's name could either mean "red dogwood" or include a surname (which is less likely)

Thank you for clarifying further! That makes sense to me. 

 liddi:

 AH :
Or why Koala sometimes translated references to that character as  "Auntie Zhu Yu" and sometimes as "Auntie Ju Li"?
I can see no reason for it except perhaps for inconsistency or typos. Certainly all the texts that refer to her as Auntie Ju Li and Auntie Zhu Yu are the same - 茱萸姨.

 H19279:

she refered the plant when she used  茱萸 and 朱萸 is referred to specific name.

 H19279:

CX, XY called her  Aunt 茱萸, meaning Aunt dogwood. They were kids, thus they called her with more casual, less respected way althought the phonetics were identical.

Tong Hua making the distinction seems odd to me if the verbal pronunciations were the same and I assume CX and XY wouldn't have had a reason to write out the more casual address (茱萸姨) at any point. But maybe Koala used "Auntie Ju Li" to try and convey the difference?

 liddi:

That makes a lot of sense, and certainly explains why her death was not documented in Once Promised. Thank you!

You're welcome!

 liddi:

I agree. We need to take into account the time he would have needed to cultivate into a human form, before he was caught as a child and forced to participate in death matches.

It would be interesting to know how old Lie Yang was when Chi You captured him and how old he was when he cultivated his human form, and how old Ah Bi was when XY ran away from Jade Mountain (since he hadn't cultivated his human form yet by that point). 

Based on what Ah Bi told XL in chapter 48, he was an infant when Chi You sent him to Ah Heng during the 60 years that she spent on Jade Mountain. I'm not sure exactly how many years passed between Ah Heng leaving Jade Mountain and the final battle, but I assume it was significantly more than 10 years. Then XY spent 70 years on Jade Mountain. So Ah Bi would have been well over 80 and probably over 100 when XY ran away from Jade Mountain, and he still hadn't cultivated a human form by then.

However, his cultivation might have been delayed by the fact that for the first 50 out of the 70 years that XY spent on Jade Mountain after the last battle, Ah Bi was in a coma due to burn injuries he sustained in the last battle. So it seems like he probably only would've been awake for the last 20 years that she spent on Jade Mountain. 

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Chapter 48:

Sir Bi said, “My mom died when I was born, and Qi Yo came across and rescued me. He sent me to Jade Mountain to Xiao Yao’s mom, who raised me since I was a baby. When Lie Yang was still a phoenix bird, he was captured by Qi Yo to use as the carrier bird to send messages back and forth to Xiao Yao’s mom. She was a mother and family to both of us.”

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Chapter 12:

Xiao Yao said, “I know you are my mom’s friends and she asked you both to watch over me. But I’m grown now so you don’t need to be held to that promise. Go do what you want to do.”

Ah Bi looked at Xiao Yao and raised his paw. She grabbed it and there were tears in her eyes. In the epic final battle at Yi Province between Xuan Yuan and Sheng Nong, Ah Bi was gravely injured. When the Grand Emperor sent him to Jade Mountain, he was in a coma and looked like a burned shriveled up fox jerky. The Royal Mother used a ten thousand year old peach leaf to wrap him and soaked him in the deepest pool of bone essence. Only after 50 years did Ah Bi wake up. Xiao Yao knew how close both of them were with her mother and she knew they saw her as an extension of her mother’s life. But she wasn’t her mother, and she never ever wanted to be her mother.

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Chapter 10:

Zhuan Xu scolded her. “Stop with the nonsense! Even Grandfather is respectful to the Royal Mother! Also Ah Bi has now evolved into human form and he is called Sir Bi so when you see him be respectful.”

Xiao Liu remembered her childhood on Jade Mountain. Lie Yang was a demon bird that looked like a phoenix. His human form was that of a ten year old boy but he didn’t like to take his human form. He had a terrible personality and every time she slacked off during training he would viciously peck her and chase her all over the peach blossom forest. Ah Bi was a winged fox demon but had not yet trained to evolve into human form back then. He was very smart and very gentle. Every time Lie Yang would peck her he would save her. After so many years apart, Ah Bi now had a human form, and she wondered if Lie Yang had grown taller.

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I'm also curious about how old 毛球 / Máo Qiú / Feather ball / Furball / Chubby was, since the first time WXL met him she felt that (similar to the snake spirit she met in the mountains before she was captured by the nine tailed fox) although he had not yet cultivated a human form, he could understand her when she spoke. 

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Chapter 2:

The gold and white condor stood before Xiao Liu and stared at him, as if saying, “I’m going to eat that! If you don’t want to die then scram!” Xiao Liu felt this condor didn’t yet have enough spiritual learning to take the form of a person, but it definitely understood spoken language.

-----

Same goes for XY's winged mount, Yuan Yuan (whose name makes me think of Ah Yuan from MDZS). Since XY raised Yuan Yuan from an egg when she was living in Gao Xing, before going to Xuan Yuan and then Jade Mountain, Yuan Yuan must be over 310 years old by the time Yuan Yuan encounters WXL in chapter 9. But, like Mao Qiu, Yuan Yuan doesn't seem to have cultivated a human form yet. 

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Chapter 9:

Suddenly there was a sound of a bird calling from above and a large swallow zoomed down from above and landed right next to Xiao Liu. Its body was inching forward and its head was bowed as if it was bowing to Xiao Liu and inviting Xiao Liu to pet its head.

Xiao Liu stepped back and dropped her crutch, her body stumbling.

Shi Qi wanted to go assist her but the Grand Emperor and Zhuan Xu arrived and the Grand Emperor raised his hand and a giant force blocked Shi Qi’s path. Shi Qi could see the swallow didn’t want to hurt Xiao Liu so he didn’t resist and quietly watched.

The swallow saw that Xiao Liu was ignoring it so it cocked its head quizzically and walked towards Xiao Liu.

Xiao Liu backed away faster and faster and it walked forward faster and faster. Xiao Liu fell on the ground and the swallow thought Xiao Liu wanted to play with it so it happily called out and started rolling on the ground a few times. It then stretched its neck out and curled up next to Xiao Liu.

Xiao Liu stared at it and the swallow was heartbroken and cried out pitifully. It put its head under Xiao Liu’s hand and whined, clearly it wasn’t going to stop complaining until Xiao Liu paid it attention. Xiao Liu finally reached out her hand and stroked its head.

The swallow flapped its wings and cried out happily in song, its joy evident to everyone watching.

Xiao Liu held the swallow’s body and slowly got up .“You thing, how’d you get so fat?” She then raised her head and saw the Grand Emperor and Zhuan Xu staring at her.

Xiao Liu laughed and pointed at the swallow. “This fat bird seems to like me a lot, likely it’s a female.”

The Grand Emperor said, “I selected this swallow as the winged ride for my eldest daughter Xiao Yao. Xiao Yao slept with it every night when it was still an egg. When it hatched, the first thing it saw was Xiao Yao. She named it Yuan Yuan and every day she would ask when she could ride Yuan Yuan in the skies. I always answered, “When both of you are all grown up”. Now Yuan Yuan is all grown up, but Xiao Yao still has not returned.”

Xiao Liu bowed apologetically. “I didn’t know it was the Princess’s winged ride, if I insulted it then will Your majesty please forgive.”

The Grand Emperor stared at Xiao Liu and then left with Zhuan Xu without saying a word.

Xiao Liu saw them leave and then walked to rest on a rock with Shi Qi’s assistance. The swallow came over and Xiao Liu patted it. “Don’t bother me, you go play by yourself.” The swallow Yuan Yuan crouched pitifully near Xiao Liu for a bit and then flew off.

 liddi:

The drama portrayed him as a youth when he escaped, so perhaps it was a little more than 40 years if not less. In the case of Left Ear, he was considered a young man when he finally won his freedom, so he was probably in the range of at least 60-70 years old by then?

In episode 6, the drama portrayed XL in the form of a human child chained up and being whipped, and then breaking his chains and attacking the man who whipped him. I suppose that is probably intended to depict XL escaping from the death match arena. But if it is, it seems like a departure from XY's thoughts in the novel, where she seems to think that XL and Left Ear would have been in approximately the same situation and approximately the same age (both young men, rather than children) when they each left the death match arena. 

Although XY didn't have all the facts when she pictured XL as a young man like Left Ear when he escaped from the death match arena, I don't think Tong Hua would convey that idea to the readers if she felt that XL actually would have been much younger than Left Ear and still in the form of a child when he escaped. 

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Chapter 23:

【左耳】捧着小夭给他的一袋子钱，一瘸一拐地走进了夜色中。

小夭凝视着他的背影，突然想，五六百年前，相柳从死斗场里逃出来时，应该也是这样一个少年，看似已经满身沧桑、憔悴疲惫，可实际又如一个新生的婴儿，碰到什么样的人就会成就什么样的命运。

可是，那时她还未出生！

邶在小夭耳畔打了个响指：“人都走远了，还发什么呆？走了！”

小夭边走边说：“我在想，如果你从死斗场里逃出来时，是我救了你该多好！如果那样的话，我就会让你只做防风邶！真恨不得能早出生几百年，我一定会去死斗场里找你……?

邶停住了脚步，凝视着小夭。

小夭回身看着他，两人的眼眸内都暗影沉沉、欲言又止。

Koala's translation:

[Left Ear] held the pouch of money Xiao Yao gave him and staggered into the night.

Xiao Yao watched his departing figure and suddenly thought about five or six hundred years ago when Xiang Liu escaped the slave death match arena. He ought to have been a young man just like him, but already so world-weary and beaten down, so broken and battered. But like a newborn baby, whatever and whomever he encountered would direct the course of his life going forward.

But….she wasn’t even born yet back then!

Bei interrupted her thoughts. “He’s long gone, snap out of it! Let’s go!”

Xiao Yao walked and talked. “I was thinking that when you escaped the slave death match arena, wouldn’t it have been great if I was the one who saved you? If that was the case, then I would let you only be Fang Feng Bei! I really hate that I wasn’t born a few hundred years earlier. I would definitely find you in the slave death match arena…….”

Bei stopped and stared at Xiao Yao.

Xiao Yao turned and stared at him, their eyes meeting in the darkness, wanting to say more but not.

Google:

[Left Ear] held a bag of money given to him by Xiaoyao and limped into the night.

Xiaoyao stared at his back and suddenly thought that, five or six hundred years ago, when Xiang Liu escaped from the death arena, he must also have been such a young man. He seemed to be full of vicissitudes of life, haggard and tired, but in fact he was like a new boy. A baby will have a certain destiny depending on who he meets.

However, she was not born yet!

Bei snapped his fingers in Xiaoyao's ear: "Everyone has gone far away, why are you still dazed? Let's go!"

Xiaoyao said while walking: "I was thinking, how great it would be if I saved you when you escaped from the death arena! In that case, I would let you just make Fangfengbei! I really wish I could have been born earlier. For hundreds of years, I will definitely go to the death arena to find you...?

Bei stopped and stared at Xiaoyao.

Xiaoyao turned around and looked at him. Both of their eyes were filled with shadows, and they were hesitant to speak.

-----

Lie Yang's circumstances also seem relevant. His human form was still that of a 10 year old human child when XY ran away from Jade Mountain, and he must have been way older than 80 by that time. 

Whereas XY (a deity and not a demon, so not quite the same) was as tall as an 8 year old human girl in the period after she ran away from Jade Mountain, when she was over 80 years old. 

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Chapter 9:

Xiao Liu’s voice started, “During the final battle between the Xuan Yuan Yellow Emperor and Sheng Nong’s General Qi Yo, my mother died during battle. Before she went to battle, she left me with the Royal Mother in Jade Mountain. I wanted to go home, but year after year I waited and Dad never came to get me. I was very immature then, and the Royal Mother rarely spoke and never smiled, every day forcing me to practice my spiritual powers. I hated her, and one time when Dad had a servant bring a present for me, I hid in the undercarriage and escaped down the mountain. Initially I wanted to hide in the carriage all the way home to Five Gods Mountain, to scare Dad and ask why he didn’t bring me home. I wanted him to tell me that Mom wasn’t dead. On the way home, the two servants were gossiping about me. They said a lot of bad things about my mom and me. They called me a bastard spawn. They said I was so pathetic, wanting to go back to Five Gods Mountain, but my dad would never bring me back. It was his grace that he didn’t have me killed. That was when I learned that my mom actually divorced my dad! She wasn’t my dad’s wife anymore!”

Xiao Liu’s voice became so dark and even Shi Qi and Zhuan Xu knew that she was only sharing some of what she heard because the rest was too horrible to even discuss again. How could she have felt when she heard it all and was still so young.

“I don’t remember exactly how I felt – despair, disappointment, rage, disbelief – I hated my mom, hated my dad…..my entire head was spinning. When the servants stopped to rest, I snuck away and didn’t know where to go but knew I couldn’t go back to Five Gods Mountain. But that was the only home I knew, I didn’t know where else to go. I followed the way to Yi Zhou because I heard that was where my mom died. I didn’t know what to do and just walked on. Probably because I was so cute, people were nice to me and fed me. One time an uncle let me ride in his carriage and said he was headed the same way. I sat down and he took me to his residence. He was nice to me, told me stories and made me laugh. I felt like Dad didn’t want me anymore so I thought he could be my dad. But one day he tried to take my clothes off, and even though I didn’t understand what was happening, I remembered the Royal Mother saying that a girl cannot take her clothes off randomly. I wasn’t willing so he hit me and I accidentally killed him. I was……” Xiao Liu gestured to the height of an eight year old human girl, “Just this tall. I couldn’t believe a person could have so much blood, my clothes were soaked in his blood.”

-----

So going by the novel, rather than the drama, and the idea that XL's human form would have been that of a young man rather than a child (like Lie Yang's human form when XY ran away from Jade Mountain) when he escaped, I would guess that XL was something like 150 or 200 when he escaped. 

 liddi:

That is the irony isn't it? He was originally a sea snake demon, but he has all but conquered both the oceans and the skies (with his winged mount). And Tong Hua specifically described him as the strongest in his battle against the maelstrom.

King of the Seas. Unbeatable in the mountains outside of QS town. And able to break through Sheng Nong Mountain's defences by air as a one-man army when he flew in on Mao Qiu. 

 liddi:

The only thing that could take him down, did take him down, was his heart, and it was for those he loved and cared deeply for that he gave freely, unreservedly of himself, his lives.

Oof. Well observed and well put, but heart wrenching. 

@solarlunateclipse

" she shouldn't be concerned with FFB hurting CX because he aborted the shooting for her."

But as shown in those quotes, that's pretty far from  what she understood. 

She wanted exclusivity and someone who's not an enemy of her brother, and here comes FFB who from their first encounter seems to be unfit to hit both conditions. I don't believe that's a coincidente. 

 solarlunareclipse:

The assassination attempt does seem to be the turning point in their relationship where XL decided to retreat. Before this, there is no evidence of XL making any deliberate attempts to push XY away.

I felt like, from the very beginning of FFB's appearance in XY's world, XL deliberately flirted and showed XY a playboy side to FFB (e.g., leaving the dance hall with a beautiful dancer to spend the night with her / telling XY the first time that FFB spoke to her that he could be the friend she mistook him for if she drank with him + that if only she hadn't poisoned him he would have felt very lucky / giving XY the impression that he was constantly interested in watching dancers) so he could be a fun, flirtatious, and doting companion around her and yet she would temper her expectations and believe that she was not the only woman who received attention from him and she would stop herself from expecting him to only have eyes for her for her whole life. So her loneliness would be alleviated temporarily and her heart would be protected long-term. 

XL/FBB maintained that impression by including gambling dens and dance halls among the places that they regularly visited, and by watching dancers while XY napped after their archery practice as part of their regular routine. And it worked. 

XY initially thought FFB wanted to teach her archery as a means of picking her up. Later on when she realized that wasn't the case, she still didn't take his overt flirting seriously. When FFB flirted with her after they first saw Left Ear fight in the death match arena, she viewed his flirtation as him playing with her. When XY reflected on FFB's doting ways, she thought that only a playboy like him would know how to cater to a woman's wants and needs so well. When FFB suggested that she stop being a princess and run away with him to wander the world, she thought he was bullshitting because she thought he was a sheltered son of a noble family who didn't know how difficult it was to wander the world without any wealth or status and who had been home "tickling" his maids back when she was wandering the world as a con-man. 

Even after XL revealed that he was FFB, it seemed like he intentionally focused on the dancers at the dance hall and ignored XY for a while in chapter 19. Continuing to give the impression that he had eyes for other women and she shouldn't count on him to give her his undivided attention. That scene ends with him leaving for an unspecified period of time, which also emphasized to XY that she shouldn't develop expectations or rely on him being around at any given time. Which all seems consistent with what he had been doing since she first saw FFB in chapter 15. And that all took place before the assassination attempt in chapter 21. 

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Chapter 15:

The dancer was performing and her undulations make her tiny waist oh so touchable and many men tried to reach but were not able to to. Two men walked in through a curtained doorway and one man grabbed the dancer and felt up her waist before tossing her into the arms of the other man. “Let this little waist spend the night with you.”

The dancers at the dance halls were performers and not prostitutes so the dancer was pissed, but the second she saw the man’s face her face turned red and she docilely followed the man upstairs. The man laughed and put his arms around her to lead her up the stairs and Xiao Yao felt the man looked familiar. Due to the angle and the curtains, she didn’t get a good look at his face until he was on the second floor and Xiao Yao saw his face fully. Her heart thundered and her mouth gaped open – he looked just like Xiang Liu! But he was wearing fine clothes and his hair was pitch black, and there was mirth in his eyes that was nothing like the normally icy cold Xiang Liu.

Xiao Yao stared at him while he swept a glance over her and didn’t even pause. 

...

The man left with the pretty girl while Jin Xuan opened the door and told Xiao Yao to come in.

...

The bug in Xiao Yao’s body had no reaction so she got confused. “You’re really not him?”

“If you drink with me, I can be him for you.”

Xiao Yao sweetly smiled. “Sure!”

The man poured her wine and she gulped it down before pouring him a cup and he gulped it down. A second later, his hand dropped and he wanly smiled. “You poisoned me.”

Xiao Yao picked up his hand and touched his fingertips which were red because he was poisoned.

The man sighed. “If you didn’t poison me, here I was thinking I was about to get lucky.” [Note: Google translates "男子叹气，“如果你没给我下毒，我倒真觉得自己艳福不浅。"" as "The man sighed, "If you hadn't poisoned me, I would really feel that I was very lucky."" which isn't quite as forward as Koala's translation.]

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Chapter 16:

“Don’t want to know!”

Fang Feng Bei grabbed her arm and tried to placate her. “But I want to tell you. Can you please hear it?”

Xiao Yao controlled the smile at the corner of her lips. “How are you going to beg me to listen?”

“I’ll hug you once? I’m willing to use my handsome man wiles on you.”

Xiao Yao was angry and amused and shoved him. “Fang Feng Bei, you’re toying with me!”

Fang Feng Bei laughed and held onto her arm. 

...

Xiao Yao was confused. She once thought he was Xiang Liu, who had nine-heads and eighty-one forms. So perhaps one of his forms was Fang Feng Bei. But Fang Feng Bei was so different from Xiang Liu.

...

How could Xiang Liu tenderly talk with her, carefully take care of her, patiently spend time with her? Only Fang Feng Bei that playboy would know a woman’s heart so well.

But as time went on, even if she still had that niggling feeling, she had accepted Fang Feng Bei was just Fang Feng Bei. But right now….she felt again that he was Xiang Liu. No reason, impossible to explain, but she just felt that he was.

She said, “Our hearts are beating as one.” She raised her head to look at Fang Feng Bei and waited for him to give her an explanation.

Fang Feng Bei’s hand closed around her hand and he smiled. “Yes, it sure seems like it’s really beating together.”

This bastard! Xiao Yao was exasperated but could do nothing to him. She could only grit her teeth and stare at him as he smiled and stared back at her.

...

After they entered the residence, Xiao Yao jumped off her winged horse and sighed. “My version of the wild Princess is so different from Ah Nian’s. With the entire street staring at me, my first instinct is to wonder what I did wrong. Is this a side effect of doing too many bad things in my past?”

Fang Feng Bei asked half seriously half in jest, “Why don’t you not be a Princess anymore and go wander the world with me?”

Xiao Yao giggled. “Sure! If you can let everything go first.”

Fang Feng Bei chuckled while Xiao Yao stared at him. She felt like she called him on his bullshit. When she was wandering the world being a con artist, he was likely home tickling his maids!

...

The maids quickly brought out the food and after dining, Fang Feng Bei rested against the window staring out at the courtyard view while drinking wine. Xiao Yao drowsily said, “Zhuan Xu probably didn’t train any maids to dance so if you want you need to ask the maids yourself.”

Xiao Yao walked into the back part of the room and pulled down the veil curtain and she was asleep before her head hit the pillow. They were like this when they went to the dance halls as well, after dining Fang Feng Bei would watch the dancers outside while Xiao Yao took a nap on the pallet behind him. 

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Chapter 17:

When she was happily leaving the messenger shop, he swanned over to her, just like a playboy hitting on a lady. He was all smiles and honeyed voice offering to teach her archery. Xiao Yao was amused and didn’t mind his trying to get close to her. 

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Chapter 19:

Fang Feng Bei lived up to his reputation as a consummate ne’er-do-well playboy for the last four hundred years, he knew Zhi Yi and Zhe Province like the back of his hand. Whatever nook and cranny had something fun, he could find it, whatever was tasty, he would find it. The two of them were each other’s companions as they enjoyed life’s endless pleasures.

...

A dance hall, a dancer was gracefully dancing.

Xiao Yao smiled and placed a white wrapped box in front of Fang Feng Bei.

Bei glanced over it and drawled, “What’s that?”

Xiao Yao said, “You open it.”

Bei shook his cup, “I’m drinking right now.”

Xiao Yao clenched her fist – be patient, be patient, be patient! She released her fist and opened the cloth cover over the box.

Bei was still uninterested and continued drinking his wine and watching the dancer dancing.

Xiao Yao had no choice but to open the box herself. 

...

Xiao Yao rushed here excitedly with a whole bellyful of things she wanted to say to him. 

...

She picked up her wine and started drinking and pouting.

Bei finally turned his gaze from the dancer to the table and checked out the tableau on the glass plate.