Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

So many new posts with so many comments that I want to respond to!!

 AH :

This assumes that because the bugs are most often cultivated by a particular type of person, that the Lovers' Bugs must do everything that that type of person would want the Lovers' Bug to do... which seems like circular logic. There is no indication that the cultivator has control over how the bugs work. Xiao Yao clearly is not capable of changing how they work. The rules of the bugs are what they are, and the cultivator has to live with them / work within the parameters of those rules.

We don't know how those rules (and all the spells related to the Lovers' Bugs) came to be in the first place... Perhaps they were originally created by a woman who wanted a ride-or-die relationship, who would want the bugs to turn into a Heartbreak Bug and kill her and her lover if she (the cultivator - as XY is in LYF) slept with another person. Or maybe not. I don't think the novel gives us enough information about the origin of the bugs to draw the conclusion that the Lovers' Bugs would definitely turn into Heartbreak Bugs if one host slept with someone who wasn't the other host, even if there was still love between the hosts.

Seems like I wasn't clear in my communication. As I stated, the Lovers Bugs as presented in the novel is open to interpretation. You and I are in complete agreement on that. As you pointed out, the novel doesn't give us enough information to draw clear conclusions. What I’m wondering is – why the vagueness of the Lovers Bugs’ mechanisms and what’s the author intention for doing this? We’ll come back to this point later.

My comment on the Lovers' Bugs is about how, if such a thing exists, a person who is obsessive and possessive enough to use it would want it to work. A person who would want to tie their lover to them in such an extreme way (where a change of heart would mean death) wouldn't accept a loophole where a third person can co-exist romantically in the relationship or where your lover can sleep with another person without suffering severe consequences. That just defeats the purpose of something that is about creating/ensuring exclusivity in the relationship. If that was me, I wouldn't be using something that has so many bugs in it (pun intended), I'll be looking for another product. So when I read about something like the Lovers Bugs, this would be the natural/simplest explanation for how such a thing would operate. This is my reasoning when I look at the use of the Lovers Bugs as a story device in LYF.

You read enough romance novels and you would have come across an idea like the Lovers Bugs in some form or another. Authors use them as a shorthand to show the couple as “destined” and as the OTP; readers when reading something like this between two characters expect them to be the end-game. The XY/XL pairing has many typical strapping of end-game couples, most noticeable is the existence of the Lovers Bugs. And yet, the author did a switcheroo and had XY ended up with Jing. That’s just an invitation for comparison and questioning of who XY really loves. Why not just remove the Lovers Bugs altogether, instead of this vagueness surrounding it? What purpose that its inclusion intended to serves? Would it exclusion change how readers interpret the story?

As the author, Tong Hua could have given enough information to draw clear conclusions if she had wanted to. So why didn't she? Was she lazy and didn't bother to think it through? Or was it deliberate in order to allow for multiple interpretations so all ships could sail? Or maybe the author is just hiding things in plain sight; the simplest explanation for how the Lovers Bugs operate is the most likely explanation. So, the Lovers Bugs never turn into Heartbreak Bugs, therefore XY's only ever romantically loves XL and her feelings for Jing are platonic love.

All this is to say that as a reader the inclusion of the Lovers Bugs (despite of the deliberate vagueness) points to a particular impression/conclusion for me when reading the story. My style of reading is overall impression rather than detailed analysis (that reminds me too much of high school literature analysis and my short stint in law classes where everything has to be cited – *shudder*). LYF with its murky vagueness is fertile ground for different interpretations. I get the sense that the author is deliberate in the things that she includes or leaves out and you have to put all the pieces together to get to what she's trying to convey. So this reader is picking option 3 (with a splash of 2), Tong Hua is being sneaky and XY/XL is the only true ship with the Lovers Bugs as a big piece of evidence, and nothing will ever convince me otherwise. I simply refuse to accept any other explanations no matter how reasonable or logical they are. Lol! I can not be the only one to think this.

I hope this essay makes some sense. I swear it makes sense in my head, but it’s late, I’m tired and I’ve spend more time then wise thinking about this.

 AH :

I agree that she wasn't interested in traditional wifely duties and that she was sometimes shy about intimacy, which might extend to consummating a marriage.

Or maybe she doesn't wants to consummate the marriage and getting drunk as a skunk is just an excuse?? I don't know, delaying the marriage by 40+ years and then getting so drunk that you can't consummate your marriage are not exactly signs of enthusiasm. Yes, there are "reasons", but honestly it seems like more hints that things are not as they seems with XY and her feelings for Jing. Jing was happy to get marry ASAP - there are no doubt about his feelings for XY. XY on the other hand isn't acting like a woman madly in love. Maybe is just me, but if I'm madly in love with someone and we went through all these obstacles to be together, I would want to make sure that nothing can pull us apart again. And the wedding night; shy and embarrassed or not, I would be there with bells on. In those time too, the wedding night is quite significant, we all have heard that saying when watching Cdrama ancient series - something about a second of the wedding night is worth 1000 of gold.  Just more evidence to add to my impression box.

However, after writing more than 200,000 words, I felt that I had not thought clearly about what the story wanted to express. My attempt to express the theme of life and death is not an easy subject to express. My experience and thoughts are not up to par with my attempt, so I decided to shelve it.
I skipped the story of Pluto and started writing "Sauvignon Blanc", which took more than a year.

A decision was made in the middle. My parents were getting old, and even if they had enough time to travel, they would move back to their country to settle down. I had another minor illness and had a minor operation. It was expected to be cured in a week or two. In the end, I stayed in bed for two months.

I wrote while lying down recovering from my injuries.

Thanks to my friends who gave me a lot of advice. I am satisfied with my control of this story. The theme I want to express is also clearly expressed.

The heroine's choice has always been due to psychological deficiencies, and her psychology is closely related to the growth of childhood and teenagers, which is what is often called the original family in psychology today.

@HeadInTheClouds

I got your point since your last post and honestly that is what my intuition as a person who did read a fair share of books told me as well when I finished reading lyf. I felt confused because on one hand TH's characters said one thing (I love Jing) but on the other hand TH was showing us something else (I love XL), she devoted most of the romantic details to XL-XY. It's conflicting the way she is making us think versus the way she is making us feel.  After that I got caught up into text analysis and I did change my view on some points, but I see where you are coming from and deep down I feel the same. Windiaaa posted a very good article that basically explained the story from the author's point of view and it was very similar to your take. Too bad I can't find it ATM, the translation is not the best, but for me it wasn't that hard to understand it, since english is not my first language. 

@HeadInTheClouds

I also agree with your opinion 100%.
according to the photo I just uploaded,
synopsis of the original electronic version of the book,"how to choose the right person and the one you love."
after reading the book we know that the right person is tsj, and the person xiaoyao loves is xl, because it is impossible that the right person is xl and the person xiaoyao loves is tsj.
now we just read 2 different scripts.?

 Kokuto:

I agree that in pre-modern times, that was the attitude. Which, of course, makes one wonder exactly WHY Jing wanted XY's marriage to Feng Long broken up? The dude was married himself with a kid. It's not like he could offer XY anything she would accept. Why not let her find whatever happiness she can with good guy Feng Long?

Because he's a selfish man-child/cry-baby?? Does that answer your question? He's manipulative, but he can't help it, he loves her so much, it's not his fault. This is a classic move of not taking responsibility while also making you out to be the bad guy for getting upset at him. XY even called him out on this once - when she said something to the effect of him always saying he's not good enough for her and yet continues to pursue her, making sure that she can't forget about his existence.  

 Kokuto:

But I don't think that is how the PLB works, because there are any number of situations where the physical act could occur and that doesn't mean they have stopped loving someone. If it is about betrayal and infidelity, then how does kissing on Jing NOT count?

Are we explicitly talking about the PLB in the book or more general? I wrote a comment (more like an essay :-) ) back to AH about how I view the working of hypothetical Lovers Bugs. In short, if something like the Lovers Bugs exists, hypothetically it should turn into  Heartbreak Bugs with emotional and physical betrayal; otherwise, it kind of defeats the purpose of what you would want it for. There are definitely people in real life who could claim that they can engage in physical acts without their emotions involved. Funnily enough, it's often men that claim this - I hear it quite often in couple counseling - "Yes, I slept with her, but she doesn't mean anything to me,  you're the one that I love". You can guess how well their partner accepts this reasoning. It's a betrayal, no matter what you say. 

With regards to the PLB in LYF, I guess you can say that it's about degree of intimacy. Kissing is not as bad and more forgivable than full-on intercourse. To be honest, I've stopped trying to make sense of how the PLB operates in the novel. My conclusion is that Tong Hua deliberately left it vague to allow both Xiao/Jing and Xiao/Liu to work as everything is open to interpretation. If the author doesn't want to make things clear, why I'm working so hard to make sense of it? Anything I come up with is just speculation anyway.

And speaking of Xiao/Jing physical intimacy. There are times when I feel XY uses Jing to gauge XL's actions. For example, the time when she initiated the kiss with Jing after the "you're not suitable to be in a girl's dream" exchange with XL. It's like she's unsure/confused about why XL insisted on her kissing him, so she used Jing to understand why a man would want a woman to kiss him. Is it just something a man wants to do with any/all women; or does it mean something else? Maybe, he feels something for her. And Jing refusal to kiss her because "I'm not in your eyes!" Even he suspects that it's not him that XY truly wants to kiss. I need to go back to all the Xiao/Jing intimate moments to see the circumstances surrounding them. This is not going to be pleasant.

Also, thanks for your response about the theme of Xiao/Jing relationship. I want to reply to it with my own interpretation, but it will probably going to be another essay and I need to organize my thoughts. But I'll get there, I promise.

Now this is an electronic introduction after the drama version came out, so what charm does " Sauvignon Blanc " have after it has been changed again and again ? It will be a bad street from now on, who will care about it? Anyway, I don’t care about it anymore…

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Table of contents

Note 2

Introduction

fantasy romance

ancient romance

[Original work of film and television] Yang Zi and Zhang Wanyi star in the original work of the costume drama.

[Recommended content] What is lovesickness? The most lovesickness is missing one. Falling in love lasts forever for two people, but missing each other lasts forever. The final chapter of the "Mountain and Sea Brokerage" series of Tonghua's beautiful and atmospheric love classics. In ancient times, humans, gods, and demons lived together, and the three kingdoms of Shennong, Xuanyuan, and Gaoxin stood in power. Ji Jiuyao (Xiaotian), the king of Gaoxin who lives in the wilderness, has gone through hundreds of years of hardship. Not only has he lost his identity, but also his appearance. He settled in Qingshui Town and became "nowhere to go, no one to rely on, and unable to protect himself." Wen Xiaoliu. He makes a living by hanging pots and is uninhibited. Xiaotian's cousin Xuanyuan Prince Qianxuan traveled all over the wilderness to find Xiaotian and came to Qingshui Town even though he stayed under the shelter of others and hid in hiding. The days in Qingshui Town are ordinary and warm. Wen Xiaoliu accidentally saves the dying Qingqiu Master Tu Shanjing, and the two gradually fall in love with each other day and night; Wen Xiaoliu and the nine- headed demon Liu Buda are not acquainted with each other, and they cherish each other and become close friends. Min Xiaoliu and Zhenxuan met but did not know each other, and they had many twists and turns.

A dedicated working mother with a white heart.


In the beginning, before the drama was aired, they said that Yao Jing was in love with each other and that it was sadomasochism (I would throw up if they said Yao Jing was in sadomasochism), and that she and Xiang Liu were close friends. Later, when the drama aired, Xiang Liu became a big hit. , began to change his words again and said that it was the kind of relationship that two people could not express, and denied that they were close friends.

 blabla100:

Also I'd add that the depression and the sleepless nights she had were because she was feeling guilty towards Jing, not heartbroken over him. În a way it was also her fault that Jing got trapped into FFYY's scheme, XY knew what type of person she was but she never warned him. I belive deep down Jing was a bit of a burden sometimes to her, that dream she had with Jing holding his baby and her running freely to the ocean was very interesting to say the least, especially because she had no emotions when she saw him with the baby. She only displayed emotions when she saw XL/FFB. 

Absolutely not.  XY is not at fault for FFYY and Jing's actions.

I disagree with this take.  I don't think she ever mentioned feeling guilt over FFYY.  Not to mention, why should she?  Jing is perfectly happy living with the guy who personally tortured him.  Ignoring his dangerous relatives and acquaintances is all on him.

Also, I don't think XY lost a minute of sleep or was feeling guilty about never telling her beloved CX that Fang Feng Bei was an asssassin who had attempted to kill him twice.  Or revealing that FFB was actually XL.

Jing was a burden.  But she said she liked people that were weaker than she was.  I think that's part of the reason why she DID like him.