Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

Hi all

I have been in lurking in this thread for some time, diligently reading every post before deciding to comment here! Oh boy, it was sure a fight against time but very very interesting reading through all the contributions. I now have the other XL/TJC threads to finish up lol.

Wanted to join in and say hi. Like you ladies, I've fallen deep for this XL (and also TJC) character, but I have no outlet in real life as no one around me seems to have watched the show. My husband is simply not interested in the show nor to hear me go on and on about another guy lol, so I have been keeping everything in my heart and mind.

I am constantly tortured by the selflessness of XL, and lured by the attractiveness and talent of TJC. He's so popular now I cannot keep up with everything. 

I've got some questions that popped up from time to time, but seems like I can only remember 1 now -_- 

Can you ladies see if you can help me understand this:
Why does XL seem so inadept at expressing his feeling towards XY? Even TJC said in an interview that its not that XL didnt want (cant recall if he used this word exactly) to express his feelings, its that XL didnt know how to. Things like reaching out to pat XY's head seemed like an awkward action for XL. 

But thing is.. XL was living as FFB for a long time before he met XY, and is very attuned to coaxing ladies. Even if its the first time he has fallen in love, XL shouldn't be that awkward? 

 blabla100:

. I mean if he doesn't care about their emotional connection, why would she care about their life and death connection?

Also, it could be that she doesn't care anymore what could happen to him. Because in a way, it serves him right. XY tried many times to break the bug connection but XL has always been uncooperative.

He didn't respond to XY invitation:

"I want to know when you have free time to go to Jiu Li with me so that we can find the Voodoo King to remove the bug”

He mocks her:

"Xiang Liu smiled until his eyes were slits “I don’t want to know!”" [how to break the spell between us]

He lies:

“You’re lying! Back then you broke it from Zhuan Xu and moved it over to you. How come you can’t do it now?”

(Even though it seemed to be XY's strong intuition/deduction, it turns out that XL does admit at the end of the novel -more clearly in the 2019's edition- that he indeed had lied)

He threatened her because of the effects of the bug connection:

"Xiang Liu said in a half sincere half joking way “Then you stop giving yourself a heartache in the future. If you keep causing trouble for me, maybe I’ll decide to kill you!”

"Xiang Liu’s body was slowly sinking into the water “Other than checking on how my wares are doing in your body, what else do you think I want?”

It's true that she didn't tried hard enough to break the connection herself but still, XL with his obnoxious behavior, asked for it.

 blimarch:

It's fascinating, can you post the rest of the article? 

Love also the articles about the writing techniques...very enlightening!

Thank you @windiaaa041293

Of course, with pleasure. Wait until I finish doing my homework.. ^^

@windiaaa

Thank you too for the all the articles you posted, I find them so very interesting, I feel like I am re-reading the whole novel with a new set of eyes! 

 windiaaa041293:

Of course, with pleasure. Wait until I finish doing my homework.. ^^

:) Take your time, and good luck with your homework :)

Finally, have the time to put in my 2 cents essay :-)

 H19279:

The heart turned to sleeping mode - stop beating

So, When Jing transfered power to her, she was already in hibernation mode (modern term may called it as clinical death). ---> He came after she had received the unending power. ---> It is likely that stream of power came from other person.

Xiao Xiao and other guard came later ---> CX's guards can't not be the origin of that power stream either.

Only one option left: It could be only from XL.

This is my interpretation as well. Except instead of her heart stop beating after going into hibernating mode, it slows down to being undetectable. CX was the only one that "sense" that her heart was still beating gently/softly. 

The order for me is XL supported her heart - XL transferred power to keep her heart beating/alive - XL guided her to hibernate - Jing came and transferred power - CX's people came and transferred power

 AH :

We know that power is TSJ's power (and not the power of CX's people yet), because it is described as so sad and devastated.

I agree to rule CX's people out, but why are we ruling Xiang Liu out already? Because the power is described as sad then it has to come from Jing? I'm not sure I follow. Isn't that what we're trying to establish? Who this sad power comes from?

 AH :

And when TSJ arrived, XY had no strength left. Her heart was beating even more faintly and was about to stop completely, despite the guidance of XL's heart through the bug connection. So TSJ could not detect a pulse. That's when he transferred his power to her.

 AH :

Jing went to feel for her pulse but felt nothing. His entire body was shaking and he tightly embraced Xiao Yao and tried to use his body warmth to warm her icy cold body.

It makes more sense to me that her pulse/heartbeat was undetectable and her body was icy cold because she had already gone into "hibernation" mode. Before that, her heart was still beating weakly.

 AH :

Chapter 22:

She really had no strength left, so that even the weak sole flame that was keeping her heart beating was too much to sustain. Even with another heart guiding her heart, still the heartbeat grew weaker.

Suddenly power coursed through her, unending streams of power that allowed the weak heartbeat to continue beating.

She couldn’t hear it, couldn’t see it, couldn’t even feel it, but she felt sad because the spiritual power was so sad and devastated. Even the power was crying and Xiao Yao couldn’t even imagine how heartbroken the owner of the spiritual power was.

Xiao Yao wanted to see who was so sad but didn’t have the strength.

She couldn't hear, see or even feel - these descriptions suggest that her 5 normal senses were gone - shut off due to her being in hibernation. If it was Jing's power she would have "feel" in the sense of bodily sensation of the power being pushed into her body. But that was not the case. Instead she "feels" the emotions of the person transferring the spiritual power to her. If you recall our discussion on the Lovers Bugs turning the metaphorical attunement between lovers into a literal connection that allows them to actually feel/experience the other person's emotions, it makes sense to me that this is what's happening here - XY experiencing the XL's devastation through the Lovers Bugs connection. XY and Jing do not have this connection and since she wouldn't be able to even physically feel his power - through what method would she have experienced/felt his emotions? 

In addition, the spiritual power was described as unending/neverending/torrential - i.e. it's incredibly powerful. The words that are used here are typically used to describe the movement of a body of water. XL has water power (ETA: I actually don't know what type of power Jing has),  but even if Jing has water power, between them XL is the only one whose power can be described using such words. These words are not suitable to describe Jing's power.

 AH :

Likely yes, as XL's reaction is shown first in the novel, followed by CX's reaction and then TSJ's reaction. But given the nature of TSJ and CX's sensing abilities it's possible that CX or TSJ may have sensed something before XL.

I know you stated that it's possible, but frankly, if I even entertain this possibility then I might as well just completely throw out the concept of the Lovers Bugs. It's completely useless if even its most basic function - the connection between the two - is usurped at the most crucial moment.

 H19279:

BTW, Jing came to the site first because Qingqui is nearby the site (1 hour or less from Ziyi).

Geographically, Jing was the closest, then CX, then Xiang Liu. I believe that Xiang Liu was the first to be aware of XY's states through their Lovers Bugs connection. He would have experienced her pain when she was first attacked, long before her "death" from the arrows of petals.

Even though Jing was closest, it would have taken him 1.5-2 hours to find XY. He first went to Xing Yue's house, then the party before tracking XY to the forest. Given the injuries that she sustained, I find it hard to believe that XY managed to survive without any help (besides XL's helping her heartbeat) in the time that it took Jing to get to her. The way that XY recalled her experience also suggested that things happened quickly, rather than a long period between her heartbeat weakening and experiencing the devastated spiritual power.

 MengXiang:

We know he just died and she was thinking of him.... If she avoid Jing that's even weirder and what excuse would she give... The person I truly loved just died so we can not be intimate...

It was just some silliness that definitely cheered me up 

She can continue to get drunk as a wheelbarrow like she did on their wedding night :-)

Yes, I fully support leaning into our pettiness and silliness ;-)

 blabla100:

Well when Jing went missing believed to be dead, that didn't stop her to have some sort of intimacy with XL, lol. 

Our female lead's behaviour is very questionable at times. Can we chalk it up to her "childhood issues"?