Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

@HeadInthecloud

yeah...of course I remember..Just waiting for the right day outside of my busy schedule.

Thank you for clarifying the translation @liddi! 

I hope we'll find many more easter eggs like this (and above all, to be able to verify their reliability)

@luv2bafangurl @windiaaa041293

Let’s first talk about the role of water on Xiaoyao . Swimming can release Xiaoyao's emotions. The sea water and river water can wash away Xiaoyao's negative emotions. This is when Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao discovered the great significance of water to her: swimming makes her happy.

She had always dealt with her emotions in this way before Xiang Liu took her to see the rising moon . After watching The Moon Rises over the Sea, Xiaoyao was pinched when she said she wanted to surrender. She lay down in the river again and let the water wash away her.

Xiaoliu lay on the river and let the water wash away all traces. The bright moon in the sky, Xiao Liu looked at it, but he was quietly shining on the earth.
Xiaoliu climbed ashore...

As mentioned above, the flowing water makes her relaxed and happy. But here the bright moon shines, and the scenery is dead! People give meaning to scenery. Corresponding to Sang Tianer 's life, which is ups and downs, half depends on the sky and half depends on people. The result is: the moon shines quietly, motionless. It is clearly written here that Xiang Liu is determined.

Chapter Thirteen : The peach blossoms shine brightly. Said she turned back into a girl and became very beautiful. This poem also talks about the joyful atmosphere in the home of a wealthy girl who is about to get married and misses her husband. The opening chapter shows her swimming alone and missing her mother and Xiang Liu.

However, Wen Xiaoliu had completely disappeared. Even if he saw Xiang Liu again in the future, he might not be able to recognize her.
Xiaoyao lay on the water and sighed melancholy.

Here she dressed up and went to see Jing. When she saw Jing's back, she was led to the beach and pushed down by A Nian . On the night of the full moon, she felt very good when she was pushed down. When it came time to fall asleep, Xiaoyao openly rejected Xiang Liu. In this chapter, Xiang Liu stopped and asked her to swim back. Who does the bride-to-be see?

I've gone too far, come back.

Xiang Liu woke up after hearing that he should not fall asleep. So let her swim back and wake up. Here, I feel Xiaoyao's heartache and my own heartache. To say swimming is punishing would be an understatement. You would rather suffer the pain of lovesickness in the water than let me dream! Then just float in the sea and miss me! Also, how heartbroken it is when she says she can’t sleep! Take a swim and feel better and less painful. If you swim too much, your life will be threatened. What is love? It's important to save your life!

Chapter 14: There is no way to eliminate this feeling. The beginning of this chapter tells about her swimming and swimming, swimming and swimming, and she was picked up by Jing when she was exhausted. Where does it end? By the time they got together to drink and everyone went out to sea together, the brother and sister were ready to return to Xuanyuan.

One kind of lovesickness, two places of idle sorrow . There is no way to eliminate this feeling, so I just frown , but it is in my heart.

This poem is what Li Qingzhao saw and experienced one day and one night after he was forced to separate from his husband and boarded the ship alone. She misses her husband endlessly , and her two worries show that she knows that her husband misses her too. That distant scene in the drama version of seashells ?

Xiaoyao was holding the wine glass, lying on the side of the boat, smiling and drinking another glass. If she hadn't been forced to spend the whole night in the sea by Xiang Liu, the devil, she would have really wanted to jump in.

It was clear that she was not allowed to dream, so she boarded the Lanzhou (big boat) alone the next day, and all she saw was her husband who was forced to separate from her, his hair, fish pills, sea view, moon, and strong figure...

After being unable to fall asleep, she never took the initiative to go into the water to relieve her emotions. Corresponds to after Jiuli comes out at the end

I really want to jump! But she doesn’t!

Combined with the subsequent times when Xiang Liu took her to the beach, the island, and the bottom of the sea, do you think Xiang Liu was comforting her or doing something else? 

 AH :

A picture as penance before a long string of replies, with excerpts. 

The first time he held his hand out to her and she took it in tacit trust, holding hands, drinking in the beauty of the scenery as they enjoyed the quiet companionship of each other's presence. If only their relationship could have remained this way for eternity. Now I am tearing up again.

 H19279:

in the drama it was depicted as such. but in the novel i think she held his arm. She was afraid of vast darkness. He was link a protector

No, they held hands in the novel too.

他朝小六伸出手，小六立即抓住，滑下了雕背。毛球毕竟畏水，立即振翅高飞，远离了海面。

相柳带着小六踩着海浪，迎风漫步。

没有一丝灯光，天是黑的，海也是黑的，前方什么都没有，后面也什么都没有，天地宏阔，风起浪涌。小六觉得自己渺小如蜉蝣，似乎下一个风浪间就会被吞没，下意识地拽紧了相柳的手。

相柳忽然站住，小六不知道为什么，却也没有问，只是不自禁地往相柳身边靠了靠，陪相柳一起默默眺望着东方。

没有多久，一轮明月，缓缓从海面升起，清辉倾泻而下，小六被天地瑰丽震撼，心上的硬壳都柔软了。

在海浪声中，相柳的声音传来：“只要天地间还有这样的景色，生命就很可贵。”

小六喃喃嘟：“再稀罕的景色看多了也腻，除非有人陪我一块儿看才有意思。景永远是死的，只有人才会赋予景意义。”

也不知道相柳有没有听到小六的嘟，反正相柳没有任何反应。

He held out his hand to Xiao Liu who immediately grabbed hold of it and slid off the back of the condor. Furball was afraid of water after all, so it immediately flapped its wings and flew far away from the surface of the ocean.

Xiang Liu strolled with Xiao Liu, treading the waves against the wind.

There was not even a sliver of light, the sky was dark, the ocean pitch black with nothing ahead of them and nothing behind, a vast world where the winds blew and the waves swelled. Xiao Liu felt so insignificant as if he would be swallowed up by a wave at any moment, and he subconsciously tightened his grip on Xiang Liu's hand.

Xiang Liu suddenly stopped. Xiao Liu did not know why he did, but he did not ask. Instead he involuntarily leaned closer to Xiang Liu, accompanying him as they stared towards the east.

Not long after that, a bright moon slowly rose from the surface of the ocean, clear, bright moonlight shining down. Stunned by the breathtaking sight, the hard shell around Xiao Liu's heart softened.

Amidst the sound of the waves, Xiang Liu's voice could be heard. "As long as such sights still exist in the world, life is very precious."

Xiao Liu murmured, "No matter how rare a scenery is, one will get tired of it if seen too often. It is only meaningful if someone was with me to see it. Sceneries are dead, only people can give the scenery meaning."

No one could tell if Xiang Liu heard Xiao Liu's words, but he did not respond in any way.

-- Vol 1 Ch4

@H19279 @luv2bafangurl @HeadInTheClouds @AH

Thank you for a very riveting discussion, even if I found myself going cross eyed by the end of it!

源源不绝 means continuous / without stopping, which is similar to the definition of "steady" (continuous in frequency or intensity).

Back to the original topic at hand.

There are convincing arguments on either side.

One of the most persuasive arguments for Xiang Liu is the timing of that sudden surge of spiritual power coursing into Xiao Yao, to give that crucial push enabling her heart to continue beating, just as it was about to stop. It is true that only he would know when her heart was about to give out, and only he would give her the timely strength to hold on if he could. The question is, could he have done so?

I did not really believe that it was possible because of the vast distance between them, with him requiring hours upon hours to reach her. However, then I was reminded about what Xiang Liu once said, how in the hands of a skilled master, a bug can be controlled to kill from thousands of miles away. 

相柳鄙视地看着他，“你这样的人竟然也敢操纵蛊。最厉害的控蛊者可以远隔万里，取人性命，难道你以为那些蛊还像你一样慢吞吞地翻山越岭？”

Xiang Liu glanced at her in disdain. "Someone like you would even dare control a poisonous bug? The most skilled controller of poisonous bugs can take a person's life from thousands of miles away. Did you think that those poisonous bugs would need to slowly climb mountains and cross ridges like you?"   

-- Vol 1 Ch7

If so, it is then very likely Xiang Liu, with his superior powers and ability to control the bug connection, could do the same with the lovers bug - transferring that surge of spiritual power through their connection to her. In which case, the devastated outpouring of grief that came with that power could have come from him after all as he desperately tries to keep the woman he loves from dying with such despair that he was still so far away and could not be there to keep her alive in person yet. 

If we are to assume that the drama intentionally covers what was not really described in the novel, the moment her heart almost gives out would be the time when the glowing lights started leaving both their bodies. Note that the lights kept glowing and moving outwards until Xiang Liu finally used his spiritual power to seal and force them back in, vomiting blood as he did so. When the lights in his chest stopped glowing, we see that the lights too finally moved back into her body, signifying that she was no longer at risk of dying. 

As such, the desolate, continuous surge of power she felt was very possibly from Xiang Liu which kept her alive at the crucial moment. Following which, he guided her to lock herself up into a state of limbo in the darkness, with only her consciousness intact. Xiao Yao does not mention the spiritual power anymore after that - I believe this is because she has been cocooned in that state with no more awareness of anything outside. Nonetheless, it can be assumed that Xiang Liu continued to transfer spiritual power via their connection to her after that, whether or not she was aware of the fact.

There are two scenarios that previously made me hesitate to wholeheartedly fall behind the theory that Xiang Liu was the one who did so. The first was why Xiao Yao, whose connection with Xiang Liu allowed her to recognise his heartbeat and his thoughts, did not know from whom the power came, even when she knew who the other heart belonged to:

Suddenly, a steady stream of spiritual power came coursing in, enabling that frail heartbeat to continue beating. 

She could hear nothing, see nothing, feel nothing, but she felt sad because that spiritual power was in such sadness and despair. Even the spiritual power was crying, so Xiao Yao could not imagine just how heartbroken and desolated its owner must be.

Xiao Yao wanted to see who was grieving but did not have the strength. She could only follow the guidance of the other heart and slowly locked herself up, like a flower in bloom changing back into a bud, then from a bud into a seed, hidden in the soil. Waiting for the harsh winter to pass, and spring to arrive.

-- Vol 2 Ch5  (Chapter 22) 

Two possibilities come to mind. One, when she first recognised the heartbeat and thoughts as Xiang Liu, she still had some strength left in her. By the time the power surged through, she was so weakened that she no longer had the strength to try and identify the source of the grief and that power. She was barely staying alive, so everything else faded in comparison. The second, is that she might not have expected such an outpouring of grief to come from Xiang Liu, the person who just moments ago was still giving her snarky comments about giving up to agitate her to fight to survive. And by then, she no longer had the strength to figure out whether it was him or not. If either or both scenarios were true, then this no longer detracts from the possibility that the desolate power belonged to Xiang Liu.

The second was what transpired here. Note that the highlighted text was Xiang Liu's own thoughts, not something he shared with Cang Xuan, which means that he truly believed that Xiao Yao could only have stayed alive until he arrived because of all the spiritual power being transferred to her through Cang Xuan and (unknown to him at the time), Jing's efforts:

相柳平静地说：“她就快没有时间了。” 如果不是有这么多灵力高强的人不停地给小夭输灵力，纵使他现在赶到，也不可能了。只能说颛顼奢侈浪费的举动，为小夭争取了一线生机。

Xiang Liu calmly said, "She is almost out of time." Had it not been for so many spiritually powerful people continuously transferring spiritual power to Xiao Yao, it would still have been impossible even if he arrived now. It was only through Cang Xuan's excessive, pointless efforts that a frail chance of survival was secured for Xiao Yao.

-- Vol 2 Ch4  (Chapter 21)

However, it could be explained that no matter how powerful he was, how much spiritual power he may have continued to transfer to her throughout his journey to Shen Nong mountain, it was still not sufficient to keep her body from dying. He had done what he could by giving her heart that last ounce of strength to keep on beating, so that she could follow his guidance and revert to a state of limbo, increasing her chances of staying alive until he got to her. In addition, could it be that the moment she reverted to that state, she could no longer sense the bug connection, and as such, is unable to respond to or receive any spiritual power he would have transferred via the connection? If that is the case, this would explain why he was certain she would not have survived until he got there had she not received more immediate spiritual power from those around her.

If this is the case, then I am convinced. Having revised my initial thoughts, I concur that this is what happened:

1. After her attack, Xiang Liu's heart kept her conscious and guided her weak heartbeat with his strong one.
2. At the time she lost all strength to sustain her heartbeat, Xiang Liu poured his spiritual power into her - this is the desolate power she felt, which gave her renewed strength and enabled her heart to continue beating. He then guided her to lock herself up into a state of limbo, after which she had no more awareness of the outside world, locked only in her own consciousness.
3. When Jing found her, she was already in a state of limbo, and unresponsive to anything he did, unaware of any power he poured into her. His continuous transfer of spiritual power kept her physical body alive and safe, untouched by the flames which would have destroyed her before anyone else got to her
4. When Xiao Xiao found them, she and the guards took over in transferring spiritual energy, first directly to her, then via the jade water pallet.
5. The physicians' description of a continuous stream of spiritual power being transferred to her has to do with the guards' efforts, which sustained the life signs of her physical body.
6. These efforts would have continued until Xiang Liu finally arrived and took her to the seashell. During the journey to the seashell, he too would have continued to transfer power to her, keeping her physically alive until such time when he could begin to heal her.

Whichever the scenario or source of power, what remains unchanged is that Xiao Yao could not have survived the Plum Forest assassination if it were not for the joint efforts of the three men who love her - Xiang Liu who kept her heart beating; Jing who kept her body safe from the flames; and Cang Xuan who kept her physical body alive.

Do note that the drama depicts the sequence differently in that there was no continuous transfer of spiritual power from the time Xiao Xiao found Jing and Xiao Yao in the burning forest, and she laid on the jade water pallet without any external help until Cang Xuan noticed the lights coming out of her body and realised something was amiss. Either way, it drives home the fact that had it not been for Jing (who specifically said in the drama that he would give her all his spiritual power), and later Cang Xuan who arranged for the continuous transfer of spiritual power to her, she would still not have survived in time for Xiang Liu to save her.

"It actually makes me think that the biggest obstacle for XY isn't that XL is CX's enemy or his loyalty to the resistance army, but that she's unsure of his feelings for her. We've probably discussed this point numerous times, but I personally think that if XL had confessed she would have been with him."

Personally that's exactly my take on the whole story.

" Xiao Yao was silent before suddenly asking “Xiang Liu, why did you pick Gong Gong? Because he’s your adoptive father?” Xiao Yao didn’t know how she had the guts to ask him this question, probably because Xiang Liu didn’t seem like Xiang Liu tonight!"