Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

@liddi..

LOL..you make me not stop laughing,We have to remind xiaoyao of her promise!!

 windiaaa041293:

I looked it up on AliExpress and found this picture of red acacia beans.

Yes these are red acacia beans, also known as 相思豆 lovesickness beans. Its scientific name Adenanthera pavonina is different from  rosary peas (Abrus precatorius L), also known as 相思子 seed of lovesickness. Also, acacia beans are not toxic, unlike rosary peas.

There are also many different theories as to which red bean the poet Wang Wei was referring to, particularly in reference to the legend but the description of half black and half red sound more like rosary peas.  However, the one in the drama look more like red acacia beans than rosary peas. 

 liddi:

I wonder whether Xiao Yao ever made good on her promise to walk backwards...

相柳问：“你很想毒死我吗？”

小六诚实地说：“我又不是轩辕的士兵，你我之间现在还没有生死之仇，我只是想抽你百八十鞭子。”

“你这辈子就别做梦了。”相柳又喝了一杯酒，飘然而去。

小六气闷地对十七说：“我迟早能找到他的死穴，毒不倒他，我就倒着走。”

Xiang Liu asked, "You really want to kill me by poison?"

Xiao Liu honestly replied, "I am not a Xuan Yuan soldier, and there is no blood feud between us. I simply wish to whip you 180 times."

"You can stop dreaming in this lifetime." Xiang Liu drank another cup of wine and floated off.

In anger, Xiao Liu told Shi Qi, "I will find his weakness sooner or later. If I can't take him down by poison, I will walk backwards."

-- Vol 1 Ch2

****************************

“相柳长期服用各种毒药练功，这天下没有任何毒药能毒倒他，他的血才是天下至毒。”
"Xiang Liu has been using various poisons to cultivate his powers for a long time. No poison in this world can take him down, his blood is the world's greatest poison."

-- Vol 3 Ch13  (Chapter 46)

Don't they say love is like poison. He was poisoned by her with love. She is his weakness. 

 HeadInTheClouds:

Long distance relationship will bring out those feelings of yearning. Such a complicate emotions - sweet and bitter - but more bitter when there's no hope of a reunion :-(.

Sounds like there is a happy ending to all that yearnings for you and your hubby. 

I will say that in this day and age, long distance relationships are far easier to manage, video calls and all just a click away with very little cost incurred. Back in those days, it was far more challenging. Still, we got through it, and the relationship was arguably stronger too at the end of it.

Yearning with no hope in sight is the worst kind... one that Tong Hua has consigned to those left behind in the novel. I have often heard people expressing their fears of being the ones left to carry on when their loved ones pass away. But that too is the message Tong Hua wanted to deliver, to continue to live one's life well even when love is lost :

What Lost You Forever conveys is a kind of love that "lives [on]". I always feel that in this world, while love is soul-stirring, it is not everything in life.

...

Familial relationships, friendships, ideals, responsibilities... people have all kinds of ties in this world, and there are a lot of blessings and happiness that do not come from romantic love.

Eternal yearning for each other happens because there is profound love, because it cannot be obtained, because it cannot be forgotten. However, I am willing to bear with all these emotions and live well.

Life is a series of encounters and partings; it is a series of forgetting (leaving behind) and beginnings.
You were once here, you have left.

Even though I find it difficult to stop missing you, I will still smile when I see the beautiful rainbow.

-- Tong Hua, 2013

 MengXiang:

Don't they say love is like poison. He was poisoned by her with love. She is his weakness. 

Looks like she didn't need to walk backwards after all. Darn! 

But seriously, in which case, she really poisoned him to death... literally, seeing he gave his heart and lives for her.

 windiaaa041293:

@liddi,Does the one on the cover look like this?

Yes, but those are not 相思豆 acacia beans.

Acacia beans look like this on the tree:

This video shows you the actual flower (it's yellow) and the pod that holds the actual bean itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsSaJbiO1JM

 liddi:

Looks like she didn't need to walk backwards after all. Darn! 

But seriously, in which case, she really poisoned him to death... literally, seeing he gave his heart and lives for her.

This has always bothered me but I never got there chance to find quotes to post ... 

To me, what touched her about Jing and what Jing gave her, XL had. What she feared would happen to XL actually happened to Jing.

Below are the times I remember she talked about how Jing touched her.

• XY like Jing making first move and confessing first. At that point in time, unknown to her, XL had already confessed and given her his heart. He has agreed to take on the PLB which only lovers can take on.
• When she came back after 37 years, she was touched than Jing was so sad and wanted to die with her and her shell dropped etc. At that point in time XL had already made the same commitment as Jing. He had the PLB, if she died he would die with her. He made that commitment very early on to live and die with her. He also gave her many of his lives.
• After she committed suicide she mentioned to CX that she lived Jing because he was tortured but that did touched his gentle nature and wasn't hateful. The thing is XL was mistreated very early in life being a slave and abandoned as an egg but he does not let that get him down and loves life. He finds life precious.

The reason why she didn't pick XL, happened to Jing

• XL was her family enemy and CX enemy and they would fight each other. However before CX was in direct conflict with XL, he killed Jing 
• She didn't want to tell repeat her parents fate. This part I am not 100% sure about as I don't know prequel. My understand is her parents fate is they both died. The thing is Jing died and then she committed suicide and died. They both died but they only lived because XL saved them both from her parents fate.

I know one of her big criteria is being picked as number 1 and not be abandoned but I don't feel that Jing actually fulfilled this when she decided to settle and marry him.

• Jing didn't help her when he said with AN incident at the start
• Jing didn't leave his grandmother and refused to break off engagement
• Jing didn't leave the clan and became the leader
• Jing didn't leave his son and married someone else to take responsibility
• Jing didn't leave his nephew and went to him before the wedding.

Not saying that Jing should abandon everything but in reality he never fulfilled that requirement when she decided on him so it doesn't really matter that XL didn't either. It was only after his resurrection where the clan leader spot moved to someone else with XL and CX intervention that he left everything.

Ultimately XY and XL was not together not because of her criteria but her own actions of not facing her feelings till it was too late and XL already committed to give her what she chose.