Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

 liddi:

That is so true. That's why I am so grateful for this platform, where we can share our joy and pain with likeminded people, dissecting details, seeing scenes with new eyes and fresh perspectives. Thank you so much!

Thank you very much for your kind words. This was something that really bothered me too, but it took all the discussions leading up to it for it to finally revisit the text and look at it from a different perspective. 

<3

 liddi:

一人痛，另一人也会痛，一人伤，另一人也会伤。

 liddi:

This indicates that it is reciprocal, since it does not specify that only the recipient will feel the pain, but not the one who planted the bug. The 2nd part seems to indicate a sharing of injuries as well, but we have seen it not to be the case, since Xiao Yao never seemed to feel the pain or experience the injuries inflicted on the other person, be it Cang Xuan or Xiang Liu, even though she is not totally unaware of what is going on with both of them. As such, perhaps 伤 here does not mean physical but emotional injuries - 伤心 or 伤感, rather than 受伤.

Unlike 痛 / tòng (which I feel like pretty much every Chinese drama watcher has a little bit of familiarity with since it comes up so often), I feel like I don't have any familiarity with 伤 / shāng. Your post made me curious and I went to look at a few different ways that it's used. It seems like one of the less common ways that it can be used is to describe a heart stricken by grief, a broken heart, or a heart that has been "wounded" by a lover. 

Jay Chou's song 枫 (Fēng / Maple) has my favourite example:

被伤透的心能不能够继续爱我

Can a heart that has been thoroughly hurt still continue to love me?

 MySiFeng:

Based on S1, I've seen comments saying the adaptation so far faithfully follows the book but I'm curious are there any changes made in any of the scenes?

There are several. Just quickly off the top of my head, and very possibly missing out others:

New scenes

- Xiao Liu trying but failing to plant the bug in Xiang Liu the first time at the Chenrong army base camp

- Xiao Liu being caught by Xiang Liu letting her blood into the medicine for the Chenrong army, and later hugging Xiang Liu in joy knowing that the medicines are ready

- The scene where Xiang Liu visited the old Lirong one-armed donkey meat seller, who told him about the lovers bug.

- The boat scene where Xiang Liu disguises himself as a female demon, tells Xiao Yao that there are people who miss her, and gets to hear her say that he is very good.

- After Xiao Yao swims back and is rescued by Jing near Dragon Bone prison, Xiang Liu forces the lovers bug back into his chest as he watches Jing carrying her.

- In the novel, Xiang Liu never refers to himself as a furtive demon when he came to take Xiao Yao away to save her

- The scene where Jing drinks in grief thinking of Xiao Yao's impending marriage to Feng Long, and tells Fangfeng Bei about the upcoming marriage, to which Fangfeng Bei calls him out as a scoundrel for believing Xiao Yao cared for family background.

Amended scenes

- When little Xiao Yao ran away from Jade Mountain, she snuck into a carriage carrying two servants had brought her a present from her father, and hid under the undercarriage when she overheard them talking about her parents' divorce and how her father did not want her. The drama has her following the servants whom she requested to bring her back to Hao Ling. 

- During their underwater stroll, Xiang Liu kept passing air to Xiao Liu to help her breathe underwater, unlike the drama which had them in a massive bubble.

- When Fangfeng Bei snuck into Xiao Yao's chambers after eluding pursuit, she laid down on the bed together with him and watched him intently as he fed on her hand, finally only closing her eyes when he caught her watching. He fed her medicine after she felt dizzy from loss of blood. Later, when she woke, she was relieved he had not left, and took care to ensure his healing was not disturbed. As she recalled their times together, "Last night, when she realised he was Xiang Liu, she felt no surprise at all. It was as if that was how it was meant to be, and the heavy burden in one corner of her heart was lifted, but weighed down at the same time in another part of her."

- The 37 years under the ocean is drastically changed from the novel. In the novel, there is a high degree of intimacy in terms of how Xiang Liu heals her, which we get from Xiao Yao's POV. During healing days, she felt him embrace her tightly, and she could feel him all over; feeding her his essential blood, then sucking it out of her neck; cuddling her afterwards.  On other days, he would touch her forehead and cheeks, and sleep quietly beside her. He would hold her in his arms when he swam with her to the surface to see the moon.

- On the day she woke up, she wept silent tears for some time in Furball's neck after it brought her to Zhi Yi city, knowing that Xiang Liu had no intention of seeing her. The drama has her shedding 3 drops of tears on the bed of the sea shell where she laid for 37 years.

- Jing's grandmother's life had been sustained by a longevity bug for tens of years, planted by her personal physician, a Bai Li voodoo practitioner Se Mai Er. Before death, she would suffer terrible agony as the bug consumes her from the insides until there is nothing left. She had about a year left by the time Jing took over as clan leader. Xiao Yao diagnoses the bug and finds a way to ease her suffering, allowing her to live out the full year. In the drama, there is no such physician. Instead, Xiao Yao plants a longevity bug in her, extending her life by another 2 to 3 years. 

- Xiao Yao performed the ritual which enabled the bow to recognise her as master all by herself by allowing the bow to slash her arm and sample her blood, which already contained the blood of the Nine-headed demon. Unlike the drama, she never went to Xiang Liu to request for his blood in the matter.

Unadapted scenes

- After Cang Xuan is weaned off the drug, Xiao Yao and Jing went diving. She had the purple fish core, so could stay underwater longer compared to Jing, but when she passed air to him, he stiffened, and finally refused the 2nd breath she offered and was gasping and in great pain when they finally ascended back to the surface. When Xiao Yao asked why he refused, Jing looked into the far distance, then quietly said, "Back there, you did not have me in your eyes."

- After discovering she could now breathe underwater, Xiao Yao encounters colourful fish with very short memories. When asked by Xiang Liu whether she preferred to remember or forget, she choose to remember even if the memories were painful and a burden.

 windiaaa041293:

why not, she think of bugs, and xl when she tried to commit suicide, it could have happened.

If XY thought of XL before she tried to commit suicide, why did Tong Hua not mention it? Or even hint at it? Why was XY devastated when she woke up alive? Why did she think that if she knew it would be this hard to die, that she would go back and never transfer the bug to XL in the first place?

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Chapter 49:

When Xiao Yao woke up and saw the sunlight from the window and the peach blossoms blooming, she didn’t know where she was but she knew she was alive.

Xiao Yao covered her eyes, if she knew it was this hard to die she would have never planted the Lover’s Bug in Xiang Liu years ago!

After some time, Xiao Yao sat up and called out, “Anyone there? Where is this place?”

From the red blossoms a figure in white rushed over and Xiao Yao almost forgot to breathe until she saw his green eyes and released a disappointed breath. “Lie Yang, why am I on Jade Mountain?”

“You were sick so Zhuan Xu brought you to the Royal Mother for healing.”

Zhuan Xu explained that she was sick? Fine, might as well stick with the story.

 Xiao Yao asked “Where is Zhuan Xu?”

“Left.”

Xiao Yao was relieved and asked, “Did the Royal Mother save me?”

Lie Yang didn’t answer her, transforming into a white bird and flying away.

Ah Bi walked in with a smile. “Your body was fine, the Royal Mother saw that you could breathe underwater so sank you into the lake filled with Jade Mountain spiritual essence and that woke you up.”

Xiao Yao smiled bitterly, such deadly poison couldn’t even kill her. Having the bug connected with Xiang Liu was like giving herself nine lives. But what was the point of living like this?

Sir Bi saw Xiao Yao’s devastated expression and gently said, “Why don’t you stay on Jade Mountain for awhile? The Royal Mother doesn’t have much time left. Even if the Black Emperor didn’t bring you, we were going to bring you here.”

Xiao Yao stared in shock at Sir Bi who replied calmly “Don’t feel bad. Death is a natural part of life.”

Xiao Yao thought about it. If one could not love and live freely, then death would be a form of release. 

 windiaaa041293:

(why didn't she say something like "when I die will you save me?" obviously she believed that when she was about to die xl would definitely save xy.)

I don't read XY's comments in chapter 26 as implying that she assumes that if she is about to die, XL will always, definitely, 100% be guaranteed to save her. 

She's asking a hypothetical question. If X, then Y? If I die again and you give another life to save me (something that is possible, but not guaranteed), will I become even more like you?

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Chapter 26:

Xiao Yao continued to natter. “You’re a Nine-headed demon, you have nine-lives and you spent one on saving me. I can swim in the ocean freely like you now. If I die again and you give another of your lives to save me, will I become even more like you...?”

-----

That seems to be pretty clear in chapter 43, when XY is surprised that XL cares whether she lives or dies.

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Chapter 43:

Xiang Liu said “The price is for you to stay alive. Even if Tu Shan Jing is really dead, you have to stay alive!”

Xiao Yao stared dumbstruck at Xiang Liu before her eyes went beyond him to stare at the limitless ocean horizon. A life that was long, a longing that had no end in sight……if she didn’t give up and stayed alive, what would that feel like? Probably like a dark night with no sunrise. Xiao Yao didn’t understand why Xiang Liu cared about her life or death.

Xiang Liu coldly said, “I just don’t have any interest in dying with you. If you want to give up, then first find the way to break the voodoo bug link.”

Right! Her life was connected to Xiang Liu.

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And in chapter 44, when Xing Yue tried to assassinate XY again, XY did not assume that XL would come to save her. That time she fought to protect her own life. 

 windiaaa041293:

1.when xy was kidnapped at the bottom of the sea and was willing to die for jing, then suddenly xy clung to another man, as if she was afraid that he would leave her and offered her his neck, don't you think it was strange? she was just pretending, basically she wants xl to come back to her because she believes xl will definitely save her.

I don't have the same interpretation. There was no one for her to pretend for. 

She thought she was going to die and she calmly faced her death without fighting it, until she thought that CX might kill Miao Pu. She never thought of XL. When he appeared, she was dumbfounded. 

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Chapter 43:

Xiao Yao stared at the sky and didn’t feel any rage at being lied to, or fear at imminent death. Only the sadness of having her hopes dashed. Since childhood she had lived a hard life, her heart always drifting, feeling like she would be abandoned at any time. Only after her engagement to Jing did her heart settle down, thinking that things would finally change. Who could have foreseen that Jing would leave her? Even if it was just like her parents with a reason that couldn’t be helped. But she was still abandoned again, and she didn’t want to keep being strong anymore to face a long life ahead. If Jing slept in this ocean, then she would rather be here with him.

The purple robed woman noticed that Xiao Yao was oddly at peace, not like people she killed in the past, and felt some pity for her. She fixed Xiao Yao’s hair and cloth and sincerely complimented “Your wedding dress is very beautiful, your hairstyle is lovely as well. You are an exquisite bride, the Tu Shan Clan Leader will be very pleased when he sees you.”

Xiao Yao broke into a beaming smile. “Thank you!”

The woman startled “Don’t you want to know who wants to kill you?”

Xiao Yao didn’t even care to answer, what difference if she knows or not.

The woman in purple said “I don’t even know who it is, the person paid an astronomical sum so my partner and I decided to take this job and afterwards we can retire.”

The water lapped at her feet so the woman sealed the crystal coffin tightly before looking skyward “So annoying, I have to show my demon form again.” She transformed into a seagull and flew into the sky, her clothes burning on the deck and disappearing.

The crystal coffin slowly sank into the water.

Xiao Yao felt suffocated and couldn’t breathe, until the water seeped into the coffin and she could breathe like a fish returning to the water. Xiao Yao laughed wryly as she thought about this plan and how perfect it was, to kill her with no bloodshed and hidden in the depths of the ocean. Except the plan wasn’t perfect because no one knew that Xiao Yao couldn’t drown.

Because she drank the red jade plant wine, Xiao Yao was woozy and found it hard to think. As the coffin sank she thought she was going to die as well and was calmly facing death, except now she wasn’t going to die and felt like a free falling entity that couldn’t find an end to the fall.

Xiao Yao laid in the crystal coffin and looked at the fishes swimming around her. She tapped on the coffin and asked “Have you guys seen Jing?”

The fishes were startled and swam off. Xiao Yao could only lay in the crystal coffin zoned out.

The sun set outside and gradually the water turned dark, as dark as ink. Many fishes glowed in the dark so the water was like a night sky filled with shooting stars. She wondered if Xiao Xiao arrived, whether Zhuan Xu was looking for her, if Miao Pu was crying. Xiao Yao suddenly remembered how angry Zhuan Xu would be, and what if he killed Miao Pu? Xiao Yao stopped laying there to enjoy the view and started to try and get out. But no matter how hard she pushed she couldn’t open the coffin.

Xiao Yao tried so hard to open the coffin but it wouldn’t budge, until she was all tired out and hungry. She suddenly realized that she might end up dying after all, not of drowning but of hunger. Xiao Yao rested for a bit before continuing to try and open the coffin.

Suddenly her instinct sensed danger. She looked around and there wasn’t a fish in sight, the colorful underwater was now pitch black. Xiao Yao felt the entire ocean shaking and she remembered the seagull demon saying how scary the ocean was under here. She suddenly remembered what Xiang Liu said before, that after he escaped from the slave death match ring, he almost died in an underwater tornado called a whirlpool. Xiang Liu may not have been that powerful then but something that almost killed him must really be super scary.

Xiao Yao had never seen a whirlpool before but if it was like a tornado on land then anything it passed would be obliterated. This really was the perfect way to ensure not a hair of Xiao Yao was left behind.

Xiao Yao tried to bust out of the coffin but it still didn’t move, making her understand why the seagull demon took that extra step of sealing her inside the coffin.

The water churned around her and the coffin was swept up in the waves of the whirlpool, with Xiao Yao getting spun around so hard she was seeing stars.

She could hear the coffin getting crunched and now she prayed for the coffin to stay intact. If the whirlpool was so powerful as to shatter the immovable crystal coffin, then the second the coffin broke Xiao Yao would be crushed to oblivion.

As the water churned faster and faster, the power of the whirlpool increased and in a resounding crack the coffin shattered. Xiao Yao screamed and closed her eyes, but then didn’t experience the pain of being smashed to smithereens.

Xiao Yao slowly opened her eyes and in the whirling inferno she saw Xiang Liu, white hair white robe, standing right in front of her. His hair was fanned out like the wings of a bird and was protecting Xiao Yao by forming a barrier between her and the whirlpool.

Xiao Yao felt like this was a dream and stared dumbfounded at Xiang Liu.

 windiaaa041293:

On the surface it looks like this, but think about it, when she was a child, she experienced being abandoned by everyone she valued (this was his point of view), and even lost his face. Moreover, she was still young at that time and his mental ability to endure it was even worse, but sHe never thought about dying, but after experiencing so many things when she grew up, she just died after the same thing? It just doesn't make sense and the characters are too poorly written. If you don't admit that his character is damaged, you can only think that his suicide has a deeper meaning.

XY is absolutely damaged. The person she was supposed to be married to for the rest of her life died in chapter 42 right before their wedding. The zhiji who always alleviated her loneliness drove her to cut ties with him in chapter 46. And in chapter 47 she realized that the man she considered to be her most important person, her closest and most trusted family, betrayed her in the cruelest possible way. He inflicted the kind of abandonment that he knew she feared most upon her. And her grandfather was in on the lie. All the people she cared about the most abandoned her or turned on her. I 100% believe that XY intended to die when she poisoned herself. At that point, she did not want to be saved. 

 windiaaa041293:

Xiaoyao said she would not leave Qingshui Town but ended up breaking her promise. She promised to live well but ended up committing suicide.

I don't recall XY promising to not leave QS town? I do recall her telling XL that, if he let her, she wanted to stay in QS town as Wen Xiao Liu for the rest of her life. 

I agree that, by intentionally trying to poison herself to death, she failed to keep the promise she made to XL in chapter 43 that she would live, even if TSJ was dead.

@AH

"For the life connection, their lives are tied together - I picture it like two threads knotted into one thread. So if one host is on the brink of death, the other host can use their own life to sustain the other host's life in the right circumstances. But if one host actually dies, since their life is tied to the other host's life, then the other host will also die. I don't see it as having anything to do with the hosts' physical bodies or transferring injuries."

Putting it like this, it definetely makes sense!

 Now I am trying to remember if the novel gives any info on what is likely to happen between the couple whose bugs aren't properly planted. It is still pretty convenient though, if we assume that by not being succesfully planted the author meant that they only share the emotional connection and not the life connection as well, thus making it ok for XL to take advantage of it and try to kill CX. Still I have to wonder why concoct such a  confusing plot, when it would have been easier to put the bug in XL to begin with, storywise I fail to see the author's point. 

@windiaaa041293

I also belive that she really intended to die, but let's just say that even though she was not happy to wake up alive, later on, when she came to terms with the situation, she was disappointed to find out that it wasn't XL who saved her or at least she did held her breath în anticipation, hoping the white figure is him. 

"After some time, Xiao Yao sat up and called out, “Anyone there? Where is this place?”

From the red blossoms a figure in white rushed over and Xiao Yao almost forgot to breathe until she saw his green eyes and released a disappointed breath. “Lie Yang, why am I on Jade Mountain?”

 blabla100:

Honestly this theory it's not that far fetched

Yes, I think too that it's not far-fetched. 

Actually, this book is so allusive and ethereal in the way it has been written that we can come up with a multitude of theories...

 blabla100:

XL never told CX nor XY that he used one of his lifes în saving her, so if XL thought that XY was not aware of what happened during their 37 years togheter, he should have been surprised that she knows that, but he didn't even ask her who told her that or anything of this sort, so to me this can look like an unspoken agreement between them.

I think XL only said that he gave up one of his life in the drama, not in the novel.

It's not clear but maybe XY could be able to deduce that XL gave her one of life because she became like him (body, blood, aptitudes under the sea). And thus, it would be a no-brainer and a no-secret thing.

It could also be because it is a law of nature in their realm: XY was "clinically" dead, it is a common knowledge that to be saved one has to take the life of someone else. 

Same thing about the fact that XY knew XL used his essential blood and how this essential blood helped and the voodoo bugs. It may be common medical knowledge.

"Xiang Liu didn’t want her to know that when she was unconscious the things he did with her, and she didn’t want him to know that she already knew. Their embraces and companionship, just let it be buried deep in the dark ocean depths!"

I tend to think that they know that they know but pretend that they don't know on the surface to not have to deal with the consequences. So, for me, yes maybe XL in the novel knows. But I'm less dividedd for the drama, because XL seems genuinely surprised. Which is a bit ironic because at least drama XL was luckier and had totally seen XY's spiritual ghost - or whatever it is called - and thus would have been much more likely to know that she was conscious at any given time.

YOLIU ❤️❤️

"She didn’t understand her mother’s gaze at the time, but now she understands that it is love.
She sat up in shock and found a bottle of green plum wine among the bottles filled with poisons. Even though her heart was filled with him, she had to use that little bit of reason to control her heart and return to her dream. Zhen Huan "Although the wind in my heart is always blowing towards you, I must go against the wind."

"Xiaoyao's maid when she was in Wushen Mountain, two people's names were mentioned, one was called Hualou, the other was named Zibei.
In the end, the servant named Nursery is with Zuo Er. The nursery represents the medicinal materials grown by Xiaoyao, which means Xiaoyao, and Zuo Er represents Xiangliu."

"But now I clearly have a family (brother), and there are people waiting for me (tsj), but I just want to wander around like this all my life (Liu)"

"Xiaoyao took the initiative to kiss the fox several times : I just don’t dare to kiss Xiangliu, for fear that I will fall in love with him, and then I will kiss the fox and let myself fall in love with the fox.

She used the fox to dilute her feelings for Xiang Liu. She felt it was wrong and deliberately suppressed it."

"tsj: "Hide you" Xiang Liu: "The sky is high and the sea is vast, there is a place to go"

"She regards the shell as "home". She has spent the past 37 years in endless darkness. What she looks forward to every day is for him to come home and take her to play. Why is it not considered complete? This is the wife's perspective[tears]"

"Xiaoyao and tsj wanted to play something in the room, but it turned out that Xiaoyao’s room was full of poison and nothing else. Then OK, you can help me draw butterflies. I made poison for Xiang Liu. I can’t draw well. Xiaoyao looked at the drawing with concentration. After tsj finished drawing, Xiaoyao’s inner OS: Okay. Xiang Liu’s butterfly drawing is finished. What’s left? I don't care what you like to draw."

The title of the last chapter of Zeng Xunuo is "Life is the time to come back and the death is the time to love Sauvignon Blanc", and the title of the last chapter of Sauvignon Blanc is "No doubt about getting married and having hair". These lines are both from Su Wu's "Leaving a Farewell Wife", Zeng Xunuo in The love between Xiaoyao's parents is the main plot and Yaoliu is the hidden plot in Sauvignon Blanc. However, the love between these two couples is the control group and there are many similarities. In the final outcome, one is born as a comeback, the other is killed as Sauvignon Blanc.

"and Xinyue shouted silently: You guys are blind! What she protects is the person she has been hiding!"

"in the end cx found out"
It was Xiang Liu who traveled with his sister under his nose in those years, and it was Xiang Liu who taught Xiao Yao archery. It turned out that saving Xiao Yao was not really for the peak of Shennong Mountain, but it was also the one who successfully snatched the marriage. Xiang Liu, Fang Fengbei's death turned out to be like this - his sister had been hiding this man who had repeatedly tried to kill her for a hundred years! My brother's head is buzzing now"

"Everyone will have secrets in their life, and Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao are the secrets that they hide deep in each other's hearts. the author saying that the problem that troubled her when she was a student was that her crush didn't like her. Later I found out that he liked her too. It must have been a mental journey that went through many twists and turns. Those feelings that never see the light of day, if they don't go both ways, may end up like a willow tree, leaving a knot that can never be untied."

"The title of the last chapter of Zeng Xunuo is "Life is the time to come back and the death is the time to love Sauvignon Blanc", and the title of the last chapter of Sauvignon Blanc is "No doubt about getting married and having hair". These lines are both from Su Wu's "Leaving a Farewell Wife", Zeng Xunuo in The love between Xiaoyao's parents is the main plot and Yaoliu is the hidden plot in Sauvignon Blanc. However, the love between these two couples is the control group and there are many similarities. In the final outcome, one is born as a comeback, the other is killed as Sauvignon Blanc."

Is zeng xunuo another name for once promised? Sauvignon Blanc another name for LYF? I wish I could understand this post better, it sounds interesting.