Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

@liddi

"This is what I mentioned in my post Xiao Yao's Journey Up to the Gifting of the Crystal Globe" 

Thank you for the link, liddi! Your post did cross my mind when I posted my thoughts this morning and I even searched for it, because I was curious to re-read it again, but I had no luck, so thank you! 

"In spite of Xiao Yao trying to brush aside the Shaman King's explanations that only lovers can plant the Lovers bug, Jing was obviously not fooled for a second. Her shared intimacy with Xiang Liu listening to the song of the merpeople"

Definetely. XY tried to minimize things in order to save face in front of jing, but both of them knew that the voodoo King was telling the truth. She was so affected by his words, that she wanted to spend another night on the sea, hoping or calling XL through the bugs to come and meet with her. Jing couldn't have heard the song of the merpeople, since he wasn't a merman, but he did hear their discussion and he understood the implications of XY's questions to XL very well and that's what got him scared. XY desperately wanted to find out if what the voodoo king told her is true. "If I die, can you live?" Are we mandarin ducks? The only thing that confused XY was the fact that XL did manage to take out the bug from CX.  

"Hmm...  the song was always associated with Jing's scenes"

I have my doubts about that, there are things in the story that I am already convinced of, but there are also some things that I view with a question mark and the ballad is one of them. You raised a very good point with FFB's parting prior and XY's wishing he could always be FFB (it didn't even cross my mind before you mentioned, so thank you), but there's more about that scene that makes me question the person she sang it for. I mean the whole description of the scene has double meaning. The willow, the moon, the thick shadows (from my recollection "shadows" is a word that TH used it în more than a YaoLiu scene în order to describe their layered relationship and to emphasize that there's more than what meets the eye between them. She might have used it just to make the scene look more poetic, but she could also used it as in telling us that what we see it's not just black and white) Everything is quite poetic and that's more în tone with YaoLiu than YaoJing. Even the people who believe that XY loved both XL and Jing should know that at that time her feelings for jing weren't as strong as they apperead. She cried her heart out about missing and wanting to spend the rest of her life with someone, yet as we found out în the later chapters, she didn't even believe în jing at that point în time. It didn't convine me. There's also this part:

"Xiaoyao had a good alcohol tolerance. In the past, even if she was drunk, her mind was still clear. But tonight, she drank so much that her mind was confused." 

What's the point of pointing out that her mind was confused? Dizzy yes, but the mind being confused? Confused about what? 

Also, when Jing got drunk and he started to sing the ballad himself, XY didn't have much of a reaction and that's not really în tone with YaoJing. If she sang that ballad to him în chapter 20, I would have expected XY to get more emotional when she heard Jing sing it, but not really. Everyone was touched, but her. 

I don't know, I keep the ballad in "I am not sure what to think" folder,  next to the milky way scene. I tend to believe she did project XL through Jing în that scene aș well, but not enough arguments, besides her statement from chapter 34 that "everyone had their secrets / abnormalities on that date". Which were hers, her date with jing, her out of character attitude or maybe she had some secret thoughts that no one knew about? 

"At that time, Jing had just returned not long ago, and guessed that Yiying was having a quarrel with Hou, so in order to piss Hou off, she deliberately treated Jing very gently and considerate. Xiao Yao couldn't help but sigh softly. It turned out that everyone on the boat, except Feng Long, had other thoughts, so no one noticed anyone else's abnormality."

Thinking about it, XY too had a quarrel with XL the night before,  when he let her swim back by herself. She was still annoyed at that, because she mentioned that if it wasn't for that, she would have jumped into the water for a swim too. FFYY was gentle to jing because she was annoyed at Hou, could it be that XY acted so flirtatious / abnormal towards jing în order to annoy XL too?  XL definetely took notice of the date, giving that he basically had that scene with the "feed me" repetead when he first met her as FBei, one chapter later. 

Anyway, back to the milky way, maybe she did saw XL în Jing when he untied his hair, but maybe în the scene where she saw jing with white hair and recalled that moment again, she thought of it as a memory of Jing. Or maybe the white hair on jing wasn't unintentional. The false getting mix with the truth. Problem is I am not very familiar with TH and I don't know how layered she is as a writer, so I don't know how far to go with my interpretations, but giving the novel descriptions, the " is what we can see with our naked eyes really the truth", the gray line and all that, I personally don't find it far fetched. Let's add the lovers bug in the mix and its conditions and things are getting even more clearer, to me at least. 

@H19279

"I don't think that that song is only associated with Jing"

Me neither. The way I feel it is that the first time the ballad was sang, it was used as to foreshadow the whole Yaoliu's relationship and also to put it into some stages. Meeting and missing each other (starting with QS's Town till Bei's apparition), loving and cherish each other (37 years underwater and Bei's arc),  forgetting and remember eachother (everything past 37 years underwater. The discussion about the fishes with short memory, the "do you want to remember or forget" question). 

The second time XY sang the ballad, my personal feeling îs that she sang it to herself, but for XL, if that makes sense. So not as a love promise to Jing, but as a way to let out her longing for XL. At that time Bei was still a posibility în her mind (not sure of the context, but I believe I recall a scene where she said something about how she doesn't allow herself hope, but admits that that's an impossible task. IMO the ending point, the point when she totally gave up XL, was on the last night of the month they spent togheter în QS's Town. The "what kind of man  I am you've known all along" (not one whom she should dream about) and his reminder that their relationship was always just a transaction really woke XY up and made her see that no matter if she keeps waiting there for a month or for a year, XL will never change his mind. "When can I leave" was when she finally accepted fate). She spent years with bei feeling like she could live with him like that for an eternity. The day prior, as liddi pointed out, XL left her, leaving her tearing up (?) and thinking of how great would have been if he could always remain Bei. It's true that she spent the last few years with both Jing and XL, but the hidden line here is, IMO, the fact that it was Bei who just left her, while Jing just arrived to stay. That ballad was never sang during happy times, as far as I remember. It's a sad song after all and as you said, she kind of forgot about Jing, until YX reminded her of him.  What was jing's reaction when he heard her sing the ballad? He was "stunned and speechless", as YX and Feng Long both were. "XY smiled at him and Jing also had a smile on his face." A very underwhelmed reaction from his part if I were to believe that  he just witnessed a very emotional performance from XY for him.  I don't even believe he believed it, since he was as stunned and speachless as YX and Feng Long. When Jing sang the ballad, he sang it out of grief and longing too, not out of happiness, so I believe he knew the meaning of it and the emotions that lead XY to sing it that night. 

The third time she sang the ballad, on the ship, I feel as if she sang it to Jing, but for XL again (not trying to be rational, it's just how I feel it). IMO she was both angry at XL because he just told her some harsh words, but also scared that she disappointed him to the point of regreting accepting the lovers bug. You're not the WXL I fell în love with, I regret having my life tied up with someone like you basically. Either way, I believe the driving force that made her sing that ballad that night was XL. Yes, it was sang to Jing, but IMO the target was XL. The implication was that unlike XL who back then took the lovers bug with her, Jing actually did make a promise to her and as long as there's hope, since she haven't seen his body, she will find the strenght and purpose to keep on going. So her purpose was to reassure XL that she is still the strong WXL that he fell for în QS's Town, the one for whom he took the lovers bug în, but also to give him a slap in the face by pointing out that jing, unlike him, was willing to accompany her forever. More like being XY's melody to Jing, it was Jing's melody to XY în which she choose to keep believing. If TH really intended for XY to sing the ballad to Jing, without room for interpretation, I'd assume that a better moment for that would have been when XY vowed to the moon in her wedding gown. 

"In chapter 43, my impression is she recalled Xiang Liu when she sang that song to CX."

I have re-read that chapter in full a few days ago and I also believe that it was (again) XL whom she thought about. That whole chapter îs mostly about XL and XY, they haven't seen each other for years, when XL apperead XY felt as if she's dreaming (CX too thought XY might be an illusion when she came back to him, very similar reactions).  

They ended up spending the night on the beach în each others arms, because XY desperately tried to keep him from leaving. On the ship, XY admited to Left Ear that she misses Bei and recalled their times togheter, the places they went to and  again thinking  how XL could  have met a beloved if only she was the one to save him and not his adoptive father. When XL left, XY kept looking în his direction

"Zuo Er saw that Xiao Yao had been staring at the direction where Xiang Liu disappeared.

After a long time, Xiao Yao retracted her gaze, hid the sea chart pearl close to her body"

Later, when she gets back to CX, her thoughts are still at XL, thinking how one of the reasons that she doesn't want to tell CX the truth of what happened is because of XL and their lovers bug. One lie is better than multiple lies (YX said once about CX that the one he loves is the one he keps hidden) . There's no mention of Jing that day, în fact there's no mention of him at all since she sang the ballad. Finally, after CX fell asleep

"Xiaoyao closed her eyes and continued to hum casually. I don't know when the melody changed to that stepping song:

Why is there joy and sorrow in the world?

Why does life have separations?

I only wish to be with you

Stay together forever, never separate...

Tears slowly rolled down Xiaoyao's eyes."

Hard to believe she was thinking of Jing, after all that happened with XL the previous days. She  sang or we are shown only the last part of the song, which talks about joy and sorrow and wishing to stay with someone forever, never to separate. Where's the joy? XL apperead, she felt as if she's dreaming. The sorrow, obviously, was when XL left (she kept looking into the direction he left for a long time) 

"This, in my interpretation definitely linked to XL. I wrote an analysis about perception of people in the past about the milk way and how TH quote the line to describle Jing's hair like the milk way from 9th Heaven."

Yes, I do recall your analysis and I am looking forward to re-read it again and see how do I feel about it now. I wish it would be a separate topic for these analysis, so hard to look for them among so many pages. 

Btw, any thoughts on the clam shell pearl lamp that XY had? Koala only mention a lampshell, but reading the chinese version, it seems that it's a clam shell pearl or something, if google translator îs accurate. Kinda interesting if we think about the mermaid's pursuit. Didn't the mermaid accept the merman by taking the clam shell's pearl? 

Not that we are voting, but I think I made it clear that I've always considered the Fei Fei song a YaoLiu song.  It's what attracted Xiang Liu to XY in the very beginning, luring him in, like he was a Fei Fei. ;p