Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

 nathsketch:

Silver linings ♥️?

For sure.  Yang Yang.  SMH.  Seriously, what was Tong Hua smoking to think he could play XL? 

But yes, I'm tired of wondering if the women in these dramas are BLIND, while Tan Jian Ci's character is right there, amusing and helpful and flirty and slightly dangerous.

 nathsketch:

I'm soo tired. Especially XY. She frustrates me to no end. Yes, he doesn't say anything explicitly, but does he even need to?? HELLO?? And I hate those conditions she has. Girl please, you're not choosing a bank investment plan. To hell with your peaceful stability ??? 

he thought her archery for over ten years, gave her his blood for 37 years to revive her and was intimate with her during that time, and took her to restaurants and places for years as Fang Feng Bei. I mean, if that was me, I would have immediately known how he felt and seen through his "transaction" act ?

I don't think XY was oblivious to XL's feelings. She didn't know the full extent of them, or the full extent of all the things he did for her. And I think she did question and doubt his feelings at times (in my view, quite understandably). But she did have some sense of them, IMO. 

I don't think she sent the ice crystal ball to him thinking that he had no feelings for her. I think it was more like, "There's something between us that we have never directly acknowledged. But now (like the mermaid) I'm extending my hand to you. Will you turn around and take it?" She was asking him to come and give her a reason not to marry Feng Long, and he didn't come.

Another indication is that she recognizes that XL didn't want her to know about the things he said and did during the 37 years of healing. And she equally didn't want him to know that she knew.

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!

Most of the time she doesn't want to acknowledge any feelings he might have, because she has known from the beginning that she shouldn't let herself fall for XL. For so many reasons. 

She knows he's ZX's enemy and that he won't stop fighting against ZX for her. He tries to assassinate ZX (the person she cares about most, according to the text) multiple times throughout the drama, even at the very end. And she knows he won't abandon Gong Gong and his comrades for her. 

She wants a peaceful happy ending. He wants to die on the battlefield with his comrades.

He tells her, over and over again, that their relationship is temporary and transactional. 

He was quite cold and ruthless when he pushed her to cut ties. He really played his role. As far as she knows, he never saw her after that point and he didn't say goodbye before he died. He erased the memories that she saved of him in her mirror and left her nothing (that she was aware of). The fact that she had mixed feelings and a less than crystal clear understanding of his feelings at that point... I get it. 

---

These are the thoughts that go through her mind after his death when she discovers that he erased the memories of him that she saved in her mirror:

...he had completely erased it all!

Xiao Yao stroked the mirror and said through tears. “Xiang Liu, in your eyes, am I really that meaningless? So you won’t even leave me a small memory!”

“Nine Headed Demon, I hate you!” Xiao Yao violently threw the mirror as her tears tumbled down her cheek.

In Qing Shui Town, she was Wen Xiao Liu, he was Xiang Liu. They were always at odds, but when he got injured he would hide in her room to heal. She didn’t know when she started telling him about her painful past that she had never told anyone before.

In Xuan Yuan Castle, he was the dissolute playboy Fang Feng Bei, he was gentle and considerate, fun loving yet diligently and patiently taught her ten plus years of archery.

When she was asleep under the ocean for 37 years, they spent every night together. That was probably when Xiang Liu was the most tender and caring towards her. She was of no use to him to exploit and they have no reason to be on opposite sides of each other, so during that time it was just one person taking the other person through life together in the ocean. One person sometimes saying a few words here and there, the other laying forever in silence.

At her wedding ceremony in Chi Sui, he came to steal the bride from the wedding and made her go with him as payment for the promise she made. He also asked for 37 years of army provisions from Jing. All he gave up was his alter ego identity, but her reputation was thoroughly destroyed.

After that he was the General to Gong Gong’s army and she was Zhuan Xu’s little sister, every time they saw each other even their words were like swords slashing at one another.

The last time they saw each other, because of Feng Long’s death, on the very Hu Lu Lake where they once played together, she now wanted to kill him and he used Jing’s death to rile her up to get revenge for Jing. That night he nearly took all of her blood just to make a pill for healing. She hated him for being so cold-blooded and vowed never to see him again!

If she knew that it would be the last time they would ever see each other in this life time, she would have said something else. No matter how cold and harsh he was to her, she would never ever have wanted to say what she said to him.

Xiao Yao’s entire face was awash with tears and she lifted her head to stare at the sky.

Xiang Liu, why? Why? Why do you treat me this way? Why won’t you even let me keep one memory of you….. so our hundreds of years together, it was always just a transaction to you?

Xiang Liu died so boldly and left nothing behind, no parting words and even his body dissolved into poison. No one was there to answer Xiao Yao’s plaintive question.

---

Her thoughts about being meaningless to him and their relationship being transactional to him... I don't take them at face value. Just the same as her yelling that she hates him. I don't think she really hates him, and I don't think she really believes, in her heart of hearts, that she was meaningless to him. 

In this chapter she says over and over again that she was prepared for this. From the moment they met she knew this would happen one day. And later in the chapter she says she always reminded herself that he was ZX's enemy, and yet she wasn't prepared for this. A direct contradiction. 

Xiao Yao murmured, “Even though I always reminded myself that he was Zhuan Xu’s enemy, but I…..I was not prepared for this! I really wish it was all a lie…. he’s so sneaky, he must’ve found a way to stay alive!”

Jing said nothing because he knew Xiao Yao didn’t need his response.

“It’s because he’s so sneaky that he doesn’t want to stay alive! One time he told me “Actually, to a General, the best ending is dying on the battlefield.” So he chose for himself the best ending!”

“But what a bullshit best ending! He’s the stupidest idiot in this world! He stayed loyal and true to Gong Gong and all his soldier comrades but did he do himself right?”

“I’m the idiot actually. He never cared, so why do I have to be so hurt? I don’t want to be feeling so much hurt…”

Xiao Yao kept talking and crying until gradually her words trailed off...

Just like XL called Gong Gong an idiot and himself an idiot back when they were in QS Town, she now calls XL an idiot and herself an idiot. She clearly sees that he didn't prioritize his own happiness in the ending that he chose for himself. He didn't "do himself right". 

And he did the thing she feared most: he abandoned her. She is angry and hurt and distraught. When she talks about him never caring, is she saying that because she really believes it? Or because it's part of the refrain she's been telling herself for decades (and that XL has been telling her for decades) to try to protect her heart and lessen the hurt of being abandoned? 

Obviously I'm reading between the lines and I could be totally off base, but I really do think she had some awareness of his feelings for her. But she also recognized his priorities and choices. He was not going to pursue a romance with her. So she didn't challenge his narrative. She maybe even used it herself for the same reason XL used it: to try to protect her heart.

Obviously I'm reading between the lines and I could be totally off base, but I really do think she had some awareness of his feelings for her. But she also recognized his priorities and choices. He was not going to pursue a romance with her. So she didn't challenge his narrative. She maybe even used it herself for the same reason XL used it: to try to protect her heart.

Exactly, I think so too. There's no way she was that oblivious. It's impossible.

I just hate XL so much. Whyyyyyy does he have to be this way?

LOL of course I don't hate him. 

No, I do.

Have you guys seen this one yet?  25 minutes!! I don't remember if anyone already posted it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8E5e9SJwrY

 nathsketch:

I just hate XL so much. Whyyyyyy does he have to be this way?

LOL of course I don't hate him. 

No, I do.

<3 This is perfect.

Me my entire life: "How can these women in these old stories be so dramatic?" "How absurd, why would you die for him?"

Me in 2023: "Here, let me take some arrows for you, no big deal" ??