Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

More leaks:

Apparently at the same time that Xiao Yao was waiting at Dragon Bone prison dressed in red, Xiang Liu was standing in the seashell, also in red robes, holding the ice crystal globe in his hand. They were not in the same location, but the scene took place at the same time. While Xiao Yao's eyes were fixed on the ocean, it suddenly started to snow. Her eyes lit up and she stood up eagerly, but finally sat down again in dejection when she could not see anything. 

 Kokuto:

I am so happy and so holding back the tears.  HOW can they do this to us???  Thank goodness they are doing this.

Fingers crossed the actual drama continues to pleasantly surprise us.

 Kokuto:

Wasn't the scene with A Nian and her father in the book?  It's like 95 to 100 F here daily now, and I feel like my brain is fried.

No - the conversation between Shao Hao and A Nian was only in the leaked script, taking place just before her wedding. So far the official leaked scenes from the trailer, character features are pretty much faithful to the leaked script. The one surprise is Xiao Yao and Xiang Liu in red during the 7-day wait, which at last gives me hope that the drama has incorporated positive changes.

 AH :

Plus XY fell asleep on top of him / in his arms and there was all that wedding night activity innuendo...

Heh! I'm curious how the other side explained this one away. I still chuckle whenever I think about how you told me that they explained XY giving XL the crystal ball was an invitation to a tryst. LOL. I'm sure they've come up with a better explanation by now. 

 AH :

The difference, of course, being that Feng Long was a "suitable" choice - a man she agreed to marry largely for CX's benefit and partly because she had no other options. Whereas XL was her family's enemy and she had been told by all of them, over and over again, to stay away from him. If she wanted to mary XL, it wouldn't be convenient or settling. She would be choosing to take a difficult path despite a slew of huge obstacles. Totally different from marrying Feng Long.

Why are you taking into account context and applying critical thinking and inference to your reading comprehension AH? That's not how reading comprehension works, you know ;-)?

I read the whole wearing red thing as implication that theirs is a romantic relationship as the red outfits would immediately bring to mind wedding attire. 

Apparently, Jing is also lurking somewhere during this sequence (somewhere away in Qing Qui), doing, what else, moping and on the verge of tears. 

 liddi:

Another fan mentioned that Xiang Liu showed up twice in that episode - once as Xiang Liu (during the 7-day wait), and the other time as Fangfeng Bei (on the boat going to stop the wedding?)

Yes. The boat scene where he said that he taught her to fight for what she wants so how dare she just passively accept things, did she ask for his permission. Or something like that?

 HeadInTheClouds:

This would be a super duper clear indication that she was waiting for XL. 

Unless you're a Jinger.  I can't wait to see the Olympic level pretzeling for this.

 Kokuto:

Ah, I must have gotten that confused, thank you.  It appears, since they replaced Sir Bi with A Nian, they've given her more scenes.

Yes A Nian is more prominently featured in the drama. And she really goes through character growth. I think by the end of it, even you would approve of Ru Shou marrying her!

 HeadInTheClouds:

Yes. The boat scene where he said that he taught her to fight for what she wants so how dare she just passively accept things, did she ask for his permission. Or something like that?

Yes, I expect it to be this scene:

On the day of the wedding, Xiao Yao was on board the Gao Xin wedding barge.

Meanwhile, Fangfeng Bei sat at the bow of a small boat on the river canal of Zhi Yi city. The boat passed by the location where Xiang Liu came to the city the last time and met Wen Xiao Liu.

[Flashback to Wen Xiao Liu waving to the boat from the shore
WXL: Boatman! Boatman! ]

Fangfeng Bei's eyes were cold and the illusion disappeared. The boat continued to move forward but the illusion of Wen Xiao Liu reappeared once more.

[Flashback:
WXL: I take things as they come, the four corners of the world is my home, no matter where I go. ]

Fangfeng Bei's cold eyes betrayed a trace of emotion. Lowering his gaze, an ice crystal globe appeared in his hand.
He stared at the crystal globe intently as if bewitched, and reached out to touch the mermaid within, their fingertips touching through the ice crystal.
His eyes softened but his words were cold.

FFB: I taught you the ability to protect yourself, yet now you want to take things lying down and just get by. Have you asked if I agreed? 

-- Ep6 (S02E14) scene 17

 HeadInTheClouds:

This would be a super duper clear indication that she was waiting for XL.

Agreed - the red matrimonial robes she wore (instead of what was originally white in the novel and the leaked script), and her eagerness when it started to snow only to be dejected when she could not see anything - these are pretty strong indications about whom she is waiting for, and why she is waiting for him.

Apparently, Tan Jian Ci's studio put out the red 'wedding' costume video that a lot of pics came from, on June 19th, 2023.

https://x.com/JCT_OfficialGFC/status/1808420761461268740

 liddi:

Oh, the leaked script should be genuine, but apparently, there are indications that scenes have been changed. From the looks of it, the 7-day wait by the ocean was also changed - in the script, there was never any mention of Xiang Liu, and Xiao Yao was wearing white. Based on what fans are saying, both Xiao Yao and Xiang Liu are in that scene, both wearing red. So I am hoping that changes are done for the better.

Of all the changes, I was hoping the dream sequence would not be happening but I know that for sure will be shown UGHHHHHH. My YaoXuan scenes

 blabla100:

I guess I am the only one, but I  have the impression that by the end of the scene, WXL kinda did sense that the woman on the boat was XL.

My impression, based on WXL's behaviour (including her very respectful mannerisms and speech), was that she definitely didn't suspect or sense that the demon woman was XL in disguise when she was on the boat. If she did, that would make the rejection at the end of the encounter much worse / much more painful for me. 

-----

Female!XL: At this moment we're sitting side-by-side. In the eyes of people on the shore, maybe we're well matched too. 

WXL: You're joking miss. You and I are just strangers who met by chance and happened to share a boat. 

Female!XL: Boatman, to the shore. 

-----

After WXL got out of the boat, there were one or two moments where she was definitely thinking about something, and perhaps she was putting things together and starting to suspect that the demon woman in white might have been XL in disguise. For example, she looked down at the box of food in her arms that she received from the demon woman. And on the boat she had complained (while eating the demon woman's food) that XL always ate her food and she never got to eat his food. Female!XL giving her the whole box of food was redressing that imbalance with interest. Maybe WXL started to wonder about the possible connection?

But I never got the sense that WXL came to a clear realization that the demon woman had indeed been XL. Or even that she was definitely thinking of XL in any way in those moments when she was on the dock. If that was the intent for the scene, I wish they would have given us a clearer sign.

 Kokuto:

Well, I would be kinda suspicious with the merman delivery service.

It's hard to tell for sure (as, unfortunately, we didn't see what merpeople are supposed to look like in episode 37), but I don't think the person who delivered the food in episode 17 was supposed to be a merman. Female!XL referred to him as a demon and an aquatic creature, and in the birds'-eye shot of him when he first appeared but hadn't risen to the surface yet, his sillhoutte under the water appeared to have two legs instead of a fish tail. I got the impression that he was some kind of river demon. But hopefully we'll get to see a merperson in S2 for reference / comparison purposes. 

From the novel, we know that merpeople can venture into rivers and lakes to do XL's bidding, but I assume their main domain is the ocean and venturing outside of it would be a rare occurrence... such that having one show up in a river to deliver food would be too obvious for XL's purpose in episode 17. 

Also, in the novel, when the topic of TSJ being saved by a mercouple came up in chapter 49 and 50, Sir Bi immediately realized that XL must have ordered the mercouple to save TSJ. But XY didn't seem to put two and two together like Sir Bi did. Which is understandable, as Sir Bi had the context of knowing what XL had done for XY in chapter 48 (saving her life and breaking the bug connection, which involved sacrificing at least one of his extra lives and stabbing himself in the heart) while (IMO) XY did not have that context and was under the impression that they had brutally cut ties with each other in chapter 46 / definitely would not have expected XL to be involved in saving TSJ.