Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

 AH :

Through both the repeated words and the use of WXL/XY's poison, Mao Qiu's last appearance echoes his first appearance. 

Yes. It is painfully poetic that they came full circle - ending with similar words as the ones that were uttered when they first met Wen Xiao Liu, and Mao Qiu once again being felled by poison prepared by her. Except this time, when Mao Qiu comes to, it is already "After I am gone...", and he is well and truly alone, with no trace left behind of his master and companion of 300 years.

 AH :

I remembered that FFYY did not know that TSH was TSH when she first met him, so I checked the novel to refresh my memory of the details and I realized when TSH and FFYY first met, TSJ's mother was still alive, TSH did not know the truth about his birth, and TSJ and TSH were still on good terms. Which made it seem unlikely that when TSH fist met FFYY, he was intentionally trying to seduce her in order to hurt TSJ. It also made me wonder if, despite the fact that he later used and betrayed her, he might have had real romantic feelings for her, at least in the beginning.

Jing's mother was already ill when she arranged Jing and Yi Ying's betrothal, and Hou's marriage to the maid Lan Mu which Hou agreed to despite the blatantly unfair arrangement, because he still desperately craved her love and approval. At the time, Jing and Hou's relationship were still very close. Still, he would have felt keenly the unfairness of the treatment, so my take is that when he snuck off to Gao Xin to catch a glimpse of his brother's fiancée at the Fifth Month Festival, it was not just out of curiosity, but also an unconscious comparison of the two wives chosen for the two brothers. 

We can see glimpses of it from what he told Jing when he came back when he praised Yi Ying to Jing, which hints of envy:

By then Mother was already ill and I did not want her to worry about my marriage any longer, so I immediately agreed. After the engagement, I had to take care of Mother and handle clan affairs, so I was extremely busy and couldn’t spare much thought on the matter. However, Eldest Brother secretly sneaked away to see Fangfeng Yi Ying. When he came back, he grinned and said to me, ‘Congratulations, she is indeed a great beauty, intelligent and witty.’ 

-- Vol 1 Ch14

just as we can see his reaction when it first dawned on him who Yi Ying was during their first meeting. At the time, he did not realise who she was until after he helped reunite her with her companions, upon which he left straight after that. so their encounter and interactions earlier should not have been out of a deliberate intent to seduce his brother's fiancée. Rather, I believe he was genuinely attracted to her at the time, hence the meaning behind the words he said to Jing about her.

Yi Ying staggered towards Hou. “But it so happened that the one I met first was you! That year, during the Fifth Month Festival (Dragon Boat Festival), I was out playing with my female companions in Gao Xin, watching the people of Gao Xin release lanterns. Unexpectedly, an accident happened and I fell into the water, but I could not swim, and was entangled by a water weeds demon. It was you who saved me. You rowed a small boat and took me to see the lanterns while helping me search for my companions. I could tell it was not your first visit to Gao Xin, so I asked you what brought you here, and you said, ‘I came specifically to see a woman. I heard she had come to see the lanterns.’ Even though I was well aware that I was already betrothed, I actually felt a little disappointed. Later, after we found my companions, you heard them call me ‘Yi Ying’, and you suddenly asked, ‘Are you Miss Fangfeng?’ I replied ‘Yes’, and you stared at me for a moment, then smiled and said, ‘So it’s you!’ Having said that, you rowed your boat into the sea of lanterns. I heard someone in the distance call out ‘Young Master Tushan’, and you answered. My female companions all looked at me and started laughing. We all thought you were the Young Master Tushan who was engaged to me and had come specifically to see me. I looked at the direction that you left, both surprised and happy, and the words ‘So it’s you’ echoed in my heart!"

-- Vol 3 Ch9  (Chapter 42)

Still, it is noteworthy that it would be more than 4 years before they met again, during which time we have no indication that he tried to see her again. I can understand that the devastating revelation of his birth and the hatred that twisted his psyche would have also relegated any budding romantic feelings to a place of insignificance. Until the preparation of Jing's wedding, which would have reminded him of her again. The real question is what he was reminded of. 

Another telling point is the timing of Jing's incarceration, before the wedding could take place. Could it be due to the fact that he could not bear the thought of Jing marrying the woman he had some romantic feelings for, even though he himself was already married by then? While it is a possibility, I still believe that Jing's imminent appointment as clan leader remained the primary reason for his actions. 

Later, he surely could not be unaware of her momentous flight to Qing Qiu in her wedding finery. Yet he continued to stay away until the Lantern Festival (15th day of the first month), before he introduced himself to her once more in that dramatic way. At that point in time, Jing's fate was in his hands, and he had given himself fully over to his hatred. As such, I am not certain that when he started his affair with Yi Ying, it was driven out of genuine feelings for her, and not a twisted sense of dominance over Jing. Still, surprisingly they started a sexual relationship only in the 4th year, after Jing had been discarded and left for dead. Why not before? If the affair was meant to be humiliate Jing, why abstain from physical intimacy before then? Was it because he fully expected Jing not to survive, and Yi Ying was finally free to be his woman in all but name? Or with Jing's certain death, his hatred was assuaged, and he could allow himself to act on his feelings for her? I can't really answer with certainty.

Still, going forward, he had no qualms in having Yi Ying entrap and marry Jing, and he certainly continued to seduce other women in the meantime. Was it because he had tired of her by then? Or he never truly loved her - and whatever romantic feelings he might have harboured for her paled in comparison with his ambitions and grudges, and at the end of the day, she was relegated to merely another of Jing's possessions that he was determined to snatch away. Certainly his actions down the road affirms that she (and even young Tian) meant little to him and was dispensable when push comes to shove.