Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

So, FFB flirted and wanted to grab intimate manner with XY while Jing wanted to be dominated by XY

 HeadInTheClouds:

Were they aware of the 15-year promise thing?

I can't imagine any of Xiao Yao's family members could look at the position that Jing placed Xiao Yao in - as the other woman (and she willingly went along with it) and think highly of him. This is not the conduct of an "honourable man".

I don't think anyone else awared of that 15-year promise. CX asked XY once about why Jing sent 15 bottles everytime, is there any hiden code behind. 

A few boxes were placed before Xiao Yao and Zhuan Xu said “That Tu Shan Jing has gone crazy!”

He opened the boxes and inside contained one hundred and five bottles of wine. From when she and Zhuan Xu arrived in the Middle Plains, it had been exactly one hundred and five days.

The first day they arrived, Jing asked to see her. But Xiao Yao needed to helped Zhuan Xu detox so she declined until she had time to see him.

Jing was very obedient and never asked to see her again. Only every fifteen days, he would send a box of plum wine exactly in the amount of the days that passed.

In the past, Xiao Yao could drink all this wine. But she was helping Zhuan Xu detox so she didn’t dare drink. She put it all away and now the wine cellar had hundred of bottles.

Zhuan Xu took out a bottle “What kind of promise involves fifteen between you two? I notice Jing likes to play with fifteen as if reminding you of something.”

Xiao Yao opened a bottle and gulped it “A few months of no wine, I sure miss it.”

Zhuan Xu played with the bottle in his hand and casually said “Missing wine is fine, don’t miss the person.”

Xiao Yao made a face at him “Send word for me that I can see him now.”

Zhuan Xu stared at the bottle in his hand and his lips were pressed in a tight line. (Chapter 18)

CX had never liked Jing. Since the beginning he already detected Jing's sneakiness, manipulativeness. He didn't Jing since Jing didn't clear up FFYY before approaching XY. XY and Jing had date in obscure places. He was not compatible with moral obliquity. Later, XY had certain feeling for Jing, CX was also jelous with Jing. And when Jing's betray cause a big blow for her, CX really hate Jing since he made her heartbroken and sorrowful. Another reason CX didn't like Jing is he thought Jing was weak, just using his money to approach XY and Jing had no ability to protect her.

 H19279:

CX had never liked Jing. Since the beginning he already detected Jing's sneakiness, manipulativeness. He didn't Jing since Jing didn't clear up FFYY before approaching XY. XY and Jing had date in obscure places. He was not compatible with moral obliquity. Later, XY had certain feeling for Jing, CX was also jelous with Jing. And when Jing's betray cause a big blow for her, CX really hate Jing since he made her heartbroken and sorrowful. Another reason CX didn't like Jing is he thought Jing was weak, just using his money to approach XY and Jing had no ability to protect her.

 windiaaa041293:

One more thing... about the sea blue spider web... he really wants to replace XL, but in a manipulative way, like the fairy tale of a butterfly trapped in a spider web... scary!

Yes, I agree with everything you guys are saying. Most of Cang Xuan's reasons for disliking Jing are the same reasons why I dislike him.

The parallels.... First that fox who imprisoned XY when she was a kid and now the spider..... Such a sneaky and manipulative person....

 windiaaa041293:

桐華tonghua

13-5-31 來自微博weibo.com

In Tong Hua's post dated 31 Mar 2013, the text accompanying the Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao poster in Vol 2 is quoted from the novel:

小夭默默看着漫天烟花。青丘此刻想必也是如此美丽，璟大概搀扶着奶奶，和众人一起看着缤纷绚烂、漫天绽放的烟花；而清水镇外的茫茫大山中，应该是黑暗的，萧瑟寒风中，士兵们围着篝火，就着粗劣的烈酒，唱一曲故国的歌谣。相柳大概一身雪白的衣，陪着洪江  ，默默地穿行在黑暗中，从一个营地巡逻到另一个营地。

Xiao Yao quietly watched the fireworks all over the sky. It must be just as beautiful right now in Qingqiu. Jing likely had his arm around his grandmother as they watched the colourful, glorious fireworks exploding all over the sky along with everyone else. Meanwhile, it should be dark in the vast mountains outside of Qingshui town, with soldiers huddled around the bonfire in the bleak cold wind, drinking coarse wine as they sang songs of their motherland. Xiang Liu was likely all dressed in white, accompanying Hong Jiang as they walked in the darkness, making their rounds from one encampment to the next.

-- Vol 2 Ch4  (Chapter 21)

I remember the equivalent scene in the drama had Xiang Liu drinking alone apart from the soldiers, his lonely figure contrasting sharply as always with the joyous New Year celebrations that went on everywhere else - Xiao Yao and Cang Xuan in the Middle Plains, Jing and his family in Qingqiu.

 windiaaa041293:

桐華tonghua

13-3-15 來自微訪談


#長相思#我不知道……………我也希望他活著,能多年後,江湖再見。

@26度-晴:向@桐華tonghua 提問: #長相思#雖然這裡談的是長相思,可是我還是忍不住要問,孟鈀是真的死了嗎?雲中歌看了好多遍,真的好希望陵哥哥是假死或孟鈀只是掉進了河裡,這樣的話雲歌就不是一個人了進入本場微訪談

This post dated 15 Mar 2013 is actually part of a Q&A:

Q: Although we are discussing Lost You Forever here, I cannot help but ask whether Meng Jue is really dead? I have read Song in the Clouds many times and really wish that Ling gege faked his death, or Meng Jue only fell into the river. This way, Yun Ge would not be alone.
TH: I don't know.... I also hope that he is alive, and could meet him again in the pugilistic world many years later.

I really wish this were true too. Unfortunately, unless Tong Hua ever revisits the universe and gives us the 4th novel, we have no hope of Xiang Liu surviving. Not to mention he disintegrated into a pool of black blood before everyone's eyes.

@liddi..^^

1、防风邶、王仓王玄和宝柱的笔画都是十七。（也许是一种奇怪的暗示，如果命运不开玩笑，如果有足够的机缘，他们都可以是她想嫁的十七。当然啦，最早表哥还是叫颛顼的）

2、相柳只有一只耳朵（卩），防风邶有俩耳朵（阝）。注意看这俩耳朵的位置，相柳对比防风邶，没有左耳。

3、小夭给左耳起的名字，因为他没有左耳，所以就叫左耳。

4、小夭跟邶在一起的时候玩香，后来就不玩了，将名为“梦”的香给了苗圃，从而成全了苗圃与左耳的缘分。左耳是闻到苗圃身上“梦”的香味与小夭一样，没有杀苗圃，而是在她身上闻来闻去。很多人都说，左耳是相柳的影子。左耳问小夭，我会成为相柳吗？小夭说，我更希望是邶。

5、夭璟大婚那章的名字，叫结发为夫妻，恩爱两不疑。出处是苏武的《留别妻》，我也放一下原文。很奇怪，这首诗全篇是一个要去战场的丈夫跟妻子诀别，殷殷嘱托妻子的情景。如果是三流作家没文化瞎引用也就罢了，作者是桐华，书名就叫长相思，桐华没有琢磨过这首诗是不可能的，为什么会这么用？为什么全篇多次提到一个将军最好的结局是死在战场上？为什么小夭想了半天说想明白了生和死？这暗线真的是令人寒毛都起来了。结发为夫妻，恩爱两不疑。欢娱在今夕，嬿婉及良时。征夫怀往路，起视夜何其。参辰皆已没，去去从此辞。行役在战场，相见未有期。握手一长叹，泪为生别滋。努力爱春华，莫忘欢乐时。生当复来归，死当长相思。

6、书里清水镇的故事，像是全书的一个摘要，类似于红楼梦里面甄士隐一家的故事。

 blabla100:

For her to say lyf has a happy ending is like saying

Did she say LYF has a happy ending?  I know she said it wasn't a tragedy, which isn't the same thing as a happy ending.

 blabla100:

I know Tonghua said that love îs not everything that matters în life, but at the end of the day LYF is still a romance story and for many of its readers love does matter the most,

Is it a romance story, though?  Yes, it's a story with a romance element, but I don't think if it was a regular romance story with a happy ending, people would still be talking about it.

 blabla100:

I personally really wish they would have fought more for love too.

I also wish for this.  It is one of the things I struggle with repeatedly.  I so wish that XY could be less afraid and fight for love.  But that's not the character as she was written.

 blabla100:

Oh yes, I know Jingers belive XY and Jing got their happy ending, but let's be serious, none of the characters achieved their goals without losing love on the road, should I actually belive Tonghua made an exception for them? She herself labeled Jing as a companion and XL as the soulmate throughout the book, idk în which universe companion weights more than soulmate.

Exactly.  Is it really a happy ending when you've erased every bit of your life and identity and power, only to be a powerless companion for a woman who will always have another man imprinted on her eyes?

@kokuto

"Did she say LYF has a happy ending?  I know she said it wasn't a tragedy, which isn't the same thing as a happy ending."

Oh perhaps, I don't recall her exact words, so I think you are right. Yes, it is a difference between saying it has a happy ending and it's not a tragedy, lyf has a little bit of both I guess, altough the way I see it I am not sure that the gains outweight the losses. 

"Is it a romance story, though?  Yes, it's a story with a romance element"

 Well for Tonghua i think it is more than a romance story, but let's be honest, most readers and viewers are drawn to this story because of the romance. I personally didn't really care much about who gets to rule the world or about the traumas that each character had. The politics are TH's weakest link IMO and the choices they made out of fear have their purpose up to a point. I personally wanted to see how these characters fight their fears, go against the flow, but instead they all reached a point where they got what they wanted, but gain nothing worth living for. Or în other words be careful what you wish for because you might get it. 

"I so wish that XY could be less afraid and fight for love"

I know you don't agree with my take, but as I said before, I personally belive XY did try at one point to fight for love, but XL kept cutting her wings. Sure she could have done more, I wish she would have done more, go against everyone and everything, XL would probably still rejected her, but be ambitious for once. She kept saying her biggest fear is to be abandoned by the people she loves, but all I could see is her giving up on herself for the people that loved her. Couldn't she be selfish for once? She wanted someone to put her first, but she herself wasn't able to do that. Yes, her romance with XL would have been doomed, but at least I'd have seen her becoming true to herself. Ending up with Jing as a companion is unfair for both of them. But idk, for me love is important. 

 Taspia:

For her to say lyf has a happy ending is like saying CX never wished for XY to stay by his side forever, XY never loved XL nor XL ever loved her.

I watched in a reel, where Yang Zi said that, Xiao Yao never LOVE  Xiang Liu.... 

Really...And now  I have to believe it.... 

I really doubt YANGZI said that, perhaps it was something taken out of  context, do you have the link to the reel? 

If she didn't love XL, then the lovers bugs would had kill them. It is obvious you are a Jing fan and that's perfectly fine, but I can't help but wonder why do Jingers always forget or minimize the bugs, they are quite an important part of the story after all.