Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

Xiao Yao's meeting with A Heng at the peach forest and visiting her parents' home in Bai Li is removed. Instead, it is replaced by Gao Xin Shao Hao bringing her to her parents' home, and he is the one who told her what happened in the past, instead of A Heng. It is notable that apart from Xiao Yao and the Gao Xin king, Xiang Liu is the only person who, on a separate occasion, has paid his respects to Chi Chen and A Heng in the house. Gao Xin Shao Hao did not even allow Jing and Cang Xuan into the house, and even the final respects paid outside the house excluded Jing. This differs from the novel, where Xiao Yao was the one who brought Jing to the bamboo residence when they went looking for the shaman king in Bai Li, and he bowed and paid his respects to them there.

Leaked script Ep15 scenes 10-16  (Vol 3 Ch3-4 - Chapters 36-37 )

Gao Xin Shao Hao traversed the peach blossom forest in Bai Li with Xiao Yao, Cang Xuan and Tushan Jing and arrived outside Chi Chen's bamboo residence. As he stopped, he stared at the house with sadness in his eyes.

XY (looking around): This is...
GXSH: This is your parents' home.

Xiao Yao was surprised and at a loss.

GXSH: Follow me. (to Cang Xuan and Tushan Jing) You wait outside.
CX, TSJ: Yes.

Gao Xin Shao Hao led Xiao Yao into the house.

GXSH: This was where your parents lived.

The layout of the house was simple but warm. A portrait of Chi Chen hung on the middle of the wall of the main hall but the composition of the portrait seemed a little strange. With a wave of the hand, Gao Xin Shao Hao's spiritual energy brushed over it and a woman in a green dress appeared next to Chi Chen, standing hand in hand with smiles on their faces, intimately close.
Xiao Yao stared at the couple in the portrait in a daze.

GXSH: Here, your father was not a tyrannical demon who committed all kinds of evil, but the Beast King who protected Bai Li, and was deeply loved and respected by the Bai Li people. Your mother was also not the Xuan Yuan princess, but Chi Chen's wife, the Xiling sorceress.

Xiao Yao involuntarily moved forward, accidentally knocking on a small wooden horse on the floor.

XY: This is...
GXSH: This was the wooden horse Chi Chen made for you out of oak wood.

Stunned, Xiao Yao could not help but touch the small wooden horse, her eyes red-rimmed.

XY: He... also knew how to make this?

Gao Xin Shao Hao pointed to the small drums and a row of dolls on the table.

GXSH: These were all the toys your father made for you.

Xiao Yao picked up a doll to take a look and could not help laughing even though her eyes reddened.

XY: The doll is very ugly.

Gao Xin Shao Hao laughed.

GXSH: It is already a good effort to be able to make it like this for the first time.

Xiao Yao put down the doll tenderly, before picking up the clothes in the needlework basket to take a look.

GXSH: These are the clothes your mother personally made for you, and the blanket she sewed.

Xiao Yao felt as if she could see A Heng and Chi Chen's figures in the house: the towering Chi Chen seated at a bench, polishing the doll in his hand, while A Heng sat on the pallet sewing a small outfit. Chi Chen stood up and showed the doll to A Heng with joy and pride. Laughing, A Heng put down the needle and thread and caressed her belly which had not yet began to show, her smile gentle and warm.
As the illusion disappeared, her expression was sad and pained.

GXSH: Your father did not abandon you, nor did your mother. Their only wish was to be able to give up everything and bring you back here, staying together forever, accompanying you as you grow up, watch you marry and have your own children. However, life was unpredictable, and fate never gave them the chance to choose...

Xiao Yao looked at the small clothes in her hand, tears brimming in her eyes.
Gao Xin Shao Hao walked over to the portrait, lit three incense sticks and placed it in the incense burner. He then sat on the futon in front of the incense burner and described the past while looking at the portrait.

GXSH: I was over a thousand years old when I was engaged with your mother. She had only started learning to talk, and my attitude towards this marriage was not out of feelings or love.
XY: Then why did you get engaged?
GXSH: Rather than describe it as our engagement, it is better described as an alliance between myself and your oldest uncle Qing Yang. Qing Yang supported me to protect Xie Zhu (old Xuan Yuan king's empress)'s position, while I supported him to secure my position as the oldest prince of Gao Xin. I never took this marriage to heart, and never went to visit your mother. Several hundred years later when she married me, her heart was already given elsewhere.

Xiao Yao sat by Gao Xin Shao Hao's side, listening to him.

XY: Was it... Chi Chen?
GXSH: Yes, Chi Chen. On our wedding night, your mother and I made an agreement not to be husband and wife, but allies. Once Qing Yang and I ascended the throne, we would dissolve the marriage and give her back her freedom. However, things did not go according to plan. War broke out between Xuan Yuan and Shen Nong, and through a series of circumstances, your oldest uncle and fourth uncle all died, circumstances of which I am also to blame. (downcast and sad) In the end, your mother had no choice but to take up arms and go to battle against your father...
XY (uncomprehending): Since Chi Chen and my mother were both in love, why would they go to war against each other?

Gao Xin Shao Hao gazed at Xiao Yao.

GXSH: Think of A Nian. She is the princess of Gao Xin. For me and the Gao Xin people, she would lead the army into battle, even if it was against Cang Xuan. If you were A Nian, would you abandon me and the Gao Xin people?

Xiao Yao shook her head, grief etched on her face.

XY: I would not. I would do as A Nian did.
GXSH (grieved): Back then, the circumstances your mother faced was a hundred times more perilous and complicated compared to A Nian, Your father could not betray the Shen Nong king's kindness, while your mother had no choice but to go to war against your father for the people of Xuan Yuan. In the end... they both perished at the great battle in Yi Province.

Gao Xin Shao Hao choked up, while Xiao Yao's eyes were brimming with tears.

GXSH: They did right by everyone, except themselves.

Xiao Yao's tears flowed like rain, but she forcibly stopped herself from making a sound. Only after Gao Xin Shao Hao quietly left, did Xiao Yao finally cry out loud in sorrow, unable to hold it back any longer.

**************************************

By the banks of Gourd Lake, Xiang Liu sat drinking from a wine bottle with Furball by his side, drinking slowly from the wine bowl in front of it. As he drank, Xiang Liu recalled the time he went to Chi Chen's old home.

[Flashback]
At Chi Chen's old bamboo residence in Bai Li, Xiang Liu pushed the door open and entered, taking in the furnishings in the house. He saw the small wooden horse, picked up the small drum and shook it before putting it down. At last, he came before the portrait and stared at it for a while. With a wave of the hand, spiritual energy brushed over the portrait, and Xiling Heng's figure appeared by Chi Chen's side. Xiang Liu lit three incense sticks, respectfully performed the rites of the younger generation, and offered up prayers to both of them.
[End flashback]

Back by the lake, Xiang Liu continued drinking alone, loneliness etched on his face. With its wing, Furball nudged the empty wine bowl to Xiang Liu's hand, prompting him to fill it up. Xiang Liu filled up the wine bowl, then lifted his wine bottle to Furball in a toast with a sad smile.

XL: Since we cannot be together forever, it is better to separate and forget each other rather than meet in battle.

Xiang Liu lifted up his wine bottle in a toast.

***********************

Xiao Yao and Cang Xuan stood outside Chi Chen's bamboo residence, her eyes red-rimmed, his expression filled with sadness. Gao Xin Shao Hao and Tushan Jing stood at a distance, waiting for them.

CX: Back then, I only knew Aunt went to war against the enemy, but never realised...
XY: Never realised... it was my father.

Xiao Yao choked up as she knelt down and bowed. Cang Xuan followed suit and knelt with her, kowtowing in the direction of the bamboo residence, paying respects to the deceased.

 Kokuto:

While probably unrelated, in Ireland, the Wild Geese is an old term for the military men who go off to fight in foreign wars... kind of like XL for the Chenrong resistance army.

Thank you so much for the added insight. Perhaps there is far more similarity between different cultures than meets the eye after all. And you are right. Whichever the interpretation, there is such a sense of poignancy when we take it within the context of the novel - how representative it is of Xiang Liu, who have gone far away, and will never return. 

 H19279:

the part related to Ah Heng and Chi You is new creation which differs from Once Promised.

Chi You only knew XY was his kid before the last battle. When Ah Heng was pregnant and gave birth, Chi you was injured and stayed in a lake in the far north to recover. It took several years. 

The way I see it, the drama needed something to introduce the bamboo residence and recount the story of the past, so that part had to be improvised.  The peach forest encounter with her parents, and the visit to the shaman king was totally removed and was replaced by Gao Xin Shao Hao explaining the past to Xiao Yao, enabling her to finally understand she was not abandoned. There are theories about the wooden toys which Xiang Liu himself also saw, which are supposedly tied to the big-bellied doll that he would make her down the road.

 H19279:

this part was also too fiction. yes XY was in the opposite side. However, she would never fall in the same situation as Ah Heng. No-one would force her to go to battle as Ah Heng. And basically, she was not capable due to poor spiritual power and CX would never let it happen

I don't believe Xiang Liu was talking about meeting in literal battle. Rather, he was saying that knowing how Chi Chen and A Heng's lives ended, their own opposing stances made it impossible for them to be together forever. As such, it was better for them to sever their ties now instead of hanging on, and ultimately facing the consequences when their two sides do clash. 

 H19279:

So what is XL's purpose to visit Chi you's house? paying a respect? and what else?

The script doesn't say. My interpretation is that he simply wanted to pay his respects to the parents of the woman he loved, the ones whom he would have asked for their blessings, the parent-in-laws he might have had, had things been different. He was saying goodbye, one step at a time.

This scene takes place during the Xuan Yuan-Gao Xan war in Ep15,  way after taking Xiao Yao from her wedding (Ep7).

 liddi:

Yes, I still remember the article you once shared to me about the theory of the big-bellied doll, its closed eyes and the clothes it was wearing, which differed slightly from the novel.

have you read everything liddi? what do you think?

 windiaaa041293:

have you read everything liddi? what do you think?

I haven't absorbed everything in detail yet. Am still not convinced about the little girls playing the drum and riding on the wooden horse in Ep2, as being tied to the toys in Chi Chen's home. I also still have my doubts regarding the theory about the last night under the ocean and the closing of the seashell, which is supposedly linked to the big-bellied doll, even more so after reading the leaked script about the 37 years under the ocean. There is no description of the shell being closed in the script on that last night.

Thank you, liddi, for the translation. I am ok with these changes, they don't actually add or take anything from the novel. 

I am curious about that big belly doll. I am to following your discussion, liddi and windiaaa. 

 liddi:

This scene takes place during the Xuan Yuan-Gao Xan war in Ep15,  way after taking Xiao Yao from her wedding (Ep7).

I know, What I mean is when XL visited the bamboo house since in the leaked script E15, it was filmed as his flashback, meaning it had happened in the past.

I remember there was a scene in the leaked script that the donkey meat seller told him about XY's real parents. So XL could visit Baili after that talk with the meat seller. And it was before the wedding robery