Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

 liddi:

TSJ: I have distracted the spies. You can leave by the side door.
XL (smirking): Thank you. If you hadn't come, I really would not have been able to extract myself.

Relocating this concept from chapter 35 makes TSJ following XY seem less creepy here. Which I guess is good?

 liddi:

Xiang Liu received a message from Jing.

Interesting. 

 liddi:

Hong Jiang noted that if Xuan Yuan wins the war against Gao Xin, they will be the next target.

HJ: You should know we have no chance of winning against the Xuan Yuan army.
XL (calmly): I know.
HJ (gently): We are Chenrong citizens. Fighting to the last man is our duty, but you need not join us in facing certain death. Everything you have done for the Chenrong remnant army has long made up for the kindness I showed you. You...
XL: Foster father.

Xiang Liu interupted Hong Jiang's words and quietly looked at him. Hong Jiang locked eyes with him, and knowing that he could not persuade him to leave, patted his arm in gratitude and regret.

HJ: Alright then. It is only death, nothing to it.

Hong Jiang laughed and sang the desolate battle hymn.

Glad to see this. I wish he had mentioned a vow that he and his men had taken to never give in and never surrender, given his reputation for always keeping his promises. And XL not taking that same vow, since he didn't join the army until after Sheng Nong had already fallen. But this is not bad. 

 liddi:

XL (smirking): The two people linked by the bug not only can feel each other's pain, but each other's emotions too.

Looks like you were right liddi. Normally pain would be shared between the hosts in both directions, not just one-way. So XY would feel all of XL's pain if he wasn't blocking her from feeling it.

Still don't get why she didn't feel CX's pain though. 

 liddi:

His face slowly transformed into another unfamiliar face. Xiao Yao was stunned. After transforming, his features began to change again into one face after another, as Xiao Yao watched dumbstruck. After the 5th face, it finally morphed into Xiang Liu's features.

These seems to contradict his attitude in the novel, where both XL and XY don't like to put on false forms and prefer to use their real forms when possible. I'm not quite sure how to interpret this change from one false face to five.

 liddi:

XY: So what if you have so many faces? Even if you had 81 faces, I am still able to recognise you at a glance.

Xiang Liu looked at her with a helpless expression.

It is kind of nice that they put this directly into words.

 blimarch:

I wonder when XL came up with this idea to get rid of the poisonous bugs. Maybe he could already kill the bugs long ago, even at the time of this discussion above...?

His words in chapter 48 made it sound like he always knew how to break the connection by killing the bugs. But he didn't want to do so until right before his death, when the connection would no longer help him protect XY and would instead pose a threat to her life. 

 blabla100:

 Yes, I wasn't sure if he was hitting at XY and Jing's interactions or if he was implying that XY feels some passion for XL. 

Seems pretty clear that XL's telling TSJ that he's felt all the passionate moments that XY has had with TSJ. Which... is a weird thing to barb TSJ with. Between the two of them, it seems like even TSJ would realize who's better off in that case. Even if TSJ might be upset to find out about it. 

 blimarch:

"Xiang Liu smiled until his eyes were slits “I don’t want to know!” " > So, he certainly knew...

In chapter 48 he clearly distinguishes between removing the bugs and killing the bugs. He was never able to remove the bugs. He didn't know how to, because it wasn't possible to do. And he didn't want to know how to remove them.

But he did know how to kill the bugs (something only he, a person with multiple lives, could do), which would break the connection in a way that would hurt him but not XY. He says that he never lied to XY about not knowing how to remove the bugs, and that XY can't blame him for her not asking the right question (i.e., not asking him if he knew how to kill the bugs instead of knowing how to remove them). 

I hate this world and I want to get out. Hate, hate, hate.

Don't mind me, I just finally figured out how to post gifs and I need to share with the world how much hate I have inside of me lolololol

But yeah, all those precious little YaoLiu moments. That's below the belt. Can't we get just one small win? My health insurance doesn't cover this kind of illness.

Elise, are you feeling dizzy? I am, I need to go outside for a bit.

Is he stupid? No, seriously, is he stupid?? All those heads and zero brains??