Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

 Kokuto:

Ah, well, Chi You would definitely have mixed feelings for XY at that time then.  Partly because she was Ah Heng's daughter ... and yet not knowing she was also his daughter.  ouch.

He was not in good mood. 

Yu Wang (the last king of Sheng-Nong) had been killed by Huang Di, he just recovered from serious injury. He returned from Bei Ming and saw Ah Heng's family with Shao Hao and XY. 

It was the occasion when Yun Xang (great Princess of Sheng -nong) got wedding ceremony with Qing Yang (in absence) in Xuan Yuan. He escorted Yun Xang and Sheng nong delegation. Then XY was kidnapped. Yi Peng wanted to force Ah Heng to reveal XY's real father. She had no choice but begged Chi You to search for XY. In the same event, Chi You cut off one tail of that Fox and gave it to XY.  

Checking the Koala translation for clarification on what Lao Mu was saying, I found this tidbit from Koala. 

"... Tong Hua had hinted at the end of Once Promised the OTP for her sequel story dealing with XY."

Is this true?  Were there hints at the end of Once Promised?

 AH :

Lyrics of the Shengnong soldiers':

Thank you for sharing this, as well as the original poem by Tao Yuanming. I don't remember whether it was shared on the thread, but I translated it for my daughter when she was reading the novel, and it was pretty much similar to what you had:

This body is entrusted to the rivers and mountains, Life and death is insignificant.

Once the breath is gone, the soul will dissipate.

Gains and losses are no longer known, How is one aware of right and wrong?

After thousands of years have passed, Who is aware of the honour or disgrace?

The word "生" can mean "give birth to", or "life".  In the context of 生死, it always means life and death.

Thank you too for the excerpts that gave us clues as to the characters' mindsets with regards to life and death. I would like to point out a discrepancy in the translation in Chapter 35:

 AH :

Xiang Liu laughed and pointed at his head. “I’ve lost count, but they are all here.”

The actual text says this, which meant that he kept them in his heart, and more than just his memories of them, what kept him on that tragic inevitable path to death was the bonds of comradeship and affection that he had for them:

“不仅仅是为了义父，还有并肩作战、同生共死的袍泽，我们一起喝酒，一起打仗，一起收殓战友的尸骨……”相柳看向案上的灵位，“几百年来，你能想到我究竟亲手焚化过多少袍泽的尸体吗？”

小夭无法想象，可她能理解相柳的意思，就像四舅舅，明明能逃生，明明深爱四舅娘和玱玹，却选择了和袍泽一起赴死。这世间，有些情义，纵然舍弃生命，也不能放弃。

相柳微笑着，指了指自己的心口：“我也数不清了，但他们全在这里。”

"Not just because of Adoptive Father. There are also all those brothers in arms I fought alongside with, shared life and death with. We drank together, went to battle together, collected our fallen comrades' bodies together...." Xiang Liu looked over at the altar on the table. "Over the past hundreds of years, can you imagine how many of my fellow brothers in arms I have had to personally cremate?"

Xiao Yao could not imagine but she understood what Xiang Liu meant. Similarly, Fourth Uncle clearly could have survived, clearly loved Fourth Aunt and Cang Xuan deeply, yet chose to die along with his fellow soldiers. In this world, there were some ties of comradeship that could never be abandoned even if it meant sacrificing one's life for it.

Xiang Liu smiled and pointed to his own heart. "Even I have lost count, but they are all in here."

-- Vol 3 Ch2  (Chapter 35)

 H19279:

She was only certain about his identity until she saw his look which reminded her of Chi You (the famous devil in the wideness). 

Thank you for this new perspective. I never tied her memories of the famous demon renowned all over the Great Wilderness to Chi Chen - rather I always thought it was an incident from her childhood where she was at risk from that demon at the time.  Now I really need to go and look up that section in Once Promised, to see how that scene played out, for her to have found the look in Xiang Liu's eyes similar to Chi Chen. Do you remember which chapter it is in Once Promised?

 liddi:

During the creative process, do you work out in advance the ending of each character?
I normally do not write an outline for my stories, which means I myself actually have no idea how the character would end. As I write, it's sometimes based on my own deeper understanding of the characters or like being pushed. Or perhaps sometimes it's the character who guides you slowly towards the end of his fate. So it is not deliberate, but a natural progression. 

Thanks Liddi for these excerpts into TH creative process. Looking at her process, I can see how the characters development may have evolved over the course of her writing. This approach also can perhaps can create loopholes and contradictories in characterization and story, as proven by the 516 discussion on this thread. hehe.

 liddi:

With S2 around the corner, I wonder how everyone coped after reading the novel or watching the drama and how long it took?

I am still semi mourning....as XL as a character have climbed to the top of my all time fav. antihero among Hua Cheng, Alucard etc. And also beating out a few of my childhood fav. wuxia antiheros from the 90's.  I am slowly picking up other dramas, but everything brings me back to him. Sending healing vibes to your daughter....I haven't been able to get my daughter to read or watch LYF, but from the snips I've shown her, she is not a big fan of XY, and she thinks XL wasted his time falling in love with her. My sassy teenager doesn't like girls like XY...she says XY is a pick-me girl. Haha.

 H19279:

He had been fighting for half his life, and not to mention Nine-lives Xiangliu, he had never seen an officer several levels lower than Nine-lives Xiangliu.

Okay, this translation is still unclear.  

'... not to mention XL' , still sounds like 'except for XL, Lao Mu had never seen even lower level officers.'

Or is he saying:

'he'd never seen lower level officers, much less a general like XL'

 H19279:

My understanding is he had never seen an officer several levels lower than XL, thus it was almost no chance to encounter XL.

But everything we've seen of XL in LYF, he's fighting alone.  He doesn't travel or fight surrounded by high ranking officers -- which most generals did.  Someone in the Xiyan army wouldn't have to encounter a bunch of officers to encounter XL -- just as the guards of the provision that XL stole, encountered him alone.

Had he been on a battlefield, they also would have noticed XL because of his white outfit, which purposefully drew fire away from his men.

 H19279:

He felt relieved and told Xiao Liu to be careful, go wherever he could, and never enter places that were not allowed.

Ah, here's another clue that XY knew she could encounter XL, or Hong Jiang.  In the drama, we saw a marker that presumably declared this as Resistance Army territory.  It's where she left Jing to wait.  So, XY ignored Lao Mu's words, and went some where she wasn't allowed, i.e. someplace she knew was tresspassing and upped her chances of encountering XL.

 Kokuto:

But everything we've seen of XL in LYF, he's fighting alone.  He doesn't travel or fight surrounded by high ranking officers -- which most generals did.  Someone in the Xiyan army wouldn't have to encounter a bunch of officers to encounter XL -- just as the guards of the provision that XL stole, encountered him alone.

I think this is just a matter of budget-it's easier to write a fight scene of a few men, then to write and orchestrate a small battle. As you can see, when compared to the novel confrontation of CX and XL, it's very magical. They fought in the sky with riding on winged horses. While the drama, they fought on ground with a few foot soldiers.  LOL. LYF spent all there money on the cast and had nothing left for extras. haha...they barely had enough the CGI.

 plor20:

I think this is just a matter of budget-it's easier to write a fight scene of a few men, then to write and orchestrate a small battle. As you can see, when compared to the novel confrontation of CX and XL, it's very magical. They fought in the sky with riding on winged horses. While the drama, they fought on ground with a few foot soldiers. LOL. LYF spent all there money on the cast and had nothing left for extras. haha...they barely had enough the CGI.

Yes, when I read it here, I was stunned.  So, I'm sure the budget had something to do with it, but there were more than that fight in the drama.  You can compare how XL and CX handle things.  CX always has his guards and men whom he orders to do things.  XL does things by himself, and rarely do we see him using his men to do anything.