Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

 blabla100:

@windiaaa @kokuto

Thank you, guys! Curious though, why do people believe that the second volume, love you forever, is tied to Jing? Did TH ever say something that could lead people to make this assumption? Volume 2 has the crystal ball, the yaolin poster, the confession of the heart title, these things points to yaolin, not to yaojing. 

I agree with you.
Just because a few lines in the book say that Fenglong is the right person, the jinggers immediately believe that the person XY loves is Jing and the right person is Fenglong. I don't see it like that. Even though that is the description for the 2nd volume, I think it should be connected from start to finish. and from beginning to end of the book [vol.1,vol.2,vol.3] there are only 2 love lines. so yeah, my lovely fenglong, you're not on my list.

Edit: even though from my point of view Jing is not the right person for xy, but from xy's point of view, for all the reasons, Jing is the right person for her.

TH interview :

Reporter: Having written so many love stories, what is your own view of love?

Tong Hua: My point of view is that love can make life very beautiful, but love is not the only thing in life. Women should first live their own lives. Only a woman with independent financial ability and spiritual independence can embrace love calmly. In reality, it is not just men who have family and career choices, but women too. There is no correct answer at this time, only the choice of who is more suitable.

The underlined sentence makes me think of xy.

@windiaaa

As far as I remember, XY never said that she loves jing or 17, the only love declaration she ever did to someone was the crystal ball, IMO. Yes, she said she is willing to marry 17, but TianEr said exactly the same when WXL asked her, that she is willing to marry Chuanzi. Was it because of love though? I highly doubt it. 

 Kokuto:

Thank you for translating and labeling the maps.  They are very helpful.

You're welcome!

 Kokuto:

I'm still wondering about that lake scene near Jade Mountain, but I'll look it up in the book.

Are you referring to 瑶池 Jade Lake? My understanding is that Jade Lake is on Jade Mountain, so it should not be visible in the map. 

Tong Hua really should release an official map of the Great Wilderness once and for all, just like she did the character diagram that came with the 2019 revised edition of Once Promised, and set our minds at rest. The same character diagram that clearly said that Xiao Yao had feelings (有情) for Xiang Liu, but mistakenly thought he hated her. 

 solarlunareclipse:

When did XY become aware of CX's ambitions to become emperor? Was there anything in Once Promised that let her know of his ambitions, or did she only find out after she regained her princess identity in LYF?

I'm not caught up with this thread, but I can think of one scene that might help answer this. Although there might be others. 

He told her about his ambition in chapter 10, after her identity as XY was revealed but before she regained her female form in chapter 12. But she had known since she was very small that he was born to wield power. 

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Chapter 10:

Zhuan Xu’s chin was resting on the pallet and his face was right next to Xiao Liu’s hand. “When I’m done preparing, let’s go back to Xuan Yuan Mountain together. I want to know whether the red phoenix flowers in Cao Yun Court are still glorious, whether the mulberry tree grandmother planted is still as green.”

Xiao Liu caressed his cheek. “The road to Cao Yun Court is covered with blood.”

Zhuan Xu smiled matter-of-factly. “The road to power is always littered with blood and bones. I don’t just want to go back to Cao Yun Court, I want the entire Xuan Yuan Mountain.” In front of others he was always refined and charming, the noble young master who excelled at the arts and socializing. Only in front of Xiao Yao did he show his ruthlessness and ambition.

Xiao Yao laughed. “You go fight for it then!” Just like a phoenix was destined to rise to the Heavens, Zhuan Xu was born to wield power. She knew that truth since she was very small.

Zhuan Xu said, “Right now everyone in the Xuan Yuan Court is aligned with our royal uncles. I once used the merman tribe to request a summons to bring Prince Zhuan Xu back to Xuan Yuan and it was immediately opposed by the entire court. So if I am to go back, I need an excuse that no one can oppose. For that I’m going to need to use you.”

Xiao Yao smiled. “You can use me all you want.”

Zhuan Xu’s face was nestled in the palm of Xiao Yao’s hand and he said in a low voice “It’s so good to have you back. I’m not fighting all alone anymore.”

“Hey, I never said I was going to help you and fight with you.”

Zhuan Xu lifted his head and smiled. “You don’t want to help? But it's too bad because I’m your Gege! So even if you don’t want to help, the moment I’m in danger you’ll come running to help anyways.”

Xiao Liu smacked him. “You’re shameless! People say a brother needs to protect his little sister, but you’ve got it switched around and are shamelessly waiting for me to protect you!”

Zhuan Xu sighed. “I have no choice, I haven’t been able to win in a fight with you since we were kids.”

“And you’re not embarrassed to bring that up now?”

“Xiao Yao” Zhuan Xu’s teasing faded and he got serious “You’ve been whatever goes for so long, but I know you won’t be able to sit back and watch me without getting involved. Once I go back to Xuan Yuan, whatever I do will clearly impact you. The people who want to get rid of me will try and harm you. So why should I act like you won’t get involved? Rather than vowing not to get you involved, I’d rather tell you up front so you are better prepared.”

Xiao Yao patted Zhuan Xu’s hand to indicate that she understood. She said, “Zhuan Xu, do you remember? When grandmother was about to die, she grabbed both our hands and said that we were poor children and that we needed to stick to each other from then on and take care of each other.”

“I remember.” It was long engraved in his heart, how could he forget? Zhuan Xu vividly remembered their grandmother’s dying request. Because his parents died so tragically, he grew up very young and he solemnly promised grandmother that he would protect his sister for life. Xiao Yao didn’t understand at that time so she merely copied him and promised to protect her Gege for life.

“I thought grandmother was senile back then since you may be a poor orphaned kid but I wasn’t. Look at us now! Grandmother likely already predicted what would have happened to us.”

Zhuan Xu said softly, “Back then the laughter and joy blanketed the entire Cao Yuan Court – and now it’s only the two of us left!”

Xiao Yao was silent and then looked up at the stars. Zhuan Xu also looked up at the stars. “Thank you grandmother, eldest uncle, second uncle, mom, dad, aunties, thank you for letting me reunite with my little sister.”

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CX's comment about using the merman tribe caught my eye this time. 

Sir Bi's thoughts in chapter 50 (and XL speaking to the merman in the mer language in chapter 46) originally made me think that most or all merpeople couldn't communicate directly with humans or deities. So there really would be no way for XY to ever find out the truth. 

But reading it again it sounds more like Sir Bi thought that it was noteworthy that the mercouple couldn't speak with TSJ. As if XL deliberately found a mercouple who couldn't speak with him (even though most would have been able to) or (the more likely option I think, since they also made TSJ think that they healed him randomly using sea herbs they happened to find) he asked the mercouple to pretend like they couldn't communicate with TSJ and to hide the truth from TSJ. 

Which makes me think that perhaps the odds of XY learning the truth (about XL's role in saving and returning TSJ to her) from the merpeople one day might be higher than I originally thought / than how Sir Bi made it seem. 

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Chapter 46:

Xiang Liu handed the red blood jewel to the merman who carefully received it and placed it into a blue shell that was custom made by the Jin Tian family for this jewel. Xiang Liu spoke to the merman in the mer language, and the merman listened to Xiang Liu’s instructions before nodding and bowing to Xiang Liu. He turned and rode the waves towards the direction of the ocean.

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Chapter 49: 

Xiao Yao asked, “Where have you been all these years?”

Jing explained, “Hou forced me to duel and I secretly ate the life preserving pill you gave me beforehand. I wanted to jump into the water to escape and Hou kicking me in the water helped my plan along. But his kick was much stronger than expected and I fainted in the water. When I woke up it was five days ago at dawn on a deserted island in the East Sea. A mercouple saved me but I couldn’t communicate in their language. We communicated in gestures and I figured out that they found me unconscious in the ocean and didn’t know who I was or how to wake me. They placed me on the deserted island and fed me herbs from time to time. Luckily there are tons of strange treasures in the ocean and they accidentally chanced upon the right sea herbs to wake me up. I rushed back worried about you and only then did I learn seven years had passed. The Yellow Emperor told me you were not on Sheng Nong Mountain and told me to rush to Jade Mountain.”

Xiao Yao wiped her tears. “I want to thank the mercouple that saved you.”

Jing sighed, “Merpeople live in the vast ocean without a set residence. When I left and asked how I could find them again, they just pointed to the ocean so I don’t even know how to find them again.”

Xiao Yao said, “We can look for them in the future and take our time, but now we need to go beg for forgiveness from the Royal Mother.”

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Chapter 50:

Jing explained about the mercouple in the East Sea and Sir Bi’s mind roiled after hearing it. The Nine-headed demon is the supreme power in the ocean, totally able to command the merpeople to do his bidding. And finding merpeople who could not communicate in the human language, and who lived in the vast ocean, Xiang Liu was cruel and brilliant in saving Jing without ever leaving a way to be discovered.

 solarlunareclipse:

Nice, thank you for the chapter references!

You're welcome :)

 solarlunareclipse:

However, I was wondering if a not-so-obvious reason for running away could be because she figured that CX and XL would go head to head one day and she was trying to avoid having to take a side. At this point, we knew she already loved XL because of the PLB, if she also knew of CX's ambitions, then a case could be made for her running away to sidestep the inevitable conflict.

As far as I can remember, CX hadn't told WXL directly about his ambition to become emperor before WXL tried to run away from CX, but CX didn't need to be emperor to be XL's direct enemy. They had already gone "head-to-head" and tried to kill each other on more than one occassion. 

I haven't re-read the novel in a while and the details are not fresh in my memory, but I had the impression from XY in chapter 13 that she felt that life was less interesting without XL in it and she missed their interactions (partly because Ah Nian was proving to be a much less interesting nemesis than XL), but she was resigned to the fact that she wouldn't see him again and was sad that she wouldn't be able to give him the new poison she made for him. Since her identity not only as the Gaoxing Princess but as CX's sister and the Yellow Emperor's granddaughter had been revealed, she and XL were now clearly on opposite sides. Plus she couldn't / wouldn't leave CX. So her relationship (whether she viewed it as platonic or not) with XL seemed like it was over. If she saw him again, she was going to pretend like she didn't know him (although I recognize that that line is open for interpretation and others in this thread felt that she only meant that she would pretend only for a moment) and if he somehow did recognized her, she knew there would be trouble - not just because of her identity but because she lied about it (and about how she recognized CX) to XL. 

I do wonder what would have happened to XL and WXL's relationship if she had left QS town as she had originally planned, changed her identity once again, and managed to evade CX when he started looking to bring WXL back to Gaoxing? I assume she would have tried to evade XL too at first, since she would want to hide the fact that her WXL form wasn't her true form, that she had the ability to transform seamlessly, and that she had lied to him. But if XL used the bug connection to track her down in her new form... What then? He'd find out about at least some of her lies. Maybe he'd even find out about her true identity. But she wouldn't be living with that identity or tied to CX's side (and TSJ and the 15 year promise would presumablly also be out of the picture). What would have happened in that scenario? 

 solarlunareclipse:

Very interesting find! I like how you assumed positive intent and came up with more benign explanations for TSJ saying the merpeople couldn't communicate with him and my mind immediately jumped to XL instructing TSJ to keep quiet about how he was saved, or TSJ lying about how he was saved. :)

Sir Bi seemed to believe that TSJ was telling the truth about not being able to communicate with the mercouple, and he correctly guessed that XL was responsible for bringing TSJ back. So I'm willing to believe that Sir Bi was probably also right about believing TSJ and that TSJ was telling the truth about not being able to communicate with the mercouple. 

Idk if XL would have interacted with TSJ after he woke up. He gave the blood jewel to the merman in chapter 46 along with instructions. To ensure that TSJ was woken up at the right time, it's possible that he would have gone to TSJ himself. Perhaps immediately after chapter 48. But even if he did, idk if he would've stuck around to talk to TSJ after he woke up. That'd really sting wouldn't it? If he spoke to TSJ after healing him, after not sticking around to meet XY after he healed her in chapter 22? 

But the point at which TSJ was woken up was so close to the point where XL saved XY's life, carved the big-bellied laughing doll, and then went to fight the final battle... Would he also have spent even more time away from the army to go and personally save TSJ? I feel like it's possible that, rather than going to TSJ himself, he might have simply given the mercouple further instructions to wake TSJ up at that point without actually going to him. 

Plus, if TSJ was lying, that would mean that he knew the mercouple hadn't randomly healed him and that he needed to lie to XY about it. Which would probably mean that he knew XL was involved. But would XL really risk letting TSJ have that information? Could he trust that TSJ would definitely lie to XY about it? If XY dug deep enough, she might find out not only that XL was involved in saving TSJ but that XL used her blood pill to save TSJ. She might realize that everything that happened between her and XL in chapter 46 was designed to harden her heart against XL so that she would be less hurt when he died. If she found all that out, it would defeat the very purpose of all of XL's efforts. She'd see, clear as day, his feelings and intentions, and her devastation would have been amplified... who knows how many times over? So I think XL would have been extremely careful to make sure (as Sir Bi surmised) that it would be nearly impossible for XY to figure out the truth. 

Happy Mother's Day everyone. 

Took my ma to dinner tonight and planning a spa day to celebrate. Although the spa day is probably more for my benefit :-)

Happy Mother's Day, everyone! 

@liddi

Thank you, liddi. That's indeed a very nice surprise!

 Judging by XY's description, I think it's safe to assume that she always felt conflicted about XL. She was never sure if he helps her because he has feelings for her or because he has other interests. That's also in line with the crystal ball she made, the merman was looking away, while the mermaid kept looking at him. Also in line with the dream she had, FFB was warm, while XL was cold, she didn't know which one of them is true. Regardless, as she mentioned after FFB's identity got revelead, FFB was the same as XL, someone who has no interest for owing anything and never tried anything more with her. 

Chapter 19 from google translator

"Xiaoyao silently recalled that Fangfengbei seemed completely different from the cold Xiangliu, but that kind of person had nothing to do with him. Isn't it another kind of coldness to follow someone who doesn't care and wants nothing?"