Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

 Kokuto:

I remember someone mentioned a blood oath, but reading this and other stuff, I wonder how much of Gong Gong's stance was based on guilt?  I mean, had he actually put his Imperial loyalty above whatever the generals were squabbling about, would they have won?

Below is the circumstance involving Gong Gon in Once Promised, the text was translated from my native language with Google's assistance. Just to give you brief idea of Gong Gong's motivation and reason to be loyal to Shen Nong

Book 2 - Chapter 5 (Once Promised)

Chi You finished reading the few lines written on the jade card, looked up and told Ah Heng: "I have to go. Huangdi himself went on battle and defeated Gong Gong, leaving the soldiers of Shen Nong bewildered and confused. Thus, Yuwang, incited by Zhu Rung, prepared to lead his army himself to fight agaist Huangdi.
"What?" Ah Heng was horrified, not daring to believe in her ears.
“The deity still tell stories that 3000 years ago Xuanyuan Huangdi conquered eighteen peaks of Yibei mountains in just one night. As soon as they heard that Huangdi himself led the army to battle, the generals of the Shennong Kingdom were scared out of their wits. Yuwang immediately sent the Gong Gong to fight, but the Gong Gong was defeated miserably, causing both Shen Nong and his subordinates to be frightened. To arouse the soldiers' spirit, and with the encouragement of Zhu Rong, Yuwang also decided to lead the airmy to battlefield himself. The troop has departed."
Do the Huangdi and Yan Emperor themselves fight each other?

After that, in that battle, Yuwang was beheaded by Huangdi. The Yan Emperor ended since Yuwang had no offspring. Gong Gong could blame himself a bit for this because he had loss to Huangdi. Then he tried to unify the small countries within Shen Nong Kingdoms, selecting a new leader.

Below is the conference where he made his oath (in Chapter 8 of book 2) 

After Yuwang passed away, the vassals who thought they could establish themselves as kings were faced with Huangdi's defeat, and became frightened. Seeing that those who surrendered to Xuan Yuan were treated well, It's hard for them to avoid being tempted to surrender. However, facing with the threat of death, few people have the courage to take life lightly, considering death as returning to their roots.

Thinking about doing so, several highly virtuous rulers immediately contacted each other, gathered the vassal countries to Shennong Mountain, discussed how to deal with the Xuan Yuan clan, and gave their opinions on whether to fight or peace proposal.
Gong Gong convinced the vassals until he was foaming at the mouth that Shen Nong is now divided into pieces, each keeping their own, that's why they wavered of Xuan Yuan. As long as everyone unites, it is very likely that they will defeat the enemy.
Everyone nodded in unison, praising Gong Gong's very reasonable analysis.
Gong Gong happily proposed that the vassals gather together to nominate a leader and swear by blood, vowing to obey that person's orders, so that they can repel Huangdi.
Hearing that, the vassals of all countries remained silent, some even sarcastically said to the Gong Gong, "For half a day, demanding us to devote wholeheartedly to Shen Nong, but it turns out that you, my lord, wanted to become king." As soon as one person spoke up, the whole crowd immediately followed suit, bringing up the previous Flame Emperor's comment about the Gong Gong "only a strong general, not a talented one" as evidence, afraid of that someone would nominate Gong Gong.

Gong Gong was originally strong and arrogant, but hearing their talk made furious as if his eyes bleed. Finally, he understood why Zhu Rong did not come to participate in today's conference. It seemed that he knew these people's thought for long time. 

The more he heard, the more it hurt his ears. Gong Gong angrily swore in front of everyone: "If I, Gong Gong intends to claim power as king, I will be struck by lightning and will not be able to die peacefully! May the fallen ancestors of Shen Nong bear witness, the Gong Gong has done his best, if one day the country loses and the family is destroyed, this Gong Gong has no choice but to use his body to repay for the country! "After saying that, he angrily shook his shirt and walked away.

Shocked by the force of the Gong Gong, the vassals were silent for a long time, only later did someone speak up: "The great Xuan Yuan army is about to arrive at Shen Nong mountain, we must quickly discuss and find a way to deal with it." let's go!”

Immediately, everyone began to argue loudly, but everyone only cared about their own safety and interests, afraid that someone else would take more advantage of them, at the expense of themselves, and the discussion would get to nowhere.

@mengXiang@blabla100

This is my opinion, others may have different opinions.

Xy likes Jing, it doesn't mean love.
Xiaoyao likes Jing because he is nice to her.
Xiaoyao likes Jing because Jing chose her.
Xiaoyao liked Jing because Jing would never leave her.
Xiaoyao placed her greatest hope and entrusted it to Jing, it was natural that Xiaoyao was sad about Jing's departure.
That was clear when Xy's mother said: doesn't anyone else treat you well? Why does it have to be Jing?
Xiao Yao just say : because Jing will never leave him. Have you ever heard Xy say that Xy loves Jing?
When xy with xinyue xy just say : it's not that he likes me,we both like each other.. but xy not say we both love each other.

But for XL..it is love.
Even though xy doesn't say it, all his actions and unspoken words show that xy loves xl.
Bug lovers are real proof.If you give your heart to someone else, the consequence is death.

it could be said that xiaoyao loves xl with her heart, and xy loves jing with her mind.

Work has been insane, came back to see that there are 64 new posts in this thread ?. You guys are insane. 

This whole shippers war between the XiaoJing and XiaoLiu is amusing . I treat hardcore/unreasonable XiaoJing who insists that XY doesnt have any romantic love for XL the same way that I treat flat-earthers - they are entiled to their wrong opinion ?. I dont need to prove myself right by proving them wrong . Besides, if people are wilfully ignoring evidence then there's really no talking to them, it's just a waste of time. If they are this bad at reading comphrension, it's a lost cause.  

As to the discussion of who XY loves more or maybe have stronger feelings for, my answer is XL. There are a few things in the novel that point to this for  me. Jing' always made his feelings for her known and  eventually gave up everything for them to be together ensuring that  XY will  always be first choice like she wanted.  XY chosing him makes sense - there not much risk and she gained a lot . With XL,  he made her no promises and yet she still chose him. What would have happened if he had shown on the beach up after receiving the crystal ball? Would she have gone with him, start a relationship? This would mean giving up CX and her family. Can you imaging,? Shackling up with the "enemy", this is a huge sacrifice.  For XY who's afraid of being rejected and abandoned , sending that crystal ball (as passive as it was) is a huge risk, particularly when she is not even sure about XL feelings for her. The most plausible, compelling reason for this is very intense feelings for XL.  

Another reason is Tong Hua setting up the Tian-er/Chuan Zi relationship as a mirror/foreshadowing to XY and Jing relationship. Another poster already mentioned the conversation between XY and Jing about Tian-Er choosing to love Chuan Zi because of his love and kindness towards her. A conscious choice to trying to love someone vs loving someone despite your effort to not let him into your dreams. How strong must XY feelings for XL be when she still falls for him when every logic and reason tells her not to. Also interesting that it was another conversation with Tian-Er that sent XY back to reconciling with Jing. 

The other reason is the Lovers' Bugs. If I interpret the Lovers' Bug at its most extreme/simplest meaning, which, I'm inclined to do despite Tong Hua's deliberate evasion/vagueness about this, then I would even say, XY doesn't love Jing in the romantic/lovers sense at all. 

ETA: posted then saw blabla100 posted about the XY/Jing conversation about Tian-Er

@windiaaa041293 @HeadInTheClouds

Yeah, I think the same, not only that, but also all the details and depth that TH put into their scenes, I honestly can't pinpoint more than a couple of scenes with Jing that made an impression on me, something is lacking în comparison. 

Chapter 31

"The Yellow Emperor smiled and then sighed. Feng Long really was the man most suited for Xiao Yao, he can’t give her deep passion but he can give her a calm uneventful life.

The Yellow Emperor walked off but then turned back to see Xiao Yao sitting beside the window staring into the dark night in a daze. He coughed lightly and Xiao Yao appeared to wake from a trance “Grandfather, you haven’t gone to sleep?”

The Yellow Emperor suddenly said “I asked Zhuan Xu to find any way possible to get Nine Lives Xiang Liu to turn his allegiance to us.”

Xiao Yao bolted upright and stared at the Yellow Emperor.

The Yellow Emperor said “All these years, using any method, any persuasion, any means available, he turned it all down.”

Xiao Yao looked back out into the dark distance and her face showed no emotion, no joy and no sorrow."

XL had a lot to do with her depression too, as I said before, I belive Yellow Emperor's is the man who knows everything that happens behind closed doors. He definetely was aware about the deep passion that XY and XL shared and this is yet another reason to dismiss the "XY cared about XL only as a friend" theory.

@blabla100

Yes, the Yellow Emperor trying to get XL to come over to their side speaks volume, particularly when its not merely because XL is a great tactician and will be a boon to their cause. I think he mentioned that it has to do with his conscience (aka drawing parallelto whatvhappened with XY's parents).  The Yellow Emperor is a screw, intelligent man. The amount of time that XY made comments about XL (marrying someone that is your enemy) would have alerted him to her feelings.  

I also found the way the Heavenly Mother and XY's mother reaction to Jing interesting; they seems so blase, A Heng even asked XY if there's no one else that treated her well. Mama in law didn't seems too impress ?.  Now I'm just being petty ? 

@HeadInTheClouds

My take on this is that while it's not a change of heart per se, it would be consider a betrayal/infidelity and thus a change of heart by proxy. Remember that the Lover's Bugs are designed to ensure the love and loyalty of the lovers (cant remembered the exact quote , sorry) . And back then virginity is of paramount importance in a woman (as sexist as that is), so losing virginity to a man that is not your lover would be a huge betrayal .

This point is good  and I tend to agree that physical act can be seen as an act of betrayal of love. But we must speculate about this point because in the story the PLB connection is already broken when XY married Jing. 

I read a theory somewhere that XL didn't actually died from the arrows, but from the Lovers Bugs turning into the Hearbreak Bugs when XY in Jing consummated their marriage.

This theory also doesn‘t ring true to me, because like I mentioned before the PLB connection is broken already before XL went to take his last stand on the island.

 luv2bafangurl:

This theory also doesn‘t ring true to me, because like I mentioned before the PLB connection is broken already before XL went to take his last stand on the island.

I used to read that theory somewhere.  It said XL actually didn't kill the bugs but just lured the bugs into his body. So XY's bugs stayed inside him (the sparkling bugs flight to his heart). If so, how could the XY's bugs detect what was going on with XY after her marriage?

In the drama, it was added by the veteran that the bugs did not only demand lives but also heart. He (XL) had 9 lives but only 1 heart. Once he gave it away (aka to her, by accepting the bugs) he could never get it back. At the end he might lure the bug to the wound in his heart. Some people said if he just lured the bug, he lost only 1 lives. Killing the bugs required 2 lives. As in the leaked script, he lost 2 lives.  But there is still sth illogical here, if the bugs demand heart and stay in the heart, to completely kill them, he needs to kill his heart, but he has only 1 heart 

@HeadInTheClouds

"We are talking about Heathcliff and Catherine level of obsession and passion" 

"It's a story  device to support XY/XL pairing, but she also wants people to be invested and support XY ending up with Jing; she wants her cake and eat it too" 

You hit the nail on the head, I totaly agree.