Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

@kokuto 

"Jing is allegedly not an idiot, quite the opposite.  He's living with Hou!" 

Yes, but I dont belive this was about Hou or that he ever suspected FFYY having an affair with Hou before her pregnancy. 

"Jing said “I know, I was wrong.” Back then he thought Fang Feng Yi Yang was innocent and it was the Tu Shan clan that wronged her. He didn’t want to hurt her but then he forgot that by doing so then he ended up hurting Xiao Yao." 

... 

Xiao Yao asked Jing “Did you know that Fang Feng Yi Yang tried many times to kill Zhuan Xu? One time she even shot an arrow into his chest.”

“What?” Jing looked shocked.

This post related to the discussion between Yellow Emperor and XY that she wanted to get marriage after finishing the book. (someone asked why Yellow Emperor thought XY like her mother.

"At the end of the year, the Xi Ling and Tu Shan clans jointly announced that the Tu Shan clan leader was engaged to Xi Ling Jiu Yao. The news of their engagement caused shockwaves to ripple through the vast wilderness but neither Jing nor Xiao Yao paid any heed.

After the engagement talked turned to setting a wedding date.

Jing wanted it as soon as possible and an elder who watched Jing grow up laughed “You’ve always been calm growing up, what’s the rush now?”

Jing said “Others may think I’m rushing but in truth I’ve waited tens of years already.”

...

The Yellow Emperor asked Xiao Yao on her thought for the wedding date.

Xiao Yao glanced out the window at the busy doctors and said “I want to have more progress on the medical text first before setting a wedding date.”

The Yellow Emperor reminded her “That will take more than two or three years. Are you sure?”

Xiao Yao nodded “The Sheng Nong Herb Manual has been in my possession for the last four hundred years and saved my life countless times. I’ve never done anything for it or better said that I want to do something for the Flame Emperor who sacrificed his life to write it. The text that he used his entire life to write, I don’t want to it be used by doctors simply to make money or gain fame.”

The Yellow Emperor sighed “Xiao Yao, you keep saying you’re not like your mom but you are actually just like your mom!”

Xiao Yao furrowed her brows “I’m not like her at all!”

The Yellow Emperor laughed “Fine, you’re not like her!”"

----------------------------

@AH

We discussed this part a bit. First, my thought mainly focuses on the humanity aspect, that XY considered herself selfish and the committment of completing the book, thinking of mortal people somehow is similar to Ah Heng. 

It seems that I was wrong. 

The previous conversation between XY and Yellow Emperor that mentioned XY was not like her mother was in Chapter 15

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Xiao Yao walked into the room and saw the Yellow Emperor and Zhuan Xu playing chess, the Yellow Emperor laying sideways while Zhuan Xu sat up. But their expressions were identical, no expression whatsoever so no one could tell what they were thinking.

Xiao Yao didn’t pay them any heed and wandered around the room. She was shocked the room was much like it was when she was small, it was like her grandmother still lived here. Even her hairbrush and her accessories were still at her dressing table.

Xiao Yao sat at the dressing table and opened an accessory box. Inside was a ruby red headdress that glittered with life as if its owner was coming back right to wear it. But really in Xiao Yao’s memory, its owner never wore it before. She put it on her head and it was magnificent and a crowning glory but it was hard to imagine her grandmother wearing something as flashy as this.

“If you like it, take it.” The Yellow Emperor’s voice reached her.

Xiao Yao put down the accessory and closed the box. She shook her head “A woman wears this for someone to see, or more accurately to entrance a man. If I wear this and a man looked at me, I won’t know if he’s looking at the hair piece jewels or me. What if I mistake his feelings and fall for him for real. Aren’t I just looking for trouble?”

The Yellow Emperor was stunned while Xiao Yao stared at him and casually said “Grandmother really liked you at one time.”

The Yellow Emperor stared at her with anger in his eyes “How can you speak to an elder this way?”

Xiao Yao looked like she could care less “I like to talk, if Grandfather doesn’t like to hear it, then pretend you didn’t hear it. You all are great at pretending to be deaf and mute whenever you want.”

The Yellow Emperor stared at her and then sighed heavily “How did you get this personality? You are totally different than your mom and grandmother.”

Xiao Yao laughed and made a face “Why do I want to be like them? The guy gets all the good stuff but the woman suffers!”

The Yellow Emperor was exasperated and said to Zhuan Xu “Let’s stop. Want to eat?

---------------------------

Later is the conversation about her criteria to choose partner where Yellow Emperor admitted that he was not good husband and Lei Zhu chose wrong man. 

In Huangdi's opinion, XY's thought of that she differed from her mom (linked to her grandmother) is her mom (as well as her grandmom) loved a man and they were willing to do the best thing/sacrifice for the man and the woman is not the first in the man's choice. Thus man got "all the good stuff" (what they want) and woman suffered. And then we all know XY's openly speaking thought of her choice on man: someone places her on top of his choices, someone willing to offer his heart to her first etc...

Back to the discussion of selecting wedding date. XY wanted to marry after finishing the book, meaning she wanted to delay the marriage. She and Yellow Emperor knew it would take a lot of time finishing the book. Jing wanted to marry as soon as possible. XY seemed to love him. So why? 

In earlier chapter, Yellow Emperor already knew XY had feeling for XL. I think Yellow Emperor made such comment that XY was similar to her mom. Because he thought she had hope for someone else other than her fiance - XL-  who did not place her as his top priority. And similar to her mom, the one that she really loved was enemy of her family. 

 HeadInTheClouds:

Because he's a selfish man-child/cry-baby?? Does that answer your question? He's manipulative, but he can't help it, he loves her so much, it's not his fault. This is a classic move of not taking responsibility while also making you out to be the bad guy for getting upset at him. XY even called him out on this once - when she said something to the effect of him always saying he's not good enough for her and yet continues to pursue her, making sure that she can't forget about his existence.

I agree.  Jing has been emotionally manipulative from the beginning in just such a fashion.  But keeping her from marrying Feng Long when he is not available is beyond that and really low.  And this addition that is supposed to make him look better, actually doesn't.

 HeadInTheClouds:

Also, thanks for your response about the theme of Xiao/Jing relationship. I want to reply to it with my own interpretation, but it will probably going to be another essay and I need to organize my thoughts. But I'll get there, I promise.

No problem. I'm so behind on these posts, things have moved past most of my conversations. lol.  If you get to it, that's cool, but if not, no stress.  :)

@H19279

Thanks for all the prequel info. It adds to the story and world.

Thanks for the book link. I often find for Chinese work, the Vietnamese translation is far superior to the English as there is shared culture and concepts and so there is always a direct translation of words or concepts. In English the concept make not exists and translating to capture the meaning sometimes changes the context of meaning a bit. It's tricky when it's not part of the culture or idiom of the language.

 HeadInTheClouds:

Tong Hua is being sneaky and XY/XL is the only true ship with the Lovers Bugs as a big piece of evidence

 HeadInTheClouds:

To be honest, I've stopped trying to make sense of how the PLB operates in the novel. My conclusion is that Tong Hua deliberately left it vague to allow both Xiao/Jing and Xiao/Liu to work as everything is open to interpretation. If the author doesn't want to make things clear, why I'm working so hard to make sense of it? Anything I come up with is just speculation anyway.

 Kokuto:

The thing some people tout, 'acting girly,' is a sign of ACTING, not love. To me, when XY does this, as in many of her romantic encounters with Jing, it's all about acting like how she thinks a girl in love should behave. She even says something to that effect in Dragon Bone Prison, when she asks Jing why he doesn't want to kiss her, that she thought that's what guys wanted. It's a girl trying to live out a fairy tale template, not a woman dealing with love and all it's imperfections.

 HeadInTheClouds:

And speaking of Xiao/Jing physical intimacy. There are times when I feel XY uses Jing to gauge XL's actions. For example, the time when she initiated the kiss with Jing after the "you're not suitable to be in a girl's dream" exchange with XL. It's like she's unsure/confused about why XL insisted on her kissing him, so she used Jing to understand why a man would want a woman to kiss him. Is it just something a man wants to do with any/all women; or does it mean something else?

I also humbly share these inputs. It's the only way this story can make sense for me and that's my understanding of the novel.

The things that could lead me to believe that I have only a partial or even erroneous understanding of LYF are that I haven't read any of TH's other works (especially "Once Promised" which has not been fully translated yet), that I'm not familiar with Eastern Asian culture and that I don't speak Mandarin. Which is a lot and is very detrimental because context is fundamental and essential to have a full understanding of a work...

 blabla100:

It's conflicting the way she is making us think versus the way she is making us feel.

This remark is very on point because it's this duality, caught between heart and reason, caught between love and loyalty that causes XY to be in conflict and in denial.

@kokuto

I don't know, I still belive she was feeling a bit guilty towards Jing, she didn't fight for him either and IMO not only because of her past traumas, but also because she wasn't that much into the relationship. She did care enough for Jing to blame herself for not being able to protect him against a  marriage with a woman who has only disgust towards him.