Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

@liddi

Thank you for the good news, finally.  Can't believe it's been almost a year. 

 solarlunareclipse:

This construction is typical in Mandarin for expressing that an action was performed by someone in a passive format.

While sentences may be written in passive form, the meaning "explain" is not used in that way, and not with just a single word. When used in such a sentence structure with a singular word (whether active or passive), it normally means "undo", "complete", "relieve", "solve", "terminate". It is not used to mean "explain“.

The meaning "explain" is used in a combination of words e.g.

无论我怎么解释她就是不听。
No matter how I explained, she just would not listen.

请不要再为你的愚蠢辩解了。
Please do not try to defend/excuse/explain your stupidity.

经过老师再三讲解，大家终于领悟了这首诗的含意。
After the teacher's repeated explanations, everyone finally understood the underlying meaning of the poem.

So no matter how you try to interpret at the original sentence, the 解 used there cannot be taken to mean "The lovers bug had been explained by the Royal Mother." Possible meanings are "remove", "undo", "resolve".

 blabla100:

That's the thing, I don't believe XY didn't think of XL during those moments, on the contrary. XY always protected XL the same way he protected her.

I agree that she tried to protect Xiang Liu in whatever capacity she could. I am not as convinced that she told her grandfather about Xiang Liu in hopes that he would try to convince him to defect. She should know better than anyone that Xiang Liu would never abandon the Shen Nong rebel army - she saw their unwavering convictions in the face of unsurmountable odds, and she understood Xiang Liu's loyalty towards Hong Jiang and his brothers in arms. Even on her wedding, she begged Cang Xuan to spare Xiang Liu, not try to convince him to surrender, though the chances of Xiang Liu agreeing to stop fighting was pretty much next to none.

These are external ways she tried to protect him. However, my point is that during those times when she gave up on her own life - during the first assassination attempt, and when she tried to kill Cang Xuan, she would have known what it would cost Xiang Liu to save her, but she went ahead and did it anyway. One might argue that perhaps she hoped that he would come to her, knowing that he always did so whenever she was in danger. Nonetheless, the price he had to pay each time she put herself at death's door was steep - he was badly injured saving her from the vortex, and she was aware if she killed herself, he may need to sacrifice yet another life to save her again. That was something I always found hard to reconcile with Xiao Yao - her attitude was almost as if she deemed the loss of his life to be worth less because he had 8 lives (having given one to save her after the Plum Forest assassination by then). Xiang Liu told Sir Bi that where he was going, having one more or one less life made little difference. But that was Xiang Liu's prerogative, not Xiao Yao's to make. Contrast that to Xiang Liu, who did everything within his power to minimise the harm to her, no matter what he was going through.

 H19279:

There was loophole in Ah Bi’s story about her recovery.

He said that Royal mother saw that water was good for her thus placed her inside the water of Jade Mountain. Then she woke up. Huh how could she move herself from underwater to the room ? How did she stayed in the water, how was her condition monitored so that she was placed inside the room before the moment that she woke up. Huh, she did not ask how was she retrieved in detail. She has 3 days before the ceremony.. It was not Royal Mother saved her. According to Sir Bi, it was just the high spiritual energetic water o Jade Mountain cured her. I wanted to emphasize here that XY was Poison “god” who was most qualified for poison. She knew and understood more than anyone the effect of the poison dose that she took. It was 10 time higher than CX’s dose which could have killed a high spiritual power deity as CX if he. had not got the detoxification on time. And for sure that she knew if spiritual energy alone could save her within 26 days.

Sir Bi walked in and said with a smile, "There was nothing wrong with your body to begin with. Although you stopped breathing, your heart meridian remained intact. The Royal Mother saw that you could breathe underwater, so she sank you into Jade Lake and imbued you with some Jade Mountain spiritual energy, thus waking you up." 

-- Vol 3 Ch 16 (Chapter 49)

The way I see it, Sir Bi's explanation was sufficient to cover the basics without overwhelming Xiao Yao who had just woken up (and the flow of the narrative) with unnecessary fine details. It was irrelevant how she was moved from the lake to the room - why would she need to know how she was monitored after her supposed recovery from inside Jade Lake. Suffice for her to know that that was the method supposedly used to save her life. Lie Yang already told her that it was Cang Xuan who brought her to Jade Mountain to ask the Royal Mother to save her. As for saying the Royal Mother did not save her because the method was via the spiritual energy, and not directly, is to claim that a doctor did not save a patient because he used a defibrillator to resuscitate the patient rather than administer CPR personally. The tools he had on hand which he used, was equivalent to saving the patient, whether directly or indirectly. 

Xiao Yao herself knew the moment she woke up, that she was still alive because the lovers bug connection extended her life. It was clear that without the lovers bug connection, the spiritual energy keeping her underwater in Jade Lake would not have been sufficient to keep her alive. What Jade Lake  supposedly did was to enable her to wake up sooner or later, and miracle upon miracle, a month after her suicide. Perhaps she might be curious that she took only a month to wake up. However, this was Jade Mountain, with mysterious spiritual energy and powers, and Royal Mother too was powerful and knowledgeable. Why would Xiao Yao second-guess that the Royal Mother or Jade Mountain was not equipped to save her? There was also no reason for her to believe that Xiang Liu could come and depart freely in Jade Mountain, and save her, without alerting the Royal Mother, Lie Yang or Sir Bi.

 HeadInTheClouds:

Thank you @Kokuto and @liddi for the information regarding the kingdoms. Now, can someone help me out with the various cities and where they are located? I'm awful with names and details and my brain has been extra mushy recently.

Also liddi. Did you knock up those tables?

You're welcome. Yes, I compiled the information I had into a tabular format when you asked, which was actually useful for me too. As for city details, I don't recall whether specific directions were given for cities except which kingdom / location it was in - will need to go back and check again. Will defer to those who know the details of the books like the back of their hand.

@liddi

I didn't mean that XY opened up to yellow emperor in order for him to help her out with XL, what I meant was that even a man like yellow emperor was able to see XY's longing for XL, so I don't believe that XY was ever in denial about her feelings. Even if she knew it's hopeless she still hoped agains hope. If I remember correctly, when yellow emperor came to her, she was sitting in a daze, yet the moment he started talking about how he tried to get XL to come on their side, she straightened up and all her attention was on him. When he told her that even if XL saved your life but you don't owe him anything, because CX paid for it I interpret that as stop dreaming of him already, he saved you because he had his own interests, and not because he has any feelings for you. 

Between XY and XL I personally believe XY was willing to sacrifice more, but than again I am one of the very few people who believes that the crystal ball was not only an invitation and a declaration, but also a compromise from her part. I believe she was willing to give up everything and surrender herself to him according to his conditions, as long as he accepts her in his life. In my opinion XY was always aware of her feelings, but she was always unsure of his, she was conflicted if he loves her or if he's only using her for his interests and that's something that's been running through her mind ever since the QS town arc, IMO.  She knew her blood is something that XL wants and she kept reminding him of it, so he doesn't forget that she is useful to him and keep him coming back to her. He took advantage of her relationship with Jing to get the medicine, he used her as a bait to get to CX. Again, I think I recall a discussion with yellow emperor about a jewelry or something, when she told him that she would rather not wear something like that, because she won't know if the man loves her for the jewelry or for herself. 

People are fast to judge XY, but I am more tolerant to her because I believe that if she knew what XL feels, she would have run to him in the blink of an eye, that's why XL tried so hard to not let her know. She kept saying that she îs not like her mom, but given the chance,  she îs exactly like her mom, and that was pointed out by yellow emperor too. I mean after she spoke with the voodoo king and learned that XL knew from the beginning what type of bugs they share, she was basically on the verge of jumping over to follow him, she didn't even consider that jing, his fiance, was there with her. In chapter 43 again, if XL wanted it, he could have even eaten her, whatever he wants, as long as he doesn't run away. She even needed him to remind her of jing. A day before she couldn't even sleep or eat because she thought that jing died, but after XL came, she is laughting and chatting and even asks left ear if it's anything to eat, because she is so hungry. When XL threatened her about the bugs, she shows him the moon, the moon that once bonded them togheter, yet XL wasn't interested to look at it, so she starts singing the ballad that once attracted him to her to jing. 

Yes, she was aware that by killing herself, XL might  have to sacrifice another of his life, but as she told him, between them 2 there were more chances for XL to drag her down, since they both knew his ending is not that far away, but XY never complained or did anything to try and get rid of her bug either, even though she only had 1 life to spare. When CX had the bug, she was worried that people might hurt her to get to him, so she kept thinking of ways to remove it, but with XL she never tried much. She was ready to die and lose her only life when XL dies, so XL losing one of his lives in order to let her die is not that much to ask, especially since, unlike her, XL knew from the beginning that it's a life and death connection. What I am saying îs that from her pov he too was ready to die for his army, regardless of having his life tied up to hers, so why shouldn't she  have this right too, especially since in their last encounter he made sure to make her understand that she was nothing but a tool to him. 

@solarlunareclipse

I might be one of the very few people who thinks XY believes she's smart and intelligent but actually isn't very  smart or intelligent, and overcompensates by trying to be selfless. I see so much of her in a relative of mine who comes across as such a person in the way she speaks and handles herself, but she is quite unintelligent and has extremely low self-esteem. She would literally go into a panic attack or defense mode if her intelligence or smartness is questioned. One way she covers her low self-esteem is by being as selfless as possible, going over and beyond for people and strangers, and keeping a mental tally of her acts of kindness, expecting twice the emotional/physical labor in return.

As Wen Xiao Liu, you see and understand her flaws, and you keep watching, hoping for her to overcome them, but in the end, you find yourself quite dissatisfied because everything about her flaws is amplified as a princess, with no real growth. She achieves everything she wants at the expense of losing the people she actually loved.