Elise:
He reminds me of a malewife especially in the beginning (NOT THAT THAT'S A BAD THING). It's just not my preference ?
This YaoJing fan posted about how intensely female-coded TSJ's character traits and story line are, which I thought was interesting:
https://dangermousie.tumblr.com/post/725668275826081792/seriously-i-have-read-a-dozen-web-novels-with
https://dangermousie.tumblr.com/post/724502746317930496/i-swear-to-god-every-time-they-switch-to-jings
https://dangermousie.tumblr.com/post/724278194713280512/i-am-honestly-melting-he-honestly-is-the
Definitely not a bad thing, but not everyone's cup of tea ^^ She was definitely into it.
Elise:
I don't really see those as dates since they're just staying inside the house :/
It's very domestic. I just wish they had at least 1 scene after they were finally engaged where they went outside and had a special date... then maybe I might've the found the relationship a bit convincing.
I didn't feel like I needed to see TSJ take XY on the same kind of dates that XL/FFB took her on to appreciate their romance. I felt like they still had plenty of romantic moments without them. They certainly had more kisses.
blabla100:
Well în a way, I see XY's relation to XL and Jing the same way I see CX's relation to XY (XL) and AhNian (Jing) . He loves and wants both, but for different reasons.
In some ways it's almost the other way around. I'm particularly thinking of FFB. CX initially became close with Ah Nian because he treats her like a proxy for XY after she disappears. He couldn't be with XY so he doted on Ah Nian instead. And of course then he genuinely came to care for her.
XY initially starts to hang out with FFB when she couldn't be with TSJ. XY was in the capital of Xuan Yuan and TSJ was in the Middle Plains with his family and FFYY. XY was lonely, which I'm sure XL felt, and XL probably also wanted to spend time with her. The novel specifies that one of the reasons that XY agrees to hang out with FFB initially is because she hopes that it will make TSJ jealous. That's how their companionship begins. Later on, XY obviously comes to appreciate FFB and isn't thinking about making TSJ jealous any more.
Later still (after TSJ is forced to marry FFYY / when XY knows that FFB is XL) FFB tends to show up to take XY on special outings when XY is feeling particularly lonely or heartbroken over TSJ. To over simplify it, when XY can't be with TSJ, XL/FBB cheers her up and accompanies her instead.
blabla100:
Definetely domestic dates, all the romantic deep scenes were given to XL and I doubt it was by mistake.
If you had said "all the romantic deep sea scenes were given to XL" I'd agree with this ^^