In the novel, Chi Chen's spirit lived on after the last battle in the form of a living forest that accompanied…
Agreed, it was such an important moment for XY.
Between the preview, the rumours and the leaked script, it seems like we are going to get something. But the details will be very different from the novel.
The preview shows petals surrounding XY before she enters the home that Ah Heng and Chi Chen shared in Baili + her seeing their portrait inside that home.
In the novel, once a Lovers Bug is successfully planted, it ties the hosts' lives and hearts together and can…
If I remember correctly from the leaked script, XY threatening to kill CX and poisoning CX and herself (as shown in the trailer) will all be part of CX's dream induced by tea given to him by the former King of Xiyan to help him realize the consequences he would face if he killed TSJ in order to keep XY by his side.
XY creates the life-saving pill for TSJ in the novel as well, in chapter 35. TSJ takes that pill after his fight with TSH and it prevents him from dying from his very severe injuries in that battle, but it doesn't prevent him from falling unconscious. In chapter 46, XL creates a jewel from XY's blood (not all that different from the pill that XY created) that he gives to a merman with instructions, and then it is later revealed that a merman revived TSJ at the right time. A secondary character (Sir Bi) observes that XL used this method to revive TSJ without TSJ or XY being able to discover that XL was the one who secretly helped save TSJ.
I haven't gone back to double check, but my memory from the leaked script is that the drama will have TSJ play a more active role in saving himself compared to the novel. There was something about him being trapped in a cave and having to escape himself, without outside help.
In the novel, once a Lovers Bug is successfully planted, it ties the hosts' lives and hearts together and can…
The way the leaked script handles it, XL sacrificed one life to save XY's life after her assassination in S1 and sacrifices two lives to break the bug connection.
But perhaps the final version we see on screen will be closer to the novel (one life to break the bug connection) than the leaked script (two lives to break the bug connection).
---
From behind Xiang Liu emerged the reflection of the nine-headed demon's true form, except there were only eight heads left, one life having been sacrificed to save Xiao Yao years ago. A razor sharp dagger made of ice appeared in Xiang Liu's hand. Ruthlessly, he stabbed the dagger into his own heart, and one of his heads disappeared in agony. Xiang Liu pulled out the dagger and blood gushed forth from the wound, spilling on to the seashell and Xiao Yao's body. His seven-headed form was visibly weakened.
The glowing lights surrounding him were like bloodsucking insects, rushing into his chest and slowly vanishing inside, as if they had burrowed into his body. In the midst of it all, another of Xiang Liu's heads started fading away. By the time all the lights disappeared, that head too was gone.
His face deathly pale, Xiang Liu covered his chest wound with one hand while the other took out a pill the size of a longan - the same healing pill made from Xiao Yao's blood. Instead of using it to heal himself, he fed it to Xiao Yao, and the wounds on her palms healed quickly, her face restored to a rosy hue.
Xiang Liu gazed at Xiao Yao, as the form with the remaining 6 heads vanished behind him.
Can someone share the context to Chi Chen and Chenrong army and what they are fighting for/against? I forget if…
The former King of Xiyan led a small tribe to become a kingdom powerful enough to rival the Kingdom of Chenrong and the Kingdom of Haoling through continuous campaigns of conquest and expansion.
After the second to last King of Chenrong died, Chenrong was weak for various reasons, including a lack of support for his heir: the last King of Chenrong. To stabilize his rule (and to protect Chenrong from vulnerability due to instability), the last King of Chenrong demanded that Xiyan return its borderlands that Xiyan had taken over through its campaigns of conquest and, when Xiyan refused to do so, Chenrong went to war with Xiyan.
Chi Chen and the Chenrong army fought for Chenrong against Xiyan in that war, including in a final battle against Xiyan's army, which was led by XY's mother. When the Chenrong army lost that battle, Chenrong was conquered by Xiyan and ceased to exist as an independent kingdom.
Hong Jiang and a small number of remaining soldiers from the Chenrong army retreated to the mountains outside of QingShui Town (a neutral town) in a position where the geography allowed them to defend their entrenched position indefinitely, even though they no longer had a kingdom to fight for.
Are you wanting to know why Chi Chen is constantly referred to as a ruthless devil by both Xiyan people and people in the Middle Plains who were formerly citizens of Chenrong? The answer to that is a bit complicated. Part of it is due to Chi Chen (as a powerful general of Chenrong) being villainized by his enemies in Xiyan. But a lot of it also goes back to the complex political issues that existed in Chenrong in Once Promised.
Chi Chen was extremely powerful but had no status in terms of family background. The second to last King of Chenrong recognized Chi Chen's raw power and talent and made Chi Chen his one and only disciple. The second to last King of Chenrong also had a problem: his son and heir was a good man, but he was too weak and indecisive to be an effective ruler. He would have trouble managing other powerful figures in Chenrong (like Feng Long's grandfather and Hong Jiang, who were both powerful generals and were both related to the Chenrong royal family, but neither was considered to have the right character to be a good ruler).
Before he died, the second to last King of Chenrong made Chi Chen the top general of Chenrong's army and his son and heir's right hand man.
Chenrong was extremely hierarchical - a society where those who were born with high status would succeed regardless of their talents or achievements and those who were born with low status would not succeed regardless of their talents or acheivements. Because he had no family background, and yet was given power, Chi Chen became a leader for dissaffected people in Chenrong who had talent and abilities that they weren't able to utilize because they weren't born with status.
As Chi Chen was backed by that group and his army included large numbers of talented and loyal individuals, he balanced the power of the old guard (like Feng Long's grandfather and Hong Jiang) and also began to change the power structure in Chenrong. I haven't read those parts of the novel directly (to my knoweldge they have not been translated) but my understanding is that it was a very bloody process and virtually every noble family in Chenrong had someone die at Chi Chen's hands or the hands of his followers during the reformation period.
In the case of the main assassin that went after XY in S1, he was the only survivor from his clan. He blamed Chi Chen for wiping out everyone else in his family and went after XY (after realizing she was Chi Chen's daughter) to get his revenge.
Note that Xiyan did not have the same kind of power structure as Chenrong. The former King of Xiyan (CX's grandfather) did not come from a noble family background. He achieved power because of his strength and talents and he made use of / promoted talented people regardless of their background.
Novel readers, pls tell me if King of Haoling had to kill his siblings to unite his country? Did he kill his father…
In the novel he did kill his father as well as his five remaining brothers, their wives and their children so he could take and keep the throne.
Truly brutal. At the end of his reign it haunted him.
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Auntie = XY's mother
Grandfather = the King of Xiyan
Master = Shao Hao / the current King of Haoling
Grand Emperor = the King of Haoling
Former Grand Emepror = the former King of Haoling / Shao Hao's father
Eldest Uncle / Qing Yang = XY and CX's eldest uncle
Chang Yi = CX's father
Zhuan Xu = CX
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Chapter 38:
“It’s not Eldest Uncle who wanted Grandfather to abdicate. It was Master who convinced Eldest Uncle to do that! He also was the one who got Auntie to make the potion and he handed it to Eldest Uncle. When Auntie was making the potion she didn’t know Eldest Uncle was going to use it. That was a potion that Auntie made for Master so that he could successfully force the former Grand Emperor to abdicate. When the former Grand Emperor was forcefully locked up in his palace and then mysteriously died, do you know why there was the Five Prince Rebellion afterwards? Or why Master used such a bloody approach to deal with his own brothers? Now there is no talk about how Master became the Grand Emperor but Xiao Yao, back then you lived on Five Gods Mountain so look deep into your own memory. You must still remember the former Grand Emperor, the one you called grandfather as well. He was murdered by Master! That is why the Five Princes revolted!”
Xiao Yao wanted to deny it that but the broken memory fragments in her mind confirmed for her that what Zhuan Xu said was true. She remembered the former Grand Emperor that she used to call grandfather. She actually witnessed the moment he died and she remembered that her mom tearfully slapped her dad hard afterwards.
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Chapter 40:
“The former Grand Emperor’s wife the Empress, the mother of the current Grand Emperor, she came from the Qing Long tribe. She died in childbirth giving birth and my two aunties were beautiful and intelligent so were chosen to enter the palace. The former Grand Emperor really liked them and my older auntie was named Empress and gave birth to four sons. My younger auntie the consort gave birth to two sons and two daughters. Both daughters married into the Bai Hu tribe. The two princes wives also came from the Bai Hu tribe. Likely my two aunties were so beloved by the Grand Emperor, the Qing Long tribe continued to believe that they were plotting to kill then Eldest Prince Shao Hao. From then on the Qing Long tribe and the Chang Yi tribes were at odds with each other. It’s hard to believe now since it happened so long ago, but the former Grand Emperor really didn’t like his eldest prince, the current Grand Emperor, and preferred his second prince Yen Long. My older auntie told me that the former Grand Emperor had actually decided to name the second prince as the Crown Prince heir but then suddenly a coup happened in the palace. Second Prince Yen Long and the Grand Empress were both thrown in Dragon Bone Prison while the current Grand Emperor ascended the throne. A few years later the former Grand Emperor mysteriously died and both my aunties committed suicide. Second Prince was stripped of his godly rank and vanished. The other five princes were either banished or locked up and they couldn’t accept that so they aligned with the Chang Yi and Bai Hu tribes to launch a rebellion. This is what is now remembered by the world as the Five Princes Revolt.”
Elder Liu’s eyes misted with tears and sadness. “Later all five princes were killed, including their wives and children.”
...
The Grand Emperor continued, “Those dreams are all very happy, and when I dream them I don’t want to wake up because I know the reality behind those dreams are all a wasteland of pain where everything is gone. Sometimes all I dream are nightmares. I dream Qing Yang died in my arms, glaring at me and berating me for not keeping my promise; I dream of Chang Yi screaming in horror in a fiery inferno ‘Shao Hao gege, why didn’t you come save me?’; I dream of the ground entirely covered in blood and my five younger brothers heads ringed in a circle as I stand in the center and they are all mocking me; I dream of my father and he laughingly pushes me onto the throne and asks ‘You want it? You can have it!’ He takes off his crown and robe and hands it to me, then he ripes his skin and flesh and hands it to me, he’s just a fleshless skeleton and he still reaches out his bony hand and asks ‘You want it? You can have it!’”
Zhuan Xu, Xiao Yao, and Jing listened in collective horror, unable to make a single sound, as if a skeleton really was before them in the residence holding forth his skin and flesh in his hands while asking with a smile “You want it? You can have it!”
The Grand Emperor covered his eyes “The world pities that I don’t have a son but they don’t know that I am grateful and relieved not to have a son. I’m afraid my son will be like me, if he’s like me who killed my own fa…..”
“YOUR MAJESTY!” Jing’s voice rang out and cut short the Grand Emperor.
The Grand Emperor opened his eyes and look confused as if waking from a dream and unsure of his surroundings. Likely Xiao Yao and Zhuan Xu were so close to him and the past hearing it also overwhelmed them while Jing as the outsider remained the most coolheaded. He handed the Grand Emperor a cup of tea and gently said “Your majesty, please drink some tea!”
The Grand Emperor sipped the tea and his expression gradually regained clarity but his smile was filled with self-pity. The things he did, he could not tell others and others dare not hear it.
In the novel, once a Lovers Bug is successfully planted, it ties the hosts' lives and hearts together and can…
In the novel TSJ disappears for 7 years and is presumed dead (after TSH tries to kill him with CX's help), but XL saves him and uses a jewel created from XY's blood to revive him.
In the drama, TSJ will disappear and be presumed dead (after TSH tries to kill him with Xing Yue's help) but it seems (based on the leaked script) like XL might not be involved in saving / reviving him.
Is her real father dead or will he appear eventually?
In the novel, Chi Chen's spirit lived on after the last battle in the form of a living forest that accompanied XY's mother for almost 400 years until XY's mother was finally able to meet XY again and die in peace. During that meeting, XY got to feel her father's presence in the forest and to see his spirit accompany her mother's spirit when her mother died.
In the drama it seems (based on the leaked script) that those scenes from the novel will not be adapted, unfortunately.
Yes, they are. That why she's flaunting like a peacock. 🙃
"So what exactly are Hong Jiang and XL fighting for?"
The full and complete answer to this is very complex and partly open to interpretation. I will focus on the two main factors.
(1) Loyalty, integrity, keeping one's vows, and camaraderie.
Hong Jiang and certain other individuals who fought for Chenrong, including Chi Chen (XY's biological father) and Feng Long's paternal grandfather, vowed to never surrender to their conqueror (Xiyan) and to continue fighting until death. Some Chenrong generals, officials and soldiers did surrender or defect to Xiyan long ago, but the ones that remain fighting (including Hong Jiang himself) will never, ever foresake their vows. Their loyalty can never be bought or reasoned away.
XL did not make such a vow to fight for Chenrong, but he fought with Hong Jiang and the remnant army for over 400 years by the end of the novel. He became so close with Hong Jiang that Hong Jiang adopted him as his son. So XL will never, ever foresake them. If they choose to fight until death, he will fight beside them until the very end and die with them on the battlefield. He would rather die with them on the battlefield (the "best" death) than become the sole survivor who must carry the memory of Hong Jiang and all his comrades alone, mourning them forever, unable to forget.
(2) Protecting the welfare of the former Chenrong citizens who live under Xiyan rule in the Middle Plains.
The leaked script includes a conversation between Hong Jiang and Feng Long's father (in the 2013 version of the novel he is Little Zhu Rong and in the drama he is Chenrong Yi), where Hong Jiang explains (through a vague metphor) that his army's perseverance and insistance on fighting until death, even when there was no longer any hope of ever restoring Chenrong, served a hidden practical purpose to help the former citizens of Chenrong that continued to live in the Middle Plains in one way (as much as Chenrong Yi's good governance from within Xiyan after he surrendered to Xiyan helped them in another way).
The implication of the metaphor is that as long as the Chenrong remnant army was able to persist and convince the world that they would never give up, the King of Xiyan would not persecute or mistreat the people of the Middle Plains out of fear that, if he did, the Middle Plains people might eventually be driven to support and join forces with the Chenrong remnant army to the point where the army would become large / powerful enough to pose a real threat to Xiyan once more.
But by the time the final battle between Xiyan and the Chenrong remnant army rolled around, that role really was no longer necessary.
Xing Yue (a descendant of the Chenrong royal family and a descendant of the Chishui family, one of the Four Great Clans of the Middle Plains) was Xiyan's Empress. And CX had moved the capital to Chenrong Mountain and made a point of treating people from the Middle Plains well, including giving men like Feng Long (his brother-in-law and right-hand man) the opportunity to obtain the highest positions and pursue the greatest military achievements. And other Middle Plains families had been encouraged to intermarry with Xiyan families so that the lines between the former kingdoms were becoming blurred.
So after 400+ years of fighting as a remnant army (and many more years of fighting in the great war between Chenrong and Xiyan before that) the Chenrong remanant army could finally bring their fight to an end (not surrendering, but fighting until the last of them died on the battlefield as they swore to do - which the novel describes as the best ending for them / something that would be a release for them) and rest assured that the people of the Middle Plains would not suffer after they were no longer around to continue their fight / to continue putting pressure on the King of Xiyan to treat the former citizens of Chenrong well.
For those who have read the novel, can you explain to me why Xiang Liu can't remove the insect?
In the novel, once a Lovers Bug is successfully planted, it ties the hosts' lives and hearts together and can never be removed for the rest of the hosts' lifetime. For context, the bug was not "successfully" planted in CX, but was "successfully" planted in XL (because he willingly accepted it).
Also in the novel, XL is in the unique position of being able to kill the bugs (rather than "remove" them) and therefore break the bug connection between himself and XY by sacrificing one of his extra lives to lure the bugs in order to kill them.
For context, it is a good thing that XL does not use his ability to break the bug connection until the last minute (right before the final battle where he will die) in the novel because right before he breaks the bug connection he first uses it to save XY's life one more time (as she gives herself a lethal dose of poison after finding out that CX was responsible for killing TSJ).
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Chapter 37:
Jing anxiously asked, “How to break the spell?”
The Voodoo King’s face scrunched up. “The Lover’s Bug – either live in love or die in heartbreak. Once the Lover’s Bug has been planted there is no way to break the spell. It is impossible. This is what I was trying to say earlier for why so few people raise it despite the great benefit. Only very determined girls would raise the bug but even if they successfully raise it, it’s near impossible to find a man willing to accept the other bug to be planted in him.”
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Chapter 48:
Xiang Liu sat down next to the raft and stared at the sleeping Xiao Yao before softly saying, “The tree grows old on land together, the mandarin ducks die together in the water – the Lover’s Bug connects heart to heart and our lives, and there truly is no way to remove the bug. Years ago I was only able to remove the bug from Zhuan Xu because he didn’t know it was you so he didn’t willingly accept the bug. So you never successfully planted the bug on him in the first place. But I….I was heart and soul willing, so the bug successfully planted in me. You asked me to remove the bug and I kept telling you I can’t do it, but you didn’t believe me. But I truly didn’t lie to you, I cannot remove the bug.”
Xiang Liu picked up Xiao Yao’s hand and used his finger as a knife to slice into the flesh of her palm and his palm back and forth until he drew a blood spell. “I cannot remove the bug, but I can kill the bug!”
Xiang Liu smiled before joining his bloody palm to Xiao Yao’s bloody palm, so tightly that the blood flowing wasn’t clear whether it was his or hers. “Don’t blame me for not telling you this before, you were the one who did not ask!”
Xiang Liu started to chant the spell and with it countless glowing blue dots appeared and flew around both of them. The blue dots lit up the night sky until it was an ethereal beauty of lights in the air and reflected in the lake surface.
Xiang Liu’s hand suddenly grabbed a real dagger made from ice and he stabbed it directly into his own heart. Sir Bi gasped out loud and had to force himself to not do anything.
Xiang Liu pulled out the dagger and blood gushed from the wound in his chest. All the blue dots rushed into the wound in his chest until they all vanished inside.
After all the blue dots were gone, Xiang Liu’s face was stark white and he pressed down with one hand on his chest wound, and the other grabbed medicine but he didn’t apply it to himself and instead applied it on Xiao Yao’s hand. The cuts on her hand quickly healed until there was no sign it was ever injured.
Xiang Liu smiled sadly and said to Xiao Yao, “I broke the bug connection between us! From now on, you and I will have no connection with each other!”
Xiang Liu gently pushed the raft towards Sir Bi. “She will wake up tomorrow morning.”
Sir Bi understood what happened – the heart-and-life-connected Lover’s Bug was planted between Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao, which is why Xiang Liu could save Xiao Yao’s life earlier. Xiang Liu managed to now break the bug by using his own life as the lure to kill the bugs. It was a suicidal method, but a method that only Nine Lives Xiang Liu could use by taking one of his lives.
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Based on the leaked script, in the drama XL will use two of his extra lives to do the same thing (lure out and kill the bugs in order to break the connection between himself and XY), but he will not need to use the bug connection to save XY's life again first because XY will not find out that CX was behind TSJ's death (this will become part of CX's dream and Xing Yue will be made the true culprit) and she will not poison herself outside of the dream, so her life will not be in need of saving.
Haoling King loves XY's mother so much that he'll recognise XY and treat her so well knowing she isn't his, and…
The Xiling clan is one of the Four Great Clans of the Middle Plains, similar to the Tushan clan.
The King if Xiyan’s Queen (CX’s grandmother) was the daughter of the Xiling clan leader at the time of her marriage.
In the novel, XY’s mother (Xuan Yuan Ba / Ah Heng) is the biological daughter of the King and Queen of Xuan Yuan (Xiyan), so XY took her biological grandmother’s family name.
In the drama, XY’s mother (Xiling Heng) is from the Xiling clan just like CX’s grandmother (so they are relatives), but they are not mother and daughter. Instead, Xiling Heng was a disciple of CX’s grandmother and she was treated like the Queen of Xiyan's daughter / like a sister to the Queen of Xiyan's sons and daughter-in-law (including CX's father and mother). When she led the Xiyan army in battle, Xiling Heng was also granted the title of Princess General by the King of Xiyan.
So, in the drama, XY took the family name of her biological mother and CX’s grandmother (who is also her blood-related relative and her "recognized" grandmother, but not her biological grandmother).
Censorship made the dynamics in the drama a lot more complicated.
Aw man...#5! I love those 2. It would have been epic for me to have that scene acted out. If those 2 had been…
Yes, I liked the parts of the novel where they worked together, helped each other, or showed each other respect.
I wasn’t a fan of some of the changes they made in S1 that made it seem otherwise (e.g., XL calling TSJ useless when WXL was injured). But I was glad to see a bit more of their dynamic from the novel in S2 with the wedding interruption deal.
3 
1 
1 
Between the preview, the rumours and the leaked script, it seems like we are going to get something. But the details will be very different from the novel.
The preview shows petals surrounding XY before she enters the home that Ah Heng and Chi Chen shared in Baili + her seeing their portrait inside that home.
Leaked script: https://mydramalist.com/discussions/lost-you-forever/110123-xl-and-xy-story-and-romance-warning-spoilers?pid=2884643&page=387#p2884643
I really, really hope that, however they handle it in the drama, XY actually gets to talk to her mother.
XY creates the life-saving pill for TSJ in the novel as well, in chapter 35. TSJ takes that pill after his fight with TSH and it prevents him from dying from his very severe injuries in that battle, but it doesn't prevent him from falling unconscious. In chapter 46, XL creates a jewel from XY's blood (not all that different from the pill that XY created) that he gives to a merman with instructions, and then it is later revealed that a merman revived TSJ at the right time. A secondary character (Sir Bi) observes that XL used this method to revive TSJ without TSJ or XY being able to discover that XL was the one who secretly helped save TSJ.
I haven't gone back to double check, but my memory from the leaked script is that the drama will have TSJ play a more active role in saving himself compared to the novel. There was something about him being trapped in a cave and having to escape himself, without outside help.
But perhaps the final version we see on screen will be closer to the novel (one life to break the bug connection) than the leaked script (two lives to break the bug connection).
---
From behind Xiang Liu emerged the reflection of the nine-headed demon's true form, except there were only eight heads left, one life having been sacrificed to save Xiao Yao years ago. A razor sharp dagger made of ice appeared in Xiang Liu's hand. Ruthlessly, he stabbed the dagger into his own heart, and one of his heads disappeared in agony. Xiang Liu pulled out the dagger and blood gushed forth from the wound, spilling on to the seashell and Xiao Yao's body. His seven-headed form was visibly weakened.
The glowing lights surrounding him were like bloodsucking insects, rushing into his chest and slowly vanishing inside, as if they had burrowed into his body. In the midst of it all, another of Xiang Liu's heads started fading away. By the time all the lights disappeared, that head too was gone.
His face deathly pale, Xiang Liu covered his chest wound with one hand while the other took out a pill the size of a longan - the same healing pill made from Xiao Yao's blood. Instead of using it to heal himself, he fed it to Xiao Yao, and the wounds on her palms healed quickly, her face restored to a rosy hue.
Xiang Liu gazed at Xiao Yao, as the form with the remaining 6 heads vanished behind him.
https://mydramalist.com/discussions/lost-you-forever/110123-xl-and-xy-story-and-romance-warning-spoilers?pid=2799007&page=191#p2799007
After the second to last King of Chenrong died, Chenrong was weak for various reasons, including a lack of support for his heir: the last King of Chenrong. To stabilize his rule (and to protect Chenrong from vulnerability due to instability), the last King of Chenrong demanded that Xiyan return its borderlands that Xiyan had taken over through its campaigns of conquest and, when Xiyan refused to do so, Chenrong went to war with Xiyan.
Chi Chen and the Chenrong army fought for Chenrong against Xiyan in that war, including in a final battle against Xiyan's army, which was led by XY's mother. When the Chenrong army lost that battle, Chenrong was conquered by Xiyan and ceased to exist as an independent kingdom.
Hong Jiang and a small number of remaining soldiers from the Chenrong army retreated to the mountains outside of QingShui Town (a neutral town) in a position where the geography allowed them to defend their entrenched position indefinitely, even though they no longer had a kingdom to fight for.
---
If you want to know why the remnant army continued to fight under Hong Jiang after Chenrong was defeated, I wrote about that here: https://mydramalist.com/757669-lost-you-forever-season-2#comment-18112065
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Are you wanting to know why Chi Chen is constantly referred to as a ruthless devil by both Xiyan people and people in the Middle Plains who were formerly citizens of Chenrong? The answer to that is a bit complicated. Part of it is due to Chi Chen (as a powerful general of Chenrong) being villainized by his enemies in Xiyan. But a lot of it also goes back to the complex political issues that existed in Chenrong in Once Promised.
Chi Chen was extremely powerful but had no status in terms of family background. The second to last King of Chenrong recognized Chi Chen's raw power and talent and made Chi Chen his one and only disciple. The second to last King of Chenrong also had a problem: his son and heir was a good man, but he was too weak and indecisive to be an effective ruler. He would have trouble managing other powerful figures in Chenrong (like Feng Long's grandfather and Hong Jiang, who were both powerful generals and were both related to the Chenrong royal family, but neither was considered to have the right character to be a good ruler).
Before he died, the second to last King of Chenrong made Chi Chen the top general of Chenrong's army and his son and heir's right hand man.
Chenrong was extremely hierarchical - a society where those who were born with high status would succeed regardless of their talents or achievements and those who were born with low status would not succeed regardless of their talents or acheivements. Because he had no family background, and yet was given power, Chi Chen became a leader for dissaffected people in Chenrong who had talent and abilities that they weren't able to utilize because they weren't born with status.
As Chi Chen was backed by that group and his army included large numbers of talented and loyal individuals, he balanced the power of the old guard (like Feng Long's grandfather and Hong Jiang) and also began to change the power structure in Chenrong. I haven't read those parts of the novel directly (to my knoweldge they have not been translated) but my understanding is that it was a very bloody process and virtually every noble family in Chenrong had someone die at Chi Chen's hands or the hands of his followers during the reformation period.
In the case of the main assassin that went after XY in S1, he was the only survivor from his clan. He blamed Chi Chen for wiping out everyone else in his family and went after XY (after realizing she was Chi Chen's daughter) to get his revenge.
Note that Xiyan did not have the same kind of power structure as Chenrong. The former King of Xiyan (CX's grandfather) did not come from a noble family background. He achieved power because of his strength and talents and he made use of / promoted talented people regardless of their background.
Truly brutal. At the end of his reign it haunted him.
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Auntie = XY's mother
Grandfather = the King of Xiyan
Master = Shao Hao / the current King of Haoling
Grand Emperor = the King of Haoling
Former Grand Emepror = the former King of Haoling / Shao Hao's father
Eldest Uncle / Qing Yang = XY and CX's eldest uncle
Chang Yi = CX's father
Zhuan Xu = CX
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Chapter 38:
“It’s not Eldest Uncle who wanted Grandfather to abdicate. It was Master who convinced Eldest Uncle to do that! He also was the one who got Auntie to make the potion and he handed it to Eldest Uncle. When Auntie was making the potion she didn’t know Eldest Uncle was going to use it. That was a potion that Auntie made for Master so that he could successfully force the former Grand Emperor to abdicate. When the former Grand Emperor was forcefully locked up in his palace and then mysteriously died, do you know why there was the Five Prince Rebellion afterwards? Or why Master used such a bloody approach to deal with his own brothers? Now there is no talk about how Master became the Grand Emperor but Xiao Yao, back then you lived on Five Gods Mountain so look deep into your own memory. You must still remember the former Grand Emperor, the one you called grandfather as well. He was murdered by Master! That is why the Five Princes revolted!”
Xiao Yao wanted to deny it that but the broken memory fragments in her mind confirmed for her that what Zhuan Xu said was true. She remembered the former Grand Emperor that she used to call grandfather. She actually witnessed the moment he died and she remembered that her mom tearfully slapped her dad hard afterwards.
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Chapter 40:
“The former Grand Emperor’s wife the Empress, the mother of the current Grand Emperor, she came from the Qing Long tribe. She died in childbirth giving birth and my two aunties were beautiful and intelligent so were chosen to enter the palace. The former Grand Emperor really liked them and my older auntie was named Empress and gave birth to four sons. My younger auntie the consort gave birth to two sons and two daughters. Both daughters married into the Bai Hu tribe. The two princes wives also came from the Bai Hu tribe. Likely my two aunties were so beloved by the Grand Emperor, the Qing Long tribe continued to believe that they were plotting to kill then Eldest Prince Shao Hao. From then on the Qing Long tribe and the Chang Yi tribes were at odds with each other. It’s hard to believe now since it happened so long ago, but the former Grand Emperor really didn’t like his eldest prince, the current Grand Emperor, and preferred his second prince Yen Long. My older auntie told me that the former Grand Emperor had actually decided to name the second prince as the Crown Prince heir but then suddenly a coup happened in the palace. Second Prince Yen Long and the Grand Empress were both thrown in Dragon Bone Prison while the current Grand Emperor ascended the throne. A few years later the former Grand Emperor mysteriously died and both my aunties committed suicide. Second Prince was stripped of his godly rank and vanished. The other five princes were either banished or locked up and they couldn’t accept that so they aligned with the Chang Yi and Bai Hu tribes to launch a rebellion. This is what is now remembered by the world as the Five Princes Revolt.”
Elder Liu’s eyes misted with tears and sadness. “Later all five princes were killed, including their wives and children.”
...
The Grand Emperor continued, “Those dreams are all very happy, and when I dream them I don’t want to wake up because I know the reality behind those dreams are all a wasteland of pain where everything is gone. Sometimes all I dream are nightmares. I dream Qing Yang died in my arms, glaring at me and berating me for not keeping my promise; I dream of Chang Yi screaming in horror in a fiery inferno ‘Shao Hao gege, why didn’t you come save me?’; I dream of the ground entirely covered in blood and my five younger brothers heads ringed in a circle as I stand in the center and they are all mocking me; I dream of my father and he laughingly pushes me onto the throne and asks ‘You want it? You can have it!’ He takes off his crown and robe and hands it to me, then he ripes his skin and flesh and hands it to me, he’s just a fleshless skeleton and he still reaches out his bony hand and asks ‘You want it? You can have it!’”
Zhuan Xu, Xiao Yao, and Jing listened in collective horror, unable to make a single sound, as if a skeleton really was before them in the residence holding forth his skin and flesh in his hands while asking with a smile “You want it? You can have it!”
The Grand Emperor covered his eyes “The world pities that I don’t have a son but they don’t know that I am grateful and relieved not to have a son. I’m afraid my son will be like me, if he’s like me who killed my own fa…..”
“YOUR MAJESTY!” Jing’s voice rang out and cut short the Grand Emperor.
The Grand Emperor opened his eyes and look confused as if waking from a dream and unsure of his surroundings. Likely Xiao Yao and Zhuan Xu were so close to him and the past hearing it also overwhelmed them while Jing as the outsider remained the most coolheaded. He handed the Grand Emperor a cup of tea and gently said “Your majesty, please drink some tea!”
The Grand Emperor sipped the tea and his expression gradually regained clarity but his smile was filled with self-pity. The things he did, he could not tell others and others dare not hear it.
In the drama, TSJ will disappear and be presumed dead (after TSH tries to kill him with Xing Yue's help) but it seems (based on the leaked script) like XL might not be involved in saving / reviving him.
In the drama it seems (based on the leaked script) that those scenes from the novel will not be adapted, unfortunately.
The full and complete answer to this is very complex and partly open to interpretation. I will focus on the two main factors.
(1) Loyalty, integrity, keeping one's vows, and camaraderie.
Hong Jiang and certain other individuals who fought for Chenrong, including Chi Chen (XY's biological father) and Feng Long's paternal grandfather, vowed to never surrender to their conqueror (Xiyan) and to continue fighting until death. Some Chenrong generals, officials and soldiers did surrender or defect to Xiyan long ago, but the ones that remain fighting (including Hong Jiang himself) will never, ever foresake their vows. Their loyalty can never be bought or reasoned away.
XL did not make such a vow to fight for Chenrong, but he fought with Hong Jiang and the remnant army for over 400 years by the end of the novel. He became so close with Hong Jiang that Hong Jiang adopted him as his son. So XL will never, ever foresake them. If they choose to fight until death, he will fight beside them until the very end and die with them on the battlefield. He would rather die with them on the battlefield (the "best" death) than become the sole survivor who must carry the memory of Hong Jiang and all his comrades alone, mourning them forever, unable to forget.
(2) Protecting the welfare of the former Chenrong citizens who live under Xiyan rule in the Middle Plains.
The leaked script includes a conversation between Hong Jiang and Feng Long's father (in the 2013 version of the novel he is Little Zhu Rong and in the drama he is Chenrong Yi), where Hong Jiang explains (through a vague metphor) that his army's perseverance and insistance on fighting until death, even when there was no longer any hope of ever restoring Chenrong, served a hidden practical purpose to help the former citizens of Chenrong that continued to live in the Middle Plains in one way (as much as Chenrong Yi's good governance from within Xiyan after he surrendered to Xiyan helped them in another way).
The implication of the metaphor is that as long as the Chenrong remnant army was able to persist and convince the world that they would never give up, the King of Xiyan would not persecute or mistreat the people of the Middle Plains out of fear that, if he did, the Middle Plains people might eventually be driven to support and join forces with the Chenrong remnant army to the point where the army would become large / powerful enough to pose a real threat to Xiyan once more.
But by the time the final battle between Xiyan and the Chenrong remnant army rolled around, that role really was no longer necessary.
Xing Yue (a descendant of the Chenrong royal family and a descendant of the Chishui family, one of the Four Great Clans of the Middle Plains) was Xiyan's Empress. And CX had moved the capital to Chenrong Mountain and made a point of treating people from the Middle Plains well, including giving men like Feng Long (his brother-in-law and right-hand man) the opportunity to obtain the highest positions and pursue the greatest military achievements. And other Middle Plains families had been encouraged to intermarry with Xiyan families so that the lines between the former kingdoms were becoming blurred.
So after 400+ years of fighting as a remnant army (and many more years of fighting in the great war between Chenrong and Xiyan before that) the Chenrong remanant army could finally bring their fight to an end (not surrendering, but fighting until the last of them died on the battlefield as they swore to do - which the novel describes as the best ending for them / something that would be a release for them) and rest assured that the people of the Middle Plains would not suffer after they were no longer around to continue their fight / to continue putting pressure on the King of Xiyan to treat the former citizens of Chenrong well.
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Chapter 35:
Zhuan Xu smiled. “My best doctor is Yin, but he’s a mute and hard to communicate with.”
Xiao Yao replied, “No problem, I can learn sign language.”
Also in the novel, XL is in the unique position of being able to kill the bugs (rather than "remove" them) and therefore break the bug connection between himself and XY by sacrificing one of his extra lives to lure the bugs in order to kill them.
For context, it is a good thing that XL does not use his ability to break the bug connection until the last minute (right before the final battle where he will die) in the novel because right before he breaks the bug connection he first uses it to save XY's life one more time (as she gives herself a lethal dose of poison after finding out that CX was responsible for killing TSJ).
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Chapter 37:
Jing anxiously asked, “How to break the spell?”
The Voodoo King’s face scrunched up. “The Lover’s Bug – either live in love or die in heartbreak. Once the Lover’s Bug has been planted there is no way to break the spell. It is impossible. This is what I was trying to say earlier for why so few people raise it despite the great benefit. Only very determined girls would raise the bug but even if they successfully raise it, it’s near impossible to find a man willing to accept the other bug to be planted in him.”
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Chapter 48:
Xiang Liu sat down next to the raft and stared at the sleeping Xiao Yao before softly saying, “The tree grows old on land together, the mandarin ducks die together in the water – the Lover’s Bug connects heart to heart and our lives, and there truly is no way to remove the bug. Years ago I was only able to remove the bug from Zhuan Xu because he didn’t know it was you so he didn’t willingly accept the bug. So you never successfully planted the bug on him in the first place. But I….I was heart and soul willing, so the bug successfully planted in me. You asked me to remove the bug and I kept telling you I can’t do it, but you didn’t believe me. But I truly didn’t lie to you, I cannot remove the bug.”
Xiang Liu picked up Xiao Yao’s hand and used his finger as a knife to slice into the flesh of her palm and his palm back and forth until he drew a blood spell. “I cannot remove the bug, but I can kill the bug!”
Xiang Liu smiled before joining his bloody palm to Xiao Yao’s bloody palm, so tightly that the blood flowing wasn’t clear whether it was his or hers. “Don’t blame me for not telling you this before, you were the one who did not ask!”
Xiang Liu started to chant the spell and with it countless glowing blue dots appeared and flew around both of them. The blue dots lit up the night sky until it was an ethereal beauty of lights in the air and reflected in the lake surface.
Xiang Liu’s hand suddenly grabbed a real dagger made from ice and he stabbed it directly into his own heart. Sir Bi gasped out loud and had to force himself to not do anything.
Xiang Liu pulled out the dagger and blood gushed from the wound in his chest. All the blue dots rushed into the wound in his chest until they all vanished inside.
After all the blue dots were gone, Xiang Liu’s face was stark white and he pressed down with one hand on his chest wound, and the other grabbed medicine but he didn’t apply it to himself and instead applied it on Xiao Yao’s hand. The cuts on her hand quickly healed until there was no sign it was ever injured.
Xiang Liu smiled sadly and said to Xiao Yao, “I broke the bug connection between us! From now on, you and I will have no connection with each other!”
Xiang Liu gently pushed the raft towards Sir Bi. “She will wake up tomorrow morning.”
Sir Bi understood what happened – the heart-and-life-connected Lover’s Bug was planted between Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao, which is why Xiang Liu could save Xiao Yao’s life earlier. Xiang Liu managed to now break the bug by using his own life as the lure to kill the bugs. It was a suicidal method, but a method that only Nine Lives Xiang Liu could use by taking one of his lives.
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Based on the leaked script, in the drama XL will use two of his extra lives to do the same thing (lure out and kill the bugs in order to break the connection between himself and XY), but he will not need to use the bug connection to save XY's life again first because XY will not find out that CX was behind TSJ's death (this will become part of CX's dream and Xing Yue will be made the true culprit) and she will not poison herself outside of the dream, so her life will not be in need of saving.
The King if Xiyan’s Queen (CX’s grandmother) was the daughter of the Xiling clan leader at the time of her marriage.
In the novel, XY’s mother (Xuan Yuan Ba / Ah Heng) is the biological daughter of the King and Queen of Xuan Yuan (Xiyan), so XY took her biological grandmother’s family name.
In the drama, XY’s mother (Xiling Heng) is from the Xiling clan just like CX’s grandmother (so they are relatives), but they are not mother and daughter. Instead, Xiling Heng was a disciple of CX’s grandmother and she was treated like the Queen of Xiyan's daughter / like a sister to the Queen of Xiyan's sons and daughter-in-law (including CX's father and mother). When she led the Xiyan army in battle, Xiling Heng was also granted the title of Princess General by the King of Xiyan.
So, in the drama, XY took the family name of her biological mother and CX’s grandmother (who is also her blood-related relative and her "recognized" grandmother, but not her biological grandmother).
Censorship made the dynamics in the drama a lot more complicated.
I wasn’t a fan of some of the changes they made in S1 that made it seem otherwise (e.g., XL calling TSJ useless when WXL was injured). But I was glad to see a bit more of their dynamic from the novel in S2 with the wedding interruption deal.
You’re welcome!