AH

For the leaked script in Mandarin, windiaaa041293 posted the link and extraction code details on this page of one of the YaoLiu threads: https://mydramalist.com/discussions/lost-you-forever/110123-xl-and-xy-story-and-romance-warning-spoilers?page=366

liddi explained how to convert it to a PDF if you don't have baidu's app on the same page.

liddi also translated many of the important scenes (from a YaoLiu fan perspective) into English in that same discussion thread, but you'd have to comb through many pages to find them all.

Based on the changes that they made when they adapted the novel into S1 (plor20 mentioned some of them) and the changes reflected in the leaked script for S2*, I expect that many of the details of the relationship between XY and XL in S2 will be different from the novel, but mostly in ways that are worse (from the perspective of YaoLiu fans) rather than better.

[ * Note: the length, details, and style of the leaked script make it seem credible, but its legitimacy has not been confirmed and even if it is real there may be some changes between the script and what ends up making it into the final cut of S2.]

If you are a YaoLiu fan, I'd recommend going into S2 expecting that (a worse ending for YaoLiu than the novel) to protect yourself from disappointment. For solace, I recommend fanfic. I've written some already.

I can still see posts from the users that I was chatting with in the YaoJing thread while logged in, so they haven’t blocked me as far as I am aware.

I can’t see WanningHusky94’s comments when I am logged in, so I assume she has blocked me. My impression is that she is a YaoLiu, so I assume she doesn’t frequent the YaoJing threads.

I agree that if anyone (myself included) finds that a discussion is harming their mental health or just feeling unproductive and unpleasant, the best course of action is often to disengage and find another more pleasant conversation to engage in. But the factors that might make a conversation feel that way for one person won’t necessarily make another person feel the same way.

Many (but I assume not all) YaoLius have a pretty negative view of TSJ and YaoJing, which will influence how they feel about conversations had by YaoJing’s in a YaoJing thread. The way I view TSJ and YaoJing is not as negative as the way many YaoLius seem to view them, and not as positive as the way most, if not all, YaoJings seem to view them. I feel like my impression is somewhere in between the two. So there’s sometimes more room for potential common ground if I have a conversation with a YaoJing compared to someone who has a more negative view of TSJ having a conversation with the same person.

And then I generally don’t find most criticism of the characters I like in this story to be overly upsetting. If the criticism seems to be consistent with my understanding of the source material, I’ll probably agree with it. If it seems inconsistent with my understanding of the source material, I’ll usually point out the parts that seem inaccurate / inconsistent, and sometimes I end up adjusting my interpretation if the critic raises good points. If we reach an impasse, we can always agree to disagree.

Lol, nathsketch maybe all my excerpts were the problem? "Posts too many long novel excerpts" is a totally valid reason for blocking. (＾▽＾)

Kokuto, I'm guessing when Symbolika1 referenced seeing posts only "while in private navigation" she was referring to navigating MDL while logged out of her account.

I am in the same position. I can only see WanningHusky94's comments if I log out of my account, so presumably I have also been blocked. I don't take offence to that, but I must admit I am curious to know what prompted it.

Lol, a full novel re-write? No I don't think that's in the cards. I'm not planning to write another fic, but if I do write one it will definitely be short like the first one. I'd lose interest before I finished if I tried to write a long fic.

Now I’m thinking about what an Untamed-inspired, non-canon compliant AU might look like. There would have to be some pretty huge changes, but some key aspects of the original story could still be retained. A fun thought exercise. ^^

In the novel, XL is not described as wearing a mask as often as he is shown wearing one in the drama.

In the scene where XL first meets WXL after she lures out the Fei Fei in chapter 2? No mask.

In the scene where YSQ breaks into the remnant army camp and XL lets him take WXL away in chapter 2? No mask.

In the scene where XL attends Ma Zi’s wedding in chapter 2? No mask. His face is definitely seen by Chuan Zi, Lao Mu, and YSQ and is likely also seen by Ma Zi, Chun Tao, and the other wedding guests.

XL isn’t described as wearing a mask until chapter 5, when he meets Ah Nian for the first time.

He wears the mask again when he fights Cang Xuan in chapter 6, and again when he goes to Five Gods Mountain in chapter 8 to offer to rescue WXL (when TSJ, Cang Xuan and his men are also present).

In chapter 13, XL wears the mask again when he meets with Ah Nian.

From what I recall, XL continues to wear the mask in front of Cang Xuan and in battle. The novel references XL communicating with Ah Nian in chapter 48 (to invoke her promise) but it doesn't say whether he met with her in person or not, and, if he did, whether he wore a mask or not.

When XL watched XY speaking with Xan Tian Er in QS town in chapter 32 (presumably in view of Xan Tian Er) he did not wear a mask.

As Kokuto mentioned, XL and TSJ did business together for hundreds of years before either of them met XY. So we can infer that XL had almost certainly seen TSJ’s face before they encountered each other for the first time in the novel (in chapter 2) and TSJ might have seen XL’s face before too.

But also XL didn’t seem to bother with the mask for all outsiders. In the novel, XL didn’t treat TSJ differently from XY’s other companions at the clinic when it came to showing vs hiding his face.

Right? Xiang Liu is a demon whose reputation is (according to his own words) only a hair's breadth better than Chi You's reputation. So at first glance one might think he's the character that's most like WWX. But after thinking about it for a bit, there seems to be more similarities between WWX and XY and between LWJ and XL.

WWX / XY

-Had high spiritual power when he was young, but lost it partly due to an enemy (and partly out of self-sacrifice) / had high spiritual power when she was young, but lost it due to an enemy
-After losing his spiritual power, he enhanced some of his existing talents (blood talismans) and mastered new skills (using his flute) / after losing her spiritual power, she enhanced some of her existing talents (her knowledge of poison) and mastered new skills (archery)
-Mischievous and likes sparring / teasing / playing tricks on people, especially LWJ / Mischievous and likes poisoning / teasing / playing tricks on people, especially XL
-His parents died, but he was raised by a good man who loved his mother / Her parents died (more or less), but the man she calls father loves her and loved her mother
-Became reviled by the whole world due to reasons that were partly beyond his control (JGY's interference) and eventually died as a result / became reviled by a few people that recognized her at first (and later by the whole world) due to reasons beyond her control (her birth father was Chi You) and was nearly assassinated as a result.
-LWJ risked his life and fought against 33 elders to protect WWX, but WWX wasn't lucid and didn't remember it when he woke up alone / XL risked his life and single-handedly broke into a Xuan Yuan stronghold to save XY, but XY wasn't fully aware of everything he did that day and over the next 37 years, she woke up alone, and she was gaslit into questioning whether he only saved her as part of a transaction
-Died, but was resurrected 13 years later in a different body after MXY sacrificed his life and invoked a revenge curse / Was on the brink of death, but was kept alive and eventually revived 37 years later in a body that was altered (she gained enhanced sight, enhanced swimming abilities, and the ability to breathe under water) after XL used his essential blood to heal her and one of his extra lives to extend her life.
-After he came back in a different body, he made flirtatious overtures to LWJ that were intentionally ridiculous, not realizing that LWJ was gay and had feelings for him / While she was in a man's body, she behaved as she did in that scene I quoted above, not knowing that XL knew she was a woman and that she had sparked his interest


LWJ / XL

-Wears white / wears white
-Has a stiff and stoic exterior, but a selfless interior / Has a stiff and stoic exterior, but a selfless interior
-Extremely loyal to his clan and committed to his personal code of ethics / extremely loyal to his adoptive father and comrades in arms and committed to that loyalty even to death
-Was cold and harsh towards WWX at the beginning of their frenemies-to-lovers relationship, but showed his warmer and more flexible side later on / was cold and harsh towards WXL at the beginning of their frenemies-to-lovers relationship, but showed his warmer and more flexible side later on (especially as FFB), for a while...
-Did not confess his feelings (except through his actions) until WWX confessed his feelings first / did not confess his feelings (except through his actions) and actively tried to make XY think that he didn't care for her
-Extremely loyal to and protective of the man he fell in love with, who considered him to be a 知己 (zhī jǐ) to him / extremely loyal and protective of the woman he fell in love with, who considered him to be a 知音 (zhī yīn) to her.

You're welcome!

You're welcome! Glad I could help. ^^

Lol, yes don't worry. Jest acknowledged.

I wanted to address the point anyway because, with censorship, removing the existence of LGBTQ people from the narrative is a real possibility and there did seem to be some scrubbing in the drama.

There were a few moments where Wen Xiao Liu's behaviour towards Xiang Liu (e.g., "Xiao Liu tried to look alluring and yelled, “My lord! I am already your person!” Those words… caused all the soldiers at the base to grimace.") reminded me a little bit of how WWX behaved towards LWJ when he was MXY in the Untamed.

I'll copy two excerpts from the novel that hopefully will clarify this a bit. For context, in Koala's translation of the novel she uses "Jiu Jiu" instead of "Fei Fei".

-----

Chapter 2:

Xiao Liu wanted to catch a Jiu Jiu - a small animal resembling a civet cat. It had a long white tail and could take away a person’s sorrow. It was popular with the nobles and could be sold for a pretty penny. It didn’t have any attack power, but it was very, very clever. It was easy to frighten and quick to run away. So it was very hard to catch. But Xiao Liu had a way of dealing with it. Jiu Jius loved listening to a young woman sing. A Jiu Jiu would be attracted to the young woman’s sorrowful song and its body would inch closer to help the girl forget her sorrows. Xiao Liu found a suitable spot to set the trap.

He jumped into the water to wash off the poop first, then crawled on a rock and sat down. The rock was warmed by the sun and Xiao Liu sat there fixing his hair and singing. The song was carried by the wind. Xiao Liu sang a song about missing someone forever and never being able to forget.

Xiao Liu’s voice was melodic and the song was sorrowful. So the Jiu Jiu was lured out. Initially it was scared, so it hid in the dark. When it sensed no danger, it could not overcome its natural instinct to help people forget sorrow, so it stepped out and started chirping.

-----

Chapter 6:

Xiao Liu grabbed his hand and smiled. “I’m a man. Even if you like men, you should find someone better looking.”

“You’re a man?” Xiang Liu’s slightly blood stained lips curved upward. “If you’re a man, how did you lure the Jiu Jiu out?”

Xiao Liu blinked quizzically, “I don’t believe you can’t change your shape as well as your voice.”

“I trust a beast’s natural instinct.”

“If a beast’s natural instinct was so accurate, your Furball wouldn’t have been poisoned by me. There would be no such thing as traps, and hunters wouldn’t need to hunt.”

“What kind of transformation spell are you using? You have very weak powers but it’s completely seamless just like it’s your true form.”

Xiao Liu angrily said, “This is my true form!”

Xiang Liu stared at him, his eyes as dark as ink, and Xiao Liu’s heart started racing. He violently shook off Xiang Liu’s hand and then spread himself open like a dead pig headed to boiling water. “Touch me then, touch me. After you’re done then stop accusing me of being a woman!”

Xiang Liu glared at him. “I’m not interested in your false form.” He released Xiao Liu, turned and walked out of the pool to go lay on the pallet and continued healing himself.

Glad to have made you laugh. ^^

There are a few scenes between Wen Xiao Liu and Xiang Liu that made it clear that Wen Xiao Liu was aware of the concept of men who like other men. For example, when she misinterprets Xiang Liu’s comment about using her body (to make up for it if she can’t make a poison that he requests) she is surprised because she never imagined that Xiang Liu would like men.

So it seems like LGBTQ people did exist in Dahuang, at least in the novel.

For context, Xiao Yao transformed into her current male form over one hundred years before she arrived in QS town. Her transformation is seamless. Even the most powerful deities and demons (including the King of Haoling, Cang Xuan, Xiang Liu and Ye Shi Qi) cannot tell that her false male form is not her true form.

Ye Shi Qi was with Wen Xiao Liu for half a year before he realized she was a woman who transformed into a man. Ye Shi Qi comes to that realization based on how she behaved when he bathed (blushing and running away instead of helping him dress). The possibility that Wen Xiao Liu might be a gay man does not seem to occur to him.

Xiang Liu knew that Wen Xiao Liu was a woman from the moment he first met her because she was able to lure out a Fei Fei, which only women can do.

Winny, in your last comment you said, "Im not talking about ch3 or hundred years ago or later."

But in your previous comment you said, "There's no more background showing Sheng Nong army or XL would viciously suspicious of this one who came to get feifei...there s no such scenes of they encounter several times before, so they are vicious now."

I quoted chapter 3 because it provides part of the background you said didn't exist. Hundreds of years of background.

You said, "But I did say HE HAD THE RIGHT TO SUSPISCIOUS." I agree with that.

You said, "Sorry with explanation of Sheng Nong army before in context, I don't find XL doing as mercy." and "Even if she's true spy, his behavior is not
merciless." I mostly agree with that. The only part where I view Xiang Liu showing some mercy in chapter 2 was when he chose to not kill Wen Xiao Liu. I agree that the mercy shown in that decision was limited (which is why I keep qualifying it by saying that his choice showed "some" mercy), and that his other actions and choices in that chapter were not merciful.

You said, "It's not 100 % evidence she is spy despite her poisoning them." I'm not sure why you've made this statement. I have never seen anyone claim that there was 100% evidence that Wen Xiao Liu was a spy in chapter 2. I have not claimed that, and Xiang Liu did not claim that.

You said, "Its still self defense from her side." I assume you are talking about Wen Xiao Liu poisoning Furball and Xiang Liu? If so, calling that self-defense is a bit of a stretch. Wen Xiao Liu trespassed on Sheng Nong territory. She committed the first wrong. Then she withheld the Fei Fei from Furball. Wen Xiao Liu happily eats meat throughout the novel (in fact, in her very first scene she is eating lamb stew) but she tried to prevent Furball from having his own meal. She could have dropped the Fei Fei if she didn't want a confrontation, but chose not to. Even so, Furball did not attack Wen Xiao Liu at that point and only postured by destroying a rock. That was the point when Wen Xiao Liu poisoned Furball. Then Xiang Liu made his presence known by speaking to Furball, and Wen Xiao Liu immediately tried to poison him. Xiang Liu didn't threaten her before she poisoned him and didn't do anything else to prompt that reaction.

You said, "Anyway i feel like Im repeating loop." Yep.

You said, "But the main fact is you focsuing on his mercifulness and I am focusing his control behavior with her." The only reason my comments in this thread are focused on that subject (mercy) is that Supernova quoted one of my earlier comments without necessary context in a way that mischaracterized my position (to suggest that I thought that certain things that XL did in chapter 2, other than choosing not to execute WXL, were merciful), and then the same mischaracterization of my position was repeated.

https://koalasplayground.com/tag/lost-you-forever/page/7/

IMO, it was more of an abstract kind of self defense, and not a more direct kind of self defense against Wen Xiao Liu's poison.

Wen Xiao Liu's poison (and sleeping powder) had no effect on Xiang Liu, so Xiang Liu didn't need to do anything to Wen Xiao Liu to defend himself against her poison.

But she succeeded in poisoning Chubby, whom Xiang Liu obviously cared about.

She also acted suspiciously by using a false form (the form of a man, even though Xiang Liu knew she was a woman) while trespassing on the remnant army's territory. Her false form was seamless (even powerful Xiang Liu couldn't see through it) and her poison skills were better than the poison skills of Xuan Yuan's best poison masters, which didn't match up at all with the identity she insisted on (just a humble, small-town fertility doctor with low spiritual powers and no political interests or affiliations).

She admitted that she was not "only" Wen Xiao Liu, but refused to reveal her true identity.

From the moment she failed to poison Xiang Liu, she "had been acting the coward this entire time" but when it came to her one condition she didn't back down and suddenly showed that she was a brave person with steely determination. Revealing that her previous behaviour was an act.

Each one of those things made her seem like a potential spy or assassin. Spies and assassins posed a serious threat to the remnant army and to Xiang Liu specifically, and of course he would try to defend himself and his comrades from them.

Winny: “wow...your imaginations are good. Sorry I could not imagine far beyond like that. Because I could not imagine comparing the army to a normal family house getting death threads. Because army station like that, spies should be more common than army home.”

-

AH: You don’t want to answer the question because you think the analogy is not a reasonable comparison to the situation that Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao were in when Xiao Yao was captured by the remnant army, because … why? I’m sorry I’m not following.

*****

Winny: “About her revealing her truth background, I don't think she will reveal it to death.”

-

AH: I agree, I don’t think there were any circumstances that would have prompted Wen Xiao Liu to admit her true identity. Which, again, was very suspicious.

*****

Winny: “But about this particular scene, I still don't find it as "mercy". It is as it is his character or showing so.”

-

AH: Maybe we have different definitions of mercy? The Merriam-Webster dictionary offers a few different definitions for the word. The first definition it provides is: “compassion or forbearance (e.g., refraining from enforcing something) shown especially to an offender or to one subject to one's power”.

Wen Xiao Liu was a suspicious person captured by the Sheng Nong remnant army on their territory. She poisoned Furball, tried to poison Xiang Liu and lied about her identity. In those circumstances, she was subject to Xiang Liu’s power / judgment. When she failed to demonstrate that she was innocent, Xiang Liu could have imposed a harsh sentence on her (e.g., long-term imprisonment, torture, or death). Instead he gave her the option to save herself if she agreed to work for him. He refrained from enforcing a harsher sentence against her. IMO, that squarely fits the definition of showing some mercy.

The lashes and back-stepping came later, and were not merciful.

*****

Winny: “About her his suspension is very right, but at the same time only because she's good at poison and in disguise, did not make sense to say he's almost sure she's spy because after he could at least see she came for feifei. His condor just interrupt her. He was also watching behind. If he really suspenscious why don't he just continue to see what she would rather than coming to get fei fei.”

-

AH: In chapter 3 we find out that Wen Xiao Liu was well aware that there was a price on Xiang Liu’s head and on Gong Gong’s head, and that the price on Xiang Liu’s head was higher than the price on Gong Gong’s head. If a greedy person chose to try to kill Xiang Liu in order to collect the reward that Xuan Yuan was offering for his assassination, wouldn’t that same type of person potentially also consider capturing a highly valuable Fei Fei in order to sell it for lots of money if the opportunity arose? The fact that Wen Xiao Liu tried to capture the Fei Fei (and her subsequent decision to let the Fei Fei go) did not prove that Wen Xiao Liu was not a spy or an assassin.

*****

Winny: “All his kicking and tied her up, including with her trauma, it's normal for her to think she'd get killed.”

-

AH: I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make here? I agree that there was nothing abnormal about Wen Xiao Liu thinking that Xiang Liu would kill her in the circumstances.

*****

Winny: “It makes sense XL wa suspicious of her. But why won't he look at her doing first before concluding. For me I still think at that time he let her go because of that (despite all her abilities) yet also not enough information to dig out who she is.”

-

AH: Xiang Liu did look at Wen Xiao Liu’s actions, and he did not jump to conclusions. There was never a point where he concluded that she was definitely a spy or an assassin.

Xiang Liu waited for his men to provide a report on Wen Xiao Liu, and read it when it arrived. But he was not convinced by the report, and his instincts proved to be accurate when Wen Xiao Liu admitted that she was not “only” Wen Xiao Liu.

Xiang Liu did not have enough proof to know that she was definitely a spy or an assassin. And he did not have enough proof to know that she was definitely NOT a spy or an assassin. He did have enough proof to know that she was extremely suspicious and that she was refusing to reveal her true identity in order to clear that suspicion.

Given the order of events, it seems to me that he decided to spare Wen Xiao Liu’s life after she had her moment of vulnerability where she talked about being a person with no means of protecting herself, no one to rely on, and nowhere to go. We know those words struck a chord with Xiang Liu because he based some of the most important choices that he made over the next one hundred years (e.g., teaching Xiao Yao archery and saving Tushan Jing’s life) on those words, and before he died he based his well-wishes for Xiao Yao on those words, which he recalled exactly even 120+ years later.

*****

Winny: “If you say he would torture her to death to get information, well it's Sheng Nong army reputation (not some violence clan). I don't think XL would go against it to that extend. He did show his well know vicious side already.”

-

AH: I did not say that Xiang Liu would torture Wen Xiao Liu to death to get information from her. I said that we don’t know what other members of the Sheng Nong remnant army might do with someone who behaved the way that Wen Xiao Liu behaved (i.e., like someone very suspicious who did not appear to be innocent). And I said that we don’t know if the remnant army would or would not employ torture to try to find out the truth in those circumstances.

We do know that Wen Xiao Liu told Lao Mu that if he (a Xuan Yuan army deserter who was now an old man and an innocent civilian) went to the Sheng Nong remnant army’s territory to collect plants, he would be asking for death.

*****

Winny: “Yes I do take, the way he did not take any of her plead to be showing mercy. He's just making sure that their deal about working, making poison, he's the one above to take control. (He still find this usefulness of her as well as suspecting her).”

-

AH: I’m not sure if I’ve followed this correctly… it sounds like you are saying that Xiang Liu not doing something was not merciful.

I’ll reiterate my original point, which is that I only view Xiang Liu’s decision to spare her life as showing some mercy. I do not view his other choices in that chapter as merciful. I’ve said that several times, so I’m not sure what part isn’t clear.

*****

Winny: “And no I don't compare normal people or family home getting thread to Sheng Nong army.”

-

AH: You are welcome to come up with a different analogy. The point of the imagined scenario was to get you thinking about how a person would feel in Xiang Liu’s circumstances, because his decision to not give Wen Xiao Liu food or water in those circumstances seems pretty understandable if you think about it.

*****

Winny: “Besides I am not convinced WXL was doing anything else than getting feifei, had poison that condor for protection both to feifei and herself.. So I could not imagine comparing with those scary home intruders.”

-

AH: Of course the readers know that Wen Xiao Liu wasn’t a spy or an assassin. We have all the information. But Xiang Liu and the Sheng Nong remnant army don’t have the same information that the readers had.

In the imaged scenario, you don’t know if the intruder is actually a threat or not. Maybe they were telling the truth about only wanting to steal plants. Or maybe they were planning to harm you like the previous intruders. But they certainly seemed very suspicious. That’s the point. That’s the position that Xiang Liu and the remnant army were in.

*****

Winny: “There's no more background showing Sheng Nong army or XL would viciously suspicious of this one who came to get feifei...there s no such scenes of they encounter several times before, so they are vicious now.Your example stories do not work well with how I see the scene. Sorry.”

-

AH: I strongly disagree.

Wen Xiao Liu knew that in the 300 years between Xuan Yuan conquering Sheng Nong and the time when Wen Xiao Liu was captured by the Sheng Nong remnant army, “The war gradually went from open battles to secret scuffles and underhanded schemes of assassination……..whatever Xiao Liu couldn’t even think of, someone already tried it.” And Xuan Yuan offered a reward to anyone who killed Xiang Liu, and the bounty on Xiang Liu’s head was even higher than the bounty on Gong Gong’s head.

In chapter 3, the spies that Cang Xuan sent into the Sheng Nong remnant army’s territory were discovered and tried to kill Xiang Liu “once and for all.” They managed to injure him badly.

Do you really think that in 300 years Cang Xuan was the first person to send spies or assassins into the Sheng Nong remnant army’s territory? That Xuan Yuan never tried to spy on or assassinate Gong Gong or Xiang Liu, and it was only the Sheng Nong remnant army that ever attempted assassinations? And no one ever tried to collect the bounty on Xiang Liu’s head? Of course not.

When Wen Xiao Liu and Lao Mu spoke about the dangers of venturing into the Sheng Nong remnant army’s territory and possibly encountering Xiang Liu, Wen Xiao Liu specifically told him that she was going to collect spiritual plants, not to scout intelligence (i.e., spy) so she would be okay. That clearly shows that she knew that trespassers who were spies would be treated much more harshly than plant collectors if they were captured.

When Ye Shi Qi insisted on following Wen Xiao Liu into the Sheng Nong remnant army’s territory, she asked him if he was a Shen Nong deserter, a Xuan Yuan soldier, or a Gao Xing spy. She only allowed him to follow her after he confirmed that he was not any of those things. Again, Wen Xiao Liu clearly knew that certain groups, including spies, would be in serious danger if they were caught in the Sheng Nong remnant army’s territory.

~~~~~

Chapter 2:

Xiao Liu said, “The mountains are the territory of the Sheng Nong resistance army. You’re a Xuan Yuan army deserter, going there would be asking to die. Plus you don’t know those herbs. I’ll go.”

Lao Mu replied, “The Gong Gong-controlled resistance army is fair and principled, they won’t harm innocents and even ordinary humans aren’t scared of running into Sheng Nong soldiers. But that Lieutenant General Xiang Liu is very difficult. Rumors say he is a Nine-headed Demon. He has nine lives and his nickname is Nine Lives. He is vicious and brutal.”

Xiao Liu laughed. “I’m not going to scout intelligence. I’m going to get spiritual plants. He may be vicious but he has to follow army rules. Plus I’ll never run into someone as powerful and lofty as General Xiang Liu.”

…

Shi Qi quietly stood still with his eyes lowered and his silence conveying his determination. Maybe it was that their destiny started with pity so Xiao Liu was quick to soften towards him. He asked, “Are you a Shen Nong deserter?” Shi Qi shook his head. “Are you a Xuan Yuan soldier?” Shi Qi shook his head. “Are you a Gao Xing spy?” Shi Qi shook his head. Xiao Liu smiled “Then you can head into the mountains. Follow me.”

~~~~~

Chapter 3:

“How are they?”

“Three died and one escaped back. Master, it’s not that we’re useless but this time it alerted that big demon Nine Lives. But three of our men risked their lives and managed to injure him.”

“Xiang Liu got injured?”

“Our men in the mountains know it's the perfect opportunity to get rid of him once and for all but he can’t be found.”

…

General Gong Gong and Xuan Yuan had been fighting for a couple hundred years now. In the beginning, the Yellow Emperor sent army reinforcements, but the Middle Plains were still not conquered, Gao Xing was to the other side, Gong Gong was in an advantageous physical location so the Yellow Emperor lost all his battles. All he could do was keep Gong Gong cornered and wait for him to surrender one of these days.

The war gradually went from open battles to secret scuffles and underhanded schemes of assassination… whatever Xiao Liu couldn’t even think of, someone already tried it.

Xuan Yuan even announced a reward, and Xiang Liu was the number one bounty on the list, even higher than Gong Gong. The reason was very odd – Gong Gong was nobility from the Sheng Nong royal family so if anyone killed him for the bounty that would incur the wrath of the entire world. But Xiang Liu was fine – he was just a demon, and a hideous freakish nine-headed demon at that. So to kill him for the money reward wouldn’t even cause anyone to have a sleepless thought.

Although it's not all romance all the time (there's war, politics, family drama and other topics too), this is a reverse harem drama and romance is a pretty big part of the story. Is there anything in particular that she is looking to avoid / that would make a drama "too romancey" for her?