AH

I mean, XY and TSJ were engaged for more than 40 years. XY doesn't seem over eager to tie the knot with anyone quickly ^^

Wow. One sentence and you captured the childhood tragedy of three characters so well.

At least in this case TSJ isn't actually dead. Maybe TSZ will get to meet him again someday, like XY got to meet her mother.

Yes. In the novel, at least four years pass between ZX taking the throne and XY sending the ice crystal ball to XL two months before her wedding.

It's not that long for them in the scheme of their long lives. But it was long enough for CX to help ensure that Tushan Zhen became the next clan leader at XY's request.

His situation made me think of CX losing his father, mother, grandmother and aunt in quick succession, sort of losing Xiao Yao, and having his grandfather send him away as a hostage + always being targeted by his uncles.

Lol. They haven't set a wedding date yet and won't for a while, but yes they are engaged.

https://youtu.be/p1idMYod9QI?si=cUh5xQsKIu9KWoC4&t=133

That's usually how I answer this question. At the end of S1 XY is engaged to Feng Long, but not in love with him.

Same. He's just a child. My heart hurts for him. I hope he gets his own happy ending one day.

Yw <3 ^^

In the novel, TSJ was dead for 7 years, and TSZ and the Tushan clan were forced to figure out how to live without him. TSJ doesn't meet with TSZ or the clan elders when he returns from the dead. Instead, he gives Hu Zhen two jade cannisters (likely containing letters). One for TSZ and one for the clan elders. I'm not sure if the letters would reveal that TSJ was alive... my inclination is that they would not. FFYY left a letter for TSZ before her death. My guess is that TSJ wrote these letters in the same style - as if they were meant to be read after his death.

I think TSJ decided not to meet TSZ because he didn't want to disturb the new status quo. If TSZ and the Tushan clan knew he was alive and where he was, they might try to get him to be clan leader again (TSZ was still a child at that point), might try to stop him and XY from leaving, and might pull them both back into a world that they didn't want to be part of.

Even if he met up with just TSZ and asked him to keep the fact that he was alive a secret, that would mean that when he left TSZ would know that he was willingly abandoning TSZ (rather than abandoning him through death, which was outside of his control). And if TSZ encountered hardship in the future, he might've tried to find TSJ to ask for his help, and IMO TSJ is trying to avoid that possibility. He wants to be like YSQ with no status and no family obligations that could put him in the position of hurting XY again.

But leaving TSZ couldn't have been easy. He raised his nephew like his own son for TSZ's whole life - something like 70 years. So when we talk about TSJ giving up everything for XY when they leave together, that includes leaving TSZ behind and letting TSZ continue to believe that he is dead.

Hu Mao is the servant who has been by TSZ's side since his birth. He is loyal to TSZ. Jing Ye and Hu Zhen also stay with the clan and agree to protect and serve TSZ until he is grown up.

----

Chapter 50 (after TSJ's return but before TSJ and XY's wedding):

Jing asked Hu Zhen “How is Zhen Er?”

“Good, very good!” Hu Zhen recounted all that happened to make Tu Shan Zhen the new clan leader and finished, “The new Clan leader may be the son of Tu Shan Hou and Fang Feng Yi Yang, but he was raised by you so has your bearing, I believe he will be a great clan leader.”

Jing Ye added “We decided to tell him the truth because of all the rumors being circulated and he was bound to hear it. We handed him the letter from Fang Feng Yi Yang early and after learning his birth secret he was so devastated for some time. But he composed himself and accepted that his birth parents were in the wrong and still calls you dad and refers to Hou as his uncle.”

Jing said “Death ends everything so when you guys have time, tell him stories of my brother when we were young and how close we were. Let him understand that my brother had his own reason for doing what he did, and that it was his grandmother who was wrong in the first.”

Jing Ye hated Hou so much but now that Jing was back she was able to start letting go. “I will do so.”

Hu Zhen saw through the underlying request “Why not have you tell him? Are you planning to leave Qing Qiu?”

Jing smiled. “Tonight I came to say my farewells.”

Jing Ye started crying again as Hu Zhen asked “Where are you going?”

Jing glanced at Xiao Yao. “I go wherever Xiao Yao goes.”

Hu Zhen held back saying more, now the Tu Shan clan was stable and the road that Jing and Xiao Yao took was so long and arduous.

Jing handed two jade cannisters to Hu Zhen “One is for Zhen Er and the other to the clan elders.”

Hu Zhen took it carefully “Don’t worry, we will protect and serve the clan leader until he is all grown up.”

Novel readers, I'm thinking about the tragedy of Tushan Zhen today. I used to think CX had the toughest ending, but now I'm thinking about TSZ and I feel like his lot was actually the toughest out of all the characters that survived, and he didn't bring any of it upon himself.

He has no siblings or living grandparents or great-grandparents on the Tushan side. When he was young, his grandfather on the Fang Feng side renounced his mother and agreed with the Tushan clan to send her away for reasons unknown to TSZ. Later his mother fakes her death and escapes to QS town, but she is horribly injured and will not live long. TSJ sends TSZ to spend a few months with her every spring and summer to prevent her from committing suicide.

Shortly before his father is set to remarry, TSZ is poisoned and his mother, father and uncle all die at once, leaving him with no one except his servant Hu Mao. Then he finds out that his "father" (TSJ) was actually his biological uncle, and his mother used her pregnancy with him (TSZ) to trick / force his biological uncle (TSJ) into marrying her. And his biological father (TSH), who he previously thought was his uncle, was okay with it because he was planning to kill his biological uncle (TSJ) and then use him (TSZ) to indirectly rule the clan. In fact, his father (TSH) was the one who poisoned him (TSZ) in order to lure TSJ to his death. Jing Ye said he was devastated when he learned the truth.

I'm not sure exactly how old he was at that point (somewhere between 40 and 100 years old - I'd estimate about 70) but he was definitely still a kid by deity standards. Younger than XY was when she was imprisoned by the nine-tailed fox. XY calls him a child. And yet she still asks CX to ensure that he becomes clan leader. So he ends up getting the role of Tushan Clan leader foisted onto his shoulders at that age with no immediate family to support him. Just callous clan elders who all know about his birth situation and don't fully support him because of it. He would've had to deal with so much political plotting, and marrying for love in the future will be difficult.

Even after TSJ returns from the dead, he doesn't meet up with TSZ before leaving again... I really hope TSZ had some good friends.

You're welcome ^^

XL uses poisons to train / increase his powers.

From chapter 2 of the novel:

Xiao Liu used his haphazard medical and poison skills to deduce that Xiang Liu was a very unique being and his power came from using poison to train. All the poison that Xiao Liu produced was likely consumed by him.

After he figured it out, Xiao Liu breathed a sigh of relief, and then proceeded to make the most horrible tasting poison ever.

"But yes, I agree that XY / XL never could get on the same page, mostly because of their fears or flaws, which just adds another level of tragic to their love."

Their fears, their flaws, and their love and attachments to other people, IMO. Like XY's attachment to ZX. Deeply tragic.

"People give Jing a hard time, but at least he had the understanding and balls to declare his love and ask for it return."

They also give him a hard time for clinging to XY, but she directly tells him that she likes it and wants someone who won't let her go, even for her own good. I feel like he would have stopped clinging to her (at least openly) if he thought she didn't want / like / need someone like that.

Actually, he basically proves that he would. When he figured out that Tushan Zhen is not his son, he wasn't planning to tell XY about it because her behaviour made him think she had moved on. He only tells her about it after she basically tells him that she hasn't moved on.

Lol, yes there are a few different interpretations / opinions out there. You're welcome ^^

Thanks!

Do you mean XL early on? The part where you felt like he envisioned a future after the war where he could be with WXL, before he found out her true identity?

Although we have different interpretations of certain parts, do we agree that there was never a time where both XL and XY were prepared to give up everything else to wander the world together?

"I still don't know xiayao if she really loves Jing, but from my understanding, she does Love him (I'm not good in English interpretation (?)) But I read some people here said she choose Jing because he is the only one who put her as a priority so if I understand that correctly she choose Jing because of that but not because she Love him?"

IMO, XY loves each of the male leads, including TSJ, in different ways. She loves and chooses to be with TSJ for several reasons, including his gentle heart.

In the end (so... spoilers), TSJ is the right person for her to marry because (among other reasons, including the fact that she is in love with him) he is willing and able to give up everything else (his wealth, his status, his relationships with Tushan Zhen, Jing Ye, Hu Zhen and everyone else from his former life) and leave with XY to wander and explore the ocean's countless islands and live a simple, peaceful life.

Which happens to be something the other male leads were not willing (and perhaps not even able) to do.

Edit: I'll add that XY agrees to marry TSJ before he is in a place where he can give up everything for XY. When they get engaged (and when they set a wedding date 40+ years later), TSJ is still clan leader with many responsibilities and attachments, and XY still chose to marry him.

nathsketch since one of those comments vaguely references who ends up, or doesn't end up, with the female lead at the end of the novel, could you put this under a spoiler tag to be safe please? Even though it's vague, someone might be able to understand what that comment is saying, and this would not be a great way for someone to find out about that part of the ending.

"I still don't understand though...I assume same father but different mother so that is why TSJ mother treated the older brother so bad?"

Yes, Hou has the same father as TSJ. TSJ's mother was his father's legal wife. Hou's mother was a servant, so he is a bastard and a living reminder to TSJ's mother of her husband's infidelity. But as TSJ recognizes with Tushan Zhen, the child in such circumstances should not be blamed for or treated badly because of his parents' bad behaviour.

"Also..Xiaoyao mom divorced her father (king of haolin) ..but didn't say why?"

The details of XY's mother's relationship with the King of Haoling are mostly covered in the prequel novel, and not so much in the novel that this drama is adapted from. From what I remember, she divorced him because he refused to help XY's mother's brothers when she begged him to, and her brothers died.

"Xiaoyao mom and Cangyuan were sisters? so they are real cousins? real cousins in ancient can get married...nowadays no way..."

In the novel, CX's father and XY's mother are siblings, making CX and XY blood cousins. In the drama, it is probably the same (the Yellow Emperor tells XY that she looks just like her grandmother the Empress, for example) but they changed a few things (XY's mother addresses the Empress as Shifu instead of mother, and CX says she was the Empress' disciple instead of her daughter) to make it less obvious / clear that they are blood relatives.

"When xiaoyao was sent to jade mountain as kid..cangyuan was sent to haolin to learn from xiaoyao's father...as cangxuan calls XY's father shifu...not king"

CX was sent to Haoling as a hostage to guarantee Xiyan's promise that it would not invade / try to conquer Haoling. But yes, CX does learn from the King of Haoling and calls him Shifu.

"Even the nine head fox (how he has 9 heads actually..lol...)...when he asked her to roam the world away with him....she said sure if he willing to give up everything...he couldn't...i guess do to obligations for the chengrong army....so sad...."

XL is a nine-headed sea snake demon with nine lives, not a nine-tailed fox.

TSJ is a nine-tailed fox, and so was the demon who held XY captive for 30 years when she was a child.

Lol I asked a friend "who's the earliest white or silver haired character you can think of from western media". She thought about it and said Ursula! I didn't specify the conditions well enough. ^^" But also, based on those specifications... King Triton was right there!