AH

I have read the novel and I think ZX has the worst ending. But a lot of it he brings on himself.

Aw, thank you for saying that. I started to write a response to a poster who didn't like XL and wanted to be enlightened about what made him appealing to those who did like his character and I wrote so much it was turning into a novel unto itself. I had to stop myself.

YW :)

She sort of was, as much as anyone was? At least in the first half of the drama. The emperor had a lot of women around him in addition to the FL, but the empress was the most important one in her time. She was close to the ML, SML and FL.

For awareness though: There are some minor plot and name differences between the novel and the drama. Best way to avoid confusion, if you have the patience, is to start from the beginning.

The first cdrama that comes to mind is Story of Yanxi Palace. The Empress was quite lovely. Both Fuca siblings actually.

Oh you mean XY and ZX specifically, but TSJ and XL are fine? The reverse harem part is still relevant I'm afraid, unless you wouldn't mind it if it's one-sided?

Sounds like a reverse harem drama might not be your cup of tea...

XL had to revert to his true demon form to protect XY. He told her to close her eyes and not look, but she peeked, which is why he was angry.

For my favourite part, XY uses her whole body to pull XL down onto the sand (they're on a beach) to stop him from leaving. She's on top of him and desperately wants him to stop moving / struggling because he's bleeding so much. They continue arguing (with XY also apologizing / trying to make XL feel better about her seeing his true form), and then he bites her twice. The second time, she falls asleep. As soon as she does, XL drops drinking and lifts his head to stare at her sleeping in his arms. The scene cuts there and doesn't specify how long they stay like that.

If he had, he wouldn't be able to bring her back from the dead a second time!

Maybe a bit of both?

In chapter 43, XL is angry with XY and also heavily injured. He tries to leave, but XY won't let him. XL is so badly injured that XY is actually able to stop him, and XL gets frustrated. He threatens to bite her and XY tells him to go ahead. The end of that scene is one of my favourite moments in the whole novel. I highly doubt that scene will be included in the drama exactly the way it is in the novel.

Chapter 46 is when XL pushes XY to cut all ties with him, so he's intentionally playing the bad guy. XY injures him and he takes a bite to collect the "blood debt" she just incurred. XY isn't able to stop him.

Yes - killed, not removed. In chapter 48.

XL makes a point of telling XY (while she is unconscious after being brought back from the dead, again) that he is killing the bugs, not removing them.

Yes, he purposely rejected the bow so that it would be available for XY. He designed it with materials that would ensure that no one else would want it - as his blood was necessary to get the bow to acknowledge an owner as its master.

In the novel the "how did xiangliu know the bow will come to xiaoyao hands" is a bit clearer. He commissioned the bow after he taught XY archery for 10 years and after XY was assassinated (and didn't have a bow with her). So he could reasonably expect that she would want a bow from the best weapons-makers in the kingdom that she would be able to use to defend herself with in similar circumstances in the future. He might have purposely waited to go and inspect the bow (and "reject" it) until after he knew she had ordered such a bow, so that the timing worked out to better ensure that the bow would go to her.

And actually in the novel it's not entirely clear whether everything that the bow-maker tells XY about the commissioner of the bow is true, or if it's (at least partly) a story that XL has the bow-maker tell XY to convince her that the bow just happened to be available and was commissioned by a person who was a stranger to XY, rather than it being a bow that was commissioned by XL for her specifically.

At least once in that chapter (chapter 43), but possibly multiple times (he definitely drinks her blood several times more - every dusk and dawn for three days, but the text doesn't specify if he drinks from her neck or her wrist in those cases). And XY is in her wedding dress the whole time.

And again in chapter 46. But in that case "let" maybe isn't the right word.

Yes. Chapter 43 and chapter 46. But be prepared. In both cases, there's a certain level of conflict between them.

If you skip all the scenes that have nothing to do with XL, it feels like he appears a lot... ^^"

Pros of watching S1 now: The ending isn't exactly a cliff hanger. You might see spoilers if you wait too long. You can engage with the fandom discourse, edits, marketing etc. now while it's fresh in everyone's mind. And you can read the novel if you're curious about how the story continues and ends.

Cons of watching S1 now: This story and the characters are addicting and having to wait for S2 is going to suck (even for those of us who have read the novel and know how it's going to end). Even though the end of S1 isn't a cliffhanger, the leads' stories are definitely not resolved. And we don't know how long the wait will be yet, but it could be a year.

XL doesn't want her to know or to recognize his feelings / sacrifices. He makes quite an effort to ensure that she doesn't. There are times when XY at least believes that he views their relationship as not merely transactional, but later on he insists that it is and (despite the fact that - no matter how hard he tried to hide it - there were definitely times when it was glaringly obvious that he was in love with her), XY believes him.

But this isn't a situation where XL has one-sided feelings for XY and is always the one longing for more. He takes control of their relationship. He decides that XY should end up with TSJ (someone she can rely on for life) and makes sure that XY doesn't know his feelings or develop deeper feelings for him. After that point, there are a ton of moments where XY is the one who longs for more but is shut down by XL. And through it all, XL can feel XY's heart / emotions through the poisonous bug connection. He can feel when her heartbeat races around him. He can feel her heart every time she says she wishes she met him sooner or that he could only be FFB. When she feels heartache, he can show up and lift her spirits - and take satisfaction in literally feeling her heart lift. When she's happy, he can take satisfaction in that, too. He can also take satisfaction in the fact that he succeeded in giving her everything he wanted to give her. And that (because of his blood) he will literally always be part of her.

And of course, separate from XY (and one of the biggest reasons they could never be together), XL gets the death he always wanted. The death he thought was best. An honourable death on the battlefield. He also saves Gong Gong's life, never betrays Gong Gong's cause, and has his enemies' deep respect.

Although he doesn't get to spend a thousand years growing old with XY, he never saw that as a possibility. Among the things he did think were possible, he got almost everything he wanted.

Since this post has spoilers and is quite long, please use the spoiler tag. It helps other viewers avoid spoilers they might not want to see and makes it easier for users on mobile to scroll through the comments thread.

I gave my take on this in response to a similar question in the thread below.

In the novel the connection runs both ways. XL and XY's lives and hearts are connected. Under normal circumstances, they would be able to feel each other's pain, emotions and heartbeats. But XL has much higher spiritual power than XY, so he can control the connection. Only he feels XY's pain, emotions and heartbeats. Except for a few rare occasions where he intentionally makes her feel something (a fast heartbeat or a sharp heartache) and a few rare occasions where he slips and XY is able to sense his heartbeat speeding up.

The drama seems to be similar even though the details aren't addressed as directly. In the scene you mentioned, it seemed like XL intentionally caused XY's heart to ache more painfully or to speed up. Note: when this happens in the novel, XY assumes XL is causing it. But it's possible that her own heart was aching or her own heartbeat was speeding up, and she wrongly blamed XL. If it was XL's doing, he could already feel the heartache she was experiencing when she looked at TSJ. So it seems like he intentionally orchestrated a moment for them to be close. Meaning he must still believe that TSJ is the person XY should end up with at that point, despite TSJ's current circumstances.

Afterwards, XL offers to take XY away in order to distract her from her heartache (which, again, he could directly feel).