Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

 Kokuto:

Oh noooooooo!  Not my Daddy Emperor!!!

This poor book suffers from some overzealous fans who aren't analysing anymore, but take pieces and pieces of the story to make up their conspiracies.  And I thought the whole analysing who XY was thinking of from the hair description was already over the top. This takes things out of the atmosphere. 

The entire analysis that Daddy Emperor was playing the long game is ridiculous if nothing more than because Tong Hou would have to plan for both novels and how it was all going to play out right from the beginning. We know that she did plan for 4 books in this universe, which she ended up discarding, so her plan was vague, a mere outline rather than anything solid enough for this whole conspiracy to play out.

Not to mention, this whole conspiracy treated  Granddaddy Emperor like some idiot. The man sacrificed nearly all of his children to get The Middle Plain. Do you think he was just going to let Daddy Emperor take over like that? Another thing is that there is no way for Daddy Emperor to make sure that Ah Nian's children with Cang Xuan will inherit the throne. Chances are, Cang Xuan will outlive Daddy Emperor, plus, Xin Yue and the Middle Plain faction aren't exactly going to sit there and let that happen. If you're playing the long game, then you want to at least ensure the odds are in your favour, and there are too many unknown factors for that.

The conclusion that TSJ must be an eunuch because TH said that she took some inspiration from the story of West Poison is another over-the-top analysis.  There are simpler explanations that don't require this massive leap that depends on conspiracy theories. This sort of analysis makes the YaoLiu faction look petty. It leaves room for the other side to dismiss the legitimate analysis that we do. 

In analysing any work, if your analysis relies on "this can happen" and "that might have happened" then you have veered way off track. Any bloody thing can happen, inferences and deductions are OK within reason, but they need to be supported by textual evidence for a convincing analysis. 

So read for fun, to see what's out there. Some are valid and interesting, but keep your head. 

 AH :

Aww this was very sweet of you two to say!

I must admit I no longer have any tabs open with the LYF text ready to go at a moments notice, and I'm not sure how well I'd do on a quiz about what happens in which chapters today. 😅

Just stating the truth :-).

While you may no longer be able to recall details and have tabs open, the story is still on your mind somewhat.  Hence, the content of this post :-)

Thank you for sharing. I have not read this myth, but I can see the blueprint for Romeo and Juliet. Now I'll have to think about what other stories took inspiration from it. 

We were talking about some of Tong Hua's interviews and her inspirations for certain plot/character points in LYF. One of the works mentioned was by author Liang Yu Sheng and you can see some of the parallels between the 3 romances in that to the CX/XY/TSJ/XL quadrangle. 

There are really no new stories, just different ways to explore the old.

I just haven't had time to reply, or read thoroughly, all the posts.  But I do appreciate the pics, especially the scripts and novel excerpts and the theories.  I don't agree with all the theories, but it's interesting to see them.  I don't, and never have, subscribed to the theory that Xiang Liu is the head of the Guifang clan or that he survives.  I definitely can see the substitution theory in play, with a variety of characters, as well as the shadow character theories.  But I don't think that XL is actually substituted at the end with Jing, so that it is XY and XL who hidden, wander off to Qingshui Town.

 Snowcup:

Sharing content and theories are more than welcome, regardless of whether we agree with them or not. That's a given. This, however, doesn't feel like sharing for fun or discussion. This is automated, bot-like bombardment with an agenda. Just like narrative misdirection, it's the how not the what in this case. 

Seconded! Thank you for taking the lead in addressing this. I have some ideas for a post I wanted to make on this thread, but ultimately refrained because I thought it would just get buried and no one would see it.

@AkuMau With all due respect, please stop rehashing these posts taken from ZhiHu. It is completely ruining the experience of others. If you wish to put these posts somewhere, then you can open a new thread and link us to it. Ie. windiaaa041293 has done so like this: ABOUT LONG LOVESICKNESS "YAOLIU"❤️❤️

 Snowcup:

Sharing content and theories are more than welcome, regardless of whether we agree with them or not. That's a given. This, however, doesn't feel like sharing for fun or discussion. This is automated, bot-like bombardment with an agenda. Just like narrative misdirection, it's the how not the what in this case. 

I guess I'm missing the agenda -- but I am skimming. ;p  I just took it as an eagerness to share and contribute.

Speaking of ... at least two things I've wondered about were brought up, though I'm not sure I agree with that take.

1) The trade Fang Feng Bei made with Jing to get his grain out of the city, after he stole it.  There was clearly stuff going on there, underneath their words, and is one of the few times we actually get to see Jing acting like a someone who is supposed to be good at negotiating.  That whole exchange really hurt FFB  / XL, and made me think that up to that point, he really was trying to find a way to be with XY.

2)  In season 2, the whole bit about XL wanting to find out who was in XY's heart, especially that scene at the Donkey Seller's 'restaurant.'  While I loved it, and it was heart wrenching (yes, I love angst) it never really made sense to me that XL would be confused about that question.

@AkuMau

Got it. I apologize for being harsh and misunderstanding you. Thank you for taking your own time to translate them for others to read. It's just that because of their length and number, it takes quite a bit of effort to scroll through the thread and see other posts. So if it is possible, I think @Snowcup and I would greatly appreciate it if you could somewhat condense them to make other posts more easily accessible. That's all.

All the best.

Getting back to the heart of it all ...

Thought this deserved a second look. Thanks to HeadInTheClouds for sharing it! 

 Kokuto:

Noooooooo!  Where did the posts go???   I was going to go through the script texts.  :(

Yes!  I was interested, even if I couldn't respond very much.  Your translations were more understandable to me, and I like having the pictures and texts.

I hope you consider making another topic of them.

I truly appreciate your support, and I’ll definitely consider turning it into a separate topic later on. Thank you for the encouragement. :).

I haven’t had the chance to thank you for the link you shared about Tushanjing’s additional letter to Xiaoyao. I’ve watched the video, and there was one part that  caught my attention: when Tushanjing says, 'But you saw me,' there’s an inserted clip of the moment when Xiaoyao first sees FFB—placed between the scenes of her and Tushanjing. It seems to suggest that In Xiaoyao’s eyes and heart, there is only Xiangliu, and Tushanjing was merely a substitute. As for the rest, I’m not entirely sure how to interpret it... or maybe it’s just an ordinary video without any hidden meaning