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Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

HeadInTheClouds
 Kokuto:

It actually started almost the moment they met.  Remember, XY left Jing to die the first day.  It was another day when she went back, and saw the flower, that she decided to help him, but she deliberately stepped on 'his' flat bread to make it a transaction, that she 'owed' healing him for that.

Lol. She's a funny one, XY. If only she retained some of the sass and spiritedness. 

She was quick to brush XL's actions off as transactional, but she didn't seem to realize how transactional her relationship with Jing was. 

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HeadInTheClouds
 MountainPine:
I believe that it was love from first sight on Xiang Liu's side.

I don't think it was love at first sight unless XL was really into middle-aged old man appearance. 🤔😂. The change in him came with her 3 confessions: "no means to protect myself, no place to go, no one to rely on". The XiaoLiu and YaoJing relationships shared similarities, but they are fundamentally different.  The basis of Xiang Liu's feelings for Xiao Yao is empathy. He too understands what it was like to have no means to protect himself, have nowhere to go and no one to rely on. It didn't quite stray into the pity territory like Xiao Yao with Jing, because Wen Xiao Liu had a lot more guts and survival instinct than Jing did -Jing was helpless, Wen Xiao Liu wasn't. Xiao Yao sees saving Jing as a way of saving herself.  Xiang Liu has already saved himself. What he wanted was to help Xiao Yao become strong enough to protect herself, to develop and grow up.

YaoLiu's relationship developed slowly throughout the Qing Shui arc, through shared conversation, which slowly revealed their inner thoughts and feelings. During this arc, Xiao Yao assayed Xiang Liu's commitment to the resistance army several times. And his response dashed her hopes that he would never leave her. This arc also saw the YaoJing relationship developed, but in the opposite trajectory. These two barely have any worthwhile conversations; it was quite one-sided. Xiao Yao yapped on; Jing sat there. Unlike XL, Jing repeatedly vowed to be her faithful servant, to never leave her. This culminated in her accepting the 15-year deal, effectively stopping her and Xiang Liu's relationship in its tracks.


 MountainPine:
Who forcibly opened her protective shell? Xiang Liu, or she herself?

At this point, she and 17 have been living under the same roof for 2 years without much emotional connection or conversation. And yet, the first time she met Xiang Lu, her shell cracked. A way to show the real pairing/love interest. Or maybe his beauty addled her brain? 🤣 She was mesmerized when his mask melted away. 


 MountainPine:
And also the  fact that later Xiao Yao didn't think he was ugly because of his 9 heads (it's not pity, like in the case of Jing!). And the fact that she wasn't afraid of him, so he finally met someone he felt equal with.

These factors did help to consolidate Xiang Liu's feelings.

Sometimes I think that Xiang Liu loves Wen Xiao Liu rather than Xiao Yao. Wen Xiao Liu, who, despite carrying wounds that need to be addressed, was gutsy and spirited. Once she regained her Xiao Yao identity, she just went downhill, and he spent the rest of the story trying to awaken the Wen Xiao Liu within her. 

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HeadInTheClouds
 MountainPine:
But then the soldier claims that no matter what, he still doesn't love her. For me, this is a real example of how many things can look like love, but they are not and never will be love.

People start and stay in relationships for a multitude of reasons that have nothing to do with love. Sometimes you stay out of convenience, out of obligations, out of gratitude or out of compassion/pity. For most of history, love wasn't the basis of marriage - romantic love as the basis of marriage is quite a recent development.  And it takes more than romantic love to sustain a marriage. Sometimes, love can develop after, but often it doesn't, but people have to try to make it work. Particularly, back when divorces were rare. Tian Er and Chun Zi's marriage was like that, while Ma Zi and Chun Tao's marriage started with love and affection. It's not a coincidence that Xiao Yao took her advice from Tian Er.


 MountainPine:
Is there anything in Jing's life that is not a transaction? All of his life activities are transactions for HIS OWN benefit.

His family are merchants, so that's the basis of how they operate, and that would have been what he'd learn. This doesn't make him a bad person. However, when he brought this into his personal relationship with someone whom he claimed to love and who was his saviour, it didn't gel with his sweet, kind, and devoted image, did it?


 MountainPine:
In opposite, Xiang Liu's all lives were devoted and given away for others. Nothing at all for himself. So Jingers saying he was transactional is such a nonsense!  Transaction always means you have got something for yourself.

Jing and Xiang Liu are designed to be opposites. Jingers seemed selectively blind when it comes to Jing. Or they'll justify it somehow. The 15-year promise was such a clear transaction that was clearly for Jing's benefit, and yet, it was somehow so romantic and sweet. I don't understand it at all. I wouldn't even hold this against Jing if he didn't fail subsequently and put Xiao Yao through so much crap with his complete uselessness. 


 MountainPine:
And summing up - she was the main cause of his death. He could have killed Xuan several times and very likely won the war. 

I don't think Xiao Yao caused Xiang Liu's death. Her protection of Xuan from assassination attempts and her support of him contributed to his ascension to power and subsequent showdown with Shen Nong's army. But it was only part of the process, a big part, but not the only part. As long as Xiang Liu continued to stay with Shen Nong's army, his death was probably only a matter of when, not if. 

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