Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

I'm slowly making my way through my responses.

 MountainPine:

My only option is rather ordinary: that, in his soul, of course, he wanted to hear a confession, as every lover wants.

That's one of the interpretations. The other one is that it was the last chance that he was giving their relationship. How she responded determined what he would do. For me, their month-long stay in Qing Shui town following the marriage robbery was his last attempt to wait for her to make up her mind and decide which direction she wants to move towards. However, like always, she was passive, and he was forced to ask her those questions. Her lack of an answer to the final one was all the answer he needed. 

 MountainPine:

And on his bitter way of hiding his love, he slipped and fell a few times (poor guy😭), and that is normal. As in the German proverb "You can't hide love and cough."

But why was he hiding his love?

And I love learning these proverbs :-). German is an interesting language; well, all languages are interesting. I find the way certain languages capture specific emotional states fascinating. 

 MountainPine:

But my favorite line about love, heard in a sermon is: the only love that is true is the love that you can control. Xiang Liu was the only one in this story who realized and fully accepted his love, acted like a person who loves, and, most importantly, who could control his love. All the other relationships of all the other characters are something sick and sometimes even disgusting.

Control here means you are able to control yourself and how you love, right?

I like it. It's being able to love without falling victim/slave to the emotion. It required a great deal of maturity. The rest of the relationships in this story came from a place of obsession and fear; it's not romantic or healthy at all. 

 MountainPine:

I didn't notice any signs in the novel that would hint that there is hope for Xiao Yao's recovery. I'm very, very curious what exactly you noticed!

One way to look at it is that it took losing Xiang Liu to force Xiao Yao to realise what she had lost because of her fear. For the majority of the novel, Xiao Yao has been wavering back and forth - Jing represents the "safe choice" due to the confines of her fears, whereas Xiang Liu represents the growth and freedom from facing and working through her fears.  Xiang Liu worked hard to help her grow, but sometimes it takes realising what not changing is costing you for you to make the change. 

While this is not a certainty, I think Xiao Yao in the novel has the potential to recover. Drama's Xiao Yao is a lost cause :-).

 MountainPine:

In fact, he has some special  "talent" for presenting things in a relationship as being solely his merit and feat for her, as an exceptional and great service, and not just the normal state of things. 🤢

You noticed that too. Like with the Purple Fish Jewel. If you look at it carefully, what did he actually do for her that wasn't tied to obtaining his own interest in being with her?

 Did you also notice how he used the people besides him as mouthpieces to verbalise his sacrifices, how difficult things were for him, and to test the water with her? 

 MountainPine:

They successfully make each other even more weaker and sicker. 🤕🤕

Co-dependency. Their sickness is a match for each other. 

 MountainPine:

"Now I really regret that my life is connected with a stupid and weak woman like you. I beg you, before you die of stupidity..." We're used to seeing these words solely as Xiang Liu's attempt to make her hate him, but just try to look at it with a fresh eye and a new perspective - it's all the harsh but honest truth about her!..

I haven't finished the drama, but was this also in the drama? He probably did it to sever their tie, but there was a kernel of truth in there. She was stupid and weak on certain matters.