Let's look at this scene again. Beginning of Episode 17. At first, the conversation appeared to be their usual sparring--> "Have you ever told the truth?" "Well, have you?"
But.
One must look at what happened just before that. The Third Uncle basically just revealed a hidden truth--he confessed his love to a wooden post/his love, Jiang Li's mother. Thus someone told the truth while drunk.
So then our couple is left alone and Xue Fang Fei whirled around, drunk and happy about her success in finding the buyer's name. Duke Su looked on, realizing this was the real XFF being shown to him (drunk = truth) and was our boy in love with XFF. That. LOOK.
"You're drunk," he told her.
XFF came to him and threw off his umbrella. CUE MUSIC. Listen to the lyrics. If you'd read a previous post of mine, I wrote about the Chinese title and the OST--Inky Rain Amidst The Clouds (the post is up there in the Other Topics) and that the inky rain could be seen as SYR's ink/stain on her reputation. Throughout the drama, there's use of the umbrella by Jiang Li as if to protect herself from that rain. SYR was also seen walking in that inky rain without an umbrella.
In this moment, though, XFF threw away Duke Su's umbrella and declared, "I'm not drunk!" The rain was a different kind of rain here, cleansing (re: none of that odd opera makeup ala acting on XFF's face).
"You're so drunk you don't know what you're doing," said the Duke.
THE LYRICS: Remove my clothes and I won't regret.... (sex, also revelation....)
XFF said, "Xiao Heng." You know they communicated on another level when she called him Xiao Heng like that. LOL.
"A'Li," he countered.
"You're handsome," she whispered. LYRICS: Some obsessions turn to ashes, there is only one remedy....
XFF confessed (dai biao, C-Drama style)/echoing her Uncle's drunken confession. Here, her "are you drunk" takes on special meaning. Xiao Heng was tempted, sooooo tempted.
But he told her, "I'm not drunk." LYRICS: Do you know what it is to be drunk (with love)?
XFF pushed him away, "You're not a man! You can't even get drunk!" (He jiu to he bu chui! is a play of the usual Chinese idiomatic expression of che fan/eating rice and che bao je pao lah/finished eating and now you're running off for sex and sexual intimacy) She went on, "Have you ever told the truth?"
Now, here I'll admit to extrapolating through character analysis. We know A'Li is the more sexually experienced one between the two of them. She might be a tad frustrated here, I don't know, LOL:
Xiao Heng reverted back to Duke Su persona, "What about you? After drinking so much, aren't you also not telling the truth?"
That was such a weak counter that XFF immediately mocked him (even while drunk). "Thank you, DUKE SU! Thank YOU, DUKE SU! THANK YOU, DUKE SU!" Notice the sexy music has stopped and she'd also stopped calling him Xiao Heng. He was just Duke Su, interrogating her again.
CUE MUSIC. Now it's the pear song and XFF reverted back to XFF/JiangLi.
I'm not saying Duke Su didn't know what XFF wanted (he did call her shameless when they almost kissed) but I do believe he didn't know at that moment how to handle the real XFF vs XFFasJiangLi. The confession took him aback. So what did he do? He gave her another piece of his clothing to wear, Bwahahahahahaha. These two kids; they are too much.
I hope the above gave you something to think about when you rewatch the scene. It's really very well done.
I will attempt an explanation. In ancient China, there is the belief that the dead must return to their place…
I'll give it a try. I think the BTS said there were missing minutes due to edits from this scene, so it all sounded so vague to us. But we could still get the gist of the conversation because of the excellent acting.
1) We must remember Jiang Li was married and know more about men than Su Guo Gong. 2) We must remember she was still wary of him because she realized she was more and more involved in "another play" besides hers, one being manipulated by Duke Su. 3) There was attraction between them and XFF RECOGNIZED this, maybe better than XH at this point. 4) There was a cat and mouse game between them at the moment. He wanted to make her admit she was XFF and he was intrigued by her ability to manipulate people with her "acting." To Duke Su, who had spent most of his confinement by his grandfather watching plays, the world was a stage, so here he needed someone to act as a shield and XFF happened to pass by. Besides, he was attracted, so he "made" her come to him again.
So, our XFF was already a bit mad at this point. She wasn't in a mood to flirt. The cups of tea was the first indication of her being slightly irritated.
"It's bitter," she declared. According to Duke Su, that was the sweetest tea, so she must have something bitter in her heart (because surely, he was a sweet man, ahem, for always helping her). "Not at all," XFF replied. "Perhaps what is bitter to others is sweet to me and vice versa." (She was saying he wasn't sweet at all and maybe she liked bitter tea to his sweet.) Duke Su got the meaning and countered, "So what is bitter to you? (If that sweet tea was bitter to you, then what do you find bitter about the sweetness?)" It's very roundabout, I know. But I think the Duke was saying, "you're finding the sweetest of the tea bitter, so what is so bitter about it? You had just won a competition and a bet, besides all the other wins against your stepmonster and stepsister. Surely this was a sweet moment." XFF replied, "Struggles, love, hate, affection, hate are very bitter things." Duke Su ignore the negative stuff and focused on "Love and affection. You find those feelings bitter?" XFF countered, "Did you invite me to watch the play just so you could talk to me about love and emotions?" (This was getting closer to what XH wanted but maybe wasn't quite ready to admit). "Can't I?" "Nope." Clearly Duke Su here was attempting to flirt but XFF wasn't having any of it. He turned away, "Watch the show then."
********* XFF got injured by the assassin after the play. At this point she already knew she was just a pawn to put the bad guys at ease so they would attack. Yet, you and I saw what happened--she actually shielded Su Guo Gong and got cut by the sword. He hugged her close like a lover and she lay her head on his chest like someone who needed his love and affection. Cue their music coming on.
HERE IS WHERE I THINK THE MISSING DIALOGUE WERE EDITED OUT.
The next scene, he was putting medicine on her and they were sparring again (so it was very sudden to me). She brought back their initial squabble, that she owed it to him that she was back at the Capital. She wanted to make sure applying medicine wouldn't be counted as a favor, since she was trying to return the favors to END THEIR RELATIONSHIP.
She made it clear: You used me tonight. I'm not mad. I'm glad to be a pawn for Duke Su (so we could be even and be done with this cat and mouse game).
Duke Su did not like that at all. First, I think he was a bit taken aback that XFF would rush to protect him and thus got injured on his behalf. Second, he got called out for using her as a pawn, which was true, but he also liked her LOL. He enjoyed being with her but here she was talking about favors from him being a burden.
Which was true, right? He was downright pissed by now because his play wasn't going the way he wanted. And that was why he didn't have the patience to "act" with the assassin. He was just going to make a deal and if she refused it, his boys could cut her face up (His boys were confused here because he was acting out of character).
I think Duke Su didn't like seeing his girl get hurt. He was torn about using her as a pawn at this point. He couldn't put a finger on the reason, even when the Emperor asked. Xue Fang Fei knew. The sweetest tea (love) could be dangerous and bitter. Better not (at this point).
Having been rejected. Duke Su didn't want to hear anything about XFF's plans from his Ji boys. So he punished our favorite Ji with lashings. Duke Su was pouting :).
It's OK, Xiao Heng. Next episode XFF had to come face to face with her jealousy at seeing him at the brothel, LOL.
My first complain was about the classic tropes (which is complety nonsense) where a kid is judged for something…
A great Drama to watch where you can really see the differences between legal wife, second wife and concubine wife and their respective daughters’ status is The Story of Ming Lan. Almost every scene in that drama is a very close reenactment of a slice of life of ancient Chinese and that dynasty. The food, the customs coming of age ceremonies, the weddings and headgear, as well as the way the families are arranged according to the different statuses are very authentic.
Doublets, can you help clarify on EP18 ~5:50, what XH means when he talks about prisoners verifying their identity…
I will attempt an explanation. In ancient China, there is the belief that the dead must return to their place of origin and be buried there. That's why, in many Chinese dramas, you see the night hours caller walking the dead, which usually hop at each gong. They are called corpse walkers.
Anyway, this is also mixed with Taoist priests who were hired to go village to village collecting corpses which "hopped" with them home. All of this was done at night, of course, so many a ghost story had been made with these hopping corpses LOL.
OK, back to the drama. XFF showed up, telling the Duke he could question her anything, but when he did, she refused to answer.
"Who are you?" "Next question." "What's your surname?" "I have NO NAME." "Where are you from?" "I'm a restless spirit (dead) from the ***Hills." (I'm dead)
Later: "I'm not Jiang Li." "I know. You're more a civet." (Fake, a replacement)
Later: "AH 'LI (here we go, they are now talking in their language again) Convicts (the dead) might need to show their identity (TO HOP TO THEIR REST and you also see all the different banner-sticks of the convict names tied to the backs of those heading toward their beheading) (ALSO RECALL XFF'S I HAVE NO NAME) but humans (those alive) don't need to always clarify themselves. The lights are on in Lu Yang (the corpse walkers aren't about with their lanterns) and if YOU are really a corpse, then you would be reduced to ashes (by the Taoist priests for walking around and not hopping behind them).
Here Su Guo Gong is saying, you're alive, don't always look back (like she said she was missing what she had lost earlier). XFF replied, "I'll live well."
Then they went home to have wet dreams of each other. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
My first complain was about the classic tropes (which is complety nonsense) where a kid is judged for something…
Archery is one of the six basic skills ancient scholars in China need to master. It is a ceremonial skill that emperor down to the lowest scholar participate in. The perfect man is master of rites, archery, calligraphy, music, equestrianism and mathematics.
A cai nue (Woman of Talent) was very rare. She is a woman of exceptional talent and beauty--she can read and write, her calligraphy is beautiful, her math skills are beyond that of housekeeping, and she can play go (chess). She can also paint and arrange flowers skillfully. All these are in her lessons from age 8. At 15, she comes of age and has a Coming of Age banquet. Xue Fang Fei is the cai nue of her city. She gave up her talents to just support her husband, symbolically selling everything precious to her Self, including her qin and lastly the pendant given to her by her mother for protection (thus symbolizing her vulnerable state). XFF's journey was not just of revenge but to find herself and be herself again. Xiao Heng emphasized this point throughout the episodes: Do not be someone else again, do not change, even for me. Shen YuRong, as he watched his wife, understood how much his wife had secretly helped him, nudging him with suggestions and hints as he studied and tried to be the Top Scholar. His memories were never of how loving they were or of any sexual content. They were always of her instructing him (through wifely suggestions), showing him the art of qin, giving him that admiration while standing there outside the city gate. He WANTED that back, equating it with love. Bah.
LMAO Ah, that's one of my favorite xianxia drama, so it's cool to be the last immortal :). If you do bow out, I hope to meet you somewhere on another good show discussion.
Having rewatched certain scenes so many times, I'm sure now that Xiang Liu wasn't 'all in' until they were sat…
The sad thing, for me, was that he showed her his world, let her in (under the ocean) and now, at this moment, she told him it was still not enough. The thing with XY (after she turned from WXL) was, she grew more and more oblivious and unable to control her life. Whereas, when she was WXL, she was truly in charge of her own corner of the world, could see through words and faces, could recognize danger, and could actually survive pretty damn well, tyvm. Her wit was what caught my attention. Her interactions with FFB was as close to that WXL that I enjoyed and perhaps that was why I liked them together.
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Copy and pasted from post:
https://kisskh.at/736749-di-jia-qian-jin#comment-18090855
Let's look at this scene again. Beginning of Episode 17. At first, the conversation appeared to be their usual sparring--> "Have you ever told the truth?" "Well, have you?"
But.
One must look at what happened just before that. The Third Uncle basically just revealed a hidden truth--he confessed his love to a wooden post/his love, Jiang Li's mother. Thus someone told the truth while drunk.
So then our couple is left alone and Xue Fang Fei whirled around, drunk and happy about her success in finding the buyer's name. Duke Su looked on, realizing this was the real XFF being shown to him (drunk = truth) and was our boy in love with XFF. That. LOOK.
"You're drunk," he told her.
XFF came to him and threw off his umbrella. CUE MUSIC. Listen to the lyrics. If you'd read a previous post of mine, I wrote about the Chinese title and the OST--Inky Rain Amidst The Clouds (the post is up there in the Other Topics) and that the inky rain could be seen as SYR's ink/stain on her reputation. Throughout the drama, there's use of the umbrella by Jiang Li as if to protect herself from that rain. SYR was also seen walking in that inky rain without an umbrella.
In this moment, though, XFF threw away Duke Su's umbrella and declared, "I'm not drunk!" The rain was a different kind of rain here, cleansing (re: none of that odd opera makeup ala acting on XFF's face).
"You're so drunk you don't know what you're doing," said the Duke.
THE LYRICS: Remove my clothes and I won't regret.... (sex, also revelation....)
XFF said, "Xiao Heng." You know they communicated on another level when she called him Xiao Heng like that. LOL.
"A'Li," he countered.
"You're handsome," she whispered.
LYRICS: Some obsessions turn to ashes, there is only one remedy....
XFF confessed (dai biao, C-Drama style)/echoing her Uncle's drunken confession. Here, her "are you drunk" takes on special meaning. Xiao Heng was tempted, sooooo tempted.
But he told her, "I'm not drunk."
LYRICS: Do you know what it is to be drunk (with love)?
XFF pushed him away, "You're not a man! You can't even get drunk!" (He jiu to he bu chui! is a play of the usual Chinese idiomatic expression of che fan/eating rice and che bao je pao lah/finished eating and now you're running off for sex and sexual intimacy) She went on, "Have you ever told the truth?"
Now, here I'll admit to extrapolating through character analysis. We know A'Li is the more sexually experienced one between the two of them. She might be a tad frustrated here, I don't know, LOL:
Xiao Heng reverted back to Duke Su persona, "What about you? After drinking so much, aren't you also not telling the truth?"
That was such a weak counter that XFF immediately mocked him (even while drunk). "Thank you, DUKE SU! Thank YOU, DUKE SU! THANK YOU, DUKE SU!" Notice the sexy music has stopped and she'd also stopped calling him Xiao Heng. He was just Duke Su, interrogating her again.
CUE MUSIC. Now it's the pear song and XFF reverted back to XFF/JiangLi.
I'm not saying Duke Su didn't know what XFF wanted (he did call her shameless when they almost kissed) but I do believe he didn't know at that moment how to handle the real XFF vs XFFasJiangLi. The confession took him aback. So what did he do? He gave her another piece of his clothing to wear, Bwahahahahahaha. These two kids; they are too much.
I hope the above gave you something to think about when you rewatch the scene. It's really very well done.
1) We must remember Jiang Li was married and know more about men than Su Guo Gong.
2) We must remember she was still wary of him because she realized she was more and more involved in "another play" besides hers, one being manipulated by Duke Su.
3) There was attraction between them and XFF RECOGNIZED this, maybe better than XH at this point.
4) There was a cat and mouse game between them at the moment. He wanted to make her admit she was XFF and he was intrigued by her ability to manipulate people with her "acting." To Duke Su, who had spent most of his confinement by his grandfather watching plays, the world was a stage, so here he needed someone to act as a shield and XFF happened to pass by. Besides, he was attracted, so he "made" her come to him again.
So, our XFF was already a bit mad at this point. She wasn't in a mood to flirt. The cups of tea was the first indication of her being slightly irritated.
"It's bitter," she declared.
According to Duke Su, that was the sweetest tea, so she must have something bitter in her heart (because surely, he was a sweet man, ahem, for always helping her).
"Not at all," XFF replied. "Perhaps what is bitter to others is sweet to me and vice versa." (She was saying he wasn't sweet at all and maybe she liked bitter tea to his sweet.)
Duke Su got the meaning and countered, "So what is bitter to you? (If that sweet tea was bitter to you, then what do you find bitter about the sweetness?)" It's very roundabout, I know. But I think the Duke was saying, "you're finding the sweetest of the tea bitter, so what is so bitter about it? You had just won a competition and a bet, besides all the other wins against your stepmonster and stepsister. Surely this was a sweet moment."
XFF replied, "Struggles, love, hate, affection, hate are very bitter things."
Duke Su ignore the negative stuff and focused on "Love and affection. You find those feelings bitter?"
XFF countered, "Did you invite me to watch the play just so you could talk to me about love and emotions?" (This was getting closer to what XH wanted but maybe wasn't quite ready to admit).
"Can't I?"
"Nope."
Clearly Duke Su here was attempting to flirt but XFF wasn't having any of it.
He turned away, "Watch the show then."
*********
XFF got injured by the assassin after the play. At this point she already knew she was just a pawn to put the bad guys at ease so they would attack. Yet, you and I saw what happened--she actually shielded Su Guo Gong and got cut by the sword. He hugged her close like a lover and she lay her head on his chest like someone who needed his love and affection. Cue their music coming on.
HERE IS WHERE I THINK THE MISSING DIALOGUE WERE EDITED OUT.
The next scene, he was putting medicine on her and they were sparring again (so it was very sudden to me). She brought back their initial squabble, that she owed it to him that she was back at the Capital. She wanted to make sure applying medicine wouldn't be counted as a favor, since she was trying to return the favors to END THEIR RELATIONSHIP.
She made it clear: You used me tonight. I'm not mad. I'm glad to be a pawn for Duke Su (so we could be even and be done with this cat and mouse game).
Duke Su did not like that at all. First, I think he was a bit taken aback that XFF would rush to protect him and thus got injured on his behalf. Second, he got called out for using her as a pawn, which was true, but he also liked her LOL. He enjoyed being with her but here she was talking about favors from him being a burden.
Which was true, right? He was downright pissed by now because his play wasn't going the way he wanted. And that was why he didn't have the patience to "act" with the assassin. He was just going to make a deal and if she refused it, his boys could cut her face up (His boys were confused here because he was acting out of character).
I think Duke Su didn't like seeing his girl get hurt. He was torn about using her as a pawn at this point. He couldn't put a finger on the reason, even when the Emperor asked. Xue Fang Fei knew. The sweetest tea (love) could be dangerous and bitter. Better not (at this point).
Having been rejected. Duke Su didn't want to hear anything about XFF's plans from his Ji boys. So he punished our favorite Ji with lashings. Duke Su was pouting :).
It's OK, Xiao Heng. Next episode XFF had to come face to face with her jealousy at seeing him at the brothel, LOL.
I hope my attempt made sense!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExRBnBYrYq8&list=FLulpEi2hdMA_24glOHrt-Nw&index=3
Anyway, this is also mixed with Taoist priests who were hired to go village to village collecting corpses which "hopped" with them home. All of this was done at night, of course, so many a ghost story had been made with these hopping corpses LOL.
OK, back to the drama. XFF showed up, telling the Duke he could question her anything, but when he did, she refused to answer.
"Who are you?"
"Next question."
"What's your surname?"
"I have NO NAME."
"Where are you from?"
"I'm a restless spirit (dead) from the ***Hills." (I'm dead)
Later: "I'm not Jiang Li."
"I know. You're more a civet." (Fake, a replacement)
Later:
"AH 'LI (here we go, they are now talking in their language again) Convicts (the dead) might need to show their identity (TO HOP TO THEIR REST and you also see all the different banner-sticks of the convict names tied to the backs of those heading toward their beheading) (ALSO RECALL XFF'S I HAVE NO NAME) but humans (those alive) don't need to always clarify themselves. The lights are on in Lu Yang (the corpse walkers aren't about with their lanterns) and if YOU are really a corpse, then you would be reduced to ashes (by the Taoist priests for walking around and not hopping behind them).
Here Su Guo Gong is saying, you're alive, don't always look back (like she said she was missing what she had lost earlier). XFF replied, "I'll live well."
Then they went home to have wet dreams of each other. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
A cai nue (Woman of Talent) was very rare. She is a woman of exceptional talent and beauty--she can read and write, her calligraphy is beautiful, her math skills are beyond that of housekeeping, and she can play go (chess). She can also paint and arrange flowers skillfully. All these are in her lessons from age 8. At 15, she comes of age and has a Coming of Age banquet. Xue Fang Fei is the cai nue of her city. She gave up her talents to just support her husband, symbolically selling everything precious to her Self, including her qin and lastly the pendant given to her by her mother for protection (thus symbolizing her vulnerable state). XFF's journey was not just of revenge but to find herself and be herself again. Xiao Heng emphasized this point throughout the episodes: Do not be someone else again, do not change, even for me. Shen YuRong, as he watched his wife, understood how much his wife had secretly helped him, nudging him with suggestions and hints as he studied and tried to be the Top Scholar. His memories were never of how loving they were or of any sexual content. They were always of her instructing him (through wifely suggestions), showing him the art of qin, giving him that admiration while standing there outside the city gate. He WANTED that back, equating it with love. Bah.
I could go on :) but I won't bore you.