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Ah, I see. Thank you!

Does yan da appears in the book? For someone who watched this drama most ly for yand and and shi, would you recommend the book?

How is TJC's character in the book compared to XL, kokuto? I plan on reading it too, but I need to finish what I am currently reading first.

Let's take XY's delay to marry Jing for 42 years as another exemple.
Jing's fans that only see the bright line believe that the reason she did that was because she wanted to finish her studies first, but that's just the excuse that lies on the top of the iceberg.

If we dig deeper, it's obvious that the reason why she didn't want to marry Jing was because she needed time to let go of XL and start sowing seeds in her heart for Jing.

It's been said before, but when yellow emperor, who knew about XY's feelings for XL and even asked CX to do his best to convince XL to change sides, heard that she wants to postpone the wedding, his remark was that she îs very similar to her mom. How are they similar? Because they share the same interest for medicine? They do, but that's not what yellow emperor alluded to.

XY's interest in medicine was nothing new, yellow emperor could have compared XY's interest to her mom's countless of times before, but the focus here îs on the context în which his remark was made, which is the delay of the wedding. Ah Heng too tried to delay her marriage to shaohao because she loved someone else and the reason why she started to learn medicine în the first place was to gain the right to say no to yellow emperor regarding her arranged marriage.

So under these circumstances yellow emperor found XY similar to her mom. Not because of the interest in medicine, but because of their helplessness in letting go of the man they loved.

That's also supported by XY's reaction to his comment: "Xiaoyao frowned: I am not like her!"
Again, if what yellow emperor pointed to was their similarity in terms of medicine, than there would have been no reason for XY's displeasure. In fact she would had even take pride in it, because this event happened after XY reconciled with her mom, but it's obvious that she was quite defensive about it, so she understood exactly what yellow emperor meant.

Yes, it's impossible to grasp all the implications Tong Hua made throughout the novel not only because of the language barrier, but as you said, a lot of things are up to debate, giving how even the chinese fans are split.

IMO there are some hidden implications that are more obvious, and as you know there's been a lot of discussions on this topic on the yaoliu's thread, but there are also details that are up to how the reader wants to interpret them. For the sake of example for the ones that haven't read the novel and are curious I can point to the description of XY taking out the bottle of plum wine that Jing sent her from a drawer filled with bottles of poisons. Obvious the plum wine represents Jing and the poisons XL. Not hard to figure out the metaphor. The subtext here is to reveal on whom XY's focus is. Her drawer was filled with poisons, but obviously her thoughts and efforts too.

I know there are a lot of double phrases and implications throughout the novel, but quite a few are basically left to one's interpretation. XY's ballad for exemple. Yaojings are convinced that she sang that ballad for Jing, but I personally disagree. Can I prove it? Not really. But if I choose to focus on the surrounding context and on the surrounding details and not on whom was present when XY sang it, it's a lot easier to conclude that she sang it for XL. To Jing, but not for Jing.

There can be lots of different interpretations to lots of different details, but at the end of the day the heart of the story is XY's internal struggle between her heart and her mind. The man from her dreams versus the man she chose while sober.

Thank you for posting these reviews, I really enjoy reading them. Once one understands that there is also a dark line going on, the story isn't that complicated. IMO the author tried to create 2 emotional lines, the one I love - XL (he has the power, but not the will) and the one that loves me - Jing (he has the will, but not the power).

The thing is that is very hard for someone who doesn't know chinese to understand the exact meaning behind some words or the background of some elements. For exemple în chinese culture, the mandarin ducks (the lovers bug's ballad) , are a symbol of love AND fidelity for life, the full moon represents unity, the white lotus represents purity and enlightenment.
There are also things that are meaningful in the context of the writer's style, for exemple those who had read once promise know what "you're in my eyes" means. The drama depicts who loves whom very well by showing XY having XL în her eyes and Jing having XY în his. On the same note, the novel also has a lot of foreshadowing, în chapter 2 we can already visualize the trend by XY's own words to XL, I am yours and shiqi is mine.

Anyway, I think the outcome of XY ending up with jing has been clearly stated în XY's answer to her mom, when she asked her "why Jing". Not because of deep love, but because "he is the only one who will never abandon me".

Actually when Ah Heng saw Jing she was described as being very conflicted, she couldn't understand, so her first question to XY was "is it good to you"? She knew her daughter well enough to know that Jing is not the type of man XY would fall for. "Yes, very good!" "Is there no one else who treats you even better, why does it have to be him?" The implication behind is pretty obvious IMO. There can be many people who are good to you, but why choose a lover just because of that? What about love? That "because only jing" îs basically a confirmation that indeed there is someone better, but he will abandon her, while only Jing îs there to give her a future and never leave her.
So "choosing between the right person and the one you love" has nothing to do with feng long. Jing was the right man, as stated even în XL's epilogue, so him being the right man means that the one she loved must have been someone else and that's definetely not feng long, lol.

Also, volume 2 is called "love confessed". For those who haven't read the novel, I want to mention that is the volume where XY made and sent the crystal ball to XL. It's also the volume that came with the print of XL and XY watching the moon over the ocean.

And on top of that, Jing had it a lot easier. I mean I can easily understand why XL and CX couldn't gave up their duties, more over since they never promised to do that, but what was so hard for Jing? Ok, his grandma, but after Hou's affair was exposed, why did he keep being Jing and not shiqi, as he promised? If not for Hou atacking him and going missing for those years, while the clan appointed a new leader, Jing wouldn't have kept his promise. He planned and was ready to marry XY as Jing, not as shiqi.

Honestly, I am not sure how to interpret the snake-fox's story, the snake is obvious XL, but who's the fox? I don't think it's just Jing, I kinda believe îs both Jing and CX. When she recalled the story, both Jing and CX were present and I believe both of them took turns în keeping that fox tail? Anyway, not sure how important this detail is, but în the novel XY told the story 3 times and each time the focus was on a different element.
She first talked only about the monkey who didn't understand her to shiqi, so IMO the monkey îs definetely related to him. Next time, when she recalled the story to XL the focus was on the snake. Finally she spoke mostly about the fox demon to CX and Jing.
I believe there is a lot of foreshadowing in this metaphor, but it's really up to interpretation.
Anyway, bottom line îs that IMO she ended up with the monkey (shiqi) who couldn't understand her on a deeper level, but because she was so scared of forgetting how to talk, she caught the monkey and forced herself to talk to it.

Yes, as XY foreshadowed in chapter 2, shiqi belongs to her, while she belongs to XL, as pointed by her decision of going back to the ocean at the end.

Chapter 2
"Perhaps because the origin of their relationship was pity, Xiao Liu was easily soft hearted towards Shiqi"

Love can grow out of pity, but how genuine this type of love is? Can it be called romantic love? I definetely believe that she had a lot of affection for shiqi, but given the choice, he wouldn't have been the one she would have spent her entire life with.
He's the monkey she talked about when she recalled the snake and the fox's story. Same as Jing, they spoke different languages. Only the snake / XL understood her and that's been pointed out a lot of times în the novel in different forms. XY never had any real interest in playing the piano, learning chess or painting, these stuff bored her. Boring yet peaceful was also her life with shiqi în QS's town, the only spark back there was XL, whom she kept provoking, as she did with the snake. He was the only one who understood her. XY liked to swim, to learn archery and to make poisons, all these are related to XL.

The monkey ended up killing itself, but so did Jing. She delayed their marriage for 42 years for a reason. The person who came back at the end was shiqi, the companion whom she was willing to marry and who can give her a peaceful and stable life, not Jing. A happy life though? I don't believe he will ever be able to do that, that's something that only XL could.

The 2 leads of the story are XY and CX and IMO Tong Hua wrote them very similar. The same way CX loved XY but didn't tell anyone, XY loved XL and kept it to herself. Both of them kept the person they loved and wanted most hidden and both of them ended up losing them forever.
The big difference is that CX loved XY selfishly, while XY loved XL selflessly. Until the end, XY wished for XL to live, regardless of him not choosing her or believing she was just a pawn to him, she kept wishing for him to live, the same thing that XL wished for her too. To live.
To say XY didn't love XL is like saying XL didn't love XY, which is far from the truth. They both loved eachother equally, so I am not sure how can one believe that XL loved XY romantically, but XY did not.
If XY would have asked XL "are you willing to die with the remnant army" as he asked her if she is willing to marry shiqi, he too would have answered yes, but that doesn't mean that's what he wanted too. Willing and wanting are 2 very different things and XY wasn't able to answer shiqi when faced with whom she wants most.

Thank you for reposting this and again, lots of thanks to liddi for all the translations.

Also worth mentioning is that the first edition of the novel had the already famous print of XL and XY looking at the moon attached to it. The only print that came with the novel and it was attached to volume 2 (love confessed / love you forever) I believe.

If XY chose Jing, as you keep saying, than why didn't she try harder to remove the Lovers Bug? She knew that XL îs running out of days, she knew that if he dies, she's going to die too, yet she never seemed worried or even bothered about this aspect, on contrast to Jing, who got quite scared. When CX had the bug, she kept trying to find a solution over and over, she wasn't passively ignoring the threat. Moreover, when she found out that her bug has been removed, she felt an inexplicabile loss, contrary to Jing, who was so overjoyed. How can you chose someone and at the same time ignore the fact that you might die with another man and doing nothing much about it? Does it make sense to you?

Yes, but I am getting confused. Maybe I am missing something, cause I don't really understand this discussion anymore.

"XY said she sang for Jing"

OK, she said so to whom? To XL, who just told her that he regrets tying his life to hers and wants their bug removed. She asked him to look at the moon, but he refused. A slap în the face and a payback îs how I view that performance.

I didn't say that Jing said anything about pity în chapter 20, I was doing a parallel with chapter 14. By "you are too good to me" I interpret it as "you are masking pity with affection, you are too kind to me"

That's not how it went. În chapter 14 Jing thinks to himself that he won't kiss XY because what he wants îs her love, not her pity. Fastforward to chapter 20, XY asks him why now it's ok but back then it wasn't and his response was something along the lines of "because you're too good to me, too alluring or maybe I am more selfish now". You believe she was good to him out of love, but I believe it was out of pity, same as the last time, otherwise I see no point în admitting that maybe he is more selfish now. He is now ok with the kiss being out of pity, as long as she stays by his side, it doesn't matter anymore that she doesn't love him.

That moon was XY's moon. Bright, yet cold and lonely. By looking at it she recalled the moon she saw with XL în QS's Town. Regardless, what full moon did yaojing ever had? Jing alone chose a full moon night to get married, XY didn't even understand why, and as we all know that marriage never happened because Jing ended up missing. The full moon doesn't shine on people getting reunited, în this case Jing and XY. The irony.

I don't recall much of chapter 20, so correct me if I am wrong, but when XY asks Jing how come now he kisses her, but when they were on the beach he refused, doesn't he admits that's because he is being more selfish now? On the beach he refused the kiss because he knew XY's kiss was out of pity and that he wasn't the one in her eyes, but according to his reasoning, things were not much different now. The only thing that changed was his will power, she was good to him, too alluring and he couldn't restrain himself. He became more selfish, as he said. He could have said that he kissed her because this time he believes she has him în her eyes, as a counter argument to the last time, but instead he says that she îs being too good and he is being more selfish now. He basically took advantage of the pity she has towards him, IMO. True, with her approval, but still.

About the moon representing hope, maybe, but that's not too hopeful for yaojing, giving how XY described the last moon in the novel. Cold and lonely, if I am not mistaken, since XL died.

XY managed to grew the bug with XL in mind to begin with. She grew it for XL, not for CX. We don't exactly know on what this growing is based on, but we know that it's a hard task that not many can achieve. It's true that at one point XY had no choice but to give the bug to CX, but it was never planted, because CX didn't willingly accept it. However, if successfully planted, we don't know how would have the bug acted between them. It might have turned into heartbreak bugs, since IMO XY's love for CX wasn't romantic love, we just don't know. Why do you think Tong Hua named the bug "lovers bug"? She could have picked a not so straightforward name, yet she chose "lovers". Not love bug or heart to heart bug or friendship bug. She was quite specific.

I know this reply îs for Kokuto, but I am curious to know more about the Lovers Bug's theory you and Winnie talked about. If you can expand on it, since I honestly didn't understand much.
Also, I believe you haven't read the novel, at most you have read a few chapters that interested you, but definetely not the whole novel. You keep highlighting the good things XY did for Jing, while minimizing and turning a blind eye on the things that don't suits your interpretation.

... and XL imprinted on XY's eyes :)

My LOL moment is reading how some Yao Jing's fans describes chapter 20, in which XY kisses Jing's knee, followed by his admission that he's being more selfish now as being the "most intimate moment of the novel". Compare this to chapter 43, în which XY desperately grabs XL's hair în order not to let him leave and all that followed after and I LOL again.

I don't believe anyone is disputing Jing's love for XY, even XL knew it, otherwise he wouldn't have pushed XY to him. What we are mostly debating is whom did XY loved. You keep making a case about how Jing was the best choice for her, but that adds nothing in regards to this debate, since we are all aware that XY-XL's romance would have been doomed. But having someone who loves you and îs willing to devote his whole life to you doesn't necessary mean that his feelings has to be reciprocated by the other party. By XY's own words, Jing has the will but lacks the power, while XL has the power, but lacks the will. The implication here is that regarding XL, it was XY who had the will, regardless of his cold attitude towards her or him being the enemy of his brother.
If XL would have pursued XY, the ending would have been a lot different. The reason why XY ended up with Jing was because XL chose not to have his feelings revealed and not because XY chose Jing over XL.