9lives

Jing could have had the entire drama for himself and fans would still complain about it not being enough. It’s not a screen time issue when dealing with a character such as…him.

Our Queen of Misinformation strikes again. Not a day goes by without some nonsense being written. I’ve been away for some weeks but nothing seemed to have changed. Oh well, Xiang Liu has had everyone in a chokehold. Even the Jingers 😋

No, he was never an interesting character in any way. He is a plot device for Xiao Yao.

Some thoughts now that I have been rewatching part one with my mom. Mom didn’t know that much about the story at first but she’s smart and she’s already aware of many things without me having to tell her a single word. Screenwriting is something that interests her immensely.

Mom thinks Jing is merely a background character. He’s there merely for plot reasons and because he needs to be the “endgame”. Indeed, watching it again makes me think there’s not much difference from the second part. Mind you, certain folks have been complaining about how his scenes have been reduced and how he’s been turned into a servant. My dudes, he’s had that downtrodden servant vibe since the beginning. I had forgotten how rude Wen Xiao Liu was to him every time he was moping around like a beaten dog. Yikes.

Mom has also noticed that he only mumbles and says “okay” a lot. Not much of a deep conversationalist. There are not many lines of dialogue reserved for him. Nothing too complex that would make the second part seem like such an aberration. So the weird claims that his lines have been given to others are…well, weird. What lines? “Okay”? The drama adaptation has not been too kind to his character since day one. Where’s that cunning, smart, artistically inclined businessman from the novel? Never really seen it in the drama, and I’m watching it with extreme attention this time around.

So all in all, there’s not that much difference between both parts, stylistically speaking. Maybe the long time it took for it to air is to blame but it was all filmed together, so apart from some questionable editing decisions and story changes more pronounced in this second part, it’s not that big of a deviation in style from part one. They’ve been butchering the novel for a while now, it’s nothing new. My heart goes to Cang Xuan and his fans, though. A very well written character that shouldn’t have been emptied out like that. When will they learn?

That being said, the one thing that is undeniable is that during the near 12-month period it took between parts one and two, Xiang Liu’s popularity has skyrocketed to massive heights. Tencent isn’t oblivious to this fact so they took advantage of him as much as they could. They put some extra Tan in there and called it day. I couldn’t possibly be happier about it because he be playing that role like his life depended on it and now he’s finally and deservedly getting all this attention to his work.

But I digress. When it comes to part one and two, two things were evident to mom:

First, Xiang Liu stole the show the moment he was introduced. I’ll add that it remained like that until the very end, 14 minutes into episode 23. Poor mom will not like to watch that. Oh, well.

Second, that I shouldn’t be too sad about his arc because he was evidently the most important (male) character in the drama even if that may not have been the initial intention, and according to her, it’s probably the reason why he was the only one that remained somewhat untainted by the many changes this adaptation made to the original novel. If anything, it only made people love him more seeing all those seemingly out-of-character tears and vulnerability that we can’t get from the novel. That’s nice :)

Okay that was longer than I thought 🤭

Waiting for a Xiang Liu 24/7

Whatcha gonna do about it?

I get it 🥲 I also dropped it for now. Maybe one day 😔

Think of it this way: Xiang Liu is the MVP and he's too good for any of these people. So the why is because he's the author's favorite character and she wouldn't let him end up with the likes of Xiao Yao. If you try to see it with this mindset, it gets a little better. Great men like him deserve an equally great partner :)

Very well written! All my thoughts consolidated into one great review!

It saves everyone's precious time eheheheh

You’ve been lucky, but then again you always had way more patience then anyone else :)

Xiao Yao was never meant to be a strong female character. She's a traumatized woman whose choices have always been informed by (1) unresolved issues that remained with her until the very end; (2) self-deception (here you can add obliviousness, denial, plain stupidity, or whatever you wish to call it). She had a mediocre end because she settled for mediocrity.

Truly strong women accept that life is finite and that is better to enjoy the little time we have left with our loved ones even if they're doomed to die eventually. It's not a nice realization nor a happy one, but it shows maturity and understanding that we came to this world alone and we will leave it alone.

Now for the funny part: I suppose the author wonders about the bed part as well because she never even gave them a proper honeymoon 🤣

Love it :) How To Train Your Snake 😹

Yes, that's all pretty much what we have been analyzing for over a year. There's no growth when a person with very clear, identifiable issues remain tied to those issues by choosing a path that does nothing to overcome them but instead keep them prisoner of their same old fears. XY's hard shell may have been broken in the end, but she never stopped needing someone who would never abandon her. Had she undergone real growth, she would have been able to understand that nothing is forever and people come and go. It shouldn't stop anyone from loving this or that person only because that love may be temporary. Demanding eternity from someone is such an unhealthy mindset.

It's a strange story for sure, one that makes you wonder about its themes of loss and longing. Never saw any of this as something happy, but then again the title, both in Chinese and in English, do make it very obvious that this is not a tale of rainbows, sunshine, and mentally stable people.

Edit: I lied. At first, when I was still a sweet summer child, I did hope for a better outcome, considering Xiang Liu is so ML-coded and straight out of a fantasy book, so there was a time I was expecting it to be rainbows and sunshine :)

Your comment reminds me of something I think I wrote last year about some men having nothing but being everything, while others had everything but were nothing. Nothing in terms of a sense of self, of fighting at the very least for his own worth and refusing to be abused by others, even if those others were family members. Extreme goodness without a sense of justice means nothing.

And it's so ironic when his fans say he sacrificed so much, placing her as his first and only goal. He sacrificed nothing. He had everything taken away from him and even so, he never wanted any of that in the first place. It's so easy to sacrifice stuff you never really cared about anyway. So the problem is not even being flawed, because they're all flawed in one way or the other. The problem is this being touted as a "happy ending" by some, when the only happy thing about this story is that Xiang Liu was spared having to keep dealing with these broken, selfish people.

Good observation that so many seem to overlook in the end. So much for breaking the cycle of trauma caused by abandonment when a little kid was also abandoned by the only father figure he has known. One known for being the paragon of kindness. But hey, happy ending eh?

AH, you're such a lovely person so it's understandable you would be willing to educate this sotreeD individual with your excerpts, but word of advice, it really isn't worth your time.

The moment this person states stuff like "The drama team wanted the audience to understand when a woman say its friendship, its friendship" [sic] even though this same person claims to have read the novel, it's when you can see it's like talking to a door.

"Also why complain about the friendship line being toned down?" Poisonous Friendship Bugs, amirite?

Ohhhhh nice 🥹

I see Peng Peng here in this thread lurking and replying “🤣🤣🤣 who cares” to your comment while simultaneously having blocked you and me. So hilarious that she might have forgotten about it but even so cared enough to type a juvenile comment. It’d be funnier if it weren’t so lame.

Are you not tired yet? What’s that about Tan fans? Removing what now? Retaliatory action for what reason? How do you even know what goes on with a fandom you clearly do not belong to?

I think you’re confusing us with some other folks, who live on putting people down because Tan is outshining them too much, much more than it was expected. Who has the time to go to other actors’ accounts to post anything negative when we’re so busy enjoying everything Tan has to offer us daily? My gosh do you even believe what you write? It has nothing to do with unfiltered photos and you know it. Stop lying. It’s unbecoming and it can lead to legal issues as you can clearly see.

“Those typical few fans even trying to bring the weibo drama over here to intimidate i fans are such a joke...” [sic]: you mean like you’ve been doing since you set foot here on MDL? I swear I don’t get what goes on with you but I confess that sometimes it gets me intrigued.

Anyhoo, are you feeling intimidated after so much inaccurate “information” has been shared here, without regard for the consequences? I would be.

I’m having too much of a good month lately to argue with you. Yeah yeah, your fox is great woohoo what a man! Congratulations to you for being on the J-Team. Go Foxes!

Not a single thing you write can seriously ruin my mood, so yeah whatever you say, I hope it makes you feel happy.

Oh, btw, Xiang Liu lost nothing. He’s the one who won the most in terms of character development, audience preferences and overall popularity among book lovers and drama watchers. Even in the story, he finally found his peace, something that not all characters managed to achieve. Even that “happy ending” is debatable. But you wouldn’t understand it just how you have no understanding of anything related to Xiang Liu. “Play the game”, “started on the wrong foot” hahahahaha

Oh well, “get over it already” you say? How about you try to practice that in front of a mirror? It will do wonders for you. Bye now! Have a great weekend :)

The MVP 😹