"This book tells the story of a group of ordinary people who are captured and taken to the 'Land of the End,' where they are forced to go through a life-and-death cycle every ten days. They live, die, and live again in this place. To escape, they must participate in deadly games designed by the 'Twelve Zodiac Signs.' However, after several rounds, some people begin to awaken supernatural abilities.
(No harem, no clichés, no overpowered characters, no game systems, no brainless plots, no power-fantasy vibes — those who mind such things, beware.)
Excerpt: When I thought it was just an ordinary day, I found myself captured and taken to the Land of the End. When I thought I just had to keep playing death games to escape, people began awakening supernatural powers. When I thought this place was meant to create gods — everything instead moved toward total annihilation."
just because xiao yao and xiang liu were doomed from the start doesn't mean i’ll stop wishing they were endgame.…
"And he's not even Jing's real son. And Jing did not do things to make it happen. The unfortunate things just happened."
although chenrong wasn't his blood family, although he had absolutely nothing to do with the feud between chenrong and haoling/xiyan, xiang liu still chose to fight alongside chenrong — just to repay his adoptive father's kindness.
and there's the difference between your favorite character and mine.
just because xiao yao and xiang liu were doomed from the start doesn't mean i’ll stop wishing they were endgame.…
you're absolutely right that jing never actively sought the role of tushan clan leader; he only took it up out of duty. in fact, he was so unwilling to be the leader that he couldn’t even put aside his personal desires to stay with his young nephew. again, you prove my point that by prioritizing xiao yao over his nephew, he is a good lover but not a good person.
"He was raised from the start as the future Tushan Chief — supported by the elders, groomed for the position, and never treated as a second choice." this is exactly why i describe him as "trapped" — because he himself was never given a choice on whether he wanted the position. you know very well how jing felt when he was forced to be the leader, so why can’t you apply the same to zhen?
although a child may not have met them or known them for long, the absence of biological family and parental figures DOES impact a child for the rest of their life. just think about how the nephew will feel once he learns the truth about his family history; his reaction could be the same as xiao yao's — a deep sense of abandonment and hatred towards his family.
“Jing’s nephew, by contrast, grew up in a stable environment, with a clear role as the clan’s future leader, and support from both family and elders."
(1) what makes you think tushan clan will be any better than xiyan? there will always be people hungry for power, and internal politics can happen anywhere. (2) have you forgotten what happened to xiao yao? just like xiao yao, zhen is not pure tushan blood. when his parentage gets leaked, people will no doubt react negatively, leading him to be targeted and even assassinated.
it’s unfortunate that despite their similarities, tushan zhen isn’t as lucky as cang xuan or xiao yao to have a powerful family member watch his back or share a life-saving bug with a nine-lives demon. no one will be able to protect and revive him when he needs it most.
so considering all this, is jing really "ensuring his safety”?
really the only two things i hated were gihun resenting then killing daeho, and junho's basically-useless boat cruises. everything else was either mid or understandable
just because xiao yao and xiang liu were doomed from the start doesn't mean i’ll stop wishing they were endgame.…
the primary reason why jing chose not to reclaim the title wasn't to ensure the clan and his nephew's safety as you said; it was so he could be with xiao yao. xiao yao never cared about royalty or status, she just wanted to be free. since jing wanted to be with her, he too had to give up his position as tushan clan leader, which we all know he struggled with for a long time. his nephew inheriting the position finally solved that problem for him, so naturally he wouldn't try to take it back. if jing truly cared for his nephew like you claimed then he should've stayed with him, not leave. hence why i describe him as a good lover but not a good person.
going on about how they've "done enough" smh. their lifespans are very long. what jing (and xiao yao) did was for only a small percentage of that kid's life. compare it to trapping him in the position of a lonely tushan clan leader that will last for the rest of his long life.
as for preventing a hou-jing...
hou didn't torture jing because he was seen as a "second choice." the actual reason is that their mother didn't love and treat him well, just because he wasn't her biological son like jing. hou wasn't even considered a choice to her. that being said, assuming your scenario became reality, there shouldn't be any resentment between jing's nephew and his son. after all, jing is "kind" and would therefore raise both with care and fairness, unlike his mother, right?
well those are just hypothetical scenarios anyway.
it's a good thing they prevented another hou-jing catastrophe. but now, they've created a child who, ironically, will probably end up like cang xuan or xiao yao, because (once again...) "This nephew who had already lost his grandmother and biological parents now has to cope with losing his uncle as well."
Yangzi went to the Magnolia Awards as well. However, I didn't witness any communication between Tan Jianci and…
i saw a post that said an interviewer asked jianci, "did you know that yang zi was nominated for best actress?" to which he responded, "yes, i hope she wins best actress."
other than that, i haven't seen any other interactions between them at that event
just because xiao yao and xiang liu were doomed from the start doesn't mean i’ll stop wishing they were endgame.…
and since you said that jing was the only right person for xiao yao, let me just bring up this comment i wrote a while back:
"I strongly believe that one shouldn't revolve their entire life around one person; it's unhealthy. If we're only focusing on the romantic aspect, then sure, maybe Jing really is the ideal partner. He's devoted to you and only you after all. But what if we take a step back and look at the bigger picture? To be with Xiao Yao, Jing had to abandon his role as Tushan clan leader, passing the responsibility onto his young nephew. This nephew who had already lost his grandmother and biological parents now has to cope with losing his uncle as well. Therefore, while someone like Jing might be considered a good lover, can we truly call him a good person? I don't know about you but if my partner was like that, I would be very concerned.
Love is a beautiful and important thing, but it's not everything in life. That's why I love Xiang Liu's character. He loves Xiao Yao deeply, doing so much for her without expecting anything in return, yet still remains true to his morals, repaying his foster father Hong Jiang's kindness by caring for the Chenrong army. You view his actions as ‘stupid’ and while I do kinda agree (out of bitterness about his end lol), it just demonstrates how great his morals and gratitude towards Hong Jiang are. This type of person imo is a good lover AND a good person, in fact, even more than 'good' - he is selfless and honorable."
Honestly when I meet fans of LYF, they often don't like it when I say: "I love that XY chose TSJ in the end. Although…
just because xiao yao and xiang liu were doomed from the start doesn't mean i’ll stop wishing they were endgame. why? because i believe that they both loved each other, and that xiang liu was the one xiao yao wanted to be with the most, if only they weren't enemies and shackled by their duties. their bond was the deepest and most heartfelt in the entire story imo.
"Xiao Yao felt like the two of them could have kept playing together like this for forever and an eternity. Because the two of them were just too similar [...] They appreciated all that was beautiful, but wanted to own none of it." — chapter 17 from the novel
"虽然狐狸比较适合小天, 但他就像白开水, 是为了生 存而已。 相柳才是让人觉得活着值得的人, 能让你感 觉到心脏的悸动" (Although the fox is more suitable for Xiao Yao, he is like boiled water, just for survival. Xiang Liu is the one who makes people feel that life is worth living, and can make you feel the throbbing of your heart.) — comment by @xinxinjiang9204
xiang liu never gave xiao yao “false hope.” this selfless nine-headed demon so carefully made sure xiao yao would never find out about his love — masking it behind coldness or transactions, even hurting her. in the end, he erased himself from her memory mirror so she wouldn’t be emotionally attached after his death.
just like akumau, i also don't really care if people like jing, ship xiao yao with jing, or whatever etc (i even commented before that i believe xiao yao loved both him and xiang liu by the end of the story) but i don’t agree with people insisting that xiao yao ONLY ever loved jing, NEVER loved xiang liu (in a romantic sense at that), and that jing is the best, kindest, or most selfless person.
guys, can anyone share the bg music which normally plays in the show.. it's unique.. pleaase anyone finds it,…
i think they released their bgms on qq music but i don't have access to that :( someone from xhs posted this one though. it's the bgm with magical harry potter vibes as kokuto said. http://xhslink.com/m/2oVtmQGCzWf
Xiaoyao only truly loved Tushan Jing.She had a complicated bond with Xiang Liu (mutual unspoken feelings), cared…
a choice loses its meaning once there are no alternatives. it’s not choosing if it’s the only thing left to choose.
so of course she always returned to jing.... not because she chose him or really wanted to, but because he was practically the only one still within reach. the other person (xiang liu) always pushed her away.
xiao yao often told xiang liu, "why did you choose this path?" "would you still choose this path if xxx?" "if not for hong jiang, you wouldn't bear the burden of chenrong and be cang xuan's enemy" "i really wished it was me who saved you from the slave arena back then."
clearly, she wished he was *free* and not *her family's* enemy. if her wishes were the reality, do you think xiao yao would've still ended up with jing?
i dont understand it might seems the FL is havinh affairs to all Leads i dont understand who he will end up wih
lost you forever isn't your typical romance story where the ML is FL's one and only love interest and who she will ultimately end up with. instead, LYF explores the different relationship that FL has with the 4 MLs.
the FL here (xiao yao) has severe abandonment issues stemming from childhood. as a result, she wants someone who'll never abandon her and will always put her first no matter what. so you kinda have to view the MLs as people who the FL *could* end up with depending on how their relationship evolves and if they meet her requirements, rather than as just one ML who she *will* end up with.
cang xuan loves FL romantically but she only sees him as a brother. she still loves and cares for him VERY deeply though.
feng long and FL are more like good buddies. neither of them love the other romantically, but he is an option in case her relationships with the other MLs don't work out.
so really, only tushan jing and xiang liu are considered the FL's romantic love interests (who she loves or loves most between them is up to interpretation).
i'm probably in the minority who thinks xiao yao loved both jing and xiang liu *by the end of the story*, just in different ways and different intensities. jing is the one who she didn't love at first but eventually learned to, while xiang liu is the one who she couldn't help but love.
xiao yao's character and this story in general is far too complex to be seen through a black or white lens. that being said though, i do believe she loved one of them much more deeply than the other, whether she acknowledges/admits it.
for someone with trust issues and emotional scars, this girl rarely ever made the first move. yet what did she do for xiang liu? gave him many chances, made poisons for him, apologized to him, tried to cheer him up, and crafted that crystal ball as a plead for him to come take her away before her wedding to feng long.
she still cared for xiang liu, successfully planted the lovers bugs with him, considered him as a marriage prospect, and kept memories of *only him* in her mirror, despite how "cold" he treated her and being fully aware that they're on opposite sides (even reminded by her father, grandfather, and cang xuan).
compare that to how she treated jing. she got frustrated whenever he failed to do something, left when he messed up without giving him a chance to explain, and never recorded him in her mirror, despite him being her literal boyfriend and knowing he was a "kind" person. imagine if jing did a sliver of the "cruel" things xiang liu did; xiao yao would've been out the door.
all of this makes her feelings for xiang liu feel much more genuine and stronger than her feelings for jing, in my opinion. you can always learn to love someone but it's tough to forget the one *you* loved.
a wonderful drama worth watching. there are many cases but because they're so well-paced, they don't feel too dragged out.
tan jianci and jin shijia did great ofc but i'd also like to applaud the acting from the side characters, particularly the perpetrators and some victims from the cases. many thanks to them portraying their characters so well that the cases felt real and the overall show immersive.
not a major issue but the ending felt a little rushed. i'd have loved to see a final interaction with the whole crew ☹ not a just-shenyi-and-ducheng scene and then a rest-of-the-police-team scene.
the ad placements though ;D li han's really promoting those drinks hahaha
and that last scene- shen yi has an alter ego or twin??
1 
2 
the plot sounds really intriguing!
"This book tells the story of a group of ordinary people who are captured and taken to the 'Land of the End,' where they are forced to go through a life-and-death cycle every ten days. They live, die, and live again in this place. To escape, they must participate in deadly games designed by the 'Twelve Zodiac Signs.' However, after several rounds, some people begin to awaken supernatural abilities.
(No harem, no clichés, no overpowered characters, no game systems, no brainless plots, no power-fantasy vibes — those who mind such things, beware.)
Excerpt: When I thought it was just an ordinary day, I found myself captured and taken to the Land of the End.
When I thought I just had to keep playing death games to escape, people began awakening supernatural powers.
When I thought this place was meant to create gods — everything instead moved toward total annihilation."
(translated from https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%8D%81%E6%97%A5%E7%BB%88%E7%84%89/63368747)
although chenrong wasn't his blood family, although he had absolutely nothing to do with the feud between chenrong and haoling/xiyan, xiang liu still chose to fight alongside chenrong — just to repay his adoptive father's kindness.
and there's the difference between your favorite character and mine.
"He was raised from the start as the future Tushan Chief — supported by the elders, groomed for the position, and never treated as a second choice."
this is exactly why i describe him as "trapped" — because he himself was never given a choice on whether he wanted the position. you know very well how jing felt when he was forced to be the leader, so why can’t you apply the same to zhen?
although a child may not have met them or known them for long, the absence of biological family and parental figures DOES impact a child for the rest of their life. just think about how the nephew will feel once he learns the truth about his family history; his reaction could be the same as xiao yao's — a deep sense of abandonment and hatred towards his family.
“Jing’s nephew, by contrast, grew up in a stable environment, with a clear role as the clan’s future leader, and support from both family and elders."
(1) what makes you think tushan clan will be any better than xiyan? there will always be people hungry for power, and internal politics can happen anywhere.
(2) have you forgotten what happened to xiao yao? just like xiao yao, zhen is not pure tushan blood. when his parentage gets leaked, people will no doubt react negatively, leading him to be targeted and even assassinated.
it’s unfortunate that despite their similarities, tushan zhen isn’t as lucky as cang xuan or xiao yao to have a powerful family member watch his back or share a life-saving bug with a nine-lives demon. no one will be able to protect and revive him when he needs it most.
so considering all this, is jing really "ensuring his safety”?
going on about how they've "done enough" smh. their lifespans are very long. what jing (and xiao yao) did was for only a small percentage of that kid's life. compare it to trapping him in the position of a lonely tushan clan leader that will last for the rest of his long life.
as for preventing a hou-jing...
hou didn't torture jing because he was seen as a "second choice." the actual reason is that their mother didn't love and treat him well, just because he wasn't her biological son like jing. hou wasn't even considered a choice to her. that being said, assuming your scenario became reality, there shouldn't be any resentment between jing's nephew and his son. after all, jing is "kind" and would therefore raise both with care and fairness, unlike his mother, right?
well those are just hypothetical scenarios anyway.
it's a good thing they prevented another hou-jing catastrophe. but now, they've created a child who, ironically, will probably end up like cang xuan or xiao yao, because (once again...) "This nephew who had already lost his grandmother and biological parents now has to cope with losing his uncle as well."
this user is a yang zi and tan jianci shipper. since you also ship them, maybe this is a good account to follow^^
other than that, i haven't seen any other interactions between them at that event
"I strongly believe that one shouldn't revolve their entire life around one person; it's unhealthy. If we're only focusing on the romantic aspect, then sure, maybe Jing really is the ideal partner. He's devoted to you and only you after all. But what if we take a step back and look at the bigger picture? To be with Xiao Yao, Jing had to abandon his role as Tushan clan leader, passing the responsibility onto his young nephew. This nephew who had already lost his grandmother and biological parents now has to cope with losing his uncle as well. Therefore, while someone like Jing might be considered a good lover, can we truly call him a good person? I don't know about you but if my partner was like that, I would be very concerned.
Love is a beautiful and important thing, but it's not everything in life. That's why I love Xiang Liu's character. He loves Xiao Yao deeply, doing so much for her without expecting anything in return, yet still remains true to his morals, repaying his foster father Hong Jiang's kindness by caring for the Chenrong army. You view his actions as ‘stupid’ and while I do kinda agree (out of bitterness about his end lol), it just demonstrates how great his morals and gratitude towards Hong Jiang are. This type of person imo is a good lover AND a good person, in fact, even more than 'good' - he is selfless and honorable."
"Xiao Yao felt like the two of them could have kept playing together like this for forever and an eternity. Because the two of them were just too similar [...] They appreciated all that was beautiful, but wanted to own none of it."
— chapter 17 from the novel
"虽然狐狸比较适合小天, 但他就像白开水, 是为了生 存而已。 相柳才是让人觉得活着值得的人, 能让你感 觉到心脏的悸动" (Although the fox is more suitable for Xiao Yao, he is like boiled water, just for survival. Xiang Liu is the one who makes people feel that life is worth living, and can make you feel the throbbing of your heart.)
— comment by @xinxinjiang9204
xiang liu never gave xiao yao “false hope.” this selfless nine-headed demon so carefully made sure xiao yao would never find out about his love — masking it behind coldness or transactions, even hurting her. in the end, he erased himself from her memory mirror so she wouldn’t be emotionally attached after his death.
just like akumau, i also don't really care if people like jing, ship xiao yao with jing, or whatever etc (i even commented before that i believe xiao yao loved both him and xiang liu by the end of the story) but i don’t agree with people insisting that xiao yao ONLY ever loved jing, NEVER loved xiang liu (in a romantic sense at that), and that jing is the best, kindest, or most selfless person.
"i should have known" ahahaha 🤣 yes it's me
the only thing i can think of is that jackson can just easily chat with anyone. he could probably hold a successful conversation with even a stranger.
notice how even the story has a lot of 相 (xiang - yearning, missing) going on....
and whose name has the character 柳 (liu - willow) in it?
only xiang liu 相柳
https://www.reddit.com/r/CDrama/comments/1llyisc/shanghai_magnolia_awards_2025_winners_and_nominees/
so of course she always returned to jing.... not because she chose him or really wanted to, but because he was practically the only one still within reach. the other person (xiang liu) always pushed her away.
xiao yao often told xiang liu, "why did you choose this path?" "would you still choose this path if xxx?" "if not for hong jiang, you wouldn't bear the burden of chenrong and be cang xuan's enemy" "i really wished it was me who saved you from the slave arena back then."
clearly, she wished he was *free* and not *her family's* enemy. if her wishes were the reality, do you think xiao yao would've still ended up with jing?
the FL here (xiao yao) has severe abandonment issues stemming from childhood. as a result, she wants someone who'll never abandon her and will always put her first no matter what. so you kinda have to view the MLs as people who the FL *could* end up with depending on how their relationship evolves and if they meet her requirements, rather than as just one ML who she *will* end up with.
cang xuan loves FL romantically but she only sees him as a brother. she still loves and cares for him VERY deeply though.
feng long and FL are more like good buddies. neither of them love the other romantically, but he is an option in case her relationships with the other MLs don't work out.
so really, only tushan jing and xiang liu are considered the FL's romantic love interests (who she loves or loves most between them is up to interpretation).
xiao yao's character and this story in general is far too complex to be seen through a black or white lens. that being said though, i do believe she loved one of them much more deeply than the other, whether she acknowledges/admits it.
for someone with trust issues and emotional scars, this girl rarely ever made the first move. yet what did she do for xiang liu? gave him many chances, made poisons for him, apologized to him, tried to cheer him up, and crafted that crystal ball as a plead for him to come take her away before her wedding to feng long.
she still cared for xiang liu, successfully planted the lovers bugs with him, considered him as a marriage prospect, and kept memories of *only him* in her mirror, despite how "cold" he treated her and being fully aware that they're on opposite sides (even reminded by her father, grandfather, and cang xuan).
compare that to how she treated jing. she got frustrated whenever he failed to do something, left when he messed up without giving him a chance to explain, and never recorded him in her mirror, despite him being her literal boyfriend and knowing he was a "kind" person. imagine if jing did a sliver of the "cruel" things xiang liu did; xiao yao would've been out the door.
all of this makes her feelings for xiang liu feel much more genuine and stronger than her feelings for jing, in my opinion. you can always learn to love someone but it's tough to forget the one *you* loved.
it's rare for me to find an MDL actor pic that i genuinely like
original: https://v.douyin.com/gMowJwGocDk/
edited with tjc's dance: https://v.douyin.com/_y-7gAezJ-I/
some of other xth's take on the trend:
https://v.douyin.com/87yuNrDkPw8/
https://v.douyin.com/BYo3-RwcRgU/
https://v.douyin.com/zjQsYhSRHwA/
a wonderful drama worth watching. there are many cases but because they're so well-paced, they don't feel too dragged out.
tan jianci and jin shijia did great ofc but i'd also like to applaud the acting from the side characters, particularly the perpetrators and some victims from the cases. many thanks to them portraying their characters so well that the cases felt real and the overall show immersive.
not a major issue but the ending felt a little rushed. i'd have loved to see a final interaction with the whole crew ☹ not a just-shenyi-and-ducheng scene and then a rest-of-the-police-team scene.
the ad placements though ;D li han's really promoting those drinks hahaha
and that last scene- shen yi has an alter ego or twin??