AH

He didn't wear this in S1, did he? If not, I wonder if this is from the episode that will adapt the scenes from chapter 35.

I applaud your language skills. I lived in mainland China briefly a long time ago and picked up tiny bit of basic Mandarin while I was there, but it's been so long I've forgotten pretty much all of the little that I had back then. I lived in Singapore for a short while a bit more recently, but I didn't gain back any Mandarin while I was there (I should've done more Karaoke! ^^). So I am very grateful to the fluent readers and speakers who take the time to do thoughtful translations and share them with other fans.

Royal cousins could marry in Dahuang. In the prologue to Once Promised (the novel prequel to Lost You Forever), Tong Hua draws on several characters from Chinese mythology to build her world. She says that the world of Dahuang was created by the god Pan Gu, who had three subordinates: Sheng Nong, Gao Xing and Hua Xu. Hua Xu had two children: Fu Yi and Nu Wa. Although they were siblings, they ended up being crowned Emperor and Empress and were husband and wife. There's more to their story, but the TL;DR takeaway is that there is a very clear precedent for royal deity siblings to marry and rule together in Dahuang. So royal deity cousins marrying and ruling together wouldn't be impossible.

And more importantly, when Xiao Yao said that she would marry Cang Xuan when she grew up (in the novel and in the trailer scene you mentioned), she said it very innocently as a child. When she grows up, I don't think she really ever saw Cang Xuan as someone who could be her husband.

And on a final note, the version of that scene in the trailer is different from the version of that scene in the drama (at least the versions on Viki and Youtube). In those versions, Xiao Yao never promises to marry Cang Xuan. She only declares that she will be his MeiMei.

The existence of romantic feelings between Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao doesn't mean there cannot also be romantic feelings between Tushan Jing and Xiao Yao.

XY and XL's relationship is definitely complicated. XL knew WXL was lying about being a man and that WXL was using a false form, and that WXL was refusing to reveal her true identity to him. XL knew there were spies in his military camp that wanted to kill him. The safest option would've been to kill WXL on suspicion of being a spy. But WXL's moment of vulnerability (about being a discarded person who can't protect themselves, doesn't have somewhere else to go, and doesn't have anyone else to rely on) seemed to strike a chord with him.

XL spared WXL's life on the condition that XY must become his person and make poisons for him (not a difficult task for her). But when WXL tests XL limits, XL uses the whippings and stepping on WXL's wounded back (truly an upsetting scene) to re-assert his authority.

XL's roughness continues for quite a while, but ironically it sort of frees WXL. Because XL crosses lines with his roughness, WXL can push boundaries too. WXL can joke about wanting to whip XL. WXL can slap XL's face while he's healing and draw all over it with charcoal. WXL can tease XL about his nine heads... and WXL can be emotionally vulnerable with XL. She can talk honestly about the darkest moments of her life that she had never shared with anyone before. Her vulnerable moments bring out XL's softer side, and he has his own moments of honesty and vulnerability too. And he willingly accepts her Lovers' Bug, knowing what it is and what that means. I found their connection quite compelling. Even more so later in the story when another layer is added to it.

Overall, Xiao Yao, Xiang Liu, Tushan Jing and Cang Xuan are all people who endured traumas that left each of them with issues and none of their relationships are particularly healthy as a result. But even though they aren't healthy (and perhaps *because* they aren't healthy) their relationships are definitely interesting.

"@AH Okay, the next time it happens, I'll try to write it. It's not like it changes the context, but the subtitle summarizes like 3-4 sentences in Chinese into a very short sentence."

Oh that's interesting. A shame that international viewers will miss out on that much detail and nuance.

"@AH Oh one more thing I realized, when they say 哥哥 妹妹 , pronounced as GeGe MeiMei, it's translated as cousins. I haven't finished the series yet, they may be cousins I'm not sure. But in Chinese culture, we call people who are elder or younger as 哥哥 弟弟 妹妹 姐姐 out of respect, may or may not be blood related."

That's not surprising, unfortunately. Often subtitlers will just use names rather than translating those types of relationship-indicating titles from Mandarin and Korean. I guess they're assuming a significant number of subtitle viewers won't have that cultural context. A bit annoying for those that do have the context.

"I'm confused coz XiaongLiu kissed XiaoLiu in the water drowning, so the FL is having a romance with the 3rd lead? I was thinking the first make lead, but maybe they're related, I'm not sure."

Xiang Liu offering to have the Love Bug transferred to him didn't clue you in? ^^ Some viewers (mostly Tushan Jing fans) don't interpret the story as portraying romantic feelings between Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao. But I think most viewers take the view that it does portray romantic feelings between them, in addition to the romantic feelings that Xiao Yao and Tushan Jing have for each other and the romantic feelings that Cang Xuan has for Xiao Yao.

Cang Xuan and Xiao Yao are blood-related cousins in the novel, but in the drama it's not clear whether they're meant to be blood related or not. There are more details about that topic here: https://kisskh.at/discussions/lost-you-forever/120191-are-cang-xuan-and-xiao-yao-blood-relatives-in-the-drama

Thanks for saying that ^^

I hope you enjoy the rest of the novel!

Yes, IMO the drama should have emphasized the look much more. The way they did it was so subtle, it’s no wonder many viewers were confused.

In fairness, in the novel, Tong Hua does not write “He glanced behind Xiao Yao and saw Jing and then smirked.” She only wrote that FFB glanced behind XY. The reader has to put together why she mentioned the glance at all in that moment. Tong Hua often forces her readers to read between the lines.

The drama is similar. We only briefly see FFB looking past XY. And in the moment I timestamped (the first pan to FFB after he withdraws his hand, not the second), that look isn’t emphasized or made obvious. There are no clues for viewers to grab onto to infer that FFB sees TSJ with that look. Especially for someone watching the scene for the first time without context from the novel. In that case, the viewer wouldn’t even know that TSJ was about to enter the scene.

But the drama doesn’t have a narrator who can conspicuously mention the glance and make the viewers question why it was mentioned. So if a viewer hasn’t read the novel, it’s very difficult to understand why the scene plays out the way that it does.

Unfortunately it’s not the only scene in the drama that was adapted in a confusing way (e.g., missing important details from the novel).

NF as in Netflix? If you feel like sharing any examples, I’d be interested in reading about them. I’d bet other fans relying on subtitles would too.

This is reminding me of our conversation about Moon Lovers. Definitely don’t watch that one. ^^

And yet here you are looking ^^”

You're welcome ^^

I remember when episode 34 first aired, I thought they had changed the scene from how it was portrayed in the novel. Only when I went back and replayed the scene in the drama moment by moment as I followed along with the scene in the novel did I see that the same details were still there, just harder to catch.

Thanks Kokuto ^^

You're welcome ^^

Now that you mention it, I have a feeling this story will still have an emotional chokehold on a few of us ten years from now. ^^"

The story mainly follows the trajectory of XY and CX. The author considers CX to be the main male lead of the story, even though he doesn't end up with XY in the end.

CX has known XY since their childhood and she is by his side the longest. TSJ and XL also have important roles to play, but the plot doesn't follow their stories as closely.

Okay yes, that is harder to believe. How can you resist watching?

You're missing out on the super angsty foreshadowing. ^^

Lol. It's one of the linked posts from my "Links to Questions and Answers from the Main Comment Thread" discussion topic ^^ So it's easy to find again.

Also, I cannot believe it's been 2 months since that episode aired. Time flies.

Are there any scenes in particular where the original dialogue is far better / more meaningful than the subtitles? I'd love to know more about the original dialogue!

There is a detailed post on this topic with context from the novel here: https://kisskh.at/44985-lost-you-forever#comment-14262327. The first one under the spoiler cover.

I'm dying. Why does this feel like it was written by grown up Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way... but also Dug from Up? ^^