AH

Once their army is fully wiped out, Gong Gong and XL would have no further means to fight for that cause. In theory, Gong Gong would hopefully be able to let go of his cause at that point. But more likely he would end his life, if he wasn't dead already.

At least he tried to get a straight answer there for once? ^^" Especially after the pain of her earlier "you're not a man who should be in a young lady's dreams" answer.

I think the drama should follow the novel faithfully (including fully covering everything XL does the way he does it in the novel and how XY feels about him). I have my own ideas about possible alt. endings but only to entertain in my own mind. I don't think they would work perfectly for an on-screen adaptation. I've already posted those here.

He's a Jade Mountain person. As far as I'm aware, he hasn't been introduced yet unless he was included in XY's childhood scenes.

Of course she doesn't outright say it, but that's the very heavy implication.

And in chapter 26 (when she spent a day and a night with XL in the ocean being distracted from her heartache), XY thinks to herself that (if it were possible) she'd like to spend the rest of her life like that.

There are a few other occasions where the novel makes a point of noting her having similar feelings.

You're welcome :)

As someone who has spent a lot of time thinking about possible alternative endings, IMO, it would be very hard to just have alternative endings for the last episode. You'd need to make pretty big (and conflicting) plot changes earlier on in the drama to make a satisfying ending for a different ship vs. the original endgame ship.

This makes her sound so healthy, but loving more than one man literally gives her a splitting headache in chapter 32 (not to mention all the other troubles it causes her).

I mean, in the novel XL tells XY right before he wakes her up that TSJ is dying. And then he disappears before she wakes up and his condor takes her as close as it can to TSJ. He really does everything he can to make sure XY thinks about TSJ and not him when she wakes up. And then she finds out about the deal he made with ZX and really believes it was all a transaction to XL. And lastly, when they finally go back to the ocean together she can tell that XL doesn't want her to know about the things he said while she was healing, so she pretends she wasn't conscious to hear it and resolves to bury the memories.

So many nails were needed for that coffin.

XY is in a bad mood for a while after being whisked away from the wedding. Not because she's mad about not marrying FL or that XL is the one who takes her away, but because XL chose to do it in the middle of the wedding ceremony (the most public option that would bring XY and FL the most shame) instead of earlier, even though he knew she was marrying FL two months beforehand. The weather also turns cold.

XL gives XY strong alcohol to warm her up, lift her mood, and loosen her tongue (she had been avoiding speaking to him). Then he asks if she wanted to marry FL. Silence. He asks if she wants to marry TSJ. Yes. He hesitates and asks who she most wants to spend her life with. This is where you pause and supply your preferred answer (and if you're a YaoLiu shipper - the answer that seems to be in XY's heart), and then have XY end up with the person that she names at this point.

In the novel, XY's mind fights so hard to not express the sentiment in her heart that when XL uses his powers to try to prompt her to answer (on top of the alcohol loosening her tongue), she gets a splitting headache. XL obviously pulls back as soon as she's in pain, so she isn't forced to answer. XL tucks XY into bed and ensures that she does not remember his questions when she wakes up the next morning.

Oh there is a scene right after that would be a nice launching point for your own ending if you pause at just the right moment.

Blame Sir Bi for keeping his biggest secrets.

Yes. XY mentions it in chapter 26, several chapters after the 37 years of healing chapter (chapter 22).

"Bird guy" is easily the funniest description of XL I've seen yet.

Not sure what else it would be called, but it's an older drama so it might be harder to find now.

Oh okay. Thanks for clarifying. That's quite the tweak they made.

The next chapter does mention that XL stops showing up to hang out after the charcoal incident. That was pretty crazy of her.

Yes, for the poison making they don't spell it out in the drama as much as in the novel. Initially XY thinks the poisons are meant for XL's enemies, so she makes them too noticeable to be used to secretly poison someone. But eventually she connects the dots and realizes that XL is consuming them himself, at which point she switches and starts making them taste bad.

There's a bit of chapter 2 of the novel that isn't included in the drama that I wanted to share.

The second time XL and XY meet face-to-face is at the wedding at XY's clinic. There, XY tells XL "I am scared of loneliness. I can't find a constant forever then a temporary companion is fine." Then XY gives XL poisoned wine, which he drinks. After some back-and-forth, XL asks "Do you really want to poison me to death?" and XY says "I am not a soldier in the Xuan Yuan army, you and I don't have a blood feud, I just want to whip you 80 to 100 times." XL responds "Dream on in this lifetime." Has another sip of the poisoned wine, and leaves. (Their second meeting and they already have enough of a rapport to joke like that!) That part is covered in the drama, but the next part is not.

"After Ma Zi's wedding, Nine Lives Xiang Liu would occasionally come and sit in the clinic courtyard and drink a few cups of Xiao Liu's wine and nibble on a few of Xiao Liu's snacks. When he left his face never even changed expressions and his heartbeat never once skipped a beat. Xiang Liu's very attitude of not taking Xiao Liu seriously is exactly what pissed Xiao Liu off."

At this point, XL doesn't know that XY's blood can heal him. He doesn't know about XY being locked in a cage by the 9 tailed fox or that she loves to swim. He's only met her twice and only knows that XY called herself a discarded person with no one to rely on, that she is afraid of loneliness, and that she is someone who can joke with him. So he goes out of his way to spend time with her and amuses himself by pushing her buttons (by having the gall to drink her poison in front of her and not die).

I feel like it's little changes like this omission that make it harder to see XL falling for XY before he suggests transferring the poisonous bug in the drama.

That makes sense. It would be very difficult to depict XY's perspective from the novel (hearing, touch and sensations, but no sight - just darkness).

Yep!

You're welcome :)