xie lian my beloved ♡

All of this is even heightened by the fact that in the extras, when Xie Lian goes back to the dormant Mt. Tonglu to request help with finding a birthday present for Hua Cheng. Mei Nianqing literally lives beside the mountain where his friends’ spirits live and where Jun Wu is sealed, even though he could live on his own elsewhere.

buckle in for a quick lesson to comprehend the true extent of 2000+ years of yearning:

梅念卿 (mei nianqing) is the alias that guoshi made up in order to become the xianle guoshi. the character for the last name, 梅 (mei), means plum blossoms, and we will get back to it at the end.

念卿 (nianqing) is his chosen given name. the first character, 念 (nian), means "to miss [someone/something], "to yearn/pine, or long for."

for both of those definitions, 念 is most often used as 想念 and 思念

it's quite on the nose, but there aren't really any other interpretations for the first character. however, 卿 (qing) is where it gets super interesting. there are several common usages/meanings associated with the character 卿.

the first is used as a well-known form of address by an emperor towards a close lord or advisor—爱卿 . for those of you who have a bit of background in chinese, you might recognize 爱 as the character for love, but i do have to caution it doesn't have hold romantic suggestion in the typical historical usage (ie. non danmei historical setting). 爱卿 is really just a an affectionate way of referring to an emperor's subordinate that shows trust and closeness, like a very royally sophisticated "you're my bro" (in very, very layman term).

sometimes, in a variation, instead of 爱卿, the emperor will refer to the close subject as "_last name_ + 卿". so for mei nianqing's example, if mei had really been his real last name, jun wu might have once referred to mei nianqing as 梅卿 (mei qing).

on the other hand, the second usage is as an affectionate form of address between husband and wife—卿卿. calling someone in an english equivalent would be something like "dear" or "honey". supposedly, there's a related usage of 卿 that can be used between very good friends, but i have to stress that it's really, typically overwhelmingly romantic in nature.

bonus: the chinese idiom 卿卿我我 is used to describe very intimately affectionate behavior (PDA) between couples.

basically, the character 卿 is used as a way of referring to someone, with different usages referring to different types of "you". think of it like this: one is saying "hey, you [my trusted subordinate]". the other is "hey, you [my dear]".

so together, 念卿 (nianqing) means "to miss [you]". the clever thing about this, though, is that depending on the usage, it could either refer to mei nianqing missing jun wu or the other way around.

the second usage of 卿 (qing) is used equivalently, in both directions, between lovers/"very good" friends. think about how you and your partner can both call each other "dear" or "honey". so the missing 'you' in 念卿 could refer to either person in the relationship.

but for the first usage (爱卿), it is only used by an emperor/prince towards someone lower, so the person being missed must be mei nianqing, since mei nianqing couldn't use 爱卿 to refer to jun wu, who was royal. interestingly, this usage is more likely the intended one, in my opinion, because realistically mei nianqing and jun wu never confirmed that they acknowledged any feelings between them beyond prince-old friend/subordinate and mei nianqing seems lowkey in denial that he's been in a 2000+ year situationship with a ghost king.

"you're not like him [jun wu] in that sense, little highness" my 🏳️‍🌈 ass, but i digress.

now why would mei nianqing name himself something that essentially means to miss himself? it sounds a bit egogistical to assume jun wu misses him? well, maybe, even after wandering for so long, it's not so much a statement, but a silly, foolish hope he still holds that jun wu misses his 爱卿, his old follower and friend.

or, coming back to his chosen last name, 梅 (mei) means plum blossoms, and maybe it does represent jun wu in mei nianqing's heart. but 梅 (méi) is also a homophone of the word 没 (méi), which means "no," or "doesn't." they are homophones down to the same tone.

There is a common misinterpretation among international fans that Xie Lian was mean to Xiao Ying, calling her ugly, or that XL is very mean and sarcastic/critical in general. However, this is a misinterpretation for a few reasons, including mistaking the 3rd Person Narrator's voice for Xie Lian's voice.

1. 3rd Person Omniscient Narration in TGCF

The TGCF novel is written in the 3rd Person Omniscient Perspective, not the 3rd Person Limited Perspective. This means that some parts of the novel are a separate narrator speaking, not XL.

See also this post by @baiwu-jinji about how MXTX often inserts her own thoughts & opinions into the narration, even sometimes in the middle of XL's POV, which gets mistaken for XL's own thoughts.

CN fans also do not perceive XL as mean at all, instead separating the narrator's opinions from XL's. See this tweet from a CN fan that I have translated:

Here is also a good thread by luoreos with examples of when it's the 3rd person narrator speaking, or other characters' thoughts, not XL.

2. MXTX's use of the "吐槽" style of sarcastic, hyperbolic, comedic writing

MXTX has a distinctive writing style that shines through in all her novels' narrations. This is distinct from XL's voice as a character. In SVSSS and MDZS too, you can see how MXTX's writing can have an ironic/sarcastic sense of humor, sometimes exaggerated for comedic effect or coming off harsh in English, but it's not meant to be literal.

See this post written by @baiwu-jinji about the "吐槽" style of chinese comedic writing that MXTX uses, which is exaggerated, hyperbolic and not meant to be taken seriously as the protagonist's actual thoughts.

3. Xiao Ying's character arc

Although the donghua did not portray Xiao Ying as "ugly", in the novel it is clear even in the English translation that Xiao Ying's character was deliberately written by MXTX as objectively having facial features considered very unpleasant by many people, hence being unfairly bullied for it - which is meant to highlight certain themes of the novel regarding injustice. It also is an example of XL's philosophy of treating others with kindness instead of judging them by superficial metrics.

(continued below)

Reminder: A poor little meow meow is a person who is like a sad wet cat and evokes sympathy despite being a little bit evil.

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fan changyu: remarrying can wait, life just goes on.

pursuit of jade :

What does the Fan family's business have anything to do with a matrilocal husband like you? I am currently also part of the Fan family.