#six!

Those scenes are:

the maid scene (ch70 – ep31)

The maid was carefully combing [Wen Kexing’s] hair, until she suddenly wasn’t careful and pulled a strand of his hair. The man slightly creased his brow, and she promptly thudded into a kneel; her entire body shook like a thin leaf in a huge storm, voice like spider silk. “Valley Master… I…” He gently reached out to lift up her chin, only to see the maiden’s face turn white with fright. He thus sighed. “Why, was someone offended? Did another force you to attend to me as a scapegoat?” A smile was put upon her face, uglier than crying, as she forced herself to talk. “Serving you, Valley Master, is… is this slave’s good fortune, is…” Eyes cooling down, he let her go. “If you’re unhappy, say so. If I were you, I certainly wouldn’t be willing to come throw my life away in the presence of a great devil. And yet, you actually…” He glanced at the girl who shook like a sieve, about to be scared to death, and suddenly stopped talking, losing interest in speaking with her. Standing up, he leaned over to pick up the comb that had fallen to the floor, then waved her off. “You can go.”

Cao Weining’s death (ch73 – ep35)

Cao Weining took a few steps forwards, then knelt, using his knees to crawl up before him. Mo Huaiyang looked at him with complicated emotions, shut his eyes, then put his hand on his head with a sigh, as if he was still a little child. “In your generation… I’ve cherished you the most.” The other choked up. “Shifu, I…” He couldn’t speak further, as this scene of tender emotions suddenly changed its tune. No one had expected that after Mo Huaiyang finished saying that sentence, his hand that was caressing the top of Cao Weining’s head would suddenly exert its strength without warning, pressing down upon his crown with the force of ten thousand catties.

In the novel, Mo Huaiyang kills Weining for publicly defending Gu Xiang after she was outed as a Ghost in a performance of righteousness in front of other jianghu ‘heroes’, so that Weining’s actions don’t prevent him from snatching leadership from Zhao Jing; in the show, he kills Weining privately instead, though perhaps for similar reason. Also, in the novel the scene happens outside the Valley – XiangNing having a wedding in the Ghost Valley is show-only; and the manner of killing is slightly different. But the general outline of the scene – Mo Huaiyang pretending to accept Cao Weining’s choice, then suddenly killing him when nobody expected it – is the same.

Gu Xiang’s death (ch75 – ep35)

“Ah… Xiang?” Her head was on his chest. Forcefully lifting it up, she gave him a smile, breath like gossamer. “Master, I said I was going to kill him, but that was a bluff. I don’t… have the skill… kill him for me, I’m begging you… kill him… for me.” He nodded woodenly. Gu Xiang looked pained, and she felt aching, cold all over. It was like all of her warmth was pouring out of her back. She had to hold tightly onto his lapels, like a little girl. “It’s f-fine if I die… Brother Cao definitely would have wanted me to live well… but I… I’m not going to… be able to… Master…” Wen Kexing covered her head with his bloodied hand. “Don’t call me Master,” he said, gentle. “Call me gege.” She attempted to force a smile, but failed. No longer obeying her, her limbs began to spasm, and her eyes gradually unfocused. “Gege, you have to… kill him… for me…”

In the novel Gu Xiang gets injured tackling Wen Kexing out of the way of a deadly attack, while in the show her injuries are from her fight with Mo Huaiyang, but the dialogue between her and Wen Kexing is fairly close.

Wen Kexing hunting down Mo Huaiyang (ch76 – ep35)

Mo Huaiyang believed himself to have escaped. He had fled more than half a shichen away from Fengya before he sighed in relief, yet, all of a sudden, a burst of rustling noises came to his ears. He quickly lifted his head up, then immediately took a huge step backwards in fright. Wen Kexing was like the King of Hell come to life. His pace was slow as he exited the other end of the forest. In one of his hands was a sword he had picked up from some unknown dead person, and its tip dragged as he walked over, step by step. “Sect Leader Mo,” he said. “This humble one was entrusted with seeing you off on your journey, if you please.”

The fight itself is slightly different: novel Wen Kexing at this point is already tired and badly injured, “hauling along half of his immobile body”, having fought against jianghu experts for over four hours (at minimum) – thus, he kills Mo Huaiyang quickly, while apologizing to Gu Xiang in his heart that he couldn’t give him worse death. In the show, Wen Kexing actually acquires most of his injuries while ensuring Mo Huaiyang suffers as much as he made Gu Xiang suffer before her death.

“There’s light...” (ch77 – ep35)

Wen Kexing stared at [Zhou Zishu] for a minute, entranced, then began to smile, reaching a hand up high to grab the air. Zhou Zishu frowned. “What are you doing?” “There’s… light around you,” Wen Kexing whispered. “I’m catching it so I can see.”

Few differences in a lead-up to the scene: 1) Zhou Zishu actually cuts off Scorpion’s hand in the novel, as opposed to just holding him at swordpoint; 2) Zhou Zishu’s response to Wen Kexing’s whispered “Idiot, why did you come here?” in the show is “To die with a lunatic like you”, while in the novel it is “To collect your corpse, you loon” – the show’s line plays off previous instances of WenZhou talking about dying together, while the novel’s leans on previous instances of Zhou Zishu calling Wen Kexing ‘madman’ as an endearment; 3) the show, maneuvering around censorship as it was, has different versions of Zhou Zishu’s line to the Scorpion (VO, actual line spoken, several variations of subs) – in the novel, the line goes “You dare act against who’s mine?” Also, in the show this line goes before the exchange from (2), while in the novel it is right after it.

The show also cuts the scene right after “there’s light” fragment, while in the novel Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing talk for a while more.

Going back to make graves for Wen Kexing’s parents (extra1 – ep34)

“Ah-Xu, after this bout, you’ll be fully recovered,” [Wen Kexing] said, after a long time of staring blankly. “Will you go with me for a trip down the mountain?” Zhou Zishu shut his eyes in rest, giving an mn at that. “I’m pretty much done with it right now, I can go. What are you going to do?” Wen Kexing was silent. The other waited for a long while. Feeling this a bit strange, he opened his eyes and tilted his head — gazing straight at him, the man still looked like his mind was wandering somewhere beyond the sky. “What is it?” Wen Kexing’s eyelids trembled, and he managed out a smile. “It’s nothing. Back then, my parent’s corpses were aired out in the wilderness, and they didn’t even get a monument. I’ve been unfilial. For over twenty years, I’ve never gone back to take a look. I should probably…”

You may notice that this scene is in a completely different place chronologically in the show compared to the novel.

In the show, Zhou Zishu is hiding that he removed the nails and hastened his death at the time of this scene, which means he won’t actually be able to go with Wen Kexing, so the scene is rather tragic on all sides. In the novel, however, this scene only happens after Zhou Zishu had woken up from his nail-removing surgеry and recovered from it. Which is honestly a good thing, as this scene is actually a lead-up to (I’m skipping a part for brevity, before anyone gets the wrong idea) WenZhou making love for the first time.

...Aaaaand that’s it. Literally, in episodes 29-36 these are the only scenes from the novel. The rest of the show’s finale is straight up original.

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