Love Better than Immortality (天雷一部之春花秋月): Episode 13

~ The past is revealed – What is Chief Xiao’s relation with Qian Yue Cave? ~

Synopsis:

Xiao Bai enters his father’s room only to find him dead from a cut on his wrist and shouts in despair. Chun Hua hears this from outside and quickly runs to him, leaving Qiu Yue alone. Qiu Yue then calls out Ye Xing Zhu who had been watching them from the shadows the whole time and surprisingly, he hadn’t noticed her presence until Chun Hua’s departure. They then had a short exchange where Qiu Yue comments that since Xiao Bai had already learned the Xin Fa, there was no point in stealing it anymore. When Qiu Yue asked what they should do with Chun Hua, Ye Xing Zhu replied that they should kill Chun Hua as per their usual protocol. Qiu Yue rejects it, saying that Chun Hua was too interesting and that it would be a waste to kill her. He resolves to make her useful, refusing to hear anything else from Ye Xing Zhu.

The next day, at Chief Xiao’s funeral, the mysterious man appeared again. His identity is revealed to be Yin Shan Faction’s Li Jian Ling. Chun Hua’s ice silkworm pearl then glowed so she slipped away to find Qiu Yue. When she found him, she told him that everyone was saying that Qiu Yue killed Chief Xiao but she doesn’t believe them because she saw Chief Xiao pouring away his medicine. Chun Hua then questioned whether the man who had disrupted the funeral was sent by him and Qiu Yue denies being acquainted with Chief Xiao. They then returned to the hall to eavesdrop on what Chief Li had to say from the outside.

24 years ago, Chief Li and Chief Xiao were poisoned and chased by Xing Yue’s servants. They accidentally intruded into the ice valley that was near Qian Yue Cave and were saved by Shang Guan Hui. Chief Li quickly recovered but Chief Xiao’s condition was critical. By coincidence, Hui realised that her stone lotus could neutralise the poison in his body. Both men soon recover and were planning to leave but Hui told them to either stay with her and live properly or she will kill them if they tried to leave.

Hearing this, Chun Hua turned around to ask Qiu Yue if he saw any similarities between him and Hui, internally thinking that their attitude of thinking that they are the center of the world was the same. Qiu Yue replied that they were different, he wasn’t as foolish as Hui.

Inside the main hall, Chief Feng commented that Hui was a demon girl from Qian Yue Cave and would without question, be cruel and savage by nature. Chief Li retorts that Hui had never hurt anyone, asking Chief Feng if the souls that had died by his sword were even countable. Cai Cai rebutts saying that Chief Xiao’s actions were righteous, commending his ability to do what was right even when faced with his benefactor, to which Xiao Bai agreed with. Chief Li retorts that Xiao Bai and Cai Cai were an excellent pair – an excellent pair of hypocrites.

At this, Qiu Yue teases Chun Hua on the first point (excellent pair), asking if she felt the same. In contrast to his playfulness, Chun Hua replied that she could understand what Hui wanted.

Chief Li continues his story – Xiao Yuan had told Hui about their tradition of spending the Mid-Autumn Festival with family and had promised to bring her to see the Lotus Lanterns that year. Hui then gave Xiao Yuan her Stone Lotus and with it, Xiao Yuan finally managed to master the Xiao Xiao Feng Ming Sword’s last move and told Hui that he had to leave to deal with some matters but promised to be back by the fifteenth day of the eighth month to see the lanterns with her. As Xiao Yuan looked at Hui, the Feng Ming Sword started to emit heartbeat-like sounds and Chief Li explains that the Feng Ming Sword was so powerful that it took ‘becoming one’ to another level – When the sword’s master faces the person he likes, the sword will emit heartbeat-like sounds.

Qiu Yue’s gaze hardened as he asked Chun Hua if Xiao Bai’s Feng Ming Sword had ever responded to her. Chun Hua retorts that Xiao Bai had just mastered the last move and Qiu Yue throws another question at her, asking if she looked forward to it sounding. Looking frustrated and fed-up, Qiu Yue left, saying that Hui’s foolishness caused her own death, it was meaningless to listen any further. In the main hall, the other Chiefs validated Chief Li’s story, saying that many years ago, Chief Xiao had returned suddenly and had also mysteriously learned the Sword’s last move which had been lost for many years. Even so, Chief Xiao didn’t seem to be happy at all.

Chief Li continues that on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the good sects attacked Qian Yue Cave as planned and killed the leader, Hui’s brother. Chief Li had tried to help Hui escape but was overpowered by the good sects and Hui was taken away. When he returned with Chief Xiao to look for Hui, she was nowhere to be found, only bloodstains were left. Chief Li was then pushed off a cliff but survived with a marred face and lived on with the sole goal of getting revenge on Xiao Yuan. Chief Li denies the other chief’s accusations that he had killed Chief Xiao, telling them that Xiao Yuan had cowardly committed suicide. He had only given Xiao Yuan the Xuan Bing Poison to give him a taste of how Hui had felt. Now that Chief Xiao was dead, Chief Li didn’t have anything else to live for and ended his life in front of everyone.

After this, Xiao Bai was very disturbed and stayed by himself for the rest of the day. Night soon came around and the remaining four – Chun Hua, Liu Feng, Cai Cai & Leng Ning – were taking a stroll in the courtyard when they came across an abandoned game of chess that had it’s pieces laid out in an interesting manner. Liu Feng commented that it was similar to Chief Xiao and Hui’s story – a single black piece (Hui) opposite another white piece (Chief Xiao), surrounded by white pieces along the edges of the board. As usual, Cai Cai’s stance was that the white piece shouldn’t forget his position and should kill the black piece for the peace of the world. Chun Hua commented that since the black and white piece had already decided to be together, they should stand by each other no matter what happened. Liu Feng added that feelings weren’t so easily differenciable like black and white, otherwise Hui’s story wouldn’t have happened. Halfway through their conversation, Xiao Bai had walked in on them but it was only now that Leng Ning notices him. Xiao Bai then quickly left without a word.

Thoughts:

Woah. That was dramatic. We could probably base a whole drama around Chief Xiao and Hui’s story but no one would want to watch that because it’s obviously a tragic ending. I also almost died laughing when I saw Hui because – 1) she’s also in Prodigy Healer as the other girl who liked Hong Yi’s character 2) Chief Xiao is wayyyy too old for her 3) Her hairstyle is horrible! Why is her fringe so high up!? On another note, I’m really curious as to who Hui is to Qiu Yue. My best guess from all the clues we have is that Hui is Qiu Yue’s mother but that would make Qiu Yue and Xiao Bai half brothers?! Unless if both Hui and Xiao Yuan got together with different people – I can totally see Hui doing that because Xiao Yuan’s betrayal would’ve totally killed her belief in love but it’s different for Xiao Yuan. Despite what he did to her, I can tell that he still loved her…so does that mean that he married some other random woman (Xiao Bai’s mum) to fufill his duty to continue the family line, which sheds a whole new light on why he had never taken a second wife after his first wife died.

And I was wondering why Qiu Yue had a sudden change of heart, being so chill and letting the Xin Fa go. It turns out he doesn’t need it anymore…which also explains why he was so calm and smiley when confronting her about it in the last episode. Hmm…now I’m confused.

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♢  Lyrics for “Unfinished Moment”  ♢