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azure7539arts · 1 year ago

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(Sorry, I hope it's okay to reblog your post. Originally, I just wanted to do a short reply, but I don't think that's plausible. Below is just my really long rant about this, but it's purely just my own opinions on the matter.)

First of all, to clarify, the (rough) literal translation of what Nian Baiyu told Tantai Jin when they were both on that cliff is, "Your Majesty, you clearly know what Second Young Miss want to do. Why did you still let her and Xiao Lin go to reunite with Sheng Kingdom's remnants before acting?" It's not too different from the free translation they offered, but this renders the overall sentence more vague, which lends more room to interpret and understand the overall situation.

In my opinion, there are a few reasons why Tantai Jin genuinely thought Ye Xiwu wanted to run away/elope with Xiao Lin, despite what he might or might not have overheard (we don't know the full extent of what he actually did hear).

He had previously witnessed Ye Xiwu lie/downplay things and scheme before, both as her original self and after Li Susu had transmigrated into her body.

He reasonably understood who both Xiao Lin and Ye Xiwu were as people.

His own mistrust in Ye Xiwu and the feelings that she might or might not hold for him.

(3) is self-explanatory, so I won't be going into details about that.

(1) and (2) are compounded reasons, I believe. Tantai Jin, despite his previous lack of emotions, had always been rather (relatively) perceptive in his understanding of people. He observed a lot and analyzed a lot. ("I understand. I understand all of it. I just can't feel it.") Which is understandable because being able to read a person used to be one of his only tools of survival. Such a skill allowed him to mimic Xiao Lin and reach quite a decent understanding of who Xiao Lin was as a person: upstanding, righteous, and considerate—a textbook 君子 (roughly, gentleman), one can say. Xiao Lin, by nature, was not someone who would tolerate anyone doing anything he considered to be "evil" or "unjust." This was the main reason why Xiao Lin used to despise the original Ye Xiwu, because she had been someone vicious and vindictive to a fault in his eyes, on top of also taking pleasure in the suffering of others. (This is not to say that Tantai Jin's understanding of these people had no flaws, but it would not be amiss either to say that he had a pretty good grasp on their baselines, so to speak.)

Tantai Jin used to be able to understand Ye Xiwu as well, up until everything had gotten messed up due to Li Susu's arrival. Li Susu and Ye Xiwu's contrasting personalities had thrown him into a loop, as manifested through his many moments of confusion over her behavior, but later, he most likely had chalked this up to her having changed/grown up as a person and had turned over a new leaf (something which her own family members also had believed to have been the case) and had considered both of these versions to be one and the same (this is important). However, they had three fights with escalating levels during this time as well, with the third one being the poisoning/stabbing incident, and each one of them ultimately served their intended purpose for Tantai Jin (aside from outlining the problems in this relationship).

The first, beginner level one had been their interaction leading up to, during, and after the ship scene, especially the fight they had when she'd rescued him from the riverbank and they'd been squabbling over the death of Jin Lan'an in that hut. This whole thing had informed him that not only was Ye Xiwu extremely reckless, but she also hadn't gotten over the ill-will she had harbored for him and had not forgotten her words about wanting to kill him either. The second, intermediate level one had been their subsequent fight after Ye Xiwu had gone to Xiao Lin's camp behind his back, which had signaled to him that she might yet still be in contact with Xiao Lin, ultimately reminding him of the intense feelings she had once had for the Sixth Prince of Sheng Kingdom. This was something that they never addressed fully, even after they had resolved this fight. But afterward, things had been good for a while—better than ever, even—and it had given him hopes that even if he hadn't asked about it, Ye Xiwu herself must've moved on from it... Until Congee Gate happened, our very own S-level couple fighting of epic proportion. Congee Gate really compounded both previous problems that neither of them had actually worked out that well because they had no proper couple-counseling RIP and turned that shit to the max. The existence of Congee Gate alone had reminded Tantai Jin that: one, Ye Xiwu had literally stated (to Xiao Lin, no less) that she, out of everyone, had hated Tantai Jin the most and had even wanted to kill him even in her dream; and two, Ye Xiwu had once been deeply, obsessively in love with Xiao Lin as well, just barely a year ago.

This, then, rounds back to Xiao Lin and Tantai Jin's understanding of Xiao Lin. Xiao Lin was a good and moral person. Their battle in Tantai Jin's palace had confirmed to Tantai Jin that, really, Xiao Lin had long since accepted the reality that Tantai Jin had become the one true ruling monarch, even over the no-longer existing Sheng Kingdom. For this reason, and for the sake of hard-earned peace, Xiao Lin had silently admitted that, despite the "assassination" attempt, he had no intention of killing Tantai Jin whatsoever, lest everything is plunged into chaos once more. Therefore, it might have made sense to Tantai Jin, in a way, that Ye Xiwu would lie and downplay the severity of Congee Gate to Xiao Lin for the time being. They had previously met in prison where Nian Baiyu had run back to inform Tantai Jin that, during Ye Xiwu and Xiao Lin's little discussion, Xiao Lin had turn away from Ye Xiwu, prompting her to yank him back, before Xiao Lin had eventually put his hand on her face, for some reason. Tantai Jin had no way to know or verify what they had actually talked to one another, but it wouldn't be a stretch for him to presume that they might have tried talking out their plan of escape. Xiao Lin might have disapproved of any plan of actually harming Tantai Jin, but because Ye Xiwu had always been cruel and vindictive (the original version) and had said that she had always hated him the most out of everyone and had wanted to kill him (the Li Susu version). And so she might have gotten reckless and chosen the strongest thing she could get her hands on: mylabris. This, in my opinion, isn't too unreasonable of a line of thought for him, considering that the whole reason why he and Ye Xiwu had been married in Sheng Kingdom at all had been due to the fact that Ye Xiwu had been very reckless and had chosen to poison her own half sister with aphrodisiac—just to get back at her sister and to be closer to Xiao Lin. The only difference now would be that Ye Xiwu now wanted to get back at Tantai Jin instead, while also fulfilling her ultimate goal of getting closer to Xiao Lin.

But, unfortunately for her (he must've thought), Tantai Jin hadn't actually fallen for it. So, to him, it hadn't mattered that Ye Xiwu had kept repeating that she had wanted to return to his side to Xiao Lin, because she might have been downplaying/outright lying about the situation so that Xiao Lin wouldn't have been upset at her for doing such a thing. It wasn't as if she hadn't downplayed or lied about something before to make the situation appear more tolerable to whomever she had been lying to. The most prominent one that Tantai Jin himself had witnessed had been when she had lied to Ye Qingyu about having been there with Tantai Jin throughout the whole wedding procession at Xiao Lin's manor, thus exonerating him from Ye Qingyu's suspicion. On top of this, at the time, she had also downplayed the fact that Tantai Jin himself had been the one who had demanded to learn talisman drawing from her, making it seem like she had dragged him into this instead, just so that Ye Qingyu would stop his line of questioning.

So yes, this is just a round about way of saying that: Tantai Jin thought Ye Xiwu was running away with Xiao Lin because he had assumed that she must've been lying to Xiao Lin about what she had actually done to Tantai Jin. He'd assumed that she'd opted to omit some key facts now so that, by the time they had reunited with the remnants of Sheng and the news about Tantai Jin's death had broken out, Xiao Lin wouldn't have time to be mad at her anyway because, by then, he would've been busy with fighting to become the ruling power over both Sheng and Jing Kingdom. Then, once all had been said and done, and Xiao Lin had become king, it would even seem like Ye Xiwu had made a great contribution to her country and to Xiao Lin's cause.

This, in a way, explains why Nian Baiyu had asked that question up on the cliff: they were operating under the assumption that Ye Xiwu had tried to lethally poison Tantai Jin in an attempt to give Xiao Lin a real chance at uprising and usurping the throne. Hence why Nian Baiyu had been confused about why Tantai Jin had waited until Ye Xiwu and Xiao Lin had reunited with the opposition to make his move, when he could've easily saved himself the trouble and apprehended them on their way to the rendezvous point to quickly thwart a potential revolt in the making.

Well, in my opinion anyway lol Nearly 20 episodes were cut, and we would never know what they originally intended to do with it, or if this line of writing is purely just questionable anyway and I'm just out here mental cartwheeling too hard XD But then I love this show too much, and so I'm willing to give it a pass with this one, considering that, once you line everything up, it does make sense, even if it feels convoluted. But then again, since when has anything ever been simple with Tantai Jin anyway lol

Okay, wait. When Li Susu is escaping with Xiao Lin, she says, "I have to go back. I haven't accomplished my mission. I have to return to his side. But you're right. Tantai Jin will be infuriated if I return now. I will lay low for a while. I'll head back once he cools off. So, where are we heading now?" And Xiao Lin answers, "The south."

And then it cuts to Tantai Jin in his palace, and he repeats, "The south? Do you two intend to leave the Jing Kingdom together?"

But, like, he started doing his voodoo doll thing before that whole conversation between Li Susu and Xiao Lin took place. So he must have heard the whole thing, right? So he must have heard Li Susu say three times that she was going to go back to Tantai Jin's side. So why did he think she was running away with Xiao Lin???

(Later, Nian Baiyu says, "Your majesty, you clearly knew what Miss Xiwu's goal was. Why did you make her stab Xiao Lin?" Tantai Jin then explains that he wants Ye Xiwu to be so hated that she'll have nowhere to go but under his protection. That makes sense. He's so insecure about her feelings for him that he needs to have absolute control over her because he doesn't trust that she'll come back a few days later every time she leaves, so he can't ever let her leave for a few days again, even though she's planning to come back this time. But it still doesn't explain his line from earlier!)

#tteotm #Till the End of the Moon

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