The Land of Tender and Its Far-Reaching Impact: a Revised TGCF Meta, pt. 1
Ok, so one of my favorite arcs now is the revised land of warmth and tenderness, and it has everything to do with how it connects back to our very first arc: the ghost bridegroom mission. In this post, I’ll be talking specifically about Xiao Ying and swing back around to the other stuff (BAI WUXIANG) in another.
Xiao Ying’s character in the revised already gets a massive overhaul. Rather than her being some unfortunately “ugly” village girl who dies so that ghost child Lang Ying can eventually be taken in by Xie Lian, now she is the local god of Yujun Mountain whose shrine the Xianle trio come across at the beginning of the ghost bridegroom arc. She prays to Feng Xin, the god with the nearest temple, for help, puts her life on the line to save the idiotic and violently misogynistic village men, and ultimately dissipates, leaving behind the single cold steamed bun that Xie Lian had offered to her altar. This is all in contrast to her added backstory in the vol. 2 flashback: a prideful princess of the imperial clan who spurned Xie Lian as her god after he seemingly spurned her as a potential consort. This Xiao Ying is known for her beauty and arrogance in equal parts and has the reputation of being "the only woman in the world who doesn't worship the Flower-Crowned God." So, how do these two arcs play off of each other?
When we first meet Xiao Ying, she is a local god without any followers, her shrine rundown and long-abandoned. When Xie Lian pays his respects, even Fu Yao and Nan Feng tell him there's no use, but he still leaves an offering. Later, during the reveal that Xiao Ying is actually the local god, she continues to hint that she knows Xie Lian, these being her last words before dissipating:
But Xiao Ying just gave a faint smile and said, “There’s no use in coaxing me, Your Highness, the Crown Prince.”
Xie Lian blinked, “You…?”
Xiao Ying’s smile deepened, “Why are you still like this, ah?”
Xie Lian stared blankly, “Do you know me?”
Xiao Ying, smile clear and bright, said, “Who doesn’t know His Highness, the Crown Prince?”
Following this, she seemed to subtly knit her eyebrows, muttering, “It’s just a pity, I still can’t help on your—”
—Chapt. 10: A Ghost Marries a Crown Prince on a Bridal Sedan 8 (revised), translation mine
With these words, it feels very... sad and maybe even downtrodden, that she felt that, despite all her effort and care, she was still useless, which feels out of line with mxtx's usual hopeful endings tied to good, resilient side characters. However, her vol. 2 appearance seems to recontextualize this. As mentioned before, Xiao Ying is known as the only woman not to worship Xie Lian, and this spite is born purely of the humiliation she suffered at being stood up for an appointed matchmaking. But years (and one slap) later, Xie Lian rescues her from Lang Ying, treats her kindly and warmly, and does not retaliate against her for any of the supposed slights between them. The man she'd likely built up in her head as full of himself and unworthy of her regard proved to be a genuinely selfless, benevolent person. Then some time after this, Xiao Ying ascends and Xie Lian falls and, much, much later, Xiao Ying declines and Xie Lian ascends again (twice). And not only does he ascend for a third time, he, the newly ascended god, pays his respects to her, a god way past the description of "decline" who'd once refused him the same courtesy as a mortal. Thus, I don't think that the thing that Xiao Ying accepted that caused her to dissipate was the idea that her actions and efforts didn't matter but that a person can only matter if they have inherent value, like a princess or a god.
Xie Lian treated Xiao Ying with the same level of care and respect no matter what rank she was, even when the people who would have had to bow to her before—like the mortal Feng Xin and Mu Qing, or the villagers—treated her like shit when she was a "nobody." Xiao Ying's revelation wasn't that she was useless but that Xie Lian really was the real deal, a genuine person who would not change no matter what his status was, a genuine god who did deserve to be worshipped. And while she may have regretted not being of as much use to Xie Lian as she wanted to be, I think the relief that even after 800 years, he was still the same His Highness, the Crown Prince who cared for her gently even after she slapped the dogshit out of him for the first time in his life outweighed any disappointment she had at her own failings. Because it wasn't about her failings; it was always about her being able to protect her people and choosing the right person to put her faith in, someone who would set aside hierarchy to help her as an equal. Xie Lian's consistency in character probably gave her a sense of rightfulness and peace that she likely hadn't felt in a long time, at least not since the "ghost bridegroom" began to haunt her territory while the other gods ignored her requests for assistance. Therefore, I think the thing Xiao Ying let go of wasn't her pride, it was her pridefulness.
