the untamed/chen qing ling/mdzs replies
three--rings said: The novel has they traveling and night-hunting as a married couple with Cloud Recesses as a home base. So yeah.
Oh, nice! Yeah, that seems like a very plausible ending for CQL as well. WWX was annoyed by all the rules when he was in the Cloud Recesses the first time, but he seemed very nostalgic and much more fond of it when he woke up there after his resurrection. Though I suppose part of that is that The Rules are not being enforced with the same kind of fervency on him as they were when he was a student studying there.
three--rings said: So specifically he’s referring to the final confrontation at Nightless City, where (in the drama) WWX died. It’s a little fuzzy in the drama but LWJ does fight with WWX to get him to back down, so he’s saying he wishes he had stood up for him to the rest of the world instead. In the novel it’s more complicated because LWJ is trying to protect people from WWX who after JYL’s death specifically just murders a shitload of people. Then he collapses, and LWJ grabs him.
Oh, right, the whole descending gracefully from the night sky with his zither! Yeah, that makes a lot of sense as a flashpoint of regret. It was obvious how little LWJ wanted to fight WWX in that moment, but he seemed to feel like it was his only chance of getting close enough to reach him and it's easy to imagine him thinking of other ways later, in 20/20 hindsight. I am definitely very interested to get to read this part in the novel, as I do adore mostly-blameless drama WWX but I have zero issues with him as a darker character than the drama made him and there are scenes I've read references to that I'm intrigued to read in context.
