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alias_sqbrMasterlist and Guide
I tried writing a short summary of my feelings but it got so long I'm putting it under it's own cut. tl;dr I liked it!
So at first I felt like the romance kicked in too abruptly, but looking back, she and GouJian can easily be read as being in love by like...chapter 6, I was just caught off guard by the switch to overt romance happening long before the end of the route, and because there's no specific point where her feelings change. But while I am a sucker for a good "OH" moment, I'd rather intense, fraught friendship that naturally slides into romance than, like, "He was a boy, I was a girl, we both wanted to bang, must be love". I found some of the writing disjointed and hard to follow but think that was partly the clunky translation, and partly my unfamiliarity with the genre conventions of Chinese historical RPF.
Since they declare their feelings early I was worried the rest would be dull, or the sort of romantic drama I find annoying. But it turned out the be the kind of romantic drama I ADORE and NOT DULL AT ALL. Especially in the bad ending, which is a great tragedy that made me cry. But I really liked the good ending too, and while the protagonist does end up presenting as a woman again neither she nor GouJian makes a big deal about it.
In general the characters can be sexist, and the setting is aggressively mysogynistic, but the game felt enjoyably un-gender-essentialist. Also while there's never any overt queerness, nobody ever suggests that them appearing to be two men would be an impediment to the romance, even when GouJian thinks she's a man himself. And it's kinda hard NOT to read Fuchai's fiancee as into her to the end.
I read FuChai as agender but caring about social roles: she shows no sign of having any personal preference about presentation beyond doing what is expected, but hates feeling like she's 'neither man nor woman' and having to hide her gender. I feel like in a trans-friendly society she'd be like "I guess I'm agender but eh, woman will do".
All that happens onscreen is few short kisses, which were all initiated by GouJian but definitely welcomed. There is the implication of off-screen consensual sex.
I totally forgot to warn for slavery before but Fuchai is implied to have taken many prisoner-of-war slaves, including GouJian! The power and ethical issues between them get much more complicated than the usual master/slave dynamic but it's still A Thing. While I am sure the writers think slavery is bad, and GouJian stops being a slave, noone in the game ever questions it as an institution and there's zero sign it will stop any time soon. There were a few other times where I winced at the character's historical attitudes or other actions, but was able to roll with it and assume the writers knew it was messed up, YMMV.
Content notes: Violence, fatphobia (in the game), hurtful gender reveal, master-slave relationship, slavery, attempted rape (off-screen)
SPOILERS FROM HERE ON
Chapter 11
The dead messenger was with ChenFeng and ShaoJiang who are both now missing. Meanwhile YiGuang was called away by something urgent.
General Xu Cheng saw the messenger just before he died, and also knew about the plans that got leaked, so I'm guessing he's the mole.
FuChai: You're too injured to help search.
Goujian: Thank you, King of Ng, for your concern. But I'm not your subject so I don't have to follow your orders.
Shouldn't he be using 'we'? Anyway. She wonders why he keeps blowing so hot and cold.
Ok I think I picked up what is being translated as "King of Ng", and it sounds like the single word "Wung", which I'm guessing is "Ng". I vaguely recall from TGCF that referring to Kings as their country's name is a thing between monarchs, I wonder if the lines like "The king is the country" are, like, "Ng is Ng" in Chinese.
CHENFENG ATTACKS
GouJian: Protect the King!
FuChai: Don't hurt him!
ChenFeng blankly says that he thought they were an enemy, and that he is following the assassin who killed the messenger and kidnapped ShaoJiang.
FuChai gets angry and woozy when GouJian's bodyguard is mistrustful of her and negative about her treatment of Yue. I wonder if she is cursed like ChenFeng.
YiGuang comes back, saying he's found signs the Dragon God has infiltrated the secret palace of the Shi clan. Also, he saw ShaoJiang being dragged back to Qi, but the followers threatened to kill her nephew if she escaped, so he just spoke to her in secret. She wants to work to help Ng from Qi.
But she also says the one who handed her over...was ChenFeng.
FuChai why are you accusing him ALONE???
OH LOOK HE KNOCKED HER OUT
ChenFeng reminds a male voice that those who have made a pact with the Sovereign God must obey him, the voice says he refuses to be anyone's slave.
FuChai knocks out ChenFeng with a talisman from YiGuang, then coldly tells the guards to arrest him.
She accuses Goujian of being the mole, based on the voice, and he pulls down his clothes to show a nasty arrow wound and says "The person who put an arrow in my back does not have the right to tell me I'm ungrateful".
He was shot from behind by the Ng army, which he assumes must have been her orders. He expresses his resentment of her father, and Ng. He says she's naive to think they could ever have peace after hundreds of years of blood. She is too angry to think about who did fire the arrow.
FuChai, drawing her sword: If I was going to kill you, I'd do it myself!
GouJian: DO IT THEN
...oh damn, he really is in cahoots with the Dragon God, who he says helped him survive being a slave.
FuChai: You lied to me for three years!
Goujian: So did you! I had so many opportunities to kill Ah-Yu once I realised you were the King. But I didn't. You know why?
FuChai: Shut up!
He steps closer, pressing her sword into his chest. As he starts to bleed he pulls her into his arms and says "Ah-Yu was the only one who treated me like a human being. And was the King of Ng!"
There is so much passion in his eyes that she drops her sword. He pulls the bandages off his chest to reveal scars from years of injuries, evidence of his humiliation and suffering as a slave.
Goujian: If you want to kill me me, then kill me! Kill this traitor, this enemy!
He mutters "Why did you have to be the king of Ng?" and she gives a cry of misery and runs away.
Chapter 12:
A flashback to the day FuChai ordered him to work at Tiger Hill.
Wu ZiXu: He is not a simple person. I still think we should kill him and annihilate Yue.
FuChai: He mortally wounded our father so why wouldn't we want revenge? But Ng does not have the power to manage such a large land.
She goes to meet him, and is shocked by his youth. He is stubbornly unresponsive.
FuChai: It is as the Prime Minister said, he is not an easy wolf to rear. But even the fiercest wolf can be tamed.
As she leaves, she sees a pair of eyes stare at her with intense hatred.
Later:
GouJian notices "A-Yu" has a martial arts injury and says her 'uncle' should be easier on her. But they've both agreed not to talk about their personal circumstances. He says that his life is such a mess of misery it would just sound like he was fishing for sympathy. All they can do is look forward to the future.
She wishes they could drink wine together by the river, and he says they can at least drink water together here and now.
Now:
FuChai wakes from painful dreams.
Which is real: The hatred or the friendship? A-Jiu? Goujian? Or the King of Yue? She feels suffocated by chains of love and hatred.
She goes to the river to drink and recite sad poetry.
GouJian recites a line about a delicate beauty appearing just when wished for, and sits next to her, taking a swig of her wine.
He says this makes him feel nostalgic for the times they drank together in the past. Then he asks why she hasn't killed him.
FuChai: Why did you admit the truth? You've fooled me this long.
GouJian: ...
FuChai: Although I did lie about being a girl, and the king, I was sincere in wanting an alliance between Ng and Yue. Even if you don't believe me, or think I'm naive, my promise still stands. If you want to take your revenge them please wait until I return from my fight in the north to have a fair battle with me.
GouJian, softly: Who keeps their morals in such troubled times? Winning is everything. Ah-Yu, you are silly.
FuChai: You are also silly, Ah-Jiu.
GouJian: Why wait until you return? My army will be with you.
FuChai: You want to join forces against Qi?
GouJian: Since we are both stupid people, I can't think of any better decision than to follow you wherever you go.
This is really lovely but I feel like she should be asking about the details of his deal with the evil dragon god?
General Xu Cheng is retiring to be replaced by FuChai's cousin Prince GuCao.
ChenFeng has escaped! Wu ZiXu has supposedly been arrested back in Gusu for conspiring with the Dragon God?? WTF?? (EDIT: from stuff that happens later I think I misread, and he was imprisoned by Minister Bopi who conspired with the Dragon God to gain power. But I didn't realise that for a while)
YiGuang has found another leg of the true ding: The Azure Dragon Sword.
FuChai: If I hadn't happened to find you again I would have noone left I can trust :(
YiGuang: You don't trust GouJian?
FuChai: I have been sincere with him, but I cannot understand what he is thinking.
YiGuang: You and I, who have experienced great loss, understand how it feels when someone loses everything then gets thrown a lifeline.
FuChai: You think he treasures me?
YiGuang: He despairs of wanting to hold something he can never have.
FuChai: You're only making me more confused.
YiGuang: You will understand when you treasure him as much as he treasures you.
Lucky YiGuang, the other LIs became villains but you get to be the supportive shippy best friend!
Ng marches on Qi with the support of the Kingdom of Lu.
FuChai and GouJian cheerfully figure out battle tactics together. FuChai suggests a risky strategy where GouJian leads an attack that could make him a hero to Ng if it succeeds or worsen mistrust between the countries if it fails.
He takes her hand and starts to say something, then says it's cold and she should rest.
The battle is going ok until the Qi army calls on monsters.
FuChai: YiGuang, go after the summoner while I call on the white tiger! ChenFeng, sound the-
New guard captain: *cough*
FuChai: :( Guard captain, sound the signal to attack!
Oh man I have NOT been following the battle very well, and now I have to decide whether to 'save GouJian' or 'charge at the Qi troops'??
Interestingly there's no face at all on the choices now, just flowers.
...screw it, this is a dating sim, going to stop trying to remember the battle plan and just save my boy.
Consumed with anxiety, she rides through a sea of corpses. She is thrown from her horse and drops her amulet, and as she's desperately looking for it in the gore, GouJian hands it to her...and then pulls her into a passionate kiss, desperately glad to see her.
Uh. Ok!
She's into it, though a little voice says this is not the time.
GouJian: As long as Ah-Yu is here, I wouldn't regret if I died in this moment...
FuChai: I did not fight so hard just to let you die!
GouJian: Yes, yes you are always right.
He's never seen her use her blood to summon the white tiger before and is horrified by how much blood she is losing. She gets fuzzy feelings seeing his concern.
And then WU ZIXU shows up!
FuChai: Yay you're not dead :D
The QiongQu attacks FuChai and Wu ZiXu and GouJian jump to defend her...but then it shatters and disappears.
YiGuang has killed the summoner and the battle is won!
Prince GuCao: Your Majesty :D We have won the...uh...
FuChai, extricating herself from the arms of the King of Yue: Um. Yay!
Wu ZiXu snorts and walks off with Prince GuCao.
Chapter 13
Wu ZiXu seems to feel like he should say FuChai should have killed ChenFeng before he had a chance to escape, but can't quite bring himself to.
He 100% approves of FuChai's plan to leverage Ng's current advantage to negotiate a good peace deal with Qi, and then rush back home to deal with the coup instead of staying up north to keep waging war.
Wu ZiXu: But about GouJian...
FuChai: THAT BATTLE SURE WENT WELL, HUH? >.>
Wu ZiXu: ...I hope he can help us rescue the princess.
FuChai: OH. YES. GOOD PLAN.
Fuchai and GouJian cheerfully wander the Qi capital like a pair of yokel tourists, but then FuChai talks about her uncertain future and GouJian pensively asks if betraying the Dragon God is worth the cost.
I guess...they're dating now? Have they talked about that? Ah well the arc to sworn friends was pretty good, maybe neither of them see kissing as changing that too much.
FuChai sneaks her soldiers into the peace talks as servants. ShaoJiang is about to marry the man who killed her brother, Tian Heng D: FuChai and GouJian sneak into the temple where she is mourning her brother.
Tian Heng: There is no one left to save you. I will spare your life if you obey me and become my bride.
ShaoJiang: If it were not for my nephew I would have killed you long ago!
Seeing ShaoJiang about to be slapped by a middle aged man, FuChai has a flashback to a moment from her past, and is consumed with rage.
ShaoJiang, who is SHACKLED: Run! It's a trap!
But FuChai stops to free her, by which time they have been locked in and the temple is on fire. GouJian manages to get them out, but then Wu ZiXu tries to kill GouJian and says FuChai has been brainwashed by her feelings?? He says that is GouJian dies now they can blame Qi and still stay on good terms with Yue.
GouJian: The one who shot me...was you!!
Wu ZiXu just kicks GouJian who drops....BOTH PHOENIX DAGGERS??
He says he took them from Tian Heng.
FuChai stops Wu ZiXu from killing GouJian, and Wu ZiXu coldly says that if she has forgotten about avenging her father's death, she is on her own from now on.
GouJian: Thank you for believing in me.
FuChai: I saved you because I care about you. But tell me honestly, are your feelings the same as mine? Do not just try to make me happy.
GouJian: ...
Cold, dude. You're the one who kissed her!
The Tian clan is ascendent, but the chaos makes it easier for Ng to negotiate a good peace deal. Power is more practical than morality in troubled times.
Chapter 13
GuCao politely expresses frustration about being caught between FuChai and Wu ZiXu when they refuse to talk to each other.
The big powerful Kingdom of Jin wants to hold a conference for all the kingdoms. Wu ZiXu and FuChai discuss the logistics for a while before Wu ZiXu remembers he's angry at her.
She looks at him with all the stern weight of her authority and says she's bringing GouJian.
Wu ZiXu: Why?
FuChai: Officially, you know what we mean. As for our personal reasons, we have no need to explain ourselves to you.
Wu ZiXu: ...my Liege is an adult and can face the consequences of your own actions. But please remember that you are the only one who can break the Sacred Vow and save the Kingdom of Ng.
FuChai: Don't worry, we will never forget.
FuChai is happy to know she's the only one who can decide if GouJian lives or dies. Romance :D
As she travels, Fuchai remains sickly and worries she will make Ng look weak.
GouJian has been attending to her in ChenFeng's absence, which makes everyone look at them askance and they absolutely do not care. They feel that death is imminent and these are their last unbridled moments.
Fuchai: The Dragon God and his followers have been very quiet, I have a bad feeling.
GouJian, blushing: You talk about him a lot, aren't you worried I'll get jealous?
Fuchai: Ooh I've never seen you jealous :D
He kisses her, and then says he wishes they could elope back to Yue, so she could just be Ah-Yu.
GouJian: Surely there is some way we can defeat him.
Fuchai: There is. But Ah-Yu or Fuchai, I am out of time.
She pulls open her clothes to reveal the seal, now with four of the five petals black. He puts his hand to her chest and his eyes go dark and she thinks 'daringly' about how much she wants to kiss him. You can kiss him, FuChai! I really don't think he'd mind!
They declare their mutual feelings. He does up her top and kisses her and promises he will find a way she can live so they can be together.
This is a bit more heternormative than I was hoping for but still pretty cute. Although I guess...her gender and presentation has thus far not come up as affecting either of them romance/sex wise. Exactly the same scene could have played out in a BL story with FuChai as the woobie shou/bottom and GouJian as the protective top/gong who wants to take him away somewhere safe to dote on him. If there's homophobia in this setting they should be worrying about it now as two kings making out in an open field.
Also, there's been zero rapeyness so far (unless you count ChenFeng), not even 'Oh no I saw your chest I am having to hold back my manly urges' etc.
So I guess I should accept the romances are probably going to be Fuchai-as-bottom but it might not have aggressive affirmation of traditional gender roles in general. We'll see.
I checked and there's 17 chapters plus an epilogue for this route, is it all going to be established relationship stuff from now on? I tend to find that dull. Maybe they'll break up for some dumbass reason, which would be even worse :( OH WELL. I do want to see FuChai defeat the dragon god and find a happier life, even if it's as the girly Queen of Yue.
The conference is apparently clearly set up to humiliate Ng because...of political...stuff. Ok this is all going WAY over my head, I'm just going to write down the mood I'm getting.
Zhoa Yang, Jin's famous warrior, refers to Fuchai as 'Viscount Ng' because "only Emperor Zhao can call himself king". He seems to see Jin as the right hand of the emperor while the other 'kingdoms' are upstarts and barbarians.
Fuchai is passive aggressively pissed, everyone else tries to chill things out, except GouJian who stays strangely silent.
The 'civilised' kingdoms of the central plains, like Jin, used to attack anyone who didn't respect their religious rituals. But now that the outer kingdoms have more military might than the emperor, taking part is just for show.
Even with my very shallow understanding of Chinese...everything, I've noticed a tendency for xianxia to be from the POV of people from the central plains, with other peoples treated like barbarians, so it's nice getting another perspective. Especially since I know the descendants of the people of Ng are a marginalised ethnic minority in China these days. But WHO KNOWS how this all reads in a modern Chinese context, NOT ME.
As Fuchai steps up to take part in the ritual, then a voice shouts that the King of Ng has lost the way of righteousness and a sword slices through Fuchai's clothes and bindings, exposing her chest to the assembled kings.
Chapter 15
"Only men can make offerings, and only men can continue the bloodline. So long as I wear the skin of a man, the Kingdom of Ng will last.
If the skin is peeled off, what remains will be cast out as a monster."
In the disgusted faces of the other kings, she sees the destruction of "Fuchai" and "The Kingdom of Ng".
It was ChenFeng's voice but I think GouJian cut the clothes D:
GouJian pulls her into his arms, covering her chest, and says he will take her away.
ChenFeng: King of Yue, the Sovereign God has upheld his part of the bargain and has fulfilled your wish. It's now time to uphold yours.
SEE. I KNEW THEY SHOULD HAVE DISCUSSED THIS.
Me, like 2 paragraphs ago: ugh this feels like that point in western romances where some unaddressed internal conflict comes up and they break up for a while. I hate that, I just end up convinced they're bad for each other and then it all gets tied up in a bow!
Me now: YESS WORK THROUGH THAT UNADDRESSED INTERNAL CONFLICT, BE TERRIBLE FOR EACH OTHER FOR A WHILE THEN LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER
I am a complex being.
FuChai's blood boils in her veins and she passes out.
She wakes on the boat back to Ng. GouJian is curled up hugging his knees in the corner with tears in his eyes.
Fuchai: HOW COULD YOU
GouJian starts to crawl towards her and YiGuang coldly holds him back, saying "It is best that you do not touch her".
Oh man is the game saying him wanting to take her away from everything was BAD?? :D
GouJian: Ah-Yu, I...
Fuchai: IF I HAD HAD MY SWORD I WOULD HAVE CUT YOU DOWN
GouJian: I wanted to tell you but I was afraid you would react this way! I did promise the Dragon God that I was going to help him get our revenge on you...but that was in the past and now I would never do such a thing!
OH MY GOD
FuChai: The Prime Minister was right! You did organise the kidnapping of ShaoJiang!
GouJian: I...did...do that...but you must trust me when I tell you that now the Dragon God is using my name to take command of the armies of Yue! I must return to stop the war, you can deal with me however you like after that!
me for most of this game: Wow Wu ZiXu is an ass to GouJian, I hope his path makes him seem more reasonable.
me now: *hands Wu ZiXu a sword and points him towards GouJian, offers a thumbs up*
Like I know GouJian is only 21 but AHHHHH DUDE HOW DID YOU THINK THIS WOULD GO
Fuchai thinks "Trust?? Friend or lover, it was all a mask. He is the blade of vengeance that set out to kill me. I ignored all warnings and plunged this sword into my heart."
And you know what, fair. I am pretty sure he's just a MASSIVE IDIOT but he sure ACTS like someone deliberately trying to ruin her life.
She hates him, and hates herself for ever loving him. She shouts at him to leave, coughing up blood, and he's all sadface as YiGuang coldly sees him out.
YiGuang says her arteries are so damaged she will need to draw on the body of the ding of virtue to survive the night. Hundreds of years ago Mage Yang of Zhou took it into his body to protect it. Since then it was passed on to his descendants, and the one who has it now...is FuChai. Sure!
And it DID seem weird that her blood had so much powerful positive spiritual power when supposedly the only special thing about it was her having an evil deadly seal.
But to fully unlock it, she must prove herself to Mage Yang in the city of spirits.
Ok this is presumably not going to end with her getting the mandate of heaven to become lady Emperor of all China but I can dream. She literally contains the proof of divine rule!
YiGuang tells her to never lose hope, and then they enter the Spiritual Realm. Mage Yang takes the appearance of her father. He says her spirit is already so close to death this might kill her, then says she reminds him of his younger self, still needing to learn that life is not as simple as love vs hate, right vs wrong.
He draws the character for righteousness, which looks like an eye, taking a moment to add the sub-character for heart.
Mage Yang: Righteousness means following your heart, but the heart is unfathomable. Where does the righteousness of your heart lead? If your heart is silent and ignorant, even heaven might not be able to save it. Do your best to survive.
The symbol becomes blindingly bright and she finds herself in a burning palace full of dead bodies.
Wu Zixu shouts that she must not let the soldiers of Yue trample her father's corpse.
She realises she is holding a torch, standing above her father's corpse. She throws the torch in the coffin then has to avoid being killed by a "King of Yue" who is not GouJian? I think this is GouJian's dad and she ends up killing him.
It seems like everyone resents/despises everyone else for not respecting various mourning periods in various conflicts but I am really not following.
Ok this is definitely an AU not a flashback, because YiGuang's parents are helping with the casualties and they died before FuChai's father.
Yue has ten times their numbers and Wu ZiXu says their only hope against annihilation is to keep fighting. Minister Bopi argues for appeasement through tribute. If this was western fiction I'd think this was a WWII allegory but ...idk!
BoPi and Wu ZiXu both agree that FuChai must remain strong and patient through the pain and humiliation that will likely follow. Only then will she have her revenge.
Chapter 16
FuChai is a slave of Yue.
Ohhhh now I see where this is going...
She refuses to look at the king of Yue as he stares at her with hatred.
GouJian: Even if we used a thousand knives to stab you to avenge our father's death, it would not be enough. But seeing you a humiliated slave is even more satisfying.
Outside, the people of Yue pelt her with spit, fruit, faeces and stones.
Shivering in a rotten hut, she thinks "Why do they treat me as the perpetrator even after killing thousand of soldiers from Ng and taking countless of my citizens as slaves?"
The rumbling of the thunder seems to say "In this chaotic world, victors dictate what goes, and there is no why."
She has had to learn to gather food to survive, but the guards make up excuses to steal her food and beat her. A near rape has taught her to keep herself dirty. As she is vowing to kill everyone she meets from Yue, she finds someone injured by the stream, and resentfully rescues them.
It is an unfamiliar, handsome young man, but for some reason her heart skips a beat. He wakes and immediately accuses her of stealing his jade piece. Pissed off, she punches him, saying if she'd known he'd be like that she wouldn't have saved him.
She goes back to her hut and collapses exhausted. She wakes, starving, two days later, and when she bumps into a cheerfully apologetic GouJian, FuChai says she just wants to eat her scavenged berries.
GouJian: ...noone brings you food?
The next day he returns with clean clothes and food.
FuChai: Though I am only a slave, I am not a pet for you to play with and raise. Your kindness will only get me in trouble when the guards think I stole all this. It might be best if we never meet again.
As she turns to leave, GouJian cheerfully shouts that he'll be there tomorrow.
FuChai finds herself showing up, and she thinks she must be possessed. He bites the food first, saying "You won't reject something shared between friends, right?" and her hunger overcomes her pride. She finds herself crying and he awkwardly pats her on the back.
It's clear "Ah-Jiu" has some power, the beatings have lessened and life has generally gotten much easier. But what matters most is having a friend.
One day GouJian sighs and says his family wants him to do something very difficult, and he's very tired, but can't quit.
Looking at her with "a smile as gay as a spring day in may" he says she always improves his mood and he's lucky to have met her.
FuChai feels a wave of warmth and suddenly wants to kiss him. She wordlessly runs away. She should not have these feelings towards a friend, and cannot pursue them as a slave.
So if this is all roughly what GouJian experienced, he fell for her BEFORE finding out she was a girl? Ha, good job inserting some subtle gay without running afoul of censors, writers. Note that Fuchai doesn't think "Also he thinks I'm a man".
Haha but she DOES think "Anyway I'll be King of Ng again one day, does a young officer like him really matter to a King?"
After avoiding him for a few days she decides she's being a bad friend...but waiting for her is not Ah-Jiu, but Zheng Dan, 'Head Priest of Yue'.
FuChai bitterly assumes he's here to kill her on the king's orders, and then that his offer to work together to destroy Yue is a test of her loyalty.
Zheng Dan smiles and hands her a knife, saying it will be useful for killing game... and her enemies, then whispers that 'A-Jiu' is really GouJian, King of Yue.
Fuchai ends up curled in her hut, clutching the knife, unable to deny the now obvious truth and asking herself: Why? Why would he befriend the one who killed his father?
And the howling wind replies: to shatter your heart.
The next day, FuChai starts to tell GouJian that she is from Ng, and he stops her in an awkward panic saying "We agreed not to ask about each other's pasts. If you share and I don't, it will feel unfair."
FuChai: This thing you once said you have to do no matter what- is it to do with your old enemy.
GouJian. Yes. But I don't want to involve you in a life or death matter. You are my best friend...if only...I wish...in the remaining time I have...
He falls asleep beside her and FuChai can only think "Despicable despicable despicable!!", filled with heartbreak and fury. She has forgotten her duty to her people and become GouJian's safe pet dog, who he can always kill if he decides she's a threat after all.
She draws the dagger.
HMM. KILL OR DON'T KILL??? BETTER SAVE TO BE SURE.
She throws the dagger in the stream and tells Zheng Dan she wants a revenge stronger than death. Her three conditions are 1) they are equal partners 2) No harming the people of Ng 3) No killing GouJian until she is able to truly cause him despair.
"Are we not the best of friends? Then Ah-Jiu, you shall fall together with Ah-Yu into the dark abyss. Only there can I love you without any grudges"
She wakes on the boat with two sets of memories in her head. YiGuang says she has passed the first part of the test, waking from the dream. They will return when she has answered the question: where does the righteousness of her heart lead?
FuChai: Is there really a correct path through all this love and hate, between right and wrong?
YiGuang: People often waver in the middle of everything. As to right and wrong...I think empathy is more important.
FuChai speeds back to Gusu, which is now entirely under the Dragon God's control.
She apologises to Wu ZiXu for not listening to him but he says she is his Liege, not his puppet. He is unhappily resigned to her still not killing GouJian.
They find ChenFeng tied up under a tree, along with the sign GouJian used to leave to show he wanted to meet up by the stream.
GouJian: I couldn't persuade my ministers to risk the Dragon God's wrath by stopping the war. I must go the the battlefield, I cannot abandon my subjects. But I will prove to you that I will never hurt you again. Please stay safe.
Fuchai: Do not think that we cannot bear to kill you.
GouJian: I know.
But she can't bear to do it right now, and he vanishes into the darkness.
The next day, FuChai must lay siege to her own city. The Dragon God flies the flag of Ng on the city walls to taunt her.
He appears as Zheng Dan with horns, laughing about how she used to be his Liege.
The city's gates open, and there is the army of Yue, with GouJian at the helm.
Zheng Dan: But in these troubled times, a subject's betrayal is nothing new. Is it not, little sister of the Ng family?
I love the multiple meanings of the game's title, and all the subject/Liege pairs. Not just everyone's vows to FuChai, but all the people who made vows to her father, to the Dragon God, and to GouJian. Plus I guess GouJian and ShaoJiang to their father/brother.
The armies clash, but GouJian just stares at her, motionless.
FuChai: King of Yue, our battle will have to start eventually.
GouJian: King of Ng; after you.
Her heart is alight with love and hatred, anger and regret.
"One struggles more to stay alive in the fear of death. I gratefully take this feeling of being alive and put it into the swing of my sword."
He parries her, and retreats. Looking at the near-indistinguishable fighting soldiers, she realises all of this is just a blood sacrifice to the Dragon God. She calls a retreat.
Three monsters emerge from the blood of the fallen, including an unfamiliar tiger monster. Has Zheng Dan successfully taken control of the final leg of the Ding of Virtue?
It shoots fire at FuChai but GouJian pulls her to safety, and says that now that the Yue army has seen that the Dragon God is using them as a blood sacrifice, they will be willing to retreat.
YiGuang casts a sealing spell but the Dragon God breaks free, tearing his body apart to become a giant white dragon.
THE SWORD OF THE KING OF YUE IS THE FINAL LEG!! All of the Dragon God's scheming around GouJian was to gain access to it.
GouJian: I'll take it back!
Fuchai: But how? You're mortal.
GouJian: Trust me!
As he rides towards the dragon she can only cry "Ah-Jiu...you must return alive..."
She is back at the lake altar, surrounded by death, reliving the nightmare of six years ago.
YiGuang: Ah-Yu, put your jade fish on the altar so we can start the ritual.
Fuchai: But there's people dying on the battlefield!
The three monsters jump into the lake, flooding not only the altar but the city beside it.
YiGuang: Our ancestors worshipped the Dragon God of the Five Lakes out of fear of such punishment.
FuChai: ...start the ritual.
Dragon God, shooting magic spikes: You have failed to find all the pieces of the Ding. You are powerless against me!
FuChai: I believe...in Ah-Jiu!
She finds herself in the spiritual realm, looking down at a spike piercing her chest.
Mage Yang: The heavens and Earth are not benevolent to you, so why do you still seek the way of righteousness?
FuChai: The way of righteousness is within the human heart. I can still forgive and show mercy because I am able to empathise and understand.
Mage Yang smiles and says "You have reached the pinnacle of goodwill" and light shines out as he touches her chest.
She wakes to a delighted YiGuang and ShaoJiang saying that the Ding is whole and the waters are receding. A burned, limping, bloody GouJian throws the sword of Yue at her feet, and hugs her, though she's still impaled on a spike.
He whispers a thank you for trusting her, then shouts out the words that break the vow: "We summon the power of Heaven to slay the Dragon God- to be a shining example of virtue to all mortals and to break the Sacred Vow!"
The Dragon God turns to ash, and the spike disappears. FuChai and Goujian collapse to the ground, both mortally wounded.
GouJian: Ah-Yu...if there is life after reincarnation, then I hope...that not only will the Kingdoms of Yue and Ng share the same future, I also hope...that you and I will share the same pillow.
FuChai: You will still be such a flirt...in the next life.
They smile at each other as everything goes black.
Closing Credits
Epilogue
ShaoJiang tells FuChai that she looks stunning dressed as a woman, because she is a massive lesbian.
ChenFeng: ...yes, stunning.
ShaoJiang: Did you eat all the sweets from the King of Yue again?
ChenFeng: >.>
YiGuang: The wedding's over, let's stop bothering The King of Ng.
ShaoJiang: I can't bear to let Lord Ng marry that despicable man >:(
ChenFeng: I concur.
YiGuang: Since she's happy, what are you complaining about?
Yeah they are all definitely in love with her, YiGuang is just nicer about it.
Wu ZiXu: Though you are a king, remember that you are marrying into Ng.
GouJian: ...but I'm a man...
Wu ZiXu: This has nothing to do with your gender. If you don't agree to it, there are many other men who want to be the king's consort.
GouJian: Fine, fine!
GouJian: It was such a hassle to get my people to agree to let me marry you, and I get disrespected now I'm here...did we have to get married?
FuChai: I want the world to know that even if the King of Ng is a woman, she can do anything a man can do, whether it be ruling the central plain or marrying the love of my life.
GouJian: Right, you are always right ;)
Even though they've had sex she's a little bashful about having wedding night sex.
He says they'll have to leave the job of uniting the two countries to their children, and then kisses her, with the implication of "so let's make some babies".
Ng and Yue will share the same future, as their kings share the same pillow.
THE END
That was lovely. GouJian is SUCH an idiot but in a way I could roll with as romantic. And she is TOTALLY GOING TO BE EMPEROR OF ALL CHINA, with GouJian as her supportive consort :D :D
Alas I have trouble seeing ShaoJiang/FuChai/GouJian but it could probably work eventually and they'd be a hell of a power throuple. And I have high hopes for being able to headcanon ShaoJiang/FuChai/YiGuang on the YiGuang path.
I'm glad ChenFeng got a happy ending despite the curse but am worried there's little hope for things to end very well with GouJian on the other paths :(
Bad Ending:
FuChai leaves GouJian to die and laughs gleefully as her army murders the troops of Qi. "Ah-Jiu will understand, right? The taste of revenge is a temptation nobody can resist. The cries for help are like music, the shedding of blood like a dance. Countless lives pave my way to the throne of victory."
This is bad, obviously! But also :D
It's Wu Zixu who pulls her back from excess cruelty, and seeing him brings her back to herself. She suddenly remembers the danger Ah-Jiu is in and rushes to find him.
He kisses her, then asks helplessly why she didn't come sooner. She has no reply but to kiss him back. He tells her he loves her and she can only stiffly nod.
The "Skip read" function wasn't working properly again so this is just the changes I noticed while doing a forced skip and checking the log every now and then.
He says he wishes he could have met her when he was the crown prince and she the crown princess, so they could have gotten married and there'd be no need for conflict between Ng and Yue, or for her to be King of Ng. He's a little tipsy and starts passionately kissing her, pulling open her clothes, but she apologises and says they can't yet, because she's not comfortable showing him her seal and how close she is to death. He's nice about it.
GouJian: Haha, yes...we have to go back to Ng... :(
Then at the conference, he GLOATS about showing everyone that she's a woman??
FuChai: Hahaha, we have not been human for very long, so who cares about gender?
The vengeful gleam in his eyes starts to dim leaving only indifference and confusion.
So I guess he's become vulnerable to the Dragon God's mind-control and she's...just gone a bit crazy?
YiGuang: Why did you do this?
GouJian: Because Ah-Yu is the King of Ng
YiGuang: I pity you.
She feels dead inside as she goes to meet Mage Yang.
And afaict then the dream progresses exactly the same way, which is really sad in a whole other way, because she gets to fall in love with him and then feel betrayed all over again and this time it doesn't ever get better.
Time to try and stab him!
She kisses him before she stabs him, and then lets out a mournful howl, overcome by madness and regret.
After the dream things continue the same until the meeting at the stream. She doesn't even know why she came, and all she sees is a familiar knife on a stone carved with more of the poem he quoted to her before about encountering a wished for beauty. She should feel only hatred but her heart aches.
Oh no. Oh no this is so sad.
Someone else saves her from the monster's blow.
At the altar, after the monsters attack, as FuChai tries to start the ritual, she hears footsteps behind her.
FuChai: King of Yue.
GouJian: King of Ng.
One of the monsters leaps into his hands and becomes a blade. Fuchai raises her own sword. "The world is so big and yet it is not big enough for the two of us".
Here at the end she can acknowledge to herself how much she loves him, her greatest enemy. She feels the pain in the seal on her chest and knows the end is near. She laughs and throws down her sword, opening her arms to greet her love.
As he stabs her, he cries out her name.
Fuchai meets Mage Yang in the spiritual realm and says she can't figure out the difference between love and hate, or the path of righteousness, so all she asks for is the power to break the Sacred Vow.
As YiGuang recites the words that break the vow, Fuchai starts to become transparent. She laughs weakly and puts her hand to GouJian's crying face, thinking "Though I couldn't do the right thing in life, I did something right with my death".
Fuchai: King FuChai of Ng died at the hands of King GouJian of Yue, while Ah-Yu died willingly in the arms of her beloved Ah-Jiu. Ah-Jiu...I saw the poem. I hope that you...treat the citizens of Ng....kindly.
And then she turns into water and flows back into her country, finally free of the burden of destiny.
Closing Credits
The background to the closing credits are a pretty scene of YiGuang looking out over a river. The names are mostly in Chinese but it's clear this had a very small team: two writers, one programmer, etc. One name I could recognise was "Swallow", who seems to have been the main writing credit and the translator and English proofreader. And for the work of a single person who presumably speaks English as a second language the translated game isn't too bad.
Epilogue
GouJian is dying of old age, and his proud officials discuss his eulogy: "The will of the Heavens laid on the shoulders of the King of Yue. He destroyed Ng and promoted Yue, implemented the way of righteousness, and sought hegemony with the kingdoms of the north".
In his dream, he waits at the stream. But when he sees the familiar and beautiful figure, he dare not approach, and the pain in his chest means he cannot make a sound. The figure melts into the stream, and he jumps in after her. His last words are "Ah-Yu...wait for me!"
The King is dead.
THE END
;_;
Though reading back over this...what an ASS GouJian is about the possibility of Fuchai suspecting him of betraying her. Though he's obviously in denial about it, and expects her to kill him the moment she finds out, no wonder he was happy at the idea of dying to save her before she discovered the truth.
I like the ambiguity about whether he was at all kind to the people of Ng.
I spent a lot of time thinking "YiGuang Best Boy", I hope he doesn't become an ass on his route.
I tried writing a short summary of my feelings but it got so long I'm putting it under it's own cut. tl;dr I liked it!
So at first I felt like the romance kicked in too abruptly, but looking back, she and GouJian can easily be read as being in love by like...chapter 6, I was just caught off guard by the switch to overt romance happening long before the end of the route, and because there's no specific point where her feelings change. But while I am a sucker for a good "OH" moment, I'd rather intense, fraught friendship that naturally slides into romance than, like, "He was a boy, I was a girl, we both wanted to bang, must be love". I found some of the writing disjointed and hard to follow but think that was partly the clunky translation, and partly my unfamiliarity with the genre conventions of Chinese historical RPF.
Since they declare their feelings early I was worried the rest would be dull, or the sort of romantic drama I find annoying. But it turned out the be the kind of romantic drama I ADORE and NOT DULL AT ALL. Especially in the bad ending, which is a great tragedy that made me cry. But I really liked the good ending too, and while the protagonist does end up presenting as a woman again neither she nor GouJian makes a big deal about it.
In general the characters can be sexist, and the setting is aggressively mysogynistic, but the game felt enjoyably un-gender-essentialist. Also while there's never any overt queerness, nobody ever suggests that them appearing to be two men would be an impediment to the romance, even when GouJian thinks she's a man himself. And it's kinda hard NOT to read Fuchai's fiancee as into her to the end.
I read FuChai as agender but caring about social roles: she shows no sign of having any personal preference about presentation beyond doing what is expected, but hates feeling like she's 'neither man nor woman' and having to hide her gender. I feel like in a trans-friendly society she'd be like "I guess I'm agender but eh, woman will do".
All that happens onscreen is few short kisses, which were all initiated by GouJian but definitely welcomed. There is the implication of off-screen consensual sex.
I totally forgot to warn for slavery before but Fuchai is implied to have taken many prisoner-of-war slaves, including GouJian! The power and ethical issues between them get much more complicated than the usual master/slave dynamic but it's still A Thing. While I am sure the writers think slavery is bad, and GouJian stops being a slave, noone in the game ever questions it as an institution and there's zero sign it will stop any time soon. There were a few other times where I winced at the character's historical attitudes or other actions, but was able to roll with it and assume the writers knew it was messed up, YMMV.
Content notes: Violence, fatphobia (in the game), hurtful gender reveal, master-slave relationship, slavery, attempted rape (off-screen)
SPOILERS FROM HERE ON
Chapter 11
The dead messenger was with ChenFeng and ShaoJiang who are both now missing. Meanwhile YiGuang was called away by something urgent.
General Xu Cheng saw the messenger just before he died, and also knew about the plans that got leaked, so I'm guessing he's the mole.
FuChai: You're too injured to help search.
Goujian: Thank you, King of Ng, for your concern. But I'm not your subject so I don't have to follow your orders.
Shouldn't he be using 'we'? Anyway. She wonders why he keeps blowing so hot and cold.
Ok I think I picked up what is being translated as "King of Ng", and it sounds like the single word "Wung", which I'm guessing is "Ng". I vaguely recall from TGCF that referring to Kings as their country's name is a thing between monarchs, I wonder if the lines like "The king is the country" are, like, "Ng is Ng" in Chinese.
CHENFENG ATTACKS
GouJian: Protect the King!
FuChai: Don't hurt him!
ChenFeng blankly says that he thought they were an enemy, and that he is following the assassin who killed the messenger and kidnapped ShaoJiang.
FuChai gets angry and woozy when GouJian's bodyguard is mistrustful of her and negative about her treatment of Yue. I wonder if she is cursed like ChenFeng.
YiGuang comes back, saying he's found signs the Dragon God has infiltrated the secret palace of the Shi clan. Also, he saw ShaoJiang being dragged back to Qi, but the followers threatened to kill her nephew if she escaped, so he just spoke to her in secret. She wants to work to help Ng from Qi.
But she also says the one who handed her over...was ChenFeng.
FuChai why are you accusing him ALONE???
OH LOOK HE KNOCKED HER OUT
ChenFeng reminds a male voice that those who have made a pact with the Sovereign God must obey him, the voice says he refuses to be anyone's slave.
FuChai knocks out ChenFeng with a talisman from YiGuang, then coldly tells the guards to arrest him.
She accuses Goujian of being the mole, based on the voice, and he pulls down his clothes to show a nasty arrow wound and says "The person who put an arrow in my back does not have the right to tell me I'm ungrateful".
He was shot from behind by the Ng army, which he assumes must have been her orders. He expresses his resentment of her father, and Ng. He says she's naive to think they could ever have peace after hundreds of years of blood. She is too angry to think about who did fire the arrow.
FuChai, drawing her sword: If I was going to kill you, I'd do it myself!
GouJian: DO IT THEN
...oh damn, he really is in cahoots with the Dragon God, who he says helped him survive being a slave.
FuChai: You lied to me for three years!
Goujian: So did you! I had so many opportunities to kill Ah-Yu once I realised you were the King. But I didn't. You know why?
FuChai: Shut up!
He steps closer, pressing her sword into his chest. As he starts to bleed he pulls her into his arms and says "Ah-Yu was the only one who treated me like a human being. And was the King of Ng!"
There is so much passion in his eyes that she drops her sword. He pulls the bandages off his chest to reveal scars from years of injuries, evidence of his humiliation and suffering as a slave.
Goujian: If you want to kill me me, then kill me! Kill this traitor, this enemy!
He mutters "Why did you have to be the king of Ng?" and she gives a cry of misery and runs away.
Chapter 12:
A flashback to the day FuChai ordered him to work at Tiger Hill.
Wu ZiXu: He is not a simple person. I still think we should kill him and annihilate Yue.
FuChai: He mortally wounded our father so why wouldn't we want revenge? But Ng does not have the power to manage such a large land.
She goes to meet him, and is shocked by his youth. He is stubbornly unresponsive.
FuChai: It is as the Prime Minister said, he is not an easy wolf to rear. But even the fiercest wolf can be tamed.
As she leaves, she sees a pair of eyes stare at her with intense hatred.
Later:
GouJian notices "A-Yu" has a martial arts injury and says her 'uncle' should be easier on her. But they've both agreed not to talk about their personal circumstances. He says that his life is such a mess of misery it would just sound like he was fishing for sympathy. All they can do is look forward to the future.
She wishes they could drink wine together by the river, and he says they can at least drink water together here and now.
Now:
FuChai wakes from painful dreams.
Which is real: The hatred or the friendship? A-Jiu? Goujian? Or the King of Yue? She feels suffocated by chains of love and hatred.
She goes to the river to drink and recite sad poetry.
GouJian recites a line about a delicate beauty appearing just when wished for, and sits next to her, taking a swig of her wine.
He says this makes him feel nostalgic for the times they drank together in the past. Then he asks why she hasn't killed him.
FuChai: Why did you admit the truth? You've fooled me this long.
GouJian: ...
FuChai: Although I did lie about being a girl, and the king, I was sincere in wanting an alliance between Ng and Yue. Even if you don't believe me, or think I'm naive, my promise still stands. If you want to take your revenge them please wait until I return from my fight in the north to have a fair battle with me.
GouJian, softly: Who keeps their morals in such troubled times? Winning is everything. Ah-Yu, you are silly.
FuChai: You are also silly, Ah-Jiu.
GouJian: Why wait until you return? My army will be with you.
FuChai: You want to join forces against Qi?
GouJian: Since we are both stupid people, I can't think of any better decision than to follow you wherever you go.
This is really lovely but I feel like she should be asking about the details of his deal with the evil dragon god?
General Xu Cheng is retiring to be replaced by FuChai's cousin Prince GuCao.
ChenFeng has escaped! Wu ZiXu has supposedly been arrested back in Gusu for conspiring with the Dragon God?? WTF?? (EDIT: from stuff that happens later I think I misread, and he was imprisoned by Minister Bopi who conspired with the Dragon God to gain power. But I didn't realise that for a while)
YiGuang has found another leg of the true ding: The Azure Dragon Sword.
FuChai: If I hadn't happened to find you again I would have noone left I can trust :(
YiGuang: You don't trust GouJian?
FuChai: I have been sincere with him, but I cannot understand what he is thinking.
YiGuang: You and I, who have experienced great loss, understand how it feels when someone loses everything then gets thrown a lifeline.
FuChai: You think he treasures me?
YiGuang: He despairs of wanting to hold something he can never have.
FuChai: You're only making me more confused.
YiGuang: You will understand when you treasure him as much as he treasures you.
Lucky YiGuang, the other LIs became villains but you get to be the supportive shippy best friend!
Ng marches on Qi with the support of the Kingdom of Lu.
FuChai and GouJian cheerfully figure out battle tactics together. FuChai suggests a risky strategy where GouJian leads an attack that could make him a hero to Ng if it succeeds or worsen mistrust between the countries if it fails.
He takes her hand and starts to say something, then says it's cold and she should rest.
The battle is going ok until the Qi army calls on monsters.
FuChai: YiGuang, go after the summoner while I call on the white tiger! ChenFeng, sound the-
New guard captain: *cough*
FuChai: :( Guard captain, sound the signal to attack!
Oh man I have NOT been following the battle very well, and now I have to decide whether to 'save GouJian' or 'charge at the Qi troops'??
Interestingly there's no face at all on the choices now, just flowers.
...screw it, this is a dating sim, going to stop trying to remember the battle plan and just save my boy.
Consumed with anxiety, she rides through a sea of corpses. She is thrown from her horse and drops her amulet, and as she's desperately looking for it in the gore, GouJian hands it to her...and then pulls her into a passionate kiss, desperately glad to see her.
Uh. Ok!
She's into it, though a little voice says this is not the time.
GouJian: As long as Ah-Yu is here, I wouldn't regret if I died in this moment...
FuChai: I did not fight so hard just to let you die!
GouJian: Yes, yes you are always right.
He's never seen her use her blood to summon the white tiger before and is horrified by how much blood she is losing. She gets fuzzy feelings seeing his concern.
And then WU ZIXU shows up!
FuChai: Yay you're not dead :D
The QiongQu attacks FuChai and Wu ZiXu and GouJian jump to defend her...but then it shatters and disappears.
YiGuang has killed the summoner and the battle is won!
Prince GuCao: Your Majesty :D We have won the...uh...
FuChai, extricating herself from the arms of the King of Yue: Um. Yay!
Wu ZiXu snorts and walks off with Prince GuCao.
Chapter 13
Wu ZiXu seems to feel like he should say FuChai should have killed ChenFeng before he had a chance to escape, but can't quite bring himself to.
He 100% approves of FuChai's plan to leverage Ng's current advantage to negotiate a good peace deal with Qi, and then rush back home to deal with the coup instead of staying up north to keep waging war.
Wu ZiXu: But about GouJian...
FuChai: THAT BATTLE SURE WENT WELL, HUH? >.>
Wu ZiXu: ...I hope he can help us rescue the princess.
FuChai: OH. YES. GOOD PLAN.
Fuchai and GouJian cheerfully wander the Qi capital like a pair of yokel tourists, but then FuChai talks about her uncertain future and GouJian pensively asks if betraying the Dragon God is worth the cost.
I guess...they're dating now? Have they talked about that? Ah well the arc to sworn friends was pretty good, maybe neither of them see kissing as changing that too much.
FuChai sneaks her soldiers into the peace talks as servants. ShaoJiang is about to marry the man who killed her brother, Tian Heng D: FuChai and GouJian sneak into the temple where she is mourning her brother.
Tian Heng: There is no one left to save you. I will spare your life if you obey me and become my bride.
ShaoJiang: If it were not for my nephew I would have killed you long ago!
Seeing ShaoJiang about to be slapped by a middle aged man, FuChai has a flashback to a moment from her past, and is consumed with rage.
ShaoJiang, who is SHACKLED: Run! It's a trap!
But FuChai stops to free her, by which time they have been locked in and the temple is on fire. GouJian manages to get them out, but then Wu ZiXu tries to kill GouJian and says FuChai has been brainwashed by her feelings?? He says that is GouJian dies now they can blame Qi and still stay on good terms with Yue.
GouJian: The one who shot me...was you!!
Wu ZiXu just kicks GouJian who drops....BOTH PHOENIX DAGGERS??
He says he took them from Tian Heng.
FuChai stops Wu ZiXu from killing GouJian, and Wu ZiXu coldly says that if she has forgotten about avenging her father's death, she is on her own from now on.
GouJian: Thank you for believing in me.
FuChai: I saved you because I care about you. But tell me honestly, are your feelings the same as mine? Do not just try to make me happy.
GouJian: ...
Cold, dude. You're the one who kissed her!
The Tian clan is ascendent, but the chaos makes it easier for Ng to negotiate a good peace deal. Power is more practical than morality in troubled times.
Chapter 13
GuCao politely expresses frustration about being caught between FuChai and Wu ZiXu when they refuse to talk to each other.
The big powerful Kingdom of Jin wants to hold a conference for all the kingdoms. Wu ZiXu and FuChai discuss the logistics for a while before Wu ZiXu remembers he's angry at her.
She looks at him with all the stern weight of her authority and says she's bringing GouJian.
Wu ZiXu: Why?
FuChai: Officially, you know what we mean. As for our personal reasons, we have no need to explain ourselves to you.
Wu ZiXu: ...my Liege is an adult and can face the consequences of your own actions. But please remember that you are the only one who can break the Sacred Vow and save the Kingdom of Ng.
FuChai: Don't worry, we will never forget.
FuChai is happy to know she's the only one who can decide if GouJian lives or dies. Romance :D
As she travels, Fuchai remains sickly and worries she will make Ng look weak.
GouJian has been attending to her in ChenFeng's absence, which makes everyone look at them askance and they absolutely do not care. They feel that death is imminent and these are their last unbridled moments.
Fuchai: The Dragon God and his followers have been very quiet, I have a bad feeling.
GouJian, blushing: You talk about him a lot, aren't you worried I'll get jealous?
Fuchai: Ooh I've never seen you jealous :D
He kisses her, and then says he wishes they could elope back to Yue, so she could just be Ah-Yu.
GouJian: Surely there is some way we can defeat him.
Fuchai: There is. But Ah-Yu or Fuchai, I am out of time.
She pulls open her clothes to reveal the seal, now with four of the five petals black. He puts his hand to her chest and his eyes go dark and she thinks 'daringly' about how much she wants to kiss him. You can kiss him, FuChai! I really don't think he'd mind!
They declare their mutual feelings. He does up her top and kisses her and promises he will find a way she can live so they can be together.
This is a bit more heternormative than I was hoping for but still pretty cute. Although I guess...her gender and presentation has thus far not come up as affecting either of them romance/sex wise. Exactly the same scene could have played out in a BL story with FuChai as the woobie shou/bottom and GouJian as the protective top/gong who wants to take him away somewhere safe to dote on him. If there's homophobia in this setting they should be worrying about it now as two kings making out in an open field.
Also, there's been zero rapeyness so far (unless you count ChenFeng), not even 'Oh no I saw your chest I am having to hold back my manly urges' etc.
So I guess I should accept the romances are probably going to be Fuchai-as-bottom but it might not have aggressive affirmation of traditional gender roles in general. We'll see.
I checked and there's 17 chapters plus an epilogue for this route, is it all going to be established relationship stuff from now on? I tend to find that dull. Maybe they'll break up for some dumbass reason, which would be even worse :( OH WELL. I do want to see FuChai defeat the dragon god and find a happier life, even if it's as the girly Queen of Yue.
The conference is apparently clearly set up to humiliate Ng because...of political...stuff. Ok this is all going WAY over my head, I'm just going to write down the mood I'm getting.
Zhoa Yang, Jin's famous warrior, refers to Fuchai as 'Viscount Ng' because "only Emperor Zhao can call himself king". He seems to see Jin as the right hand of the emperor while the other 'kingdoms' are upstarts and barbarians.
Fuchai is passive aggressively pissed, everyone else tries to chill things out, except GouJian who stays strangely silent.
The 'civilised' kingdoms of the central plains, like Jin, used to attack anyone who didn't respect their religious rituals. But now that the outer kingdoms have more military might than the emperor, taking part is just for show.
Even with my very shallow understanding of Chinese...everything, I've noticed a tendency for xianxia to be from the POV of people from the central plains, with other peoples treated like barbarians, so it's nice getting another perspective. Especially since I know the descendants of the people of Ng are a marginalised ethnic minority in China these days. But WHO KNOWS how this all reads in a modern Chinese context, NOT ME.
As Fuchai steps up to take part in the ritual, then a voice shouts that the King of Ng has lost the way of righteousness and a sword slices through Fuchai's clothes and bindings, exposing her chest to the assembled kings.
Chapter 15
"Only men can make offerings, and only men can continue the bloodline. So long as I wear the skin of a man, the Kingdom of Ng will last.
If the skin is peeled off, what remains will be cast out as a monster."
In the disgusted faces of the other kings, she sees the destruction of "Fuchai" and "The Kingdom of Ng".
It was ChenFeng's voice but I think GouJian cut the clothes D:
GouJian pulls her into his arms, covering her chest, and says he will take her away.
ChenFeng: King of Yue, the Sovereign God has upheld his part of the bargain and has fulfilled your wish. It's now time to uphold yours.
SEE. I KNEW THEY SHOULD HAVE DISCUSSED THIS.
Me, like 2 paragraphs ago: ugh this feels like that point in western romances where some unaddressed internal conflict comes up and they break up for a while. I hate that, I just end up convinced they're bad for each other and then it all gets tied up in a bow!
Me now: YESS WORK THROUGH THAT UNADDRESSED INTERNAL CONFLICT, BE TERRIBLE FOR EACH OTHER FOR A WHILE THEN LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER
I am a complex being.
FuChai's blood boils in her veins and she passes out.
She wakes on the boat back to Ng. GouJian is curled up hugging his knees in the corner with tears in his eyes.
Fuchai: HOW COULD YOU
GouJian starts to crawl towards her and YiGuang coldly holds him back, saying "It is best that you do not touch her".
Oh man is the game saying him wanting to take her away from everything was BAD?? :D
GouJian: Ah-Yu, I...
Fuchai: IF I HAD HAD MY SWORD I WOULD HAVE CUT YOU DOWN
GouJian: I wanted to tell you but I was afraid you would react this way! I did promise the Dragon God that I was going to help him get our revenge on you...but that was in the past and now I would never do such a thing!
OH MY GOD
FuChai: The Prime Minister was right! You did organise the kidnapping of ShaoJiang!
GouJian: I...did...do that...but you must trust me when I tell you that now the Dragon God is using my name to take command of the armies of Yue! I must return to stop the war, you can deal with me however you like after that!
me for most of this game: Wow Wu ZiXu is an ass to GouJian, I hope his path makes him seem more reasonable.
me now: *hands Wu ZiXu a sword and points him towards GouJian, offers a thumbs up*
Like I know GouJian is only 21 but AHHHHH DUDE HOW DID YOU THINK THIS WOULD GO
Fuchai thinks "Trust?? Friend or lover, it was all a mask. He is the blade of vengeance that set out to kill me. I ignored all warnings and plunged this sword into my heart."
And you know what, fair. I am pretty sure he's just a MASSIVE IDIOT but he sure ACTS like someone deliberately trying to ruin her life.
She hates him, and hates herself for ever loving him. She shouts at him to leave, coughing up blood, and he's all sadface as YiGuang coldly sees him out.
YiGuang says her arteries are so damaged she will need to draw on the body of the ding of virtue to survive the night. Hundreds of years ago Mage Yang of Zhou took it into his body to protect it. Since then it was passed on to his descendants, and the one who has it now...is FuChai. Sure!
And it DID seem weird that her blood had so much powerful positive spiritual power when supposedly the only special thing about it was her having an evil deadly seal.
But to fully unlock it, she must prove herself to Mage Yang in the city of spirits.
Ok this is presumably not going to end with her getting the mandate of heaven to become lady Emperor of all China but I can dream. She literally contains the proof of divine rule!
YiGuang tells her to never lose hope, and then they enter the Spiritual Realm. Mage Yang takes the appearance of her father. He says her spirit is already so close to death this might kill her, then says she reminds him of his younger self, still needing to learn that life is not as simple as love vs hate, right vs wrong.
He draws the character for righteousness, which looks like an eye, taking a moment to add the sub-character for heart.
Mage Yang: Righteousness means following your heart, but the heart is unfathomable. Where does the righteousness of your heart lead? If your heart is silent and ignorant, even heaven might not be able to save it. Do your best to survive.
The symbol becomes blindingly bright and she finds herself in a burning palace full of dead bodies.
Wu Zixu shouts that she must not let the soldiers of Yue trample her father's corpse.
She realises she is holding a torch, standing above her father's corpse. She throws the torch in the coffin then has to avoid being killed by a "King of Yue" who is not GouJian? I think this is GouJian's dad and she ends up killing him.
It seems like everyone resents/despises everyone else for not respecting various mourning periods in various conflicts but I am really not following.
Ok this is definitely an AU not a flashback, because YiGuang's parents are helping with the casualties and they died before FuChai's father.
Yue has ten times their numbers and Wu ZiXu says their only hope against annihilation is to keep fighting. Minister Bopi argues for appeasement through tribute. If this was western fiction I'd think this was a WWII allegory but ...idk!
BoPi and Wu ZiXu both agree that FuChai must remain strong and patient through the pain and humiliation that will likely follow. Only then will she have her revenge.
Chapter 16
FuChai is a slave of Yue.
Ohhhh now I see where this is going...
She refuses to look at the king of Yue as he stares at her with hatred.
GouJian: Even if we used a thousand knives to stab you to avenge our father's death, it would not be enough. But seeing you a humiliated slave is even more satisfying.
Outside, the people of Yue pelt her with spit, fruit, faeces and stones.
Shivering in a rotten hut, she thinks "Why do they treat me as the perpetrator even after killing thousand of soldiers from Ng and taking countless of my citizens as slaves?"
The rumbling of the thunder seems to say "In this chaotic world, victors dictate what goes, and there is no why."
She has had to learn to gather food to survive, but the guards make up excuses to steal her food and beat her. A near rape has taught her to keep herself dirty. As she is vowing to kill everyone she meets from Yue, she finds someone injured by the stream, and resentfully rescues them.
It is an unfamiliar, handsome young man, but for some reason her heart skips a beat. He wakes and immediately accuses her of stealing his jade piece. Pissed off, she punches him, saying if she'd known he'd be like that she wouldn't have saved him.
She goes back to her hut and collapses exhausted. She wakes, starving, two days later, and when she bumps into a cheerfully apologetic GouJian, FuChai says she just wants to eat her scavenged berries.
GouJian: ...noone brings you food?
The next day he returns with clean clothes and food.
FuChai: Though I am only a slave, I am not a pet for you to play with and raise. Your kindness will only get me in trouble when the guards think I stole all this. It might be best if we never meet again.
As she turns to leave, GouJian cheerfully shouts that he'll be there tomorrow.
FuChai finds herself showing up, and she thinks she must be possessed. He bites the food first, saying "You won't reject something shared between friends, right?" and her hunger overcomes her pride. She finds herself crying and he awkwardly pats her on the back.
It's clear "Ah-Jiu" has some power, the beatings have lessened and life has generally gotten much easier. But what matters most is having a friend.
One day GouJian sighs and says his family wants him to do something very difficult, and he's very tired, but can't quit.
Looking at her with "a smile as gay as a spring day in may" he says she always improves his mood and he's lucky to have met her.
FuChai feels a wave of warmth and suddenly wants to kiss him. She wordlessly runs away. She should not have these feelings towards a friend, and cannot pursue them as a slave.
So if this is all roughly what GouJian experienced, he fell for her BEFORE finding out she was a girl? Ha, good job inserting some subtle gay without running afoul of censors, writers. Note that Fuchai doesn't think "Also he thinks I'm a man".
Haha but she DOES think "Anyway I'll be King of Ng again one day, does a young officer like him really matter to a King?"
After avoiding him for a few days she decides she's being a bad friend...but waiting for her is not Ah-Jiu, but Zheng Dan, 'Head Priest of Yue'.
FuChai bitterly assumes he's here to kill her on the king's orders, and then that his offer to work together to destroy Yue is a test of her loyalty.
Zheng Dan smiles and hands her a knife, saying it will be useful for killing game... and her enemies, then whispers that 'A-Jiu' is really GouJian, King of Yue.
Fuchai ends up curled in her hut, clutching the knife, unable to deny the now obvious truth and asking herself: Why? Why would he befriend the one who killed his father?
And the howling wind replies: to shatter your heart.
The next day, FuChai starts to tell GouJian that she is from Ng, and he stops her in an awkward panic saying "We agreed not to ask about each other's pasts. If you share and I don't, it will feel unfair."
FuChai: This thing you once said you have to do no matter what- is it to do with your old enemy.
GouJian. Yes. But I don't want to involve you in a life or death matter. You are my best friend...if only...I wish...in the remaining time I have...
He falls asleep beside her and FuChai can only think "Despicable despicable despicable!!", filled with heartbreak and fury. She has forgotten her duty to her people and become GouJian's safe pet dog, who he can always kill if he decides she's a threat after all.
She draws the dagger.
HMM. KILL OR DON'T KILL??? BETTER SAVE TO BE SURE.
She throws the dagger in the stream and tells Zheng Dan she wants a revenge stronger than death. Her three conditions are 1) they are equal partners 2) No harming the people of Ng 3) No killing GouJian until she is able to truly cause him despair.
"Are we not the best of friends? Then Ah-Jiu, you shall fall together with Ah-Yu into the dark abyss. Only there can I love you without any grudges"
She wakes on the boat with two sets of memories in her head. YiGuang says she has passed the first part of the test, waking from the dream. They will return when she has answered the question: where does the righteousness of her heart lead?
FuChai: Is there really a correct path through all this love and hate, between right and wrong?
YiGuang: People often waver in the middle of everything. As to right and wrong...I think empathy is more important.
FuChai speeds back to Gusu, which is now entirely under the Dragon God's control.
She apologises to Wu ZiXu for not listening to him but he says she is his Liege, not his puppet. He is unhappily resigned to her still not killing GouJian.
They find ChenFeng tied up under a tree, along with the sign GouJian used to leave to show he wanted to meet up by the stream.
GouJian: I couldn't persuade my ministers to risk the Dragon God's wrath by stopping the war. I must go the the battlefield, I cannot abandon my subjects. But I will prove to you that I will never hurt you again. Please stay safe.
Fuchai: Do not think that we cannot bear to kill you.
GouJian: I know.
But she can't bear to do it right now, and he vanishes into the darkness.
The next day, FuChai must lay siege to her own city. The Dragon God flies the flag of Ng on the city walls to taunt her.
He appears as Zheng Dan with horns, laughing about how she used to be his Liege.
The city's gates open, and there is the army of Yue, with GouJian at the helm.
Zheng Dan: But in these troubled times, a subject's betrayal is nothing new. Is it not, little sister of the Ng family?
I love the multiple meanings of the game's title, and all the subject/Liege pairs. Not just everyone's vows to FuChai, but all the people who made vows to her father, to the Dragon God, and to GouJian. Plus I guess GouJian and ShaoJiang to their father/brother.
The armies clash, but GouJian just stares at her, motionless.
FuChai: King of Yue, our battle will have to start eventually.
GouJian: King of Ng; after you.
Her heart is alight with love and hatred, anger and regret.
"One struggles more to stay alive in the fear of death. I gratefully take this feeling of being alive and put it into the swing of my sword."
He parries her, and retreats. Looking at the near-indistinguishable fighting soldiers, she realises all of this is just a blood sacrifice to the Dragon God. She calls a retreat.
Three monsters emerge from the blood of the fallen, including an unfamiliar tiger monster. Has Zheng Dan successfully taken control of the final leg of the Ding of Virtue?
It shoots fire at FuChai but GouJian pulls her to safety, and says that now that the Yue army has seen that the Dragon God is using them as a blood sacrifice, they will be willing to retreat.
YiGuang casts a sealing spell but the Dragon God breaks free, tearing his body apart to become a giant white dragon.
THE SWORD OF THE KING OF YUE IS THE FINAL LEG!! All of the Dragon God's scheming around GouJian was to gain access to it.
GouJian: I'll take it back!
Fuchai: But how? You're mortal.
GouJian: Trust me!
As he rides towards the dragon she can only cry "Ah-Jiu...you must return alive..."
She is back at the lake altar, surrounded by death, reliving the nightmare of six years ago.
YiGuang: Ah-Yu, put your jade fish on the altar so we can start the ritual.
Fuchai: But there's people dying on the battlefield!
The three monsters jump into the lake, flooding not only the altar but the city beside it.
YiGuang: Our ancestors worshipped the Dragon God of the Five Lakes out of fear of such punishment.
FuChai: ...start the ritual.
Dragon God, shooting magic spikes: You have failed to find all the pieces of the Ding. You are powerless against me!
FuChai: I believe...in Ah-Jiu!
She finds herself in the spiritual realm, looking down at a spike piercing her chest.
Mage Yang: The heavens and Earth are not benevolent to you, so why do you still seek the way of righteousness?
FuChai: The way of righteousness is within the human heart. I can still forgive and show mercy because I am able to empathise and understand.
Mage Yang smiles and says "You have reached the pinnacle of goodwill" and light shines out as he touches her chest.
She wakes to a delighted YiGuang and ShaoJiang saying that the Ding is whole and the waters are receding. A burned, limping, bloody GouJian throws the sword of Yue at her feet, and hugs her, though she's still impaled on a spike.
He whispers a thank you for trusting her, then shouts out the words that break the vow: "We summon the power of Heaven to slay the Dragon God- to be a shining example of virtue to all mortals and to break the Sacred Vow!"
The Dragon God turns to ash, and the spike disappears. FuChai and Goujian collapse to the ground, both mortally wounded.
GouJian: Ah-Yu...if there is life after reincarnation, then I hope...that not only will the Kingdoms of Yue and Ng share the same future, I also hope...that you and I will share the same pillow.
FuChai: You will still be such a flirt...in the next life.
They smile at each other as everything goes black.
Closing Credits
Epilogue
ShaoJiang tells FuChai that she looks stunning dressed as a woman, because she is a massive lesbian.
ChenFeng: ...yes, stunning.
ShaoJiang: Did you eat all the sweets from the King of Yue again?
ChenFeng: >.>
YiGuang: The wedding's over, let's stop bothering The King of Ng.
ShaoJiang: I can't bear to let Lord Ng marry that despicable man >:(
ChenFeng: I concur.
YiGuang: Since she's happy, what are you complaining about?
Yeah they are all definitely in love with her, YiGuang is just nicer about it.
Wu ZiXu: Though you are a king, remember that you are marrying into Ng.
GouJian: ...but I'm a man...
Wu ZiXu: This has nothing to do with your gender. If you don't agree to it, there are many other men who want to be the king's consort.
GouJian: Fine, fine!
GouJian: It was such a hassle to get my people to agree to let me marry you, and I get disrespected now I'm here...did we have to get married?
FuChai: I want the world to know that even if the King of Ng is a woman, she can do anything a man can do, whether it be ruling the central plain or marrying the love of my life.
GouJian: Right, you are always right ;)
Even though they've had sex she's a little bashful about having wedding night sex.
He says they'll have to leave the job of uniting the two countries to their children, and then kisses her, with the implication of "so let's make some babies".
Ng and Yue will share the same future, as their kings share the same pillow.
THE END
That was lovely. GouJian is SUCH an idiot but in a way I could roll with as romantic. And she is TOTALLY GOING TO BE EMPEROR OF ALL CHINA, with GouJian as her supportive consort :D :D
Alas I have trouble seeing ShaoJiang/FuChai/GouJian but it could probably work eventually and they'd be a hell of a power throuple. And I have high hopes for being able to headcanon ShaoJiang/FuChai/YiGuang on the YiGuang path.
I'm glad ChenFeng got a happy ending despite the curse but am worried there's little hope for things to end very well with GouJian on the other paths :(
Bad Ending:
FuChai leaves GouJian to die and laughs gleefully as her army murders the troops of Qi. "Ah-Jiu will understand, right? The taste of revenge is a temptation nobody can resist. The cries for help are like music, the shedding of blood like a dance. Countless lives pave my way to the throne of victory."
This is bad, obviously! But also :D
It's Wu Zixu who pulls her back from excess cruelty, and seeing him brings her back to herself. She suddenly remembers the danger Ah-Jiu is in and rushes to find him.
He kisses her, then asks helplessly why she didn't come sooner. She has no reply but to kiss him back. He tells her he loves her and she can only stiffly nod.
The "Skip read" function wasn't working properly again so this is just the changes I noticed while doing a forced skip and checking the log every now and then.
He says he wishes he could have met her when he was the crown prince and she the crown princess, so they could have gotten married and there'd be no need for conflict between Ng and Yue, or for her to be King of Ng. He's a little tipsy and starts passionately kissing her, pulling open her clothes, but she apologises and says they can't yet, because she's not comfortable showing him her seal and how close she is to death. He's nice about it.
GouJian: Haha, yes...we have to go back to Ng... :(
Then at the conference, he GLOATS about showing everyone that she's a woman??
FuChai: Hahaha, we have not been human for very long, so who cares about gender?
The vengeful gleam in his eyes starts to dim leaving only indifference and confusion.
So I guess he's become vulnerable to the Dragon God's mind-control and she's...just gone a bit crazy?
YiGuang: Why did you do this?
GouJian: Because Ah-Yu is the King of Ng
YiGuang: I pity you.
She feels dead inside as she goes to meet Mage Yang.
And afaict then the dream progresses exactly the same way, which is really sad in a whole other way, because she gets to fall in love with him and then feel betrayed all over again and this time it doesn't ever get better.
Time to try and stab him!
She kisses him before she stabs him, and then lets out a mournful howl, overcome by madness and regret.
After the dream things continue the same until the meeting at the stream. She doesn't even know why she came, and all she sees is a familiar knife on a stone carved with more of the poem he quoted to her before about encountering a wished for beauty. She should feel only hatred but her heart aches.
Oh no. Oh no this is so sad.
Someone else saves her from the monster's blow.
At the altar, after the monsters attack, as FuChai tries to start the ritual, she hears footsteps behind her.
FuChai: King of Yue.
GouJian: King of Ng.
One of the monsters leaps into his hands and becomes a blade. Fuchai raises her own sword. "The world is so big and yet it is not big enough for the two of us".
Here at the end she can acknowledge to herself how much she loves him, her greatest enemy. She feels the pain in the seal on her chest and knows the end is near. She laughs and throws down her sword, opening her arms to greet her love.
As he stabs her, he cries out her name.
Fuchai meets Mage Yang in the spiritual realm and says she can't figure out the difference between love and hate, or the path of righteousness, so all she asks for is the power to break the Sacred Vow.
As YiGuang recites the words that break the vow, Fuchai starts to become transparent. She laughs weakly and puts her hand to GouJian's crying face, thinking "Though I couldn't do the right thing in life, I did something right with my death".
Fuchai: King FuChai of Ng died at the hands of King GouJian of Yue, while Ah-Yu died willingly in the arms of her beloved Ah-Jiu. Ah-Jiu...I saw the poem. I hope that you...treat the citizens of Ng....kindly.
And then she turns into water and flows back into her country, finally free of the burden of destiny.
Closing Credits
The background to the closing credits are a pretty scene of YiGuang looking out over a river. The names are mostly in Chinese but it's clear this had a very small team: two writers, one programmer, etc. One name I could recognise was "Swallow", who seems to have been the main writing credit and the translator and English proofreader. And for the work of a single person who presumably speaks English as a second language the translated game isn't too bad.
Epilogue
GouJian is dying of old age, and his proud officials discuss his eulogy: "The will of the Heavens laid on the shoulders of the King of Yue. He destroyed Ng and promoted Yue, implemented the way of righteousness, and sought hegemony with the kingdoms of the north".
In his dream, he waits at the stream. But when he sees the familiar and beautiful figure, he dare not approach, and the pain in his chest means he cannot make a sound. The figure melts into the stream, and he jumps in after her. His last words are "Ah-Yu...wait for me!"
The King is dead.
THE END
;_;
Though reading back over this...what an ASS GouJian is about the possibility of Fuchai suspecting him of betraying her. Though he's obviously in denial about it, and expects her to kill him the moment she finds out, no wonder he was happy at the idea of dying to save her before she discovered the truth.
I like the ambiguity about whether he was at all kind to the people of Ng.
I spent a lot of time thinking "YiGuang Best Boy", I hope he doesn't become an ass on his route.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-07 07:17 am (UTC):DDDD I also did not know any of the specifics either beyond "Goujian embodies the term revenge is best served cold ten years later"! But I think the story covered enough, and the only thing it's kind of missing is (as I learnt through fic on ao3) is that there was this...kind of painful quadrilateral relationship mirroring between two ministers on the Yue side and two on the Wu side (Ng is how in some dialects the country of Wu is pronounced, and the way it's frequently romanized in english speaking plaes). All of them exiles from Chu, Bopi who acts in ways...that you can see later....was actually hired into Ng on Wu Zixu's recommendation.
Goujian's paranoia comes down through the records in the alleged fates of the two (also extremely loyal to him/Yue) ministers on his side, Wen Zhong and Fan Li, one of whom was also ordered to commit suicide and the other who hightailed it out of Yue before the order could come down. Parallels and ironic fic imported from lofter abound!
However, the game doesn't bring them up, nor the (possible war crime?) of one of those ministers's stratagem of boiling the seed grain (to inactivate them) Yue was supposed to give to Ng in order to help it through a famine or something, or any of the other iconic stuff they did for Goujian, probably just to streamline the story. It also doesn't bring up any of the things historical Goujian was supposed to have done while he was a servant in Ng, and I won't mention them since they're a little too much as well, but the only comparable ancient world drama on the western side with equivalent fame is maybe...Cleopatra?
So the existing audience is there for sure! Their lamentable word of mouth advertisement, however T__T
no subject
Date: 2022-01-11 08:12 am (UTC)haha yeah I looked up everyone's wikipedia page before starting his route. I can see the appeal of an AU where he gets listened to (eventually) And yes Wen Zhong and Fan Li sound really interesting and like great story fodder though I can see why they didn't really come up in this game. Also not brought up: the woman GouJian was already married to before he became a slave haha. But such is the nature of historical RPF otome.