Your Rival in Love Gets Prettier Every Day

Chapter 72: Li Xu and Shen Jintai

After Li Xu's finale was broadcasted, screenwriter Meng Xiaosheng was interviewed by a streaming platform.

The host said: "Recently, due to Li Xu's ending, it can be said that audiences across the country are crying. Many people have been sending knives to the screenwriter. Did you know?"

Meng Xiaosheng nodded and said: "I also feel very guilty. In fact, when I finished writing this chapter, I had insomnia all night and cried for a long time. The next day, I asked Director Guo if we wanted to shoot it like this. After discussing, we all felt that this ending was better than the original. Li Xu is indeed a villain. Whether it is an original novel or an adaptation, his fate is unchangeable. Just like the words in the drama, these people were at the peak of power and thought they could control it, but reality was the power was what controlled them. In such a situation, death is inevitable for his ending. How he'll die and when he'll die are actually the main issues I considered when adapting. Because there have been many speculations about his fate, if he died very plainly, I felt he would lose the color and extremities of his character. His life was legendary, with highs and lows, and he should be given an ending that the audience can remember."

"I heard that there were plans to let Li Xu survive in the beginning?"

Meng Xiaosheng nodded: "We didn't expect the role of Li Xu to be so popular in the beginning. After it caught fire, everyone was worried that if he was written to death, the audience would not be able to accept it. At that time the ending was the prince would pick up Li Xu, who had gone too crazy that he no longer recognize it was Zhou Ying. This was what we originally intended to film but now I'm not sure if I want to shoot it."

"Li Xu's death was so unexpected. Everyone thought that he would die, but they didn't expect him to die like this. In the end, the prince didn't recognize him, and the letter wasn't delivered."

"Honestly, there were many things that were deleted. One version was more bitter than this. We had makeup done to disfigure Li Xu's face at that time so the prince wouldn't be able to recognize him. After I looked at it, I said, no I couldn't stand it. It was too much, so in the end the actor only smeared blood causing many netizens to remark how it wasn't possible for the prince to not recognize him. In handling Li Xu's death, we simplified it. We did not shoot the parts of how he died. How to put it... What we wanted was the beginning to be concise and shocking. That is, one minute he's getting out of the carriage, the next, there was a horse dragging a corpse running throughout the city. After the filming everyone was extremely uncomfortable. Shen Jintai cried directly, saying that he couldn't stand it. We actually dealt with his death tenderly, allowing him to die on the back of his beloved. He was able to recognize Zhou Ying moments before his death and we did a close-up to focus on this. Zhou Ying will eventually find out that he had accompanied Li Xu during his last moments. This was written in a later inscription. The normal inscription originally was not written to be like this..." Meng Xiaosheng gave a long paused before continuing: "I decided to go under the knife. On one hand, I couldn't bear it. On the other hand, I felt that it would be better for this character. The tragedy of the character will be stronger, and the character will be more deeply rooted in people's hearts. Li Xu's ending is actually also for the theme, foreshadowing the future of Chang'an, the three emperors*, Zhou Cong, He Lanbi, and others of the palace, implying the cruelty of power struggles and its repeated cycles."

Reminder: *Three emperors = also know as the three sovereigns and five emperors. Originally the three emperor refers to the ancient three gods (Emperor of Heaven, Emperor of Earth, Emperor of Humanity) and later the Fuxi clan. The five emperors in its original sense refers to the gods of the five parties. Later it included the five ancient tribal leaders. || In the context here, they are referring to the person who will eventually become part of the three emperors in history. Think of three emperors as a title, not as the literal translation.