
I forgot which arc but holy fuck was it angsty. apparently they needed jinghua's ashes for a certain mission but MANY chapters ago Jinghua personally got rid of his ashes, he dumped them out after his ashes were used go harm Xi. So... he basically had no more ties to the mortal world... but Xi gave him a tie... the spirit rings that connected them both... my heart...
MAJOR MAJOR SPOILER ALERT....
it turns out that even THAT was false because from the VERY VERY beginning, Xi never had a proper contract with Jinghua, go back to the first chapters, you'll notice that no exchanging of rings or vows are made. Xi just tells Jinghua but never shows proof of it. Obviously Jinghua is distraught but Xi, ever the altruistic good boy that he is, never wanted to bound anyone to the abusive and destructive Duanmu family rituals. Jinghua is so hurt by this betrayal but more so because he realizes that Xi is put in an even more vulnerable and unbearable position as the Duanmu family and the Entire World. He has always been a sacrifice.
When it comes to the restrictive Chinese censorship laws and danmei, BL writers have to work around and deliberately make relationships as ambiguous as possible. And sometimes it allows for gut wrenching and unique displays of love and devotion.
Xi LITERALLY broke down when it was suggested that Jinghua faded from the world. Oh my gawd, read it. I read the translations and the raws in a multi-view display on my phone.

from what I gathered on the last chapters,
- FL has a child with General Xia, it's a girl and because of court politics and imperial laws, she decides that Imperial Concubine Yun *dark haired guy whose mother is an important official* will be recognized as the father
- the child is a girl so she ends up becoming Empress
- last chapters mostly revolve around the OG ML cast, the rest don't stick around for long and get their own endings
- Little White passes away young because of the poison/toxins inside his body (from his imperial secret guard status)
- in the modern world extra, general xia is her bodyguard/secretary, little white is a close little brother type(?) he's a hs student, and the green haired ML is her date, the others are kinda hinted as situationships

oh the cover picture!! inhui has his hand at taesik's neck reminiscent to the headless victims!! he's also got a gun in his hands, a reference to the gun that was positioned toward taesik in the 1st chapter. inhui must think of himself some sort of angel of death, he's just playing a long, manipulative game of cat n mouse with taesik!
HAH jonghan also kissed the back of jiho's hand in King of Homecooking Ep27, unintentional parallels?? this guy I love him soo much he's so silly
ch47** but yeah, need to make another album for him