I'm also shipping Tianlii and Yunduo

Not me. I get why, Yunduo's pain is super relatable and I'd love to see her happy, but there just isn't anything there at this stage, and I'm not a fan of "pair the spares."

Oh, yes, I see now. When you say "pair the spare" it really sounds just...pitiful.
At least at this point of the story it would be as you say.
But this is slow burn romance, and I don't think appearance of Tianli serves only to resolve history between Xingyuan and her.
Indeed, I see her as potential partner of Yunduo (observe "the hint", Yunduo came to pick up Xiaoen, but Xingyuan refused to let her go. And Tianli is the one sitting in the car with Yunduo).

If Tianli and Yunduo have some future, it should develop slowly, not as "pair the spare" (at this moment, as you noticed).
If I get the story right, Tianli is here now because of business related thing? (please correct me if I got it wrong)
If I'm right, there's possibility that she will become regular citizen of Peachtown, and true future partner-prospect for Yunduo.
Maybe my shipping came too early at this point of the story, but I hope my explanation answers why (and I did not have in mind "pair the spare")

Yeah, I'm open to the idea that they could develop Tianli/Yunduo in a natural way if the story has enough time to do it. It's a common trope in fandoms to pair up characters in stories that are unattached, since they're already characters that the readers are interested in. I've seen stories that did that well, but I've also seen stories where characters that aren't really compatible are kinda shoehorned into an awkward pairing because they're "the ones that are left over."

(Sidelong glance at the Ranma fandom)

I don't think this author would do that carelessly, though. They seem like they've got a pretty deft touch.

last edited at Feb 12, 2024 2:35PM

Some preforeshadowing
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/my_dear_lass_ch08#5
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/my_dear_lass_ch31#3

Oh right I forgot they did pretty much directly say her mom died, that's so tragic. In the flashbacks to the bullying the uniforms are different, so it seems like that happened in high school. At least she might have gotten to live out a few years of middle school peacefully, then?

(Sidelong glance at the Ranma fandom)

The what fandom?

The what fandom?

Old-timey lame-ass manga. Not important.

Ranma 1/2 is historically important! It created so many non-binary weebs!

Melding those together is funny on many levels.

I was reading the latest chapter on bilibili and at the end Tracy announced that vol 9 will be the last and that the story is shifting to wrap up mode.

While that's a few volumes ahead of where they are on bilibili and even further away for the scanlation, she was also asking for support and even doing some signed illustration give aways for incentive so if anyone has been thinking about throwing some support her way now would be the time. The app isn't too difficult to navigate imo. Hopefully that's not necessary to get to vol 9, but you never know.

That's some funny competition there. :D

Doesn't consider her as a rival, my butt.

Tianli really made my day with this remark.

^Immediately remembered your post at this point, yes. :D

"I'm . . . not serious enough about her." Not my favorite line.

I know that Xiaoen is often gleefully full of crap (much of the dialogue this time either is about that or demonstrates that), but I'm not sure what minimizing her interest in Xingyuan accomplishes here. And I know that the MCs have been doing a dance around the matter of how "serious" their relationship is, or should be.

Maybe I just expected Xiaoen to send a "hands off my girl!" message, and instead this felt like she was selling out her own feelings. But a bit of a disappointment to me.

"I'm . . . not serious enough about her." Not my favorite line.

I know that Xiaoen is often gleefully full of crap (much of the dialogue this time either is about that or demonstrates that), but I'm not sure what minimizing her interest in Xingyuan accomplishes here.

She's lying to herself because she's afraid of getting hurt if/when Xingyuan leaves the village. Methinks.

"I'm . . . not serious enough about her." Not my favorite line.

I know that Xiaoen is often gleefully full of crap (much of the dialogue this time either is about that or demonstrates that), but I'm not sure what minimizing her interest in Xingyuan accomplishes here.

She's lying to herself because she's afraid of getting hurt if/when Xingyuan leaves the village. Methinks.

That's plausible--there's certainly denial all over the place in this one. It just seemed a bit odd for her to be saying that to Tianlii, who she was treating as a rival.

I'm wondering if an alternative meaning to the not serious could be that they're not serious in that way. As in, they're not even really together right now, they're not dating with any kind of intention at the moment. It's like the difference between a situationship and a relationship. What they both want is a relationship, but because of circumstances they have to settle for a situationship at the moment, so they can't exactly call it serious, even if the feelings are serious.

"not serious enough" eh? Even he friend saw through your bullshit Xiaoen....
Could just be to protect herself. Maybe just to "act mature".
Or there might be some hidden meaning to it but... I sure didn't enjoy that.
Thanks for the chapter!

(Sidelong glance at the Ranma fandom)

Surely just 1/2 of the Ranma fandom. ;)

"not serious enough" eh? Even he friend saw through your bullshit Xiaoen....
Could just be to protect herself. Maybe just to "act mature".
Or there might be some hidden meaning to it but... I sure didn't enjoy that.

A lot of you seem to have forgotten the last convo Xiaoen and Xingyuan had on the subject. Xiaoen said in very clear terms that she only wanted a summer fling!

The problem was that Xingyuan couldn't stay longer than a month or two; after that she would leave and be gone for good—she was going to go to college and stuff. Xiaoen said that it was fine bcs she was ok with a short romance and some fun sex that would last only a few weeks and then be over. (She even seemed proud of herself as if this way of thinking seemed really super adultlike and mature to her!) Xingyuan gave her an ambiguous answer iirc and Xiaoen said she would keep pushing to persuade Xingyuan to have a fun and meaningless summer fling.

And this is what Xiaoen meant when she said she was not serious about Xingyuan! Her "official" position is that she only wants a short affair and Xingyuan's not gonna make her call an u-haul.

last edited at Feb 19, 2024 10:02PM

"not serious enough" eh? Even he friend saw through your bullshit Xiaoen....
Could just be to protect herself. Maybe just to "act mature".
Or there might be some hidden meaning to it but... I sure didn't enjoy that.

A lot of you seem to have forgotten the last convo Xiaoen and Xingyuan had on the subject. Xiaoen said in very clear terms that she only wanted a summer fling!

The problem was that Xingyuan couldn't stay longer than a month or two; after that she would leave and be gone for good—she was going to go to college and stuff. Xiaoen said that it was fine bcs she was ok with a short romance and some fun sex that would last only a few weeks and then be over. (She even seemed proud of herself as if this way of thinking seemed really super adultlike and mature to her!) Xingyuan gave her an ambiguous answer iirc and Xiaoen said she would keep pushing to persuade Xingyuan to have a fun and meaningless summer fling.

And this is what Xiaoen meant when she said she was not serious about Xingyuan! Her "official" position is that she only wants a short affair and Xingyuan's not gonna make her call an u-haul.

Sure, all that’s a given, but my original question stands: short-term or long-term, what does Xiaoen achieve by saying that to a person she sees as—and who she is treating as—a potential immediate rival?

last edited at Feb 20, 2024 12:12AM

Probably because she's feeling a little embarrassed for how over the top she was acting, especially since Xingyuan seemed unimpressed by it, so she's trying to course correct by being "fair" to Tianli and give her a chance instead of shoving her out of the way.

last edited at Feb 19, 2024 11:36PM

^ Yes, most likely. Also she's trying to make a point that she is a strapping adult (while Tianli isn't) and, as the op said, she seems to believe that having not-serious passing flings with cute randoms is a very mature thing.

"not serious enough" eh? Even he friend saw through your bullshit Xiaoen....
Could just be to protect herself. Maybe just to "act mature".
Or there might be some hidden meaning to it but... I sure didn't enjoy that.

A lot of you seem to have forgotten the last convo Xiaoen and Xingyuan had on the subject. Xiaoen said in very clear terms that she only wanted a summer fling!

The problem was that Xingyuan couldn't stay longer than a month or two; after that she would leave and be gone for good—she was going to go to college and stuff. Xiaoen said that it was fine bcs she was ok with a short romance and some fun sex that would last only a few weeks and then be over. (She even seemed proud of herself as if this way of thinking seemed really super adultlike and mature to her!) Xingyuan gave her an ambiguous answer iirc and Xiaoen said she would keep pushing to persuade Xingyuan to have a fun and meaningless summer fling.

And this is what Xiaoen meant when she said she was not serious about Xingyuan! Her "official" position is that she only wants a short affair and Xingyuan's not gonna make her call an u-haul.

Sure, all that’s a given, but my original question stands: short-term or long-term, what does Xiaoen achieve by saying that to a person she sees as—and who she is treating as—a potential immediate rival?

She's insecure about the situation and the nature of her relationship with Xingyuan and is also putting on a front. She's a bit conflicted and that leads her to speak out of both sides of her mouth at times, depending on her mood.

last edited at Feb 20, 2024 1:06PM

wow, those classmates sure are something, deciding for her that it’s no big deal right there in the group chat

Damn so Tianli deliberately outed her out of spite, yeesh. "She did better than me in school and the guy I liked wanted her contact info" is a pretty goddamn petty reason to betray a supposed best friend, yeah no shit Xingyuan isn't comfortable around her. I'm not sure how one even begins to make amends for doing that kind of evil on purpose, but Tianli barely even seems to have started beyond just putting herself in front of Xingyuan and hoping it just works somehow?? Just about the only hope for her I can imagine is one where she's still being dishonest: that text to Wang was phrased somewhat ambiguous and Xianyuan might not know it was an intentional act of spite. That would make Tianli an even worse person than how she appears after this chapter, though.
This context also highlights the importance of Xingyuan's relationship to Xiaoen, someone who's very open and uninhibited and an established adult who has basically no reason to ever be jealous of her. Xiaoen probably makes Xingyuan feel safe with all those character traits the other people around them criticize her for.

last edited at Feb 22, 2024 9:25AM

Damn so Tianli deliberately outed her out of spite, yeesh. "She did better than me in school and the guy I liked wanted her contact info" is a pretty goddamn petty reason to betray a supposed best friend, yeah no shit Xingyuan isn't comfortable around her.

I think it's a bit more than that. She also seemed to desire attention from Xingyuan and seemed envious of the affection Xingyuan was giving to others, more than anything. She seemed to feel abandoned in the way she felt abandoned by her family, wanted to separate Xingyuan from those people and wanted to harm Xingyuan for neglecting her (they were now asking for Xingyuan's contact info) and all of that led to a reflexive bad decision. I feel like she weaponized Xingyuan's sexuality as a method of getting those girls and others to leave Xingyuan alone. I'm not sure that the guy really had much to do with it, but I haven't done a close reading yet.

last edited at Feb 22, 2024 10:54AM