#though I wouldn't describe any relationship in Tai Sui as solely doomed. it's all kind of complicated and bittersweet

[grassbreads]

If nothing else, I do love how all three priest romances I've read so far have included some element of "desperately trying and succeeding to keep your most loved one from destroying themselves."

Silent Reading is first and foremost a story about Luo Wenzhou grabbing Fei Du over and over and saying "You are not evil, and I will take care of you whether you like it or not, motherfucker," and it works like a charm. Yu Lanchuan in NPNPH is constantly (and successfully) trying to keep Gan Qing in the light and stop her from committing crimes that would ruin her life if she went through with them. Sha Po Lang emphasizes this aspect less, but Chang Geng and Gu Yun are both still constantly throwing themselves into danger while getting pissed at the other one for doing the same, and they fuss endlessly over the other one's well-being and chronic illness until they're both cured and live happily ever after.

And then the second priest wrote something without a canon couple and was no longer bound to give the main character a happily ever after with their loved one, she dropped the "and succeeding" part completely. Xi Ping tries desperately to save Zhou Ying, and Zhou Ying does end his life happily having achieved his goals, but Xi Ping fails utterly to save him in the ways he wants to. He still dies, and they never get their living reunion. Zhi Xiu tries to save Xi Ping from the cruelty of fate, and he succeeds in some ways, but he can't save Xi Ping from his centuries of lonely immortality.

The priest romances I've read so far have all, to varying degrees, been about the question of how to help and save a loved one that doesn't value themselves as much as you think they should. Tai Sui is about what happens when you can't save them. It's about what happens when your most beloved person's self-destruction succeeds.