Have any of you read the novel? I began reading it along time ago, grew impatient as I was spoiled by the super high quality translation of Pillow Book, but after finishing the drama gave the novel a read.
For the most part, the drama and show are VERY similar with a lot of the dialogue created.
The biggest differences lay in Phoenix's personality (he is presented as VERY frigid in the novel), the number of times they engage in mutual cultivation a.k.a. lovemaking, and they had to tone down some of her more outrageous reactions to sex and male anatomy in general.
One of the most stand out differences, of course, is the minimal role the demons actually play in the main drama. Second is how the show ends. In the series, we are led to believe that Jin Mi has a cathartic moment in which she is vindicated in front of Phoenix and that, it appears, there is hope for them.
NOT SO. The novel is far more harsh in terms of showcasing their fallout after she kills him, and it takes her much longer to realize her feelings for him.
Jin Mi has yet to learn the reason for the elixer's negative impact on Phoenix, and so she goes to the demon realm before her wedding to take a chance and finally tell Phoenix that she loved him (this is after she overhears Run Yu's conversation with Sui Hui and has that awesome confrontation with him). Their conversation is actually the conversation he has with her after he gifts Sui Hui the autumn flowers. He accuses her of plotting with Run Yu, of making up lies, and tells her he hates her so much that if she ever says love to him again he will kill her. Then, to make matters worse, the war gong sounds.
The emperor has come to fetch her, and this seems to completely seal Jin Mi's case--Phoenix's hatred is so raw and palpable it's really painful to read because for as much as she loves him he seems to loathe her. He then decides to use her to goad his brother and use it as an opportunity to seek revenge.
As the brothers fight, and demons wage war, she figures out the problem with the elixer and then she yells this out loud. Phoenix looks at her (the glance is almost exactly like the glance he gives her in the show when she runs up to him and pleads for him to stop--kind of sharp-sexy looking the way it is described is spot on) but she seex Run Yu is angry that she has figured it out, angry she wants to save him, and he prepares to go for the killing blow (the forbidden magic he used is not cannon and only in the tv show) and she jumps in there to protect to Phoenix--she expects the magic to hit her in the back but does not anticipate Phoenix's counter attack, but that doesn't matter because she has already decided that she is like the tiger from Buddha's story (remember her little monologue?) and then she feels a burn from the front---Phoenix unleashes his most powerful attack, clearly expecting to go for Run Yu.
She then simply....dies. There is no long conversation. She just dies.
The next thing she is aware of is seeing everything from someone's point of view--and she realizes she is in someone's eye but doesn't know who (she doesn't seem to really know who she is). Years pass, and we are in the scene where Phoenix is relating how he knew she was sneaking in (when he looks at the drawings) and THEN the tear falls, and she dies again, only he never sees her. She is just gone.
5,000 years pass and then we have the scene in the epilogue where she is about to be married, and then Phoenix appears.
-the end-
-In addition, another stand out scene that was very different in the show is the scene where he drunkenly kisses her in the demon realm, and then calls her Sui Hui. In the novel, they actually make love, but she doesn't care that he is drunk, and then he calls her Sui Hui. She thought he was saying drink water, but after he calls her Sui Hui, she realizes she must be stupid because the words for Sui Hui and drink water are similar, and she believes he was slurring the words to make it sound different. After this she then flees..
If you want to read the novel, here is a link to the translation:
http://onesecondspring.blogspot.com/p/translations.html
