Read First The Complete Novel Translation

Read it here: https://mydramanovel.com/the-glory/

Thank you for sharing the link! Read the whole thing in a night and a morning without about 5 hours of sleep in between. 

For anyone wanting to read it, it’s very different from the first 4 episodes of the drama. They’ve used the names and their official status like legitimate daughter, concubine etc but the premise is totally different. 

If I had to summarise the 219 chapters of the translated novel without giving all of the plot away:

Zhuang Han Yan is the unfavoured legitimate daughter of Zhuang Shi Yang. In her previous life, she was naive, trusting those who only sought to harm her. In her first life’s ending, she was betrayed and made to drink a cup of poisoned wine by a person she considered a sister, who plotted to steal her position as a noble man’s wife.  Her mother and brother had been unjustly murdered and now she was to follow their fate. Zhuang Han Yan deeply regrets - but, rebirth plot: she wakes up 3 years prior to those terrible events. 

Armed with knowledge from her previous life, she cleverly outmanoeuvres those who would plot her downfall from her unloving father to his scheming concubines and concubine born sister, Zhuang Yu Shan, while Han Yan protects her younger brother. She attracts the attention of the imperial family, in particular, the cold but attractive younger brother to the emperor, Prince Xuanqing, Fu Yunxi. 

Several deeper plots are afoot - the mysterious circumstances surrounding Zhuang Han Yan’s birth, an invading enemy country,  political ploys, and many schemes against Han Yan that she must solve.  

It’s a very satisfying read with misunderstandings being quickly solved and Han Yan is wickedly smart!

Content warning - Han Yan is underaged and is referred to as 12 or 13 for much of the book. However, there is no underage sexual content but she does have several people who plot to ruin her innocence (and she outwits them all).  There are no descriptive sex scenes but there is mention of intercourse (eg. “embracing”) between consenting adults. 

I really enjoyed it. I look forward to see whether the drama becomes more similar in plot later on but certainly the first few episodes I’ve seen really don’t resemble the book. 

Thank you step_ravita, does it have a HE between FL & ML please?

Thank you so much Steph_ravita, much appreciate.

 BlackJade30:

Good to know. Is his ill health resolved in the novel?

It is! It’s a happy ending. 

@steph_ravita owh, that's very different from the tv series. i'm kinda glad they don't go the rebirth route, it's quite overplayed at this point. but now that she doesn't really have anything real to defend inside the family (her mother can protect herself), it's quite frustrating watching her putting herself in danger in that kind of household.

 mblgoh:

Thanks WatchingTVSeries  . Your links are always reliable. You're awesome!

Thanks steph_ravita  for the summary without spoiling the drama. Is Lingzhi the biological daughter of FYX? In the beginning of the drama the maid said the issue surrounding the marriage of FYX and  ZHY's sister  was complicated. Can you include it in the spoiler? 

Thanks

There is no Lingzhi in the novel. FYX was never married to ZHY’s sister and he only ever marries one person (the female lead, ZHY) in the novel’s ending.  The sister (Qin) existed in the novel but was a minor character and was the daughter of another concubine, not the daughter of Concubine Zhou as she is portrayed to be in the drama.

When I say the storyline is totally different, I mean it! 

I’ve also read the novel and must say that so far, the ONLY thing the drama has in common with it are a few character names. Everything else is completely different:

- no Pei Dafu, this entire storyline is new

- everyone’s positions in life are different, in the novel Yunxi is a prince, the emperor’s brother, raised in the palace, and is suffering from a magical cold poisoning that makes his body turn to ice

- FL is not the daughter of a small scholar, but of a much higher ranked aristocratic court official, and her mother died when she was little, there is no disability storyline and no mother wanting revenge, no Yuwen dare, etc. (it’s later discovered she has no blood relation to her family and is actually a princess, her real family was wiped out by the empress dowager)

- FL has returned to her young body after being killed by her sister and by her husband, a minor prince

- the main villains are the Empress Dowager, the 7th Prince competing with the young crown prince, and the minor prince who married the FL in her previous life, none of whom have even appeared in this drama

- in the book, FL constantly outsmarts everyone and doesn’t need anyone else’s guidance

- the female assassin has zero close relationship with the FL, she is only briefly hired to teach her some self-defense moves

In short, literally everything is different and the characters, their personalities, relationships, goals, and history are completely different, as well. I like both the novel and the drama, but see them as two separate stories that have nothing to do with each other.