Aramintai

Depends on what you mean by that.

It has romance, but it's not the main focus of the drama. Mods have to update the tags at some point.
This drama has high production value as well.

It's not her maid, but a junior colleague in the Bureau.

34 episodes total.

I like how in one of the episodes ML said that celestial events are just celestial bodies' movements, they don't bring calamities. It's the evil people who use them to exploit people's fears and prejudices for their own gain. I wonder though whether that is a general consensus among the astronomers, or just his opinion, as it kinda undermines the usefulness of the Astronomers' Office.

No, it's the right chancellor who's behind it. The whole plot is already in the novel.

At this point this cop out is getting a bit ridiculous, it's hard to believe that so many people are so readily willing to kill themselves, as it's against all instincts. I mean, sure, some people got into that mentality through prolonged abuse. But some others did it as soon they got in trouble, like total brainwashed knobs.
I guess the showrunners want to keep the palace's prison empty 🤣.

And then always comes some greedy guy who ruins it by making everything in there a product for money.

Some nice backstories and connections in ep 25. FL owes ML her life, basically. And he became an astronomer because of her. And her mentor taught her all his skills, along with his bad temper and habits. She really was never alone, kind people willingly helped her survive and become what she is. Gotta stop believing that cursed lone star bs.

I think most of the complainers were going into this thinking this would be a rom-com focused drama, instead of investigations and underlying tales of women's plight. And since the romance is mild here, they're inventing what to hate about this drama. I too think ML's too stiff here, but since I saw him in other works, I'm thinking it's deliberate here, that's just how his character is. Personally, it doesn't bother me that much. His character is very genuine and compliments FL here nicely with his calm demeanor.

And sure, not all cases are mysterious enough to not see who did what pretty early. If it's your favorite genre, you've probably seen it all. However, the focus here is not about the elaborate methods, the focus here is about the victims' stories behind these cases, which are absolutely devastating and leave lots to think about. This aspect crime dramas often overlook in favor of procedurals and excitement of catching the criminal.

It's Lunar New Year in China toady. New episodes tomorrow.

Prestige / profits for herself and family / was forced to / was sold as slave or for family debts. In most cases - nobody asked what those women want and they've no rights to object.

She's very smart too, they're smart in different areas tha compliment each other.

It's like legal Epstein files.

And nobody's gonna do anything because it was customary at the time for emperors to have a shit ton of concubines.

The last memories came up when she witnessed her mentor killed in episode 22. But there were snippets here and there before, that's why she suspected ML and his father from the very beginning.

There are evil women here too. But men have more privileges to abuse here, sure.

We still have more than 10 episodes to go. And FL rememberd everything from her childhood, and reconciled with ML about it. They're determined to find the truth. The main bad already sent asssassins after her because she started coming close to the truth. Her master's beau I think also wasn't introduced just because - she's gonna find new info through her sources.
But most importantly, I think FL will stumble upon a case that will expose the main villain sooner or later. Villains tend to do lots of evil stuff, it couldn't have been contained just to that one massacre.
Have patience.
Personally, I'm having fun watching new cases and developing leads relationship. I like that they aren't playing around and are very honest characters. How ML managed reconcile with FL in ep 23 was pretty nice.

The last one about the cult babies and grandpa's revenge.

It gets better again in later episodes. But if you're looking for manly ML taking the lead, then it's not the right drama for you. ML here is like ying to FL's yang.