AleksandraSucur

1. You may calmy expect their romance to unfold, bc the romance is the core thread: this is a story of Cinderella (and her Prince Charming ofc) revisited and enriched with all kinds of secondary motives, plots, patterns and details unlimitedly to its core genre. Their union is KARMIC (set in stone, unremoveable, guaranteed by a life sacrificied to save another): it was decided when her father saved his father. When he was on the brink of death, his granny received a prophecy, he'll be brought back to life only if he marries her. The audience can't doubt the heavens, period.
The complication derived from the fact she was switched as a kid by the evil familiars (actually, they've intended to kill her, but she survived), but - for a KARMIC circumstance (resemblance with the girl she was switched with, and who is obviously evil, like Cinderella's step sisters, and who is also craving Prince Charming like them) - she is brought back to her house/family to impersonate... herself (thus fulfilling the prophecy and "maktub", the will of the heavens). The evil aunts will get their KARMIC retribution bc their deeds will be exposed, after a bitter fight of wits.
2. The romance feels so realistic bc it is circumstanciated: what our Cinderella suffered in life made her a street smart, manipulative, shrewd woman who is constantly in "fight for survival mode", things that the initially biased Prince Charming perceives as "shameful" and "wicked", but still better than the crazy psychokiller he thought he married. But for how much we understand his pov, our empathy is with her - it is she whose life is in danger and we also understand why she lies and deceives. That's why we root, in the first arc, for the revelation of the truth and are so gratified with him taking her back home in his arms. But neither Cinderella nor PC are easy to handle, he is certainly not an easy man who'll be fooled or easily taken to bed out of gratitude, he has his standards. He wants a sincere heart in change of his sincere heart, the thing Cinderella cannot give him, bc her heart was buried deep down under the load of sufference and injustice she indured. It's crucial that Prince Charming understands her and the world she lived (and still lives in). All these things are triggering our "realistic" signals, bc that's how love functions in real world. There's no love if you don't understand you partner.
3. What should we expect AFTER the KARMIC retribution of the 2 aunts and the impostor they've planted (lol, they are pro in planting impostors)? It depends on how many arcs the author structured the plotline. Usually, for such a format, the audience gets 3 arcs. I've seen previous works of the screenwriter, she also usually uses 3 arcs, with hints anticipating the next one. Up to the ep 14, I've noticed several. Her noble family is rotten (not entirely, but the aunts and Jundai cousin...), her poor (adoptive) family is rotten, we sense there's smth rotten even in the Lu family she is married into. The rotten apples easily pair with other rotten people and HL (Prince Charming's archenemy) walked over the corpse of his dead spouse (saying: useless!) only to remain in the capital and give FL a hard time. You've noticed the lack of a sound "political plot" (you're 100% right), combine it with the refugees/tenants of her estate she has taken care of, a side story which also feels so unnecessary, as well as of the "army" she trains on her estate. Her husband is a high standing general, and she exposed herself even personally when her armed men assaulted the imperial soldiers escorting her "poor family" at the orders of Consort Li (so hated by the ED, who's a relative of HL). Easy peasy to condemn them both for bulls**t like treason, secretly training of the army and so on. But they are a KARMIC couple and they'll beat them all in the end.

It's such a paradox: as LZ starts to know things about his wife (including those even she didn't know) and consequentially their romantic bond improves, becoming more "understanding" and "realistic", the main course of action (/plotline), which required strong suspension of disbelief from the first minutes of this drama, starts to feel shallow, unconvincing and less gratifying.
This paradox is due to a sc. "predictive processing" through which our brain distinguishes "realistic" from "irrealistic", through a different intensity of neural signals (above and below "reality trashold") and triggering different evaluation mechanisms (realistic is based on our real life experience and knowledge, irrealistic is based on mental simulation and association with other similar imagery).
Coping between two opposing signals, the brain gets irritated by the predictive processing and - starting to notice all the irrealistic things which previously amused and gratified the brain - isn't willing to suspend the disbelief as before by lowering its reality trashold.
That's why I think it was a narrative mistake to mix these two threads: building up their romance contemporarily with the revelation of FL's true origins and identity. In order to prove what was already revealed to us in ep 14, crazy twists and turns, family makjang push and pulls between aunts, Jundai, brainless cousin, consort etc... will be dragged for more episodes to come... I prefer to skip this 2nd arc saving my energies for the last one.

we all know that, but I'm getting bored and started to FF these scenes... Suspension of disbelief can't last forever.

I wasn't talking about the actor, but of the purpose of his character and the purpose of this weak subplot

Han Liao is the most absurd villain I've seen in a drama. He continuously messes with the FL, continuously ends up beaten and continuously comes back for more beatings. He's more of a (bad, cartoonish) comic relief than a villain.
And in general, this waterway block subplot feels extremely flat and rushed to be really functional to the purpose of FL gaining her own power and credibility. I'd say, it's even counterproductive for such a purpose and the storyline gained nothing from it: HL is still around, the feud is still open as before. I didn't even laughed as before when he was beaten, I was... bored.

I remember, but that was just a poor exploited desperate kid's imagination. If she knew those weren't her parents she would have investigated, but they never told her the truth.

A'Chou doesn't know she was adopted, that means she was still too little to remember. If the reason why she didn't show her affections was her status, than she wouldn't send her to work since she was 6 (she didn't send her own children to work at that age), and her caring for her may be related to the fact A'Chou was a breadwinner who also procured money for her treatment, they would have starved or been sold by the gambling father, who certainly conditioned all their lives in a worse possible way... She certainly thinks A'Chou is smart, but my impression is that A'Chou cares much more about her and her children, than vice versa. The "sister" may be an exception, but she was evidently influenced by older and smarter "sister". And I don't get why she never told the truth to A'Chou... But, time will tell, as you've said

You've probably intended "paternal family", which is definitely messed up.
I totally agree with you A Chou suffered terribly throughout her life, but for some reason I wouldn't like her to be too near to the palace. When her mother married the emperor, the dowager sent assassins to kill her, so the mother thought it was safer for her to live with the Weis, who offered the assurance to the ED the girl would be raised resenting her mother, never meeting her and not appearing in public except to attend Grand Princess's parties. That particular decision enabled the switch of the girls at Wei's mansion, condemning her to live like she lived (and it was still better than being killed, as GYF ordered). Unhealthy people live in the palace, too, they are not indicated to be her family and her step-father (the emperor) is too weak and undecisive to keep their craziness in check. Mother obviously cannot divorce the emperor, nobody divorces in the imperial family, so I think mother will be useful (plotwise) only in the process of discovering the truth on her identity and kicking the a**es of those two psychokiller aunts.

She deserves a happy family life with a person who can understand her and protect her. That's her husband, but she must open to him as he could understand her motives. He has no idea how she trully lived and the number of people who tried to kill her. He couldn't even tell him that the spy-maid died in their house when the latter tried to poison her and Bitao switched the cups, killing her incidentally, bc the condition to their agreement was "no killings of maids". He thinks she is manipulative and schemeing for the taste of it and is still wary she'll made a fool of him... She also chooses wrong moments or ways to talk with him: eg. when he brought her back after having aconfirmation there are two WRs - the things she always lied to him and he is still angry about, or trying to seduce him to make him pass the anger... He'll slowly learn about her...

oh, sorry if I've spoiled you smth... didn't know you're 1 ep behind. 🙏

Does she need an adoptive mother who never hugged her?
I think Consort Li will be important later. Now, the key witness to the initial switch of the girls and WR's true identity is dead (leaving a suspicion, not the entire testimony on the events to the maternal granma), only WR's adoptive mother knows WR(A'C) was given to her by someone. Consort Li sent people everywhere to catch A'Chuo's siblings knowing she must visit lung doctors. And then the adoptive mother could finally talk, maybe by starting to deny she is her mother...

Ay! You are right, my memory erased that book, he even told her she was shameless!
It was after she and Bitao got rid of the spy momo... She is a born pretender (the Mask), and very talented and resourceful one 👍😂

Noooo, don't chase Qi guy away yet...
Yes, his task to make LZ jealous is outdated but he is still our only firm guarantee LZ will keep flirting and seducing his wife.
Kick him out after they do the deed, not bc she won't be able to change her mind (she is capable of everything) even after that, but bc that would mean he finally saw what's in her heart and that his playing "hard to get" is over.

who held that book, she? When, who gave it to her?

What kamasutra book, how did I miss it?

But I remember well she had a teacher who was a top prostitute when young😏, it was the old lady whom she sent a message and who was the first to lure HL with her testimony as "neighbour who recognised A'Chou" only to retract it, making HL look like a fool.

yes, I think she is not there at all, but at least started to think of him (asking herself "why is he so good to me?" when he bought back jewelry she pawned) and to give him some honest answers, sharing her thoughts on who can give sincere hearts (only privileged who have nothing to fear and constantly bother for their survival)...
He wants her to fall for him and will probably try to connect her more to him (the Qi guy is always around), seducing her but refusing to be intimate before he can see clearly into her heart. He'll play "hard to get" part - that will be interesting to watch

only monozygotic twins share almost ~100% DNA. A brother and sister born at the same time can only be dizygotic twins (formed from two separate eggs fertilized by two separate sperm), sharing only up to ~50%, ie., like any brothers or sisters born in different times. Only in rare cases, monozygotic twins can be of different sex due to the loss of chromosome Y in fetus which will be a girl, who will not have usual 46,X,X heritage but 45,X (or other variants). But in that case, she'll develop Turner syndrome, will look very differently from her twin due to the disgenesis of her body and will be infertile (ovaric deficiency).

But here we are in dramaland and everything is possible if we suspend our disbelief! 🙂‍↔️🙂

If you refer to Consort Li, I think the empress dowager (as well as her own mother) was close to truth when noticing the similarities between the consort and her daughter (A'Chou). They have the same temper and survival instinct, they are able to lie without blinking, to act sweet, to manipulate etc... shortly, from ED's pov, they are "shameless" and difficult to tame.
Like a broken clock, even the dowager is right twice a day.

Me too. I am not particularly fond of family intrigues, but not a few dramas I loved and rewatched contained these heavy intrigue plots. I think we can trust this screenwriter, too, so, yes, lets see how it plays out. 👍

If he came back alive, then GYF definitely got rid of him...
Even if her motive wasn't out of uncorresponded passion, she could still wish him dead to be the chief lady of the house

yeah, I also think so, we were writing at the same time :)))
Whether Wei Heng'e knew or not - I'm not so sure. They were not switched at birth, in today's ep we've seen the old maid remembering Jundai "when she was lost in the market" as a kid - and that that event was organised by her aunt Heng'e. Consort Li also mentioned "she lived with her daughter" for some time "in a living hell" at the Weis. Anyways, it isn't that important... even if she didn't knew GY ordered to murder her niece, she is still accomplice in a heavy scheme against that child.