AleksandraSucur

I've noticed many commentators here don't like and criticize XZ for not having revealed his true identity to the FL yet. They seem to neglect very good reasons to continue with this lie:
1. There's an abyss in status between the two of them. The moment he tells her who he is, he'll estrange her, bc. they cannot be together... at most, he can take someone so low in status like her as his concubine, ie. degrading her (which neither he nor she would ever agree on).
2. By lying to her, he still maintains their emotional bond which will be shattered the moment she discovers the truth. Any other person would suspect the identity of a wounded person, with excellent martial skills and education, but in her straightforward naivety, FL believes (or wants to believe) he is just a transportation escort who, after being wounded by bandits, is willing to be her matrilocal husband to repay her for saving him. She isn't smart but isn't completely dumb either, deep down she knows he must have another identity - that's why she gave him the divorce agreement. Truth to be said, they BOTH clinge to his Yan Zgeng's identity bc neither of them wants to cut the bond between them.
3. She is also impulsive. If she learns about the huge difference in status, she'll run away and hastily marry someone else trying to forget him. He doesn't want that, he doesn't want to lose her. In his mind, after he defeats his enemies, he'll marry her nevertheless, he'll find the way. But it also means he mustn't lose her in the meantime.
For all these reasons, he must keep the lie going on

Yup, it's her husband. When she concieved Bao'er, QM (aka Sui Juanhai) wore a mask and had terrible scars of burning (from a fire occurred in the Eastern Palace). He underwent some sort of terribly painful plastic surgery which replaced his skin later to remove that mask.

Yup, I've noticed that too. Translations often make people confused.
And even the title "prince" for Changxin is wrong, it should be either Duke (a noble appointed by the emperor to supervise or govern certain territory) or even a King (to indicate the decisional autonomy under his territorial competence but with vasal position towards the emperor).

In English and generally in European languages, "prince" is a son of the highest autonomous ruler (king or emperor), the only exception is the "prince of Monaco", but that's a micro-state and Grimaldi ruling family started styling themselves as "princes" only in 17th century with Monaco first becoming Spanish and then French protectorate. There's also another case of micro-state (Liechtenstein) which was elevated from "county" to "Fürstentum" (principality in English) in the moment when it became part of the Holy Roman Empire in 18th century. The very term "principality" is often translated as "county" (territory governed by a count) or "marquisate" or "dukedom" in other European languages.

Changxin isn't a member of the imperial family, so it is inappropriate to translate his title as "prince" (with the 1st meaning above). The fictional state (Chengzhou) he rules is a part of the fictional empire of Yin indipendently from the fact that the noble who governs it rebelled. Its size doesn't justify exceptional use of term principality either, it isn't a micro-state and protectorate.

No. He is the 2nd son of the rebelled Lord Changxin (referred to as "Prince" in translation - but he isn't a member of the imperial family which is surnamed Qi, not Sui like him).

1. He doesn't want XZ to discover the truth behind the events connected with his father's death
2. Qi Min wasn't adopted, he was swapped as a kid with Lord Changxin's son. With his face burnt, nobody could notice the difference

Qi Min told him the truth, bc Qi Min is a biological son of the Crown Prince (and not of Prince Changxin although the latter doesn't know that while Qi Min knows his true origin) who was assassinated together with XZ's father after their defeat 16 y ago. The reasons why they were defeated and killed are a bit convoluted, but in substance, the late emperor wanted to get rid of the CP and Wei Yan (who is XZ's maternal uncle) left them to battle and die without support and then shifted the blame on other people (among which, Changyu's maternal grandfather, gen. Meng), concealing the truth since then.
Changyu's father was carrying a military tally with a request for help from Prince Changxin, who refused to help CP and Zheng's father and established his own rebel power. And unknowingly raised CP's surviving son, Qi Min, aka Sui Yuanhuai

In Tang, Li was family name of the imperial family. Wei was a maiden family name of Empress Wei and her cousin, plenipotentiary pm Wei Wen who tried to seize the power after emp. Zhongzong's death (and it was speculated they've killed the emperor as well), but were blocked by Princess Taiping and Li Longji. Familiar names for those who followed Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty😁
In this drama, two opposing political factions are headed by one Li and one Wei, although it takes place in fictional dynasty inspired by the Song.

Ti02 wrote who is Wei Xuan. The arrogant and dumb Wei Yuan's son. When heard what was going on in Lin'an, the prime minister Wei Yuan ordered his assistant to tie his son up and bring him back to the capital.

the fake restaurant poisoning is in chapter 46

Nope. The closure of the restaurant (ep 15) is treated in chapter 46, so we are about to reach the first third of the novel.

It was.
Lets make the maths shorter. 1000 taels were equivalent to 40 kg of silver (that's heavy even to carry, lol). 1kg silver bar today costs 2.500-3.000 euro (or USD). 3.000x40= 120K euro. Per day. And he wanted to rent it for many days, lol.
I actually wonder where his money comes from. He certainly needed a huge amount of money to buy 200K picul of grain, at least 360K taels (with shorter math method, it is 14.4 million USD) to provoke the shortage.

you're totally right about the spending habits of the time 👍

LOL 😂
Great remark, very well for the comparison.
In the Song dynasty, the most well paid officials (beside ministers) were county magistrates, particularly those managing over 10,000 households (it means the capital and maybe two or three other counties), typically held a salary rank of 600 to 1,000 dan of grain.
Silicon Valley engineers still must catch up 😂 (I'm laughing but hope not), especially bc the Gini index between poor and rich in those times was unimaginable for us today. When I look US or Chinese Gini, from Europe, I always feel uncomfortable but in the past... the gap was horrible

you're welcome! 😅

I'd like to offer some service information.
The setting of this drama (official uniforms, dresses etc) is likely to be the Song dynasty. Many commentators were ready to "rent" FCY's husband for 30 taels of silver (liǎng) per day. But how worthy were these 30 taels? With such an offer, if I were FCY, I'd certainly stop to slaughter pigs and start to rent my husband for a month trying to earn 1K of taels. How much was that?
AI response:
"1,000 taels of silver in the Song Dynasty, where one tael (liǎng) weighed approximately 37–40 grams, represented a massive fortune, roughly equivalent to 1,000,000–2,000,000 copper coins (wén). This amount could potentially buy over 500–1,000 dan of rice or sustain a comfortable upper-class lifestyle for decades."
This reasoning stands also for the rent of the QQ's restaurant for 100 tales a day. It means: more than 7K USD a day.
FCY's husband was "rented" for 2,5K a day. I think I can't afford him 😁

Measily? In Song dynasty (the setting is inspired by the Song period), with 100 taels of silver (liǎng) you could have buy 54 dan (or picul, the term used in translation of this drama) of rice (the cost of rice in Song was 1,84 silver taels x dan). Each dan/picul is approximately = 60 kg. 60 kg x 54 = 3,240 kg of rice.

Even today, with the extensive rice/grain cultivation methods (ie. with lower prices compared to the Song period times), the prices of rice are the following: $2.22 per kg globally (Dec 2025 data), ranging from $0.61 in Bangladesh to $5.46 in Japan. These more than 3 tons of rice would cost 1,976.4 USD in Bangladesh, 7,192.8 USD globally and 17,690.4 in Japan.

So, lets' be real but for real 😁. Her restaurant is nice and sophisticated but it is located in the periphery of the empire, close to the rebelled war zone, not in the capital. Renting it for 7 thousand bucks (I won't go to Japan's prices but must remind you that the Song dynasty had the highest GDP of the world at the time, as well as the highest GDP/ppp among all Chinese dynasties, so the price of this rent is more realistically well above 10K USD per day) is a deal. No way she can earn that money in a day with restaurant sales.

I was surprised when discovered it was actually well-written, that's why I've returned to read it (not every chapter but enough to know the trajectory of the plot).
I'm usually either horrified with how badly these original works are written or (less often) how they are both badly written and even worse transposed. Very rarely I think "how this drama managed to destroy such a good story".
This drama turns to be the rarest case, an exception to all those cases, as both the novel and the drama are well done in terms of narrative, actions and dialogues (and performances, too, if we talk about the drama).

An added value to the fictional subjects it treats is in a rare balance this story achieves in various aspects (eg. there's a costant emotional balance between the leads in complementing each other) using (but never over-using) subtle details (eg. the cost of products, it gives us exact measures of tangible things which gives sense of realism to the setting; it conveys taste and smells, we know what they eat and how they live) and a dosed humour, people's vibing when they are happy, sad or scared... practically everything is well thought and balanced. And neither the political plot nor the akward second couple relation is overboard, the story simply... flows. I am still surprised, that's maybe why I'm not scared to read the novel and feel content the creators of the drama decided to go along with the original storyline. The high rating is deserved and I expect it'll go even higher.

I'm reading chapter 46 to spoil myself what's gonna happen in tomorrow's eps

You're right. I've read the chapter with that specific scene with Mme Song and was indeed more impactful in the novel how Qianqian turned the table against her and shamed her in front of the city ladies (who then turned against her and later commented the jade bracelet she wore was junk and that she had no taste at all).
I also agree with your other points

XZ knows that a merchant from the capital surnamed Qi bought 200.000 piculs of grain from the merchants in this region draining local reserves just before extra tax in grain started to be enforced.
Qianqian told XZ that the person who harasses is a certain Qi who trades in grain. XZ doesn't know Qi is a prince but can guess this Qi is a powerful player connecting the dots.
XZ opened the grain (and the exact quantity) issue intentionally. It was equal to say: look, I know what you're after.
And, as Qi sent the other merchant to XZ's house, they've let know to him: look, we know who are you and are willing to involve you in our scheme (which aims to bring down Wei's arrogant son: by subtracting the grain from the markets while the grain is simultanuosly forcefully collected by peasants, people will start to riot and the responsibility will fall on Weis).