AleksandraSucur

After being annoyingly hinted throughout the drama from the very start and I've hoped to see it ended asap, I still didn't expect this Lu-An back story to be closed so abruptly. Although we could have guessed a great deal of it, what we couldn't is still pretty shocking and requiring some follow up as in the trailer for the next ep.
After that, only 4 ep are left to wrap up the fate of Lejun, the Qin kingdom and displaced or inslaved Ye people, to solve the blood clots in Wu Yi's brain as a condition sine qua non for "happily ever after" and to make Li Mao either a good emperor or an unreedemable villain.

It wouldn't have killed them if they've made 3-4 eps more (can't believe I'd ever wished for a drama to last longer)...

Right, I've assumed the emperor dies after issuing the memorial.. being half dead already, that wouldn't be a surprise. I also think Li Mao will be left on the throne, being the emperor of Ye looks like a penance...
Yeah, they gave us slices of that back story from 25 y ago and till now they didn't show anything unimportant...

You're so right about the "victim mindset" which is essential even for such a strong relationship with his "sister" who developed that mindset even deeper than him. What should motivate Li Mao is what XWY said: to regain Qizhou and settle back displaced people who suffered the same tragedies as they did but he is in "frozen state" for the reasons we've discussed above: he can't move in the right direction and concentrate on good governance bc he will feel like XWY's "puppet" as he said. Maybe his sister can influence him and melt his freeze. She isn't bright, but she always believed in him and in his capacities. We'll see how the drama will solve this problem, till this point the plot was mostly well written with puzzle pieces well assembled

"a pretty shitty job that is fitting for a pretty shitty person" 😂😂😂👌
But I doubt he'll get over losing Jiayu, bc it means losing to XWY and he badly wants to win over him at least once in his life. All his steps back were just temporary, while he is permanently convinced (lying to himself) XWY manipulated him into giving up the girl for power.
As for his bloodline... the deception wasn't his fault actually and unfortunatelly ED He assured there are no Li descendants around (except XWY, who doesn't want "a pretty shitty job", lol)... Tricky situation

In that case, Li Mao will probably destroy that emperor's indictment to falsely accuse Xiaos of murder.
But even if Jing'an Duke had legal basis to assassinate GT, the reason why the emperor indicted him could have smth to do with his obstraction of works and that opposition again could be related to the old case GT is so obsessed with, right?

teaser 23: if XWY dies, A'Yao will reveal he's GT's son and not a Li at all.
teaser 24: "who holds the phoenix token will bring peace to Ye" means: upgrade Ye's military supremacy - with superior weapons forged from better minerals in location indicated by token - and you will assure peace for Ye. As JiaYu already cracked its concrete meaning which has nothing to do with the legend told about it, ofc, the token is useless. But JiaYu's importance is pivotal in this context and LM will hardly accept her being at XWY's side.
Finally, the teaser probably intentionally left out what daddy said before GT's "aren't you" and the moment he killed that hypocrite. Those who know Mandarin can tell us what is written on the tablet daddy shows to GT. I guess it has smth to do not only with Lu-An case but also with waterway-land improvement works GT was opposing to in the court.

Both. Li Mao perceives him as a foe bc: 1. from his pov, XWY put him on the path to power taking the girl he was supposed to be with, careless of politics. 2. Once knowing XWY is Wenxi CP, he set aside the fact XWY actually put him in front of a CHOICE: you either go with a girl and leave the power, or choose power and forget about the girl, bc. XWY identity - whenever revealed - is a direct threat to the power (he has chosen) 3. He sees JiaYu developed feelings for XWY and is ofc jealous. For him, she would never give up her freedom and accept palace costraints, but what if she was willing to sacrifice more for XWY? He lost her love and will rather go crazy than accept such a truth, bc it automatically means XWY outplayed him.
But they were also friends and shared certain visions, ideas and plans, difficult to sweep away completely

Grand Tutor's hypocrisy is becoming more and more annoying.
And each time there's a reference to his obsession with An-Lu case, I get distracted, reminded of two homonymous energies in Tai Chi and Qi Gong (Lu - deviating energy and An - pressing downwards energy). Have no idea if they are written and spelled in the same way in Mandarin, but these two names really deviate and press down my attention and inner peace 😂 I can't wait this old case is finally explained and settled so I can watch the rest of the drama in peace.

GT believes An-Lu families were framed in a similar set up he orchestrated now against Xiaos by XWY's biolological parents and that Xiao the father (Jing'an duke) knew that but never exposed the truth covering for Wenxi imperial couple

He was and he was willingly soo. He knew his mom well, he opposed her when extremely necessary but - tragedy - played along her script when her victim was he himself. 😞
Li Mao will never have that aura indeed

Peter Sheng 😏👌

Oh, and I'll also miss Peter Sheng as the emperor here. 😓

Few disconnected observations after watching the latest ep:
1. The dialogue between YuanJi and ED, niece and aunt, but such a different kind of women, I'd say polar opposites, overshadowed - at least for me - the FL's confession in ep 19. Both actresses were completely in their characters, thus the phrases exchanged were so impactful. The woman who was a pride of her family, a role model for younger siblings, simply lost herself in her determination to pursue power: she started to confuse goals and means, killings became her "habit" as well as the manipulation/harming her own kin, her family and even her own SON! And with no less determination (is it the blood or Pavlovian reflex or to revenge that Pei guy she loved, or all three mixed together, we can't tell and it doesn't matter), YuanJi cut that path. What matters is that dialogue greatly explained Ed's actions and decisions, rarely a villain gets such a closure, making space for the next one (Li Mao ofc)
2. The confession: the actors delivered perfectly the scene ofc but what I've felt was: oh, finally, we've past 2/3 of the drama for her to understand who's is worthy of her feelings, support and wit.
3. I actually like FL let go Lejun to the Qin. Plotwise smart and perfect to get some "natural" explanations regarding what happened 25 y ago, illuminating us on GT of the time as well

Yes, I agree. I actually like how she is imagined, how she is described through her actions/inactions.
And yes again, such a visceral attachment between the two is also something peculiar (/unhealthy), we don't see often in these types of drama.

GT only told her that her "brother was not of royal Li lineage at all" - textual translation of the flashback scene in ep 16m around 15' 20''. I don't know if he said more in Mandarin, bc we know smth always gets lost in translation, but there was no direct aknowledgment of his paternity.
For everything else you've said - I agree, she took that trip as a mission, I'd even say a life-death mission (thus, bringing some drugs is actually logical), and it was definitely GT who made a mistake by not limiting her action: her mission was to spy on his former wife's intentions, not to kill her. But he didn't send her alone nor she acted alone, she went there with a GT's henchman (the one who intercepted Yunzhou's pigeon and probably helped her to drug the horse) who certainly could know better his boss wouldn't approve his former wife being harmed...
So, it's either a flaw in this subplot or in GT's super calculative description, sufficient to make hard a suspension of disbelief for me, limitedly to this part of the story.

Yes, but I don't have problems with how her character was imagined: timid, subjugated, traumatised yet extremely courageous and ready to do anything for her brother. Imo, there's smth off with this specific subplot: she drugged the horse of the FL's carriage with poisoned water from the mine (!), then drugged the FL (hm, this timid princess goes around armed with drugs), in the carriage she tried to extort the token from FL's mother while the horse was racing towards the precipice (if the latter gave her the token how would she stop the crazy horse?), somehow survived that fall and finally - despite not being bright - figured out Mao's biological father was GT, although it was never mentioned in front of her... It's just too much, not to mention she killed a person who practically saved her life just bc she becomes too whimsical and overthinking when her bro's interests are in question.

yes, I find the entire bacground story very interesting, too, despite the difficulty to understand it thoroughly through translations.
But on the other hand, I think there are some flaws in the present day story: I find Lejun's motivation to kill Yunzhou weak under the aspect of logic and behavioural contraddictions of certain characters (Grand Tutor, the queen dowager, the Qin QD...) stretched to unnatural extremes

Yup, but PGB explained it in discussion section https://kisskh.at/790870-que-gu/discussions/153476-who-are-li-mao-and-li-lejun-and-how-are-they-related-to-the-imperial-family?page=1#p3553338

His mom was consort An from An family (An and Lu were rebels 25 years ago) and tutor was his father. He was probably given as a baby to the Qizhou landlords (prince Li, an imperial relative and his wife princess Qi) who treated him like his own. That fief was lost in a war and his non biological mother was abducted or given to some bandits, while the orphaned children were brought to the capital and neglected until the grand tutor helped them

Thank you. It was me who have asked.

Did you get where the Li siblings were when they were ousted from the palace?