AleksandraSucur

the last one, Illusionist Sass

Indeed.

I've suspected their cooperation, since Wei's wife was Du (although it wasn't mentioned in prev. eps she was Du's sister). Actually, I've suspected Du even more, because of the way in which he led the investigation of merchants participating in the ritual procession, but he had an alibi when priest's bro was killed, he was with LLF at the moment of this homicide, that's why another person ought to be involved and the person we knew was suffering from a migraine was Wei.
Yes, Wei's sister must have suffered a lot when she married that merchant priest.

I've expected LLF to apologize, but not that quickly and "gracefully", lol

Ep 30 was so tense... I've started to sweat 😓😓. Although my main suspicions turned to be correct, never imagined this level of bloody grudges between merchants and gentry. Such a hatred leads to open armed conflicts, terror, uprisings, civil wars...
Interestingly, after Cui's presence at Weis feast, another snake (the emperor's eunuch) showed its head, at Dus party. I wonder if this implied Wei clan is inclined towards Princess's faction and Du towards the emperor's or just that - despite their division - they are specular to each other and basically the same kind of people.

He is not included but Wei's wife is. 😲

In this case, knowing the true motivation behind the homicides would immediately reveal us "whodunit".
But the script induces us to believe it has smth to do with the ideological clash between the nobles (=decentralized powers) and (centralized) imperial power. The prosperity (today, we'll say: GDP) of the Tang was a result of the increased (foreign and domestic) trade and recruitment of public officers through examinations open to the commoners. The targets are all merchants, especially foreign ones or followers of a foreign religion, whose chief priest was even granted a public office authority.

Utterly despicable. Just thinking he was behind the "auspicious beast" case, not caring if LLF would have been killed in that set up, swearing loyalty to the Princess while being sooo disloyal, power thirsty and ready to sacrifice anybody...

All three murders were done using different methods and weapons. Now that we know another 6 "dissapeared" and not yet reported as "killed", the murdering method might have been less obvious or direct. These details point out to different assassins or, to a "versatile" single serial killer, one who knows many ways of killing and is well acquainted with various districts of Chang'an and habits of the victims. Neither of sheriffs can be ruled out.
The most obvious sus is Wei sheriff: 1. he suffers from a migraine and may bring some of that medicinal urine that dropped on the scroll, 2. has a sister with some kind of trauma with wedding a merchant while belonging to a noble family (because of money but despising merchants from the bottom of their hearts) 3. All murders we've seen happened in Chang'an proper, area of his territorial jurisdiction, except the murder in Zoroastrian procession which occured in sheriff Du's jurisdiction.
But the most obvious sus is rarely the real one. One who knows him well and have a motivation (eg, rivalry between Wei and Du family) to take him down, can set him up with these murders. Du sheriff (and the title of the case is Five Feet From Heaven, connected with Dus) and also Wei's wife, a Du originally. Such a nice wife, who always knows her place, so supportive and kind to her husband... is a perfect serial killer or at least serial framer. Du sheriff couldn't kill the younger priest's bro because he was with LLF "an hour before death" but could have had accomplices and can't be ruled out for other murders. Besides, why would such a skilled sheriff neglect the scroll in front of the assassinated person if not to leave the clue to LLF and SWM? Or, the two sheriffs only feign their rivalry, but secretly cooperate to "clean up" the city of "merchants" (this sounds familiar to nowadays crusades against immigrants, right)?
Finally, there's this high priest. The clash between "nobles" and "merchants" seems high, why not kill some of "his" merchants, setting up (ideally, to both) of these two sheriffs? But he can't be a single killer, too busy and focused on other things (money collection) for that.
One thing is certain: this serial killer case will cause IDEOLOGICAL clash between LLF and SWM and will be a great joy to see how they'll overcome this trial. I already feel this case will be my fav. 🤓

Potential conflict of interests is an interesting issue and the answer is: it depends. As a public official, LLF would commit a crime, if he contemporary committed one of these two crimes: 1. extorsion of that money from a private person (ie. if he forced XJ to employ her private money in secret investigation activities, which is certainly not the case) and 2. unfair material advantage. XJ's money employed for the improvement of a public service can be seen as a donation to the latter and isn't illegal and especially it wasn't illegal in feudal systems, including systems with strong and capillary administration as it was the case in many Chinese dynasties. SWM received an assignment from the imperial authority but doesn't hold any official position. The public funding for the secret agency is administered by LLF, not by the chief justice administrator. It's a small amount to fulfill the purpose and barely covers SWM's and Yingtao's wages, so the use of private and non-extorted money to get intels which can't be obtained differently is legally ok, if no person involved gains private material interests for himself/herself. The only thing, being this activity performed by a public authority (LLF), the authority should keep the accountability of the money received and how it is employed. Actually, much of the history is reconstrued thanks to all kind of ledgers and receipts, including those regarding private donations to public activities.
I don't know if XJ "conspired" but I am absolutely convinced she helped that couple's escape. Lets' analyse what's the "crime" we are talking about and who committed it. As a magistrate of justice, the only real accusation LLF made was attempted murder pending against the woman. Not only she didn't kill the restaurant owner - whose testimony in court would certainly be in her favour - in a potential court trial, Yingtao, who reconstructed her moves, would also testify this woman never had the intention (ie. mens rea) to kill and would highly probably be absolved. Besides, how should she be sentenced without the instigator of the crime (manager Huo)? LLF leaves the instigator be punished according to ridiculous "family rules" but proceeds against the person who received Huo's order, feigning ignorance (together with SWM) even after the restaurant's owner handed the restaurant to Huo? It was all part of the show: "heroic actions" (later praised by LLF and SWM, lol) to step out as guarantors she wouldn't escape, restaurant owner putting the couple in a room with the escape passage and ofc. XJ joining Yingtao with a bottle of wine when the latter was "guarding" the room... As we have seen above, the woman wouldn't be sentenced and prosecuting a person who'll be absolved would be LLF's responsibility. All the persons involved didn't ("heroically") act just to protect the woman and enable her escape but also to share LLF's burden and resolve the conundrum deriving from his office and conflicting rules.

The potential of this drama was so great that it deserves 10/10. The acting of all the cast was so convincing, and the motivation to tell this compelling story was definitely high and palpalpable. The problem was with a storytelling, almost half of the drama was wasted in a sort of a low budget comedy to recall erotic taste of the time.

I like how the scriptwriter explained the perspective of all the main leads: the money/success oriented producer, talented director, an artist, but subject to the producer's orders, the aggrieved female star, the newcomer, but all these povs would fit into a movie lenght and it would be great enough. For a drama, the script lacked a little bit of depth, the only reason why I can't rate this great watch (I've enjoyed a lot) more than 8,5.

yes. But to whom the panther belongs and why was he moved to the backyard of that restaurant... We have to wait another hour⏲️

rethinking about the restaurant owner... why would a lover of poetry own a black panther? Maybe we should take him as an option as well

Could the panther be Black Fire?

we can exclude poets, they are too famous and real historical figures.
Troupe members are interesting. The one arrested who pretended to be a chief is a thief, another "line of work". The other one, dressed as a woman, could be, but we had a similar cross dressed villain in one of the previous seasons, I don't think they'll repeat the pattern. So, these 2 are ruled out.
Maybe one of the girls or the real troupe chief who was in the stolen coffin? Yeah, we can leave open this option, too

Nu Jiao was too obvious to me to be a sus. Misterious veil, wearing sword, but wearing white. Black Fire should wear black at least during his/her "worktime" lol. She still wore white and her moves were not much convincing for an assassin. But... she got married so suddenly to a LLF's friend (from S1) and has an old teacher of martial arts "whose life she saved" and he repaid her with sword lessons. Q 1.: why was he wounded in the first place? Q2: How did she get into this "line of assassination business" at all, was her teacher the assassin "clients" wanted to hire in the first place? LLF-SWM ought to interrogate that manager but feared to expose themselves...
I exclude the restaurant owner, both him and his manager are native Chang'anese and the intel was Black Fire was coming from the outside.

thank you. I was already panicking when we reached ep 20, aww, half eps flew so quickly 😱😱, what then? Having 20 eps x 20 min to look forward in December is so... calming 😌

So, who is the top assassin Black Fire from Black Drop among them? shouldn't we open the bets? 😁

Hm. I didn't want to spoil much of the story in the review, I'll put my answers under the spoiler tag here.
1. Parents. I disagree with your appreciation of his parents' brains. Being poor and illiterate doesn't mean being devoid of basic moral compass almost all mentally healthy humans possess (and poor and illiterate often even more than rich and sofisticated). I agree they've strongly believed in the exceptionality of their son and pressed him in "doing whatever it takes" to obtain success but here they've induced him to commit a heavy crime, both parents advised him to "get rid" of his first wife "as a burden" which blocks his carrier. They were not accomplices, but they were (worse!) indirect instigators of a murder, practically leaving him with no other options, and it is very different from FL's "supportive father" who indeed was an accomplice in an attempted murder, but that crime was totally his daughter's choice. I'd actually accept his familiar background and his parents' coarse personalities if they were not in such a contrast with ZJ's later perfectionism and obsessive image-crafting: such parents were his major "blemish flows" (NB. he tended to destroy anything imperfect), by at least opposing their distorted perceptions in such an open clash with his new ego and sofisticated views. ZJ's character had inevitably had to undergo a process of transformation and "sofistication", and I think the writer could have exploit more the impact of the rich older lady in this change making this passage more logical.
2. Censorship. I'm actually fine with both endings, if they don't clash with logics and what would be a realistic outcome. Actually, in the 2nd ending FL and her father did commit the crime of attempted murder, because: a) there was an intent (mens rea) and b) substantial steps to commit it (actus reus), ie., an elaborated plan to kill. What you imply in their defence is "renounciation to commit it" (indeed, FL drops the knife), but this factor doesn't absolve from guilt in all countries/judicial systems of the world, at most it may be considered as "mitigating factor" (as it is actually in her and her dad's sentence). What is totally inconsistent is DHH's (and the lawyer's) sentence, because he (they) never manipulated public opinion in the 2nd outcome, only in the 1st, but in the 1st FL committed a murder and would get way harsher punishment, so this reasoning about censorship requiring them, doesn't stand imo. It's an error of so, who didn't do sufficient legal research.

I loved yours a lot, too.
Yes, I can't hate him either. His parents and poverty ruined him. And was so well embodied by WD, it was pure pleasure watching such a great acting...
Maybe, with time, even international viewers may appreciate. It scored high on Douban. Fingers crossed