AleksandraSucur

I've liked it a lot, as the efforts of its protagonist to get the soul of his mother from hell well expressed killer's efforts to bring justice and pay respects to her teacher.

Is that aria we've heard in the latest case from a famous Chinese opera?

the fourth case efficiently cropped long and tedious novel chapters. It reminded me of an old Italian movie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DUbYMfCGJQ

I'm currently at chpt 230 and frankly don't know what to say, I am hardly enduring. All these C-web novels authors have a presumption to write "War and Peace" - and these 230 chapters already abundantly beat Tolstoi's W&P - the difference is: for how already boring is Tolstoi, his narrative was dealing with real events which were realistically and craftily narrated (ie. have some historical, chronical and educational-artistic value) while these novels contain so much nonsense and so much unrealistic things treated as realistic that you may get bored, annoyed and irritated at any moment.
These novels are made with a help of AI templates, the latter formed on audience's preferences (which often tolerate nonsense) and already existing patterns, so their artistic value is next to zero but they serve this exclusive purpose to be adapted (as an "original novel" source) one day in a drama. What will be included in the drama from that endless prolapse of words depends only on the screenwriter(s). In this drama, the first criminal case was badly written already in the novel, but more in line with the characters outlined in the novel than it was the case in the adaptation, second was waaay too long in the novel (the screen adaptation probably could have not been better than this, having in mind it occupied at least 80 if not more chapters), the third was excellently cropped, and now we are watching the fourth (in which the adaptation inserted the second couple romance).
Although unsatisfied with the start, I appreciate the screenwriter's effort to maintain a sort of balanced length/pacing (of the cases).
So, if you're not specifically interested in the generation of narrative, I wouldn't recomend you to read the novel. But given your personal interest in criminal justice, maybe you'll be delighted with a variety of cases, idk

The cameraman is so obsessed with mirrored shots... rather than watching, I feel I'm peeking at this drama 🫣

Incense burner will be counteracted by the second pill, the one the've put under the tongue, mind my words. 🙃😂
More 8 than 8,5 but it's true it gets somewhat better

the motivation of murder is not proportionate to the type of murder.
You can continue as much as you wish, but the motivation is an important part in sentencing the criminal cases, and if the type of murder is disconnected from the motivation, there is a HUGE problem (in real world courts).

There are terrible feminicides all over the world. 99,9% of them happen after some kind of rejection. Ofc, a rejection never justify a murder, but such murders occur as outbursts, as raptus, not followed by beheading after a strangulation. Beheading a person is beyond feminicide, it is beyond any kind of torture a male can inflict to a woman, beheading - especially in East Asian culture and perception - stands for "victim, I hate you so much that I assure you'll never have peace in the other world", I've disconnected your head from your bod, that's how much I hate you

As a crime, it simply doesn't make sense, fullstop

Come on, don't speak nonsence, who'll behead a person pregnant with you?

For the people who are starting this drama and are on the edge to drop it and for those who dropped it but still following the MDL section.

I was on the edge to drop this drama, too. Facts: the first case was so superficial to be irritating. Beheading a person after killing is smth serious, it's a message the killer truly hated the guts of the victim, no way a person who was intimate with the victim would stage all that crap just for a low-key vendetta. That case was better articulated in the novel than in drama, but the essentials were equally flowed. The second case was a bit better, but not perfect either, both in the drama as in the novel.

While we were watching the drama, we also had no idea how and why Fuling is backing SW pretensing of being QW: we saw only one person escaping the mass killing on the boats of Shens and their aids. Only in ep 10 we've got (via YC intel and his spoken word on how the two even managed to give a proper burial to the Shens) there was another surviving person: Fuling. The spoken word is not like seeing what happened. Definitely a huge flow, no abs can replace, I'm sorry for all those who are here for abs.

But, in the last 4 eps (11-14), the pacing has changed, it was an incredibly good (fast paced) cropping of almost 100original (boring) pages, beautiful scenary and almost perfect script (as a flow - I count those tea cookies. If the drama adaption wants to stick to the "realm of realism", as they did till now, that kind of hint should be out)

Conclusion: despite the initial flows (and some of them are not due to the adaptation, they were in the original novel, too), we can see some improvement and that's interesting. The recreation of the scenic spots of the third case - artistically speaking - has a great value, the screen adaption of this case is fine, come back and watch it with me

I've thought the same, the flows were huge, I was on the edge to drop it.
But with the third case (last four eps), pacing improved, actually they've cropped up magnificiently around 80-100 boring chapters. Working on a flowed og story is not an easy job either

The Qin family main buisness is medicine trading. It wasn't explained well in the drama, but it was in the novel.
It doesn't mean this fact will not pop out later on, the adapted script for the screen ought to crop 550+ chapters in 38 eps. From chopped editing, we can sense there were more and/or longer scenes shot and there are also scenes which point to a screen adaption during the shooting (eg. we see in ep 1 only one person surviving the killing of Shens, ie. Shen Wan, while 10 ep later we learn from YC that TWO persons survived: SW and Fuling, explaining the fact Fuling is backing SW pretending to be QW).
From the drama, we know Qin second family (parents of real QW, who died) were very well versed in medicine, SW continously justifies her knowledge of medicine as smth she learnt from them and from their dwelling in Medicine Valley to cure QW, but the novel mentions also a considerable amount of wealth (from medicine trade and practice) this couple left behind and which is managed by the First house in the capital, so I think this fact will pop up later in the drama, too

nobody can give you the exact answer because the novel contained a transmigration element which is absent in the drama adaptation. In the novel SW was executed and while being killed, her spirit/mind transmigrated in the body of QW who was - at the moment - in a close to death condition, being strangulated and drowned in a lake of Qin's estate immediately before. After she transmigrated in QW's body, that body revives without any memory of QW's person.
In the drama, she is Shen Wan all along (body and spirit), faking she's QW in order to survive (execution order still pending on her)

Oh, you are right, I've put it that way unconsciously thinking of how she became QW in the novel. But, being SW in the drama both mind and body doesn't change the fact she can't go out the frame in which she is a dependent female member of the Qin's (and subject to their patriarchal decisions), at least until she overturns Shen's crime conviction. She can't easily tell she's a Shen, bc. there's an execution order against her, too.

Yes, the trailer is way more darker, but the drama and the novel seem equal to me under that aspect. Ofc., if you dilute the scary elements with romance (as in the drama) or with family dynamics (as in the novel), the ways are different but the final result is the same.
It's watchable, yes, but not particularly gripping. The "issues" continue to divert my attention while watching and processing the content

I've read only chapters we are watching in the drama (try to spoil smth to myself as less as possible, lol). To this point, I'd say the atmosphere is equally creepy, but the drama has the advantage of lights, sounds, camerawork...
There's less rom-com in the novel, although it's present, as well as competitive scenes among males and among females. There are more ensamble-familiar scenes in the novel and the relations between characters feel more subtle. Crime cases follow more coherent dynamics but this thing is partially normal, the drama can't reproduce so many details, but partially is due to the flows of adaptation, of screenwriting.

"she needs to get the hell out of there and to the capital where she could help with more cases". Don't forget she is in QW's body, can't easily say: folks, I'm someone else and that the main family branch is in the capital 😁

No, he's the son (and heir) of the emperor's uncle, whose title was translated as "king" in this drama. In other drama translations, close relatives of the emperor have title "duke" or "prince"

Intentional dramatic exaggeration in order to raise tension. Actually, this reckless dynamics and confrontation with QC was in the novel, too. They are not the problem per se (ie. their use to obtain a specific purpose) but in se, how much sense they make, because if they fail their inherent logic, they'll also fail their purpose.
Although overally more coherent and logical than the plot development in the drama (which seriously suffers from bad editing), the storyline in the novel also have quite a few inconsistencies, exaggerations, nonsensical details and all kind of other flows.