AleksandraSucur

Ms. Bai's arc exceeded my expectations, I've thought it would be boring...
Gu Pingwen is also an interesting character, he'll give some headache to his bro...

These verses created a sharp contrast (also called juxtaposition in poetry): a gloomy and hostile atmosphere in the first verse is opposed by the extreme joy/splendor evoked in the second in order to elevate the second feeling. A little rhyme may be helpful:
Gloomy winds and rain; roosters crowing in ceaseless strife
Fortunately, having met my dear brought the brightest bliss to my life

😂 as in De Beer's commercial: "A diamond is forever" 😍😂😂😂

The mutual explanation is why we are on MDL.
Glad to be of some help. 😀

Not only. Someone childess like him, traded his potential "adopted son" with money. But that money was somehow special, neither him believed in his existence. I think the reason why he died so happily was bc he learnt it was

It depends on how many eps you've seen. The ML was exiled in the 5th year of the Xianfeng reign (1855). That emperor died in 1861 and with the enthronement of the new emperor (a child under the Cixi regency), as all other convicts, our fugitive ML is also freed around ep 12 and can move freely towards his home in the South, under the rebel Taiping rule.
The Qing dynasty will fall several decades later, in 1912, with Sun Yat Sen's establishment of the Republic, although the last emperor (Puyi) will be used as a puppet later on

As explained above by another commentator, initially, when he wanted Chang Si's house, he did, but - after GPY helped CS with the Mongolian business - he only wanted to steal this talented man from CS.
But I disagree with this commentator's opinion that his switch of mood/attitude towards GPY happened "for no reason". He is indeed odd but not a fool and I think the storyline gave us sufficient depiction of this character: an envious, greedy, unscrupulous, power- and money-thirsty person with a particularly weak point in the fact he is childless. He is locally very powerful, local (corrupted) magistrate is clearly on his payroll, he can even make Chang Si arrested and then improve CS's prison conditions during his "testing" of GPY's reactions. Ofc. such a person can deal personally and through the local magistrate with his pawnshop managers and staff! So, why did he choose to act against them "per interposita persona", ie. through GPY? 1. Because he feels they don't respect him because he has no son to rely upon 2. to verify how will GPY solve this problem for him. The result was: GPY solved his problem and he (naturally) gave him another (even more impossible) task: to enter into 8 families. Maybe, once he learnt he accomplished this "mission impossible", the script could have been more detailed what kind of thoughts passed his mind, especially when Gu and all 8 families' representatives were imprisoned... but no way any thought of killing him could have passed through his head. He wanted him all for himself. The only thing that could rival and be exchanged with this crazy "totalitarian possession" of GPY was ofc... that treasure he longed for so much but not entirely believed in its existence... That's why he died so happy and fulfilled.

In his sinister blackmailing logic, he wants to make Gu his son and to give him his surname, erasing all his past life. Chang Si and his daughter are witnesses of his identity as well as of the fact Gu is a fugitive, he percieves them as a GTY's weakness, that's why he wants to eliminate them. Besides, he knows - if GTY knows smth about the 8 families' treasure - he'll trade that knowledge for their lives exactly bc they are his "weakness".

yup, those subtle, indecipherable glances and expressions (which can only be performed by actors of Huang Zhizhong's caliber...) are definitely pointing to a "connection". I personally prefer to analyse the hints gradually given to us than to build up theories out of nothing. Deductions usually work out better than imagination. Other hints:
1. Beside those significant expressions, Li WT also seemed to lecture him and the lesson he gave him was clearly opposed to the scholarly pov Gu expressed on 8 families' "ominous money": "money is neither bad nor good, there's no money that cannot be used, there's no person that cannot be employed". A utilitarian logic, perfectly fitting to a honed merchant: "money and persons aren't good or bad, they are just tools to achieve your own agenda"
2. LWT definitely has his own agenda, he seems to work with (and against) both the Qing powers and the Taiping rebels, using them both to establish (at least, apparently) his own stronghold in Shanxi province (ie. far from the capital and both conflicting political factions).
3. The story is set in a very turbulent times (two opium wars with disastrous consequences, heavy consequences in terms of concessions to foreign powers, widespread corruption, weakened faith in the rule of a dynasty gasping in front of the foreign military technology, the richest part of the country under control of a rebel Taiping - just this civil strife caused 20-30 mil. casualties...).
If it was LWT to have obstructed Gu's path to the officialdom, as the synopsis suggests, he'd done him only good: why would anybody work for a dying dynasty, what kind of future would rightful scholar have in such a corrupted country? When LWT reproached his own son, it was clear he despises the officialdom.
So, imo, LWT seems to suggest him that the path (=dao) Gu should take is the path of his own wealth creation and independence from any other power.

call them troubles: he fell in the middle of the civil war... literally, from the frying pan into the fire 😱
The next eps will be veeery interesting, because the peace is still far away

me too

no, you're not the only one, we all suspect he is somehow connected.

exactly. Their relationship feels definitely more realistic (no falling downs from the roof, no slow mo while watching fireworks or fireflies... actually, no tropes at all) and in being such, it induces us to think of them "wow, this relationship has a great potential once he clears his situation with the Bai family".

I also often have that problem, don't stand "cutesy and helpless" 😱😂

me too

ah, not that sharp... Another user told me he introduced himself in the 1st ep "as exiled in the 5th year of XF reign" and that the precise year should be 1860, a year and a half before the emperor's death. The ledger could have been smth else, a deed from 1958 just hanging there ready to be reviewed by the boss.
If we are in the 1860, soon there will be the 2nd opium war and the occupation of Beijing by the foreigners. The cast list also mentions Cixi and prince Gong... this drama is definitely to our taste, my dear friend! 😀😍

❤️❤️❤️
Now, everything makes perfectly sense. Thank you so much

Imo, FL doesn't look stupid at all. She seems to be quite capable: experienced in travelling and trade, she is a tough girl with broad horizons, an excellent horse rider, brave enough to draw a knife and kill the aggressor of the khan (not because he is a khan but bc he is the only person who can save her father and his trade escort gang and pay them the rest of the money for the tough job they've done), pragmatic yet sensitive enough to distinguish the right and wrong, to save the life of the ML and even clever enough to engage in deeper conversation with the ML (who is a highly knowledgable and educated scholar) etc.

I haven't even noticed her voice, but I don't see anything "childish" about her character, on the contrary: orphaned from a mother, she was a child who ought to grow up faster than her age. Yet, she is still an unmarried (read: very young, younger than ML) girl and completely unexperienced in heart matters. Through the challenges they've passed together, it's natural she started to develop feelings for the ML (btw. these feelings are mutual, GTY's feelings are not limited to the gratitude he feels towards FL and her father, he also feels admiration, complicity, necessity to be completely honest with her, to risk his life to save her etc. they are "the first love" for each other). And although her heart aches after he told her he already has a marriage obligation (which is a gratitude obligation towards his teacher for giving him such a high education for free), she is still capable to act tough and to treat him like a buddy. I have no idea how the Bai teacher's daughter will be in this drama, but this tough girl (who will eventually furtherly grow up) is a perfect match for a future "magnate".

I also disagree that this drama tells a "male-centred story". This is a story of GTY, who happens to be a male. The same director with the same ML actor already (successfully) told another interesting story of a female tycoon in Nothing Gold Can Stay: in both dramas, the goal was to tell a story of "interesting persons in interesting times" that flows in a logical way.

I agree

I've liked how Li Baiwan opposed businessmen's "philosophical approach" to the "ominious money" (as expressed by the GTY scholarly pov.): "there's no money that can't be spent and no person that can't be employed". Clear and concise, great writing, the author of these lines knows his trade 👍