WM

Looks very pretty in some of the Dramas playing FL I've had a chance to watch.
I wasn't bothered by her acting, either.

Thanks for your comment. I prefer the FL-centric Dramas with capable Female Leads, so now I will know to never pick this one up.
Also, 70 episodes is kind of scary, even if I did a few longer ones, but they were an obvious pick (like Empresses in the Palace or Story of Minglan).

The first episode is indeed kind of rough, especially with so many characters introduced at the same time.
My advice would be to watch it until the episode 5-6, when the first big confrontation happens - maybe you will feel more comfortable with it until then.
If not, there are many Dramas to choose from, however only few of them comes close to masterpiece like NIF.

I'm recently doing a slow re-watch of some episodes of Nirvana in Fire, and it's incredible how this Vertical Drama (and the preceding Novel) gave me a different outlook on Mei Chang Su's abilities and overall scheming there.

It's also impressive that Lu Songli seems to be on par with him. Or even better!

I agree, it made no sense for me as well. Minglan was way too intelligent to not get trusted with it.

Other thing which made no sense for me, was for ML to not take seriously Minglan's warning regarding his evil concubine - they both already had a strong bond based of the life and death situations together, so IMO it should be Minglan's warning making him look into her and not his old Maid.
Poor writing here

That's actually extremely difficult, especially if we add acting ability.

Well, I like Minglan too, but Lu Songli's brilliance made her look quite incompetent in comparison, although she only exists (for now) in Novel/Vertical Drama space.

I liked the FL's mother too, but to be fair, she just wasn't smart enough. I've read a discussion by Chinese fans about what the Main Wife should do to deal with the villain concubine, and the cooperation between her and Minglan's mother was the obvious choice.
If the latter were a bit smarter, she should work on this aspect.
I understand she had to die to build Minglan's character, but she didn't look so smart at all.
I also want to remind you, that the pregnancy which caused her death was already her second (as Minglan was the first), so she should have known what to do and what not to do.

It remains one of my favourite (Top3? Top5?) Drama and will probably stay there for a long time, as Dramas are getting progressively worse every year.
Mostly because the ML played by Feng Shao Feng is such an awesome, multi-layered character, unlike the Idol trash we get mostly served in 2025.

However, even during the initial watch, I was quite disappointed a few times by writers dumbing down Minglan to give the opponents a chance to cause trouble.
After reading and watching Lu Songli's adventures, it stands out even more that in some situations (like her childbirth), Minglan should be much better protected by the writers and not getting caught in such trouble due to lack of foresight and preparation.

Okay, that's encouraging. Thanks.

Btw, if you want, you can check my favourite FL-centric Vertical Dramas - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL07cQXP6zFrZTavwmT5YLL3CpmMKNHJlP

The first one has IMO the most capable Female Lead ever (at least in a non-Kung Fu way).

I don't know about addictive or not, but its much easier to find what I enjoy and I don't have to waste so much time watching secondary characters I typically don't care about.

Not sure if I start "Kill my sins", since in different comments, someone mentioned that ML is using FL for his purpose a lot. This sounds like FL is getting outplayed, which is not exactly my cup of tea.

In a truly shocking move, Kikibeeinuk, after 8 years, resumed subbing this Drama on YouTube, one episode per week. He's already at Episode 10 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvsJneYwHw8&list=PLe9-KyOxlxYUkRZdk2YtgBuWJC-sYZXPL&index=2

Lu Songli's Adventure is #1-#3 (Part 1) and #4-#6 (Part 2), as they differ based on the subtitles. But I found the Dramabreak to have the best.

There are some other good Dramas there too, all are FL-centric to the various extent.

Enjoy.

If you like smart and capable FLs and would be willing to try Vertical Dramas, maybe my Playlist would interest you - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL07cQXP6zFrZTavwmT5YLL3CpmMKNHJlP

Yes, this one.
And thanks for sharing. I will possibly try this out as well.

Also - did you watch "Kill my sins"?

Well, it actually sounds like something I should try and possibly would enjoy, despite almost exclusively watching Vertical Dramas these days.

Does the FL uses ML too? Not really fan of FL getting outplayed...

I have no idea what to expect based on Synopsis, but it already has two positives:
1) Liu Shishi as the FL
2) Actual grown-ups in main roles

I will definitely check it out when the time comes.

Thanks for the link - obviously I knew it, but I would never think he would picked up subbing it after 8 years since doing Ep1-3!!!

Minimal romance and smart/capable FL - I will definitely consider "Legend of Zhang Hai", although based on synopsis the FL doesn't seem to have much of importance,

If you enjoy smart/capable Female Leads and you are willing to accept Vertical Drama limitations, then there's no better pick than Lu Songli, as IMO she is the most all-around capable FL ever written(originally in Novel) - https://kisskh.at/797412-huan-qin-hou-wo-shun-bian-huan-le-jiang-shan-hen-he-li-ba