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It's a win for the script, really! However, I'm sad the fresh pair of eyes (the majority) aren't liking this story as much! T_T MDL rating looks dismal...

Whew! What a ride...! Some moments really hit like the original. The pain is back again! I realized this is one of those scripts I will watch 100 remakes of!...
Also, for those of you still scratching your heads, I'd be happy to answer your questions! Bring it on! :D

Yeah, the lack of darkness is because k-dramas and darkness don't go together. Depression, being constantly on the verge.... sadness, desperation and melancholy... all are heavy emotions. Their 'aesthetics' don't match the frothiness and giddiness of k-dramas! There is a certain dissonance. They could not even pick a school that would look authentic enough to be a school from the 90's. Because of this constant need for everything to be 'pretty'. And Yunru did come from a place of a lot of 'ugliness'

The interpretation is all kinds of off. Li Ziwei, the wannabe gangsta with the twinkle in his eye and a mischevious grin who turned out to be the biggest jokester with a heart of gold! :)

Lol, people posting 'completed' reviews within 8 hours, when the series is 12 episodes long, at 1 hour run-length each 🙄🤣

Uh-oh. How are they going to explain how Siheon takes over Yeonjun's body and suddenly becomes interested in women instead, now that he has a boyfriend? Unless they killed off the boyfriend (rowoon) in this car accident, lol!

No betrayal anywhere. Both the guy friends are a pair with different women. Watch on! 🙈

Where is the hearing-aid though? 🥲 that one-moment where he takes it off to tune out the world and focus in on the inward, unsaid thoughts of Yunru/Minjoo is (supposed to be) one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful moments of just not the characters, but the ENTIRE story. I'm LIVID.

Oh, so Rowoon is playing the boyfriend, is it? ^^ Hooray!! I remember people saying he wouldn't take up this role cuz he's a ~rEliGiOuSss~ person! xD

No Peach.. I think you were right initially....
Yun Weishan approached Wuji Furen to question her about the missing medical record, as she spotted the fight happening outside her quarter and the diary getting ripped.
However, Wuji Furen who probably did not have the time to realize that the diary is missing yet, thought she was being questioned about her missing token, as that is the only thing she 'knows is missing'. Heck, she blew her cover accidentally by misunderstanding YWS, which is why I think the ending cliffhanger of ep 9 will stand as it is. It won't be a red-herring this time, because the reveal wasn't done intentionally.
And as a result, YWS might have blown her cover too, because she recognized a martial arts move only Wufeng people/ Ravens seems to know!!!

Trying to sneak in BL? You mean.... Shangjue applying meds on Yuanzhi's beautiful exposed shoulder while he scowls and the younger dude winces... is.... NOT meant to be fanservice? And is purely coincidental? And necessary for the ~pLotTtt~?? :P :P :P
Guo Jiming would make the spies pretty dudes in this, if he had his way. HET CPs, whaaa? xD

Very sus indeed. Did you notice how Ziyu picked out his Dad's poisoned fingertips that had turned purple on the corpse? It was the SAME fingertips that had touched the scroll tucked in the assassin's hairpin. Given that Huanyu barges into his Dad's chambers, claiming 'look what i found inside the assassin's hairpin??!!!' meant that if the assassin/Wufeng had applied the poison onto the scroll, and Huanyu had been the one to discover it... wouldn't he have unfurled the scroll prior, thus being exposed to the poison much before his Dad, and thereby dying long before he could make it to the Dad'a chambers! (I'm sure it would take Huanyu more than 200 heartbeats, approximately 2.5 mins, to reach his Dad's quarters?)
Am I getting this wrong somewhere?
Also, the testimony was by Lady Wuji who said the 'lights went off'. Not only she can be (amd likely is) an unreliable narrator, she's also in close proximity to have switched out the herb elixirs. Not to mention, like you said, some poison was missing from Yuanzhi's chemistry lab, and the poison was later concluded to be a product of the Gong Poison & Co.?!!

She drowned the ship before it even had a chance to sail. RIP. Also, aside from hotness, i love how.... humane he is, compared to everybody in that assassin training camp!

So, our Yun Weishan effectively mother-zoned her Raven today! 🤣🤪

Yun Weishan.... Queen of Gaslighting!!!
'Why would I be making poisons, since everyone takes your elixirs..... unless, there is something wrong with the elixir you made?'
🔥🔥🔥

He'll have an existential crisis 🤣

Imagine ShangJue's surprised Pikachu-face when he discovers this? He's pretty much been treating Ziyu like a beggar's child. Hahahahaha! Except now, Ziyu's dad would turn out to be a dude even MORE powerful than old Sword Wielder! 🤪 that's why they say... be careful what you wish for! 😛

And that kid who found little Ziyu with the man.... that kid grew up to be the dude who's playing chess when Ziyu enters for his trial. He's pretending to be the boss, but we all know he takes orders from the XTZ the kid, lol. Just like in the flashback.

Yeah, and I think Lady Lan did some witchcraft and sealed XTZ's powers, so now he appears in his kid-form. The Xues live in a snowy-realm, and the ML is always kind of cold. Not to mention, his paternity is always being questioned. And now it's revealed that his meridians have been tampered with! It looks awfully inter-connected to me.
Edit: Joseph plays a character with a similar wig as the kid XTZ. Also, since Chen Duling is playing the Mom in flashbacks, high chances they haven't wasted Joseph's cameo on some inconsequential Elder, but instead spiced it up to play Chen Duling's lover in the flashbacks. They are a pair. And I can TOTALLY see why the Sword Weilder would want to bring up a bastard child. That's because it's friggin XTZ's child! 🙈

Heck, even Bai Jingting has played this (similar) character TWICE in a single year, with enough nuance to tell the two apart. It's a really common setup, like you said. Ziyu's kind of coming off as pathetic. Sweet, but pathetic, because the stakes are just. Too. High.