SpicyLime

Yes. It's explained that the pain he felt was the same if not more than the pain that CSS felt.

Hi friend. Want to be spoiled? If not stop reading.

CSS tells off her mom who tries to stop her when she looks for LBY during that thing 3 days before that other big thing. She abandoned her and it's too late for her to be a mom now. CSS has survived without her and will continue to do so.

Going by the previews and the remaining number of episodes. Maybe 5 episodes for them to reconcile. I hope less.

He does not know until after LBY (real name, Huo Wuchang) carries out his revenge. He believed that Huo Wuchang was really LBY the whole time. My understanding is he feels immense guilt, since General Huo was protecting the new regime (his rule) and they all died waiting for reinforcement that never came.

He always knew. He has just been hiding it along with his aunt.

His sister knew that Ling Yi was a bad man, but she loved him. Love is irrational. The biggest betrayal was that Ling Yi married another wife when the sister went into hiding. Ling Yi is the type of person that will do anything to improve his own situation. Everyone and everything is a tool. If you watched ADOS, he is like Gu Qianfan's father. Everyone is just a chess piece. I honestly think she was spared since she pretended to be crazy and therefore not a threat. She was technically his wife as well and the mother of his child. If he knew the truth no way he would keep her and LBY alive.

I don't think there was any bad blood between them at first. He was married to the sister for like 8 years before the massacre. Things change in that time. I believe Emperor Wen (the current Emperor) came into power. Since they had idealogical differences and General Huo was a favorite of the Emperor, he was a big threat to Ling Yi.

Emperor playing cupid again and how dare CSS not treat LBY right
-The Emperor =P

Here's some minor details since you already know the big thing.

Actually LBY resolved to carry out his revenge a month prior to the wedding. He was conflicted. Ultimately, he chose revenge. About 10 days before the wedding, CSS could feel something was wrong with LBY. She couldn't figure it out. He had started to plot his revenge. 3 days before the wedding, CSS finally figured it out. She still wasn't sure if her LBY, was really LBY. She found him and confirmed while witnessing him in the act.

FYI. Did you watch the MV? The ending of the MV is what happens at the end of the novel. The HEA with kids happens in some extra chapters that the author wrote a couple years after the original ending of the novel.

He literally has a road map (his master) of what not to be, but doesn't use it. A fool he is.

Sorry...In the MV, you can see he is looking scruffy and playing with a wire that is around his wrist. I'm pretty sure he was at the border town exiled. Dreams shattered.

Wait, I see your name all the time. Have you avoided all the spoilers?

To answer your question. Yes. Ling Yi (LBY's current father) killed the Huo clan at the Isolated City incident. He murdered General Huo with his own hands.

My understanding is out of greed and power. General Huo and Ling Yi had differing political opinions, so Ling Yi killed off the Huo family to remove any dissidents from affecting him in the future.

I wasn't careful when reading about the revenge plot. So, I hope someone can provide more insight. It was just kind of a tough read for me and I still have not gotten to it.

Edit: I'm actually not sure if the rebels were involved. I removed the line. I want to say they had a hand and kept bribing Ling Yi, but I'm not too sure.

Maybe. It didn't hit like that for me at all. Just to follow your train of thought, I suppose she realize that she didn't know what like was and then had the realization. Because she literally says she likes him but is just annoyed with him sometimes. Nah.. I'm still not convinced. But I'm glad it worked for you.

This will be spoiler heavy. Stop reading at any time...Or continue :)

how?
"LBY" is really Huo Wuchang (HWC), the legitimate son of General Huo.
Ling Yi betrays General Huo out of greed. As a result General Huo and the entire Huo Family and his loyal soldiers are massacred at the Isolated City incident. At the time HWC clothes were swapped with his cousin (his aunt and Ling Yi's son, AKA the real LBY), so that he could sneak out and play. The real LBY was killed during the massacre, since he was believed to be HWC. In order to save the real HWC's life, his aunt took him in and claimed that he was her son. Ling Yi did not know of the swap, since he had a distant relationship with him. So, he believed the lie. In reality, he was responsible for the death of his own son, LBY. HWC and his aunt snuck out of the city and remained in hiding for a few months before returning to the Capital in front of the Emperor. In the time she was hiding, Ling Yi had already remarried. The Emperor who has a strong bond with General Huo, adopts "LBY" not knowing that he is actually HWC. As the only remaining surviving member of the Huo Family, he wants to ensure that the Huo Family bloodline can continue with him. HWC is totally aware that he is not the real LBY. He has to keep up the facade in order to protect himself, while secretly trying to gather evidence, power and any survivors of the massacre to bring the Ling Family to justice.

that means he's General Huo's son?
Yes

then who is his mother?
His mother was killed during the Isolated City massacre and is General Huo's wife.

and Junhua is really sick and forgotten everything or just pretending/acting?
At first she was only acting. This was so that HWC and her would not be murdered by Ling Yi and the second reason was to always remind HWC to never forgot to get revenge against the Ling Family. She later does turn crazy and eventually passes away.

And who else knows this other than LBY?
Nobody knew the truth except his aunt and himself until "LBY" carries out his revenge against the Ling Family. Afterwards, LBY changes his surname back to Huo.

Lol. I'm invested in this show. Hby?

That's an interesting observation. I'm not sure if it was intentionally or just a mistake. Like you said the original novel name is 星汉灿烂, 幸甚至哉. I think deviating from the novel is just a directorial choice. The writers and directors are just trying to cater to what they think their target audience will enjoy the most and/or what their vision is. The fact that it is 2 parts, is probably mostly due to the China law that caps episodes to 40 episodes max and doesn't have to do with them actually deviating in the 2nd part.

Hmmm. That makes a lot of sense. You are probably right regarding the tally. They are starting to go off the rail the novel, so I'm just starting to speculate on other things that they might change to fit what we've seen so far.

I wonder if they will change the reason why LBY gets flogged in 38. Maybe the Emperor finds out about the tiger tally. That would kind of make sense to me. Thoughts? The more I think about it, the more I think it'll probably have to do with LBY kicking everyone's ass though.

For the novel readers.