SpicyLime

Thanks for this. I skipped to after the time skip.

Adding on bits of the novel from the time skip to the end:

LBY only loves CSS. At this point he no longer goes by LBY, but goes with his birth name. I think the surname is Huo. For the sake of these spoilers I'll keep calling him LBY.

During the 5 year exile fighting a war, LBY is secretly keeping track and protecting CSS. When he returns gloriously after victory, he shamelessly tells Yuan Shen and CSS to break off their engagement. He flat out tells Yuan Shen that he is not a good match for CSS. CSS is livid.

He gets word that the bite mark scar on CSS is about to disappear. The next time they meet up he bites her again. LOL. CSS is pissed off since she spent a lot of time and medication to get the scar removed. It had just started to even out. CSS is trying to fight off LBY, but he's too strong (she is like clawing and hitting him as hard as she can, there is blood and they both end up very disheveled). After the fight settles down he immediately starts to put ointment on the new bite mark. CSS finds out that he does not plan to marry anyone else. This is really shocking since everyone (including CSS) just assumed that he would eventually marry someone else. LBY is so favored and powerful though that even the Emperor himself doesn't dare to force him to marry. He will be alone for the rest of his life. His entire family is already dead. The Huo family line will end with him. CSS is evidently still in love with LBY but remains stubborn. She begins to waver after he tearfully begs for her to not be so cruel (all his words during the exchange got me teary too. Just imagine this powerful general who is on his knees crying, clinging on her legs, having been alone for most his life, not having anything left and is still willing to let his love go, and protect her even if she is with another, the only ray of light in the total darkness of his life and at the end will die alone if she doesn't accept him). CSS finally admits defeat and begins to break down crying. She has given in to her true feelings. Just then, their tryst is discovered.

CSS knows what type of personality LBY has and warns Yuan Shen if he can handle the upcoming battle against LBY. It's rhetoric. She doesn't tell him, but knows he will not be able to defeat LBY (I speculate she knows, since she has already surrendered to her feelings regarding LBY and won't marry anyone else. She will fight for love, just as LBY has. She also knows Yuan Shen's personality really well as her personality changed to be similar to his. She is back to her true self and will not marry Yuan Shen since she does not love him). She asks him to break off the engagement. Yuan Shen refuses to back down.

LBY is formidable in everything including love. He is using military tactics. Sound familiar? Ming Lan anyone? He slowly drops bomb shells (not literal) on CSS and Yuan Shen and retreats before they can counter. When they try to fight back or retreat he cuts them off (both literal and not literal). There is a wild fire of rumors that starts to spread throughout the Capital of LBY and CSS past and current relationship. Surprisingly, despite the damage to their reputation, Yuan Shen's parents continue to support their son's engagement (at this point, I find it's kind of despicable that Yuan Shen is still trying to cling on to hope that CSS will marry him. He knows she will only ever love LBY. He is just too stubborn to admit defeat.)

During the 5 year time skip LBY figures out Yuan Shen is probably going to be the next likely marriage candidate and protects Yuan Shen and his family for the sake of CSS. As CSS helps to prepare the annullment letter with her family, she finds out that Yuan Shen and his family are arrested. Yuan Shen's family was involved with a rebel faction or something. LBY knew this was going to happen and took care of the problem in advance and got pretty badly injured. He also gave all the credit to Yuan Shen's father. Yuan Shen and his family get released once the investigation is over. LBY did all of this in secret without telling CSS or Yuan Shen, but Yuan Shen was able to deduce it himself.

Yuan Shen confronts LBY and even asks LBY for advice on how to handle his family's current dire situation. Without hesitation LBY willingly gives him sage advice. Yuan Shen asks him why he did all of this when LBY had given up on marrying CSS during his exile. LBY explains during his time away he really hoped that CSS can marry someone else and have a good life. He believes that Yuan Shen will cherish CSS, since he was fighting so hard to win her over. He was even okay with CSS marrying Lou Yao as long as she has a good life. LBY will never marry if it is not with CSS and plans to just secretly protect her for the rest of his life. It's only when he returned and saw CSS again, that he changed his mind and tries to win her back. However, if CSS does not give him another chance, he is willing to back down. Hearing all this, Yuan Shen loses the last of his resolve to continue the engagement with CSS and is totally defeated.

Yuan Shen let's CSS know about what LBY has done and admits defeat. CSS is stunned (later in the novel it's revealed that she wanted to immediately see LBY, but decides against it to confirm her feelings again). Yuan Shen tells CSS he won't repay him for the favor, but she has to. He runs away before CSS can see him in tears. (It's explained that in his whole 20 years of life, he has never lost his composure. Yuan Shen is really proud like CSS and never backs down, so it's a big deal. My interpretation with Yuan Shen's character is he is willing to believe his own lies. He knew from the beginning that CSS never loved him, but just continued to fool himself into believing that she did/will. LBY's onslaught forced him into surrender. He can never hope to match up to the level of LBY who is willing to do anything and everything for the sake of CSS.)

After the engagement is annulled, CSS is intentionally avoiding LBY. She wants to confirm if her feeling is love and not due to fearing him or because of a debt of gratitude. It's love. The next time they meet LBY asks if CSS is still angry with him. CSS confesses that she doesn't dare to be angry with him (she knows what he has done for her and his love never wavered), ironically she is worried that he is angry with her (her pride was in the way of her true feelings). She tells him she loves him and only wants to marry him. She confesses she now understands that LBY loves her for who she is and no one can treat her better than he can. This confession really warms up LBY's heart. He is in disbelief and can only hold CSS tightly. They are together again.

Yuan Shen reveals to LBY that CSS's true personality is like LBY's, not like Yuan Shen's as we (the reader) have been led to believe (Yuan Shen's whole spiel on why he's a good match for CSS is because they are so similar). He found out how CSS is really like during a visit to see CSS, who is ill and in a coma after being grief stricken, due to LBY's exile. Yuan Shen heard CSS calling out for LBY during a nightmare not to leave her and to take her with him. Yuan Shen knew then that the real CSS is willing to sacrifice everything, including her own life for LBY, just as LBY is willing to sacrifice everything for CSS. LBY confesses he knew everything already and asks why Yuan Shen still proposed marraige to CSS. Yuan Shen wanted to marry CSS anyways, since he loved her (I think he was just obsessed with winning her over) and believed that LBY was just an old flame and she'd get over him eventually. He had this fantasy of how things would be with him and CSS. Yuan Shen was dead wrong (-rant begin: Look, I don't think Yuan Shen is a bad guy, but LBY is just better. LBY was willing to let CSS go for her happiness, but Yuan Shen kept pestering her to marry him until she finally caved, since she kind of didn't have a choice. CSS wanted to fulfill the Empress's last dying wish of seeing CSS getting happily married. After CSS breaks off the engagement, the Empress says that it's okay, she just hasn't found the right one yet. I think before she passed away, the Empress was content, knowing CSS was going to marry her one true love LBY. The Empress didn't want to see CSS marry just for the sake of making her happy by fulfilling her last wish. I can't stop feeling Yuan Shen is slimy. CSS and LBY could've married before the Empress passed away, if Yuan Shen wasn't in the way. -rant end).

There is a rather long chapter earlier in the novel right when LBY returns after the time skip. It's about CSS's favorite shrimp. I'm bringing it up now, since it's more revealing after Yuan Shen's reveal on CSS's personality. The shrimp story is diguised to show 1) how well LBY knows CSS 2) how little CSS knows about herself 3) how CSS has changed. CSS denies that the shrimp LBY mentioned is her favorite and says she hates it, but LBY counters and explain how he knows it's her favorite. He then explains, she pretends to hate it, because one of the Royals is allergic to it. When she found out, she never orders it anymore and says she hates it. LBY points out, she is only fooling herself into believing that she hates that particular shrimp, even though she really does love it. LBY aptly explains what she says may not be what she wants. CSS can't counter, since she realizes he's right. CSS did not realize she was fooling herself into believing her own lies. The hidden message is she is saying she doesn't want to be with LBY, but in truth, desires to be with him. She has changed to pretend to hate the things that she loves in order to please others (probably to protect herself). She is no longer her true authentic self. LBY saw through her pretenses since the beginning and knows her best. Yuan Shen knew, but fooled himself into believing that CSS was similar to him. CSS changed and unknowingly became similar to Yuan Shen's personality of trying to please others and having the proper etiquette. CSS only figured she was lying to herself with LBY's coaxing. The real CSS has only ever loved LBY and never hated him.

In a later chapter the change in CSS's personality is further confirmed by another character. He correctly points out that CSS is only willing to be her true self when LBY is around (she made a lot of mistakes and got into trouble. This tells me she felt safe and comfortable with LBY around and took more risks). When LBY was not around, she tries to do everything perfectly and follow the etiquette (She takes less risks. She is more willing to please others).

After they reconcile they are lovey dovey mode. There are a lot of comical and romatic scenes with them together. CSS's friends and family are telling her to stop being so obvious with their affection, it's not proper. LBY doesn't really care what anyone else thinks while CSS is a little bashful. (The vibe I have is they love each other more than before the seperation. They are trying to make up for lost time. Sweet.)

In the last chapter OTP finally get married. (it's debated from other commentary if she got married. I don't think it's explicitly said, but my interpretation of the end is they got married. Regardless, they are in love and inseparable.)

Update:
Okay so someone kindly pointed me to some extra chapters that the author wrote a few years later after the original novel. Confirmed our OTP got married and had kids. WooHoo. Hope this shows up in the drama.

Also. I still hate Yuan Shen. But he did the right thing in the end. Still don't think he had a choice though. LBY and CSS would've forced him.

I want to know this too. It looks like during the time skip he was off fighting a war and "abandoned" CSS. When he comes back, he doesn't mess around and tries to rekindle their romance like immediately and doesn't give a shit about his other prospects.

I'm just fully guessing here. If I had to guess, he probably promised to marry her regardless of his duties. He decides to leave without marrying her. That's what I'm guessing.

I hope someone answers this.

LOL. I don't know why but I laughed when I read "spanked". I mean flogged in the ass, spanked, same difference.

On a side note, I just love how the Emperor is on the ML side, just like In The Story of Ming Lan. I think the Empress is great too from what I know. They try to play cupid for LBY.

My speculation is that they may marry by the first part. The reason I'm guessing that is because of his declaration that he won't marry anyone else but CSS in the trailer. My understanding is his declaration is after he returns from the time skip after she is engaged again, most likely with Yuan. That engagement gets broken up since LBY is her one true love. I don't know if they have enough episodes to fill in all the details from the novel.

It looks like in the drama the romance is developing much more quickly than the novel. It's still anybody's guess.

It is up to interpretation. However in the novel when they are talking about it, she confesses she didn't fall in love him during the arrow scene. It's more like seeing him in a different light, after being annoyed with him throughout their small interactions. For him I think it was love at first sight during the lantern festival.

My understanding is she figures out what love is like if you watched ADOS. It's the realization that if you love someone you want to take on their burdens but still continue to live your life outside of just your partner. Pan'er in ADOS wants to take on GQF's burdens, but she is going to continue to work on herself independent of him. It's the same if you watched Story of Ming Lan. The way she loves her husband is by thinking about him and what she can do to take off his burdens.

In all cases the ML has devoted their life and love to the FL. The FL has to figure it out what they want. Love at it's worst can be selfish. But, love at it's best is very selfless.

At this point in the story she is not concerned with love and just looking for stability and freedom. She is going with the flow when she is proposed to. She is actually not in love. Like you mentioned she doesn't know what it is. Her mom is giving her tough love but a lot of it is for her own good. She isn't aware of how cruel the world really is. It's only until through the various interactions with her prospects as well as her outside experience she learns about herself and what it means to love.

Although CSS has a really tough life growing up without her parents she will slowly begins to understand their burden.

I don't want to do spoilers unless you want them, but SOM is very slow burn and very detailed with it's story telling. It's also a more accurate representation of the life during the Song Dynasty, where reputation is king and one misstep can destory your life. It is serious with some fluff. The story really starts to pick up in the second/third half. I didn't stop after getting there. The first half can be draggy for some.

SOM is one of my favorite all time dramas. There are a lot of life lessons and a great cast. You will laugh and cry with them.

73 episodes was barely enough IMO.

I might start next week since that's when the romance kicks off and they break off the engagement with the first guy.

This is where I am skeptical. Does the trailer only cover part 1? If it does, then the time skip should happen in part 1. Since my understand is his speech about only marrying CSS happens when she is engaged to Yuan and has just returned.

It's happy. I hear they do not marry until the epilogue. Also she only marries and loves LBY.

I'm just making a guess, but Yuan only becomes a real love interest during the time skip. When they get engaged it's mainly due to them having similar personality. But, being similar doesn't mean love. It takes her a while to figure it out.

If I understand the previews, the time skip should probably happen towards the end of part 1. His speech on how CSS will be the only one he will marry in the trailers happens after the time skip. He returns right when she is engaged with Yuan.

The whole time she is at the palace is to kind of shape her up to be a woman more suitable for LBY (and just to mature in general), as the Emperor doesn't think she is good enough.

Edit: I could be wrong about the timing of the parts. I'm not sure if they would include part 2 scenes in the Trailers. If they did, then it's possible the time skip doesn't happen until part 2.

This gives off the same vibe in that, the FL will be slow to fully accept the ML's love and devotion. She is definately going to be jilted like Ming Lan was.

Sure. I didn't actively watch the episodes. Just skimmed through them and watched the previews.

I <3 U. Thanks for your help.

My guess would be it has to do with the revenge too, and probably "abandoning" her. From what I gathered so far, CSS is definately not a MingLan. At the early point of the story she doesn't have resolve in her convictions and love for LBY. From the time skip to when he returns, she has built up those things. Ultimately realizing that LBY is her one true love.

Yep I do. LOL. SOM is Story of MingLan. From what I am gathering a lot of key points are stressed in LLTG as well. Although we won't know until the end. Both shows were adapted from novels from the same author. The drama had lots of changes for both shows. In LLTG, the female lead is also a time traveller like in Ming Lan.

Even after the 5 year time skip, the FL realizes that she can only be a free independent woman with LBY. They will be equals. Although she doesn't know all about his secrets and he remains mysterious, he doesn't try to control her and will give her autonomy while providing and protecting her. Her other prospects cannot give her the same level of reassurance and freedom.

After he returns from the time skip he remains fully devoted to her. My understanding is that he never changed, she did. Once she makes that realization she knows he is the one for her.

LOL. Last question I promise. What was the reason for the betrayal? Betray as in not marrying her, or something worse? From what I already gathered the only true choice was LBY if she wanted to be able to be free and independent. She would never be able to with her other choices.

LOL. And I already read about the 5 year time skip. What was the reason for the time skip, did LBY need to leave for war? Or was that right after the scene in the clips where we see LBY fall off the cliff, so he had to go into hiding for awhile. What happens during that skip?

I'm just here for the spoilers. From what I gather our OTP only marry each other. The "wedding" scene in some clips looks like a dream sequence. She was imagining who she wants to marry and she dreams it to be ML.

For SOM, most of the men of the FL's prospects always let her down in the end. So, she doesn't care about love, just wants to live a more stable life.

Sorry to bug you. Do you know if the FL gets pissed or is kind of indifferent? How does she react.

My guess is... They won't get married til the end of part2. The romance is going to develop over part 1 and 2.

CSS is already jaded when it comes to love. She will slowly learn to trust ML in the first part. The other candidates will let her down just like in SOM.

Also the ML will block the FL's prospects.