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Unfortunately for Marquis Yuan, it is really the case of his Y chromosomes being lower. 😂 It was already implied with Marquis Yuan being the only son too, so it seems like he did inherit some tendency from his Yuan family tree to produce a slightly higher ratio of X- carrying sperm instead.

Haha, true but adopting would be a very last resort for a lot of these families especially for the hereditary titles (higher chance of being betrayed). The Y chromosome also seems really weak within the Yuan lineage, and it seems like Marquis Yuan might be the last man in the Yuan family meaning there is no boy from related blood line to adopt. 😅

Exactly! Especially when these men have multiple daughters with different women. The common denominator is the man. 😂

There are supposedly 2 concubines (each has a daughter) and seems like both are vetted and approved by the Lin family.

Just hilarious that even with the concubines, the Yuan family will continue to only have daughters. 😂 Marquis Yuan's Y chromosome said NAH.

Happy for Xiuru. She managed to protect herself and her daughters from potential conflicts and in-fighting. She managed to work within the system as it really is hard to get around the whole issue with male heirs and hereditary titles. But at least she and her daughters will be okay in the future.

Spoiler for future episodes:

To give even more context to episode 39 with the crickets 🦗:

One of the Ming Dynasty Emperors, Zhu Zhanji, was known as the "Cricket King". He was considered a good ruler, but he was super into cricket fighting and he actually ordered court officials to go find strong crickets and bring them back into the palace. These crickets are then kept in these fancy jars. His obsession with crickets ended up causing different problems.

This order to find strong crickets got passed down the line so there were these local higher ups in villages pressuring villagers to find rare crickets to then give to the emperor. Many people spent all their money to buy or catch crickets.

The imperial officials actually imposed "cricket taxes" on regular villagers demanding for these strong crickets. Then the local officials exploited this system to extort money and harass regular citizens if they didn't meet the quota. Those who presented the emperor with great crickets were rewarded a lot and even got promoted while those who didn't find good ones got punished. It was even said some officials committed suicide for fear of not finding good crickets.

After his death, the Empress Dowager actually banned the activity in the palace It was also said the imperial servants destroyed thousands of these fancy jars that were used to house the crickets.

The Emperors underestimated the eunuchs. 💯

The crickets were also a reference to one of the Ming Dynasty emperors, Zhu Zhanji. His nickname was "Cricket King". 😅

I totally understand what you mean. This is unfortunately due to how a subset of C-viewers response to C-dramas now. There is a thin line scriptwriters can walk on with these historical romance C-dramas. The scriptwriters have to put effort into having the themes align with progressive/modern thinking or else the leads get ripped to pieces. But because there is romance involved, the reality of historical period for women really don't match up to a "proper romance" for our standard in the 21st century.

This happens to a lot of the other historical romance C-dramas, but it is just a lot more noticeable in this drama because the scriptwriters really showed the struggles of women at this time with all these female characters. They also decided to push through with ML making non-consensual decisions that does make viewers question if love is even possible with the type of FL we have. If Lanxiang is less Lanxiang, it did be "easier" to accept the romance, but the scriptwriters continuously showed that Lanxiang is this specific type of character who truly won't accept Jinqi as he was.

Often times now, the leads in these dramas get criticized as being too "perfect" and part of the reason is because they almost can't not be perfect. The supporting characters get to be more interesting as they are not judged in the same way. It is also why the character Zhao Xingtang makes for such an interesting character with a lot of discussions about her on C-platforms. These supporting characters are "allowed" to be just characters that exist in that kind of historical setting without judgment. But for the leads, it is almost like they need to be written in a certain way to not get hated on by the viewers.

For historical romance dramas, it is almost like they need to be light-hearted (not touching upon anything life changing) because if not, it can get viewers thinking does it make sense for the leads to love each other. 😅 To make it work, they also would have to make the leads in similar social status to not bring up certain questions. Lanxiang's and Jinqi's backgrounds required Jinqi to go through quite a bit of development.

If the drama is just straight up historical with no romance (Lanxiang resents Jinqi forever) even as the subplot or Jinqi didn't do what he did, then there probably would be less of the conflicting feelings.

Edit: Jinqi being chaste to begin with already goes against actual historical setting for that time. It is due to the "romance" in the historical romance that they had to keep him chaste so he doesn't get hated on by some C-viewers.

Oh, they definitely pushed Lanxiang as more out there. It also has to do with the current C-drama viewing experience in China. There are very strict standards with FLs in these types of dramas.

They have to be woke, but not too woke. They have to be special, but not special enough that the other characters are sacrificed for them. I think some scriptwriters have become hyperaware on this, so they try to minimize FLs being too conservative for modern-day viewers as FLs will end up being criticized heavily. The supporting characters have more wriggle room to have the mindset of that time period with FL being sort of the guiding light for them to see beyond what they thought was the norm. The leads almost have to be "perfect" with modern lens while the supporting characters are allowed more to be just characters that exist in this time period.

Yes, it is possible he will get dragged back in later. Eunuchs were also used to keep the other court officials in check, so it is also possible that the Emperor himself no longer trust Jinqi as much. He might had been "happy" to let Jinqi go.

Jinqi's marriage with Lanxiang in the first place also benefitted the Emperor. Jinqi married someone with no background and couldn't expand his family ties with other notable families. This was a good thing for the Emperor as it decreased the chance of another family gaining power and trying to take the throne.

No problem! 💙

Yes! He basically retired or resigned (though it is possible he is dragged back into it later). The bloodshed scene can be taken as a foreshadowing of what can happen in the future due to what is happening within the courts right now with the eunuchs.

The remaining knot between Lanxiang and Jinqi were them having two different mindsets about the imperial family. Lanxiang doesn't trust the Emperor and does not care to be in the Capital. Jinqi was raised to believe that serving the imperial family/Emperor is an honor and gaining merits in return that elevates the Lin family's reputation and their descendants is a positive thing.

Jinqi during the (super quick lol) years that he served in court started understanding what Lanxiang was saying. That it is very easy for Emperors to change their minds and they can just as easily execute those who they once favored. And now that Lanxiang and Jinqi are one mind, they finally consummated their marriage and can be proper spouses.

I totally get it! I laughed at all the time jumps too. 😭 If they had maybe 2 extra episodes, then maybe they can expand it a bit more such as Jinqi having a conversation with Lanxiang when he first clocked what was happening in court.

I think for C-viewers, it was easier to understand with the historical knowledge of eunuchs and Ming dynasty but for viewers who really don't know the historical context, it does just seems like some crazy transition that made no sense. 😂

Can definitely be confusing without the historical context. 😂

Yes, plus there is also Scholar Han. His storyline is not wrapped up yet and he plays a big part in the later part of the drama. Jinqi probably got out of it when he still could because he took Lanxiang's advice to heart. If he was still involved a year or two later, it might be too late.

To give context to the eunuch scene in episode 39:

We know at this point that this drama is loosely set around the Ming Dynasty. Eunuchs during this period had so much power that they were considered almost the 3rd branch of the court besides the scholars (civil) and warriors (military).

Episode 39 was showing viewers that different eunuchs were getting favored by different kin of the royal family. Some are favored by the Emperor, some by the First Prince. And it is likely there are other eunuchs favored by the other princes too. Eunuchs gained power around this time because a lot of the Emperors didn't see them as threats. Eunuchs as previously mentioned in this drama couldn't have biological heirs nor big family ties, so they were seen not likely to set up a coup and overthrown the throne.

The Emperor and/or First Prince favoring the eunuchs also shows the likes of Jinqi and Scholar Han are considered as threats now. Despite Jinqi being loyal to the Emperor and the Emperor once upon a time favoring him, it is now showing the Emperor considered the eunuchs more trustworthy than the civil and military sectors. This is also a throwback to the early episode when the Lin women were talking about buying lands and it was mentioned the eunuchs were buying a lot of lands too (meaning they are making good amount of money due to their connections to the court).

Eunuchs also operated as secret police and spied on other court officials. The Emperors during this time used them to keep the civil/military sectors in check.

That transition scene with Jinqi hearing what the eunuchs said and eventually walking away from the bloodshed just shows him acknowledging and understanding that it doesn't matter how loyal he is to the Emperor/court, things change too quickly and he needs to walk away from it all to ensure the Lin family survives.

Most C-viewers really do not like court palace conflicts in these historical romance dramas because they are done pretty badly most of the time. People usually have to throw away what they know from history and logical thinking in order to believe the golden fingers of the leads surviving. 😂

The scene with the eunuchs was the quickest and most effective way to show the "conflict is arising with the current emperor, his kins, and eunuchs" plot without fully going into it because honestly, Jinqi is really not in the position anyway to be that involved in court. He might be favored by the Emperor at some point, but he isn't a scholar on the same level as the Emperor's other advisors.

The transition to the fighting and him/his men walking away symbolizes him seeing the conflict and understanding what Lanxiang has been saying along. But I do get viewers who feel like they didn't get as much from it and wished his time in court was expanded on more. But this isn't really Jinqi's story but Lanxiang's so if they only have limited episodes, I can see why they decided not to expand on it and focused on the Lin family again. It is not a bad decision since if they do try to get deep into the politics, the chance of C-viewers tearing it apart will be even higher.

If C-viewers wanted a serious historical drama on court politics, they would not be watching this drama.

Crickets in Chinese culture is considered good luck and brings prosperity. Crickets fighting was also a popular past time. The crickets during the scene with the Eunuchs also showed the changing of power with conflicts already been implied such as the Emperor VS First Prince VS some Eunuchs being favored = starting to gain too much power. That sign saying Eunuchs shall not meddle in politics is probably a foreshadowing for the later part of the drama.