Deirdre19

I don't know... I'm so far only up to chapter 20 of the novel and I haven't come across anyone with this name yet. But, there are another 120 chapters to read, so it will take me a while...

Actually, she doesn't. Towards the end of ep. 8 the Empress Dowager clearly says that Hua Liuli and the Crown Prince would make a good couple as "they are both troublemakers".
Afterwards she asked Liuli about Yuanhao to test her reaction.

It seems so, there is a scene in the closing credits that seems to point this way. Also in ep. 7 he was shown as the one giving orders to the assassins (the real ones, not the three inept clowns). I think the Crown Prince already suspects him, there was a strange exchange between them when they were drinking tea (I think it was also in ep. 7) and the Crown Prince said something along the line of "I want to trust her (Hua Liuli) like I trust you" and Yun Han had a strange reaction.

Ah, I absolutely HATE the transmigration trope (both in drama and in novels), so now I have to watch this to see how they make fun of it!

Or you could just move over to Royal Rumours. It also has Jeremy Tsui and in a (so far) much better written story.

Yes, quite horrible for all of them. I just picked out the ML because someone came up with the plastic surgery question.
Given that the actors usually check the takes right after filming the scene, I don't quite understand why they all accepted looking like a group of clowns.

Very often the Crown Prince is the eldest son, but sometimes the Emperor just names the one who seems the most qualified. Maybe it depends on the dynasty what the rules are (I'm not so familiar with Chinese history).
In the novel it is said that the three concubines were pregnant at the same time and there was a rumour that whoever gave birth first would have their child name Crown Prince. Prince Ying and Prince Ning were born at the same time, but Yuan Su was born a few weeks later (maybe because his mother wasn't as gullible as the other two).
He became the Emperor's favourite and so was named Crown Prince in the end.

You may be overestimating certain people 😂 😂 😂

Same here. Maybe we could get our daily dose by medical prescription... 😻

Well, he pursues only for as long as she keeps running. If she ever stops and gets close, probably (judging from their scenes so far) he will be the one running. I think His Highness is a bit "shy" in this respect... ☺️

I think it will. I've just seen a preview that shows some serious fighting scenes, not with those inept assassins, but with real ones...

Yes, I love the cat thing! I'm watching this lying on the couch with the cat on my lap, for synchronised kitty-stroking 🐈🐈🐈

Yes, he is the brother. In the novel he came to the capital together with Hua Liuli, but I guess in the drama we're going to see him only later.

Yeah, they changed a lot of the characters. The brother is still there, though. I saw his name in the cast list, but they seem to have reduced/changed his role. It's a bit sad, because I quite liked their brother-sister relationship, they share a love of food! As she pretends to be sickly without any appetite (while in reality she is hungry) he keeps finding excuses to "force" her to have food so that her cover stays intact.
Later the Crown Prince takes over the job of permanently feeding her snacks because in the beginning he considers her a younger sister. I guess with only 24 episodes they didn't have time for this, so in the drama it's a romantic relationship from the start...
The double life of the Crown Prince, especially his intelligence gathering reminds me a bit of Who Wants to Rule the World.

Watched the first 6 episodes now and I really like it.

The acting is pretty good - JT's comedic timing is absolutely perfect! And the eye rolls!!!

Both leads have decent chemistry and the costumes are beautiful. I particularly appreciate the fact that the costume dept resisted the urge to dress everyone in these boring pastel colours.

The story so far is quite funny, sometimes a bit too silly for my taste. The ML's obsession with his cat (and cat-related accessories) is a nice touch. It almost feels like he's auditioning to be the next Bond villain...

What I'm missing so far is the ML's poison tongue, right now the poisonousness is at diarrhea pill level at best. I've read a few chapters of the novel so was expecting a few more vicious comments.

I also don't understand why the writers made the FL's sickness pretense so transparent (she keeps slipping up all the time...). Were they afraid that otherwise viewers don't get it or couldn't they accept the concept of a really cunning FL who manages to fool everyone, including her love interest?

Not only that, but it makes her whole "I'm so feeble and sick" pretense rather unbelievable. Right now I'm not sure whether the writers are blowing all these holes into her cover intentionally and why. The Hua Luili in the novel sure was a lot smarter than that, but apparently C-drama still cannot deal with this type of FL.

I would join...

I guess acting-wise JT is more a man of action, all he got to do in ChongZi was looking pretty and waving his hands in the air for some spells. Also actors usually act off against one another, so it's much easier with someone like the FL in RR. The ChongZi FL was a bit like a shapeless cottonball, so nothing would ever bounce back.

Some people just don't get the irony of the "acting within the acting".

Well, I was more thinking about making it to 84k by the end of the month 😂
The 100k will probably only be reached once this "falls from the sky" because I don't think we're going to get an announcement with an airing date...