DramaAjumma

As he says himself, he was actively trying to separate them because he didn't like her in the beginning and didn't think she was good for his friend.

He doesn't really know himself. But I'd say somewhere between 11-13 from the gestures and the looks that he gives her. When he takes her shopping, it's obvious that he's fallen hard.

The highlight for me from these last 2 episodes as got to be the confrontation between Liang Yi and Qin Xuan out in the practice yard. While I understand why Qin Xuan might be heartbroken because he feels like he's received the rough end of the deal -- first thinking that Qiu Yan had left the land of the living, then finding out she's alive living in Liang Yi's mansion playing the role of his concubine with such relish. That said, I don't find his charge against Liang Yi to be justified -- that his friend has stolen or is attempting to steal his lady love from under this nose. No one can steal someone else's beloved if it isn't consensual. I don't think he gives Yan'er enough credit for having a mind of her own for one but from my perspective, what he really fears is not that his friend has stolen his woman from him but that the woman he loved wasn't as committed to their romance as he was. He comes to some conclusions on his own but he doesn't go far enough -- as Liang Yi says. He should take the next logical step which he can't and realise that Yan'er doesn't see Qin Xuan as someone that she can rely on to get her out of this present predicament. Someone who has the resources to give her and her entire family adequate protection from their common enemy. As a potential exit strategy out of a loveless family environment, he was great but as a shield against a war against her family... not so much.

If there's anything Liang Yi can be accused of, it is opportunism. This is his opportunity to win the girl and the heart of the family with his sincerity for their welfare. This is what Mr Darcy does for the Bennets because he is the only one who can. It isn't just pragmatism on Liang Yi's part either. He is the man. Literally. There is no else who can or is willing. He is so willing that he is doing deals with his father's murderer's family to expedite matters.

Liang Yi also understands that if Qiu Yan really still had feelings for Qin Xuan, she'd be talking about him more and having more consideration for his feelings. But no... She's not interested in engaging on that front.

What that entire confrontation (and the lead up to it) revealed to me is that Qin Xuan still doesn't understand what's really at stake. He can't be the man to Yan'er that she needs at this point. It may seem like dirty tricks but she's completely outgrown him. She doesn't need his adoration and he can't give her real protection from real imminent danger. He may be kind, and intelligent but he's not cunning and shrewd. Someone who isn't afraid to cross certain lines, scheme ruthlessly and set things into motion. That's Liang Yi's point. This is a dirty fight, not a situation to play by the Marquis of Queensbury rules. This is why Liang Yi is the ideal guy for her.

Liang Yi was also trying to tell Qin Xuan that instead of obsessing over the sister that's out of reach he should be taking better care of the sister that's already there at his side. The sister that he already had intimate relations with. I don't think the subs really conveyed that well what Liang Yi was saying. He wasn't asking Qin Xuan to accept wrongdoing so much but asking him to take responsibility for his actions as a man. The deed was done and there's no going back. Instead of trying to get Yan'er back, he should be caring for Min'er properly.

These last 2 episodes are really some of the best in the series. We've got to give the leads their due throughout crisis after crisis, they live up to the old idiom "Fortune favours the brave". That's why they are winners because they are willing to lay it all on the line and take big risks. It's also why they're just perfect for each other because at the end of the day their courage is beyond the ordinary.

Because there is a very important principle of life at play here and it's that adversity makes or breaks people. When tough times come, people either rise to the occasion or they fall to circumstances. While Yan'er was not the "good" girl, she was always a fighter. She is used to fighting for what she wanted and so she is someone who through circumstances has had to fight for her survival. It's obvious that when family fortunes fell on hard times, she would be far more in her element and take up the challenge to lead the family when there's a void left behind by the grandmother.

Having said that, I never thought that Min'er was a particularly virtuous a girl. She was obedient and compliant, yes but that's not necessarily out of virtue. People comply for all kinds of reasons -- because it's just easier to go along with the status quo, because it makes them more likeable, because they fear the fallout from rocking the boat.

Everyone inherently acts on self-interest on one level or another so it's a matter of how honest they are about it.

I tend to think that the writing of the show is better than some give it credit for.

He needs a good woman to keep him distracted... or set him straight. :P

Hear, hear!

It's his actual voice.

I don't think the show pretends to be anything more than a historical romance with some crime elements. What most of us are responding to is the romantic dynamic of the leads. The show does need the criminal aspects to get to 34 episodes and if it didn't have that I imagine that it would be far more melodramatic than I would be comfortable with.

Well, it didn't take Min'er very long before she went full-blown Lydia Bennet. A lot has been said about her already but I think the most reprehensible thing she did was make Qin Xuan think that he was the one who imposed on her during his drunken stupor -- a deception that it was his momentary lapse of propriety that saw them sleeping together overnight. She made him the chief sinner in that debacle of her making. That bit of cunning shouldn't be too surprising considering what a self-righteous prig she is. Her takeaway from what Yan'er did was completely wrongheaded but not surprising because she was never a deep thinker to begin with. It's one thing to use a few tricks to get a man to notice you and want to spend the rest of his life with you, it's another to set up a honey trap. No doubt she's in a hurry so emotional blackmail will have to do. Plus she really doesn't know how to live by her wits. Bluster aside, she still has to rely on someone to support her because the bravado is just bravado.

The show is a fascinating array of contrasts. The last 2 episodes once again makes the case as to why Liang Yi is the right man. His mother (who is just the most delightful creature) comes packaged with a rags-to-riches story is a romantic at heart. And the only barrier to entry for Yan'er to marry well and up in this instance. To the viewer, it was obviously meant to be. The son is willing and the mother is willing so it is now for Yan'er to realise that this entire situation was made for her and jump through that hoop. It's also clear that Qin Xuan isn't young love's dream for her. He's sentimental about love but she isn't. Or maybe because he's really not the right guy that she's not upset that little sister has had the jump on her.

Once again Yuan Lang facilitates the romance by creating a fanfare which forces everyone's hand. Certainly it's not his intention to bring the leads together for their happily-ever-after, nonetheless he does it over and over again. Everyone including the emperor is surprisingly supportive of Liang Yi's recent conquest which is too amusing for words. Liang Yi couldn't have schemed it better if he tried. Heaven is on his side. The woman he loves is right at his doorstep, his mother approves and all he needs now is for her to relent.

Some good has come about from the Qiu family's misfortune. For the first time, in their lives, I feel that they're acting like a family with a united front. Even the bratty cousins are holding their own.

Heh. Thank you for saying that.

She's a hoot!
But you could tell that she's a romantic from the time when they went to watch the opera.

From where I'm looking and yes, the Qiu family has seen better days but as far as Liang Yi is concerned, Yuan Lang has inadvertently come to his rescue on the romance front. He was prepared to marry the "wrong" sister to achieve his lofty reformist goals but the calamity that Yuan Lang devised has given him a second chance to win the affections of the sister he really cares for. Make no mistake, Yuan Lang is a loser through and through. He can't get to Liang Yi directly so he attacks the in-laws instead and makes their lives miserable. He's a weasel and a self-righteous fraud who doesn't know integrity even when it hits him between the eyes.

In this next phase of the narrative, is Liang Yi's opportunity to woo the lady back. To turn the ship around and steer it on course. The girl he met six years ago is in all likelihood his first love. It's fascinating how he phrases his questions and insights to Yan'er. He wants to know if he has a chance with her or is she still clinging on to Qin Xuan. Of course he relishes all the moments he is able to share with her but he wants her love not gratitude or even respect. This is the silver lining that's been created as a result Yuan Lang's machinations.

I am of the opinion that Yan'er was never as committed to Qin Xuan as he was to her. He was always first and foremost her ticket out of a dreary existence. It's not his fault that he can't be there for her during this time but this situation does demonstrate that the importance of shared goals.

My view is that Liang Yi and Yan'er were always supposed to find each other, be a team together to fight the evil of that society. That's a common goal that they have. However, he was so focused on his own plans that he missed what was right under his nose. He was harsh and unpleasant to her after the incident with the He family that she refused to acknowledge him. That inadvertently sent her into another man's arms. It's clear that they make a good team and I'm certain that he now is more convinced than ever with all the so-called "acting" that she is someone he always needed by his side.

My first crack drama of 2022! The leads and their antics are a laugh and a half. I don't think that I've enjoyed a C drama this much since the Imperial Coroner.
Undercover work is sure working out for Liang Yi.

Is it necessary to be playing this kind of blame game among the leads when this is a fictional show with elements of external scheming and court politics that is out of the reach of most ordinary people. The events are calculated in a show like this to bring the leads together.

The feels... the feels... Oh it's been too long.

13 episodes in one day. Speaks volumes about how much I'm enjoying this. And it helps that I'm largely convalescing. I need the audiobook version of this with Jeremy Xu reading it. If not, I'll settle for him reading my lexicon of Chinese idioms from cover to cover.

It's obvious by now why Qin Xuan can't be the man she ends up with. It should have been obvious to her and to him a while ago but perhaps she's too busy trying to put out bushfires and he's rather infatuated at this point. He comes from an old fashioned conventional family and she won't fit in. Already it's clear that she'll have the same kinds of fights with them that she has with her own. If not, she'll completely lose herself. At this point, she really doesn't know what she needs. He's a sweet kid but he's not the kind of husband she needs. He can't handle her. Marrying into that family will be a disaster. It's a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire. She'll be swapping one form of imprisonment for another.

Ah... a Sherlock Holmes moment in Episode 11: Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.

P & P is my favourite novel of all time. I read it at least once a year. I think I've seen almost every adaptation but nothing beats Austen's wit and humour. She's just so quotable.

I 'm really enjoying the Pride and Prejudice vibe from this. It has me grinning from ear to ear. Usually I roll my eyes at the anachronistic female lead but in this case it works because the cunning male lead deserves (for better or for worse) a woman who can see through him and give him a really hard time over it.
This is one of the few occasions that the early adversarial dynamic works for me.

I came for Jeremy Xu but staying for the romance.

Overall I really liked the ideas, the premise and the characters here. It certainly does interesting things with the genre although as an adapted script it is deeply flawed. It's tv that feels like a filmed novel. Zhang Ruoyun, Hu Jun and Qiu Xinzhi are obvious standouts partly because they had the lion's share of what the storytelling had to offer. Much of the show came across as being an introduction or a preamble to a much larger story. That isn't necessarily a problem in and of itself especially if the pacing had been consistently good across the board. Moreover, there's a lot of dialogue and exposition that disrupts the flow of the show -- just when you think things are finally moving along, the director weirdly puts the breaks on for a lengthy piece of dialogue that is often not needed. This also often meant that the martial arts sequences lack depth. Very few of the confrontation scenes tended to be visually impressive.

While Liu Duanduan was decent, I don't think the Zhao Kai character was all that impressive. As a foil and as an adversary, he was merely an observer in most instances. We were told that he was ambitious but he was content to lurk in the background, conceal himself and borrow other people's hands, so to speak. He ends up being a figure of ridicule more than a sympathetic one.

Make no mistake, I did enjoy it but I definitely had issues with the storytelling choices. To me it ended up being a novel in search of a script doctor or a director.