Frost_edelweiss

Yes, that was so funny! He must have hidden cultivator wuxia skills. He did fly up over walls and onto carriages already a long time ago ?

It did look like he had ordered a team of hit men that barely got stopped by FX and first prince, who happened to ride in the vicinity. Is the threat completely gone, I don't know... The emperor had a nasty habit of benevolently greeting goodbye to departing courtiers, to get them totally "departed" on the way to retirement.

It was comedic enough in that episode, yes, with the brief loss of mask/face : was it Jing "No Name" that FX wrote in his inscription in the Poetry Book ?
I suddenly thought of a song that could echo Minister Lin's apparent erasure : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsaUIs9JUXI... He still made fireworks with that brush and ink lending those as he did (why not a seal, since he was at it? btw I wondered why FX did not simply carry a name seal to sign : that's quick and comfortable, no?)...
From then on, I have a hunch FX will be navigating into uncharted deep waters, and there's no sure bet that more of his elders will not be sacrificed too, perhaps.

Kerosene is not nitroglycerin.
"Kerosene is liquid around room temperature: 25 °C (77 °F). The flash point of kerosene is between 37 °C (99 °F) and 65 °C (149 °F), and its autoignition temperature is 220 °C (428 °F)."
I also don't really understand why "coal oil" would be readily available if the method for lighting was candles, and heating was on wood stoves mostly?
Of course, "Petroleum has been used in various forms for at least 70,000 years. Prehistoric hunters used bitumen to attach flint spear points to wooden shafts. From around 6,500 BC, petroleum was widely used to caulk ships, pave roads, cement buildings, waterproof canals, heal skin diseases, kill lice, and preserve mummies."
As for military uses, "Greek fire" did indeed make use of coal oil aka kerosene, but there were some other ingredients needed to blend in, not sure the inside of a hollowed candle would be enough to make it into a crude Molotov cocktail, unbeknownst by the loo users.

So, I assume the loo had first been laced with hidden containers of conveniently leaking methane gas, that is not so difficult to extract from cow or similar dung. "Methane forms explosive mixtures with air and the loudest explosions occur when one volume of methane is mixed with 10 volumes of air (or 2 volumes of oxygen) (Windholz et al., 1976). Air containing less than 5.5% methane no longer explodes." "Methane is an explosion hazard in enclosed areas. Liquefied Methane floats on water and boils. The vapor cloud produced is FLAMMABLE. POISONOUS GASES ARE PRODUCED IN FIRE." (There: you got the recipe for your next revolutionary activities, lol)

That said, some upper middle school classmates of my dad (he was in an elite school at the time) once tinkered in the chem lab and made some nitroglycerin around 1938-40. Apparently it is not that hard, but harder to keep the stuff stable, so .... the kids did not repeat the feat, sadly. Real booom. It was an event that caused a novelist to write about a "neglected youth" (translated as Stolen Spring), which embodied the social criticism of the times of his country, well into the 1960s.
It was not the only time such things happened to the curious DIY-ers who are a bit careless.

The emperor was lucky he did not lose at least an eye with his gunpowder making experiments.

I just caught up with 21. This is such a riveting story, that it's hard to be forced to pause 🤣
The exam part was quite something. I was thinking : could a loo explode ??? methane gases....
Where did the sabotage team get the kerosene ?
As for making papers anonymous method, this is a problem that was (still is?) causing nightmares and headaches to many exam sitters and designers. So much can be translated into modern day concerns.
Time for a walk to rest the eyes with living greenery and renew the qi.

You could also read this for starters ; it may convince you to give S1 a go first instead of half blindly rushing into S2... https://www.soompi.com/article/1379259wpp/bask-in-the-joy-of-life-7-reasons-to-watch-c-drama-joy-of-life
S1 is so packed full of twists that "cheat sheets" may not be enough to skip jump into s2. But some background info is not totally superfluous.
MK916 has posted a translation of the e-novel in Discussion, but just looking at the number of chapters shows that this will not be a light read for one evening ! I will tackle it to alleviate probable drama nostalgia when S2 ends. The drama version is not just blind translation into pictures of the novel, so I expect it will be an interesting read on its own.

It may sound much to add 46 episodes first to these 36, but they are extremely enjoyable, so don't skip them. Just take your time to enjoy or binge watch : it's fully worth the time spent ! It's a continuing story, from start of s1, so you won't regret the weeks set aside to stay in that universe.

Agree. Up till now, I'm more than satisfied. (Finished S1 less than a week ago, and my only regret is that the old dowager (but the actress is 88, so can't blame her for retiring) and Xiao Zhan did not participate (but the guy who took up his role is not bad).
And we got some new angles to explore, some new princes and ladies, some old coots to make fun of (o, how politically incorrect to disrespect the elders - I should be offended, being almost as old as the dowager 😂 - but can't help laughing at the puns and jabs).
Prince 2 and his shoes that he mashes the heels of, and Crown Prince who'd like to dance barefeet, clueless Dai being dragged off a boot before getting one...
Fan Xian dragging the subdued incorruptible official to return to his original ideals.
Many amusing and sometimes scary or thought provoking images. With all his bluntness,
I thought Fan Xian might have stood up to his real father to have him acknowledge him as prince ; he's got the bearing for sure.
He's proved that he's also as slippery as an eel, able to wiggle his way through cracks and wells and be unpredictable, appear where he is not expected, while being less snaky than the recognized princes.
This S2 is colorful and eventful enough, although differently from S1 where Fan Xian had to fight the Level9s.

ah, second prince topping. But three spots at least are taken by JOL characters 😊.
I also like that Batai (new actor Yu Shi, who played in the very short 8 episodes To The Wonder, is at #5)

fun

Yes, and To The Wonder opened at 8.5 before skyrocketing to 9.4 settling at 8.8 from 100,000 ratings... (Loved that little gem, myself; I had taken it as an interlude between JOL S1 and S2 which need to be watched one after the other - had missed JOL back when - , and got hooked so started later than folks here, but am catching up probably tomorrow for up to date.)

Personally, with the dedication of return team, interesting story script and dialogues, and fireworks of jokes and play on words (even if some are very basic), I'd have awarded it at least an 8. I'll just give it a provisional 10 on MDL (can always change that if it really disappoints me - not yet).

lol

Don't know why it did not get into the photo gallery yet ; well, now, I've added it 😉

Completed info about this mini series in the TO THE WONDER - Notes, above in the Discussion section. Illustrations, background info, BTS links, Music links, you have it all.
Of course one can watch it naively, but it is also worth it to read for more info.
Anyway, it is beautiful and worth the time spent on it.

Commenter on a c-drama news channel who is usually well informed and reliable. Sometimes, she recommends to me titles, which can be better suited to my varied tastes than the YT algorithm which is also flooding me with cdrama alerts lol
Despite we do not always watch same series. She missed out on the excellent To The Wonder (8 episodes on iQiyi) that garnered up to 9.4 rating on Douban last week. I clicked on it randomly on the app and was hooked. So beautiful.

According to Peggy Tanaka, this should air on May 22. i.e. tomorrow. She recommended it to me together with Fox Spirit Matchmaker, that airs on 23... So, I am checking the page :)
I am already much occupied with Joy of Life S2, so it will be a tough choice lol

Thanks. :-)
I hope the good quality of that mini series will be more widely known.
I just noticed that it was not easy to access its details on dramawiki !
I had initially looked for it using its Chinese name, so found it, but in English, special attention to upper case and lower case must be used if looking for it directly : it is listed as To the Wonder (so "to the wonder" or "To The Wonder" or "My Altai" "My Aletai" direct translation of original title return a blank...
Not surprising it falls in between the cracks for some who only heard about in passing.
Have a pleasant week and enjoyable drama watching, and thanks for your heat indexes watch!

A new urban drama to start filming in June? Let's hope that melon will bring us more juice, although William Chan is not my crush (eeeh dear Rosy made all her leads shine in former dramas, and particularly so Li Hongyi, Liu Te, Ding Yuxi, Yang Yang, Wu Lei, Chen Zheyuan, surely Liu Yuning again, so who knows? Maybe William Chan could achieve a more romantic image now than his latest firefighter or Novoland prince one, if this project is carried out satisfactorily.)

There is some dearth about project news from some actors and actresses, including ZLS, and a glut from other ones...
But we keep posted with her latest sweet song, that's already something to appease ZLS cravings momentarily ?

I'm fickle : going back to watch the mammoth Joy of Life 1+2 after having been thoroughly fascinated by the marvelous 9.4 Douban earning short gem To The Wonder (8 episodes with not very well known cast, but all highly commendable). While keeping an eye out on Rosy news and a few other ones too, in pauses.

Thanks for these links, too.
I like the Chengdu page! It also featured down in the thread an interesting how-to snippet for Wechat users to easily link their overseas phones and international bank cards to access the Weixin pay feature in China and thus facilitate mobile payments there. New feature added since April to allow spend-power "up to 15000 Rmb" lol

I have added the news with some pix and a short Gif in the Stars in the Rose Pavilion :)
Go, Rosy, go! She looked so good running in France !