GeoParks36

Song Xiao Yu's (Li Yi Tong) agent is played by An Yue Xi.

In all honesty, you probably could but you'd be missing pivotal information plot-wise as well as character growth and development from a lot of the cast. In short, I would probably recommend that you watch at least S2 before going into this though there are character cameos from S1 that you might not get the excitement for.

Hope it helps.

Though of course you can just search "Silent Reading free online" or "Mo Du free online" and it will probably give you machine translated versions if you don't mind reading those.

It's now been licensed to Seven Seas so you probably won't find it online anymore. You'd either have to wait for the books to be available to be bought by Seven Seas or buy the originals in Chinese.

Might be just what Netflix is doing because Missing: The Other Side in the US is now just S2 without S1 but it isn't listed as being S2 until you click on it.

It's no problem. Well for one of the main characters, he was psychologically and physically abused my his father so there's that. But the other trigger warnings are pertaining to the cases. There's suicide and murder but again it's not explicitly detailed to the point of being gory.

The novel for this is actually one of my favorite BLs but there are some trigger warnings that you should consider before going into it unless you find a censored version of it. Just know that I think in the second arc/part that it does involve the s*xual abuse of minors though that part isn't explicitly stated, it's just there. Though in hindsight I feel like the majority of the triggers might be in the second part.

If I'm truly being honest, it feels like the FL's characteristic of watching American crime shows is based off of stereotypes only because I've watched a lot of American crime shows and I know better than to not wear gloves or booties at a crime scene, not touching the recently deceased until the M.E. gives the say-so, not trying to convict people without solid evidence, never showing up to a meeting with a suspect or someone involved in a case alone, letting emotions get in the way of reason, and lastly not taking the advice, however rudely given, of someone who's been working in the field longer than I have.

Also it seems like aside from the NFS characters and storylines, everything else is poorly written. I had to drop this at episode 7 because I was about to start pulling out my hair. But because I like the ML and someone said S2 was good, I'll try the second season.

I understand you completely. The funny thing is is that I attempted to watch The Mystic Nine back in 2021 or so but couldn't get past a few episodes because I had no idea what was going on (I admit that the editing for that drama was really bad at times) and then came across Reunion and got interested. It was after that that I found out it was a whole thing and that The Mystic Nine was its prequel that I decided to try again and could finally watch it. But the story as a whole is way too incoherent because of all the director and cast changes and the fact that they made them out of order which bothers me to no end on the logical half of my brain which is why I ordered the books. However it's also because they were made out of order which is why each drama wanted to fit in as much of the story as possible regardless of where it actually fell into the plotline.

The bromance is probably the best thing about this series and much better portrayed than in the books. And as much as I like the books, I've got my own problems with them as well.

The reason why I can put it off is because I know Xiao Ge's story per the novels but I'm scared that the drama will change it so I need to prepare myself first.

I too am reluctant to have high hopes for Dark River.

To play devil's advocate since this is considered a prequel, there had to have been some relationships in order for the characters in The Blood of Youth to exist. But I will agree that there is a difference between having relationships and the focus being solely on the romantic aspect. I also wish they had incorporated the formula from The Blood of Youth. What could have been...

I didn't get far enough to see that but that's disheartening to hear.

I don't know if it's just me but I genuinely felt there was enough between the lines in The Blood of Youth to create a decent prequel without adding anything else that wasn't necessary.

I think I love Ultimate Note the best because I feel like Xiao Yu Liang embodies my vision of Xiao Ge from the novels the most. Plus I really loved Liu Yuning as Hei Yanjing and felt like those directors know how to utilize his innate talents and make him shine. I haven't watched Adventure Behind the Bronze Door yet so I don't know about this one. I've heard too many differing opinions so I'm just going to put it off for a bit longer and hope that they make a drama that ties Ultimate Note and this one together because that's the one I'm looking forward to the most.

You could start with The Mystic Nine but you don't have to as it's just a prequel with different characters. But this is the linear order of the series without all the spinoffs and movies.
-The Lost Tomb (2015)
-The Lost Tomb 2 (2019)
-The Lost Tomb: Explore with the Note (2021)
-Ultimate Note (2020)
-Adventure Behind the Bronze Door (2024)
-Tomb of the Sea (2018)
-Reunion: The Sound of Providence (2020)
-Reunion: The Sound of Providence Season 2 (2020)

Keep in mind that there is stuff in some earlier dramas that didn't happen until later on in the timeline making the actual flow of the dramas as a whole choppy and confusing along with the continuous change in cast aside from mostly Wang Pangzi and a smattering of others. Hope this helps!

I really wanted to like this because I loved The Blood of Youth unfortunately I got 5 episodes in and could no longer continue or I felt I would have spit up blood. I don't like the way they set up Baili Dongjun and Ye Dingzhi's backstory and I feel like they were needlessly entangled in politics when the parent story didn't give that impression. I can't in good conscience call this a prequel.

However I won't say that it's unwatchable either. I just couldn't proceed further because it felt too disjointed from The Blood of Youth and I don't want to ruin my images of the characters I grew to know by watching this. So if anybody fell in love with this, I'm genuinely happy for you. I feel like I might be able to watch this all the way if it was a separate story altogether.

Also if I'm really being honest, if it were me creating the prequel, I would have made Xiao Ruofeng (Prince Langya) the protagonist instead of Baili Dongjun because in that way it would have felt more like a prequel since The Blood of Youth ended up being a gigantic chess game started by the former Prince Langya and ending with his student and nephew Xiao Se.

Wei Zhao isn't as selfish as the rest of them, although admittedly a little selfish. But so is her shifu and so is she if we're being really honest. Alas selfishness is part of the human condition and we can't truly escape from it. I just really hope the director takes some creative liberty like the dramas of old and changes the ending but given his track record... I do feel really bad for Jiang Ci. All she wants is freedom and the right to choose to be in the place she is in but so many different forces are taking her choices away. I think the only person around Jiang Ci that isn't selfish is probably Cui Liang who treats her with sincerity and genuinely wants her to live the life the way she wants. But I also don't see him as a love interest for her so I hope he remains a good brother to her.

I don't think that was his real singing voice but I can't be sure. His real voice is kind of in the higher range and it comes out in his singing as well.

If you're only just now finding him beautiful, it might just be that this specific character appeals to you lol. But his aura in this is kind of nice in that dark romance and tsundere kind of way even though it's softening as the episodes continue. Have you checked out The Blue Whisper? The writing is mostly silly but his character gets more appealing in Part 2.

The age difference couldn't be more than 4-5 if they were from the same mother and depending on how many concubines the father has. I wasn't paying much attention to the Ji family dynamic because I really don't care about them. I was thinking broad terms and since they married pretty young back then.

That and it happened a fair bit for emperors to inherit concubines from their predecessor even if it was their father because some of these new emperors grew up with these concubines/consorts etc. It's just not shown in many dramas.