L13

Lady Han lowkey best character in the drama. Also:

Right, at 23 you're in medical school! Get an adult for this role FFS!

I feel really terrible for Qiu Min and wish she had anyone she could confide in after being raped. Her plot to entrap Qin Xuan is ruthless, but I understand she's not thinking clearly, feels like she has no one to rely on in the whole world, and is desperate to survive. Coupled with the trauma of getting sexually assaulted and not being able to tell anyone, it's a lot to deal with.

(Edit: Wait, she actually roofied him? Sorry, I guess I wasn't paying enough attention during that scene... Qiu Min, I can't condone you doing to Qin Xuan the same thing that was done to you! This is really terrible.)

That said, what she needs right now is not a stand-in baby daddy but the support of people who care about her. Qiu Yan spent the first 17 episodes of the drama telling Qiu Min she was weak and useless and needed to solve her problems on her own, so I understand why QM would feel like she couldn't rely on QY in this moment of crisis. After all, QY refused to hug her when their mother died and when their family collapsed and they were sold into slavery. I know QY's tough love came from a place of concern, but she was wrong to treat QM so coldly and we're seeing the consequences right now.

I hope QY will become the pillar of support QM needs and QM will tell her the truth about everything so QY can help her, but I'm afraid the way QM's character arc is trending--meaning the abrupt heel turn from naïve helpless ingenue to scheming self-destructive predator--portends a tragic end. I'm kind of afraid she'll die and QY will be left to take care of her child or something like that. I really hope I'm wrong and QM doesn't let bitterness and despair turn her into a completely different person... but I don't know how she could possibly come back from this.

lmao WHAT. I’m trying to finish Maiden Holmes right now and the acting and characterisation are terrible compared to The Autumn Ballad. The main characters are your cookie-cutter cdrama staples—the wide-eyed innocent girl consumed by her own angst and the manly macho man who forces his feelings on her until at some arbitrary point we all decide she returns them (not that she knows her own heart or expresses her feelings ever); he exists to protect her and cater to her feelings even when he’s on the verge of death and she exists to be a girlboss but also trip and fall into the ML’s arms every episode, learn from him, be saved by him, and be the oblivious virginal target of his jokes about how horny he is. There’s no playful banter, intellectual camaraderie or an answer to the question of why the hell they would even like each other.

The main characters in TAB are so much better both individually and together.

This really is a drama where nothing grabs your attention. There are only two characters whose love lives I wanted to follow, Bo-ri and Kang-rim, but they were both mishandled by the writers. Bo-ri's romance took way too long to take off and doesn't get enough screentime, and re. Kang-rim there's no couple worth rooting for. His age difference with Seul-ah coupled with the fact he's her teacher make that whole proposition sus and they don't have any romantic interactions that could persuade the viewer to root for them despite the moral ambiguity of a potential relationship. Seon-hae, however, is boring like stale bread and the idea of her and Kang-rim together is just depressing since they're both total squares.

Which is the problem of the drama in a nutshell. There's no one interesting and no one likeable, and the storylines lack intrigue and drama.

Also the part where one of her aunts and the ungrateful son tried to make her infertile for no reason...

"Liang Yi keeps helping the Second Young Lady Qiu in front of me because he obviously has feelings for her sister." Yuan Lang is really stupid for a smart guy!

The way he went, oops, I guess I have no choice but to break off this engagement, what a shame!!! and got unengaged in 5 seconds flat was so funny. When Qiu Min appealed on Qiu Yan's behalf "for the sake of our past relationship" I was like, girl, nice try, but his past, current and future relationship is with your sister, this guy has probably forgotten your name in the one hour since he dumped you!

Yuan Lang must be feeling salty because Liang Yi outmanoeuvred him by cutting ties with the Qiu family immediately, but I expect he'll realise he still has leverage because Qiu Yan is Liang Yi's weak point sooner or later. Qiu Yan's deadbeat father was also starting to get a clue before he was thrown in prison. "Don't forget you're engaged to Qiu Min, not Qiu Yan." Uh oh!

Yeah, the raid scene was pretty detailed and realistic.

He's a nice guy, but he's spineless and small-minded and his only purpose so far is to be obsessed with Qiu Yan; we've seen no sign of talent or maturity from him so far.

I do feel bad for him because Qiu Yan is using him, but his scenes bore me (which is the point of his character right now--he nags and discourages Qiu Yan in contrast to Liang Yi, who understands what matters to her and can keep up with her mad plans).

I can't stand most SMLs because of this.

I'm getting really tired of cdrama's obsession with casting actors in their early 20s as hotshot doctors. Was there really no 30-year-old actress they could cast opposite 30-year-old Yang Yang?

Qiu Yan getting Qin Xuan’s letter where he tells her he’s going to forsake his family and status and risk his life to get her out of the Royal Academy and going, hmm, nice, I can use him to get Min’er out of here, and justifying herself to Qiu Min with “whatever, he can make his own decisions!” vs Qiu Yan not wanting Liang Yi to get flogged in exchange for her mother’s medicine… I see you, girl 👀

I'm still on ep. 15, but Qin Xuan is so useless. Just stop getting in the way!

That’s a very good comparison! He has a bit of WH’s charisma and directness.

This all makes sense, but we also know Evil Granny favours Qiu Min. And given EG's reaction to the other daughter-in-law's threat, it sounds like EG has known about "the secret of the second court" for years. So if QM wasn't EG's biological granddaughter and that was the shameful secret the other DIL was using to blackmail the family, it doesn't make sense to me that EG would love QM and treat her well. She seems like a very small-minded and hidebound character, not someone who would readily accept an outsider's child.

I think the secret is either 1. simply that Han (the legal wife) had been in love with that monk for a very long time, without QM being involved, 2. that Han gave birth to the monk's child, but it's NOT QM but someone raised outside of the Qiu family, or 3. something unrelated/more complex.

I may be wrong about all this, of course, but I don't get why EG would love QM if she knew QM was the product of Han's "betrayal" of her son. (I'm putting betrayal in quotation marks because I assume Han was forced to marry Qiu Yi when she was already in love with the monk.)

I think the summer is more likely.

Very lighthearted and fun first episode, I like both leads and their interactions and am looking forward to seeing how they will achieve their dreams, and the j-drama-ish music is a nice touch. BUT. I'm going to be anxious about the ending until the end because of the glimpse of the present day they showed us at the beginning. If they don't give us a happy ending, I swear to God!

I really like both main characters here and every scene they share is a banger. It’s rare to find a cdrama where I find the main couple’s dynamic so fun and compelling and am not annoyed or bored by their personalities. Qiu Yan and Liang Yi are so well-matched and their conversations are always honest and intimate and touch on important topics like their values and dreams; QY’s interactions with Qin Xuan are so dull and superficial by comparison that I actually feel sorry for him. He doesn’t stand a chance with this girl.

Watching Liang Yi slowly come to the realisation that he likes the sister of the woman he’s about to marry as the marriage situation spins out of his control is so anxiety-inducing, though! I have to say that after watching the trailer for this week’s episodes on Tencent’s YT channel—SPOILER AHEAD—I’m kinda relieved the Qiu family is about to fall from grace because at least that will solve the immediate problem of Liang Yi and Qiu Min’s betrothal.

Thank you for the correction!

You're wrong.