He treats her like shit in the car, doesn’t even apologize, but simply because he tells her he missed her, she smiles and forgets everything. SZT settles for the bare minimum from LN. He’ll always go back to causing scenes after a few sweet moments. It’s incredible how incapable he is of changing, and how he only becomes gentle when the situation gets serious.
A puppy-dog look and a few sweet words are all it takes for her to forget and forgive his harshness. Lol, wake up, SZT. You don’t even feel emotionally safe with LN.
How am I supposed to believe that tomorrow’s episodes will actually be convincing enough to make me forget the disaster that is their relationship and all their unresolved issues?
Ep 19 confirmed that, after almost five years together, LN has never been this attentive toward her except during moments of crisis, when he thinks she might leave him. He even confirms it himself when she tells him that she wishes he would be gentle with her more often, and he responds, “So your type is gentle men.”
Every time they go through a crisis, LN brings out his “2.0” sidethe version of him that immediately makes her give in. He has always known what she wanted, but he only gives it to her when he feels like he is in danger of losing her.
And SZT, whenever LN takes a step forward, immediately follows his lead because she feels like he is the one in control of their relationship, when in reality, he is probably the one who is more desperate to keep it going.
More than anything, I feel like she is exhausted by this relationship. One moment everything is fine, and the next they are on the verge of breaking up. Then, when things reach a critical point, LN waits until the relationship is falling apart before becoming sweet, caring, and gentle with her again.
I really feel like we missed a huge part of their story and never actually got to see the dynamics of their relationship in depth. That’s probably why it can sometimes be difficult to understand why, whenever LN is sweet and tender with SZT, it feels like something completely new. Yet from what we’re shown, he doesn’t actually seem to be as cold as SZT believes he can be.
Every couple of days, they get back together blindly, without trying to resolve the differences that caused the breakup or having any real conversations about their priorities. They live in the moment without ever having genuine discussions about their vision for their future together or even addressing the recurring problems that keep poisoning their relationship.
At some point, just break up for good instead of constantly playing tennis and hitting the ball back and forth! Their relationship feels like an endless cycle: crisis, breakup, fear of losing each other, reconciliation, a few moments of tenderness… and then it all starts over. As long as they refuse to address the underlying issues, getting back together is just postponing the inevitable.
I still stand by what I said: Luke is largely responsible for Flora’s insecurities. So many factors, situations, and things he has said have accumulated over time that she has ended up relying more on her friends than on him. But when it comes to the whole situation with her ex, she is clearly at fault, and we have to acknowledge that too: she has no excuse for it.
Exes are exes for a reason. I don’t see any need to maintain such a close relationship with someone who knew her in an intimacy comparable to that of Adam and Eve. Of course anyone would be jealous or uncomfortable seeing their partner maintain that kind of closeness with an ex. She should have understood that certain boundaries were necessary, especially when her boyfriend is right there!
But, as usual, Luke also managed to screw things up. And knowing that big mouth of his, I’m almost certain this is only the beginning and that he’s going to make things even worse later on.
Honestly, free me from this relationship. Let them break up, let’s just get it over with and move on, so we can see them grow separately and, hopefully, become better versions of themselves. Even their tender moments don’t affect me anymore, because once you see all the deep-rooted problems in their relationship, the cute little moments just aren’t enough to make me forget everything else.
After seeing the scene where Flora, after so much hesitation, asks him to take their relationship to the next level getting married and having a baby and he refuses after six fucking years of being together, I understand why she never really had the courage to tell him things to his face and why she doesn’t instinctively turn to him first when there’s a problem. Deep down, she feels that their relationship is still not clear-cut.
Luke tends to talk to her badly whenever there’s the slightest problem, then does the bare minimum when it comes to apologizing, and she quickly forgets everything he says because she’s afraid of leaving him and because she loves him. LN may treat SZT well, but he doesn’t envision a future with her, even though he is fully aware that she wants something concrete.
SZT only entered this kind of relationship because she liked LN and knew that he was afraid of ending up with a “clingy” woman. So she put up boundaries to make their relationship work and to protect her professional life. The paradox is that LN himself is clingy, possessive, and intrusive with her, while he can’t stand that kind of behavior from women.
If SZT had told him from the beginning that she was looking for a serious relationship with real commitments, such as marriage and a family life, he probably would have run away. But over time, he ended up falling in love with her.
Being LN’s girlfriend doesn’t mean anything in itself. He enjoys the sexual relationship and publicly claims her as his girlfriend, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that he is ready to commit, regardless of how he feels about her.
From the beginning, I’ve had the feeling that SZT put her own personal standards aside in order to adapt to LN after realizing what his view of relationships was. And unfortunately, that’s quite realistic.
She feels ready to get married and have children. If, after all this time, he still needs more time, then she was right to put an end to the relationship, because this whole story ultimately leaves a bitter taste of wasted time.
Sun Qian’s legs are gorgeous 😍 I thought she was 1.78m tall, but she’s actually about the same height as Wang Churan! I’m actually wondering if she has ever walked in fashion shows, because she definitely has a model-like presence.
As a tall girl myself, I really love seeing Chinese actresses whose height doesn’t create a completely disproportionate difference with their male co-stars. Even though, paradoxically, I’m also a huge fan of couples with a noticeable height difference. 🤭
Luan Nian is exactly the kind of guy whom a woman, once she has achieved success herself, would probably never give a second look. She could easily think, “There are so many better fish in the sea, so why bother catching this one when I could find another that would be much more satisfying?” 😭
From the very beginning, Shang Zhi Tao has constantly made adjustments to her behavior to adapt to Luan Nian and what she believed were his expectations. After their first night together, that experience completely put her on guard. She instinctively understood that, if she wanted to start a relationship with him, she needed to establish certain rules and boundaries that, at that point, would make her feel secure enough for their relationship to last.
In my opinion, Luan Nian is largely responsible for SZT’s lack of communication. He tends to brush aside her concerns instead of actually listening to her and trying to understand them. Over time, she ended up struggling to genuinely express what she was feeling.
And the most frustrating part is that he puts her down even though he was the one who insisted the most on starting a relationship with her. Being his girlfriend ultimately means very little if there is no real commitment behind it. He is wasting her time when he knows perfectly well that he is not ready to get engaged or married. And deep down, he also knows that SZT is a woman who wants stability and a relationship built on genuine commitment.
He can be extremely hurtful toward her. Yet when he was pursuing her and insisting that she agree to be with him, he didn’t seem to care at all about her concerns regarding her career. He wanted her in his life, but he never really seemed to care about what she expected from the relationship.
To me, he doesn’t truly respect her. If he genuinely respected her, he would have realized by now that some of the things he does hurt her. And if it takes him six years and a breakup to finally realize SZT’s value in his life, then honestly, he deserves to be forgotten. 😭 He is far too self-centered.
The problem with someone like him is that being with them can eventually change you too. Constantly having to adapt to their behavior, suppress your concerns, and make compromises just to preserve the relationship can make you develop unhealthy patterns that aren’t really who you are. SZT has grown emotionally throughout their relationship, but I feel like that growth has sometimes taken her in the wrong direction, partly because of their dynamic.
And that’s exactly why I would rather be with a complete asshole whom you can immediately recognize as someone you want to run away from and dump from the start, rather than a guy like Luke: someone who may have certain good qualities and seem attractive at first, but whose behavior gradually ends up wasting your time, draining your energy, and changing you emotionally.
They should have kept the scene where SZT asks Luke to take their FWB relationship to the next level, and Luke rejects the idea. That’s ultimately what pushed her to end their relationship. It would have made much more sense.
Here, although Luke is clearly more at fault, SZT also has her share of the blame. There’s obviously a communication problem between them. But I can’t really blame SZT for thinking and acting the way she does. Luke really isn’t helping her.
Funny. I like Luke in the novel much more than prettied up version in the drama and I like her in the novel MUCH…
I like realistic relationships, and it’s clear to me that the relationship dynamic in the novel isn’t realistic. Luke is condescending, constantly puts her under pressure, and has an almost cold, unsympathetic attitude. He behaves like a complete asshole, and it’s clearly intentional. He constantly seems to look down on Flora and always thinks she’s incredibly stupid. Honestly, no sane person would have stayed with him for more than five or six months.
In the novel, Flora is genuinely heartbreaking to read about, and this is clearly the kind of relationship that, in real life, you wouldn’t give a second chance to, even if he eventually changed.
I think the drama did a good job of making him more of a red flag than a black flag, because idealizing or romanticizing a character like Luke in a romantic context would be really problematic, especially knowing that she ultimately stays with him. The drama made him more nuanced: he’s still a red flag, but it feels more realistic. He comes across as less contemptuous, and we understand his intentions better.
In the drama, it’s clear that he mainly wants something physical, even though it’s less explicit and presented in a softer way. He leans more into his caring side and is less harsh. In real life, people can sometimes use attention and affection to seduce someone and create an emotional attachment.
The Luke from the novel could probably only seduce a version of Shang Zhi Tao who was extremely innocent, and I don’t think he would have been able to seduce the version of her we see in the drama. That’s just my opinion, though. I’ll probably finish the novel after the drama ends, so maybe my opinion will change. The novel isn’t a waste of time, but I wouldn’t call it an amazing read either.
I had to stop reading the novel so I wouldn’t ruin my experience of the drama. To anyone who might be tempted to read it while the drama is airing: DON’T DO IT. 😭
Luke is a massive black flag in the novel. Everything he says and thinks leaves me speechless like… what an asshole! Luan Nian in the drama is an angel compared to her novel counterpart. How could she possibly put up with staying with him? 💀
If Yake had had a little more discernment, she probably could have built a beautiful and solid relationship with YJX. The problem is that, at the time, she wasn’t genuinely interested in him as a person; she was mainly attracted to his status. So she never took the time to truly understand him or even analyze his behavior. Yet, for her own sake, knowing how to evaluate a potential partner, understand his personality, and act accordingly is essential.
I always felt that she lacked education and intelligence, despite the fact that her father was a respectable and highly educated man. She seemed mostly interested in superficial things: jewelry, appearances, luxury, and she was also very envious of what others had. But episode 33 shows that she is far from being incapable or ignorant. She is educated, capable, and intelligent. She simply always wanted what she didn’t have. And once she finally obtained it, she suffered because of it and eventually realized, too late, that what she had wanted so badly was ultimately neither as important nor as useful as she had imagined.
The failure of her marriage and this painful period of her life ultimately changed her. She began using the abilities and knowledge she had always possessed to move forward on her own. She actually had everything it would have taken to keep YJX wrapped around her finger and shape him into the man she wanted, because she possessed everything he was looking for in a partner. In many ways, she was even far too good for an emotionally foolish man like him. 😂
But Yake is not like Ting Yun. Deep down, she never truly loved learning or anything related to scholarship. Life forced her to take that path. She eventually learned that she had to rely on herself and her own strengths instead of chasing things that didn’t truly belong to her.
She isn’t necessarily a good person, but she followed her own path and eventually learned from her mistakes, no matter how serious they were.
And I think Ting Yun would probably have followed a very different path if she hadn’t fallen so hard. She might have married YJX, or another man of similar status, and could very well have ended up like Mrs. Yu. But the path she was forced to take ultimately taught her lessons she probably would never have learned otherwise. The power and status she had wanted so badly eventually became overshadowed by her desire for a quiet and peaceful life with Zhao Ling. She even came to regret pushing him toward a life centered around power, realizing that what she truly wanted was for him to be able to live a simpler and more peaceful life with her.
What happened with his ex would have been enough to make anyone stay away from Luan Nian. A woman that obsessive and relentless in stalking him would eventually have gone after his new girlfriend and hurt her (although I’m pretty sure she won’t be showing up again). But Zhi Tao is out here talking to him about an amicable breakup and even fantasizing about it 😂😂. She subconsciously loves trouble 😂😂.
This girl who ran into his arms is going to become a problem, isn’t she? I feel like she has feelings for him. 😏 Jing Bo Ran is so charming here, and so damn sexy 🫣🔥. Their chemistry is insane! You can feel that there’s something going on between them just from their interactions. It’s clear that he’s going to deeply regret his choices… and I’m here for it. 😌
I finished Blossoms of Power completely in love with the Cui Jin Bai and Bu Shu Lin couple and now I find myself stuck with the despicable Yu Jing Xiu and Fan Ya Ke. Talk about going from one extreme to the other! 😂
Zou’s situation isn’t really as black and white as it seems though. She was a young girl (probably not even…
Zuo admitted that she married for money. She was fully aware of what that meant: coming from a modest family, she chose this path for her own financial interests. She wanted to enjoy a luxurious life, just as Ya Ke betrayed her friend while fully understanding what her actions meant, simply to gain a certain status.
She wanted to dissolve the marriage even though the grandmother probably would never have agreed but once again, she gave in when her brother was promised a promising future. Her brother ultimately failed because he was useless, and she came to regret it because she realized that he would never be able to become the support she was counting on.
She had tasted money and luxury, but she also discovered that behind those colorful walls, everything inside was much grayer. Without a husband or children to support her, she felt that she was worth nothing. She had always craved recognition and liked to show herself off, wear colorful clothes, and attract attention. But over time, she realized that the grandmother sometimes let her do as she pleased only to keep her under control more effectively.
She is someone who constantly plays the victim. She refuses to admit her ulterior motives, her desire for wealth and glory. At first, it was a win-win arrangement: she had something to gain from it, and she accepted it knowingly. But over time, she realized that this life was ultimately not as wonderful as she had imagined and began to regret it.
She also knew that, in this family, no one was truly indispensable in the old lady’s eyes. All the daughters-in-law lived with their own fears and apprehensions. Yet instead of learning from what she witnessed and becoming wiser, she chose the path of hatred and resentment. She closed her eyes to the suffering of others and focused only on her own, going so far as to target people who had done nothing to her and seek to ruin their lives.
She had always felt inferior and wanted to use Ting Yun to improve her own status, particularly by marrying him to her brother. Yes, she lived in loneliness, but loneliness is not an excuse. It allows us to understand some of her wounds and choices, but it does not justify her actions.
Ya Ke is sacrificing her youth for a choice motivated by status, but even her youth, her living conditions, and her feelings of inferiority are not enough for me to understand or accept her choices. The same goes for Zuo: their motivations and their stories allow us to understand why they acted this way, but they do not justify the decisions they made or the harm they caused to others.
Widow Zuo doesn’t really have an excuse, and I don’t necessarily feel any empathy for her. Certainly, she was a widow, and being a widow in her youth was certainly not an enviable situation at that time. But after a certain age, in their society, being a widow could paradoxically be preferable to being married: men could be unfaithful, have several concubines, father illegitimate children, beat their wives, or be verbally abusive. Because of these circumstances, family harems were constantly plagued by chaos and struggles over power, with each woman fighting to make her son the heir. Marriage could therefore be far more miserable, especially when a married woman did not have her husband’s favor and was essentially living in hell.
Widow Zuo benefited from the Fu family’s wealth and used it for herself and her family. She spoiled her brother and even encouraged some of his bad habits. She probably had several lovers and took advantage of her privileged position, but her feelings of inferiority and her constant need for attention pushed her to commit several reprehensible acts, dragging other people into her own quagmire as well.
In my opinion, she had witnessed enough of the injustices suffered by the women of the Fu family and by other married women to understand that, despite being a widow, she was actually in a relatively privileged position. She allowed herself to be bought by her vanity and her desire for recognition, only to eventually regret it because, deep down, she wanted to experience the life of a married woman. But why, exactly? She was far from being the person who deserved the most pity in this story.
Above all, she had a deeply malicious side. Keeping these young women’s underwear so that she could later blackmail them… what cruelty, especially coming from a woman who knew the difficulties and injustices women faced at that time. It is difficult to find any excuse for something like that.
Absolutely! He’s someone whose morals are already pretty compromised, and he seems to love being contrary. If you don’t let him do what he wants, he’ll protest; but if you let him have his way, he ends up getting bored. 😂 I guess he’s never satisfied!
This bastard Yu Jing Xiu likes competent and intelligent women, but because of his prejudice against his mother, he ended up with the village idiot, Ya Ke 😂. He’s totally capable of quietly getting rid of her once he’s had enough of her 😂.
For a historical one... A Journey To Love. Starring Liu Yuning and Liu Shishi. A very beautiful show with a beautiful…
Have you tried A Dream of Splendor, The Story of Ming Lan, The Legend of Zhuohua, or The Rebel Princess? They feature veteran actors, but these dramas are absolutely exceptional
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A puppy-dog look and a few sweet words are all it takes for her to forget and forgive his harshness. Lol, wake up, SZT. You don’t even feel emotionally safe with LN.
How am I supposed to believe that tomorrow’s episodes will actually be convincing enough to make me forget the disaster that is their relationship and all their unresolved issues?
Every time they go through a crisis, LN brings out his “2.0” sidethe version of him that immediately makes her give in. He has always known what she wanted, but he only gives it to her when he feels like he is in danger of losing her.
And SZT, whenever LN takes a step forward, immediately follows his lead because she feels like he is the one in control of their relationship, when in reality, he is probably the one who is more desperate to keep it going.
More than anything, I feel like she is exhausted by this relationship. One moment everything is fine, and the next they are on the verge of breaking up. Then, when things reach a critical point, LN waits until the relationship is falling apart before becoming sweet, caring, and gentle with her again.
I really feel like we missed a huge part of their story and never actually got to see the dynamics of their relationship in depth. That’s probably why it can sometimes be difficult to understand why, whenever LN is sweet and tender with SZT, it feels like something completely new. Yet from what we’re shown, he doesn’t actually seem to be as cold as SZT believes he can be.
Every couple of days, they get back together blindly, without trying to resolve the differences that caused the breakup or having any real conversations about their priorities. They live in the moment without ever having genuine discussions about their vision for their future together or even addressing the recurring problems that keep poisoning their relationship.
At some point, just break up for good instead of constantly playing tennis and hitting the ball back and forth! Their relationship feels like an endless cycle: crisis, breakup, fear of losing each other, reconciliation, a few moments of tenderness… and then it all starts over. As long as they refuse to address the underlying issues, getting back together is just postponing the inevitable.
Exes are exes for a reason. I don’t see any need to maintain such a close relationship with someone who knew her in an intimacy comparable to that of Adam and Eve. Of course anyone would be jealous or uncomfortable seeing their partner maintain that kind of closeness with an ex. She should have understood that certain boundaries were necessary, especially when her boyfriend is right there!
But, as usual, Luke also managed to screw things up. And knowing that big mouth of his, I’m almost certain this is only the beginning and that he’s going to make things even worse later on.
Honestly, free me from this relationship. Let them break up, let’s just get it over with and move on, so we can see them grow separately and, hopefully, become better versions of themselves. Even their tender moments don’t affect me anymore, because once you see all the deep-rooted problems in their relationship, the cute little moments just aren’t enough to make me forget everything else.
Luke tends to talk to her badly whenever there’s the slightest problem, then does the bare minimum when it comes to apologizing, and she quickly forgets everything he says because she’s afraid of leaving him and because she loves him. LN may treat SZT well, but he doesn’t envision a future with her, even though he is fully aware that she wants something concrete.
SZT only entered this kind of relationship because she liked LN and knew that he was afraid of ending up with a “clingy” woman. So she put up boundaries to make their relationship work and to protect her professional life. The paradox is that LN himself is clingy, possessive, and intrusive with her, while he can’t stand that kind of behavior from women.
If SZT had told him from the beginning that she was looking for a serious relationship with real commitments, such as marriage and a family life, he probably would have run away. But over time, he ended up falling in love with her.
Being LN’s girlfriend doesn’t mean anything in itself. He enjoys the sexual relationship and publicly claims her as his girlfriend, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that he is ready to commit, regardless of how he feels about her.
From the beginning, I’ve had the feeling that SZT put her own personal standards aside in order to adapt to LN after realizing what his view of relationships was. And unfortunately, that’s quite realistic.
She feels ready to get married and have children. If, after all this time, he still needs more time, then she was right to put an end to the relationship, because this whole story ultimately leaves a bitter taste of wasted time.
As a tall girl myself, I really love seeing Chinese actresses whose height doesn’t create a completely disproportionate difference with their male co-stars. Even though, paradoxically, I’m also a huge fan of couples with a noticeable height difference. 🤭
From the very beginning, Shang Zhi Tao has constantly made adjustments to her behavior to adapt to Luan Nian and what she believed were his expectations. After their first night together, that experience completely put her on guard. She instinctively understood that, if she wanted to start a relationship with him, she needed to establish certain rules and boundaries that, at that point, would make her feel secure enough for their relationship to last.
In my opinion, Luan Nian is largely responsible for SZT’s lack of communication. He tends to brush aside her concerns instead of actually listening to her and trying to understand them. Over time, she ended up struggling to genuinely express what she was feeling.
And the most frustrating part is that he puts her down even though he was the one who insisted the most on starting a relationship with her. Being his girlfriend ultimately means very little if there is no real commitment behind it. He is wasting her time when he knows perfectly well that he is not ready to get engaged or married. And deep down, he also knows that SZT is a woman who wants stability and a relationship built on genuine commitment.
He can be extremely hurtful toward her. Yet when he was pursuing her and insisting that she agree to be with him, he didn’t seem to care at all about her concerns regarding her career. He wanted her in his life, but he never really seemed to care about what she expected from the relationship.
To me, he doesn’t truly respect her. If he genuinely respected her, he would have realized by now that some of the things he does hurt her. And if it takes him six years and a breakup to finally realize SZT’s value in his life, then honestly, he deserves to be forgotten. 😭 He is far too self-centered.
The problem with someone like him is that being with them can eventually change you too. Constantly having to adapt to their behavior, suppress your concerns, and make compromises just to preserve the relationship can make you develop unhealthy patterns that aren’t really who you are. SZT has grown emotionally throughout their relationship, but I feel like that growth has sometimes taken her in the wrong direction, partly because of their dynamic.
And that’s exactly why I would rather be with a complete asshole whom you can immediately recognize as someone you want to run away from and dump from the start, rather than a guy like Luke: someone who may have certain good qualities and seem attractive at first, but whose behavior gradually ends up wasting your time, draining your energy, and changing you emotionally.
Here, although Luke is clearly more at fault, SZT also has her share of the blame. There’s obviously a communication problem between them. But I can’t really blame SZT for thinking and acting the way she does. Luke really isn’t helping her.
In the novel, Flora is genuinely heartbreaking to read about, and this is clearly the kind of relationship that, in real life, you wouldn’t give a second chance to, even if he eventually changed.
I think the drama did a good job of making him more of a red flag than a black flag, because idealizing or romanticizing a character like Luke in a romantic context would be really problematic, especially knowing that she ultimately stays with him. The drama made him more nuanced: he’s still a red flag, but it feels more realistic. He comes across as less contemptuous, and we understand his intentions better.
In the drama, it’s clear that he mainly wants something physical, even though it’s less explicit and presented in a softer way. He leans more into his caring side and is less harsh. In real life, people can sometimes use attention and affection to seduce someone and create an emotional attachment.
The Luke from the novel could probably only seduce a version of Shang Zhi Tao who was extremely innocent, and I don’t think he would have been able to seduce the version of her we see in the drama. That’s just my opinion, though. I’ll probably finish the novel after the drama ends, so maybe my opinion will change. The novel isn’t a waste of time, but I wouldn’t call it an amazing read either.
Luke is a massive black flag in the novel. Everything he says and thinks leaves me speechless like… what an asshole! Luan Nian in the drama is an angel compared to her novel counterpart. How could she possibly put up with staying with him? 💀
I always felt that she lacked education and intelligence, despite the fact that her father was a respectable and highly educated man. She seemed mostly interested in superficial things: jewelry, appearances, luxury, and she was also very envious of what others had. But episode 33 shows that she is far from being incapable or ignorant. She is educated, capable, and intelligent. She simply always wanted what she didn’t have. And once she finally obtained it, she suffered because of it and eventually realized, too late, that what she had wanted so badly was ultimately neither as important nor as useful as she had imagined.
The failure of her marriage and this painful period of her life ultimately changed her. She began using the abilities and knowledge she had always possessed to move forward on her own. She actually had everything it would have taken to keep YJX wrapped around her finger and shape him into the man she wanted, because she possessed everything he was looking for in a partner. In many ways, she was even far too good for an emotionally foolish man like him. 😂
But Yake is not like Ting Yun. Deep down, she never truly loved learning or anything related to scholarship. Life forced her to take that path. She eventually learned that she had to rely on herself and her own strengths instead of chasing things that didn’t truly belong to her.
She isn’t necessarily a good person, but she followed her own path and eventually learned from her mistakes, no matter how serious they were.
And I think Ting Yun would probably have followed a very different path if she hadn’t fallen so hard. She might have married YJX, or another man of similar status, and could very well have ended up like Mrs. Yu. But the path she was forced to take ultimately taught her lessons she probably would never have learned otherwise. The power and status she had wanted so badly eventually became overshadowed by her desire for a quiet and peaceful life with Zhao Ling. She even came to regret pushing him toward a life centered around power, realizing that what she truly wanted was for him to be able to live a simpler and more peaceful life with her.
She wanted to dissolve the marriage even though the grandmother probably would never have agreed but once again, she gave in when her brother was promised a promising future. Her brother ultimately failed because he was useless, and she came to regret it because she realized that he would never be able to become the support she was counting on.
She had tasted money and luxury, but she also discovered that behind those colorful walls, everything inside was much grayer. Without a husband or children to support her, she felt that she was worth nothing. She had always craved recognition and liked to show herself off, wear colorful clothes, and attract attention. But over time, she realized that the grandmother sometimes let her do as she pleased only to keep her under control more effectively.
She is someone who constantly plays the victim. She refuses to admit her ulterior motives, her desire for wealth and glory. At first, it was a win-win arrangement: she had something to gain from it, and she accepted it knowingly. But over time, she realized that this life was ultimately not as wonderful as she had imagined and began to regret it.
She also knew that, in this family, no one was truly indispensable in the old lady’s eyes. All the daughters-in-law lived with their own fears and apprehensions. Yet instead of learning from what she witnessed and becoming wiser, she chose the path of hatred and resentment. She closed her eyes to the suffering of others and focused only on her own, going so far as to target people who had done nothing to her and seek to ruin their lives.
She had always felt inferior and wanted to use Ting Yun to improve her own status, particularly by marrying him to her brother. Yes, she lived in loneliness, but loneliness is not an excuse. It allows us to understand some of her wounds and choices, but it does not justify her actions.
Ya Ke is sacrificing her youth for a choice motivated by status, but even her youth, her living conditions, and her feelings of inferiority are not enough for me to understand or accept her choices. The same goes for Zuo: their motivations and their stories allow us to understand why they acted this way, but they do not justify the decisions they made or the harm they caused to others.
Widow Zuo benefited from the Fu family’s wealth and used it for herself and her family. She spoiled her brother and even encouraged some of his bad habits. She probably had several lovers and took advantage of her privileged position, but her feelings of inferiority and her constant need for attention pushed her to commit several reprehensible acts, dragging other people into her own quagmire as well.
In my opinion, she had witnessed enough of the injustices suffered by the women of the Fu family and by other married women to understand that, despite being a widow, she was actually in a relatively privileged position. She allowed herself to be bought by her vanity and her desire for recognition, only to eventually regret it because, deep down, she wanted to experience the life of a married woman. But why, exactly? She was far from being the person who deserved the most pity in this story.
Above all, she had a deeply malicious side. Keeping these young women’s underwear so that she could later blackmail them… what cruelty, especially coming from a woman who knew the difficulties and injustices women faced at that time. It is difficult to find any excuse for something like that.