Longtobeclose

JXN is filled with a lot of guilt, and her focus is to undo the past, as such she does not notice the changes in XW behaviour. She probably think he is upset for YL's sake. The whole experience they shared while making their journey back to the capital left a deep imprint in both of them. I suppose in the first life she did not even consider or noticed XW as her sole focus was to become an empress but she did fall in love with ZZ because she literally gave her life in exchange for his safety. To me it seems XW also liked her in the first life but fell out due to all her scheming and betrayal of YL.

In this second take, he sees her as the same person who travelled with him to the capital, how she willing to help people instead of using them as a means to an end. This is why he is fixated on her apart from the fact she did save his life and she knows his is mental illness (which I think is PTSD as a result of the massacre) as well as his secrets. Initially he just wanted to keep an eye but I suppose there are changes in her behaviour especially as prior to her awakening, she was notorious and unruly , which did not appeal to XW. Although he is a bit of a gray character, he is not the type who will do injustice towards the weak.

So now XW is seeing a different side of her that appeals to him. Also the fact that she is always trying to argue with him and put him in a spot. I guess feelings grow but he is still hesitant coz of YL. Once he know YL has backed off, I think he will make the move, i mean his men can all see it but he is in denial. like the river in Egypt LOL!

If you want to survive in the world, one cannot be too upright like ZZ, and even more if you are a court officials. The palace is the place where all sorts of dirty politics takes place.
In order to survive in this games of chess, one needs to be calculative, cunning and conspire like XW.
This is why ZZ and JXN are not a good match but XW and JXN are a better match. She is also calculative with her actions.
It is obvious he is somewhat jealous of ZZ & JXN but I still think he wants her to be with YL and he wont make any move until YL back off officially so do speak.
Btw JXN is 18 years old ? How old XW supposed to be? If 20 years ago the massacre happened, he should be 28 or so? Coz he keeps talking to her like she is a young person.

She is mute due to a traumatic childhood experience but regains towards the end.

No he is not like that, his mother and his first wife entrap him into all these marriages. Even the FL was a marriage his wife forced him to do.
I wrote about this in a post on top, you can read if you want.

This drama is not that great but it is not that bad. Yes the ML was a jerk but he was not the bad guy in this series. I had more stuff to pick with FL

Firstly, she kind of stalked him for years.
She pulled a Twelfth Night on him
She never told him she liked him for years and that she was working there because she wanted to be a great programmer like him
She did not disclose they slept together even when he probed. This is not cool!
She dd not tell him she was pregnant and went on to deceive him until he was willing to raise another man's child. Like this was the WTF! moment for me. How can you do this to your husband, making him think that you are carrying another man's child just to test him? !!
She never communicates with hm.

How is it that ML is the bad guy here? If someone deceives me about their gender just to get a job then somehow got entangled herself into marriage just so she can continue to be with him and keep her job, I would be a jerk too. When she was crushing on him in Uni, he literally fend her off coz he is not a player. He only had one GF, who deceived him. That is all.

Their issue was communication, both did not really say what was on their minds and hearts. It is silly actually.

ML was acting like how most spoiled brats do, trust me I have nephews in college, who are constantly sulking and pouting and just annoying. These boys are also emo.

To me it seemed like he did not really know how react to her or behave because he already liked her and initially was confused if he was having feelings for a guy. Had she been honest about their past, I don't think he would have been abrasive.

The other Red Red Flag was the EX, oh mmm geee that woman was psycho , cunning and conniving.

SML was awesome and so was SFL, whom I thought was funny, Their romance was much better and cute.

Lu Jing Wen, her second boss was the best wingman, he was a fun character, really liked his part.

ML dad was also super cool and so was FL's dad. Their moms little high school rivalry relationship was believable LOL! One became a Tai Tai and the other a middle-class homemaker.

On a side note: Xing Zhao Lin is defiantly a great kisser ;)

ML lead is in a polygamous marriage, There is another SML who likes FL plus ML's brother and his wife.
There is also FL's sisters' stories with their husbands as well as side romance between the general and FL's maid.

Technically 6 including FL
1. Official wife (FL sister) dies early in the show, Has a son with her but replaced by FL as official wife after death.
2. One nameless concubine killed herself (ML never had any relation with her, married in name)
3. First concubine dies later in the show (ML stops having relations with her after their kid dies due to a miscarriage) .
4. Evil Concubine will be sent away to become a nun for all her nasty schemes (ML never had any relation with her too, married in name)
5.Second concubine goes to stay with their son, who is the ML's eldest child. ( disowned but remains as the wife in name coz of the son )
So in the end only has FL his official wife .
But ML has not had any relations with any of his wives as he's been away for many years.

I watched this show some time ago but never wrote anything about it but I recently saw clips of it again, so I thought I would write something.

Firstly the show should ideally be called Scheming women in the Marquis' Mansion. The amount of scheming carried out by these women left me speechless at times. The show isn't really about the Marquis, to be honest I felt that he was just as much as a victim of all the scheming but the patience he had in dealing with all these scheming and the nasty women should be noted.

They say women are their own worst enemies, and this show really shows you that. There is a lot of layers and grey areas in this drama, which may not be appealing to a lot of people but it has a lot of moments which are good as well. As a woman I was appalled by what was shown in the name of survival, tradition and love.

Spoilers ahead

In terms of romance, it is slow burn but I enjoyed it a lot because it was somewhat mature. Wallace Chung really is a fine actor in a very gentle and charismatic way. Seven also does justice to her character, she can really convey with her eyes and smile.

Why did all his wives turn on the Marquis?
All blamed him for turning cold and distant but in actual fact they were equally responsible for their own misery. He did not want to be married to all of them but forced by his mother through entrapment, which actually if you think about it ---is sexual assault.

Concubine Qin
Correct me if I am wrong but I think she was the first wife whom the mother forced Ling Yi to take because it would help with his manhood. She suffered the loss of her child and fed contraceptive which lead to her becoming barren. The loss of the child took a toll on her and the Ling Yi , causing him to become distant. I think because she could not get pregnant again , he felt guilty and he too did not know how to deal with the loss of their child, which consumed her. To be honest there was nothing that connected them nor things they could talk about.

Concubine Wen
Is the typical spoilt rich princess, who had to have everything. She got lucky because she had a son and her family fortune was abundance. Her position in the household was secure. I believe she was the only concubine that remained as his wife. But she left to be with her son, who was sent to a prestigious academy. She married the marquis and had somewhat good or cordial relationship but he only married her again forced due to her family's money. It was later revealed that it was the Wen family who schemed the marriage due to the Marquis' position as well as providing military equipment. This relationship became distant by default as Ling Yi already spent a long time away from manor. They only continued on because of the son, but she wanted more to which he could not respond as he found her to be spoilt rich brat, who has no sense of what reality is for the common people.

Concubine Qiao
Now this one suffered from erotomania and clearly immersed herself in delusion of grandeur. At no point had Ling Yi ever remotely showed any interest, Dude did not even want to touch her but she kept scheming and scheming with her mom until truth unfolded. Still Ling Yi gave her a slap of the wrist for killing his wife and unborn child as well as attempted killing, kidnapping and so many awful things on Shi Yi and was the one making his son sick too. The only reason he married her was again entrapment, and this time by his own wife!!! which enraged him but because she was dying he could not even reprimand her.

Amber's sister (another concubine)
This was another entrapment by the wife! by getting him drunk and forcing the maid, whom eventually killed herself because she was literally shamed for what happened. Shi Yi did not even touch her but succumbed to pressure by the wife and wanting to restore the maid's honour.

The real villains
Madame Xu
This woman is the epitome of matriarchy, supporter of patriarchy and enforcer of ridiculous family rules. She is the centre stage of the several entrapments of Ling Yi and the real puppet master. It is because of her all these women became spiteful, resentful and schemers.

Yuan Niang
She is the official wife of Shi Yi, whom initially he had a great relationship with. But living in the mansion with her husband's concubines and over the top mother in law, she too became one of them. It is basically survival of the best schemer. The reason I cast her as a villain because it was unnecessary to entrap a maid to be your husband's concubine which indirectly lead to her suicide. It was unnecessary to entrap your husband to take Lian Fang as a concubine just so that you can remove her chance of becoming an official wife. To me it was a low blow. Finally forcing and guilt tripping your husband into marrying your sister so that your child is taken care for and becomes the next heir to the household. I think Ling Yi did love her but became disillusioned and felt betrayed by the one person whom he trusted . He even expected Shi Yi to be just like Ling Yi but obviously she wasn't. This was the reason why he became distant from her too.


So why did he fall in love with Shi Yi?
Although it was an unwanted marriage for both, their attraction towards each other was undeniable. Ling Yi finally had a wife that he could connect with on an intellectual level, someone whom he could talk to and discuss matter and admire. He actually told her that if she uses her sharp tongue like how she does with him, she would not be bullied in the manor. This was actually a compliment because he knew she was smart and not a pushover. For the first time, he really had a partner whom he can communicate on the same level. Communication is the key to any relationship.

For Shi Yi, the Marquis although initially a means to an end but she understood his burden, his dilemma, his inner conflict and how he too was just as much as a victim of society and filial piety. The fact she could connect with him on another level and how she took on his challenges made her love him because he liked her feistiness and honesty. She also made him a custom made shoe, which he cherished because all of his other wives wanted something from him but Shi Yi never asked anything from him nor did she care about his status or wealth. She actually learnt that he was a decent man, who respected, trusted and believed in her.

Both of them went into the relationship almost backwards in the sense, they were like an old married couple who later became passionate. Even though he fell in love with her first after finding out that she did not trust him and was investigating her mom's murder, it hurt him. He began to distant himself from her because he believed she was only being nice to him for a reason. She really did have charm her way back into his heart. Their coming together scene is now one of my most favourite romantic moments ever, it was layered with so many emotions. I found it to be a profound moment and culmination of their feelings for each other.

So for these reasons despite Ling Yi was a man in a polygamous marriage, he was defiantly not scheming womaniser as compared to how other men are usually portrayed. Dude was actually burdened by it all. Nobody really asked him what he wanted or how he felt instead everyone just expected him to do it. His own mother basically pimped him out if you ask me. When he finally found real love and loved by someone who did not have any grand expectations from him, Ling Yi also finally was brave enough not to succumb to his mother's wishes and stand by the person he truly loves. When you have good people around you, it will bring out the best in you, and this is what happens to both Shi yi and Ling Yi

So those wanting to see this show, I would recommend it highly. There are many other aspects to this show like sisterhood, rivalry and embroidery etc hidden in the background.

One final note: There is a special place in hell for women who do not help other women---Madeline Albright.

Ok Why is it that Kdramas always make the villains so desirable.
Dude's core is like steel. Damn it! I watched it so many times.
But the storyline is a bit on the nose and over the top I feel especially the mom and grandmother. I find myself skipping most and focusing on certain parts.

Going to say it again. please don't remake this. It is a cult classic for a reason, and I still listen to the song 'Perhaps Love' because it is timeless.

A modern take, one of my favourite drama but could not stand the misunderstandings . But I learnt a lot of korean words from this drama especially how to say mind your own business.

Although I watched this when it came out, it will always have a special place in my heart. It's always 'Raining" and I love Song Hye Kyo <3

Ahhh I know now. I guess did not recognize due to the make up and costume. They did put on a lot of make up on the actors in TTEOTM though.

ML was in TTEOTM? which character? I can't place him and I have watched TTEOTM like so many times LOL ...well I was focused on Leo and Bai Lu so...

I actually like the FL, her acting was good, not easy to play a mute person. She is pretty too. As for the others not too bad, ML was okay, can improve. Production wise I think pretty decent. These days the short dramas are getting more famous, as such, there is more budget to them, which is good.
Edit: I just wanted to say this, the amount of horrendous misdeeds done by FL stepmom and sis are disgusting. I despise women like these. Like Madeline Albright said "There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women."
Overall quite a nice drama.

Surprisingly good, FL is so pretty and she can act.
ML gives Lee Young Joon vibes , the vanity, the narcissism and the mannerism.
Overall quite nice for a short drama.

I always like your insights, it is very intriguing.

The show should have ended already. I can't bear to watch. That evil bro his is annoying AF.
What's with Ep23 it was like flat ...
And why would you want to marry your sister in law... yucks!

The ending was done nicely, they maintained the essence with Dr Bong and Detective Moon dynamic crime fighting duo. That glow in the dark lipstick LOL.
I will miss this series, I hope there is a season 2 with another murder mystery with Dr Bong and Detective Moon together.
Great work by the makers, writers, actors and all those involved in making this series.
Above all it was so much fun discussing with everyone here.

It is a murder mystery with some supernatural elements. Has loads of comedic parts and yes serious parts as well.