MadelineMaureen

That hug in episode 8 😊😊 So sweet comforting and romantic. This director knows what their doing. All the hand stuff and going through different levels of affection and skinship. The playful dances between the two while also keeping their hearts open to one another. They show their vulnerability to one another. I love how much faith Chu Zhao has in A'Jiu(Xie Yan Lai), and how he believes her words...because he's always loved and followed her. My guess is that after his family half beat him to death he made his way through the desert looking for her and her father and his men found him instead. His loyalty seems to only be to her and her alone. He was even about to leave his own nephew behind to die. It's been a minute since ive watched a he fell first, she fell harder plot.
I'm going to have to look into the director more and put their dramas on my Plan to Watch list.

Wu Jia Jun(Yu, young emperor) collecting brothers and sisters left and right. I truly hope he continues to enjoy being an actor. His command of a scene is impressive for someone so young. I pray he can keep a balance of childhood and work and that fans remain respectful and out of his space. After Pursuit of Jade and now this production so close together...it wouldnt surprise me if he becomes a household name within the industry. He's still so sweet always clinging to people he likes.

So the butthurt female student is the younger sister of the guy who slashed up Xing Wu's back over a basketball game? Am I understanding that connection correctly? So this girl with a whole ass relative in prison for assault had the bright idea to try and publicly shame her brother's victim's beloved(she's aware that he is Qing Ye's older "cousin")...girl stop throwing stones in your glass house before it comes crashing down around you.

Didn't think they'd have a shower scene in this one. Li Yun Rui has definitely been working hard.
ep 16, you're welcome. 😉

ep 17 preview has him going back to school

ep 13 had me cackling 🤣 Jealousy Jealousy.

Princess Royal did it, but poorly(like if Chen Xuan Qing had more screen time than Chen Yan Yun overall with Jin Zhao) imo...but it's there. Still have yet to see that SML is something where his character doesn't piss me off...speaking of which...Fated Hearts also has love triangles with a true enemies to lovers trope.
Like mycloverformrdarcy said, Prisoner of Beauty has something similar(family member with an unrequited crush that goes too far) and did a good job.

Want to see the leads of A Splendid Match as FL and SML in a toxic love triangle? The Rise of Ning is for you! Also Ci Sha's real hair line in that one. Personally i think it suits his face shape 100x better than the wings he's sometimes forced to wear.

Want to see ML fall in love with his best friend's girl in his first ever drama(modern drama)...Forever and Ever is for you. If you want to watch the lead characters in Forever and Ever in their first life(period drama) in a love triangle with Wang Xing Yue...One and Only is for you...this is a very sad ending, you have been warned...

(you've seen this but...)Love Like the Galaxy has a love triangle in it....though not the same flavor as the ones above. FL has I think 3 men that like her, Leo Wu(ML), Yu Cheng Eun and Li Yun Rui's characters.

Story Of Kunning Palace...talk about jealous ML...


Kdrama but Lovely Runner has more of a comedic love triangle.

Ep 40 Jin Zhao's taken by Chen Yan Yun's mentor to lure CYY to the mansion. Mentor suspects Yan Yun is still alive. He plans to burn the whole estate down and sends his wife off with a servant after drugging her tea. She(the wife) comes back right when Yan Yun is confronting his mentor. Jin Zhao is released but caught by the wife who holds a sword or knife up to her neck as the courtyard has already started to burn. Yan Yun throws a sword through the wife's chest, jumps over fire and is reunited with Jin Zhao. The mentor holds his wife as she dies. Chen Yan Yun picks up his mentor's collected works, hands the books to Jin Zhao and carries her out of the burning mansion, leaving his mentor to burn to death with his now deceased wife. The mentor planned to die this way.
When they get to the gate he puts her down and hand in hand they walk away from the burning buildings as a voice over talks of a new age and getting ride of that religious cult the mentor's wife was apart of. I'm not even joking they walk toward the camera with the gate and the burning mansion behind them and then it just cuts to the credits.

Ep 41 has cut/extended scenes with voice over from Chen Yan Yun's POV. More about him falling in love with her. Cut scene of him going to her restaurant for the first time with an assassination attempt that he evades in the same manner he killed the prince's son.
They extend the New Years scene prior to her falling into the water, this one is cute. They also extend him rescuing her in the mountains post whistle....what i'm calling "scruffy make-out".
There is a voice over at the end that either sounds like the director talking directly to the audience that wasn't happy with the way the show ended or it was planned all along. I personally think the voice actor got notes hours after the release and they slapped it together. I didn't hate the ending personally. I've honestly seen worse. It would have been a 10 for me had the ending not been so abrupt.

is it 30 or 36 episodes for this one. im hearing 36 but 30 is still listed here. anyone have a sourced final episode count?

based on what im hearing there were a lot more scenes shot than what is needed for a 40 episode runtime. it's shows and casts like this that make me miss those 50 to 70 episode shows.

I'll try and remember to come back & let you know.

I just checked...im so mad at myself for not jist double checking daily.

The editing of the show had me checking for a damn temperature because I thought I was missing time and was actually sick. NOPE, just really really bad edited that got worse as the show went on.

there's a special episode?

All I can say is, thank goodness Li Yun Rui had this air so soon after his last one. Praying to the writing and editing gods they dont do us dirty. (looking at you Speed and Love, looking.at.you.)

We arent starting in their adulthood with flashback like Lighter & Princess. This is much more linear timeline wise. There are small flashbacks about ML's life prior to FL arriving on the island.
ML is 2 years older than FL but was pulled from his senior year of high school to support the family. Starts in summer time before FL's senior year starts. ML will go back to finish high school with FL so he can take the college entrance exams like he had previously planned to.
Based on trailer/opening credits looks like there will be a separation at some point post high school, but im not seeing anything that screams "college years" so it may skip over that time frame straight into the workplace/adult life.

episode 39 definitely got a lot of attention by production...very well done imo.

Very good last few episodes but with no epilogue it feels somewhat unfinished...as so much of the story was centered around their love and relationship it felt more like a footnote than the end game. The political side of things were handled well, but it definitely is in need of a 5 to 15 minute special episode to tie the love story up in a bow.
So happy ending, yet still open ended. like if this was a western show, amazing season finale...but as a full stop ending...I want to end a show like this smiling and kicking my feet not still wiping tears. ya know what i mean?

episode 39 is a masterpiece...bring a box of tissues.

youre an idiot 🙄