Michelle Topham

An easy 10/10 for me. And one of the best C-dramas I've watched in years.

Yes, Episode 38 went a bit haywire at the beginning (silly scenarios at the start the episode), but the screenwriter did a superb job bringing everything together satisfactorily by the end of Episode 40.

The cast is superb, every single one of them. The design, the costumes, the Ming Dynasty clothing accessories, the props, the sets, the cinematography, all outstanding.

The script is fast-paced throughout, and never gave me one tiny second of boredom, as it was all so tightly written. The characters are wonderful. Even the scheming grandmother and aunties, GJZ's awful father, CYY's vile mentor Fu Hai Lian, his wife, Gong Jue Rui as the tiny Emperor (that child is going to be huge in the C-drama industry when he's older), GJZ's lovely grandmother, CYY's mother (her scenes in Episode 39 are wonderful), all the aides to various characters, Qingpu, Chen Yi and on and on.

And, of course, Zuo Ye as Chen Xuan Qing stole his scenes, Winwin could not have been better all the way through, but specifically in the latter episodes, and Ren Min and Ci Sha are my favorite C-drama couple of all time.

Ren Min's scene -- that one -- in Episode 39 is heartbreakingly spectacular, and Ci Sha's scenes during the battles and beyond - you can tell that man is a trained martial artist, but he also knows how to show emotional devastation beyond anything many people have ever known.

Could not love this more, could not love each character more, and cannot wait until I watch this through again, as I'm dying to see all the little details I missed the first time through :)

Spoiler please for those who haven't watched the ending.

Cast has been one of the best ensemble casts in a long time. Not a single actor who let the side down. Almost every C-drama has a couple of lesser supporting actors who are amateurish, but this hasn't had one.

Spectacular performances from all the leads down to the villains and all the little folks, Have loved this immensely, but especially because of the cast.

Give him time :)

Me too! Without the high MDL rating, I would have dropped it at the end of Episode 2, but kept watching to see where the improvement arrived. It didn't :) Ah well, you can't win every time :)

No, THE Glory -- https://kisskh.at/760993-gui-nv :)

Absolutely true.

I've just removed 2 really-wanted-to-watch upcoming dramas from my watch list because, yet again, the same woman who has no acting skills but sure is pretty, is the lead in both of them and I simply cannot stomach another 40 episodes of that.

In the reverse, however, I'll be making sure I watch everything Ci Sha has appeared in/will appear in as the man can definitely act. As can Ren Min.

Don't forget, he has also been told his whole life that his father died protecting Chen Yan Yun from river pirates. And then he finds out his father COLLUDED with the pirates resulting in the deaths of over 100 people (Episode 9), and that CYY adopted him because he felt sorry for him after his mother hung herself.

And btw, I just rewatched that scene, and Yan Yun does not promise to support him if he makes a different choice. He just told him he would have to "face what comes".

Anyway, we need to agree to disagree on this. I think he's beautifully written. You don't see it. So... :)

Never mind. I'm moving on. You're obviously not watching the same drama the rest of us are. Or you're not really watching it.

But, you missed the point of his entire character, and he's beautifully written.

Chen Xuan Qing was adopted by the Chen family, and doesn't know much about his past. (He was lied to about his real family, we learned that early on in the drama). And, even though he now has a place in the Chen family, he will still always be second-best because he's adopted. That's why the real sons, even the sons from concubines, have more claim on everything within that family than he does. He's second best. He's always second-best. And that's made him bitter.

And even though he has worked hard, studying for his exams, and trying to be a decent human being, he is always controlled by either Chen Yan Yun, the Chen mother, or one of the brothers. He can't really make his own decisions, and every time he says he wants to do something, one of them tells him he should be doing something else.

He also knows, even though he came out top in the exams, the real Chen brother will get far more opportunities than he will. Simply because he's a Chen by blood, and not adopted.

Then along comes the FL and, for the first time in his life, somebody admires him for something he's done (saving a girl from drowning). But, remember, she doesn't like him for something HE'S done, because HE didn't save her from drowning, Chen Yan Yun did, so she likes him for something Chen Yan Yun did.

And that makes him even more bitter as, yet again, he's second-best.

But that's okay, he'll make the situation work because she likes him and he likes her BECAUSE she likes him.

And then Chen Yan Yun tells him he can't marry anyone else but the Yu girl because his real father was a traitor and, if anyone finds out, his future will be ruined.

So he's forced to give up the one thing that hadn't been given to him by the Chen family (even though she had been really), while at the same time learning his father was a traitor and his whole life has been a lie.

Now, three or more years later, and he sees Chen Yan Yun marry the girl he loved (well he really didn't love her but he thinks he did) and he thinks Yan Yun steered him away from her deliberately, because he wanted her for himself.

So... all of that leads up to where he is now. With a completely twisted mind poisoned against Chen Yan Yun, and desperate to have the one thing Chen Yan Yun values more than anything because of it. His wife.

The character is completely understandable if you follow the clues that have been laid out from the beginning.

That's actually not true and here's why... :)

You're 1,000% correct. It's all about his insecurities as, like you said, he's completely sure of himself in every situation. Except when it comes to her. She knows his motivations, often before he does, she bests him more times than not, and she's a challenging woman, the likes of which he's never seen before. She also could have relied on him 100 times, but most of the time she insists on doing things for herself, and that pushes him off kilter as well.

His aide too also told her he closes himself off and hides his feelings, and those types of men are the absolute worst to deal with as, when something does go wrong, they tend to run. Just like he did.

Even though he was married before too, it seems obvious that was an arranged marriage, and so GZJ is actually his first love. And then he was furious when he found out she wasn't his.

Even though he actually is, as the thing with the nephew wasn't love on either of their parts -- the nephew just wanted something that was his, rather than given to him by CYY's family, and GZJ mistook a crush and gratitude for being saved from drowning for love. (remember, she was told the nephew saved her, when it was actually CYY). But it was never love.

And btw, my fiance died the day before our wedding, or I probably would still be married to him as we were soul mates. Even so, if I had known he would die three weeks later, I would still threaten to cancel the wedding, as a relationship in which a spoiled brat is allowed to have his way is no relationship at all, IMO. :)

And yes, a personality difference is never a basis for a good relationship either. I don't blame you for leaving.

Boy did you miss half the plot :)

So great!!! :)

Yep. Ren Min is superb, and is one of the very few actresses in their late 20s/early 30s who can still play a teenager. Most of the rest can't and, like you alluded to, shouldn't.

One that really stuck out for me was Zeng Li in When Destiny Brings the Demon. She played Sima E, the ML's mother and, in a couple of scenes, she was supposed to be in her late teens when, in reality, she's in her late 40s. It looked ridiculous because of it.

Zeng Li is a superb actress and always stands out in all her roles but, in that one, she stood out in the wrong way as a younger actress should have been cast for Sima E's teenage self, and then Zeng Li for the older woman. Maybe the production company was saving money :) but, yep, please, don't. Cast a younger actress for the few scenes that need one.

Can I just point out, if you "watch" a drama like this while scrolling on your phone, playing with your cat, talking to your friends on What's App or WeChat, not only are you not really watching the drama, but you will miss most of what's happening. And then you'll be on here saying you're "confused", or the leads "aren't in love" or "there's no chemistry between them" because you were distracted elsewhere and missed what happened.

I see this all the time, especially with younger viewers, many of whom (not all) seem to have the attention span of a flea. (I read recently with Chinese viewers nowadays, their attention span has been so broken by social media it's only 47 seconds, and that the average Chinese viewer plays every episode on 1.5 to 2 x speed, and stops an episode of a drama TWELVE times to do something else).

And honestly, I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad, but if you go through life like this, you'll end up uninformed and not too bright, as you miss all the subtleties of the world.

Especially as reality is never in what's fully on show. It's in the gaps.

You can tell right from the first second he sees her when she's staring at him in the hallway with her brother, that he's intrigued by her (remember, she also grabbed the lantern out of his hand the night before when she set the fire). She looks back at him as she walks away, and she's intrigued by him as well. First eight minutes of the drama sets up the romance perfectly.

Then every time they meet, he's more and more attracted to her, and you can tell as he keeps talking about her while his aide keeps smirking to himself, and so is she as she goes running every time he tells her to come and talk to him.

But then she gets waylaid with her "feelings" for Chen Xuan Qing, which makes her realization that it's the ML she loves come a bit later.

And don't forget, the only reason she thought she had any feelings for CXQ was because she thought HE had saved her from drowning when, in reality, it was the ML. That, and she's 15 years old, and mistakes a crush and gratitude as "love", when it was never love.

As soon as she realizes the ML was the one who saved her from drowning, she takes even more notice of the ML, who then saves her about 57 more times :) She's already in love with him when he asks her to marry him, but frightened because of her parents' disastrous marriage, which is why she says she's never getting married.

But, as soon as it looks like he might be interested in Xue Qing Lan at the Spring Tournament, she's PISSED. And it's then that she starts to realize she's already fallen for him.

Their entire relationship is about subtlety and not obviousness as that would spoil the romance. It's the slight glances, the furtive looks when one thinks the other isn't looking, the way they both keep talking about each other to those closest to them, the way he offers his cottage to her so her mother can relax, the way he comes running every time she needs any help, the way she does everything she can, even really dangerous things, to help him in his career.

I would rewatch some scenes if I was you, as their attraction and quickly love is all there right from the start. It's just not hitting you over the head with it.

Is it just me who replayed that scene in Ep 34 several times? You know, the one where Chen Yi drags Chen Xuan Qing out of the hallway on his face, as if he was just another trash bag for the trash pile.

Soooooo satisfying. :)

Episode 34...

Hahaha, never thought about bruises on the hands :) And yep, so perfect. Takes him a split second and the man hits the floor as hard as if a horse kicked him. Love it every time :)