MsDarkqueen

Yes, unfortunately all her family died... Her father, two brothers and two sister in laws were beheaded... Her twin brother died at the hands of soldiers when he was fighting them to give Rong Yu and Jiuling time to get married, he was pierced with three swords and died outside Rong Yu's residence.

These two Episodes were quite painful to watch... Loved the 'He' family... All of them protected jiuling with their last breath... It feels particularly bad when good people die unreasonable undeserved death, the general who dedicated his life for the country died a traitor.. This does not sit well with He jiuling(even though by marriage she is a Rong now but in her heart she is still He jiuling till she sets things right) ... She will surely try to get at the bottom of this and punish the culprit also that minister of justice, Lord Song... Where is the crown prince? He would be the emperor now.. Maybe all this is so that the young crown prince doesn't have any loyal support and corrupt officials can rule by proxy.. oh and He Shan, Rong Yu's guard also got dismissed because he helped jiuling's brother fight the soldiers.

'He' family's bond was one of the best one... R.I.P... He jiuling is not the person to sit quietly for long.. She will try to rally support and fight back... Hopefully Rong Yu will recover soon so that they can be a team facing all difficulties head on... Rong yu's uncle will make things difficult for jiuling...I don't completely blame him, he atleast did not allow Lord Song to take her away...when all friends of He family turned their backs on them, Rong family supported them by acknowledging her as a member of their family.

Difficult road ahead for jiuling and the viewers.

Episodes 11 and 12
Few thoughts in spoiler tag below.

* Dr. Cheng and Mr. Wang were blackmailed into helping these people take over Lu yuanbao's property...

* Lu yuanbao had acquired his wealth by murdering and looting so ill gotten wealth would also go that way.

* unexpectedly the conspirators who were already counting their wealth did not know of his younger brother and family.

* now if all of them Li zhi, Mr. Zhang, chen wang, chef you'er,Lu Zhong want Lu yuanbao'a wealth they will have to kill the whole Lu Jinxin's family.. Hence the fire.

* killing Lu yuanbao was acceptable as he was a despicable human being.. But how can these people justify killing an innocent family.. Is this what makes them guilty.

* it is easy to guess what happened, they poisoned Lu yuanbao but because he has legal blood relatives, after his death all wealth would go to Lu Jinxin..

* these plotter have tasted sucess so they will try to
finish this job... They will kill the whole Lu Jinxin's family to fulfill their paln.

* I wonder if some one from their group will have an attack of conscience, most probably Lu zhi? And they will let one family member, the son or daughter live and that will come to bite them....

* so the present murderer is killing all people responsible for his/her family's death... And I presume the killer is working in the yamen office now... Fortune teller yue did recognize someone in the yamen office, it seemed like he was startled to see county magistrate but it could be also other people standing along with him.. Captain xia and his associate also may be potential suspects.

Episode 10

Things are becoming more clear now... Only two episodes left to go

More in spoiler tag below

Your will speculation was correct. ... Mr.Wang did forge the will of Lu yuanbao and it was good old blackmail...

Destiny versus Decisions

This series deals with a very interesting topic of destiny.. The ML, Rong Yu is an astrologer able to predict peoples' future and hence valued by even The Emperor... Most of his predictions come true. Can divination be always accurate?

I personally believe that a person's 'future' is not set in stone. There are multiple probabilities, possibilities and paths available, change in a person's decision at any moment changes the future outcome... So decisions are very important in peoples' lives...... Sometimes being aware of the future is advantageous because it gives a person an opportunity to change their decision to change their destiny.... On the other hand some destinies cannot be changed, all paths lead to the same destination.... It reminds me of the story, "Appointment in Samarra/ Appointment with Death"

This subject of destiny versus decision is quite fascinating, numerous books fiction and non-fiction have been penned on it. Also it has been the subject of many famous motion pictures.

One of the core themes of this series deals with the same dilemma. Do humans have the power to change their destiny? Making it an intriguing watch for me.

I thought scholar Wang was totally unrelated to the fire but in episode 9, Ms.Lin alludes to him being a frequent visitor at the brothel.. So there may be a connection to all of them somehow... Could be related to will or something else.

What I find very strange is that in present timeline the only time Lu Yuanbao's name comes up is on Dr. Cheng's prescription, when Dr. Cheng is asked by Sangeng about Lu Yuanbao, he simply states that Lu Yuanbao was a wealthy officer......Other eye witnesses to the fire who probably were neighbors never mention him, they always talk about Lu Jinxin, his family and his servants. Why does none of the neighbors even mention Lu Yuanbao as the previous owner of Lu residence?...... Even the official report in the archives of Yamen alludes to Lu Jinxin and his family along with his servants.(probably because the report is of the fire incident and only the people involved would be mentioned). The only reference of Lu Yuanbao in present time is due to the prescription hidden by Captain Leng and left in his basement as security/blackmail.... If not for that prescription, in present timeline nobody investigating the fire event would even know the existence of Lu Yuanbao.


Whereas in all the past timeline episodes till episode 9, we see Lu Yuanbao and his cruel methods to control people around him. A very narcissistic and a sadistic personality. However the person recounting the past story never references Lu Jinxin or any of his family members at all.

In both timelines past and present other people related to the fire incident remain same and also are mentioned somewhere or make an appearance on screen...... Lui zhi, Chen wang, chef you'er, Mr. zhang, old Zhong(mentioned in archive), even Ms.Lin, Sangeng's father, Captain Leng.

I was just thinking of
adding spoiler tag... On one hand the details are very general, nothing specific but little may also be 'too much' for anyone who wants to remain total spoiler free.

Lu Yuanbao's presence in the past time line and Lu Jinxin's absence in the same till episode 9, referenced below in the spoiler tag.

Could be... Pretending to be a mute has its own advantage.. Lu Zhong must have done it for a reason... Obvious reason would be to lower Lu Yuanbao's guard because a person reveals more in front of the other person if he thinks the other will not be able to betray his trust.

Thank you.... But I read your summaries for these episodes, they covered everything so I did not feel the need to write the same things again... Your love for the drama is reflected in your comments and summaries, I am quite delighted to read them. 🙂

I guess there is more to that story than meets the eye... Hopefully more will be revealed in later episodes.

I guess the house arrest of princes is because when there is news of current emperor's unstable health, ambitious princes will try to kill their brothers to limit the contenders for the throne... So they may cause accidental death or commit deliberate murder... In order to safeguard princes they are put under house arrest by the emperor... Also when all princes are under house arrest the ambitious prince can be assured they will not challenge his authority or arrange a coup.

Episode 9 and 10

He family is really patriotic, every member
wouldn't hesitate to give up their life for their country. .. Jiuling progressed in her martial arts training... She is really persistent.... Their family bond is admirable...

How dreamily, Rong Yu tucked Jiuling under the blanket on the floor... He always feeds her most of the food in his bowl.. Even in his state, he tries to look after her..

Great work... You are extending the post and adding details.... The fact you added more details to each character is making them more relatable as a viewer..... I feel having english translation for each character's name is nice... General He's name means virtuous, anderstanding names gives more insight to their characters..

I also could not understand much but I inferred that Their country's emperor, jiuling's senior brother's father was ill hence the crown prince/ powerful son? had put other princes under house arrest so that nobody could usurp his position when emperor died.


As for the grudge, I feel it has to do with the story Rong yu told Jiuling about how the emperor had to give up the woman he loved because of what the astrology department instructed him... Maybe jiuling's master is that same lady who lost her love due to astrology department's predictions.

Oh... him still wanting to marry Jiuling... I hope he keeps his promise to marry the future daughter of Jiuling and Rong Yu so will try to reunite them.

In all of this series the only person worthy to die is Lu yuanbao, he humiliates people, controls them, he even hurts the prostitutes, he is a great manipulative thug who deserves to die... No wonder someone poisoned him or is already poisoning him.

I feel Lu zhi had been taken in by Lu yuanbao as a pet but he saved Mr. Zhang's master, he was kind to chen wang, he also taught Lu Zhong how to write characters.... He sees the goodness in people.... He seemed to almost vomit in previous? episode when he caught a fish for the first time... Lu Zhong seems to have taken him under his wing, I feel all of these people really care for him... Lu Zhong also killed the other two guards in one of the previous episode because they were threatening to implicate Li zhi for harbouring a criminal(Mr.Zhang's master), Lu Zhong clearly told the dying guards whom he had killed/ facilitated to be killed that they shouldn't have involved Lu Zhi.

I think Lu Zhong behaves like a benevolent substitute father towards Lu zhi.