Orithian

I took it as suicide. Mostly by the wierd graphical glitching they used when Pengcheng entered the cottage. Thats usually used to convey a break with reality, so I interpretted that as he'd already taken poison, and was hallucinating as he was dying.
I was so grumpy when I finished it, but now I'm not sure which explanation I prefer more. :D

For Chinese Dramas there really aren't many. Guardian and the Silent Criminal are both the next closest, and they're much more quieter than even the Untamed are about the queer context. Other than that it's Thai, Taiwanese or the recent Korean shorts Viki is putting out.
For Bromance/Best friends ...Ancient Dectective, Chinese Palandin 5, L.O.R.D. Critical World, Medical Examiner Dr. Qin.
Oh, how could I forget movies...The Ying Yang Master: Dream of Eternity, and The Ying Yang Master. Dream of Eternity is the best one by far!

oh gods, Not Advance Bravely. That ended on such a WTF moment... I'm still scarred by that months later. The Untamed and Word of Honor, Guardian, & the Silent Criminal are much better BL series.

I didn't mind it as much as I suspect I might have.... They very lightly forecast it I think. Very much not obvious, but I think the clues were there if you paid attention. I think it was worth the watch, even tho I still want more.
It *is* a cliff hanger ending.

There is the odd secondary character who sounds a bit wierd, but the mains all seem fine.

I don't think it's that slow paced. It certainly kept my attention far more than a lot of other drama's. I think the writers might've had issues with keeping track of all the characters and storylines, as it felt like a few threads got dropped here and there.
There's plenty of chemistry between the leads, its just muted & not overly melodramatic since the romance isn't the main plot line.
Also this really felt like they were expecting a second season....

...I adore Liu Rui Lin's best friend character in this to a scary degree...He &Zhao Yi Huan are adorable in their friendly antagonistic love/hate sparring relationship...And the're both such good friends to the leads. I really wish we had more of the awesomely supportive besties in general.

Rough guestimate, ML's about 28-30ish ??

I keep getting tempted by more Palace dramas, but it's not the lead's usually, so much as the sheer amount of toxic manipulative behaviour that the palace dramas seem to have *so* much of.
Also they seem to be the longer dramas and Tragedies to boot!
I love NiNi, but I'm having so much trouble finishing Rise of Pheonixes.

Definitely not an easy job. I also realise that my reworking translations in my head is also working off the original translators hard work. I have the time and leisure to do so, which I know isn't something you have when its your job. :D

Wu Pei Rou & Chen Meng Qi certainly seem to be doing all the heavy lifting acting & emotionwise in these last 10 eps...While poor Peter Sheng's ML is staggering drunkenly around the landscape dragging that huge arse sword...

Oooh, I'm not the only one! I do this while I'm watching too. I rewrite subtitles in my head.
I can understand a little bit of Mandarin & Korean, just enough to read around and go that's ...not quite right. I can usually tell the literal translator's vs the "doesn't *quite* know english well enough" ones.

Bai Qiu Xue, thats the first decision you've made in 40+ eps I can actually agree with...Why do I suspect it will be the only one...
Also Elder's, can you stop letting your students run around when they all have prices on their heads???

I think the BL drama's are doing so well, because they completely skip the useless or utterly incompetent "strong" FL & acompanying toxic romance tropes, for usually two competent ML. Even so I've noticed that the rest of the women characters in BL series *still* seem to have better characterisation than 90% of other drama's...I suspect because most women are writing/adapting these BL series.

It's my go to comfort watch. I seem to find something new to appreciate in it each time I watch it... Also the fight scenes are a work of freaking *art*. This dude is definitely one of the best directors in terms of pacing, action, cinematography, and all around gorgeous environments. The way they incorporate so much of Boya's and QingMing's personalities in the way they fight, and especially how they use the first fight to further showcase their personalities. Qingming's little smirks each time he out manouvers Boya, and Boya getting more and more frustrated. Pure. Art!

To be fair, Lady Brat was blackmailing her with her brothers safety to get her to go the first time. Then the 2nd time ...It was basically the King and his Father laying on the super guilt trip, with a hint of blackmail as well...But he finally got that out of his system and let her go.

I found the ending much better than I was expecting at the halfway mark. I had real worries at one point, it definitely wrapped things up pretty well. Even if the King didn't get his own complete HE, he still seemed content enough...and definitely a HE for everyone else.

Yes, You probably wont enjoy WoH then, as they push the subtext into context much harder than the Untamed did.

I haven't watched this yet, but it's on my ...*very* long list, but looking at the tags, Word of Honor and The Untamed might also suit you. Both BL series, but Wuxia/Xianxia, Sect and *Heavy* interrogation of what it means to be 'Good' or 'Evil' ... Romance is fairly minimal and the most obvious romance is left for the side characters since their BL stories and China censorship.

The FL is actually a pretty decent female character, esp by CDrama standards. Also, remember that these characters esp the women are usually *girls*. They usually meant to be 16-17 yrs old. The men can be older, but the female characters in most of these, if they're acting naive, means their usually under 18. The 2nd FL is probably several years older, and had been wandering around Jianghu by herself. So she's *much* more worldly.
Also repeating things back as a question sounds like a fairly normal reaction from a neurodivergent person who always wants to make sure she's understood what she's been told, and also typical of someone with low self esteem issues.
My headcanon is she's either ADD or ASD with good masking skills. Fwiw I also think the 2nd FL is ND. Hence her "fuck the world, I'm going to go do my own thing", and ran off to play in the martial arts world.