PeachBlossomGoddess

They went out of their way to build him into another tragic Mei Changsu and transmit NIF vibes but then were too chicken shit at the end to kill him off. It is bad happy ending. Personally I would rather have a good sad ending. Truth be told they never needed to make him that sick. The story wouldn't change.

Full of holes and maudlin... they don’t even bother to explain how Qingci survived.

Speechless and mixed feelings to be honest. Don’t want to make rushed judgements given the complexities. Gonna be thinking about this for awhile...

Weining Hou actor is the same as the baddie in Love a Lifetime. He is good villain.

Additional thought: If you recall in the first arc Qingci specifically asked Wen Siyuan to help recover the map with the help of the two Zhengyang disciples and Yunluo. Why would he involve them if he did not have Jinxu/Zhengyang in his sights?

It is a little bit like Minglan where it pretty much follows the life-story of a strong overseas Chinese woman. In the original, it is not a happy ending but I hear this one is.

I wouldn't say Jinxu is as directly in Qinci's crosshairs as Weining Hou is but I think Qingci's desire to de-fangJinxu is pretty well established. His father entrusted Ai di to Suxuan. Jinxu snatched Ai di from Suxuan and incapacitated him, thus burying the secret of Ai di's location. He is arguably the villain of the piece here who wants to use Ai di as a chesspiece. He would get in the way of whatever Qingci intends to do with Ai di. Not to mention Jinxu is out to kill his beloved Yunluo's precious shifu, which means he is could also be a threat to Yunluo. Thus Qingci has plenty of motive to get rid of him and destroy his alliance with the sects and his usefulness to Weining Hou. Weining Hou is a bit of a dumb ass - he under appreciated the persistence and resourcefulness of Chen and lost a scarily competent aid. He has indeed been manipulating the sects via Jinxu who as you point out, doesn't always do exactly as instructed but the alliance has worked for 10 years. The first thing Weining Hou asks Shen's helper is now that Jinxu is no longer usable, who else in Wulin could be of use to them and she introduces him to Zhuyan. His desire to make use of wulin is quite clear and this is a rather common trope in wuxia where high government officials try to control wulin or make use of them.

OMG the culling of the tree is so deliciously and diabolically wicked and pettily satisfying I am rolling in mirth and have to just love this Ronghua!

Couldn't agree more.

You mean the Chihua pearl? It is some kind of miraculous life extending implant that is also very poisonous and needs an antidote that only Dragon Roar city can produce. Rong Jingfeng uses it to control the sects by implanting it into the various sect leaders, making them dependant on him for the antidote.

Are you sure its real fur? My cousin is a Shanghai based freelance lens technician who is on the crew of many of these productions. He claims its mostly fake you really don't need to spend the money on real when faux costs so much less and the camera can't tell the difference.

Its a math myth not substantiated in fact at all. I was a math major I vaguely remember it coming up but is always dismissed as being a romantic myth.

Is this correct that it is airing? I can't find it on iqiyi.

I believe the birthmark is something everyone in the apothecary sect have. His mother was from her sect and eloped with his father. Their child would obviously have the same birthmark.

The characters in this drama are multi dimensional that is why no one is completely black or white. I prefer that much more to single dimensional characters that are either just good or evil. To me, what you are seeing is exactly what I would describe as a well written character.

Weining Hou would not know of Jinxu's duplicity without someone he trusts telling him what happened with Ai. It is a huge betrayal to Weining Hou so of course he had to not only spare her but let her flee. Of course Jinxu is a target of Qingci in the sense he is an ally of Weining Hou who before the take down could mobilize all 5 sects. Weining Hou is definitely a target of Qingci as revenge for his father's death. By killing Shen and turning the 5 sects against Jinxu, he has destroyed part of Weining Hou's power base. We don't know what Qingci's ultimate endgame is yet other than to broadly avoid a war with many casualties breaking out as a result of a power struggle for the throne. Is he out to restore Ai or is he only interested in freeing Emperor Xiaoming from Weining Hou control? Of course things can go very wrong, he is playing for high stakes. That is why he went to such extreme lengths to alienate and distance Yunluo. If anyone could have busted him to Jinxu it is an overly affectionate Yunluo.

I agree the part about magically finding Ai is a huge plothole. But also not everything went to his plan, he did not anticipate that Jinxu would send people back to inspect the bodies and discover that Shen's helper survived. So he may have expected Jinxu to be fooled and give him Ai anyway. But as a backup, he had deduced that Jinxu would keep Ai close by so he had to be at Zhengyang Place so the emperor's spies could have been searching for some time. Maybe that is also why he smuggled Suxuan there, hoping they would be able to find him eventually. I think we will see in the next episodes he didn't expect Suxuan to be so grievously injured that is why he reached out to Yunluo. Our boy is very smart but nothing ever goes completely to plan.

No problem, can ping me anytime you want something explained.

Indeed the salt and pepper hair is well done. In general the men get better dos in this show... And I always wonder why ancient men never seem to bald...

I will try to give my read on this and other questions below at one go here:

Qingci's whole strategy is divide and conquer and turn allies into adversaries:

Jinxu's position as the leader of wulin was due to the secret patronage of Weining Hou. In return, he had promised that he would locate Ai and he was best positioned to do so since Suxuan is his sect brother. Unknown to Weining, he had seized Ai long ago and caused Suxuan's madness. He risked being exposed the moment Suxuan became lucid again and reveals to everyone that he has had Ai for 10 years so he needs Suxuan dead. Qingci offered to help him silence Suxuan once and for all in exchange for Ai. This would preserve his position in wulin and relationship with Weining Hou. Chen was a mutual problem - he was too smart, vicious and ambitious, Qingci also wants him out of the way. So Qingci advised Jinxu to set them against each other, killing two birds with one stone. He thought Chen would bring in troops to help suppress Suxuan but unfortunately by then Chen was already demoted by Weining Hou. Not everything went according to Qingci's plan. He told Jinxu that any victor in a clash between them (likely Suxuan) would be substantially weakened and Jinxu would be able to easily defeat him. He asked Wen Siyan to let Shen's helper go because he still needed Weining to know about Jinxu's betrayal. That may have been a mistake because she may be even smarter than her master but we will see.

Qingci needed Yunluo out of the way - she would never allow her precious shifu to participate in such a dangerous scheme and Jinxu would never buy it that she would turn against her shifu for Qingci. So they needed to "break up" and he needed to make sure she is incapable of interfering although personally I think the poison was overkill. I don't think he Suxuan was ever poisoned so that may have been a lie to make Yunluo hate him. In fact, her obvious distress and actions that day further convinced Jinxu that Suxuan is dead and Qingci and Yunluo are not working together. With Yunluo out of the way and possibly Suxuan getting more hurt than Qingci expected (Shen is crafty bastard that made him destroy his own martial arts), Suxuan still managed to unmask Jinxu as a traitor to wulin and conspiring with the Langwei in the massacres years ago that killed Manqing's family.

Finally (and I think this is a bit of a plot hole or a bit too easy), the emperor's spy manages to discover Ai's is stashed at a hidden monastery in Zhengyang Place. Qingci asks Yunluo's help to retrieve Ai. He needs her or Suxuan because Ai was entrusted to Suxuan, Ai wouldn't randomly go with just anyone and in any case he has no martial arts, he can't do something so dangerous himself. That is my understanding of the story so far. Not sure what is going to happen to Ai because the poor guy ain't gonna survive if he falls into Emperor Xiaoming's hands. Can't have two emperors. So maybe our brave doctor with zero martial arts actually plots a rebellion to overthrow the emperor. It is what he told Jinxu to do telling him that he had no choice now that Weining Hou has turned against him ( the current emperor is pretty much Weining Hou's puppet). Poor Ai - I hope he doesn't end up poisoned - the current prognosis for his ultimate survival is not looking great...

Indeed but you gotta make it past the middle parts. Just FF - I have FOMO so I didn't and by the time I made it there I was so irritated I just rolled my eyes...