PeachBlossomGoddess

Yes if Ning were to end up with Ma Wei, I hope he cares for her genuinely. I don't mind that most of the characters are cunning - Zichuan seems such a chaotic and tough world you kind of need to be cunning to survive. That's why I worry about Si Yilin. Luckily he married a very savvy lady...

Heheh... I saw some Chinese fan speculation that Di Lin will marry Ning.😅😂😂

I understand. Don't worry, your ear drums are safe.

No, not at all. She became quite nice actually.

She doesn't like him. She told Li Qing that. She is only using him bc he can help her extract money from the merchants. Ning grew up and she got smart.

Li Qing, Canxing's adopted daughter.

Well if we want Xiu to move on, so should Ning. Its only fair. My only concern is Ma Wei is not that great a guy.

Least you can do is sleep in the study and leave the room for your wife!

Si Yilin you cad!

SYL’s depression isn't curable except by time. Xiu’s empathy may make him feel even worse.

ZX had no plan to reunite with either of them. But he needs DL to help him get his food across the border. SYL would struggle with bending the rules for him but DL will have no qualms about it. Moreover, SYL also does not have the authority to help him but DL does.

I think ZX made it clear to her at end S1 they are on different paths bc he has nothing to offer and he doesn't want her to just wait for him. That is what SYL also clarified. So you are probably right, he loves her more bc he can set her free. But now that Ma Wei is clearly courting her, let's see what ZX does. I think if ZX is committed to YZ, then he should be happy to see her grow up and move on. And I do hope she does - I don't really like stories where someone sits around carrying a torch for their lost first love forever. Both Ka Dan and SYL are ending up with a very decent person who loves them more without expecting anything in return. Its not a bad place to end up in a chaotic world like this. It would not be terrible for Ning and Xiu to end up in a similar situation although there is still hope they will both actually fall for someone else. I know Ma Wei is cunning but so far he hasn't been shown to be evil and he fell for her when they were still kids. I think Ning needs someone cunning to navigate Canxing and all the scheming that comes with being the Zichuan heir.

Weren't they planning to marry? SYL had asked Canxing for permission and he didn't exactly say yes or no.

Yups he wiped out Luo Minghai’s whole family, women children and all. It should be somewhere in the middle of S1

I am glad Si Yilin confirmed it for us but in hindsight it was actually quite obvious from the way Xiu kept sending her momentos from all the events that profoundly affected his life in Yanzhou. You only do that to someone you love. But he wrote about them so flippantly like it was just a joke because he couldn't/didn't feel worthy of expressing what he really felt. That is Zichuan Xiu, he hides behind his blatant lies and his jokes. But bc Ning seemed so dislikable in S1, it made it hard to think why he could love her. But Ning's actions spoke louder than words. She wasn't really that dumb, she was just pretending. And she won me over the way she used to help Ka Dan and Si Yilin while playing the ditz at the same time. That was when I realized she is actually just like Zichuan Xiu. They are both great pretenders who can read between each other's lines. Although I can tell they are not end game, I feel a bit sad for them too.

I dropped Zang Hai at ep 3 so I don't have much to say about it but I thought the kid killing there was gratuitous and didn't make sense. But it was done by an antagonist and that is my point wrt Di Lin. Good guys/grey/anti-hero characters don't kill kids. No matter what. That is strictly bad guy territory.

When he massacred Luo Minghai's kids in S1, he was already irredeemable for me. Killing kids is my red line in terms of whether someone is an antagonist or a protagonist. I also felt that when they wrote him that way, they intended to send him down the dark path. I didn't feel sorry for him at all for losing/not being able to have kids. People who kill kids don't deserve to have their own.

Yeah I don't think Ning is endgame for Xiu. But in tonight's episodes Si Yilin confirmed what I suspected since S1 - Xiu loves Ning.

Wow but that is pretty much what happened to the previous generation... Maybe this time they can "save" Di Lin from going to the dark side.

Yeah it’s written by a proper Tang dynasty historian turned novelist. Those are the best!!!