QueenSpringDay

Yup, he really needs to grovel when she finds out cause here, he's actively lying to her instead of just letting her imagination runs wild. For once, I don't want them to just gloss over this groveling part. It's no wonder they made her stab him.

Commenting again after my migraine subsided. Few things i want to add about the different directions they took in drama compared to the novel

While I like (the character development of) novel-version CXZ, I think, drama-version CXZ is made for, you know, the drama. Novel version is pretty slow, like 179 chapters slow, and we have to deal with CXZ's narrow-view about what constitutes being a husband and a wife (not his fault, i know, it's a period thing) for about 150 chapters. And this made the final arc feels more satisfying. But, visually, it's very hard to avoid making him look like regular cold-overbearing-CEO type of guy. It also make sense that this goofy version of CXZ is more proactive in his lies, otherwise he would literally just be a dandy fool (it's how he describe himself lol). So, while I don't know yet whether I'd like this drama version of CXZ more or less than the novel version, I can understand why they're taking this approach.
It's pretty early, and they have a lot of things to cover if they're going to follow as close to the original source material as possible. It's inevitable they're going to change things. I just wish they're going to keep the essence and progression of the characters' relationship. I also hope they don't water down miantang's character too much. Novel version Liu Miantang is too awesome to be missed on.

Not quite. FL fled from her wedding 3 years ago and joined the bandit group in the mountain. So she's not currently married to anyone. ML also not fully knows who she is, he just assumed she's the bandit leader's concubine so he took her and paraded her like a bait to make the bandit leader show up.

If my wetv subscription did not come in a bundle with my prepaid phone data plan then I wouldn't be subscribing at all lol. I'm all for louis rosmann 'piracy is not theft if you don't own things that you paid for' 😁😁😁

I'm watching the first 4 eps while having a migraine so a few things came across a bit confusing to me. Such as, what was that go club lol, so random. They're also trying to introduce as much character in these first 4 episodes as they can. Fangxie and bicao, and cui xingdi was supposed to show up much later. And the beggar too, i suppose he's LMT's uncle who was also showing up early.
I also have anticipated this watered down version of CXZ from the teaser, but I didn't expect him to be so proactive. In the novel, he was more like passively letting things happen and his lies were more like omission of truths instead of deliberate act to make things happen.
That being said, so far the actors performance are decently watchable. I haven't watch Zhang Wan Yi in anything else so i have no expectation but he seems to have pretty good comedic timing. And Wang Chu Ran is sooo pretty and I think she fits the role quite well so far.

Not from the main couple dw

I think it has something to do with the streaming sites that used to drag episode numbers (adding more episodes by shortening the duration) so viewers have to pay more to watch. As to why certain topics got banned, cmiiw, but Chinese censorship usually tries to make sure that dramas/any type of publicly available media are inline with CCP ideology.

The ML was engaged with other person during the period of him faking his marriage with the FL. I'd say instead of the fiancee herself, her mother was one of the most annoying character tbh.

Why is the actress playing tang yu hui billed so high, even higher than the FL's best friend? Does that mean she's going to be around for a while then?

that weird cut during the hiding in the wardrobe scene on ep 10 makes me think that there was a censored kiss somewhere 👀

Yup

obligatory comment about ep 9: miles is hot, the kiss (especially the imaginary one) was hot. i can't believe it's not even ep 10 and we already got 2.5 kisses. hope they continue with this pacing going forward XD

People (and that includes me) might complain how typecasted miles wei is into this type of drama character, but honestly, somehow, no matter how cliched or fan-servic-ey his dramas are, I'm always showing up on the dot. He's just like that one people we could always depend on, no matter what type of character he plays, we would love him nonetheless. He might not ever going to be the high billing a-lister in this industry, but he's found his niche and it seems to work well for him so, good for him i guess.

I have a slightly different views about ep 4 and 5. Look, being a good person and building a good relationship doesn't mean that conflict and difference of interests never arise at all. It's about how we communicate and compromise, finding a middle ground that both parties could stand on comfortably.
It's not her fault that his promotions brings insecurities to her career. She's literally just been demoted and her current position is so unstable, no wonder she's being really defensive at the first sign of trouble. Sure, we have to give credits to the ML for being the bigger person to initiate The Talk, but that doesn't mean she's being dumb and petty. It's just that, for now, he's the one with deeper feelings between them.
We have also been seeing how the FL is trying to help the ML to see from different pov to understand the problem in his way of handling the people in their division. My point is, both of these characters still has rooms to grow. And I hope to continue seeing them grow together and influence each other to be a better version of themselves in future episodes.
Side note: people may think that hiding a relationship for career advancement is dumb. It's even dumber in this day and age for a company to make an issue of a workplace relationship. But it's been proven that balancing romance and professionalism is a slippery slope. Also, 'why not just get divorce if things get hard in the future?' I could only say it's a matter of values, probably. Aside from the hassle of the whole procedure, being labeled as a divorcee is still something that is frowned upon in many cultures.

Same! To all of your points! I didn't read the novel so idk what kind of things they would have to go through the 32 episodes. The tone so far has been quite chill, with adult people being actual adults, going through their worries and supporting each other either outwardly or discretely. But I can not imagine having this as the main driving force for 32 episodes. Wouldn't complain too much if they could add more secret relationships shenanigans. But I really hope there would not be too much of a meddlesome third person situations like many dramas usually falls into!

That duration could be a whole episode of a short drama 😅 not that I'm complaining though

I'm at ep 4 and at this point this boy should stop making curry cause everytime he did something bad always seems to be happening around him lol

Same tbh. August 8th can't come soon enough. Wishing so bad that the drama would be just as fun as the novel.

third?? bruh XD