Rachel

Han Ziling was the other exceptional talent besides Xie Huai An. He was recommended by Gu Yu to the new emperor, Xiao Wuyang (while Xie Huai An was recommended by Chancellor Gao). It was mentioned in episode 2, before Xie Huai An met the emperor in person, three bodies were being lifted away. One of these bodies is supposedly Han Ziling and the other two were assassins.

Han Ziling was also later mentioned a few times by Gu Yu in other episodes.

Well said. I don't mind romance, but for a character like Xie Huai An, who have experienced such a tragedy and is hellbent on revenge, romance would only get in his way and won't make sense. I also cannot imagine Huai An committing morally questionable acts in one scene and then having sweet romantic moments in another...

True, Wang Pu is just straight up psycho. I wonder if they are going to give him a background story.

The drama is about revenge. However, there has been many hints here and there that this is not simply a revenge drama. Most likely there's some conspiracy involving the empire.

You can expect some satisfying but very dark revenge (so far). There are a few lighthearted and funny moments so far (which I like) but for the most part, there are a lot of scenes that make you question morality. It's a very different kind of drama. As of episode 10, the storytelling is really good and the characters have layers to them.

Wow her achievements are impressive indeed. People were not kidding when saying that many great veteran actors/actresses were in this show. Her acting has been really good so far! Hoping to see more of her.

This drama may be the first cdrama to show the protagonist killing someone else not because that person harmed him first or is an evil person but because they are simply not on the same side. Usually, most dramas will show that the "bad" characters harmed the protagonist first or portray the "bad" characters as inherently evil or something so as to justify the protagonist's actions against them and make it seem like the antagonists are "deserving" of whatever befell on them. In this drama, we have many "bad" characters that have not done any harm to Huai An and may have even been nice to him. Some of these characters are portrayed as normal people who commit bad acts in order to survive or protect their families.

For example, Du Li. Despite not having much screentime, the drama showed that Du Li is a likeable person who is good to the people around him but at the same time he may even kill (if ordered to) just to survive. He ended up getting killed simply because Huai An and him are not on the same side. I like how the show handles it. Huai An acknowledges this fact, that Du Li treated them (or mostly Han Ziling) as friends but if they didn't kill him, they would have been the ones killed. There's also a scene where after Du Li died, Huai An looked hard at the gift that Du Li got him and then at his own reflection in the basin of water. I can't convey it well but Cheng Yi's expressions conveyed the mixed emotions that Huai An must be feeling.

Some current thoughts and questions after watching episode 10.

I noticed that Auntie Xin's late son is named Liu Ziqi? That's rather interesting. Isn't Xie Huai An's father named Liu Ziwen and his uncle named Liu Ziyan? I am not sure if it's the same Chinese character for "Liu", I can't recall what was the character on Liu Ziwen's grave. Huai An mentioned that Auntie Xin was one of his father's earliest subordinates, but I wonder if she was related to his family as well?

Wang Pu is very cruel but I feel like he shows a parallel to Huai An. Huai An burned one of his enemies (the one that targeted his sister) to death in a cruel manner, just like how Wang Pu burned the Baiwenhu soldier to death. This made me think a lot. Also, I feel like Wang Pu knows that there's something wrong with Wang Xing (aka Huai An) when he gave the blanket to Auntie Xin. Auntie Xin's expressions were giving something away...I am scared for Huai An and Han Ziling.

One thing I really like about this show so far is that how most characters when they kill someone, they show a mixture of emotions. Xie Huai An showed something that I cannot describe after he killed Liu Ziyan. He also shed a tear when Pu Nichuan died even though Pu Nichuan is an enemy that participated in his father's death. Xiao Wenjing also showed mixed emotions after killing the real Wang Xing. I'm not very good at writing but I just wanted to point that out.

It's quite funny that the ratings dropped drastically within a day. Today's episodes were better than the other episodes for me! So much more is going on way beyond the revenge plot. I love the dialogue and conflicts that are being introduced.

No problem! I actually had to rewatch the episodes to catch details. There are a lot of details in this show haha

I don't think you're understanding the drama and characters. The point is there's no inherently bad or good person in this show. The deposed emperor isn't an inherently bad guy. He was driven by feelings of frustration and jealousy that Zhang Mo (the real pageboy) can be free while he cannot. He was also not very mentally stable at that time which caused him to strike Zhang Mo. It was an act caused by built up emotions and impulsiveness, but not a carefully premediated act.

The theme of this show has so far been how nobody is inherently good/bad. Zhou Mo is another character like this. He seems like a genuinely good person but he was also part of the Huben Army and may have done questionable things out of loyalty to General Yan Fengshan.

This is like real life. Are all criminals inherently evil? Sometimes, people who we never expect to commit a crime end up comitting a crime. Of course, this is just my opinion and you may choose to ignore it.

Lu Di said that killing someone has nothing to do with liking them or not. Next thing, he got killed by Han Ziling (Li Sangeng) and Huai An :') He was nice to both of them but at the same time, everyone gotta do what they gotta do to survive. Lu Di was prepared to kill Huai An too. It might be dark for some people but I actually quite like this scene and how they handled it.

Every episode so far has already shown that this drama is not a fairytale. The characters here all have done very questionable things and none can be considered purely good or bad.

Huai An "killed" Zhou Mo to save him. Zhou Mo isn't actually dead, his death was faked by Huai An. You actually get to see him in episode 2 together with the other friend of Huai An. Episode 9 shows a little more about how Zhou Mo would've been killed if not for Huai An faking his death.

Ohhhh I see! I haven't watched ep 10 yet but that's interesting. Huai An is really 10 steps ahead hmm

Ep 9 and Han Ziling makes his appearance! So he was, in fact, not killed by Xiao Wuyang and not dead. I did not expect that scruffy looking man to be the scholarly, exceptional talent, Han Ziling, and did not expect that he was in Hidden Soldier Valley. But yay to one more ally! I'm wondering what is his story though. For him to be an ally and for him to be recommended by Gu Yu to the emperor in the first place means that he must have some sort of grudge against Huben Army too (like Huai An).

Ohh that's interesting bit about the poem! I also think Xiao Wenjing is a lot smarter than he lets on but at the same time I feel like he isn't super smart. He seemed to recognised that Huai An is Liu Zhi at the start and also noted how deep Huai An is in for his revenge. The scared cowardly facade in the beginning is definitely fake but I feel like the him now is more real. I do think that he genuinely feels guilt and regret towards the real Zhang Mo (but it is too late indeed).

However, I still think he has a chance at redemption and growth but it'll really depend on how the drama shows it. Or whether will he ultimately be a bad guy?

Hmm I don't understand why is their energy weird for biological siblings? I feel like it's very normal, like older brother taking care and doting on his younger sister, who is also his only living family member in this world! Aren't older brothers supposed to do that haha They don't appear as romantic to me in any angle and I've watched till ep 8.

Just a reminder again! This drama was cut down from 32 episodes to 28 episodes in order to pass censorship!! 4 full episodes worth of content being removed from such a political/strategical drama means that audiences will have to read between the lines more to understand the show.

This is NOBODY's fault but censorship. From the 8 episodes we have so far, we can easily tell that a lot of effort have been put into this drama! Please ask questions if there are any plot points or stuff that you don't understand. I'm sure many people will be eager to help :) Happy watching!

This is what I got from the Chinese fans on Weibo. Basically, the uncle saved a civilian before out of sympathy but then later on the civilian's whole family betrayed him, causing him to almost die. From that point onwards, he threw away his older brother's ideology which is to "kill to protect" (something like that) and adopted his own new ideology which is to "kill to prevent being killed". So after killing the civilian family who betrayed him, there were more incidents where he killed many other people and gained many enemies. His brother couldn't tolerate this kind of behaviour and banished him.

The uncle later on went to betray his brother because of two main reasons. He sort of wanted revenge for his brother banishing him and also because by betraying his brother, he can show himself to be useful to Yan Fengshan, another very powerful figure in the Huben Army. Only when he is of use to Yan Fengshan then can he remain in the Huben Army.

I was really shocked too. It's very cruel torture indeed. Huai An was around 17-18 years old I think when he did that. I feel like him having to constantly flee from the enemies hunting him down and try to survive for years contributed to his cruelty too. He lost his whole family and this dude tried to kill his sister...He has no mercy.

It will be revealed in episode 7 about what happened to Bai Wan!