SAlice

I ship him with one of his creepy dolls. That would be his perfect match.

I am praying for that, so that she will actually help YN stay away from that psycho.

He appeared out of nowhere all smiles, YN is sturtled and looks at him as she would look at a cockroach, and he smiles even more thinking in his deluded mind " ah, the look of love in her eyes"...

100% agree.
You can also see her shadow in the brief exchange between Yiyu and Yixiu about their different views on marriage. Yiyu, who was indoctrinated by her mother, sees marriage for a woman just as a way to help her family get a better social status, while the beautiful speech Yixiu gives make her sister start to realize that women should pursue their own happiness.
And the whole Madam Chen's plotline also serves to create a parallelism between the two generations. Both Luo brothers were forced in a loveless marriage, which led to all the tragic events that happened in the Luo family.
But in spite of being a victim of this Madam Chen's still trying to do the same to her own daughters (to the point of plotting murders, and even disregarding her own daughter's safety). She can't accept what her destiny has been because of the choices made for her by the elders, and is trying in every possible way to give it a meaning.
While Granny in this ep finally admitted to her mistakes.
When they were talking about Yixiu's marriage she says that even if it is a good marriage they shouldn't force YX into it.
"At my age I've come to realize many things", meaning I know I made a lot of mistakes, and I don't want to repeat them/ruin the lives of my grandchildren too.

I assume he will be ruthless and merciless towards LJX and Wang Yuan.
And he has already shown that he doesn't fear using/involving a powerful man like the Duke if he can obtain justice.
Plus from the trailers you can see Master Sun telling him "don't call me Master, I don't have an ungrateful disciple like you". Since behind him you can spot his daughter I think he will propose marriage to LSY, and be rejected.
But it could also be that he will find out that LSY already had a master before, and he has actually used him to force his father to finally recognize him.
Do these count?
It would totally be ooc for him to suddenly become a shady character, after all we've seen of him.

The time they spent on them was meant to show us Madam Chen's true colors, she ends up being the final villain in the Luo family. And this is first and foremost a family saga.
Even the opening credits make it clear.
They have shown us how obsessed she is with getting the highest status in the family, in order to give her failed marriage a purpose. And to which lenghts she will go to obtain what she wants.
In every episode thay have added one more layer.
I'm actually happy about it, otherwise she would have been your typical 2 dimensional evil aunt/stepmother character we have already seen plenty of times.

Now we've seen all, she'll get her comeuppance today, so the 2cp's screentime will most probably decrease. And the focus will shift on the main couple because of the big reveal about YN's birth.

Thank you

I wanted to watch it too, but then read some negative comments. Would you recommend it?

I'm so looking forward to tomorrow episode. Giving us one ep per day at this particular point of the story is truly sadistic. lol

Before watching ep 26 today it seemed to me from the trailers that YN and concubine Qiao had struck some kind of deal and were staging their argument to fool Madam Chen's spies.
But now it seems the YN is completely in the dark.
So is it SY who had his men watching over and saving concubine Qiao?
He did indeed warn YN against Madam Chen before leaving, but could he be so calm if he knew she was in jail?

I'm also curious to see in the next few episodes how Duke Ying will come to know that YN is his daughter.
One of her mother's maids gives her some kind of small plaque in the trailer of ep 28.
Could that be a clue to discover her father's real identity, that her mother left her?

Also, in one of the trailers you can see a burnt corpse wearing a jade bracelet, and then Duke Ying (at least I think it's him) being mad at SY, so the oath he makes in ep 28 really gives me the chills.
Luckily we already know that it's going to be HE.

I think Lin Mao will go to Shen Yuan, and that's how he will end up in the prison at the same time as LJX.

I'm already bracing myself for the ugliness he will show next episode...
But Ci Sha is great, really liked him in Forever and Ever.

She was indeed very reckless, but we know that she had always been willfull and unrestrained uo to that point, when nobody ever telling her when to stop.
From the flashbacks in ep 25 we can see how very childish she was at that time. She was living in confinement basically, and then she meets an handsome, much older stranger who pays attention to her. Let's remember that she was only 13/14 at t he time, while he was way into his 20s.
And while she was thinking about furnishing their new home with dolls (toys), he was thinking about bedding her and getting her pregnant, ugh.

Oh, how am I looking forward to ep 27, but unexpectedly not for the big reveal, but to enjoy Madam Chen getting her (and please, please, her maid's as well) comeuppance.
She's becoming more and more hateful with every episode, to the point that she's even contending with LJX for the title of sickest, most villainous character in the whole story.
Compared to them Wang Yuan, who's supposed to be the big boss, looks more like a big sneaky cat.

How in the world did she think of that plan to push forward the marriage between YiXiu and Mr Han?
Doesn't she know that she's dealing with the royal family?
What if they see through her schemes?
She was actively trying to destroy both her daughters' lives.
And the maid with that smug grin throughout the entire scene?

A kiss between Papa Luo and Mama Lin would be awesome.
In today's episode it was pretty clear that he wants to spend some quality time alone with her.
He wasn't happy in the slightest when she invited YN and SY to dine with them. XD
As long as it's not LJX forcing a kiss on LYN, which has been my fear since I saw that kiss emoji.

That was so creepy, she was talking about toys, and he was talking about bedding her and getting her pregnant.

When Yilian said that it was so hilarious, I'm looking forward to seeing her expression once she learns who exactly is Duke Ying's daughter XD

I also really liked YN already bonding with her little brother, and how the Duke put LJX in his place, the nerve he had life threatening a seasoned general like him.

I have been eagerly anticipating more screen time for the Duke from the moment he appeared, I'm liking him a lot, and I hope he didn't really force himself on Minglan.

Not to mention the not-creepy-at-all bridal chamber he has prepared in advance to shut her inside for the rest of her life. Strangely it looks more like a tomb to me.
Oh, but there is so much tension in their scenes...If I ever read again someone having SML syndrome I'm gonne throw my notebook away.

From how the director was supervising the scene it seemed important, so maybe it will play a role when YN thinks back about all the experiences she shared with LSY???
Or maybe he simply changed his mind, and considered it superfluous XD

I get your point, and I would have hoped the reveal to happen a few episodes earlier to allow YN more time to process her feelings.
However this story doesn't revolve about romance only, and thanks for that.

I disagree about suicide being the simpler way to end it, in my opinion it makes it more structured.
I find that if it's really going to be Madam Chen, it would be nothing new under the sun.
How many times we've already seen the proper lady being actually the bad guy?
I think that if it really turns out to be suicide there were several situations and reasons that lead Minglan to make that decision.
And while you think that this amount of episodes were wasted on this story, I think that they were useful to flash out the character, and personal story, and motivation of pretty much every family member. The only exception being Shan Yuan.

About the romantic plotline between the leads, they're walking a fine line, but in my opinion up to this point they have done a good job. And I am hopeful they they will manage the transition well.
But I understand that regarding this topic everyone has its own views, which also depend on their cultural background.

I detest incest, but here they didn't grow up together as family, they didn't see each other for over a decade.
And during the little time they spent together when they were kids she was bullying him. They had not developed any kind of strange affection at that time. He was kind to her in spite of her behaviour just because he was grateful to her mother.
They were complete strangers at the beginning of the drama, not only they didn't recognize each other, but even after meeting him as a family member she still didn't know who he was and had to ask others about his identity. She didn't have any recollection of him at all in the beginning.
He started slowly falling for her after knowing that they are not related, and is in no way trying to manipulate her feelings to his advantage, even now that he's deeply in love with her.
She has come to care for him because of his character, and because you can see that they are kindred spirits, not because they are family. At the moment it is entirely platonic from her side, and I really appreciate the way she is portraying it. Because it could have really creeped me out if there was the slightest hint of a romantic undercurrent from her side.
I am hoping that they will show her being angry with him for not telling her the truth about her birth, then pondering about it, and understanding the reasons why he did that. An then starting to see him in a different light, when she realizes that he is an irreplaceble existence in her life because they are ultimately soulmates.

You can see that the man who jumped into the water wears black, so it's not LJX, he was wearing red.
If you see LJX diving it is the scene where he's searching for MeiMei after Sz revealed she was the one who fell off the cliff.

I always thought that the investigation about her death was meant to lead to the secret of LYN birth.
She might have died to protect LYN.
It is clear that Granny knows the truth, otherwise why was she so worried when she saw the nanny, and sent her away asap?
And by the truth I mean both the truth of LYN birth, and the truth about Minglan's death (or maybe she doesn't know for sure about this last point, but she might be guessing it).
I think that the revelation about LYN birth, and how her mother died are meant to bring to the open the last remaining secrets in the Luo family.
The story needs to make a clear cut between YN and the Luo once she leaves them.