SAlice

Yes, I think that's what she's implying, that Minglan died because of post partum complications/ she never fully recovered from it. Not that she died immediately after it.

I don't think it was ever said, however from what we know of him, and his life, we can deduce that he is way older than both FL and ML.

There are 2 videos and they both contain spoilers: https://wetv.vip/en/play/iwf554loilcazjm-The%20Rise%20of%20Ning/d0046i2tvk7-A%20Wrap%20Special%3A%20Zhang%20Wanyi%2C%20Ren%20Min%20Dancing%20In%20The%20Snow.%20So%20sweet!%20%7C%20The%20Rise%20of%20Ning

The other video is actually a compilation of three different trailers, there are no subtitles, and the one with the director and actors commentary starts around min 4:50.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fspl4UGznWw

About Gu Minglan's death, didn't we get a shocking twist in today's episodes?
It seems that Madam Chen didn't do it O.o.
In her exchange with her evil maid she says "Madam Gu died after giving birth, and all her servants suddenly disappeared. I found it strange, but couldn't investigate further because she was already dead". Unless she wants to hide form her maid the fact that she killed her herself, and honestly there is no reason to do that, since the maid is the one who's always suggesting her to get rid of people.
So in the end LYN's mom might have really killed herself???

And also it seems that the two new maids that were sent to the farm where concubine Qiao is working, are there to kill her by Madam Chen orders.
I was persuaded that they had focused on them because they were going to be the means through which concubine Qiao was going to learn the truth about LYN birth.
But now it seems that she will die, and that Madam Chen will be the one to discover the truth.

I was thinking about it too, and they even showed it in the bts video with the director's commentary...

It was a beautiful scene, acted to perfection.
They are two people on the same level, neither is condescending.
The amount of trust, and how they want to protect each other, even if because of that they make mistakes. And they own up to their actions, and even if they might still think to have done the right thing, they understand the other person's point of view and are able to apologize sincerely.
She made a mistake not telling him the truth about her story with LJX bacause it could lead to an extremely dangerous situation for both. However you can see why she has done so, and can empathize with her.
In the same way LSY is making a mistake not telling her the truth about her birth, it is her life, she has all rights to know, and he has none to withhold that information. But you can understand why is doing that.

It could have been a problematic scene because it shows the depth of their feelings for each other.
But you can see how she still thinks of him as family, there is no underlying romantic current in her expressions, and yet she still shows how much he means to her.
While this lay a good foundation for the transition of her feelings later on, showing that there is potential for them as a couple if she only could know the truth, at this moment and from his perspective it's so endearing and heartbreaking at the same time.
As he tells her he wants to protect her for life, so even if you can see how much he would want to embrace her, he is planning to never tell her the truth about her birth.
He could have told her the truth in the letter he wrote her, since he thought that he was probably going to die, it would have been just human, but he still didn't, instead he left her a dowry.
He is not forcing his feelings onto her in any way.
He can't help showing his feelings with his eyes, at this point he's deeply in love and could hardly contain it, but he's still trying his utmost best for her sake.
Their interactions could have been creepy as hell, but they aren't.
Kudos to both actors, and the director.
I'm really hopeful that her feelings transition won't feel rushed.

Beautiful scene, he displayed so many emotions just by clenching his fists. You can feel his sorrow for what she has been through, his fear that she might have died, and his wrath toward the evil man who broke her heart and put her life in danger.

Since it's a refugee camp, shouldn't there be some kind of police/guards? She never reached it, so we don't know.

It was revealed today that SZ is SYS' grandaughter, and that she wasn't killed, but made a slave.

Yes, I was here, and it was atrocious. I really struggle to understand the crazy fans' behaviour. It doesn't make any sense to me.

Sorry, but do you realize that this man has framed and orchestrated the unjust death of an honest, upright man, and all his students, just to save his ass and become more powerful???
How does he even remotely compare to LSY?
And please do not quote the novel, we are discussing the drama, and it seems to me that the novel is pretty bad and full of toxic men ( I have no desire to ever read it), so kudos to the screenwriters for changing the story.
Not to mention that he is an adult man way older than LYN, who was just 13/14 years old at the time they met.
Do you think that LYN would have fallen for him had she known all of his evil deeds?
She hates his guts not just because of what she thinks he did to her, and by the way she heard him herself say that a woman's life means nothing to him, so much so that he didn't give a fig about the identity of the woman who fell off the cliff.
She find him disgusting because of his personality, and everything he's doing right now. Which he doesn't make any attempt to even conceal from her, he's openly bragging about his maliciousness in front of her.
And he still thinks that as soon as he'll make her confess the fact that she is MeiMei she will run into his arms crying tears of joy.
I am somehow amazed by how some people can romanticize this kind of rotten to the core type of character.

Great charachter, he had planned it all, he wasn't being reckless. And in his final moments we were also shown that he wasn't just a scholar, but also had good martial skills. He would have been on par with LSY if not for his declining health.

I wouldn't be so shocked. Real life always surpasses fiction...
In 2001 a gruesome murder shocked my entire country, a girl (16) and her boyfriend (17) had planned to kill both her parents. They stabbed her mother 40 times, and her little brother (11) 57 times. The way the little boy died was extremely painful and heartbreaking. They hadn't plan to kill him at the beginning it seems, but he witnessed the mother's death, and they got scared by his reaction. They stabbed him once, then stabbed him some more, tried to feed him rat poison, tried to drown him, and finished him with more stabbing.
The father only survived because he wasn't yet home that evening, and because of the little boy desparate attempts to survive, which had tired down his sister's boyfriend.
Can you even imagine that?!
And after all that the father still forgave her daughter, and called her frequently while she was in jail. Even her maternal grandmother forgave her after some years...
I have always wondered if the father should be considered a saint or a madman.

When it comes to the romance part of this drama, I think the writers are aiming to show us the consequences of arranging marriages as a way to improve your social and economic status, completely disregarding the feelings of the persons involved (parents' generation), in stark contrast to the children's generation.
Gu Minglan, Luo Cheng Wen, and Luo Cheng Zhang were childhood friends, and while we can only speculate about Minglan's feelings, we know that to LCZ she was just a friend, while his elder brother was deeply in love with her.
And dear Granny (I love her, but she made huge mistakes about her children's love life) married Minglan to CZ, who was in love with another woman, and CW to a lady from a prestigious family.
In the end everyone was miserable and concubine Qiao and Madam Chen even became murderous because of their suffering (not that their actions can be justified by that, oh no), leading to Minglan untimely death.
We'll see how the younger generation will fight for their love, and bring everyone happiness by doing so.

Perfectly said! And this is one of the reasons why this drama is so enjoyable.
It's so refreshing watching a realistic portrayal of a woman.
She isn't perfect by any means, but she is intelligent and quick witted and emotionally strong, but also has her fragilities and is mischivious, stubborn, and impulsive at times. She is very caring, but also doesn't stupidly pardon (like nothing ever happened) the ones who meant harm to her or her beloved ones.
She has helped him a lot, she was the driving force for him to be aknowledged and accepted so fast by Granny and Madam Lin. He might have achieved similar results with more scheming and time. But thanks to LYN both Granny and Madam Lin are growing an affection for him.
And that's the greatest gift she could eveer give him, loving family members at last.

Ohhhh, I spy cakes on ep 26.
In one of the trailers you can see LSY giving a crying LYN a cake while she is leaving the mansion. In my mind I always tought that was the moment when she leaves the Luo family after finding out her real identity.
So hopefully the reveal will happen around ep 24...

At the beginning I tought that she was sent by concubine Qiao to plant doubts about LYN legitimacy.
But she seems to be just a plot device to point LYN to madam Chen as the primary suspect of her mother's murder.
But I still think that concubine Qiao will be the one to find out about her birth and spill the beans. As she is still clearly planning a comeback.
And the way they emphasised the arrival of the two new maids at the farm she's working, makes me think that they might be the trigger for the revelation.
I'am most probably entirely wrong XD

No, he is Cheng Lang. And if I'm not mistaken he is his sister's son.

I also watch avenuex videos, but this time I was really disappointed.
She has high standards because she used to work in this field, and that I can understand. I enjoy her videos even when she destroys dramas I've liked, since she usually explains in detail the reasons why she thinks they are bad.
But seriously she ranted for minutes about her eye shadow. I didn't even notice it until she pointed it out. But she described it as the worst thing ever. And then she labeled this drama as the deformed child of the Story of Minglan and The Double. I think that was too excessive, and she gave no in depth analysis.
I was disappointed because she just added fuel to the fire, in this comment section at that time and in the comments below her video there were many people calling the lead actress ugly and not fit to portray an historical young lady.
This is my first time watching a drama with Ren Min, so I'm basing my opinion purely on this drama, but I really struggle to understand all this hatred. She looks beautiful to me, her voice isn't as bad as the majority of the female leads who play childish female characters, as you said, and I think she is a good actress.

It could have been the case If Miss Yang was plotting against her, which to be honest I thought was the case until the last moment XD. But since that was not the case I don't think so.
But maybe you were referring to something else.