Shreya

Officially at ep 20. Had an almost kiss at 18.

From my understanding, the old Yu Wanyin fell in love with Prince Duan in that meeting, of course he didn't give a damn about her but given his manipulative nature, he definitely knew about her feelings and tried to use it to his advantage.

They knew Yong'er's character was originally supposed to be transmigrated but weren't sure if she had transmigrated yet or if their arrival had changed anything like replacing her, so that's why they were testing her with those writing and drawing and playing the pipa.

They knew she was a 2D character from the beginning as she was the main character of the novel Wanyin read. The How are you question later was mainly to let Yong'er know about them as well as make her admit she was a transmigrator too.

I actually like this better! After everything she has done, she deserves to suffer for a long time.

Ikr!

Can we appreciate how this drama is 20 episodes in and it's still getting better? My nonexistent attention span has me watching most dramas with 1.5x speed recently, while I'm eating up every second of this drama.

Samee. The actress playing the empress really did a terrific job.

They figured this ep was already depressing enough even without Zhang San's diary.

Oh please tell me that nail ended up in the Empress's neck and they'll leave her buried in her mausoleum. It's really about time she died.

ATP I'm scared to even watch Zhang San's Dairy 😭

I don't recall them giving us the crown prince's name but most likely not. At the end of ep 15, it's Dan himself. The previous emperor was still alive when he transmigrated, and it's said the previous emperor didn't care much for him but wasn't actually ever showed till date.

Yes

The crown prince is his real son, the mother is not revealed yet.

ML was waiting for the female lead of the novel he was transmigrated into, so he was waiting for Xie Yong'er.

The ML was waiting for the female lead of the book he'd transmigrated into so technically he was waiting for Yong'er. He didn't know the female lead before but since the story of the novel was about a transmigrator female lead, he figured there would be one, so he was waiting for her.

Xie Yong'er is a 2D character. The novel FL was reading in the real world (and transmigrated into) was about a transmigrator (Xie Yong'er) who went inside the story of a novel and fell in love with Prince Duan, killed the tyrant emperor and did great things. And this is the novel in which ML and FL were transmigrated, so while Yong'er is a transmigrator, she is still a 2D character to the leads.

Ngl the court scenes are my absolute favourite, love seeing Xiahou Dan's antics and how he acts the mad emperor but is actually always very levelheaded and has some underlining scheme.

The boy Yu Wanyin questioned is indeed the crown prince and ML's actual son.
As for why the ML is lying, the FL thinks that both she and the ML transmigrated at the same time and has no relation to the characters whatsoever, that's why she is comfortable with him and trusts him. But if he told her that he had been in this world since he was a kid, that would mean the evil, tyrant emperor who killed so many people is actually him and not just a character setting, and the FL will most likely not be able to trust him anymore, so that's why he's lying.

Yes!