ShortCircuit

Just look at the girls, they're so gleeful, and none of the boys know what's it truly about LOL (the TL is a bit wonky) ETA I just realised there's a man's voice joining in the giggles LOL, they had a fudanshi there too heheh

https://youtu.be/ozecnMrUlT4?t=361

And in the same video, before that, XZ as WWX is asking for WYB as LWJ to take off his pants LOL

https://youtu.be/ozecnMrUlT4?t=133

The girl-talk between the two of the girls was sooooo cute. And then ChangYu selling him for 30 taels. And him going so mad over the price.

...Only for later him making his hand sore just so she earns some goodwill from the neighbours with the spring couplets... Ha, they're so cute together :D

Soooo. Our mystery madman is some forgotten prince of some burnt-down palace who tried to drive a wedge between uncle and nephew (and very probably managed it). I love-love-loved the way the adjutant or whatever he is was trying to weasel himself into Yan Zheng's grace while YZ was putting everything in order in his mind, while at the same time slowly oh so slowly he was putting those nail files in that workbag, emanating such an overbearing aura. Such a nice scene.

But the girls!!!! The girls in ep12 still have me in stitches - Yan Zheng has groupies and they include men :D Somebody was drinking vinegar by the bottle in those scenes hahaha~

According to drama rules, now the little Bao'er and little ChangNing are bound to grow up to have a fated love story. Hey, I don't make the rules.

And oh!! Princess Royal was Xie Zheng's intended?! OOOOOH snap. Anyway, Gongsun, work your magic and marry her before Xie Zheng has to return, there's a good boy.

PS I just CAN'T wait to see the moment each and every person who hasn't recognised Xie Zheng but has interracted with him in any manner comes to find out who he is LOL. PARTICULARLY ChangYu for making him worship at his own altar for the dead hahaha~

So did you guys realise it went EXACTLY the way Gongsun Yin imagined it would go with them?! Like, he's racking in the silver next to her in doing business. GSY only missed how the little wife would look like, the rest is spot on, LOL.

I couldn't imagine I'd love the giggly and then romantic eps more than the amazing snow fight scenes but here I am. Each and every episode somehow manages to surpass the previous one. LOVING IT.

DON'T TELL ME SHE WANTS TO BORROW YAN ZHENG

hahaha that's so crazy it might just work LOL

This must be the FUNNIEST ep in the drama yet :D

After 12th cause I'm bursting with it OMG LOL

OMG I CANNOT

I'm in the middle of 12th, and all the girls have discovered Yan Zheng and then the men discovered YanZheng's calligraphy. HER FACE WHEN SHE REALISED WHY, I'm howling in this room by myself LOL OMG that was BRILLIANT

back to it hahaha~

There's this BTS of the script-reading that they do on all dramas for promo (and exercise) and LOL they brought about the drinking scenes.

ALL THE FEMALES in the team - there were only the male actors IIRC - were giggling like crazy because the guys hadn't read the novel (or didn't seem to have read it) and there was a scene (that got cut :((((() of the drunk bath LWJ. You KNOW which one *wink* And XZ was reading the part with "don't bite on my fingers, be a good boy" while I too was going ballistic LOL, all the girls were on fire and the guys were SO confused about what the fuss was about hahaha~

But the director said immediately that they'd cut that scene - I don't know if they ended up filming it anyway, I kind of doubt it - but imagine IF!! What if they did film all the actual danmei parts and saved them and sometime in the future someone dares re-release the unedited TU! :D

LOL, you made me remember the BTS of them comparing their speaking parts - XZ had this long-ass whole highlighted script (all the pages were highlighted with his part) and WYB was smirking there he got off easy (all he had to say was "hmm" or not even that.) That was one of the best BTS LOL. Their real personalities were exactly the opposite to their characters - XZ the quiet and serious one and WYB being an imp at all times hahaha~

You should see ME trying to get out of that loop. Yeah, we're going on a gazillion rounds LOL

...But the power of Chinese novel adaptations to drama could not be undone... LOL

There need to be that many characters because this is NOT just a love story (and what there is of that, is censored).

This drama appeals not just through being danmei, but through it's plot and themes. There are many characters, the relationships are complex, it's not all gray and white and easy to understand, it needs a bit of attention. It might not be for everybody. Or you might try it, you might end up liking it in the end.

They return to the present in ep33, BUT the whole flashback is what sets the scene for that return to the present timeline. You'll know WHY it happened like it happened, WHO did what they did, WHY they did it for, HOW it all ended up before they come back to the present to solve it.

And IMHO, the flashback is still the best from the two halves, though the other part has some of the best scenes in the drama, too.

PS This is NOT BL. Don't look at it through a BL lense - danmei has a lot of stories that are mainly love stories, but this is definitely NOT one of them. This is plot and character-development-dense, not fluff. (For a comparison of uncensored danmei adaptation - Meet You At the Blossom - that's mostly fluff and has all the tropes. But nowhere near the depth of TU. For a censored "bromance" that yells BL all the way, LOL, then Returned Master - also a lot of pretty, not a lot of substance. But it's cute).

LOL, I know he's just trying to protect everybody, her included, from any political fallout. It's just funnier to think of it like that :D

So you're telling me they do end up married? *thumbs up*

I mean, he needs to be let win once in a while, and a wife could do that easier hahaha~

His father died in that battle 16 years ago and he was shown with his mother at around 8-9 maximum 10 (or even less) right after. So they might be some 5-7 years apart in age.

It's because it snows in every fight scene and then the drafts keep moving his hair so mesmerisingly, and then he's just keeping quiet watch from behind the windows - it's like Beauty and the Beast, only the Beast is the most handsome character in the drama LOL.

And there's plot too never fear.

He's just such a gentleman who wants to let women do whatever they want in his academy. Except when they're born in privilege. Then they can't have this particular privilege LOL.

Also, ChangYu: You should go.
Him, outraged but keeping it together because of the surprise: YOU're telling ME when to come and go?!
She, totally oblivious: Well, yes. I want you to be safe.
Him, deflated. Oh.

LOL. She's ordering him about, and he, a Marquis in disguise, realising he's a dumbass hahaha~

Well, SOMEBODY in that family put the assassins on the trail of the Fan sisters (and it's Mr. Wei.) I would say if he's doing it for the sake of revenge (since he raised Xie Zheng) then he's going about it in a very suspicious manner (Xie Zheng is thinking he set up the ambush where he almost died). And then he sent his own son - the infamous Xie Xuan - to farm some praises on the battlefield.

I think we could 80% confirm he's a villain. Or at least most of the time.

Going by novel readers' comments, he's a villain. Though hot. But a villain.

I know she meant Song but I choose to take it as a warning to the viewers that we should know Li HuaiAn is going to turn a villan LOL.

I don't for a minute believe it was just powerplay in Gongsun's case though. He liked her. The fact her mother immediately removed her and set up a blind date thus getting Mr Li out of Lin'an is just coincidence. But he looks pretty smart now doesn't he LOL.

I'm sorry Mr Li, the little sister has put a badge on you - "I'm not getting inside the house of a villain". I guess you're a villain now. Sorry eh. Better luck next time.

I LOL-ed for real when Li's adjunct went "Huh, so that's the Marquis of Wu'an? He's not impressive at all" and then immediately the table broke completely under his light touch. Yeah right, he's not at all impressive hahaha~

And THEN!!! The two Xie soldiers going "you should go back m'lord, before the Marchioness finds out" was amazing :D Yeah Yan Zheng, run back before wifey finds out you're gone :D The LOOK on his face :D (ETA and if that guy can't keep his mouth shut in front of his lord, I guess by now the whole army is aware they got a new lady-in-chief coming hahaha~)

As for Qi Min... if a villain, why so pretty?! Dammit. The poor kid though, hiding away all his life because his dad might be a vicious bastard. I hope they at least don't get a make-over relationship and HEA.

But I'm voting for a Gongsun-Princess Royal wedding sometime soon, who's with me?