SoundOfSilence

iirc, Jiu Er's father contracted a strange disease when he went to Shoubei to steal the ember. This is why he refused to be treated when back in Jiuxiao, because he didnt wanna exposed himself and FL

Double standards

Look at all the comments, majority of them always bashing FL for being weak and damsel-in-distress, yet conveniently forget the fact that FL's strength is her being the smartest one in the group but physically the weakest, not to mention shes extremely sick and the ember is barely keeping her alive

While they are okay with the ML being an arrogant ass for like 80% of the show, always hot-tempered and shouting, throwing tantrums.

Ep 8

Agreed, I cannot stand the ML as well, hes my least favourite main character in the show. Thankfully this isnt a rom-com focused drama, so majority of screentime is still on the mystery and investigation aspect

At ep22 now, and the ML is seriously getting on my nerves. Always arrogant, always blowing his temper for nothing, always threatening people saying how easy it is for Qi to kill a Qian when hes in Qian kingdom, gets angry because he have to obey Qian's law

And each time a Qi person is suspected to be involved in a case, he gets angry saying discrimination, how a Qi person will never do this never do that, how a Qi person is suspected purely because they are Qi race

Of course hes gonna mellow and have character development later on, but damn, hes real unlikeable as of now

yea, the first few episodes were great, a feisty and domineering yet innocent/naive non-smart FL who didnt give a damn about the ML, and just wanna focus on getting him healthy

The last third of the series, after they got together, everything just stales out, the original getting him healthy plot isnt there anymore, we dont see her working even though shes still in office (first 2/3rds of the drama, we actually see her learning and working)

And to make matters worse, they turned the lil bro into a human thrash. Even his redemption arc was done poorly, after 3yrs, we see him at the village, unwilling to help a lil girl with her kite, and giving a 'superiority look'. Then few mins later, he was treating the same girl, and acting all kind. Feels like hes putting on an act all these years

I will try my best to answer your questions
1. ep15

2. & 3. No breakups, just a mini-disappearance by FL in ep20 which lasted 15mins

4. No SLS. The 2FL do not like the ML, and its made very clear in ep1. In fact, 2FL is the
biggest shipper of the main couple. And the 2ML (ML's cousin) only have eyes for 2FL

5. No exes here, this is a virgin relationship for both of them. Theres a 3FL who is the childhood sweetheart of ML, but her screentime is very little, and the things she did is more of annoying than being toxic, and the ML obviously dgaf about her. The 3FL totally stands no chance, when the 2FL and the whole secretariat team( triplets+chi) is on team FL

6. There was a minor male character that fell in love with FL while working with her, but that only lasted 3-4 episodes. The male was non-toxic, he wish her well and move on when he realised she doesnt like him

7. Its a happy ending, but episodes 21-23 are pure rubbish, you can honestly just FF to episode 24 from episode 20

8. YES, ML's younger bro, the 3ML. Hes the reason for the shitty last few episodes and the low ratings. Hes pure thrash, toxic, obsessive, psychopathic and immature. Honestly it just seems like the scriptwriter wanted the usual toxic villain character in there, but wanna avoid the cliche of using the standard female childhood sweetheart

Honestly, this show could have been much better if they didn't dedicate like half of the show to the leads' romance. Its fine to have romance, but the problem is the main leads have zero chemistry, barely any investigation together, barely any skinship and only 2 kisses throughout, it was so draggy watching their scenes together. The other 2 couples actually felt more interesting even though they have little screen time together, would have actually preferred if there were more scenes of the policewoman and female doctor, they are so matured, strong and independent!

The plot and mystery is really so simple, that other than the first 2 cases (the DID woman and Old Chen), the rest of the show was just romance and endless fillers to find the main villain of the drug case. Since the main case was solved in ep25, they dedicated the whole of last episode 26 to more tantrum-throwing from FL, push-pulling and her going away for 1yr for treatment, like wtf. The rest of the police people only had like secs of screentime, the police couple probably an extra 2 mins screentime and that was it.
They should have instead showed how the FL have matured from the main case and the 1yr away, have her returned to the police station and have a huge reunion with the police staffs and ML, that would have been so much more meaningful since the staffs have been taking care of her since she was a child.

Was expecting alot more from the the FL, due to her enhanced senses and photographic memory, was hoping she would be helping the police alot as some sort of informant, basically she being the brains and the police the brawns, yet we only got few scenes of her using her powers to help, and she barely have any scenes with the police staffs other than the ML. It felt like she was acting in another separate drama. Her best friend in school was a redundant character as well

Overall, I would rate the show at around 5-6 /10.
Recommend people to check out the jdrama Hard Nut! instead. The FL is a genius uni student as well and acts as a consultant to the ML and the police force, using maths and physics to solve cases.