Suliabryon

IKR??? I totally agree, HMH's acting in this episode was SO good! You could feel his emotions and he does most of that through his eyes. The look on his face when he came in as they were attacking his people was soooooo "you are all dead".

And yes, I agree. He MUST realize she is in fact MX now, but it sure looks like he's still questioning who she is in the next trailers. Maybe because she really IS a woman, and not using illusionary magic to appear like one? They all seem to think "he" is pretending to be "she" but it doesn't seem to occur to any of them that the MX who reigned supreme in the arena for seven years straight could actually have been a woman the whole time - maybe because ALL of the warriors we've seen have been men? Are women not allowed to fight in the contest?

Anyway, yeah I think this angst is going to continue. It's interesting. The trailers before this show aired made it seem like she was seducing him all over the place before he found out the truth, but we've had exactly ZERO kisses until the one tonight, so I'm thinking all of those actually happen after he knows. Interesting how tricky trailers can be.

IDK! I feel like he's leaving her in that prison and she looks like she's freezing to death or something, and will have to use her powers to live?? I'm guessing. But I also think she's going to almost die and he won't be able to bear it and will realize she can't use her powers. Maybe that's where the conversation about how she "blocked" her powers comes from because that was all in voice over in the trailer.

Solid choice!

Oh, my. Let's recap, shall we?

1. Well, the lover's path appeared to them, which means our duo are, in fact, in love.

2. As if we needed that confirmation after watching them both suffer through everything that happened after.

That was every bit as painful as I expected it to be! And CRIMINAL that they only gave us that single episode tonight given what happens in it! AH! How am I supposed to survive until tomorrow waiting for the next angst filled chapter??

Seriously. though, given everything that was revealed tonight, I kept expecting him to finally carve "Ming Xian" into the stone and that being how he finds out who she really is. Never thought the magic would just give up and say "Okay, he out-stubborned us. Let him carve the wrong name." But here we are. And now they're bound by the red string. As he said, he can't abandon her. Which is good for us since it forces our lovers to work through this set back.

And MAN, was not expecting that first kiss! Made me wince just watching. So much pain and anger conveyed in that.

Oh, and I'm just going to add that when JBZ shows up at his place and protects his wife, that was epic! I wish he'd done more than just knock our main villain back a few steps, but that's okay. Watching him send all of the henchmen flying was pretty satisfying.

AND, AND....did anyone else want to see the Princess and Yan Xiao try to walk the path?! Because I KNOW those two still love each other. Every single day our main villain does some truly heinous stuff that is making YX question all of his life choices. He's going to end up back on the Princess's side, but man she needs to make him grovel for real before even considering taking him back. I hope the show doesn't go the "noble self sacrifice to save her" route of redemption.

Hmm...I'm not sure it's really a love triangle yet, but there is a side character who knows the FL and has always been in love with her, but there is someone else in love with him and FL is oblivious so I have hopes it will never become a triangle. The secret keeping is less annoying and more....anxiety inducing as we all know the deeper they fall the worse the fallout will be when the truth comes out.

I agree 100%! I've said it here before and I'll say it again: finally a series like this where neither of the leads gets watered down or loses some of their bada** aura after falling in love. These two are a power couple. She is smart and embodies what I expect from a woman who has lived on the battlefield. He is just as smart and still completely ruthless - to everyone except her and his sister. And I love how much they trust one another. Neither one is making stupid decisions in the name of protecting one another. I'll go back to the scene in yesterday's eps when FYX finally told FSG about his best friend being the bad guy. WHAT a scene. It held not only so much emotion of her having to tell him his best friend and the only person he's trusted absolutely has betrayed him like everyone else, but also the sincere trust between them and the maturity of their bond as a couple. The way she asked him for a favor first, that he must stay calm no matter what she tells him, and the way he doesn't lash out at her at all, even as he is struggling to accept what she's saying. He believes her, but yet we still have all of the layers of what a person hearing that would feel: the shock and denial, the struggle to comprehend and accept it, and then the anger when he does. And then you can feel how much she is hurting for him, how much she wishes it wasn't true because of how deeply this hurts him. It was just so well acted by both of them.

Oh, was he in the novel? That makes more sense, because I'm over here like....dude, you want to be Emperor, you're going to need an heir sooner or later, you've eventually going to have to consummate something with someone who is not Fu Yixiao, and your wife, who for reasons beyond my comprehension actually WANTS you despite how you treat her, is right there. I've only watched the first few minutes of ep 23 this morning, but as things are going, he's going to end up pushing the princess right into the arms of his brother (which wouldn't be good for her either; really, Feng Yixang is...well pun not intended but she's just screwed at this point).

But him being a eunuch makes more sense than absolutely refusing to touch his wife because he's still holding a torch for the woman he "loves" but also shot off a cliff at one point.

OMG the intense conversations today?? Her telling him his best friend has betrayed him like everyone else he loved. His confrontation with said best friend? SO well acted. Just wow. The emotion of both of those scenes felt so real and earned.

I just appreciate so much how this drama does not water down either of the leads as they fall in love. FYX is just as much of a bada** and strong character as she was when she was introduced in episode 1. FSG, despite having fallen in love, is just as ruthless and calculating as he ever was (as seen in today's episodes). I also love the trust they have in each other. He isn't even surprised that she didn't leave when he asked her to; and he knows she's pursuing something and doesn't try to interfere or secretly find and protect her, in fact he tells his men there is no need. He leaves her to it, trusting she'll come to him when she's ready and fill him in.

Together these two are seriously a power couple in this world.

Right? You have to wonder why he’s made the choices he has when he clearly still has feelings for her. Choosing power over love?

Right???

Really, though. Causing each other pain DID seem an awful lot like foreplay in those earlier episodes, lol.

😂 When I watched the drinking scene where he started telling her exactly how he wanted to k*** her, I was like "this is some intense foreplay. They should just have hate s** right now". I commented here and no one responded. I was like....am I the only one seeing this? Glad to know I'm not!

I KNEW the prince was the one who shot her off the cliff! I wasn't expecting it to be two of the three conspiring together, though. Apparently now he regrets it, even though their mysterious partner is ordering them to k*** her and do it right this time. I think the only innocent one here is Ning Fei, who genuinely seems heartbroken she can't remember.

So the emperor of Jinxu is pretty hot. And apparently a hedonistic disappointment to his mother, lol. At least on the surface. It makes sense now why the younger prince is poisoned and why his brother would be happy to leave him in enemy lands forever. He probably considers him a threat to his rule. I see he's listed with the main cast so he's a major player in the story.

Thanks!

Why is MDL not telling me which platform this is airing on?? Anyone? I have subs to pretty much everything, lol. Help me out!

They've implied in the show, and it makes sense, that she must have found out or seen something she shouldn't have, which made whoever tried to k*ll her feel it was necessary. Which also goes along with the prince asking her so insistently and repeatedly if she remembers anything at all, not just because he was the one who pushed her off a cliff, but because she knows something she shouldn't.

I'm pretty sure it was the prince who shot her and pushed her off the cliff. They really tried to make us think it was one of his other two generals - the one who suggested they stop looking for her - in the first few episodes, but after watching the most recent,

1. Those two generals seemed so genuinely happy to see her again, and neither of them asked her any sus questions.

2. When she and the prince met at the end of the latest episode, all he could do was ask over and OVER again "So, you don't remember ANYTHING???" like he's really making sure. Also, his cold and calculating shady AF demeanor around the whole marriage alliance is making me think he's got plans within plans and is not to be trusted, even by the woman he claims to love.

That princess is going to be a problem. She comes off all sweet and innocent in the first few eps and sheltered and whatever, but turns out she snuck out, joined the army, got lost in the desert, and then fell in love with a guy just because he sort of scathingly said "I don't k*** women" and then indifferently threw her water bottle as he abandoned her, still lost, in the desert once more. THAT'S why you love him? Really?? That guy is a jerk and you being so obsessed after one meeting like that is really cringeworthy. And I can already see the writing on the wall....she's going to blame the FL for HIS obsession with her. I hate these kind of second couple storylines. Sigh.

The doctor lady's continued distrust of the ML is getting a little over the top to me. I get that she saw him k*** a bunch of people and she was traumatized, but he's literally done NOTHING since she came to the capital to show he's untrustworthy and mistreating the FL, meanwhile her so-called friends and closest people who have come to the city, the doctor herself admitted she doesn't trust them because she KNOWS someone very close to the FL was the only one who could have shot her from five paces away. So....if she's that smart, she should be able to see how the ML has been shielding the FL and protecting her in his way, and him saving the one kid a few episodes ago should have alleviated some of her fears, the same way it did for the FL. Like, obviously this dude isn't a completely bad guy, he risked his own life to save that kid.

All of that said, I am LOVING our main couple. Their bickering is definitely also flirting, even if neither of them will admit it. (His guards know, though. Those guys ship it, lol.)

During the drinking scene when they started - in detail - calling out how they wanted to k*** each other while standing inches away, I'm not the only one who thought that was foreplay, right? The chemistry and tension was next level. He's telling her about drawing and quartering and yet somehow it felt a lot more like they were about to start ripping off each other's clothes and have hate s** right there. I have to say - one thing about these enemies-to-lovers c-dramas is that we will NEVER GET that, lol. They only sleep together after they've actually admitted their feelings. But I'm pretty sure that's what the actors were going for in that scene.

CZY is impressing the heck out of me in this drama. This is a new kind of role for him, or at least a new one for me to see him in, and man....he is knocking it out of the park. I also really like this actress as the FL. I find her very believable as a female warrior/general, unlike a couple of other recent dramas with the same trope. And, she's gorgeous. They're both gorgeous. My God CZY with the long hair and the jewel toned outfits they keep putting him in! I actually love all of the costumes and even a lot of the set pieces in this. Really beautiful, even the tea set the ML and FL use in his manor. And the music - I KNEW the theme song in the beginning reminded me of Moonlit Mystique's, and I'm like 99% sure the singer is the same! Well, turns out the dramas are from the same director!

Thanks for sharing!

Sure, we can do that. Maybe you're right. It's just not what I'm seeing so far.