But this made the revenge more "realistic" to me. She was behaving like the wronged woman she was. Away from SYR's presence, she could pretend to be Jiang Li and create situations to avenge Jiang Li like at the Coming of Age Ceremony. But she did go back to the Capital to avenge herself too and yes, she used Jiang Li's identity to do it. Since the beginning, burying Jiang Li's body with her clothes, she'd already hatched out her own plans for revenge. Perhaps she didn't know the ways she would achieve it, but she knew the means--the Di Nue of the PM was going to catch SYR's eye sooner or later.
Her first encounter with her murderous hubby after the Coming of Age Ceremony, outside the house of Jiang, was very telling. She could barely control herself. When she was inside, she was Jiang Li, but standing outside that door, she was essentially XFF. I noticed she carried this theme throughout; whenever she was inside the Jiang or the Ye doors, she was very immersed in her role, but when she was outside, she wandered around like the restless spirit of a dead woman, doing her avenging ghost act, like the almost macabre smile she gave her MIL and SIL outside the door.
Even Xiao Heng noticed this and a few times advised her to stop living so much like a dead woman. He wanted her to live for herself in more ways than just living as Jiang Li or XFF seeking revenge.
This, I felt, she couldn't do for quite a while. Every time she was with SYR in private, she behaved like a real angry "dead" wife would--testing him, pushing him, saying things that betrayed her identity (I don't even think she cared sometimes whether he figured it out or not because like any normal person, she couldn't believe this man she'd married was capable of such evil).
Therein lay the genius of layering characters. XFF was good, but she had also been tainted by that inky rain and cloud her husband created. I believe, until the cleansing rain of the Drunk Scene of Episode 17, XFF wasn't totally in control of herself. She had been raped physically and mentally and surely being buried for a while did some damage, LOL. Every time SYR came near her, the desire to hurt him back, to even kill him, must have been strong (she almost lost it in the Palace with Wanning giving her the arrow and that was why the following conversation with Duke Su was so revealing--she said she wanted justice at any cost).
Episode 1: XFF's and SYR's song at the scene after he whacked her in the head and buried her
It is the title of The Double in Chinese: Among Inky Rain and Clouds
The song is their story, sung with male and female voices, and in the song, the woman sang of her love and being lost in an inky (SYR is a scholar) rain and clouds while the man sang of the end of things, of decay, and how it was her fate that he cut them apart. In the ending part, he sang of his regret that he would never see her again.
The two sentences they sang together at the end of refrain 1 and refrain 2: 1) So too does hate linger 2) How fickle fate can be
These two lines signified of things to come. (1) He sang of regret remaining, NOT THINKING that hate would linger (because she didn't die) and (2) He thought the fate of his wife was how he wanted it to be (her dead) but fate was FICKLE and could change in an instant. The scene and song ended with her hand shooting out of the dirt, grasping the flute at exactly that line (how fickle fate can be).
For those who just finished The Double, here are some are some quick thoughts (below in spoiler):
Here are some patterns to think about:
1) Drama started with her in red running, drama ended with her in red running.
2) She was buried in that pit and she later buried the real Jiang Li in the pit. Both she and JL were dead together in the pit as the same person (SYR thought that was her when he dug up the grave), then she was acknowledged publicly as JL and when she was with Duke Su over "her" grave/pit, she eulogized herself AND Jiang Li.
3) The piece of music she played with her ex while she was alive was the piece he played at his death. Meanwhile she and Duke Su told each other stories and Chinese opera acts instead.
4) She shot out BOTH soft scholarly hands that whacked her and buried her alive with a shovel. Her ex had promised to keep her safe and broke that promise pretty spectacularly. OTOH, when the camera did show the Duke's hands, they were calloused by swordplay and they held on to hers tightly, keeping her safe. Her future husband kept her safe over and over again throughout the drama.
5) SYR was a lowly scholar below JL status. He chose power over her and in the final acts, he was elevated that he stood above her and Duke Su at the city gate. However, Duke Su started well above in status over XXF/JL and he enjoyed (as she had accused) watching "plays" from above. As the drama continued, he "came down" to be part of her play, as seen in the Drinking Game at the black market. They became equal when he told her he would be her pawn and to let him win the game for her. Also final scene, he was also in red, returning her equal.
6) SYR threw his flute into the grave, signal his abandoning her and their dreams together. XFF had cried over it but as JL, she buried it with the real JL. She had no dreams or past she wanted to remember at that point. But then came Duke Su's fan (haha). By the latter part of the drama, XFF had impersonated his fan action (at the gambling den), had used it to tap under his chin (as he'd done to her) and he'd thrown his fan at her and she'd caught it and in that scene, put it against her mouth (I see it as a nod to the kiss because that fan of his is quite an intimate part of his persona!).
Am I the only one that noticed that in the royal banquet Princess Wan Ning debacle, Jiang Li / Xue Fang Fei /…
Yes, hence the interesting dialogue between the Duke and XFF when she backed into while running off from the drugging incident. That dialogue was intense and chocked full of innuendos.
I'm rewatching LLTG and looking for its parodying Ming Lan. Kidding, kidding.... (Actually, I'm rearranging my notes to share with @frankly, especially Episode 15)
All these comments...I hope u folks actually don't choose characters like Xiang Liu in ur real life lol
oh, yeah, we girls don’t know how to differentiate real life versus novels and drama, unlike men whose fantasies are always about normal women. #WCReyeroll
I haven't watched LLG yet, but what's the similarities between these two Dramas?
She seems to see every drama being "parodied" here. The fact that these are common tropes (meet cute/funny servants/evil best buddy, etc) are totally ignored. Taking that logic further, then every drama she cited is a "parody" of every drama before it, ad infinitum.
1 
2 
Her first encounter with her murderous hubby after the Coming of Age Ceremony, outside the house of Jiang, was very telling. She could barely control herself. When she was inside, she was Jiang Li, but standing outside that door, she was essentially XFF. I noticed she carried this theme throughout; whenever she was inside the Jiang or the Ye doors, she was very immersed in her role, but when she was outside, she wandered around like the restless spirit of a dead woman, doing her avenging ghost act, like the almost macabre smile she gave her MIL and SIL outside the door.
Even Xiao Heng noticed this and a few times advised her to stop living so much like a dead woman. He wanted her to live for herself in more ways than just living as Jiang Li or XFF seeking revenge.
This, I felt, she couldn't do for quite a while. Every time she was with SYR in private, she behaved like a real angry "dead" wife would--testing him, pushing him, saying things that betrayed her identity (I don't even think she cared sometimes whether he figured it out or not because like any normal person, she couldn't believe this man she'd married was capable of such evil).
Therein lay the genius of layering characters. XFF was good, but she had also been tainted by that inky rain and cloud her husband created. I believe, until the cleansing rain of the Drunk Scene of Episode 17, XFF wasn't totally in control of herself. She had been raped physically and mentally and surely being buried for a while did some damage, LOL. Every time SYR came near her, the desire to hurt him back, to even kill him, must have been strong (she almost lost it in the Palace with Wanning giving her the arrow and that was why the following conversation with Duke Su was so revealing--she said she wanted justice at any cost).
It is the title of The Double in Chinese: Among Inky Rain and Clouds
The song is their story, sung with male and female voices, and in the song, the woman sang of her love and being lost in an inky (SYR is a scholar) rain and clouds while the man sang of the end of things, of decay, and how it was her fate that he cut them apart.
In the ending part, he sang of his regret that he would never see her again.
The two sentences they sang together at the end of refrain 1 and refrain 2:
1) So too does hate linger
2) How fickle fate can be
These two lines signified of things to come. (1) He sang of regret remaining, NOT THINKING that hate would linger (because she didn't die) and (2) He thought the fate of his wife was how he wanted it to be (her dead) but fate was FICKLE and could change in an instant. The scene and song ended with her hand shooting out of the dirt, grasping the flute at exactly that line (how fickle fate can be).
1) Drama started with her in red running, drama ended with her in red running.
2) She was buried in that pit and she later buried the real Jiang Li in the pit. Both she and JL were dead together in the pit as the same person (SYR thought that was her when he dug up the grave), then she was acknowledged publicly as JL and when she was with Duke Su over "her" grave/pit, she eulogized herself AND Jiang Li.
3) The piece of music she played with her ex while she was alive was the piece he played at his death. Meanwhile she and Duke Su told each other stories and Chinese opera acts instead.
4) She shot out BOTH soft scholarly hands that whacked her and buried her alive with a shovel. Her ex had promised to keep her safe and broke that promise pretty spectacularly. OTOH, when the camera did show the Duke's hands, they were calloused by swordplay and they held on to hers tightly, keeping her safe. Her future husband kept her safe over and over again throughout the drama.
5) SYR was a lowly scholar below JL status. He chose power over her and in the final acts, he was elevated that he stood above her and Duke Su at the city gate. However, Duke Su started well above in status over XXF/JL and he enjoyed (as she had accused) watching "plays" from above. As the drama continued, he "came down" to be part of her play, as seen in the Drinking Game at the black market. They became equal when he told her he would be her pawn and to let him win the game for her. Also final scene, he was also in red, returning her equal.
6) SYR threw his flute into the grave, signal his abandoning her and their dreams together. XFF had cried over it but as JL, she buried it with the real JL. She had no dreams or past she wanted to remember at that point. But then came Duke Su's fan (haha). By the latter part of the drama, XFF had impersonated his fan action (at the gambling den), had used it to tap under his chin (as he'd done to her) and he'd thrown his fan at her and she'd caught it and in that scene, put it against her mouth (I see it as a nod to the kiss because that fan of his is quite an intimate part of his persona!).
From: https://kisskh.at/discussions/di-jia-qian-jin/126863-main-couple-scenes-clever-dialogues-and-relationship-progression?pid=3077867&page=2#p3077867
And many more!