Say_do

YES cannot tell the truth to save his life. He just does not know how to do it. And he's a thief. How do you steal someone else's achievements and still say that the person is incapable? He kept saying he'll be the one to save HI not HW, but could not do one thing for her. He also said HW was bad to HI and everything, but he keeps stealing the things HW did for her and passing them off as his own actions. This guy is a different type of crazy. Anyway, he was too impatient to wait for HW to get him arrested with all his previous crimes, so he decided to take a faster approach at the end of the episode.

I hate when writers like their villains a little bit too much because there is so much ep 16 could be about, they did not need to add HW getting into an accident. I hope they wrap up the plot of the villains in the first 30 minutes and leave the remaining hour for the other characters, especially our leads.

I think the age gap of the main leads in real life is reflective of that in the drama. Just that they aged them back 10 years in the drama. Shen Keyi is probably around 15/16 and Wen Ye was said to be in his thirties. That is at least 15 years between them already.
So in both drama and real life, this is not really an issue because they are both legal.

You missed the point of everything I said. What I complained about and called unnecessary was killing off his father. Now he has not a single close family member. He was already family to the Mai's, and now this will make him even more attached to them because he has literally no one else. There was no need for it. They killed his father randomly in a car accident, when he was on the way to a full reconciliation with his son and that family dinner they talked about. But then, MCH's mother was able to survive lung cancer. MCH did not lose any of her family members no matter what, but YZM lost everyone. And when he was getting closer to the two people left in his life, his grandma and his dad, they killed them.

Thank you. I'll do that.

I think the worst thing they did was kill YZM's dad. It was very unnecessary. And then even though MCH's mom had a tutor in her lungs, she still made it. I'm not questioning the reality of survival or not based on severity of illness. My issue is that they made sure to kill all of YM's blood relatives just so that he can be even more firmly attached to the Mai family. That is very unfair and unnecessary. He led a very very troubled childhood and was so lonely for most of his life. Why make him start warming up to his dad and then kill him just before they could make proper amends? YZM had already undergone proper character development at this point, so what was the need for this tragedy? Now he has another big regret to live with.
If you compare MCH and YZM's stories in this show, you can see the imbalance, although I think she and her mother were the intended main leads.

I expected him to have a moment of regret in the end only because I knew that even with all his scheming and manipulation, he had genuine affection for YX. But I like that they did not waste the build up of his character and of him being a bad guy with Hao Yue overshadowing him as the main villain.

I like how they showed that the men became very supportive of the women in the end. They had respect for them and assisted them to do their own thing. Especially Hua Zhi's parents. Her mom became bolder and more confident and her dad was a better husband and father.

Shaoyao my brave girl. I like how she progressively got better, health wise, over the years. In the end, she was like a normal girl her age. Both mentally and emotionally. Lu YuXiao did a phenomenal job in portraying her and all her changes.

I'm happy YX did not rebel. I did not expect him to, and they did not write it in. He just became stubborn and stood his ground. But he still loved the emperor, did his job well and protected him till the end. This is more in line with his character.

I'll really really miss this show. It was so nicely written, even the conflicts. So many things happened, but it was a soothing watch still. There weren't unnecessary misunderstandings or events just to push the story forward. What am I going to do with myself now that it has ended?

I like how the emperor remained the main villain till the end. He did not change at all lol. An ungrateful sociopath. He's one of the most interesting villains. He's not showy, but is calm and manipulative. A bully with power.

I guess they haven't seen the update yet? Or they're working on it

The other shoe has dropped for the Jiang family. I had some suspicions they were not giving Rong and her new family screen time for nothing. This is so sad. I hope it doesn't affect her much, or it does not include her husband.

I don't know. Shouldn't it be available now? I know there is a close time though. May 1st 17:50 (UTC+8)

Okay then. But it will still take some years for him to succeed. There are other armies along the way, and unless he wants to leave the country vulnerable, he will not take the entirety of the border forces to march to the capital. He'll lose on both fronts. That is why careful preparation will have to be made, and why he can still be defeated.
In the end, I also believe there has to be a better way than all this., although that is not the topic of our discussion. That is what we are waiting for the drama to show us.

I posted the minute I saw it lol. I had been checking like every 20 minutes. Sleep just dropped in priority. I'm so happy because the previous schedule was the epitome of wickedness.

Express Package. We won💃🏾

When the emperor told him that, was he supposed to say I will not kill anyone? Do we understand who an emperor in those times is? He's someone with more power than the president of a country. He has absolute power and seeming affection for a nephew is not going to change that.
The only thing YX can do, because he understands the type of person his uncle is, is to deal carefully. He can agree and then use his discretion to carry out orders.
Just because he said yes does not mean he went on a killing spree.

He is supposed to be loyal to the emperor. He is not the problem here, the emperor is. When he is given orders against people he considers innocent, he does his best to give them leeway. In the raid of the Hua mansion, he made sure the security bureau did not kill anyone of their family members, though some wanted to. He knew what HZ was doing, but he let her get away with carrying out her grandfather's manuscripts and that was very direct disobedience of his orders. he was told to not let any letter from Minister Hua get out of the house. He left them with carriages to carry their things and gave them time to pack things they need, even those his deputy protested. He threatened his guards to make sure the Huas were not attacked again or stolen from, and this was before his sister moved in with them. He also allowed the Hua family to move in to the manor and gave the excuse that it was a royal gift. If he had said no to them, no one would have questioned it.

For the Shen family, he waited until the examinations were over before he submitted the result. He stalled by doing "further investigations", and then submitted it, lied to the emperor and then pleaded for them.

I have no idea what you are watching, but YX has tried his best. He has to act very smartly because of the person he is dealing with. We also forget that the emperor is practically a father to him. That is who raised him and taught him almost everything he knows. Someone that taught him how to write properly. It is easy to say, but it is very difficult to betray someone that gave you everything your own father failed to give you.

For the first part of your statement, if he is to make a move on the capital, the emperor only has to send a decree to the nearest military base and call in the imperial guards to hold off until the army arrives. Why are we acting like immediately YX decides to rebel, the hands, feet and brain of the emperor are rendered useless? If he was in such a hopeless situation, then there would be no need for him to be the emperor and have ultimate control over the military of his country. There is also time and there are military forces set in place to defend against an insurrection. If it was so easy, Lord Xian and most especially, Lord Ling would have succeeded many times over. Lord Ling was so favoured that there was an expectation for him to take over the throne. That means he was also trained in military affairs to some extent. But he was very unsuccessful in the end. So much so that it is not even publicly known what he did.
In this game right now, the emperor has the upper hand and all the cards. YX does not have the clout or the power. The court does not know him because he has been away for long, and interestingly, at the time of his life when he could have made an impression on the court. At this time, they have no reason to support him. This is a court that is made up of people that are terrified and are cowardly enough to not call the emperor out on anything. A court where Minister Hua was the only brave and honest one. One that is seeking the surest wy to be benefitted and YX is a great risk.

YX is only familiar to the military in the north and that is currently being led by General WU, after YX left. I do not believe that their first loyalty is to him.

Another thing is that when the security bureau acts up, the people do not blame the emperor. They have always said that the security bureau is cruel. Even when Shen Hua got hurt, Shaoyao blamed the commander of the security bureau. It feels like at the back of their minds, they may know that the security bureau is ordered by the emperor, but consciously, they do not relate their atrocities to him.
And the issues with the security bureau is not enough for us to say he is a tyrant to the people. They were usually searching for rebels. In the emperors rule, I have not seen them mention that the majority of the people have been suffering and that they can barely afford to eat. That they have heavy taxes imposed on them or those usual complaints.
Even in the upcoming episode, the emperor is shown to get new intelligence on what is happening, and YX is going to investigate the issue. We can say that he only wants to clear his name, but if that is the case it proves two things. One that this never or rarely happens that he has such a terrible reputation on the streets. Two, that he actually cares about what is said, which means he was never a tyrant to them in the first place, because he would not care.

You made some good points. If the ml wants to rebel at this time, it will take years for him to be able to succeed and in that time, the emperor may as well be dead. Also, what's the point in that when HZ will not accept him as a rebel?
Let's not forget that the emperor has YX monitored. He has proven this in some of the things he tells him and he does. He is not one to completely trust anyone and he has absolute power.

From what I have watched from Cdramas (I have not read up on Chinese history, so I definitely have limited knowledge), soldiers are loyal to their commanders when they are raised under a banner of a family. For example, in story of kunning palace, the Yan family had their own military force that they raised and that they mostly funded. So even though they were loyal to the kingdom, they were first and most importantly, loyal to the Yan family. But not all military groups in the entire country are headed by singular families.
General Wu is the commander in charge of the military in the north, guarding the border. Before him, YX led the military, or he led a section under him. From the mission YX was sent on recently, it showed, to me, that General Wu was appointed the head of the military by the emperor and that is why he sent YX to check his alliance to him. If he was found guilty, he was to be eliminated. This would not be easy to do if it was family owned. The military usually need a royal command to take action.
With how paranoid and cruel the emperor is, why do we think he would have allowed a dingle individual to amass enough power over him ,or to stay in such power over this period of time? He already had the previous commander of the security bureau to gather intelligence and take out his enemies. He was able to defeat the army of Lord Ling's wife's family and that of the woman he loved.
At this point in the story, we may say that it is possible for YX to successfully rebel, but the probability is low to succeed and it will take a lot of time, years for him to amass the resources to pull it off.

If it comes to take drastic steps, the emperor is actually not done for. YX having military experience does not mean much here. He does not lead any army. He has only a group of people that are loyal to him, but are under the emperor and that is the security bureau. They are small in number and even YX said they were not even enough to take out Lord Xian's men.
The only person YX has on his side is the Dowager Empress, but what does YX have to say for her to side with him over her own son? If YX rebels, he'll lose the admiration that she has for him because there is actually no good reason for him to rebel. The emperor is a tyrant to the court officials and his family, but I do not think they have ever mentioned him having a terrible rule where the masses were going through untold suffering and he did not care.

The court does not know YX, except as the son of Lord Ling and as the favourite of the past emperor and empress. He has been away from the capital for 10 years and even now, they do not know he is back. Even if they do not like the emperor, they have no reason to side with a rebel they do not know. That is a very big risk because he will fail and they and their entire clans will be annihilated.

What a concluding statement. Why would you think so? I understand what you are saying, but I am telling you that not all situations are the same. You are not considering her personality and wishes in this, plus their family situation. But that's okay