Say_do

I think you should attempt living in a gilded cage and them come back and tell me how it feels. The other sword wielders were amazing in combat and strategy but still could not stop their biggest enemy from gaining more ground, because they only sought to protect themselves (as in the Gong family). The women married into the family do not live long and their lineages are thinning out. Imagine that you can use freedom as bait to get someone to work with you in that family. It is a scary thing to live as a suffocated individual and you say it is stupid and irrelevant????
GSJ is dedicated to the old ways of doing things, with the ability to make it worse. But Ziyu is like fresh meat. When we talk about the change he can bring, we do not only mean for the women. We mean changes that can improve all their lives and eventually take care of their biggest threat.

Moreover, you know that there are assassins in his house, because you are a viewer. Why are you blaming him for not knowing when he does not have the same privilege that you do? Blaming him for not knowing the threats is similar to blaming you for not knowing who anonymous is. For not being able to unmask the leaders of the Wufeng. For not knowing the other higher level assassins they are yet to unveil. You do not know, we do not know, because the writer is keeping the mystery. We have not been told or shown and it is the same for them.
Lastly, this is not the first attempt of the wufeng to attack the Gongs. They are used to it. That's the reason for such tight security and rules in the first place. So right now, they are living out their normal everyday lives. You know there is imminent danger because like I said before, you are a viewer.

Everyone has a different personality and will react differently even in the same environment. Ziyu grew up being bullied because people believed a rumour about him being an outcast. He grew up watching his mother slowly wither away because of her environment and circumstances. But he also grew up with a lot of love from his dad at least, until his mother passed away and the man became strict. GSJ was not this bad when he was a kid. Losing his mom and brother because of assassins caused a tremendous change in him. And since he practically raised Yuanzhi, they are similar. Zishang's brother is very clearly a product of his environment. The women are looked down on and expected to be subservient in this clan. As if that is not bad enough, his mother and father that he shares with his sister, hate his sister because she is a girl and for whatever other reason. So there is nothing he has learnt that would make him act otherwise. Zishang and Ziyu grew up as outcasts, without the prestige that the other Gong kids had, and because of this, they are the nicer ones. The more considerate ones for those below them. But even Zishang acts with more authority in her position than Ziyu does. Everyone of them is different and the same environment does not compulsorily produce the same outcome.

Think about the time frame of these incidences. It has been less than a month since YWS and SGQ entered the property and even less time since he became SW. We can't expect a lot in such a short period of time. The second thing is to consider the fact that assassinations and attempts of it are not uncommon occurrences to them because like HYS said, they have been sending Wufeng spies into the Gong residence for decades. Even SJ's family was killed by them. The issue now is that there is probably a greater occurrence from what we can tell. Also, there isn't really any link between anonymous and wufeng at the moment. We only made the link because we are the audience. We also can see the urgency of their situation because we are the audience. We have the privilege of knowing this is a story, knowing the character descriptions and who is an enemy and all of that. The characters in the story don't know because they don't have the knowledge we do. They are living out every day of their lives.
Also, it is not compulsory to change your entire personality because of the tragedies you have experienced. Everyone processes things differently. In Lost you forever, Jing remained kindhearted even after experiencing betrayal and going through severe torture for so many years from his brother, and that's what drew Xiao Yao to him.
Lastly, he is going through changes, they just are not very obvious at the moment. I believe the start will be slow, but will have an exponential growth later, soon.

Exactly. I said it before, that Ziyu is the one that has the most capability to change things in his family with that position because he sees things differently and is more compassionate. He has a higher regard for human life, no matter the status of the person and that is something no one else has. I also pointed out before that the only times GSJ doesn't reign in GYZ when he's being excessive are when it comes to Ziyu and when it comes to the servants and guards. GSJ as SW would mean that the space in the bird cage would become smaller for everyone. It would be so suffocating to have him as SW and that is probably one of the reasons the elders and former SW did not give him the position of Young Lord, even though he earned it.

What a day. The most hectic lantern festival. Ziyu makes me laugh because he is so naive that I want to squeeze his cheeks and slap him at the back of his head at the same time. The funniest thing would be flipping the script on us where he is concerned lol. Ziyu's 2nd trial begins tomorrow. Let us see how it goes. Also, from the next two previews, GYZ and Ziyu are wearing light coloured costumes and it looks great on them.

Lmaooo 😂

The story is going to pick up pace real soon. Right now is a set up, a build up for the decisions the characters are going to make in this fight. They are all taking steps forward.

And not to sound like a broken record, but please be patient with Ziyu. Growth does not happen overnight. I said before that his growth, and now most likely that of the story may be slow in the beginning, but will gain momentum. Everyone is in like a deliberation stage. They are reconciling the past with the present and planning for the future. Making their decisions, gathering information. It'll be interesting to see what they all decide to do later. I just really wish the cousins can put aside their differences sooner, rather than later. I really wanted to smack the three boys today.

I believe she feels something for him especially because of that conversation she had with him with the door between them. She was genuinely heartbroken for a couple of reasons and actually wanted him to trust her.

Based on how the characters are written and the story, this seems very plausible

They do not need to show that from when they were kids. Minus the things they have done in the present, we can see that apart from the influence of his family situation, Yuanzhi is a reflection of GSJ. He is a teenager and that means he is be immature and does not value respecting others as much as the adults, like GSJ does. But GSJ has a firm hand on him. He will apologise when GSJ asks him to and will take his corrections to heart, as have been seen time and again. So even if GSJ did not outrightly call Ziyu a bastard and mock him and all of that, he was a propagator and enabler of GYZ's behaviour towards him. GSJ has never told him to apologise for anything he has said to Ziyu or stopped him from talking shit about him even in private, just as he never corrected him when he slapped that guard because he was angry the guard referred to Ziyu with his correct title as "Lord sword wielder." Ziyu is as lowly as the servants to them. Instead they plot and scheme and throw mud against him, Having no sympathy for a kid that lost his family overnight, when GSJ as we have now seen, should understand the same pain. Ziyu is now an orphan is something they don't care about. Lost his mother, then brother and father together. But they had the audacity to use his stepmother, the only parent he now has left, to set him up, humiliate him, they tried to use his last remaining parent to betray him because they do not like him, they believed a rumour about him, and they believe he is not deserving of his position. If they believed he was not deserving, if that was their only motivation, they should just wait for him to fail the trials. I mean, that's the real test for the position. After all, concerning his parentage, they could just trust the elders and give his mother the benefit of the doubt because those are rumours and the elders would not give that position to someone they believed was not biologically a Gong. Because Yuanzhi was at least in the residence at the time. Zishang has a younger brother, although he is still tiny. He can rule under a regency. Imagine that GSJ had the audacity to slap Ziyu the Sword wielder, in the Sword wielder hall when GYZ started the fight. That was very unnecessary and disrespectful because he paused, thought about it, bust still decided to go ahead with it. Is that good treatment?

Now back to when they were kids. Since the very first interaction on screen, Ziyu looked at GSJ with disgust and GSJ looked at Ziyu with condescension. It was not the sword wielder position that changed things, they had always been like this. So would you really say because we did not see GSJ call him a bastard or refuse to play with him in the throwback, that Ziyu was not bullied by him? He was maltreated and sidelined and looked at with disdain because of the rumour and I hope another reason because GSJ should not be this childish. Also, Ziyu and and GSJ are years apart. It probably would have been easier to play with GYZ than with him.
All of these mentioned things are bullying.

More than Ziyu's development into being fit enough for the position he holds, I'm eagerly waiting for the time when the cousins will end this darned feud. I think they're so relaxed in this nonsense because hell is not yet on their heels. They don't know what's coming.

I used to be more scared of SGQ than of YWS, but today, the tables have turned for me. YWS has the smarts and opportunity to hand this whole Gong family to the Wufeng because of Ziyu. She's really really really good in doing her job and Ziyu going through these trials is best timing. Like if she actually got with Huanyu, she would not have found out about the back hill because there would have been no need to go there because he had already passed the trials. But because Ziyu's order is the other way because of unexpected deaths, she is gaining so much valuable information. So the question now becomes how much is she willing to share to save herself now that she is falling for him?
But in another way, SGQ is more dangerous. YWS may be willing to share only part information with the Wufeng, but SGQ does not really have the same inclination. At this point, if she had all the secrets, she'd expressly deliver them.
This all just makes me more scared for their future. Will the Gong clan be willing to forgive and accept her when all this is done? Even if she only betrays them a little. Minus Ziyu of course.

On another note, if you are looking for ways to compliment Ziyu, just think of how much rizz he has that he is putting to good use now, which may save him later lol. He's seducing his woman, and you know love and affection are valuable tools to change an assassin's mind lol.

I'm both relieved and mad at what happened in today's episode. I'm happy GSJ and GYZ got what was coming for them today and mad at the whole situation. At the same time, I feel for GSJ's family story. GSJ and GYZ bullied their cousin from childhood because of a rumour that was being circulated. A bloody rumour. Even if he was not biologically a Gong, they should not have done that to an innocent kid. And they persisted in such shitty treatment till adulthood, Nauru, that's nasty behaviour. GSJ at least should have known better. Him doing the right thing would have taught Yuanzhi. And Yuanzhi, true to being a brat feels like he is owed something. He can't see his wrongs yet. They got a taste of their own medicine today. A tiny sample compared to what they've been doing.
I feel like the they will tackle wither GSJ or GYZ's story next, or they'll do both kinda together.
All these characters have scars. None of them escaped. So even though they annoy me, I still like them and am rooting for them. Except the Wufeng (minus YWS's raven).

Same. She is as arrogant as her raven, and YWS is like her own raven too.

Forget about the synopsis on MDL, not saying this is one of the times, but they prove to not be all encompassing many times. The way the story is told will tell you who it is about and from what we can see, there are 4 main characters, with the majority focus on Ziyu and YWS. Even the mdl character chart states that there are 4 MCs.

The lies that come out of YWS's mouth astound me because you just know she's lying, and she's's putting up such a great performance that would have anyone fooled. Her lies look so sincere that if you weren't a viewer, you wouldn't know. She laces the truth with the lies so well, too well. SGQ on the other hand, is full of pretence that you wonder if she cares about her target at all. Like her lies are not as well masked. You always feel that there is something else behind her words. It's so interesting to see the differences between the two.

Yes. Now we want to smack him sometimes, but we are being patient for his brighter future lol.

The show has 4 main characters, not 1. This story is not about YWS as the main plot. It is about many people, but the main characters are Ziyu, YWS, SGQ and GSJ. So the story will show all the characters it needs to show to tell the story the director wrote.
Honestly, we should think of it this way: someone wrote a story about characters he built, so who are we to say that he is giving too much screen time to a character he created? We're the ones losing focus due to bias and it feels unfair to me.

Wufeng sent in two three assassins into the Gong family because the more the better, and because they have failed every time they sent in a spy into that family for decades. Only one spy ever sent back word, and that was one occurrence in so many years. So you could say this is their big gamble with many years of preparation. Each of the 3 assassins sent in had different missions. The first one was to sacrifice herself in order to protect the main two. They cannot just send in one assassin into such a place and expect great results. They want to take them down and they need critical information and stuff from the two people they sent in.

I do not think so actually. That would mean a time jump at the, and if that is the case, there is no need to put the future character look in the poster, especially when they are not doing it for the main leads. Also, the number of episodes of this show is not enough to elaborate on the time jump as a segment of the story, which is the only thing that would warrant the future character to be put into the poster.
But that is by the way. If you noticed, during the flashbacks that Ziyu had to when he was small, the members of the Xue clan he saw were an older guy and a kid. And now that kid is grown up, so where is the older guy? In the present time, the boyish looking guy, that is actually the young master, was the older guy. He aged backwards physically. They are yet to explain him in detail, which is why I believe they cut off the older guy from the chest up in Ziyu's flashbacks.

There are some scenes where you can see JF smile slightly because of her antics and its cute lol.