Thuc Duyen

Pleasure, I enjoy reading your summary very much.

TThank you for the great summary yet again, much appreciated. If you may, I would like to draw some parallels between the remaining episodes to that of the novel:

- The Novel vs episodes 35 & 36: I have to add some extracts of the novel as they are so good and it adds all the flavour of their first night together:

During the Autumn Festival Banquet: RJ & JingA’s people drugged both MZH & LC ( Liu Chen). They brought drugged MZH in LC’s room and LC slightly drunk found MZH sleeping on his bed and has only realised how beautiful & simple MZH was. He could not help but observing her in the bedroom. RJ has arranged for Sun Yun Yun (SYY) to wear the same clothes as MZH to stand in the dark and made LY to hug her as he thought it was MZH but LY soon realised that it wasn’t MZH, he left the scene to look for her. LY overheard from the servants that there is a lady in the emperor’s room so he stormed in LC’s bedroom and saw that MZH was lying there, he then carried her on his shoulders and told LC that he would explain later.
MZH & LY are back in their house, MZH wakes up and is crying over the fact that he was pursuing SYY (misunderstanding give the gossip around the palace) & telling LY that he has promised her that he will only marry her. MZH is unsecured due to her family’s history with her mum being the concubine & him marrying various times. LY reassured MZH and his hands went through her long hair and he gently held her cheek and treating it like a treasure, "You finally went against your original intention, overcame your fear, and chose to believe in me and be with me, but you witnessed that scene... I made you misunderstand and made you sad. MZH throat was dried and her heart ached to pieces, but a hint of sweetness slowly oozed out from the pain. Her clear and bright eyes looked at him painfully with tears. LY’s heart felt like ice meeting the warm sun, melting into a piece of spring water. He felt soft-hearted and distressed at the same time.

Liu Yan wiped away the tears on her face with his fingertips and said softly: "I understand that it is not easy for you to accept me to spend my life with you. My heart bleeds seeing you cry but I'm also happy to know that you care for me. He kissed her affectionately and said softly, ZH, in front of me, I want yourself, being a child again and be willful and unruly.

MZH buried her face in Liu Yan's warm arms, hugged his tight waist with both hands, and quietly wiped her tears away. There is only one person in this world who truly understands her, appreciates her, pities her, and indulges her. She actually knew in her heart that it was just a misunderstanding, but she was too scared, afraid that she would risk everything and lose the bet. It was also at that moment that she realized how much she loved LY. That terrible desire for exclusivity almost tore her sanity to pieces, making her mad with anger and heartbroken. She was no longer the calm person she was. LY held MZH tightly in his arms, gently stroked her back, and smiled softly: "You once said that if a woman falls in love with someone, she will become stupid. Look at you now an idiot, do you really like me?" He asked jokingly, but didn't expect that MZH to look into his eyes very seriously with tears, and sobbed: "I like you, so what, does it give you the right to bully me? The sudden confession made Liu Yan lose his mind for a moment. He lowered his head and stared blankly at the lips that opened and closed in front of him. No other words could be heard in his ears. He leaned over and kissed her lips. The soft lips were squeezed wit his long tongue in her mouth. The man's melancholy breath invaded her mouth, and it was as unstoppable as if he was conquering a city and plundering everything from her. The arms that hugged her tightened her slender waist, and one hand rubbed her thin back with such strength that it seemed as if he wanted to pressed her into his bones and blood. Her body pressed against him involuntarily, her soft curves perfectly fitting his hot body, and even thick clothes could not prevent her from feeling the heat of his body.
MZH felt like a snowball that was about to be melted by the scorching sun, and LY's greedy hug made her tremble, feeling both fear and inexplicable longing, and she seemed to be yearning for such intimacy deep in her heart. She responded awkwardly to LY's lips and tongue, but she didn't know that she had stirred up a more intense fire. LY gasped and let go of her red and swollen lips, staring deeply at her cheeks and wet eyes. MZH stretched out the tip of her pink tongue and licked the stinging wound on her lower lip. The unconscious action made LY's lower abdomen feel even hotter, making her breath suffocate. She sat on his lap, their bodies were tightly pressed against each other, MZH immediately noticed the reaction of her body, that froze and wanted to move to the side, but she was so weak that she couldn't lift it up. LY grabbed her twisting waist with both hands and said hoarsely: "If you move around again, I won't be able to bear it anymore." MZH didn't dare to move immediately, she timidly raised her eyes to look at LY, then lowered her eyes very quickly, the hands around his waist hooked his waistband, groped it back and forth with her fingertips, He muttered in a low voice: "Then...then don't bear it anymore..." LY's heart shrank suddenly, and his eyes glanced at her red and swollen lips, the delicate and smooth skin at the open neckline, and measured her slender waist with both hands. She was dressed in a sanctimonious scribe's robe, but her face was pink and charming, and her slightly trembling eyelashes revealed her anxiety and a hint of expectation.
LY took a deep breath, and suddenly pushed MZH down into the soft quilt, half of his body pressed on her soft body, with his hands on her sides, he leaned over and whispered in her ear: "Are you sure... Are you ready?" MZH closed her eyes tightly, and said with a heroic trembling voice: "Of course!" A low laugh came from her ear, and the hot and humid touch swept over her sensitive ear, and he even bit her soft earball lightly. "good." Caressing her body with both hands, with a light hook, he untied the shackles of the girdle, and slowly removed all the coverings on her body. The seemingly thin and slender body was soft and delicate everywhere. The slightly rough palm touched every inch of her skin, and tasted her with his lips and tongue. The soft and delicate body is like a growing peach blossom that is slowly unfolding its tender petals. Every inch of the petals is dyed with a gorgeous pink. The strong fragrance is stronger than a thousand years of mellow wine. It makes people intoxicated, and makes people want to drink it all in one gulp, and then grind and smash the petals, and swallow them into their stomachs without a trace.
She melted under him like a small young snowman, and finally felt shallow on the paper. The unfamiliar lust was more unbearable than the last time she was poisoned. She bit her lip and tried to hold back the moan that overflowed her mouth, but she was choked by a stick. She tried to open her lips and teeth with her fingers, and heard LY's deep and hoarse voice say: "Don't bite yourself." She bit her finger and inadvertently swept the tip of her wet tongue over his fingertips. She heard his breath hitch, and then he lightly bit her sensitive area, making his breathing become heavier and faster. He is an extremely patient person. He can not only open up her defenses little by little, but also melt her body little by little, making her gasp and moan softly, and tears of joy and pain ooze from the corners of her eyes. , with a gentle sweep of his tongue, all the flavors he tasted in her returned her in his mouth. MZH clung to his shoulders, immersed in the dazzling ecstasy he gave her, thinking in a daze that the love between two people was so ecstatic. But the next moment, split the physical pain made her frown and cry. "No, no more..." MZH's blushing cheeks suddenly turned pale, and she was sobbing into his shoulder, feeling both painful and upset, "It hurts... please come out..."
Liu Yan's hand caressed her tense back, but this time he did not listen to her words. He bit her ear, and his deep and hoarse voice was full of lust and robbery: "It's too late..." He opened her body bit by bit, and tried his best to comfort her and ease her pain, until a blush appeared on her face again, and she let out a sweet moan, and then turned into a pool of spring water with repeated thrusts. In the end, she screamed until she was speechless. The man who kept saying he loved her went to the bed and loved her. He squeezed out every ounce of strength from her before he took her into his arms and kissed her gently. The loneliness that has occupied his empty life for the last twenty-six years of his life seemed to have suddenly fulfilled with happiness at this moment.

- The Novel vs episodes 37 & 38:

In the novel, RJ & SJH have put their plan into motion with accusing the Sun family of embezzlement, corruption and LC have decided to put him into prison. The Zhuo family was worried and knew they would be next. Contrary to the drama, both families were united to fight against SJH’s change of the merit system as well as going after the noble families. SJH then started to falsely accused LY of all the crimes and recommended LC to also punish him severely. RJ & SJH have started to spread the fake rumours about LY’s crimes to his army. The plan did not work out as his army was very loyal to him and started to rebel demanding that he is to be released. Since LY refused to accept all of the alleged crimes, SJH arrested ZM & ZJ and threatened LY to chop their hands off should LY refuse to admit of his crimes in front of his army and demand that they go back to their home which LY complied.
Meanwhile, RJ colluded with the northern Liang army by asking them to get ready to attack the south at the gate when LY is killed.
MZH is working behind the scene by going to see the great aunt to intervene the execution of LY by poison. The great aunt gave MZH the precious sword to show up at the prison to save the day whilst the great aunt went to visit LC and begged mercy for LY her favourite nephew. The execution was halted for one day as LC still wanted to carry out LY’s execution as an example.
MZH showed up at LC’s palace bringing all the evidences that alleged crimes were fabricated. She begged LC for mercy and reminded the time when she saved him after the fight between him & the second prince. He did tell her at that time that he would fulfil her request no matter what and that request is now “to pardon & release LY”. Poor LC, he felt so bad seeing her cry and loved LY so much that he wishes someone like her would do the same for him. He then agreed to fulfil her wish and gave her the token to go to prison and save LY. Back in prison, SJH being a jerk putting LY down and told him that not even his nephew would believe in him as LY exposed SJH in prison. SJH wanted to carry out the execution quickly so that they could start accelerating their other plan which is asking the northern Liang army to attack and put RJ into the throne. MHZ took the token and ran out of the palace straight to prison to save LY. It was too late when she arrived in LY’s cell and SJH said to her that she could bring his body home with contempt ( I wanted to punch him so bad). MZH tried to resuscitate LY and cried telling that she would be willing to marry him, be his wife and even stay at home if he could wake up now ( I cried a river at this point in time). MZH fell into coma for 3 days and when she woke up, ZM & ZJ told her that LY was buried like an ordinary person due to his alleged crimes. She then worked hard to defend LY’s honour by investigating and exposing SJH.

Novel vs Ep 39 & 40:

In court, the noble families hated LC & SJH for killing his own uncle, the noble families. They have decided to not show up in court which would alienate LC. RJ has given signal for the northern Liang army to move towards the south and ready to attack. The ministers are useless and did not defend LC in court and even suggested that LC abdicate to give power to the northern army. LC was enraged and decided to join his army to defend his country and gave the order that no one leaves the city and those that flee would be executed. Meanwhile, the noble families have started to bring all their wealth and assets and flee the city to start a new kingdom in another city and start to think of the transition to a new emperor puppet that listens to them. They thought that that person would be RJ as she is a woman, she does not have any political ambitions and she does not have an army to rally around her. Oh boy, how wrong they were. They bumped into RJ at the gate and made her de facto the empress should LC ever dye. RJ refused to open the gate and let anyone leave the city and the traitors ministers were all shocked of her decision.
Outside of the gate, LC is leading his army and confronted the northern army and killed them by putting some traps in place. The northern general recognised LY’s strategy but not see LY but LC instead. The northern general wanted to attack LC and thought that if he killed LC first then his army would surrender. Surprise, surprise, LY came to save the day and capture the northern general (Yamu Zhen?). Back at the palace, it was chaos and the noble families people caught SJH and put him to prison. It was Jing An that came to save him but some of LC’s people have arrested them in the process. SJH killed Jing An & her people before captured by LC’s people. Everyone got scared inside the gate as they overheard the big noise of a big army coming towards the gate. A soldier has announced that it is LC’s army and that they won the battle. Everyone celebrated and opened the gate with the victorious army led by LC following by LY. RJ’s reaction seeing LY mumbling was he not dead? Well, no love and learn to deal with it.
Back inside the palace, LC, LY, RJ and SJH are discussing of SJH’s evil plan and crimes. RJ was playing dumb as if she was not aware of anything. Well, LY exposed her by telling her that all of these were carried out under her orders. He exposed her of killing the dowager empress, setting fire in the palace, killed hundreds of people in the palace, her sending his soldiers to death 5 years ago. He accused her of changing the edict, causing chaos in the country by alienating LC with his ministers, killing innocents. RJ then called up her army inside the palace to attack and prevented LY’s army to come to their rescue. LY has planned everything and MZH and great aunt showed up in front of them with the sword. Every soldiers dropped their swords and in LY’s army. The great aunt is begging RJ to stop everything and come back with her and then she will guarantee her survival. They have decided that SJH will be executed by stones lynching so he then took the precious sword to kill himself for RJ and then she also committed suicide with the same sword.

LY has started to unravel the plan that he and LC came up and explained to MZH how they tried to make RJ make a move as she had been prudent so far. LY came to the palace and told LC of the night when the old emperor drank the poison that dowager empress prepared for LY but old emperor wanted LY and his mother to have peace with each other so he drank in his place. Dowager Empress killed her own son and yelled at LY asking him to leave the palace. LY was also slightly poisoned and left the palace before the palace was on fire. LC was pretty upset and still mumbling that his father died because of LY. LY also explained that he suspected RJ was behind all these killing and wanted his throne by creating the chaos with the noble families. LY also gave LC a fake poison pill but was not quite sure whether LC would agree and go along with his plan. When he took the fake poison, ZM & ZH switched his body as he was buried with no formalities and brough him back home to care for him.
After these chaos, LY and MZH have decided to move to the north help negotiate the peace treaty with the norther Liang people. They have implemented the governance system as in the south and have funded schools for girls to have the opportunity to study. They have opened up the trade routes between north and south. When MZH & LY got married, they even wrote to LY to let them work and being a married couple. When MZH & LY left, the Lian people cried and begged LC to let MZH & LY stay in the north with them. LC married to an ordinary girl and has a boy & a girl. He refused to take on any concubine and his empress is very dedicated to him and live a happy life. MZH & LY have a son that grew up following LC.
I hope I don’t bore you too much. I love the drama but I think the novel has given me more flavours of all the politics, love. It is just my opinion.

They have changed it here in the drama vs the novel. He is and remains the super villain till the very end in the novel that I want to punch him & RJ. Thank god the drama has given him a bit of remorse at the end as compared to the novel.

Not that I am aware of unfortunately. You may want to use google translate?

Exactly, he has been following LY since his childhood. He is so cute when he is looking at MZH discreetly and is is trying to suppress his feelings for her.

Love him. He is even better in the novel. What I mean is he is LY 2.0 when LY was younger but this time with lots of maturity, kindness & wit.

Great summary, I look forward to reading your summary of the remaining episodes which I have already watched whilst doing my work LOL. I will make some observations between the drama & novel. The drama is relatively well done, has retained more of less the main features of the novel. However, I prefer the plot in the novel as it has a lot of suspense, heartbreaking moments & love between MZH & LY.

No worries. I really enjoyed reading the novel. There were a few chapter that I really liked especially from chapter 66 onwards.

In the novel, LY survived the fake death. LY told LC ( young emperor) of how his father died that night by poison in the palace. Dowager empress wanted to kill LY by putting poison but the old emperor came back on time to prevent his mother from killing LY. By doing so, the old emperor deliberately drank the poisoned wine in LY’s place. Mama empress was crying & held her dying son in her arms whilst screaming at LY & telling him to get the hell out of the palace. He did also tell LC that he left well before the dowager empress’s wing in the palace was on fire and that he did not kill the old emperor nor the mama empress. LC was still very upset with LY at that point. LY came up with a plan with LC to let SJH accuse LY of killing the old emperor, the mama empress in addition to rebellion, corruption, rape. & abuse of power to kill his subjects. LC gave SJH the authorisation to investigate in the death of his father & dowager empress and the fire that burned their bodies & killed hundreds of servants. For these crimes, LY should be condemned to death penalty. LY even gave LC the fake poisonous pill. Since LC was still very upset with LY, he wasn’t sure that his nephew would follow his plan.. SJH really wanted to kill LY quickly so that they could execute RJ’s plan to make her become empress. MZH cam3 to prison too late as LY already drank the poisoned wine. Since LY was accused of these crimes, the funerals cannot be arranged like the royal family members nor officials so it was like an ordinary person. This would allow ZM & ZJ to switch LY’s body with another body that looks like LY. This would help the doctor to care for LY to wake up afterwards.

In the novel, It was part of LY’s plan with LC (Liu Chen) to falsely accuse LY of rebellion, corruption and all the crimes. These alleged crimes were concocted by princess RJ & SJH. LY was then sent to prison, accused of these crimes & condemned to death penalty. Since LC did not want people outside of the court to know that they also accused LY of killing the old emperor & dowager princess so accused him of rebellion & all other crimes.

I forgot to mention that MZH’s father’s wife did some dirty business with Zhuang Zhiaofeng, then the Sun’s family. They got found out & were sacred of being punished by the young emperor. MZH’s father & the step mum came to ask for her help with the young emperor. She refused & they got upset, went to look for princess RJ’s help as they got people to follow MZH.

Agreed, hopefully they will release the remaining episodes tomorrow.

Thank you for a great summary once again. Well, I hope it is just her illusion of sitting on the throne because the biatch was given the power by the traitors ministers ( which SJH has managed to make LC alienate all of them & create discords) should something bad happen to LC during the battles against the norther army in the novel. She never had a chance to sit on the throne. I agree with your assessment on the death of her shifiu Sheng. The Suns are corrupted but I don’t recall of him being assassinated by the Sun family. On SJH, he was all I down with her disgusting shenanigans and the both of them have no remorse whatsoever and have stuck to their guns till death. The spoilers may be just deceiving as he did not switch sides even after being caught by the ministers’ people. MZH came to visit him in prison and asked him whether he had any remorse of creating these chaos and to which he laughed at her. On LC making LY the regent prince proves his father & uncle right that he is kindhearted and is cable of making the right decision.

I forgot to mention about a scene that we see in the spoilers of the new episodes released today was LY was forced by SJH to admit publicly that he used his power to kill, rape and oppress people or else SJH would chop ZM & his brothers hands off. LY’s army is very loyal to him as they knew that he was framed by SJH & young emperor Chen and they decided to rebel, hence LY had to speak to his men to defend the country and be loyal to young emperor Chen. In the novel, ZM & brother did not attack RJ so she & SJH were not aware of LY’s plan. They thought he was dead by the poison. When he unexpectedly returned from the battle with chen, she was like wait was he not dead yet, kind of like the mama empress saying in one the episodes why did you not die LOL.

RJ & HJH deserve each other. They will get what deserve at the end. I wanted to punch them with their evil plan of deceiving people & killing innocents to get her to the empress position after reading the novel. I understand that she was not being taken care of by the old emperor when her mother got killed by the dowager empress, that she has resentment that her father does not think that she deserves the empress position but her younger brother Chen. She did not even pull her fingers out when her father rushed back to the palace tryong to save LY from his mother’s evil plan. RJ knew that her father took the poisoned wine given to LY by the dowager empress. She was there waiting for her father to die and then called in SJH to kill the mama empress & set fire in the palace and destroying all the evidences with a view to putting all the blame on LY. She did not even care about her own father let alone her half brothers. She does not even show any love to SJH during the whole time but only towards the end when both of them got exposed and killed themselves.

I love reading your summary. You have a real writing talent. Your spoilers make me laugh 😂 a lot of times.

Chen telling MZH that she needs to bring real evidence was part of LY’s plan to falsely accuse LY and put him through death penalty with a view to exposing crazy RJ’s whole plot. In the novel, young Chen was so moved by MZH’s honesty, begging and also to some extent trust for his uncle that he did pardon LY by giving MZH the token so that she could go to prison and save LY from death penalty. Young Chen was about to give in and wanted to tell MZH about their plan but couldn’t.

They have slightly changed the plot in the drama in comparison with the novel. In the novel, dowager empress got killed by SJH under the order of princess RJ the night the old emperor died from poison. SJH set fire in the palace and burnt both the dowager empress, emperor bodies and killed hundreds of servants. She does not show any love to SJH until the end when their plot of making princess RJ the empress got exposed by LY ( lord Ding) and they had no where to go and decided to kill themselves towards. Until then, I wanted to punch the both of them and curse so bad as they were pretty ruthless towards LY and everyone else. The whole soft talk of the princess is just a effing show, pardon my French. Young emperor Chen is completely blind listening to the effing SJH the entire time until LY told Chen the whole truth about what happens that night when the old emperor & mama empress died. He told young Chen that he suspected princess RJ the mastermind behind SJH’s actions. LY came up with the plan with SJH of abusing power, killed innocents and being a complete jackass vis-a-vis his own subjects. He even gave young Chen the fake poison pill to fake his death but was not sure whether young Chen would go along his plan as Chen was still angry about the death of his father. LY did not even tell MZH of his plan with a view to exposing both SJH & the princess. I cried a river when MZH came to the prison to save LY from death penalty but it was too late. Effing SJH was so happy as he thought he really LY before he starts investigating into their dirty businesses. ZM & his. Brother know of LY’s plan and changed the body in the coffins and chose someone that looked very alike lord Ding. Phew, he survived and came back with a big bang by assisting young Chen win the battle against the northern army. Princess RJ was playing dumb in front of young Chen & LY until LY told her that SJH was acting under her orders. Princess RJ planned everything even having a freaking army & servants put in place around the palace. She took advantage of the opportunity that LY’s army was tired , injured a father the battle to take control over the palace & retained LY’s army outside of the gate. Luckily, LY ain’t stupid, he asked MZH to bring the old respected princess (LY’s aunt) to stop crazy RJ. The old princess took care of RJ after the death of her mum. When both RJ & HJh got exposed, SJH decided to kill himself first and then RJ joined him.

In the novel, he survived and it was really heartbreaking when MZH thought that he died despite the fact the young emperor decided to pardon him after MZH begged the young emperor. I wanted to punch SJH & the princess RJ as they were pretty ruthless in the novel. MZH fell into coma for 3 days after this dramatic turn of event and she has been informed by Zhimo that LY is still alive and that was part of the plot to expose princess RJ & SJH. When the soldiers of the north was about to invade the south. The young emperor Chen decided to defend his own country as the majority of the army was resentful that he gave order to kill LY ( their general). LY came to rescue of Chen’s army by attacking the head of the northern army ( the guy that came to visit the south and offered his sister to marry LY, I can’t remember his name so sorry for that). Both uncle & nephew joined hands to defend and won the battle against the north. SJH was captured by the people that supported the noble families whom SJH wanted to destroy just to aliénante the noble families against LC ( Liu Chen). Whilst LY was fighting, princess RJ got herself declared by the noble families empress should LC die in battles. When the noble tried to flee the city, she purposely stayed behind to keep the throne . To her surprise when the soldiers announced that LC & the army won the battle , she saw the return of LY with LC. She initially planned to blow the northern army’s inventories up & their army. Back to the palace LY, LC have started to confront SJH in front of princess RJ. She has been silent the whole process until LY exposed her and she started to pull her cards with all the servants & soldiers she & SJH put in place over the years. Her people started to attack LC & LY but unfortunately LY ain’t stupid so he sent MZH go & bring back the eldest princess (LY’s aunt) that took care of princess RJ after her mum died. She intervened by bringing the supreme prefer aka “sword” with LY’s army No one dares to rebel but SJH took the sword and killed himself. Princess RJ then used the same sword to kill hereof as she knows that her days are numbered even the eldest princess offered her to take her back to their palace and live there peacefully. LY & MZH are set to go the north to negotiate peace treaty with the north becoming the protectorate of the south. LY & MZH have also decided to move their to help with the governance, exchange of trading systems between the north & south. The northerners ended up living the couple. They even write to the emperor to let them get married and still work as officials. Our couple will return to the capital, married and have a son and continue their official works. The end.

In the novel, LY & the emperor have planned LY’s fake death to expose the traitors (princess RJ & SJH). LY did not tell MZH of his plan & he was not even sure whether the young emperor would go along with his plan by giving him the fake poison pill). Before carrying out this plan, LY told the young emperor the truth about the night when the emperor died by taking the poison that his own mother intended to give to LY & he told the young emperor that he left the palace well before the fire started at the palace & killed both the emperor and the dowager empress. The young emperor was very upset with LY at that point and have told the young emperor of his suspicions of princess RJ & SJH.