Ti02

Qian Qian's son's father is Qi Min. Qian Qian ends up alone, she focuses on the good upbringing of her son.

I have sympathy for Qi Min because of his past. But he had become a terrible person, Qian Qian should not be forced to face repercussions due to his personality. More than anything, wanting the death of your own child, is terrible, regardless of your past.

Yes they get separated, and after FL knows his identity she declares the marriage void because his name is different, and he lied, plus when they separated, she did give him a divorce letter, though he didn't take that or something.
So yeah she decides that she should be something equal to him to marry him, so she joins the army. But after all their misunderstandings get cleared, all villains die, our leads get married.
In the novel, they had some extra chapters of their married life, I don't know if the drama will show that.

Hahaha, he will be there till ep 40. But I want to tell you their story is very important for the plot, for the climax and for the conclusion of the story. Like they are not a normal side couple introduced. They were very interesting in the novel, and I loved their tension in today's episode, so I think its going to enjoyable for everyone as well, as we see more of them.

The child is of Qian Qian, the businesswoman friend of FL. Father is the white haired guy Qi Min shown in the last few minutes of ep 11. He has a secret identity, but that's the biggest plot twist, so I don't know if you want to know that.
Him and Qian Qian do not have a good ending.

Its very dark its pathetic. Deng Kai is absolutely going to kill it, he was shown just for 5 minutes today, and that was the best part of the episode.
He really had a traumatic past, hence his personality is due to that. But regardless of everything a grown man taking bad decisions should not be understandable, hence his character is terrible, but I still sympathized with him.

Not his subordinate. She becomes a general but she doesn't serve under him. But yes ML's position initially was way superior than her.
By the end, she became very powerful as well.

My man was shown for 5 minutes today, and you want him gone! Let him at least do something first. Hehe.

About Deng Kai's character. He is the father of Qian Qian's son, but it was not consensual, from both sides. Both were drugged. Qi Min never wanted a child. He hated the woman with whom he was forced to sleep. In fact both of them did not recognize each, they don't have memories of the night.
Later Qi Min was saved by Qian Qian, without her knowing that he was her child's father, that's when he fell for her. But she ran away when she was pregnant, and he has been trying to find her since many years.
Qi Min has a really bad past. But he is a terrible person as well. He hates his child, wants him dead, wanted to kill the woman he slept with, before falling for her, hates her loves her, is very obsessive.

The chemistry of the 2nd and 3rd couples are pretty as well. Yeah I was excited about the second couple after reading the novel, I did not want to like the 3rd couple but now I liked the tension between them. Huhh!

The forceful kiss, hiding his identity can be considered. Rest everything was fine. Depends upon the thinking of different people. Its more different, because unlike the drama where they hug each other, even have kissed once, in the novel, that forceful kiss was the first show of affection. Ig that changed stuff, it was all of a sudden, and FL did not expect that. So yeah.

Xie Zheng kissed her forcefully once. They have kept it in the drama, I saw reuters video. But except that instance, he was always good to her. He was possessive, but there was no controlling nature or anything.

I know, I have read the novel. Its just people who have not read the novel, don't know anything about him, so for now because I did not add a spoiler tag to it, I said complicated grey, because as per the previews released, people can expect that. Let people imagine for a while what kind of person he is.

I suspected Deng Kai's character to be a villain in The Wanted Detective, for 20 episodes, and he wasn't. That was such a let down for me.
So I am glad he is complicated grey character here. Also so hot with his white hair.

Its moving, but there are many changes. Like the main plot remains the same, but there are changes in few subplots. Few characters have been introduced way too early, few characters have been little altered, and few scenes are cut.
Again it was a long novel, they have to make additional changes to it in order to fit it in 40 episodes.

Its her ex husband, father of her son. He was possessive, complicated as a man.

In the novel, their separation, and ML's going to the war had nothing to do with the identity reveal. They also spent time after their reunion, then the identity reveal happened. The problem due to the identity wasn't as huge, they cope with it, the identity of FL plays a huge role.
But that was in the novel, drama has already made few changes. Its possible that their initial separation is due to the identity reveal, like because its just 40 episodes, they might combine 2 problems in the novel into 1.
Also he doesn't tell her the truth about his identity, she realizes on her own.
As per previews released, its not clear when they will do it, because they have brought changes to it, but according to airing calendar there is a heartbreak sign in ep 16-17, so maybe then.

When his friend asked him if he fell for FL, he said if you were in my situation, dealing with revenge, palace politics, national issues, would you have fell for someone. So he denied. But yes as you said, that means if these issues were not part of his life, he would have.
He still has fell for her, he has just not admitted it outrightly. Because actions speaks louder than words. But your initial question was the exact moment where he becomes self aware and admits to himself about his feelings, no such scene is shown till the ending of ep 9.

Till ep 9, there has not been such a moment, where he accepts it himself, verbally. His friend, he, even as audience we can understand his feelings, but he has not admitted it himself till now.

No no its not at all hard. They were never really close, ML already suspects him. He was never happy in that house. At least it was like this in the novel.