Vespertyne29

Finished and over all this was a very enjoyable, entertaining drama. I'm quite satisfied with it, even though the ending was - as usual - too rushed.

The things I loved:
1. Our main couple and the actors who played them! This was yet another good role in a good drama for Liu Yuning. He has a talent for picking roles that I really like, starting with the first drama I saw him in, The Long Ballad. He caught my attention with that role. This is probably my favorite of his dramas so far, because although I loved A Journey to Love, the ending killed me. This was a much better ending, although I do have some complaints. The FL Song Zu Er was new to me, but I really liked her character, also. She and LYN had great chemistry and even greater comedic timing.
2. Speaking of comedic timing, the constant injection of comedic scenes was a definite plus, so kudos to the screenplay writer who adapted this from the novel. I really don't recall much humor in the novel, so adding it to the drama made it more entertaining to watch.
3. The Wei Generals - loved all of them and their interactions, which made up the majority of the comedy in the drama (although our leads also had their share, just more subtle!) It's always a good sign when I love and care about the side characters in a drama. This is another LYN drama where he has great supporting characters to flesh out the drama.
4. The happy ending for our couple! The trend of Cdrama directors taking perfect, happy novel endings and turning them into outright tragedy or the "is he alive or is this her imagination/dream/wishful thinking/memory" so-called "open ending" is super annoying. While the drama changed some things that I think were better in the novel, it also streamlined the plot, added humor, and gave us a great lead couple whose relationship constantly evolved and improved throughout the course of the drama. A most excellent enemies-to-lovers story.

What I did not like:
1. In the novel, I loved Bi Zhu! He was strong, intelligent, handsome, and devoted to his wife. The wife - FL's cousin - was also likable, and equally devoted to her husband. But I couldn't stand either of them in the drama. I started out liking Bi Zhu and feeling neutral about the cousin, but as their story progressed, Bi Zhu was increasingly portrayed as being dumb as an ox and henpecked to an absurd level. In the novel he was helpful when he needed to be, and at one point appeared in Wei and saved Qiao Ci's life. I honestly didn't care that the cousin died at the end because I disliked her character so much . She wasn't "redeemed" at the end for me. And while I never hated Bai Zhu, his character was just boring to me. I wanted the smart, powerful, natural leader I loved in the novel. There is a way to portray love and devotion for a spouse without emasculating and dumbing down a character.
2. Although I don't recall a romance between the FL's maid and one of the ML's Generals in the novel, it was really adorable and entertaining for the drama. Their screen time was fun and one of the most enjoyable parts of the drama. So a big fat BOO to the writer who felt they had to inject "drama" by the absolutely gratuitous death of Wei Liang. It served no purpose other than to try to make viewers shed tears. The ONLY possible positive view of his death is that maybe it satisfied the director's desire to have a SE or ambiguous OE for our main couple, which at least we avoided.

This is my favorite drama of 2025 so far. Quite enjoyable. I still think that my favorite Cdrama in the last year is Blossom, but this is definitely second. And just as I was thrilled to see Li Yun Rui's popularity skyrocket after Blossom, and I equally thrilled to see Liu Yuning's popularity increasing with Prisoner of Beauty - he deserves it, especially after all the mean and undeserved criticism of his looks after some of his other ML roles.

I have my Tencent app set up so that I skip the opening and closing credits, because I find that Cdramas can telegraph too much of the plot in those. Haven't seen the trailer, either. I started this solely because of comments and a clip posted on Bluesky or Reddit. I've recently become addicted to the good mini-Cdramas, as sometimes I want the satisfaction of a binge-watch but just don't have a lot of time.

My thoughts were more along the lines of the issues with his true identity. I just started this last night and went through the episodes pretty quickly, but if my perception and memory are right, Pei is the son of the previous emperor, who was overthrown by the last emperor, the father of the FL. And also, didn't Pei basically kill - or hasten the death of - the FL's father? In Cdrama land, these types of blood feuds aren't just be dismissed and forgiven. So pretty early on it seemed that if the FL found out the true identity of ML, there would be no way the could be together.

But maybe I misunderstood what I saw - sometimes with these very fast-paced dramas, I have to go back and rewatch a scene to figure out what's happening. (And in the long, multi-character historical fantasy dramas with tons of characters, many of whom are named "Left" or "Right" minister of something and wear identical outfits and have similar facial hair, I actually write down each character with identifying information and their family members (usually sons
and daughters who have major support roles in the drama).

But let's keep our fingers crossed for a HE!

IKR? haha! I am in love with this couple!

Hummm. I don't know. That pretty much looked like a seduction set up to me! I loved the way they let us all know he wasn't really a eunuch, when the camera shows them kissing and then falling together onto - a bed, cushions, whatever - behind the curtains, with the camera pulling back so they are completely out of sight, and then her voice over, "Pei Shen Zhi! You . . . why aren't you . . ." hahaha!

I absolutely LOVE this mini Cdrama! The leads are new to me - I did watch In Blossom, but don't really recall the ML (not sure how big a support role he had), and I don't recall ever seeing the FL previously. However, both are doing an excellent job, with their acting, and the chemistry is on fire!

I also like the directing and the sets/costumes - the director did another mini-Cdrama I liked - Fortune Writer. Like the super talented director of many of my favorite mini-Cdramas, who in 2024 directed my favorite Cdrama of the year, Blossom, this director should try a full-length drama (or maybe she has already, but I think the short Fortune Writer is the only previous drama of hers I've seen).

The one thing that worries me is whether this drama is going to have a SE - for some reason I'm getting that vibe. Is there a novel? And if so, does anyone have a link to it? (preferably in English, but I can also use Google translate).

I'm reading the novel, which is quite good. I find it interesting when a "reincarnated" FL was a flawed, pretty unlikeable character in her first go-around in her life, but "matures" as she ages, and so lives her second go-around with maturity and wisdom she previously gained. (Plus there is the knowledge of future events, which she often successfully changes in her second round of her life).
The very similar names of the very many characters have me a bit confused, though. I can't figure out who it is that she ends up marrying (based on the synopsis of the MDL synopsis of the novel). I can figure out the two other people (Ye Xian and Chen Xuan Qing, one who she had never met but only heard of in her first life, and the other the young man with whom she was obsessed),
I just reached the chapter in the novel where she meets the now 30 year old man to whom she was married to in her first life, but it wasn't clear to me that he is Chen Xuan Qing's father. If so, it's interesting that in her second life she would choose to again marry his father, but this time because she is in love with/likes him, and not just to be close to his son, with whom she was obsessed in her first life.
The age difference also works (I think the FL is 16 and the potential husband is 30), because the FL regularly mentions that she is 40 years old in terms of years she has actually lived (I think she was 37 when she died in her first life). So she is now "caught up" and even surpassed the years her prior husband lived (It sounds like he was killed within 3 to 5 years after they married).

Here is his description when his character is first introduced in the novel :

"The sixteen or seventeen-year-old youth was at the age of rapid growth, as straight as a new bamboo shoot. Even though he looked somewhat disheveled from being chased and beaten, he was still strikingly handsome.

Jiang Zhan, like Jiang Si, had inherited their mother’s looks."

Agreed. Although occasionally - very very rarely - a drama is SO bad that I keep watching it just to experience how awful it is. I think they call it "hate watching." But this drama is not even in the same stratosphere as a drama so bad that it's almost enjoyable to hate on how absolutely bad it is (usually it has the triple faults of very bad directing, very bad storytelling/writing, and very bad acting).

I am enjoying this drama. I prefer the novel, but I do think that the way the screenwriter has pared down the characters and spliced various separate storylines together to streamline the story is rather well done. There are a few things I wish were more like the novel - mainly the very funny emperor who sneaks around reading novels, hiding them under all the official documents he has to read, and randomly punishing the Crown Prince for just being a disappointing and incompetent dummy, and playing with his snooty white cat. It's also odd that they completely cut out the Empress Dowager in the drama, who was a spy planted decades earlier by the insect-controlling tribe, and whose job was to weaken the emperor's country, and see that he had no competent heirs, so it would no longer be a threat to her tribe. They kind of morphed her character into Princess Royal's. I also didn't like the whole "psycho princess wants to marry Prince Yan" storyline. That just didn't happen at all in the novel. Instead, after her downfall for flirting with FL's sister's husband, she got a reprieve by using her flesh (in the drama it's blood) to save the Dowager Empress (in the drama it's he Emperor), and her reward is getting betrothed to the Eighth Prince, who is the one who runs away from the wedding when the FL's sister's ex-husband shows up saying she's his fiancé, and who kills her and tosses her body in an old abandoned well on his estate shortly thereafter. And there her remains sit until the proper time for Prince Yan - or rather his dog - to find them and get rid of one more prince who could challenge his rise to the role of Crown Prince. She was even worse in the novel - a true sociopath, who whipped the tamed deer on her mother's estate to death until she found killing her maids and other humans was more (to her) enjoyable.

The actor started out playing the role too goofy, and as I said, he's rather plain and not at all the extremely handsome young man described in the novel, which I read prior to the drama. But I think his character has developed rather well, and I really like the actress/character his character is falling for. They are quite cute together.

I'm rereading the novel and keep thinking that it's a novel that really needs a talented writer and director to make it work on the screen. It's a very interesting novel. It's serious but has a lot of humor in it .

His casting is very disappointing. In the novel he is extremely good looking and, while hot tempered and immature, he loves and is very protective of his sister. He has nice character development in the novel and provides comic relief plus sweet scenes with his sisters and dad. The casting is way off for me.

Actually that makes me even less interested. I'm kind of tired of the recent trend of "female centric" wuxia Cdramas. And I am not a BL fan, so watching a female centric drama with her as the FL makes me even less inclined to tune in.

My favorite dramas are generally male-centric with little or no romance. Band of brothers, father/son conflict, detective/crime/thriller - to name a few of my favorites, Nirvana in Fire and Joy of Life (my top 2 Cdramas), Under the Skin, I am Nobody, Oh No, Here Comes Trouble, Blood of Youth.

But I also like quite a few female-centric dramas. My favorite Cdrama for 2024 was Blossom, and I also enjoyed Blossoms in Adversity, The Double, Are You the One, The Rise of Ning, and most recently am enthralled by Kill My Sins - excellent drama so far! All those have female-centric stories.

Word. 2nd ML got waaaay too much screen time. His “death scene” hogged 30 minutes of the last episode. I was yelling “Die already you mofo” at the TV 😹

Got the last episodes drop, and immediately checked the ending.

BRAVO TO THIS DIRECTOR!!♥️

I still have 4 episodes to go - but I think I can already say this is my favorite Cdrama of 2024!

(Icing on the cake if Song Han and FL’s evil uncle meet painful deaths!)

They also responded to my note to them. Apparently they were upgrading the website. Yay!

Yes, I will make that correction. She did, in fact, say best period drama.

OMG. AvenueX actually thinks this is the best period Cdrama of 2024 (so far!)
I agree (so far!).
It's so nice for my previously revered Cdrama guru - who has just been negative, hating everything, for the last 1.5 years - to finally appreciate a drama that I love (so far) and think will be my #1 for 2024 and will move into my top 10 Cdramas ever (SO FAR).
Please, director/writer - don't screw it up by trying to give us some "deep, social media frenzy inducing" ambiguous "open ending." Just follow the novel, please the fans, and give this drama the HE the lead couple deserves. Pretty please, with candied hawthorn on top!

I've read several novels there, but since I started reading Blossom, the site has had LOTS of issues. And it sucks because I have limited time to read and when it's down on weekends or at night, that is bad.

Earlier this week the site would load, and I could get to the Blossom page, but not a single chapter link would open. I checked multiple other novels, some of which I had previously read, and no links worked.

This afternoon the site is completely down. The error message is that the server is "busy" so try again later.

I am now in the 100s as far as chapters, and the ML FINALLY showed up. (OMG the early chapters of the novel are boring AF. The FL is an INFANT - maybe 3 to 5 - for about 70 chapters, and all the novelist does is introduce hundreds of uninteresting, unimportant characters. (Note: I can't help compare it to the novel Joy of Life, which I have read three times already. The ML starts out as a 1 or 2 month old baby, and the first few chapters are of him as a young child, but they are hilarious and interesting. And we are introduced to new characters, but they also are interesting and relevant throughout the story. This novel kept the FL as an infant WAY too long. And not even introducing the ML until around 114th chapter?? BOOOORING.
The screenwriter has done wonders - the drama is immediately attention grabbing and I haven't been bored one second. I love it!)

But regardless of the fact that the novel's first 70+ chapters are a snoozefest, now that it has finally reached a point where the lead couple meet as teenagers, I want to KEEP READING. But MyDramaNovel.com is constantly down. So annoying. Is the novel anywhere else???

Agreed! I first saw him in LLTG and was immediately smitten with his handsome, elegant character. I didn’t exactly have 2nd ML syndrome - I didn’t really like either of the lead characters and I liked his character. great to see him in this role. He’s definitely ML material!

The Double was a transmigration story that had to be altered due to the Chinese censorship standards. The FL is murdered by her husband and the princess, and her soul enters that of the daughter of the official’s family who was sent to the convent (the daughter gets sick and dies). The Double is one of my top 2024 dramas, but it would have been even better if the director and writer could have used the transmigration theme instead of having the older, married wife replace the younger girl in the convent. But the director did a great job despite having to make a major change to the story due to the silly censorship restrictions.