Yerisina

I agree with you, but of course everyone is entitled to their own opinion. 😊

Zi Ang‘s actions pre time skip are understandable, post time skip … yes, but also no.
No person is worth genocide.

Thank you for your wonderful reply. I think it’s sad how some people misunderstand XSH, thinking he was weak. To me he was strong, intelligent and fiercely loyal to South Hui.
Also your input on XSQ and politics - quite a complex subject, that could have been explored a little bit more, weren’t it for their extremely tight budget.

I wouldn’t say it’s healing, but good

How can anyone—other than the people themselves—truly know or compare how much one loves the other, or whether their love is equal? What feels clear is that both loved profoundly, perhaps even too much. “Like fire and powder, which as they kiss consume.” Zi Ang became obsessed, while Shu He was torn apart by betrayal, his love and hate hopelessly intertwined.
I also don't think it's about who wronged who more, they both wronged each other.

And while Zi Ang said that Shu He had deceived him his whole life, I don’t think this is true. Before their first kiss, Shu He confessed all his lies and revealed his true self. Zi Ang, meanwhile, opened his heart but still concealed his identity. From that moment until the fateful night at the bridge, Shu He was nothing if not genuine. Zi Ang may have been the only person who ever truly knew Shu He—not Shu He the Sixth Prince of Southern Hui, but Shu He the man.

After the time skip, Zi Ang’s “love” had twisted into obsession—so consuming that he could no longer see Shu He as he was, or the suffering he endured. If Zi Ang’s love were truly selfless, he would have recognized how deeply he had hurt him. Instead, he convinced himself that as long as Shu He was alive, everything would be fine. But it wasn’t.

And yet, despite being humiliated before the court, held captive like a canary in a gilded cage, shakles around his bloody ankles, Shu He still loved Zi Ang. He hated himself for it, but he couldn’t stop. That’s exactly what Shen Song had warned him about: don’t fall for real. After all, the best disguise for a lie is to embed it in truth. And whenever Zi Ang and Shu He were close after the time skip—when Shu He touched him, bathed him, shared his bed—those moments were not lies. They were his real feelings, his real love, not little tricks he used. Yet he still wanted out of this misery his life had become.

It was only after his failed escape, and Zi Ang on his last days, that the plan for revenge took shape.

And with revenge—and the possibility of freedom through death—Shu He could finally give himself over completely to his feelings. He could allow himself to express the full depth of his love. That’s why the day they spent together—playing the zither for him while he "sword-blossom danced", getting married, tying their souls together for eternity—was so profound. He wouldn’t have done it if it weren’t real.

Fake nails and fake flowers, they bothered me too.

I feel empty. It is over.
It was tragic and yet beautiful. There was no other possible outcome, and for how far both Zi Ang and Shu He were gone, this ending provided the only peace they could ever find.

The acting was great, and their chemistry undeniable from the very beginning. I've been into BL for almost two decades, mostly a silent observer. Yet for this I want to scream from the rooftops how amazing it is. (Almost) perfection. May this drama and the actors get the recognition they deserve.
A tiny few details I would have liked to be done differently, but thats mostly due to their budget restraints.

"...he thought there were no more secrets between them ..."
Yes, exactly. Shu He's expression on the bridge changes the second his brother says that Zi Ang is a spy from Norhtern Ji. He goes from "let us leave the city together" to "what the...?" in a split second.
It's not that Shu He didn't suspect /know it (at least the part of being a crimson shadow guard, not the fact that Zi Ang was in the line of successsion to North Ji's throne), it's just that he chose to trust him and what he said about never leaving Southern Hui.
Shu He bared his soul to him - his dreams, his shortcomings, everything. But Zi Ang hid his true identity. To Shu He there must have been countless occasions in which Zi Ang could have told him the truth, yet didn't. Shu He warned him that his trust was a fragile thing. That he wouldn't be able to forgive him if he ever did something detrimental to the Southern Hui kingdom.

Just a thought that crossed my mind…

What if Huai Yi is poisoning Zi Ang? Because he was fine before the time skip. Also it’s a lie that all the previous commanders of the crimson shadow died young. Zi Ang’s uncle looked at least 50-55 years old, definitely past his prime.

Maybe Huai Yi is just fed up with Zi Ang acting the way he does? Wants the throne for himself? Or he never was his brother to begin with?
I know it’s not the time for theories, but I can’t help myself.

Huai Yi disobeyed Zi Ang‘s orders and had them executed.

There's so much, where to begin?

"You lost."
"Don't let me lose again."
"My teacher said that one must have clean hands and a calm heart when playing the zither."
"Trust is a fragile thing. I am willing to trust you again."
"So what if I do? So what if I don't? Who would care?"

We're here with you, let's go to group therapy together. 🤗

After I heard their comment on it I wasn't able to unsee the lack of extras, haha. I imagine that they even asked like the make-up arist 🤣 "Just stand there in the corner, please? We won't show your face, just make it look like there are people around."

I love this comment section with all your deep thoughts and analyses.

If episode 9 was a thunderstorm, then episode 10 is the aftermath. Eerily quiet, yet filled with chaos and pain in every direction one looks.
There’s a lingering heaviness to the episode, a weight of complex emotions—loneliness, guilt, pain, shame, love, devotion, desire (and the list could go on).

“The only thing worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself.”
I feel bad for both of them, but I love every second of it.

On a completely different note, I want to highlight two scenes, because I they didn’t just say what they said!

“Where did you get the dagger?”
“You have a habit of hiding a blade under your pillow. It hasn't changed.”
* cough cough*
“How come I didn't know you knew how to tie people up? After I left, someone taught you something new.” - “Don't try to flatter me.”
*spits tea*

But this is also layered with bitterness— memories of something that once brought them together, pure and innocent, but has now warped into pain and mistrust.

And if that weren’t enough, Shen Song bofore the bathing scene:
“This medicine is good for your wound too. If you want, you can be with him.”

Haha, that’s why you should run when someone gifts you a dagger, admitting he killed 19 people with it over the past seven years.

We don't know yet... there is only speculation.

Well, this episode did have quite a lot of exposition—I’d agree with that. Maybe it was a bit much, but at least they tried to keep it concise. Personally, I’d rather get a distilled version of the events than sit through long episodes without any progress in the relationship. I watch BL for the romance, and I want it front and center. So if they drop the necessary plot points quickly just to move the story from point A to point B, that works for me—because then we can finally watch Zi Ang and Shu He reuite and watch their story unfold.

I think both are official, they sometimes post the same content (like previews for the upcoming episodes), but they also have different content. The full episodes are only available on one channel though. I suscribed to both.

Yes, those lines are so good. Especially the contrast between Duan Zi Ang and his father.

"I won't lose a kingdom because of a romance.“

"I don't care about the kingdom , I just want one person"