YumzQ

It is very good. There are hooks in every episode that keep you watching and the plot so far has been excellent. It does require you to pay attention as the plot is fast paced. There is romance as a subplot so if you are looking for a drama with lot of romance, this is not it.

Why Zanghai entered the battlefield when he could be hiding in the shadows

Zang Hai came out to protect himself, to eliminate suspicion, and to let the generals above see him, so he was promoted after Pingjin Hou died, and came out to let the people above know that he also contributed to the suppression of the rebellion.

He had to make his presence known, that is how he got credit for at least stopping the rebellion and was promoted.

He barged onto the battlefield so he could get the credit too.

Why are people talking about unrealistic storylines and plot logic. Like the drama has been pretty good with filling it's plot holes so far.

It is pretty obvious he was taunting the Marquis. Zang hai wants the Marquis to rebel , only then will the Emperor actually act against him so I guess that's why zang hai told him the secret.

The emperor seems to have been based on Ming dynasty emperor Jiajing who was obsssed with drinking immortality elixirs. In fact I think the director purposely asked the actor to act like this showing no matter how powerful the marquis or eunuch cao is , they still have to submit to imperial power, to a weak man who only has power because he was born into it. It makes it more contrasting comapred to how the others are trying to get more power.

The actor is known for acting in military roles as a commander. He can definitely act more imposing so making the empror character weak was a character choice.

I think he is trying to provoke him to rebel. Like the Marquis said, the Emperor won't do anything to him now because of his past honour but if the Marquis commits treason, the Emperor will definitely have to kill him. So I think Zanghai bought up everything on purpose, especially the fact that the Marquis has other soldiers under his command.

For anyone curious, the drama had 61.81 M views on Yunhe yesterday with 29.1% market share whereas on Kuyun which counts both TV and online views it had 93.67 M views, the road to 100 M is coming soon.

More likely that zanghai is playing the marquis. He did not need to mention the names but he did thereby confriming that the queen is not the actual thrid person.

So I have something interesting to share. That so called cough medicine was product placement for an actual Chinese cough medcine brand , that's why there were shots of the medicine. I saw this on red note.

My favourite part of this drama is Zanghai's acting. Even as the audience, I feel we have not seen the real Zanghai. For each character he meets, he keeps putting on a new persona. The workplace newbie act with Yang Zhen and others, the white lotus woe is me act with the Marquis, the wise shifu act with Zhuang Zhiying, the coaxing confidante act with Xiang Antu and then in the latest episodes, the sycophant act towards the Prince and finally the righteous official act with Zhao Bingwen.

What exactly are the loopholes you keep mentioning. I noticed lot of people seem to take the loopholes in this drama as loopholes?

The drama is set in a fictional dynasty but that dynasty is based on the Ming dynasty hence the costumes and props are similar to that used in Ming dynasty.

My guess was that it is Zaho Bingwen too. I posted about it in the thread above and cross posting here.

My guess is that the masked man is Zhao Bingwen, the Minister for Revenue shown attending the Empress Dowager's funeral. He seems to be a high ranking official and somehow the way he walked struck me like looking like the masked man. Also the masked man walks with a limp and during the Empress Dowager's funeral, Zhao Bigwen got up more slwoly compared to the others. Also in the cast list Mr Eight real name is Zhao Tonger. And I saw cfans theories that she might be the duaghter of Zhao Bingwen She seems to be the daughter of a high ranking official as she was able to enter the women's quarters of the palace where Xiang Antu was being taught. Adding in that masked man says that Zanghai will meet his contact at Zhenlu. We assume the contact was Master Gaoming but later Xiang Antu tells Mr Eight that she insisted on telling the story of the Empress Dowager, so what if the actual contact was Mr Eight.

I don't know how true it is but I read on xhs that in the original script, the part where Prince Yongrong was scolding him had a line of accusing Zanghai of serving people with his looks.

It does deserve a rating of 8.5 and higher but with all the haters downvoting, it is hard to say. Some one star comments are so funny like saying xz's acting in episode 1 was bad and meanwhile I am like xz did not even appear in episode 1.

He is still not fhe chief minister. Just a firh ranked official.

Oh thank you

Just finished the latest episodes, how did Zang Hai know Lu Jin's handwriting and how did they put the letter into his stomach. Was it explained and did I miss it.

I honestly loved the whole date scene. Even Zanghai needs to relax and him spending time with the female lead provided that. Really glad that sleazy Chu Haiming is gone and we get to see Zanghai in his official robes next.