baituzi

She never said that Nan Heng wants to kill SYT. Everything she said refers to her thinking that he's going to seduce SYT and then impregnate her.

If you're talking specifically about the dialogue in the scene of FL talking to ML when he's Li Shiliu to help her stop Nan Heng, that was actually a translation error. In Chinese, she said "Nan Heng is going to target Song Yiting". The words '下手/xia shou' just means to start doing something, not necessarily murder.

iqiyi.com

Honestly, I think the original script cannot be 100% seen too lightly, since Song Xiaoyu (FL) read only the important scenes. We're not sure what the ML in the original script is really like. Going by important scenes in original script, he does seem like a scumbag. However, I theorize that original script's ML was misunderstood for things at first until he eventually succumbed to become the villain he was by the end. Because that ML did not love anyone and there wasn't a FL there to make him want to go towards the light. The establishment that he secretly owns, Waning River Crescent, has strict orders where they're not allowed to harm women, elderly, and children. So at the base, the ML seems like a decent person. In episode 5, he goes along with his uncle's directions and to let the henchman (Yao Qian) to try to prevent Chu Guihong from getting reinstated into a government position. If the ML were to continue on to this path, it would eventually lead to him going along with his twisted destiny onto the throne just as he did in the script the FL read. Song Xiaoyu's existence and him falling in love with her is what made him change his decisions. This is why in a later episode, the biggest deviation of the ML is when he decides to not do what his uncle suggested and orders the henchman to not do anything. However, the guy does it anyway, which means that the loyalty of the henchman is to his uncle and not him, and that his uncle will still do what he wants rather than what the ML wants.

Her personal interactions with Song Yiting proved to her that SYT in the original script is different from the one right now. They've had conversations about their aspirations and what they want in life. Plus, the FL definitely already thinks the ML is not a bad guy, but she's not 100% convinced yet that he won't do whatever it takes to get what he wants. He's never told her what his moves are, what he believes in, let alone that he only loves her. What she still believes in is the script forcing everyone to act as how the iconic scenes go. Unfortunately, because Nan Heng chose to use his identity as the 7th prince to cover up the incident, it played right into this - which also reinforced the idea in her that everyone will be forced into the iconic scenes. If she really thinks he's that ruthless, do you think she'd play coy with him to get her way recently? Don't forget, at the beginning, the tactics she resorted to were blowing herself up with him to force his hand. It's not until the identities of Li Shiliu and Nan Heng converge into one person will she realize that the hero she admires is who Nan Heng really is.

According to the art in one of the airing calendars, identity reveal is in episodes 23-24.

I think it's SJYM, for Shu Juan Yi Meng, the title of ADWAD in Chinese

To create steel from iron [ores] https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/General_Chemistry/Map%3A_General_Chemistry_(Petrucci_et_al.)/23%3A_The_Transition_Elements/23.3%3A_Metallurgy_of_Iron_and_Steel

Unfortunately, I have trust issues now with actors when they tell us whether the ending is happy or not 🤣 Liu Yuning said before that 'A Journey to Love' is HE ha.. ha..... ha... :'))))))

Oo yes, it's likely to do with this (big spoiler if you haven't seen this yet): https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_Bxtf8Cv8Jg !!! Crossing all my fingers and toes it's a HE!

It looks like in epsiodes 23-24 is when Song Xiaoyu finds out that Nan Heng is Li Shiliu. I haven't seen every single trailer and spoiler out there to guestimate what the rest of the emojis between the three airing calendars mean, aside from maybe the horse under 31-32 is the "Pegasus" Nan Heng rides to see her. Anyone else can guess what the rest might mean?

I can't believe I only just noticed in the airing calendar here (https://kisskh.at/photos/nORBP6_3) that the colors for the episodes are marked on the side with sticky notes by the "scriptwriter". Yellow for comical episodes, purple for romantic episodes, red for exciting episodes, and green for iconic scenes.

I can't believe after all the discussion, there are still people complaining about the FL. We can all see that the ML has a very tragic life. He's treated unfairly, and people blamed him for things he didn't do. He's just struggling to survive, and right now, even the person he loves still doesn't fully trust him. It's frustrating to watch so we can scream at the pacing, but that is exactly what makes this drama *good*. There's *supposed* to be a logical and orderly progression of the events and relationships between *all* the characters, and that includes the FL. There's absolutely *zero* proof to her right now that there's a way to get around the script forcing all the characters to do what they're supposed to do during the major plot points.

As of right now, the FL already realizes that none of the people in the script world are as one-dimensional as she thought because they've done things outside of her expectations of their character settings - Nan Heng (not as villainous as she thought), Chu Guihong (not as righteous as she thought), Song Yiting (has her own thoughts and aspirations), Noble Consort Gao (not as meek as they say and willing to stand up against the emperor for her son), and now Song Yude (a loyal minister willing to try and go against the imperial edict for his daughter's happiness). She has seen with her own eyes how Nan Heng is treated by his own father and the people around him. The conversation she had in episode 17 with Li Shiliu is the second important conversation between the FL and ML. Last time, he'd already asked her if she even truly understood Nan Heng, and this time he asked her if she even cared whether Nan Heng lived or died. She explicitly confessed that if she had a choice, she wouldn't want to harm him either. So she *is* reflecting on everything that's been happening. But you can't expect her to suddenly OOC and go, oh noooo the ML suffered so much let me treat him well and pray to the scriptwriter gods that I won't die because of him. Especially right now, at this point in the story. If we list out all the major plot points that have already happened, we can say her maids forcing her to go to the banquet leading to her falling into the water and getting saved by Nan Heng can be brushed off as a small event. Then, her getting saved during the Lantern Festival by Li Shiliu instead of Nan Heng showed that there can be a small deviation, but the big fire and chaos still happened. However, only *we* as the audience know that Li Shiliu is Nan Heng. So what should be the biggest shock is her experiencing for herself the powerlessness to go against the script and her own body doing the opposite of her will in episode 17. That's the nail in the coffin *in her perspective* that everyone within this world will go by the script no matter what, herself included. She's not going to gamble her life for someone she only *just* started seeing isn't that bad of a person and is mostly villainized by the people around him. Illogical self-sacrifice is not admirable, it's stupidity. And in the case of screenwriting, that's just bad and lazy writing.

With the way things are going, if the scriptwriter of "A Dream of Qingning" is actively changing the script to add more scenes and depth to the ML, then it seems that only the ML as Nan Heng himself deviating from the major plot points is what will prove to Song Xiaoyu that there's a fighting chance for them to go against the script. Nan Heng saving her from the fire while he's Li Shiliu might be the foreshadowing of this point. The first draft of "A Dream of Qingning", is about the female lead, Song Yimeng, and all the abuse she went through during the male lead's climb to the top. With the changes, the protagonist halo and power in "A Dream of Qingning" has changed hands to belong to the ML. Therefore, he is probably the one with the power to start the change in all of their fates. As we can see in the trailers, there's is no 3-way stabbing during the wedding procession, and only Nan Heng gets injured. If nothing else happens before this where Nan Heng does something to deviate from the script's major plot point, then this is likely the turning point we are all looking forward to.

You're still early in the drama at episode 6. Things will start to unfold as you keep watching; please keep hanging on! You'll find out later that Nan Heng has been unfavored by his father since he was young, before the whole thing about the emperor blaming him for the empress' death. Thus, he was raised in the Cold Palace with no resources and bullied by everyone, even the eunuchs and servants. After he fought tooth and nail to survive, he grew up into his bloody reputation as the "God of Death", sent to the borders to guard their kingdom with no access to brothels there. If he was fighting to survive as a kid, and then sent off to another battlefield when older, women would likely be the least of his worries. Escorting Chu Guihong back to the capital city was the opportunity that he took in order to return for the first time ever since he was sent away. Then counting on the fact that he is deeply unfavored and seen as having no chance at the throne since Nan Rui is groomed by the emperor to be the next heir, there would be no reason for anyone to send women to him to curry favor either.

As for the FL, I think what you've missed is that the only reason she was sent back to square one at the beginning by the world of the script was because she was trying to go /against/ the script in her attempts to marry Chu Guihong instead of running from the marriage like the original Song Yimeng did. The script was trying to stop her by killing her and forcing her to restart. Then she got sent back to half a year before her marriage date. After meeting Nan Heng against her will, she eventually realized Nan Heng can't kill her and must save her every time he attempts to murder her because it's too early along the script for her to die. So instead of passively waiting for the major plot points to happen where she falls in love with him, marries him, he cheats on her, she plunges to her death while pregnant with his baby, and miraculously survives but wakes up tortured, she wanted to take her chances to go around the script in places where it hasn't stopped her by attempting kill off Nan Heng first.

Small fyi: actually Fugui's dialogue didn't say any "roll", let alone "sushi roll" lolol. That was just a translation choice by the translator to try to rhyme 'roll' with 'role', albeit sushi roll was a poor choice. In Chinese, he said a bunch of idioms that ended with words that use the same homophone "jue", which is the second word used for the terms "leading role/主角/zhu jue" and "supporting role/配角/pei jue".

Maybe because she wasn't in mortal danger from the explosion so the ML didn't need to show up to save her 😂

People in China smoke a lot unfortunately ;;

Just a small aside, but the empress is not Nan Heng's mom. His maternal family is the powerful Gao family and the emperor does not like them.

If you like satirical form of comedy, then this is it. It's exaggerated to make fun of drama tropes.

I think he does have feelings for Song Yimeng since he's been waiting for their upcoming marriage and treasures the sachet Song Yimeng made him, but not enough to give up his position and power for her (when the FL asked him if he's willing to stay away from politics and live in the countryside with her).