grapejuice

me too !!!!

Yes, I agree that the scene was kinda nice and also she's kinda harmless now. Well for the most part she's been declawed and battered back into line by her family.

But it would be nice if she could use LX ideas to create an escape route for herself; one that would actually work this time.

I think she would be less cruel to others if she had a way out of the situation where she herself has been bullied (and learned how to bully others).

I do think that they kind of accidentally became allies today. They understand and respect each other much more now. So, even if ZXT does suspect as I think she does ... there's nothing that she would do even if she could do something. And, from the upcoming episode teasers, it does look like these two women do become allies who care for each other because of their shared experience as women.

Thank god, as you say, the only people who know our girl's identity, for sure, are LX and her parents. There is no proof out there. But I do believe that a few people have caught some clues that LX couldn't help but scatter behind her.

But, so far, it's only Master Lu and ZXT who seem to have gathered enough clues to be quite suspicious.

OOoooh that's sad "showpiece". I mean she's not so nice at all. I think she's the classic bully who is a bully because they've been so thoroughly bullied at home ... that the power dynamic becomes all that they know and know how to use.

Anyway, I wasn't suggesting that she would investigate and do harm to our FL with whatever she learned. But she is smart and she has put some of the pieces together as her Master Lu has also done. Some things just show, I guess.

This is really cool isn't it? Real experience. Truly lived experience. Opens our eyes like nothing else can.

LXs kindness to the Xu family. Giving them her clothing so that their daughter died feeling like a noble led to the Xu returning the kindness in an even more profound way. LX could only lived because of it.

Kindness and the shared experience preserved her life and put her on a path to an incredible learning opportunity. Considering how hard and dangerous it's been, opportunity is not the best word.

But what a transformative experience it has turned out to be. Slavery could be completely soul destroying but LX has learned that it isn't necessarily so. There are many, many, many painful, bleak, heartbreaking aspects to it, life shortening aspects, but one can still be happy even in poverty ... with loving parents, good friends and neighbors you can count on.

And more. If one can survive with luck, learning and hard work, one can perhaps, eventually thrive as well.

It's a rough irony that LX could only really achieve her feats and obtain her freedom because of the intelligence, skills and talents that she was gifted in her first, privileged life.

So the lessons are ... education/literacy/superior thinking skills/strong dsire to survive and live, loving parents, opportunity ... more ... are the secrets to success. And shared, lived experience that brings deep mutual understanding.

Because iit's only when the classes and the genders mix enough to understand one another ... that there is a chance for lasting positive change to occur.

Which means that the LX character is the basis for our learning and her clash with LJQ (clash through to reconciliation and love) with LJQ is where power and the status quo are then challenged for us to see as well. As you say, LJQ is the status quo being challenged and changed.

Instead of class war we have class marriage based on shared experience.

Oh dear. This is getting thin. It's late and I am now fully into half baked idea territory.

Anyway, I've had a lot of fun really sharing and shaping our ideas together. I almost feel smarter LOL.

Ahhh. It's even more clever if it means both things !!!

ZXT has now got a truly suspicious eye on our girl LX.

At the end of ep30, one of the two obnoxious ladies playing croquet with ZXT wondered out loud how LanXiang couldn't play the game when all ladies learn how to play. No exceptions, I guess.

And then, at the beginning of ep31, after their discussion about how a woman can keep the money she earns, ZXT puts the mallet in LX's hand and says she can take Ji'er home that day only if she can sink the ball in the hole. And she does.

So ... that was a test wasn't it? LX had just taught her something profoundly important about money; something that someone who had never had money really shouldn't know. And then she hits the ball into the hole from a considerable distance; something else she should have no idea how to do.

Which means that ZXT may not know exactly who our FLl is, but she sure as hell is now very suspicious and I reckon she'll be doing some major investigation from here on out.

Unfortunately, LanXiang, in her rush to free Ji'er ... gave away some pretty huge clues to her real identity. Let's hope it won't cost too much.

I read somewhere (probably here :-) that those red plum blossoms are symbolic ... for an unfaithful wife. So he's got irony coming from the garden while he's contemplating his reality.

You're right. We don't disagree. You, me and @Wellimjustthere are exactly on the same page. I remember being taught that you should be able to communicate complex ideas simply in few words but it's much harder than using a lot of words... and maybe that's right for the sciences or something, because more words helps a lot when discussing issues and impressions and opinions. And using more words in conversation helps a lot to really understand one another. Wish I could go back to that teacher and clarify. LoL. Anyway, ty both for responding and explaining so that I could understand. :-)

I like the burn you've applied to the psychiatrist. And the word misogynistic definitely fits as well. Ty.

More words ... so much clearer. Ty for reposting this and I agree.

I wonder if the writer is using LJQ to show a development in thinking that spans from these ancient days to now. He was a little bit ahead of most wealthy men when we first met him because serving in the military brought him into contact with men who weren't from the only background that he had ever know. He met, lived and worked alongside people who were slaves and incredibly poor commoners and so he came to understand and even identify with them and their concerns over time. It changed him. And maybe his experience within his family made him more sympathetic to some of his sisters concerns ... but he had only learned to be a good brother who took care of them. He listened and cared more than the other men in his family (perhaps because of his parents situation) but that didn't extend out of the norm to the point of women wanting independence, freedom, personal dreams; so he had some compassion but not so far that it would really challenge the status quo. So it's LX that's taking him into that territory. He wouldn't have ever seen it if he hadn't encountered a woman like her. She's dragging him into a much more modern way of thinking about the world, how it could be and how it should be. Far beyond compassion, helping, being a good father/brother type who guides and disciplines etc. Hopefully he ends up where we'd like men to be ... equal collaborators.

I don't think that good and bad covers any of this very well. And I don't think that he is actually entitled and spoiled as a person (in his family or in the military or in general).

He's used to thinking in male upper crust ways. He has learned and come to understand a few things about being poor and what it's like to be a woman because LX has taught him a bit, but he's obviously only mastered the very basics. He's still learning about things like the fact that a slave or a woman might want freedom, might want to have/follow their own dreams and be entitled to give or not give consent to and for the decisions that a wealthy man makes for them.

So, it's not that he's pretending or not pretending to be one way or another. He hasn't just decided to be himself, entitled and spoiled as you say. He hasn't known that there is more than one way to be. He doesn't know how to think differently than he and everyone he knows always does. His experience is so narrow that he didn't even imagine the full depth of what he has done wrong.

FL is stretching him into a new dimension of experience that he has never been able to even imagine and it's making him into a new person who can appreciate things that he never could have seen before.

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying. Wasn't he standing up for his mother when nobody else would? And as an eight year old he might not have a handle on more subtle ways to shut down his father's bad behavior? But now, he's 'turned out the way that he did', meaning like his dad? That doesn't seem to be true.

is it ep1 or 2? I'm now curious :-)

Someone kindly commented earlier that Stockholm syndrome isn't actually a real thing. So I looked it up. There is no academic literature to substantiate it. There is some to disprove it. And it has never been included in the DSM. It is pop psychology only.

I'm sorry I don't remember but my guess is that she's there from ep2 onward when they settle into their courtyard home near the Lin residence. I'm pretty sure that she's not in the capital where all the opening tragedy happens. If I start my rewatch soon and find out, I'll try to come back and let you know.

I watched the first few episodes of TES and saw a horribly arrogant, selfish, condescending man with no obviously redeeming features ... will I see some if I keep watching? Because, at least the ML here, has good redemption potential.

Actually, it was great that she did it herself! She was totally thinking outside of the box, got what she needed ... AND made a new, very unlikely, ALLY. Wow. But his help was real at the end. He's using a contact for a favor. It wasn't just a little advice about where to go. He's setting them up with someone who can get everything done for them to move to the place exactly where they wanted/needed to go. And then that person will look out for them afterward ... thereby making the impossible possible. So, credit where it's due. She did the much bigger part, the necessary first part ... with surprising ease ... and proved herself. But he finished the job using his connections. So, they both did it and the girls stand a chance to start fresh from now on.

This is what I do too. Seems to work but still ... the letdown lull is real ... :-(

someone explained elsewhere that they have a better case if he has actually broken a bone

It didn't happen ! Or ... we didn't see it. I guess JiuGao could tell her or Namke but they aren't exactly objective sources for info about their boss.