dizzeedollee

As long as they didn't change the plot you will found out the secret ;)

I won't give too much of a hint because it will spoil the emotional reveal, just know that it's a very sad secret

As long as they didn't change the plot you will find out in the second half of the story :)

I won't spoil it too much but it's a happy ending!

Yes that makes sense. He did mention something about his wife's (I'm guessing his second wife's) property in yesterday's episodes so it was probably a matrilocal marriage. I reeeeally want to know what happened now haha, will need to catch up asap

Maybe I'm misremembering, but didn't LWT say that the Li family has been Miss Su's family's 'treasurers' for generations? So how did he suddenly become head of the Li family? Unless his 'Gu' identity was always false or he was adopted by the Li family? 🤔 I haven't caught up with today's episodes yet so maybe they clarify this today or will do in tomorrow's episodes.

Li Baiwan (Li Qin's father) was doing a bank run. He a) got his subordinates to try and withdraw all 6 million at the same time, and b) spread the rumour about the draft bank Gu Pingyuan is managing now owes the prince (and therefore the imperial court) money, which made people panic because they thought the bank would have to cough up all their silver to fund this, so everyone was trying to withdraw their money from Gu Pingyuan's bank. So now we have many people trying to withdraw large sums of money at the same time - but the problem is the bank doesn't have that much money available immediately (it's lent out in loans, etc), so Li Baiwan's plan was to bankrupt them, cause them to lose their reputation (draft banks didn't have a guarantee from the government, so if they went bankrupt there was no official way to compensate you), and force them out of business. But Gu Pingyuan instructed the Eight Families to return Li Baiwan's 6 million to him by depositing it in Taiping Bank. Taiping Bank offered much higher interest on deposits than the other banks as a welcome offer to attract new customers, but with such a deposit they would be paying a huge amount of interest, especially if the Eight Families deliberately never reclaim it. Taiping closed because they couldn't afford to cough up that much interest (tbh they could've but the reason they didn't is a spoiler).

I think she will - the character relationship charts show her as appearing in the capital and Jiangsu arcs, so let's see!

Wow, looking at the character relationship charts Cixi is making an appearance!

Anyway, a great start so far. I'm really hoping they keep up with the momentum, as I love a good historical drama :)

They did such a great job of painting the gentry as arrogant and self-righteous, that you could easily believe they went completely overboard killing just for the sake of those merit towers, before the heartbreaking truth was revealed. I don't know if it was just a coincidence they wrote the young Ms Wei's circumstances into this case, but it really reminded me of the Gisèle Pelicot case :(

Considering the circumstances, the case ended as satisfactorily as it could. Definitely my 'favourite' (doesn't feel quite right to call it a favourite tho) case of this season so far.

I'm only on EP31 but I must say I'm really enjoying A-Li and Lao-Shen's dynamic. The Tantai siblings got a bad ending, so they were reincarnated as brothers in arms in this life :')

I thought the case itself was quite simple and wrapped up a bit abruptly, but the political implications and the fall out in episodes 15 & 16 were absolutely delicious hehe

I almost fangirl yelled out loud when her name came up and I thought Su Wuming's speech about her was a nice touch 😊

I would love that, I've always wanted to see a well-excuted story where it turns out the protagonist was the antagonist all along hehe

Wow that would be an incredible achievement, I hope they do it! I've just checked and it's 9961 so fingers crossed

It was not perfect by any means, but overall I really enjoyed Sword and Beloved.

I'm not the biggest fan of romances, with the only two types of romances I can truly get on board with being true romcoms and 'quieter' romances. I beieve that romance and love are two different things, with romance being the kisses, hugs, and acts of affection and love being the emotional connection. Whilst there wasn't much romance in Sword and Beloved, there was definitely a lot of love. I agree with the person in the comments who said they believe the 'Beloved' in Sword and Beloved isn't referring to the romantic love with Qingtong but Fugui's love for his family, friends, and all living things. Fugui spent almost his entire life alone and without any love or companionship, but he had so much love and compassion for everyone I thought it was a poetic ending to have, as Yunfei said, his life force nourshing all living things.

Tbh, with Cheng Yi you just know it's not going to be a Hollywood happy clappy ending lmao so I was already mentally prepared. As soon as Fugui started burning up his life force to stop Gulizan's formation, etc , I had the feeling it was going to end this way, so I'm not surprised. Do I wish everyone survived? Sure, but I kind of also think this ending suits the themes of sacrifice for the greater good, so I'm not disappointed from a storytelling perspective. Thank you to the person who pointed out the premise of the donghua, combined with the hints of reincarnation and the matchmaking tree in my mind they will all meet again in their next lives, so it's a happy ending (in many years' time hehe) after all.

Overall, I give this an 8.5/10. I thought the acting from Cheng Yi, Li Yitong, Guo Juncheng, and Ken Chang in particular was great. The first 14 or so episodes were extremely strong with some of the best pacing I've noted in C-dramas recently. It sort of lost its way from episodes 15 to 29-ish with many scenes that could have had tighter pacing. Not perfect but very enjoyable.

I do like that the plotting isn't the Hollywood-type 'BAM, BAM, BAM' non-stop action. Chinese stories like to add more slice-of-life-y type segments to give the story space to breathe and to give the characters (and us) a break and some fun between the heavy emotional arcs. I'm really enjoying these recent episodes 😊 I wasn't expecting this level of comedy, but I'm enjoying the dynamic of Fugui and his two dumber and dumber didi hehe 🤭

I also think it's way too early to call these episodes 'filler'? I suspect Yunfei and Li Xueyang are going to be important allies to defeat the Black Fox +/- the Water Orb might somehow help Fugui recover more of his powers. Now that the Grief Tree seed has been mentioned, probably whatever Qing Tong is doing now is also going to be crucial for defeating the Black Fox. I wouldn't call these developments filler.

I'm not the biggest romance fan so I guess my view is biased, but I don't see any issue with separating our leads for now. I prefer quieter love stories (vs all the intese, all-consuming type of romances). Let them grow as individuals so they can be a stronger couple. And I guess yearning isn't fashionable anymore these days eh? 😩

It must have been heavy as heck having to walk with so many swords attached to you too. Praise to everyone for that scene, but I hope Cheng Yi didn't hurt his back again :(

I adore them too! Have you watched Mobius with Bai Jingting? I reeeeally want to see Cheng Yi in something similar, I think he would be great in a police thriller. He can even flex his martial arts and beat up some bad guys too haha

Wow I had no idea most of the manhua took place in the modern day! I must go and find this to read now