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The FL Chu Yu was determined to get to the bottom of her father’s death and her brother’s serious injury on the battlefield of Fengling, which she suspected to be because of traitors, and won’t stop at nothing even if it means her reputation ruined, scorned and misunderstood by her mom and sister, and marrying a dead general, Wei Jun, who had fallen in battle. This is Chu Yu, a girl who will not stop for no one and nothing until her goal is accomplished. This is how she met with ML, Wei Yun who was the youngest brother of her dead husband. 6 of Wei Yun’s brothers perished in the battle of Baidi Valley including his father the general of Wei army, and he returned home with their bodies in tow, but inadvertantly faced the accusation of crime for valor due to the battle being lost along with the lives of seventy thousand soldiers. Chu Yu, as the eldest mistress of the mansion, received him in the capital and later fought for his release. Although Wei Yun was very wary of her motives of marrying his dead eldest brother and continuoesly opposed her presence in the family, he finally came to an agreement with Chu Yu as he realized both Fengling and Baidi Valley’s battle losses had been connected. With that, both of them started to work hand in hand to investigate, which turned into a blossoming forbidden love.

I love how they changed some parts of the novel which turned out even better on screen:

- the Song brothers to be good with each other, Song Wenchang was very lovable instead of being at odds with Song Shilan,
- The Wei widows to be more involved in the earlier power struggle instead of merely ornaments and actually possess real martial skills instead of only Jiang Chun,
- FL to have more fights and battles,
- Chu Jin is softer and not as jealous as in the novel, repents much earlier too.

I liked how they changed the plot into Zhao Yue becoming North Qi’s emperor instead of usurping Sui’s throne, cuz this version is more believable than the novel’s plot. It always bothered me how ridiculous Zhao Yue’s ascension to the throne in the novel, and the scriptwriter managed to turn this lousy arc into a masterpiece by having Sui internally disrupting North Qi political scene instead.

I liked how ML’s personality stayed true to the novel too, that he would not trade Chuyu for anyone or anything, even if it means defying the emperor. Novel’s ML and FL have always been resolute and firm, and the fact that ML’s loyalty had always been for the land and its people and never for the emperor made it easier for them to look believable instead of the usual blind loyalty to the throne that common generals usually exhibit. In the novel, Wei Yun had no qualm to replace the emperor for another when he saw him not fit for it. So I liked how the adaptation Wei Yun cared nothing about the emperor’s ridiculous expectation of him being a War Saint and would not compromise. And most importantly i adored how the scriptwriter made their relationship pure and sincere, instead of having them sneaking into each other’s room to sleep together and having a child out of wedlock like in the novel. The adaptation’s ending is also much more fulfilling than the novel. A+ for that.

I dont get the blatant accusation about victoria song abusing power by reducing Ding Yuxi’s scenes, cuz in the novel, Wei Yun is always secondary to Chu Yu. The novel is about Chu Yu and Wei Yun’s mentions are even much lesser than what’s shown on the adaptation. I like Ding Yuxi as an actor, I watched this adaptation partly because of the novel and him being the main lead, and even then i felt the production had expanded wei yun’s character much more than what the novel had of him. Not that I am complaining of course, i totally love DYX as Wei Yun, but i dont mind his scenes being lesser than Victoria Song’s Chu Yu because I know that the original novel is a female-centric piece.

By the way, IMPO this is definitely Ding Yuxi’s best show that I have seen so far. And I am glad that he finally met the perfect co-star. I had been extremely disappointed of the FL’s opposite him before this, their characters are always lacking one after another, so I am glad Victoria Song lived up to my expectation. Her action scenes were finely executed and she spared no effort to make it look grand whenever she needs to display Chu Yu’s martial prowess. Other than her being great with action scenes, the credits must also go to the action choreographer. All the fights here are amazing.

The subtle romance here is also perfect for my taste. Theyre not cheesy or cutesy, but more to mature romance that doesnt need the couple to be all too handsy and kissy with each other everytime they meet. I can’t stand the romance when DYX was with younger female actors in the shows that i’ve seen him in, cuz their characters tend to be the whiny-clingy kinds, which I completely abbhor (i have dropped his shows due to clingy cutesy FL which had gotten on my nerves more than my love for DYX). So his pairing with Victoria Song is perfect in my eyes.

Again, hat’s off to the screenwriter and actors who managed to make Zhao Yue-Grand Princess’s love into something worth to sympathize. I felt nothing for this couple in the novel, and I didnt think Grand Princess was that much in love with Zhao Yue too, but somehow in this adaptation, i could feel how deeply they love each other but torn due to loyalty. I actually felt sad for their ending here.

Anyway, honestly my rating couldve gone higher had not for the lack of memorable songs here. None manage to catch my attention and most are slow ballads. Can’t really rate any higher for that section. Too bad. But this is a good piece, i don’t understand how the rating turned out to be so low.

SO PLEASE DONT GET FOOLED BY THE GENERAL RATING ON MDL.

I am betting those are done by Song’s haters. I don’t get from where the hate was coming, i mean i have seen Luoyang and she was great there too. So I dont get it really, was it because she wasnt young, pretty or whiny-cutesy enough like how DYX’s FLs before this were? 🙄 how dense.