gingerteaaa

Memoir of Shen Jialan. Couldn't stop crying in the last few episodes.

The warning that Lanxiang is giving to Jinqi through the opera is that he might end up the same as the General in the play, the one who was loyal and did everything right, but lost his head to whims of the emperor. We can see that Jinqi is ambitious. Even Lin Grandpa says so. Lanxiang is telling him that his ambition, loyalty, his responsibility to the Lin clan might get him and his family (which now includes her) executed when the emperor/court changes its tune. Lanxiang doesn't want that. She doesn't want to get entangled. This also ties to her reluctance in not wanting to go to the capital and wanting to return to Jinling. It's the root of her trauma. So as long as Jinqi chases power, they will have separate paths in life, never to be one. By the end, you see Jinqi coming to terms with that idea, and finally following the path Lanxiang shows him. Their diverging paths finally meet.

At first I was thinking that opera would reveal some hint about Lanxiang's identity to Jinqi but that's probably happening in the next few episodes.

I figured the opera scene would just be a warning from the previews and not the identity reveal we were thinking. That's fine. It is more fun to learn it through bits and pieces. And I was fine with all the time skips. Second brother dying. Sad Moment. Time Skip. Grandmother dying set up the stage for everybody else returning to Jinling. But this was under utilized. Their conversation only gave segue to Jinqi's artistic time skip storyline. Maybe we could have had a pre-separation scene of everybody else leaving Jinling. The plot wants us to infer that, okay done. But at least after he's back in Jinling, we could have had some conversation. A little moment to peek inside their life after the long separation. A conversation that could have led to the drinking nuptial wine scene. Giving us peak bowing to the grave scene but robbing us of real intimacy (in conversation, not the curtain down ones) was a little disappointing. Viola Lanxiang is now pregnant. Lin Daye was not missing that shot. And we are back to the family disputes of the Lin Family. Xiushu's dowry scene could have been another episode really. I would have been satisfied with a two minute talk between the two.

Really feeling aggrieved.

Episode 39 Rant

NANKE!!!!!!!!!!

since she is married to jinqi now, she also has to the face the loss of a life that could have been. she would have been in the same position, but everything around would be completely different. every scorn she faces from lin family would have been absent otherwise. she is lanxiang but she is jialan. all that suppressed trauma is really coming to forefront.

That move back to the old house she grew up in. I wish she could have just let it out. Seeing her hold it in is so painful.