hvnlyangel

At least his siblings/cousins support him.
He mostly punished too for not being filial , he was setting a dangerous precedent for the younger members of the family.

Also, he is honorable enough to make her his wife, give her status. He loved and respected her enough to make her his lifelong companion instead of just a plaything, a concubine.
He should have communicated to. Her but he had a time constraints and he wasn’t there. He probably didn’t want to be rejected either.
Besides by marrying a commoner the probably put the new emperor’s mind at ease. He wasn’t going to be in nay faction since he didn’t marry into one. He was the emperor’s man. So brilliant political move.
Besides in a family like his, love is not in the equation. One had to obey ones’ parents. Also, they are lucky if they can actually see or meet their prospective spouse before the marriage ceremony.
I don’t fault him, I understand his reasoning. He is already a catch considering the time period. he isn’t portrayed as he was in the novel as having tons of concubines. He respects people even servants, and he will treats and respects her parents. he doesn’t look down on her background. And he has enough authority in his household to make sure that she is respected or at least somewhat shielded.
Besides the FL doesn’t love scholar Han romantically it seems.
With FL’s brilliance and character she can win over the elders. Especially after she has children.

I recommend the Royal Feast also. This drama is loosely set in that time period when Zhu Di is emperor . While watching this I was wondering why Du Cui Xui’s brother not let her enter the palace as a palace official or let her strive to become one. Get the ML to use his connections to get her in the palace. I know that the Frist madam was talking about the change of the female officials but it is still better for someone with her ambitions.
Instead she schemed to become a concubine and to destroy others.

Good catch I was thinking that he was the deposed crown Prince too.

Yes she does has a doll like face.

Maybe they choose her cause the ML actor is older and the FL actress is 30 something too. I know that in the drama their ages are different. Maybe this way there won’t be such a huge discrepancy in their ages/looks.

He already listened to his parents for his first marriage and married someone who wanted nothing to do with him. Lan Xiang is very capable too and he loves her. Overtime she can overcome his parents’ objections.

Well the Lin family elders doesn’t know that their persecution daughter in law is a vengeful “weirdo.” They just see her status.
Agree that with Lan Xiang they will be screwed. No one besides the First madam is competent in dealing with the household.

Both. The royal decree made it impossible for both her and his family to object. No one can object to a royal decree. Unless she had a prior engagement which she didn’t have. The SML was going to purpose but the ML preempted his proposal with getting the royal decree first.

The grandparents and 4th brother are in the front courtyard, where the male relatives receive guests, the back courtyard is where the family and where female family members all live.

Does anyone know how many siblings the ML has. I know that his second aunt has two sons and one daughter, and that the Lin family arrange the siblings and cousins by birth order. I am just curious how many immediate siblings that the ML has, not cousins.

What’s sad is that you can see her dad calculating that he would have preferred the second option , where she would have “died of illness. However, since the ML said that she couldn’t enter the family tomb/grace, her dad agreed to the separation instead of divorce of letting his daughter die. So I sympathize with her in that sense that her parents saw her and treated her as just a pawn. This probably partly shaped her into the person that she became.
Of c purse this does not excuse her actions but that scene made me sympathize with her and on top of it her lover betrayed her.

She was probably complacent in her role and status too. She was married with a husband who was away for years, and a Mother in law who gave her the rights to manage the household. So she has authority and power in the household, Probably she was too occupied with her lover, embezzlement money and running the household. She probably thought that he would lawns have her her loyal maid and lover by her side.

Ha he is already more like able than he is in the books. In the books he is a womanizer and forced the FL to be his concubine. He got better towards the end but he was far from ideal.

Yes he married her to not be implicated along with the Shen family. In the second episode it shows that they do not really get along and that he resents being under her family’s control.

Still sad. The music bureau was essentially the place where the female members of disposed officials would go. So they would be essential slaves to the government and became prostitutes. Still so sad that they have to make that choice. With that there was a way that they were able to survived and be united and be free from slavery and prostitution.

I think that it was much complicated than that, especially if her grandpa was loyal to the deposed emperor. If this is set during the time of the Yongle emperor, the Yongle emperor basically deposed his own nephew. The grandfather is standing up for his convictions. Also, if the grandfather suddenly changes his stance, who knows how the emperor will view him later on. Court politics and dealing with the emperor is complicated.

Everyone makes good points below to her situation below. Besides her family were servants to the Lin family. The were basically the Lin family’s slaves. She didn’t really have a chance to decide who she will serve.

Personally I enjoyed the Sword and the Brocade.

Yes he made a commit about how the FL’s grandma died so soon. He was probably trying to see what was going on with FL’s dad.