KingC

The author sort of dreams up the story in Kunning Palace (changed for cersorship) and still gave an inkling of a happy ending.
Here, Hua Qing Ge dreams the story all over again, so it might end with her probably waking up. But, it's implied that she reveals who she is to the characters and has a deadline for her stay in the past. Or will we get an ending where she writes a hit novel out of everything she experienced and gives justice to everyone? I'm going to keep my hopes low -- unless the writers pull a 'Life on Mars' or 'I Don't Want to Be Friends With You".

That was the opening ceremony. Most scenes are not shot in chronological order, and it seems that EP2 was Song Yi Ren's final scene.
But... that does not take away the fear of an unsatisfactory ending.

Maybe they'll have to pull out something like what they did for the Story of Kunning Palace. The trailer had an interesting dialogue pertaining to the FL and about her story's ending. Though I don't remember who said it.

Only 16 episodes left. So far, I appreciate the writers' efforts. Usually, dramas lose the plotline towards the end and tend to drag. This one however surprised me by pulling out a new mystery/murder to keep me hooked.
Another thing I like about DP is how the royal siblings still have deep understanding and respect for the other, even if they are no longer close.
I applaud Hua Qing Ge for coming to her senses really early in the story.
Even side characters such as Wan'er, The Duke and Gong Ye Qi are interesting to watch. Though, I sense danger for everyone in the coming episodes. Its pretty much confirmed for the third couple as Qing herself admits that she had made them suffer.
I sort of lost interest in Ji Yun. He is the perfect do-gooder who won't break rules , but I'll wait to see if he surprises me.

Glad to see a drama where the disguises actually fail to disguise and fake identities get tested. Usually in dramas, even the worst disguises get passed off without any effort. Here, even the characters acknowledge this. [Yao and Crown Prince don't get selected as servants, yet Qing does. Not to mention Qing's disastrous moustache-man disguise in EP2. Ji Chu only needed one glimpse to recognize her. ]
Supporting characters such as Manager Wang is always wary of Qing, even when she had passed his test.
Heck, I'm actually interested in Ji Chu's revenge plot. Even Gong Que.
Qing Ge still hasn't thrown caution to the winds, but she does seem to have finally realized that the Wei family deserves a whack and that maybe Ji Chu is not a complete bad guy.
This is a Chinese Drama, so I'm keeping my hopes low as most tend to take a sudden tumble down the road. But, so far it has stayed grounded and managed to keep me waiting for new episodes.

To drive a rift between the Fu Yu (the Empress of Liang's family) and Liang Kingdoms.
The Emperor hides that her death is murder to maintain peace. But, I guess it definitely invoked some deep grudge. Exactly what Ji Chu needed.
This is what apparently happened... if we believe what Hua Qing Ge had written.
But, she herself admitted that she added plot after plot to increase word count and never created any 'real' characters with depth except for the Crown Prince and the Coroner.
So, there is a high chance that there is another reason why she was killed. Her own maids, and the Crown Prince already knew what was going to happen, based on what we saw.

Enjoying this a lot. From what I gathered, Hua Qing Ge spent all efforts in crafting a 'dream male lead and female lead' for her story and just added in the villains without focusing on 'why' they were villains. [Plus, throwing in a dramatic ending to make the main couple unforgettable.]
Which is why she is struggling to keep up with Ji Chu's actions and keeps getting surprised by him. Her intention is to change the ending for the sake of the readers -- and herself, unfortunately-- but, she still doesn't know any character beyond what she has written, particularly the villains, whom I deduce were pretty one dimensional in her novel.
Though, I have to say, Ji Chu "is" ruthless. But, his decisions are not out of pure evil.

Oh dear. Actually, the two Chu Yings have nothing in common except their names. But, the bromance definitely reminded me of HNG. [Grudging admiration.]

The first six episodes were done well in spite of the run time. [The last two episodes were excellently underwhelming. They really stuffed three months into 13 minutes. Like, how?]

I've heard of people surviving getting shot in the head, but it often comes with a price - change in personality, or improving in certain aspects. She lost too much blood to come out alive even if thats the case. This is fiction of course, but there is no way anyone came out alive. Two of them got head wounds, and one had already collapsed from three shots, lost a lot of blood, and got shot again.

It's a well written drama, if you remove the last two minute or so, which is just to satisfy viewers.

It seems like the ML was planning on killing her family anyway. Someone else did it for him based on EP18 and he simply watched everything. But, Gu Meng took it upon herself to get her revenge and ML brought that upon himself, thanks to what he told her. This is one insane drama. I have no hopes of a HE.

This was hard to watch. It took me 20 minutes to watch a 15 minute long episode.
Sad truth is that I kind of understand why both of them are acting this way.
I might be stupid, cause Han Joon really did fool me into thinking for a moment that he might've gotten over his emotions during his first post-drunk meeting at college with YJ.
But, I can't blame YJ either because dude had a boatload of emotions heaped on him overnight (and he doesn't handle them well) and HJ legit told him that he would disappear from his life, which I find perplexing. He doesn't want to lose his friend, and still hasn't sorted out his emotions. But, boy did lose a cookie when he threw those chocolates again. It might be him trying to erase those bad memories or him testing Han Joon. [And the kiss at the end, why do I have a feeling that HJ will push YJ away? Or will we see the rest of that in the next episode?]

Either way, for a 14 - 16 minute long series, this one is really manages to convey all the emotions well.

I think he really did kill her family. Or did something that lead her family to death. (But, whether her family is actually innocent or guilty is the question. (Gu family was influential it seems, as Zichen mentioned how the whole city shakes if her father breathes. And he did tell her about how he never forgot his hatred for his family after what they did to his.)
I'm 95% sure that she'll regain her memories and kill him in the end like you said.

ML killed her family. As to whether her family was wrongfully killed... that might decide the futre.

I will only be satisfied with this series if Gu Meng attempts to whack the ML at least once, even if she is not successful.

This drama is giving me 'Goodbye, My Princess' vibes, especially the storyline of the FL. But, the ML has valid reasons for his doing, so I can't blame him either.

I expected both of them to react as they did. I was internally telling at Han Joon not to do it as the timing was not right. Him exploding like that so early cleared any confusion between the leads. This is going to be either good or bad for the future episodes. If the writers had a solid story in mind.

Honestly, I am enjoying this one. But, they shouldn't have ended EP4 like that. Han Joon is one of the most thoughtful characters I've seen. But, so is Yoo Jae.
I'm surprised that so many people don't like him. He has a hard time opening up and responding to emotional situations from what I gathered. He reacts almost aggressively everytime he has to deal with them.
But, I love the best friends dynamic. In the end, someone always makes the move to apologise and 'fix' it.

I don't know if they were aiming for it, but the first episode was giving me a melancholic and sad vibes.

Their romance never even properly took off to begin with.
Well... in the novel, I don't think TTJ became a God. He is reborn, but the drama skipped that part and went straight for the throat.