_Kage_

looks like they are doubling down on the death flag for ying xiang

it's ok but their story is choppy thanks to the changing of the 2nd CP ML via AI face swap

nah with CLS and STT there, they all know HY is a girl. I expected by then her gender is officially revealed since her duel with HRF happens in ep29.

I am just guessing in drama they will have her stay with XJ still since she has no home to return to. In novel, for reputation sake she returns to her own (reborn) home once she is known to be female.

not really. XJ tells the emperor via letter that
1) HY is female
2) she is his betrothed and he brought her to camp because he did not want to separate from her

He never tells him about her being HRF / Feihong cause at that point of the novel, he doesn't know yet.

it was to protect her from getting punished (executed) for the crime of deceiving the emperor and female joining the army, especially since CZ getting her the Wuan Lang title made the crime even "heavier".

HY herself had gotten the Rundu city mayor to add a letter from her in his memorial/report to the emperor on the Rundu city battle together, explaining that she had joined Liangzhou Garrison masquerading as a man to escape from the repercussion of killing Fan Cheng, with individual testimonies from the women she saved in Rundu. It was meant to absolve XJ from any responsibility in regards to her, and based on what she knew about the emperor, she expect the testimonies to spare her from a death sentence.

turns out XJ intercepts the letter and replaces with his own - not mentioning the Fan Cheng incident at all and tying their fates together knowing the emperor will not punished XJ and also be giddy to be the first to know XJ (famous for being cold to women) had a girl he liked.

This resultant in XJ and HY getting a imperial marriage decree during the gender reveal - PM Xu was instrumental in supporting it as he preferred XJ to marry a "non-noble, zero influence" HY vs a politically connected Shen Muxue - who at that time was also known to be the maiden closest to XJ.

i am giving her some leeway as she likely lost composure thinking she lost XJ who is also top of the few "people who treat her well" list

long-time-no-see-greeting was the screenwriters' attempt to use an iconic line from a novel scene that they had adapted differently. the line was actually from the novel's version of XJ testing HY's swordplay to confirm she was General Feihong

for that to happen it would mean 1 ep a day from now on

yup he was not. in the novel he was the garrison commander for rundu and had cooperated with feihong/HY in the past

then you will not want to see ep30 teaser....

likely not. so i expect the antagonist to be XJF w wutou conspirators and CZ betrays him to gain favor

in novel she dies doing his bidding and he regrets and tried to save her but was too late. that said they likely will not introduce the antagonist pivotal to that development given the amount of episodes left. Drama will likely have to engineer a situation given she knows martial arts.

it's ep 28 teaser

right now they hinted Xiang Ning's unrequited love, so perhaps he finally realized and chooses to save her (hopefully)

it was actually to help shape HY's approach to like/love - basically the final talk she has with mu hong jin. Just that the fact that HY did not know how to navigate challenges of the heart didn't really come through in the drama except for the "ppl who care abt me can fit in 1 hand"

i am suspecting he will be the final antagonist but driven skewed by his "love" for HY

given the new arrangement - i suspect wedding will be the last scene in the show.

the concubine side story is meaningful in the novel - the drama is not doing it justice trying to cram it all in without the proper built up

my first reaction was pig to be honest. but i think the ladies did mention which animal it was earlier when she was learning to embroider it.

in the novel, it is part of a moving scene and iirc the first step XJ thinks HY reminds him of HRF. it was also suppose to play a big part in the her identity reveal and have nice moments in her wedding

in the novel, iirc CZ was already in Rundu for another task and was trapped when Wutou blockaded the city