lilswtangel

Yes, this! I became a WXY fan after Scent of Time.

What a great episode 26! The long-awaited reunion of Wu Zhu and Fan Xian and return of Fei Jie. I mean...marriage with Wan'er.

Anyhow, the trust that Wu Zhu-shu and Fan Xian have in each is ultimate. Even if Fan Xian is married and has his own family, he will always need his Wu Zhu-shu.

Yes I understand that, but what could have been easily solved or resolved in one episode - it dragged all the way to episode 16! Irregardless of his serial killer identity, the writing fell flat on the villain plotline....or rather lack of it.

I agree! It's ridiculous how he's still alive after all the time travelling Sol has done. He's a villain with no substance, no plot....nada. He's just there to cause conflict and like an itch you can't scratch, the show has me mostly on cloud nine (Sol, Sunjae, and Taesung are awesome characters) but the production and scriptwriters really messed up with having such an uninteresting bore as a villain + all the unnecessary scenes with Sol's brother and her bff.

Strong Girl Namsoon was the opposite, plot was terrible but the baddie was the best thing about the drama all thanks to our hottie Sunjae, I mean Ryu Shi On (Byeon Woo Seok so slayed all the roles he's been in).

Just a refresher...you might want to rewatch the Xiao En's scenes in Northern Qi from season 1 - especially the end of episode 40 and very beginning of episode 41.

That's right, in the novel it was all sorts of craziness with the royal family (and we're not even talking about maternal cousin marriages which were accepted in ancient China)!

Elder Princess was really the sister of the Emperor and she was in love with him and jealous of Fan Xian's mother Ye Qing Mei.....and then she ended up having an affair with her blood-related nephew the Crown Prince. What a debacle~

False alarm in episode 24....just when we think we were finally getting our Wu Zhu-shu and Fan Xian reunion.

We're nearly 3/4 through S2 and still no real scenes of Wu Zhu, how did we get even less scenes of him here than in S1 where his presence was so limited but so impactful. The production's been depriving us of our Tong Meng Shi daren and his gorgeous dimples.

Also, I just want to know how his battle with Ku He went up North!

Did I miss something in the earlier episodes? Someone please tell me why that crazy taxi driver killer tried killing our SunJae again even though they didn't cross paths in the altered past. Or is it he's simply deranged? If so, why go after SunJae and not Taesung who's been present in Sol's life in this timeline?

Nice trolling LOL! But yes, there is an ultimate villain, but it's definitely not Fan Si Zhe.

If the drama will follow the novel to the tee: The masked man known as 'Shadow' who protects Chen Ping Ping is Sugu Jian’s younger brother. He's one of the 4 Grandmasters. Sugu Jian is the master of the guy who was allowed to carry his sword in the palace in the epic poetry scene (episode 27).

Don't click the spoiler below if you don't want to be spoiled! (whether the drama will follow the novel that is.

Fan Shi Ze and Guo Bao Kun thinking they're great at being spies, hahahahaha! The way everyone in the Northern Qi keep cleaning after Guo Bao Kun and ensuring his safety so that he doesn't get replaced with someone more capable and competent. Also did not expect the comedic relief from Hai Tang Duo Duo's senior martial brother. He was a bit scary in S1.

As for Fan Wu Ji, I hope this isn't the end of him. He's a very likable character and I think his interactions with Second Prince and Xie Bi'an have been either hilarious and/or heart-warming.

Prince Jing's son, he was seen a lot with the Second Prince in S1. Most memorable scene is when he held the poetry writing contest at his manor.

In season 2, the Emperor bestow marriage with Li Hong Chen and Ruo Ruo....and Yuan Meng (manager of Fan Shi Ze's "brothel") is his lover.

Regarding Ye Ling Er, the cast switch IMO falls flat. The original Ye Ling Er in S1 was sassy and brave, befitting of the daughterof the strong Ye family. Jin Chen's portrayal shows none of that.

Missducky88 is right but to elaborate further:
baba (爸爸) = modern day colloquial term for 'daddy'
a'ba / ah ba (阿爸) = modern day colloquial term for 'dad'
diedie (爹爹) = ancient day informal term for 'daddy' (still used in some regions and dialects but not very common as it's considered to be an archaic term)
a'die / ah die (阿爹) = ancient day informal term for 'dad' (same as above)
fuqin (父亲) = formal term for 'father' (used past and present)

Fan Xian often calls Official Fan 'fuqin' whereas Fan Shi Zhe and Fan Ruo Ruo use the more endearing 'a'die'. This is not to say that Fan Xian doesn't speak endearly to his father, he'll sometimes playfully call him 'fuqin daren' (父亲大人) which means ‘Lord Father'.

So to add context to the scene you were referring to is a play on words which only makes sense to those who understand modern day Chinese:
Fan Xian asks Baba what her name was and she replied 'Baba', so it sounded like she was calling him 'Daddy' (in modern Chinese) which was why his first reaction was to say ’I didn't teach her to call me this' which would have gone over Mrs. Wang's head as they are in a historical Chinese setting.

Agree! Hong Zhu is so dead-pan with his delivery and very smart. He's such a scene stealer in the short glimspes we've had of him so far.

Without spoiling it, he's actually a very important character in the novel so good news for us fans.

And if you want to be spoiled, you can even just skip to chapter 746 - Afterward. 😉

So far as ifof episode 11, there were three original cast members who were replaced.

There may be more, but we shall see as the future episodes air.

1) Yan Bing Yun - Xiao Zhan replaced by Wu Xing Jian
2) Ye Ling Er (Lin Wan'er's best friend) - Han Jiu Nuo replaced by Jina Jin (surprising as she's usually FL in most of her dramas)
3) Li Hong Chen (Prince Jing's son (shizi) aka the Emperor's nephew) - Liu Run Nan replaced by Wang Tian Chen

I think the OP meant he died three times in Lovely Runner now...

But spoilers, he's also died in the the following:
1) 20th Century Girl
2) Strong Girl Namsoon - BWS literally carried this show as the rest of the cast and plot were nonexistent.

It was always planned for three seasons and it's no easy feat to schedule filming to fit everyone's calendars if it meant retaining the same cast not to mention the pandemic followed shortly. Also, the production didn't know that season 1 was going to such a massive hit. Fortunately, all but two of the original cast returned for S2.

Please don't let this keep you from watching this masterpiece. Even as we were all anticipating S2, most of us would have even accepted it, if albiet begrudgingly, if that production had say there wouldn't have been a season 2. That's how awesome Joy of Life s1 is.

Plus, from your profile pic of Li Lian Hua and Fang Duo Bing, I can see you appreciate intelligent characters and brotherhood....there's no shortage of that in Joy of Life~ :)

I'm going to get some flak for saying this, but Wu Xing Jian's Yan Bing Yun is a vast improvement over Xiao Zhan's portrayal in S1 (and this is coming from a huge Xiao Zhan fan, especially his Wei Wu Xian).

Xiao Zhan's Yan Bing Yun was such a stick-in-the-mud and he had the same one glare on his face in every scene he was in (even if it wasn't much).

I am hugely enjoying S2, but in saying this...I do miss the darker cinematic colors and smart humour of S1 rather than the more saturated lighting and slapstick humour we're getting in S2. The first time the yodeling music came on in episode 1, I did a double-take.

I tend to root for the underdogs who are really harmless, so I really like characters like Fan Shi Zhe and Guo Bao Kun and I hope to see them back in Southern Qing sooner than later.

Lovely Runner