Lovely

Throughout episode 24, I'm thinking that the plot is feeling new and fresh. Usually with this type of Cdrama, the ML is crown prince already and has to prove himself not to be rebellious in front of the maniac king, but here Suige has no desire for power, only for righteousness and is condemned for his lack of desire for power and rebelliousness. However, while he does not covet the throne, everyone else who does is either incompetent or too power hungry and vengeful. In other dramas, the MLs mostly don't think about becoming emperor because of other ambitions, but they never do not want it, here Suige really is refusing it.
I also like that he unknowingly fell for a woman who shares his mother's ethics and morals, and that it ties in with the conflict of the emperor who let the mother be killed to remove her influence, only for Suige to be drawn to someone similar anyway.

I'm thinking the same but about the ML. I didn't like any of the dramas I've watched with him, and his teeth are too white for my taste (though I just watched the trailer and his teeth look normal, they were just too blinding in A Beautiful Lie).

I'm okay with no kissing scenes if they don't try to fake angle them. They should just do it like in Bollywood movies. When I was younger, I didn't even notice that they never kissed because they never tried to show me a kissing scene, instead they would just hug and embrace each other.

That said, in my personal humble opinion, I still think it should be avoided to cast minors in romance projects and actors that don't want to kiss may go for other genres.

I'm only at ep 15 and I just gotta say the only person I dislike is the princess, because even though the villains are bad at least their actions have understandable reasoning and motivations.... the princess legit saw that XJS once when he was like "I don't kill women", and now she's ready to sacrifice her relationship with her brother and other things for a marriage with him despite him clearly being in love with someone else. You think your brother made this guy his nemesis just for fun? FSG is suddenly the bad guy in her eyes when he was legit almost killed by them a few weeks ago. It makes just no sense that she would be ready to leave everything and everyone willingly behind, even though she knows NOTHING about him. And it's not like he showed her any kind of mentionable attention.... I really hate how they wrote her with no brain.
As much as I like the drama, the writing of women is not their strong suit. Even FYX is just repeating the same pattern she did with XJYS. A man saved your life, and now you vow to protect him no matter what .... again (I support her decision, but it's still a pattern for her now). Then the female doctor is so talented, but also very childish and often doesn't think before she speaks. The Empress would be nothing without her evil prime minister father.

I legit just saw an edit of this and wanted to add it to my ptw list, just to realise I already watched it and rated it low also... I really remember nothing.

The only reason I'm rooting for him is that I want Xu Yan to be happy. I want her to have what she wants, and I want her to have the satisfaction that the only man she ever loved, loves her more.

I feel like their month is like at least half a year in my time haha

omg I came to say the same

My subtitles are completely fine. There are only occasional buffering issues

Omg can you pls put a spoiler tag on it? Pls don't go around spreading the name everywhere. It will only lead to it be taken down. The site generally has loading issues. There is ni real fix

William Chan is really a good actor. A few episodes ago, I commented on how satisfied Haoming seemed with having chosen Xu Yan as his wife, and he really seemed to thirst after her, but now the switch up to his real face with the mask finally dropped?! The look he gave her at the gala now that she displeases him? I'm almost a little scared.

The whole time Xu Yan believed that if their relationship changed, and they broke up it would be because he found out about her secrets about her fake family, but in truth what breaks them apart is Haoming's secrets. About him already knowing all the lies she told and ultimately about how he never loved her.

The irony of how Xu Yan stressed about the collapse of her own sandcastle, only for it to be her husband's castle of secrets that will break them apart.

The way Haoming won't let Xu Yan confess is so heartbreaking to me. Also, that she can't even phantom that it's him who's silently helping her in the shadows.
I wonder about Haoming's motivation of having her uphold all her lies. Either he knows all her secrets, or just doesn't care for the weight of them, and only needs for Xu Yan to feel the anxiety so that he can keep manipulating her. Maybe he wants to keep a balance, because it lessens his guilt if she has just as many secrets as he does.

hahaha this reply is truly insane

I'm not so sure if it's a kink for her, however I would guess that Xu Yan considers his act of surveillance more as an act of love - comparing it with what she did when observing him with his childhood friend - than an act of control. Maybe it is not necessarily something she likes, but something she considers as normal because she only ever got to learn the extreme. The invisibility in the eyes of her parents like you said and then the hyper observance of Haoming. I'd think because she likes being seen by him, she accepts that it can also cross some boundaries since her ultimate goal is to be the perfect for him. Maybe she even thinks that because he's willing to observe and control her, it means he must definitely love her if she interprets it as a form of jealousy.

It's been long since I've written an essay, but I just kinda felt the need to voice my thoughts, since I've seen few comments not being convinced of Xu Yan's character, love and motivation.

I think Xu Yan is perfect for a character study because she's chasing love with all her being, doing all this manipulation and yet there are so few moments she actually seems to be happy and calmed down. All the other times it feels like she just brims with anxiety, and it's taking all her energy to contain and not show it, thus just often showing nothing at all. Beyond her poker face she comes off as extremely conceited and cold at times, yet she always shows up to the ones that are tied to her, whether she likes them or not, whether she can forgive them or not. Because while she's chasing to be loved, she just easily loves the ones who are connected to her.

It's so easy to see why she fell for Haoming. I guess he didn't have to do much, but she said herself that he was the first one to show care. Her grandmother is a given, maybe even expected because they are family, even though Xu Yan knows that it is not a necessity. I've seen the little moments where Haoming catches onto her mood and just knows exactly what she needs. The first time I caught it, was not even their first meeting, but when she spotted her parents in front of her flat while being in the company of her in-laws. While we saw Xu Yan's angst play out, Haoming caught her shift of mood and deteriorated the meeting, letting her calm down. Though, he is watching her at work, he also noticed her unspoken ambitions, helps her and Xu Yan feels known with him, because he's the only one that cares to find out the things she doesn't say, even if it scares her because of her many lies. When they were looking at the height marks of some random child, he felt her sadness and immediately was being funny and sweet and coaxed her mood.

These are only the moments we've seen while they were already committed to each other, imagine how strong his game was when they first started seeing each other. Staying at her hospital bed after playing hard to get with the interview was already a strong move, because somehow he was rewarding her for her perseverance benefiting her work and then also (being the first to do so) in an emotional way.

They both never really made a secret about their skills of manipulations, in fact it was the first thing that drew them to each other. And while I'm sure they know that they are manipulating each other in certain aspects and moments, the real secret lies in their motivation. Xu Yan is doing it out of love and fear of losing it, Haoming is doing it because he needs Xu Yan to be predictable as his chess piece.

There is surely more to say, but this is already too long.

I know he doesn't really love her yet, but the look he gave her at the end of ep 6 before he deepened their kiss? he looked at her as if he wanted to kiss her forever. As if he was so contend about his decision to choose her (no matter his reasoning).

omg a few days ago I said I would have found a man before they released it, and now it's here....

she's unrecognizable in that profile pic .... it looks AI generated.