Luv Peony

you could watch it with subtitles on Kiss Asian.

happy, main leads gets married and has a daugther.

imperial exam from the novel:
The guys and girls each held separate exam.
the novel focuses more on the girls' exam more in terms of details b/c is display Jiang Li's thirst to prove herself to everyone that she's more than what the eye sees. Taking 1st place is supposed to help secure her position in the Jiang family. the drama takes all that attention from her quest and divided the categories in a group competition.

The result for the guys: 1st: Ye ShiJie 2nd: Li Jian 3rd: Zhou YanBong

The result for the girls: by categories; total of 6: 1st: Jiang Li took all 6 first place making her the ultimate scholar title. It is rare for anyone to place 1st place in all categories (e.g. literature, bow/horse riding, guqin/music, etc). The wager is to win 1st place in all categories or who bags the 1st place spot the most.
The bet is only between Meng JinHung and Jiang Li. The final wager is that the loser must kneel and apologize to the winner in front of the guy's academy. Doing so will affect the girl's reputation and may compromise any promised suitors for marriage. Citizens caught wind of it and started a gambling wager to see who wins. Due to the girls' political background, the court and officials also is aware of the ongoing bet. At this point, this internal bet has taken off and the pressure is on.

Su Heng put his bet on Jiang Li without any doubt. The city was backing Meng JinHung in the beginning but ended up betting on Jiang Li towards 1/2 way.

Due to Jiang Li's limited education while she was at the monastary and her meek nature, no one thinks she will be be able to get 1st place in any of the category, let alone 6. No one in their mind will ever link her to the deceased Xue Fun Fang.

Jiang 4th sister is known for her talented literature and what she is proud of. She believe this is the only thing that let her shine separately from the Jiang family legitimate daughters. She lost this category to Jiang Li.

Jiang 3rd sister is known for her guqin music. She has a private expensive tutor that taught her since young. She's over confident in this category and gloats to Jiang Li, but Jiang Li got 1st place.

Meng JinHung was desperate and nervous after the 3rd round. Her father also gave her more pressure by scolding and slapped her for being useless against a country bumpkin.

Final category; bow and horseriding: Meng JinHung used underhand means to scare Jiang Li's horse. Meng JinHung accidently (more like Jiang Li's steering and intention) shot her arrow at the princess and injured her shoulder. Meng JinHung was taken away on the spot and confined at the Princess' Manor. The princess was planning to torture her but the fear alone rendered Meng JinHung delusional and turn her crazy. The princess felt that she don't get much satisfaction torturing a crazy person who can't think straight so she released her. Princess is known to be cruel and sadistic. Meng JinHung was released back to the Meng family. Meng family also lose face and was punished by the daughter's actions by the Li family. The Li family abandoned the Meng family after this incident. Meng JinHung had to quietly leave town to be confide to the country side estate due to her crazy delulu paranoia.

Jiang Li later announced through her made in front of the guy's academy that the bet was made in light of a joke and everyone do not need to take it seriously. This leaves Jiang Li a forgiving reputation and raised her higher in the society of female peers.

Xue Fong Fei is talented scholar and guqin artist. The imperial exams is nothing to her.

Shen YuRong do not have any role as an official in the novel. He is an up and coming favorite 1st place scholar of the king. Due to his mourning state, he was not officially serving the court. This is also the excuse he uses to stall being married to the princess. SYR only loves himself, no one else. His future is the only thing he cares about. He is only her underground lover due to her princess background and his state of a widower.

If notYang Chou Yue, another actress with a soft innocent girly look. Her character is not supposed to wear revenge on her face. she’s suppose to be gullible in nature that it fools everyone in undermining her. WJY looks too clever to pull off the joker face.

The princess is entitled and spoil rotten in the novel due to her brother’s growing powers and ambitions for the throne. Princess and the prince are the king’s 1/2 siblings. The princess pretty much gets what’s she wants 95% of the time. She is also the fav of the consort.

Yes, all her evil doings get exposed. She also committed adultery as well. The miscarriaged baby belongs to her adulterer aka cousin who at one point abandoned her and married someone else. She got back at him by tricking the cousin into thinkingshe would eloped with him only to kill him off to silence him. So after all that was exposed, She’s force fed poison by the elder jiang lady’s maids. Due to JSR dirty shameful deeds, they had to kill her and tell society she died of illness. So JSR used jiang li as a scapegoat to cover up the unwanted baby. Oh yeah, she also secretly caused the demise of the first Mrs death. She tampered with her medication. So her death is too easy and simple and simply doesn't justified all her evil doings.

that's his features, he's supposed to be very vixen like alluring. Besides always wearing red, he has a very vixen charisma. he's seductive and likes everything pretty and detailed.

the king is still young and is growing. he's learning the ways of balancing court. due that, needs to plot and plan things so that no party gets too much power that it tips the scale and threaten his authority as king. Su Heng is a joker card where he's not supposed to have any sides, not even the king. He has a deep plot that included the king as well to get what he wants (in the novel). He see himself as an audience watching a show/play and don't emerge in anyone's business. He has a secret agenda himself. He slowly pay attention to Jiang Li out of curiosity to see what she will do. After a while, he falls for her.

back then, divorce doesn't make the husband look bad. if there is a legit reason, the divorce always is in favor of the men. divorcing your legal wife who is a beauty and a scholor is frown upon on esp for someone in politics make it very obvious his intent with climbing the society ladder to authority and power. in the novel, FL and her first husband married for love. FL actually have to lose herself in order to make this relationship work.

after having a little taste of success at winning the 1st scholar position, he caught the attention of the princess. the princess was the main person who plot and kills FL and her family off. The husband knows about it but also did nothing about it.

Not sure how the drama is going to end the characters, but in the novel, not too much of a pay back to the Jiang family for how they treat Jiang Li. Jiang Li is disconnected to the Jiang family b/c she doesn't see them as family. Jiang stayed in the family to help the real Jiang Li clear her name get back at the stepmother.

the maid is cute, not gorgeous...and base on her roles so far, she fits that of a supporting role. i do not see her as a main lead. WJY is a seasoned actress and pulls her weight. However, make up and styling for this drama makes her look unappealing at some angles.

wow, she's that young!!!

Wang Xing Yue play a very good Su Heng (Ji Heng of Duke Su Manor). In the novel, he only and always wear red. If anything, he wears red on the outside, whereas the drama only show him with a hint of red attire. Su Heng's character is unpredictable and he does things according to his mood and as he pleases. He doesn't care about what people think. He's cold, ruthless and cruel to everyone who knows his names, and due to that, other officials do not dare to cross him or have any ties with him. Here's hoping the drama will have Su Heng's character true to the core.

Wu Jin Yan plays an ok XFF. XFF is supposed to be an parallel beauty and talented scholar of her time. WJY just don't come off as XFF. Yang Chou Yue actually would play a good reborn XFF/Jiang Li b/c of her soft features. Jiang Li's featured is soft and described as a cute/innocence . Due to the censorship, the drama excluded the detail where XFF died and went into the body of Jiang Li. Jiang Li commited suicide when she heard her fiance broke off their engagement and is set to marry the her 3rd sister (daughter of the stepmother and her father). JL lost hope due to a broken heart and despair. XFF died in vain and full of resentment to revenge. Due to one's will to die and the other to live...the swap happened. The reborn Jiang Li is under the radar and she slowly plot her way to unveal everyone and bring them down.

The author's writing style do not put the couple together so early on in the story. The author builds up to the climax and have the characters develop a history first.

Jiang Li/Xue FF (in the novel, XFF reborns from death and took over Jiang Li's body) and Xu Heng is married and have a daughter. She successfully clear XFF's family and her own name and brought the people who wrong her and Jiang Li their demise.
Jiang Yu Ruo lost an eye (due to being prisoned and tortured by the princess) and is crazy.
The stepmother Ji Shu Ran dies by family execution by the Elder Jiang Lady. Ji Shu Ran's evil doing: kill Jiang Yu (the eldest daughter, died at 4 years old) and frame Jiang Li for her miscarriage and fall. Oh yeah and adultery. The miscarriage baby is not the Jiang husband.

in the novel, yes. married and have a daughter.

if they follow the novel, it's a good ending for the ML and FL.

yes there is a difference. in the novel, it's the princess who scheme and did everything (framing the FL for having an affair, strangled/killed her, frame/imprison the dad to be executed in the fall and killed the brother under the disguise of bandit robbery) . the husband knows about it but ignored it. he wanted fame and power through the princess. he's the type of guy who just wants to take short cuts vs working his way up the rank. he does not love the princess and is not like the drama where the princess emotionally abuses him.

he gets exposed for being an adulterer with the princess, framing his wife for being disloyal and killing her all for trying to seek fame and glory. he gets beheaded in public along with the princess. the princess gets the same sentence plus an extra one for having a secret tortured/jail chamber at her residence (which is illegal/against the law). the princess have her title stripped and turn into a commoner before her execution.

There’s the audio in mandarin on YouTube and novel but all in mandarin