Luv Peony

She volunteered to guard Ching nan city (the city where the di soldiers died). She fought till the very end to save the city from being breached. She ordered for the second general to closed the city gates and bring the citizens to safety before the gates were breached. She Have suffered a slow death bleeding out and fighting till her last breath. By the time the assistance army arrived, she was already dead. Even in death, she was standing with her sword to hold her up. That chapter was hard to read…the details and her train of thoughts made me teary. Her death is in chapter 150, the last chapter to part 1 of the book.

DZY made a decision to use the dowager’s birthday to prove her family’s innocence and to stop the decree of HY’s wedding to the fake DZY. After finding out that HY risked his life to save DZY, LMX told DZY that the fake one is a snake and behind the schemes against her. With that in mind, DZY felt she owe HY (since he saved her) and had to
set things right. If the fake is a honest good person, she is ok with them getting married bc she wants HY to marry the fake since she’s aware of his dedication to their engagement all these years. She fekt that’s the least she could do for him for the devotion he has for her all these years. She wants him to be happy bc she s very clear that he has nothing to do with her revenge.

It’s the other way around, HY has like/adore AL since childhood. AL was very practical and independent as a young child. She don’t see him as a love interest or even a fiancé even though they were bethroth.

In the novel, he is a formidable opponent in which AL describe the chess game as deadlock until one of them dies. Everything AL planned/schemed, HY guessed all of it. He does his own research and gather intel on everything. If this is another person, HY would take that person down already…but it’s AL. The drama series don’t show
that side of HY . He wants to be fair but at the same time, his position in the Royal family doesn’t allow him to be. He’s not the king yet so there is a lot of things he can’t do yet. The king is all about check and balance of power in his court, which is why he plays shut eye to some of the crimes his officials do. The king knows very well who are the wolves in his court. The drama is not giving the characters or the plot of the novel any justice at all.

Well, besides her original intentions, she also witness the corruption of the current officials (the cases with the exam cheating, the treatment of the poor, the corruption of the province official etc…that points to the king being bias and incompetence to provide and care for the people) and the king’s cruelty and merciless goal to annihilate her family even though her family gave the Han family 1/2 the kingdom and pledged loyalty to serve.
She was more set on what she originally plan to do.

To be in her situation…she have to do what she must do. Romance is nothing but a distraction. It s easy for HY bc he didn’t face what she faced and not his place to ask her to give up. Which is why people commenting are rooting for the romance but not the plight of her challenges and sacrifice she endured.

She is not a ruthless person for she will never do what the king did and would never kill the innocence in her quest to her goal.

For everyone posting that DZY should feel bad for deceiving HY is only seeing them as a couple in the series. The novel is not about their romance. It is DZY’s quest to bring justice to her family, the 80k slaughtered army and the injustice/corruption of of the officials in the Jing dynasty…ultimately ousting the king/overthrowing the Han family ruling. The king’s actions and cruelty made him unfit to rule and undeserving of the title.

The king is the the person who orchestrated everything that set the precedent events in the novel. He purposely set up the princess Anning to witness what the dowager queen did only to 80k army. The king has plans to disperse the army and weaken the Di family influence in the South, but the queen dowager jumped ahead and start the plot to kill them all instead. The king found out about this and let the dowager queen carried out the plan since it was too late to stop it. He set everything up and made the queen the scapegoat if this ever comes to light. When DZY found out the real culprit, she was even more determined to carry out what she planned. DZY saw the cruelty of the king when he ordered for her family to die despite the fact her father killed himself (his action is to tell the king that he died so the di family with young kids will not be a threat to the royal family/spare the di family). The king and DZY Father were best friends/grew up together. The father saw through the king’s plot at the time but chose to sacrifice himself.

In the beginning, HY wanted to protect
and atone for his family’s crimes. Once he realized that she wanted more than proving her family and army’s in coven e, he had to let her go completely for he could no longer protect her. His
bottom line is to not disrupt and involve
Jing in a state of chaos. The path DZY
wanted to go down will put Jing in an
internal war that will affect the
country’s/citizens livelihood. He had to
choose more than
just his family if he sides with DZY.
Their relationship will always be a death match due to their status and birth right.
If DZY wins the throne, HY as a crown prince have to die to cut off the Han ruling. If HY/Han family wins, she cannot live. It’s a death match for one or the other. Both of them knows it once DZY leaves the Jing court and proclaim herself as the king of the south region. Just when she was about to carry in the plan, Jing was ambushed by two other countries, with Bei-Qin attacking and took 5 cities. This put the 2 families issues to the side so they could fight off the family. This is the theme for part 2 of the book. Part one ends with Anning died in battle protecting Ching Nan city from falling. She couldn’t do anything for her people (the dead soldiers) when she was young, but determined to fight to the end to protect Ching Nan city. She’s buried in the same area where the 80k soldiers perished.

HY steps up this game in Part 2 and show more of his intelligence and strategic actions. One of the reason why the king is set on keeping him as his heir. The king knows he is the only heir to defend the royal line and go up against DZY’s wit and intelligence…
Before that, the king kept HY as his crown Prince bc he wants to give him what his father didn’t give him (appointment if the crown Prince title, prestige) and bc he is his legit son from his queen. He wants to keep the inheritance from father to son (of the wife, not concubine) for the throne.

So this novel revolves around DZY. Whether or not they could be together was not the main theme in the novel.

The novel is about DZY’s quest and goal to set the wrong to right…

The novel is well written and worth the read. However, as usual, if you read the novel and watch the drama——you will be super disappointed.

I thought she was the ultimate villain but it was the king himself……well at least in the novel.

She’s part of the plot for the di family massacre in the novel. The first emperor left a decree that allow anyone from the di family the right to claim/challenge/inherit the throne. So dowager wants to secure the throne and wipe out the di family for political and personal (she hates the di matriarch di shengten).

There’s a reason why she set up a Buddhist room - to makeup for her sins. She plays a pivotal role in the demise of the Di family. Aliso the reason why princess anning resents/distant from her

The empress dowager is a hidden villian. A jealous sinister woman

Lol…maybe more details like how.

To be correct, it’s the original general that pitched the Gu and xian family against each other and ended up killing both. Zhou zichen was only a helper that didn’t get his reward and decided to wreak havoc in between. It doesn’t make sense the general would support the ML as governor after all that was set up

It seems like the theme…and also any drama from this era do not have a happy ending…too close to wars/politics. I love the costumes/fashion from this era.

She doesn’t know until it was too late. You can’t blame her, the weight of her family’s revenge on her and the last she wants is having a child with said enemy. Her frustration and his obsession both killed their child. The ML realized fault when she tried to kilo herself and tried to do good by her. If this was a regular series, this drama would be super promising!

The actors did a great job in this series. I would love to see them in another drama. The ending had too many loose ends…to the point nothing makes sense…what a way to messed up what the earlier episodes built up to. I would like to enjoy the semi happy ending but it’s so off/impossible.

I hope they air everything!!!

Now I get why it’s call circle of love (more like revenge)…the Chinese title translates to 3 locked loves (cycle) - the plot seem like she will feign amnesia (after the suicide scene) to seek revenge on him by killing him on their wedding day. FL will most likely find out ML is not the culprit for her family’s doom etc….there you go: one dead the other regret. I hope I m wrong…I do like a happy ending.

My goodness, ep 13 was hot…how did that passed censorship

These type of storyline is as old as time lol but it sure makes for cheap entertainment!

You ll have to read the novel till the end of the moon. The ML IS 10000000x more psycho (drama version made him somewhat normal/good guy). In this drama, the ML has his demised family as the catalyst for his behavior.