minki4

Deus ex machina would be if the inexperienced leads who came from the bottom were to win against a stalwart couple who have been involved and entrenched in politics for decades.

If this drama were to be as realistic as you are saying, the main leads would have been killed off a long time ago, cos let’s be real, they have no experience and are no match for those old crooks in court. However this is a drama, so there has to be some plot armour for the leads. Else, how many times do you see a nobody commoner who is a salt smuggler, randomly meet a crown prince, gain military merits and rise to one of the highest positions in court? At least, the drama is causing their wins to be hard earned which makes it more meaningful and fulfilling.

I’ve never seen a more binge worthy drama. This drama is way too stressful to watch one episode at a time. I’ll wait till the rest of the episodes are released to watch it completely, cos I can’t deal with the anxiety of waiting for new episodes.

Ikr..should have gotten him bed ridden too and spared us the nightmare of dealing with that useless man for the next episodes.

No, the FL’s evil father ate it, and suffered stomach ache.

I know that poor sheep is mad as fuck. They dressed it as a wedding tribute and carried it all the way from North West to the palace. The emperor then gave it to ZL and he gave it to Tingyun only for it to get yelled at, then ended up drenched in rain for 4 whole hours because of her father. Phew.

You are forgetting that the MIL didn’t want her for her son anyway. Since she was so desperate to marry into the family, It is left for her to win her MIL over, at least to be able to navigate social circles easily. The MIL frankly doesn’t owe her anything. But she squandered the opportunity she had twice. First by refusing to give her MIL the book to gift the CP. And second, by almost botching the case the CP was investigating by giving those palace cakes to the noble ladies to raise her status with them. Because of that , all of madam yu’s efforts in that case went to waste.

Fan Yake is just blinded by her inferiority complex and her greed to fit in with the ultra rich. I mean see how she is acting with the Tingyun currently. She framed her best friend for a man, married him and has a male child. Technically, she has “won” in the eyes of society. Yet her inferiority complex didn’t stop her from trying to taunt Tingyun again and again. Her personality is just trash. I doubt any coaching by her MIL would help her cos her innate inferiority complex will always pop out and make her do stupid things

Well, SFL willingly participated in ruining the reputation of her best friend just so she would marry into that same family. Her father is just a poor scholar, and he warned her before getting married, but her greed knows no bounds. Since she got her wish and married into the super wealthy noble family, she just has to play ball to keep up appearances. That’s what all those noble women do, the difference is that they all come actual wealthy families, so they can manage just fine.

The only thing of value Fan Yake had is those priceless books her father left for her. It was FAR better she used those books to at least get into her MIL’s good graces, than pawning it off for those trinkets. At the end of the day, the gifts she bought with the money she got from pawning the books didn’t even impress the noble woman got it for, so it was an utter waste. To make matters worse, even her husband ended up disgusted when he found out she was pawning the priceless books for money. So now, she has lost both ways.

She would have won the heart of Madam Yu if she gave her that priceless book to gift the Crown Prince (who is now Emperor) when Madam Yu asked her for it. Madam Yu literally told her that if she gave her that book, she would let everything be bygones and accept her as her DIL.

Instead Fan Yake listened to her stupid husband and ruined the book. After that, Madam Yu knew she was completely hopeless. Mind you, the reason why Madam Yu was currying favour with the CP then was because of her son’s official career. So, in her mind, she is probably thinking that instead of her DIL to help her pave the way for her son’s official career, she is instead ruining his chances. There was no way her relationship with madam Yu would recover after that fiasco.

He dislikes his mother controlling his life, and since his mother chose Tingyun to be his wife, he transferred that hate to Tingyun, and decided to ruin her reputation so he wouldn’t have to marry her.

Tingyun saved his life in Ganlin, and he also found out that she runs a female school, and she restored the messages of border soldiers who died in previous wars and re-recorded them. Basically, he found out that he completely misjudged her and became obsessed with her, despite her harshly rebuking him. The dude is nuts.

No, her father. The ML wanted to do things the proper way cos of her, so he went to meet her father directly to ask for her hand in marriage.

His friend put him on the spot though. Those merchants had an ulterior motive inviting ZL to that party, trying to manipulate him cos of those salt reform laws. Luckily ZL had the sense to invite the grand secretary too.

She was the one who set him on this path though. The worst part is that he is not even in a position to back out now. When they were in the military, they kept to themselves, yet see how that asshole Yu Jingxiu won’t leave them alone till he indirectly caused YuCheng’s death.

Now that they are in the capital, it’s even worse. Even if he doesn’t do anything, there is no way the Yu family will leave them alone, especially now that madam Yu knows her son was responsible for ruining Tingyun’s reputation, and Tingyun is to be married to Zhao Ling. This sort of situation, even if ZL doesn’t strike, the Yu family will strike first out of self preservation, which they already did by putting ZL in the centre of the salt reform laws and making him an enemy of every official. They just have to fight to death till someone falls.

I have to really commend Ding Yuxi’s acting. It’s almost like he is a completely different person from the person we saw in the first episode. Initially, he was very carefree and kind of happy go lucky with his actions. Now, he is so cold, ruthless and dignified, yet his eyes really show the struggles and pain he went through to get to his position. He is only vulnerable when he is with Tingyun now.

I’m proud of how far he has come, but still sad and worried for him. I completely understand why Tingyun worries too, after all she pushed him on this path. I hope they can achieve what they want unscathed cos they have suffered enough.

Don’t tell me her useless father now wants to stand in the way of their marriage. So annoying.

This capital arc is somehow giving me more palpitations than the military arc. Everyone is just so conniving. I feel sorry for Zhao Ling. The death of Yucheng traumatized him so much so he wants to be more powerful so he can protect those close to him, but this game of power in the capital is too precarious. I hope Tingyun helps him overcome this cos he needs all the help he can get atp.

Nah it’s very good writing. I called it from the first time he plotted to ruin her reputation that he will later fall in love with her. He seemed to be smitten when he first saw her, but the main reason why he hated her so much is because his mum chose her to be his wife. Since he resents the fact that his mum controls everything about his life, he decided to lash out on Tingyun since he doesn’t have the balls to confront his mum directly. Typical privileged spoiled rich kid behaviour.

Fk…I can’t believe Yucheng of all people decided to falsely claim merits. He seemed like the most honest out of ZL’s followers. And ZL now has to bear the fallout from his mess up. Smh.

Still shook that ZL outrightly just killed Lu Dahu, and he actually tampered with that stable to fall on that idiot YJX, it would have saved us the trouble if he died there.

I appreciate how ruthless the Ml is in this show. Sometimes dramas go overboard trying to make ML a goody two shoes, and it works most times because those most cdrama MLs are rich and privileged so they can afford to be magnanimous.

In this drama however, the ML came from absolutely nothing. If he is not cunning or a bit crooked, willing to think outside the box and get his hands dirty to get ahead, there is no way he will really go far, at least as fast as he wants to. So far, it seems messing with Tingyun brings out the worst part of him, and I frankly love that.

YJX to his father: I have benefitted from my parents too long, I want to make a name for my self.

YJX when trying to woo a woman whose reputation he ruined: Uses his father’s influence to manipulate officials and cheat.

Previews can be misleading and clickbaity sometimes. Let’s just see how the story turns out.