In episode 17, the scene of Lei Mengsha with the bloody hand print on his face from a slap, then him kneeling down and being continuously beaten by his wife with a broom was so hard to watch...was that supposed to be funny? I really enjoyed he and his wife’s dynamic prior to that, but that scene soured the whole thing for me.
Ye Dingzhi played by He Yu is the most impressive actor in this series so far. When playing this sort of non-expressive character with a tragic and heartbreaking backstory, it’s very common to see actors have wooden expressions because they don’t say much.
But he is doing so well expressing emotions with his eyes, subtle facial expressions and body language. When he is intense like in a fight scene, he is convincingly scary, when he is interacting with others, you can see the indifference, but when he looks at Dong Jun, you can totally see the care and affection in his face and body language. His acting feels so natural and its not exaggerated or contrived. That’s actually impressive because I’ve seen much worse acting from actors with bigger hype.
To be fair, that shot of them falling together down the cliff looking into each other’s eyes, with the slow mo and soft music looked rather romantic. Without context, it can 100% be misconstrued as a scene between the ML and FL. I’m not blaming anyone, but that’s just the vibe I got. Generally speaking, that scene wouldn’t be much of an issue if the audience liked the SML..like in LYF for eg, but since they don’t, I guess I can understand the frustration.
i have seen many cdramas but first time i hate a romantic scene between ML and FL , don't say that characters…
I’m hanging around to see if I will watch this drama or not but this comment killed me 😂😂..lmao. Is the drama that frustrating?…it’s making me want to watch to see what the fuss is all about.
I refused to let go of this drama and write a review for days but alas all good things must come to an end. The last 15 minutes of episode 40 was truly torture..watching Wen ji and Lu ji die was so painful…cdrama writers have a boner for killing off well loved characters..something about their deaths making the audience remember the drama longer…but at least we got a happy ending for the main couple.
Tbh, with this sort of heavy revenge drama, having a bad ending or an open ending is in line with expectations, since chasing revenge is a two way road, one shouldn’t expect to come out unscathed. However, XFF has really been through too much in her first life, and it cost her- her life, her reputation and her whole family. If she lost XH in her second lease on life, it would be way too cruel on her, so I’m glad they had a their cheesy happy ending instead.
If you are thinking about watching this drama, just dive straight in and watch it, then judge for yourself. It’s a revenge drama first and foremost, and it takes that very seriously - even the villains were well written and complex, however, the romance, although slow burn, was so palpable whenever the FL and the ML are on screen, so it stays with you longer. The main leads have such mature and sizzling chemistry that I hope they star in another drama together..this time, they should have lots more skinship!
SYR telling XFF to kill XH, then they can live happily ever after is sending me…like the guy has truly lost it. What a deluded pathetic fool. The only thing giving him this audacity is because he truly doesn’t blame himself for killing her the first time. He still maintains that he was “forced” by the princess. Since he won’t take accountability for his part in the plight of her and her family, he doesn’t understand why she won’t get back to him now that he wants her back. He is so deluded. Falling to his death and not even getting a second glance from her is truly the best punishment. He can reunite with Wanning in hell now.
On a postive note, XFF calling out the names of the deceased longwu soldiers is right up there with her hitting the drum for her father’s justice then. WJY really killed her role, damn..what a powerful moment. I love how XH just watched her with pride without saying/doing anything, he just took a backseat and watched her take charge in that moment. Their relationship is one of the best I’ve seen in a Cdrama couple..if not the best.
Omg the end of episode 39, XH’s granddad brought Ah li back and XH helped her down from the horse and they hugged in front of everyone..truly the cutest thing I’ve seen. Minister Jiang was so embarrassed and wanted to seperate them but the emperor stopped him..lol.
As for SYR, what a scum. Idk why he has deluded himself so much that even if he kills XH, Ah Li will take him back. Truly a coward and pathetic victim till the end.
9.0 - Deserved. I really don’t want to let go of this drama…still gathering my thoughts to write a review. When will we get another one as intruiging as this..even the villains were well written.
Watching a historical Chinese drama and expecting everyone to be alive at the end is unrealistic. Let’s just be glad that the main leads are alive and happy, and they didn’t pull an AJTL at the end..now that would be tragic.
I read comment on weibo and people said that it’s really intended to be a sad ending, that the last scene ep…
When the drama was first released, the FL said it was a happy ending though? Also the novel had a happy ending too. Special episode or not, let’s just be glad it ended happily.
This is a revenge story. It’s impossible to get revenge on someone, especially someone as powerful as princess…
Let’s agree to disagree means that I don’t agree with your opinion but you are free to have it regardless. No one is gaslighting you , not even sure how you arrived at that conclusion. But do you.
This is a revenge story. It’s impossible to get revenge on someone, especially someone as powerful as princess…
Let’s agree to disagree, but I personally don’t blame her for that. What you are doing is putting the responsibility of Wanning’s evil on JL’s head. Yea, JL laid a trap for her and she fell into it, but her actions after is all of her own doing. If Wanning chose to keep the doctor alive, JL won’t kill him either.
JL is not a saint and she is not trying to be one. This is a revenge and retribution story, so there is always going to be some unintentional collateral damage. You won’t expect the MC to carefully plan out a revenge and consider every variable under the sun, that’s unrealistic.
JL’s plan is simple, give the princess a fake pregnancy drug so she will be forced to expose her affair with SYR. Ideally, this plan is supposed to be fool proof with no one getting hurt. If the princess chose to kill her loyal aide, that’s on her, not JL. Also, when the princess “miscarries”, she will probably be even more ruthless, are you going to also blame JL for her actions then?
So are we just supposed to ignore that someone might have died just because Jiang Li decided to play a petty trick…
This is a revenge story. It’s impossible to get revenge on someone, especially someone as powerful as princess Wanning without collateral damage. Considering what Wanning did to her unprovoked, she should be even more ruthless.
Also, not sure why JL is getting blamed here when it was Wanning who chose to kill her trusted aide. JL is not a magician to calculate every variable, she literally just gave Wanning a fake pregnancy drug, then sat and watched. Every action that took place after was planned by SYR and Wanning.
I know y'all view Wanning as a victim and her fate was truly tragic but with the amount of people she has had…
Most of the villains in the show are written to be nuanced and multidimensional as opposed to being caricature villains with no dimension to their character. It’s understandable to empathize with their suffering, like Wanning for instance, but showing their backstory is not an avenue to excuse their wrong doings, it’s rather to contrast how each character chose to handle their trauma.
Almost all of the main characters, both antagonists and protagonists, had major traumatic events in their lives, the difference is in how they handled it and treated other people. Some people chose to rise above it and strive for better, while others chose to hurt innocent people.
I’m really curious about the backstory between XH and his granddad. I lowkey felt bad when XH was so cold to his grandad when he came to visit, maybe ah li will help reconcile them? I don’t think the grandad will intentionally cause the death of his son, so what’s all the secrecy about?
1 
But he is doing so well expressing emotions with his eyes, subtle facial expressions and body language. When he is intense like in a fight scene, he is convincingly scary, when he is interacting with others, you can see the indifference, but when he looks at Dong Jun, you can totally see the care and affection in his face and body language. His acting feels so natural and its not exaggerated or contrived. That’s actually impressive because I’ve seen much worse acting from actors with bigger hype.
Tbh, with this sort of heavy revenge drama, having a bad ending or an open ending is in line with expectations, since chasing revenge is a two way road, one shouldn’t expect to come out unscathed. However, XFF has really been through too much in her first life, and it cost her- her life, her reputation and her whole family. If she lost XH in her second lease on life, it would be way too cruel on her, so I’m glad they had a their cheesy happy ending instead.
If you are thinking about watching this drama, just dive straight in and watch it, then judge for yourself. It’s a revenge drama first and foremost, and it takes that very seriously - even the villains were well written and complex, however, the romance, although slow burn, was so palpable whenever the FL and the ML are on screen, so it stays with you longer. The main leads have such mature and sizzling chemistry that I hope they star in another drama together..this time, they should have lots more skinship!
On a postive note, XFF calling out the names of the deceased longwu soldiers is right up there with her hitting the drum for her father’s justice then. WJY really killed her role, damn..what a powerful moment. I love how XH just watched her with pride without saying/doing anything, he just took a backseat and watched her take charge in that moment. Their relationship is one of the best I’ve seen in a Cdrama couple..if not the best.
As for SYR, what a scum. Idk why he has deluded himself so much that even if he kills XH, Ah Li will take him back. Truly a coward and pathetic victim till the end.
JL is not a saint and she is not trying to be one. This is a revenge and retribution story, so there is always going to be some unintentional collateral damage. You won’t expect the MC to carefully plan out a revenge and consider every variable under the sun, that’s
unrealistic.
JL’s plan is simple, give the princess a fake pregnancy drug so she will be forced to expose her affair with SYR. Ideally, this plan is supposed to be fool proof with no one getting hurt. If the princess chose to kill her loyal aide, that’s on her, not JL. Also, when the princess “miscarries”, she will probably be even more ruthless, are you going to also blame JL for her actions then?
Also, not sure why JL is getting blamed here when it was Wanning who chose to kill her trusted aide. JL is not a magician to calculate every variable, she literally just gave Wanning a fake pregnancy drug, then sat and watched. Every action that took place after was planned by SYR and Wanning.
Almost all of the main characters, both antagonists and protagonists, had major traumatic events in their lives, the difference is in how they handled it and treated other people. Some people chose to rise above it and strive for better, while others chose to hurt innocent people.