mysteryqueen9

You are right he also has a victim complex. In fact we can see his inferiority complex + victim complex in last ep, when he said to FL:
"Do you only reserve your trust to a man of Xiao Heng's standing? (he feels bitter and jealous of XH's good birth)
"If I had Xiao Heng's background, I wouldn't have to do this! " (again, he feels inferior to XH but at the same time keeps playing victim and putting the blame on other people (Wanning usually) or in this case his poor background.
The funny thing is he even dares tell her that he would also give up the Longwu army tally if he was in XH's position...yeah, we have already seen how devoted you are as a lover, SYR! LOL

I just had to come here after watching how SYR is reaching an imaginable level of disgusting trash, even for him. Though the bar was very low...
So are you telling me he just realises there's something between FL and Xiao Heng, so this evil pig decides to propose a marriage to FL? I thought there was no thing worse than burying her alive, but condemning her, who has a new chance at life with a new identity and loved ones, to marry again her tormentor and condemn her to a life of hell as Wanning's toy when he knows that's worse than death...WOW. Just wow. And just because Xiao Heng was a threat to his masculinity and makes his inferiority complex to rise lol

Because he is a hypocrite and most importantly, he owns his current position and power to Wanning, at least to a certain degree. Yes, he was top scholar so he got an official position by His Majesty's grace, but let's not forget he is a very poor with no background man. That would make him a defenseless lamb in court waiting to the slaughter, having to submitted to powerful officials, corruption or being plotted against by people who saw him as an eyesore. Being with Wanning means nobody (but Wanning or the Emperor) can mess with him, so he can keep a virteous upright character in court, with no fear of others' oppresion.
There's an episode where the dumb Li son was still around (before the monk bet lol) where he was displeased with SYR's words and commented to his brother how SYR dared talked to him like that when he was a powerless man, and his much more smarter brother told him "do you really think he would still be around if he didn't have a strong supporter?".
So yes, SYR acts like a victim with the whole Wanning issue but in far he far benefits from her to keep his delusion of being "a good official who is honest and fair", using Wanning as a shield because if not, he would have been crushed already by powerful men, so he just turns a blind eye to Wanning's shady deals and corruption because "he is just a victim of Wanning and he has nothing to do with her dirty deals" (eye rolls x10000000)

One of the best quotes yet in this drama is in ep 27, by Ruoyao no less. Also, a quote that shows insane character development
"I don't need to step on other people's corpses to rise to the top. And If I have to step on other people's corpses, I rather not rise to the top"

Apart from that, but there is something extremely cruel that I don't see mention here, and that's how when FL was yelling at him that her father and bro were gonna take revenge for her, he just told her: no, your father has died accused of corruption. Your brother died to bandits in his way to visit you. How cruel must you be to tell your "beloved wife" just before burying her alive that her family members that she thought were fine and safe are all dead?? And that her brother died on his way to visit her? Why give her such a deep emotional blow just before her death? That is savage. And he had the nerve to add salt to the weeping wound: Your brother is on an unmarked grave.

What is with all this evil trash people burning/burying their romantic loves alive?? There's un unwritten rule that you must condemn your beloved one to the most agonising death? Knife, poison, white silk...there are so many ways guys

How you expect King Chen's reaction to Wanning being confined: hell this damn emperor, how he dares to punish my beloved sis, I will avenge you Wanning!
Reality: damn, that crazy sister of mine, she is useless
LOL
I would love to see Wanning interacting with her brother, to see if she dares act so high and mighty as she usually does when all her power resides on King Chen

Don't think so. The affair happened when she was already Lady Jiang, and Ruoyao is extremely close in age to Jiang Li, so she was pregnant just after her marriage probably (also I had the feeling from the scenes though it's not confirmed it was a one time thing). I think it's far more likely she got pregnant by the adultery when she had that miscarriage that she blamed on Jiang Li. In the flashback is fairly clear she intentionally/accidentally slip by herself and puts all the blame on Jiang Li. So it would be killing two birds with one stone, remove Jiang Li from picture, and make the evidence of her affair disappear.

Oh, I get it. Was real Yi Heon one of main characters then? I thought he was really dead

Although I agree with you in the general idea (censorship is bad in any country) and I hate the idea of removing the gay romance in an adaptation in 99% of cases, in this story in particular I think it's quite complicated since MC is a 47 year old gangster in soul, and ML a teenager boy...I think that is very controversial, and it may be one of the main reasons to remove it, but perhaps I'm wrong. I plan to read the novel myself, but I think quite a lot of people could have a problem to see a middle age man with a teen involved in romance so they just decided to play it safe
But yes, Korea has its problems in certain aspects, I still wait the day they film a drama about a FL overweight for example, or bisexual, or with a disability (though they recently made a good drama with an neurodivergent FL, so in that they're improving)

Yes, let's wait to see if someone who knows chinese can clarify this for us. Though I have read a lot of chinese novels (translated ofc) and I have never seen "Li" as a term of endearment, in contrast to "Xiao" that it means small or little, and it is used for nicknames quite a lot

Perhaps FaiFei was her courtesy name, and Li her private name? I know they did this for men, but perhaps it is also like that for women? I remember it was specially remarked in The Untamed, where every male had two names: ML was Lan Wanji (courtesy name, everyone knew him by that name) but his real name was Lan Zhan (used only by family and very close friends)

I personally don't think they will remove the fighting rankings since it is a key point that is very interesting and adds to the story.
I really loved Gray and Stephen (Suho) friendship in S1, but if they do it well, the friendship in this season will also be amazing, as Gray will get a real group of friends and not just one friend, which adds more dynamics to the story, specially given they have very different personalities. Eugene is such a cute boy, also Ben is amazing, Gerard...

BIG SPOILER FROM NOVEL If you don't want to know, stop reading
No, he is not gonna appear. But he will wake up at the end of the drama, if they follow the manhwa

Thank you. This makes much more sense in plotline sense than Wanning being the emperor's sister, since it was quite difficult for me to comprehend how she could have so much power than emperor can't handle her and control her behaviour, specially since she was a hostage in another country (which means it doesn't seem very likely she could create a power base and net of connections, and she would be probably seen as worthless as a hostage princess) but if she is the sister of Emperor's main rival and threat, King Cheng, that explains quite a lot of things, like her power and that she can act against Emperor's wishes sometimes.

Marriages between cousins was commonly done in many cultures, not only in western but also eastern countries like China, though in China case only cousins that don't belong to the same clan could marry. Don't know if they still can get married nowadays, in my country is very weird but legal.
About marrying your father's concubine, it is a scandal and very "inmoral" and rare but it happened irl. Like with emperor Gaozong and WuZetian.
And about killing the wife to marry another woman, I am pretty sure it indeed happened sometimes, specially if the wife was from a lesser family and the prospect wife came from an influent family, sadly.

I think it looks so nice. It's the first time I have seen it in a drama (even though I have watched a lot), but I read it was something done for formal situations in Song Dynasty. There are portraits where imperial consorts and noble ladies wore it irl.

I don't think Wanning straightforwardly ordered him to kill FL. Not sure, but it's implied Wanning just made clear she was gonna marry him, so FL was in the way and she had to fall from legitimate wife position. Killing her and doing it in such a way was his idea, I agree with you. Btw, I think ruining her reputation was Yurong's mom idea, not even Wanning, because mother in law said sth like "I have to do it or Wanning will not let us live", and I interpreted it as Wanning putting pressure on SYR's mom (with some veiled threat like "you better convince your son to forget his wife and prepare to marry me") so mother in law came with the idea of ruining FL's reputation to force his son's hand and make Wanning happy, showing her standing against FL. maybe I'm wrong, but if Wanning really toyed with the idea of torturing FL as a concubine to serve them, it makes no sense that the idea of ruining her reputation comes from her.

This. I have thought the same since ep 1. I get his idea of them being ants in front of Wanning and having to kill FL. But he could have informed his beloved wife of the truth and faked her death. FL outed him when she asked: why couldn't you give me a letter of divorce? You're too cruel. He could have thought of any solution before killing his wife, and even if there wasn't any other possible solution, he could have given her a painless death by poison or sth. Burying someone alive has to be the cruelest most agonising death I can imagine.
For me, this is proof Shen Yurong is worse than Wanning. Because people like Wanning are openly evil and villains, but Shen Yurong is a monster who isn't even willing to admit he is trash. When he was condemning the person who had given him everything (her love, her money, his prestige and position...) to the worst end, he just kept repeating he had no choice and he was forced to, but that's bullshit. He could have tried to blackmail Wanning with his own death and resigning his position (so he only had to divorce FL), but the ugly truth is he wants Wanning's advantages and power. He just prefers power to human values.

They are just following the book with the Ming family business arch