LanLan

I hope this can soothe your disappointment a teeny bit about ep 20:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3qSA-W8gqg
Throw all your expectations away from here on and forget about any teasers you may have seen.

It's not the director's fault imo. You can tell based on other scenes filmed that he did a very nice job. The hanging and the hair touching bed scene were beautifully filmed. Fight scenes also look very nice and he was able to get the best out of WHD (unlike MTD's director.) The reveal was also filmed in details, based on the BTS tidbits and cuts shown. It's just unfortunate with all the cutting they've had to do that it messed it all up.

No problem. I have to insert these angles into my imagination to replay that scene in a more beautiful way in my mind. It was supposed to be a heart tugging close to a meaningful wedding scene, but the editing just made me so frustrated instead.

I didn't have much issue with the earlier cuts because it made sense for characterization purposes, but ugh! they cut everything in between today's episodes and made the poisoning and her figuring out he's a fake eunuch so random and irrelevant. Even the kiss in the pink field was cut down (can't even blame this on the censors.) I really don't get it. The revenge plot is moving forward, but everything was so choppily edited together due to the cuts so I felt no emotional connection to whatever was going on. What a pity they had to do this. And to piss off fans even more, they go and release BTS tidbits to tease them with what should've been shown. After four days of waiting and anticipating what was supposed to be shown, we got nothing.

The only highlight from these two eps for me was when XD was telling YL about how his brother ended up being a eunuch. WHD can emote really well in subtle emotional scene. Nothing needs to be exaggerated for the viewer to feel what he's feeling.

I find this so funny. Every time the official weibo account makes a new post, the same fan will reply with this same message every single time. And it would get a bunch of supportive likes each time.
1. The hero and heroine on iQIYI Scream Night! ! !
2. Extra tidbits/cut scenes are packaged into extra episodes and released! ! !
3. The male and female protagonists have a livestream or sweep the building together(have promotions together)! ! !
4. The male and female protagonists do a magazine photoshoot together! ! !
5. The male and female protagonists record a variety show to promote the drama! ! !
6. Release the cut portions of Tianfang Water Pavilion! ! !

iQiyi has a system called "heat index" to determine the popularity of a drama based on a few different factors, not just view counts, since that could be manipulated by a user replaying a video over and over. The system takes into account how many shares a video has to social medias, live interactions, likes and comments. All the platforms have this now, but I feel like it's much harder to reach 10K on iQiyi. As you can see from the list, there aren't that many. The average number for a good drama is usually around 7.5K. Anything above 8K is considered popular.

As for the drama class levels, there's A, S, and S+, depending on the platform. It's usually internal info for investors to know, but sometimes it's revealed to the public for marketing reasons. This shows how much is allotted to it like production budget, promotions budget, etc. If I remember correctly, Love Between Fairy and Devil was S level, but I think iQiyi only has A and then S. Not sure if they have anything lower than A, but some of their cheesy rom-com with new actors look like they could be a B, lol. Youku and Tencent have A, S, and S+. Tencent is the one that produces the most S+ dramas, I think. You can usually tell by who the lead actors are. It's only top actors who are leading these.

Yes and I believe it is possible if the development keeps improving in the second half. There has only been 7 dramas since 2018 to have broken 10,000 on iQiyi.

Story of Yanxi Palace (2018)
My Heroic Husband (2021)
Love Between Fairy and Devil (2022)
New Life Begins (2022)
A Lifelong Journey (2022)
Chasing the Undercurrent (2022)
Wild Bloom (2022)

Majority of the these are high quality productions with veteran actors. It was a feat for Forbidden Love to even reach 9,000. The first A level drama ever to do so on iQiyi. I think most of it has to do with WHD more than overall quality imo.

Trust the emoji hint on the broadcast calendar 💕

I made an MV of XD and YL 😊
https://youtu.be/_AheoMVngR4

Sure we can. Just let me know how you want to do it :)

I'm considering cleaning up the novel translations to English just to pass the time because I can't stop thinking about the next episodes 😭

The addition of the romance between the princess+captive prince and the maid+godson is completely unnecessary. That should’ve been screen time spent fleshing out XD’s backstory with his brother and the revenge. Welp, I already knew this screenwriter isn’t great before going in so at least we have the two leads doing all the heavy lifting with their performance and chemistry.

Yeah I don’t think the effect would’ve been felt as strongly if we’d seen them snuggling already before that, but it makes more sense how YL could so comfortably come and ask to sleep with him because she couldn’t sleep.

I don’t mind 😂. There is also the other kiss where they’re wearing the same outfits as when he was sitting at her bedside while she’s in a coma in the previews. The one where he’s lifting her chin with his fingers that was shown in one of the trailers.

They better give us the bathtub scene fully come Sunday 😡 (This is supposedly after YL was poisoned and XD has to try to detoxify her through bathing).

BTS which includes cut scenes from ep 16 when they first entered Jinguan City as fake husband and wife. I was wondering what YL meant when she said to stay the way they did at Tianfang Water Pavilion and XD said he slept on the floor. They completely cut all those parts out. I was thinking about how it was a pity that they had on such nice outfits and it was only shown for a few seconds in the carriage. No wonder.

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1oD4y157Cj/?spm_id_from=333.337.search-card.all.click&vd_source=296a7ad00cf7a1300a2420ae7e70153b

All the older links I posted are slowly getting deleted so I don't think there's a point in me compiling them into the discussion thread anymore. New watchers will just have to seek out new sources when they learn about it later.

Ah but I love how YL reacted to her and how XD was only concerned if her hand was harmed 🥰

I feel like the broken cherry is somehow worse and then you have to wait another 4 days until new episodes.

Here's a teaser: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1bt4y1L7E4/?vd_source=296a7ad00cf7a1300a2420ae7e70153b

I read they're not a couple here, but he's paired up with another character.

Controlling his beard growth was also implying that the pills suppress his testosterone level. It's a hormone closely associated with the male sex drive (it decreases without the testicles). So if it's low, means it's easier for him to not be physically reactive to her. With him having feelings for her and how much she was touching and hugging on him, I don't think he would've been able to just simply sleep with her soundly lol.

Some European countries cut off only the testicles, but China cut everything, including the penis. I know we joke around about it here, but being an eunuch is a horrific process for these people if you read up on it.