ninan

Yes, their end target is the Emporor. Actually i always feel besides Crown Prince and Prince Qin, there is one more group hidden there. In the first life, it is obvious that SM sent his troop to kill Prince Qin. The prince seemed to have no clue about what was going on and the eunuch had zero worry after he heard the news. ???something is off here.

Talk about diversity of an actor. The actress who plays the buffy, funny, sometimes annoying Cousin Zhao of FL actually played the role of the Emporor of North Qi in Joy Of Life. My jaw dropped after I figured this out. Absolutely brilliant actress! I hope these good actors and actress could be given more chances in the industry.

They were not simply targeting ML and FL. There are more. WXY's father has to step down from his position after this, just like PM Wu. As Dou 5 main opponent and competitor of the position of Prime Minister, once he is down. Dou 5 is about to sieze that position. Plus they are aiming at the position of SM. Basically one stone, multiply birds to hit. They are gaining a lot in this slaught. Very scheming and scary antagonists. WXY was always the pawn...

I'm not so sure about this conclusion since it was mentioned multiply times in the interviews that they could not find anybody who is suitable and wanted to play such an antagonist, hence the boss came to the save.

Agreed. Think about all those innocent lives lost in this bloody night. Not just DM.

maybe the oldest uncle is not from wife but a concubine? Anyway, from what i gathered from those novel readers. The whole house is like the houe of the Wei family, a declining noble family with no political power and no talent except SM. One of the reason that SMs dad got the title is because of his marriage with the sister of Duke of Ding. And i even read, the late Duke wanted to skip SMs father and pass the title to his only promising grandson SM. But he died before he could settle the case. That's why the father hated him so much. The existence of SM and the Jiang family was such a humiliation to him.

I think you totally ignored or missed the story line of the court political play. The hidden mastermind is way powerful than them, even the emperor had to make compromise (how he sealed the case of Duke of Ding so quickly). It is really very logic and realistic, that till now ML and FL are still in the lower hand. They don't even know who is the mastermind yet. But in ep23, the hidden power is slowly showing up. And now it looks like all the household troubles are actually all connected with this political power, not just simply I'm jealous, I don't want you to have a better life, such supercilious reasons. The script is really very solid and I love how realistic it is. ML and FL are smart and strong, but they can't be over the top mighty, killing everyone type of strong.

That depends on what you define as simp. In this drama, I don't see anything wrong with you claimed simp here. If this is simp, there is no problem at all.
BTW, you kept changing topics, first simp ML is boring. Afterward, oh, simp is not the biggest issue, the plot twist is. Now comes back to simp again. Seriously, maybe you should be more logic and constructive with all the critiques. I think I will end here. No point to say further.

Nice to know the details. Thanks for the explanation!

I'm not so sure about the concept of her property. I think all the wealth she brought from her family to the husband family are all under the concept of dowry. Furthermore, I checked a bit online, I never see anything mentioned otherwise. Property, shops, farmlands, money, jewelry, artifacts, etc, as long as they were from the wife's family including herself, they are all her dowry, which was under the protection of the law.

It was really indecent for the husband's family to try to touch the dowry of the wife. If the news was out, it was absolutely big damage for the family reputation, which means the men in the house are so useless, they could not raise their women and children, that they have to use wife's dowry. Second, this reputation will greatly be downgraded in the future marriage markets. No decent and rich family would like to marry their daughters into this house. But there were always shameless ones like here the Song family. They will try to use filial piety to force the wife. That's why a strong and smart wife like FL is so important. If it was Dou Ming with a big dowry, she would be robbed like in no time.

Actually they could not. By common practice, the husbands family could not touch the wifes dowry. It was by law protected. If divorce, the wife could take all her dowry back. It was considered indecent if wifes dowry was used. Buf of course if the wife was willing to give her dowry to the new household, the reputation could be saved. The interesting part was always how willing was this willing. Therefore houses with big dowry for their girls normally came with servants with skills of business and accounting from the family. They would help their mistress to hold the dowry. And the girls were educated with knowledge of household management before they were married. It was not easy to control the dowry of a wife from a high class family unless this lady was really weak and useless.

Ming as well. Actually more Ming than Qing since in the Qing dynasty the sea trade is totally forbidden by the government. They are fighting more against smuggling than the pirates. In the Ming dynasty, the sea trade is open and encouraged. The armys on the coast provinces was set up for protection. The famous Army of the Qi Family is in this era.

Costumes weise, yes, definitely Ming Dynasty.

Her husband lost parents and inherited the Marquise title at a young age. Basically, he was raised by his sister. His household was handled by his sister all the time. Normally once married, his wife, aka, DM, should take over the household, but obviously DM is not a match in the power play of the household and her husband never cared about it and helped her. For her husband, it is not a big deal that his sister handles the money and everything in his household. She stationed in Marquise place, not the other way around. The only people suffering is DM.

I have to agree. I constantly feel uncomfortable when I see this word in a lot of the comments in dramas. What's wrong with simp?

I think the plots has two lines: courts and domestic household. These two lines are weaving and preceding, and they show different weights at different stages. After the ML survived from his dad conspiracy, courts side, he used the hunting opportunity to gain sympathy from the Emperor. He's officially back to the court with a critical position. He sent his troop undercover and now is building a secrete intel network. Definitely very useful for further plots. Then the story is more on the household side: the Marriage of DM and the FL. I'm sure afterward, the focus will go back to the courts again once the household is more settled. I'm quite happy with current pace and structure.

I'm not sure what kind of plot twist you mean. Currently, there is no twist in my opinion. Everything flows logically. ML is currently totally in hiding stage. He listened to the advice of FL: lay low, hide the resentment and hatred, build up his own network, etc. And he is now the chief of the Imperial Guards, which put him back to the political center. So good for his next steps. I'm looking forwards to his new navigation in the courts after the marriage. For the story line of courts, it is like a slow ride now. It makes perfect sense to settle down the marriage story here. I really don't see any problem of the plots in the last 5 episodes. There are a lot of things going on and none of them is repetitive. Step by step, the ML is gaining political power. They are just under the storyline of the marriage.

I think you eyed on the romance side of the story too much and missed a lot of underneath stories, especially the court political play side. Hence, your complaint of the plot circling the marriage issue.

Sorry, I have to say for the marriage, FL did a lot as well. It's obviously a team work to get the marriage sealed. From the beginning to now, there are always two people struggling together. The hesitation of the FL is also very understandable. Once she figured it out, she bravely embraced her feeling and response actively. It was never ML simp single-sided.

So well said. I constantly see the word simp in the comments of a lot of drama lately. If the ML simp, the drama is bad, If the FL simp, the drama is bad. Er... I don't think simp is of any problem, as long as there is logic behind it. The logic is so sound that I totally can get why he or she is so smitten and devoted into her or him. Then why not? I'm more than happy to see it. In this drama, if you really watch the drama, you can clearly see the development of their relationship. I'm so in love of their early tensions, a kind of enemies to friends to lovers feeling. So nicely done. Not so sure if this is called simp. If it is, they are more like simp to each other and I love it.

Added: Using simp to judge a drama and its audience somehow gives me the feeling of some real arrogance from the judging side. Kind of saying: look, how can you watch this kind of drama? They are so low in my taste. Mummmmm, we are all audiences with different likings. No superiority here. Peace.

Story of Ming Lan. And quite some cnovels.

The counting is sometimes in the whole generation, aka, first cousins with the same surname. And male and female are counted together. So, it is possible that her dad (7) and her uncle (5) have sister 1, 3 and cousin 2, 4, 6 from the same grandfather. Sometimes the kids died occupy the number counting as well.