noor1234

Got the dates mixed up. Thanks for the reality check!

Yup...

And it's here tomorrow! Let's see how they have adapted the webnovel.

M-i-l does not respect SFL.

The only egregious thing she has done so far is the slander on FL's name - which nearly killed FL. After that as far as I can see she's just been burning up with envy & jealousy & being b**chy to FL in front of others. What should be her punishment? I think she's being punished: Others laugh at her, first away from her, now in front of her. They insult her to her face in her home. Husband has checked out of marriage. M-i-l openly planned against her & now has been slow to support her but gets into Wu alliance. SFL probably will have a concubine / 2nd wife to share everything with. I'm also guessing that SFL's son will be taken from her to be raised by Lady Yu. And she'll be sent off to live in another town, away from capital. She can even be divorced, I think & sent to her dad's village.

All of this is punishment,BUT I don't think her 'crimes' are as severe as those of Lady Yu, Mr. Yu & their son - who have actually gotten people killed for ambition. All that SFL has done is slander FL & consumed with envy against her. So what she is facing right now is punishment enough.

Ep. 25 trailer: How did dad gain entrance into FL's place? I'm fine with tension for the sake of tension but ML standing firm in front of a malevolent dad shooting a gun is ridiculous. This couple should've been married 4 episodes ago so that the rest of the story could play out, instead a dad has taken up precious screen time all this week.....And with an extremely understated, low-key romance between FL & ML, am I watching a documentary on filial piety, reputation arches & salt reforms, or a romance? Where's the roar in romance? In dad's shotgun?

Yup. It's the only drama I've seen where FL is strong without being aggressive, vocal without being b**chy, feminine without heavy makeup & flowery gowns, looks smart without looking like a shrew / cunning, and she does her own thing without derailing ML's plans. She is also not always right. ML is also written in a balanced manner, he has taken care of people, strangers, without coming across as some do-gooder robin hood, or giving lectures on goodness & patriotism or agreeing with FL like a puppy. And he is quietly masculine without those tropey muscle /chest shots sitting in a tub or doing military exercises. It's tough to show a guy in C-drama who changes according to circumstances - most C-drama leads are born good, know good, do good & are self-sacrificing for greater good. It's good to show 2 people who are selfish as in selfish to have a good life without ruining someone else's, but are ambitious for themselves, not for a country or kingdom - like those princely/kingly/general dramas this year. The best thing that the drama has shown is that this couple can actually have a genuine conversation without feeling threatened or one coming out tops over the other.

I know it, you know it. The world & king don't know it. To the world & Fu family it would look like a wedding procession, come on! If Fu men make a ruckus over their family's woman that she was sneaking out in a procession while they were mourning her, & grandma died because of the disrepute, how is the king supposed to know who is telling the truth? The king saw them in another town, they said they were engaged - fine, how did a noble woman get engaged to a salt smuggler when her dad is saying she ran away & this killed grandma? King knows the issue is being brought up to discredit his pick but he won't take sides openly because it's a morality code issue for that time. You are arguing on a point that is moot.

No that was AFTER he had already held a fake wedding with her in it while her funeral was passing by! That's when she got to talk to her mom....

Absolutely not. King cannot be seen taking sides of a couple that court's nobles have a problem with. He is the upholder of proper morality code of the time - not semantics of what the behavior of 2 people who helped him crack a case was like. He doesn't know what they were up to or not up to when FL lived with her grandma. And btw, she DID elope with ML - after the near death experience, ML held a fake wedding when her funeral was passing. So technically FL's dad can twist reality to say it's a double fraud for Fu family - that while they were burying their girl who died of 'sickness in nunnery' ML actually showed off his fake wedding in front of them, taking their daughter with him! King doesn't know about any of this. If they were 'engaged' when he saw them, that was after they had eloped & caused grandma's death!

I don't know how this 'elopement charge' gets resolved. But I think the drama will show ML & FL taking matters into their own hands and rejecting filial piety of a deadbeat father who only wants to be made salt censor & is exploiting the daughter for this purpose. That's why ML will go collect her mom for the wedding - to complete ritual of a living elder being by FL's side.

I don't think the leads have had time to relax since they came to capital - which is saying something, because Ganlin wasn't peaches & roses either!!! But we didn't see their courtship even there all that much. But here, everything from their union to every convo since, has been a combo of what is happening in court / ML's workplace to how FL strategizes to help him & both minding that the other is not sharing things, while showing caring gestures towards each other. They have not even kissed or tightly hugged since reunion, they show intimacy in other ways. I think it's realistic, understated romance, a bit dry romance.

You don't like the ML's arc, fine. But I will say, FL's choices were not to stay alive. After she's rescued by ML in that nunnery, she strategized to have a secure future - that's different from need to stay alive. She's the one who roped in ML in the salt investigation, she's the one who offered marriage as a means to an end, she's the one who went with him to Ganlin army base - even though her mom told her to go to capital where she had moneyed relatives - & she's the one who lived as an army guy's fiancé in poverty. It was always her ambition to go to capital, & she was ecstatic when she found out that ML was on his way to capital as a decorated military officer, & she could finally leave Ganlin.

If it was up to ML, he'd probably still be a salt smuggler or dead or in prison! FL is from an upper class household, she was born with a lot of stuff & her job was never to be a provider or protector for a family - she was raised to be a manager of household & educated enough to have an intelligent conversation with noble wives in capital. ML comes from nothing - I don't think he's even all that literate - & he has always had a band he had to provide for & protect. And he's doing that.

I do believe he doesn't want to share stuff about work with her - but that is not because he thinks she's not 'equal'.

You see it differently, and that's fine.

No, he gave over his entire smuggling money to the crown prince - as in the treasury to make a clean start - and left 3K teals for FL so that she'd have a bit of money for use in capital. This was done at the end of investigation arc when FL was leaving for capital & had convinced him to join the army & leave fake identity behind & she was the one to tell him to turn over the money to law.

I think the same.

True, well said!

He's a court official with an army background tasked with a revolutionary salt reform, deputed by king to get it done - by hook or by crook. Can he really say no to a king? And that too as just some random nobody with no family / status for support, just some 5-year military career?

He's actually a very good person, very honorable, with a strong sense of right & wrong & he's very affectionate with people - all of the guys with him were strangers, but he has taken all of them along. But he has seen what happens when you don't have power - people get trampled, killed, humiliated, fiancee' can get abducted, etc. & he has been shown to be human when he accepted Yusheng's lie about 16 heads & then went on to collect 16 alternates.

FL's choices were never THIS grim. She never had to kill someone to save someone or kill someone on someone's orders or kill just because she's in the military or arrest & torture someone because that's her job. He's hardened & jaded because of his experiences. He could take risks before as salt smuggler, he cannot make a wrong move as a court official or his family will suffer.

I do believe if this couple stays here like this for 20 years, they'll end up exactly like Yu lady & her husband - corrupt, cynical, indifferent, political players.

Oh, thanks for that! I was wondering how the leads knew this guy - and now that you mention it - he's the guy with hair who was next to crown prince during the investigation arc (& with Gen. Mo & the other sword guy) & later told FL to convince ML to join army etc. He also was the one to tell Yu lady she won't get any credit from prince for her work. THANKS!

There were 3 candidates: ML had also proposed a name - a guy called Baio, & Ministry of Personnel recommended the other 2 - Shameless/SML & Chongsi. The names are shown in the edict king has in his hands in court.

True.

He wasn't 'powerful & arrogant during lunch' - he told her to tell him if she makes a move & not hide it. She was going behind his back - as his fiancee' btw, and had sent a letter to HR people about Chongsi. That's why he got that letter out from the Ministry of Personnel & gave it back to her. He has his own reasons for not backing her brother's in-law (wife's brother) because it would look like favoritism - but king's tutor recommending the same guy is something else - & that got done due to FL.
In the tea scene, he was telling her that he understood what she did, but she should also understand his position. She did not like it because she wants him to have a support base, & he cannot be seen as having a support base if he is to be impartial handler of salt reform. They have a communication problem, but it stems from wanting to do the right thing & also need to protect the other.