noor1234

I disagree. Young FL was crying over wedding sweets, because Lin family was living and enjoying their life, while her life & that of her family got ruined, without any notice or consideration from Lins. She was betrothed at 16 to some guy by her elders, it wasn't like they knew each other or were in love. She was crying over the fact that it was so easy for this guy to have a wedding when technically she had just died by suicide, alongwith her family a few days ago.

She looks stoic when around his 'happy mom & son' routine, because this family got to live, and enjoy, without showing her family any courtesy. Remember, right after the letter of breaking off engagement came, the soldiers came to arrest the family. So Lins knew Shens were in trouble & extracted themselves.

She did check him out when she was first saw him in his wife's chambers seated at the table (when maids were introduced to wife), but her goal is to get out of servitude & provide for her adoptive parents. She doesn't think about this guy or his life, other than when HER life is in danger, or that of her maid-friends.

Lins did not pay anything for their involvement. Grandpa Lin said in Ep. 1 that he and Shen grandpa had talked about the 'regional prince cannot be king' thing long ago and new king is coming after both families. That's when ML says to grandpa we should inform Shen family, to which both his dad said & grandpa agreed that there was only time to save themselves - they resigned from their positions & left court. Broke off the engagement. Instead of warning Shens. They were not just betrothal families, they were longterm friends, since the days of grandpas.

I think Lins are responsible for what happened to Shens (apart from the 2 dumb Shen men who refused to apologize & got killed & ego-driven Shen grandma who thought mass suicide was better than ending up in music academy!).

Lins also used their only son to marry an influential courtier's grand daughter (the looney wife no.1) just because they wanted to secure their own future. Plus, she brought a lot of dowry. ML's mother accepted this marriage. Btw, ML was veryyyyyy happy when he got married. But he was rejected by this wife and put down too, so he left home for army. He does what his grandpa tells him to do. His sister was married off in haste and may be in a bad marriage, we'll probably see her later. But all this is done by the elders, mom/dad & grandpa - selling their own kids for privilege & status, despite being so-called 'educated'.

Unfortunately in this drama, I doubt ML's dad, mom & especially grandpa will get punished.

Yes. ML trusts Yuchan, that's why she's back. And yes, ML was suspicious of the 2 maids who were in the garden near library, so he most def. asked her to observe them. She was reporting her views back. And yes, if ML had said get rid of her, Yuchan would've arranged for FL to be hanged / disappeared / drowned or poisoned..... etc. Yes, it was pure luck that ML said no, plus, I think ML doesn't like to go after people unnecessarily.

I doubt there is such a thing as being 'nice' to maids - they are female slaves who were spoken kindly to by their manager, they are not Yuchan's friends. She is not there to protect maids. She is there to protect the household's interest.

He especially chose a veryyyyyyyyy wrong time to say what he said! As if it would make a difference whether she seduced him or not, after being caught by the husband, not just the father!!!! One of them would've killed him, if negotiations were about honor, not power.

FL is great. She knows how to survive. Her quietness heightens the real threat & tension because she's the only one who knows how bad the situation really is - because she knows how harems and households operate.

Because she never bedded ML and didn't want to have kids with a man other than the lover/cousin. That is the only logical conclusion to me. Everything else she said about bleeding blah blah was to make ML not come to her or expect her to perform 'conjugal' duties - and it was clear to ML she didn't want to be with him in that way. That's why he never went to her, went away to army to build a separate identity from his corrupt dad/granddad and corrupt in-laws. ML never told his parents that their marriage of convenience was a sham marriage. Maybe her organs got damaged during abortion, but IMO the wife drinks special kind of tea all day long so that she doesn't get pregnant - since she clearly is doing everything with the disguised cousin/lover.

Yeah, but they are playing 23 and 21 year olds - because only 6 years have passed. It doesn't matter, what their real age is, people aged sooner in those days in any case, I'm glad they found younger actors - BUT the young girl who played ML's wife on wedding night was too dark skin-toned to resemble the actress playing the role 6 years later, in present day. It was jarring.

I started this show late, because the theme is depressing and dark & so is the music, so caught up to first 8 episodes yesterday.

I like the FL, her adopted parents, & the maids (whichever household they belong to). All of them are fantastic, whether good or bad. The fear, the fact that every move can be life and death whether rich or poor, with frightening BGM is well done.

What I don't like is this idea that women are powerless no matter which situation they are in and we have to feel sorry for them no matter what. These dumb power games all of the women in a household (including maids) are made to play in C-dramas to kill or humiliate or damage each other. I am sure Chinese women did not live so brutally or criminally. Or maybe this is what rich people suffer from - because poverty-stricken or middle-class women are too busy working to be playing mind games to bring each other down.

I especially couldn't stand Ep.1 - height of OTT wailing - forwarded most of it, when an entire family is wiped out to make FL alone in the world. A grand secretary couldn't save his family 'by going against his conscience' and not denouncing some former king! Plus such a clueless grand secretary! And grandma of this well-educated family tells ALL the women to kill themselves - starting from the youngest one! - rather than serve in musical academy - that is how arrogant, elitist, fake 'honor-bound' & SHAMELESS this elder is. Even if music academy were the pits, even if they got mistreated there, at least the women would've survived or SOME wouldn't be mistreated. It was waste of all that education IMV. And a dramatic contrivance.

ML's wife was collecting money to probably give it to ML's family to release her, but ML had told her on arrival that he could divorce her if she said so, - she obviously had a lot of control when she said no to husband & he didn't tell his parents that they had a sham marriage - why did things have to be taken to such a limit by her, that even after 6 years - as a proud, arrogant, spoilt superiority-complexed woman with shops and money of her own, even without that loan scheme, clearly miserable in this house she didn't want to be in - she still is shown at the mercy of a so-called educated M-i-L, has no control over even her maids, OR her boyfriend!!!! To show ML have the upper-hand over her is dramatic contrivance. Plus, I'm shocked she wasn't killed by ML's guards or her own dad's people. I hope she survives BUT if she does, it will only affirm that this drama wants us to feel sorry for the plight of women no matter what their status may be. And that 'education' makes a difference - that's inaccurate because look at ML's educated mom, she's just a power player. I don't think women are as weak, meek or subservient in life as portrayed in C-dramas.

ML's wife was in The Double too. She's a good actress but typecast as unhinged woman. The boyfriend's makeup was so welldone, I thought they were a lesbian couple!

Secondly, ML's dad and granddad were responsible for FL's male members not getting informed in time to save themselves before cavalry arrived - inspite of betrothal and rising together in ranks under current king - so they betrayed their own friends & to-be marital relatives, and I can already see from a mile away that ML's granddad will ride off into the sunset as a sage wise kind man, while his father will get punished later on unrelated corruption. ML may have buried FL's family secretly (as it happens in dramas to make FL think well of ML), but this family is hypocritical and self-serving. Call them survivors, but FL rising the station in this family & marrying this guy is like sleeping with the enemy. Even if she clears her family's name after marrying into this family, the cost is marrying this guy and being with her original M-i-L who didn't think twice about her family - as educated as they may pretend to be - and sold her own son to highest bidder to maintain power again and again! It's better to just get out of servitude, get your slave papers back and go with your adopted mom and dad to some village and grow potatoes instead. Marry a salt smuggler..... (Ref. road to splendor)

I think ML is okay, he had to follow his elders whatever they decided when he was young, now he has more agency and control but he is written as a one-dimensional person & he's cold and scary. There is no goal in his life other than maintaining goals of his grand dad.....

This is 9th month of 2026, and every major drama this year since Jan. has shown criminals getting a pass in C-dramas because the male and female leads think of 'peace here and now' and not correcting past wrongs. And this drama is headed that way too.

I'll watch it for the girls, not the guys. And with a pinch of salt.

https://youtu.be/dyusFs21VYE?si=QYZkFF1Xtv9FDPwc

I can see people debating whether BTS is catering more to 'western' audience than Korean - but nobody asked Swedish band ABBA that or asked Beatles why not stay in UK than make it big in America. If any of you is watching their concerts in U.S., the crowd is amazing, mayors of cities are welcoming them with special messages, because their concerts are a big part of local economic boost - Mexico went crazy. And what they've done with the Grammys - criticizing Grammys' introduction of 'Asian category' by not participating in the award show for next year, means they are using their muscle & leverage & making their voice matter. It just gives them something to talk about too into the next year.

I've covered this news for YT channel:

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Yup. I thought ML should never trust him again with anything after what he did in the capital!

He seems to be the kind of person to back stab repeatedly & losing limbs as a consequence of it.

I thought she couldn't eat the dumplings because of stress that her relationship with ML was bad, and that too on new years - first one in the capital and as a married couple - they were mentally & physically apart - while the dinner was an effort by Sanniang etc. to cheer this couple up who were drifting apart.

That's my take on it. Because they never included a damn scene of them being together after wedding night, no affection, all nagging & sadness, 2 funerals too & that endless mourning period, and didn't include a scene of FL knowing & ML's reaction to the pregnancy. I think they had the kid in Ganlin.

Good grief!

IF that had happened, FL wouldn't be sitting pretty in that room when SFL arrived to 'rescue' her. Also, I think FL was simply dropped to this place after being kidnapped, and released before Shameless/ SML came (with that cookie basket) at night. They were never alone together in that house.

Well said.

I think this idol actor is a better performer than all the guys in idol dramas this year - including the veryyyyyyyyyyy pretty Zhang Linghe, who frankly doesn't know acting, he's literally just a model, a very pretty model. In this drama, ML's face moves, eyes are dead, but no idol actor has the capability to express through eyes, which great thespians only are able to do.

The leads and the entire cast in this drama performed well. This drama had a story & character development. And they gave all character s a proper ending.

I've heard they cut a lot of scenes - Sen's arc, then FL's pregnancy/ baby arc etc. And there were no kiss scenes / any kind of remote intimacy after the wedding - so for last 10 episodes it was angst, nagging & more angst & cold cold relationship - even though the drama should've balanced out the stress of court politics and their newly married life.

I forwarded the funerals, the histrionics, the salt investigation etc.

Yes, on the face of it, most def. king could've done something for Gen. Mo & didn't - part of the reason was that there was proof of Mo signing the 'bribe' document & the murder of Wu was pinned on him. There was no proof that he committed the murder but salt reforms needed Anzhou merchants support & they were protesting that king should give them justice since his man / general had killed their leader. King got Mo killed to dampen the political temperature.

I did not understand the entire ML-FL poisoning arc & why king wanted to test loyalty this way - because the only thing it proved to me was that ML cared about FL more than he did about living for the king - so my guess is, there was no serious murder charge against ML, he was simply called a salt smuggler in full court - which was true, & king wanted him to bring down Yus, hence the ruse of his death.

I did not like the capital arc, even though it was necessary to show the changing positions of both ML & FL in what road to splendor really meant & how trapped ML was in the extreme power he had & how unhappy they both were. Other than that, king is a scary person, & the odds of him killing ML were high because you never know what he would consider disposable.