chamsuke

You bring up good points. Perhaps I just wanted to know more about why she of all people was chosen to save the bus. I was sort of speculating that the main girl was tied to the Meng Meng case in some way. I think that would have made for an even deeper twist, and seems like a bit of a wasted opportunity. I'm a huge thriller fan so I was able to use a lot of the clues to predict the twists and turns, so I'm always eager for more plot twists to keep myself engaged. I think I was also eager to just see more about the main characters lives. For a story that fleshed out so many of the bus characters, I felt like we got very little information and depth on the main characters. Don't get me wrong though, I loved the drama! I think though that the biggest magic it has is definitely the way the story unfolds and the character side stories. It's hard to stop watching and for a cdrama the pacing is just perfect.

#6 makes way more sense now too, thanks!!

This is like the OG thriller drama. It's a bit outdated now with the predictable characters and the old film style, but it's still a fantastic drama

Try "Bad Kids" and "Signal". These are two very very good thrillers. The former is slightly more creepy and the latter is more your traditional mystery with some supernatural elements.

You should also give "Some day or one day" a try. It's in the recommended but it actually is a very good drama. A lot more romance elements in it though which I didn't love

This is a fun watch and certainly love to see one scene get really fleshed out over and over. It was very detailed. I loved the way that they showed little bits of the passengers' lives on the bus. However this drama is by no means bullet proof in its premise and execution. There are a lot of unanswered questions and just things that don't add up.

1. Too much pro-police veering on propaganda. I felt like this was edited into the show and might have not been the producer's choice, because China is very strict about censorship when it comes to the reputation of public officials. But there are parts of it that are just kind of cringe here. Like how in the many first few episodes where the police seem to be extremely efficient and poke holes into gaps in the main leads' stories SUPER easily. It's like they're hyper aware and can trace you down to the ends of the earth . And yet we're supposed to believe that the same task force couldn't catch the molester even though he was FILMED ON SURVEILLANCE? Which brings me to my second point....

2. What happened to the police saying that they thoroughly checked surveillance? They said "too many people in the bus, couldnt tell who molested her" and yet when they show that scene, the guy was CLEARLY next to the Wang Meng Meng girl with no one else really nearby. This part just makes no sense to me. They didn't even do an investigation and I'm not suree if this is a plot hole or if the director is trying to point out the negligence in this case. It sounded like they were saying that they had checked everything, though.

3. The ending??? How are we supposed to believe that the police just let them go without even questoining how they knew every single detail of the case? That makes them extremely suspicious even IF no one died as a result of it. They could very well be the masterminds behind the bombing. The police just let them walk off?? That's completely out of character compared to their earlier episodes. Or is it that their attitude is different if there are deaths? Doesn't add up to the Old Zhang's character at all.

4. Why was the girl in the time loop to begin with? Why was only the guy brought into the time loop, but not the Cat dude? Makes no sense

5. Why did the parents want to bomb the bus? They're literally getting nowhere by doing this unless they have an actual grudge against the bus itself. They didnt even issue some kind of message to the public about how awful they were about their daughter's death. This part made no sense and made it seem like they just needed to do it for the sake of upholding the plot. It would make way more sense if they killed the bus driver. It doesnt make sense that they would just hurt a crowd of random people without even issuing a statement about why they're pissed off. It seems like a very intricate plan just to kill themselves tbh

6. If they can't bring material things with them when they rejoin the loop, how on earth did the main girl have the photo of Meng Meng getting molested on the bus? This part is just like, what? lol

I think it wouldn't be considered a crime just because he did not reach out to save her - but for sure he would be morally condemned by society if people found out that he was even slightly involved.

I think the drama tries to explain how someone can become darker through the environment they grow up in. Jingjing was a brat but I think her mother probably raised her to be that way. By the way that Wang Yao's brother is (sketchy as f), it seems like she comes from a questionable background as well. Zhang Dongsheng seemed like a smart guy who was pushed to his limit and found murder as his only option, and ZCY also came to this conclusion when he was neglected/bullied again and again by those around him.

About my previous comment - I actually got a bit confused here. I read the book recently where ZCY intentionally pushed Jingjing out of the window, which is where the juvenile law applies. The circumstances in the drama were different because as you said, it wouldn't technically be a crime just because he ignored her

I had forgotten two other important points:

1. Pupu ran away from the orphanage in Beijing because she was being sexually abused by the owner of the orphanage (along with several of the other girl orphans). Her family history is also a bit crazy - her mother favoured her brother, and her father was found guilty for killing the mother and the brother, and her father died by death penalty. Pupu is adamant that her father was innocent and forced to confess to a crime he didn't commit. There's speculations that Pupu was the person who killed her mother and brother. Pupu in the book is very scary and not at all cute like she is in the drama. She is the one who thought about bullying Jingjing and she suggested doing this by taking all of Jingjing's clothes and hiding them so that Jingjing would be embarrassed and naked in public. She also suggested that Ding Hao put the pubic hairs in jingjing's mouth (I think because Pupu was being sexually abused via oral sex at the orphanage). When Pupu's parents died, she went to live wiht her aunt and uncle but that didn't last long because she had an incident in that town where she was fighting with another girl who constantly bullied her. That girl was found drowned in a lake one day, and many people thought it was Pupu who pushed her. Pupu denies this when she tells ZCY, but ZCY wrote in his diary that Pupu confessed that she did push down the girl (so as to make PUpu sound more evil in his diary for the police).

2. Ding Hao's history is also very hideous - his mother lured a college girl for his father to rape and murder. But out of the three, Ding Hao is probably the most "innocent". He liked a girl at the orphanage and carved her name into his skin as a kind of dedication to her. ZCY knew about this, but he wrote in his diary that Ding Hao was a fighter and he carved into his arm somemthing like "warrior of the people" which coincidentally sounds similar to the girl's name. ZCY wrote this so that it would make Ding Hao seem more troublesome and implicate him further for the murders. Only ZCY knows the true meaning behind the tattoo

I finished the book recently - it was pretty interesting how different the story was. However, it actually talks a lot more about the characters histories which are very dark (which I think is why the drama never really went deeply into it). I've marked down some notable differences within the book for you and other people lurking this forum!

1. ZCY in the book actually picks up Jingjing and throws her out of the window. Prior to this, Ding Hao (the book version of Yan Liang) puts a few of his pubic hairs (gross, I know) into Jingjing's mouth which leaves a DNA trace. It's very obvious that Jingjing's death is a murder in the book, which is why the stepmother is very sure that ZCY committed the murder. There was speculation by the police that it was a sexual assault turned murder for a period of time

2. ZCY's dad is absolute trash in the book. If you thought he was bad in the drama, he is even worse scum in the book - he neglects ZCY and never even tells Jingjing that he is her half-brother. His dad's family is very very wealthy from his frozen fish business but ZCY sees barely any of the money because the stepmother does not allow ZCY's dad to give much money - ZCY's dad is pretty compliant with this though and willfully neglects ZCY (much different in the drama where he's depicted to feel a bit more guilty and still has a love for his son)....which is why...#3

3. ZCY plots to kill his father and his stepmother. He convinces Zhang Dongsheng, Pupu, and Dinghao to commit the murder for him while he stays out of it. This part makes a LOT more sense than the way that Wang Yao and Zhu Yongping die in the drama. But I believe they changed this for the drama because they did not want to depict a child plotting murder like this

4. ZCY knows that at the very end, ZDS will try to poison all three of the kids. He allows Pupu and Dinghao to be poisoned while he goes to the bathroom and vomits out the poison, then he pretends to be dead (along with the other two) before he catches ZDS off-guard and stabs him to death. ZCY then reports to the police the entire series of events by showing them a diary he had written - however, he had written the diary in a way that replaced his role of everything with Pupu/Ding Hao (i.e. he wrote that Ding Hao pushed Jingjing over the window, Pupu came up with the idea to kill ZCY's parents, etc). This is very diabolical because it shows how ZCY used his friends to commit all of his murders and then pushes the blame onto them so that he can get off without any ramifications. ZCY inherits the majority of the wealth coming from his deceased father's business and his life is turned around completely.

The ending of the book is also slightly open-ended, because a detective (named Yan Liang - strange how they flipped this character in the drama) figures out that ZCY had written a fake diary to provide his own alibi, but he's in between deciding whether he should let ZCY try to "restart" his life or if he should report it to the police.

I agree - he would've been protected by the juvenile law. I do believe you hit it on the nail though - he was more scared about losing his father's hard-won love and affection than he was about being found guilty for murder. He probably would have gotten off the "crime" but he would have lost his father forever.

I'll try to find some comments about changes between the book and the drama, but mostly these are being relayed to me from my friends who had read the books and were a fan of the author's works :) however if you search up 隐秘的角落ending, there are a lot of threads you can find about people analyzing the crap out of the drama. I think I've covered most of them in my comment because I thought they were just too brilliant not to be shared with a non-chinese speaking population.

I plan to read the book, but here are some other changes I read about online:
1.In the book, Pupu and Yan Liang (not actually Yan Liang, his character name was different within the book and changed in the drama I believe) were both killed at the same time by drinking a beverage that was laced with poison by Dong Sheng, and Chaoyang knew about the poison but let them drink it anyway. Plus, the book is called "The bad kid", so among the kids there is a bad one. So in the drama, they leave it up to you to decide if the kids actually died, but in the book they definitely died

2. In the drama, it shows that Zhang Dong Sheng killed the in-laws in the spur of the moment, but in the book, it clearly states that he had planned it for 1 year. I think I also read somewhere that he was doing it to inherit his wife's family money , which is why he was against the divorce and hatched a plan to kill his wife and the family. Whereas in the drama, it seemed more like he really loved her and was just trying his best to stay with her and take things as they went. He was much more diabolical in the book.

This is just my interpretation about that scene - but I believe that the last part where it shows that Yan Liang was not stabbed by Dong Sheng (in the same scene where Dong Sheng comments that Pupu is in the hospital) is just an imagination that Chaoyang had in his mind. This flashback happens when he is wrestling with Yan Liang for the pipe. I think this part is where it gets confusing what is real and what is fake (i.e. part of the fantasy that Chaoyang made up in his mind). I'm making these interpretations because I strongly believe that Pupu didn't survive the asthma attack and that Dong Sheng did not even bring her to the hospital.

There was a deleted scene of Dong Sheng crying at a McDonalds while eating 3 kids happy meals with the three other coloured toys - this was a hint that Dong Sheng had let Pupu die, because he had originally told Pupu that he'll take her back to McDonalds again someday so they can get the other coloured toys. If you listen in the ending credits of episode 9, there is a flashback dialogue of Dong Sheng and his wife talking about what kind of child they would want. Dong Sheng commented that he wants a baby girl with big eyes. I think his affection (or whatever little of it that he had in him) for Pupu was actually real. However, this scene was not included in the drama, I think because the directors chose to leave more up to the viewer's interpretation. The more subtle hints (like Pupu never showing up in another scene again after her asthma attack and also Chaoyang crying while he read Pupu's letter) were left in the drama.

No worries. I was completely lost as well until i read the comments online written by people who had read the book. The book is more directive about the intentions of each person and more black and white..i guess because they had to change a bit of the events to make it more positive in order for it to be allowed to be broadcasted.
For example, i read online that in the book, the girl who constantly got second place in her class was very adamant about her grades because her father (the police officer) was actually physically abusing her for not getting first place, but this was changed in the drama so as to not show police in a bad light for broadcasting, In a similar way, the story was changed in a way that made it seem like all 3 children lived on, but the cool thing is that this ended up making the drama more interesting because the directors let you decide what actually happened if you read between the lines. This also is a tip of the hat to censorship in a way - because the "good fairy tale" is what is broadcasted but there are several hints throughout the drama that tell the viewers otherwise. It's very meta if you think about it.

I finished this drama and was confused by the ending but after reading online interpretations by people who read the novel and are clearly much smarter than I am, there's actually so much more to this drama than what meets the eye. The viewer is encouraged to view the entire show from the point of view of Zhu Chaoyang, which not always a reliable narration. Once you step back and read the interpretations, it just shows how complex and amazing this drama is!

1. Zhu Chaoyang and Dongsheng are parallel characters - LDS is supposed to be an older and more "advanced" version of Zhu Chaoyang which is shown in many ways - first of all, their names both references the sun. Neither of them have friends, they both love math, and they're both betrayed by the ones they care about (one is cheated on and the other is ignored by his father). Even their first murder is the same (their victims falling to their death). At the last scene on the white boat, they are both wearing white clothes. The ending scene of ZCY shows that he has become the next LDS. He goes to the police and tells them that he has witnessed the death of JingJing, but he doesn't tell the entire truth (that he could have saved her), which brings us back to the first episode when LDS tells the police that when he noticed his in-laws fall to their death, it was already too late. Even the way that they both explain their positioning is the same (because in the last scene of episode 12 when ZCY is confessing to the police, he also says "it was too late for me to do anything). Also the scene at McDonalds when they ask each other what their biggest dream is, LDS said "i want to start over". In the same vein, ZCY also wants to start over as his father had told him to and as Pupu had mentioned in her letter to him. In the end though, ZCY is able to outsmart LDS and even dupe viewers into believing that he is actually a good kid, when he is more ruthless than LDS.

2. Zhu Chaoyang is not completely innocent in Jingjing's death. This is heavily hinted at because Pupu's letter at the end said that she will never tell anyone about Zhu Chaoyang's secret. If you don't really pay attention here, it might seem like she's just referring to the fact that she and ZCY were at the scene of the crime. BUt you will remember that ZCY and Pupu had already told Yan Liang this much. This suggests that there was more that had happened that day that she did not reveal to anyone - i.e. they actually did have a chance to save Jingjing while she was hanging out of the window, but ZCY chose not to. Secondly, when ZCY was remembering the event in his mind while reading Pupu's letter, the wording of what she said changed. When she and ZCY had originally told Yan Liang about Jingjing's death, in that scene, she had said "ta diao xia qu le" which translates to "she fell". In ZCY's real memory (in the last episode), Pupu said "ta yao diao xia qu le" which translates to "she's about to fall". And thirdly, the last scene right before the credits shows a flashback of ZCY going towards the window to look out of it (right after Jingjing falls out of it), and he says here that "it was already too late" - even though this was not true. Then a blacked-out scene which would have been a scene of Jingjing hanging off of the windowsill because you can hear that there is a pause between her initial struggle to get back up and her ultimate fall to her death. In fact, ZCY had a chance to save Jingjing and he lied to the police that there was no opportunity. This blacked-out scene represents ZCY's trying to erase that image from his mind and therefore he can carry on his "fairy tale" that he was not involved in her death. Furthermore, you'll remember that when the police went to the 5th floor to investigate the area, looking out of the window, the police officer actually saw a bit of clothing caught on the branches of the flowers, which shows that she had hung off of there for a little while before she fell.

3. Yan Liang's scene of him hanging off of the boat was an imagination that ZCY had crafted in his mind - it is a parallel scene to when Jingjing was hanging off of the window. In that scene, ZCY did not try to save Yan Liang which also hints that he did the same when Jingjing was hanging off of it. When Yan Liang told ZCY to "don't become the second Zhang Dong Shen", this was ZCY's way of trying to protect his own ego that he's not a "bad kid", when in fact he is already the second ZDS.

4. ZCY was trying to manipulate Zhang Dong Shen into murdering Pupu and Yan Liang - you will remember that he actually did make a copy of the video, but he gave Yan Liang a fake (blank memory card). This was done on purpose because ZCY never wanted to actually go to the police, and he knew that he had given Yan Liang a fake copy. Even so, he told Yan Liang in the Mcdonalds bathroom something like "are you going to report him still, with the second copy?". Why would he be worried about this if he already knew that Yan Liang does not have the true copy? He did this on purpose because he knew that ZDS would overhear them in the bathroom, and ZDS would get angry and go after Pupu (who was in his custody) and Yan Liang (who ZCY had delegated to go with ZDS into the car). Chaoyang knew that ZDS hates being betrayed the most, and this is the motive that he's murdered for before. Chaoyang wanted to get rid of Pupu because he wanted to remove the only other person who had witnessed him not save Jingjing, but he also wanted to kill Yan Liang just in case because he thought that Pupu had told Yan Liang about the entire truth. Sadly, at the end when Chaoyang is reading Pupu's letter, he realizes that Pupu did not tell anyone and had no plans to do that, and that she was loyal to him. Chaoyang cries in this scene from this realization, and also for guilt that she is dead for nothing. This parallels the beginning of the story when Yan Liang and Pupu first show up at Chaoyang's home and Chaoyang "tests" their trustworthiness by putting the hair and money in the closet - in both instances he realizes that they were trustworthy, but the second time was already too late. Another scene that suggests that ZCY was trying to get ZDS to kill Yan Liang was in the last scene at the confrontation on the boat, ZCY was on the phone with ZDS and directing him where to go to find him, but somehow ZDS ends up bumping into Yan Liang. It is speculated that he was knowingly leading ZDS towards Yan Liang so that he could kill Yan Liang. Even when ZDS finally finds ZCY, he casually says “Yan Liang is dead” as if he and ZCY had planned this all along. It could also be that ZDS realizes what has been happening all along - that ZCY was trying to use ZDS to kill the other two children.

5. Chaoyang is shown writing in several diaries throughout the drama. I can't remember which happens where, but this shows you that he is writing alternative stories for what is actually happening. There's one diary that shows the real story, and one that shows the "fairy tale" in which he is completely innocent. The second one is the one that is told to the viewers and to the police.

6. Chaoyang's dad knew about Chaoyang’s involvement in Jingjing’s death.
In episode 11 after the credits - there is a part where you will notice that Chaoyang's dad actually found out that Chaoyang had found the voice recorder because he heard the zipper of the bag open and close. Therefore it's likely that Chaoyang's dad knew that Chaoyang was somehow involved in Jingjing's death (though didn't know to what extent), but his dad decided to try to be a better dad to Chaoyang because he felt in some way that Chaoyang became a psychopath because of his father's treatment towards him - this kind of explains why when his dad was dying, he told Chaoyang to "start over". He probably knew that Chaoyang was involved in some way, or at least knew that he had become something of a monster psychologically.

7. Lao Chen dies. If you check carefully at the scene where he is dancing, you will notice that there are only supposed to be 7 dancers per row, but he is an extra +1 in his row. Moreover, he is the only one who hears Yan Liang call out to him. This entire exchange between them about having a bright future together and happy ending is likely a complete manifestation of the "happy ending" that Chaoyang wrote in his diary.
8. Yan Liang and Pupu are both dead in reality. Pupu died because ZDS did not bring her to the hospital (late or not at all), and it's unclear when Yan Liang died. I've read Chinese reviews online that speculate 3 different times that he could have died - the first is in the factory (he would have died in the fire) because it's unlikely that he would have left the factory without finding Pupu. There's a few suggestions that this is when he died, because 1) when Chaoyang kept repeatedly calling Yan Liang's name, the way that they filmed Yan Liang finding Chaoyang was really odd. It was almost ghost-like and unrealistic how he came over wordlessly and helped Chaoyang move the shelf to escape the factory, and 2) during the rescue by the police, there is no mention of Yan Liang and showing him being rescued. He had texted Lao Chen to come to the factory, so it's likely that Lao Chen would have taken Yan Liang for shelter, but instead it shows Yan Liang living on the streets (which is likely just part of Chaoyang's imagination). There are other 2 times that he could have possibly died, which is being stabbed by LDS at the boat after Chaoyang directed LDS towards Yan Liang or when he was hanging off of the boat.
9. Yan Liang is shown walking into the school where no one notices him except Chaoyang. This is such an odd scene and heavily hints that he’s already dead - he looks at Chaoyang in disappointment because ZCY has betrayed him and Pupu; and he walks away into the light while ZCY remains in the shadows.
10. In the last episode, there is a scene where the calendar is shown twice. In both instances, the calendar date does not change. This is because one version of the events actually happened while the other did not. The one that did not happen was the scenes where Lao Chen, Yan Liang, and Pupu are alive and Pupu’s brother is cured.

The entire drama references Descarte's fairy tale vs. truth several times, so I think the drama also asks the viewer if you'd rather believe the fairy tale that Chaoyang has crafted in his diary versus the actual truth which shows in tidbits throughout the drama (for example, as you mentioned the part where Yan Liang's ghost goes to the school and Pupu never showing up in a scene again after her asthma attack which suggests that she actually died). It's shown in a very subtle way where you as a viewer think that you're seeing the truth, but because of the unreliable narrator (i.e. Chaoyang), it's hard to know what is the truth and what isn't.

It's almost guaranteed that Pupu and Yan Liang both died - pupu died because ZDS did not bring her to the hospital (late or not at all), and it's unclear when Yan Liang died. I've read Chinese reviews online that speculate 3 different times that he could have died - the first is in the factory (he would have died in the fire) because it's unlikely that he would have left the factory without finding Pupu. There's a few suggestions that this is when he died, because 1) when Chaoyang kept repeatedly calling Yan Liang's name, the way that they filmed Yan Liang finding Chaoyang was really odd. It was almost ghost-like and unrealistic how he came over wordlessly and helped Chaoyang move the shelf to escape the factory, and 2) during the rescue by the police, there is no mention of Yan Liang and showing him being rescued. He had texted Lao Chen to come to the factory, so it's likely that Lao Chen would have taken Yan Liang for shelter, but instead it shows Yan Liang living on the streets (which is likely just part of Chaoyang's imagination). There are other 2 times that he could have possibly died, which is being stabbed by LDS at the boat after Chaoyang directed LDS towards Yan Liang (hoping that LDS would kill of Yan Liang), or when he was hanging off of the boat. I think by the time he had hung off of the boat, this entire encounter was an imagination of Chaoyang's because he wanted to be relieved of his guilt over getting his friends killed and he wanted to preserve his ego that he's not a "bad kid".

It's almost for sure that the other two died and only Chaoyang out of the three kids survived - if you look closely at the intro for every episode (the animation), there are originally 3 shadow kids but in the end only one survives (which is Chaoyang).

Lao Chen also dies. If you check carefully at the scene where he is dancing, you will notice that there are only supposed to be 7 dancers per row, but he is an extra +1 in his row. Moreover, he is the only one who hears Yan Liang call out to him. This entire exchange between them about having a bright future together and happy ending is likely a complete manifestation of the "happy ending" that Chaoyang wrote in his diary. So basically, it seems like the entire story is told from the point of view of Chaoyang's diary because that is the ending that he chooses to believe in (parallel to the several mentions of Descartes ignorant happy ending vs. truthful cruel reality). But there are several hints that all of this is just Chaoyang's imagination, because he cries when he reads Pupu's letter which stated that she would never tell anyone about their secret (i.e. the secret that Chaoyang actually had a chance to save JingJing when she fell, because she was hanging out of the window for a little while), so Chaoyang felt grief that he betrayed his 2 friends because of the secret that he wanted to keep. Chaoyang actually was trying to have his two friends killed (and trying to use LDS to kill them)...i mean, it's not a coincidence that he hadn't made an actual copy of the video and set up Yan Liang/Pupu to be killed by LDS when the latter felt betrayed for receiving an empty memory card. And if Chaoyang hadn't even made an actual copy of the video, then there would be no point for him to pull Yan Liang aside to the bathroom and tell Yan Liang to not go to the police with the second copy. He did this on purpose so that LDS would overhear about the second copy, and turn his anger towards Pupu/Yan Liang, and get rid of these two for Chaoyang.

Another interesting tidbit you can check out is episode 11 after the credits - there is a part where you will notice that Chaoyang's dad actually found out that Chaoyang had found the voice recorder because he heard the zipper of the bag open and close. Therefore it's likely that Chaoyang's dad knew that Chaoyang was somehow involved in Jingjing's death (though didn't know to what extent), but his dad decided to try to be a better dad to Chaoyang because he felt in some way that Chaoyang became a psychopath because of his father's treatment towards him - this kind of explains why when his dad was dying, he told Chaoyang to "start over". He probably knew that Chaoyang was involved in some way, or at least knew that he had become something of a monster psychologically.

As for the absolute ending, it is 100% confirmed that Chaoyang indirectly caused the death of his stepsister. This is because if you check the last scene when he remembers her death in his memory (while reading Pupu's letter), he remembers Pupu saying "she's ABOUT to fall". When they had told this story to Yan Liang previously, the scene was altered a bit for Pupu saying "She's falling". The true scene was the only that flashed in Chaoyang's mind when he read Pupu's letter. And in the end, he decides to lie to the police that he was simply there watching JingJIng fall and didn't have time to save her, which is not true. The very last scene is blacked out but it would have been a vision of Jingjing hanging onto the tree outside the window, and there is also a small pause when you can hear her struggling while she's holding on and then a delayed scream when she ultimately falls - the timeframe in between the first shout and the second scream is when Chaoyang decided not to save Jingjing. Pupu's letter also indicates that she had never told Yan Liang about the truth - which hints that they had not told Yan Liang the entire truth, because you will notice that they did confess to Yan Liang that they were there when Jingjing fell, but they had hid the fact that Chaoyang actually had time to save her.

The entire story is about the mastermind battle between LDS and Chaoyang. In the end, Chaoyang defeated LDS and was able to get out of the entire thing scott-free, and kill all witnesses. But of course, he essentially evolved into the next LDS and even refuses to believe that he did anything wrong because he chooses to pretend that he's living in a fairy tale. Knowing all of these little tidbits reframes your way of viewing the drama and makes it all the more sinister.

agree with you. He also couldn't stand her anymore because she became a lawyer that could bring her enemies in court to their deaths....I think that's reason enough to become disheartened from the marriage. Also to your comment about her suicide attempt: in a lot of other dramas, the second female lead attempts to commit suicide to make the man stay, but most people agree that this is a stupid and clingy thing for the second lead to do, and that the main lead shouldn't make this sway him. Why are those situations any different from this one?

I'm dying for the rest of this drama to come out! I know a lot of people are rooting for BS, but I think HG and JE are meant for each other. The chemistry and history they have together isn't something that BS should take away from them. Instead, BS should find someone who loves him whole-heartedly cuz he's the only character that actually deserves that!! I don't want him to get with a broken shell of a person who is already 40 years old and lost a child, not to mention only has eyes for her ex husband.
Also, I don't think the drama portrayed well enough the reasons that pushed JE to hate HG so much in the beginning of the show, to the point where he would cheat on her. everyone is forgetting that he had already mentioned divorce to her several times, but she denied it on all accounts, and only we the audience know its because she loves him, whereas most people in the drama thought she wanted to stay with him for her career progression, even JE. Who would want to stay with a wife like that? I don't think its fair for everyone to judge the fact that he "cheated" when he was already emotionally torn from HG, and he already let HG know that. It's not as if they were super happy and all of a sudden he cheats on her for stupid reasons - they had just lost a child, and his wife was a cold robot who took her career so seriously that she brought about suicides and vengeance amongst her enemies in court....how can anyone expect a husband to live through that? I'm sure if she (HG) were the second female lead in the drama and she had attempted to commit suicide to keep him there, everyone watching the drama would think that she's disgusting and clingy...but because she is the lead female, everyone thinks he is at fault for not staying with her even after she attempted suicide. I think this is where people are messed up in their biases for leads. Everyone in the drama is at fault for the things that happened to them...both HG and JE are at fault that their marriage grew cold, and the fact that they still love each other despite all those things is what makes this drama different - because it's a story about redemption and forgiveness, and growing from your mistakes. As you can tell, I definitely am rooting fort JE and HG

I'm confused about whether or not JE and SR actually slept together because I remember when they got back from America, SR was being harassed by JE's sister/mom about having never "gone there" with him, and SR made an expression that made it seem like it was true. I skimmed through a lot of episode 1 - 9 so I dont know if they did anything there..