sunshine75

His character wasn't well written. How can someone who is so manipulable and blind lead an empire for even a day?

This emperor could win the "dumbest ruler of all time" contest hand down.

The romance isn't the strongest point of this series, unfortunately.. but the main characters and the actors are great.

What kind of TV show is this?

I was glad to read your comment because I had mostly the same thoughts as you regarding this story. :)

The only difference, that I've never hated CX - instead, I was 'angry' with the author of the novel and the script... :D she could have written a wonderful story with CX and XY being a perfectly matched power couple, as you wrote it.

Instead of that, she gave us an artificially messed up, weird love story between them. The two other men, who were put there to 'replace' CX romantically, weren't good enough for me to ship them with XY in any way.

I couldn't bear to watch Jing... I don't know if it's the actor, or the character, or both, but he didn't have any masculine presence, so it was impossible for me to see this character with XY, as a couple.

As for XL, you mentioned all the reasons why I couldn't ship him with XY, and I didn't feel sorry for him at the end.

"I don't understand why this drama is so overrated."

I don't understand either. It's not a bad drama, but I was surprised by its rating too.

In this series, there are some scenes that I had to skip, but I continued to watch because overall I felt that this story was rather light hearted (compared to other dramas).

Thank you so much for the explanation! This drama had a big impact on me too, but for different reasons. It was very interesting and touching to read about your feelings and thoughts! ❤️

The last 5 episodes were full of these absurdities, unfortunately. :((((

"I am surprised that there aren't more CX / XY fans, especially from the drama, where he doesn't go completely off the rails."

The relationship of CX / XY is like a cold marriage, where two people understand, and support each other in the everyday life and are working to achieve common goals, but they don't have ANY expressed romantic feelings for each other (in this case the husband can't express his feelings and so the wife is looking for romance elsewhere...).

Except that CX / XY relationship is even weirder, because they couldn't even marry, so they aren't even a couple officially (but they behave as such... except for the romance, which lacks from this relationship and that's why both of them are so unhappy).

If the writer of the novel hadn't been a pessimistic person, she could have created a very strong, real couple with these two characters, who could have achieved anything together while embracing their love. But it wouldn't have been a heartbreaking, tragic story, and it probably would have had less success... :P

"Anyway, they have a very intense and complicated relationship that I think too many folks dismiss."
She has the most intense relationship with him, for sure.

By the way, if you replace the word "Jing" by the expression of "romantic love" every time she talks to CX saying "I miss Jing" I cant' live without Jing" etc... their relationship and the whole story gets much more understandable.
With a bit of exaggeration, it is her favorite phrase after a certain point in the story, and it's always pronounced to CX. Even in their climax (dream) scene, when she discovers that he killed Jing, she shouts: "I fought for everything you wanted, I got you everything, all I want is Jing (=romantic love), I only want Jing (=romantic love), Why did you take him away from me? What did I do wrong?"
This could be a modern scene with a spouse who supported the goals of her husband during several years wholeheartedly, but during the process he was so focused on his goals, that he forgot the number 1 thing which would have been important to her: to love her as his wife (and not as his business partner..). No wonder that "Jing" doesn't have much character in this series, he isn't really a character, but represents "the feeling of being loved as a woman", which XY couldn't get from CX...

"People want to classify XY's love for CX as brotherly, but I don't agree with that at all. Especially at the beginning. ... CX was the only one in her heart at the beginning. That's why the Lover's Bug went to him first."

Exactly.
But he was already committed to the path of power and nothing else mattered to him, so he couldn’t see through the illusion of her appearance, he was blind - as he remarked it later (the other two men could see through the illusion with their heart). But as far as XY is concerned, at the beginning CX, and only CX, had a deep effect on her. I can’t count how many times she cried when he talked to her (after she knew who he really was), but she had done it quite a few times. She always played the detached, tough and cool man with the other two men, but in his presence she couldn’t maintain this role for long. And when he came to find her, wanting an explanation for why she had saved him (from XL), she was so shaken that she couldn't hold her cup. The second time, when she went to find him for a drink, after tasting the mulberry vine of her childhood (which meant home and happiness for her), she preferred quickly knocked herself out by drinking, so she wouldn't have to face CX with all these memories...

"None of them were willing to change."

Both of them had a purpose in life, beside loving XY. Which, I think is rather normal..

"he truly had the best chance of winning XY in the beginning,"

When she first saw him as an adult man (and didn't know his true identity), she was impressed by his personality, which was very firm, manly and at the same time showed a caring nature for his sister. He impressed XY more than the two other men that she met already (one of them was very firm and manly, the other is very caring and tender, but not both, depending on the situation, and the persons they faced.) That's why it could have been easy for him to win her heart, but he didn't do anything in that direction, on the contrary..

I didn't express myself well.. career isn't the right word, I meant rather the personal purpose of life that a man (or woman) can have, beside having a family.

As for me, life already offers me people who drive me crazy on a regular basis, so I don't need series to get these extreme moments, I have them for free 😂😂😂 I watch series to have some peace... :D

The more I read about the novel, the more it seems to be a different story as the series, as the character's personalities aren't the same and the dynamic is completely different between XY and the 3 men..

I couldn't watch that scene, I fast forwarded it..

a bit extreme? :D

I loved Cang Xuan's character the most, and I was depressed that he didn't end up together
with the love of his life. But it was the purpose of the author from the very beginning, like showing to the world: you see, for this man his 'career' was more important than the woman of his life, so he lost her and he ended up regretting this until the end of his life.

In my opinion, it's a very weird way of thinking that you can't have both, because of course it is possible to have a harmonious, balanced life, and have success both in professional and family life.

But seriously, I think that the author had a man in her life (father? husband? or an other important man), who neglected his wife and family for his professional life, and she wrote this story as a sort of revenge on this person. :)

That's why we had to see Cang Xuan's emotional suffering during the whole series..