swish vanilla

Does this have a love triangle / harem or annoyingly persistent side charas chasing after either lead? Tags say none but I gotta be safe

I've been meaning to add another xianxia to my watchlist since I've put Love & Destiny on hold cause I was approaching the mortal arc which not only spanned like 10-20 episodes but also had a love triangle which I don't have the patience for 🫠

A pity. Thanks for saving me time.

A little too predictable for me to find it mind-blowing, but a solid, no-nonsense story nonetheless.

I don’t usually want to watch dramas that will make my blood pressure rise (whether due to the setbacks or injustice experienced by the characters at the hands of the villains or just their general stupidity causing their own grief). Still, this is only 14 episodes and watching a drama with this subject matter will never feel pointless.

by the way this should not have been titled Under the Microscope cause like… was the microscope in the room with us? nope

This was okay. Binged it at ×1.25-2 speed to finish quickly.

This kinda failed to resonate with me both at an emotional level and creative level. I did like the scenes where business was the focus, and I also liked how they utilised waterways here. But on an emotional level, I think they could've explored San Niang's grief a bit more (they were able to do that with Pan'er as FL and Yinzhang). I also think the Empress could've had more involvement 'cause her image was supposedly an important factor in the palace politics. Yet she just felt like an enigma.

If you want female empowerment which does not degrade/villainise/ridicule men, this might not be it lol. Cause men's flaws are in full display here (yes, even the ML has his noble idiocy/cowardice moments), whether as evil/ scheming, unfaithful, immature, or just plain uncool, to the point that you'd wonder if there was a satirical undertone where the only conclusion is that maybe the world's best men are either those who grew up surrounded by women (Chen Lian) or the teahouse fanboys composed of old scholarly men. 😆

This was a good watch!!! I liked the acting of the cast, particularly the leads and the villains. Good pacing, too, and not too drawn out nor did the angsty parts overstay their welcome as comedy was still there from start to end.

I don't usually like transmigration/isekai/modern dramas but I wanted to watch this for the music aspect, which wasn't actually the highlight lol. Still a good watch!

p.s. shout out to fight club for finding its way here XD

I'm trying my best to be patient 🥹

wishing nothing but the best for her, marriage-wise and career-wise!

justice for tang min ):<
also just discovered xu yiyang (as ztao's wife) and saw that she's in this too!!
will this see the light of

Came here cause of Bao Shangen from Youthful Glory. I really hope this'll be as good as it seems so far! (genres seem totally up my alley and I get the trailer hype).

I just hope there's no lousy love triangle 👊

This kept popping up on my WeTV page and I just caved in, watched it mostly on ×2 speed.

the poster was what eventually made me watch this polarising drama 😆 it seems simple like most costume cdrama posters but the colour blending between the dark blue sky, the red wedding outfits, and the yellow lantern is pretty distinct

ah, that lantern in the middle is more meaningful than you'd expect, too 😁

I'm trying to watch more mystery-romance costume dramas since that's my go-to, so this was a must-watch for me. After finishing it, I think it was good, but not as good as the praise suggests. I found the characters to be cookie-cutter, probably 'cause there was little room for characterisation, with people becoming best friends and lovers left and right, like the opposite of a slowburn 😅 The mystery-solving was also repetitive till the change of pace upon the final arc. But at least the story was properly thought of.

Will I watch Season 2 if they ever make one? Maybe, maybe not.

Youku app subs were bad, but the third link (Youtube/SMG) had good subs.

Happy first anniversary to this drama!! 🥰

Just finished this! I've been wanting to watch a historical/costume drama in a school setting and finally found one! 🥹 But, it's not just a school drama, it also has romance and revenge, plus a moral theme, too.

Out of all the idol cdrama released from 2019-2025 that I’ve seen, the ML and FL pairing in this one has been the cutest and most wholesome (especially the scene of their first kiss). Steadfast and loyal. Unwavering. Second couple were really cute, too, though their development felt a bit “0 to 100” for me.

The action scenes were also surprisingly and consistently good here, and there were a lot of them.

Sadly the subs available to me (third link above: MQ Media on YouTube) weren't the best so a lot of the poems spoken here were lost in translation—a huge loss since I really wanted to appreciate the poetry aspects—but the story was charming in itself that I continued and finished it happily enough (warning: the final arc, like eps 36-39 had poor writing in general).

P.S. Even if this wasn't the most original in terms of plot/characters, the emperor will leave an impression! 😁

holy shii i spoke too soon like wHYYY do cdramas like to crash out after the first half and tone down the humour for the sake of "plot" which relies on tropes anyways 😭🥴

I usually comment on MDL only after I've either finished or dropped a series but this got me mad cackling so far! I love the editing, too, like the little add ons they add (blushes, emojis, caricatures in between scenes).

I had no idea who they were until I read the article but there's just a certain warmth I feel when a young celeb couple choose to get married in their 20s-early 30s. Think Dylan Sprouse and Barbara Palvin.

Wishing Tao and XYY nothing but the best!

This was an interesting watch. Enough has been said about the couples and villains (I thought they all did well, but I think the looks of some cast members didn’t match their age or seniority).

I just want to shout out the creative team for the prison mechanisms. I couldn’t understand whatever the hell the FL was doing to solve most puzzles but I appreciate the creative effort.

Also there were 2 character reveals that I did not expect at all but made sense.

Thanks for clarifying! I’m sorry and hope I didn’t come off as too aggressive in my reply.

I haven’t encountered a lot of comments from people who are there to hate even without having watched the show they’re attacking. I think most of the comments I’ve seen on various dramas that tick me off have been comments from people who easily put down FLs, which I just think is unfair. A lot of recent dramas are trying to showcase capable women characters, and it gives reason for some to hate on FLs from older series where the FLs aren’t as calm and collected and capable as recent ones, and that’s the trend I don’t really appreciate. I don’t want to hate on FLs just cause they’re more childish or dumb or physically weak—they’re still FLs who have their own roles in the stories they’re part of. So yeah, that’s where I was coming from.

Happy watching!

There’s a reverse harem tag. Are there side characters who have feelings for the FL/ML?