teewoo

there is a 1st sister who is her bio sister.

She's honestly worst in this. At least in Sword and Brocade, her character mellows out. In this, she's pretty despicable so far.

Seems like the director and writers didn't think we'd question it with the reincarnation story being the focal point. I would have enjoyed a little bit more grounding but I can turn off my brain and not question it just to enjoy the ride.

I don't know about that, he's literally back in the capital against orders to investigate the betrayal of his soldiers. And going through the preview for ep 9, it seems he has some story with the imperial court that he wants to investigate.

I am enjoying the drama but how is nobody going to notice a government official going missing, at a seemingly lively and crowded event too? Like I get its a minor official but that's just reality bending.

Costumes are Song-inspired, otherwise it's fictional. Surname of the imperial family doesn't line up. Like a lot of period dramas/novels now, it's a fictional dynasty.

Happy ending in the sense that the villains get their just desserts. If you're looking for the leads to end up together, not so much but it wasn't really a romantic drama. I enjoyed it the story though.

The tribute is either coming from the old tributary states of the Chinese tributary system from the surrounding states of China or internally. Tributary states would periodically send tribute to the imperial court as a sign of respect/submission to the strength and wealth of the empire.

At the same time the Emperor gets the pick of the litter of prized items/goods in the empire generally in the form of tax. The pearls are an internal tax/tribute within the state. Money makes the world go round.

I remember he has a trading business, I must have forgotten the part where they mentioned it's actually huge. Now we also have an idea of how rich as Yining says he controls half the wealth in the capital, probably an exaggeration but still signifies he controls a lot of money.

I know the drama doesn't make it very clear but it feels like Luo Shenyuan is independently wealthy and potentially wealthier than the Luo family. He just sends 10 carts of medicine to Duke Ying like its nothing. He mobilizes his fellow classmates, buys weapons, buildings, and runs orphanages. Guy literally runs his OWN spy agency on par, if not better than the imperial one. Luo Chengwen has no idea that this son could fund the Luos just by his own business smarts.

This is how I have interpreted the flashback: it seems the noblewoman, Song Ziyun, who is implied to be related to another powerful minister was jealous and decided to try and kill Yining in the name of Lu Jiaxue. He thinks it was this crazy girl just offing another one of his female admirers in order to keep him to herself but he didn't realize it was actually his beloved. He's just callous until he's not.

She's lying to protect herself because she is Meimei and she thinks that the marquis is a cold hearted killer. Granted he is since he didn't care that an innocent woman just died until he was told that it was the woman that died. He also seems to be a pretty morally corrupt guard commander.

Jiaxue right now is just stomping out dissent for the big bad corrupt faction and covering up stuff as seen by his aggressive city guard.

Second spoiler warning, but there is a picture that gives a family tree of Yining's actual family under the photos if you're inclined to look.

That would be my experience too, I think what they did here and similarly to The Double is because I'm guessing it's based on the household registry/pedigree system.

In this situation, you have two grown sons of the Luo family that have continued to live at the same home and maintaining one familial unit. The numbering system follows the birth of the children of that specific generation (in this case the 36th) in this familial unit regardless of the father. So I think the order (I'll put household after the name) is Yiyu (1), Shanyuan (1), Shenyuan (2), Yilian (2), Xuanyuan (2), Yixiu (1), and Yining (2). The son that died in the first household doesn't seem to have a name and likely isn't on the pedigree/registry. This would change if either of the elder Luo's decided to split the family and establish a separate Luo Mansion, or new family unit.

So to address your second point, second young master Luo is Shanyuan of the 1st household. Shenyuan is 3rd but is now heir of the 2nd household as his legal mother is Lin Hairu, legal wife of Second Master Luo which gives him precedence over Xuanyuan. It seems to have been implied that Second Master wanted to add Shenyuan as a concubine's son which would leave the inheritance of 2nd household up to debate.

In addition since there is one current family unit but it's made of the two households, there could be one heir to the entire family unit and the other sons go off to establish their own or continue to live under the leadership of the heir, if the elder Luo brothers agreed to it but normally in history families get split up

The kids have been changed to be closer in age for the drama. In the beginning of the novel Xuanyuan is actually a toddler.

Uncle via marriage. Lin Mao is Lin Hairu's little brother, so not her mother's brother but the brother of aunt. It's also just how Chinese familial titles work based on degrees of separation and if it's a maternal or paternal relation. Definitely still weird for him to like her from a modern context.

Not a problem. Not sure it needs to be a spoiler but long story short his master was a bureaucrat while teaching students simultaneously. Lu Jiaxue and his faction framed him and had him killed, so now LSY and his fellow disciples are out for revenge.

Wenzhai is name of the oft-mentioned grandfather of the Luo family as revealed by Mr. Sun. The master of LSY had the surname of Chen.

I see, as someone that cannot speak Mandarin I cannot attest to that.

Although, I think it's nice that he voiced his own role and many of his previous roles. I can associate the voice as being his because to me it's kind of annoying that voices change from one role to another.