themarchioness

Not in the historical portion of the story. (To clarify, they do end up together in the historical portion it’s just they aren’t able to live out their lives together.) One of them returns to the present first (I believe it’s her) and then he eventually returns as well and finds her through her workplace. Although he was younger when he transmigrated over, by the time they meet back up in the present and with all the time that’s passed in between it means they’re now of a similar age and get together. At least, that’s what I recall of the book’s ending…

No, the crown prince is the ML’s child who’s being raised by the Dowager Empress (she’s not an empress as that would otherwise make her the ML’s consort). They don’t ever get into who the Crown Prince’s mother is (as far as I can recall) but it was explained that the Dowager Empress forced the ML to have a child with the intent of raising the child and ruling through him, since the ML is not exactly biddable to her.

The ML will admit later on that he lied to her about arriving into this world around the same time as her. He’s been there for longer. He’s also not a CEO. He tells her he’s an side actor, but if I remember correctly even that turns out to be a later — that comes from a still later confession. But I can’t remember the second part well as it’s been a while since I’ve read the book.

Ep 4

Yes, I’m in the US and mine says Coming Soon.

It’s already indicated as Coming Soon on Viki. Viki typically starts airing dramas on a delayed schedule due to streaming rights.

Romance was never a focus of this drama, so you shouldn’t have any expectations about that.

Specifically, they get teased. They become close friends and allies. That’s about it, to put it simply, but if you want full specifics feel free to message me.)

If you keep watching, you'll see the answer is: Yes. And exactly as you hope to see.

He finds out towards the end of the drama. Xiang Xiang is set to undergo surgery after a donor match was found, but Bu Yan was incapacitated at the time (she was kidnapped by her half-brother and suffered serious injuries). While he's waiting outside her hospital room with Tang Ze, a nurse runs up asking for Xiang Xiang's father. He Yu Chen steps forward and the nurse tells him the hospital's blood bank has run low and asks if they know anyone who's an A or O blood type, as the child is an A. He Yu Chen says he's an A and asks her to take blood from him, but the nurse tells him he can't donate since he's a parent and blood from such a close relative may result in donor rejection. He Yu Chen then clarifies he's only a donor in name. As he walks away, Tang Ze steps forward and insists the nurse take his blood since he's an O. The two men fight with He Yu Chen pointing out it'd be better if the blood types were a direct match. As he again starts to walk away, Tang Ze wrestles with his conscience and finally yells out that He Yu Chen is the real father. Stops He Yun Chen dead in his tracks.

The twins find out he's their real father in the last episode.

1) Yes, Xiao Han and Chen Mo end up together. By the end of the drama they are married and have a daughter (in the book, they also have a younger son).

2) I would say they probably start to have stirrings of interest in each other around the same time. Except Chen Mo didn’t know fully Xiao Han’s background at first, so when certain things happen, she starts to not think well of him again until QJY clues her in and then Chen Mo understands and feels bad. So probably, in the end, it could be said that Xiao Han falls first fully, but in general, it’s a pretty mutual growing of feelings - IMO.

I noticed his ring in that final scene when he revealed himself to be her online friend, but thought nothing of it since it was his right index finger. I figured it was a fashion accessory. After all, Mao Tou, like his father, has always been kind of a flashy guy.

I watched the remaining eps without subs

At the end of the book, the author shared an explanation that the drama was originally slotted for 20 eps which fit the book exactly except the drama was expanded to at least another 10 episodes (sounds like it was 36, but they must've then trimmed it down by 3 eps) and so from that, we know changes were made to the book for the drama.

I haven't read the book in full, but I did machine translate the last few chapters of the book and the extra chapters, so I have a bit of an idea. The biggest change is that in the book, it sounds like after finding out about Xiao Han and Chen Mo, Qian Jia Yue really distanced herself from both. They didn't interact again until Chen Mo told Xiao Han she wanted to go to school in Beijing. They actually "broke up" over this and so Chen Mo went to find Qian Jiayue, telling her she could have him. Qian Jiayue asked about the break up, learned about what happened, and then she went to find Xiao Han. He's actually a little leery upon seeing her, which isn't helped when she starts out with their matters again, but as Qian Jiayue keeps talking and explains to him why Chen Mo wants to go to Beijing for college, he realizes she's actually trying to help him and Chen Mo. It's through this conversation/experience that Qian Jiayue also realizes she's truly let go as well, which is why when their conversation ends, she calls him, "Xiao Han," for the first time - without the "ge" at the end - and because of that he also realizes Qian Jiayue has given up on him.

I thought this was a really poignant scene. The drama includes it.... but in a different, broken up sort of way. And that's because she starts talking to Xiao Han more quickly and then Chen Mo eventually, as well. It made sense in the drama with the way their two families were so tight; I feel like her sibling-like relationship with Xiao Han is unbreakable. I also actually liked seeing Qian Jiayue hanging out with Chen Mo again, the three besties having fun together, as well. But it is also because of these changes that the above scene from the book loses in poignancy, which was disappointing. When Qian Jiayue explains to Xiao Han why Chen Mo wants to study in Beijing, it doesn't feel so weighted. Similarly, when Qian Jiayue finally calls Xiao Han by his name without the 'ge' at the end, the only significance of that moment is the fact that it's taking place outside their gaokao exam rooms and so they're on the cusp of transition already. At least Qian Jiayue had the scene with Mao Tou where she processes her feelings about Xiao Han and her past infatuation -- that returned a little of that poignancy back to the drama.

Anyway, that's just my two cents and like I admitted upfront, it's not like I've read the book in full. The drama was pretty great as is, on its own.

Finished. I really enjoyed this drama, all the characters, and their stories. They were touching in many ways and I even found myself tearing up towards the end over a few storylines (Ep 29, especially - sniff). Truly, when you watch a drama like this one, you wish you had a neighborhood family like them!

I wanted to give a shout out to one character in particular, because I know she's probably one of the least popular ones and the one people found most annoying. I quite loved her, though: Qian Jiayue's mom - Chen Xiu'e. She was loud, she could be full of pretenses and even a little obnoxious at times, but she was solid. Her backstory with her mom, their history, their conflict, it really tugged at my heart. But what I saw was a woman who rose through all that and only wanted one thing, a better life for her daughter. We could say Chen Xiu'e was no different from her own mother by sending Qian Jiayue to Shanghai all by herself when the latter was just a child. But it's different. Chen Xiu'e sent her daughter away for a better life and then worked hard to return to Shanghai herself. Whenever she did something annoying, I'd think of what Xiao Han told Qian Jiayue at the beginning of the drama, when the latter was especially fed up with her mom. He said he was grateful for Chen Xiu', for her kindness and thoughtfulness in buying new shoes for him twice a year. Each time she would lie about them being discards for the sake of his pride. Whatever else we saw from Chen Xiu'e, that was the *true* Chen Xiu'e, and that was especially true when we saw how she stuck up for Qian Jiayue's cousin and made sure she would be allowed to finish high school.

As for changes from the book to the drama, and my thoughts on that, I'll share that as a Reply to this comment because of spoilers.

Haha. I think that's the whole point. His character was one year younger than everyone else, but since it's 10 years later, everyone got an "older look" for the last episode. I thought the facial hair gave him a distinguished look! :D

Now that I've watched all the remaining eps in full, I think I can understand why some viewers are upset. The drama really doesn't make it clear between that Qian Jiayue/Mao Tou/Chang Wuji love triangle! I mean, you've got all her friends rooting for Chang Wuji and then she goes to meet her online friend, meets Mao Tou, but like you noted, since we don't see the conversation that follows we don't know that Qian Jiayue is thinking. Sigh. Even when she and Mao Tou meet back up with the others it's not clear and the drama ends with Qian Jiayue standing in between both men.

I'm guessing the writer (who was involved in the scriptwriting) wanted to make it purposefully vague for the drama because otherwise, I feel like she and the other scriptwriters could've made the end game clearer if they'd wanted to. For example, when Qian Jiayue and Chang Wuji have their separate chat at the high school reunion, we finally get to see what happened that day that Qian Jiayue went to meet her online friend after the gaokao exam. Chang Wuji ended up meeting her and even delivered the words that Mao Tao had wanted her to her so her confidence would be boosted. I feel like if they wanted the arrows to point with greater certainty towards Mao Tou, they could've had Chang Wuji finally confessing that parts of what he'd said to her that day had been him serving as a messenger.

Ah well. It was still a really good drama and I'm just going to with Mao Tou being Qian Jiayue's end game. Although... not gonna lie, I'm pulled to Chang Wuji, too!! LOL. So maybe they predicted this would happen with the viewers and that's why they left it purposely vague so that people could imagine the rest as they desired.

As FeiJin metioned, Ka Men becomes a manager in the entertainment circle -- specifically, she's now Lu Yao's manager. At the end of the drama, the kids (now grown up) go back to their high school to celebrate their 10th reunion. Afterwards, Ka Men takes them to a rooftop. It's not the same one as the one they visited after the alley fight - that one's been torn down - but she's found a similar one and she wanted them to experience it. She'd been looking for a rooftop as a favor to Lu Yao's singer friend, though, because this singer wanted to film a MV. The others ask if this singer is famous and Xiao Han answers they must be if they know Lu Yao. Ka Man answers that she really doesn't know who this singer is. It's at this moment, Lu Yao arrives (he'd missed out on visiting the high school with them due to a schedule conflict). He brings with him Chang Shin Che (Jeff Chang) -- Ka Men's idol (and all their idol) from back in the day. The drama ends with them singing Jeff Chang's song - the same one they'd sung back in the day on the other rooftop - with flashbacks to revisit the drama.

Casting overlap is common when watching Yu Zheng produced dramas; it’s always a bit of a who’s who when starting a new drama of his.

Shen Hui Zhao investigating the death of a woman buried alive... the irony was not lost on me considering the role this actor played in "The Double"... LOL! I wonder if that was intentional considering they are both Yu Zheng-produced dramas. :D

I think most of us expected that going into this drama -- it is the usual trope, after all. But that's not the story here and I think it's better to think of the leads as the two who shared top billing and otherwise had their own story. Tbh, I kinda like this unique aspect of the drama -- it's a refreshing change and each have interesting, satisfying experiences while remaining friends.