AH

Episode 6 - 17 had me thinking this was going to be my favourite drama of the year. Unfortunately the rest of the drama did not live up to that potential.

Self-love is a fine message for a drama to have, but honestly I don't think this drama conveyed it all that well. Even if it had, a good message is not enough to equate to a good drama.

I loved the leads and the development of their relationship (and their relationships with Mu Yao and Cui Cui) when the story actually focused on them, but the rest of the time I was so, so bored. Bits and pieces were delivered that kept me watching all the way through the finale, but nowhere near enough for me to feel satisfied, especially after so much screen time was dedicated to lingering on uninteresting plot lines or story arcs with choppy momentum and contradictory themes.

And the kind of satisfaction I was looking for didn't need to come in the form of a million kisses or a wedding followed by two kids and a white picket fence ending. More than anything, I wanted the leads to have more proper heart-to-heart conversations. When the writers actually wrote in a line where Ziqi complained about the fact that he and Miao Miao hadn't had a proper conversation in ages, I was beside myself with frustration. The writers were well aware of the lack of communication and decided that was how they wanted to write it, and to me it felt like that led to a huge amount of potential emotional satisfaction being squandered.

This drama had fantastic visuals, a great premise, a good OST, and loads of chemistry between its leads, which all added up to huge potential... that ultimately wasn't fulfilled. The second half of this drama could have been worse, but it also could have been so much better. Now that the drama is over, part of me already misses the leads and part of me is relieved because I've been missing the joy of watching the first half of the drama for a while.

When Miao Miao wrote the letter to her father in episode 19, she used a dark brown brush and wrote the contents of the letter without looking at what she was writing (and in episode 20 we find out that message did not match what Ruoshi told her to write in episode 19). When she finished writing the letter, Miao Miao put the brush down in a brush holder that had two slots. She put her dark brown brush in the slot to her right, and the slot to her left was already occupied by a bamboo-green brush, which turned out to be Cui Cui. So Cui Cui was not the brush that Miao Miao used to write the letter.

As beedym3 noted, Miao Miao managed to write the truth that was weighing on her heart and mind in spite of the influence of the bracelet's spell.

Either she wasn't thinking about what she was writing and somehow that allowed her hand to subconsciously write the words that matched her true feelings (without the bracelet interfering), or she intentionally didn't look at the words that she was writing in a conscious effort to hide the true message she was writing from the bracelet in order to avoid the bracelet's interference.

Also, even though Cui Cui told Ziqi that he knew it was wrong to read others' letters and that he couldn't help it (which made it seem like Cui Cui read what Miao Miao had written), it seemed like Cui Cui actually didn't know what Miao Miao had written. After Ziqi read the letter in episode 20, Cui Cui asked Ziqi if Miao Miao had written to her father to say that she was going to marry Ruoshi. That's what Cui Cui expected the letter to say based on the conversation that Cui Cui couldn't help but overhear between Miao Miao and Ruoshi before Miao Miao wrote the letter and also the conversation that Cui Cui had with Miao Miao after she wrote the letter in episode 19.

THIS! How could they not show us their conversation after their reunion? Does Ziqi understand what happened? Did they talk about the old assassination attempt?!? And the two of them had what, two minutes of real screen time in episode 21? That's basically a lost episode for me.

In the end she marries Tushan Jing.

You're welcome! I hope it provided the information you were looking for.

This glosses over a lot of important details, but should give you a general idea. It includes heavy spoilers.

Xiyan Cang Xuan - He's referred to as the ML and the story starts with him and the FL (Xiao Yao / Wen Xiao Liu) together as children. He loves Xiao Yao and wants to marry her, but his ambition for power (partly driven by a desire to have the ability to protect Xiao Yao) leads to him having to marry many other women for political reasons (including Ah Nian and Xing Yue), despite knowing that Xiao Yao does not want to marry a man with other wives. Xiao Yao loves him back as her "brother" but does not end up with him.

Haoling Ah Nian - Xiao Yao's half sister (sort of…). She loves CX and eventually marries him. CX loves her back as his "sister".

Chenrong Xing Yue - Feng Long's twin sister (she took their father's family name and Feng Long took their mother's family name as Feng Long is the eldest and will become the next Chishui clan leader). Xing Yue loves CX (in a sense, but certainly not unselfishly) and eventually marries him. CX does not love her back.

Chishui Feng Long - He's referred to as the Fourth ML. Xing Yue's twin brother, TSJ's friend, and CX's political ally. He wants to marry Xiao Yao for political reasons, including convincing his clan to make him clan leader sooner so he can better support CX's bid for the throne. He also likes XY and thinks she would be a good match for him. XY doesn't love Feng Long, but agrees to marry him due to... circumstances. The wedding is not completed and XY and Feng Long do not end up married to each other.

Tushan Jing / Ye Shi Qi - He's referred to as the Second ML. He loves Xiao Yao and wants to marry her, but he was engaged to FFYY (who he hadn't met yet) before meeting XY and is the heir to a very prominent and rich family, which comes with responsibilities. TSJ confesses his feelings to XY and asks her to wait for him to break the engagement. XY agrees. Later, they start a secret relationship, which XY ends when TSJ falls into a trap and is forced to marry his fiancee. After their separation, they later reconcile and deal with TSJ's marriage situation. At the end of the drama, XY and TSJ marry each other.

Fangfeng Yi Yang - TSJ's fiancee. She is in love with TSJ's half brother, Tushan Hou, and has been having an affair with him for years. She marries TSJ and later dies.

Tushan Hou - TSJ's half brother. He was a good brother to TSJ for 400 years until their grandmother revealed the truth about TSH's birth. TSH then came to hate TSJ and seduced FFYY / started an affair with her knowing that she was TSJ's fiancee.

Xiang Liu / Fangfeng Bei - He's referred to as the Third ML. He loves XY and XY loves him (IMO, we know this because XY was able to transfer her poisonous bug from CX to XL, and in XL it became a Lovers Bug, among other evidence - but I'll note that some fans have different interpretations and feel that XY's feelings for XL were platonic) but XY either isn't aware of her own feelings or refuses to acknowledge or accept them for most of the story. XL fights with the Chengrong remnant army against the Xiyan army. XY's mother died fighting for the Xiyan army against the Chenrong army. XY also treats the King of Xiyan as her grandfather and she supports CX's aims to become the next King of Xiyan. This means that XL and XY have ties of loyalty that put them on opposite sides of a war. XL and XY provide each other with help and companionship over the years, but XL also pushes XY away (for her own sake) and eventually dies on the battlefield. Before he dies, he makes sure that XY can protect herself and that she won't be alone / she can reunite with TSJ.

And here I was getting annoyed at the way he was brushing her hair! ^^

I can't remember either. ^^"

I'm sure there are others, but it does seem to be less common for the FL to initiate the first kiss than for the ML to initiate it, or for the first kiss to be mutually or accidentally initiated.

Good to know. Thank you!

Some airing dramas have scheduled end dates (Snowy Night Timeless Love and The Judge from Hell have scheduled end dates, for example). Some airing dramas do not have scheduled end dates (like this drama, the Rise of Ning, and What Comes After Love).

Thank you for those details. Sounds like the last episode is forecasted to be available to VIP subscribers on October 28th, and there haven't been any rumours about possible special releases of more episodes earlier for subscribers that pay more?

I see there isn't an official end date for this drama. Is there any information we can go off of to figure out roughly when all of the episodes will be out?

Hmmm. It's sort of the opposite of the King's Affection scenario (minus the drunkenness). The FL kisses the ML on the cheek and then he kisses her on the lips.

The concoctions that the nine-tailed fox forced young XY to eat caused most of her spiritual power to seep into her blood, where she could no longer access it.

XY never regains the ability to access and use the level of spiritual power that she was able to access and use as a child before she was captured by the nine-tailed fox.

However, she continues to develop her poison and medical abilities and she gains other skills (e.g., archery).

Edit: I feel like I should add that this was a choice that XY made.

This conversation occurs in chapter 13 of the novel:

The Royal Mother grabbed Xiao Liu’s arm and examined her body. She let go and said coolly, “If you stay in Jade Mountain, I might be able to help you regain your lost powers. My remaining life span is at most one to two hundred years. If you want, you can be the next Royal Mother and control Jade Mountain.”

Perhaps controlling Jade Mountain was the greatest dream of many people in the vast wilderness, but Xiao Liu knew exactly what being chained to this mountain was like. She didn’t hesitate and said, “I would rather remain this way. Knowing what tomorrow will bring but not knowing what next year will bring. Not too exciting, not too boring.”

The Royal Mother merely nodded her head but her expression never changed, as if nothing in the world or time could ever affect her.

-

Episode 18 of the drama includes a similar conversation.

Two episodes in, I've found Yamato's character and Kentaro's performance to be quite enjoyable. Whereas with Kakeru's character... although it was refreshing that (slight spoiler ahead) he wasn't completely oblivious and realized that Yamato might have feelings for him relatively early on, I've found his character to be so over-the-top sometimes that it becomes very uncomfortable and hard to watch. I'm hoping that aspect of his character will get toned down as the story develops.

Your theory was right!

LOL! Well thank you. I blame some of the length on the sheer number of secrets the ML kept from the FL. The second paragraph could've been a lot shorter if he only kept one or two secrets.

I'm glad we have the spoiler tag so people don't have to wade through the whole long comment every time they scroll through this comment section. ^^

That hypothesis makes a lot of sense. Will be interesting to see if that proves to be the case in the last two episodes!

Thank you! ^^

Yes, with just two episodes left and the FL discovering some of the biggest secrets (e.g., that the ML was her mother's last foster child) at the end of the last episode, hopefully the last of the secrets will be addressed soon. And hopefully the ML will take the initiative to tell the FL about some of the last remaining secrets (e.g., about visiting her mother in her care home) instead of waiting for them to be discovered or revealed by someone else. And hopefully there won't be any more secrets after that.

Lol, yes isn't it interesting how different viewers can see the same drama and have such different takes? Definitely makes for interesting discussions in the comments. ^^

And agreed, I do enjoy a FL who will stick up for herself and her loved ones and not take bad treatment lying down!