AH

Fair enough.

I know some fans weren't sure of all the details (like if he had actually killed the guards or not) and were more okay with how he acted after being assured that he hadn't killed them. But it sounds like you're just saying even if you confirmed it was all an act and knew all the reasons, you still wouldn't be okay with it if you were in Yu Wan Yin's shoes. And yeah, fair enough.

The way I interpreted it, the FL realized that the ML behaving that way towards her (behaviour that seemed to be unforgiveable) was extremely out of character for him, and that there must be a hidden reason why he behaved that way because he would never behave like that towards her otherwise. Normally he only behaves like that when he is putting on an act / playing the tyrant role in front of others. That's why she ran to him - to confirm that it was an act with a hidden reason behind it and to find out what that hidden reason was.

When she arrived at the ML's chambers, she confirmed that there *was* a hidden reason. The Empress Dowager's poison had wreaked havoc upon the ML and not only caused another debilitating headache, but drove him so out of control that he had to be tied to his bed. The FL realized that the ML's behaviour earlier was all an act (he didn't really have the secret guards killed) that he put on mainly because he did not want her to see him when he was in such agony and so out of control (and also presumably to try to convince her never put herself in grave danger again). He probably had to put up a great effort not to collapse or spin out of control when the FL returned to the palace until after he and the FL were completely out of each other's sight.

We (along with the FL) also find out later that the ML's health situation is terminal: he has been told that he does not have long to live. Which means that the ML's actions at that point (including ordering Eunuch An to place the FL under house arrest until the day the ML dies) might've also been his attempt to finally push the FL away before his final decline and demise to spare her from even deeper heartbreak - so she wouldn't have to see his final days filled with agony and out-of-control fits, and when he died she would think of him as a ruthless tyrant who died instead of her beloved person who died. But when she came to him that night, she overcame his resolve and he wasn't able to keep pushing her away for her own sake any longer.

You're welcome!

Yes, the leads eventually confirm that they are the only two people who are "real" / not 2D characters because they are the only two who have transmigrated into the historical novel world from the real world, where Beijing exists.

You're welcome!

You're welcome!

Yes, being a "2D character" means the character is fictional and only ever existed in one or more fictional novel worlds and never existed in the real world (where Beijing exists).

For most of the 2D characters, they only ever existed in the fictional historical novel (the "novel-within-a-novel"). In the case of the 2D protagonist of the transmigration novel, which covers two fictional worlds (a modern one AND the world of the historical novel), she transmigrates from one fictional world into another fictional world.

There were lots of implications that Shanyi and the ML had a twisted fate, so you probably are not the only one who thought that maybe Shanyi was the crown prince's bio mother.

But we found out the truth later. She was not controlled by the Empress Dowager, she did not have enough time in Great Xia to get pregnant and give birth to a son, and she came to Great Xia too late to be the birth mother of a kid the crown prince's age. Instead, her twisted fate was that she was controlled by the Emperor of Yan State and was forced to sacrifice herself in a doomed assassination attempt against the ML (which resulted in her immediate death) in order to save the man she loved back in Yan State.

I don't think it's all that useful to overthink the "why" of who transmigrated. But we can speculate if you like.

In the case of the FL, she explicitly made a birthday wish to transmigrate into the story and then she transmigrated the moment the clock turned to the next day and it became the actual date of her birthday. So you could chalk her transmigrating up to birthday wish magic I guess.

From what I remember, the ML received a notification about the transmigration novel while he was in math class and read the synopsis. Maybe he had a thought along the lines of he wished he could be in an interesting story / world like that instead of being stuck in a boring math class, and that triggered his transmigration into the story?

The transmigration novel Transmigration: Devil's Beloved Consort was not written in 2025. It was written and published much earlier (back when maglev trains did not exist / before the ML got a notification about the synopsis of the novel on his phone in 2016). The FL's company acquired the rights to turn that book into a TV drama series in 2025, and the FL was assigned the task of putting together editing proposals and a presentation on the drama adaptation within one day (and she happened to receive that assignment the day before her birthday), which is why she had to rush to read / skim the novel so quickly.

The novel that the ML and FL transmigrated into was already a transmigration novel. In that novel, a fictional character from a fictional version of the modern world read a historical story before she transmigrated into it and took over one of the characters. In the original historical story, Xie Yong Er was just a cannon fodder character. After she transmigrated into the historical story, the protagonist of the transmigration novel turned Xie Yong Er into the main character.

When the ML and FL transmigrate into the historical story, they are at the beginning of events and can change them again (e.g., this time Xie Yong Er can become the SFL instead of a canon fodder character or the main character) but the stage is the same. All the characters from the transmigration novel (i.e., the transmigrated protagonist) are there and all the characters from the original historical novel (a historical novel that only exists inside the transmigration novel - hence the term "a novel-within-a-novel") are there.

No. Shanyi (the dancer from Yan State) is not the biological mother of the crown prince.

A few short years ago, Shanyi was sent to Great Xia and forced by the Emperor of Yan State to attempt to kill the Emperor of Great Xia (the ML) in order to spark continued war between the two countries after her attempt failed and she was killed by Great Xia. The Emperor of Yan State orchestrated it this way because it meant that Great Xia was responsible for killing Shanyi (the woman his nephew and heir, Prince Tu'Er, loved) and sparking continued war, Prince Tu'Er was motivated to continue the war (even though it wasn't in his country's interest) because the person he loved was killed, and the Emperor of Yan State's hands seemed clean (no one could blame him for the continued war). Shanyi knew that her attempt to assassinate the Emperor of Great Xia was always doomed to fail (as she was not a trained assassin), but she went through with attempting it anyway because the Emperor of Yan State threatened the man she loved (Prince Tu'Er).

A different woman (a character so minor that her identity is basically irrelevant) was forced by the Dowager Empress to rape the Emperor of Great Xia (the ML) 10+ years ago to produce an heir. The crown prince was born 10+ years ago, so his mother could not be Shanyi.

City A is a fictional city in a fictional country inside the fictional version of the modern world that the protagonist of the transmigration novel (the girl who transmigrates into a historical story and takes over the role of Xie Yong Er) is from.

She is not from the real world that the leads are from, where they live in Beijing, China.

Yes, the ML transmigrated into the story when he was was younger than 16.

Yes, the actor who plays the young, past version of the current Emperor (who was just a prince when the ML transmigrated into the story many years ago) is the same actor who plays the biological son of the Emperor, who is the current crown prince.

The crown prince's mother is an irrelevant, unnamed character. On the Dowager Empress' orders, the ML was drugged and raped by that unnamed character in order to produce an heir. That character (the biological mother of the crown prince) does not feature in the story beyond that and was probably killed by the Dowager Empress after she gave birth to the crown prince, if she didn't die naturally in childbirth.

Some very quick info about the names "Zhang San" and "Wang Cui Hua" (copied from my comment here yesterday) because AI doesn't quite give the full picture.

Zhang San is like the equivalent of "John Smith" (the go-to example of a very basic, ubiquitous, ordinary name) or "John Doe" (a placeholder name for any person).

Wang Cuihua is also a very basic / common / ordinary name that strings together some nice (in a basic sense) concepts (royalty, jade or emerald green, and flowers or spleandor), but also associated with country girls and an older generation (the FL's third great uncle gave her this rustic, old-fashioned name).

And there was a 90s song called "Northeasterners are all Living Lei Fengs" (东北人都是活雷锋) that got very popular in the early 2000s that had a line ("Cui Hua, serve pickled cabbage!") at the very end that became a common funny line for someone to imply that a lady is a bit rustic in a light-hearted, familiar, teasing way. Now there is even a brand of pickled cabbage called "Cui Hua Pickled Cabbage" (翠花酸菜 - https://p7.itc.cn/images01/20230202/698b4ea3eaea41c7b2babf19ca966017.png) with a country girl image as a kind of mascot.

Xiahou Dan used that line ("Cuihua, serve the pickled cabbage!") when he was laughing at the name. In a way, it's almost like an early meme that's old enough for him to have known about it before he transmigrated into the historical story.

There are comments discussing that here: https://kisskh.at/778182-this-is-ridiculous#comment-25167204

The ML was younger than 16 when he transmigrated into the novel in 2016.

The FL had been working for a few years after graduating from university when she transmigrated into the novel in 2025.

The drama doesn't show it (apparently they maybe didn't want to risk having a censorship issue - there is more speculation about this in the comments below), but presumably when the ML left the historical novel world the ML returned to his younger self in 2016 and then grew up again in the real world, before meeting the FL (when they were closer to the same age physically) in the real world when she returned to it in 2025.

You're welcome!

Finally, a (somewhat) happy Zhang San Diary! <3

You're welcome!

Zhang San is like the equivalent of "John Smith" (the go-to example of a very basic, ubiquitous, ordinary name) or "John Doe" (a placeholder name for any person).

Wang Cuihua is also a very basic / common / ordinary name that strings together some nice (in a basic sense) concepts (royalty, jade or emerald green, and flowers or spleandor), but also associated with country girls and an older generation (the FL's third great uncle gave her this rustic, old-fashioned name).

And there was a 90s song called "Northeasterners are all Living Lei Fengs" (东北人都是活雷锋) that got very popular in the early 2000s that had a line ("Cui Hua, serve pickled vegetables!") at the end that became a common funny line for someone to imply that a lady is a bit rustic in a light-hearted, familiar, teasing way. Now there is even a brand of pickled cabbage called "Cui Hua Pickled Cabbage" (翠花酸菜 - https://p7.itc.cn/images01/20230202/698b4ea3eaea41c7b2babf19ca966017.png) with a country girl image as a kind of mascot.

Xiahou Dan used that line ("Cuihua, serve the pickled cabbage!") when he was laughing at the name in Ep 29. In a way, it's almost like an early meme that's old enough for him to have known about it before he transmigrated into the historical story.

You’re welcome! Glad it helped!