AH

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!

She did not transmigrate from the real world that the ML and FL transmigrated from (where maglev trains and the city of Beijing exist, and where Beijing is the capital of the country they live in). She is the main character in the book that they both transmigrated into.

In that book (The Devil’s Beloved Consort), the FL lives in a fictional world that is based on our own modern world at the time that the book was written (so before there were maglev trains). In that fictional world, Beijing does not exist and City A is the capital of the country that the protagonist lives in. In that fictional world, the protagonist read a historical novel in which the character Xie Yong Er was a minor cannon-fodder character. Then she transmigrated into the historical novel and took over the character of Xie Yong Er. Because she knew the events of the historical novel, she was able to change events in such a way that Xie Yong Er became the main character of the story.

So the transmigrator who took over Xie Yong Er is different from the ML and FL. She is a fictional character who transmigrated into the historical story from another fictional world.

In the new version of the historical story that is being changed again by the ML and FL, Xie Yong Er’s role is different than it was in the two previous versions of the historical story. This time she is not a minor cannon fodder character, but she also isn’t the protagonist. It seems that this time she will end up being the SFL.

In the new version of the historical story, the FL found out that the transmigrator who took over Xie Yong Er's role was still a university student in her fictional version of the modern world when she transmigrated into the historical story.

Yes, the ML (Zhang San) was a middle school kid in the real world at the time that he transmigrated into the story, and when he transmigrated into the story he took over the character of Xiahou Dan, who was just a prince at that time. He lived and grew up inside the story for 15+ years and became the Emperor before the FL (Wang Cui Hua) transmigrated from the real world into the story and took over the character of Yu Wan Yin.

He looked for another transmigrator inside the story for 15+ years in vain, which is why he reacted the way he did when the FL finally arrived and revealed herself. But he lied to her and told her that he had only transmigrated into the story a few hours before they met, instead of telling her the truth that he had transmigrated into the story 15+ years earlier.

No. The son did not plant the SOS flowers and did not interact with them. The scenes with the flowers were all flashbacks to a young version of the ML many years ago.

As I said, the same actor plays both characters. One character (the young version of the ML in the past) is a transmigrator. The other character (the ML’s biological son in the present) is not a transmigrator.

The Zhang San Diary scenes before the end credits are not depictions of the son, they are all depictions of the ML in the past when he was young.