tsuyoi_hikari

Yeah, he wanted to plant the doubt that he has no feeling for Cang Cang. Prime Minister could never verify this despite he is convinced that Xiao Huan did love her. However, all his action proved that he didnt love her the Birth Control Tea or etc. So, that narrative that he didnt love her still stand. Thats why the clue is what he uttered during the chess game 'I dont have soft spot for women' which made Prime Minister expression changed.

Thus, when his lack of care to save Cang Cang (Prime Minister probably waited more than 10 hours outside of Xiao Huan's room), this is where the doubt comes inside Prime Minister's head. This guy, Xiao Huan, truly didnt love Cang Cang lol. And there is no way Prime Minister would chose Option 1 since he will lose either way, so he really cant risk it.

Xiao Huan is definitely on another level now, esp his mind games. I'm so impressed.

Thank you! 🤗🤗

Xiao Huan is a really flawed character despite his 'good' attention thats why he is so compelling to watch. We understood his reasons, his overprotectiveness and how he is caught between 2 things that he really love so all he can do is minimize the damage. Thats all he can do, since this 2 cant co-exist together as long as the Prime Minister is alive.

I cant blame Cang Cang either since like you said, she is so sheltered. What we see is whole picture where the Dad is scheming behind her, her brother manipulating words when he talks to her. But she has no reasons to doubt this 2 people at all. No crack at all to their double personalities. Try to put ourselves if we are in her shoes, seeing nothing and when asked, being denied the answer. How can she see when everything around her didnt even give her any clue. All she could read is how Xiao Huan is sometimes very nice to her, then he pushed her away again to protect her. It can be very confusing despite his expressions show otherwise.

Regarding Jueding, he is a pawn as well. Not only Cang Cang. He is raised and born for the Dad's military power and to continue their bloodline. Prime Minister only care about himself apparently.

Oh no, we dont know yet even from the latest episode. But it was obvious it was a chess move by the Prime Minister for him to stage his death.

lol!! XD

He did it because Prime Minister instructed him. But he indeed so extra about that lol.

Regarding the conversation between Xiao Huan and Prime Minister which Qing'er overheard in the shadow, it actually answered my question on what Xiao Huan meant as 'he dont have soft spot for women' in last episode's conversation when he play chess with the Prime Minister.

The whole conversation is to plant doubt on the Prime Minister that he actually didnt give Cang Cang his antidote. Cang Cang was saved using 'other' antidote that he has. I wondered why he utter that word at that time and his scheming in this episode made complete sense. Thats why the Prime Minister convinced that Xiao Huan has no love for Cang Cang. Why? Notice how he purposely delay in seeing him? He wanted Prime Minister to see he has no plan to save Cang Cang. Instead, he will use this opportunity to use Jueding since he knew Jueding will go all out to save his sister -- whether he win or lose will benefit Xiao Huan politically.

Prime Minister has no way to verify whether Xiao Huan going to do this but the 1st option, he lose no matter what happened. He cant take the risk. Thats why he agreed on the 2nd option (with Qing'er as regent) since he could still win. NGL, Xiao Huan's mind games is excellent.

The icing on the cake is he gets to do what he want which is to save Cang Cang personally (his real motive XD) and getting back Jingzhou's army using his own hands.

You are absolutely right. That one move indeed achieve all of this 4 goals. You nailed it when you said he appeared like a victim. Looks how he cry when he see the fire lol. When initially, he gave XianXue the nod SMH.

I actually really enjoy how consistent are the characters in this drama.

Xiao Huan has 2 things he put as a priority which is his People (duty) and his love for Cang Cang. This 2 things cant co-exist together thats why he always need to chose the lesser evil when situation asked him to chose between this 2. When it involved the safety of the nation, he has to give Cang Cang the Birth Control Tea despite it is killing him as well. And when nation is no longer in threat, he himself go all out to save Cang Cang at the expense of his life (he shorten it when he ate the pill). His hands are always tied so all he did is to minimize the impact on both every time even when he become the collateral damage as a result. That man is love-starved -- he lights up everytime Cang Cang did small nice things to him which kind of heartbreaking to watch.

Cang Cang in the other hand is pure and innocent as it can get. Unlike Xiao Huan which can be grey sometimes, there is no in between good and evil for her. Xiao Huan perfectly know this thats why he never want her to know the truth about her Dad. While Xiao Huan can pretend not to love her, she cant no matter how much he hates him. It was in the little things she did -- how she smile automatically when she know he is no longer sick, when he get the the cure medicine or etc. So for someone like her, knowing she need to kill her Dad for all the evil things that he did, will be the death of her. Since she is pure as a snow.

The Prime Minister is truly a grand manipulator. Imagine having a daughter as pure as Cang Cang and a righteous son as Jueding fighting for the country yet he is so rotten to the core. I know the son is also in the dark with how his character is written so far. Jueding is just like Cang Cang -- pure and innocent as they can get. I knew from the bat how the Prime Minister treat everyone like a pawn. I knew he never has any compassion towards Cang Cang so his action in episode 10 is not surprising at all since I actually expecting it.

Regarding Prince Qing, both of Xiao Huan and Qing'er are royal blood so they are thought Confucius teaching since young. So thats why their moral is aligned. What I like about the writing, is how consistent and very easy to read the characters despite their surface might be different. I knew Qing'er gonna be on Xiao Huan's side since the beginning despite he is a slacker and always fighting with him. It was in the detail on how he also has the same moral as Xiao Huan. Thats why Xiao Huan asked him to be a regent since he trust he wont ever abandoned the people, just like him.

For XianXue. As evil as he is, he put the stop when it comes to Cang Cang's safety. He completely have no idea about Cang Cang poisoning and the Prime Minister knew he wont agree with it thats why he took another person to do it for him.

Also Princess Ying. Why we all like her since the beginning despite all she utter is how she wants to kill Xiao Huan -- since we know she did it out of trauma yet she is innocent and pure inside. Her eyes tells us that.

I really enjoy watching due to how consistent are the characters. They didnt do out of behaviours things thus you can predict how they are going to behave in every situation.

Same. I also dont want him to act in kind of characters anymore. I had enough of his tragic characters. I also cant take it anymore lol. My poor heart can only take so much. T___T

Thats why when RJL finished filming the drama last year, he said Xiao Huan is a ''lonely'' character. When he said that, I knew right that moment its gonna be a hard character to watch. But I didnt know its gonna be this hard and this tragic. T.T

Ohh reading that made me happy! 🤗

That synopsis is from the novel. Which all happened in the first 4 episodes on the flashback when they first meeting each other. The meat of the story is their lives as husband and wife. Like usual, MDL synopsis is misleading 90% of the times.

But of course, they will join hand later but it probably happened in the last 5 episodes of the drama.

I agree. Thats why I said its his character's flaw. His selfless behaviours is indeed character flaw. But he loves her too much thus it clouded his judgement. He just wish she will never know forever, just like she has been living her life before meeting him.

From the trailer, it was never meant to be power couple as this is angst filled show. The trailer is not misleading at all.

But the angst made sense so I'm actually okay with it and enjoy all the conflicts lol

He doesnt want to tell her since he doesnt want her world comes crushing down. It was never whether she will believe him or not. Thats why he let her go in last night's episode. He wanted her to never know this AT ALL so she can continue living her carefree life. He doesnt want her to be like him -- trapped in the Palace and never trust anyone since everyone is always scheming against him.

Sometimes, knowing your existence has been all lie will crush you. Remember when Xuanye figure out that he is a ..... in TDHR? How he question his whole existence and become depressed even more?

Aside from the scheme Xiao Huan play against Prime Minister regarding the 2 cities. I want to know what Xiao Huan meant as he is did not have ''soft spot for women'' when he play sachi with the Prime Minister in last night's episode. From Prime Minister's expression, he knew he didnt completely won that round. Is the soft spot for women refers to the Birth-Control Medicine? To imply that he did save Cang Cang by giving Cang Cang his lifeline medicine BUT he didnt have feelings for her? They kept making various chess moves all over the episodes and we need to keep up to see the repel of the water later.

And also loving another metaphor regarding the 1 baby and 2 Mums scenario as well. The real Mum lose but and the fake Mum won. Prime Minister just want to shade Xiao Huan regarding the pill he has to give up to Cang Cang. :( Xiao Huan, despite doing the noble things as in give up his chance for survival lose while Prime Minister who is the real evil guy won with his reputation stay in tact. Its so funny since he taught Xiao Huan all the right things when he taught him as a young Emperor YET he did everything against his teaching in this game of power. AND, shamelessly say it outright in front of Xiao Huan's face how he went all out against his teaching haha. What a terrible and a shameless guy.

Yeah, you are absolutely right. Both of them are chess masters. The Prime Minister knew from the very beginning how Xiao Huan will forced his hands with the supplies. He knew he has to give anyway whether he likes it or not and General Ling Jueding is his son after all. But he just doesn't want to come out empty handed with the deal. Thus she staged the whole thing with Xian Xue.

But I need to know why. Most likely for Xian Xue to do his other stuffs like Moon Eclipse or some other things. But why he needs to do it in front of Xiao Huan esp in front of Cang Cang? Cang Cang already hate him anyway. There is no need to wage war against them anyway. Or is it just for Xiao Huan to stop tailing Xian Xue? Just as simple as that? Or is there more to the whole scheme?

Yeah, thats why I said 'staged his death'. He is 100% still alive. The nod that he gave his adopted father is the clue.

What a very entertaining episode for tonight, it certainly feed the angst that I crave. Characters deal with real conflicts where their hands are tied, no plot armor to save them, you basically watch them really struggling trying just to survive.

So, lets dwell in today's episode and the different layers this 2 episodes gave us. I love how ruthless Xiao Huan can be when he wants to be. So basically, his hands are tied between 2 cities as both equally need his help.

1) One city is about to be taken over by enemy and need reinforcement.

2) While another city is starving and need foods from the granary. Sending reinforcement meaning the people in the city would starve since the foods will be given to the reinforcement army instead.

He can only save one city and sacrifice another. Thats why he wants to gamble so that he can save BOTH. How can he do it? By asking all the noble people who is rich (leading by the Prime Minister) to give up their grain & supply to help the reinforcement army.

I love the metaphor Xiao Huan made when he ask Prime Minister to chose which one of his sons he wants to save -- like LITERALLY; XianXue or Jueding to show it wasnt an easy decision for him as both cities are important to him -- both people in the cities are his citizen that he wants to save. He cant just chose one and abandoned another like the Prime Minister wants him to do initially. So, Xiao Huan literally used Prime Minister 2 sons as examples -- which the Prime Minister in the end chose to give grain & supplies to the army.

As brilliant as Xiao Huan's scheme in this matter, he miscalculated one thing, that Prime Minister also moved his chess piece as well. Since he knew he's going to lose money and supplies, he doesnt want to be the loser. Thus, he planned for Cang Cang's brother; XianXue to commit suicide (aka staged his own death -- my prediction of course since the nod before he did it is the obvious clue). What he gains from here? We have no idea yet. Like the other schemes, we probably can see the impact in the next few episodes.

Ohh bonus we finally see General Ling Jueding from Episode 1 (his gift of a pair of Golden Birds). I knew he gonna come eventually but never thought it will be this fast. :D

He is a lonely, suffering character who takes in all himself. When people questioned him why, he said 'Because he used to it' -- he used to all this suffering since he is a little kid. Thus he doesn't want Cang Cang to be like him -- trapped in the Palace and lose her freedom. He walked his talk. And that makes him so compelling.

The simple equation in Xiao Huan's mind on why he refused to tell Cang Cang the truth:

Cang Cang: Being lied to for 20++ years (Dad & Shifu) VS being lied for 1 year (Xiao Huan). Its gonna hurt either way but he thought it would hurt less for Cang Cang if he is the bad guy. Well, he miscalculated this definitely. Since he didnt take into equation how much Cang Cang actually love him.

Princess Ying: Xiao Huan failed to save her VS her mother attempted to murder her. Again, he chose the lesser evil even when he is the collateral damage.

What I like about him is that this character flaw of him is consistent and not due to 'love' or 'infatuation'. Thus, it appear more impactful, logical & valid when you see it that way. He will do this for everyone if he can. Trying to protect them with every power that he has, thinking the best for them. That's why even when he is condemned by ministers when he tried to save Preceptor Du, he never bats an eye since he has this little 'pardon' power to save her life. His reputation in front of the ministers doesn't matter.

Yeah, thats what she has been doing, trying to find out the truth despite Xiao Huan keep shielding her. When she found out about her shifu, she cry her eyes out, then reconcile with him again. She is capable, but Xiao Huan overprotectiveness definitely a character flaw.

He knows its gonna hurt either way. But he always want to minimize it even when he becomes the victim of it. Like I said, been used by someone for 1 year (Xiao Huan) rather than 20 years (Father & Shifu) -- he thought 1 year would hurt less for her. Well, he is wrong. All hurt the max hahaha