Someone here that has watched the Korean version that can please spoil me how this is gonna end? 😁
A long road ahead but to make it short : -female lead gets engaged with her previous lifetime’s husband because she knows that’s the best way to make her fake friend want him -jerkass ex-husband and her fake friend have an affair. They eventually get exposed and they’re humiliated at work : of course, female lead now has a good reason to dump ex-husband with everybody’s approval and fake friend has to quit for some reason (different reasons for webtoon and k-drama but basically, she leaves in disgrace). -fake friend announces she’s prégnant. Due to that, ex-husband’s parents decide he must marry her, for the sake of their grandchild. But female lead knows fake friend is lying about this pregnancy because she knows from last lifetime that ex-husband is sterile - fake friend is at first happy to have won and to have found a family with her loving in-laws. But quickly, things don’t turn as good as she thought : her mother-in-law only cares about unborn grandson, is so controlling, deciding everything about the wedding according to her own taste (fake friend is disgusted with the invitation papers and has to wear an old-fashioned wedding dress and no make up). Her wedding quickly turns into a humiliation : female lead comes with male lead as her partner and is so beautiful that ex-husband is filled with regrets, his friend mocking him for going from such a Beauty to… a kind of girl you don’t marry. But most importantly, her high School Friends come and make a scene, as à way to make up to female lead for how they treated her - to make it short, ex-husband and fake friend make each other live à hell on earth until husband eventually dies (in the k-drama : fake friend kills him after learning of him having an affair with male lead’s fiancee and that he intended to kill her to get life insurance money ; webtoon : he kinda kills himself… by driving the car that he forgot he sabotaged in Hope to kill his wife). -Fake friend ends up arrested : in the k-drama, for having killed her husband. In the webtoon, for killing her monster-in-law who was in coma after having a stroke when learning her son was infertile because she's scared monster in law will reveal how she left her on the floor when she had a stroke (also, monster in law treated her awful after they learnt her pregnancy was fake and even blamed her for failing to get pregnant) - Female lead and make lead get married and have at least 3 children
‘Cause he was said to bring bad omenSo officially, he was chased away to avoid bringing misfortune to the palace
like I Said, That was the official reason the real reason was that she was scared that he would be a burden to her due to this bad omen thing that’s why she hated him
When watching this after reading the novel/manhua, it's pretty interesting to see the changes compared to the…
- the Grand Princess : worse. She's already quite a villain in the original story but her part mainly stopped at having killed the female lead's mother. Here, her role was made quite more important, since they totally deleted the empress dowager's character - Cui Mingyue : hard to say. The main thing they changed about her is her love for the male lead, which is nonexistent in the novel (I'm not even sure she even talks or meets with him) and I'm not sure what I think about this. On one hand, making her in love with the male lead is such a cliche move. On the other hand, seeing her rejected by the male lead was so satisfying and this gave a new dimension to the character who was so one-dimensional in the novel (her only interest was to ruin the female lead's family, because she blamed them for her father's disinterest in their family) - Jiang Qian : morally speaking... improved, but I wouldn't say good. In the novel, she clearly hates the female lead and the reason why she agrees to help her husband have her cousin is not just to survive his abuse but mainly because she wants to see her suffer like she does. I'm honestly not sure about how I feel about this, because I'm very uncomfortable with the fact that she was forgiven for having helped her husband rape female lead in the previous life - the aunt : kinda improved. The drama ends up on her redemption, the novel clearly punishes her - the granny : also hard to say. Female lead and her family kinda maintain good relationship with her even though she often scolds her. So the drama kinda forgives but the novel makes it clear that she's a selfish old hag, mainly driven by greed and benefit who really doesn't care what happens to her grandchildren as long as her family has fame and wealth - Ji Chongyi : considerably worsened. In the novel, he's not really a bad person like he is here : just an idiot. He sincerely falls for Qiaoniang, which is why he initially rejects female lead that he never met. When he and Qiaoniang get married, their marriage eventually can't stand the trials of life and social gap, and he comes to regret having married Qiaoniang, especially when he develops an attraction for female lead when seeing her after his marriage - male lead's mother and brother : improved. In the novel, male lead never reconciles with him mother or the 8th prince, clearly considers them his enemies from the moment they threaten female lead and they both eventually meet their ends from the leads' hands after having done many other bad things. The novel makes it clear that the mother never loved her son and 8th prince is even more ruthless. Honestly, I think the novel makes much more sense on this part - crown prince : kinda improved. Though to be honest, his part was greatly reduced compared to the novel, where his lustful, selfish and stupid nature is the cause of many troubles at court - emperor : hard to say. On one hand, he's more affectionate towards male lead than in the novel. But he's also less intelligent, as his affection towards the grand princess allows her to commit many evils - Zhu Ziyu : kinda improved. Let's just say that his reason for marrying Cui Mingyue is not for helping his ex-wife and make up to her, but mainly for revenge against Mingyue for having used him and caused him to be chased away from his family (they haven't been annihilated like in the drama). Also, he's not the one who kills Cui Mingyue. I kinda prefer the drama as the redemption they gave him made more sense and how he killed Cui Mingyue was much more satisfying
When watching this after reading the novel/manhua, it's pretty interesting to see the changes compared to the original material. Honestly, I think they did a pretty good good job at compacting the whole thing while remaining fauthful to the spirit of the original work It's also interesting to see how some characters have morally "improved" or worsened compared to the novel and what it brings to the story. For example :
One thing that I don't understand, if Tawan is the daughter of Taychit and his first wife, why is she younger…
‘Cause Wee’s mom slept with him not long after her lover’s death and remained his mistress even when the wife had his daughter So in other words, she’s a whore
This drama has no morals. The worst part is they try to play off things that are clearly WRONG as if it's "morally…
Not to mention the second male lead’s mother who jumped on her lover’s best friend right after his death, even though he was married, just so she could find a fake father for her unborn son. Yet the show presents her like a good character and made it sound like male lead and his sister were wrong for hating these two. And she gave no apology to male lead and his sister
Am I the only one who feels like the actors playing male lead and male Villain should have been switched ? I’m sorry, but i feel no chemistry between Chen Xin Yu and Wu Jun Yu but more importantly, Wu Bo Wei has much more charisma, presence and natural in his acting than Wu Jun Yu. On the other hand, maybe it’s better because i seriously doubr anyone else could have been as good as Wu Bo Wei in this part (which wasn’t so easy to take), especially not Wu Jun Yu
1 
Now you won’t have me believe that there’s absolutely nothing between them in real life
-female lead gets engaged with her previous lifetime’s husband because she knows that’s the best way to make her fake friend want him
-jerkass ex-husband and her fake friend have an affair. They eventually get exposed and they’re humiliated at work : of course, female lead now has a good reason to dump ex-husband with everybody’s approval and fake friend has to quit for some reason (different reasons for webtoon and k-drama but basically, she leaves in disgrace).
-fake friend announces she’s prégnant. Due to that, ex-husband’s parents decide he must marry her, for the sake of their grandchild. But female lead knows fake friend is lying about this pregnancy because she knows from last lifetime that ex-husband is sterile
- fake friend is at first happy to have won and to have found a family with her loving in-laws. But quickly, things don’t turn as good as she thought : her mother-in-law only cares about unborn grandson, is so controlling, deciding everything about the wedding according to her own taste (fake friend is disgusted with the invitation papers and has to wear an old-fashioned wedding dress and no make up). Her wedding quickly turns into a humiliation : female lead comes with male lead as her partner and is so beautiful that ex-husband is filled with regrets, his friend mocking him for going from such a Beauty to… a kind of girl you don’t marry. But most importantly, her high School Friends come and make a scene, as à way to make up to female lead for how they treated her
- to make it short, ex-husband and fake friend make each other live à hell on earth until husband eventually dies (in the k-drama : fake friend kills him after learning of him having an affair with male lead’s fiancee and that he intended to kill her to get life insurance money ; webtoon : he kinda kills himself… by driving the car that he forgot he sabotaged in Hope to kill his wife).
-Fake friend ends up arrested : in the k-drama, for having killed her husband. In the webtoon, for killing her monster-in-law who was in coma after having a stroke when learning her son was infertile because she's scared monster in law will reveal how she left her on the floor when she had a stroke (also, monster in law treated her awful after they learnt her pregnancy was fake and even blamed her for failing to get pregnant)
- Female lead and make lead get married and have at least 3 children
But damn, the guy ages like fine wine
the real reason was that she was scared that he would be a burden to her due to this bad omen thing
that’s why she hated him
So officially, he was chased away to avoid bringing misfortune to the palace
- Cui Mingyue : hard to say. The main thing they changed about her is her love for the male lead, which is nonexistent in the novel (I'm not even sure she even talks or meets with him) and I'm not sure what I think about this. On one hand, making her in love with the male lead is such a cliche move. On the other hand, seeing her rejected by the male lead was so satisfying and this gave a new dimension to the character who was so one-dimensional in the novel (her only interest was to ruin the female lead's family, because she blamed them for her father's disinterest in their family)
- Jiang Qian : morally speaking... improved, but I wouldn't say good. In the novel, she clearly hates the female lead and the reason why she agrees to help her husband have her cousin is not just to survive his abuse but mainly because she wants to see her suffer like she does. I'm honestly not sure about how I feel about this, because I'm very uncomfortable with the fact that she was forgiven for having helped her husband rape female lead in the previous life
- the aunt : kinda improved. The drama ends up on her redemption, the novel clearly punishes her
- the granny : also hard to say. Female lead and her family kinda maintain good relationship with her even though she often scolds her. So the drama kinda forgives but the novel makes it clear that she's a selfish old hag, mainly driven by greed and benefit who really doesn't care what happens to her grandchildren as long as her family has fame and wealth
- Ji Chongyi : considerably worsened. In the novel, he's not really a bad person like he is here : just an idiot. He sincerely falls for Qiaoniang, which is why he initially rejects female lead that he never met. When he and Qiaoniang get married, their marriage eventually can't stand the trials of life and social gap, and he comes to regret having married Qiaoniang, especially when he develops an attraction for female lead when seeing her after his marriage
- male lead's mother and brother : improved. In the novel, male lead never reconciles with him mother or the 8th prince, clearly considers them his enemies from the moment they threaten female lead and they both eventually meet their ends from the leads' hands after having done many other bad things. The novel makes it clear that the mother never loved her son and 8th prince is even more ruthless. Honestly, I think the novel makes much more sense on this part
- crown prince : kinda improved. Though to be honest, his part was greatly reduced compared to the novel, where his lustful, selfish and stupid nature is the cause of many troubles at court
- emperor : hard to say. On one hand, he's more affectionate towards male lead than in the novel. But he's also less intelligent, as his affection towards the grand princess allows her to commit many evils
- Zhu Ziyu : kinda improved. Let's just say that his reason for marrying Cui Mingyue is not for helping his ex-wife and make up to her, but mainly for revenge against Mingyue for having used him and caused him to be chased away from his family (they haven't been annihilated like in the drama). Also, he's not the one who kills Cui Mingyue. I kinda prefer the drama as the redemption they gave him made more sense and how he killed Cui Mingyue was much more satisfying
It's also interesting to see how some characters have morally "improved" or worsened compared to the novel and what it brings to the story. For example :
So in other words, she’s a whore
On the other hand, maybe it’s better because i seriously doubr anyone else could have been as good as Wu Bo Wei in this part (which wasn’t so easy to take), especially not Wu Jun Yu