Winnie Mai

She never mentioned she was not loved by her husband, but rather that he died young, leaving her to raise her sons all by her self. She inherently favors her first and third son due to their accomplishments, with her eldest being a military figure/marquis and her youngest being an official. This was brought up when the second wife was berating her husband, the second son, who is disabled and has no considerable accomplishments. As the grandmother loves to flaunt her wealth and status, she favors these two sons who benefit her. She gets quite possessive of them, therefore not really wishing to share her sons' attentions on any other female. And as you stated, because they do truly love their wives, she dislikes that sense of independency and privacy her sons share with their spouses. Shao Shang even mentions in episode 5 that the grandmother would probably only approve of matching her third son with a beautiful fairy/god, adding on that parents should not be disapproving of their children based solely on appearance and potential.

No, they established that the marriage between the third aunt and the third uncle actually elevates the Cheng's family status in episode 5. She is the daughter of the master of Mount Bailu, but the grandmother doesn't believe that the third aunt is good enough for her son. The grandmother simply strongly favors her first and third son for their successes, hence why she disapproves of their wives despite anything else.

They actually don't all the same surname. While Yang Yang's character has the surname 丰, only both Lusi and Xuan Lu's characters have the same surname of 风。

Did they ever catch the human trafficker? I know the young one died during that ambush in ep 13, but the old one seemed to be untouched.

the mastermind behind the crown prince's death (the first one at least) was the second prince who becomes the crown prince when the original crown prince is assassinated. CY's "mom" who's the empress actually killed his real mom and took him in as his mom probably due to the fact she doesn't have a son and having a son is a powerful social power the emperor's wives have because CY will become the crown prince and that gives the empress more leverage as her son is dictated to become the next king.

I do understand he did use sese (zhao liang di) when li cheng yin was getting the crown prince position but after that, how else is she helpful in terms of securing his position? In the drama so far, he uses her and her family but with him marrying xiao feng, why would he need sese as his concubine? Additionally, her father doesn't have any military power.. I just don't understand how he will still use her when he's the crown prince and married to both xiao feng and her.

He needs to get close to xiao feng and her mother tribe as he will lead to war/mass murder/genocide to kill them.

the book had an extremely sad ending..cause the author is known for her sad endings..plus even when the drama wasn't out yet..i saw a sneak peek at some clips of the ending..WATCH AT YOUR OWN RISK..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvEkLJrXQzs&t=84s
there's more clips on her channel too..but they kept the same ending as the book

there are episodes on youtube that i watched im pretty sure

ive seen parts of the ending..its exactly like the book..main male lead dies
you can watch them here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH98rP8D1ro&t=17s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvEkLJrXQzs&t=84s

IM SO DAMN CONFUSED. WHO EVEN DOES SHE LOVE LIKE I THINK SHE FUCKS THE KING AND BECOMES HIS CONCUBINE AND THEN THE ENDING WAS HELLA CONFUSING. LIKE WHO DOES SHE EVEN WANT THE KING OR HIS BROTHER?

can someone tell me when this airs in china so i know when i can find new episodes?

can someone tell me when this airs in china so i know when i can find new episodes?