yoongo

ok fair point since i guess other cdramas also showed mouth to mouth when they're desperate to save someone.

maybe a better example would be how she's using modern capitalistic business knowledge to become an entrepreneur (an odd position for a female, especially one with no significant family background) in that era.

also another example is how bao'er kept going on about not eating too much sweets because it gives cavities, medical knowledge not really known back then

also can i just confess that i bawled in the last ep when they returned to Lin An and they showed all the villagers 😭😭 brb gonna rewatch the first arc until you-know-when

as a novel reader, i can say i'm satisfied.

the novel fleshed out the battle scenes and intimate scenes (not explicitly but there were MANY lol) much better since it's the source material after all, but the drama also did some things better (the portrayal of xie zheng is more humanised in the drama compared to the novel, and the political scenes were easier to understand with the visuals) in my opinion.

the drama tried its best to show as many key scenes as possible, and the directing and visuals are soo consistently high quality. lowkey i was wondering if they would omit qian qian's transmigrator back story but in fact they showed much more details to allude to her background since early on in the drama!

some novel readers might be disappointed that the 2nd half of the show were too rushed since they had to squeeze the political arc within 10-ish ep but if i tried to watch from the perspective of someone who didn't read the novel, i think they did their best to cover as many characters and plot as they could, trying to tie up loose ends up till the last ep. that is the beauty of novel-drama adaptations i suppose.

if you're not satisfied with the drama, you're welcome to read/re-read the novel until you breathe and live Zhu Yu ☺️

well done PoJ team. Till the next project, ZLH and TXW!!

she is a transmigrator!! many hints were dropped throughout the drama (for example: her knowledge of mouth-to-mouth CPR)

ah! hope they look unique enough for you to recognise them by face at least haha 🥲😅

haha if you're familiar with mandarin it's pretty easy because his guards are literally called by XZ's surname followed by numbers, so Xie Wu is number 5

i get everyone's frustration with her actions bc we have the luxury of hindsight and knowing his identity, she was indeed reckless not knowing her actions could've killed everyone. She's lucky she's strong and the calvary has the strength to hold out without XZ.

but i guess there's the argument that recklessness and courage have a fine line between them :') we can only hope she matures from this incident and exercise more wise restraint as she works toward becoming a respected general

oh! and regarding the drugged soup she gave him, iirc in the novel she gave him a heavy dosage but told changning to poke him with a needle if she needed help. She poked up in the end and that's how he awoke! so it's a sliiight variation from the drama where he woke up by himself - either he was given a weaker dosage or his body was strong enough to overcome it

yep he literally had to lead the troops now bc she drugged the marquis, best he could do was just place her with the reserve forces. but alas even the reserved had to be deployed bc the situation was so dire...

ppl usually watch cdramas on other platforms bc netflix's schedule is always behind by at least a week. but for POJ they synced the airing schedule across netflix, iqiyi and tencent! that's why even i stayed on netflix since i use the app more often than the rest :)

i'm sure this is the case for other international viewers too which explain the high rankings!

hahahah ahh the dilemma! 🤣 so glad you're enjoying thus far 😀

WE'RE SO SO SO HAPPY!! the screenwriting and director are realllyyyyy bringing the words to life 😭 the attention to detail and how they're staying quite true to the essence of the novel is very clear! Hope the next half of the drama continues this momentum hehe

good points! just wanted to add on that in the novel, XZ brought up multiple times in his monologue about how FCY prefers refined and scholarly men over someone like himself. So i do sense sliiiight insecurity on top of the pettiness when he brought up Song Yan in this scene

biologically, ML bc male (duh) and he literally grew up being trained and he's a general already. FL is also very strong innately though! But in the battlefield arc, ML will train FL such that she eventually blooms to also be an undefeated general by the end!

think of him getting desperate, being pushed to the extent that he can no longer restraint himself and be 'yan zheng' with her. it's also logical why changyu was so puzzled and angry that he acted out and hence why she stormed off.

he grew up having to be on survival mode after his parents died, and now finally getting some warmth, there's the threat of you having to leave the warmth because you need to leave to save thousands of ppl in the coming war. So why not snap and attempt to get the only warmth you know to leave with you/wait for you?

hope you get used to his morally grey marquis side soon though, there's gonna be a couple more similar scenes coming up (at least in the novel)

Tuan Zi Lai Xi has another called 'Return of the Male Phoenix' that's gonna be adapted into a drama! Zhang Linghe is the male lead again and he's currently filming it with Lin Yun

i was soo pleasantly surprised netflix was the same as well! i'm so used to it lagging behind by 84 years and i end up purchasing other platform's membership instead to keep ahead lol

wanted to come on here only after the drama finishes but i can't contain my excitement anymore 😭 the scene of XZ coming back as the marquis is everything i pictured when reading the novel AND MORE 😭😭

Xiao Zhang's weibo update, translations not mine!

"the drama ends today. and everything I’ve wanted to say has already been conveyed through the story, through the lens.

jiang qiaoxi isn't a perfect person. he carries the sharp edges of youth, and has his unpolished flaws. he stumbles, but he also charges forward. it’s precisely these raw and genuine qualities that allowed me, in becoming jiang qiaoxi, to truly feel the warmth of growth. the confusion and setbacks he faced, the courage and resolve he showed, they were like a mirror, showing me that although growing up comes with pain and regret, beyond the hardships lies a broader path.

I’m truly grateful to have become jiang qiaoxi, and grateful to have helped bring such a sincere story to life. I’ve gained so much both in front of and behind the camera. thank you for every moment of this journey, to everyone who contributed to this drama, and to every viewer who have followed it!"

https://x.com/DailyZLH/status/1951261456252518524?t=l8jrnJDVZVL_qxv9FlACfw&s=19

wth... my heart can't handle these lethal pics

yeah. i just find comfort that at least both actors have proven their talent in other shows already so ppl might still give this show a try for them.

imagine if these were new actors. how sad they would be if ppl were deterred from their debut drama because of unfair ratings!