AleksandraSucur

well, you've asked and I've done best to explain you. It isn't at all like you defined the slow-burn bc: the on-screen romance doesn't unfold slowly, the relationship IS front-loaded and not in the background and the pace is fast between the first confession and their first kiss and moment they finish in bed for the first time (ep 9-ep 11).

But it isn't fast-burn either, bc the (full) pay-off is delayed and the relationship unfolds with ... I can't say... interruptions... the right word would be "apparent taking different paths". Believe me, it's complicated and it's also complicated to explain. 😅

It can, lol. I can't explain you without spoiling, so don't blame me. It's truly complicated, they intermittently get close fast and turn slow and you can't easily discern if they are pretending, playing, scheming, what they want or how much they are invested in each other, bc the romance is not the main focus but the integral part of the plot with intertwined main narrative threads, with many twist, turns and reversals typical for other genres (investigation, family rivarly, mystery, tea business, male competition...)

Nope.

neither. A complicated one

More or less, this would be a recap and foreshadow, feel free to add if I've missed smth important.
Any idea what was in the letter RSB gave to Madam Yan?

1. A a heavyweight player this governor. Ofc he didn't stage that beating show of the Sneaky Twin for the attempt bribe in front of LJL just to reaffirm his uninvolvement in Wei-Yang case and show off his honesty, moral integrity and... connections with the imperial palace (most of his ancient books and paintings were bestowed by the emperor, yeah) 😏. Knowing LJL can't heavily punish the Yang twin, he is using Yang as a middleman to contact the ex pirate and put in practice his plan to take down both LJL and punish the Rongs for sheltering Mrs Yang. No wonder Granny was so upset with RSB's recanting in the court: she either knew Governor was the mastermind behind the Yangs' takeover of Wei's plantations for supposed crime Weis committed against Mrs Yang or the granny even played some part in it, having always been in friendly relations with the Yangs...
2. As the Twin seems to have an alibi (he never left the town), we have a new sus for Mrs Yang's death, beside Yan the Monk-the last man standing in the Rong mannor. Why is he still there, btw? His love interest moved to the plantation, he is of no use for the old lady any more... To spy on 5th sister? It's always been hard to figure him out🤔
3. Meanwhile, the life on the plantation has livened up, with sisters and a little niece happily bonding with each other, freed from the gloomy restrictions and necessity to pretend in the Rong mannor where the old lady said and done so many bad things that I'll be very angry with the writer if she tries to condone her towards the ending with some excuse like "she was paving the path for the sisters to gather". Nobody will be convinced for how craftily reverse narrative is used in this drama. Turning to the point, these happy days look like a "lull before the storm" which is about to hit the plantation as a part of the Governor's plot to get rid of LJL, who ofc can't stay far away from RSB. I like a lot the slow burn stage they are in right now. Apparently talking business, while meeting secretely in the middle of the night, playing monkeys etc... so cute, even my unromantic heart is melting ❤️

Me too. After all her bad words, bad decisions and misdoing, it will be truly hard to condone her with an excuse she was paving a path for FL to gather the sisters together and take over the leadership. The audience will never accept such an unconvincing twist, so I think she'll remain this way till her downfall and you'll regret nothing, lol

thank you. It's always good to exchange the views. Yes, we've finally seen her confronting that devil of grandma. But the game isn't over and even the Wei-Yang case isn't totally closed (and not only bc the governor is still around), and the open issues in this drama continue to pile up, lol

You've totally caught all the main points. I'll add another one: if you have sisters and grandmother like that, you don't need enemies.

It was me, I've noticed it in early eps already.
In mid eps I've already concluded that she doesn't only ignite those rivalry games but use her granddaughter as a tool to undermine RSB' authority (deriving from the fact she is the only breadwinner in the family) and to keep herself in a sort of absolute power over them.

1. The Rong family didn't want to reveal the identity of Mrs Yang to protect her. Grandma always thought RSB's mom shouldn't give her shelter and, in her ruthless eyes, the best RSB should have done is to get rid of "the mess left by her mom". Which one of these is a "good thing" is in the eye of beholder, we've seen here even the supportive comments of the Granny's fans, lol.
2. We know the Governor is involved not only in Wei-Yang case, bc he silenced prefect Xu in prison who was the executor of his orders not only in this case but also in the case of abducted women, in typical mafia collusion between officials and bandits and even with some backing in the capital. FL met ML during that case and knew he was an upright official in the moment she saved him. I think (but this is my opinion not the fact we've seen) she saved him partially bc she thought he could turn useful. Differently than her grandma, she has a sense of justice and wished to expose corrupted officials even then. ML's memory loss and all other events in the Rong mansion complicated figuring out the ways how to do it and making an elaborated plan.
3. The slap. He didn't tell her all the truth, took in custody Mrs Yang in the moment they were supposed to celebrate their wedding, leaving her alone and humiliated in front of her family "at the altar". For how much she can understand his reasons and approve he prioritised Mrs Yang's life (who was researched by her own family with the intention to kill her), I think she still felt resented. Not only bc any woman would feel bad but bc she now must show she feels resented to appease her grandma. He didn't ask her why she hid the truth bc neither she asked why he hid the truth he was coordinating with Mr Lang (making her even think that Mr Lang is a corrupted official who tried to kill ML). They are on equal footing in hiding the truth & scheming, it isn't such a big deal for them. The slap and the whole convo with her request to find her the mountain tea served to test and prove their commitment to each other. It was a way to signal to the audience: the relationship between these two didn't end, they have feelings for each other that cannot vanish just bc he returned to his official job.
4. Why only he had to prove his commitment to her? It was a test for her, too. She followed him from distance and - while pretending to kill him - killed the snake he hasn't seen. If this test seems a huge thing for you, just think of the real trial she had to take facing and opposing her grandma who wanted to stop her to follow him to the monastery. Her burdens are way heavier than his. The good thing is that he knows them having lived in that mansion for a certain period of time. I think what he saw there - a woman who can bear incredible responsibilites, work herself to exhaustion, protect vulnerable and working people and her family even when they bite her - is the reason why he loves her and sees her as unique, "the only one" for him.

I still don't get why is it so important for her to SHOW her love for him in a drama so full of show, pretence, scheme and manipulation. Why so many of you find insufficient the very fact they are still entangled, that there's still a "relationship" between them even at this point, when they have other priorities, like cleaning up their own messes first? This drama isn't focused only on their romance, their romance is just a part of a broader and more complex story and can't be viewed as isolated from that complex story. In such a story I truly can't see why their emotions should be displayed "proportionally". But hey, it's me again, I don't watch romances and can care less if they display romantic emotions equally or not. I thank you all for sharing your views with me.

"She want to kill him to keep the promise with the granma". Grandma never asked her to kill him, the oath never mentioned what she was to do in case the wedding never happened.
I agree with you she didn't took the bow for no reason, but imo it was bc she was still enraged. We all get angry more easily with the persons we care about, wouldn't you ask yourself if you were in her shoes: was it worth to give him a second chance?
I didn't see her sleeping with any other man (and I assure you I saw every second of the drama) and I didn't say she is desperate. Her emotions are... mixed, swinging between the opposites.
I agree that wedding was a wRong way for them to be together, but that's why we watch this story, curious how they'll overcome the obstacles and trials.

You continue to repeat that her intention was to kill him. Ok, lets' suppose it was her intention. So what? Did she kill him? No. She sent him on a path where smth else could have kill him? Ok. And what if she followed him to protect him from distance? She is a pretender (as he is too), used to scheme and act as she has one intention while working for the opposite goal, this option isn't impossible. She took her cousin and bow pretending to go to kill him and then pretended she changed her mind once he was in mortal danger.

ok, your arguments are convincing and I accept your opinion on this issue.
It's probably me then... in real life I'd never pass over the humiliation and would never give a second chance to the person I love for how much it breaks my heart. That's probably why, in my eyes, just by giving him this second chance, she already counterbalanced everything he "had done more"

She was waiting for him to kill him my ass.
Any woman dumped at the altar would feel enraged. Not wanting to see that person or hear his name mentioned in her presence. And the impulse to kill him would also be hard to supress, no wonder she took the bow with her, I'd do the same.
Yet, she didn't say "no" when he told her he'll still pursue her but she asked him to prove it: pick up that tea for me. Ofc the tea wasn't important, it was important that he shows his determination. And she went after him to see if he was going to do it. With the bow, ofc., she is still resented. But she didn't kill him. The instant she saw the snake, she shot the snake saving his life.
Returning home, she pissed off her grandma and left the Rong mannor. And almost killed the dastard butler with a glance bc he dumped the tea ML picked up for her.

Oh, thank you for sharing these thoughts of yours. I'm not into a romance genre and when romantic scenes appear in dramas I prefer, I usually FF them at double speed. The main reason is certainly the overuse of tropes, the second is a sense of disproportion of the emotional investment you've mentioned. But I haven't skipped romantic scenes in this drama.
Maybe I haven't skipped them bc the drama plot forces us not to miss one second (and often even to resee a scene) in fear we'll loose an important clue: it fully engages our brain cells with a guess-what-happens-later game while fueling our adrenaline to the levels in which the brain turns it to cortisol, so I've perceived their scenes together as a necessary pause to relax and lower the levels of stress this rollercoaster story exposes us to. Somehow, for me was more important the balance among different genre-threads present in the plot and the thorough characterisation of the persons involved than the balance between the proofs of their emotional investment.

But, are these proofs really so important? One person can display "more love" (both in words and in actions) while loving less than the other way round. One person may need more "proofs of love" than his/her partner. And sometimes such needs are dictated purely by circumstances, not by the character. LJL said he wanted the best of the both worlds: her and justice (/his career). What he said was: "I've decided to resume my work but will still pursue you and want to marry you". She didn't say: "no, I'll never be yours", she sent him to pick up the tea from the mountain to prove her his determination. And I think she needed that proof - before they've separated she was also determined to have the best of both worlds: him and the Rong family. And now is even ready to oppose her grandma and even to leave the Rong family. We still haven't seen more than 1/3 of this drama, it's simply too early to make a final account of their true emotional investment. ML is still in time to dump her again😉 ... there's still the arc in the capital, the mentor's daughter etc...

I think all of them sincerely believe to love her. But... as they all think they "know what's better to her" than she knows herself, it means they've never truly understood who she was and that they all fell for an idea they've had of her.
Beside LJL, who's different, the only person's feeling we still don't know well is that "last man standing" in the Rongs mannor. Monk's character and feelings are difficult to figure out. We are continuously hinted he is not the person he claims to be. He seems to be attracted by her, he also seems to be very respectful of her decisions and is restraining himself to interfere with them and he also tries to do things to please her. It's difficult to descern his motives - is he trying to please her to get close to her having also other goals in mind or is it just a pure romantic interest? - when we don't know why exactly he came there pretending to be so. else.

I think granny deserves a place among the leads, lol

This is only the start (her going against her granny wasn't entirely for LJL but for WW and Mrs Yang). I expect her to fight exclusively for him later (probably when mentor's daughter come into the picture in the last arc). For now, their main difference is the framework (=material, emotional and situational environment) determining and limiting their moves. She has so much more limitations, it's not only her granny who "knows better" how she should live her life and make decisions, but each and every person (except her maid and LJL) around her "knows better". They don't only "know better" but their actions - purpotedly for her sake - burden and shackle her even more: all the suitors, were doing smth they've believed as in her interest, starting from cousin Wen Can, He psycho, idiot butler... even Yang the bull thought their marriage would be great not only to "expand business" but to make her care less for the Rong values and rules... As sisters didn't trouble her enough, even her only ally, the Shen girl, thinks she "knows what's better to her" (although fortunately she still didn't take any stupid action). It's totally normal to prioritise the situation/problems in which RSB was, as she was more defenseless from such a huge amount of people

She just saved his life again, shooting the snake he hasn't seen at all. Has she shot that snake bc she cares about him or bc she badly wants that tea? Don't trust her cold face or lack of open demonstrations of her feelings. She was educated since she was a child to suppress or hide her emotions and she can't change that overnight.