AleksandraSucur

what that glance said is: "count yourself as my enemy". She knows the bast... ergh, butler, didn't only throw away LJL's special tea but also tattled on her going to the monastery as Granny can stop her.
Cheng, you'll never ever have a chance to enterShanbao's good graces! But we should be grateful to you, wimpy idiot and loser, bc your little tattle led directly to the first RSB-Granny confrontation and RSB's first going against Granny's orders.

Gosh, I'm so excited for their final showdown, it's like my fave club preparing for the final match in the world championship! ❤️🔥🔥

Ah, ok, I also hope someone can translate it for us. Especially the part regarding the twin being punished by the evil governor, bc the seizure of plantation looked as some set-up involving the pirate man and the twin.

one of the nuns said the hooded person was a male but she didn't saw it well

where have you seen ep 25 prev? On Mango, there are only prev. for 23 and 24

They are both justice-driven. But they both have their own issues. RSB has an issue with her family and responsabilities towards that family. LJL has issues with his zeal to fight corruption, injustice etc., underestimating the powers which move them. He is a person who have risen from the bottom to the top (and even in this regard, his determination to excel in his studies and work is very similar to the FL's). They are both excessively committed to this "excellence"

I think you don't overanalyse their relationship. This is exactly how I percieve their relationship. He pushes (or better, helps) her just enough to reflect but doesn't cross the line by meddling into the sphere of her emotions/issues with her family which is exclusively hers. I've noticed that when they were lying embraced in bed when she was ill. That conversation gave strong mature couple husband-wife vibe.

It was around 4th-5th ep, rewatch it. Yan the monk delayed his arrival 5 days after all the other suitors, excusing himself for some disaster on the road (=he suffered), making an impact with tea performance (due to the special water he brought from the temple but they don't have), impeccable behaviour etc etc, How could grandma fall for all that show if not to make FL fall in the exactly same trap she fell many years before?
Although we are hooked to the story, the reversed narrative hints were a little bit overused (the director's choice, probably), the reason why the people cannot catch such details unless they turn back and rewatch the scenes, so don't worry, I wouldn't catch it either if I haven't rewatch those scenes

And why do you think she pushed FL to marry him?
She asked her chief maid, Mrs Yan (who is supposedly from the same family): "does he look like him to you?" (referring to her last lover who died and was also a Yan) and she replied: No.
So, she knows he is an impostor, why she still forced FL to marry him?

The only logical answer: she wants (wanted) FL to pass the exactly same experience as she had with her first love. She needs a heiress who'll be her exact clone, deprived of her own experiences, life and love.

grandma was never helping mrs Yan she just tollerated a fait accompli by RSB's mom. She literally said "Mrs Yang is a mess left to RSB by her mom before she passed away". And Granma also ordered RSB to "clean that mess". How could you've missed such an important dialogue?
And now, that RSB cleaned the mess, the Grandma is still unsatisfied - just in case you've missed this part too

FL was aware someone would act to obstruct the wedding (or the marriage following the wedding). Can granma allow her to have such a capable man and aide, loyal only to the FL and not to "the Rongs" (and in grandma's head she and not the FL is the personification of "the Rongs")? Have you seen the oath she forced her to pledge, it sounded normal to you? Even if it happened, it would be a (w)Rong marriage, fortunately it didn't.

If you've watched 18 ep, you must have seen she had shown warmth and great care for WW, tea plantation workers, tea plants... ie., towards people/beings she is allowed to show certain degree of care. At this point, you've certainly noticed that her coldness is a mask she must wear in front of the sisters in order not to give impression she is creating alliances with them making her granny think she is out of the "tools" she constantly uses to threaten FL's authority and to keep her under her thumb while making her work her ass off.
So, it's in the character: as a kid, she wasn't allowed even to cry when her mom died. She can't show she truly cares and likes the ML and you'll see concretely in a few eps the consequences of her favouring to him.
I think the actress excellently portrayed the character limited to a narrow framework of the emotions she is allowed to show and that her coldness is just a mask she must wear, while revealing a number of other emotions: heaviness in her heart, sincere care, weariness, constriction, acting on whim the "wedding night" she ought to spend with Yang the bull. Can't imagine any other doing better in characterising RSB.

that scheme with YY bringing WW to the court was a chef's kiss, keeping the vibe and consistency of the Rongs' functioning we are already used to.
It additionaly pointed out how limited is the framework in which our poor FL is allowed to act. She mustn't show any emotion, happiness, warmth, she must keep her 4th sister grumpy and alienated from her as not to alarm granny that she attracts allies and making her fear for her power...
She reversed the statement only when Mrs Yang's tearing off WW's drawings made normal for any person to "crack up" (touched by Mrs Yang's sacrifice as not to imply the Rongs) and reverse the statement, (adding a charge against the prefect). YY's face in that moment was... wow (I hope she finally understood her sister!)! Such a good writing and performance!

I share your pov on this issue, too. The best outcome would be if sisters could work together.
But this can't happen before a showdown between grandma and RSB.
Grandma is responsible for too many things (and will probably order Mrs Yang murder I've seen in a trailer), she is too obsessed with her sh*t and too attached to her dominating power role... we can't reasonably expect for such a person to step down easily. And the confrontation will harsh, literally a day of reckoning as RSB truly bottled down too many things

Totally predictable, bc we know well what's more important for her: keeping RSB always down and herself as a better knowing, more experienced etc.
Important issues... oh... "pls don't talk about those troublesome things, I don't want to hear them" she said to Yan when he started to praise RSB and turned to the 5th miss to hear things more pleasing to her ear.
And I like how the 5th miss mastered the ways to manipulate her, even with the purpose to create a conflict between the two. Impatient to see that conflict finally!

we've paid attention but know very little. RSB said to Yang the Bull her father and one uncle (probably the 2nd miss father) are still alive, living and working elsewhere.
We also know that after her mom died, her father's concubine (mother of the third miss) was in charge of the children and mistreated Wanwan (as a "jinx"), talked badly about her mom etc influencing the 4th miss (the bratty one) the most. That woman probably fueled (or added fuel to the one poured by the old hag) the animosity between sisters. We have no idea what happened to the wife of the 2nd house (Yunxi's mom) but know for sure the mother (who was a maid) of the 5th miss (Yunshu, the blind one) is dead, bc she asked He to accompany her to her grave during their brief "engagement". We also don't know what happened to 2 of 3 old lady's husbands while we know her lover (who was Yan the monk's relative) died shortly after moving into the mansion.
If the author decided not to tell us till this point, their stories and whereabouts could be one of the bomb revelations, accompanied with a big boom...

we were writing at the same time... The conclusion of ep 21 is simply fantastic.

I'm so grateful you've appeared, Wen Can's daddy! Not only bc you've taken away that nuisance of your son, but you are the first person who is telling to the audience who's exactly the old lady Rong: "when turns cruel, she is worse than a man devouring demon" and that no parent in sound mind would allow his son to offer her a tea/soup (ie. to pay respect as her in-law)!
You should have come ten episodes earlier, sparing us so many discussions with persons who were slow to figure the characters out or who form their opinions on general knowledge of cliches and template plots in c-dramas and not on what they see in the drama and know from the basics of psychology! Now we can just direct them to ep 21, at 42'15'' to see and hear your words. Thank you!

And I am also glad Shanbao heard those words and that Wen Can managed to tell her he was used by someone in the Rong mansion to reveal Mrs Yang whereabouts to LJL.

1. she will tell him in the moment when he already recovered most of them.
2. it isn't shown in the drama, but FL saved him also because she knew he was an upright official, ready to confront corrupt officials, so indirectly she needed him to return to his previous identity.
3. her keeping him around helps her to deter annoying suitors and solving many problems she is burdened with.

As for the focus of this drama... this is a mix of several genres listed above (with many elements listed in the tags), successfully balancing between the issues typical for all these genres (including the romance), that's why we all inpatiently wait and watch the next episodes and scores high both internally and internationally. The FL personality is complex, intensly layered and - at least to this point (ep 22) - excellently written and performed. Certainly the best performance ever of this actress

I've recaped all the important points in a separate comment above 🙂

Not much to recap today, except that the annoying cousin is finally out of the picture and persons who (eg. the Monk) were using him as a tool will now must act directly, the Sneaky Twin who was out of the game anyways went on run and can still be a danger, the rift between grandma and FL started to widen... Everything else was predictable many eps ago (more or less, the eps still contained certain side twists typical for this drama). In particular, I've correctly guessed:
1. FL didn't save ML out of compassion (or at least non only out of compassion), but because she KNEW EXACTLY who he was: an upright official who saved her when they first met together with other abducted girls. She also knew he was an imperial inspector investigating the truth behind Wei case and that people who tried to kill him were high local officials who were hiding that truth. As a person with excellent managerial skills, she knows how to put people's talent to good use. His memory loss and her other problems complicated the best timing and plan how to use him. The only false thing she said in the court was the accusation directed towards the prefect that her first statement regarding Mrs Yang's identity was forced by the officials. That statement helped LJL to charge and convict the prefect. If you return to ep in which she was returning to the mansion in the coach with her two maids after being liberated by LJL, that was her exact original intention: to find and convict the culprits behind the bandits. They've always had the same goal.
2. Local highest official (the governor and the power behind the crimes in the region) has connections within the court and imperial family (empress dowager). ML is messing with a wasp nest and the corruption is extended to the capital.
3. 5th Miss is the granddaughter who resembles Granma the most: heartless, sinister, scheming, vindictive, hypocrite... she is the Granma's "best product" and the only one who truly learnt how to manipulate sisters in a way to play them one against another. She even learnt the best how to coax and please Grandma's pettiness, definitely deserving to be her heiress and finally bring the doom to the family who looked down on her.

Now, the story will be slowed down with just one ep a day...