AleksandraSucur

The two are parallel powers, one is in power of the household, the other is a breadwinner, in charge of business. I still can't believe people couldn't see what was so obvious throughout this drama, that the old lady - instead of supporting RSB's authority and asking for respect towards her from other granddaughters - directly or indirectly, yet constantly, undermined that respect and that authority. She was "strenghtening her" my a*s. In the best case, she is just a bad educator-enforcer of the respect of rules and roles. Don't want even to think what she is in the worst case.

you've explained it exactly in the same way. 👍

Regarding the maid, yes, that's a possibility.
Regarding the Wanwan's murder... it could be He freak and Yunxi are thinking Wanwan saw who murdered the Yang bull, leaving her shoe print on the floor. Remember how Yunxi told He freak she has an idea how to get rid of the "Rong girl"? The Rong girl she was referring to could be Wanwan, not RSB.
Right now, the highest probability is that the Yang's killer was He freak, but his target was RSB, who was supposed to be in the bedchamber consuming with Yang their wedding night. His hatred is a plausible motivation to kill her and her freshly wed husband.
And even if Wanwan didn't see who murdered Yang, killing her will add (emotional) burden to RSB and show how uncapable she is in keeping the houshold in order. For Yunxi is enough

I am impatient to see how it was "backstaged", too, bc He freak trully drowned the poor sis and Yunxi trully helped him to commit that crime, independently of its outcome.
And the other hypocrite sis who cried and talked in front of the corpse... gosh, she was present when Yunxi was blackmailing the maid. Vipers. Unredeemable vipers.

I suppose he was a sort of plantation manager there. The important part in the opening dialogues is that he "was chosen by her grandma for her". He wasn't her lover.
The entire scene served to introduce us to Shanbao, who is in charge of the family tea business, and to her Rong family in which women are in power and in charge of business.
As for the novel - only the tea expertise is taken from it, everything else is totally different, so we treat it as original script

It's a cold case he is reinvestigating, connected with a suicide of a person named Wei, imprisoned for the murder of his wife. After the reexamination of the rests, it was discovered the bones belonged to a male, which meant the wife was missing. That wife is from Yang's family, she was a friend of RSB's mom, and is hidden by RSB in the manor as Wanwan's nanny, Mrs Liang.
Given the impossibility to invite such a powerful family as Rong to the court, imperial inspector Lu was presumably looking for an opportunity to infiltrate the houshold undercover in search of Mrs Yang.

yup, mine too
We may form a club for this precise trope, lol

The girl in charge of plantation mentioned it was old lady Rong who has chosen that Wang (probably a plantation manager) for RSB. We don't know what exactly he has done to be kicked out, all we know he had "low morals" (as RSB said)

I woke up this morning (Sunday morning!) at 5 a.m. just to watch ep 13. lol

I've dropped the other one at ep 22, thinking of dropping it for several consecutive days.
While Glory... I woke up today, a Sunday morning, at 5 a.m. just to watch ep 13.

I love how Ms Shen always acts as Shanbao's lawyer and legal rep/defensor.

We still don't know bc we still don't know why the entire mid-generation (between grandma and her granddaughters) is missing in this drama.
I am suspicious of her since the first scene of ep 1, hearing it was the old lady who have chosen that Wang guy for the FL.

Yunxi is unredeemable. Plotting a murder of her mentally vulnerable cousin together with the n°1 enemy of her family (who probably murdered Yang bull as well, having Shanbao as a main target), framing innocent people and servants in order to create chaos and demonstrate FL's incapability to run the family is beyond redemption.
And I'll say it again: the fault is with the person who is in charge of their education and respect of the rules and hierarchy of roles - old Lady Rong. Her decisions harm or unnecessary burden the FL and the tea business she runs, both directly (lets' remember she chose that Wang guy for the FL from the ep 1, and she pushes her to marry the monk with hair instead of respecting the rule of her freedom to marry a person of her choice) and indirectly, by indulging and spoiling other granddaughters and inciting in them feelings of rivalry and jealousy towards the FL, ie. towards the only hardworking breadwinner in the family.

After ep 13, I hope people will realise...

Ok, we can agree on that. It was a pleasure talking to you, lets meet again after a few eps 👍

But why should we agree to disagree if our opinions can converge through the exposition of reasonable arguments/facts to each other and so we can fully agree?😀

I'll immediately agree with one of your arguments. It's a fact that Grandma said "there are other girls in the family to be married" and that "one of them can take over the Shanbao's role" but I think you've misunderstood the meaning of those grandma's words. What grandma's said and implied are two things:
1. the competition is held bc there are also other girls in the family to be married, the competition is the chance also for them to look around for their own prospects and Shanbao has a responsibility to think of her sisters' marriages, not only of her own.
2. Shanbao's role can be taken away from her only if SB BREAKS certain family rule (and in that specific moment, Grandma implied: the rule you cannot break is that you must marry your husband MATRILOCALLY).
What are the rules of the Rong family we know about?
I. The tea business is always run by a female member who
II. Possesses the "tea-bone" (a special gift connected with tea business, the knowledge of sorts, plantations, plant health etc) since the young age
III. That person marries matrilocaly in order to manage the Rong family (beside the tea business), and to pass the family name on her descendants.

Things like "heiress because she is from the main branch, legitimate etc" were never mentioned in this story, all that are suppositions of some viewers (I've also read them) but have nothing to do with the real reason why she already runs the tea business and it was mentioned in the drama that she runs it "since she was a child". We still don't have a clear vision of the reasons for the lack of an entire generation between the grandma and her granddaughters (and I am sure we'll have them in the future eps), but we have a clear vision why Shanbao is running the family business (=her own capability other granddaughters do not have). So, I hope you'll agree she is more of a "general manager" than a "crown princess", while grandma is temporarily in charge of the family, education, respect of rules etc. As this family is actually falling apart - with sisters like that, who'll need enemies? - (and grandma blames a dead person for that, not herself and her incapacity to enforce the rules), is it wrong to see her as a hypocrite? Who failed in all her tasks (while Shanbao succeded in hers) and indirectly undermines Shanabao's authority as a breadwinner of the family.

If I were Shanbao, I'd already married matrilocally someone like Lu and kick them all out of the family, leaving with me the smart Shen cousin and mentally impaired sister and sending the grandma to the tea-plantation so she can grasp the meaning of hard work. Alternatively, I'd marry so. like Lu, take my cousin and dependant sister with me, and start my own tea business, leaving the crazy Rong remnants and the grandma to their schemes and infightings.

There are two things we agree upon: 1. "it s palace intrigue coded" and 2. that "her favoristism" is a trigger for their unruliness.
But I still can't agree with your analysis of their relations and your evaluation of grandma's role bc. your interpretation mixes things which are in the plot with things which are not there at all.
1. Family, especially at the time (when family meant "enlarged family"), is based on sc. "roles and rules". Its members are not "equals", their roles differ, a family is a HIERARCHICAL (not democratical) cluster in order to insure the necessary homogeneity and avoid mess. At the top is always a breadwinner, a person whose work is fundamental for the sustenance of all the members. That breadwinner is not the grandma, it is Shanbao and her role is additionally supported by the (ancient family) rule that the family chief also possesses this mythical tea-bone.
2. Ok, they all know it's a myth, but it isn't a complete invention either: it's only logical that the tea business is run by a person who knows the most about the tea (acquired knowledge). And the FL already proved she knows the most about the tea, they were all unable to distinguish a HQ tea when FL returned home after being kidnapped. Pressing the FL by using this myth again at the tea tree worship ceremony was pure insubordination to the de facto leader/breadwinner (encouraged by the fact grandma will seriously punish only the dumb grandson), they challenge her only bc her role is challangeable until she gets married, not bc. one of them is more capable or can suddenly become a "heiress" (the thing which doesn't exist in this story) taking over the FL's role bc more gifted or capable.
3. Grandma's role is of an elder and the only one in the family, too. She is in charge of the respect of family rules, education and passing on the traditional values. I am sorry you can't see she failed in all these tasks.

You are right, when attacked from the outside, they tend to unite. But being united only when directly attacked is insufficient for a cohesion of such a family and maintenance of their peculiar femminist values.
In their constant challenging FL's authority, they often collude, plot and scheme with the outsiders (they even hired the bandits who abducted the FL intending to sell her), how can they know they won't unintentionally end up in colluding with their family and business enemy?
I agree, it's an exciting drama

the only opinion I can share with you is that the drama reminds us of pallace fighting dramas. Which never end up with bonding ups (except when they unite to take down one of them). They are rivals, they fight until the rival is taken down, period.

That grandma is the opposite of a good educator. The way she burdened the FL with all the business-, family- and household-related problems while inciting the jealousy of other granddaughters with the pretence she is "the apple of her eyes" making them think FL's authority is undeserved is disgusting, not only hypocritical.
She always has justifications for her (in)decisions and overall inaction. In her view, FL isn't burdened bc she's doing nothing as an old matron, but bc FL's "useless mother passed away leaving a mess to her daughter". Weird, and were was she to help her clean the mess? Instead of punishing or even casting out disloyal members of the family, she pours oil into the fire by spoiling them and even supporting them in their mischieves as to "toughen" the FL. Oh, right, she has chosen an "ideal husband" to help her, "a monk with hair" as one of them called him, a person who prefers to observe things from a side than to intervene directly, as in a Chinese proverb "just sit patiently by the river, sooner or later you'll see your enemy's corpse floating". Great help indeed.
Besides, Shanbao is already a matron of that family, having a tea-bone (and it doesn't matter if this talent is innate or acquired through learning) and being de facto in charge of the family and family business. Instead of behaving like a "retired elder" who supports the chief's authority against all the odds, she is often there to undermine her authority.