AleksandraSucur

the fake restaurant poisoning is in chapter 46

Nope. The closure of the restaurant (ep 15) is treated in chapter 46, so we are about to reach the first third of the novel.

It was.
Lets make the maths shorter. 1000 taels were equivalent to 40 kg of silver (that's heavy even to carry, lol). 1kg silver bar today costs 2.500-3.000 euro (or USD). 3.000x40= 120K euro. Per day. And he wanted to rent it for many days, lol.
I actually wonder where his money comes from. He certainly needed a huge amount of money to buy 200K picul of grain, at least 360K taels (with shorter math method, it is 14.4 million USD) to provoke the shortage.

you're totally right about the spending habits of the time 👍

LOL 😂
Great remark, very well for the comparison.
In the Song dynasty, the most well paid officials (beside ministers) were county magistrates, particularly those managing over 10,000 households (it means the capital and maybe two or three other counties), typically held a salary rank of 600 to 1,000 dan of grain.
Silicon Valley engineers still must catch up 😂 (I'm laughing but hope not), especially bc the Gini index between poor and rich in those times was unimaginable for us today. When I look US or Chinese Gini, from Europe, I always feel uncomfortable but in the past... the gap was horrible

you're welcome! 😅

I'd like to offer some service information.
The setting of this drama (official uniforms, dresses etc) is likely to be the Song dynasty. Many commentators were ready to "rent" FCY's husband for 30 taels of silver (liǎng) per day. But how worthy were these 30 taels? With such an offer, if I were FCY, I'd certainly stop to slaughter pigs and start to rent my husband for a month trying to earn 1K of taels. How much was that?
AI response:
"1,000 taels of silver in the Song Dynasty, where one tael (liǎng) weighed approximately 37–40 grams, represented a massive fortune, roughly equivalent to 1,000,000–2,000,000 copper coins (wén). This amount could potentially buy over 500–1,000 dan of rice or sustain a comfortable upper-class lifestyle for decades."
This reasoning stands also for the rent of the QQ's restaurant for 100 tales a day. It means: more than 7K USD a day.
FCY's husband was "rented" for 2,5K a day. I think I can't afford him 😁

Measily? In Song dynasty (the setting is inspired by the Song period), with 100 taels of silver (liǎng) you could have buy 54 dan (or picul, the term used in translation of this drama) of rice (the cost of rice in Song was 1,84 silver taels x dan). Each dan/picul is approximately = 60 kg. 60 kg x 54 = 3,240 kg of rice.

Even today, with the extensive rice/grain cultivation methods (ie. with lower prices compared to the Song period times), the prices of rice are the following: $2.22 per kg globally (Dec 2025 data), ranging from $0.61 in Bangladesh to $5.46 in Japan. These more than 3 tons of rice would cost 1,976.4 USD in Bangladesh, 7,192.8 USD globally and 17,690.4 in Japan.

So, lets' be real but for real 😁. Her restaurant is nice and sophisticated but it is located in the periphery of the empire, close to the rebelled war zone, not in the capital. Renting it for 7 thousand bucks (I won't go to Japan's prices but must remind you that the Song dynasty had the highest GDP of the world at the time, as well as the highest GDP/ppp among all Chinese dynasties, so the price of this rent is more realistically well above 10K USD per day) is a deal. No way she can earn that money in a day with restaurant sales.

I was surprised when discovered it was actually well-written, that's why I've returned to read it (not every chapter but enough to know the trajectory of the plot).
I'm usually either horrified with how badly these original works are written or (less often) how they are both badly written and even worse transposed. Very rarely I think "how this drama managed to destroy such a good story".
This drama turns to be the rarest case, an exception to all those cases, as both the novel and the drama are well done in terms of narrative, actions and dialogues (and performances, too, if we talk about the drama).

An added value to the fictional subjects it treats is in a rare balance this story achieves in various aspects (eg. there's a costant emotional balance between the leads in complementing each other) using (but never over-using) subtle details (eg. the cost of products, it gives us exact measures of tangible things which gives sense of realism to the setting; it conveys taste and smells, we know what they eat and how they live) and a dosed humour, people's vibing when they are happy, sad or scared... practically everything is well thought and balanced. And neither the political plot nor the akward second couple relation is overboard, the story simply... flows. I am still surprised, that's maybe why I'm not scared to read the novel and feel content the creators of the drama decided to go along with the original storyline. The high rating is deserved and I expect it'll go even higher.

I'm reading chapter 46 to spoil myself what's gonna happen in tomorrow's eps

You're right. I've read the chapter with that specific scene with Mme Song and was indeed more impactful in the novel how Qianqian turned the table against her and shamed her in front of the city ladies (who then turned against her and later commented the jade bracelet she wore was junk and that she had no taste at all).
I also agree with your other points

XZ knows that a merchant from the capital surnamed Qi bought 200.000 piculs of grain from the merchants in this region draining local reserves just before extra tax in grain started to be enforced.
Qianqian told XZ that the person who harasses is a certain Qi who trades in grain. XZ doesn't know Qi is a prince but can guess this Qi is a powerful player connecting the dots.
XZ opened the grain (and the exact quantity) issue intentionally. It was equal to say: look, I know what you're after.
And, as Qi sent the other merchant to XZ's house, they've let know to him: look, we know who are you and are willing to involve you in our scheme (which aims to bring down Wei's arrogant son: by subtracting the grain from the markets while the grain is simultanuosly forcefully collected by peasants, people will start to riot and the responsibility will fall on Weis).

And how she cried for her falcon and was all happy when he returned! Pure sweetness (and fun for us, ofc)

Where did they find such an adorable little girl able to act so convincingly at such a tender age? I am melting every time I see this cuttie. ❤️

I'd like to adopt that white falcon. Poor creature, everybody is bullying him.

1. The face swap was known only to the strategist Yu and Nie Zhe, after they've captured Qian Xueshen (the swapper expert) and forced him to swap the sect's people with their own.
2. Not only this entire "infiltration operation" was unknown to the Man in Black, Nie Zhe and his strategist have never known the real identity of the Man in Black. That's why they've decided to swap even Qi Yunke with Qiu Renjie (who then stayed in seclusion all the time as not to reveal anything, awaiting the moment to inact his revenge and reveal Yin Dai's schemes against him)
3. Many people were probably confused by the fact one hooded man appeared at the moment MQY and CZ knocked out persons who detained Qian Xueshen when they found the abducted Fan Xingjia (the herb guy among the disciples). But THAT hooded man wasn't the sect leader QY but the Strategist (his upper part of the face was recognisible, but exposed briefly so maybe haven't noticed or paid sufficient attention).

Not only Nie Zhe but many person from the "righteous" sects follows the orders of the Man in Black - when he appears - but they are also free to make schemes on their own when he isn't around. They all follow his "orders" bc what he proposes to them are plans in their interest.

🫶

She cannot show her feelings, bc she doesn't know if she should take his words seriously or not. Does he show his true feelings or is he just showing off in order to have her by his side and have her help to find the Jade Sunflower (as he used her before to infiltrate her sect and later to dethrone Nie Zhe)? He often uses deception and schemes while she often sees through them, but must continously be on alert and is never sure about his true intentions.
They apparently share the same goals (Jade Sunflower, revenge chief Chang's death, finding out the Man in Black...) and have built sufficient trust in matter of actions to take to achieve them, but there's a great uncertainty if that trust is sufficient for circumstances in which their goals are different. They already have divergencies of opinions about her shifu.

Face swapping was planned by Nie Zhe's strategist. The man in black was unaware of this operation.

Yes, thank you, I've noticed and corrected it.
I've somehow managed to finish Whispers of Fate but it wasn't easy, actually. The change of her character/role in it would hardly be delivered well even by more experienced actresses and this one is only 23 now, how could she have played and inconsistently written character?