Alysha Johnson

I will try to give you some background without spoiling too much. I think some info is best learn as the drama progress, otherwise all the fun is gone.

Qian Xuan - FL's cousin. In the drama, they changed FL's mother to a disciple so now they are not blood related anymore. His grandma is the queen, his dad is the oldest son and legitimate heir to the throne. His grandma have three sons but he's the only descendent left. His grandma is from one of the four major clan described above. Since his grandma, mom, dad, and uncles all died, he was sent to the rival kingdom as a "hostage" prince. He have other "uncles" that is from other consorts (not his grandma who is the queen) who wanted his life. Hence he was sent away. The kingdom he was sent to is the FL's father kingdom, where she is the princess.

Ye Shi Qi - already explained above.
Xiang Liu - is a 9 head demons. He was saved by a Chenrong general. Chenrong is the defeated kingdom so now they have a rogue army of soldiers who still dream of one day reclaiming their land. Because of loyalty to the general, Xiang Liu took an oath to continue leading this army.

FL - A bit complicated - not sure how I can tell without spoiling too much. Her dad is the king of the rival kingdom. But her mom is the princess (now adopted daughter) of the other kingdom. When she was young, she snuck out and got lost. There was a nasty rumors going around - you will find out later. Her dad tried to find her by offering a lot of money but that ends up backfired because people want to capture her instead so she hid deep in the mountain. There was also rumors that her blood is valuable so demons wanted to eat her. There was also other reasons why she can't come home, so she wander around and ran into some very unfortunate events - you will find out later what it is. She has a special artifact in her forehead that allow her to change her identify without others being to tell that she's using magic. To escape, she frequently change her face until one day she can no longer remember her own face. She felt like she lost her own identity that even if she come home, nobody will recognize and accept her. And because her dad already divorce her mom, she thought he wouldn't want her either. So she wander the world.

In the book, TSJ is technically the first one she met. The childhood part is from the previous book. They are cousins in the book, and the childhood part was told in a more "family/tragedy" perspective. It is not a backstory for romance.

the one she picked up as a beggar.

please put your comment in spoiler if you can.
Sorry I read it a long time ago so my details may be off. Dengwei was betroth to a woman from one of the smaller clan. They never met. The day before they were suppose to get married, the twin brother used that as an opportunity to abduct Dengwei.

I was looking forward to this but was wary as well because a lot of time the adaptation always disappointed. But to my surprised, the first four episodes are really good.
1, I'm glad they stuck very close to the book. Events and characterization are very close. I'm glad they DID NOT good-wash Xiang Liu. He's a very ruthless, but complicated character. And that is very needed to understand the FL thought process.
2. I like how they dressed - shabbily because they're poor. The only one dressing "rich" is the princess, which is befitting of both her status and attitude. The Xiang Liu actor really suit the silver hair. He looks A LOT better on screen than the pictures released so far.
3. Pacing - so far is great. It cover a lot but was neither rushed or draggy. They kept all the important scenes, dialogues, so we can understand each character's personal thought.
This FL is not the usual naive, carefree FL, even when she ACT that way. A lot of time we can't tell that so I'm glad they kept some of her dialogues and inner monologues for us to understand her.
4. The sets are very pretty - especially the town. It look quite rustic, and not the usual human-town that we seen in other series.
5. This might be nitpicking, but I'm really happy with how they did the make-up effect on Ye Shi Qi in the beginning. I was worried they do the usual light smudging on dirt on the face. But they went to town with his scars, rotting skin, swollen eyes and everything.

He have an older twin brother who abducted him before a big day and tortured him for several years, before throwing him out. His older twin is actually born from his father mistress that no one knew about. Since both babies were born close together, his grandma lie to the world that they are twins. His mother never truly accepted this so she always favored her own son and was cold toward the twin brother. He was the older twin yet he grew up under Deng Wei shadow, who everyone love and admire more. He tried all his life for his mother's approval and affection, only to later learn she's not his real mother. But by then she's already dead. So he put all his hatred and blame on Deng Wei instead. Although being the older son, he supposed to be the heir but Grandma raised Deng Wei as the legitimate heir instead. This caused the twin brother even more grudges. Until the day Deng Wei was about to get married, he abducted Deng Wei to take out all his hatred.

If you read this story from a romance perspective, TSJ is the real male lead. He was the first one that FL met in the beginning. You can imagine reading a romance story within a bigger power struggle story. In THAT story, QX is the male lead. He live for power and he got it. TSJ live for the romance, so he got the FL. He's the walking green flag in this story. The second ML for the romance is actually Xiang Liu.

In the novel - Yes. In the drama - No.
The mother is the disciple to the Queen that died. And when the stone storyteller retold the story, he specifically said the queen had 3 sons and 1 disciple.

Because Xiang Liu never chose her. He love her but he always chose mission BEFORE her. They both knew it, and XL never pursue her outright.
Why does it bother you she'll end up with Tu Shan Jing?

yes

they do not fight each other for her affection. only one person actually pursue her as a romantic interest. the other kept their distance. they each have their own story/ personal problem they are fighting for themselves. the fourth person in the drama just see her as a platonic friend, not sure how that's going to change in the drama. Due to circumstances they got engaged. But he made it pretty clear he doesn't love her that way, although he admires and respect her.

Edit: I think they are aware of each other existence, but does nothing to stop one another.

i rmb from the book he wasn't really into her romantically, just platonically. seem like they might change it here in the drama?

4 men? I only remember three from the book. Who's the fourth one in the drama?

Tu Shan Jing
Legitimate heir to the Tu Shan Clan, one of the big 4 major clan. However, Tu Shan clan is the biggest. Their big advantage is being super rich, having business all over the world. However, unlike the other three clans, they are also the anti-political. They stayed out of power struggle and strictly just do business. Tu Shan clan is also descendent of the fox clan.

In maybe episode 10, the marquis said that butterfly slave can remember their past before they were turned. But if they don't, that means they're something else. Secondly, they also said that the curse can be dormant many years before being awakened. But QY also said she killed the people (?) but not the civilians of the town when she and CF first met. So at that point, she already have the power of the butterfly, aka, the power is already awakened. So how come it was dormant for five years?

In the first scene when the butterfly attacked, they dropped a bottle of blood, I'm guessing it's the Kirin blood. And that's what triggered the butterfly to go out of control, but it didn't trigger QY. However, unlike them, QY was also able to choose to be dormant until she needs to draw her power to go against the butterfly. And now she's also pregnant. We knew ofc being the FL, QY will be special. But I think instead of being cursed/turn like the other butterfly, she was born with it. The same way the princess was born with Kirin blood for her Jing kingdom. Maybe QY is the princess (or some important figure) of the Yilan tribe where they draw their curse from. (We still don't know yet how Yilan even activate/use this curse) So QY may be the clue. She can be both the origin, and the solution to this curse. Just my thoughts.

I think that the only thing putting them off guard right now about QY is that she's pregnant. And as far as they know about butterfly slave, they are incapable of being pregnant.

I think he will draw the curse to the baby, then draw from the baby to him. Because technically, he's the baby blood relative, and you can do that only to blood relative. Remember in ep 12, he told his guard to kill him if he ever turn into these butterfly slave. I think he is already thinking/accepting this as an alternative to save both his wife and the baby. I think this is very in-line with his personality. To protect and sacrifice for the ones he love.

wow I never make the connection with the bells. Good point! I think it will definitely mean something, or maybe it's just a thematic theme/point from the director?

I wonder what it stand for. In the dream version, Chang Feng picked out that hairpin for her. In the reality version, he picked it for her but she didn't take it. However, when the butterfly slave attacked her, she has the exact same hairpin in her hair. Then when they fought, the hairpin was seen dropped on the ground. In the dream version, the butterfly slave did not have the hairpin. I wonder if there's any significance for that. Why would the butterfly slave even pick that hairpin to put in her hair in the first place?
In the dream version, she attacked Chang Feng right when he got to her. In the reality version, she didn't attack him until after she died. So for her to turn, she must first died. I wonder if in the dream version, she tried to hold on as long as she can but couldn't and unfortunately died. Whereas in the reality version, the hairpin act like a reminder for her that she died earlier so she ignited her power earlier. That's my guess.

the hairpin in episode 1