absurd

Wow, literally every single older female character in this drama is a b**ch. Mom takes the cake, though. I really hope they are not going to turn this in moms favor, because this is the worst parenting I've seen in a c-drama so far: abandon your kid and then come back 15 years too late and try to force her into your image of ideal daughter. Way to go mom. Just tie her to a chair and thump her on the head with the book, that will probably have the same results for less effort.
The drama is interesting to watch, but I am kind of tired of all the wailing. Is it going to go on for long? Every single episode so far, someone is loudly crying crocodile tears for at last five minutes. My head hurts.

I'll definitely give it a try, but lately I can't finish anything, even if it's interesting. At about 20 episodes I just stop watching and can't make myself start again.

I really did not expect it to start out as it did, the poster was so cheesy romantic and there's so much comedy from the get go LOL I am kind of interested now, wasn't really planning to watch this (and no I did not watch any trailer or read the description, descriptions on this site are either spoilery or have nothing to do with the actual drama)

There's a matter of FL though, in YGY FL is by far much less popular than XZ, so they accommodated that. In case of Liu Yifei it's not so straightforward, she does have an American movie under her belt, so with FL centered plot and her as FL, XZ participation seems less likely

There are no dates for both of those, though. 2022 is not a date, it can be anywhere from tomorrow to 31 of December, so I'm assuming the site just doesn't treat those like "upcoming". Also c-dramas get postponed a lot, so as one of the modes once told me, an announcement that something will be aired "this year" doesn't mean anything until there's an actual date

I saw that first one, it was all over weibo yesterday, I think. Not very incensed about it, tbh. Don't get me wrong, Liu Yifei is a great actress (A dream of splendor is actually really good, and there's obviously Mulan in her portfolio), but... omg, that's gonna sound really weird, but hear me out... I think, he's a little too thin for her...? Like she looks fantastic, but more in a "fit girl" type, rather than the "thin waif" type that China favors. Where XZ is a bit on the thinner side, though it does seem like he's been trying to bulk a little lately. Idk, I just feel like it's gonna look weird if ML has a smaller waist size than FL.

So, true! Even 40 episode dramas usually get about 10 episodes of filler nonsense in the middle, before they move on to the finish line. I'd also much prefer the drama to be dynamic and fast paced. But like you said there was no official number given and 50 eps is just the usual number that's given to any drama when it's added here.

Any drama can have a last minute delay, I don't think there's anything special about XZ's dramas in that regard.
Idk about the govt thing, but if that's true then I doubt there will be any delay, unless something happens with one of the actors or important crew members (like director or writer)

I am also weirdly happy about the fact that Shi Ying is not the goody-two-shoes that was presented in the first trailer. Yay for dubious morals, a little bit of insanity and some ruthlessness in there

Well, I'm not that dramatic, even for the actor, though I'm barely older than him. But that was a really good expression there. Idk, it made such an impression on me, it was so sad and in the same time a little... creepy? Like the character is not entirely sane at this point. Such good acting, really.

Well, he might still film at last one more drama this year. It might be two (if we say one drama is 3 months of filming), but that might be pushing it into workaholic area a little too much, considering he has other obligations like theater and such.

I am honestly surprised though, even if it is like December 2022, that's still very optimistic for a c-drama. Seems like they're feeling very confident about censorship review.

Wow, the last part of the trailer killed me. His expression... I really wanted to hug him and tell him, that "yes, I will be very sad".
It all looks so good, though tbh I am not a big fan of those "drive her away to protect her" type of scenarios. It all depends on how exactly they play it out, so far XZ never led me astray with his choice of characters.

Wait... they are planning to release this in 2022? What are we gonna do next year then?

Idk about big projects, TLP seems like a pretty big one as far as drama world is concerned it could get. But, with my conservative thinking, I would like him to have more movie projects. Maybe it's an outdated view, but movies just seem bigger somehow. Yes, dramas can also go international (as XZ's dramas proved again and again), but it's still a limited audience of those who are interested in this type of genre. While movies, especially if they are not culture specific, like xianxia, can really go international and have wider audience. It's also a shorter production and sometimes faster results.
All of that being said, if he only wants to take passion projects, while making money on endorsements, it's his right. He is already a big enough star, to pretty much do what he wants.
He's also big enough to make any production a big project.

Gotta say, that set looks expeeeensive! So nice when it's not just the acting, that you can look forward to, but also a good production.

TV version had 32 shorter episodes

tbh, I kind of skipped most of their scenes and it didn't take away from the plot or make me miss any important info. There are some fun parts, but mostly she just strings him along and he seems to follow because it's a challenge

I got the impression that it was gambling., but tbh I was not paying a lot of attention when Gu Xiao was on the screen

Yes, there's not much of anything going on, except slow relationship development :)

I thought "You are my glory" was pretty realistic, if you haven't seen it.