Krish728

You are grasping at straws here. There is no interpretation issue here, the issue here is that you seem to have missed a lot of what actually transpired and are making up your own assumptions of the situation to defend your perspective, which is sad. Cause I have been there before, and I know the feeling. Please go back and re-watch all Gu family related scenes, you see for it yourself.

You also seem to have missed the conversation between Miss Gu and her maid where her maid would say something to the effect like, "Miss, it seems like master cares for you." But Miss Gu replies with something to the effect of, "It's only because he discovered that I'm intelligent."

You know, if you go back read your replies, you would know why you gave that impression. You yourself admitted that you misunderstood that Miss Gu is the only daughter. You also seem to not know how she ended up in that ancestral home. You seem to not know a lot about their situation yet are so sure about the father-daughter feelings. Makes one wonder.

Sure. It tells when you dismissed my first point as irrelevant and provided a lame argument to defend your position on my second point.

I'll take my leave now. 👋

I made my case in the reply I just posted. I will not further respond to you on this topic, because it seems you fast forwarded a few scenes or maybe you are conveniently ignoring them.

Uff.. I don't have the patience to explain the whole damn plot, I'll just give you two examples, which I already gave you, but you seem to be ignoring them since they don't fit your narrative.

1. Miss Gu was often bullied by her older sisters and then sent to the Gu family's ancestral home to pray. This was basically a banishment. Do you think her father didn't know? He did. The first time Miss Gu and her father meet and talk to each other in the drama, her father says to her in a round about way, he didn't know he had such an intelligent daughter before. Otherwise he wouldn't send her to the ancestral home.

2. After their plot was discovered by Li Ni, Gu father made no move to get his daughter out of the eastern palace. Forget that, he made no move to even inform her about the situation. And so, Miss Gu had no idea of it all when she confronted Li Ni -- she could have been killed on spot. Lol.
What's more, Gu father, to save his own skin, is convicting Li Ni as a rebel. You know what happens to a rebel and his family? Everyone gets publicly executed, which includes his daughter.

No, by pretense, I meant to speak with their guard up. If they aren't against outsiders, they are guarding against each other.

When it was on air, I also didn't pay much attention to Miss Gu storyline, so I missed the part about her situation in her family. Only in my rewatch did I catch on to this.

Still, when it was on air, I could tell that Minister Gu and Miss Gu are only using each other for their own goals. Perhaps because I have read too many novels set in ancient china, or watched too many dramas set in ancient china, but when two people talk behind closed doors, they can shed all pretense and be themselves. Like FL and her father. If they are still keeping up their pretense up, like Miss Gu and her father, then I'm sorry to inform you, that is not how a real father and daughter would interact.

I guess, I should have put quote marks for "care", because it really wasn't "care". Sorry for my oversight. But you get my point.
He may feel pride, but not fatherly love.

It looks like you have really misunderstood this Minister Gu character lol. Sending in as the concubine could make Miss Gu's life miserable, and it did. No matter how much power Minister Gu has in the court, he can't extend his influence to the Eastern Palace to protect his daughter. He is basically letting her into a tiger's den. Thus, there's a significant distinction between sending her in as the Crown Princess and as a mere concubine.

I sincerely suggest you rewatch their scenes. Compare them with the scenes between FL and her father.

I also don't get where you watched these scenes where he attempted to "discourage" her. I do remember him asking her to be cautious, or educate her of some dangers. All this could not be construed as a father's care, instead it was him being cautious to not get caught if something goes awry.

No loving father, after knowing that their schemes were discovered, would not leave his daughter to her own devices. He didn't even inform his daughter that they had been exposed.

Yes, the Gu family had other daughters too. They were not shown, probably cut. But there were a few mentions of them. Like how some of them bullied her and got her sent to the Gu family's ancestral home to pray or something... this was basically banishment. And this was where she meets the ML for the first time.

Oh, no. It wasn't me who posted this on YouTube. I posted this link here on MDL before, hence my comment.

Minister Gu is always in it for himself. He didn't care for his daughter's life. If he really did care, he wouldn't scheme to send her in as a concubine. He liked the idea she pitched to him, so he schemed to make it happen.

It was mentioned in the first few episodes when the Gu girl was introduced. She's the 6th young mistress, if I'm not wrong. And Minister Gu only cared for her because she was intelligent and resourceful.

Yes, I agree that she was a quite well-written villain. The actress who played her also did a wonderful job. I even mentioned in my observations after my rewatch that the actress gave the most low-key best acting performance.

Oh, I'm not saying that the Gu girl won't try to harm the FL if she had the abilities.
The point I am trying to make is, the Gu girl can't touch the FL with her own abilities.

Yes, but we all know that it was ultimately Minister Gu running the show behind the scenes. Gu girl enticed him with "future emperor's father-in-law", and he started to scheme for it himself. The Gu girl passes him some information and he does the rest for his own goal.

I'm confused. I don't think the Gu girl ever tried to hurt the FL, directly or indirectly.

The treason thing was arranged by her father. Her father has his own motivations to do so; he did not do it for the sake of his daughter.
The aphrodisiac thing was arranged by her mother; the Gu girl even warned her maid to not use this method, as it would drive the ML further away from her. But her maid used it anyway, and the Gu girl even confronted her maid... saying that she ruined everything. This then prompted her to talk with her father, who then planned to kill the FL.

Imagine living as a shadow of a girl you like. Imagine that the only way out of the tricky situation you both are in (at least from his pov, where he is acting as her, and it would only make sense if they are married to each other) is to marry each other. Imagine suddenly someone else coming over and snatching the girl you like. All the certainty you had before is gone just like that... poof, and then you almost die saving the girl... then come back to see the girl getting confessed to by your rival while the girl is smiling like a silly fool. Add in a bit of obsession in all this, wrap it all up, and you have your answer.

I agree that LCF is the weakest character in the story, but I still understood where he is coming from. I'm also sure that a lot of scenes involving LCF were cut -- if you are not aware, this drama was originally filmed to air 50 episodes. Then new regulations had it cut down 10 episodes worth of content and only release 40 episodes. Why I'm sure a lot of scenes involving LCF were cut, you say? If you are familiar with this author/screenwriter, you will know that this author/screenwriter never wrote a character this shallow.

Here's a full album link I posted before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taniCra8HrM

00:25:49 8. 牢兰河水十八湾 - 陈雪燃 --- This will be the song