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Yup, but for someone like DCQ, being the little light for a small chance of having a legacy in the future would feel unfair to her. Her whole argument too about how as a wife, her merits would become her husband's merits to climb higher up in the court while it won't reflect on her status as much.

She is in too deep at this point. 😞 I still don't think it was the best example as it was still "after death". Had Huang Daopo been a man, with her inventions/techniques, she did have been granted a title or awarded with money when she was still alive. Throughout history, there were many women who made contributions to science, medicine, etc. but their credits were taken by men, credits erased, etc.

Huang Daopo happened to be someone who was remembered by her community and her legacy was then passed down from generation to generation. But so many more women who had contributed something will never get their legacy honored like her. Say Du Cuique tried and her talent led to some creation, it can't be guaranteed that she would be acknowledged the same way as men even after her death. Within this drama verse, there probably /isn't/ an example of a woman who is alive and properly acknowledged for her merits in politics, medicines, etc.

If Du Cuique was the MC of her own drama, potentially her storyline would be becoming the first/highest ranked female official. But as she is not, her storyline is set up for tragedy.

This entire scene is definitely meant to lead to conversations and debates because I see comments on C-platforms about this too. 👀

No haha, the part with the gun is wayyyy later in the drama.

Yes, Du Cuique poisoned the water used for bathing and caused people in the Lin Residence to become sick. Episode 18 was her being fully exposed for this and there is a whole excellent scene of the aftermath and her motives.

Lanxiang used the example of Huang Daopo to try to prove Du Cuique was wrong but I don't totally agree with Lanxiang on this part. I have to think about it a bit more to gather my thoughts but her example was a very "god's eye view" when Du Cuique is someone who wants her merits to be acknowledged NOW in her lifetime like the men, and not someone to be appreciated fully after death.

That entire scene in episode 18 with Du Cuique, First Madam, and Lanxiang was excellent. If Du Cuique met someone like Lanxiang when she was younger, perhaps her beliefs would not have spiral to this degree. I got chills when she laughed and said she pitied everyone during her debate with First Madam over women's roles and marriage. Her worst punishment really is staying alive at this point.

First Madam does trust Lanxiang due to Jinqi trusting her so much. But according to some drama spoilers I saw, First Madam wasn't entirely happy after the marriage and it took her awhile to accept Lanxiang.

No, Nanke is paired with Xiaolian. Gantang ends up with Xiaolian's brother.

Haha, First Madam did go down the list of everyone in Lin family being not ready for the job, even she knows. 😂 Lin Jinlan would be the most qualified without Lin Jinqi around but the man has a heart condition and can't handle the stress. Everyone else is either timid, indecisive, still childish, etc.

Lingdang is Du Cuique's personal servant who came with her when she first arrived to the Lin residence.

The Nanke jumpscare(S). 💀 Almost let out a scream.

I didn't see any spoilers about who die/didn't die but yeah, it was from poisoning.

You welcome! 😊

Great writing from the drama itself! All the characters are so layered. None of the women were truly fighting over these men. They are instead envious, understood marriage was one of the few options they had, and even resent the position they were born into.

I can't confirm this yet but supposedly Du Cuique poisoned the water used for bathing. Lanxiang was fine because she didn't end up using that specific water to bathe.

Some of these are from the actual bullet comments on the episodes on Tencent! There are a lot on XiaoHongShu if you use that platform. This drama is being discussed a lot on there and everyone is really funny about it.

Definitely!

He is thinking Lanxiang wants to get closer to him. 😭

To give context to Du Cuique's monologue in episode 12:

"I was thinking of a story. There was a line in it, 'This man is like a swift falcon. If one strike is missed, he soars away without looking back.' I long to be like that, but all I can do is long for it."

The line she mentioned was from the Tang Dynasty classical short story called "Nie Yinniang". The literal translation:

"This man is like a swift falcon. If one strike is missed, he instantly and elegantly soars far away, shamed by his failure; before a single night watch is over, he has already traveled a thousand miles."

In the story, Nie Yinniang said these lines to warn her master about the assassin Kongkong'er. He was an assassin who strikes only once, if he does not succeed on the first try, his pride causes him to immediately withdraw without attempting a second time.

In the context of Du Cuique, it has two meaning. On the surface, it seems to be about Lin Jinqi being a falcon who flies away if the first strike is missed. Her attempt failed so she lost Lin Jinqi forever (now Lin Jinqi is suspicious of her and the chance of marriage with him is zero).

The deeper meaning is her longing to be someone like Kongkong'er who can just fly off when he fails on the first try. She wants to be as free-spirited and carefree as him. Her skill and pride are as strong as Kongkong'er so she would just want to give up too after the first failure. But unlike him, she is a woman and trapped. Her status and what the Du siblings have been doing doesn't allow them to just stop after the first missed shot (they already took the wrong path and have to keep going). There is a sense of resentment that she has to use these methods to get what she wants.

Edit to add: She wants to /be/ the falcon. She wants to be so high up that she can move on from a prey after one failure to the next. A falcon is so high up in the food chain that it can always aim for another prey. But she isn't a falcon so can only keep on pecking one prey over and over again to hopefully "win" because the Lin family was her only chance.

Some funny comments I am reading from C-netz (Lin Jinqi getting slandered left and right jokingly) 😭:

"He (Jinqi) is dating alone and never informed Lanxiang"
"He (Jinqi) doesn't need hot water; he is heating up himself"
"He (Jinqi) probably thinks Lanxiang wants to save up her rewards to marry him"
"Lin Jinqi is on a dating show, Xu Lanxiang is on a workplace survival show"
"Lin Jinqi is in a situationship alone"