Amarina

"Special" is usually given to things like "extra episodes" of dramas where they have their own page but aren't counted in your end of the year statistics.
Specifically for this director this is the second time that this site has decided to lump two of her unrelated shows together as one "drama" and then list the two shows out individually as "specials" instead.
The first were Rainkissed Fate and The Gold Behind The Stone being listed together as Jin Sheng Yu Ni.
Now there is this one and a as yet still unreleased on under Liang Ge Xing Yue.

Yes, she was sucked into the book and 'forced' to live out that life but as you mentioned she kept hearing the heartbeat. Before she died as the old woman she ended up waking up realizing the world wasn't real it made her thrust out of the book and back into "reality" but it was also another slightly altered one of 5 years in the future where some of the dead were alive again(they'dalready changed things a couple times after all). When she ran to go find him THAT'S when the last bit made sense that he had picked up the book after she had disappeared and knew she'd gone into it so he had held it close hoping she would know he was there and she wasn't alone and would one day make her way back to him like she did when she had died when he was a child and that time there was the several month time skip. It was absolutely a happy ending 😅.

Oh that one was rather fun 🤣

What do you mean? There's 2 episodes tomorrow and then it will go to a 1 ep a day schedule.

I've been thinking the same that a rewatch would have a ton of clues once the end is revealed similar to rewatches of Love Game in Eastern Fantasy did

Nan Heng actually says a line about "who's to say that your world isn't ALSO a storybook" so....

So once again this Director's works are being listed as a "Special" instead of as a "Drama" 🤡.

That would be because this is a "power-leveling" show. The only "obsticles" that get thrown at him are seen as low-level clowns who just "don't understand his brilliance/power" and he only uses them in order to "gain a level".

It's a "quasi"-harem. Basically there will be multiple women who like or don't like the ML but he will only "actually" like one (Jiang Yun 99.9% sure). At the same time though this isn't a "romance" so their relationship isn't a focus of the show, his business and "power-leveling" is.

For REAL, I remember trying to wrack my brain to figure out how they were going to do the brother-in-law scene and had a few theories in mind and ALL were wrong 🤣

14 episodes in and I'm still liking it 😅 It's such an easy watch if you turn your brain off and accept what's on screen is some alternate reality and not real life. So far it's giving me the romance AND the propaganda/proud patriotism I was expecting 👍

The underlying story actually is sort of interesting to me it's just the EVERYTHING else 🤣 So I am just speeding it up and Watching them move around fast while reading basically 🤡

Honestly I approve this message 🥲 - It's making my brain rot and I refuse to even put it on my CW in case I just can't finish it and need to amnesia the experience.

Not really... there is a bit of a female harem hinted to like the ML but none of the show is focused on romance.

I did. It's "essentially" no romance through ep 14. Basically I say essentially because this is more a male-oriented show than a female oriented show I'd assume and so they are hinting at a small harem who like HIM.
FL is.... "quirky" and considers him her husband and has been tasked to protect him, 2FL is a police officer, 3rd has barely had screentime but seems to have been forced to be someone's wife... But none if THAT is the actual plot, it's just sort of background.
Biggest deterrent is it is VERY cringey, especially in the beginning. Essentially all male-power minis are but perhaps it's because I was thinking this might be more in line with Yan Zi Xian doing Stange Notes anthology so "I" had unrealistic expectations.
They even have him with a signature no shirt scene in ep 2 still 🥲🙃.

Clear-headed unemotional FL scheming her way up in a harem. ML is besotted with FL and is the only one to show actual romantic thoughts/emotions. Harem scheming is low-stakes for most part but does involve children taken from birth mother and talk of child death.

Overall though rather funny and cute. Very coherent plot that if anything makes you want to know some of the stories of some of the side concubines/consorts.

It's funny, I wrote almost the exact same thing earlier today when I was ranting about the bullet comments and how a lot of them are consistently bashing the FL. Because yes, while I feel the same and want to throw my phone sometimes at her 😅 I also feel it is for a POINT that she is THIS dumb, THIS stubborn, THIS everything.
She has had her prejudice and bias pointed out and thrown back in her face multiple times by now which proves she doesn't see the characters as real people who can do anything on their own.

What has always gotten me though is this strange fixation she has that one one hand she CAN change the script if she tries hard enough, while ALSO feeling like no matter what happens she CAN'T change the script and Nan Heng IS bad and will always BE bad and nothing SHE might do could possibly change THAT fact 🤡🤣

Literally the only reason I'm even considering starting this 😅

This jumps around a LOT which hampered my enjoyment of an otherwise enjoyable CP.

Yes/no, she had a lot of her power removed but she still held all her official prestige Empress and her last scene was her basically satisfied that "at least" the Emperor is still coming to her to ask her opinion on matters so she'll have that.