That scene was so painfully domestic. They really nailed the body language. I have seen married couples do the…
The way he was cooking and casually looking up to see what she wanted to show him. The teasing. The promising not to laugh and then immediately laughing. The way she pretends to relent and then sneak attacks. How painfully amused he was and just letting himself laugh at her nonsense. The fighting over the object. "It's cute." "It's ugly." "It's cute." "It's ugly." "It's cute." "It's ugly." They nailed this scene!
Ep 5: that is supposed to be aphrodisiac incense, right? why she didn't even think something must not be right…
My two in-universe answers are eunuchs can still have sex and have sexual impulses, but less frequently and less strongly. I say this because in that same episode they staged an illicit coupling between Eunuch Yan and that handmaiden. I have no idea if this is accurate, but this seems to be the in-universe logic. My 2nd in-universe answer is the FL does not seem to understand which incense it is or the effect it is having on him. "If you were not going to die, I would never use that method." So, I guess she thinks it is causing cardiac arrhythmias or respiratory problems?
He has the kite delivered to her. She thinks it is from Fu and throws it out. He hears she threw it out through his spy-whisper network and stands her up at the gate on the 15th. Despite this he still comes to save her when she straight-out murders the pagoda's head eunuch. She is hurt and evasive, he is angry and passive-aggressively defensive.
The miscommunication is revealed; it is ultimately a good thing because they both realize they should trust each other, even when the 'evidence' says otherwise and then they have their 'day date'. (Based on the outfits, this is also going to have the scene where he helps her out of the carriage).
He is probably going to relocate her to the Southern villa. Shenanigans ensue with her, Princess Hebe and the bad guy's little brother. I really hope we get some 3 Musketeer moments out of those guys.
Dude, when the Emperor goes bad/dark it is going to 100% be Eunuch Sun's fault. This guy is the epitome of the old phrase of how there are no bad leaders, only bad advisors.
I will say 4 episodes in there seems to be an excellent balance of GoT-esque drama and politics with developing the actual characters. It is also very refreshing to see a younger woman in a palace drama understand court politics (usually we only see older women know how to handle that).
The way it appears they are going to keep this balance between serious and funny is that the FL is craving mental stimulation and wants to "play" - thus she attaches herself to a man that affords her the resources, connections and not-to-much-powerness (that the Emperor would grant). She is actually quite smart. By aiming for resources and influence, not out-right power, this enables her to "play" the game longer and not be boxed in by the loss of liberty being too high on the totem pole would create for her. And while she dominantly wants to "play", she is very picky about who she "plays" with. If they don't have enough intelligence to stimulate her or provide her with stimulating challenges (Prince Fu) or have the character that she can trust how they will use their intelligence (Prince Fu) she will be a hard pass.
1 
Them: "Who is Eunuch Liu? It's fine if you hit him. What? You didn't hit him hard enough? You want me to do it again on your behalf?"
The miscommunication is revealed; it is ultimately a good thing because they both realize they should trust each other, even when the 'evidence' says otherwise and then they have their 'day date'. (Based on the outfits, this is also going to have the scene where he helps her out of the carriage).
He is probably going to relocate her to the Southern villa. Shenanigans ensue with her, Princess Hebe and the bad guy's little brother. I really hope we get some 3 Musketeer moments out of those guys.
The way it appears they are going to keep this balance between serious and funny is that the FL is craving mental stimulation and wants to "play" - thus she attaches herself to a man that affords her the resources, connections and not-to-much-powerness (that the Emperor would grant). She is actually quite smart. By aiming for resources and influence, not out-right power, this enables her to "play" the game longer and not be boxed in by the loss of liberty being too high on the totem pole would create for her. And while she dominantly wants to "play", she is very picky about who she "plays" with. If they don't have enough intelligence to stimulate her or provide her with stimulating challenges (Prince Fu) or have the character that she can trust how they will use their intelligence (Prince Fu) she will be a hard pass.