She got an internship specifically established for senior citizens—and even there the fact she was the youngest applicant was treated as a positive. The show has been consistent in its portrayal of ageism.
No way, an annoying woman without any positive qualities that we're supposed to project onto... gets a marriage proposal from a cold and emotionless CEO...? And then he immediately and inexplicably starts acting like he's in love with her, even though it was supposed to be nothing but a business deal? But she's too stupid to notice, so misunderstandings and insecurities will keep them from confessing their mutual attraction for 10 episodes? Someone's first love will show up again midway through the show?
This girl was so fucking passive and delusional I was rooting for her to end up alone and unhappy by the end.
I HATE it when jdrama heroines force themselves to stay in a pointless relationship with some irrelevant loser that goes on until the final episode and can only be broken off by the irrelevant loser himself telling them they're in love with someone else. YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO REALIZE THIS ON YOUR OWN SIX EPISODES AGO! Why should I be rooting for your happiness if you firmly refuse to pursue it?
Is there a protagonist or main couple, or is the screentime split evenly between different plotlines? Ensemble dramas tend to bore me, but I'm a fan of some of the cast and 'love in the big city' style romance in general, so I'm debating if I should start this...
I'm LOVING our main couple. Their mutual attraction is getting harder and harder to ignore, but they both have bigger fish to fry at the moment. I loved the tension running through the chess piece conversation and I can't wait for the moment the choice between love and revenge becomes untenable for one or both of them.
That said, I hated that the courtesan character had to die. It felt a bit like the show killed her off because while she was completely devoted to Xue Zhao, and thus a worthy love interest, she was 'sullied' by having sex for money and could never be with him even after his return from the dead (as she herself told Jiang Li). So making her his tragic backstory was the most convenient solution.
the princess is so vile. I can't believe she was worried for Shen after insisting on that sick game. they should…
She wasn’t worried so much as she was furious that he was expressing guilt/care forJiang Li’s feelings in front of her when he told Jiang Li to shoot without fear.
Because He is the real power so no one dare to ask anything about him that's why she use him as an excuse because…
Obviously the Jiangs aren't going to go up to him and accuse him of being inappropriate with Jiang Li, whom they don't even care about, but the stepmother at least should be starting to put two and two together. Being afraid of someone doesn't mean you can't see what they're doing.
How are people in the Jiang family hearing that Duke Su accompanied Jiang Li to the Jiang manor with half of his servants processing with her, took her out for tea in the city, praised her virtue, taught her archery, voted for her in the exam, saved her from Princess Wanning's bullying, strolled around the imperial palace with her in the middle of the night, etc. AND NOT ASKING WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON THERE? She uses him as an excuse/alibi all the time!
When granny went, "Jiang Li, my dear, you can be honest with me. What's going on between you and... Mr Zhou?" I wanted to claw my eyes out. I thought the old hag and the stepmother were supposed to be smart?
Seriously, the special attention he pays to Jiang Li should be obvious by now.
This was such a cunty entrance lmao. I love how sassy Duke Su is. Wang Xingyue is really breathing life into the role. I like that he's not afraid to exaggerate Duke Su's suaveness to the point of camp at times; this drama is a very maximalist production in every department, so there's no point in holding back.
According to the book she should not be like this and it was more realistic. I mean if she likes her granddaughter…
I mean, this grandma may like Jiang Li, but she's clearly pursuing a policy of neutrality in the Jiang household, which takes precedence over her personal feelings. She lets her daughter-in-law run the household however she wants despite knowing exactly what Madam Ji is like. When Madam Ji refused to let her see her grandson (Bingji, I think), she was like, "Using children to settle scores? Pathetic!" but didn't react otherwise. So letting them send Jiang Li to a monastery is in keeping with what we've seen from her so far, kind of.
Unpopular opinion but I pity the ex husband. Personally I think he loved her wholeheartedly but was put in a situation…
I pity him too because it looked like he had no choice but to get rid of XFF to save his family, and the princess is a proper psychopath who keeps threatening and humiliating him. He doesn't seem to be attracted to her in the least, so if she's forcing him to have sex with her (which isn't clarified one way or the other in the drama), that's straight-up rape.
All that said, what he did to XFF was still cowardly and wrong, and a better person would have found another way out of that situation. Plus, I can guess based on all the other cdramas I've watched that he's only going to get worse from here as his self-pity and paranoia drive him to new lows.
The thing is, apparently in the original novel Xue Fangfei possesses Jiang Li's body or something. Since they've…
She was famous as the most talented woman in the capital... that doesn't happen when no one knows what you look like. She probably didn't get married off at 15 either. Plus, young noblewomen in ancient China usually had their coming-of-age ceremony either at 15 or after they got engaged, which her upright and famous father would have wanted to give her for sure.
But really, someone who was famous as the most talented young lady in the capital, and was also the daughter of a duke, would NEVER be totally unknown to high society.
Dropping this show out of nowhere when the casting makes zero sense and I've spent the last 3 years wondering if the whole production is real, cancelled, or just a figment of my imagination is also very cdrama of them.
1 
Revolutionary.
I HATE it when jdrama heroines force themselves to stay in a pointless relationship with some irrelevant loser that goes on until the final episode and can only be broken off by the irrelevant loser himself telling them they're in love with someone else. YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO REALIZE THIS ON YOUR OWN SIX EPISODES AGO! Why should I be rooting for your happiness if you firmly refuse to pursue it?
That said, I hated that the courtesan character had to die. It felt a bit like the show killed her off because while she was completely devoted to Xue Zhao, and thus a worthy love interest, she was 'sullied' by having sex for money and could never be with him even after his return from the dead (as she herself told Jiang Li). So making her his tragic backstory was the most convenient solution.
When granny went, "Jiang Li, my dear, you can be honest with me. What's going on between you and... Mr Zhou?" I wanted to claw my eyes out. I thought the old hag and the stepmother were supposed to be smart?
Seriously, the special attention he pays to Jiang Li should be obvious by now.
"I'm tired of people asking me this question."
This was such a cunty entrance lmao. I love how sassy Duke Su is. Wang Xingyue is really breathing life into the role. I like that he's not afraid to exaggerate Duke Su's suaveness to the point of camp at times; this drama is a very maximalist production in every department, so there's no point in holding back.
All that said, what he did to XFF was still cowardly and wrong, and a better person would have found another way out of that situation. Plus, I can guess based on all the other cdramas I've watched that he's only going to get worse from here as his self-pity and paranoia drive him to new lows.
But really, someone who was famous as the most talented young lady in the capital, and was also the daughter of a duke, would NEVER be totally unknown to high society.