La Gata

It is my understanding he made a fortune twice. The first time was when he took over the smugglers chief's identity and therefore his entire fortune; this one he kept. The second time when he killed the smugglers gang and confiscated their fortune; this one he gave to the crown prince, who in turn allowed him to keep part of it as a reward.

In any case the part of the fortune the crown prince gave him as a reward would explain the origin of their wealth.

That line was worse than a slap on the face, I felt the heat coming out of my screen🔥.

Didn't he get rich from when he took over the salt smuggling business and adopted the main smuggler's identity? I thought he had given her the money to buy the house in the capital, then she established the shop.

Excellent, really well deserved.👏👏👏

He didn't do anything. Nope, nothing at all. He was just sleeping. 😑

I love him. 😁

Well, I read somewhere that washing one's face with tea is good for the skin. She must be glowing now.😏

I find Ding Yu Xi's interpretation of his character Zhao Ling nothing short of masterful. I'm impressed by the evolution of his body language, facial expressions, mannerism and stance as Zhao Ling evolves from a carefree rascal into a man who carries the physical and psychological scars of war, the dignity of an emperor's right hand and the world on his shoulders.

He also pissed me off all the way to the Gobi desert and back on ep 21, that's how good his performance is (I still haven't forgiven the scriptwriter).

I'm really pleased to hear about the top levels of popularity his character has already reached. I expect he will be winning awards for his astonishing performance.

I've been saying that since ep 21, the whole thing doesn't make any sense. Ting Yun repudiated her father's Fu name and adopted her mother's Xien. She has her own household register, she doesn't need nor want her father's permission for anything at all, let alone for getting married. Given their respective social status and official posts, her father has a lot more to lose from a confrontation with ZL and TY than the other way around, not to mention all those pending corruption charges that will come down on him like a ton of bricks. The bare word of a servant cannot possibly weigh more than the token TY's mother gave ZL, which proves they didn't elope. ZL only needs to ask the emperor to call her mother to declare, then her odious husband will no longer be able to keep her confined in her room and the truth will be out. There are already plenty enough characters to build schemes and intrigues, her father just clogs the plot and weakens the storyline. The only good thing that can come out of this is the satisfaction of seeing this odious Fu father in chains and out of their lives for good.

Never mind social settings, sometimes I feel like we are expected to talk in tangents on this forum. Psychological contagion? 🤔

Now, the plumbing..., you do have a point there. 😂

I know that, honey. Between the director, original creator and writer they boast Prisoner Of Beauty, Shadow Love, Guardians Of The Dafeng, The Legend Of Shen Li and Blossom among others. That's the more reason for getting annoyed at ep 21. His sudden change of behaviour into an unrecognisable personality is still a writer/director/producer failure from where I'm standing, that's a hill I'll die on.

Gosh, I'm soooooo into this drama I'm starting to worry I may transmigrate into it.😂🤣😂🤣

Well, all the annoyance from ep 21 melted away in the first 10' of ep 22.

There, I'm a softie. 😒

No, it's 12, but many thanks for trying to help. 🙏

Precisely. Going behind her back to negotiate her wedding with her corrupt father whom she had previously repudiated in front of him (ZL) is something the villain of the drama would do, not the hero. The disrespect is eye popping. And that change of personality is sudden, there is no transition from his previous thoughtful, caring self.

Having said that, he's been thrown into political schemes directly from and at the top. The responsibility the emperor has laid on his shoulder would be overwhelming for a seasoned chancellor well accustomed to palace intrigues, let alone for a young, inexperienced military man. This still doesn't justify his very poor behaviour towards her.

I think it's a metaphor, she's letting him know she feels abandoned. The lamp running out of oil symbolizes how long it is since he last visited her.

Solid quality character wonderfully portrayed by Wen Zheng Rong. What a magnificent actress!

Thank you! 👍

Does anybody remember what ep is it where the FL has chunks of her hair forcefully cut off? Many thanks in advance.

If you scroll down you'll see several comments putting his absurd behaviour down to PTSD. That's fine, it's just an opinion like any other, I just happen to disagree with it.

'His character is not even portrayed as traumatised' means exactly that. While we all see him battling, getting hurt, having to cut his friends head off etc, being traumatised is not a main feature of his personality. He's hardened by war and the terrible things he had to see and do, but if anybody asks me to describe his personality, I wouldn't say traumatised. Even if he were, it still would not justify his thoughtless behaviour towards her.

It's not just that incident alone, it's everything else he said and did as I explained in my initial criticism of the character. I don't think I need to clarify I don't hate the character, he's also done plenty of good deeds and we know he loves her. Nevertheless, he behaved like a brainless idiot in ep 21. I view this as a script failure based on the fact that this wasn't a development from his previous behaviour, it was a radical change.

'I agree 100%. I just don't think it applies to this situation'.

I wasn't talking about the drama, but about the comments that stated or included precisely that 'reasoning' in order to justify his terrible behaviour, that men don't understand women and that's that, or that being a blockhead is a typically male behaviour and women should just understand it.

I am aware nobody is going to stop me from commenting. I just find it exasperating when a fruitful exchange of opinions becomes marred by polarized stances and even by lack of basic politeness. I had to block a poster who simply proceeded to insult me in a two lines post.

Anyway, thank you for your reply and input. It looks from the teasers like everything is sorted out on ep 22, so I'm going to watch it now. Keep well.

Precisely. Her mum can divorce her dishonourable husband and claim her dowry in the courts of law.

As for the chastity pillar..., unless the father becomes an actual closed order monk I don't see how they can save it. 😂 😂 😂 😂

For those who are talking about ZL hating comments. While I agree and I think we all know there are always haters in virtually all comments sections of all dramas, to me a hater is someone who just tries to shoot down a drama by using non believable and sometimes unrelated arguments or nitpicking on tiny details that don't affect the plot development.

I have scrolled down the posts on ep 21 and found no comments I would view as just hate. In fact, my comments are among the most negative about this particular episode.

Re this drama, I have posted very positive comments up to ep 20. On ep 21 I made a scathing criticism of the changes in ZL's personality and dumbing down of his character and I stand by every word I wrote. Analizing and laying down what went wrong with the script is not hating, and I find that take immature at best.

There is also a cliche that I find unsavoury, that of men not understanding women and not being able to do anything about it so women just have to accept it, but women having to understand men because otherwise they are branded as intolerant/selfish/rancorous or any other derogatory epithet in the same vein.

One thing is expecting a character to be perfect just because they are the lead, which would be unreasonable as well as boring; a very different thing is changing said character's personality from a smart, thoughtful, sensitive guy into a thick idiot with zero emotional intelligence. This is what I saw on ep 21, and no amount of alleged PTSD justifies ZL not being able to get two synapses connected. Example:

ZL to TY: "I don't want to take the concubine because, if I do, in future the salt traders might try to manipulate me again. Yeah, that's my reason not to marry her". 🙄

It's almost like ep 21 was written by somebody else, both ZL's lines and his behaviour being one act of thoughtlessness towards her after another. I don't buy the trauma excuse because his character is not even portrayed as traumatised, he just mentions he had to go through a lot and then goes about his business. If anybody perceives this is a hate comment, they need to rethink whose comment is being hateful. As for me, I will continue to state my opinion about anything that I find interesting, whether it is a positive or negative aspect. That's what this forum is for.

I hope the script will straighten itself and continue to provide the great drama this was up to ep 20, including direction, cinematography, pace and superb performances all around.