Lemonadedrama

The way I see it:
The point of He Ping being so barely involved is to show just how much stronger ties Li Haichao has to the three kids. Compared to Jian Jian, the boys' parents aren't really there for their children, which makes them appreciate and love Li Haichao more. Some parents are just not that involved in their kids lives, which makes Ling Xiao more pitiable because his mom was supposed to be there for him, but she abandoned him, and Li Haichao fills that void.

I couldn't have said it better myself. I have to disagree with you about Ling Xiao's mother though, she was really toxic. It was uncomfortable seeing him try SO hard to disentangle himself from his mom and sister after all the back and forth to get to Jian Jian.

Super cute story. I love the FL personality, it's hard to not like her. I really like the idea of the two dads getting together to raise the kids, it was beautiful.

I loved the Mongolian consorts that were introduced, I think they added a fresh prospective to the harem, especially with their sisterhood idealogy, for ex, Noble Consort Ying and Consort Ke. They supported Ruyi perfectly without openly defying the emporer, especially Ying, she was my fav!

One of my favorite dramas ever. I wish we could have seen more of the other background concubines, because seeing the main villain concubines scheming all the time made me so mad.

It paints the first empress as a villain, and the second empress as the heroine.

A lot happened, I will say that much. I started watching it for Wang Yi Tong, but it was pretty good. Chubby is so funny, he definitely kept it interesting.

I liked it, except for the ending. I hate rewatching thing, but I have already rewatched a couple times. I mainly watched for the second lead couple tbh.

Agreed. I finished this drama, and I liked it except for the fact there was a lot of gaps. And why would they introduce the long lost brother in the second to last episode? And what happened to leshan sister in law consort yang?