MadelineMaureen

See you get it!

He was always working with a rebel Prince to overthrow the current Crown Prince. Both he and the ML sided with him. ML was using him to get justice for his uncle and their Army. Yuan Tong truly believes that the current rulers/court is corrupt and needs to be overhauled. He has always believed that. So he is morally gray if he believes the people of the country will benefit.

I'm a southern(USA). As long as the translations are done well it's easy to pick up on. You get really good at double speak living in the south. Because what is coming out of your mouth might sound polite, but the meaning behind it could be the complete opposite. Also the opposite is true. Something can sound rude, but is in fact very kind/nice/positive in it's real meaning.

We see that prior to Song Mo joining his uncle's army that the father is abusive towards him. The uncle sees the marks on the boy's arm and comments that he was kicked out "again". The maternal line comes from a military family. His father married her for power, but his brother-in-law doesn't yelled to him in any way. I'm not 100% sure why he hates his eldest son but not his youngest, even though they have the same mother. Maybe be we are missing some info from earlier in their marriage that we will get in later episodes. The youngest son seems to be easily manipulated so maybe the father was faking his affection for the mother completely in front of his youngest but he couldn't get past the human lie detector that is Song Mo.

I think the sisters are going to pull a parent trap...a marriage trap so to speak.

I'm not 100% positive that the hair/purple blood indicates poison per se this time around. I think the purplish blood just indicates that his internal organs were damaged during the "household punishment" meant to kill him.
The gray hair could be from stress and grief after losing his Uncle and Mother the day before his arrival...twice, under extremely suspicious circumstances. Like dude is going through it.
I don't remember him being ill outside of side affects from physical injuries in the current timeline. I've only rewatched up to episode 2 though so maybe I missed something or disregarded a clue on accident.

I caught that the second time through. I was like, this director doesn't waste shots on things that aren't important...let me just rewind and freeze frame on the tv to double check. Sure enough, Mr. Chen. 🤭

So glad the first thing I have a clear memory of him in was Destined. I had seen Sm:)e and LoveO2O, but it had been a while since I saw them that I couldn't remember him in them.

different actors...actual siblings if not actually twins. at least that is what dramawiki's cast list implies.

I've seen 3 different translations at this point, so I have the same question. Any native speakers in the chat want to weigh in?

When the Phone Rings only one I'm actively watching/waiting for outside of this one.
Waiting on more episodes of Light Shop and Family Matters to drop before I dive in.

December is when I normally rewatch a lot of Christmas movies/movies that were released during Christmas time, again. I have a list of about 50ish movies that I'm knocking out over the month. (some are those 1970s stop motion tv-movies).

This is the first time I've watched a show(cdrama specifically) with two separate pairs of siblings(as in the actors are actually siblings/twins). They haven't been added to the cast list on MDL but both pairs of protectors for the FL and ML are siblings if not twins. The girls don't have pages. But one of the male siblings does. Jeff Liu aka Liu Zi Hao, brother is Liu Wei Hao(this is if dramawiki's credits are correct as I don't read Chinese I can't verify this on original sources). The most mind blowing info I found was that Liu Zi Hao is 42.🤯😲Sir drop the skincare routine stat.

I will normally joke about the sidekicks of the MLs in shows being like the ninja turtles...one has to be the Michelangelo to the Donatello/Raphael/Leonardo. But generally speaking those four architypes are repeated a lot in these historical/period dramas. The ML is normally a blend of Donatello, Raphael and Leonardo...whatever trait he is lacking is picked up by his right hand man. If there are two right hand men one is always more excitable/loose lipped than the other.

I was just about to comment how I was rewatching the first few episodes now that we've remet most of the players. I needed to see the characters as they were in the OG timeline/"dream"😉 because I was confusing a few loyalties. As we get deeper into the main conspiracy it can be confusing at times to remember how each character relates to the other.
Highly recommend at least an episode 1 & 2 rewatch once you get to the midway point of the drama to anyone who is currently or will watch this one.

Time to go watch the last two episodes of Brewing Love while I wait for episode 15 to drop. brb

This is normal pacing for a show of this length and plot type.

OMG! Not the Princess Royal(Grand Princess) AND the Emperor clocking Song Mo's love eyes for Dou Zhao 🤣🤣🤭💀

Even up to episode 13(which is all that has been released) the direction, lighting, cinematography, and editing have stayed quality. Normally by this time you can see cracks in the production/post-production choices. But the coloring/lighting has stayed consistent throughout. The chemistry is there as well. From a production standpoint alone it's worth the watch as I wasn't 100% sure on what to expect from this show going in. The story has many of the same tropes that have been common in the past few years, but they are done so well in this drama that it doesn't matter that there are similarities to other works as this one has done most of them better already.
If you don't want spoilers start watching now. If you are a can't wait for the next episode, binge watcher, hold off until the end of next week or the two weeks from now before starting.

The uncle is his mother's biological brother, so i really hope not.

He's technically her second love interest, but not important enough to the overall story to be 2ML in the truest sense. And I feel ya.

Li Yun Rui, hear me out. Okay so, I think he needs to grow his hair out and see what it does. He has slightly coarser hair like Xu Kai so imo that mid-short hair cut isn't giving what it could...if you know what I mean. It's giving electric shock instead of artistically messy. Grow it out see what happens...long enough to tie it back long...not full mid back, but just mid neck to see what we're working if texture wise. At the very least grow it so that it's past the ears.