Mailyn

Many thanks for your reply. I might give it another look.

I watched the first episode and decided to skip to the last episode to check the ending (as I sometimes do) but could not figure out was happening with the leads - so skipped to episode 23 - which made sense up until the part where he finds the box and memorial on the swing but then what? Why was he alone in the garden handcuffed? Was that supposed to be some sort of flashback? Was the banquet before the scene with the swing - or after it?

No. I watch with subs as I am only a passive learner (in Mandarin) but I have learned to read much of the historical-drama Mandarin from dramas with Chinese subs. (I already had knowledge of Kanji radicals so was able to look up historical and Classical Chinese characters.) I am not interested in learning to speak it or to learn learn the tones. But I am recognising more and more spoken words in dramas - most of which would be useless in the modern world.

Do you not consider this to be deserving of a 'spoiler tag' for those who have not yet watched this episode?

It doesn't end in a cliff-hanger.

Well, as a linguist, I was curious when first I started watching these dramas and consequently, I have spent three years learning a a strange hybrid of historical-drama/ Classical/ Modern Mandarin.

(I, the owner of) this palace - only for female royalty.

ben gong is for royal females: (I of ) this palace; benwang '(I ) this king' but don't forget that in some historical states / dynasties, princes call themselves ben wang.

See my post below for an explanation.

See my post below where I explain it.

You're welcome.

Well, Ben gong means '(I of) this palace' the same way that Ben wang means '(I) this king', and ben guan means (I this) official. The humour is entirely in the status mismatch (the butcher is a semi-literate commoner) and the misinterpretation of a royal pronoun as a name. But the word 'Beholden' supplied by the translator does not reflect this joke at all other than to show that she has committed a social faux pas (pronounced 'fo par' for those who don't know).

Welcome!

Yes. Link to episode 1 https://kisskh.co/Drama/Riding-on-the-Wind?id=12608

It is on Kisskh. I have looked on Dailymotion and on Bilibil, but no sign of it (yet).

IMO she is not untrained. She was secretly trained by her father to fight the same way that the ML does - and that's how he 'knows' who her father is.

I know this - and don't need wrongful assumptions from anybody. Rather odd comment coming from someone who swears at other people!

Pretending to be a man - or as a woman?

Definitely a 'frisson' moment!

Do you not know the rules about threatening behaviour on MDL, Lucius?