PeachBlossomGoddess

Yeah I will have to start it later as well.

I think she looks a lot better in modern styling. Unfortunately the Ming dynasty married woman bun does not become her - it makes her look very matronly, esp from a distance. When she was joking about Jinqi looking old I was thinking... glass houses... That said the costume team and director are doing their best and she has many scenes that zoom in and make her look very pretty.

This just dropped. I think it should be good.
https://mydramalist.com/789538-jiang-xiang

I think he played an abusive husband in Flourished Peony.

Well... if the emperor bestows it on you, you can hardly no thanks, no good feng shui...

They cast a known villain actor as brother in law.🤦‍♀️😅🙄

Probably they left all the furniture there but I imagine after all those years they'd have to buy all new fabrics.

There was probably a shortage of good, well located real estate in the capital. And "fortuitously" the emperor had confiscated the Shen's property and happened to bestow it back on him. It is a bit much to assume all of the furniture etc didn't change at all.

The narrative is pretending she actually had a choice which he took away from her when she really didn't.

Yeah or he could have just said - I know you don't like the capital but I am afraid you have to come with me. She is not in a position to refuse, even as main wife.

Yes I agree, what I am trying to say is underneath her willingness to reveal herself like this is an innate trust that even if he figures it out, Jinqi will never out her. If it is ever revealed she has to go to the imperial music bureau. That was Shen Jialan's sentence. Unlike a hereditary slave, no one but the emperor can free her.

The truth is he could have ordered her to go and that would have been the end of it. The drugging was just for melodrama.

I doubt she will do that. Jinqi gave his word to the Zhaos it would be covered up. And Lanxiang did not know what exactly went down - she was allegedly playing yarrow sticks with the scholar.

Well if I am right, it is borderline reckless... how would a maid know how to play a young noblewoman's pastime?

Lanxiang is really giving herself away somewhat with that speech though. A real hereditary slave/maid passed on through generations would never think to demand the same respect of herself as that due to a daughter of a Grand Secretary. It is a red flag that everything she ever said about her being thought to read by monks learning sutras is not true. She is showing she knows the Confucian classics, something only a really educated young noblewoman would.

I suspect Lanxiang wins Jiu'er and her maid back by kicking Xingtang's ass at Chuiwan.

I can't see the romance even though I think both leads are acting really well. I really don't enjoy c-dramas tendency of pairing up actors with actresses that barely come up to their shoulders. It just never works for me. That scene I found beyond off-putting.

Unless the Shens are pardoned, it would be extremely dangerous for anyone else to ever find out she was a Shen. It would be their duty to report her and have her sent to the music bureau. Loose lips sink ships - would you ever trust an airhead like his aunt or her airheaded son and daughter to not accidentally blurt it out? Best case is only Jinqi ever finds out/suspects but says nothing to everyone else. This ties in exactly to his grandfather's departing lecture to him about endangering the family and lying to the monarch. Grandpa already took a stand wrt not sticking his neck out for the Shens all those years ago - if he knew, he would definitely report her. So best stop fantasizing about what happens when the Lins finds out who she is - they are not going to.

That whole scene was awkward. He looked like a gigolo parading his wares in front of a disinterested customer.

Maybe watch every other day.