PeachBlossomGoddess

You should give Blossom a try. Its a lot better.

Lol tyvm for your kind words. Not at all shocked by the downvotes. A few over zealous fans tried to low key bully me in the comment section for just being honest about my impressions. Little do they know that any idol drama with only 10 rated reviews in the front page is the ultimate red flag that screams "skip it" to any experienced drama viewer!!!

Nice review. Can't disagree with anything you said. I thought it was just me because I am not a romance fan but evidently not.

I think its fairly obvious the money bag was for Wen Yue, considering she is the assassin in the family. Just because the victims were heinous people does not make the murderer a good person. The murders are depressing real estate prices that Qiniang already owns. So I don't think she had motive to kill the first victim. As for the second, he also ostensibly works for her. She has moved in with the Zhao family bc I think she fears for her life.

I also feel there is a lot more to Zhao Li than meets the eye. He seems to casually drop clues to prod ZBY along the way too many times. I wonder if he was once a high official that somehow had to go into hiding as a common peasant due to corruption in the court.

Hopefully Youku airs this next.

So we know that Zou Mian is the powerful official from the South that is one of the two "immortals" or masterminds behind the scenes that are manipulating things. He ordered the hit on Li Yan and is the big guy behind Di Lun. He also planned the Auspicious Omen to flatter the silly emperor. I am going to guess that he has to be Qiniang's foster father and the reason she is so arrogant and rich.

What we still don't know is who is Zou Mian's enemy, the person behind Xiao Yishui who destroyed the Auspicious Omen and probably ordered the hit on Qiniang. How does this relate to the Hat Demon case? Would be quite interesting if Inspector Gu is actually behind all this since he is after Zou Mian but I am more inclined to think there is another very powerful person that hasn't been revealed yet.

Speculation re: Zou Mian and the Clash of the Titans:

If you recall ZBY's conversation with GZ, he confided his desire to buy a house and that Wan Fu mentioned that small people at Kaifeng Court unofficial sources of income. ZBY applied for a litigation license to represent/investigate grievances for small people to make some side pocket money. That is the capacity in which he is helping Qiniang. He applied for her reward money to solve the case of the demon hat that is destroying her property value. So you can think that officially he is just a lowly scribe probably at Kaifeng Court and on the side he investigates cases/addresses grievances for reward money.

Thx - I heard good things about that but I just don't like that genre.

I was only allowed to watch TV during school holidays so I only watched the really famous martial arts stories.

TVB made terrific dramas. A lot of them have been digitally restored.

Yeah its super disappointing. But I have blocked a bunch of the ones who just seem to pop up every time pulling the same toxic crap in every drama and muting them really cleans up the threads for me.

I really appreciate the meticulous attention to historical detail in this story. In the beginning of Ep 6, Boyou takes a moment to kowtows in respect to Bao Zheng's name on the plaque naming past Kaifeng Court prefects. Bao Zheng is of course the famous Justice Bao of Song Dynasty Emperor Renzong's Kaifeng Court, the people's judge. He was to Song dynasty what Di Renjie was to Tang dynasty. So this story is going to be all about the humble ordinary people and getting justice for their grievances.

I will be on annual leave from Saturday and will have plenty of time to catch up but in the meantime, I watch Blossom when I am tired and want to be entertained and Riverside Code when I want some mental exercise!😂😂😂

Luckily Zhou Yiwei is totally redeeming himself here!!! 😅😂😂

Maybe it is Judge Dee..... that one I already wiped from my memory.

I don't remember something like that from STOTD2. The cases were Mara's Defeat, Death of a Coroner, Snowy Inn, Old Boat Official, Tongtian Rhino, Drunk in Yunding, Letter from Shangxian Hall and Provider. Maybe it was a different drama?

I don't think all of the cases are going to be officially closed, half of them will be closed "off the books". For example we the audience know what happened to Gan Liang but officially he is just a missing person. Similarly Di Lun is going to be another missing person but as far as the audience is concerned the case is solved. So far what is officially solved is just how the Mei ship disappeared. Li Yan's 15 year old case is also mostly solved but unofficially and the mastermind Zou Mian is still at large. These were really corrupt times, justice is not always obtained through proper channels.

I am only up to date on Riverside Code and Blossom. I am far behind on Under the Skin, Brocade Odyssey and See Her Again.