PeachBlossomGoddess

Brains definitely came from the Xu family gene pool and not the Ye family.

So far at least 3 Lishan disciples are still alive - Senior Li Feibai who has been plotting with Ye Li, her steward at Shende shop Wei Zhuang and the artist at the temple whose name I don't remember. Prince Li was also a Lishan scholar. I think there should be others - it is mentioned somewhere Ye Li and Feibai is trying to track them down.

I am going to not judge for now bc its not fully revealed but the edict plot looks super wobbly to me. No self respecting general would ever enter the capital with an army without an edict in hand on his person. The idea that Ye Li's dad could have gotten his sticky fingers on it is just bat shit crazy. I hope they can explain what the hell happened there.

Yes apparently they helped Lu Changfu set the Lishan scholars in the capital on fire.

Yes indeed they did communicate all the way up to the end. The ending was out of character and I didn't like that. He seemed to mourn his parting with his friend more than his parting with her. The last episode or two ruined the story for me.

I like the sister - she cracks me up. I hope she runs away with her bungling highwayman!

She should be 21 - sent back by her father to the academy at 13 which was 8 years ago.

They are all victims of the same conspiracy - including Prince Li. And they have common enemies.

Ye Li hired the first group of assassins to kidnap herself. They were the same gang that Lu Changfu hired to set fire on the Lishan scholars. She killed two birds with one stone - she showed her husband how helpless he was in his wheelchair to motivate him to let her heal him and she got him to take down the Red Scorpion Gang at the same time. Diabolical.
The second kidnapper was her sister's bungling assassin. Yups obviously not from the same gene pool.

I think she has PTSD for sure after the trauma she endured. But I wouldn't go as far as to suggest she has the split personality level kind of mental health issues - she was perfectly normal and mentally healthy for most of her life. She developed some coping mechanisms for her trauma and her devastating losses but it is unlikely to have done lasting damage - she will heal and be fine given some time and revenge.

There are several layers of word puns in the title. On a standalone basis, mò lí/ 莫离 just means don't leave or never part. But Mò/莫 is a homophone on the ML's surname 墨/Mò. And the FL's given name is 璃/Lí (glass) is a homophone with 离/lí. And mò lí/ 莫离 and mò lí/茉莉/jasmine are near homophones and can be considered word puns.

I think that Ye Li has fallen for him already as well. But she is not love brained and she has returned to the capital with big purpose that cannot be deviated just because of her feelings.

I think everyone at the academy is dead from a plague or something and it happened not that long ago (under 3 years), which is why the empress dowager's guards are still unaware of it. They think the academy is just temporarily closed while the scholars compile texts. The FL is keeping it under wraps bc her grandfather/the academy was all that stood between the empress dowager seizing power for herself. She doesn't want her to find out about it yet until she can unveil the conspiracy/the emperor ascends the throne properly and fully takes back power from his mother.

Actually Prince Li's schemes are quite diabolical. He has managed to undermine the relationship between Marquis Muyang and the empress by planting suspicion and mistrust between them. And he has quietly killed off 4 of his men and casting his suspicion at Prince Ding. Not bad at all, kind of surprised me. But I also don't think he is an outright villain and he is probably not the main villain. As I have mentioned half in jest before, Ye Li actually can be considered quite a villain herself. And her motive and Prince Li's motive are actually aligned. What is ridiculous is he is mocked as delulu while she is being praised as brilliant when they have the same objectives and were both deeply damaged by the same conspiracy/trauma.🤷🏻‍♀️

No he didn't and I don't think Prince Ding will play dirty like that. He strikes me as someone who will investigate and present evidence properly, not run around murdering his enemies. That is something purely in his nephew and his wife's territory.😅😂

I wonder if he is the one that is murdering Marquis Muyang's men and making him think its Prince Ding.

Neither of them are wrong to feel how they feel. It was just bad luck.

Well said - couldn't agree more about no simple villains.

Actually Prince Li's plot wrt Yuan Fang is pretty diabolical. Ruthless and diabolical. He has successfully undermined Marquis Muyang's relationship with the empress dowager.

Yes I understand Ye Li can never be with him after what happened. She knows MJL was defenceless and only 14. And tbh, even if MJL had not accused them, I think Muyang would have killed them dead anyway.