PeachBlossomGoddess

Well, once upon a time he did rescue her rather flamboyantly on horseback - its the stuff that make most young girls giddy with infatuation. And this before she was so traumatised. But yes you are right, she went through a lot in between and clearly has coping issues. I do think her words at her mother's tomb were heartfelt though - she thinks she married a good guy and is in a safe place.

He is the son of the former crown prince who died (suspiciously) in a fire in Eastern Palace right after the former emperor died. Under Chinese rules of primogeniture, he would succeed and not the current emperor Mo Yanqi who is merely the son of Consort Guo (who promoted herself to empress dowager after the emperor dies). Sons of consorts are not in the legitimate line of succession when there are sons/grandsons of official wives. This is why the Empress Dowager had to isolate and silence all the scholars of Lishan Academy. So reclaim is the more appropriate word than usurp.

MJL is lacking in character and backbone for sure but his cause is not unjust. And I think for all his flaws, he truly did love Ye Li enough to ask the Empress Dowager to set their engagement aside bc what he is doing is super dangerous and could get her and her entire family killed dead. He is acting out bc I think he was surprised that she was married off to MXY instead - he thought she would remain single on the mountain where he could try to reclaim her if he succeeded. He is an innately weak character and not really up to the task nor does he have the political support. But the push is coming from the fact he is tired of being suppressed and bullied and having to pretend to be a useless frivolous prince without ambition. The truth is that his existence is a perpetual risk to the current emperor so if the kid grows up to be as ruthless as his mother, he will eventually kill him. While there are some tropey aspects to his character, he is not that badly written and there are good reasons for some of his motivations. If you think about it, he is rather pitiful - his parents were probably murdered and in a heartbeat he went from being the future crown prince/emperor engaged to someone he loved to a powerless orphan prince married to someone he doesn't love who has to fear for his life every waking moment.

For sure MJL has been planning to usurp the throne - or rather rightfully reclaim his throne. He is the secret master of Songyue Mountain Villa. Pretty sure he is raising an army and scheming there.

They were engaged by the previous emperor himself and both were students at Lishan Academy.

Mining is hard work - lots of work place injuries and maybe some forced labor was involved.

Hi, thx for reading and glad you enjoyed the drama as well. I am a fan of the original classic novel and only sporadically watched the Kenny Ho Justice Bao series when my folks had it on so I am not as invested in his Zhan Zhao as many other fans are. As for Wangxian Village, the villagers were exposed to mercury poisoning from the illegal mining. Clearly in the finale, ZZ could not have shot the arrow as he had both hands full. It was either an accident or more likely, BYT did it. I think it would be sensitive to show any of the main protagonists killing off a direct descendent of Taizong Emperor of Song. That's also why they had a foreign envoy kill off Shao Jizu. The Jin family arc was IMO the worst arc.

There is a scene of her wearing a mask trying to escape the army barricade and her fellow scholars also masked running after her. And it looks like there was miasma. They said something about Master Helai will find a cure. Sounds like they were poisoned or there was a covid outbreak or something on the mountain.

The 7 seniors under the headstone should be the ones burned alive in the capital by Lu Changfu. She should still have surviving seniors - we know of at least two, and technically Prince Li is one of them too - he was also a student of the academy. There is also one that writes to her. But I don't think there were any other survivors on the mountain.

Lol - he does and I am totally not defending him. I just think he did something beyond breaking the engagement to make Ye Li so contemptuous of him. She is otherwise so fond of all her former classmates from the academy.

Well if he blushes easily naturally, even better!

Maybe it wasn't exactly a betrayal but more like he could have tried to help or save them but he didn't. His entire existence is built around maintaining a façade of being a dissipated prince.

The thing is - I have watched MANY of this director's dramas... and ALL the MLs get red ears - Mark Chao, Chang Chen, Ren Jialun... I wonder if she asks them to pinch them.

There is a scene where she tried to escape wearing a mask but the other scholars stopped her and said something about Master Helai will find a cure. Maybe they all caught covid or something like that and died.

I suspect she died of rabies from a monkey bite. That's probably why Ye Li practices running all the time - PTSD from when she had to out run those wild things.

I think they had some kind of a past at the academy where there was some mutual affection between them. I don't think she despises him just bc of the broken engagement. There must be more to it - I wonder if he had something to do with the 7 Lishan academy scholars that died in the capital. Maybe he betrayed them somehow.

Hi, that is a very good channel but it is not mine. That is a different user, I think she goes by Peachey Blossom and she is on MDL as well.

Maybe she was still alive and with Ye Li and the Lishan academy people when he saved them from bandits years ago.

and I wonder if the crown prince's death is suspicious.

She had the support of many high court officials

I was zooming in on the scene bc I was really curious about Qingshuang and trying to figure out when she died. And then I noticed that pile of clothes in a hat looked like the assassins's outfit.😅