PeachBlossomGoddess

There is potential for sure - it'd be interesting to see the reveal of how the the salt corruption worked and how the Yus are implicated.

Its a good score but not surprised. That's where I thought it would come out.

Yes he has left himself open. Its quite predictable how this will play out. That is why I have said the writing in this latest arcs is not as good as it was earlier on.

I think she just means ZL did not proceed with his usual caution. And that has now left him open to being arrested for murder.

That's insightful - now she has everything to lose so she is getting cold feet. I understand mom was a big loss so I am giving her some (but not too much) time to pull herself together.

As for her dad, I think ZL is cautious bc he is starting to understand that the Fus may be in cahoots with the Yus going back a long time - that could mean that taking down the Yus will implicate the Fus as well. Her bro could be collateral damage. Not to mention the unknown uncle number 1 who should still be the Magistrate of Huaiying. In her current fragile state of mind, this could be too much for her.

I think there is some writing sloppiness emerging towards the end - they seem to have run out of dialogue and character development for the FL. I understand where she is coming from and she had a change of heart from her early ambitions for them. But this happened long ago and has been said repeatedly since their reunion after the war so she just seems to be stuck singing the same tune when we are going into the end game. This is when she needs to be on her A game. Her dialogue also struck me as out of sync with the plot bc ZL already lost 100 days mourning, which was a ploy of the Yus to stall him so that they could cover their tracks. He needs to speed up to make up for lost time before they can make all the evidence disappear. So when she keeps saying slow down she seems out of touch even with the latest state of play.

To be honest, I think his arc is the weakest arc so far. I don't think his mother was his strongest backer, she is a woman and has no place in politics. They just skipped over what happened to his elder brother the Magistrate of Huaiying who should be his biggest political supporter. I think the Fus were always allied with the Yus and colluded with them in their salt corruption schemes. So I don't have a problem with him helping them but there should have been some concrete quid pro quo and not for an empty promise. I wish they had written him to be smarter and have agency of his own rather than to just be such an easily led tool of the Yu couple. I found it very disappointing writing overall.

I think its very difficult to realistically give her a front seat at court politics - as a woman she can only work behind the scenes. I think she has done well at that but I wish they didn't resort to focus on family oriented melodrama to shore up her screen time. Those arcs aren't well written, her father is a cartoon character and they have made her seem more weepy or dependent on the ML. Though considering her loss, I think that is kind of understandable.

She can't win against anyone, not even a lowly concubine.
Harsh but true. 😅😂😂

I think ZL just wanted to do it before his wife could.

Idk why she is still even in the story!

Yeah he at least should have him them appoint him first. I mean killing your wife is a big deal you can’t do it on an empty promise.

The FLs father murdered her mother. I thought that whole arc is weak and poorly written. And somehow entrapping a weak and not smart character like YJX to trap his parents is a cliche and anticlimactic way to get to the Yus.

Trying to kill someone is not the same as killing someone. I understand what you are saying I just don’t think that in order to fight monsters they should turn into monsters. We can just agree to disagree about the means to the end without me necessary missing the point.

Yes and no one deserves more to be fed to the dogs than daddy dearest but no daughter should have to do that to her dad no matter how big a scum bag he is.

Yes that is a villain move. I guess that works if the Zhao want to become villains and murder someone innocent to win.

The thing is the FIL got nothing in return from the Yus for doing this. Just like he got nothing for sacrificing his mother’s old maid. It’s just dumb he didn’t even try to extract a court post out of it.

I agree with that the FIL was too dumb and his motive wasn’t convincing. It isn’t high level power play.

I just think it means ZL is getting closer to getting the Yus bc they are attacking his household to stop him.

I think he killed his FIL bc he was afraid TY would do it once she accepted her father killed her mother. He didn’t want her to be guilty of patricide so he did it for her. He also wanted to make sure the old man didn’t try to go after her brother’s family or TY herself next. And yes he has made himself vulnerable so it could come back to bite him. But he set the place on fire so it will be hard to find evidence. As we saw from the collapsed roof, ZL is quite competent at murder.