Saffy88

Exactly. Why be angry with JXN? XW didn't tell her lots of things and she is accidentally caught up in the undercover plot. It would be rather out of character at this stage if she didn't do anything to stop him taking out ZZ cos he knows too much.

Indeed. Drama characters don't do things of their own volition - they are written as such. If anything blame the writer(s)/director(s) etc for the way the plot develops.

Ach, to be fair, she's only on board with XW's plans to keep the Yans safe, and he hasn't disclosed everything to her. Her main aim in this life is to keep the people she harmed previously safe. XW doesn't really fall into that category.

Bad parenting has so much to answer for in cdramas

I'm sure he was visualising skewering both ZZ and the nutcase rebel with that one arrow. Besides I feel there was more explosive danger in his laser glare 🤩

Apparently they did 22 takes...........mamma mia

His death glares really give new meaning to "If looks could kill" 🤣

Fake XDF is very useful 😆

Too right!

Such an imbecile - should have been shot full of arrows like a pincushion today

Why isn't dumbass Xue junior dead yet?

ZZ is way too honest and goody goody to survive the cut and thrust of court politics.......... quick thinking on his feet under interrogation tho'

Max strength nuclear death glares from XW today 🤩😆

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/china-widens-abuse-crackdown-as-new-caged-woman-case-emerges
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/as-anger-grows-over-chained-woman-chinas-jiangsu-province-to-investigate

What is more problematic for me is why the author chose to write the charcters like that. Plus YL is not the only one who commits sexual assault. What was the point of the sexual violence - or was the author just out to shock/tittilate? Mostly comes across as gratuitous assault.

They get away with a lot in webnovels - probably there's just so much out there even the CCP's censorship machinery can't cope. The degradation of women in pop culture seems out of place in a modern world, but on the other hand in real life things like women being kept in cages are still happening in China.

IKR? I find myself wishing for a second part too, as long as they stay on track and don't implode as cdramas tend to do.

He forced her to cry out and moan and apparently got turned on by her fake moans and at one point tried to force her to give him an aborted blowjob. The author seems determined to plumb some murky depths. She also had YL raping JXN in the first life. But then rape/sexual assault is a very common trope in Chinese web novels usually glossed over by accidental/forced aphrodisiac ingestion......

The whole backstory is still unfolding so I don't think you missed anything up to ep 15. The marriage between the 2 families was probably a marriage of convenience and Duke Xue had no affection whatsoever for his wife. The Empress probably felt the same and looked down on XW's mother and by extension XW. Therefore it was a no brainer for her to force XW to be sacrificed for her son. After that incident and XW's mother's death, naturally the 2 families became enemies. Whether or not the Empress or her brother feel any guilt is debatable but they are determined to bury the incident as it would be a major scandal and the Yan family would demand justice.

I think there will be more than just a passionate kiss - for a preview there's a BTS floating around on YT of ZLH and BL doing 22 takes of an upcoming kiss scene.
Plus they are in bed when they have to pretend to be lovers - in the novel XW is rather depraved in that incident and am curious as to how they will portray it in the drama. In the photo gallery there's also a still of them with their kids - so HE.