Shrimpy

Most likely not her but her sister because there are two princesses.

One thing that may not be known so much internationally is that in China eunuchs often had incredible power. They had emperor puppets on the throne and were in fact the ones in charge.

So it's actually really possible that this third faction is the eunuch one. In fact, the way his living master handled that official was simply too competent and that could easily point to him being a eunuch which brings us to the theory that the masked man is the head eunuch we met.

I do think betrayal is possible, as you suggest and wouldn't that be tragic.

I know people think that the Marquis is the big bad but I am willing to bet anything there is a bigger bad here. The masters and the mask man have some major role to play.

The emperor himself does, there is no way he is letting the Marquis run around unchecked, he is too powerful. But who knows if the masked man is on his side or not. We could potentially have three groups at least, the Marquis, the Emperor and the masked man group. It is so great!

That is Zanghai's real name.

No, the previous record was 41 hours and 20 minutes by First Frost.

The sign on his arm signifies death. My personal guess is that he was sentenced to death but then pardoned by the masked man who obviously has significant political power.

He taught Zanghai for ten years and once done, his sentence is enforced. But his life was extended for those ten years which is why I think he thanks Zhinu at the end.

Zanghai exceeded 10000 heat.

It took 38 hours (and six minutes) and is a new record as the fastest drama to reach it🔥🔥🔥
Yes, there will be a poster 😂

Don't expect too much after this number because Youku has specific conditions for their heat that make it very difficult to go much beyond this unlike say with Tencent where it can climb indefinitely.

It's their own fault he is able to get close to them so quickly.

As they said in the drama, you really need a mentor and a good ten to twenty years of studying to be a master of geomancy. But the current administration is corrupt and they don't really have any competent ones because of several factors. When the head of the bureau is incompetent but powerful, he will do anything to keep the selection negative. And of course, some of the masters were either killed like Zanghai's father, reduced to labor workers like his uncle or were buried in the tombs as a sacrifice.

So when he shows up and is actually competent meaning useful to them, he is scooped up right away in a time of crisis for the powerful.

The drama though makes sure to show that in the long run, even though he was needed to solve the empress dowager issue, all his knowledge doesn't mean anything in this corrupt system where the powerful now don't need him so urgently and want to protect their offspring. So he is marked as one to sacrifice in the tombs. I think that overall this makes the situation realistic. He just used a very particular situation to get close to them.

Ok so it was a little bit complicated. Let me try to sort it out.

The late emperor was buried with his concubine, who was the current emperor's biological mother. Next the empress dowager (the current emperor's legal mother because she was the first wife of the late emperor) has just died. The court officials want the late emperor and the empress dowager to be buried together, which means that the concubine's coffin needs to be removed.

The emperor though seems to fear that that if he moved her out, the people would turn against him for being unfilial to the woman who gave birth to him. And yet if he doesn't remove her, the court officials will go against him for disregarding the ancestral etiquette.

Underneath all this happening on the surface, the emperor actually doesn't care at all about the burial arrangements. What he cares about is that the princes do not come to the capital. Most importantly, the empress dowager's biological son, Prince Linzi, because the emperor is afraid the Prince might start a rebellion (remember, the current emperor is childless and the court wants him to make Linzi the crown prince so keeping him out of the capital is paramount).

This is why Zanghai's way is perfect . It solves the surface of burying the emperor and the empress together and not letting Prince Linzi come to the capital by making him guard the eternal lamp in his fiefdom. Two for one.

ML's mother is killed when ML is a 10 year old boy. She doesn't act with Xiao Zhan, the adult version of the ML.

If you wanted to make yourself look stupid then I guess congratulations, you succeeded.

There is a reason why he is chosen by people like Zheng Xiaolong and Kong Sheng. Great acting talent that has been steadily improving through the years.

Heat broke 9500 🔥🔥

It doesn't mean he will stay that way. I wonder if what his master says in ep 5 is foreshadowing. He says that Zanghai still has things he will and will not do. So maybe that will change. He is just now experiencing the true cruelty of the court. It is bound to affect him and if he turns more hardened because of it all in his pursuit of revenge, it wouldn't surprise me at all.

One thing, among many, that this show gets right is the nobility's absolute disregard for human life, especially when it comes to the lower classes. They didn't see them as human. I think it's great that none of this is being sanitised in the drama.

Death row inmates also have these. So it's possible he was sentenced to die and then pardoned or rather, given an extension of life in order to train Zhinu. Once Zhinu leaves, the initial death sentence is enacted. He thanks him before that, which could mean he thanked him for an additional ten years of his life.

The mask man isn't a nobody. This is someone with real political power. He could have easily gotten him out of prison.

Not to mention that I think the masked man is connected to the emperor. Otherwise the emperor would be a bit too passive with someone like the marquis around.

It's because when a tomb is built, in order to protect their secrets, the people who built it are buried alive in it. This means there is nobody left who knows how to solve it and thanks to corruption now there are no new ones, who are educated enough to try. Especially as this isn't someone you can learn by yourself. You need a master. It is why ancestors builders are mentioned.

He couldn't have. If he had, they both would have died. The bad guys know there are two kids, a daughter and a son. There was no one to step into the daughter role so they would have searched harder for them. In a way, he actually saved himself by following instructions.

Because his mother tells him to take the sister to the haystack. He is a small boy, in a culture where you listen to your parents, in a violent and high stress situation.

You can't judge from a perspective of an adult looking from the outside, making judgements in a calm atmosphere.

He didn't say there are no other dramas that are similar, he said unlike a "typical one" and he is correct.

There is a fundamental difference between NiF and Zanghai and it's already pretty clear that this one difference will matter the most and that it has already determined the shape of Zanghai as a story.

Mei Changsu was already an adult with plenty of life experience when the tragedy happened and enters the story as a fully realised, powerful character who has everything set out. Zanghai was a child when his tragedy struck and he had to hide for ten years while getting his education. That isolation plus his age really influence the story because he has no real life experience and his revenge is absolutely not going to be close to MCS's well planned in advance one.

So sure, on the surface they are alike but the execution is very different. I adore NiF and am glad we have a good revenge story again but am also glad that apart from the main theme, there is a fundamental difference in execution.

Zanghai is Zanghai, not another NiF, and that is how it should be.

And that's why there is character development. It really depends on your preferences but I really like that we will get to see him evolve and become strong through success and failure. Of course, some may prefer him to be ruthless right out of the gate but considering he was a child when the tragedy occurred, not an adult or even a young adult, I like they are doing it this way.