TaliaToo

And yet, it is not his choice that made me angry all those years ago when I mourned the novel’s end. It was that he picked someone so smart who became so blind. 😆

Your moving tribute is the best reward to a writer. ✍️
But yeah, it sucketh.

It is TH's creative choice, though, so I find that very telling :).

But I love LMLMV first half (watched that multiple times) and end! It's the sweetest and best boringest eating tour ever. Xiang Liu, I mean, xiang Liu's dubber was amazing :).

And he could sing!

It takes a lot to get drunk.

Ahhh. It happens. Hope the next one gives you the pleasure!

Sure. I spent decades carving a magic ice snowball with a come get my heart mermaid to a merman for my friend too. It was just a friendship message, no big deal. Why choo misunderstand me like dat and go dress in red and sit on that seashell? It's not what choo think!

ahaaa...ahaaa....ahaaaa.... XL's slow BeeGees bgm.

In Season 1, CX felt XL sucking on WXL's neck and assumed some kinky things were happening....

Oh now we're talking about LLTG, my Other Passion, heh. Let me first say something about Wu Lei and Zhao LuSi as actors. Wu Lei was a child star who was also 22 (WXY's current age) in LLTG. It was, I think, his second "serious" kiss scene and the BTS showed he was a bit shy about it. He was famous for probably the best Chinese drama of the last ten years, the epic Nirvana in Fire, which ranks #1 on many, many people's list, including mine. His child/manchild role in that drama was amazing and showcased his acting and martial arts abilities. Back to LLTG, he played a character totally opposite of Su Guo Gong--he was neither sensuous or sophisticated. In fact, he was the epitome of a soldier who had spent most of his life fighting--not much family manners, very arrogant (as General, he was probably king among his men), totally badass when it came to treating enemies. Duke Su was a more civilized version of Ling BuYi. The only time Ling BuYi ever soften was for his Niao Niao.

Now, as for Lu Si, as an actress, she is totally unafraid of looking ugly while crying or being angry (something a few actresses won't do). As she grew more in control of her career, she has started to make suggestions to the directors, improving on scenes with dialogue and shot changes (got this via BTS). Her one thing that made her my favorite actress (OK, two things, because her comedic timing is priceless) is she is unafraid of taking on different roles. Like I said, she hasn't tried a WJY-edgy revenge-biotch role yet, but it might be the coming Pearl Girl. I have not read that novel, so not sure.

Back to LLTG character, Shao Shang. She was also the antithesis of the clever and educated Xue Fang Fei. Her ability to fight back was purely physical using her naturally imbued engineering smarts, which was what made LLTG a delight. Shao Shang had been starved and humiliated over and over, but she would not be beaten down when it came to those who bullied her.

Now to the book itself. Whereas the author of The Double loved language and double entendres, this author LOVED playing with symbolism and names. For example, Ling BuYi literally could be the clue out there for everyone--he is BU (not) Yi. LOL. Also, Shao Shang string is the seventh string on the qin and it's called the Military String (and thus is strong enough for General Ling BuYi). That her mother nicknamed her Niao Niao was just hilarious because obvious her mother wanted a docile, gentle, sweet daughter and Shao Shang was none of that, LOL. There are more fun examples of this author's name playing as well as different symbols throughout the novel that the drama picked up on and I was able to enjoy.

Anyway, both dramas are indeed masterpieces. LLTG, however, was done when it was feasible to break the dramas up into two seasons and air them back to back (before new rule of not allowing that), thus it could expand a lot more on the characters' growth and journey. Even so, the powers-that-be made the director cut out ten episodes in the second "season," which made the last five episodes suffer greatly. So many things are out of the director's control these days.

One thing hilarious about the directors of both dramas--LLTG's director was like the Father Shipper of the characters, LOL. He was constantly trying to get Wu Lei to kiss Lu Si a little bit more intimately and every time he succeeded, he would jump up and down in glee (so funny in the BTS). NOT SO for the extremely conservative director of The Double, who just seem to be shy about skinship.

Lastly, Zhao LuSi would be FABULOUS paired with WYZ. She is known for being able to squeeze every drop of chemistry juice from her male stars (and, except for one, I totally agree). Lu Si, in all her roles, need a very strong ML to pair with her or she would eat him up, acting-wise. I believe, after watching WYZ as Duke Su, he would have a good time acting with Lu Si. She is funny (so is he), loves to be goofy, jokes around on the set but is also very good at her craft. She is also very savvy on her media platforms and WYZ would have lots of fun doing daily Douyin/Insta/Youtube shorts with her. You know what? I would love to see LuSi do the ultimate revenge FL by the author of the Double--Malicious Empress--and have WXY as the ML for this one too. It would also be a challenge for him because the ML here is totally opposite of Duke Su.

Sorry for this long post! You started it, ha.

I believe the OP was trying to pinpoint the exact moment that she told him face-to-face, which never quite happened. The closest was in front of the grave. But, overall, yes, he knew from the very beginning.

She was very obviously telling him who she was while standing with him in front of the grave. First she eulogized herself, then she eulogized Jiang Li and lamented that she failed to protect her.

It’s actually the other way round. He helped her with the shoe strap, touching her foot. His heart rate went up to 143 during the game. He was all staring at her dance moves. LOL DiDi has a big crush, calling her Beauty instead of jiejie. During BTS interviews, he kept insisting she saw him topless (in that scene) when in fact she was in the trailer. She reminded him of that and then he brought up the waterfall scene. DiDi wanted acknowledgment that she saw his muscles LOL. 😂

Great review’ I want a blog going through each important scene. lol.

Yes, that book was my heart-book ten years ago and I loved Xiang Liu as my top fave C-novel book of all time but it's too depressing this year and I don't feel like going through all the angst I went through reading it LOLOL. So, back to watching The Double for me!

I knew it would do well.

Welcome to our obsession ha ha

Yes, when I rewatch (which is often!), I watch Episode 1, then skip to Episode 5 and I'm all happy! But I also rewatch the scene where she sent the basket of rags to Ling BuYi and he figured out the clue she was giving him and like Duke Su, he realized how clever his girl was, haha.

I LOVE THIS SO MUCH. lol. I'm saving the link in Favorites forevah!