Ti02

PM Wei Yan was in love with a girl, who was forcefully made the concubine of the previous king. They loved each other deeply, and that woman perished in the fire in the palace 17 years back. Wei Yan never wanted to get married, hence when he was forced by his family he married this woman and gave her child his name, so he is never bothered again. He could never move on.
Wei Yan and Xie Zheng have a complicated relationship, but he did love his nephew. He was strict with him since childhood because he wanted to make him grow into what he is today. Wei Yan told ML's tutor, that ML would be his successor. Wei Yan always wanted Xie Zheng to be his successor, and giving you heads up Xie Zheng follows his uncle's footsteps in the end just takes way better political decisions than his uncle.

Separate factions trying to appease the emperor. Its like different ministers wanting more power. Hence always try to demote each other, and strive for more power.

Wei Xuan captured He Jingyuan. Wei Xuan is Wei Yan's son. Wei Xuan is ML's cousin.

Yeah possible, I just thought with so much chaos, it might be a miscommunication as well. So yeah. Thanks.

Wei Xuan is not Wei Yan's son. Wei Yan married this wife of his when she was already pregnant with child. Her ex bf left her, Wei Xuan married her gave her respect, but they have no relationship. No one knows this except for the couple.
ML on the other hand is Wei Yan's own nephew, flesh and blood. While Wei Yan was always strict with him, his wife treated him good. She knows he is the only one who can be his uncle's successor. Wei Xuan is neither his blood nor has the capability so.

One rejected the girl. One got rejected by the girl. The first girl got engaged to a guy. The guy is supposedly having a crush on the second girl. It would fun when all the 5 of them meet together later.
Poor lonely friends.

Okay the first part, I also have the same confusion despite reading the novel. But ig it was just a miscommunication on the part of the guy, Yan Zheng's name was registered, and maybe someone just put a tick mark or something.
Do you really want to know the angle of the Weis? No its not the swapping thing lol!

Right right.

Lord Wei is Wei Yan, prime minister, ML's uncle.
There is only one emperor, the one who is puppet, gets scared and is torn between Grand tutor Li and PM Wei Yan. He is a puppet, a little dumb, has no such power. We have to see what he does to understand him better, till now he seems okay.
Prince Changxin is a warlord, he is related to the royal family somehow, maybe cousin or something of the previous emperor. He has too sons, the Sui brothers, they are the Sui family. They are rebelling against royal regime. They first tried to incite people to barge into Linan town in lieu of being grain collection when ML failed their plan, they are now declaring a war.

We don't know the exact episode but it should be 22-24 something. Nope it doesn't happen like that but it would have been fun if that happened.

The current emperor is a young one, he doesn't have children, like even if he has, they are small. His wife, the empress is the grand daughter of Grand Tutor Lei, and sister to Li Hai An/Wenkan.
The previous emperor, current's emperor's dad had 16 children. The eldest was the crown prince. His title was Prince Chengde. He died in the battle 17 years back along with ML's father, due to troops not coming to help at the right time.
Emperor's favourite son was the 16th one, but he too died in that battle. Soon after emperor passed away in grief. Prime Minister Wei Yan supported one of the princes, and made him the emperor, who is now currently.
Prince Changxin, is someone from the royal family, but like a cousin or something, he and the previous emperor were cousins. He is a warlord now.He has no right on the throne. He has 2 children, Sui Yuanhuai (if I am not mistaking the name), and Sui Yuanqing. Elder Sui is Qi Min. Qi Min is not his son, but was swapped, Prince Changxin or his younger son and others are not aware of this fact. Yu Qian Qian was a concubine of Qi Min, and have a son Bao'er. Qi Min is actually the legitimate heir of the throne, he is the dead crown prince's son.
Qi Shu is a royal princess, step sister of Qi Min and current emperor, she is engaged to Li Huai An, but is in love with ML's friend/strategist Gongsun Yin, whose family do not hold any official power, but are just scholars.

No one is actually on anyone's side. Qi Min does seem to support his adoptive family, but has his own goals, wants to use ML to get back his throne and defeat Wei Yan, whom he considers responsible for the incident 17 years back. ML hates his uncle and cousin Wei Xuan and vice versa. He wants to know the truth. Sui Family want to create chaos so that people become against the royal regime. Li family want power, are opportunists. Wei Family is dangerous.
Li Huai An seemingly isn't bad, while he and ML might not be friends, they used to study together once, and did form alliance for saving Linan town.
He Jingyuan is the prefect of the town of Linan, he was an old acquaintance of FL's parents and hence wants to protect the sisters. But He Jingyuan also works under Wei family, and follows their orders.
Wei Xuan, Wei Yan's son wants to control Xie Army, after ML's apparent death and wants to defeat Prince Changxin and Sui Family to achieve military success.

Here the politics is difficult. There are good people and bad people. But it does not necessarily mean that good people have formed alliance together, or bad people have formed alliance together. Everyone have their own objectives to fulfill.

Yesss

Yeah same I don't like the trope as well. But when I read the novel, it felt very natural, so I am seated for the angst as well.

No no never. He never blamed her. In fact in the novel, during the breakup, he cried, held her, told her how much he loves her. Then told her that despite that love, how could he date the girl whose parents killed his. It would be unbearable and he couldn't face his parents. But no he never blamed her not for once, he was way mature than that.
She told him, she doesn't believe her parents could do something like that, so she will fight for the truth to give justice to both his and her parents. That was a pretty well done emotional breakup.
If they keep this in the drama it should be good.

Lol! Yeah yeah, there will be a lot of romance, its just the times would be of political games and war, in midst of them romance. Till now it was basically happy times, comedy, romance, village, so yeah! That's changing!

Well she was the only woman in the army. She protected two cities, gained up power pretty soon. Doesn't make a lot sense, but yeah it is how it is.
LHA, lets see.

She saved him too. He saved his wife, the girl he loves. She saved him when he was a complete stranger, gave a roof over his head.
No ML and FL are on the same side, just different camps. Yes LHA in the novel also had a crush on her, not something very huge.

When his identity was revealed, FL told him their marriage is void, because his name isn't what it was in the marriage. So they don't need a divorce, they are not considered married. Yes they are in love, and in a relationship later, but she its not a marriage anymore.

But yes the third one was an actual breakup. Honestly from my perspective, this is easier said than done. If I am in love with a person, and I come to know that the person's family was responsible for killing mine deliberately, I wouldn't want to stay as well. We as an audience feel differently, but the character feeling that isn't wrong. While FL grew up with love, pampering with her parents, for 18 years, ML struggled, saw his dad never returning, saw his dad's body on the city gate tied down, saw his mother's suicide. Its really difficult.
I love the way they patch up though. He tries to forget her, not think about her. But he cries, fails, can no longer live without her. So he goes to his Xie family mansion. They had a concept that if you do something wrong, take 108 lashes, for it. So he takes 108 lashes, kneels and apologizes to his parents' tablets, tells them that FL is not at fault for what her family did, apologizes for falling for their killer's daughter, tells them that he wants to still be with her. He goes apologizes to FL, tells her regardless of everything he wants to be with her. He needed that break, honestly if he heard about it, and became that understanding within one second, it would have been weird. I am glad he didn't require FL's parents innocence to get back with her.

The Romcom era ends today!
Am I excited for the plot, war, political games, angst? YES.
Am I crying that happy times are over? ABSOLUTELY.

Nope. Her father had a good business, that's her father's house, inherited by her. She was struggling only for sometime, when the house could be taken any moment from her, when she did not re start the business. Now she is not struggling. She even helped Zhao uncle and aunt by paying for them in the last episode, buying things in the market. She is doing fairly well now, after doing business with Qian Qian.