arpar

I don't think she really put her on guard against the empress dowager, as even she said at the time she had no idea what he meant, she didn't understand his meaning at all, she simply just listened to what he said. So she wasn't on guard she followed his words that they were linked, without understanding the real meaning behind telling her to get the edict.

I think also her appearance of intelligence was actually just confidence that she knew best and that confidence came from her master and her aloofness. She trusted her master immensely and believed he could never be wrong, almost god like, like seeing him conjure rain. Thus, her belief in her master, made her confident that choosing the empress dowager was never wrong. Thus she appeared calm and calculating, but the moment her she started thinking her master may be a fraud or was wrong was, thats when her personality started changing or I think showing her true personality. I honestly never saw her as smart, she never showed herself to be that smart I think thats just a feeling people got, instead she simply stayed calm at all times and enforced loyalty to the empress dowager, she was protective of the empress dowager and thats where all her actions came from, thats what gave her the feeling of being calm and calculative.

But her core personality was also naive and someone quite innocent. She was used by the emperor from when she was quite young, and easily manipulated by the empress dowager and her master, showing in fact she was never that smart but quite innocent and young. If we look at her actions, she never really did anything to show she was that smart, she simply was constantly loyal to the empress dowager. The belief that she was smart did not come from her actions or anything she did really, it simply came from her aloofness and her appearance of confidence. Also she had no reason to question her master or ED, before she had no idea they had a connection so no previous to think he was let down by empress dowager, but again I think her core personality has always been someone naive and sheltered, which is quite common for people we see stuck in the palace or nobility, they are often naive and sheltered but put on a face of confidence.

I would also just quickly say you can absolutely use red herrings with character depictions, for instance think about characters that everyone thinks is nice and good, depicted to audiences as completely benevolent, but turn out to be the evil mastermind, thats a red herring using character depictions, this case its just in reverse. She comes of as aloof and calculating and confident, when it fact she's naive and innocent.

I do agree on the question of how did marquis and ED not know she had the edict as they would just question the ye family, I think though hopefully we'll found out in the next ep, as it seems like her and fl have a discussion so I believe or at least hope it will come out then.

Also even with the edict I'm not sure how she could save her master. Its two different crimes really, her master was in trouble for the fire at the palace, the edict would have only helped prince ding, her master would have still pretty much been screwed. And she honestly has no reason to save prince ding, could be seen as a bit ruthless or cold hearted but prince ding's affairs have nothing to do with her.

This is all just how I see it though.

No problem

Pretty much back then there was a drought, her master made it seem like he could make it rain by painting a dragon, he made it seem like by painting the dragon he summoned the rain. But fl was showing, he simply predicted it would rain and painted the dragon he had no like mystical powers or anything to summon the rain. So she exposed him as being a fraud, uncle was mad at fl because he saw how upset consort was, fl exposed him a fraud hurt consort deeply as she greatly looked up to and cared for her master.

Thats only one reason she doubted the empress let me explain the main reason, I commented this below so its a copy of my previous comment below;
In ep 25, when fl and her senior brother visited consort Qin, just before that conosrt Qin heard two scholars talking about her master, and how her master once made a poem talking about hibiscus, if you remember that scene. So when consort Qin asks empress dowager her childhood name near the end and its furong which means hibiscus, pretty much it confirmed to consort Qin that the empress dowager and her master had a relationship in the past, as the poem he made was about her, when he was saying hibiscus he was actually talking about empress dowager's childhood name furong. So the whole time her master helped her and told her to stay close to the empress dowager in the past, he was working for the empress, he did it on her orders.

So pretty much by exposing her childhood name as furong, consort Qin was able to confirm empress dowager and her master had a relationship and manipulated her in the past.

This is likely why she ends up giving the edict to fl, because she realizes she was betrayed by her master and empress dowager, the only reason her master told her to stay close to the empress dowager was because he was working for her all along.

As for the dragon, fl simply did to to show her master was a fake, her had no real special ability or anything, what he did anyone could do if they just studied the right things.

No problem and ikr I feel for her, definitely sad

I can't say it enough, the whole reveal between consort Qin, her master, empress dowager and the whole hibiscus connection was so unexpected and so well down, I love it. This is why sometimes you just have to wait and see what happens, I know some people were questioning why consort Qin kept the edict but now it makes so much sense. In the end her master knew he was just used by the empress dowager and discarded, so to ensure the same thing didn't happen to consort Qin, who I feel like he did care for in the end, he made sure she had insurance of her own.

Like I also knew fl would get he edict somehow, but I thought she would use the divination and celestial stuff to trick consort Qin and make herself seen like, for a lack of a better phrase, 'the chosen one', but instead she used tit o to expose consort Qin's master as being a fraud and also expose the connection with empress dowager, so so smart but also like a fellow commenter on here mentioned before, ruthless as well. Completely just destroyed consort Qin's image of her master and empress dowager, the two people she probably cared about most.

In ep 25, when fl and her senior brother visited consort Qin, just before that conosrt Qin heard two scholars talking about her master, and how her master once made a poem talking about hibiscus, if you remember that scene. So when consort Qin asks empress dowager her childhood name and its furong which means hibiscus, pretty much it confirmed to consort Qin that the empress dowager and her master had a relationship in the past, as the poem he made was about her, when he was saying hibiscus he was actually talking about empress dowager's childhood name furong which means hibiscus. So the whole time her master helped her and told her to stay close to the empress dowager in the past, he was working for the empress, he did it on her orders.

So pretty much by exposing her childhood name as furong, consort Qin was able to confirm empress dowager and her master had a relationship and manipulated her in the past.

This is likely why she ends up giving the edict to fl, because she realizes she was betrayed by her master and empress dowager, the only reason her master told her to stay close to the empress dowager was because he was working for her all along.

Ikr, empress dowager exposed herself and she doesn't even realize.

In ep 25, when fl and her senior brother visited consort Qin, just before that conosrt Qin heard two scholars talking about her master, and how her master once made a poem talking about hibiscus, if you remember that scene. So when consort Qin asks empress dowager her childhood name and its furong which means hibiscus, pretty much it confirmed to consort Qin that the empress dowager and her master had a relationship in the past, as the poem he made was about her. So the whole time her master helped her and told her to stay close to the empress in the past, he was working for the empress, he did it on her orders.

So pretty much by exposing her childhood name as furong, consort Qin was able to confirm empress dowager and her master had a relationship and manipulated her in the past.

This is likely why she ends up giving the edict to fl, because she realizes she was betrayed by her master and empress dowager, the only reason her master told her to stay close to the empress dowager was because he was working for her all along.

No problem

No problem hope you enjoy

No 25 is really good, no anger or angst just yet, leads still going strong

Hahaha same whenever they don't show the body I get hope, thank god he's still alive

Qin cang isn't dead, was confirmed in ep 25 he's alive

So true well said, the emotion in his eyes is heartbreaking, right now he's the only person who knows what she's gone through up the mountain, so he made sure he was extra reassuring

Honestly I hate to say it but unlikely, theres a chance though, heat index always goes up on weekends and theres a variety show called hi Saturday, the cast of first jasmine is on it tomorrow, casts of different dramas go on to promote their drama, every time it airs normally heat goes up for that drama. So theres a chance this weekend, but if it doesn't get it this weekend, then it won't. Fingers crossed it gets it this weekend.

Oh yeh 100 percent, totally ruthless, I really like that about her honestly as well, just like earlier when she killed those two enemies near the very start, ruthless when she sets her mind on something.

Yeh same, I always knew she kept it for some kind of insurance or something, but not for this reason and the connection between empress dowager and her master was so unexpected.

For sure she's definitely a grey character, honestly she hasn't done anything evil or bad I can remember, she's just been on the fence. Honestly, when it was first revealed she had the edict I saw a few comments upset, I tried to say then lets wait before we judge and honestly I think it paid off, the reveal of empress dowager and her masters connection was great. Also I expect fl to use divination/celestial stuff to trick consort to give the edict, instead she simply used it to prove her master was a trickster, so smart.

Ikr, she kept herself so composed even though she must be heartbroken and her emotions must be in like turmoil.

Really smart how she got empress dowagers childhood name without giving anything away. For sure, we know she gives the edict to fl but I'm so curious to see what she does after.

Fingers crossed it gets there cause this drama deserves it but also its much harder to reach 30k heat on tencent and 10k heat on iqiyi then Youku, Youku its much easier to reach 10k. For example, to reach 10k heat on Youku normally you only need around 30ish million viewers, but for 30k on tencent and 10k on iqiyi you need at least 40 million plus viewers minimum normally a lot more, so much easier to reach on Youku.