dizzeedollee

That's why I think it's a balance. Imagine if she was told, 'Shaoguang, one day you're going to transmigrate and fall in love with this guy called Lin Yan,' I wouldn't be surprised if she thought a) you're crazy, and b) wow, so much pressure! What if I don't want to fall in love with him?!

So it's kind of necessary for them to go in blind without any expectation.

And there's also that cliched time travel thing where they don't want to erase all the memories and experiences that brought them together in the first place (i.e., if they didn't go through those trials, tribulations, and misunderstandings they wouldn't have fallen in love in the first place). Let me quote from Doctor Who:

Doctor: 'Time can be rewritten.'
River Song: 'Not those times. Not one line. Don't you dare.'

Any fun theories on how they will resolve the ancestor misunderstanding? 😄

Considering the limited scientific methods of the time period, I'm wondering if it will be a bodily thing like the family was told by grandpa (the one in the flashback in EP1) that their ancestor has a mole or mark in XYZ area and that will make them realise Lin Yan is not the ancestor, because he doesn't have that mark? In which case, I feel like Liu Chang is the best candidate for being the true ancestor since his background is quite similar to Lin Yan's.

Regarding then why they think Lin Yan is the ancestor, my guess is that it's a kind of grandfather paradox? If Shaoguang and the Shens didn't travel back in time, Shaoguang would never have met and fallen in love with Lin Yan. But if they traveled back and didn't think Lin Yan was their ancestor, maybe they never would have gone to find him to survive in those early days and so they never would have met that way either. So I wonder if they deliberately told a white lie to their descendants and asked them to pass down the story that Lin Yan is their ancestor so that they would have the opportunity to meet in the future? 🤔

I love the novel so I was a bit confused as to why they made such a huge change, but I really like it! I like how they have ups and downs as a family, and that this is a proper romCOM (so many 'romcoms' are mostly romances with a little bit of comedy) hehe.

In the novel Lin Yan is not Shaoguang's ancestor. They have zero pre-existing relationship.

Lmao I really hope so!

Yes I agree, I don't think it's been drawn out at all. It's only been the past 2-3 episodes that Shaoguang has been wrestling with her conflicted feelings and that's amongst all the political and restaurant drama plus the Grand Princess and Censor Pei's story.

I don't know how many people would be ok with falling in love with someone they thought was their ancestor, especially as the family quite clearly stated that they believe if Lin Yan didn't marry Lady Shen, they (our Shen family) would be erased from existence.

We know it's a HE so let's have a nice slow burn for once.

The novel is quite different. Only Shaoguang transmigrated and her Tang dynasty family were all dead. I don't recall any mention of her family from the modern day, but I might be forgetting - either way they don't appear. Her Tang dynasty family (or it might have been Lin Yan's, can't remember now 😅) appears in the extras where the author 'reimagines' the story as if they hadn't died, but it was only the one chapter in the extras.

The novel was more slice of life than romance and focused on Shaoguang building her restaurant empire, so there was a lot of emphasis on thinking up recipes, diner feedback, and all the ins and outs of running a restaurant (e.g., hiring staff, craftsmen, thinking of activities to drum up interest, sabotage from competitors, etc). The romance only started gaining momentum about (iirc) two thirds of the way in. The plot with Lin Yan uncovering the political plot was present, but was definitely not the focus of the novel.

Omg EP20 preview, is Ms Du going to be the spitting image of Gongcai's wife?! Let him have a happy ending and Yang Yang have a mother back in her life please :')

Edit: Lmao I was too excited, just watched EP21 preview and this is indeed that case hahaha

Li Yunrui is doing a really great job here! He's stoic without being wooden and I like how subtle he plays LY's conflicted feelings.

Although I have to say (because I am a biased fan who wants to spread the love hahaha) that he is being dubbed by Zhang Fuzheng who is my favourite male VA, his voice is soooo soothing 🥰

Yes! 吃醋 literally means eat/drink vinegar, but can also mean to be jealous :)

I really enjoyed the novel, but just to manage your expectations, the novel is very different and leans more on the slice of life aspect with less comedy :)

Hahaha when Lin Yan said 'I'm not used to eating vinegar(y foods)' in the EP14 preview I almost choked on my tea 😂

Not sure why you don't consider successfully building a life in Yong'an and solving the mystery behind both the ML's father's wrongful convictions and the disaster relief funds embezzlement case 'goals', but ok mate.

It's ok not to like the slice of life genre, but there's no need to be so insulting and rude. Kindness is free 🫰

It should be! The novel is set in the Tang Dynasty and the costumes and some of the comments (e.g., they prefer a fuller figure) point to the Tang Dynasty :)

It's probably also being downvoted by people who a) didn't realise that this is a slice of life and were expecting constant, fast-paced action, and b) are too impatient to unravel the mystery of the 'ancestor' and think it's showing true incest.

You mean the donghua released by iQIYI last year? The end of season 1 was just a cliffhanger. Season 2 should be the final season and is supposed to air this year. If both the donghua and drama follow the novel's ending it will be a HE, don't worry. The 'official' end of the novel is a HE, but the ending in the extras/epilogue is even happier. I won't say too much so as not to spoil the plot, but I strongly believe they will follow the ending in the extras/epilogue :)

Yes both are dubbed :) They didn't assign the voice actor's name to the character in the credits at the end, but Shaoguang is being dubbed by 段艺璇 and Lin Yan is being dubbed by 张福正.

In the novel there is another man who is interested in Shaoguang, but he barely appears so I wouldn't consider him 2ML or a third person/love triangle. She rejects him politely but firmly, and he respects that and doesn't bother her again iirc.
Lin Yan has a couple of admirers and iirc someone he was supposed to be engaged to, but they also don't feature heavily and he rejects them anyway.

Ok if you don't mind it's called How Dare You!/成何体统. It's transmigration with court politics and some romance (I say 'some' because it doesn't overwhelm or drive the plot, but even a romance hater like me enjoyed their romance!). It starts off as a comedy (and is very funny), but becomes more high stakes and emotional as the story goes on.

The drama version is called How Are You? and will be released next year I believe. If they follow the novel, including the extras/epilogue, then it's a HE with both retaining their memories (I believe there's a strong chance they will following the novel's ending, don't ask me why though because it will spoil the plot 😊). In the meantime, I highly recommend the donghua (animation) version - season 1 was released last year on iQIYI and season 2 (should be the final season) should be coming out this year.

As you might be able to tell, I love this novel haha

If they follow the novel it's a HE! But I won't say anymore than that hehe

Tbh I didn't notice any major differences from the novel in season 1. There were some minor things but that was more because they were adding in references to recent Chinese memes, etc., but I thought overall the donghua was quite a faithful adaptation.