Jenna

ngl... the opera singing is kinda annoying me.

agreed! it's not so much her personality has changed as now she has the freedom to relax enough to smile more and not look over her shoulder and wonder who is going to get her killed every few minutes lol it could be that her more carefree side was just repressed and her real personality is peaking out

this was the normal age of marriage in these times, pretty much as soon as a girl started her menstrual cycles, she would be considered old enough to marry. Sad but true. :(

When the writers throw in a random character/plot point so quickly that you get whiplash from not only them entering the show before you can remember their face/name but also from them going straight into kamikaze mode after a single brief meeting with the ML... then the plot is not plotting correctly and it's a slap in the face to the show's pacing and feel thus far. I mean... we got a new villain, and new villain's family's plot, a new side plot introduction of the opera and possibly the FL not realizing she wanted to be an opera writer when she grew up, 1 stupid-expensive potted plant, 2 back-to-back kidnappings, a ghost in a trunk, a random plot point about the previous emperor's crown prince, and a partridge in a pear tree... all in a SINGLE 40-min episode. Just... WHUT??? What happened? WHY? drama had heavy edits? It was BEYOND jarring. I'm still in it for the long haul but I never realized how much I was truly immersed into the drama until this episode shredded it all so quickly! :(

ok ok so ep 22 disappointments etc let me just say... this drama started out giving me all the Story of Minglan feels even all the way up to ep 20ish?, but I'm once again reminded by ep 22 that there may never ever be another drama that can reach/come close to how I feel about the Story of Minglan's greatness.

I'm loving this drama but the background music sometimes is so loud and the pitch of it hurts my brain lol >_<

maybe right :) however "reality" was much more complicated is all I was pointing out so no matter how out of touch a rich person was the truth actually aligned a bit with my comment. The reason they can't fathom it is because most slaves would have never asked for such a thing even if they could read etc. They were lulled into a sense of contentment with rewards and "shelter" etc. <33

It may be very much like prisoners being set free after a long period of time. Oft times they don't know how to integrate back into society properly, have hard time getting jobs etc. and actually commit crimes to go back in on purpose. Of course, everyone wants to be free but slaves (at bare minimum) have somewhere to live + FL's dad and FL were making a wage from their masters, so, they didn't have to worry about a roof over their head or food or "finding a job". In the ML's mom's eyes, they treated their slaves extremely fairly (up to a point) and she probably also knew that some slaves who left their master's "care" would then be fending for their selves. If they didn't have any way of earning a wage (any talents or whatever) then they'd have a pretty hard time outside of the controlled environment of being a slave. In the US when slaves were freed, this is why you saw that many "freed" slaves stayed on with their "masters". For many, the fear of the unknown + the psychological shackles kept them in slavery long after physical shackles were removed :(

FL's "father" is a piece of work. Gaslighting, acting a different part depending on who he's in front of... and his interest/interaction with the FL gave me the ICK!

this drama is a fav. watching again!!

thanks! never would have figured that out lol ^_^ I enjoyed First Jasmine!

what is MoLi? ^_^

it's definite that someone was backing them (FL pointed out the expensive gifts they got in return) I think they originally only came to level up and when they realized they couldn't get her married to the ML they got greedy, accepted bribes to destroy the family for promises of wealth/status. I don't think they personally had ulterior motives other than GREED but they were fine with being USED by people with ulterior motives... as long as it benefited them. They were greedy and lacked any kind of decency when it came to brotherhood ties.

The evil nanny/maid is so over the top speaking out, acting crazy, and running around! in a family like this she'd be dead 10x over already.

yay! something else to watch along with Against the Current!!

forgot all about waiting for this but now it's been so long since I watched season 1, I'll need to do a binge of that one first! here we gooooo

Story of Minglan, The Sword & the Brocade, Love Like the Galaxy, A Dream of Splendor, Blossoms in Adversity, maybe The Rise of Nig and perhaps Jun Jiu Ling? Also A Splendid Match :)

I blame you for the $22 I just spent on the special hardcover 😅🥰😘

SO we finally are seeing some real appreciative glances from the ML for our FL and the FL really did shine in these episodes! The DU sister is seriously playing her subtle games. Her brother seemed unaware of her setting him up to "accidentally" meet up with the ML's sister, but, I can't be sure. Sometimes I feel like he knows and goes along with it and then kind of PRETENDS not to know to also give himself an out. If so, he's the kind of guy who would be able to blame it all on his sister and walk away blameless. Also, that look & clenched fist when ML gets out of prison? Jealousy. You can feel it oozing even while he kept a smile on his face. The other sister who keeps observing the DU sister knows she's shady. She also notices the set up of DU sister entangling her brother with ML's sister, swapping out her being so upset over the canceled engagement with DU brother's handsome profile LOL Now she's skipping around elated that the guy she fell in love at first sight with wasn't who she thought it was. ML's sis is being played beautifully and she's in for either a very hard time/falling into a beautiful trap OR she's going to get a harsh reality check that might save her. Also... the preview showed DU sis listening to ML's sis bemoan her fate about marrying an old guy and she's ranting how she could care less about titles etc. DU sis seems upset that what comes so easily to ML's sis (marrying high ranked old man) she actually has to scheme for?? or maybe I'm wrong. What do you think?

EP 13/14 thoughts: