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I believe the doctor used to experiment on himself first before using it on huayong hence why both of them significantly aged over the relatively short time period.

The crown prince being missing was explained in the novels in much more detail. before the mutiny happened he discovered that there was a cure existing in a village/mountain but there was no guarantee it would work. Because he loved Xihe and wanted the child to rule, he knew that false hope could be dangerous and that she would drop everything to be with him so he did not tell anyone about the treatment and only his doctor accompanied him. In the novel though the treatment takes 6 years and then he finally returns just like in the drama.

I personally felt like unlike most dramas this one actually did have quite some build up to him actually falling for her.
In the beginning we see him giving the life saving flower to her, a complete stranger. i'd argue that rather than love it was just a hint of empathy and his signature cunning nature. He noticed that she was the princess of the northwest and maybe he even felt slightly attracted to her which led to him offering her the flower. From what we've seen of huayong he doesnt seem like the type of guy to offer things without looking at the future outcomes. He also mentions several times that before falling for her he genuinely did not care about his life so I believe that up until that point the flower and all the treatments he was getting were just a means to an end to him in order to live longer and eventually find who poisoned him and arguably Xihe was a much more powerful future ally that would aid him in his search.

Next about the love aspect, I think Huayong himself did not come to love Xihe instantly. Yes, like you said he was attracted to her, he found her cunning nature and wit equal to his and naturally she is beautiful, But we must consider the fact that he is a terminally ill man and when someone is about die and they tend to hold onto anything that gives them hope. I believe he truly began to love her only after he started being afraid of the day when one day she would be alone as opposed to when he used to be afraid of him having to leave her and not being able to see her (which was after a long time into their marriage).

thirdly the re-incarnation plot - personally I think dramas have 2 routes with these plots: explain it or don't. Imo what they did with this drama was perfect because Xihe is not someone that dwells on the past, she did not just re-incarnate but the 2 souls fused. She wasn't very attached to living in her previous life and it is hinted that she always acted out of duty to her family. Now i dont see why she would want to know how all of this came to happen because all she can think about is how best to protect her family and herself unlike what she did in her past life. She doesn't have any relatives from the past she is attached to nor does she want to return so why should she?

I genuinely wonder if you watched this drama carefully because it was clearly mentioned in the start that her former husband always had an unrequited love for her and that she was forced to marry him because of her duty to her family. Its quite obvious he has a possessive nature and does not truly love her the way huayong does. She put her past life behind her and tried to protect her new family and it took a very long time for her to actually love huayong. And the reason why she doesn't marry her ex was further clarified and it was purely because his maternal family was too powerful and would never grant her freedom much like her past life which she would know first hand.

Also isn't the plot you mentioned more generic where a woman re-incarnates and finds out that her ex was actually a really nice guy and that losing her made him a "changed man" etc. and then settling for the same person? this drama went a completely different route by giving us an FL that put her past behind her and resolved to live and protect was dear to the soul she fused with. Towards the end we even see her ex acknowledge that she was born with the ability to rule the world but the difference is that huayong always acknowledged this fact and gave her his partnership with mutual respect and any support she needed instead of caging her in his fantasies.

yeahh especially after the scene where he just kept stuffing himself because the watch said "hungry"

To be fair he's in his 40s, everyone around him is successful and he is losing hope. Naturally he feels good when others fail because it makes him feel like less of an idiot. His friends hate being around him and in fact he probably has anxiety and depression considering how his heart rate randomly shoots up and how he eats so much to fill the void. There's also nothing going on in his life so he recounts the same old stories so that he gets a chance to simply talk.

is he a "good" person? no. but then again is anyone truly perfect?

I think I finally found the drama that's going to get me out of my slump!

he's poor, driven and even has a great peer group but still failing in every aspect and he's so immature to a fault (so unique compared to all the dramas i've seen before). The fact that he still holds onto their "friendship" because he hates being alone, even though they belittle him and he feels miserable around them struck a cord with me( i can totally see myself crying over this show).

I'm guessing since the watch is still in its beta stages it doesn't correlate to emotions well for each individual yet and maybe his "hunger" is more of depression?

Yes, but its not very complex its more about music and bonding as a band

I finished watching it and there is romance but hardly any, its more of a found family and music focused tv show

yeah that was the catalyst for sheng to realize that qingyu liked him but I feel like she kept trying to deny anything was going on and the truth came out through her writing because deep down she was so bothered by the prospect.
Since they changed her passion for writing and calligraphy to dance, I assume that they'll have to adapt that as her dancing out her jealousy? (since they also changed their first encounter to them meeting while she was dancing instead of her doing calligraphy) lol that sounds ridiculous when I write it...but maybe since ML is also into music he might get the drift of what she's trying to express.

yeah honestly they could even end it at the confession because the epilogue was barely 2 chapters

I wouldn't say good relationship but it doesn't get toxic, mumu feels guilty about what she did to qingyu and sheng especially when she sees how heartbroken sheng is over qingyu leaving. She gets closer to qingyu (even qingyu's overbearing mother approves of their friendship) and they stay friends (they are especially close because both have only each other).

Eventually when mumu leaves for college she cuts contact with sheng but occasionally writes letters to qingyu talking about college experiences. (When she cut contact with sheng everyone in class assumed they were in a relationship including qingyu but this never led to any confrontation)

In the novel its heavily implied that mumu had feelings for him but the FL couldn't decide if they were purely from a sibling sort of love or from a romantic pov. I'm personally leaning towards the romantic pov purely because of how she acts in the drama, the nervousness, the avoid eye contact, etc. hints to that imo.

From what I read in the novel, this story should progress from high school to university and if we are lucky we might get an epilogue of their future life.

Yes, it has romance.

Its not really a tragedy, its mainly a family member uncovering the life of someone who already passed away. Personally I didn't get as affected because we already know that they are dead (as opposed to watching them die after getting attached). Majority of the show is just toxic parents dealing with grief and how a society vilifies a dead girl.

See I personally have mixed thoughts...

They don't really show her parenting skills pre-Beiyu incident (besides ofc, her abandoning beiyu in the village and not being bold enough to bring her back) but honestly a lot of parents who are struggling financially choose to leave behind their children with relatives until they are stable enough to live together. One could also argue that she didn't know her daughter well enough to be able to distinguish whether she truly wanted to stay away from her parents and just took her response at face value.

Post-Beiyu we see her clearly grieving, and perhaps most of it is guilt...Like qingyu says on multiple instances her parents were responsible for atleast 80% of beiyu's miseries and I guess she realizes that herself and wants to hide from the truth so it doesnt haunt her. Many people (like beiyu's ex) pointed out that qingyu was growing to resemble beiyu and perhaps her mother thinks that qingyu might face the same fate as beiyu and believes that if she is "protected" from everything that harmed her sister then maybe she wont turn out the same way.

She definitely isn't a good parent but I'm pretty sure her inherent nature isn't bad and she is just traumatized by what happened to beiyu. She should go get some help and cut her children off from the toxic "qiao" family that is very obviously sexist and responsible for what happened to beiyu

if you think something is wrong that's your opinion, and it is also an opinion if I disagree with you.

The purpose of my original comment is to prevent people from dropping the drama without even watching it based on what a few self-proclaimed activists claim the "idea" of the story is and the subsequent comments were to share my thoughts on what i believe to be misinterpretations to those who replied to MY original comment, If they had something to say to me I'd be happy to hear them out.

If you didn't like this show share your opinion and move on, no one's forcing you to watch it. Instead you spam the comments of those with different opinions from yours by using zero logic and childish arguments.

I don't see how exchanging opinions can make someone a "pain" but sure, If you say so.

But isn't the message of any series shown by the actions of the characters? The ML clearly never calls her ugly and only unhealthy he only ever advertises a healthy lifestyle...If it was an ugly duckling to beautiful swan like you say it is then shouldn't the ML have said that he would help her get a bf or make her prettier or something along those lines? He just says she should improve herself by changing what she can control...(In fact the only one who called her ugly and was left uncorrected was her sister but then again don't all siblings do that?)

you said that you were stuck with the painful image of her accepting the gym membership because of her insecurities but to me it feels like the start of her character arc, most people are insecure and start to work on themselves due to their insecurities and this drama only just started airing so only her future motives can throw more light on whether this should be seen as "painful" or the start of something great.

Yes she is starting it for male validation but then again most people start working on themselves for societal validation (The ML himself started because everyone thought he was frail and I believe he was also sent to the orphanage because of it) and I think it shows the start to her journey of self-discovery and acceptance and judging the message of the show negatively after just one episode is ludicrous...

The bodybuilding scene definitely has its fair share of substance use but this drama never glorifies body building, they also clearly show how much sheer will the ML has towards his goals and i think that should be the main focus.

Its yet to be seen like you said but I hope the ML aswell stops obsessing over muscles thanks to the FL and moves towards a more sustainable and fulfilling life...

BMI is not a foolproof way to check if someone is healthy or not, most gyms actually measure the muscle to fat ratio to determine whether one is fit or not. A person could be perfectly healthy by BMI standards but have a lot of fat concentrated in one particular area and be unhealthy. (In fact when theres a lot of visceral fat it leads to increased risk of heart disease, fatty liver, etc.)

Besides the ML has seen how the FL is living her life because the first time they met she was excessively drunk and that could help him infer that most of the fat on her is from lifestyle choices.

I don't agree with the thought that there is an ugly duckling portrayal in fact i felt like it was the opposite, He states that you can't control anything in life except your own body and that she would feel empowered and confident if she is able to control her own body, he never said she would become popular or anything along those lines, he just said he would change her life by altering the only thing she could change.

Although its good to be confident in your own skin I think its equally good to want to improve yourself (as long as she isn't doing it for others). And if you saw the epilogue you would have seen the ML admonishing the guy by saying that he shouldn't blame others for his own issues.

From what I saw in ep1 this drama is about self improvement, the FL will go from an insecure person with an unhealthy lifestyle to a confident woman who takes care of herself and the ML went from a premature baby to a body builder through sheer will and I'm sure we'll see more character development from him.

After the first ep I really don't think this drama promotes body shaming...

-He never shamed her as a person (or brought up personal insecurities) and he clearly states that she has a lot of fat and less muscle.
-He also mentions her lifestyle/posture would lead to other diseases like diabetes, etc. and it makes sense that she should lose weight/gain muscle to prevent that

I think body shaming is seen in dramas where they make the "ugly girl" chubby or they try to say that becoming skinny will make you popular or even when they make subtle jokes about body fat, not when they encourage improving posture and building muscle to improve your overall life...

(Besides since he is a gym owner whose gym is in the red it makes sense for him to slightly exaggerate to get her to enroll but i never felt like he was personally attacking her at any point)