minki4

Madam Yu is a bird fr. This is the first drama I have seen where a woman is willing to kill her child to save her husband. Cos what do you mean after she found out her husband was dead, she told her son that it should have been him. With pathetic parents like that, Yu jinxiu never stood a chance unfortunately.

The best way to watch this drama is to binge it. It’s so engaging and less stressful for some reason. The angst and wait will eat you up if you watch episode by episode.

The Yu family is brutal. Yu Gaodong manipulated Tingyun’s useless father into killing her mother. Then told the truth to Zhao Ling, so he will kill her father. Damn. Talk about getting what you want and tying up loose ends without soiling your fingers. This evil scheming is really befitting of an evil politician.

I’m enjoying how ruthless and powerful the villains in this show are. However, the most gratifying thing about suffering through an evil villain is when they have the worst retribution. An easy death after all this angst just won’t cut it. I hope the writers nail the ending.

Well the Road to Splendor is really filled with Trauma, so the title is Apt. No completely ethical way to get to that high political position.

Seems like someone in this comment section really has something against growing vegetables.

Try rebirth/transmigration revenge themed dramas. In these the main lead usually suffered a lot in their past lives, and died unjustly. So when they come back through rebirth, they are already equipped with past life knowledge to ruthlessly strike down their enemies. Some examples are “The Double”, “Blossom”. A recent transmigration one that just finished airing is “Blossoms of power”, although I didn’t watch that one. Novels like “Rebirth of malicious empress of military lineage” are also very good face slapping rebirth novels.

“Nirvana in Fire” is a masterpiece. It’s not rebirth but the male lead prepared for 12 years and gathered resources, before coming back to take revenge under another identity, so his schemes are top notch. “Joy of Life” is another masterpiece. It’s technically modern to past time travel, so the male lead has knowledge of poems from the modern world to help.

We must be watching different dramas. What I have seen in this drama is a young, politically inexperienced couple trying their best to navigate the complexities of the capital and royal favour, while a more established and influential noble family has been trying to take them down. The drama is showing the young couple’s flaws, struggles and wins and at the end leaves you asking what is really worth it in the end.

Even in the capital that you are saying they are acting like “complete idiots” or “wimpy bumbling fools who can’t plot”, they have outwitted their enemies on different occasions. However, the stakes are high and their enemies are formidable, so naturally, they won’t escape completely unscathed cos that will be unrealistic.

Since you dislike the main leads so much and you feel they are “complete idiots”, there are so many dramas where the invincible leads are drenched in plot armour regardless of their skillsets. It will do you good to check them out.

Dealing with average citizens which they did in the first half of the drama is completely different from dealing with political juggernauts in the royal court where a single misstep or lack of information can mean losing the emperor’s favour at best or death to your family at worse. If you can’t understand that, then there’s no point in continuing the drama.

The male lead while resourceful and brave, is still a commoner who did not have a noble family to guide him while growing up. The FL while incredibly smart is still severely limited by the patriarchal society at that period. Considering their lack of experience and how insidious those politicians are, they are both trying their best. This drama is just a tad bit more realistic about their struggles compared to most idol dramas that will have the leads somehow miraculously circumventing obstacles due to glaring plot armour.

Deus ex machina would be if the inexperienced leads who came from the bottom were to win against a stalwart couple who have been involved and entrenched in politics for decades.

If this drama were to be as realistic as you are saying, the main leads would have been killed off a long time ago, cos let’s be real, they have no experience and are no match for those old crooks in court. However this is a drama, so there has to be some plot armour for the leads. Else, how many times do you see a nobody commoner who is a salt smuggler, randomly meet a crown prince, gain military merits and rise to one of the highest positions in court? At least, the drama is causing their wins to be hard earned which makes it more meaningful and fulfilling.

I’ve never seen a more binge worthy drama. This drama is way too stressful to watch one episode at a time. I’ll wait till the rest of the episodes are released to watch it completely, cos I can’t deal with the anxiety of waiting for new episodes.

Ikr..should have gotten him bed ridden too and spared us the nightmare of dealing with that useless man for the next episodes.

No, the FL’s evil father ate it, and suffered stomach ache.

I know that poor sheep is mad as fuck. They dressed it as a wedding tribute and carried it all the way from North West to the palace. The emperor then gave it to ZL and he gave it to Tingyun only for it to get yelled at, then ended up drenched in rain for 4 whole hours because of her father. Phew.

You are forgetting that the MIL didn’t want her for her son anyway. Since she was so desperate to marry into the family, It is left for her to win her MIL over, at least to be able to navigate social circles easily. The MIL frankly doesn’t owe her anything. But she squandered the opportunity she had twice. First by refusing to give her MIL the book to gift the CP. And second, by almost botching the case the CP was investigating by giving those palace cakes to the noble ladies to raise her status with them. Because of that , all of madam yu’s efforts in that case went to waste.

Fan Yake is just blinded by her inferiority complex and her greed to fit in with the ultra rich. I mean see how she is acting with the Tingyun currently. She framed her best friend for a man, married him and has a male child. Technically, she has “won” in the eyes of society. Yet her inferiority complex didn’t stop her from trying to taunt Tingyun again and again. Her personality is just trash. I doubt any coaching by her MIL would help her cos her innate inferiority complex will always pop out and make her do stupid things

Well, SFL willingly participated in ruining the reputation of her best friend just so she would marry into that same family. Her father is just a poor scholar, and he warned her before getting married, but her greed knows no bounds. Since she got her wish and married into the super wealthy noble family, she just has to play ball to keep up appearances. That’s what all those noble women do, the difference is that they all come actual wealthy families, so they can manage just fine.

The only thing of value Fan Yake had is those priceless books her father left for her. It was FAR better she used those books to at least get into her MIL’s good graces, than pawning it off for those trinkets. At the end of the day, the gifts she bought with the money she got from pawning the books didn’t even impress the noble woman got it for, so it was an utter waste. To make matters worse, even her husband ended up disgusted when he found out she was pawning the priceless books for money. So now, she has lost both ways.

She would have won the heart of Madam Yu if she gave her that priceless book to gift the Crown Prince (who is now Emperor) when Madam Yu asked her for it. Madam Yu literally told her that if she gave her that book, she would let everything be bygones and accept her as her DIL.

Instead Fan Yake listened to her stupid husband and ruined the book. After that, Madam Yu knew she was completely hopeless. Mind you, the reason why Madam Yu was currying favour with the CP then was because of her son’s official career. So, in her mind, she is probably thinking that instead of her DIL to help her pave the way for her son’s official career, she is instead ruining his chances. There was no way her relationship with madam Yu would recover after that fiasco.

He dislikes his mother controlling his life, and since his mother chose Tingyun to be his wife, he transferred that hate to Tingyun, and decided to ruin her reputation so he wouldn’t have to marry her.

Tingyun saved his life in Ganlin, and he also found out that she runs a female school, and she restored the messages of border soldiers who died in previous wars and re-recorded them. Basically, he found out that he completely misjudged her and became obsessed with her, despite her harshly rebuking him. The dude is nuts.

No, her father. The ML wanted to do things the proper way cos of her, so he went to meet her father directly to ask for her hand in marriage.

His friend put him on the spot though. Those merchants had an ulterior motive inviting ZL to that party, trying to manipulate him cos of those salt reform laws. Luckily ZL had the sense to invite the grand secretary too.