mysteryqueen9

Thanks for the clarification. I didn't catch that.

They totally are, but if you look at it, there is a difference between dumb-self serving/smart-self serving. Gu Lian is dumb as a rock to the point she actively goes against the self serving attitude of the rest of the family, causing problems for herself to the point of harming her own reputation by trying to harm Jizhao....

Then you have Aunt (Gu Lian's daughter) who is not very smart (complaining about the dowry going to FL without realising getting on FL's good side is so much more important, and how the Yaos can't complain about GL's poor dowry since they are gonna be desperate to get on CYY's graces) but she is self serving enough to fawn on FL when she is soaring high.

Grandma is like a snake, a bad grandma but always calculating....she is so practical she doesn't really scold FL or even care about "decency" "purity" etc after discovering she allegedly was having a scandalous affair with ML, She only cares people don't get to know about it (as it could harm the family's prestige and standing), and fears CYY will retaliate when cousin spreads rumours.

Okay thanks

I see lots of people professing their love for ML, or 2ML....and since I haven't seen anyone mentioning a certain character, I feel the need to correct such blatant injustice:
I loooooove Jin Yao (FL's paternal cousin). What a good cousin who loves his cousin as his own sister, such a cutie who is always helping his family, smart, brave, decent loyal man. One of my favs characters!

In regards to romance, 10000% love for ML. I love his character. I like YX but not as a romantic love interest.

She is a cunning cold hearted woman, but smarter than the rest of the Gu Clan (save Jizhao). I don't think it has so much to do with really favouring him because she likes him more, but with the fact Uncle's branch is the main one and the "prestigious" one before, with Dezhao having a low position and so little talent that Madam Gu didn't care for her youngest son, preferring to put her efforts and resources in the heir aka current Family Head... so basically she had all the motivation to "favour" her eldest because he is after all the one to lead the Clan, while Dezhao (4th son) was a waste of time for such a calculating heartless mother....the Gu Clan is scary asf lol

Is this a teaser of next ep 26? Because I can't find the next ep where they talk

I wish FL would ask a public separation of the family branches in exchange of a part of the money that they demand (I am not sure it can be done but I believe it is possible, I think one drama did it).
In that way, once the whole high society knows the Gu family has broken ties between 1st branch and the 4th, ML can ask FL for marriage....imagine the whole first branch's faces, Jinzhao marrying up in such a great manner and their family unable to reap benefits or take advantage of CYY's prestige and influence, since everyone would know they have broken ties.... I would be sooooo good, I hope they do that although I know I am delulu lol

The least you could do is put it under spoiler...I could be a little less annoyed that you just spoiled me in a big way if you said "sorry, I thought it was under spoiler, I made a mistake"...that type of thing can happen. But another user already warned you about your spoiler and you still didn't edit your comment. So please, edit it to put the spoiler box....the crying emoji gives it away

FL's paternal cousin is soooo dumb. She just exemplified the saying "cutting off your nose to spite your face."
FL is her cousin with the same clan, same surname. Destroying FL's reputation harms not only her own family prestige and reputation, but also her own reputation....unless I am misunderstanding sth, it could very well impact her own engagement to the Yao family.

Really, if there is someone who should be worried FL's "scandal" with CYY gets out is the cousin, who is currently at the most sensitive part of her life (being engaged) and she isn't a super valuable option: her family gave so little in dowry, the Ye household has lost a good part of their power because the Court is repressing military officers (let's remember good part of their prestige came from a Gu man marrying Ye Xian's sister and hence, being tied to the Marquis household by marriage), and now she is actively spreading rumours that will harm the Gu's reputation...she is deliberate on destroying her own engagement LOL

Also, as Grandma says: CYY will know cousin is harming FL, he can scheme against her or the Gu family smoothly with his position of power...really stupid just because of money that was her own father's fault she lost it, as he was the one to take what wasn't his. Really brainless

You explicitly stated "it is hard not to feel betrayed"...so no, my whole comment was directed to your statement that CXQ would be justified in resenting CYY partly. I just commented on how it wouldn't be justified, as CYY never pressured him, made sure CXQ understood what was the situation and possible risks while simultaneously ensuring he knew CYY would not force him and would support his decision.

I never said CXQ would not feel jealous/resentful, as human emotions are many times irrational. Just that he has no right to feel justified if he acts poorly towards CYY. So I don't really get this reply tbh, I was discussing how he doesn't have a reason to feel betrayed, even if he becomes jelly.

Oh boy, I wondered how the Father could be so shameless....now that we know paternal grandma in all her "glory", the saying the apple doesn't fall far from the tree is proven true. What a shameless woman

About CXQ...I don't really think he has any reason to really resent CYY. ML has helped him a lot through his whole life, and he just made him realise he needed a wife of high standing given his situation, but it was all a choice: ML didn't pressure him, it was 100% CXQ's decision to give up on FL and get engaged.... in fact, CQX was a little cowardly imo with FL, instead of going in his birthday and letting FL know gently he wasn't able to pursue a relationship with her, he just sent his servant.

And I kinda disagree CXQ has a very unfair fate...lots of characters have way worse fates, in fact, I would say he is "lucky" in the sense he is the bio son of a traitor executed: the expected fate (and the unfair one) would be to be killed/sold as a slave, but he had the luck to be adopted into the Chen family, quite well treated and with the chances to raise high given his talent.....I wouldn't say fate has been very unfair to him. Even his fiancee is a gentle kind lady, a good friend of FL.
Don't get me wrong, I get why he chose the engagement over FL, but he was free to make his choice, it wasn't a situation of "you really don't have an alternative". ML said he would support CXQ's decision, he just informed him his future would be way less smooth/more precarious without a powerful wife's family support that knew his real identity and still supported him.

The way it is depicted it seems obvious imo that it was not romantic in nature. In Ancient China, sometimes mothers tried to arrange their children to marry their maternal cousins to ensure they were well treated by a trustworthy relative.

Maternal cousin loves FL a lot, but in a familiar way. FL is right now in a vulnerable position because the little power and reputation her father had was lost after the mother's scandal (at that time reputation was everything) so many good matches are lost, but she still will be very coveted by some unsavory families because of the Ji's extreme wealth...so Cousin was worried FL was about to be forced into am undesirable marriage sooner or later, so he did the "decent, gentlemanly" thing to do: offer her an alternative, so FL could preserve her independence and offer her protection.

There was a drama (I think it was Untouchable lovers (2018) or A girl like me (2021), but I am not sure) where ML made a snarky comment to FL about how ruthless she was getting payback against her enemies, and FL was like: "If I didn't take revenge, I wouldn't be able to sleep, being kind to your enemies is being cruel to yourself" which was amazing.

I think if you don't spoil yourself before watching, you will enjoy the journey. I found it very entertaining and had me hooked to the mystery but I am not very satisfied with the final execution...not so much the plot twists but the way it had some inconsistencies... That being said, I am not regretful of watching it, imo.
Now, it isn't a revenge drama...the revenge is only important in terms of the mystery and how her past revenge obsession could have been involved with the murder mystery...it is mainly a thriller of an amnesiac FL trying to discover her past memories and how she or other people close to her could (or not) be involved with the murder. Since the revenge is tied to the mystery plot (and like I said, it is not a revenge driven drama) I don't think I can answer your last question without spoiling.

THE NERVE of that useless sleazy father to blame his wife of his son's vices, by claiming "you Ji family are raised on money, not on values"...EXCUSE ME??
Who are you to talk about human values, the man that is under fear of being impeached at any time because you know you are a sad excuse of a human being?
1) Cheating husband (he had an affair with Concubine Song when she was a young lady and he was married, which it's super immoral of him because at that time a maiden caught in an affair was the one to shoulder all the blame, he was really detestable from moment 0).
2) Bad neglectful parent. Abandoned daughter, and he was the one to arrange a match with Liu Family knowing the son was an awful lecher, but he didn't care about his daughter's future if it gave him some benefit. He also accused his Concubine of hiding the matter and when she called him out (Laoye, but you knew and said you didn't care?) he accuses her of lying.
3) Bad official. Bootlicking every powerful person, no real abilities...

And this SOB accuses the Ji Family of being a lowly money grubbing family with no morals? The one who paid his office with his wife's money? The one who pays for his whole manor and concubine/shu children with his legal wife's money??

I REALLY NEED MORE SCENES OF FATHER HUMILLIATED TO THE EXTREME, CENSORS IMPEACHING HIM AT ANY TIME.

I loved FL and ML's conversation about how FL pointed out how fucked up society is that women fight to the death because of useless men...Yes, Concubine Song is fully guilty and should pay for turning a blind eye to the poisoning, she is fully responsible since the moment she discovered it, her daughter also is walking a path of no return from last ep unless she begins to repent soon...but the real evil is the husband. Concubine Song is bad, but I also find her pitiful because of how awful it must be to give up your family and your position as a respected Di noble daughter to marry as a concubine out of love to discover said man was worthless to the extreme, and that he never cared about you at all...

I enjoyed the drama a lot, but imo the final twists weren't executed well, my main problem being with inconsistencies or having to "suspend disbelief" in several things: (HUGE SPOILERS)
- I guessed right that the stabbing/fire explosion device was executed by different people. I also guessed right that ML had genuinely romantic feelings for FL and that he didn't want her memories back because he was afraid that she would discover he was somehow involved in her parents' murder...there were many scenes and dialogues pointing to his romantic interest in FL that it would go against the previous eps to suddenly pull the "it was all a pretence".
The dialogue where he confessed to HS's murder when she was amnesiac in previous eps and she was wondering if she was the one to kill the Chois hinted heavily that he cared for her in some way but most of all, that he was trying to hide something SO MUCH BIGGER from FL that he preferred to make her think him a murderer of his ex girlfriend...yep, he was trying to hide he was the murderer of FL's parents because he knew if FL got to the truth, he would never have a chance of a happy ending with FL as a couple.

NOW....I took Jun Ho's actions as super illogical and even insane in how inconsistent he behave at the last 2 eps. So he was so in love with FL he was willing to finally break free from the Choi's control by planning their murder, and he devoted himself to her recovery although she was a huge risk to his plans and could any time discover the truth and destroy his life...he discovers from phone that was sent to him by Ri Ah that FL was just using him for her revenge, but he still bears with it because he is crazy for her. Cool, I can buy a ruthless psycho alike person can take such risks out of love...but then the moment FL makes an attempt against him after discovering the truth, he has no hesitation to try to murder her in the cruellest way possible . Like, why sedate her and try to burn her alive instead of killing her in a less sadistic way?...obv because of plot convenience, but I can also buy it if depicted as a psycho trying to get revenge on one of his "belongings" betraying him...but then he dies when he was allegedly out of danger although still in the ICU because FL tells him how she never ever loved him, and he reacts so strongly he suffers an attack and dies.

But most importantly...why the heck he became so obsessed and crazy for FL? I thought they were gonna play the childhood connection, but no, he became obsessed with her since first time they met, JH had just met her when he snogged her in his girlfriend's villa and told her to go to him when they came back to Seoul...this seems completely out of nowhere and doesn't fit his character as a ruthless cunning super ambitious man. I don't know, I don't feel they executed it well. I just have a hard time believing his character is such a simp after one meeting and then, after all the damn efforts. he is willing to murder FL with 0 hesitation in a super cruel way to later die of "heart break" when injured. PLS

Also, JH really didn't guess FL was the stabber? Are you for real? The moment the police told him about the stabbing, how could he not know it was MJ when her accident happened just super close + she was in a revenge plot

Most importantly: ARE THE DETECTIVES FOOLS? So at ep 7 from out of nowhere there is a new piece of evidence never submitted the bloody footprint...which fits FL's height and foot's size. You know what? Catching JH trying to kill FL makes it so that detective and everyone at police department convinces themselves that FL is innocent of the murder. I mean yes, it is obvious JH was involved because they discovered his alibi is forged...but it is also EVIDENT fire guy is not the same person as stabber. The damn detectives themselves said JH freaked out when he heard about HS being stabbed because he didn't know. And the footprint is 100% a woman, and it fits FL to a tee...but yes, super convenient that JH tries to kill her because she can frame him just because he was drugging her and later tried to kill her.

Tbh (and this is very personal) but I don't like that they put so many different gangsters of different groups when it didn't have that much relevance to the grand scheme of things...it just made it a lot more convoluted and easy to get overwhelmed/lost trying to follow the plot. I think they could have simplified it.

That being said, I recommend the drama (although it seems from this I didn't like it lol I liked it) because it is entertaining and had me super hooked, but has a good number of inconsistencies and it could have a better storyline and execution. I loved the actors, especially ML's actor was great.

Well put. I also love Ye Xian but he needs to sort out his shit and start his character development to become a better version of himself with a purpose and to prove people you can be just as good even if you are physically frail. His traumas explain his behaviour but not justify it. I know he has lots of potential
About ML: I love LOVE the guy but he was sooo jelly with the Mu guy story...his mom was like "wth why is this child so moody and angry all of a sudden just when I was sharing gossip??!" Hahahhhah
Also loved how he was for once at a loss and totally freaking out when he discovered the poison attempt on FL's mom: cursing her dad as useless and immoral (say it King) wanting to use censors to impeach him for favouring the concubine but rejecting the idea because it would harm FL's reputation and possibly her mom's health...his helper shoocked....totally adorable,

I am currently at ep 7 so maybe in future eps there are some changes, but I am loving Ye Xian. More specifically, I love when he and FL use their sharp wit to infuriate others...I have laughed so much when they kind of ally against FL's father and humiliate him to the extreme xD
At least till now, the most hated character for me is the Father, but I get his interventions are necessary, but what an awful husband, father and human being...

Yes, I saw the minute you mentioned...it is the same minute ep I previously pointed to you...that's what confuses me, the phone that FL got from exdetective just before going after LJS is FL's pre amnesia phone after getting repaired.
But I never saw the grey edges phone, I will rewatch because I only remember black phone and pale green.