AH

You did yourself a favour avoiding that ending.

I really liked the beginning but I loathed the ending so much it tanked my rating.

When was that?

I'm not following what you mean by that. Tu Li was waiting for Cen Ye to show up?

Thanks for saying that. Glad it helped answer some questions. :)

The drama definitely does show us some clear examples of Chen Yi not wanting to be like his father (e.g., when Chen Yi refused to sleep in his father's room while Miao Jing was living at home after he came home drunk from work - because that would make him too much like the worst version of his father and he couldn't be like that while Miao Jing was there).

But I think the bigger influence that Chen Yi's father had on Chen Yi was his constant neglect, mistreatment, verbal abuse, and physical abuse of Chen Yi that made Chen Yi feel deeply inferior and unloveable / unworthy of love. It seems like that was a huge contributing factor to Chen Yi's lack of self worth and difficulty with loving and prioritizing himself.

When it comes to Chen Yi's dream of becoming a police officer, it feels like Chen Yi managing to finally go through the police academy and become a normal police officer would have been the best way to both break away from his father's influence and control and prove that he was not like his father (who prevented Chen Yi from taking the police academy exam because he wanted Chen Yi to take a job at the same place that he worked - the power bureau). So I feel like Chen Yi not going down that path (i.e., not becoming a regular police officer) isn't so much about Chen Yi trying to not be like his father as it is about the things I covered in my first comment (i.e., his severe PTSD preventing him from pursuing a career as a regular police officer and/or his need to stay in his role as a police informant until the investigation is complete).

I think there's more behind Chen Yi not becoming a regular police officer than just him holding back to support his friends / trying not to be like his father.

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TL;DR - Chen Yi became a police informant in the criminal underworld (likely for reasons related to the death of Captain Liu Shan Bai’s wife), which led to Chen Yi developing very severe PTSD. As his severe PTSD is currently not under control and the police are well aware of that (and trying to help him with it through police-provided therapy), he probably is not permitted to pursue a career as a regular police officer until his PTSD gets better / more manageable.

It's also possible that he cannot become a regular police officer yet because the investigation is ongoing and he needs to maintain his role as a police informant until the investigation is complete.

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Between the day when Chen Yi was not able to take the police academy exam and the time that Miao Jing left Teng City to attend university, Chen Yi was swamped with a huge number of reasons that he needed to make a large sum of money very quickly.

(1) Covering the bills for his father’s medical care, funeral, and burial.

(2) Paying off the mortgage that Miao Jing’s mother fraudulently took out (while Chen Yi’s father was in the ICU) against the home that Chen Yi’s mother left to him before she died (and also where Chen Yi and Miao Jing made so many memories together), to avoid losing that property to the bank.

(3) In addition to continuing to be responsible for covering his own food expenses, suddenly also being responsible for covering all expenses related to his home (e.g., utilities, insurance, etc.).

(4) Paying for Miao Jing’s tuition, food, and other living expenses (including higher utility costs for a second person) while she was in high school and living with him.

(5) Paying for Miao Jing’s medical expenses related to her corpus luteum rupture (the surgery, hospital stay, and previous treatment when it was misdiagnosed as gastritis).

(6) Saving up money to give to Miao Jing to cover a significant portion of her university / living expenses after she left Teng City.

Making money from winning snooker games and through traditional work (like construction jobs) wasn't enough to cover it all fast enough. So Chen Yi took a dangerous job at District Seven to make as much money as he could as fast as he could. It worked, but somehow there was a connection between that job / the people he worked with there and the death of Captain Liu Shan Bai’s wife.

It seems like, after her death, Chen Yi chose to use his position as someone who already had an established reputation in that shady circle to become a police informant to aide an investigation that led him into an even more dangerous and violent world.

Before going down that path, he pushed Miao Jing away to keep her safe and far away from that dark and dirty world (and perhaps also because he knew that he himself was not going to be staying in Teng City).

Idk if Chen Yi ended up coming back to Teng City because the investigation was unsuccessful, if something happened to him that forced him to return before the investigation was completed (a trauma-induced mental breakdown perhaps?), or if the investigation continued and simply led him back to Teng City. Hopefully the drama will clarify soon.

But it seemed like, whatever happened, Chen Yi came back with some severe trauma and unresolved PTSD (which the police were aware of and actively treating, and which probably precludes him from pursuing a career as a regular police officer until it is in a much more manageable state) and a deep sense that he cannot be with Miao Jing romantically / as more than just her devoted brother / guardian / life-long bodyguard because he believes that he and his world are dirty and dangerous and she has to stay safe and forever untouched by any stains... even though he never stopped loving her and only her.

Lol, no sad music for the SML in YAMG either. He fully deserved the polite verbal slap he got and more.

For LBtG… I haven’t rewatched it, but from what I remember, she was pretty clear that she would never love him and they were never going to be a couple, but I do think he deserved a much harsher punishment much sooner for all of the treasonous plots he pulled and it was annoying that he got to keep his position for so long.

You Are My Glory? And maybe also Love Beyond the Grave?

In both cases Dilraba's FL character is generally surface-level "polite" and dignified about it, but not ambiguous.

Has anyone posted full translations of Miao Jing's digital diary entries?

Welp I binged the first 17 episodes in one sitting and what a bombshell of an episode to end that binge with. Already watched my favourite parts again.

Women in China typically do not change their family name when they get married. Children typically take their father's family name, and therefore have a different family name than their mothers.

There’s a lot going on and some of the biggest plot details are explained through info that is scattered across multiple episodes or are only explained indirectly, so it’s very easy to miss some of the key details or to not put all the provided info together in just the right way to make it possible to figure out the things that aren’t ever explained directly.

It’s everywhere! 😂

You're welcome!

Short answer: No. The FL knew that the character of Xie Yong Er was taken over by a transmigrator (the protagonist of the transmigration novel) in the transmigration novel. That information was very clear to her.

However, after the FL transmigrated into the historical story world, took over the character of Yu Wanyin, met Xiahou Dan, and confirmed that his character had also been taken over by a transmigrator (the ML), it was very clear that the version of events that they were experiencing in the historical story world was different from the version of events that was depicted in the transmigration novel (where Yu Wanyin and Xiahou Dan’s characters were NOT taken over by transmigrators). So the FL and ML initially couldn’t be sure of which other characters (if any) had been taken over by transmigrators in the changed version of events that they were experiencing.

Long answer below.

~~~

There are two key concepts that need to be clarified to properly answer your question.


(1) There are TWO novels.

The first novel is a historical novel titled “A Thousand Trees Blossoming at Night in the East”.

The second novel is a transmigration novel titled “Transmigrated: The Devil's Beloved Consort”.

The historical novel only exists inside the transmigration novel, and the only person who ever reads the historical novel is the protagonist of the transmigration novel.


(2) There are THREE versions of the events that take place in the historical story world.

The FIRST version of events in the historical story world is the version of events that is described in the historical novel. In that version of events, there were ZERO transmigrators and Xie Yong Er was just a minor canon-fodder character who died very quickly.

The SECOND version of events in the historical story world is described in part of the transmigration novel. The transmigration novel begins in a fictional version of the modern world, where the fictional protagonist of that novel reads the historical novel from beginning to end. Then the protagonist transmigrates from her original fictional modern world into the historical story world and takes over the character of Xie Yong Er. She takes over the character of Xie Yong Er near the beginning of the events that were depicted in the historical novel that she previously read, and since she knew how events originally unfolded in the historical novel (i.e., the first version of those events), she was able to use her knowledge to change those events so that Xie Yong Er became the main character in the the new / second version of events. In the transmigration novel, there was only ONE transmigrator - the fictional protagonist of the transmigration novel who took over the character of Xie Yong Er.

The THIRD version of events in the historical story world is the version that we see in the drama. After the FL reads the transmigration novel in the real world, she transmigrates into the historical story world. She takes over the character of Yu Wanyin near the beginning of the story. Note that the character of Yu Wanyin was NOT taken over by a transmigrator in the transmigration novel. Then the FL meets Xiahou Dan and confirms that his character was also taken over by a transmigrator, even though that character was also NOT taken over by a transmigrator in the transmigration novel. So, at that point, the FL knew that a new / third version of events had been created and therefore she didn’t know which characters were taken over by transmigrators and which characters were not taken over by transmigrators in this new / third version of events.

So the FL and ML came up with tests to try to figure out which characters were taken over by transmigrators in the third version of events. It turned out that only the characters of Yu Wanyin and Xiahou Dan were taken over by transmigrators from the real world in the third version of events. Whereas, in both the second version of events and the third version of events, Xie Yong Er’s character was taken over by the same transmigrator in both cases - the fictional protagonist of the transmigration novel who transmigrated from a fictional version of the modern world.

Note that a person’s awareness of a previous version of events in the historical story world depends on whether they lived those events as a character within the novel or if they read about those events in a novel while existing on a “higher level” (i.e., the difference between only living inside the novel from its beginning vs. being able to physically pick up the novel and read the events it describes by flipping its pages before transmigrating into it).

For example, in the SECOND version of events, the only person in the historical story world who was aware of the first version of events was the SFL, because she read the historical novel that described those events, instead of living them as a character that only existed inside the historical novel. For every other character who experienced the second version of events in the historical story world, it was like their reality just re-set and they had no memory of having lived through the first version of events.

Whereas in the THIRD version of events, the only person in the historical story world who was aware of the second version of events was the FL, because she read about those events in the transmigration novel. Since the SFL was a character inside the transmigration novel (i.e., she did not read the transmigration novel - she lived it), her reality re-set in the third version of events and she had no memory of the second version of events. However, since the SFL read the historical novel, she knew about the first version of events when she lived through both the second version of events and the third version of events. So, to her, in the third version of events it seemed like she was transmigrating into the historical story world for the first time and like she was only changing the first version of events, even though it was actually her second time doing so.

~~~

A bit more about the FL’s knowledge…

The FL’s company acquired the rights to adapt the transmigration novel into a drama, and the FL was tasked with creating a detailed pitch for that adaptation within one day, so she had to read the transmigration novel very quickly. Consequently, the FL skimmed some parts and skipped some parts of the transmigration novel, but she did get to the end. And she was definitely, 100% aware that the protagonist of that novel was a transmigrator in that novel because: (1) that was one of the most fundamental aspects of the novel (you really could not read the transmigration novel, or even just skim it, and not know that the protagonist of that novel was a transmigrator); (2) the fact that the protagonist of the novel is a transmigrator is referenced in the title of the transmigration novel (“Transmigrated: The Devil’s Beloved Consort); (3) the fact that Xie Yong Er’s character was taken over by a transmigrator was even covered in the very brief synopsis of the transmigration novel (or rather how that novel would get adapted into a drama) that her colleague presented to the FL and her co-workers in the first episode of the drama; and (4) the FL explained the fact that Xie Yong Er’s character was taken over by a transmigrator in the transmigration novel to the ML in the first episode of the drama.

So - to recap - the issue wasn’t that the FL didn’t know that the character of Xie Yong Er was taken over by a transmigrator in the transmigration novel. The issue was that the circumstances of events in the transmigration novel (where there was only one transmigrator who took over Xie Yong Er’s character) were different from the circumstances that the FL experienced in the historical story world when she transmigrated into it (where there were at least two transmigrators who took over Yu Wanyin and Xiahou Dan’s characters), so the FL did not know (at first) which characters had been taken over by transmigrators in the third version of events / in the version of events that she experienced in the historical story world when she transmigrated into it.

You're welcome! Glad it makes sense 👍

The drama doesn’t show Xie Yong Er returning to her original world after she died.

If she did transmigrate back to her original world, then she wouldn’t transmigrate to the real world like the ML and FL, who were real people in the real world before they transmigrated into the historical story world.

The SFL was a fictional character who transmigrated into the historical story world from a fictional version of the modern world that only existed in the transmigration novel, so that’s the world that she would return to. And she would return there with the knowledge that she was a fictional character that only existed inside a book and with no one in that world to share that knowledge or her recollection of the historical story world. That would be a pretty bleak outcome for her IMO, so honestly I hope she didn’t transmigrate back to her original world after she died.

Or if she did, I hope she woke up with only a hazy memory of the historical world, a belief that her transmigration experience was all just a dream, a new sense of wariness about not being manipulated and deceived in love by someone like Xiahou Bo (Prince Duan), and a new appreciation for her life and her family in that world.

I felt like episode 10 provided clear enough insight into his reasons for lying (both initially and later on), but that's just my personal opinion. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We get some insight into the ML's thoughts on the ML’s reasons for not telling the FL the truth about when he transmigrated into the historical story world in episode 10. The FL realized that the ML’s knowledge of business and economics was just at a basic level and not greater than her own knowledge of those subjects, and that someone who was a big-shot CEO should have a much deeper knowledge of those subjects. So she quizzes him about the details of the company that he was CEO of before he transmigrated into the historical story world. Then the audience is given direct insight into the ML’s thoughts.

The subtitles for the ML's thoughts in that moment read as follows: "I should just tell her everything... But if I tell her the whole truth, that fragile bit of trust and closeness she has with me will probably vanish. Between letting her doubt me and breaking her heart, I would rather let her keep doubting."

At first (immediately after the FL confronts him with those questions about his company), the ML chooses to let the FL “keep doubting”. He lies and tells the FL he cannot remember the answers to her questions. But the FL is obviously hurt and upset by this response, which she correctly guesses is a lie.

Later, the ML comes up with a better lie. He admits that he was not a CEO in the real world, but then he tells her that he was an unsuccessful actor in the real world before he transmigrated into the historical story world. There are several reasons why the ML would choose this new lie over the truth.

First, this lie doesn’t reveal how much the ML suffered in the historical story world, so the FL’s heart is not broken by the truth.

Second, this lie makes it seem like the ML’s initial lie to the FL was not very big (at least compared to the scale of his actual lies to her). Which, based on what we saw of the ML’s thoughts, he probably hoped would mean that the FL’s willingness to be close to the ML and to trust him as an ally would not completely vanish in the way that he thought it would vanish if she understood the magnitude of the lies that the ML had actually told her.

Third, this lie doesn’t reveal the full extent of the ML’s lack of education and life / professional experience in the real world before he transmigrated into the story world. Again, based on the ML’s thoughts, I’m guessing that he hoped that this would also mean that the FL’s willingness to put her faith in the ML as an ally would not completely vanish in the way that he thought it would vanish if she understood that he was just a school kid who hadn’t even graduated from high school (let alone graduated from university, had a professional career, and become a successful CEO) before he transmigrated into the historical story world.

There are probably more reasons (e.g., avoiding having to explain the existence of his son and the rape he endured + policies enacted by the tyrant king / not wanting to have to re-live previous trauma in order to provide explanations / etc. ), but I think the three ones noted above are the biggest reasons.

- - -

I'm not sure if the subtitles for the ML’s thoughts are completely accurate. If they are, they are a bit hard to follow, but I think what the ML's thought process boils down to is:

(1) Telling the FL the truth would make the FL distance herself from the ML and stop trusting him as an ally, because he told her such a massive lie (and constantly continued lying in order to keep up the ruse) and because she would doubt his capabilities as an ally if she knew that he was just a kid when he transmigrated into the historical story world.

(2) Telling the FL the truth would also break the FL’s heart, because the truth of what the ML endured is horrifying and heartbreaking.

(3) The ML would rather tell the FL a lie that was easy for the FL to recognize as a lie (i.e., that he couldn’t remember the details relating to his company that she asked about) and have her continue to doubt him than break the FL’s heart with the horrifying truth.

Then he comes up with a different lie that can alleviate the FL’s doubts without breaking the FL’s heart and also minimize the damage to her trust in him (a lie that he was an unsuccessful actor in the real world before he transmigrated into the historical story world), and he chooses to tell that lie instead of telling the truth.

- - -

We get a little bit more insight into the ML’s thoughts in episode 27. In that episode, the ML tells the FL via a letter that he became more afraid of telling the FL the truth after he fell in love with her, and he also tells her that the one thing he begs of her is to delay the moment when he has to face seeing fear and wariness in her eyes (after she learned the truth from his letter).