They kept Peiyi in the capital so she wouldn’t uncover the truth, but the moment they learned she’d gone to visit her uncle, she became a threat that had to be eliminated. Honestly, the political side of the story is becoming more interesting to me — there’s more action, and now that the plot is shifting back to the leads, it should hit harder emotionally and pull them even closer together. I think that old man they took back to the capital will play a bigger role to help Peiyi inside the palace due to his amazing skills and maybe he used to work in the capital and knows more than he's letting on. I bet he dies in the end. The pace is moving even faster now.
The drama isn’t about a corrupt emperor — it’s about women and the system that failed them. Making him the villain would turn it into a completely different genre, so the emperor cannot be the antagonist in this story.
This is my first C‑drama in the detective genre, so I didn’t realize the format relies so much on characters explaining the clues out loud, verbally reconstructing the crime, and summarizing what happened at the end of each case. It must be a common storytelling approach for this genre.
We have seen four cases so far with the Wu family cases counted as the fifth one. So we will have seven cases…
There are 34 episodes and 7 cases, including the final arc that uncovers the truth behind her family massacre. Each case should be about 4 or 5 episodes long. With only 11 episodes left, if the next case takes 4 or 5 episodes, that leaves about 6 or 7 episodes for the final arc, the big conspiracy reveal, and the emotional climax.
The case involving Li Peiyi’s uncle becomes the pivotal turning point in the drama’s structure and serves as the major catalyst for uncovering the 15‑year‑old Li family massacre. Madam Wu, his wife, provides crucial revelations that expose inconsistencies in the official account claiming that the Prince of Duan—Li Peiyi’s father—went mad, killed his family, and then committed suicide. There should be one more case involving celestial stars before the final arc. I would think this is the point in the drama where the male lead becomes more involved in the story and shows more emotional depth.
I am thinking of starting this, is this similar to the double or how dare you? is it all mystery or is there any…
The romance is more like two people slowly realizing they’re soulmates. I’m convinced the ML has loved her since childhood. When he mentioned that he once promised someone something and that this promise drove him to study the stars, I immediately assumed he meant her — even if she doesn’t realize it. The ML is actually quite the romantic. If you spend your life reading the heavens, how could you not be a little at heart? But while he quietly expresses his feelings through small, thoughtful gestures, her attention is fixed on uncovering the truth. That contrast makes his subtle affection stand out even more.
This 'empowerment' is dark and limited: the women get to choose how they die, not whether they suffer forever. They can't escape or fix it, so their strength appears only in small, desperate acts: taking revenge, teaming up with other women, telling the hidden truth, or deciding their own final moment. Li Peiyi witnesses everything, remembers their stories, and keeps fighting for justice afterward. She is the one with 'real' empowerment—but only due to her status. The other women show moments of courage and resistance, but it usually ends in tragedy.
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The actor Hou Chang Rong made his debut at age 27, playing Liu Xianglian in Dream of Red Mansions (1987), which holds a 9.7 rating on Douban,