Reviews

Mending

Their relationship is building up so beautifully! 🥰We got their first date where A'Li finally opened up and revealed some truth, like the real story of her mother's death. We got him standing up and making his first steps—oh, what a joy that was for him. He couldn't thank A'Li enough for pushing him then and being the persistent person she is. AND we got our first kiss... so sweet, tender and best of all—sudden! 🤗❤️I loved A'Li giving advice to her stepmom to take care of her children, because they need it. Ying heard that and I think it somehow stayed in her heart. Maybe she won't go against A'Li anymore? 😌And Ying has seen Jingli's suspicious behaviour—sneaking out when he was supposed to be dead drunk, or wincing when she accidentally touched his arm (which we all know was injured) and then seeing him and his servant with medicine and bandages.... yeah, not suspicious at all. I wonder what Mo Jingli will do with his wife since he suspects she suspects, and she suspects he is being suspicious.... if anyone gets what I mean here! 😂🤔

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Duke Xue openly talking regicide now.

Not surprising, of course. He already showed 20 years ago he was willing to kill his own son for his ambitions. Killing his nephew would be trivial to him. His sister shuts him down for now. I also won't be surprised if he tries to assassinate Zhang Zhe on his fact-finding mission in order to blame it on Xie Wei and the Yan family.. Meanwhile, J'uan's and Ning'er's bizarre relationship moves "forward" with ... fake intimacy in order to fool Lord Pingnan. Methinks they are just fooling themselves, though. Later, we see a light go on in Ning's head as she starts to realize that in her former life, Xie Wei may NOT have been intending to kill her! That light going on in her head is like a push that starts her sliding towards finally, inevitably realizing her true feelings towards Xie Wei. The events in Pingnan's courtyard and finally Yan Lin's words to her accelerate it. And thank goodness that Yan Lin has grown up so much from the dumb jock he was when younger. He has learned wisdom, sincerity and grace and can see that Ning and his cousin truly love each other.

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Meeting is a contact sport 😂

Qian Fei is a very capable investment banker that prefers staying behind the scenes with set hours. She is fully invested in her relationships and sees her best move as staying where she is career wise and being happily married to the love of her life as her primary goal. She has just bought a new apartment and turned down a very promising promotion because her bf’s mom has her convinced he is proposing. All day long she has been running into Li YiFei who turns out to be from a competitor bidding on the same contract. She is getting coffee spilled or her phone trashed whenever they collide. He wasn’t particularly rude to her until he thought it was her mission to spy on him to keep him locked out of the deal. From then on it was gloves off and he was openly antagonistic towards her. As their circumstances tossed them together, they both became more annoyed with each subsequent encounter. By the end of the day both were having fights with their bf/gf. Qian Fei bought a blazer she could barely afford for her bf’s bday to have him not show up til after midnight hiding a watch from a beautiful ‘client’ and not even having the courtesy to see what she bought for him. He thinks she and his mother are trying to trap him into marriage and unlike his faithful gf, he grabs the promotion and tosses the relationship. He is not kind about it and basically blames her for pressuring him. She needs him out of her life and I think her bestie would agree. Li YiFei is watching his girl be all clingy with another guy while he waits for her in the car. He does not give her the bag and said he was picking it up for a work colleague. He likes to look well dressed and have a nice car but he seems tired of his gf’s love of designer bags. Qian Fei has been the best of gf’s with wholehearted devotion, but her day is sadly summed up with no promotion, no help paying for apartment, topped with phone and heart broken same day. Lady watch giver can have him. 😝

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"Xie J'uan, you really are crazy"

This line by Ning kinda sums up their relationship. He really does come off as bat-s**t crazy to her and I can't blame her for wanting to run far, far away. We've got 4 more episodes to somehow transform this mess into an actual romance? Now, wtf is Lord Pignan doing at this outpost? How the heck do c-drama villains always get to move around and pop-up wherever they want? And how does he know about Ning's importance to Xie Wei? Just who is his deep mole spy? It has to be one of Jian Shu, Dao Qin or Lyu Xian. Well, at least Ping Nan's character (psychopathic, child-murdering a**hole) is consistent. That guy is totally bent. Him finally getting his just deserts is going to be a welcome moment.

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they’re cowards they’re really fucking cowardice

i broke down sobbing so hard i couldn’t see the screen at the half+way point of the episode. ahim struck such a powerful chord & gai was right at the end. that was the moment ahim became more than a little sister who needs luka to a person luka can also depend on to carry the burden. & then this was immediately tainted by the following scenes of the boys having to step in to rescue them. this episode was written fully aware of the misogyny each female ranger suffers from so it’s not pleasant to see the two of them literally falling into the arms of their male counter±parts in ways gai or don never do. i tend not to comment about misogynistic under±tones in these shows because i can bring them up in every single episode i review. but like no they actively failed their main characters & main story of this episode. their brothers don’t come in to support them ，they come in to rescue them & it’s sooo upsetting. this was frustrating this was really frustrating. because it was really great until that. no i don’t want to talk about the transphobic caricature.

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Action!

After the (relative) slow pace of the prior two episodes, this episode explodes with lots of action as Xie Wei, Yan Mu and Yan Lin take steps to rescue the Princess. It was an understated but awesome side bit to watch the 'old man', General Yan Mu, kicking the butt of that jerk Prince Da Yue. We get a jealous petty bit by Xie Wei over Ning's happy reunion with his cousin, but he makes up for it the next day with a nice self-made gift of layered walnut cakes. And of course we get an emotional reunion between Ning and the Princess. Now we move on to the final 5 episodes with clashes against both Lord Pingnan and Duke Xue looming on the horizon.

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Time for healing

It is surprising that Ye Li simply sends her gma off with good wishes. The second surprise is the step mom. There is a hidden agenda with her that we don’t know yet. Neither reveals the other’s secret and both are content with the outcome. Ye Li makes it clear she only has hard feelings for her father and she does not blame her for marrying him. Li just cautions that it might not be in her best interest, but she is free to live her life as she chooses. She even offers some kind thoughts about Rong and Ning. Ning in particular is surprised because she’s been especially mean to her and jealous she has JingLi’s attention and affection. The decree is with Qin Zheng who is a top supporter of Empress Dowager. She has a chat with the Marquis’ son and hints he should get along better with Qin. It seems these two are brothers of different mothers which adds to their competition for the Marquis’ attention. Jingli is still healing and Ning figures out he is injured. She also knows he left the Ye house which he denies because he was too drunk to be able to leave. She has no clue what his agenda is and I am sad that she is stuck with one who has no interest in her whatsoever as a wife. His friend flat out asks him why he doesn’t work with Xiu Yao and he can’t say because he covets the one he spurned. Ye Li presents Xiu Yao with a walker and asks him to try it out. The actor magnificently displays the overwhelming surprise and satisfaction of seeing the world eye to eye with those around him again. It is a very moving and poignant moment for all of them. ❤️ He has the maid’s remains identified and returned to the family and promises to follow it up with charges and punishments for those involved. This seems to satisfy Li. Their ‘walk’ together was sweet and ended up with pinwheels like children. Both are enjoying the freedom of just being. He takes off work to practice walking and shares his joy with the neighborhood children by having a stall with treats and coins for their enjoyment to share his happiness. He also wants to give happiness to Li and she chooses shopping, but when they get to town she refuses to shop in competitor’s shops and he thinks it is not beneficial to solely shop in her store. He reminds her that the coins spent would be his and not hers so she agrees. 😂🤣 She is looking through their selection of goods and wants to see the good stuff. They were reluctant until they figured out who was doing the shopping, and at episode end they were taking them to a private room for a special showing. So now I am curious what the step mom really wants from the Ye’s. What will happen when Jingli and XiuYao face off with matters other than loving the same woman? Watching affection grow between Ye Li and her Prince as he heals. 🥰And finding out why next preview shows Li heading down the mountain with the decree? 🧐

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I didn't see that coming

Is there really some paranormal stuff happening here as well? I could believe they got the maid playing and singing to act along, but the father's wife? Don't think so. Also, the weather acting up and lightning striking the tree to protect Ye Li from her Grandmother... none of that seemed natural. 🤔🫣😳Also, the Grandma? OMG, that was a huge plot twist for me! Didn't see that coming one bit! 🫣😲 Ye Li seemed to be in a kind of trance when she went for her, and only A'Yao's voice shouting that his legs were hurting could snap her out of it... and the next day she's completely normal, running, and doing stuff like a completely normal person. Anyone would get confused by her behaviour. 🤭🤨Weird things happening for sure, and I am all confused about many of them, but I think this was the best episode so far! 🤩

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Offers, revelations and a little sweetness

What a delightful look Yanfang had on his face when A'Jiu rejected his offer to make him accepted by the Xie family! 😏 I actually loved that the first part of the episode was quite dedicated to A'Jiu—giving us glimpses into his relationship with his mother, and him realising his identity among all those names he could wear, as well as his role for the people he cares about. 🤗👏Another delightful twist was Xiao Xun's anger over A'Zhao's conditions for trade goods (fire oil)—a hidden message he cannot overlook anymore. And his last card with Deng Yi is that decree for his enthronement, right? I wonder what Deng Yi will do with that in the end, because I am not sure Xiao Xun is as beneficial to his plans as he used to be. 🤨Chu Tang realising what she wants to do with her life felt a lot like a complete arc for her... which raises a question for me: why did the writers tease us with the idea of her and Deng Yi having something between them? Because since those few encounters they had about ten-ish episodes ago, that relationship has never developed any further... 🤔🤷‍♀️P.S. That little rivalry between Xiaoman and A'Zhao's maid for her favour was so cute... 🤭 AND we got another kiss.... woohoo! 🥰

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