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EP 63 & 64 (64 partial Eng subs): WOW! MingLan should have been an attorney or military strategist. She laid out the whole Aunt Kang sinister plot, including timelines. "We were having dinner together and she send Mr. X to buy poison." It was awesome! Aunt Kang is a true sociopath and yes, it's her family's fault. That wishy-washy Sheng dad, he doesn't have two vertebrae that connect, he is more spineless than an octopus! MingLan finally had the Kangs in a bind, and Wimpy let them out. The matriarch of the family performed an end-run saying Aunt Kang would at most get exiled, so the Shengs can't kill her. And what about Sheng's wife who was in on the murder scam too? Matriarch is saying if one goes, they both go. LOVE the way Kang's maid/nanny tried to hustle her out of the house, kept interfering and making scenes during the family sit-down when the evidence was presented. That gave MingLan reason to interject, else her mamby-pamby, spineless father would have just let everything go to have them all exit the house and end the mess. Dyin' to get the subs for the second half of Ep 64, see what MingLan's hubby has to say.

Watching this series, reading the book, aren't we all glad to be living in the HERE and NOW? If you weren't born wealthy, would REALLY suck to be a woman! Or alive.

I say PO-TAY-TOE, you say PO-TAH-TOE! WHO CARES if this character is bad/good/worse than other characters? There is enough evil-creep in all of these characters, some are so incredibly deficient in the brain department, others in the 'action' department. I am so lovin' the ride! Love the sets, the costumes, the intrigue, the family drama, women constantly gossiping and trying to kill each other with words and schemes, and riding around in those palanquins with an entourage while wearing fancy silk gowns and waving a hankie or fan!

@frenchfan: OK, that helps. Was wondering who was stopping the Dr, of course we know why, so someone will die in childbirth. Thought it was kinda slimy of that consort to have two faces - talking all sweet, but nasty, with the emperor, then slipping msgs to the Old Empress. Palaces are viper pits filled with people that eat their own.

What THE - WHAT THE is going on? Swords! Eunuch slapping-the-crap outta that whiny girl! Some queen-lady! Got no idea who did what to whom and why... need subs for Ep 60-61. Or a good summary...

Up to Ep 54 w/Eng subs: Aye yi yi - If I lived during this era, would be an expert in POISONS and use that to solve those pesky relative and household problems! Maybe brew up a huge pot of oleander tea for that pesky in-law? And the x-lover. And any uppity concubines. I'm just sayin'

Love. With us drama-watchers, it's all about The Love. MingLan was very specific in earlier scenes about LOVE. Yes, her husband may "love and desire" her NOW. But, that is not a luxury to indulge or something to continue to expect as he can/will take on other women and may like one or more of them more than her. Plain and simple. The one thing that can be counted upon is her ROLE. She is the Main Wife. THAT, and that alone is what anchors her position in the entire world. While lots and lots of watchers are ohhh-ing and ahhh-ing over TingYe's proclamations of LOVE and wishing MingLan would just 'open her heart' and accept his 'love,' she is fully aware of how fleeting that may be. Great story. Does it have a sad ending?

Reading about the love/trust/heart-opening between the two main characters... All the back/forth says the producers/directors have done a great job with this series. They have managed to wrap us into a world where women lived a very proscribed life and wound a love story into it. CAN MingLan step outside of her duties and societal position to trust the love and passion of her husband? This story is about the life, the restrictions and expectations, of an aristocratic woman in her time, the Song Dynasty. Men were still fighting with swords! Interesting that most are transposing current feelings of romantic love onto a situation where no such thing likely existed. Marriages were arranged between families, couples rarely, if ever, met prior to being married. The life of an aristocratic woman was lived almost entirely in her own home and the "inner courtyard" machinations depicted were likely common.

WHO can help out with dialogue Ep 52, the family dinner scene and later, the dinner scene with Molan and her witless hubby? Doesn't have to be word-for-word, a summary will suffice. PLEASE? Any Chinese-speakers out there?

Up to Ep 44-45 w/Eng subs: Well, I wanted to see them married and living happily together. Just not so much. All the household blather: servants, properties, servants fighting, aye-yi-yi. It's a lot. And WHAT IS UP w/the pesky step-mother-in-law dropping by whenever to give orders? Can't she just stay home? Can't we all just get along? Moral of the story: watch what you wish for, you could get it. Let's move the story along, enough household drudgery.

GUYS! GUYS! GUYS! *** --- *** NEWS FLASH! *** --- *** It's a DRAMA! These characters do not exist. If someone likes QH over GTY, OH WELL. SO WHAT? If someone thinks GTY's scheming and plotting is underhanded, SO WHAT? If someone thinks QH is weak and whiny, SO WHAT? WHAT is the point of debating whether one fictional character's love is more true than another fictional character's? These are only fictional characters - they do not exist - and we are all entitled to our own opinions and interpretations. Let's share our perceptions to enhance our viewing experience without judgement. This is supposed to be FUN!

Old Man Sheng was so in-love with Concubine Lin, that is why she did whatever she wanted and he chose not to see it. It was obvious that his marriage with the main wife was a family-arranged affair and his love was Concubine Lin. All the women, concubines and wives, vie for power within the household. Concubine Lin was very cunning and persuasive in all of her insidious deeds. That is what drove the MainWife crazy! Even if Lin's excuse was flimsy, the Master fell for it. MingLan's mother was hugely pregnant and living in an unheated room! Sheng made lame efforts to solve the problem, but did not do anything that would cause problems for Concubine Lin. If there is a mess in the Sheng house, Master Sheng bears the most blame.

QH & ML & QTY... What a tangled web we weave! QH found himself suddenly and fortuitously widowed. WHO KNEW he could be so lucky after all the bad luck? So NOW he could pursue the woman he truly wanted, and those pesky threatening 3rd tier royals were nowhere to be found as they are very D-E-A-D. QTY was a rogue. He was an outcast from is family due to hanging out with and keeping a bar singer, setting-up household with her, having children with her, and trying to get her accepted into his family/household. Earlier, that very thing that caused all kinds of uproar in his house when they tried to arrange a 'decent' marriage for him and the mistress took full advantage making scenes everywhere: PLEASE? Just let me be an accepted concubine. Yeah, right. Her scam was to take over and be accepted as an aristocrat. QH knew about QTY's relationship issues. ML, if she marries QTY, has to deal with his runaway mistress and QTY's two kiddos. So of course QH looks like a better choice. Even though his mother is overbearing, he doesn't have the other mistress-related baggage and bad relations with his family baggage. QTY's new found legitimacy (saving the emperor) and the favoritism displayed by the emperor puts him in a whole new light and now makes him much more desirable as a marriage prospect. Everyone seems inclined to forget all that bar singer/mistress business.

Up to Ep 35 w/Eng subs, Ep 37 w/o Eng subs: 1) ConcubineLin... DEAD. Glad Granny finally caused him to see the light. Loved that he ran out to see ConcubineLin and confirm what Granny said and felt like such a fool. 'Cause he was! Some scholar he was to get played so bad by a scheming concubine. 'Hubby' said that he was going to kill her, and the way that servant went after her with that club, it looks like he got his wish. I think it was more than skin infection that kilt her, she probably had major internal injuries. Getting whacked like that with a massive club like that one is going to do some major damage: spine, intestines, you name it! 2) HILARIOUS that poor little MingLan sneaks out of the palace with the emperor's orders and runs right smack dead center into the rescuers and gets herself (and the emperor) rescued. Well, why not? It's CDrama. 3) ConsortEvil is the one who's sister ended tossed into the street and hung herself all because of wanting HotStuff, QH? Well, the other EvilConsort/Princess got him. Such a catch. In the temple scene QH prayed for MingLan's health and happiness and a good husband. Watch what you wish for... I haven't seen the scene where HotStuff learns his wife is kilt and wants to reconnect with MingLan, the one where he tosses stuff in frustration. HotStuff gave-up on MingLan to protect her from the very same people that abducted the girl that kilt herdamnself. Poor girl. SpoiltPrincess' mom threatened to do the same to MingLan, so he immediately gave-up and married SpoiltPrincess. He seemed incline to protest that his father was held hostage, but when they threatened to hurt the 6th Miss from the Sheng family, he relented. SpoiltPrincess and her evil-plotting mom are now dead, so he wants to reconnect with MingLan. That understandable since she isn't married. BUT now there is another impediment: GTY! It's always something. HotStuff just can't catch a break. 4) RouSis marrying the scholar will please her father... although not the part about her secretly meeting him. I think that's a major NO-NO. The poor long-suffering wife, RouSis's mother... She has only caught one break in her entire life, when ConcubineLin and MoSis got caught, and now her daughter is caught sneaking out. Appears that out of the three 'daughters,' only MingLan will make a good marriage. Closing-in on Ep 40, that's a lot of background until the main character gets launched. I am loving every minute of this series!

What chapter / pages in the novel correlate to Ep 29--> 32?