[Mainland Chinese Drama 2019] Joy of Life 庆余年

[40somethingahjumma]

Dangit! If I had known that Zhang Ruoyun was in this I would have been onboard at the start. Why didn't I? Drats...

 

That aside, this drama is downright awesome. It's anachronistically hilarious... plays like a postmodern spoof of a Chinese period drama ie. a Chinese version of The Princess Bride or something more literary like The Name of the Rose. I'm not usually enthusiastic about C dramas from Day 1 but this one is really up my alley. Puns and inside jokes... heh.

 

I love it. It's ridiculously good. Zhang Ruoyun is one of my favourites. Li Qin is great too. I miss the little Fan Xian though... wish we had him for a bit longer. Kid is a good actor and bears a certain resemblance to ZRY.

[Scandias]

Finished the drama on Monday, still thinking it over. 

Guys, what do you think, why it was snowing on the Shen Zhong vs Shan Shanghu scene? I am really bad at Chinese symbolics, but I remember the snowflakes mentioned in the opening song...

[40somethingahjumma]

This show is a blast. What a gem! It really does remind me of The Name of the Rose. (The book not so much the film) I'm surprised that's not more chatter on this thread.

 

This must be one of the most tightly-plotted, eclectic C dramas I've ever seen. It brilliantly walks the balancing of humour with angst. I am so impressed by the way the detective elements blend with the politics and the wuxia. The cast as a whole are very competent. Everyone's good in their respective roles.

 

You have to wonder if the emperor is behind all this attacks on Fan Xian... perhaps to test him. He has everyone on knife's edge dancing to his tune. Some of it is the usual thing of maintaining a balance of power. Of course, he's instructing his children in the finer ways of politics by playing them off against each other and keeping them busy so he's not trying to grab the hot seat. Very smart man... completely untrustworthy of course.  He's playing his chess game and moving the pieces around reminding everyone who is really in charge.

 

Zhang Ruoyun, as always, brings his A-game to this. He is such a great talent... being able to bring his comedic abilities to the table as well as the expected gravitas from the more emotional scenes. The lass that plays the sister is great too. She's so earnest about being helpful that it cracks me up more often than not. There's definitely something about the delivery.

 

Spoiler

But why did they kill Teng Zijing so soon? I liked him so much... and his poor family. Just when his son was beginning to acknowledge him as well.

 

[skibbies]

@40somethingahjumma Princess Bride is a great comparison! It's just so much fun. The actress playing sister is Song Yi, I loved her in The Disguiser, the republican era spy drama. 

 

As for the child actor, he had more scenes, at least an episode more, but they ultimately cut them to get into the story faster, sacrificing some development/small details when he was a kid. ZRY mentioned the kid was super observational, and really good at intimidating ZRY which definitely helped selling their resemblance more.

 

@Scandias I think it's just to play up the tragedy of it? They are both important members of Northern Qi's court, but for their own reasons, they end up having to face off each other. There is a chinese idiom about snowing in June indicating injustice, but I'm pretty sure it's winter in drama (at the very least, it shouldn't be summer). 

[MaySenpai33]

Wow. Okay I normally don’t post but I have just recently finished reading the novel. I have no idea what will happen in the drama adaptation as the plot is already sort of different than the novel, but I can answer all novel questions. Maybe it will help some of your future predictions on where the drama might go. BIG BIG SPOILERS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. 

 

Regarding Fan Xian’s love life:

Spoiler

Wan’er - typical dedicated wife. Managed to have a son with him called Fan Lang. They actually married before FX set off to north qi kingdom. She was sort of useless for the most part but ended up managing a large charity organization known around the world so she spread out the good Fan name everywhere  

 

Sisi - does not exist in the adaptation but she is FX’s concubine in the novel. There wasn’t much about her plot except she was a serving girl for FX when he grew up at grandma Fan and they liked each other. Wan’er and her are very close. She has a daughter with Fan Xian (first child). 

 

Si Lili - She develops feelings for FX like in the drama during the whole north qi carriage thing. However, she ends up as the northern Qi emperor’s favorite consort and knows she and FX could never be together. BUT... see below about northern Qi emperor lol 

 

Northern Qi emperor - her name is Zhan Duo Duo. FX eventually finds out she is a woman. Actually in the novel, when FX got drunk/drugged by Haitang Duo Duo, in the drama, you saw him wake up to Si Lili and it is the same as in the novel. But in the novel, it was implied he was drugged with an aphrodisiac and sex with si Lili. BUT it was actually a plot between the three ladies (Haitang, si lili, and Zhan) where the person who had sex with FX was the emperor LOL.... she raped FX cause she liked him and thought he was handsome. And she also hoped to get pregnant too (needed a prince). She did not get preggo but encountered FX again sometime later and Fx revealed he knew her secret. They happened to be stuck in a hut together at some time and angry words were said, hateful intention thrown around, and then they somehow made love through hatesex and she got preggo and gave birth to a princess that everyone thought was si lili’s and the emperor’s lol. 

 

So with regards to si lili and emperor Qi.....the novel ended kind of openly. Cause FX obviously couldn’t be king or anything of north Qi but si lili still loves FX and the emperor Qi also acknowledges FX as her ‘one and only man’. She call herself FX’s woman. The world does not know her real gender except a few people so they could only see each other once in a while. And FX ends the novel of thinking to visit them to maybe ‘make a prince’ for them. -wink- Si lili never gets it on with FX but it’s implied in the novel she always liked FX and wanted a baby with him. Afterall, her ‘husband’ is a woman and she can’t be intimate with another man. 

 

Haitang DuoDuo - they go through some harsh things together and develop a deep relationship. And by deep, I mean DEEP relationship. The trust is unreal between them. She actually sort of disobeys her teacher even somewhat to save FX’s life and also was willing to sacrifice everything (include her life) to help FX. She and FX always knew they loved each other but could never be together cause of diff countries at war etc. We find out she is actually a princess of the grassland tribes (separate from north qi or Qing kingdom) so in the novel, after the plot ends, it is said she went back to the grasslands, most likely to stabilize  it. However in the end, it is mentioned that she visits FX and his family sometimes and he is not sure ‘when she will return after she gets tired of the grassland.’ So basically it is implied that she is his woman, but she has some important things to do. But you can tell they truly love each other and FX has directly told her many times she is his woman and she isn’t allowed to be with another man. His words were, ‘if you are not allowed to marry me, then I will not alone anyone else to marry you.’ She did not reject him either. 

 

 

 

emperor and FX mother: 

Spoiler

Ye Qingmei - she was the emperor’s lover and wanted the emperor to spread her inventions and stuff around the world. She wanted equality between everyone but the emperor did not approve because that meant the emperor was also equal to a commoner. She also held a lot of power and support and was threatening the emperor’s power. In the end, she died due to the plots of the emperor. But her and the emperor were in love. Except she fell in love with a richard simmons. She died right after giving birth to FX under imperial army soldiers. 

 

Qing emperor - he is FX’s real father. I don’t even know where to begin with this guy. He is one suspicious dude. Let’s just say he is great at plotting and his biggest plot took him 20 years to fully be completed. He is also secretly a great grand master (ye meiqing spoiled him lol). He killed FX’s mom for power and stability in the kingdom since the mom’s ideals were too modern for the world to accept. In return, he spent his entire life atoning for it by treating FX well out of guilt, trying to fulfill the mom’s requests she made when she was alive, and trying to prove to her dead spirit that ‘he was right’ and that he needed to ‘unite the world’. He is narcissistic for sure but his story is complicated. 

 

How he dies: Uncle Wu barges in and hits him a few times (but  uncle Wu ends up heavily injured too), he gets shot with the almighty rifle and loses an entire arm, and FX then secretly attacks him. He is almost dead and was curious in the end what was under uncle Wu’s clothed eyes. So he uses his last attack to uncover Wu’s eyes and gets hit with LASERS OF DOOM LOL. His body completely disintegrates into nothingness. Ouch. 

 

FX’s minions of undying loyalty: 

Spoiler

Chen Pingping - we all thought he is plotting against FX BUT TRUST ME HE IS FX’s BIGGEST SUPPORTER. He initially used FX to prove to the emperor that he doesn’t care about FX and many times had multiple assassination attempts against FX. But he knew FX would survive and trusted FX. In fact, FX knew about all of this and Pingping never lied to him. He did this because he was secretly plotting to kill the emperor himself. Why? Such a loyal dog of the emperor, why would he want to betray him? Because Pingping loved FX’s mother. He knew from day 1 of her death that the emperor was involved in her death and he swore to get revenge. He also knew he himself could not kill the emperor and he gave that right to FX instead. He gave everything he had to FX (council, subordinates, Black knights) before he went back to the emperor and made the emperor angry enough to kill him (death in public by a thousand cuts). He is also secretly a eunuch who followed the emperor since a young age as they grew up together. His quote to the emperor “you were good to me like a superior, but ye qingmei was good to me like a friend. It is not the same, of course I have to get revenge.” He could not kill the emperor but he sacrificed his life after knowing the emperor believed him and FX weren’t plotting together and also knew it would trigger FX to get revenge on the emperor. With his death, FX wanted revenge on the emperor. FX loved Pingping like a father and always knew how his mother really died but never had the resolve. But after seeing Pingping die in front of him, FX decided to finally go through with treason and plotted to kill the emperor. 

 

Wu Zhu - he is a robot with laser shootin eyes. He is a special robot who can sort of have feelings though and followed ye qingmei out from the temple and served her. The temple is the reason he lost his memories. He actually is stronger than the great grandmasters and they all fear him. Near the end, he decided to leave FX’s side and go to the temple to recover his memories. But instead, the temple seemed to have won and erased all his memories. But when FX went to the temple to look for him, he was originally ordered to kill FX but instead could not bare to despite the erased memories. So he instead followed his ‘heart’ and just decided to follow FX back and eventually he met the emperor and felt a desire to kill him. It is still not known if he got his memories back but in the novel end, FX mentioned how it won’t be long until Uncle Wu fully recovers soon (he lost a leg and was heavily injured in the end) and would return to him. He went to dong mountain temple (near Danzhou) to recover. 

 

Fan Ruoruo - she is one badass girl. She ends up being ku he’s disciple because of FX and also learned about medicine. She also learned about surgery from FX and was able to save many lives. In the novel, Uncle Wu actually secretly trained her as a teacher and before he left for the temple to discover his past, he left the sniper rifle with her. And guess who shot the emperor? She did. This girl sniped the emperor multiple times and I am pretty sure she is also a 9th level ace as it is implied she is very strong (her teachers were ku he and Wu zhu afterall). After the assassination, FX actually never sees her again. They parted ways and it is not implied if she and FX visits each other. She eventually just travels around the world and spreads her medicine and healing everywhere and doing what she loves. Also in the novel, Li Hongcheng is in love with her and leaves his prince manor and noble life to follow her around wherever she goes, apparently been with her for 4-5 years now, so it can be implied as well they end up together. 

 

Fan Jian - FX’s adoptive father. He is very loyal to FX and is still alive in the end and manages the Ten Family Village. This Village was basically a second version of palace treasury. FX’s mother originally was going to spread her inventions to the world through Dong Yi City but changes to Qing kingdom later cause of various reasons. But after FX started planning treason, he decided to build a lot of fortune and build another city near Dongyi to fulfill his mother’s wish. Fan Jian helps FX and becomes a great help. He has saved FX many times and is very cunning. 

 

Wang Qinian - he is alive and helps FX manage things in the end. I would say he is FX’s most loyal follower. 

 

Gao Da - as a tiger guard, his only duty is to protect the emperor and follow orders. However, as he was by FX’s side for a while, he ended up questioning if the emperor truly valued his and the other tiger guard’s life. Every tiger guard eventually died except Gao da due to the emperor’s plotting. Gao da was injured and escape and went to live on a normal life secretly. He even got a wife and a kid sometime. But the emperor used him to lure Pingping and FX in a plot and he ended up getting hurt. Luckily, wang Qinian and Pingping saved him. He settled in the Ten Family Village I believe and served under FX, though he never reappeared in the novel anywhere after he goes to Ten Family Village. 

 

Yanbing Yun - he becomes FX’s closest allies but also frenemy. Before FX plotted treason, Yanbing Yun did everything he could to support FX, because FX was always loyal to the emperor. However, as time passed and Chen pingping’s treason was out in the open, Yan Bingyun could not help but put his country first and side with the emperor. Chen Pingping and FX did not blame him for this as he did it to make sure the overwatch council would survive as he became the new director and the emperor trusted him. He mostly remained neutral during the whole Chen pingping and FX vs Emperor part and only did as ordered by the emperor. In fact, Chen pingping ordered him to just follow the emperor so that the council is not going to be abolished completely. He still decided to help FX a little in the end when he was hiding from pursuers after he attempts assassination on the emperor (there were two attempt and second one was successful) by looking the other way when FX was hiding in his manor under yan Ruohai’s orders. It is said in the end of the novel that the council is still existing but the place of director of the council is no longer existing. Not sure what happens to him but he is probably a powerful official in the end somewhere. 

 

Third Prince - he becomes the next emperor and he regards FX with respect. FX is his one and only recognized teacher and he knows FX is the only reason he is able to become emperor in the end. After he becomes the big boss, everything is stable. He sometimes gets advice from FX and visits him. And he is opposite of his father and does not want to conquer the world and wants peace with the other countries. 

 

Whew. That is all for now. If you guys have any questions, let me know. I can answer them. Thanks!  

 

Also there is a LOT of characters that I have not mentioned here because you guys did not see them in the live action yet. So I left them out to not confuse you guys. You can ask me if you want to know though. 

Edited January 22, 2020 by MaySenpai33
Added details

[tothestars]

54 minutes ago, MaySenpai33 said:

Wow. Okay I normally don’t post but I have just recently finished reading the novel. I have no idea what will happen in the drama adaptation as the plot is already sort of different than the novel, but I can answer all novel questions. Maybe it will help some of your future predictions on where the drama might go. BIG BIG SPOILERS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. 

 

OMG THANK YOUUUU SO MUCH! I feel like i owe you my life LOL! It is all worth it with the risk after reading it!

 

Never thought that the story would be like that, really something! After this i will pray that everyone in S1 (production team n actors) will be back to S2, please dont ruin this great story!

 

Thank you so much again my friend! You must have so tired writing all the detail!

[tothestars]

On 1/21/2020 at 1:00 PM, 40somethingahjumma said:

Dangit! If I had known that Zhang Ruoyun was in this I would have been onboard at the start. Why didn't I? Drats...

 

That aside, this drama is downright awesome. It's anachronistically hilarious... plays like a postmodern spoof of a Chinese period drama ie. a Chinese version of The Princess Bride or something more literary like The Name of the Rose. I'm not usually enthusiastic about C dramas from Day 1 but this one is really up my alley. Puns and inside jokes... heh.

 

I love it. It's ridiculously good. Zhang Ruoyun is one of my favourites. Li Qin is great too. I miss the little Fan Xian though... wish we had him for a bit longer. Kid is a good actor and bears a certain resemblance to ZRY.

 

Ah finally we have you in here! Welcome!

 

I also miss Finn (actor who play Lil FX), he such a talented child actor, really resembles with ZRY and really fit as young FX, resourceful and mischieve.

 

I hate Li Qin when she was in Princess Agent because of her role of course LOL, so i dont have any feeling for her at first, but she really adorable as LWE, how can we not love her? Honest pure and kind, she really nailed it.

 

Zhang RuoYun, ahhh speechless, i keep rewatching all his clips from tv show, movie, and series, because of his great act n his voices! I also find he has a good personality as well, oh no i am starting to fangirling him LOL.

[pad-hari]

1 hour ago, MaySenpai33 said:

Wow. Okay I normally don’t post but I have just recently finished reading the novel. I have no idea what will happen in the drama adaptation as the plot is already sort of different than the novel, but I can answer all novel questions. Maybe it will help some of your future predictions on where the drama might go. BIG BIG SPOILERS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. 

Omg!!! TU so much.  U are our saviour.  It is worth reading the spoilers even though we may not know how the adaptation is going to be.  

You left out Fei Jei, FX's poison master.  How will he end up? 

FJ, CPP and FJ-poison master - these three are the main persons who will help him, I suppose till the end, right?

@40somethingahjumma, awww, you r here.  This drama is so good with the mix of hilarious political vendetta and FX wittiness and not to forget his fangirls.  Hehe. I like him more with Haitang duoduo, the saintess.  They r cute. Finally, one thing ZRY,  my new find in c dramaland.  Wow!!!! What an actor, he is!!!!!!

 

@epinklyn, me too I just see lots of clips of the drama and OST/mv's from YT.  

BTW, who is Li Hongcheng?  I forgot

 

[dzareth]

@MaySenpai33, thank you very much for the spoilers

 

Can you also share what happened to Fan Sizhe, Ku He, crown prince and 2nd prince? As well as waner's mom? 

[tothestars]

31 minutes ago, pad-hari said:

, me too I just see lots of clips of the drama and OST/mv's from YT.  

BTW, who is Li Hongcheng?  I forgot

 

Hahahaa, yeahh big hug! Plz join me at Zhang Ruo Yun thread okay LOL. 

 

Li HongCheng is the 2nd Prince's follower, who host the Poem Event, and invited FX to come, in that event FX wrote the first magnificent poem and met LWE the 2nd time. He also the one who introduce Si Lili to FX.

[MaySenpai33]

@pad-hari

 

Fei jei:

Spoiler

Fei Jei is still alive. He sincerely cares about Fan Xian and helps him throughout. In the end, after knowing everything about Chen pingping’s plans, he decides to escape and retire into the west (where white people live I am assuming). FX never sees him again after he sails off to the west but he does leave a notebook his mom left for him to Fei jei and asks him to maybe translate for him in the west. The book was apparently in Italian. 

 

Li Hongcheng is the second prince’s follower who hosted that first poetry contest. He eventually separates from the second prince and becomes FX’s good friend. He becomes a general in the army and sides with FX during treasonous times. 

 @dzareth

Fan Sizhe, ku he, crown prince and second prince

Spoiler

Fan Sizhe - he got into a lot of trouble opening up brothel with his younger cousin (third prince). The business itself was fine but it was shady cause they killed prostitutes sometimes due to the customers’ desires. No one dared to stop them because one owner was a prince and another owner was FX’s (commissioner of the overwatch council at the time) younger brother. Eventually FX found out about it and beat his brother up. The second prince who was against FX at the time knew the secret and tried to use Sizhe as a threat and have FX cooperate with him. But FX didn’t want to be under threat and his family decides to exile Fan Sizhe before the palace issued him a criminal. Fan Sizhe is exiled to North Qi but he is actually secretly sent there to help FX start a business (with cooperation with the north qi emperor). He becomes the biggest merchant in all of north qi and matures a lot by the end. He respects his brother and supports him a lot in the end and lives with FX and family. 

 

Ku He - ku he thinks of FX as the son of the ‘woman from fairy land’ after he realizes Wu Zhu is protecting FX (when Wu Zhu went to fight him during the waterfall scene). He sends Haitang DuoDuo to FX’s side and provides him the secret of his cultivation techniques (the book that FX’s mom gave kuhe) because he believed it belongs to FX naturally. He cooperated with FX’s plans and even takes in Fan ruoruo as a disciple because Fan ruoruo wanted to travel and didn’t want to marry under edict (she was forced to be engaged to li Hong Cheng at the time). In the end, ku he died at home among his disciples. He had fallen into a trap that the emperor of Qing set up. Him and the other grandmasters was originally planning to kill the emperor on dong mountain but ended up getting bamboozled instead. He was heavily injured and was certain to die and he did die. His final wishes was to put all hope onto FX in saving north qi and told the little emperor of north qi and his sect to support FX  

 

crown prince - he originally didn’t do much. Becomes his father emperor forced him to feel threatened, he ended up relying on his aunt for power but as we all know, his aunt was secretly helping the second prince instead. After the second prince fell out of power because of FX, the aunt (head princess and wan er’s mother) started supporting the crown prince. And this is the messed up part, but the crown prince and the aunt DID THE DIRTY. The crown prince was attracted to the aunt and THEY HAD AN AFFAIR. The emperor found out and was furious. The emperor then decided to take all of the aunt princess’s power and also dispose of the crown prince. But before doing that, as a last attempt, the crown prince and aunt princess decides to try and assassinate the emperor on dong mountain (the emperor went to dong mountain near Danzhou to pray) and tried to frame it in FX who was beside the emperor at the time. They used the grandmasters for help. Everyone thought the emperor was for sure dead but no one knew the emperor was actually a grandmaster secretly as he hid that for 20 years. So when everyone thought the emperor was dead far away, the empress dowager in order to stabilize the country tried to make the crown prince the emperor. But the emperor sent FX out with a secret edict to not make the crown prince the heir before he ‘dies’. And through a bunch of rebels and battles in the capital, eventually the crown prince lost after the emperor came back. Empress dowager also dies in the turmoil. FX manages to get his allies and kills all the supporters. The crown prince was not killed but sent to live his life inside his palace and to never step out. But it is implied he commits suicide in the end and blames his father for forcing him. His father had always planned to give him the thrown all along but this happened. 

 

Second prince - he loses all his power due to FX and FX tried to convince him to give up the thrown and live a leisure life. But he refuses and knows it’s too late to back out now and doesn’t want to give up power. Eventually he realizes he lost and decides to team up with the crown prince. They lost and second prince admits complete defeat and commits suicide at home in front of FX and leaves a will to ensure people didn’t think FX killed him and also to blame his father for forcing him to fight for the throne. Pretty sad for the two princes as they would have been good people if the emperor wasn’t such a ****. 

 

 

 

[tothestars]

Omg really the emperor is an a******, he is a good n smart emperor for the Qing, but not a good husband and father, sigh...

 

Ah i want to ask something @MaySenpai33, what is the connection between the emperor and the temple, did the emperor also get something from Ye QingMei so he can be a great grandmaster? Thx in advance!

[MaySenpai33]

1 hour ago, epinklyn said:

Omg really the emperor is an a******, he is a good n smart emperor for the Qing, but not a good husband and father, sigh...

 

Ah i want to ask something @MaySenpai33, what is the connection between the emperor and the temple, did the emperor also get something from Ye QingMei so he can be a great grandmaster? Thx in advance!

 Emperor and temple: 

 

Spoiler

The temple is actually a big large war museum from the past, before a big nuclear war killed everything. However, the robots were left alive and were programmed to help the human race rebuild. The temple doesn’t interfere with with affairs and provides knowledge when they believe is the right time in order to evolve the human race. A side note: the Zhenqi or the martial arts auras are actually humans evolving to adapt to nuclear radiation! 

 

As we all know, Ye Qingmei escaped from the temple (she was one of the only humans left inside the temple). She passed down her knowledge and views onto the world and it did not agree with the temple’s ways since she was changing the world too fast. The temple is controlled by robots as I mentioned and it wants natural human progression and the end goal is to never let the nuclear disaster happen again. 

 

After she got involved with the emperor, the temple sent emissaries down and made contact with the emperor and told him about the truth and they believed only he could get rid of her while the temple tries to distract wu zhu. 

 

And the temple monks all believed the emperor was the chosen one from heaven because the emissaries decided to work with him. 

 

Yeah...pretty much it 

 

Emperor’s powers:

Spoiler

He actually learned the same martial arts that FX is learning in the drama. But the martial arts was originally two books instead of one. FX is only learning the first book and it’s dangerous because all his meridians will explode if he doesn’t learn the second book after. The emperor received both books from Ye Qingmei and it was a very gruesome process to learn and master and it takes willpower to go through endless pain to learn this martial art. 

 

Edited January 22, 2020 by MaySenpai33
Added details

[tothestars]

Ohhh wow... Thx a lot for the answer... But it leads to another questions LOL

 

Spoiler

I have read couple pages of first chapter and...

 

So the memories that FX has, he was Fan Shen, an ill man that dying, and then suddenly he wakes up as a baby FX. So is that the memories before the nuclear killed everything includes him?

 

And in the drama Ye QingMei told FX via letter from the chest about the modern world, so she knows that FX will "reborn" from modern world into Qing Imperial era?

 

Thank you.

[MaySenpai33]

@epinklyn

 

Spoiler

In the novel, ye qingmei only left the box for Wu Zhu and doesn’t explain much to Fan xian. She only ‘assumes’ that the person reading the secret letter at the bottom compartment of the box is not Wu Zhu since the letter for Wu Zhu was to destroy the box right after. So she guessed it was probably her child. She also actually didn’t care too much about Fan xian because she made the chest when he wasn’t born. In fact, she assumed it was her child who opened the chest and for some reason left an abortion pill behind for him. Either she is telling him not to have children, giving him an option to abort if needed, or hinting at him she didn’t actually want him. No answers are given. The novel is much darker and the main character is also much more cynical than in the live drama. 

 

Everything in the drama is actually original plot. 

 

 

Also in the live drama, they say he was an experiment from memory transfer I believe, but in the novel, it was a legit reincarnation and he dies before the nuclear war breaks out so wasn’t aware it happened until he visited the temple and found some answers.

 

Edited January 22, 2020 by MaySenpai33
Added details

[Scandias]

15 hours ago, skibbies said:

I think it's just to play up the tragedy of it? They are both important members of Northern Qi's court, but for their own reasons, they end up having to face off each other. There is a chinese idiom about snowing in June indicating injustice, but I'm pretty sure it's winter in drama (at the very least, it shouldn't be summer). 

Thank you so much! Of course it's for playing up tragedy, but they've chosen one particular way for doing it, so I'm curious. The idiom makes sense...I also read sth about snow meaning innocence.

Not sure about winter,but this would also make sense... I don't know how this season works in Qi 

[Scandias]

 I was avoiding novel spoilers from here, but then saw the annotation for the 2nd season... [SPOILERY SPOILERS OMG]

Spoiler

saying that Fan Xian is going to make the emperor abdicate.

I don't know what I was waiting for, perhaps I didn't even think that sth could happen to the emperor. Chen Daoming's vibes

Did it really happen in the novel?

 

well, ok, I can't but read the first of the @MaySenpai33 comments... seems like the drama scenario will be slightly more pleasant to percieve 

[pad-hari]

@MaySenpai33, we know the crown and the second prince.  Who is exactly the third prince?  The child from emperor and one of the concubines who is related to Waner?  BTW, thank you so much for the explanation about Fei Jei.  

 

Ok, when does this story actually takes place?  Is any year mentioned about it in the novel? Coz when FX gives some quotes related to modern day things, I just want to know from the modern period to which year he time travelled?  All these robot things from the temple seems to me it's almost near the modern period. Thanks.

 

Yeah, li Hongcheng, one who is with Gao bakun and also advocates when GB gets hurt by FX to frame him.  Now I remember him.  Wow, he is partnered with FRR.  Super!!!

[MaySenpai33]

5 hours ago, pad-hari said:

@MaySenpai33, we know the crown and the second prince.  Who is exactly the third prince?  The child from emperor and one of the concubines who is related to Waner?  BTW, thank you so much for the explanation about Fei Jei.  

 

Ok, when does this story actually takes place?  Is any year mentioned about it in the novel? Coz when FX gives some quotes related to modern day things, I just want to know from the modern period to which year he time travelled?  All these robot things from the temple seems to me it's almost near the modern period. Thanks.

 

Yeah, li Hongcheng, one who is with Gao bakun and also advocates when GB gets hurt by FX to frame him.  Now I remember him.  Wow, he is partnered with FRR.  Super!!!

 

Spoiler

We did not see the third prince yet but he is merely a little boy at the current time in the drama. He is the youngest prince. 

 

The timeline is a post apocalypse world after the modern world is destroy due to nuclear warfare. All humans were wiped out (I think maybe some scientists were saved?) and humans were reborn again through evolution and of course, they also adapted to the radiation being part of their body. Throughout all this, many ice ages occurs and natural life took place. Once humans existed again as cavemen and primitive tribes, the ‘temple’ aka robots designed to help the human race slowly came to ‘gift’ knowledge of civilization and advance it. Wu Zhu was there from the beginning actually and was one of the first ones to provide knowledge to the first humans. 

 

And no, li Hongcheng is the second prince’s ally. He is the one who HOSTED the poetry battle. The one who introduced Si Lili to FX. 

 

[MaySenpai33]

6 hours ago, Scandias said:

 I was avoiding novel spoilers from here, but then saw the annotation for the 2nd season... [SPOILERY SPOILERS OMG]

  Reveal hidden contents

saying that Fan Xian is going to make the emperor abdicate.

I don't know what I was waiting for, perhaps I didn't even think that sth could happen to the emperor. Chen Daoming's vibes

Did it really happen in the novel?

 

well, ok, I can't but read the first of the @MaySenpai33 comments... seems like the drama scenario will be slightly more pleasant to percieve 

 I think a lot of the novel is too dark for television and probably censored lol. A lot of the drama is original plot while mixing the basic timeline of the novel in. I just hope they don’t skip too much because there were some things in the novel I feel like are too important to skip. Plus, so many characters that deserve a good chunk of the story.