Your all welcome... *bows* @alexfilia well, you have to understand that they were in a difficult situation when they discovered the culprit aka WS but was actually tricked by her sister. That was because, filial piety was very important in their society, so imagine the wife of knowingly poisoning the eldest member of the family and her MIL to boot? This would bring shame to all the Sheng family, and that would include both her father and brother. I think MLan was worried too, considering that she is now a wife of a high standing noble and general. So that was why SH was really aversed in bringing them to the "justice court(?)(i don't know the term, sorry.), because this will bring controversy and impact negatively on their position especially on her oldest brother. Remember, that MLan is also close/cordial to her legitimate siblings, so the whole Sheng family was blackmailed in silence by that sister. That was when, MLan knowing that there was a mastermind used a bait so that person will come and investigate wether the old woman was really poisoned, and the sister really appeared. So that was when the whole confrontation was done. wS was really surprised that her sister used her and tricked her. I think, that the sister was also asking something from MLan that she did not want to do but cannot reject because of the blackmail (sorry, can't remember the exact request). Then, the eldest brother appeared to save the day. Yay! He was very brave in telling his aunt that he has nothing to fear and would rather take this to the public so they can have justice and risk his position. The conclusion was, the whole family of the aunt was told, and the justice person too ( i think), and WS was also "exiled" by the oldest brother. The oldest brother decided to resign, and the whole family especially WS was horified because the oldest brother was really good in his position, but he retorted that this was the consequence of WS not thinking.WS was devastated and unwilling to leave, because the stipulation was she will be exiled/sent away for 10 years.
@wolfie643 the doctor? If him, no not a lover but rather a childhood friend/cousin. And as usual with those types, that girl wanted to be with the doctor but knowing his like for MLan, she was fine with being concubine. She was actually one of the other reason that MLan decided to agree with the engagement to ML, because the childhood cousin(CC) was insistent of being the doctor's concubine. And the doctor wasn't being strict with the CC in rejecting her. MLan dislikes this because she knows that having that CC if she married the doctor will bring endless problems in the future. T the whole family of CC was very thick faced and won't take no for an answer eventhough the doctor's family reprimands them.
when you say older brother you mean the older brother of Wang shi, Shenghong's or Minglan's? (i'm assuming its minglan's...what was his possition?) so the sister and her family went to prison in the end?...i'm assuming the sister wanted her daughter to be a concumbine and tried to blackmail the mc to agree?
Minglan's oldest brother, only son of WS and SH, his wife is close/likes MLan. He was an officer, not that high but he has potential because he has the brains. I don't remember the ending of the sister but from what i can think, or from what i can remember, is that her trick was revealed to her family. The sister, though a main wife, but her husband is not close to her and, i think, likes a concubine more, also the husband wasn't a high official. I'm not sure but i think she was home-arrested or was she divorced? I have to search in the novel, sorry...
@Elv i think, i wrote an earlier post about Molan.. but in summary, she was the main wife, though not favored by her in-laws and her husband has a pet concubine. She tricked the concubine in eating super healthy foods that when she gave birth it was very hard. That was the trick CL did on MLan's mother, resulting in MLan's mother's death. But i think, she was experiencing what WS experienced with CL. She wasn't that close to her other sister's, just for reputation's sake, does she face them. RULAN At the end, she married her lover, a commoner/low noble that was previously staying in the Sheng Fu to study. So, she married low, that is why WS gave her many lease so she will be safe in the husband's family compound. I remember her telling MLan that she takes no s*** from her in-laws. She gave birth to a daughter but she's ok with not giving birth to a son. Her husband is good to her and she sometimes visits MLan. MLan visited her when she was pregnant too. And sometimes, when she sees MLan's fu, that was huge and dignified, she can't help being jealous because she compares it to her "now" courtyard. HUALAN She is the eldest sister, so you already know she married in a count's(?) family. MLan sometimes visits her, her firstborn is a daughter then she gave birth to a son later in the novel. GT was a bit confusing but from what i can remember, at first there was no love between her and her husband. It was only at later chapters that they started to fall with each other. The husband bought a property outside the capital to raise horses to sell and he was very proud to tell it to Hualan. They sometimes go there and tend to the business. They were happy. But also, i can remember, that her MIL doesn't like her, don't know about the FIL, maybe just apathetic?, but there was one instance that when MLan visited her, she was shocked because Hualan looked so bad. She was so thin. Then Hualan, tearfully told her this one incident that happened to her children. I think, her son was in the MIL care (don't know why), but the baby was left alone. Somehow a fire, or was it a super hot drink/tea(?), was about to reach the baby, good thing that the daughter, still a toddler, decided to visit her brother and stopped it, although both children was hurt pretty badly. Hualan was crying telling this to MLan, so MLan told her that she has a plan so the MIL will leave her alone. MLan somehow, managed to put a concubine that the FIL likes so the MIL was so angry she doesn't have the time to make trouble for Hualan. I don't remember what her husband's reaction though.
@ChuChi has been very generous with the spoilers and convinced me to try the novel. Because previously I was so eager for spoilers myself, now that I've read the book, I've come back to return the favor, and I'll explain some things for everyone else who's interested. (I've prepared a few long answers, and I don't have time for more, so I can't promise I'll answer any more questions. Sorry.) Anyway, since the details are fresher for me, I will offer a few corrections & additions to what was previously mentioned. Spoiler: the Male Lead (ML)'s family background The ML is Gu Tingye, and he is the 2nd son of the primary branch in a high-ranked Marquis Family with illustrious military merits. The old Marquis had 3 wives (not at the same time--he was twice widowed), and 1 son with each. The first wife is his great love but she was sickly, only managed to bear him a frail son after many years of marriage and died soon after. The 2nd wife is a rich merchant daughter's, and the old Marquis marries her for money (his own "noble" family was greatly in debt at the time). They have a son: the ML, then the mother also dies quickly. The 3rd time, the old Marquis marries his 1st wife's younger sister (and has a 3rd son and a daughter with her). Now this 3rd wife is the ML's stepmother, but because the old Marquis switched between all these wives when he was stationed outside the capital, and by the time he returns to the capital he is married with a woman named "Qin shi" (which is the same surname that everyone knows that the 1st wife had), the details are not generally known, and the other nobles don't realize that this Qin shi is not the original wife; they don't know about the ML's mother, and that this Qin shi is actually the ML's stepmother. This only becomes commonly known when rumors start to surface that this woman may have acted with ill intentions against the ML, and then everyone has an aha-moment--because they realize she wasn't the birth mother but the stepmother after all, which would explain certain things. As to why the stepmother targets the ML. The 1st son (also Stepmom's maternal nephew) in line to inherit is sickly and won't live long, which everyone knows, and then the ML is next in line--and is the barrier to the stepmother's own biological son, i.e. the old Marquis' 3rd son, to inherit. So Stepmom's plan from the start was to ruin the ML and get him out of the way. Spoiler: the old Marquis' will It's not true that the old Marquis stipulated before his death that the ML inherit all the properties and the title. It wouldn't even have been possible since the title goes to the eldest di son, and ML was the 2nd son. What the father's testament stipulated was the (HUGE) amount that the ML's mother had brought as a dowry upon entering the marriage, and that that money should go to the ML before any other talks of dividing the family property between everyone else. The relatives conspired to hide destroy this will (they didn't want to lose access to all those riches), but out of 3 copies, the eldest son didn't destroy the one he had, and later revealed it before dying. It is true that the old Marquis, while alive, dedicated the most time and attention to ML's education since he felt that he had the most potential out of his 3 sons. Also, it wasn't because of the relatives that the ML arrived too late to see his father on his deathbed. It was just that he was too far away when he got the news, and though he rode without stopping switching I don't know how many horses, he arrived too late to see his father one last time. Then the family didn't allow him to enter the mourning hall. On the old Marquis' death, the 1st son inherited the title as a matter of fact. So when the ML became powerful (famous General, favored by the Emperor), he wanted to destroy the family: (1) for revenge because of all they had done to him in the past; and (2) because he wanted the title. Even though the 1st brother was sickly and had no male child, he could have chosen to adopt the 3rd brother's son as his heir (this what the stepmom was trying to convince him to do) so the ML would not inherit even after the 1st brother died. But if now (after he returned to the capital) the ML destroys the family and has their title revoked, he can keep working for the Emperor and in a few years, he can petition him to re-bestow him his family's title to him. That was his original plan. Spoiler: how the ML inherits eventually From when he returned to the capital, the ML was granted a separate residence (General fu) by the Emperor, and that is where he lives with Minglan (after their marriage) all along, apart from the family's main residence (Marquis fu). A bit later, when his family is about to be ruined, the 1st brother asks the ML to petition the Emperor to forgive the family (which is in the ML's power to achieve). In exchange, the brother promises not to adopt a child, so the ML as the old Marquis' 2nd son can inherit safely after the 1st brother dies. He takes him to the ancestral hall NOT to show him a memorial of the ML's mother (it's not true that the ML's father loved her--his one and only great love was his 1st wife) but to show him proof of the family's past glory and their originally bestowed plaque with their title, and to convince him that even his current rank as a general was possible because their family is of illustrious military lineage (which is why the ML could so easily be accepted as commander by his army). Yet if he destroys their family name now, even if the Emperor bestows him a title later, it would be a new title, without the history and weight of their old and famous title. So the ML eventually takes the deal and saves the family from being branded as traitors, then pursues his revenge against the nasty members of his family in other, arguably more insidious ways. When the ML inherited and the family branches divided the property, he didn't take everything and he didn't have the power to exile his uncles from the start. Nevertheless, his fair share was the greatest (because his was the main branch, and he carried the Marquis title), and the 2 uncles struggled a long time because they didn't want to leave their easy, luxurious life in the Marquis fu and have to strike out on their own, with a smaller budget. They were too used to extravagant living. The ML and his wife managed to kick them out eventually, but the stepmom helped (at that moment, it was also in her interest to get rid of the uncles' 4th and 5th branch), and she and her son stayed with ML's main branch for now, though in separate residences. Of course, the ML is still not done with the uncles' branches at this point as he still has some people to punish more harshly, which he does later.
Spoiler: Ma niang This is the woman who gave birth to the ML's 2 eldest children. The daughter is about 8-9 years old, I think, when Minglan meets her, and the brother who was kept by Ma niang at her side is younger. The ML meets Ma niang when he's a teenager, and to make it clear: he never actually *loves* her. He pities her (she manipulates him to think that she's in very dire circumstances: poor, abandoned by her only family etc., to stir his compassionate side) and wants to help her, and she manages to maneuver herself in his bed. Like I said, he pities her, and wants to protect her, and at most he's moved by her supposed sincerity and care towards him (which he's particularly susceptible to, having grown up with a harsh father, a manipulative stepmother, and nasty relatives who constantly mocked his low birth, i.e. his merchant-born mother, and framed him for ugly deeds that contributed in good part to him having a bad reputation). He would have arranged her some safe situation to live away from him, but she managed to fall pregnant, and after she bore him a child, they were basically linked through this for life, even if he didn't have any deeper feelings for her (like he later does for Minglan). The ML takes his responsibilities very seriously, and even when he later realized what venomous snake Ma niang really is, he was determined to suffer the consequences of his actions, i.e. to take care of her and the children. Btw, the 2nd child she bears him is because later she manages to seduce him a couple of times, maybe when he comes to see his daughter?, and manipulates things so that the contraceptive she was supposed to take doesn't work. So she has his son. After that (also because a trusted momo who used to take care of his biological mother intervenes) he never touches Ma niang again. Her aim all along (but this is only revealed much later) is to become his wife, but he never once considered this, even when he was at his most blinded in her spider's web. He does however want a kind, "virtuous" wife who will accept his children, which involves accepting Ma niang as his official concubine--all along, she had only been an outside mistress without status, and the main wife would have to approve before another woman is allowed to officially enter a man's harem. So raising Ma niang to official "yiniang," to protect her and the children was the most he was ever willing to give her. Spoiler: Ma niang vs Minglan+ML Ma niang's "page time" in the book is very short, so even though she appears in the 3rd act and tries to make trouble for the main couple, don't imagine that she drives a wedge between them, or that the ML is ever at risk of being swayed by her. The ML was very, very firm even before marrying Minglan that he wants nothing to do with Ma niang anymore, and Minglan never had any reason to be jealous. She was just a part of the ML's past, and Minglan only cares about how he treats her in the present and future. She was just bothered that Ma niang showed up (when the ML was gone from the capital) trying to get her son entered into the ML's genealogy (which the ML had categorically refused to do previously). And this would have maybe possibly created trouble for Minglan's own son in the future, so she was very opposed. But Minglan didn't actually have that much trouble handling her. Her authority as the main wife, and also her husband's support which she had from the start, made her position unassailable, so she was able to deal with Ma niang just fine inside the Marquis fu. The ex didn't try to kill Minglan. She was provoked and tried to physically attack her (Minglan's attendants stopped her), and she witnessed when the stepmother's servant started the fire that was planned to kill Minglan, and of course, she didn't intervene (Ma niang did want Minglan dead). But she didn't start the fire herself, just as she didn't kill the ML's first wife herself. She was just involved. @wolfie643 Spoiler: the ML's 1st wife After the ML left the capital, not even 3 months later, she had already slept with one of his cousins and become pregnant. Because she was going to bribe a doctor to cheat the family into believing that it was the ML's child, the stepmom ensured she was caught--because she couldn't allow a di grandson to enter the succession before her own son. Then, Ma niang manipulated the 1st wife to drink an abortion medicine. After, she wouldn't stop bleeding, so that's how she died.
Spoiler: Molan She tricks her way into a marriage with the young son of a Marquis family, but afterward she lives a bitter life. The husband is a playboy, he dotes upon a concubine (like Molan's own father used to dote on Lin yiniang) yet sleeps with other women as well, and he doesn't have great scholarly achievements. The family is reproved by the Emperor after being implicated in some plots, there are conflicts within between shu and di, and the other family members (especially the mother-in-law) don't really like Molan. So basically, the family is a mess. Most tragic for Molan, while all her sisters are having children left and right, she doesn't manage to get pregnant. Spoiler: Changfeng The woman he married was actually from a good family (all of Sheng Hong's children married above them, except for Rualan) but she was very ugly lol. Changfeng trembled when he first saw her on their wedding night. But she's intelligent and firm, and they have a good marriage because he respects her and she knows how to steer him in the right way (Changfeng is of weak character). Spoiler: Minglan's other suitor The other boy who sincerely liked Minglan (not the doctor), Qi Heng, is the son of a junzhu and the 2nd son of a duke, so his status is too high and his parents can't accept Minglan as his wife, and he loves her too much to consider making her his concubine. Or he knows that Minglan (and her family) would never accept in any case. He doesn't name his babies after her (Minglan just mistakenly thinks so for a little while), but he was very sincere in his feelings towards her yet too weak to really fight to the end for her. Minglan otoh never allowed herself to feel deeply for him, even though he assiduously pursued her when she was younger (he loved her from when she was a child), because she knew that given his status and also his character it could never work out. The 1st wife he marries is of very high status (the 5th Prince's daughter) but she's a psychopath (she arranges for another girl who was nearly betrothed to Qi Heng before to be raped, and later the girl kills herself because of the shame) and karma has her dying in a bad way. The 2nd wife is a girl from a good family and is good-natured. Her mother-in-law tells her about Minglan, and though she is sad that her husband will never love her, and feels threatened by Minglan's seeming perfection, when she interacts with Minglan she is never nasty. And in the end she makes do and has an okay marriage with Qi Heng. Spoiler: the ML's official concubines First, to take a load off of everyone's mind: the ML is never unfaithful to the heroine. Never even considers it. Now, about the women is his harem (who he completely ignores). It's not that Stepmom forced the 2 maids upon the ML and Minglan in the guise of the daughter's caretakers--it's that they were officially part of the harem he used to have before. After he left the capital all those years ago and everyone thought that he wouldn't come back, all his other women dispersed, and these 2 were the only ones left. Now that the ML has returned, he's responsible for these women, so his wife has to accept them in their residence. There's also another woman who was gifted to him by a senior general (so he couldn't refuse) when he returned from the war, but he never touched her even before he married Minglan. The book describes some of the airs that guniang put and the tricks she tried, only to be completely humiliated by the ML's rejections. By the time Minglan comes to the fu as a new bride, that "talented" guniang has given up (or more like it, had been scared into giving up, to preserve her little hide, lol). The 2 concubines who enter with the daughter, one isn't really interested in the ML (and viceversa)--she was a dowry maid of the 1st wife--but she's insidious and tries to stir up the other woman a couple of times to pursue the ML. The other woman sincerely loves him and tries to get in his bed, both in the beginning, and later when Minglan and the ML have a short falling-out, but she never gets anywhere, and eventually resigns herself to just taking care of the ML's shu daughter. She was rather pitiful.
Spoiler: Wang shi's stupidity The stupid things that Wang shi does in the latter arc of the novel. Actually, she was never clever, but at least she mostly listened to good advice (Hualan, her trusted housekeeper), and most importantly, she was kept busy with her war against Lin yiniang and taking care of the household. Well, after Lin yiniang is banished and all the girls are married, Wang shi has too much free time and also lots of mood swings (because of starting her menopause) and tries to make trouble for her eldest son's wife. Sheng Hong and Changbai keep trying to rein her in, so she harbors even more grievance in her soul, and in short, is very vulnerable to manipulation by her much smarter and evil sister, Kang yima. After the episode where she doesn't reprove her elder sister for her evil plot (trying to forcefully push a shu daughter as a concubine in Minglan's fu), Grandma has had enough and disciplines her as never before (Wang shi is humiliated). Also, she removes all her managing power in the household, so that's why Wang shi later thinks it a good idea to make Grandma sick--because only when Grandma no longer suppresses her can Wang shi hope to regain the reins of the household. Wang shi didn't know that the poison was actually intended to be lethal. Spoiler: When Grandma was poisoned Kang yima didn't actually get to really blackmail anyone like she had intended. Sure, her long-term plan was to trick her sister into poisoning and killing her mother-in-law, and afterward, Wang shi would have been completely at her mercy. Anything Kang yima asked, she would have had to do under threat of having her incredibly atrocious misdeed revealed. Yet it didn't get to that point because Minglan was notified that Grandma was sick on that very night, she quickly brought a doctor who diagnosed poisoning, so she took care of Grandma and at the same time laid the trap to reveal the mastermind. Then it was a question of forcing her father to do the right thing, that is not to cover up the ugly incident (like he wanted, so as not to sully the family's precious honor) but to punish the ones responsible and thus get justice for Grandma. Wang shi they could punish more lightly (she didn't actually want to kill Grandma) and it could be resolved inside the family, but Kang yima was an outsider and to give her appropriate punishment in the court of justice, her family (maternal, and married into) had to give their consent. So that what all the arguing and blame shifting was about, mainly between Sheng Family (Minglan and Shen Hong after being "persuaded"/forced by Minglan; later, the super awesome Changbai enters the stage) trying to ensure that Kang yima is punished harshly, and her maternal family (mainly, her mother) trying to protect her and get her off with basically a slap on the wrist, and threatening the Sheng Family because they would be affected too by having such dirty laundry aired in public (i.e. what Wang shi did). Thus, to ensure their own moral high ground, Sheng Family had to first give Wang shi a harsh punishment--Changbai decides that she spend 10 years in an isolated place praying for Grandma and reflecting. In order for her to agree, he threatens with resigning from his post (upon which the Sheng Family's future advancement hinged), so Wang shi relented. Changbai didn't resign anymore, and ended up having a very successful career. Kang yima's maternal family ultimately relented as well, then her husband also agreed, so Kang yima was prosecuted and was given a lifetime sentence in prison.
Kyaaaa so many spoilers <3 ...thank you! <3 small question....when Ma niang wanted to put her son in the geneology book how did minglan dealt with it? (i wouldnt be surprised if the step mom tried to meddle) when the ML returned and saw her what did he say?
Spoiler: the ML's "romantic" history In the beginning, he lets his family pick a virtuous bride for him, who would be kind enough to let Ma niang and especially his children enter the family. Only Ma niang won't have it (her aim was never to become an official concubine, but really the wife) and travels to the fiancee's family's door in Deng prefecture to stage a play, with her 2 children. The bride is Minglan's friend, her family is helpless (no clue how to deal with the woman crying in front of their gate), so Minglan intervenes. This is at the time when her family is still living in Deng prefecture. Then, later, the girl's family ends up recanting on the betrothal because of this incident, and the ML marries a woman from a side-branch of this "Yu" family instead. In-between these events (ML's first engagement being broken, and his marriage with a different cousin of the same family), the ML and Minglan have their first meeting in the capital (c.54). (The father's term in Deng prefecture had just ended, and he was finally promoted to serve as an official in the capital.) The ML angrily questions Minglan why her friend's family had broken the initial betrothal, she's scared of this wild, impulsive youth but still braces herself and tells him about Ma niang's visit. He's surprised. The 2nd meeting (c.59), the ML is now married, and his wife is a shrew. Not only did she refuse to accept Ma niang as a concubine (one thing she did right!), but she fought with the ML all the time. A few days into the marriage, and they already can't stand each other. The ML still hasn't seen through Ma niang's true nature, and during this 2nd meeting, Minglan enlightens him and makes him see that Ma niang has a deep scheming mind to have staged that play with his 1st betrothed. It is later revealed that this discussion is the spark for the ML to really start doubting Ma niang's intentions and to investigate her. He discovers that she had lied to him (for example, about being abandoned by her elder brother), that she manipulated him. After this, he's done with her, and by now he's also had enough of his family, so he runs away from home (leaving his wife behind). He endures hardships outside the capital, but the first money he earns, he sends to Ma niang for the children. That is one responsibility he won't shirk even if he now detests the children's mother. Later Ma niang chases after him in the wilderness while he's with his Jianghu brothers, but no matter what she tries, he won't forgive her or have anything to do with her again. While the ML is outside the capital, his wife dies. Immediately after, he's back in the capital for a short while, and meets a now nearly-grown up and incredibly beautiful Minglan for the 3rd time (c.66). Minglan almost can't recognize him--from the wild, rash youth he's transformed into a calm, weathered man. He speaks kindly to her, apologizes for his behavior during their past 2 meetings, offers his assistance in case she needs anything in the future. Minglan is flabbergasted. Then, further into the future, they have a very exciting 4th meeting (he fishes her out of the water! saves her from pirates!) which seals their fates (c.73). Even though they part on a bad note, the ML keeps thinking about her (actually, she had left a strong impression on him long ago, and he admired her greatly; he even acknowledges to himself that, from the first meeting and just by her presence alone, Minglan had made Ma niang appear lackluster in comparison). Finally, he decides to marry her, and gets to work on overcoming the obstacles in his way: namely, her almost-betrothal with He Hongwen (the doctor mentioned in previous spoilers) and Grandma's certain disapproval (she wouldn't approve of the ML, given his past, but without her approval, he wouldn't be able to marry Minglan). Spoiler: Minglan and ML's relationship It's very lovely but still not romanticized (much), so we have a very gradual, natural relationship development, which means there are also moments of sadness and conflict. First, after the ML ostensibly proposes marriage to Rualan, only she turns out to have a secret lover and the family is shamed--the ML decides to be "magnanimous" and accept Minglan instead (this was his method to put the Sheng family in a situation where they're in the wrong and are forced to compensate with Minglan, so Grandma can't refuse)--Minglan immediately knows the ML isn't the kind of man who would go out to catch carp only to go home with a shrimp instead. Which means, the shrimp must have been his target all along, lol (that's pretty much a direct metaphor from the novel). So she allows her sister to arrange a meeting with the ML, and they have a beautiful honest talk (c.96) where he promises her to make it possible for her to be her real self, to stop stifling her real personality if she marries him. Minglan consents to the marriage (and later convinces Grandma). What I like about their life after marriage: the ML is crazy about her, can't get enough of her, in all senses of the word. He loves being in her company, loves touching her, she always makes him laugh. In bed, she's exhausted by his relentless vigor (he's a military man lol--how could she possibly have the strength and energy to keep up?) and consoles herself with wicked plots of how she'll take revenge by turning the tables and exhausting him in her 30s and 40s (when women are supposedly at their sexual peak whereas he'll be older). She's a complete darling, smart and mischievous, and it's one rare romance where I completely see why he comes to love her so much. I like their honesty with each other, I like how they don't allow any outside plots to come between them. At some point in the novel, the stepmother (who is like a black, poisonous spider constantly spinning her nasty plots in the shadows, trying to harm them) is incredibly frustrated that all her plots have come to naught, and then she says (she's super smart) that the reason why she's failed so far is not because these 2 people (i.e. Minglan and the ML) are so intelligent that they can't ever caught in a trap (though they are really smart!) but because they trust each other and work together, which is why they can't be defeated. So her only way forward is to kill Minglan first, because it would also destroy the ML. (Fortunately, she doesn't succeed.) She thinks, even if the ML marries again later to have heirs, he will never feel for another woman what he feels for Minglan (the way his father too never really loved another woman except his 1st wife). With all the plots and traps aimed at them over the course of the novel, in the end the only real moment of crisis for them as a couple doesn't come from outside, but from within. Which brings me to... Spoiler: their crisis point It is when the ML realizes that Minglan is always very careful with him and never asks any questions or does anything that has the slightest risk of offending him. Which means she doesn't fully trust him, and that she keeps an important part of her heart walled-up from him, which she eventually admits yet isn't willing to change. She says that she doesn't want the kind of love which would make her want to die for a man; she loves herself first. He's heartbroken but decides that whatever she can give him, it's better than not having her at all, so he decides to accept this. As it turns out however, she is afraid to fully love him because she's afraid that otherwise, one day when he gets tired of her, she'll really want to die. In a nutshell, she doesn't trust him with her heart, because she has reason not to fully trust his sincerity. Why? Unfortunately, unlike previously stated here on this thread, the ML didn't seem all that angry when that fire was set while Minglan gave birth the 1st time. Unquestionably, he was very worried about Minglan before, panicked enough to rush day and night towards the capital because he was afraid she would be targeted, but he managed to arrive in time to stop the fire from reaching Minglan. And after she was safe... Well, when she wakes up after giving birth he's with her, and he seems and acts perfectly calm. He doesn't explode in fury against the evildoers, he doesn't rush to avenge Minglan. Since she's safe, he's able to very coolly assess the best way to proceed and uses this incident as a launchpad to divide family property and separate from stepmother's branch. As for Ma niang, he just sends her far away with the boy and threatens her that if she ever returns to the capital, he'll separate her from her son forever. But he doesn't threaten her that he'll kill her (he does seem to consider it). I think this is mainly because she did, after all, bear him 2 children, so he doesn't want to take her life. He's very lenient (too lenient??) with her, all things considered. Also, if he were to kill her, his enemies could later use this to attack his reputation and harm him (killing a woman who gave birth to your children can't look good, any way you spin it). But that is reason, not sentiment. Though she doesn't speak it at the time, Minglan is hurt that the ML weighed actions and consequences so calmly in that moment (by contrast, when her beloved Grandma is poisoned, Minglan explodes and does lots of reckless, out-of-character things to avenge her--like bullying her father and having people tortured). She later tells the ML that sincere love isn't about doing all the right things all the time, but about being driven to act impulsive and out-of-character and even do foolish things sometimes. The ML is struck to the core by this. After some introspection, he admits that he too--because of what he had gone through, being betrayed and having to fight for survival in the toughest way--along the way lost the ability to love with complete sincerity. I never doubted that he loved Minglan very much, he started loving her even before their marriage, and he was all things good to her without fail, but in retrospect I had to agree that he also held a part of himself back. Seeing Minglan's actions when defending her Grandma even at the risk of losing everything is his wake-up call. He finally allows himself to love with all his heart, and Minglan reciprocates. Before the curtain closes on this romance, we see him doing a completely impulsive, inappropriate thing because he's crazy with love and worry (returning from war, he sneaks into the city at night before the army is officially set to enter the city, which is liable to get him punished by the Emperor), and Minglan goes off and screeches like a fishwife because he was so irresponsible (he couldn't be happier that she finally feels safe enough with him to curse him, lol). After overcoming this last hurdle, they're inseparable. This is an intricate, beautifully written novel, and the characters seem like real people and not caricatures. It also has the most lovely, realistic romance I've ever found in a C-novel so far. I heartily recommend this, though I don't recommend using MTL. (Personally, I almost died slogging through this using 2 MTLs and 2 dictionary plugins, lol. And yet... to me it was worth it.)
Yes, Stepmom was instrumental in setting this up, all of it, and she was also in the meeting. Spoiler: details Minglan simply wanted to refuse--it was perfectly in her power as the di wife--especially since she knew the ML didn't want this. The problem is, Ma niang came with the 1st wife's family, and they wanted to adopt Ma niang's child under their deceased daughter's name. That would have entered Chang into the ML's genealogy as a di son, and moreover, the ML's eldest son! (Because of being entered under the 1st di wife's name) This would have been extremely dangerous for Minglan's future boys. So she wanted to refuse, but the 1st wife's family were on one hand crying and blackmailing her emotionally, on the other hand reminding her of her past friendship with the family (in Deng prefecture) and threatening her "virtuous" reputation in case she refused such a "reasonable" request. Indeed, given the context, it was very hard for her to refuse. So she stopped the meeting for the day by faking pain (she was pregnant). Luckily, she realized that ML must have had a reason why he didn't feel guilty towards his 1st wife's family even though she died so young, and with a bit of investigation and a lot of supposition, she guessed about the 1st wife's affair. When the family returned, she threatened them with their dirty laundry (they had felt safe before because Stepmother assured them that nobody knew about the 1st wife infidelity, not even the the ML), so they were shocked that Minglan found out and were forced to back off. Minglan ridiculed Ma niang (she guessed that Ma niang actually dreamed of becoming the ML's wife), Ma niang tried to attack her, was stopped by Minglan's attendants, Minglan started to feel pain (she was going into labor) and Stepmom noticed. Since the other plot had failed, she decided now was the ideal moment to set a fire and kill Minglan, while Minglan was at her most vulnerable (giving birth). Luckily, the ML returned in time and stopped the fire from spreading towards where Minglan was. How he reacted afterward when the situation was already secure, I already wrote before (he didn't lash out in anger to punish the ones responsible. Ma niang he let off easy, just with permanent banishment from the capital, and against Stepmom he was playing a longer game of complete revenge+annihilation. Though he did separate his property from her and 3rd Brother on this occasion and kicked them out of the Marquis fu main residence, which was easy now because the elders found out that the Stepmom tried to kill the di pregnant wife.)
@Adnana Why was MC involved with the pirates? And I read before that MC made ML jump into the river to save her servant?
@Adnana Haha, it really made me realize how long ago i read this. Sorry for the misinformation i provided, and some of those i actually misread, i think reading using mtl, i unconciously rearranged things in my mind so i can understand the sentences. Those mtl sentences made my brain bleed.. And now that you mentioned it, i do remember MLan defending a friend against some woman making a scene in front of the "gate" but i somehow didn't pay attention to it, i missed that that friend is the would-be first wife of ML.. and i actually thought the names of the twins was really based on her name, my bad...
@ChuChi That's okay, it's perfectly natural to forget some of the details in time--the only reason why I remember so well right now is because I only just finished reading. And your spoilers were mostly accurate and made me decide to brave slogging through the book in the first place, so hats off to you. Also, I can't actually 100% guarantee that my own spoilers are all 100% accurate, lol. Human memory isn't perfect, not to mention that I also aren't actually Chinese literate. But I tried my best.
small question....is the ml present when she becomes pregnant?...how did he react? and after the incident with the fire and the family seperation do we see the mc having another child or is it just mentioned in an epilogue in the end?
Wow, what a great devotion , I myself only used 1 MLT to read as I usually read with mobile phone on my free time, so it would be bothersome to switch and compared it with another MTL. Thanks for the spoilers though, I had read it and was unclear about few things, your spoilers help me understand. Could you also confirm sth trivial for me? I was not sure about this part but based on my understanding... When Hualan married, she got 2 dowry maids, one from Wang shi, and another one from Sheng grandma... The one that was given by Wang shi became her husband's concubine and gave birth to an eldest son, while the one from grandma became Hualan loyal confidante? When Minglan married, most of her maids were from grandma and very loyal. Wang shi gave her one maid, that maid wanted to seduce ML and became his concubine. She was angry at Minglan for not creating an opportunity for her to seduce ML and complained to Wang shi. Then when Rulan married, one of her dowry maid from Wang shi also become a concubine? Am I really didn't misread it? Bc if I'm right, then WOW, Wang shi really had a great eye for choosing those dowry maids.... Also, could you explained what happened to Molan and her family? The one where Hualan and Minglan participated in the family meeting? (They were reluctant, but if sth happened to Molan, it would also affected their reputation, so they reluctantly helped and defended Molan.) What did happen there? What were the family trying to do and what were they accusing Molan of?
oh? Wang shi sure knows how to peak people....what did she tell minglan after the maid complained to her?....and what happened to the maid ....did the mc kick her out?