Spoiler Rebirth of Malicious Empress of Military Lineage

To be fair, everyone should have been able to put two and two together. Prince Rui looks like, dresses like, and behaves like Xie Jingxing.

There was another time that happened near the end. It's not as memorable as the others, but it had one nifty interaction. The shift in relationship is also pretty clear as well; the first time Shen Miao switched to drunk empress mode, she accidentally seduced Xie Jingxing and he was forced to pursue her from that point on.

But yes, drunk empress = best empress. Which is actually sort of a problem. Regular Shen Miao's interactions with Xie Jingxing aren't that entertaining in general because she sort of overwhelms him, and the writer's attempts to rectify that don't wholly work for me.

 

What do you mean?

 

Well, the main reason for reading the book is murder and Shen Miao's schemes for murder. Tianshan Chake tries to get Xie Jingxing in on the action by making him a prince, giving him ninjas, and all sorts of special authority. It doesn't really work for me because he just ends up using brute force solutions. This generates very different feel from how Shen Miao does things, and they're a lot less fun.

I actually prefer it when Shen Miao interacts with Pei Lang because it's a much more complex relationship and there's a lot of uncertainty and doubt. The technical lack of actual romance between the two just gives the relationship more teeth. I don't read a lot of Romance novels, but Xie Jingxing reminds me a lot of Huo Qubing from Tong Hua's Ballad of the Desert. The books are very different though so the same character archetype fits better in one work than the other one.

 

Oh. I did enjoy the earlier chapters more when Xie Jingxing wasn't actively helping Shen Miao. I agree, he felt like a Deus ex machina. I liked Shen Miao and Pei Lang's interactions in their past and present life and the secret that's revealed at the end.

 

In a way I thought that Pei Lang might have been a more interesting love interest, but on reflection, it's probably better it'd stay that way. Giving him a bigger role would have changed the story way too much, and the interaction we got was pretty darned cool.

A few other notes: the song in the restaurant where they celebrated Xie Jingxing's birthday is the emotional highlight of the story. Shen Miao's relationship with Princess Wan Yu, her not-to-be daughter, was pretty touching and I wish that we could see more of it.

I'm disappointed that the ending wasn't a showdown between Shen Miao and Fu Xiuyi; we didn't even see him get taken down live. I'd have sacrificed the entire Liang Dynasty storyline to have seen a proper battle of wits between the two. However, that switcheroo at the end was the most awesome move in the entire book. Even though its effect is mostly off-screen, you can just just see the jaws of defeat close in on the bad guys.

Oh, and the coma at the end, please writers, we don't need any more of those.

 

Can you talk more about this?

 

Honestly, you should wait for the translation because it's a great piece of writing. Unfortunately, it's really far into the book.

Spoiler

Princess Wan Yu got into a fight against Madam Mei and Madam Mei used it as an excuse to get the princess married to a Xiongnu nobleman as part of heqin (the custom of using a marriage to cement a peace treaty). Wan Yu didn't want to get married like that so she and Shen Miao composed a guqin-accompanied song to try to convince Fu Xiuyi to not send her away. In this song, Wan Yu put everything that she thought would tug at her father's heart, and Shen Miao would alter it over and over, all for one last opportunity.

When it was completed, Princess Wan Yu played the song for her father and Shen Miao could see in his expression that his heart was softening. But in the middle of the performance, Madam Mei interrupted and told Fu Xiuyi that she had learned just a new dance, and performed it in front of him. Wan Yu could see that her last hope was now gone as her father was forgetting all about her own performance, and Shen Miao could see her daughter's heart break right in front of her. The next day, Wan Yu went to her mother and said, "Please don't worry about me anymore, I'm willing to be married off". But they both knew that it was a lie.

And so Wan Yu got sent to the Xiongnu and died on the way there. And Shen Miao went to change the song. The first half was written by Wan Yu, a song of sadness and despair. The second half became Shen Miao's; filled with all the hate and malice and venom that she could muster. It was a weapon aimed against Madam Mei and Fu Xiuyi - one that was embedded so deeply in her heart that she didn't even need to practice it.

 

God that's so sad... Madam Mei and Fu Xiuyi should have met a worst death possible...

 

was there any part about interaction between MC and her son?

 

Only a bit here and there. It's not as complete as story with Wan Yu. We do know that Fu Ming was stripped of the crown prince position at Madam Mei's instigation not too long after Wan Yu died. Shen Miao tried to plead for mercy but Fu Xiuyi was unwilling to give it and Pei Lang refused to speak up for her. Fu Ming committed suicide a short time later, and Shen Miao was imprisoned the Cold Palace.

 

May i ask please, does Fu Xiu Yi fall in love with MC in the end? Or Is he just interested with her?

 

He never falls in love with her. She's pretty obvious in her hatred of him. At some point, he tries to kill her because he views her as a threat, but she saved byXie Jingxing

 

Thank you

 

Fu xiu yi never loves anyone, he only loves himself. Even with SM sister or the Mei consort, he "show" that he loves them, but a soon as they become liability he drop them like a hot potato

 

And that's why MC said (in her mind) that Fu family is heartless bunch...
Thankfully the ML is not them

 

I don't think that that's entirely true. Fu Xiuyi does seem to legitimately care about Madam Mei even though it doesn't really benefit him. The problem is that, as soon as he feels a need to get rid of someone, he will do so ruthlessly and regardless of whether he loves that person.

This is a common phenomenon for rulers throughout Chinese history so it's not at all out of the ordinary. You'll find tons of examples of rulers who will go so far as to murder their own children. One extreme example is how Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had his youngest son's mother executed. She had committed no crime, and he still cared for her, but he executed her because he knew he was dying and he was afraid that she would have too much influence over the new emperor when he did die.

 

I think if he had executed Madam Mei it would be one thing. But the way he treated her while she was in prison and then he turned her into a human stick... that was unnecessarily harsh. The novel even says that the previous emperor had stopped that type of punishment, so there was no reason for Fu Xiuyi to treat her so harshly.

 

At that point, Fu Xiuyi thought that she was a spy who had betrayed her from the very beginning, and basically cost him his empire. On that basis I think it's fair to say that he had pretty good reason to hate her.

 

Can anyone please tell me how he dotes on that white tiger so much

!?! (Дﾟ≡ﾟДﾟ) ?!!

 

Who is Bai Xiao Sheng and why does SM wants to meet her/him plus what does she wanna do