I thought she was a pr manager/executive for some company that, along with other things, sold milk products (I'm assuming stuff like baby's formula). I was responding to some people who said or asked if she managed celebrities.
Her shu older sister died bc suicide/sickness? (I forget why she died). Later MC had a honest conversation with ML that she wasn't close to her shu older sister.
Theres no love between sisters. The original mc died due to the scheme of the elder shu sister. The shu sister thought her and her mothers status was grand and secure until original mc fell in love with the emperor and fought her family to enter harem. Shu sister is jealous the mc is a legal daughter and beautiful. That position earned mc better status than shu sis. Mc gets revenge for original by scheming the shu sister back. Plus mc didn’t want anyone to use the shu sister against her. The whole conversation with the emperor about how she is not close to shu sister is to give herself more common ground/connection with the emperor who also had to fight with his shu brothers. They both in the end played the reputation of a kind sibling at their enemies/siblings death
I agree. It's also interesting to me to read a story that have realistic setting of an emperor. I don't mind "monogamous emperor" MLs, but sometimes you need to drink something after eating so many desserts. But I don't like bad aftertaste, so as long as it's HE and the emperor is sane and treats MC well.. i'm fine with whatever happens in the middle. Humans were never made to be same anyways, so were love stories. Also, I love this author. I like how she cleverly plans every plots and mysteries that are hard to predict. Her writing style is beautiful too, sometimes it made me want to learn chinese just to read the original version lol. Too bad she seems to succumbed to peer pressure.. I've only read 3 of her books so far so hopefully the other ones would be just as good
It is very interesting, and I also love her books, most of them have some realistic features, but she has gone the way of the monogamus ML, which I like... I love that some of ther MCs really want to keep some white faces around them....
Can someone give spoilers about the new concubine Ning who is apparently very beautiful, And concubine Hua who is trying to copy the MC?
Noble Lady Ning she hate the harem at first. she entered the harem because her family is weak and needs some power and she passed the selection because of her pretty face (it's even prettier than noble consort shu who's known as the prettiest concubine in the harem). at first she was kinda favoured by the emperor because of her face and he slept at her place for a few times (it also makes noble lady ning who dislikes the emperor becomes attracted to him after that because he treats her tenderly). even when zhuang luoyan (mc) got hurt and almost drowned in the lotus pond, the emperor was still at noble lady ning's place. but during mc's recovery, the emperor doesn't go to any other places and often accompanies mc instead. it makes noble lady ning feels cold and think of how the emperor forget about her. after zhuang luoyan got pregnant (iirc, zhuang luoyan was already a consort rank at that time so she's called consort zhao, zhao is her title), there was a time when she meets other high-ranking concubines including consort rou, noble consort shu, and a kneeling noble lady ning. it turns out noble lady ning talked about other concubines behind her backs and consort rou punished her for it. then the emperor came and noble lady ning thought he finally remembers her and tries to make herself look pitiful. what a pity he only cares about consort zhao and implicitly tells that consort rou can punish noble lady ning however she pleases if she breached etiquette. after that the emperor leaves, followed by other concubines except consort rou and noble lady ning. then consort rou told noble lady ning about how she should think of her place and how she's forgotten by the emperor now. noble lady ning retaliated by saying that it's the same with consort rou, but then consort rou said that even if she's not really favoured now, she has a hugh rank and the emperor is someone who remembers the past so as long as she doesn't commit any heavy mistakes to the currently favoured concubine (consort zhou), she'll be okay. when consort zhou's pregnancy is already big, she noticed how there are people who want to scheme against her unborn child so she changes all the head servants into the more experienced ones, including the head eunuch who's responsible with the garden in her palace. the eunuch noticed some pots of flower has been sabotaged and the soil has some weird substances so he reported to consort zhou, she raised his ranks as gratitude. then she tells the case to the emperor and empress, the latter is absolutely horrified because at that time her family power was already shaken up bit by bit by the emperor so she's afraid if consort zhou is hurt then she'll lose her empress position. after the emperor and empress came, they asked the servants but all of them said they're innocent so the emperor got mad and threw some teacups to the ground. then the low-ranking eunuchs who's responsible bringing the soil and pots said that they met some servants from noble consort xian's place before arriving to consort zhou's. the emperor called noble consort xian for questioning but it turns out she's been schemed at and the servants are actually new servants from noble lady ning (who's already promoted as qian wanyi)'s place. the emperor immediately ordered to search and investigates qian wanyi's place. there, they found a medicinal book that shows signs of recent reading on the pages that describes the herbs that's actually found at the soil. if the herbs are mixed and drunk by someone, it can cause immediate death, but if it's been given/inhaled to a pregnant woman for a long time, even if the baby is safe, but the baby will have some deficiency in the future. it makes the emperor and empress very angry and asked why would she do that since killing the child in consort zhou's womb won't do any good for her? then qian wanyi answered the empress, it went roughly like this, "this concubine knows that many people are not satisfied with consort zhou's pregnancy, yet im the only one who takes action. im afraid even your highness (the empress) doesn't even want the child to be born." it rages the emperor since he heard someone said that the fetus has soul, and if the fetus heard someone won't welcome their arrival, then they might be gone. so, the emperor threw a teacup to qian wanyi while saying like this, "my child is the expectation of the people of the world. what's the use of a poisonous woman like you!" after that, the emperor bestowed silk for qian wanyi as the punishment (punishment by hanging).
Hua Cairen honestly i don't have many impressions of her lol. she tried to copy consort zhou's image which is a "kind and quite ignorant woman." just like how noble imperial concubine yan copied noble consort shu's "holy beauty" image. but her acting looks disgusting instead and the emperor doesn't even remember her. afterwards, there's this swinging event for the harem where the concubines play with the swing and then watching a swing dance together. hua cairen tried to attract the emperor by playing the swing excitedly and asking to be higher and higher, at first the emperor wanted to ask who she is but then he saw zhuang luoyan (who's at that time still a xianrong iirc) sitting alone and not playing because of her injury, the emperor cancelled his action. then after the eunuch announced his arrival, many concubines who played at the swing come to greet him, hua cairen was a little late because she was too "engrossed" in playing swinging and i think it displeased the emperor (since even if he likes ignorant woman like xianrong zhou, but the ignorance can't be seen in public and must follow the etiquette). the emperor approached xianrong zhou and talks to her before they watch the swing dance. it's so beautiful and dangerous that xianrong zhou feels amazed and shout in her heart then told the emperor that the swing dance is really good, right after that, there's really someone who shouted and xianrong zhou turns her head to see who's the stupid woman who just screamed. voila, it's cairen hua. cairen hua looks embarrassed because of her scream and said that she feels worried about the dancer because it looks very dangerous. xianrong zhou answered by saying that since it's her job, then the dancer must've known about all the requirements for dancing so cairen hua's worry is really useless. the emperor expressionlessly asked who's this impolite person (since cairen hua interrupted xianrong zhou's sentence and he doesn't remember cairen hua which means she's an unimportant person). his head eunuch said she's cairen hua and the emperor answered that since she breaks the etiquette, she's unsuitable for the emperor and therefore orders to get her nametag (that's used to choose which woman will attend to him each night) removed forever. her status ended just like that since no nametag = there's no way she'll be favoured by the emperor.
right, i want to ask since the mtl is kinda confusing. what's zhuang laoyan's rank in the end of the story after the fourth prince is born? is it noble consort or just consort? someone please help me all of the ranks confused me too, what's the order of it from the highest to the lowest?
While I can't give a definitive answer given I also MTLed this part,she is definitely not just a Consort. I'm unsure her exact title, but I believe she becomes the Imperial Noble Consort, which is ranked about a Noble Consort and one rank below the empress. The translator kindly made a table of the rankings in their order for the story. https://sleepchaser.wordpress.com/2019/07/31/power-ranks-in-tjoaic/
thank goodness she's a noble consort XD at least her hardwork paid off in the end. and thank you very much for pointing the power ranks! i read the translated chapters there and only read the power ranks just now
she was, and If I recall correctly the year this novel was published (please correct me if I am wrong) was soon (but not immediately after) after the scandal in China about contaminated milk products that led to several deaths She ends up striking a sort of friendship with the Queen, she never wanted that power but to live and eat freely, so she ends up as Guifei (same rank as the fallen Shu Guifei [who is loves and hates the emperor after her father and brother are beheaded] and ends up indifferent), but basically her son is the crown prince, she has the best foods and exchanges cooks with the Queen when she wants... as per the MTL Consort Shu said: "You see, the biggest winner in this harem is her. In so many years, no one can compare to her." our FML as many harem women has a lot of things in her hands, but she and Queen Zhao will be Taifei and Dowager Queen at the least ( I would rather think that as per VirtousWife our girl woulld be like JingFei and the Queen vs 3rd Prince Mom [aka a Shu Guifei that gave birth] and both were super cool ladies Queens celebrating the death of the Scum Emperor)
Yeah I loved it because while at his death bed will be thinking that he is the winner of life but the mc and empress will be mocking his self-righteousness because they were never willing to give their love to someone who would stay in flowers. yeah because the scum would be leaving with his self-righteousness
I just caught up to this story. I've been reading it on and off because it has an odd appeal. The Emperor is cunning, but it's interesting how he can't tell which of his wives are true to him or not lol. Perhaps, this is what happens when you're too high up? He expects a woman to love him wholeheartedly, love him even more than she loves herself or her family, and not demand that he love her in the same singular way. In my opinion, he's a major asshole lmao. I don't ever seeing the MC truly falling for the Emperor because no woman with a smidgen of dignity can truly give him what he wants lol. This type of ML can only work when he's the Emperor. Any other character setting and he'd get trashed right away. Well, he still gets trashed now. lol. And yet, I continue to come read this story with a sense of schadenfreude for the Emperor lol. I feel like this is a pretty realistic professional story lol. MC gotta do what she gotta do for job security and promotions. LOL.
(Following is an opinion piece and may contain a few minor spoilers) Since many of you are sharing your opinions on the novel I'd also like to share a few of my insights A lot of you guys were comparing this to TBVW and ETT and for obvious reasons, and I really don't know which of these 3 is my favourite or if I can really rank them cuz even if they were all the same "dish" each had a different "flavour"... if that makes sense. I personally really enjoyed the realism and humour in this novel though! And the question a few have been asking about such as of what the mc's feelings are for the emperor, or the sense of not having enough insight and connection with the mc are very interesting but I think that that may be the author's intention? Let me put it this way, this novel is obviously very much on the realistic side where you know you're screwed if you fall in love amd believe in the emperor but I the same time, you also know you can't just do NOTHING. So what's the only option left? Secure a high position aka make yourself "valuable" to the emperor. Mc was smart and knew that the emperor was an ambitious and cautious one so she played her cards right by making herself look the most naive by doing what all the women of the harem know not to do - fall in love with the emperor. All the women this whole time had an understanding that the emperor should be respected and not loved or else you're the one who'll suffer (and the Emperor knows this as well). Getting slightly off topic but yes, this is definitely more on the realistic side compared the 2 other novels. That said, I think the author made it so that readers get a glimpse more of the Emperor’s feelings while the mc's are ambiguous because that's exactly the opposite of what usually happens. The Emperor (and not just in this one) is the ruler of the harem and everything/everyone has to go along his whims if they want success or to even survive. Thus people of the harem are always wracking their brains trying to find out what the emperor is thinking so they could please the man above all. However, in this novel we kind of have a reversal. Although we still don't know what the emperor is thinking we see glimpes of it and much more than that of the mc's. To me this symbolizes that mc won "The Game" and as the winner who has schemed successfully we can't have access to her thoughts and feelings cuz she's now the one who has risen "above all" including the emperor whi thinks of himself so smart but still believes her "sincere feelings" till the end. (Technically still not above all cuz emperor is still "god" but yall get what I mean). Didn't expect to write an essay at 1am but here ya go~
Although i dont love this novel. Its still a good one because it is more realistic. And this novel doesn't focus on romance. It focuses on FL and the imperial schemes. Even tho this novel have slag emperor,the FL is the ultimate winner,ultimate schemer in the end. Until the end,the emperor and others totally believed that FL really loves the emperor when in fact the FL is just acting. I really love that the FL didn't fall in love with the emperor and she is smart enough to rise in the ranks and gave birth to a prince. Giving birth to a prince stabled her position in the harem. I also cant blame the emperor, he is born and raised in that time period where it is normal to have a harem. He treated the concubines as a place to go to admire,relax, and pleasure. He is an emperor that's why he cant truly love someone 100%. Trust issues and he needs to be careful. But as an emperor to the country he is a good one,but not a good husband.