The story started to fall apart after Concubine Su died. When the father was arrested and the whole fu was thrown in jail, I liked how the main character stood up and kept composure in the beginning. I thought this arc would take advantage of the moment and show off her wit and intuition. I thought she would get out of such a disadvantageous situation by herself but nooooo. She's basically a puppet and doesn't do anything to help her situation. She just pisses people off and doesn't think.

Chen Wang acted out of character by stopping Su Qing from abusing her and taking care of her and making her feel cushy in prison. He went full blown crazy and tried to force her to marry him and lie to his family about who she was, saying she's a girl from another town. This tsundere wouldn't leap into insanity like this so fast.

The Empress acts out of character. When her mother and brother ask her to help she says she's helped enough and her son died as an infant. I have no idea how her dead son relates to this and it feels like the author's pulling this out of her ass. What does her dead son have to do with this??? I'm so confused.

After the charges are cleared, YQM does the most disgusting thing that pissed me off to no end. I f*cking hate her for this. She's a modern woman with modern ethics and standards. After Concubine Su died, her son is sent to his grandmother who ab*ses him. YQM could have done something to fix this. She has enough power. She could have suggested he be given to another concubine or something. She knew this woman hated the boy and turned a blind eye. After they were thrown in prison, everyone forgot the boy. The infant died of starvation. THE. INFANT. DIED. OF. STARVATION. YQM's response to her little brother being forgotten (she also forgot him) and dying is simply quirking up her eyebrow and blaming her father and Concubine Su, saying he had no chance. HE HAD NO CHANCE??? He had a chance and YQM could have done anything. F*ckING ANYTHING and he could have survived. She's from the modern world so she should know that the child shouldn't suffer the parent's crime and stop him from being ab*sed. She shouldn't blame her father, she should also blame herself. She left him to die. She refused to help him. She knew what would happen. SHE DIDN'T CARE ABOUT THE INFANT DYING OF STARVATION. F*ck YOU YUN QIAN MENG.

Yun Yi Yi is 13 years old and accused Chu Fei Yang of ruining her because of well... reasons that the author needed. (*insert overused excuse that people in the past like YYY age differently* No, there's no proof of that. There never has been.) Yun Yi Yi was clearly marked as a spoiled girl from the start, of course, she was going to try and ruin his reputation for reasons that the author decided willy nilly.

As revenge, our supposed "hero", Chu Fei Yang, has her marry her rapist, and her rapist takes full advantage of it. Chu Fei isn't a saint, I understand that, but the thing that made him believable was his levelheadedness. He knew who the real targets were. Aka not some 13-year-old with a petty vendetta and a half-baked plot that didn't work out.

The argument that could have been made was that to get revenge on Yun Yi Yi's father, CFY had to sacrifice Yun Yi Yi. But the author makes it clear that YYY's father doesn't care for anything other than his reputation. Both daughter and father could have easily have been exiled.

"Yi Yi has been brought up closely since she was small, of course she can't compare to a xiaojie from an influential family in the capital, in addition to her current young age, when talking about sophisticated thinking, please do not blame her, cousin." The usually silent Yun Yi Heng suddenly said.

The intended meaning in his words was very clear. Firstly, he pointed out that Yun Qian Meng's thinking was overly sophisticated, which set off against the unsophisticated, good, and honest nature of Yun Yi Yi; Secondly, he pointed out that Yun Qian Meng had lost her mother since young, compared to Yun Yi Yi who grew up under attentive care, Yun Qian Meng was more insidious and cunning.

Okay...... so just how is the meaning very clear? Even if I were smarter I probably wouldn't get this kind of impression from what he said.

This story was marvelous up until it stopped being about Yun Qian Meng (Chu Wang Fei) and become literally about everyone else that I didn't give a crap about.

I give it a 4.5/5 up until Chu Fei Yang and Yun Quan Meng gets married and a little bit after...

When the plots advances to them visiting the neighboring country it went off the rail completely. There were chapters after chapters where Yun Quan Meng barely gets a mention, so much so that anyone that just started reading the story from that point onward would certainly not find it hard to believe that Yun Quan Meng was nothing more than a supporting character. Extremely extremely disappointing to see such a wondering story fall flat on its face.

Chapter 136 part 1

"This was merely just a major event in my own life, how could I trouble Wang Ye to have to personally attend it? Moreover, this time Chen Wang only marries Ce Fei, the position of Ce Fei had two slots, in the future if Chen Wang was to marry again, don't you need to attend again, Hai Wang Ye? Furthermore, aside from Ce Fei, there's Zheng Fei, based on these, if Hai Wang Ye was to only attend to congratulate, he will then have to visit Chen Wang Ye for at least three times. Wang Ye isn't your body not feeling well? How can you afford be rushing around? If you got tired, your son-in-law the Crown Prince will be very likely to feel distressed. If Crown Prince is in a bad mood, he might attack Western Chu again, then wouldn't Wang Ye become the criminal of Western Chu? So that was why Chen Wang didn't inform Hai Wang, this is also for the best of Wang Ye and the common people of Western Chu!" For the fear of not putting the world in chaos, Chu Fei Yang not only criticized Chen Wang, he also involved Qi Jing Yuan, moreover he also threatened Hai Wang, with these words, he had involved all those people in power, no one will ever escape from his plan."

We get the point of view of the YQM’s uncle going to the empress dowager but we don’t have any insight into the thoughts of Chen Wang’s increasing obsession with YQM. In the end that makes the whole situation around YQM’s imprisonment and marriage seem weird and out of character (when it could so easily not seem like it if there was more on Chen Wang being impressed with YQM’s plotting abilities, his utter hatred of Chu Fei Wang and his desire to win over him over anything else, to the point he will do s*upid things just to “win”.

About the son of Concubine Su and Yun Xuan Zhi's son and how he starves to death because old madam 1. Deliberately harms him and 2. Leaves him in the Fu when they all get arrested -

1. We aren't told that Yu Qian Meng is aware that the boy has been transferred to old madam's care. Only the scene where the father places him under her care. We definitely aren't told that Yu Qian Meng is aware he's only being fed twice a day - and at this point she's never visiting the old lady so it's not like she's going to find out + her character is one where she's not going to go out of her way to check on the kid of the woman who tormented her.

2. Even if Yu Qian Meng finds out about the kid being moved to the old madam's care - she has no reason to believe that the old madam would directly harm the kid. After all the kid's father places him there and the kid is old madam's grandson. We are aware from Yu Qian Meng's point of view that the old madam is viciously greedy and that she wants to advance the family of her other son and that she hates Concubine Su. However that doesn't mean that she would harm her grandson. So from that information while Yu Qian Meng might suspect that the kid isn't going to have a good time it's not like she straight up knows he's going to be treated badly (as opposed to being neglected)

3. Ok, so say she does know that her father ordered the kid to be moved to the care of the old madam and she suspects that because of the old woman's hatred of the concubine she'll end up harming the kid - what is she supposed to do? We know from the earlier chapters that she never goes directly against her father. To do so when he can basically have her killed is su*cide, and what is she supposed to say if she is to persuade the father that it’s a problem – she has no evidence at this point, just a hunch that the old madam’s character means she won’t let the child of Concubine Su go even if he is her grandson? Throughout the series we’re shown how Yu Qian Meng “crosses her t’s and dots her I’s” – she only makes actions without evidence only in extreme cases. Why would she stick her neck out for the child of the woman who tormented her? (Yes the child is innocent but at this point we’re just talking about YQM being aware of him being looked after by old madam not that he’s not being fed or what happens when they go to prison).

4. Say that all works – who is supposed to look after the kid? There’s no official wife to do so. The next person that the kid would go to would be old madam – there would have to be extreme evidence for the kid not to go into her care according to the family rules. Then who would take care of the kid? The other concubine lady? The one who was tormented by Concubine Su? Like on the face of things she would be even worse – at least the old madam should be tempered by the fact that the child is her grandson.

5. There’s just not enough time – not enough time passes before they’re sent to jail for Yu Qian Meng to find out that the kid has been transferred to the care of the old madam, and that she’s ordered that the kid should only be fed twice a day. I think it’s around two chapters before they get arrested and it’s like maximum a month between the time Chu Fei Yang has left and they get sent to jail.

6. When Yu Qian Meng gets sent to jail, she has enough time to get the token from her box and that’s it – she has no time to check that the child has been taken with them, to order anyone to do so, or to be aware that other arrangements haven’t been made for the child. After all it’s a baby and it’s the nephew of Su Yuan – it would be reasonable to assume that he would take the kid and Concubine Su into care and look after them (instead he lets his sister and child starve to death). Old Madam has some of the blame for not taking the kid with them but given that the guards who were supposed to take everyone in the fu, didn’t take Concubine Su at the time – well wouldn’t anyone assume that the uncle would take care of them? He’s the one who doesn’t care and lets them both starve.

7. Yu Qian Meng is surprised about this situation – she is not aware of it until later and her father has the Concubine’s body thrown out that she finds out that Concubine Su starved to death under the care of her brother.

Given that, it makes sense that Yu Qian Meng shouldn’t be blamed for the situation with the infant. As for the whole it’s his fate – YQM is thinking about karma and directly thinks “Now everything happened because the right time had arrived for God to take their lives”. Concubine Su took the lives of YQM’s mother and brother – that Concubine Su and her son both die is a kind of balancing of the scales – what Concubine Su did is what ends up happening to her. YQM doesn’t endorse this as a good thing, she’s thinking of the situation as a ‘you reap what you sow’ situation.

As for the situation with the cousin of her sister – she has no time to prepare. She gets a sense that something is wrong and that the princess of Qi and the Cousin Su are plotting something and then she is made aware of being drugged. Cousin Su has arranged for her to be taken to a room and r*ped – Yu Qian Meng doesn’t know directly what is going to happen only that she’s supposed to be drugged and left in this room (I mean she’s smart enough to put together that something bad will happen but not what). So she arranges the best revenge – replacing herself with the cousin Su. Whatever she has arranged is what will happen to her. In this case its hardly fair for her to blame YQM for what happens, she escaped from the trap and the one who set it is the one who becomes the victim of it. If she was a heroic figure then we would expect her to rise above and have neither of them in that situation but she’s not, she believes in paying in kind, and really the logistics of the situation becomes rather difficult (if cousin Su isn’t drugged then she’s running around arranging another trap at the party, if she’s not in the room then it’s going to be weird if YQM tries to drag her to another room – and she would get blamed for harming the cousin).

As for the situation with her sister Ruo Xue – she doesn’t know that she’s going to be r*ped by beggars. She sends her off to Cheng Wang because the sister is going on about how she’s his concubine. She leaves her in the care of the steward who Concubine Su promoted, there were guards and she was delivered to Chen Wang. He is disgusted by her, but isn’t going to do anything to her other than not let her in when she literally grabs him and blocks him from going inside. At this point he rips her wedding dress off and leaves her on the steps of her mansion in her underclothing. The people from their home mansion have left (when they should have stayed to check that she actually went in). Then suddenly outside the mansion are beggars (who normally wouldn’t be loitering there – there would be guards who would move them on). We find out later that the whole situation was arranged by the Steward as revenge for his brother who died because of Concubine Su. YQM isn’t aware of what the steward is up to, the sister has been brutal to her and tried to have her killed/raped and the most she has done in this situation is send her sister off to be humiliated by Chen Wang. That she would be taken advantage by the Steward wasn’t in her calculations.

Now for the situation with Yun Yi Yi. The kid is vicious – yes she’s just a child but to the outside world so is YQM – they’re only two years apart in age max. If she was in the modern world then Yun Yi Yi would be diagnosed a psychopath and would be treated. But she’s not, and furthermore she’s got the backing of the matriarch of the Yun family to tear YQM down. YQM dodges all her plotting until they’re sent to prison. Then the kid uses ever insult in the book and then blames her for being bad luck in a special way. The whole 5 generation? Bad luck thing is pretty much the equivalent of accusing someone of being a witch in the middle ages. It’s pretty much ordering a mu*der and using someone else’s hands (especially given the power dynamics at this point – yes YQM has the backing of Chu but everyone is assuming he’s going to die or dead, they don’t know that YQM has the cure. YQM has been neglected by her father and mistreated and is only treated half decently at this point because of Chu. Whereas YYY is the favoured granddaughter of old madam. Anyway nothing happens yet because they’re in prison. YQM gets a better cell and YYY demands to be taken along. Cousin Su comes and arranges for nice food to be delivered and YYY eats it all. Later YQM gets rescued and YYY gets r*ped (we find out later that the food was drugged and the r*pe was arranged by Cousin Su but it was meant for YQM and YYY). Anyway after everything happens with YQM getting married etc she comes back to the fu. All YYY has to do is stay quiet – nobody knows that she was r*ped, worst case scenario is that she remains unmarried and lives with old madam, however given her personality and old madams it is more likely that once old madam got over the situation with her grandson (the kid who she wanted to win the exams) that old madam would marry her off and arrange the situation so that nobody knew that YYY wasn’t a virg*n. So what does she do? She implies that YQM’s husband r*ped her. YYY and her father are warned of the consequences of slandering Chu Fei Wang and still they force the issue.

As for Chu Fei Wang forcing YYY to marry her rapist – on the surface he seems like a complete as*hole because YYY is two years younger than YQM and he should be merciful etc. YYY accused him of raping her and tried to drive a wedge between him and YQM. He’s aware of the sh*t that YYY has been pulling, warned her multiple times and still she went ahead with scheming against him and YQM. Furthermore they warn both YYY and her father against accusing him because it will have national repercussions (accusing a court official). If the accusations come out then the issue will be used by Chen Wang to pull Chu Fei Wang down. It’s not mentioned but presumably some of the supporters of Chu Fei Wang support him because he’s more decent than Chen Wang – if he loses his reputation then he loses that support. Chen Wang and his supporters can argue that Chu Fei Wang is unfit because of his actions etc. So by the time YYY and her father had forced the issue to the justice minister and not backed down – that was the only result that could occur. Chu Fei Wang didn’t recommend it to happen, the justice minister decided that would be the punishment for slandering Chu Fei Wang. As for Chu Fei Wang not arranging for the justice minister to come and just marrying YYY as a concubine out of pity – this is the kid who has already plotted against YQM, the one who tried to blame the imprisonment of the family on YQM and get her killed off because she’s bad luck. Say he’s a saint and had pity and took her in (and that they wouldn’t force the issue to be public) – what would happen later? She would plot against YQM thinking that if she’s out of the way then she (YYY) would have a chance with him. Furthermore with her personality she would blackmail the two of them with him supposedly raping her. Like why would he destroy his marriage, put his job and consequently his life in jeopardy to save a vicious kid from the consequences of her actions? Yes from a modern point of view the kid needs therapy, good role models and so on, but that’s a not an option here. She and her father are the ones to push YQM and Chu Fei Wang to that point. As for YQM not speaking up and recommending leniency to the justice minister – there is no point. YYY is no longer a virg*n and she’s revealed this to everyone in a public situation – legally the only option is for her to either marry the dude or stay at home but never be able to marry anyone else because of it. Old Madam isn’t on the scene, her father is being exiled because he slandered Chu Fei Wang, the only one who can plead for her is YQM’s father because he’s the one who has to taker in. He’s not going to do that because he hates old madam and wants to get in with Chu Fei Wang – not cause trouble for him. Again we have to look at YQM’s character – she’s not heinously bad, but she’s not going to make trouble for herself on modern principles especially when the situations are so messy. There are teenagers planning the r*pes and mu*ders of other characters, there’s no kind of rehabilitative legal or medical system to deal with them. If people are merciful to them then they just keep on getting people r*ped and mu*dered so unless their family steps in and promises to put a stop to it then they have to be dealt with by the legal situation in a way that they can’t keep doing that kind of thing. We only get the “luxury” of being able to treat teenagers as children legally because we have modern systems to rehabilitate them. It’s horrible but necessary in those situations to have legal consequences. Even in modern society, when there are children who for one reason or another are unable to be treated or rehabilitated they are imprisoned so they can’t hurt others.