man it’s been two weeks

I used to update everyday when I was job hunting and now that I’m working full time, I have literally no time for anything – even just sitting down and enjoying an occasional drama. My next post will probably another super condensed post with episodes again…

I was considering dropping this drama because of the ugly male leads/horrible CGI/lack of acting skills from Angelababy. Yes these are all very valid concerns because… well, they’re true. Regardless, as much as I hate to admit it, I was actually hooked on waiting on when Yun Ge would meet her Ling Ge Ge, and went as far as to start reading the book. It was just that I was reading so many comments about how the book was so good and so much better than the drama, and that the characters were very well written.

So… many questions were answered when I started the book. A lot of my very sarcastic comments about the questionable plot in the drama were actually very adeptly answered in the book. I take back some of what I say from the previous post.

Our episode starts with Yun Ge getting all upset, knowing that Bing Yi is planning to marry Xu Ping Jun. I’m really sick of Yun Ge’s shit at this point because she has never outwardly confirmed that Bing Yi is her Ling Ge Ge. Blah I know that this is a very important point in the drama but I guess the director didn’t really execute it properly. I’d rather that she had tried to ask at one point, and maybe he was too drunk or too confused to understand. It would be so much better than watching her look at him with googly eyes and listen to her pathetic ‘inner monologue’ in her head.

Xu Ping Jun and Liu Bing Yi get married. I love Xu Ping Jun’s character – she’s so smart and she’s very kind and genuine.

Since Yun Ge is such an amazing cook, the princess invites her to cook for her and the Emperor, which is ahem, Ling Ge Ge/Liu Fu Ling.

While Yun Ge is picking up herbs, she actually bumps into Liu Fu Ling (so convenient). Like forreal though, in my so many years of life, I have never have been able to walk through a forrest and be able to discern one shrub from another so how these female leads always manage to find medical herbs and delicious vegetables is always beyond me. Like, you didn’t even have photos back then. How did you manage to learn all the medical properties of each shrub when they look exactly the same?

Whatever I can tell the difference between romaine and watercress.

Anyways Yun Ge and Liu Fu Ling are so happy to see each other. For some reason Yun Ge decides to respond to ‘Bai He’ every time Liu Fu Ling calls her that, so he mistakenly thinks that that’s her name (obviously, you can’t blame the guy – if you responded to dickwad I would assume that you were a dickwad too).

Anyways they’re so elated that they promise to meet the next day in the same spot.

Meanwhile Yu An, the servant is still being useless, and still manages not to put two and two together even though it seems that he has seen Yun Ge a million times as Yun Ge, not Bai He.

Anyways the next morning, Yun Ge, Xu Ping Jun both get harassed by royal princes that were also invited to the banquet. Yun Ge’s fighting off the badly CGI-ed ‘dogs’ and Angelababy performs probably the worse choreographed struggle against fake dogs in the world. It’s so excruciatingly painful to watch her fight against dogs that are obviously not there because it looks so fake, but… drama.

Anyways, Xu Ping Jun is bit on the hand, and Yun Ge is bit ont he leg. Good thing Meng Jue and Huo Cheng Jun show up on time, and stop the whole thing. Huo Cheng Jun almost gets hurt, and Meng Jue holds her affectionately in his arms.

Yun Ge is obviously pissed. I would be too, if my soon-to-be boyfriend who keeps professing his love to me shows affection to someone else. Yun Ge is too injured to go to the meeting with Liu Fu Ling, and Liu Fu Ling is stood up.

So somehow Meng Jue thinks it’s a great idea to pretty much ‘roofie’ Yun Ge by essentially spraying chloroform into her room.

Yun Ge wakes up in his chambers and somehow doesn’t freak the f*ck out after being kidnapped, and decides to allow Meng Jue to tend to her wounds. Is this romantic??? Or is everyone just missing the eery creepiness here?

Even after everything and even though Meng Jue has a sidechick (Huo Cheng Jun), Yun Ge manages to forgive him and believe in his lies. She accepts his affection and becomes very couplely with him, but they aren’t official yet at this point.

The producers tease us by having Liu Fu Ling hear Yun Ge sing, and frantically go out and look for her (but cannot find her of course, until a lot later).

Meanwhile some political shit is going down with Huo Guang, who’s planning one big one to take down General Shang Guang and General Yan. I watch this for the romance so this is all I really cared about LOL.

Meng Jue finally formally cuts off his side chick and tells Huo Cheng Jun that he loves Yun Ge and that he has no intention of being with her. Even though he is clear that he played her, and the only reason that he was with her was because of her dad, Huo Cheng Jun is very desperate and is devastated.

The Princess invites Yun Ge and Xu Ping Jun to cook for her birthday banquet. Originally hesitant (they got bitten by dogs last time) Xu Ping Jun finally agrees on the basis of money.

At one point, Yun Ge is requested to make food for the Emperor, aka Liu Fu Ling. On her way in delivering the food (and she’s dressed as a guy for some reason) she accidentally knocks down Liu Fu Ling’s painting.

The very fei 廢 useless Yu An somehow couldn’t recognize her even though he’s seen her so many times. SHE LITERALLY ONLY HAS HER HAIR PULLED BACK. HOW CAN YOU NOT PUT TWO AND TWO TOGETHER? YOUR EMPEROR ALWAYS FREAKS OUT WHEN THERE ARE SITUATIONS WHERE SHE’S AROUND.

Well anyways the painting was ruined, and Yun Ge does the cheeky thing by actually adding on to the painting instead of repairing it. Yun Ge also serves very plain street food to the emperor instead of her usual delicacy, to try to help him to trigger some emotions.

Liu Fu Ling doesn’t get mad at the addition, and actually is very impressed with this ‘mysterious cook’. Yes. The producers still continue to tease us and they still don’t meet. At this point it’s actually a tad frustrating and I would start to skim.

During the banquet all hell lets loose. General Shang Guang is under the impression that Huo Guang will try to kill him during in this banquet, so he moves his troops closer to the palace. Because Shang Guang General moved his troops, Huo Guang finds this opportunity to accuse him of rebellion and treason and traps him with a greater troop power.

Long story short, Huo Guang kills all of the people at the princess’s banquet by accusing them of being rebels. The purpose of this is to eliminate his competition within the palace.

While all his disciples were being killed, even the Emperor couldn’t do anything. Huo Guang locked up all exits with his men, saying that he was doing this to protect the Emperor but really, it’s just to control him.

According to Wikipedia, Liu Fu Ling was only 14 years old historically when this happened.

DOES HE LOOK LIKE A FOURTEEN YEAR OLD TO YOU?!! At least find someone that looks early 20. This guy looks like he’s at least pushing 30 (and he is, he’s freaken 39).

On a side note. Xu Ping Jun becomes pregnant.

Anyways, even though Yun Ge was cooking there for the banquet, Meng Jue had known early on about this rebellion plan, and to ensure her safety took her far far away. He went on to the mountain with her and proposed to her.

As much as I find Meng Jue unattractive and undesirable,I’m really a sucker for all cute interactions. He is really sweet, and it is quite cute the way he treats her. Now imagine if it was a male lead that you were attracted to. IMAGINE IF IT WAS HAWICK. I would be so hooked on this drama.

On another note, I have an interesting theory. Maybe since Angelababy is already so OTP-ed with Huang Xiao Ming (since they’re a real life couple), they didn’t want to start any gossip or any big waves.

I mean look at William Chan and Charlene Choi. Charlene Choi got so much hate for no reason because netizens developed a new OTP between William Chan and Zhao Li Ying and they kept telling Charlene Choi to gtfo and for William Chan to break up with her. I mean, netizens are crazy. 

It’s really scary how crazy they can get over the pairing of a drama. The words they threw around are so hurtful, I actually felt bad for Charlene Choi when they broke up.

On a side note, I always wonder if these actresses/actors or even the people back in the feudal era ever had to deal with alopecia, which is a condition for hair loss from constantly wearing your hair too tight. Like LOOK at them – their hair is pulled back so tight, especially Angelababy. I know I kind of have alopecia from pulling my hair back too much when I was younger into a bun.

It looks like this:

It’s like a little bit of balding because of pulling your hair back. Makes you think if these actresses had to deal with it, especially pulling their hair back so tightly for six months daily for filming. And also the guys back then too – they were literally the pioneers of the man buns – it makes you wonder if they had to deal with alopecia too.

Or maybe this is alopecia at its worse and their hairline’s receded into midway from many years of pulling it back LOL. I really don’t know.

Finally accepting that Bing Yi has moved on – since Yun Ge assume Bing Yi is her childhood ‘Ling Ge Ge’, she decides to accept Meng Jue’s affection and agrees to marry him.

If this was a real life thing, and Yun Ge was one of my girlfriends I would definitely tell her to run. Like can you see all the red flags?!! First of all, he’s always showing affection to the side girl. Secondly, he initially had introduced you as his sister. And thirdly, he disappears on days on end. And lastly, he actually kidnaps you LOL. Like C’MON, RUN.

Meanwhile Liu Dan/General Yan (they all have double names, which are confusing) tries to meet up with Meng Jue. Knowing what’s going on, Meng Jue refuses.

General Yan responds with kidnapping Yun Ge.

So Meng Jue responds with rescuing with Yun Ge, and kills General Yan. No seriously, he literally says “No one that hurts Yun Ge can live”. I don’t how these drama scriptwriters always end up making the male leads so controlling and psychotic every time.

Some history from the University of Wikipedia:

Empress Shang Guan’s paternal side was the side that was just murdered (accused of treason) and Huo Guang is her maternal grandfather. Anyways, she’s upset because nearly her entire family is killed on the paternal side. At this time, she should be around 12 years old, which the actress obviously doesn’t, but I could totally buy 16 years old. The actress is Mao Xiao Tong and I think she is so pretty. I’m so glad I found her through this drama because I think she’s actually a lot prettier and a lot more natural looking than Angelababy. I wish she had more of an instagram or a social media that I could follow because I could look at her for hours. Can you believe she’s 27 years old?! She looks so gorgeous.

At this time, Meng Jue’s 師父/godfather gives his position as the Meteor Star Leader (directly translated from 流星幫) to Yun Ge, just because she looks so much like her mom.

Backstory: the godfather of Meng Jue was in love with Yun Ge’s mom, but her mom picked someone else in the end, so that’s why the teacher is willing to give it to Yun Ge, because she looks so much like her mother.

This was also what Meng Jue had intended to do, because he wants the position, and he knows that Yun Ge doesn’t care for it, he had intentionally used her in order to get this position (because he knew Yun Ge would just transfer it over to him).

Meanwhile, Huo ChengJun does not give up and still tries to get Meng Jue to accept her, even allowing herself to share her husband with Yun Ge. Meng Jue says no, and Huo Cheng Jun jumps into the lake in order to grab his attention.

Meng Jue jumps in and saves her.

The entire Huo family is furious – both at Huo Cheng Jun and Meng Jue. I would be furious at my daughter too, if she decided to self-harm in order to get a man’s attention.

The Huo family decides to ‘punish’ Meng Jue by forcing him to stay the night to stay with Huo Cheng Jun.

Obviously it looks bad on Meng Jue’s part, so when he’s home, Yun Ge is devastated. Yun Ge still doesn’t run from this obvious red flag, and decides to still get married to him and forgives him. She decides to go out and prepare a dinner for her, Meng Jue, Xu Ping Jun and Liu Bing Yi to announce their engagement.

Yun Ge is approached by Huo Cheng Jun. Huo Cheng Jun tells her that Meng Jue does not really love her, and that he’s probably using her for something, the same way that he used her in order to get close to Huo Guang. Yun Ge refuses to believe this.

Somehow, very conveniently, she meets Meng Jue’s old teacher (what are the chances, seriously?) and finds out all about Meng Jue’s past. Turns out Meng Jue had lead a very tough life and he tells her all about it.

Well the teacher’s intention was to get Yun Ge to empathize with Meng Jue, but the only thing that she derived from it was that Meng Jue was a power hungry man, and that she had been used. Meng Jue had used her in order to gain power with the Meteor Star Group (yes, direct translation).

Realizing she’s been used, and doubting the sincerity of love towards her from Meng Jue, she decides to leave Chang An, and leave everything.

Obviously when she decides to leave, Liu Fu Ling goes “Oh hey, you know that chef that keeps impressing me? Let’s go out of the palace and embark a long journey within the city to look for her”

You can see the look in his eyes where  Yu An goes “Getting real sick of your shit, Emperor”.

Liu Fu Ling go to the old restaurant to try the ‘mysterious chef’s’ food. Obviously this is after the fact that Yun Ge leaves and the owner there finally reveals that Yun Ge has been cooking for him all along.

Liu Fu Ling goes crazy, and the restaurant owner directs him to go to Xu Ping Jun’s house in order to find Yun Ge.

Xu Ping Jun, now very pregnant, told him that Yun Ge was going back into her hometown, a suburb village. At the same time Meng Jue had asked for a meeting outside of the palace, and Yu An convinced meeting Meng Jue is more important than looking Yun Ge, so thats why Lu Fu Ling set out to do.

Anyways the son of Huo Guang takes this as an opportunity to try to hurt/assassinate the Emperor while he’s out to meet Meng Jue.

At the same time, Yun Ge is taking the very same path (what are the chances, seriously) and she is mistaken for being one of the assassins for trying to kill Meng Jue. Meng Jue witnesses all of this, but to save his own butt, he doesn’t go out and save Yun Ge, and Yun Ge is captured by the Emperor’s men.

They take way too long to figure out that she was Yun Ge, initially assuming that she was still ‘Bai He’.

I mean, the only way they figured it out was looking through her bag and realizing that she has the lotus flower pouch that young Yun Ge had, and that she had the special money that only the Emperor could reward (meaning that she was the chef that impressed him).

The ugly guy on the right is the son of Huo Guang who appears to be very dumb and ungrateful. Huo Guang tries his best to eliminate suspicion from his son by pretending that he has a sickness. Meanwhile Meng Jue comes to check if the son is truly sick.

Huo Cheng Jun assures him that her brother is truly sick, and even though he was trespassing into her home, she releases him without questions. In return, her family becomes pretty disappointed with her for being so attached to Meng Jue.

Huo Guang’s wife, Lady Huo, is probably the worst person ever (you’ll realize that later on, if they do this according to the history that I just read). She unabashedly asks if the Empress and Emperor has, well, slept together yet (ahem, consummated their marriage).

Lady Huo also had the intention of bringing Huo Cheng Jun into the palace to replace the current Empress because of two reasons: the current Empress doesn’t have a lot of power within the palace, and is too ‘simple’ to become more aggressive; and secondly it’s better that her own daughter becomes more powerful, over her granddaughter.

Meng Jue is suspected of planning this assassination but the Emperor doesn’t decide to prosecute him for it because of the lack of evidence. Meanwhile, the producers decide to continue to tease us through Liu Fu Ling continue to hide his identity to Yun Ge. Apparently she’s so sick that she can’t take all of this information at once, c’mon let’s get this plot moving!!! I really want to see some OTP action, and see more of the Empress.

I kind of spoiled it for myself from reading the Wikipedia history page so if you really don’t know the story and you want to keep it a surprise, then definitely don’t go on Wikipedia. I’m really excited for the drama in the end though, with Liu Bing Yi and Huo Cheng Jun.