#wang xingwei

Xiangjiu's envolvement with Mochen draws attention from the crown prince who wants to get rid of Feng Muchen so the Emperor dies.

He is an asshat who physically and mentally abuses his consort and is allergic to undergarments.

I am not complaining, about poor man's Gong Shangjue need to keep his torso ventilated.

As Xiangjiu's investigation continues, she helps other people in the palace with the reluctant help of Mochen and Mochen's sidekick Mao Jin, a dog spirit.

PSA: be careful when watching with headphones. This guy is LOUD and the sound engineer wanted you to know that.

2nd male lead is Bai Yu, a silly, vain fake eunuch and cultivator, who also wants to kill Mochen to settle an old clan grievance with him. He of course is FL's childhood sweetheart and betrothed with her since then, what else. He is not the brightest bulb in the chandelier and hardly ever does his actual job but he got things to do ok.

This is Princess Ningshuang and even though now another family is ruling Muxi (it is established that Ye Zhaonan from My Uncanny Destiny was a former ruler, so this is the same world just with added yaoguai), I hope that women still can become Emperor because damn, anything better than the crown prince.

Example of choppiness in episode 5 - the leads start a game of whoever removes their hand from the other's cheek first loses and then after the scene from this screen cap the next time you see them the game is over and we never learn who won. Ok, ok it was just an excuse for them to sleep in the same bed at that stage of their acquaintance.

What do I mean with struggling with juggling comedy and tragedy? I think that at times it gets too dark. Like when the crown prince whips his consort for minor things to show how unhinged he is. Or in the first side case when Xiangjiu uncovers why the soul of the cutest flower spirit since Xiao Lan Hua can't move on to the afterlife. It is heavy stuff.

So tonally some plot lines would fit more into a serious drama but in ELotF you might have a silly scene next. But honestly the choppiness bothers me more.

Xiao Ru don't be saaad :( (I was like she looks familiar - the actress played Chuntao in TtEoTM)

piglet!

So this is a watch recommendation with some caveats. Don't go in like me expecting 80% light comedy because either the 80% are spread unevenly over the 24 episodes or it is just a regular drama with some funny scenes, overacting, sound effects and cringe thrown in.