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it's a weird balance they're trying to strike with these two:

there's definitely something of an admiration, maybe even attraction on Yan Chi's side. Qin/Shen Wan is wary, but still warming up to him.

At the same time, she's using him to get herself to the capital, away from the Qins, and towards her investigation while hiding her true identity.

Yan Chi is suspicious of her identity, though without any real proof and calls out anything suspicious (her knowledge of the capital, her admiration for Shen Yi, etc.)

Yan Chi gives her a LOT of gifts, more than any other unrelated man would, and Wan'er's maid is reading between the line all while Wan'er herself if clueless, reading it as his intention to make her join his army as a medic (potentially the funniest misunderstanding in a drama)

on the one hand, their shyness around each other appears to be a combination of attraction and caution. This ever-increasing draw that they have all while harboring their own intentions.

on the other, this is only ep 5 and I feel like they probably could've slowed this down a bit.

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my first Ao Ruipeng drama and I quite like how he's playing his character.

often, generals are tossed directly into the "cold male lead" archetype and, while Yan Chi has his brutal moments (see his on-screen intro) he's surprisingly normal? teases his family members, gives gifts to "Qin" Wan, and pursues justice. He's a delight and a rarity. Enjoying this one so far!

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so I ended up dropping A Dream within a Dream for now. Between being far too busy with work at the moment and getting irritated with static characters, it wasn't doing it for me.

that being said, I am a complete sucker for the ending scenes of transmigration stories where the characters reunite outside of the story and from what I've seen, it was adorable

maybe I'll get around to it one day, but for now I'm content gleaning the events for the second half of the show from all the cool folks who gif and screenshot the show

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Around the middle of ep 22 I was considering how they really decided that NH wasn't miserable enough

SYM is convinced that he did in fact defile her sister

Shangguan He is off to prison

His reputation is getting dragged through the mid EVEN MORE

Chu Guihong is being a pain (what else is new)

AND his identity as L16 was discovered by Song Yiting after she drugged him, thus endangering part of his power base

literally Nan Heng and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad day

but he really does just keep swinging, doesn't he?

I think NH's grit is one of the things I like most about his character. Despite impossible odds, man just keeps finding ways out of his situation, ways to press forward.

Song Yimeng is a great(though frustrating) viewpoint character, but NH is my favorite by far because he's so determined to keep pushing forward towards his (many) goals

judging from the previews, he's about to have to struggle through some more stuff tho. poor baby

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I love them

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What's wrong, Your Highness?

A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM (2025)

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The fact that Nan Heng's mom is the #1 shipper of NH and SYM will never fail to delight me

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progress is being made but definitely not in the way I'd prefer

she seems to care for her sister! yay!

she knows NH is a person, but is still sure that what she knows of the script is the only option and that he'll still be the cause of her death

she regrets having to work against him, but is so confident that it's the right thing to do

she's an interesting mc. she frustrates me to bits at times and at others I completely understand where she's coming from

I think we'll need to have a few identity reveals soon to start turning the tables

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Timing truly is terrible because after she admits that may have been a bit too hard on him, she overhears and misunderstands that he plans to take Song Yiting as concubine

it really does feel like the Scriptwriter is actively working against her and Nan Heng

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last couple eps have really been call-outs for SYM which I'm really grateful for. Girlfriend is great at passing 1 dimension judgements on the entire cast and not even considering herself and her role in all this.

curious to see if this one will really make her think

also, this had to hurt for him as he gave up military power and took on lashes for her father only to come face to face with this

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ah so here's (hopefully) the turning point.

Never thought Song Yiting would be the voice of reason!

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I don't know if anyone's mentioned it, but Nan Heng's character, even up to ep 16, is kind of giving me Cassandra (from Greek myth) vibes

We've seen Song Yimeng sympathize with him on multiple occasions, she's seen how his father treats him, seen what his mother will do for him, has seen him express kindness towards her, and still dismisses him as wicked and cunning after a little bit of time passes

Like Cassandra, a prophetess cursed to never be believed, Nan Heng's side of the story won't be believed by anyone, even his supposed female lead. Miserable indeed

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GIRL I LOVE YOU

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NOT BAD NAN HENG

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my favorite type of humor🤣🤣🤣

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NH being fiercely protective of his mother was something I didn't know I needed until this ep

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idk why but it's a little heartbreaking that the little boy had no name.

Realistically it makes sense. What writer will give names to everyone? But for SYM to hear that he had no name and to see LSL give a name that just so happened to fill the pattern:

Passerby A, Passerby B, and now the little boy become Passerby C (also Pancake)

I do think that short little scene gave me more of a sense of futility than anything else that's happened so far (though the barely explicable dislike everyone has of NH comes pretty darn close). our main characters are fighting against fate, against the script, but even the people on the street don't have names