Voted "Royal Most Likely to Deliver Your Marketplace Baby" five times running by the Daily Post
I wasn't particularly interested in the 'Chu's third prince' storyline, but how much did I love that Eight and Qing Chuan tried to bust him for fraud but ended up having to deliver his wife's baby in an emergency? LOLOLOLOL. I think this may be one of my favorite sequences in JPLH so far.
Reasons:
1. Big difference between Eight/QC and Four - they plan to use the wife to bust the faker and earn merit points with Kang Xi for Eight but, ultimately, when the wife refuses, not only do they not throw a fit, they help her deliver the baby! Four would just walk away. I especially loved the part when wife refuses to testify, QC tries to drag her anyway, and Eight stops her, telling her to give it up because the woman is pregnant. I loved this because Qing Chuan often acts before she thinks - sometimes it's good as when she e.g. helped Su Yan without any thought for possibly deadly consequences. And sometimes it's bad like here because she's so concentrated on her plan, she's being unintentionally unkind. But that is why her pairing with Eight is so good - she's not a heartless person in the least - and once Eight makes his point, she snaps out of it right away. They balance each other out. They are both impulsive, extraverted, kind, occasionally thoughtless people but in an oddly complimentary way. And hanjae is spot on about Eight having strong moral principles - you could see it even back in the very beginning, where he was trying to drum it into Nine and Ten's heads that rape=bad and for women, chastity and honor are important so this is NOT DONE (and they were looking at him as if he had two heads because, obviously, if a royal prince wants to do something, it's automatically OK). And now, the moral principles are even more in evidence because he's matured a lot since the beginning.
2. I laughed like a maniac at Eight assuming Qing Chuan would know how to deliver (because, let's face it, if she was a woman of that time period, she would) and assuming she doesn't want to because she's mad at the ruin of their plan and telling her "nothing is as important as human life" and her responding that it's not that she's mad, she has no idea how to deliver a baby! Because, so true. As a modern woman of non-medical background, my only knowledge of delivery is "go to the hospital, let doctors take care of it." And unlike QC I actually had a baby.
3. How Eight just takes it in stride and basically runs the whole delivery thing. And you can see that Qing Chuan's finally freeing herself of her silly crush on Four allows her to appreciate Eight - I am not sure if I am putting this well but she's now free to look at him and what kind of person he is properly because there is now room in her heart - and I have to say, not only is he moral, he's hella competent and completely unflappable in an emergency. And you can see it all sink in for her, even if not (yet) consciously. You know, you have no idea how refreshing it is to have a heroine fall for a guy not because he's the angstiest angstmuffin who ever angsted and she can cure his broken soul but because said guy is (a) good person (b) competent (c) smart (d) treats her well (e) someone she likes and is friends with and is really compatible with. Yes, the wicked, out-of-this-world chemistry doesn't hurt but I love that its not just a choice that's right hormonally, but also a genuinely good basis for a happy long-term relationship.
Yes, I do have a proper cap post coming but I wanted to blab about this first...
Reasons:
1. Big difference between Eight/QC and Four - they plan to use the wife to bust the faker and earn merit points with Kang Xi for Eight but, ultimately, when the wife refuses, not only do they not throw a fit, they help her deliver the baby! Four would just walk away. I especially loved the part when wife refuses to testify, QC tries to drag her anyway, and Eight stops her, telling her to give it up because the woman is pregnant. I loved this because Qing Chuan often acts before she thinks - sometimes it's good as when she e.g. helped Su Yan without any thought for possibly deadly consequences. And sometimes it's bad like here because she's so concentrated on her plan, she's being unintentionally unkind. But that is why her pairing with Eight is so good - she's not a heartless person in the least - and once Eight makes his point, she snaps out of it right away. They balance each other out. They are both impulsive, extraverted, kind, occasionally thoughtless people but in an oddly complimentary way. And hanjae is spot on about Eight having strong moral principles - you could see it even back in the very beginning, where he was trying to drum it into Nine and Ten's heads that rape=bad and for women, chastity and honor are important so this is NOT DONE (and they were looking at him as if he had two heads because, obviously, if a royal prince wants to do something, it's automatically OK). And now, the moral principles are even more in evidence because he's matured a lot since the beginning.
2. I laughed like a maniac at Eight assuming Qing Chuan would know how to deliver (because, let's face it, if she was a woman of that time period, she would) and assuming she doesn't want to because she's mad at the ruin of their plan and telling her "nothing is as important as human life" and her responding that it's not that she's mad, she has no idea how to deliver a baby! Because, so true. As a modern woman of non-medical background, my only knowledge of delivery is "go to the hospital, let doctors take care of it." And unlike QC I actually had a baby.
3. How Eight just takes it in stride and basically runs the whole delivery thing. And you can see that Qing Chuan's finally freeing herself of her silly crush on Four allows her to appreciate Eight - I am not sure if I am putting this well but she's now free to look at him and what kind of person he is properly because there is now room in her heart - and I have to say, not only is he moral, he's hella competent and completely unflappable in an emergency. And you can see it all sink in for her, even if not (yet) consciously. You know, you have no idea how refreshing it is to have a heroine fall for a guy not because he's the angstiest angstmuffin who ever angsted and she can cure his broken soul but because said guy is (a) good person (b) competent (c) smart (d) treats her well (e) someone she likes and is friends with and is really compatible with. Yes, the wicked, out-of-this-world chemistry doesn't hurt but I love that its not just a choice that's right hormonally, but also a genuinely good basis for a happy long-term relationship.
Yes, I do have a proper cap post coming but I wanted to blab about this first...