well...about the story... the characters are not complex and they are not deep. From start to finish they are the same. With the exception of Consort Yue and Lou Yao's wife (He Zhao Jun). Overall, it's a predictable drama, but that doesn't make it bad. It's a great drama, just not deep. There are some well-executed and written secrets and plot twists. Some dialogues are excessively long (to try to bring out a "depth" of the characters' thoughts). It seems like a "cake recipe" story to me, but as it was well written and executed, it was a great result. It is worth mentioning that the emperor's humor part is something really interesting in this drama. Now, a question, where is the eldest son of the Cheng family?