Main couple scenes, clever dialogues and relationship progression

Here are some patterns to think about:

1) Drama started with her in red running, drama ended with her in red running.

2) She was buried in that pit and she later buried the real Jiang Li in the pit. Both she and JL were dead together in the pit as the same person (SYR thought that was her when he dug up the grave), then she was acknowledged publicly as JL and when she was with Duke Su over "her" grave/pit, she eulogized herself AND Jiang Li.

3) The piece of music she played with her ex while she was alive was the piece he played at his death. Meanwhile she and Duke Su told each other stories and Chinese opera acts instead. 

4) She shot out BOTH soft scholarly hands that whacked her and buried her alive with a shovel. Her ex had promised to keep her safe and broke that promise pretty spectacularly. OTOH,  when the camera did show the Duke's hands, they were calloused by swordplay and they held on to hers tightly, keeping her safe. Her future husband kept her safe over and over again throughout the drama.

5) SYR was a lowly scholar below JL status. He chose power over her and in the final acts, he was elevated that he stood above her and Duke Su at the city gate. However, Duke Su started well above in status over XXF/JL and he enjoyed (as she had accused) watching "plays" from above. As the drama continued, he "came down" to be part of her play, as seen in the Drinking Game at the black market. They became equal when he told her he would be her pawn and to let him win the game for her. Also final scene, he was also in red, returning her equal.

6) SYR threw his flute into the grave, signal his abandoning her and their dreams together. XFF had cried over it but as JL, she buried it with the real JL. She had no dreams or past she wanted to remember at that point. But then came Duke Su's fan (haha). By the latter part of the drama, XFF had impersonated his fan action (at the gambling den), had used it to tap under his chin (as he'd done to her) and he'd thrown his fan at her and she'd caught it and in that scene, put it against her mouth (I see it as a nod to the kiss because that fan of his is quite an intimate part of his persona!).

I'll be editing and adding more as I rewatch the drama AGAIN! Hee.

Copy and pasted from post:

https://mydramalist.com/736749-di-jia-qian-jin#comment-18090855

Let's look at this scene again. Beginning of Episode 17. At first, the conversation appeared to be their usual sparring--> "Have you ever told the truth?" "Well, have you?"

But.

One must look at what happened just before that. The Third Uncle basically just revealed a hidden truth--he confessed his love to a wooden post/his love, Jiang Li's mother. Thus someone told the truth while drunk.

So then our couple is left alone and Xue Fang Fei whirled around, drunk and happy about her success in finding the buyer's name. Duke Su looked on, realizing this was the real XFF being shown to him (drunk = truth) and was our boy in love with XFF. That. LOOK.

"You're drunk," he told her.

XFF came to him and threw off his umbrella. CUE MUSIC. Listen to the lyrics. If you'd read a previous post of mine, I wrote about the Chinese title and the OST--Inky Rain Amidst The Clouds (the post is up there in the Other Topics) and that the inky rain could be seen as SYR's ink/stain on her reputation. Throughout the drama, there's use of the umbrella by Jiang Li as if to protect herself from that rain. SYR was also seen walking in that inky rain without an umbrella.

In this moment, though, XFF threw away Duke Su's umbrella and declared, "I'm not drunk!" The rain was a different kind of rain here, cleansing (re: none of that odd opera makeup ala acting on XFF's face).

"You're so drunk you don't know what you're doing," said the Duke.

THE LYRICS: Remove my clothes and I won't regret.... (sex, also revelation....)

XFF said, "Xiao Heng." You know they communicated on another level when she called him Xiao Heng like that. LOL.

"A'Li," he countered.

"You're handsome," she whispered.
LYRICS: Some obsessions turn to ashes, there is only one remedy....

XFF confessed (dai biao, C-Drama style)/echoing her Uncle's drunken confession. Here, her "are you drunk" takes on special meaning. Xiao Heng was tempted, sooooo tempted.

But he told her, "I'm not drunk."
LYRICS: Do you know what it is to be drunk (with love)?

XFF pushed him away, "You're not a man! You can't even get drunk!" (He jiu to he bu chui! is a play of the usual Chinese idiomatic expression of che fan/eating rice and che bao je pao lah/finished eating and now you're running off for sex and sexual intimacy) She went on, "Have you ever told the truth?"

Now, here I'll admit to extrapolating through character analysis. We know A'Li is the more sexually experienced one between the two of them. She might be a tad frustrated here, I don't know, LOL:

Xiao Heng reverted back to Duke Su persona, "What about you? After drinking so much, aren't you also not telling the truth?"

That was such a weak counter that XFF immediately mocked him (even while drunk). "Thank you, DUKE SU! Thank YOU, DUKE SU! THANK YOU, DUKE SU!" Notice the sexy music has stopped and she'd also stopped calling him Xiao Heng. He was just Duke Su, interrogating her again.

CUE MUSIC. Now it's the pear song and XFF reverted back to XFF/JiangLi.

I'm not saying Duke Su didn't know what XFF wanted (he did call her shameless when they almost kissed) but I do believe he didn't know at that moment how to handle the real XFF vs XFFasJiangLi. The confession took him aback. So what did he do? He gave her another piece of his clothing to wear, Bwahahahahahaha. These two kids; they are too much.

I hope the above gave you something to think about when you rewatch the scene. It's really very well done.

Adding a breakdown of another couple scene from the main forum:

https://mydramalist.com/736749-di-jia-qian-jin#comment-18289983

Episode 14, when XFF was injured when she protected XH. Question: Why was XH angry?

****

I'll give it a try. I think the BTS said there were missing minutes due to edits from this scene, so it all sounded so vague to us. But we could still get the gist of the conversation because of the excellent acting.

1) We must remember Jiang Li was married and know more about men than Su Guo Gong.
2) We must remember she was still wary of him because she realized she was more and more involved in "another play" besides hers, one being manipulated by Duke Su.
3) There was attraction between them and XFF RECOGNIZED this, maybe better than XH at this point.
4) There was a cat and mouse game between them at the moment. He wanted to make her admit she was XFF and he was intrigued by her ability to manipulate people with her "acting." To Duke Su, who had spent most of his confinement by his grandfather watching plays, the world was a stage, so here he needed someone to act as a shield and XFF happened to pass by. Besides, he was attracted, so he "made" her come to him again.

So, our XFF was already a bit mad at this point. She wasn't in a mood to flirt. The cups of tea was the first indication of her being slightly irritated.

"It's bitter," she declared.
According to Duke Su, that was the sweetest tea, so she must have something bitter in her heart (because surely, he was a sweet man, ahem, for always helping her).
"Not at all," XFF replied. "Perhaps what is bitter to others is sweet to me and vice versa." (She was saying he wasn't sweet at all and maybe she liked bitter tea to his sweet.)
Duke Su got the meaning and countered, "So what is bitter to you? (If that sweet tea was bitter to you, then what do you find bitter about the sweetness?)" It's very roundabout, I know. But I think the Duke was saying, "you're finding the sweetest of the tea bitter, so what is so bitter about it? You had just won a competition and a bet, besides all the other wins against your stepmonster and stepsister. Surely this was a sweet moment."
XFF replied, "Struggles, love, hate, affection, hate are very bitter things."
Duke Su ignore the negative stuff and focused on "Love and affection. You find those feelings bitter?"
XFF countered, "Did you invite me to watch the play just so you could talk to me about love and emotions?" (This was getting closer to what XH wanted but maybe wasn't quite ready to admit).
"Can't I?"
"Nope."
Clearly Duke Su here was attempting to flirt but XFF wasn't having any of it.
He turned away, "Watch the show then."

*********
XFF got injured by the assassin after the play. At this point she already knew she was just a pawn to put the bad guys at ease so they would attack. Yet, you and I saw what happened--she actually shielded Su Guo Gong and got cut by the sword. He hugged her close like a lover and she lay her head on his chest like someone who needed his love and affection. Cue their music coming on.

HERE IS WHERE I THINK THE MISSING DIALOGUE WERE EDITED OUT.

The next scene, he was putting medicine on her and they were sparring again (so it was very sudden to me). She brought back their initial squabble, that she owed it to him that she was back at the Capital. She wanted to make sure applying medicine wouldn't be counted as a favor, since she was trying to return the favors to END THEIR RELATIONSHIP.

She made it clear: You used me tonight. I'm not mad. I'm glad to be a pawn for Duke Su (so we could be even and be done with this cat and mouse game).

Duke Su did not like that at all. First, I think he was a bit taken aback that XFF would rush to protect him and thus got injured on his behalf. Second, he got called out for using her as a pawn, which was true, but he also liked her LOL. He enjoyed being with her but here she was talking about favors from him being a burden.

Which was true, right? He was downright pissed by now because his play wasn't going the way he wanted. And that was why he didn't have the patience to "act" with the assassin. He was just going to make a deal and if she refused it, his boys could cut her face up (His boys were confused here because he was acting out of character).

I think Duke Su didn't like seeing his girl get hurt. He was torn about using her as a pawn at this point. He couldn't put a finger on the reason, even when the Emperor asked. Xue Fang Fei knew. The sweetest tea (love) could be dangerous and bitter. Better not (at this point).

Having been rejected. Duke Su didn't want to hear anything about XFF's plans from his Ji boys. So he punished our favorite Ji with lashings. Duke Su was pouting :).

It's OK, Xiao Heng. Next episode XFF had to come face to face with her jealousy at seeing him at the brothel, LOL.

I hope my attempt made sense!

 LilyFireFly:

Thank you so much for this thread. I just finished the series and I thought their love story was one of the sweetest I’ve ever seen in awhile. I’m going to watch again with new lenses now. I’m annoyed that I have to read the subtitles. I’m certain that I miss critical nuances when I cannot observe the delivery of the lines directly from the actors. 

You’re very welcome!

 MarkWasHere:

I also loved the following scene where Xue Fang Fei is wearing Count Su's cloak as they both roast chickens and engage in some more banter. I really liked Count Su's warning and confession "You have nothing to lose. But it may not be the same for me." Again, Xue Fang Fei's smile said everything that was needed.

Hi, so sorry it took me a few days...I was caught up in a hurricane, LOL. This is my first time with Internet. Goodness, the days were long without it!

Yes, this is one of my favorite Duke Su/XFF scenes too. Here, she went from from hanky, cloak, underwear to FULL ON all his clothes, LOLOLOL. This drama made me laugh so hard because the humor was so understatedly sly.

My other favorite scene is when Duke was "imprisoned" in his house for a few days and he was undressed, with all his hair down, and XFF came visiting. She was once a married woman, so didn't even bat an eye at his state of undress and he didn't even care. And what was he doing when they were bantering? Sharpening his knife, LOLOLOL. Again, that cracked me up.

So happy you made it here on the other discussion topics!