I’m ready for demons, cultivators, magical objects, inconsistent visual effects, and maybe an awful heavenly emperor. I don’t get it yet though.
Because we start in the real world with a very relatable heroine
She loves Saturday because she doesn’t have to work. This Saturday she’s reading the new novel by her favorite author, Fu Zhuo. But before she can finish it she’s cruelly called into work.
Our girl is the hero we need: she listens to the book at work and home despite a ridiculous deadline. But she’s disappointed by the ending. She starts to comment online, but before she can post it her computer glitches. Then reality.
She’s pulled into an 8-bit side scroller. Her little character dies and falls through the bottom of the screen.
She lands on a bedroom floor, the place decorated in wedding night red. Now dressed in a flowing, historical dress, she screams and runs around. Then she screams at a servant girl who screams back. There are a few clues that she’s in the novel she was reading.
Then, the world freezes. A voice says she’s in a parallel world based on the novel. She’s the viscous supporting actress, Lin Yu. She must complete the main quest and survive until the end by helping to kill the Resentful Woman. There’s also a hidden quest, but it will not be revealed until she completes beginner tasks.
The first one: Marry Liu Fu Yi and consummate the wedding.
She is not interested in finishing this quest and runs outside.
Lightning strikes her down, “The End” comes up, and credits roll
So funny. Our heroine, who I’ll call Lin Yu for now and I’m sure it’ll change, transports back to the bedroom. She tries to leave again, slowly and sneakily, but the lightning gets her.
With no choice but to follow the plot, she changes into the red wedding robes.
Her groom, Fu Yi, is a famous demon hunter. The wedding is a ruse to catch a demon who kills grooms on their wedding nights. They do wedding rituals and a mirror appears behind Lin Yu. Fu Yi acts entranced to lure the demon out for a fight. It turns into broken mirror shards and flies away.
The voice tells Lin Yu that she’s passed the first tutorial. She remembers that in the novel her character tore a protective talisman off the door to the main character’s room. She warns Fu Yi and they run to Mu Yao’s room. All three are dragged into the mirror.
Lin Yu’s character isn’t a demon hunter, the other two are, but she uses knowledge from the book to guide them to the demon. Unfortunately, she’s being held hostage so the demon attacks them.
The sky bursts open and a fireball and rock music fly in
Our male lead has arrived! In the novel, he’s Mu Sheng, the adopted brother of Mu Yao and a secondary character. He’s another demon catcher and uses his flame sword to destroy the mirror world.
He wants to destroy the demon but Fu Yi puts it into a “Demon Trap Tower.” Lin Yu recalls that Mu Sheng marries her character for revenge and treats her horribly. She tries to avoid him, but he makes it clear he’s suspicious about how the demon got to his sister.
The next day she’s still in the game. She remembers that Mu Yao and Mu Sheng are from a long line of demon hunters. Seven years ago the Resentful Woman, Queen of Demons, appeared. She killed the Mu family and disappeared. Our two living Mu’s roamed the world and eventually met with Liu Fu Yi and Lin Yu.
Lin Yu’s servant is terrified of her and she’s surrounded by luxury thanks to her corrupt magistrate father. She finds him and he looks like her real-life father who was hit by a car and died. Right then looks like he’ll get hit by a cart, but at the last moment, he steps back.
She runs and hugs him.
Mu Sheng is not letting Lin Yu off easily
He finds a hair near the torn talisman and checks it against the people in the manor. Sheng, hair analysis is junk science. But this is a fantasy world.
Lin Yu is worried about her character’s weak body and her character’s father’s health too. Concerned about the challenges ahead, she resolves to improve her health and strength.
Sheng comes across her forcing her father to jump rope. He pulls a hair from her but it’s not a match. She saw him investigating and did something to change her hair somehow.
Then he asks about her maid. Lin Yu remembers her character spitefully setting her second maid up to marry an abusive drunk. The maid jumped to her death in a well on her wedding day. Today.
Lin Yu debates saving this fictitious person versus staying focused on the main plot. Deciding on the latter, she immediately changes her mind because she could use the maid to divert Mu Sheng’s suspicions.
She goes running, trips fantastically, and flies towards Mu Sheng.
She thinks he’s going to catch her, he does not
But he’s suspicious about her activities and uses a teleporting spell to chase her. This leaves behind a bracelet, is that important? Anyway, he gets ahead of her and stops the maid from jumping into the well. Lin Yu tells the maid it was a mistake and she can come back. Mu Sheng wonders how she knew the maid was going to die and about his hair-matching quest.
To get him to leave her alone she urges him to go check on his sister. With him gone, she vows not to get in any more trouble. But the game voice tells her to replace Mu Yao’s medications so she gets ill and their journey is delayed.
In the book, Mu Sheng isn’t there when this happens, but when he returns he suspects what she did. This leads to him uncovering her father’s corruption, and everyone dying but her. Lin Yu tries to reassure herself she’s doing the right thing by following instructions and going home.
Then she sees her Dad laughing and being cute outside.
The new plan is to switch the medication with something harmless, satisfying the system but not setting forth the dangerous plot.
But because she told Mu Sheng to care for his sister he’s stuck around. When his sister sips the medication and chokes, Mu Sheng kills Lin Yu.
It’s the first of many deaths
Every time she brings medication, Mu Yao chokes, Mu Sheng kills her, and she’s back in the kitchen. At least the game has nice save points.
Lin Yu tries all different things with the medication, even finding a medical book. She determines Mu Yao is allergic to something but can’t figure out what. Finally, she gives Mu Yao water.
Not really finally, because Mu Yao chokes on water. She realizes something and asks Mu Sheng to kill her. He obliges. It’s not the medications that are the problem, it’s the pot they’re brewed in. Even the original Lin Yu character didn’t realize the pot had been replaced, and the real reason Mu Yao got sick was a metal allergy.
Mu Yao tries the medication from a different pot and makes a face, but it’s just bitter. Mu Sheng is suspicious of Lin Yu’s concern for his sister, but Mu Yao defends her. The game voice tells her she completed task two. She bewilders the siblings by hugging Mu Yao, who reassures her she’s okay.
Outside the room, Fu Yi arrives to give Mu Yao a gift. Mu Sheng tells him she doesn’t need it. We hear talking inside.
And that’s how the episode… ends?
I forgot Chinese drama episodes don’t end so much as abruptly stop.
This show looks great. Our lead actress Yu Shu Xin is like a doll in her elaborate hairdo and make-up. I love how she runs around in her fluttering, colorful layered costume, like a deranged bird. The mirror demon also had great details like the gold makeup on her face.
We launched into the plot as though propelled by a catapult, which is not unusual for Chinese fantasy dramas. We barely get any time in the real world before our lead is in an alternate reality, married, there’s a demon, and I’m lost. I didn’t even realize it was a fake wedding until it was over. Our heroine knew more than me.
But in episode two I caught up. She wants to return to the real world but can’t stick to the plot because she’s affected by the characters. That’s why we watch dramas, right? To be moved by fictional people. I’m looking forward to seeing her change the novel and deal with the repercussions. It was interesting she realized something that wasn’t even in the book, the pot with the heavy metals, and I wonder if that’ll have any broader meaning.
The game dynamics are my favorite part of this type of show, creating a kind of labyrinth for the characters where they have to follow certain rules but still get what they want.
I haven’t even mentioned our Bad Boy male lead. Yes, I am so looking forward to seeing him go from repeatedly killing her to falling for her.
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