the alternate timeline (novel ver.) was so good i actually got sad they didn't stick to it. here's my favorite parts aka almost the whole thing, for u who doesn't have time to read the novel:
the main thing at the start of the alternate timeline was around wei yan's choices! which makes sense because everything ultimately happened because he made certain decisions in the past. but basically he woke up in the past with a memory of the events we saw in the drama/novel.
i'm actually obsessed with how quickly he locked in. the moment he realized that the woman he loved standing in front of him wasn't a dream and that he was back in the past, he immediately became really productive and brought an army to save another troop (led by the qi family) that essentially got ambushed.
he also immediately asked the woman, qi rong yin, to marry him! it's so !!!! i felt the buzz this is exactly what someone who has a lot of regrets and dwelled in the past a lot would do the moment they're given the chance to go back
wei yan, xie linshan (xie zheng's father), and qi xianhun (brother of qi rong yin, not actually sure what his position is (general???) but he's in the qi family) having a meeting in a brothel so that no one listens in on their plans only for their significant others to hear about it and give them all the cold shoulder for a few days. i laughed so much here
wei qilin, a trusted general in the wei family, expressed intent to marry the meng general's daughter (as in marry into their household from what i understand) and wei yan approved knowingly aww another changyu x xie zheng shipper
[this] + baby changyu having insane strength that even little xie zheng was like ????
bully #1 lying that he was being bullied by someone who says they're connected to the xie family, so xie zheng went to sort it out before his father could hear about it. only to find that it was changyu who hit the boy and she hit him because he was bullying her in the first place.
changyu then blackmailing xie zheng into re-doing her homework and buying her food unless he wants her to tell his father that he was helping a bully
changyu saying the ponytail he did for her was ugly and that her father was good at it before xie zheng said well i dont have any daughters why would i be good at this??? and changyu being all youre right youre right
the number of times xie zheng pinched changyu's cheeks: more than once i forgot to count but it happened multiple times
bully #2 story was real bad bullying, i'm sorry changyu had to go through that. but xie zheng did end up beating him up, stripping him down, and throwing him to the streets even though that bully was a PRINCE
changyu btw deals with bullies herself and i love her. she also knows to go to someone for help when she needs it. precious precious one
unfortunately xie zheng does get punished and whipped in the timeline as well but at least its just 10 times and changyu skipped class to make sure he was okay 🥲
xie zheng telling his mother to stop referring to changyu as his future wife because she's just like a sister —> changyu overhearing this and making xie zheng promise to be her brother for life —> after a few years he gets internally pissed off whenever she refers to him as her brother HE'S THE FUNNIEST MAN EVER
they spend time apart because xie zheng decides to join his father in war, and changyu has to stay and study :/ but he writes her letters and xie zheng sends her gifts im so !!!
WORST TIMING when xie zheng comes back changyu was at a socializing event (aka where you find potential partners because people of this time get married young its wild) and within minutes of reuniting with changyu they run into li huaian WHO OBVS has a crush on changyu and changyu says oh ! this is xie zheng, my brother :D
i cannot deal with how frustrated he feels like he just came back from war and changyu is out there looking for a match??? at an event full of scholars???? plus she's acting awkward as if they aren't close anymore (reasonable since its been years but its killing him honestly)????? they spend the carriage ride back to her place with changyu worried about how awkward it was meanwhile xie zheng is just drowning in jealousy the first thing he says is who tf was that ???
changyu calls him brother 5 times during their reunion and he's losing his temper i'm—
there is a moment that wei yan realizes that at that age he sees xie zheng, his nephew has already turned against him in the original timeline, but in this timeline, because wei yan made better decisions, he still has his trust and i love it so much
qi min was just shown as a potential next king here, which i think was better? he also seemed more stable lol. i just don't think qianqian should have been the focus of his alternate timeline story, but i guess they thought it would feel incomplete because that was one of his main focuses in the drama (btw qianqian isn't in this alt story and that's my complaint!)
xie zheng for some reason shows up at changyu's archery class to be the temporary teacher and everyone thinks he's handsome but he's so strict and oh no poor changyu he seems so mean to her. then we go to changyu and xie zheng and changyu said she just got distracted for that one shot she missed because she was thinking of him and he gETS MAD HAHAHA she was honestly thinking of why he was even there but he misinterpreted and said "Stop indulging in wild fantasies!" HAHAHAHAHA what an idiot
he finds out she's been kinda getting close to li huaian because he lets her copy his homework so he gets mad and decides to tutor her instead because it's not right to just copy the work but truthfully he feels so pissed when he thinks of li huaian let me share an excerpt
because xie zheng doesnt like sweet food, changyu eats the fruits she has instead and xie zheng is sooo fixated they have that cliche moment of you have something on your face and he goes to wipe it off for her and he said,,,, his heart pounded,,,,,like war drums,,,,,,like his first time on the battlefield,,,,,,,,, he's down so bad for her and that's not even mentioning the fact he had a dream immediately after this where instead of wiping changyu's face he kISSED HER INSTEAD
this idiot, upon waking up, decides he needs to keep distance from changyu ! but he ends up coming back to her to see her around li huaian again 😭 because he stopped showing up changyu assumed he was busy or was tired of teaching her and huaian offered to teach her math, which she accepted purely because the next time she sees xie zheng she wants to be proud that she already knew smth but no, he's mad this scholar is around again ahdbejdnkw he said i'll teach u ! stop hanging out with him !
THE FUN PART: Changyu's grandfather who is a general ended up injured so Changyu went to go care for him because her mom has to stay with Ning and Changyu actually knew martial arts. when she leaves xie zheng gives her his token to essentially have control of his personal guards. he says he has something to say to her on her birthday. they part ways. unfortunately the place changyu and her grandfather was at was getting attacked and they had to evacuate so changyu got the personal guards to escort her injured grandfather whILE SHE PUT ON HIS ARMOR AND LED THE DEFENSE INTO BATTLE TO BUY TIME FOR THE EVACUATION
she unfortunately fell down a cliff, into a river, and floated all the way to, you guessed it, lin'an <3
xie zheng spent day and night finding her w pretty much no rest and half a month later he found her at the zhao household being treated. he fainted immediately of exhaustion once he saw her.
excerpt for when he wakes up and finds her because it's so good
she then tells him of a dream that she had where instead of her injured it was him and she was just the daughter of a butcher who found him (awww) and he said if i could take your suffering, i would (AWWWWWWWWW)
she said in the dream he married into her family, and he's like what do u think about????
then he asked????? if li huaian?????? was in her dream????? of course she said yes because she's honest but said that it was only xie zheng who ever taught her which calmed him down
UNFORTUNATELY SHE DID FOLLOW IT UP WITH "In the dream, I had a fiance..." SO XIE ZHENG IMMEDIATELY DEMANDED THAT SHE HAS TO BE BROUGHT BACK HOME SO THEY CAN GET MARRIED 😭 he really said better to act now than risk complications later
the ending was comedic it was changyu dramatically clinging to the windowsill refusing to get married because she wants to go into the battlefield again and be a general
AND THAT'S IT! that's pretty much the whole thing because I had such a fun time reading it but there's bits and pieces i didn't include. i get why people say the alt timeline was a waste now, bec even i was like,,, why didnt they show much of xie zheng and changyu in the alt timeline but ! i guess thats just how it is sometimes 🤷🏽♀️ hope u non-novel readers enjoyedd
