There are plenty of reason why jealousy or envy is one of the seven deadly sins. It’s insidious. It begins with a thought and the thought becomes a seed that sprouts covetousness. One thing leads to another, the result is corruption, mayhem and death. It’s become a staple of C dramas, the animating cry of villains, lamenting that they are victims of a cosmic conspiracy.
Everywhere they go, the leads Fu Tingyun and Zhao Ling are met with envy. On the surface it seems irrational. People who are not doing too badly in life (in fact doing better than most) develop the notion that life is unfair because some newcomer has come along and become a stumbling block to their goals. In their construction of events, they are the victims so it justifies the underhanded schemes and bullying that comes later. It’s far easier to live with one’s prickly conscience if the blame can be laid elsewhere. Consider Fan Yake, the former best friend and now wife of Yu Jinxiu. In her eagerness to rise above her station, she goes against her principles and schemes against her own friend. The kindness of her friend is perceived as condescension in the most negative sense of the word. Regardless of what her friend’s intentions are, all the good that her friend has done is just showing off, to make her feel her place. She succumbs to the tongue wagging of the gossipers. Perhaps all that merely serves to unveil the resentment that’s already brewing under the guise of friendship.
The show’s protagonists, on the other hand, understand that the world at large is a harsh place with competing agendas that need to be navigated with tact and tactics. In a real enough way, the world will never be the utopia that many have tried to establish over the centuries because the problem lies much closer to home. They understand that the cost of freedom or independence means taking responsibility for one’s decisions. That also means careful thought every step of the way while strategizing meticulously on the road to success.
After a meeting with the highest in the land, Tingyun and Zhao Ling make their way to Ganlin Town and immediately it’s clear who their latest opponents are. An unscrupulous malcontented siblings who can’t understand why they’re not getting their way. Add to the mix the intractable problem of the vengeful Madam Zuo and the challenges are many. The spectre of the past continues to haunt them. As if that’s not enough, Yu Jinxu slums it in Ganlin wanting to make his mark. One would’ve thought that a young man with so much going for him and handed to him on a silver platter, that he would logically be free from envy. But apparently not. When he gets up closer and more personal with Tingyun, he soon realises what he’s missed out. His puerile rebellion against his far more shrewd mother, has come back to bite… rather painfully. He is now suffering the birth pangs of regret. Yu Jinxiu is a new kind of popular type of “second” male lead in C dramas that embodies regret. A man who could have everything including a one-in-a-million wife who matches him in status, ideals and intellect but loses it all on a whim. In a real enough way he handed a golden opportunity that was his for the taking over to Zhao Ling. This type is the subject of many micro dramas especially rebirth ones. Once the female leads switches her attention to another — always a better man in some fashion, he loses his bearings entirely because he no longer has a place in her world.
One wonders if the show is making a dig about a man who had too much education losing to a former thief with common sense. If so, I happily concur. Jinxiu is educated with principles with none of the wisdom to apply them. Worse still, it appears that he has learnt the wrong lessons from this episode of his life. Truth be told, Zhao Ling is no saint but he has a goodness that is untouched by a life of hardship and crime. He is loyal to a fault and kind to his men which in turn reaps dividends. He would rather do things the harder way than compromise his core principles. For instance he wants to marry Tingyun of course. However it has to be done rightly, according to her the respect she deserves. He understands that a woman of her milieu could have done better for herself and he needs to be worthy of her — in status, capability and to able to gain her affection for life. He desperately wants to protect her. That’s why he persists in asking if she loves him. He can’t hold on to her if she doesn’t want to hold on to him. A man who loves a woman wants the best for her even if he has to make himself the best.