The Glory (2025) 雁回时 (贵女）
Summary: As a young girl, Zhuang Han Yan ft Chen Du Ling was left to be raised in the south. But, the environment was abusive and she escaped after 17 years to return to the capital and to the Zhuang Manor. This raises the interest of Fu Yun Xi ft Xin Yun Lai of the Court of Judicature review. Together, they expose the mask of her father’s corrupt deeds while also create a family for themselves.
Platform: Tencent
Episodes: 30
Airing Date: March 18, 2025
Initial Rating 7.3/10 [12 episodes in] – A thrilling and beautifully shot drama where the production and plot are more interesting than the acting ability of the main leads. The more seasoned cast shine in the show that has enough intensity and mystery to keep viewers engaged.
Final Rating: 7.5 – One of those dramas where the plot and mystery were more important draws than the main leads. This drama exceeded expectations and could have been an even bigger hit if the main leads, especially the main male lead was swapped.
Zhuang han yan 庄寒雁 Chen Du Ling 陈都灵
3rd daughter of the Zhuang family. Raised away from family.
Fu Yun Xi 傅云夕 Xin Yun Lai 辛云来
Official in the Justice Department.
Zhuang Yu Shan 庄语山 He Hong Shan 何泓姗
2nd daughter of the Zhuang Family
zhuang shi yang 庄仕洋 yu en tai 喻恩泰
Head of the Zhuang family.
ruan xi wen 阮惜文 wen zheng rong 温峥嵘
Mother to Zhuang Han Yan. Main wife to Zhuang Shi Yang
Zhou Ru Yin 周如音 Wang Yan 王艳
Mistress to Zhuang Shi Yang. Mother to Yu Chi and Yu Shan
zhuang yu zhi 庄语迟 liu xu wei 刘旭威
4th son of the Zhuang Family
chai jing 柴靖 ft fu jing 傅菁
Close friend of Zhuang Han Yan
Plot Summary
Zhuang Han Yan ft Chen Du Ling grew up away from home in Dan Zhou. Raised by an abusive couple, she had no choice but to escape after 17 years. She returns back to the capital and to the Zhuang manor where she is the 3rd daughter, and daughter of the main wife in the Zhuang household. However, she is not welcomed back with open arms. Her mother hates her and tries to expel her from the manor and the mistress of the house plus her children add more troubles to Zhuang Han Yan’s return. She has to fight tooth and nail to survive in her new environment.
Meanwhile, her sob story of how her caretakers (an uncle and aunt) died raises suspicions from Fu Yun Xi ft Xin Yun Lai, a member of the Court of Judicature Review. However, he does not expose her and instead helps her in various situations. He has his own cases he is trying to solve. Clues point to something happening in the Zhuang manor and he needs Zhuang Han Yan’s help.
Initial Thoughts
This drama came out of nowhere. There was no marketing for it, no preplanning, it just randomly dropped one day out of the blue. Not only that, but the Chinese name of the drama also literally changed the day of the drama airing. It was originally called Gui Nv but then changed to be called Yan Hui Shi. Funnily enough, the day the drama aired, almost ALL of the trending tags were still tagging Gui Nv (the original name).
BUT, it has done surprisingly well since. On Tencent, it’s already breached 28,000 on its popularity index, just a few days after airing. It is also top of many charts for what people are watching. That’s quite the achievement for a show that randomly aired. Often times dramas and cast members will try to market a show before airing to help boost numbers.
Clearly, a good story will be rewarded with eyeballs. The main male lead and female lead aren’t A-list stars, or even B-list. The main male lead in particular, hasn’t been in many roles and is basically an unknown. Chen Du Ling definitely has more popularity but both aren’t going to be main key drivers of bringing audiences to this show. Instead, this show’s engaging plot and beautiful aesthetic are really doing most of the work.
What I'm Enjoying
Fast paced story and some subverted tropes: The show ultimately is about Han Yan returning to the Capital to take her rightful place as daughter of the Zhuang Family. She returns to this unknown world but has to learn how to navigate it. Interestingly, her birth mother is exceptionally cruel to her which she cannot understand. That was quite unexpected and left me wanting to know more about why that is.
Similarly, I appreciated that Fu Yun Xi immediately was skeptical of the sob story that Han Yan gave him about how her abusive caretakers were killed. For several episodes, she had that threat hanging over her head that he would find out the truth which added to the suspense.
Of course, it’s always a treat to see the main character defend herself against the threat of the family and figure out ways to come out on top. She has to learn some valuable lessons along the way that are often quite painful.
Beautiful scenery: Snow has been prevalent throughout the first 12 episodes of the drama and it’s such a gorgeous view. It adds another level of beauty to the show which differentiates it from many other dramas that often will show the beauty of spring and summer with flowers in full bloom.
Wang Yan is an actress everyone knows from her role as Princess Qing’er in the classic Pearl Princess. It’s been a treat to see her back on the small screen in a more expanded role. She’s using her own voice and it was quite welcome to hear her iconic voice that hasn’t changed much from all those years ago. It’s clear and crisp which then adds to fun when she is not as prim and proper as we would remember Princess Qing’er to be. I would like to think she’s having fun in this type of role.
Wen Zheng Rong: I was at first a little conflicted. I felt like she overacted at the end of episode 1 into episode 2 for how harsh and yes, crazy, she seemed to her own daughter. Her screams really didn’t do it for me. Potentially it’s because she put so much emotion into that scene while Chen Du Ling was the complete opposite so it was a jarring contrast. But, her subsequent scenes were quite engaging. She is the center of attention the moment she enters the room and that to me, shows how you command an audience with your acting.
What's Not Working
Chen Du Ling and Xing Yun Lai’s acting leading to lack of chemistry: I will say, the main female lead and male lead’s acting are probably the weakest part of the show. They have little chemistry with each other and both in my opinion are quite wooden.
For Chen Du Ling, I can tell she WANTS to portray are harsher character, someone that can scheme more but her gaze and eyes are often empty. She is unable to convey more sinister thoughts, primarily through her eyes. Contrast her with how the two more seasoned actresses act. Wang Yan as the Mistress and Wen Zheng Rong as the Madame of the house both have better mastery of their acting abilities. For Wen Zheng Rong, you can tell the instances where she’s more vulnerable vs when she’s exceptionally harsh primarily through her eyes. But also, her face tenses, her jaw clenches, her lips purse in the latter scenes even when she does not move. We don’t see that level of depth from Chen Du Ling
For Xing Yun Lai, he’s probably even worse. His gaze is similarly empty and he often will just stand there to give his lines. The level of intensity that we see from other actors in similar roles are simply not there. Because of this, the sexual chemistry between the two is severely lacking. When Han Yan undresses to offer herself to Fu Yun Xi, one would expect there to be serious sexual tension. But somehow, these two manage to make it just…awkward. He is unable to bring that intense gaze forward to show a potential threat to her and we also don’t see that intensity shift. Instead, he goes through the motions and I kind of got second hand embarrassment from watching it. This could have been SUCH a good scene but it just didn’t land.
Voice dub doing most of the work: For these two, it is painfully evident that their voice dubs are elevating their acting abilities. Their voices often times have more emotion than what we see on screen, particularly from Xin Yun Lai.
Final Thoughts - SPOILERS AHEAD
This drama breached 30,000 on Tencent’s popularity index. A rare feat and I think the 2nd drama only this year to do so. This is even more impressive if you think about how the name of this drama was changed last minute and it just randomly dropped with barely any marketing.
Chen Du Ling finally has a hit on her hands where she is the main lead. The story really was the key driver here. The mystery of why Zhuang Han Yan was left to grow up away from home, the mystery of what happened to her mother, the mystery of who is the adoptive son of the Eunuch Pei. All of those story threads wove together an intriguing and heart pumping story of growth and independence.
What has been rather hilarious is that every day, there were a myriad of different hypotheses online where viewers would try to piece together what they think is going to happen next. There were wild theories out there that were pretty baseless. Some of those included 1) Pei Yun Xi’s first wife was actually Zhuang Han Yan but she was reborn somehow and 2) Zhuang Yu Chi didn’t actually die and would come back as some swordsman, 3) Zhuang Han Yan’s aunt and uncle that raised her were actually good people, 4) the ending is open ended. Because Cathy and I have been traveling, I haven’t had that much time to keep up with the fan theories but I have been pleased to see that most of those fan theories were just that, fan theories. Barely any of them panned out. That made me chuckle. The one on the aunt and uncle had some scenes that never aired that showed a “happy environment” so maybe that’s not entirely baseless, but still, those scenes never showed up in the 30 episodes of the drama.
I truly believe that the production and story could have made this drama an even bigger hit if the main leads, especially the main male lead was swapped. See my full rant below.
What I liked
The Main Villain – Zhuang Shi Yang as the main villain was really quite masterful. He is not like many other villains we’ve seen of late who are power hungry and emanate an aura of leadership. Instead, we see a cowardly man who does anything and everything in order to stay alive but in the most twisted sense. His outward presence is someone who is quite weak and he deludes himself into thinking that he is always the victim. His final conversation with Zhuang Han Yan expresses this quite perfectly. He blames the fate for his actions. Everything he did was because of fate, and he is just someone flowing in the river of life. He doesn’t blame himself one iota for all of the horrible actions for what he did. He didn’t need to kill his father or Ruan Xi Wen, his first wife but he did so for his own selfish reasons.
His double standards are to the extreme. He screams how Zhou Ru Yin could want to kill her husband when he himself did worse. He screams at his daughter to think of her father and save her father when he himself had no qualms pushing them to their hells. He was a rather refreshing villain, one that shows the weakness of humans. How cowardice and selfishness are powerful motivators for people to do the most horrible deeds.
A commentary on the shackles on women – Zhuang Han Yan save several women from the confines of societal expectations on them. She urges her mother to separate from her monster of a husband, she helps a young woman escape an abusive marriage, she helps a widow find true love. In the end, she also finds the opportunity to forgive several women and work with them instead of decide to destroy them for having wronged her. In other dramas, you could think she is a Mary Sue, being too nice to everyone and forgiving people freely. But in Zhuang Han Yan’s case, she understands full well that many of these women fight her because of their shackles in a patriarchal society.
Zhou Ru Yin never thought of love and knew her husband didn’t “love” her but she was told and then taught her children that her husband was the only person that could change their life at home.
Royal Consort Miao’s friendship with Ruan Xi Wen was probably one of the most powerful relationships in the show. Though Royal Consort Miao outwardly showed anger and disdain towards Ruan Xi Wen and Zhuang Han Yan, she truly understood Ruan Xi Wen and the suffering the both of them endured due to their respective marriages.
The other true villain of this drama, is the patriarchal society and the restrictions they place on women. Not each other.
Seasoned actors acting: The characters of Zhuang Shi Yang, Ruan Xi Wen, Zhou Ru Yin and Noble Consort Miao were so much more interesting and powerful actors in the show. They really stole every scene they were in and showed depth and nuance in the various scenes they were in.
Rant
Chen Du Ling: I find her quite beautiful and as I’ve said above, she REALLY tries in this show. BUT, pay attention to her eyebrows. She RARELY moves the top part of her forehead. What that means is that when she’s stressed, when she’s happy, when she’s sad, only her eyes move, and maybe her mouth. But her eyebrows and her forehead does not. Either it’s because it’s frozen from (and this is totally made up) botox or something, or she truly doesn’t know how to use her entire facial features, many of the emotions that SHOULD come through, just DO NOT. There’s so much more that should have come through in this character, but Chen Du Ling’s facial features just do not give it.
Xin Yun Lai: I will CONTINUE to rant about his absolutely awful performance here. He has utterly NO range and was basically a wooden block the entire time. This drama COULD have made him a star but because he was so wooden, reception to him was more tepid. Many viewers saw through his unnatural movements. God, can you imagine if Wang Xing Yue was in this role? That would have propelled him to even bigger stardom. There is so much sexual tension, longing and intensity that was literally written and filmed for many scenes but because Xin Yun Lai was so wooden, none of that came through.
This could have been SUCH a massive hit if it wasn’t Xin Yun Lai in the main male lead role. I will be forever upset about this show because of it. I would have given this show an 8 if it wasn’t for him.