LayarHijau– The First Jasmine, starring Bai Lu and Cheng Lei, has gotten off to a strong start in China. Just two days after its premiere, the drama climbed to the top of Maoyan’s popularity rankings, surpassing Ashes to Crown, led by Chen Duling and Zhou Yiran.
Despite its impressive performance, the series has also sparked controversy among readers of the original novel. Many fans have criticized the adaptation for making major changes to the background of Bai Lu’s character, Ye Li, arguing that it removes one of the story’s defining elements.
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Spoiler warning: The following paragraphs discuss recent plot developments from The First Jasmine.
In the drama, Ye Li marries Mo Xiuyao, the Prince Ding portrayed by Cheng Lei, after receiving an imperial marriage decree from the Empress Dowager. Although the union begins as an arranged marriage, the two gradually develop genuine feelings for each other.
Ye Li believes she owes a debt to the Mo family because of circumstances involving her mother, so she is grateful that Mo Xiuyao agrees to marry her and allows her to leave Lishan Academy. Mo Xiuyao, meanwhile, has long held affection for Ye Li after she helped him years earlier.
The latest episodes reveal that Mo Xiuyao begins to suspect something unusual about his wife. He repeatedly notices Ye Li talking to empty space as if she is carrying on conversations with someone no one else can see.
His suspicions deepen one night when Ye Li’s maid, Qing Shuang, cries out after spotting monkeys. Ye Li grabs a stick and rushes outside to confront what she believes is a large troop of monkeys, drawing the attention of the palace guards. However, after investigating the incident, Mo Xiuyao discovers that there are no monkeys anywhere on the estate.
When he later confirms that monkeys had indeed been present at Lishan Academy in the past, he starts questioning what Ye Li experienced there. The mystery is also tied to the massacre that once struck the academy, leaving viewers eager to learn the truth.
While many audiences have praised the drama’s storytelling, its departures from the source material have become a hot topic online. In the original novel Sheng Shi Di Fei, Ye Li is actually a modern-day special forces operative who travels back in time and relies on her contemporary knowledge and skills to overcome enemies throughout the story.
The television adaptation removes that premise entirely, instead centering the plot on Ye Li and Mo Xiuyao joining forces in their quest for revenge.
The change has disappointed many readers in China. Some fans argued that eliminating Ye Li’s modern-day identity strips away what made her stand out as a heroine. Others complained that it amounts to “a drastic rewrite of the original story,” while some lamented that without the time-travel element, The First Jasmine feels “like just another period romance” rather than the unique tale they loved in the novel.
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