umedrop24 posts
Chapter 68
I'm sharing it as a Google Doc link for now, just in case you aren't up to date with the recent chapters.
2022-09-10 02:14:40 +0000 UTC View PostMeme Collective
Sorry for the long absence, I return with a number of memes (mostly translated from Chinese) that my roommate provided the ideas for, and will have some extra scenes up in the next few days.
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OG Wenyuan: I'm not stupid and I'm not a bad person. I just made a mistake that all men make*.
OG Wenyuan: I died.
*我不笨不坏，我只是犯了所有男人都犯的错/This line, especially "mistake that all men make" is commonly used in Chinese to refer to cheating/havi...
2022-09-09 15:40:14 +0000 UTC View PostDeleted Scene-Hu Qing and Minister Liang
Takes place after Hu Qing's argument with Minister Liang when he was offered legitimization. I removed this scene because it impeded the story flow, but I wanted to go into the family dynamics between Minister Liang and Hu Qing. As Hu Qing's uncle (actually his older brother), Minister Liang has an almost parental affection for Hu Qing, but there's a very strong paternalistic and patronizing tone to it.
Hu Qing: Illegitimate son from the Liang family, recruited by Kayla
Minister L...
2022-08-03 01:28:38 +0000 UTC View PostTwo versions of concept art I made for Wenyuan
More terrible drawings, these two are from awhile ago and represent the relationship between the Grand Duke and the OG Wenyuan. This was back when I was considering making a cover myself before giving up and using a stock photo, I promise the next post will have some actual content other than roughly done pictures.
2022-07-30 01:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Extremely rough sketch of Kayla/Wenyuan
A historically inaccurate hairstyle/outfit, but here's the basic gist of it. If I have more time in the future, I might make a better drawing.
2022-07-25 18:52:34 +0000 UTC View PostExtra Scene: Imperial Investigator Bureau
[Character Index
Li Que: A senior Imperial Investigator, worked with Kayla before.
Chen Jian: A young Imperial Investigator who worked with Kayla before, the older brother of Chen Caichun, Kayla's subordinate.
An Haoyang: A young Imperial Investigator who's connected with Qu Boyong.
Note: This is a scene from the daily life of Imperial Investigators, members of an elite institution that answers directly to the Emperor and is widely feared and respected. ]
Li Que glanced b...
2022-07-02 01:07:58 +0000 UTC View PostUpcoming Arcs
Without spoiling too much, I've been very busy working on extensive outlines and drafts of the upcoming arcs. These are arcs I'm very excited for, and I'm finally going to be getting around to plotlines I've been hinting at since the earliest chapters.
In the upcoming arc immediately after this one, we're going to see:
-A pregnant woman with a huge machete
-The Fifth Prince Yunqi's backyard catches fire (a colloquialism meaning that someone's facing issues within their famil...
2022-06-23 01:38:36 +0000 UTC View PostImperial Court Factions
This is a closer look at the factions in the Imperial Court. Bright yellow is the Emperor's own faction, or at least supposedly part of the Emperor's faction. Light yellow is the neutral faction, which includes the Minister of Public Works, and now also Kayla as the head of the Court of Judicial Review. Light green represents the Grand Duke's faction, which over the course of three generations of Emperors has grown to monopolize the Three Departments and much of the Six Ministries. Howe...
2022-05-30 17:28:46 +0000 UTC View PostNames of the Imperial Princes
For the Emperor, Zhou Yin, as well as the three surviving Imperial Princes, their names are based on Emperors from the Song Dynasty. Zhou Yin, the current Emperor, has the character "胤/Yin" as his given name. This character means "to succeed your forefathers", or "to inherit/to carry on the bloodline", and is taken from the name of the founder of the Song Dynasty, Zhou Kuangyin, posthumously given the title of Emperor Taizong. Meanwhile, the Third Prince's name "匡/Kuang" means "to rectify...
2022-05-18 18:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostImperial Investigation Bureau
The Imperial Investigation Bureau is based on the Censorate/御史台, a high-level supervisory agency in Ancient China that was hated and feared by civil and military officials alike, and it was especially powerful and effective during the Mongol-ruled Yuan Dynasty, as well as in the following Han-ruled Ming Dynasty. I've taken (a lot of) artistic liberties and combined them with the 锦衣卫/Embroidered Uniform Guards, who directly served the Emperor and eventually became an imperial milit...
2022-05-16 18:01:49 +0000 UTC View Post