The Double- Novel and Drama Comparison

The Double, the Chinese drama starring Wu Jin Yan and Wang Xing Yue is currently airing on Viki and Netflix. I have to admit that while I like the drama overall, I am pretty disappointed at the drama from the novel adaptation perspective. Right off the bat, the drama had to make one critical (albeit probably necessary due to government policies) change to the story that then forced the drama to make a series of later changes to the novel’s storyline in order for the drama to make sense. In the novel, after our heroine was killed, she regained consciousness in the body of Jiang Li, the daughter of the Jiang family. Upon finding out that her betrothal had been taken by her young sister, the real Miss Jiang Li threw herself into a pond to commit suicid. After being fished out of the water, Miss Jiang Li became sicker and sicker until one day our heroine woke up to find herself in Miss Jiang Li’s body.

This meant our heroine never had to fear anyone finding out that she was not Jiang Li because unless she herself admits it, no one can prove that she is not Jiang Li herself…since she really was in Jiang Li’s body after all. This of course also meant none of her enemies could tell that she had any connection to her real identity as Xue Fang Fei which made the whole revenge process that much more of a cat-and-mouse game, and our heroine was a very formidable cat in the novel. One other reason I preferred this setup was that it allowed our hero to slowly get to know our heroine and piece things together a step at a time instead of becoming suspicious of our heroine’s real identity at first glance…it really kinda took away the one big tension that was between our two leads in the novel.

The one thing I am pretty excited about the drama adaptation is seeing how our two leads’ romance will develop. In the novel, our hero, Duke Su is much colder and…kinda has a crazy unpredictable personality. For quite a long time, our heroine’s interaction with our hero was more like walking on the edge of a blade whenever she interacted with him. I am getting the feeling that the drama will set the ball rolling much earlier than the novel when it comes to our two leads’ romance so I am looking forward to that.

The rest of this novel and drama comparison will be written in a bullet list form without sticking too much to the order of the episodes. Post a question if there is a particular character or scene you are curious about and I’ll try my best to answer.

• In the novel, our heroine was actually killed personally by the Princess after she gleefully told our heroine how her father and brother’s death were also her doing. Therefore, our heroine knew all along who her real enemy was once she woke up as Jiang Li.
• I am pretty intrigued to see where the drama is going with the princess character. In the novel, the princess is also shameless, arrogant, and evil but she is nowhere as crazy as she is in the drama. In the book, the princess was completely in love with Shen Yu Rong and was often manipulated by him so the whole thing of frequently making Shen Yu Rong kneel was not in the novel.
• Shu Yu Rong was also nowhere as eaten up by guilt over his wife’s death in the novel. Shu Yu Rong did lament over his wife’s death but he was also very firm on his belief that his wife’s death was a necessary sacrifice for his future.
• In the novel, Tong Er had no clue that her master had died and had been replaced by our heroine so her character was simply a loyal maid throughout the whole story. Tong Er did notice her master had undergone some drastic personality changes but since she wasn’t one to put too much thought into things, Tong Er simply put it off as the shock of the suicide.
• Situ Jiu Yue- our hero’s doctor/poison expert was a very cold and aloof person in the novel due to her family background and the things she went through at a young age so she had no romantic interest in our hero at all.

6/30/24 To be continued… I will try to add some favorite scenes next time including our two leads’ first meeting at the temple Jiang Li was exiled to.

Reader Question 1: Who is the second male lead? In the drama it seemed that it was her cousin (Ye Shijie) but it really went nowhere. How is it in the book?

Answer: The cousin is probably the closest we got for a male second lead and it pretty much went nowhere in the novel as well. Our hero was so formidable in the novel that the cousin or any other man for that matter, would be a fool to compete against him…and our heroine’s cousin is no fool. One other important thing to note is that in the novel our heroine was not interested in romance at all for like 2/3 of the story. While there was always an undercurrent of danger/attraction between our two leads from their very first meeting, our two leads were both too emotionally scarred to be interested in romantic love. Knowing full well how difficult it would be to take her enemies down, our heroine for the longest time did not care at all if she lived as long as she could live long enough to avenge her family so certainly not in the frame of mind to waste time on romantic matters. Just like in the drama, our heroine was certainly aware of her cousin’s interest in her but was able to make her disinterest known in a kind way. 

• In Episode 13 where Jiang Yu’e ended up in bed with her older sister’s fiancé, in the novel, Shen Yu Rong’s sister decided to take advantage of the situation and claim that Zhou Yan Bang (the fiancé) had also made inappropriate advances towards her that night in order to get him to marry her. Shen Yu Rong had a crush on Zhou Yan Bang and knew if a scandal were to break out, Zhou Yan Bang would only have to take Jiang Yu’e as a concubine but he would be forced to make her his wife due to the fact that her brother was an important court official. And that’s how Zhou Yan Bang woke up to find himself marrying TWO women. 
• Favorite Scenes 1: Our two leads’ first meeting was a little bit different in the novel. Instead of barging into the temple to arrest someone, our hero was actually sitting on a tree and watching with great interest as our heroine single-handedly brought down the head nun AND set up her path of returning to Jiang family. Upon seeing our hero, Tong Er was stunned and thought she had seen a fairy because the Duke is supposedly stunningly beautiful. Our heroine recognized Duke Su right away from the 2-3 encounters they had with each other in her previous life. While our heroine was still Xue Fang Fe and had the fame of being the most beautiful woman in the capital, our hero had seen her on the street one day. When asked by his friend what he thought of the capital’s most beautiful woman, Duke Su said “Beautiful on the outside, boring on the inside.” Upon hearing rumors of what Duke Su had supposedly said of her, instead of being angry, our heroine actually secretly agreed with him since by that time, her married life had already buried her once vibrant personality. This memory of our heroine intrigued me since it gave us a clue that even while she was being deceived by her husband, she already knew deep down that being married to him meant she had to smother her true self. 
• Favorite scene 2: This is a short exchange between Duke Su and a friend of his. 

Duke Su: “Shen Yu Rong is highly favored by the emperor. Jiang Yuan Bei and Minister Yo will be competing to get him into their camps. But,” His lips curved, “He must not be recruited by the Jiang clan.” 

“Got it.” The friend understood, “Life is going to get difficult for Jiang Clan later on.”

“Pitiful.” Duke Su let out a soft sigh, causing his friend’s skin to immediately crawl with fright. He knows this guy across from him will never truly pity anyone. In fact, anyone who can be called pitiful by him will for sure meet a very pitiful end. Perhaps feeling bad for Jiang family’s future, when the friend once again looked at the figure standing down on the street, he felt a little sigh in his heart. He said, “Say, this Second Lady of Jiang family has such an innocent appearance, perhaps that whole thing of attempting to kill her mother and her brother might just very well be a misunderstanding. Perhaps she didn’t do it at all.”

“No.” Much to the friend’s surprise, Duke Su answered. He said: Based on this lady’s look, it is entirely possible that she would do something like killing her mother and brother.”

His friend rolled his eyes and stopped talking.

• The academy competition was in the novel but our heroine did not hurt her wrist nor did she need our hero’s help to get Situ Jiu Yue to heal her. 

7/1/24

• Episode 14-15 In the novel, our hero was an extremely good fighter- the kind that pretty much can kill a lot of people in a few seconds with his very innocent-looking fan. From the beginning to the end of the novel, other than one time when he had to battle the big baddie that caused his parents’ death, our hero hardly broke a sweat whenever he fought. Therefore, in episode 14 during the assassination attempt on his life, all the assassins were killed in the blink of an eye and of course, our heroine was not hurt at all. In episode 15, as far as I remember, the Wu Lan character in the brothel who ended up fighting with our hero was not in the novel. Another minor difference is that while the lady in the brothel our heroine met with did love her brother, our heroine’s brother wasn’t romantically interested in her in the novel.
• Episode 16- this whole episode was not in the novel. It would actually be out of character for our heroine to participate in a drinking gamble. In the novel, due to the fact that she was tricked by her best friend into drinking a drugged wine, our heroine woke up lying next to a complete stranger and falsely accused as a shameless woman who cheated on her ever so “faithful and devoted husband”. Ever since that traumatic experience, our heroine developed an aversion to consuming alcohol because it reminded her of her past and all the feelings associated with it.
• Episode 18. Sigh, I don’t know why this drama is so insistent on killing off so many characters. If you liked the brothel lady then you would be glad to know that she was alive and well in the novel. That whole part of her getting beaten up was not in the novel as well. In fact, one gets the feeling that as a very popular courtesan, she knew quite a few powerful people and was pretty satisfied with her life…albeit still a bit melancholy when she remembers that dazzling young man she kept deep down in her heart. Oh, the box that contained a map from our heroine’s brother was also not in the novel.
• Episode 19. In the novel, our heroine used to play with her brother in the maze-like abandoned mine map so she was able to easily lead her uncle’s men into the mine to rescue her father’s old guards so no map was needed in the story. The letter the evil magistrate sent actually went to the princess in the novel who upon hearing Jiang Li was asking about Xue Fang Fei’s father promptly told the magistrate to kill our heroine.
• It doesn’t seem like our heroine could fight in the drama but in the novel she was pretty good when it came to archery, riding, and self-defense since she and her brother had been taught by her father’s men since they were young.
• Episode 20. The old lady, Xue family’s old servant who got fed to the dogs in the drama also did not die in the novel since no one other than our heroine knew she could speak.
• Episode 20. Man, I was so spoiled by our hero’s super-fighting skill in the novel that I find myself cringing in almost every fighting scene. In the novel, once the fan comes out during a fight, throats are slits in seconds and all enemies fall. I know that sounds rather boring but it was actually quite glorious. Duke Su also had a reputation that caused all to fear him so there was no way the evil magistrate would’ve had the guts to threaten him.
• In the novel, our heroine had an agreement with Duke Su that her life belongs to him. Not the flirtatious promise that was in the drama, but a very serious one where our heroine fully expects him to take her life. The agreement was that if Duke Su would help Jiang Li seek her revenge by keeping her alive, then Jiang Li would tell Duke Su everything after she had finished what she had set out to do and he would take her life at that time. Our hero’s character in the novel was nowhere nearly as…um…”normal” or gentle as he was in the drama so our heroine dared not to expect our hero to spare her life. This was also a big reason why our heroine had no interest in romance or told anyone (including her father) her real identity since she was going to die either from failing to get her revenge or die at the hands of Duke Su if she did succeed.
• By episode 20 on, there is definitely a romantic vibe between our leads in the drama but in the novel, our hero was just starting to link Jiang Li to Xue family due to her effort to free her father and neither of our leads was sparing any thoughts on romance. Since our heroine was in Jiang Li’s body, and therefore looked nothing like her old self, no one suspected her real identity and our heroine went all in with a made-up story that she was doing all this to repay a debt to the deceased Xue Fang Fei. It will take our heroine a long time to finally realize she has fallen in love with our hero since she has been living in guilt that her trust in the wrong man was the sole reason her whole family died (before she found out otherwise).
• In the novel, instead of being of help to Duke Su at first, Jiang Li actually inadvertently spoils his plans quite a few times. Questioned by his subordinates if they should get rid of Jiang Li, Duke Su was instead more entertained by the “good shows” orchestrated by our heroine and ended up helping our heroine a few times. Later, Duke Su seriously considered killing Jiang Li when she was keen enough to figure out his true intentions of manipulating the court but that’s when Jiang Li offered the agreement where she would make sure Jiang clan can be of use to Duke Su, that she would eventually tell him everything he desires to know concerning her (remember, unlike in the drama, there is no way for Duke Su to prove her true identity unless she herself admits it) and that he could have her life when she finished her revenge.
• One interesting thing of note is that in the novel our heroine didn’t see herself as attractive enough to be of interest to Duke Su. When she was Xue Fang Fei, our heroine was in possession of great beauty and was used to be the center of attention everywhere she went…pretty much the same reaction Duke Su got due to his looks as well. As Jiang Li, our heroine was pretty enough but was nowhere as stunningly beautiful as when she was Xue Fang Fei. Remembering well that our hero was not impressed with her even when she was Xue Fang Fei, our heroine could not imagine that she would be of interest to Duke Su as Jiang Li, especially since Duke Su has never been too interested in women on the premise that none of them are better looking than himself.
• In the drama, a lot of people were aware of Duke Su and Jiang Li’s close connection but that was not the case in the novel. Whenever Duke Su helped Jiang Li it was almost always behind the scenes so only very few people who were closest to our heroine (ie. her maids, her uncle, her cousin Ye Shijie) were aware that our two leads had any relationship at all.
• Episode 26. Madam Ji’s ex-lover was long dead and remained dead in the novel so he was not the Imperial Diviner. Neither was the Imperial Diviner working for the princess but was working for Concubine Li (Madam Ji’s older sister). Madam Ji went to her older sister for help to get rid of our heroine and that’s when her sister brought the Diviner on board. In the novel, the Imperial Diviner character didn’t actually work in the palace but was a well-respected diviner who was instrumental in “saving” Concubine Li’s life when another concubine tried to kill her through a curse.
• In the novel it wasn’t Jiang Rou Yao who tried to trick our heroine into meeting with Zhou Yan Bang but the other sister, Jiang Yue Er who married Zhou Yan Bang. Jiang Yue Er had written a letter to invite our heroine to visit her at Zhou Manor but our heroine knew right away it must be Zhou Yan Bang’s idea and rejected the invitation. At this point in the story, our heroine was way too busy taking down the big fishes that she really didn’t have time to play games with someone like Zhou Yan Bang.

• Unlike the drama where Rou Yao’s character underwent some changes after our heroine had an honest talk with her, in the novel, Rou Yao’s character never did change. Of course neither did our heroine tried to talk some sense into her either. Rou Yao’s character in the novel was too selfish and too much of a fool to listen even if our heroine had tried.
• Episode 27. I really loved the drama’s ending for Zhou Yan Bang. In the novel, Zhou Yan Bang did beat up Yue Er quite a bit, so I love the fact that in the drama she gets to torture him for the rest of his life.
• In the drama, Jiang Li’s step-mother (Madam Jiang) was friends with Jiang Li’s mother and was later forced by her dad to kill her friend by letting her become more ill. In the novel, Madam Jiang had no prior connection with Jiang Li’s mother before she married Jiang Li’s father. Wanting to avoid the marriage her father had set up for her, young Madam Jiang picked Jiang Li’s father as a good potential marriage candidate and promptly decided to get rid of his wife before she had even approached him.
• Episode 28. You guys should be happy to know that Tong Er did not die in the novel. Tong Er did suffer some injury from trying to protect our heroine later in the story but made a full recovery. In the novel, the diviner was just a very good scammer so he certainly wasn’t a fighter or someone brave enough to try to kill our heroine. Our heroine had a complete victory by pretending to be Minister Jiang’s deceased oldest daughter AND her stepmother’s dead lover. The “dead lover” exposed the fact that Madam Jiang had framed the real Jiang Li as a way to get rid of her dead lover’s baby and the fact that Madam Jiang had also caused Jiang Li’s mother’s death. Like in the drama, our heroine was able to do all this thanks to one of our hero’s subordinates who was extremely talented and skilled in mimicking voices.
• In the novel, our heroine carried a small weapon in her sleeve that can shoot out small arrows so while she was probably still helpless against a group of professional assassins she did have some way to defend herself.
• In the matter of trying to clear Daddy Xue’s name, our heroine was fairly confident that the emperor would not only hear her case but would make a big deal out of it. Ignoring the many voices that tried to convince her otherwise, our heroine knew once the emperor found out the princess had a hand behind Daddy Xue’s case, the emperor would not miss an opportunity to tarnish the princess’ reputation since that would affect Lord Cheng (her brother) as well.
• Episode 29. In the novel, Concubine Li was in no state to worry about her older sister’s fate. With the diviner proved to be a scammer, it also meant Concubine Li’s previous “near death” experience years ago that resulted in the death of another emperor’s beloved concubine was just an elaborate scam set up by Concubine Li and the diviner. In one shot, our heroine not only brought down Madam Jiang but Concubine Li as well.
• Madam Jiang died by Jiang Li’s grandmother’s order. The grandmother was also the one that told Jiang Li to go visit Madam Jiang so she could say all she wanted to say. It wasn’t until this point that Madam Jiang finally figured out that Jiang Li was NOT Jiang Li. Hearing her accusation, Jiang Li simply let out a small laugh and said, “Ah, you found out.”
• Episode 29. Duke Su was really the only one the emperor could trust in the novel and the emperor cared a great deal for him, so unlike in the drama where the emperor tried to control our hero, if there was one who was in control of the chess board, it was our hero, not the emperor. Moreover, like I mentioned before, other than those who were closest to our two leads, no one had any clues about our two leads’ connection with one another, including the emperor.
• Our heroine’s maid, Hai Tang, unlike the fearful traumatized character in the drama, she was a very strong character in the novel. Cutting up her face as a way to hide her features, Hai Tang supported herself by selling food on the street, and despite the hopelessness of it, still dreams of one day seeking revenge for her master.
• I really wish the drama didn’t change Jiuyue’s (the doctor) character. She really was a very cool and complex character in the novel. Since Jiuyue had no romantic interest in our hero in the novel, she never left or had any conflict with Duke Su so our heroine’s father and maid was able to get help from her right away. In fact, Hai Tang ended up becoming Jiuyue’s helper while she was living at Duke Su’s manor.
• Episode 30. This whole thing with Shen Yu Rong being the head of the delegation, and Jiang Li trying to get close to him was not in the novel at all. In the drama, Jiuyue was attacked and ended up unconscious. In the novel that would not have happened since no one could get close to her if she didn’t allow it. As a little girl, Jiuyue had killed a lot of people who had killed her family and were out to kill her so by this point in her life, she was so skilled in poison that most fighters would be pretty useless against her poison. Oh, Jiuyue also wasn’t a princess in the novel. (Oops, I double-checked on that and Jiuyue WAS a princess in the novel. I believe her parents were killed by her uncle.)
• Episode 32. In the drama, Jiang Li targeted Shen Yu Rong quite a bit but in the novel, she really didn’t waste too much energy on him. Our heroine knew that her biggest enemy was the princess and without the princess, Shen Yu Rong would be nothing so her focus was always on the princess.
• In the novel, Lord Cheng was only a minor villain to draw out the big villain boss but the drama must have decided it would be much easier to just get rid of the big boss altogether. Since the drama had changed the last part of the novel completely, I am going to stop this post here and finish up with another post going over the novel’s ending.

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