Legend of the Female General- Drama Novel Comparison

These drama novel comparison posts are not meant to be comprehensive so it will mostly be comprised of the differences between the two that caught my attention.

• In the novel, our heroine was married off after her cousin took his name back and started to present himself to the world as General Feihong. Our heroine’s new groom presented himself as a gentle caring husband but in reality, he and his family was in cahoots with the He family (heroine’s family). A short time after our heroine’s marriage, she was overcome with a mysterious illness that caused her to go blind. Dismayed that even robbing her of her sight could not prevent our heroine from practicing her martial arts and live her life the best as she could, our heroine’s family and husband decides to kill her. Shocked yet somehow not too surprised when her husband’s concubine gleefully informed her that her family was the one who sent the poison that caused her blindness, our heroine was then murdered by having her head forcefully pushed into the pond. (Her maid had poisoned her right before the confrontation so despite her best ability to fight off a group of men, our heroine was eventually over powered. Her manner of death would cause our heroine to gain a fear of large bodies of water.)
• When our heroine came to, she found herself in the body of He Yan, the only daughter of a lowly official. As a widower, Daddy He dots on his daughter who is quite spoiled and demands all of the family money to be spent on her clothes and cosmetics. Thanks to Miss He’s spending habits, the He family is very poor and her young brother has no choice but to spend his days taking care of the household chores and find ways to make what little money he could. Miss He had dreamed of marrying into a noble household but her dream was dashed when the playboy who had been toying with her ended up marrying someone else. Devested, Miss He went on a hungry strike and…must have done a thoroughly enough job that eventually allowed our heroine to end up in her body.
• Utterly stunned by how fragile the new body she found herself in, our heroine’s first order of business was to train her body systematically. Knowing she will eventually leave the He household to find a way to avenge herself for the injustice she suffered, our heroine wanted to make sure the He household would at least have sufficient money to send He Yan’s little brother to school. Figuring gambling was the fastest way to make a large sum of money, our heroine was able to achieve her goal thanks to the ability to discern the placement of the dices she had trained herself to do when she was blind.
• Our heroine’s chance to leave the He household came abruptly and unexpectedly. The playboy Miss He had been involved with had a renewed interest in He Yan and after being rebuffed by our heroine a few times, decided to use force. Our heroine, her brother, and the playboy ended up in an enclosed boat. During the struggle, the playboy accidentally fell on his own blade and died. Knowing the He family would be powerless against the playboy’s noble family’s revenge, our heroine promptly had her brother dress up as herself. The playboy’s servant from a distance away saw “Miss He” ran out on the deck of the boat in a panic while yelling “Don’t kill me!” before promptly falling into the water (everyone would later assumed Miss He had drowned). When the servant made it onto the boat, they saw a figure in dark clothes standing over their dead young master. The servants tried to apprehend the killer but reported back to their master that the dark figure was a highly skilled fighter and got away from them.
• After sending her younger brother a secret message that she was safe, our heroine joined the military recruitment and left town the very next day.
• In the novel, General Feihong (our heroine) had no involvement with the battle that killed our hero’s father so that whole confrontation between our two leads in the first episode did not happen. In fact, going by the timeline in the novel, his father’s death was what forced our hero to prematurely take over his family’s troops and eventually becoming the famous General Fengyun. I believe our heroine joined the battlefield about a year later, and worked her way up through the rank, which meant by the time our two leads became famous generals the hero’s father would have already died for quite a few years. I am also seeing no indication in the novel that our hero’s father had taught our heroine thus no gifting of the sword either.
• In the drama, our hero found out rather quick our heroine’s gender. (In a rather anti-climatic manner in my opinion…not that the novel’s method was any better.) In the novel, Xiao Huai Jin doesn’t figure out our heroine gender until they were dealing with the Yezhou Magistrate. Our hero had sent his men to check into He Yan’s background and eventually tracked her to the He family. Looking at the simple family makeup of the He family, it didn’t take much for our hero to figure out that his very troublesome newbie soldier must be the He family’s oldest daughter- He Yan.

• In episode 9, when He Rui Fe’s servant switched out the fragrance ball on our heroine in order to poison both herself and our hero, our heroine promptly “falls” into the pond with our hero in order to get rid of the poison ball. In the novel though, the same poison ball was placed on our heroine by the evil servant, but instead of falling into the pond, our hero came back to his room to hear the servants screaming, “Master Cheng Li Su had fallen inside the outhouse!” I totally understand why the drama went with the pond, but the novel version made me laugh out loud. 
• Yezhou Magistrate and his son both had small red birthmarks on their faces in the drama. In the novel, they actually had black birthmarks that were very prominent on their faces. Due to his birthmark, Yezhou Magistrate’s son thought of himself as ugly and took that anger out on the pretty women he came across. In the drama, there were 12 bodies that were dug up, but in the novel, the bodies were in the hundreds. The case was so big and shocking that there were simply no possibility for the Yezhou Magistrate and his son to escape their crimes once it was out in the open. 
• Chu Zhou (prime minister Xu’s disciple) didn’t show up at Yezhou Magistrate’s house in the novel but will show up at the military training camp instead. Chu Zhou and our heroine had actually met the night she went to a gambling house to earn some money. Chu Zhou met our heroine again when she was with her dad and little brother, and despite the fact she had worn a face veil, Chu Zhou saw her eyes, and later put all those memories together when he met her again at the training camp, and realized her real gender. 
• In the drama, our heroine had suffered a small shoulder wound from her fight with her cousin’s trusted servant. In the novel, the servant was a much more formidable foe. The man was not only an expert fighter, but he was also an expert in making poisons. In fact, the servant was not only the person who delivered the poisoned tonic to our heroine that caused her to go blind, but he was the very person who invented that poison. Therefore, when our heroine fought him, she had to purposefully allow him to wound her multiple times to find an opportunity to steal his prized poisoned darts from him before she was able to kill him.
• Minor difference, but in ep 11, it was the camp trainers who dragged our heroine to the hot spring in the novel. By the time our hero rescued our heroine from being exposed, our heroine had already been dragged into the water and was having a difficult time trying to escape from them. 
• In episode 12, in the novel, the enemy had lured our heroine into the mountain and tricked everyone into thinking that our heroine had killed one of the newbie soldiers. As the drama portrayed, the Leihe tribe came to attack the training camp, but in the novel, it was the Leihe tribe that demanded the training camp send out soldiers to have one-on-one to the death fighting duel with their warriors. While our hero’s troop has never engaged with the Leihe tribe before (they were supposed to be on the other side of the country. Only a few warriors belonged to the Leihe tribe. This was part of an ongoing conspiracy since the rest of the warriors belonged to the tribe that our hero had been fighting.), our heroine was very familiar with them since she had fought them for years as General Feihong. Expecting the traitor to show up at her cell, our heroine put on some white makeup to fool the traitor into believing that she must be weak and sick after being locked up. After successfully apprehending the traitor, our heroine showed up in time to save one of her friends from being killed. Stepping into the duel ring, our heroine defeats two warriors in two rounds of fighting, but ends up with a small blade embedded in her waist (while still recovering from all the other wounds she had from killing her cousin’s servant). Frustrated that what should’ve been an easy slaughter is turning into anything but, the Leihe tribe warrior leader personally stepped into the ring to take our heroine’s life. After a bitter fight, our heroine started to lose ground, and just when she was about to be killed, our hero showed up and saved the day. Like in the drama, our hero had figured out something was amiss and came rushing back to save his little training camp. Trainer Shen had actually listened to our heroine’s suggestion and stationed men around the important water passages, which meant they were able to successfully cut off the additional warriors the Leihe tribe was expecting. 
• One on-going joke in the novel was that Trainer Shen had quite an active imagination and after seeing how much special attention his general pays to our heroine, Trainer Shen came up with a grand tragic story of a forbidden love between his general and the little newbie soldier who had followed his lover all the way into a military camp. So of course as our two leads grew closer as the story progressed, Trainer Shen’s story of forbidden love just grew more elaborate.
• In episode 13, where our heroine was explaining to Li Su (hero’s cousin) that due her beauty, she had caught the attention of the town’s bully so that’s why she had to join the army as a way to escape. This exchange actually happened between our two leads in the novel and it was one that made me laugh because the hero’s reply after hearing our heroine’s words was a look of disbelief and asked “Beauty?” Our heroine sheepishly replied, “Dudu…not everyone has such high standard as you…”
• In the novel, our hero wasn’t the one who told our heroine the story of how he ended up drowning a town. In the novel, our hero had asked one of his friends from his academy days to come after our heroine’s eyes were “blinded”, this friend’s scene have all pretty much gone to Li Su’s character.
• Episode 14- In the novel, after drinking with Chu Zhou, our heroine got pretty drunk. In the novel, it’s sort of an ongoing joke that when our heroine gets drunk, she actually looks and act completely normal…until she starts to get some bizarre idea in her head…like calling our hero dad (as she did in the drama). Our hero’s doctor friend asked our heroine if she liked Chu Zhou. In the novel, our very drunk heroine gave the excellent answer of “Who is Chu Zhou?” and said “yes” when she was then asked if she likes Xiao Huai Jin.
• In the novel, our heroine purposefully approached Chu Zhou with the intention of not only gaining information about her real family but about all the other important officials in the Capital in hopes that those knowledge would be useful later on when she seek revenge against her enemies. Thus our heroine got Chu Zhou talking about various people before the topic finally got to her cousin and her ex-husband. From Chu Zhou, our heroine found out that her family is actually going to marry another girl to her “very faithful and still grieving” ex-husband. Our heroine confirmed it was actually her younger sister when Chu Zhou told her the name of the new bride to be. A bit surprised when our heroine asked if he remembered the name of the groom to be’s dead wife, Chu Zhou confessed that the wife had kept to herself and he does not remember her name at all.
• When our hero found our heroine staring out in the rain forlornly in episode 15, she was actually struggling with the realization that other than those who are actively trying to erase her existence, no one else in this world remembers her. Still caught in that rather hopeless mood, our heroine brought up the news regarding her ex getting married again and mentions the dead wife. Our heroine was utterly stunned when our hero replies dryly, “Are you feeling bad for the dead wife just because you have the same name as her?” Furiously trying to figure out how Xiao Huai Jin would even know her old self and knew her name, she asked our hero if he has met the dead wife? Our hero replies “Yes, she owes me a candy.”
• In the novel, our heroine WAS trying to kill herself when our hero gave her his last candy. (Thanks to her evil husband getting all the servants to talk within our heroine’s earshot about how useless she is and how her existence is just a burden to her husband.) After watching our blind heroine stubbornly trying to hang herself despite the fabric breaking once already, our hero finally tried in his very gruff way to cheer our heroine up. Our heroine acted like a spoiled brat at first (in her own words, our hero saw her at her very worst) but after listening to our hero’s encouragement to be the most unique blind person in the world, our heroine decided to heed Xiao Huai Jin’s advice. Ironically, our hero’s advice was probably what sped up our heroine’s death.
• Our two leads’ relationship in the drama is progressing at a much quicker pace than in the novel- which I very much enjoy. By this point in the novel, our two leads are still pretty clueless about their growing feelings for each other. In episode 15, our hero actually could have taken the female doctor (this character is not in the drama) from the training camp on his little mission but was convinced by his doctor friend that since the female doctor has a crush on him, then it would just be asking for trouble if she takes on the pretend role of his wife. Agreeing with his friend, our hero made certain no trouble would be ahead by asking our heroine straight out if she likes him. Despite her wildly beating heart, our heroine managed to answer no, much to our hero’s satisfaction. As for our heroine, she usually just blames Xiao Huai Jin’s good looks when her heart goes a little crazy whenever he pulls stunts like that.
• At the end of episode 15, our two leads found the “exotic” painting in their room and had a lovely exchange over it. In the novel, the same scene happened a little differently and the exchange between our two leads was pretty hilarious.

The scene starts with our hero taking a bath elsewhere in the room. Looking around their shared bedroom, our heroine’s eye lands on some wall paintings by their bed. Curious, our heroine takes a lantern to lean closer to take a look. Xiao Huai Jin comes out of his bath, seeing our heroine looking intently at something. Appearing behind her, Xiao Huai Jin asked our heroine what she was looking at. Xiao Huai Jin finally gets a good look at the wall painting while a surprised He Yan choked on her own saliva from being surprised.

Seeing a bunch of figures engaged in various strange positions, Xiao Huai Jin’s face instantly turned dark and said angrily “He…Yu Yan!” (Yu Yan is our heroine’s fake name at that moment for their mission.)

“Here, here, here.” He Yan jumped with a scare.

“What are you looking at!”

The words were supposed to be those of interrogation but He Yan heard it as a puzzled question. Thinking perhaps Xiao Huai Jin did not know what it was, she hesitantly answered, “Spring…spring pictures (another name for exotic pictures). You have not seen them before?”

Xiao Huai Jin’s expression was stony and dark, almost furious, “I was not asking you!”

After He Yan had been given a new life with this body, she had spent quite a bit of time with Xiao Huai Jin. It was not like she had never seen him angry, but when he is mad, he is usually just colder. This was the first time she had seen him this expressive with his anger.

But why is he so angry? Was it because she didn’t call him over to join her when she was looking at them?

“I…you were taking a bath. I saw these by chance. If you would like to look at them first, then go ahead…don’t be angry…these are not drawn too well…the brushstrokes are too heavy and the characters are too ugly. If you like these, there are many that have much more exquisite brushstrokes…” He Yan replies timidly, “I can go find them for you.”

Xiao Huai Jin was so angry he could spit blood. He sneered coldly, “Is that right? You have seen many?”

“Not…not too many.” He Yan said, “Maybe…more than you?”

In her previous life as “He Ru Fei”, she had plenty of friends who would secretly take out these sort of “treasure paintings” at night and share them with everyone. He Yan had been forced to admire these sorts of paintings many times. She had long progressed from shocked shyness to numbness, and finally to being able to frankly criticize them. It had only taken her a few years to get there.

Judging by her words, is she actually feeling quite proud of them? Xiao Huai Jin sneered inwardly and abruptly pushed He Yan against the wall, leaning one of his hands on the wall by her head. His body covered hers, bringing with it his familiar fragrance.

His gaze was as sharp as lightning, yet there was also a hint of seductiveness as he asked in a deep husky voice, gazing deep into her eyes, “Then, don’t you want to try them out?”

He is way too close. He Yan was startled first, then utterly confounded. Her face quickly turned hot and red as her eyes met that deep abyss, swirling darkness that was his gaze. She wanted to retreat, but her shoulders were held tightly in place. Unable to move, she could only raise her face out of his chest and let out a stuttering refusal, “….try what?’

“After seeing so many, don’t you want to try them?’ With a raised eyebrow, he leaned down even closer, his gaze fell on her lips, causing He Yan’s heart to race like crazy.

He Yan replied, “I don’t.”

“Oh?” His lips curved into a smile, his tone becoming even more dangerous, “If one doesn’t try, then how would one know how good the paintings are?”

“This…it’s not always necessary to try.” He Yan awkwardly explained, “You see, once you have seen many, you would understand that they are all about the same, just differing in details…plus some really would not fit ordinary people. These paintings are just for entertainment, no need to actually try them out. They are just for reading.”

Xiao Huai Jin, “For entertainment?”

He Yan, “…..maybe some people just crave knowledge.”

Xiao Huai Jin’s gaze turned cold, the smile on his face becoming even more playful as he said nonchalantly, “You have so much experience, then we should definitely try it.” He was getting closer and closer, forcing He Yan to back all the way to the head of the bed, with nowhere else to go. He turned his head slightly, leaned closer, his lips were about to land on the corner of He Yan’s lips.

He Yan cried out, “Husband!”

The cry of “Husband” was so loud that it shook Xiao Huai Jin. After a moment, he stopped, and still leaning quite close, he asked with a raised eyebrow, “What?’

“I am still an unwed girl.” He Yan softly pleads, “I still need to get married later on. It’s not good for us to be like this.”

“What’s not good?” Xiao Huai Jin calmly replied, “We have already admired the spring pictures together.”

“It’s one thing to look at the pictures, it’s another thing to practice in real life.” He Yan begged, “Dudu, please let me off this time. I won’t dare ask Dudu to look at pictures together from now on.”

She thought to herself, Xiao Huai Jin is sure a hard-to-read guy. It was just looking at some pictures, and now he wants to do them in real life? If he is like this, who else would dare to look at pictures with him in the future?”

With a half smile on his lips, Xiao Huai Jin asked, “You know to be scared now?”

“Yes, scared, scared.” He Yan was very obedient, “I promise I will not ask Dudu to look at pictures in the future.”

“You mean…” He said slowly, “You would still find other people?”

“I won’t find other people either!” He Yan immediately replied, “I won’t look at them myself either, really!”

Seeing her bright, grape-like eyes staring back at him carefully, like those of students who had been caught by their teachers. Xiao Huai Jin suddenly felt quite puzzled at his own actions. He Yan can look at whatever she wants, what does it concern him? Was it just because she had called him dad (back when she was drunk), then he is raising her like a concerned old father? 

• Unlike the drama where our heroine’s master was able to save her and cure her blindness, in the novel, our heroine really did die. However, our heroine’s master does show up later in the story. One of the reasons our heroine was interested in coming out with our hero on this mission was because she knew it was the city where her master had told her she would be able to find him if she ever wanted to seek him out. In the novel, our two leads were the one who fought off the little girl’s kidnappers but our heroine’s master showed up at the last moment and saved the little girl from being killed by a flying dagger. Recognizing our heroine right away from her unique fighting style, our heroine’s master assumed his disciple was wearing a disguise until she explained simply that she is now Xiao Huai Jin’s subordinate and that her face is how she looks like now. While still kind, our heroine’s master is quite a bit more aloof in the novel and didn’t ask our heroine for anymore details regarding her change in appearance. Our heroine’s master is quite a bit older in the novel since the little girl’s mother in the drama was actually her grandmother in the novel. The grandmother frankly told our two leads regarding her past with our heroine’s master. One interesting difference is that in the novel, the master did tell the young girl that there was no mishaps or misunderstanding why he didn’t show up to meet her…in essence telling her that he had voluntarily ended their relationship because they belonged to different worlds.
• In the drama, our heroine handled the petty jealousy from the noble young ladies fairly well but in the novel, our heroine was actually a bit confused by them. Having spent most of her pervious life disguised as a man, our heroine was actually rather pleasantly surprised to realize that other women could see her as a person to be jealoused of.

To be continued….Legend of the Female General- Drama Novel Comparison 2

Legend of the Female General Novel Ending https://ninja-reflection.com/2025/09/03/legend-of-the-female-general-novel-ending/

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