While reading JY's novels, did any death surprise you? Maybe you thought the person was vital to the story and would never die, or maybe you could only picture the person being funny, or maybe it just never occurred to you that person would end up a certain way! Anyhoo, the deaths that made it hard for me to swallow are Duan Zhengchun and his mistresses. They managed to survive most of the story, but within a few minutes they all got slaughtered, as easy as can be imagined. Somehow I always pictured the deaths to be less sudden, but when they came there was no stopping.