The Soulmate

Gorgeous Couple, Interesting Mystery, Cute Ending

This is a short drama (less than 4 hours total) with two gorgeous characters solving an interesting murder mystery in a detective game. The ending is cute and not cliche either (I will spoil it at the end of my review). I wish it would be subbed soon, but it seems like Tencent prioritizes subbing their romance and dynasty costume dramas over non-romance and Republican-era dramas, especially if the leading actor/actress is not popular. It will be subbed eventually, so you can enjoy it.

I would've rated it 8.5 if I completely understood the dialogue details (for me, the crime and Republican-era cultural word terminologies are rather difficult to understand).

STORY:

There is no synopsis on MDL at the moment I wrote this review. So here it is:
The Female Lead Nan Yu (Snow Kong) was originally a player in a matchmaking game to match as many couples to win the game. However, one day, because of a game glitch, she found herself in the Republic of China era, and her character is a forensic examiner. Nan Yu learned that she must solve a mysterious murder case to return to her world. Not only that, she also shared one body with the Male Lead Gao Han (Li Ge Yang), a player from another detective game, to solve the case. With different personalities and strengths/weaknesses, at first, they compete with each other to control the body. But then they work together as a team. But in the end, only one of the two can return to his/her own world.

The mystery murder case, although only one, ends up being interesting and quite complicated with several victims and several suspects, it's only solved in the final episode.

CHARACTER:

First, I thought that Nan Yu was a ditzy Female Lead when she played in the matchmaking game. But she was quite calm when seeing a dead body for the first time, lol, while being guided by Gao Han to do the autopsy. Her bickering with Gao Han is cute, too. I can say Nan Yu has a high EQ while Gao Han high IQ. Smart and mature Male Lead and Female Lead.

VISUAL:

With gorgeous Republican-era costumes, Snow Kong and Li Ge Yang really look good-looking together. Their visual is the reason for me to keep watching the drama. The costumes, props, and sets look well done considering this is a short-length series with a lower budget than mainstream dramas.

OST:

The ending theme is nice and catchy titled "Starlight Is In Your Hand" (星光在你手上) by Ye Xuan Qing (叶炫清)

SOME SPOILERS AND THE ENDING (Scroll down below if you're curious)















- The alternative title "Twins Detective" doesn't mean Nan Yu and Gao Han are twin siblings, but two people share one body.
- At first, Nan Yu and Gao Han share one body, but then Gao Han breaks the game system to enter the game with his own body. Thus, they become a detective couple.
- There is a slight romance blossoming between Nan Yu and Gao Han later in the drama. Cute, but doesn't take over the mystery plot.
- There is a SML (Second Male Lead) but he is a nice one. Unlike tropey jealous SMLs common in romance dramas, who are good first and then turn bad.
- Ending (scroll below):









A cute happy ending. In the beginning, since they shared one body, only one can return to his/her own world. Gao Han hacked the game system to enter the game. He also used a lot of his game energy to save Nan Yu's life. The game designer said only Nan Yu could return to her own world. He needed a lot of time to fix the game because Gao Han hacked the system. Since Nan Yu doesn't want to separate from Gao Han, they end up staying in the current Republican-era world while the designer fixes the game, and they open a detective agency together with homophone (same sound different meaning) of their combo names Yugao (that literally means "fish cake") Detective Agency. SML gave them a congratulatory gift, an item similar to the thing that they investigated before, lol!

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Amazing to absurd

Started off great, with the Cupid NPC entering the detective storyline as a coroner and finding herself in the chaos of a grand marshal's murder case. Soon, the ML, the detective NPC of the game, comes to her aid, and together they begin assembling the pieces of the puzzle to solve the mystery.
The plot became incoherent halfway through, as it turned less about using brains and more about guesswork. The FL was absolutely useless as far as the investigation was concerned, and the ML was mediocre at best. In my opinion, the crime investigation aspect wasn't written properly. The writer dragged everyone, from the marshal's friends to his adoptive son, his concubine, her maid, his son's fiancée, the fiancée's maid, and even his tailor, into the mess, with no proper elimination of suspects.
In fact, in the last few episodes, when the adopted daughter's mask came off, the segment involving the general's lackey being on the culprit's side and then later switching back to the general's side was pure nonsense. It felt very unsophisticated, especially for the climax of an investigation plot.
Li Ge yang was okay-ish as the ML but snow kong could have used some acting classes before the final shoot ..or may be she used the entire drama as acting practice class, RN in 2026 when I am watching this show she did a great job in Pursuits of jade .. clearly these mini drama helped her polish her skills.
In the end , I watched the drama, but I am not feeling very proud of my decision.

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