Blossoms in Adversity

Uplifting women's voices and how they don't need no man

Women-oriented show that highlights how past a wife, concubine, and servant's title are mothers, sisters, and daughters who have their own talents, aspirations, and goals.

BLOSSOMS IN ADVERSITY has this theme at its forefront from the initial scene, where a young Hua Zhi saves a ship in a storm by bravely climbing up the mast and letting the sail down. If you're a fan of:
- Wholesome family dynamics
- Cute and angst-free romances
- Intelligent, business-minded FL
- Seeing main characters starting from the bottom and working their way up,
Then this drama is for you!

PROS
❀ Family at that heart of the show
While this show has many other plot points going on (some palace dealings, several romantic lines, etc), at its heart is the Hua family women and their relationships. I thought I would get bored with the family drama, but I think the show did an excellent job in highlighting all the different characters' strengths and weaknesses. I especially appreciated the growth we see in all the women from when they first get kicked out of the capital to when they come back, stronger than ever. At first, they only wanted a man to rely on. With the guidance of Hua Zhi and the Hua matriarch (grandmother), the women started to stand on their own two feet - no men needed. Hua Zhi (FL) leads to family to success by starting various business ventures and gaining allies (and enemies) along the way.
While I was worried all the different characters would be confusing, the family is not that complex and quite easy to follow. They were also quite likeable and thus I didn't find myself fast forwarding past any of their scenes. I feel like it takes great writing to get me invested in heavy family dynamics, and BLOSSOMS IN ADVERSITY hit the mark.

❀ Highlighting the strength of women in different situations
Whether it's with an abusive husband, stuck in a trap of six other concubines, or marrying into a treacherous family, I enjoyed how the show was still able to highlight the perils and obstacles of the various Hua women. While this doesn't mean that everyone has a glorious comeback and comes out victorious (in fact, there are some tragedies that happen), I still appreciated how the show explored the different plights of women during the time period.

❀ Mature(?) romance that is straightforward and sweet
I put mature with a question mark because I'm a bit conflicted in my analysis of the overall romance. At face value, it's very sweet and to-the-point. Gu Yan Xi (ML) encounters the FL after traveling back from the North and is impressed by her lack of fear towards him and intelligent dialogue. He gives her good advice while she navigates her family drama and is a solid shoulder to lean on. The only issue is that his other identity is the Commander of the Security Bureau, which has a deadly reputation. Between the couple, this is *actually* a non-issue as the FL is quite understanding of his double identity and even his confession to his identity (at the ep 20 mark) is met with a calm response (as she had a feeling already). With this regard, I feel like the romance is mature and steady.
The plot point that gives me pause is how the ML handled his inner conflict of choosing the FL vs choosing the emperor (who he sees as a father figure). I feel like we never really get resolution on this from his character, but rather the resolution is forced on us via plot. See, throughout the entire show the ML is the backbone of the emperor's Security Bureau and rooting out rebels, but he's also the FL's companion and supporter. Towards the end the emperor kind of makes him choose between the two by giving the FL a hard time which becomes the core of the break-up (happens at ep 33, but they get back together in ep 36 also it was a soft break-up anyway lol). I never felt like the ML took a solid stance in this regard which makes me hesitate to say this is a *mature* romance - rather, the writing makes it so there aren't huge conflicts between the leads.
HOWEVER, I did like the candid dialogue that Hua Zhi and Gu Yan Xi had about not having misunderstandings/miscommunications. So that is certainly a point towards the maturity. (And every drama should have that convo!!) I guess I'm just flip-flopping in my analysis lol.

❀ Awesome fight scenes
One of the reviewers said the ML had fists of fury and they weren't wrong!! Lol while there weren't many action-dominated scenes, the few that were there were all stellar. Especially the choreo for the ML - his punches got me cheering him on. Of note, I thought the assassin x cooking competition scene in ep 28 had fire filming and execution.

❀ Rare moment where I LOVED the music
The opening theme immediately got me HOOKED. It's so triumphant, adventurous, and catchy. Whenever that theme came on I knew something good was gonna happen in the story, lol. I also like the reprise they made of the theme that's purely instrumental. It was giving Bridgerton vibes and just added to the overall atmosphere.

❀ The way everyone started coupling up around the ep 30ish mark
It was so cute what the heck!! Everyone was so easy to root for and it made the overall happy ending very satisfying to see.

CONS
✕ Weak palace drama
While I enjoyed how the palace drama gave us a chance to see more of the ML's backstory and ACTION(!!), the overall plotline was weak and felt nonsensical. At some point I was just waiting for the emperor to d*e so that anyone(!!) could take the throne after him. For real. I feel like this weak palace plot exacerbated my side-eye at the ML because I wasn't convinced he had to be as loyal to the throne as he was. The final conflict wasn't even instigated by our leads, they just had a (helping) hand in it. Because of the ML x emperor loyalty though, I didn't feel as if the ML had time to grow. Like, he "made his own decisions" in certain scenes towards the end but it wasn't as resolute as it could have been, since he was still juggling both sides (his lover aka the FL vs the emperor aka his father figure) towards the very end.

✕ ML frozen face
I expected this going in but it's actually so noticeable it's funny. The ML actor (Hu Yi Tian) is TALL and HAWT, don't get me wrong. Major eye candy. And his smiles make everything worth it. The only problem is his stoic face for 97% of his screen time. I *feel* like the actor was trying to do some micro-expressions with his eyes, but I wasn't really seeing it. Will eye candiness (I mean come on, he looks SO good with that curly flowing hair) make up for frozen face syndrome? It will for me. I feel like the writers did well with making his actions speak for themselves.

✕ Misunderstanding level: 0/10
ML has hidden identity but it wasn't a huge misunderstanding or major issue.

OVERALL
This drama will leave you with all the warm, fuzzy feelings. ALL the characters (except the emperor who is shown to be cowardly from the get-go) are immensely likeable and fun to watch. You'll fall in love with not only the main couple and their stalwart support of one another, but also the beautiful female relationships that blossom in this drama. I feel like Zhang Jing Yi (FL actress) always does a great job with strong FLs and this historical piece was no different. I guess she does step into Mary Sue territory at times, but she also learned from her elders quite a bit (especially towards the beginning) to get her foundation set up. Nonetheless, BLOSSOMS IN ADVERSITY truly highlights the power of family when worst comes to worst, and how one can utilize that love and power to climb back from adversity.

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What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger

On a surface level, "Blossoms in Adversity" tells the story of a young, strong-willed and adventurous woman called Hua Zhi, whose family falls into peril when her grandfather, the infamous scholar and Imperial Censor Hua Yi Zheng, draws His Imperial Majesty's ire on himself during court session, and her blossoming romance with the Emperor's nephew and Commander of the Security Bureau, Gu Yan Xi. On a deeper level, however, this story is more than just a love story. It's about a family that grows together through adversity, including important lessons about kindness, resilience and karma.

The intriguing premise of an official's family falling from grace is what drew me into watching this drama in the first place. I'm always in for some well-executed "riches to rags and back to riches" story and this one does not disappoint, though there are some elements I wish would have been better developed.

The drama starts out strong with the main plot immediately being pushed forward right at the end of the first episode. The property is confiscated by the Emperor's Security Bureau, the men gathered and sent into prison, and then the women and children younger than ten are suddenly all on their own, forced to retreat from the captial with what little belongings they managed to gather in the little time that was so gracously given to them. Thanks to Old Madame Hua's connections (no spoilers here), they find a charming, though rather desolate and run down little farmstead not far from the capital to settle down - and that's when the real struggle starts for these pampered noble women who have never worked a day in their lives. Heads and flared tempers butt quite a lot in these early episodes as the women learn to come to terms with their new living conditions and the social stigma of being members of a "sinnful" family.

Hua Zhi is the only one who doesn't need much time to adapt and immediately takes the reigns to make the best out of their seemingly hopeless situation - be it by helping the few remaining loyal maids to clean up the property, hunting down a scammer, or saving the family from perishing in their sleep due to fume poisoning. Her efforts don't exactly get rewarded with much gratitude in the beginning, but that soon changes when she starts raking in money with her business ideas, leading them to eventually return to the capital.

The pace starts to flare out and drag a bit towards the second half, picks up again when one major villain makes its final nerve-wracking move, falls once again afterwards and then rises into an exciting, if not quite predictable conclusion. I definitely think they could have added in some more obstacles into the Hua family's rise to prosperity to make it a bit more realistic, but I understand that there is only so much one can do with a 40 Episodes per Drama-limit.

Watching the Hua women go from spoiled, fearful noble women to hard-working, strong individuals no longer dependent on men is probably one of the best aspects of this drama. Each and everyone of the them (with the execption of Hua Zhi - more to that later), grows so much throughout the course of the story, that you'll hardly recognize them again in the end. It's truly inspiring and touching to see them growing into a family that sticks together and supports each other throughout all the adversities they are facing. And all of this in a time period in which women are told from birth that they are nothing without the "stronger" sex. The amount of wealth the Hua family accumulates over such a short period of time definitely has to be taken with a grain of salt, though.

The men are barely present in the drama, so it's not surprising we don't see all that much growth on their part (though one could certainly argue that two to three years spent in exile mining and transporting heavy rocks at freezing temperatures should have taught them a thing or two). Same goes to Hua Zhi. The lack of growth on her part, however, is not attributed to her "Mary Sue" status. In fact, she does have quite a few flaws, her most prominent one probably being her self-righteousness and inability to remain silent in the face of injustice, even to her own detriment. The problem here is that the writers barely gave her room to overcome her character flaws (probably to avoid her becoming "too perfect"). Though it's not really a deal breaker, I would have loved to see some growth on her part, even if it meant adding in more flaws at the start of her journey.
Zhang Jing Yi, however, does a solid job portraying the young, kind-hearted, smart, business-savy and confident head of the Hua family.

The male lead, Gu Yan Xi, faces similiar issues. The biggest let-down on his part though is probably the lack of depth in Hu Yi Tian's acting when it comes to Gu Yan Xi's complicated relationship to his Emperor Uncle. Hai Yi Tian does such a wonderful job portraying a paranoid Emperor, who though cruel in nature still very much trusts and loves his nephew. Hu Yi Tian does not quite live up to that expectionally complex character portayal in his character's responses in certain situations, which makes the Emperor's love for him seem more oppressive and one-sided than it actually is.
Hu Yi Tian's fight scenes, however, are absolutely phenomenal, though as always, you'll have to take the realism of some of those with a grain of salt.

The main characters' relationship was quite decent. It was overall very mature and solid and not making use of too much well-established cdrama tropes such as misunderstandings due to lack of communication that drag on for episodes. Though one could argue that Hua Zhi lets Gu Yan Xi off too easily for lying to her and keeping his true identity hidden for the entire first half of the drama. Their love and trust in each other has to be commended, and I certainly loved seeing them respecting each other's jobs and freedom.

Another noteworthy character portayal is Lu Yu Xiao's Shao Yao, Gu Yan Xi's little sister, who has been isolated in her courtyard for years and thus lacks the social and communication skills "normal" people possess. Portraying such a character convincingly in such an endearing way certainly isn't easy, but Lu Yu Xiao more than nailed it.

The body count has been kept rather low compared to other dramas of the same genre, though there are some character demises that are really sad, if not a bit unnecessary (especially a certain one towards the end).

The OST was, as always, very solid. The mix of modern electro tunes and classic instruments added a nice layer to some scenes, though the background music was rather loud and thus more often than not, drowned out the on-going conversation a bit.

In conclusion this drama is best enjoyed for what it is: Not a master work by any means, but rather a soild and inspiring story that will entertain you for many, many hours.

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Blooming romance and character growth!

I love this story so much! The outline of the plot is a basic one. The female lead's (Hua Zhi) family (The Hua Family) falls from grace- basically, the emperor doesn't favor their family and exiled the men to a Northern Border and the women and youth of the family are left in the capital. They no longer have their property because it is confiscated by the emperor. So they must make a living to survive.

Hua Zhi is a curious learner, and a brilliant business (young) woman. Hua Zhi is played by Zhang Jingyi, who does an excellent job of emulating the natural brilliance of a young woman pursuing business endeavors to support her family single-handedly. The male lead Gu Yanxi is played by Hu Yitian who did a decent job. I didn't like him a lot because there wasn't depth to his character. I can't really tell how much Gu Yanxi loves Hua Zhi. I don't really see the conflicted character go between being a loyal emperor subject to a man in love. He doesn't offer a more complex insight on his character. It seems as if he read the novel and gave us a surface presentation on the actor. The other casting who played the supporting roles did a phenomenal job at offering their character some dimension.

The production of this drama is also pretty good. There isn't much to nitpick. The only one is lighting. You'll notice it if you're a person with sensitive eyes. But other than that, this drama is smooth, enjoyable, and fun.

I feel like there are some playful parts and sweet moments that will hold dear to you.

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Great watch overall !!

A thoroughly enjoyable watch. While I did hope for a slightly stronger emotional reaction during the revelation scene, the overall story and plot were compelling and well-executed. It was particularly refreshing to see such a bold and decisive female lead, portrayed with remarkable strength and nuance. The family dynamics were a standout element, especially the way she stepped up to lead and support the women in the absence of the men—it added both depth and emotional resonance to the narrative. Overall, this is a highly engaging drama that remains light enough to be an easy and satisfying rewatch.

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Very comfortably paced story with a sprinkle of romance

This series was quite beautiful, it tells the story of a family who faced the Emperor's wrath, lost everything, yet slowly regained everything through familial love and support. I love that all the side characters are actually quite fleshed out compared to lots of other cdramas, we know of the stories of the Hua family, what difficulties they have suffered and how that has shaped them. We are also blessed with an adorable side couple, and unfortunately, also lots of less adorable couples depicting the nature of marriage and love.

I really really like ML and FL's relationship. We have FL as a strong-willed, independent, smart, kind yet brave character, she basically one-handedly saved her family from destitution for life. Then we have ML, serving the Emperor loyally out of consideration for their uncle-nephew relationship. ML is like a sturdy wall behind FL, always there to silently support her when she needs it, and FL provides the humanity and familial love that ML might have never experienced before. The only thing that slightly ticked me off about FL was her overt directness to the Emperor, the one figure who literally has the power to make anything happen to her family, and had already doomed her family once. Her character makes her unafraid to stand up against him, but sometimes I just wonder, knowing when and what to say is also a skill, being too direct and righteous isn't always a good thing. But I still love FL, both her and the Emperor are the perfect examples of what comes around goes around, only one was saved by kindness and the other killed out of hatred. Can't say much about HYT's acting, I was never a huge fan since he leans towards the emotionless acting side, but for this role, I have to admit he's perfect for it.

Their romance is more like a side-story to the main plot, where FL and her family attempt to raise enough money to save all the men back from the North. But even though it's not the main focus, their relationship is really beautiful and pure, it's not like a fiery red hot passion, but more like a gentle stream of support and love shown through actions. I really like the overall story of the series, it's quite refreshing and new. I just really despise the Emperor, he may not be the worst kind as he is neither lazy nor over-indulgent in pleasures, but he certainly does not value life and lets his paranoia lead many innocent ones to die. One character that's likely overlooked by everyone is actually ChangQing (the Emperor's right-hand eunuch), unlike how many series portray eunuchs, he actually isn't corrupt and power-hungry, and he treats others nicely too.

Overall, it's definitely at least an 8.5 for me. The pacing dropped off a bit towards the end, and I felt that I definitely liked the first half of the series more, I felt like the latter half shifted the focus away from FL raising money to save her family and more about palace dramatics, which I do love but wasn't what I wanted from this series. In the end, it wasn't technically even FL or her family's efforts which saved the men, it was just a consequence of the Emperor's death, so it wasn't as satisfying as I had hoped.

I was curious whether they would kill the Emperor off, after all while he may be a cruel ruler, he did still manage to govern the country. Seeing the way he died was quite satisfying, killed by those he scorned, but I did feel it was a bit too sudden as I was also curious as to how his relationship with GYX would wrap up, guess we never know now. But they're in good hands now, a kid emperor raised with love by the Huas, and a benevolent royal grandma to help him.

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Good idea, execution... meh !

The premise was interesting, and I really liked the female lead, she was smart and kind, exactly the type of lead I enjoy most. The male lead, on the other hand, was just "there." I don’t know much about his personality; I’m not even sure he had one!

Still, their dynamic was cute and mature, I just love it when adults actually act like adults.

The acting was subpar, and while the FL was definitely better than the ML, she still needs improvement as she can be quite stiff and wooden at times. As for the male lead, he was stoic for the entire drama; he really needs to learn how to move his face!

Overall, the production was okay, but the execution was lacking. I feel like there were way too many characters, and the writers didn't know how to handle them all.

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Enjoyable and refreshing healthy relationships

Pros
Healthy Romantic Relationship -- They have no communication issue at all. Anything that can cause misunderstanding basically got curbed since they discuss it straight away, it's refreshing.
ML is more powerful and help FL a lot, but their relationship still feels equal somehow because FL is also capable and support ML in her own way.

Characters -- Both ML and FL is very likeable.
FL is capable, smart, and calm. A bit too perfect imo, so it might be positive or negative depending on preference... but I do like her character.
Other characters are also pretty interesting. Some are a bit too one dimensional, but there are some layered characters as well.

Story is overall pretty interesting -- It opens discussion on women's role in the family, how to overcome conflict within family member. It gives more spotlight to individual woman in FL's family and you can see their growth.


Cons
There are too many characters, so it's a bit hard to keep up.

Story:
- All the conflict got resolved too easily, so you don't see them struggle as much, which is not realistic. Even the final conflict with the main villain also got easy resolution.

- Business aspect in this drama is not realistic at all. They took a while to set up the business, but once they did, it's going so smoothly... so you need to suspend your disbelief 😂

Acting -- The acting is pretty standard overall... But ML portrayal is a bit too stoic for my liking. I do understand his character is supposed to be like that due to his background and political position, so it's still passable. He's good on action scenes though!

Overall Rating 8.5
Pretty enjoyable watch. It's good if you want to watch a female-centered drama that's light but still got a bit of tension.

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Watch for the well written story

Must say Chinese period dramas are getting better & better.
This was a beautiful story about a woman finally rising up in the face of challenges and empowering women around her.

Wonderful plot, amazing background score, great cinematography. I won't get into the details of the story..but let me give my honest opinion about the cast.

🩷Zhang Jing Yi as the FL is good. I have watched a couple of her works and she always does her part well. This time also she really put life into the FL, Hua Zhi.
🩷On the other hand, this was the first time I watched Hu Yi Tian & I found his acting not good. His expression was flat most of the time, and his chemistry with the FL wasn't at all there. He's so good looking and tall, I really tried to see him in a great dashing hero light but failed 😔
There wasn't even a single spark between the ML and FL's chemistry.
🩷Lu Yu Xiao - she really amazes me with her acting skill. She did her potrayal of mentally challenged character so well that you can't help but fall for her childlike charm.
🩷And then there is Bian Chen - I am really looking forward to see him act in more series. He's just too cute. 😍😍😘 Infact, his and Lu Yu Xiao's chemistry was way better than the lead's.

🩷Now the main part..Honestly I felt, the star of the show is not the hero, or the heroine but the villain- the Emperor.
This series is one of the rare ones where the villain's character is so well developed.
Usually the villain's character remains one dimensional..but this one was wow! At first you'll think The Emperor is power hungry and likes to weild his power, even over his loved ones, just to always be like God. But slowly, the audience will realise that no! He's just a coward who thinks he has nothing except his crown's power. "Nothing but a coward old man" (dialogue of the spy from Zhao Empire Ep.40)
The actor who played the Emperor, Hai Yi Tian executed his part so well, that I sometimes wanted to jump into the screen and thrash him. Awesome! Just awesome! This is what a villain should be.
In conclusion, even if it's a good story I won't watch it again. 40episodes is too long to sit through, just only to see a story about women empowerment, a great villain and a very cute side couples' sweet love story.

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The last episodes...

Ep 36-39 really pissed me off. I was so glad that old man died (TOOK LONG ENOUGH) but atleast it happened. I don't really understand why the Hua's were punished since the beginning, I just know that emperor is ass.

Anyway, loved the couple from the start but slowly went downhill (spoiler: it's bc of the emperor). I just tolerated them, but the side characters were amazing. I really thought the SML would be prominent in this but like he disappeared in the middle of the series (which I love that he wasn't annoying) but that poster is misleading lmao.

I love Shaoyao and Shen Huan so much, so adorable from the start to end. They're so pure I wanna bubblewrap them. Aunt Yu Niang and Uncle Pingyang was sob-worthy, I love their reunion so much I WAS WAITING FOR IT SINCE THE BEGINNING SO GLAD THEY DID!!!! Chenqing and Baoxia is adorable too, little screen time but their banter was fun.

And I really really love the family dynamic. There are questionable things but still they helped each other and doesn't have much damaging betrayals. Aunt Jin'e was my favorite! Their family is so good that the court storyline was slowly pissing me off. I really supported Zhi for saying all that to the emperor, she hold back so much she should've just flipped her wrist and unalived him on the spot ANYWAYS

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Started with promise, ended up excruciatingly mediocre

I was pretty excited to watch this drama! A story centered around one family and their struggles was just what I wanted right now and at the start I thought that's what I'd be getting. Unfortunately, this show begins to struggle after the first quarter, and after the second half I began to struggle to get through each episode.

I really liked a lot of the side characters, but there were far too many for many of them to get interesting development and the sheer amount made the show drag. I liked the focus on women and their roles, particularly around marriage, but I feel like the messaging got rushed and shoved to the side. Similarly to most people my favourite characters ended up being Shaoyao and Shen Huan.

Hua Zhi starts as an interesting character. She traveled through her whole childhood and as a result isn't particularly interested in "womanly arts" or any of her family members apart from her grandfather. She's selfish and doesn't particularly care how her actions effect others or reflect on her family. She's headstrong and confident! After her family meets disaster she has to spend time with them and get to know them better. Slowly she realizes the importance of family... and then she suddenly becomes a business genius? After that she stagnates. She simply does not grow or change for the entire rest of the show, any mistakes she makes are immediately forgiven (not that she makes many) and she knows how to deal with every situation almost perfectly.

Other characters had some development, particularly the third madam. I thought her development was fairly realistic and I appreciate that it took her quite a while to lay down her pride and realize her mistakes. However, basically every character stagnated by the time we got to the wedding arcs.

By the latter half the story was a bit of a mess and the leads weren't strong enough for me to make me care. I finished it but barely. It feels like the writers tried to include too much, there was business drama, family drama, relationship drama, political drama and intrigue. So many terrible things happened but they all got brushed aside 30 minutes later so it never felt like there were real consequences or stakes.

(Spoilers)

Oh no, the emperor suspects us of colluding with the Grand Dowager and Hua Zhi suspects Yanxi's identity! It's okay though, that all gets resolved the next episode.
Someone attacked us on the way back from the north! But it's fine, there will be no lasting consequences or injuries.
The emperor does something horrible, but it's nullified or brushed aside within an episode or two...
The last two episodes were a particularly egregious example. I like a happy ending, but there was basically no lasting damage to anyone in the show from everything that happened apart from two deaths which don't really seem to impact anyone outside of the episodes they're in.
By the end of the show everyone is a better person, but otherwise their situation has basically returned to what it was (apart from Hua Zhi and Yanxi).

All in all this felt like a pretty significant waste of my time. If you want some background noise it's not bad, but if you want to think about it even at all (I watched it while sick so I was about 70% with it) it falls apart pretty quickly. A shame :/

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love a good jing yi drama!

YAY i finished. this was a cutesy drama- i loved the character development in all the aunts and characters at the end. loved the independent and smart FL, my FAVV!! she can hold up her own fort and family and i LOVE her for that. hyt also very hot. but emperor was so annoying… like using him. BUT I LOVE A GOOD SHE-DOESNT-KNOW-WHO-I-AM DRAMA BRUH. i wish they extended that part longer. i love the chase!!! chemistry was ok- i felt it a LOT on hyts side but not huazhis. idk. it was cute thooooo i liked them. esp their flirting stage. and when he was the martial arts teacher AW. overall pretty good drama to not binge but watch every so often. romance could be better but yea. plot was follow-able.

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