Extraordinary blend of everything 'ordinary' ~ Office romance and cold medicine ad
A Predictable Yet Addictive Romance with a Frustratingly Offbeat EndingThis drama is the epitome of a guilty pleasure—nothing groundbreaking, no mind-bending twists, just a straightforward love story set in a modern workplace. Yet somehow, despite its overload of clichés and a series of unbelievable misfortunes, it manages to keep you second-guessing.
At its core, the plot revolves around our leads missing each other time and time again due to fate’s cruel sense of humor. Every time they get close, life throws a wrench in their plans—refusals, regrets, rejections—rinse and repeat. You know what’s coming, but you can’t help but stay hooked.
The Leads & Their Unbreakable Bond
Our ML, a coding prodigy with a tragic backstory, is the walking definition of resilience. He’s been dealt the worst possible hand in life—a runaway father drowning in debt, a newborn brother to take care of, and the cherry on top: a false accusation of illegal hacking that shatters both his golden career and his shot at love. Vin Zhang absolutely nailed this role, but I have to admit—the kid playing his younger self? Stole the show.
Then we have our FL, a carefree, happy-go-lucky heiress who suddenly finds herself burdened with the impossible task of reviving a dying company. Her childhood version was beyond adorable, but I have one pressing question: How did she shrink? Girl was taller as a kid than as an adult—make it make sense!
Romantic Chemistry? Off the Charts.
From the very beginning, these two had an undeniable spark, coupled with a rare, unwavering loyalty. They weren’t just lovers—they were best friends, partners-in-crime, and each other’s biggest supporters. Their playful dynamic had my heart doing cartwheels. And don’t even get me started on their romantic moments—his possessive kisses, that chewing gum-snatching scene (whew!), the way he silently guided her without ever dimming her light… Absolute perfection.
She, in turn, never played the privileged heiress card—except when it came to protecting his dignity. And when she did? Full throttle. No hesitation. No damsel in distress nonsense.
Also, the subtle humor sprinkled throughout? Chef’s kiss. Just enough to make you smile, without crossing into cringeworthy territory.
And Then… That Ending.
Sigh. The finale did me so dirty. I genuinely don’t know what possessed the writer to add that absolutely unnecessary sequence with their son selling the house because "it’s always vacant." EXCUSE ME?! After everything Xiang Yuan and Xu Yanshi went through, after both of them struggled with absent parents, the last thing I wanted was their kid feeling the same void.
Would it have killed them to include a scene where the two of them show up for their son’s school event, proving they’ve learned from their past? Instead, we get a gut-punch of an ending that completely contradicts their character growth.
Final thoughts? A beautifully engaging drama with all the right elements—romance, loyalty, sizzling chemistry—but that ending? A crime.
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best c drama 2023
best c drama i saw in 2023 the couple happened so naturally that i didn't even miss them kissingI loved her grandfather so much, I laughed a lot with him he became my favorite by far
i will miss them aa
end 11/06
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A-
This is a very decent Chinese romance drama. Overall it's quite similar to You Are My Glory, but it has more comedy & the setting is different. (entertainment industry vs. corporate environment in this one) Janice Wu is always 10/10 in romcoms & this paring's been quite fantastic. Also I like "faceslaps" in Chinese fiction & this drama has plenty of that.One big positive in this drama is that the high school flashbacks are quite well done. There are not overly many of them & have proper child actors, which is always nice to see.
So why is it only an 8?
Well, for starters the final 4-5 episodes were quite difficult to get through. The crises were not too serious or anything, but the whole "company's in dire straits" thing was really unfun to watch & then a rocket had been launched & we got fed an incredible amount of Chinese propaganda stuff before the ending credits.
There is also the matter of ML's younger brother. To me it feels like the writer thought the leads are ready to get married, so let's fix the ML's "big problem" before then, I'm quite disappointed with this, the kid was comedy gold, would have much rather watched him bicker with FL, over whatever corporate shenanigans that went down.
Also I really disliked most of the songs. Mainland Chinese rock that gets to be on TV almost always sounds really weird to me, but this drama has been perhaps the worst offender so far.
Oh I almost forgot, the drama is full of insane product placements.
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This was a good watch. I didn't expect too much because of the rating says 8.6. But after finished the whole episodes, i found this series is enjoyable to watch. There's no unnecessary triangle love conflict between the main role, so the audience will not feel stressful about the romance-conflict.I love how the BTS crew cast the actor for this series. Wu Qian is the perfect match for the character she plays in this drama. She got that "Fancy & Luxury" vibes effortlessly which suits best with Xiangyuan's character. This is the first Wu Qian's drama i watch, so my opinion is not subjective. Then we got Zhang Bin Bin as the counterpart of Wu Qian's acting. They're the perfect match for this drama.
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Here we meet a bunch of immature possessive men and satellites
This is another one of those dramas with great potential brought down by praise China and low expectations, or is it something else for men... To the men out there reading this, I believe you can control you impulses, fists and lips! You can do it! Yes you can!Seriously if I where a man I would be offended by how they portrya even the so called good guys/ male lead as immature, impulsive extremely insecure and immature along side being another male god. To be clear the actor did an amazing job with what he got and there are moments of fluff, fireworks and what not. Toxic, and I counted at least 3 times the guy pretty much forced aggressive (some would say passionate) kisses as a show of possessiveness/act of jealousy on our female lead..
which brings us to our female lead on the other hand is really cool, kind, smart awesome, and while she does actually seem to react to the male leads behaviour she also shows us how easy it is to get trapped by this. So had this been a thriller type drama with say 15 episodes this would have mede an easy 10.
Unfortunately it is supposed to be a romance, and while I did enjoy some moments between our couples, as well as the occasional flirting and buttoned down shirt.The never endin praise china, aggressiveness, lack of communication and endless self sacrifice ruined the romance and had me spinning pokestops to stay awake.
That said characters are fun, friendships sweet and the actors are good at their job, all keeping this from getting a lower score and helping me stick with it till the end.
P:S the professor was the only character on this show that I fully juist found annoying and did not ad a single thing to the plot.
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A very good work place centered, love over the long term romance
9/10 is my rating. This is a 2023 Chinese romantic comedy drama series with 32, 45-52 minute episodes.First I provide a synopsis then review
Synopsis
Xiang Yuan (Wu Qian a.k.a Janice Wu) is living a carefree life as a top gamer/influencer when her grandfather’s threats of blind dates and marriage lead her to strike a deal for her continued freedom. If she can save the Xi'an branch of the Donghue group from bankruptcy her grandfather, and guardian since her parent’s early deaths, will drop the subject of marriage. Grandfather is confident he will win their deal and even gives her three feathers to be used for favors toward accomplishing her mission. She does not realize that the boy she was in love with in school, Xu Yanshi (Vin Zhang), who rejected her before transferring, is now a mature but still devastatingly handsome man, who works at the Xi’an branch of her company. Prior to being rejected, Xiang Yuan pursued Xu Yanshi throughout their school years. Seeing him again she initially takes up with trying to win his affection then remembers a romantic relationship leading to marriage is the very thing she was avoiding. As a brilliant navigation engineer, he is almost single handedly keeping the company afloat. So they must work closely together to save the ailing branch. The feelings that were always there spring back to life only now it is Xiang Yuan that realizes his feelings for Xiang Yuan and seeks to convince her he still is the one for her. Can the two save the company? Will their second chance at romance end happily?
Review
It is overall a feel good love story with a happy ending. The only person the female lead character is a push over for is Xu Yanshi. She is strong, confident and provides instant karma to those who need it. In their younger years she relentlessly pursues Yanshi and is rejected by him several times. When things finally flip and he is the one pursuing her she slowly finds out his feelings ran longer and deeper than the rejections would indicate. We also get to see her grow from a heir without a lot of confidence in her business acumen to a force to be reckoned with who is capable of running the family conglomerate. I liked it very much and would recommend it to others that like modern romantic comedy dramas. I loved several of the OST songs from this.
Spoilers
Toward the end both main characters make some decisions that were inconsistent with their central character traits to that point. For instance Yanshi is suddenly OK with her significant other being gone, long periods of time when she found that extremely hurtful as a child when her mother did the same. I know they tried to spin it that she changed it and now as an adult she finally understands why her mother was so focused on her research, but I don’t care being absent is being absent. They also tried to make it into the love of country and ability to bring your country to the next technological level is more important than personal family relationships, and it felt like it had a very heavy CCP influence on that aspect. Not to say that the United States doesn’t do the same thing with some of the patriotic aspects to movies , but in this, it just felt like they took one direction through the majority of the movie with putting more focus and care on personal relationships to only at the very end make it so that yeah but it’s OK if you’re furthering the interest of the country. That love of country over family was also contradictory to Yancey‘s personality, because that had been his dream early on but so many things in his life had come along that changed his perspective on that it seemed like a reversal. Rather than having his time tied up on a research track and being absentee he could have continued on the business track and still furthered the technology yet had more time with her and their son. They specifically emphasized he did not regret, taking a step back from his dreams to raise his brother and iIn fact, he felt like that was one of his greatest gifts. Therefor it made no sense that he would be an absentee with his child, and would spend less time with his own family to focus on his dream when he quickly altered his goal and dream to raise his brother. So the ending is happy, but would have been better if he had revealed that had been his dream early on but his love for her and being there for his family was his new dream.
I thought what Yanshi’s mentor said to Yuan about being selfish, and, holding Yanshi back from his dream, was not only uncalled for and unmerited, but extremely rude and unkind. Later they portrayed it as he was really embarrassed about it when he realize that wasn’t the case but I wanted the moment where lead guy set him straight and said yes, that was my dream when I was younger, but now that I have Yuan my goals have shifted. That would have been more satisfying. I also thought that it was his mentor being selfish and living vicariously through Yanshi that resulted in him pushing so hard for Yanshi to join the academy.
I could see her point that she did not want him to give up his dream to help save her family’s company. What thought he should point out was that if he pursued his dream and her company went bankrupt when he could have saved it - he would not have felt good about that either.
#JaniceWu
#HereWeMeetAgain
#WuQian
#VinZhang
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I like this drama just because Zhang Bin Bin and Janice Wu. Both of them are amazing. They really did justice to their roles 😍. Overall I can say What I like :
Mature, slow-burn romance
Strong leads with good chemistry
Minimal love triangles and misunderstandings
A realistic mix of career and emotional growth
What I dislike :
Story - I read the novel; and can only say that the screenwriter ruined many parts in this series. Yes, there are some erotic sections that need to be cut, but they completely ruined Li Qin and Yang Ping Shan's revealing of fraudulent parts and how Xiang Yuan takes a stand for Xu Yanshi in front of everyone, etc. But Xu Yanshi and his brother's relation was portrayed very beautifully.
Pace - The drama has been ended very abruptly
Background songs - As the drama starts, the sound track feels good. As they have used the same songs over and over, after sometime it feels annoying.
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The high wore off?
I liked it but only its parts, not the whole.I liked his persistence and devotion but I did not like his jealousy nor his savior complex.
I liked her confidence but not her immaturity.
There was a lot of kissing (good kissing, steamy kissing. A man starved kissing) and ordinarily, this would be cause for applause but unfortunately, they chose to use kissing as a way to resolve issues instead of talking so it became cause for eye-rolls instead.
It sometimes felt like his dominant position in their relationship (which I loved at first) crossed a little over into “too controlling” territory. Almost like ownership. But not bad enough that I’d write him or the story off-just enough that I side-eyed him a bit.
Some storylines (*cough the so-called second leads cough*) did not need to exist. It was a disservice to pair that woman up with that manchild. A CRIME
Grandpa and I will never be cool in this lifetime.
what the hell was that with his brother??
I’d never recommend that anyone skip watch a story on their first watch (and I still won’t) but the high points of this drama lied in their romance and their romance alone.
7.5/10
I’d watch it again but there’d be a LOT of skipping if I did
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The drama itself is very enjoyable to watch. The biggest highlight is the relationship of the main couple - Xiang Yuan and Xu Yan Shi - because, in my opinion, it’s what saved this series. I really enjoyed watching their relationship and the rekindling of their love. They were able to communicate with each other, support one another, and be a huge source of strength for each other. At the same time, I appreciated the moment when she set a boundary so that he wouldn’t sacrifice his dreams for her. I do think the brief breakup was unnecessary, but I treated it more as a short-lived conflict, and fortunately it wasn’t blown out of proportion with any serious attempt to enter a marriage with Feng Jun to save the company. They had wonderful chemistry and plenty of tasteful HOT scenes. It was simply easy to root for them from beginning to end.In contrast, there’s the second main couple - Gao Leng and Chen Shu. I couldn’t root for them at all; in fact, it was quite the opposite - I didn’t want them to end up together. I didn’t feel any love between them, let alone chemistry. It was painful to watch scene after scene where Gao Leng tried so hard for her, while she kept treating him like a kid, completely failing to appreciate him in any way. That said, Gao Leng himself was a wonderful character, and I really wanted him to find happiness and someone who would truly value him, instead of trying to force him to change.
As for the company-related storyline, I had mixed feelings throughout the series. Sometimes I found it interesting and engaging, and other times I was bored and wished that part could be cut from the episode entirely. The constant obstacles thrown in their way - which were always eventually resolved - became tiring over time. On top of that, one DongHe-related issue was never fully explained. Several “employees” were plotting against the company during its potential downfall, and then they simply didn’t show up at the meeting afterward. What happened to them? It left a noticeable gap. That said, the employees themselves deserve praise - especially those from Velin, mainly from their department (with two exceptions). They were all wonderful. The same goes for Xu Yan Shi’s college friends (with one exception). Among the less obvious standout characters, I’d also highlight Li Yong Biao, whose personality completely won me over - I smiled when he was invited by the employees to celebrate at the end - and Ying Yin Yin. She annoyed me a bit at first, but her silliness also made me laugh, and eventually that was all that remained, so I grew quite fond of her.
Now let’s move on to the segment about annoying characters - and therefore the longest one, even though I’ll still skip some. Let’s start with the worst:
→Feng Jun was the most infuriating of them all. I honestly couldn’t stand seeing his face on screen, I swear. He ran off abroad, practically destroying his friends’ lives in the process, and showed not a shred of concern. Worst of all, by the end of the series he never faced consequences for the crime he committed - the one the male lead was blamed for. Then he comes back and relentlessly pursues the female lead, who has zero interest in him. He cheated in a competition, preventing her from winning, and still thought he was the better choice for her and could give her a better life. An absolute snowman.
→Chairwoman Li Qin and her lover Yang Ping Shan. She, in particular, drove me up the wall. I honestly don’t understand how the female lead’s grandfather managed to stay uninvolved in the company for so many years without noticing her schemes and fraud - but that’s something we’ll never get an answer to. Still, nothing gave me more satisfaction than watching her “clever” plans collapse like a house of cards. Her arrest at the end was the cherry on top.
→Li Chi. This is where my feelings become mixed. On one hand, he did help in the end, but earlier he was plotting against them - something that the characters seemed to conveniently forget. There’s also the issue of the secret photo he took of Chen Shu. Probably because he liked her? Even so, I still find it deeply unsettling and creepy.
→Situ Ming Tian — the FL's grandfather. He made this list simply because I couldn’t understand him. On one hand, he desperately wanted his granddaughter to get married or at least find love. But when she finally did, he suddenly became opposed to it. The supposed connection to her mother doesn’t convince me at all, especially the idea that he didn’t know the male lead was a valuable employee. He was a wealthy man deeply embedded in that world — there’s no way he wouldn’t have heard his name. In my opinion, this plotline was forced in just to create some obstacle to their relationship, and it didn’t make much sense. That said, this did improve later on, and I started to like him more when he became a subtle fan of the male lead, showing it between the lines -for example, by defending him in front of his granddaughter.
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I'm Torn
Hmm I'm rather torn. The acting is good. The story was nice. But I just felt the overall theme was rather vanilla. There were a few times I wanted to see the ML grow a little with emotional awareness. Always hinting at being jealous, and most of the time very unreasonably. Then He had a double standard in keeping emotional information from the FL but expecting to have her be totally open with him.To move away and yet never call her, what he promised to meet her then found out he was moving so he just left? He couldn't say "I just found out my family is moving tonight, I can't make it?" NO he had to make it seem like she was the cause of him leaving because he needed to get away from her.
Then a few years later he found her online, worked to get to know her as a gamer but didn't disclose who he was, yet HE knew who she was, then because of "personal issues" he dumps her painfully yet all he needed to do was tell her what was going on. Then years later he tells her she broke it off when he clearly texted to leave, without even meeting. Ok OK. I could go on and on.
There were other scenarios that the authors of this story placed him in to make him seem like he was this self sacrificing victim that had to do everything himself and "oh hey look how he keeps it all to himself so as not to burden anyone" UGG
Its not the Acting, not the overall story- its was the one character flaw in the ML. Literally made me want to get him therapy.
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The first half set in Xi'An is strong. Xiang Yuan, the high energy 'princess,' is assigned to a regional, failing subsidiary of her grandfather's company. There, she reunites with Xu Yan Shi, a former school genius now fallen from grace, This is an excellent core plot about how corporate spaces with their jealousy, mediocrity, and office politics can ruin talent. Additionally, Xiang Yuan is a great character - with family and friends, ambitions, ethics and intelligence. She is not just the muse for Xu Yan Shi.
Unfortunately, the show falls apart as they transition to Shanghai. The secondary romance never really gets off the ground and 'villains' pop on and off screen with no real logic to them. One highlight, though, was Xu Yan Shi finally seeing the university classmates who ruined his life reap the consequences of their own character flaws.
The main leads are attractive and competent. Vin Zhang playing the serious and 'old soul' lead with just the right touch of fire, and Xiang Yuan mostly succeeds in being high spirited and naive while not crossing the line into childish. The secondary characters and actors here are not memorable.
The music and credits are average, and there isn't much I'd rewatch. I grade on other criteria:
Complex Themes - 8.0
It's state propaganda sure, but the depiction of soul crushing office politics was well done and realistic. Greed and power often do override any desire to recognize great talent and create great products. I also appreciated the realistic depiction of the difficulties of modern relationships, the travel, lots of time apart, extremely hectic and busy with work lives that are emotionally draining.
I will always appreciate plot lines around supportive friends and I found that theme particularly touching here.
Complex Characters/Growth - 7.0
Xiang Yuan learns to transition from the girl who would throw away cake if it came an hour late, to someone who can be patient and persist. Xu Yan Shi recovers from his career set back and is forcibly pushed to realize his dreams of being a pioneer in Chinese technology.
Complex Women/Women Centered plots - 6.5
Xiang Yuan is a good role model of a modern career woman. Otherwise, her relationships with her women friends are fairly superficial. In her family, she is the only woman, on her team there is only one other woman and they barely interact, there is the typical middle aged woman villain etc.
Production Values/Cinematography - 8.0
The clothing here was excellent. There was the occasional misstep, but generally very fashionable and fit the main leads well. The sets, cars etc. were also well done and felt 'in the real world' for the most part. Otherwise, this was not very creative or cinematic.
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A light-to-medium romanctic comedy
The only reason I rated this show so highly was because of Bin Bin.He's a terrific actor in each and every show I've seen him in, and this is no exception.
He carried this for me.
Characters:
ML is a very smart and capable IT programmer/designer. His ambition is to help build satellites/satellite navigation systems.
FL is the rich grandchild of a conglomerate owner with no great ambition in life.
Plot:
ML and FL are old high school classmates. She chased him but he seemingly turned her down.
They part on bad terms.
The show opens when they meet again at a subsidiary of Grandpa's conglomerate.
He's the leader of a tech team whose talents have been overlooked in favor of those with better connections.
She joins the company as a deputy team leader after betting with her grandpa that she can build up the failing subsidiary within a year before HQ decides to close it permanently. In exchange for doing so, Grandpa will stop pestering her to get married.
If I had to encapsulate the story in several words: The struggles of succeeding in business and achieving our dreams against a backdrop of workplace politics, financial struggles, and family struggles. And finding the right person, and sticking with them, despite all odds.
The relationship between the ml and fl is not antagonistic exactly, but they do push and pull each other in the directions they each want to other to go. Each somewhat manipulates the other in order to get their desired results.
The ML cares deeply for the FL and works extremely hard to protect her. Aside from one incident when things spun beyond his control, he never does anything throughout the entire show to harm her or hurt her feelings. He's too selfless sometimes. I only wish he'd used his words. Because while actions 'should' or might speak louder than words, in this case, our FL was just too dense to recognize what was happening, and this ended up hurting the ML unnecessarily.
The FL is innately kind. She'll go to bat for those she cares about. And she will not silently swallow or watch injustice. She's a fighter and l love that about her. She's also very witty and sarcastic, the queen of one-liners. She made me LOL multiple times.
My one gripe with her, and this is a big gripe which continues through a large part of the developing story, is how she treats the ML.
While she's kind to everyone, as I said earlier, with him she isn't. Or, at least, not to his face. She blows hot and cold so often and suddenly, that it's impossible for our poor ML to know if he's coming or going. Through no fault of his own, he's forced to put up with her drastically changing moods and her inexplicable temper, all the while being left in suspense about how she truly feels about him. Another thing she's the queen of is mixed messages. That's cruel and childish of her. A grown woman of 26 should behave better.
My favorite part of the show began at approximately episode 20. That's when things really started getting good.
However, the last three episodes introduced a new conflict which the characters handled in a way I didn't like. As always, it was the FL who annoyed me the most with her response. Although for once, the ML wasn't 100% blameless here. Since the two were already a couple at that point, he could've handled things better. I still appreciated his responses though, and admire him for what he did.
Ultimately all conflicts are resolved and we are shown everyone's happily ever after.
The ending was very sweet.
Music and Cinimetogrophy:
Mediocre
Acting:
ML= terrific
FL= fine
Side characters= solid
Rewatch value:
6.5 to 7
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