Revenged Love

I can't let ChiWei go....

When I started this, I thought I was just going to watch a new show but I didn’t know I was signing a contract to have my soul stolen and my emotions permanently hijacked. I’m sitting here, replaying the same scenes over and over like an addict because my brain refuses to move on.

Episodes 1–3 are the comedic bait. You’ll think, “aww, this is cute,” and you’ll be wrong. Episode 4 creeps in with the first sparks, Episode 5 straight-up injects serotonin into your bloodstream, and then Episode 10… god help you. That’s when it stops being a drama and starts being the most gorgeous, sensual, heart-aching romance you’ll ever see.

Please. I am begging you. Do not drop it after Episode 1. Give it five episodes. Let it get under your skin. Let it ruin you. You will lose sleep. You will think about them at random moments during the day. You’ll be laughing like an idiot one second and clutching your chest the next.

♡

detailed review, may contain spoilers

So. ARE WE OKAY? Because I’m not. I’m so far from okay. I miss them. I want to cry and throw up just thinking about their journey and how far they have come.

I remember the first episodes, Chi Cheng walked into every scene like he could crush Suowei without even trying, and at first, he would have. He was intrigued but also in control. And Suowei, my clever little fox, my scheming troublemaker...he thought he could keep it all a game. He had no idea that every sly smile, every bratty comeback was driving Chi Cheng out of his mind.

So watching the shift of Chi Cheng go from a man who could pin Suowei against a wall just to make a point… to a man who would drop everything if Suowei so much as frowned?? WRECKED. ME. He went from “you’re my toy” to “you’re my everything.” The same hands that could wrap around Suowei’s throat without hesitation now tremble if Suowei’s in pain. Yeah, he still grabs him by the throat sometimes BUT ONLY WHEN HE’S FUCKING HIM AND THAT’S DIFFERENT OKAY? IT'S AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT BIBLE OF HAND PLACEMENT.

Agh anyway, its just so beautiful to see how Chi Cheng looks at him in the later episodes...like this is a man who started at the top and ended up metaphorically (and probably literally) at Suowei’s feet. The dominance never fully left, but it warped into this worship that’s somehow more intense than any power play. He still has the strength to break him, but now he’d rather use that strength to shield him from the world.

And Suowei…I don’t think I’ve ever been so obsessed with a character’s development in my life. Chi Cheng’s arc destroyed me, yes, but Suowei’s reprogrammed my brain chemistry. I'M NOT EVEN JOKING.

Because like, we start with this man who is the definition of “straight man panic.” He’s dodging Chi Cheng’s touches. He’s rolling his eyes, making faces, acting like ewww NO HOMO every two seconds. He is CONVINCED he’s untouchable. He treats Chi Cheng like just another rich, arrogant bastard who thinks he can get whatever he wants. And I believed him! I thought, okay, this is gonna be one of those slow, reluctant-to-the-end situations.

But no. No, no, no.

Because little by little, without even realizing it, he starts needing the attention he pretends to hate. The touches stop feeling dangerous and start feeling like home. The man who used to swat Chi Cheng’s hands away is suddenly leaning into them. And then one day, he’s seeking them out.

I just love the way he went from “get away from me,” to climbing onto Chi Cheng’s back for a piggyback or nuzzling their cheeks together with this soft, stupid smile. The way he starts embracing the entire truth about himself. His sexuality. His feelings and he’s PROUD of it. He’s not hiding anymore. He’s not embarrassed. He’s not dodging.

He goes from looking at Chi Cheng like, “ugh, you’re annoying,” to looking at him like, “you are my most precious person in the whole damn world.” And you see it. In the way his face softens, in the way he looks at Chi Cheng like he’s something holy, in the way he reaches for him without thinking.

And here’s the part that absolutely obliterated me...in most BLs, the “submissive” role rarely shows this much affection back. The dominant one does all the simping, all the chasing, all the worshipping, while the other just accepts it. But Suowei breaks that in half. He loves LOUD. He adores Chi Cheng so openly.

By the end, Suowei is pulling him in, holding him there, not letting him go. He’s soft and sweet and filthy and bold and shameless, and the pride he takes in their love is so fucking pure.

I want to rewatch the whole thing just to see every micro-shift in his eyes as he falls deeper and deeper until there’s no escape.

Their journey was amazing, and I will never, ever stop praising the actors for it. Like, story aside, the chemistry aside, these two performed their asses off.

I’ve seen plenty of BLs, plenty of good couples, but this was something else entirely.

Ziyu… ZIYU HAS FUCKING WRECKED ME. The emotional range he brought to Suowei especially in those moments of vulnerability is unmatched. Take the scenes when Wang Shou came back. Suowei had to play that insecure boyfriend role, and I was scared. I was scared it might tip into that annoying, desperate, borderline pathetic portrayal that I’ve seen too many times. But no. Ziyu nailed it. He made Suowei’s insecurity feel real.

And don’t even get me started on Episode 19. I swear, that was his episode. The one that cements him as a powerhouse. The scenes with his mom...Oh my god. I was emotionally gutted.

And then there’s Tian Xuning. No less legendary. I have NEVER seen a BL “dominant” character especially one with a BDSM element NOT make me cringe at least once. There’s always that one line delivery or one scene where you’re like, “okay, tone it down, buddy.” But Tian...my god, Tian pulled every single scene off flawlessly. He brought this heat, this precision, to Chi Cheng’s dominance that felt authentic and magnetic instead of forced. And it was hot. Like, dangerously hot.

But it wasn’t just the dominance. Tian’s emotional work was just as strong as Ziyu’s. If Ziyu’s masterpiece was Episode 19, then Tian’s was Episode 18. The way he broke in that episode...the tears, my god. This is a character who walks through the world in total control, and Tian made you feel the weight of losing that control, just for the person he loves. That’s not easy to pull off AT ALL.

And TBH these performances weren’t just good separately. The magic was in how they fed off each other. Ziyu’s vulnerability made Tian’s protectiveness hit harder. Tian’s dominance made Ziyu’s surrender feel more powerful.

I honestly think that’s why this drama will stick with me forever. Not just because of the story or the characters, but because Ziyu and Tian Xuning made me believe in them. They made me care about them like they were real. They made every high higher, every low lower.

I am ruined for other BLs. I am ruined for other actors. And I will die on this hill: what they did here was lightning in a bottle, and I don’t think we’ll see anything quite like it again.

I will say this though...the quality is not high. There are definitely moments where the execution wobbles, where the plot could’ve been tighter, where certain scenes feel a little rushed or undercooked. I know for some people, that might be enough to knock it down a few points. But I rate shows based on my enjoyment, and those flaws were barely registered while I was watching.

Because MY ENJOYMENT WAS THROUGH THE ROOF. Like, I was floating. I didn’t care about shaky pacing or low-budget moments, I cared about them. The chemistry, the growth, the obsession, the way they made me feel like I was living inside their story… that’s what I’ll remember forever.

So yeah. I’m giving it a 10. Not because it’s “perfect” by objective standards, but because for me, it was. I will forever love them. I miss them already. I adore them in a way that makes me want to rewatch every single second just to feel that high again.

ꨄ

I am devastated to let them go.

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Unhinged Revenge Gone Wrong but Right!

My 10 years journey with Counterattack came to an end, a happy one. still remember the first time I came across this story the snakes, the adorable yet chaotic Wu Suowei, and the wild energy that stuck with me ever since. This revenge story with a mix of humor, light chaos, emotional tension and pain keeps you wanting more. The setup is wild but somehow works it leans into the drama without taking itself too seriously, and that’s what makes it entertaining.

The actors are fitting for their roles and their chemistry feels natural they did amazing. The dynamic between Wu Suowei and the doctor is a highlight their unhinged ideas and friendship had me laughing more than once with their hit or miss revenge schemes. Every character here pulled me into their world and perspective of thinking.

Chi Cheng, this wild beast with the softest heart, you wouldn’t expect that from him. Guo Chengyu in this drama is breathtaking; his forest is greener than I imagined, especially in the way he treated Xiaoshuai just perfect. And my lovely Xiaoshuai, his part of the story is so underrated. It’s the most painful one, and I wish they had explored it more, but everything was wrapped up neatly, so we’re good.


It’s also refreshing to see a storyline that flips typical romance tropes. Instead of a straightforward love story, we’re getting an unusual revenge, unexpected feelings all wrapped up in a way that’s still fun to watch. Shortly a messy love triangle but you can mix and match anyone with anyone! Honestly, it feels like this is the kind of BL I’ve missed for a while Chinese BLs coming back with that old spark.

Note:
-This series is dubbed if you didn't know or found something off, all Chinese dramas are dubbed by the cast or professionally fyi but they good.
-Make sure to read the tags for trigger warning.

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Duplicitous & Wrong

Watching this series is an experience. An inviting one. While it never felt deep and presented somewhat tongue-in-cheek, it is far more veiled than its flippant appearance. It has hidden messages everywhere, often disguised and gravied in humor and heartfelt tugs. It also had all the discerning elements of a love story, which tends to make the theme ‘ok’ The series was like watching a comic book story come alive. We kind of knew these people were not real and their problems and issues were all manufactured, with their solutions assembled right out of the trite and cliché playbook. But it was just so much fun to watch, right? Now let us talk at length about the baseness of this series, which I am sorry to say negates its positives. It is not necessarily out in-the-open but camouflaged and easily glossed over. Frankly, I am shocked that it is being given such a free pass. Interestingly, this series romanticized a sex-crazed, sexual abuser who treated people like they were his personal pets (snakes) along with a manipulative loser who is focused on revenge and getting what he wants using questionable if not illegal methods. And for this, they are praised and regarded as a beacon of BL romances? There are obvious rape and forced nonconsensual sex scenes throughout in this series that is appalling and no amount of ‘cuteness’ can cover that up. In case one needs to be reminded, simply because one is male and the perpetrator is male, it is still RAPE when sex is forced upon that individual! No in any way shape, form, or statement is NO! Otherwise, it is sexual abuse. Treating individuals as if they were property to do with as you wish, is reprehensible and vile. Overall, the way gayness is portrayed is demeaning and derogatory in so many other ways as well. It is hard not to ‘like’ this series but intrinsically, one has to force oneself to do so. The concept is called “Cognitive Dissonance.” Look it up. Become familiar with its meaning as it is important when those of us are trying to point out the something that seems ‘ok’ is not, especially in the BL world of fantasy. This is not love. Its message is wrong, and it is morally reprehensible and misguided. Rape is rape Forced sex is sexual abuse. Treating gay people like a commodity or stereotypically is plainly amoral. Cajoling and brow-beating through physical and emotional force to have sex or ‘like’ you is not courting nor romance. It is bullying.

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what?

I refuse to believe anyone over the age of 14 actually enjoys this show. How the hell did this show manage to gain a 8.6 rating? The amount of people that hype this show up despite the overwhelming SA (which the show tries to pass off as "romantic") and literal GANG RAPE that happens in the first episode is concerning. Just because a bl has two actors that are comfortable with ""romance scenes"" does not automatically make a show good, holy shit. The term "morally ambiguous" gets thrown around a lot from the positive feedback I've read on this forum.. and I fear bl fans do not actually understand that character trope.

Aside from those VERY glaring issues, the plot is just all over the place--it's like the author/director wanted to keep milking the story instead of letting it end. The story should have ended after the whole wang shuo debacle.. because what do you mean chi cheng's dad decides to randomly kidnap wu suo wei AND chi cheng randomly gets framed for tax evasion?? like what the hell are we even talking about anymore??

I really couldn't bring myself to gaf about any of the characters in this show because of how flat they are. I could not understand wu suo wei's motivations a lot of the time.. or even the rest of the cast's motivations for that matter. I think the only character I sort of cared about was wu suo wei's mom.. but even she died.. like damn I can't have shit in this house!

The only positive aspects I can bring myself to mention is that the production quality is okay.. and the cast fit their roles? I guess? Some moments made me laugh here and there but I think that was a form of coping via stockholm syndrome rather than genuine enjoyment. This may not be the worst bl released but it's definitely at the bottom of the list for me.

I could have dropped this show at any point, but I guess I'm too much of a "hater" at heart to explain why this show is complete ass without watching it to the end. I can only end this by saying "to each their own" to protect my own peace.

TLDR; if a bl fan recommends you revenged love--run far away from them.

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Entertaining to watch but red flags...

Let me start with all the red flags that show has:
While I get to be pissed off if you are betrayed, there is no reason to get someone raped. The toxic behaviour of Chi Cheng who forced the rape is also disturbing. The elefant in the room is the "hetero to gay" tropé which at least is disrespectful to all gays out in the world and of course complete bullshit. To let Wu Suo Wei be called "aunt" by his bf nephew is also disrespectful and unnecessary.

Because this is a chinese show, they lip-sync everything because there are hundreths of dialects of Mandarin and that causes inconsistencies with fore/background audio and sometimes it felt off. Also I felt the quality of the writing declined and the last episodes fell flat. I'm also not happy that they cut the "top" thing from the book. Chi Cheng let Wei top him to prove his love for him which made it a powerful statement, but we don't get to see that in the finale which was also unusual short.

I can't agree that all the red flags are a reason to rate this show with a 1.0. Compared to "My Stubborn" this was on the mild side in the toxic behaviour. In said show the ML forced his sexual drive on his partner but Chi Cheng at least restrained himself..

The production quality was very good indeed. Of course all the MLs are also eye-candy and their acting was good, but due the lip-syncing some of the acting felt a bit cringe and unnatural (the little nephew of Chi Cheng was horrible for example). The most impressive acting was by a side character Wang Shou played by Liu Jun which really had an impact, but his story felt it does not have a real closure. The same goes with dad & son or if the family did finally embrace Wei. So all in all, it was still entertaining to watch, but storywise this show does not even come close to other chinese BLs like "Stay With Me (2023)", "Blue Canvas of Youthful Days (2024)" and "Secrets Happened on the Litchi Island (2025)".

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Counterattack

As I'm entitled to give my opinion regarding the previous rating which was 1 star based on that person's snake phobia, I would like to tell the audience that this is a great show and I'm looking forward to see the next 22 episodes. 10 stars for me. Please don't forget to rate the show and preferably after you watched a few episodes. Thank you. I need more characters so...⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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Disappointed!

When I started watching this drama I didn't expect it was going to be that explicit - even when actors don't "show" much of their own bodies, the scenes and acting speak louder than sight.
If there is something I hate the most is the abuse to others... in this story, even when it seems they "love" each other, there is always abuse to the other partner - and Sexual abuse is the worst abuse any human being can perform to the other part.
The scenes when they have their 'first' sexual encounter was shocking to me... I was enjoying the drama because they respect each other until the time, the leading person (in the relationship) "decided" that it was enough and couldn't wait any longer.... and takes the other by force - - I absolutely hate that part - mostly because if was not consensual and because he continue to rape his partner over and over after that....
From that moment on, I started to dislike and not follow those actors.... even when they are just "acting", these dramas are absolutely not a good example to many kids who have access to watch these types of dramas.... it incites many to do the same to others.... it incites rape as normal....

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If this is a good BL, then I don't know what is bad

I actually read this novel about 12yrs ago, when I'm a teenager, and I remember liking it, I remember watching the first adaptation too, call 《逆袭》in 2015, and at that time my frontal lope and the society hasn't been developed like today, I find nothing wrong with the novel or the drama, I think its so romantic, and I love me a ruthless man like Chi Cheng, I think the love he has for Wu Suo Wei is so deep and strong. But now, after 10 years, after reread the novel and watch this adaptation, I realize I've grown so much, as an adult, I didn't find this story romantic at all, just pure cringyness and problematic.
This story was made by Chai Ji Dan, the same author who wrote Addicted, in her stories lied so much misogyny, the woman is always bad, even if they get cheated on, r*pe or beaten, it's because they're "deserve it", and the main characters (especially the Top) is always right, and they have a sad background, so everything they do get justify, they can order people gang ra*ping someone, and that's cool and manly in her eyes. She also love the trope "turn someone straight into gay" or "I'm not gay but I love you", that just pure straight girl fantasies about gay man. She wrote BL stories for teenage girl, even thou her work and herself is really problematic ( if you follow her from her early work you would know why), but base on this piece popularity, i guess it's reach the target audience, just not me. I purely watch this because of the reminiscent of my younger self, and I'm glad I know better now, I know what a good BL look like, I know what type of media is advocate for LGBT+ helping the queer community, and it's certainly not this.

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Most overrated drama of 2025

Revenged Love was a hot pile of garbage with the occasional good scene / plot line here or there.

24 episodes of a ridiculous story and a plot that went from one place to another with no consistency,
some parts of it were enjoyable and had potential but it was ruined so quickly by over dramatic twists.

I do not know if I should fully blame the actors but they felt so robotic, I partially contribute this to the dubbing. I understand that it is often a standard practice for Chinese dramas but the audio mix was so horrible it took me out of most scenes.

The production in general follows the Chinese trend of having clearly a big budget that was utilised badly. The result was obvious in some nicely but uninspired filming of scenes, combined with horrible editing and childish writing.

Sure all 4 main actors were cute and it had some "spicy" ( sorry but some were so cringe ) is that all it takes for people to rate dramas 10 these days?

P.S. Forgot to mention that the main couple did have some chemistry but ... their emotional connection was so weird, super violent guy, sexually abuses a poor guy that has such low self esteem that emotionally attaches to him YIIIKES is this love ???? sure ...

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THIS IS YOUR SIGH TO GO WATCH IT NOW.

can we please talk about how perfect this series is? like they chose the perfect actors with the best chemistry. ‼️
probably the BEST bl of the year for me, i really love ittt 🫶🏻🫶🏻
i rewatched ep 5 like 1000th time, so gooood 🔝
and another thing that i love is that it has 24 eps of around 40/50 minutes, what more could we wish for? 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
i really understand the hype for this series because its just PERFECT.
and finally we can see chinese bl drama after a lot of years, and they really did a great job.
LOVE IT. 🫶🏻

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Crazy how a whole community is ignoring the lack of consent

Let me start bt saying, the casting director did an insane job in casting fitting people for the different roles. And I mean no hate to the actors at all (love them)
I also find the way they incorporated snakes to show different sides of Chi Chengs personality an amazing idea.

Now, how is it, that this show is at a whopping 8.9 rating, when Da Bao is literally SA’d at least twice every episode?

He is putting on an act of liking Chi Cheng. Yes. Fair.
However, Chi Cheng is ignoring and overstepping Da Bao’s COMMUNICATED boundaries more than I want to count.

There literally is a scene in the beginning (Episode 1, I think) where Chi Cheng gives his Men the ‘ok’ to gang R* someone that did him wrong.

That’s not a morally grey character. That’s an abuser. And, what, everyone happens to be ok with it?

Why, genuinely? I cannot wrap my head around a whole community sitting and watching comfortably, even praising a character that repeatedly SAs his ‘lover’…I literally cannot watch this any longer because it makes me feel insanely uncomfortable

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