I'm a huge fan of dark romance, so I was really excited for this series. However, personally, I just don't like the execution here - like, at all. It feels empty and shallow and done for the sake of doing it. Take the rape scene: if you remove it, nothing will change at all because it had zero impact. The almost-slap is enough to show the gradual progression of toxicity. I don't mind the scene itself; I mind that it seemed to change nothing, even though it should have. After all, it's the first major instance of abuse between these characters.

You called Lu Feng the king of black flags, but that's not how he feels to me. I don't feel consistency, the foundation for their love and obsession, the progression of his darker feelings, etc. He feels like an awkward, surface-level mix of traits common among MLs in dark romances.

I think the series is not for me, sadly, but I'll stick around for now because I want to see how we go from here to the scenes from the trailer. I do love the actors' attitude to their characters; the BTS s are adorable.

"Take the rape scene: if you remove it, nothing will change at all because it had zero impact."

What are you watching? Literally if you take it out, it will change everything, for example, if LF would just talk it out with YC during the office fight when YC asked to resign, YC wouldn't have ran away back to his brother, and that is just the direct impact from the action, not the long term effect that literally tattered their whole relationship at the end. This is not some CJD works like CA/RL or Addicted, you took the assault, every thing changes. A lot of the stuffs, the scars in YC's psyche would've been avoided if LF could just calm down for a second instead of resulting to violence.

KSM4:

"for example, if LF would just talk it out with YC during the office fight when YC asked to resign, YC wouldn't have ran away back to his brother"

You call this a meaningful consequence? He could literally run away back to his brother because he refused to listen to Lu Feng's explanations about their separation. This was what he was actually hurt about most, ridiculous as it was (since if he knew Lu Feng at all, he'd know it wasn't his choice to leave, and any people would have a basic conversation here no matter how angry they are). The first rape brought absolutely nothing into their dynamic, considering how it was never brought up and how they got back together quickly after that. Nothing will change if you take it away.

girl, I said "direct impact" literally the next sentence I said, "that literally tattered their whole relationship at the end."

I guess the problem isn't you not reading, but you just cherry picking things that fit your narrative like you did with my arguments.

Remove the first assault and LF would've force YC to had sex with him earlier during their office era. That scene was to show you LF would be a better man if he stayed with YC, that he didn't have to be the bad person/monster(in the novel) that he was when the school and the parents separate him for YC. That scene was to show you that they were good to each other, that LF were willing to listen and fix himself. That of LF carrying YC on his back was the memory YC always remembered during their 5/20 years of separation that made YC couldn't forget LF. This implicitly is the reason why his heart still loves LF after those years, because he believes that LF is the capable man who might do bad thing, but is capable of realizing and apologizing when he hurt YC.

That's also the reason why LF, during the office era, was being coy and push and pull with YC, making sure that YC still loves him and wants him before he made his move was because of the first time they had sex and YC didn't like he was being forced.

I can tell you pretty much, other than the whole things that happened during the kidnapping which sole purpose was to hurt YC, the SAs pretty much had a lot of impact to the story from beginning to the end. Lanlin is not Chai JiDan, this is not Addicted, or Counterattack/Revenged Love.

Yes

KSM4:

"That scene was to show you that they were good to each other, that LF were willing to listen and fix himself."

Are we still talking about the assault?.. Sorry, I truly don't understand what you're trying to say.

Yes, the first sex a.k.a sexual assault where LF forced YC to had sex with him during their high school years because he believed people in love would want to had sex with each other, but LF didn't consider YC's feelings about the whole things.

Again, did you watch the show?

I am genuinely asking because I think you watch the show, but the answer to your arguments has always been in the shows, and it's not something you have to deeply think about it either.

KSM4:

I was talking about the office assault... and so were you since you mentioned Yichen running away to his brother. Also, I'm still not sure what your point even is. Let's look at it this way: do you think rape is what destroyed their relationship at any point? Did it ever cause any serious, long-term arguments between them? Did they ever discuss it as a huge problem in their relationship?

Oh my God, My whole point is, that the if you removed the SA, as I had pointed out, it would change the story massively, unlike what you said!

And Yes! Literally the whole act 3 was the impact of the SAs that LF did to YC. The state of both LF and YC's psyche was because of it!

"Did they ever discussed it?" Exactly my point as to why their relationship was in tattered because of it, because they were afraid if they talk about it all hell broke loose. (This is also the major point in the sequel of the book, when they do talk about it, it ended up with YC tried to kill LF).

No, it's fine, I think I already learned that it's impossible to have a discussion with a person who cherry-picks what they wanted to read/watch/hear,