Nah, it wasn't. I have read smut. 

 Isabella Snow:

novel was a smut. dark sexy male lead fantasy.

TBH I want to like the drama more (in general , I prefer dramas to their novel versions) but for some reason, book Wei Shao seems smarter than the show version, which is a bit frustrating. In the show, when he hears that Manman ran of with Liu Yan, he automatically assumes the worst and issues orders to have her killed on site. She could have died, but good thing he finds out in time that she helped him :/ Book Wei Shao is angry but asks her for an explanation.

Later, when they have that problem with the tampered box...show Wei Shao just loses it and tries to strangle her...whereas book Wei Shao is angry, but he has a certain inkling...then he goes to his mother's chambers and invents a lie about giving the box to Manman and already showing her how to open it. He lies and says that Manman already put her jewelry in the box and and that the jewelry was stolen...after lying, he starts to observe everyone's facial expressions and finally figures it out...this is before Manman shows him that she knows how to open the box. It's like he's more cunning and knows how to deal with people and tricksters better.