julwa

A very comfortable drama to watch. My impression is that for most of the time it's a calm drama: not much happens, there are no twists or edge-of-your-seat tension. A relaxed, pleasant drama.

I'll start with the main couple: Zheng Shu Yi & Shi Yan. Feelings develop between them fairly quickly, and the whole relationship (apart from the crisis) is built in a pleasant, unhurried way. They had great chemistry and tension, which made up for the fact that their kisses were heavily censored, although the kisses themselves were great too (they could have been even better without the censorship :D). I liked that Shi Yan was a cold CEO on paper, but in reality he could provoke and flirt quite boldly. They also both had great jealousy scenes. I liked how they supported each other in their careers and wanted to shine together.

For most of the drama I also really liked Zheng Shu Yi. Female leads often suffer from a lack of personality, and I liked her feisty character; she was practically my favorite character. The first crisis between us came when the crisis between them came up. I understand that she was the one who "ran after" him from the start and was the one who tried harder at the beginning, but I wasn't a fan of the narrative that in that crisis, he was the one who should have fought for them and was in the wrong for shutting her out. To me, his behavior was human. What struck me as odd, though, was that for a long time she practically didn't fight to explain the truth to him and to be forgiven. No messages, no visits to him. She only did it after a while, and even then not fully and not well. Instead of apologizing first and explaining the past, she opened with saying she hopes this won't affect their business cooperation. No wonder he had the right to be angry :D. The second aspect in which she annoyed me was her relationship with Yi Yang. She supposedly rejected him from the start, but at the same time kept meeting him outside of work, giving him some hope and fueling his desire to compete. You just don't do that.

I also didn't necessarily like the blind dates storyline. Maybe I don't understand this motif, because in my country there's no such circus, but I didn't like that she was seeing/dating Shi Yan while still going on dates with Yu You. And the whole blind date topic itself also vanished out of nowhere at some point and never appeared again. I also thought her mother would be happier and more enthusiastic when she found out that Shu Yi was seeing Shi Yan, but it came out somewhat unemotional, which didn't quite match her character as established from the start.

Small nitpicks from me that don't matter much for the rating, but stuck with me:
- Shi Yan never revealed to Shu Yi the truth about their real first meeting
- As a payback, Shi Yan never found out the truth about what her "coded" (accidental) message meant, the one he spent several hours on, asking everyone about it
- I still don't know whether they've already had the proposal or not. I interpreted a scene in the last episode as a proposal (she also said she was a wife), and then at the wedding, in everyone's conversation, it came out as if the proposal hadn't happened yet, and now I don't know what's going on

I'll also stop at the professional storyline (mainly Shi Yan and Zheng Shu Yi). Let me start with: am I interested in investments? No. Am I interested in them after this drama? Also no. It wasn't an ultra-interesting storyline for me, but at the same time it wasn't extremely boring or skip-worthy either. The dark horse storyline and Le'an especially caught my interest. Though I'm probably not fully a fan of their collaboration. I secretly hoped Shi Yan would beat the brat. Journalism is personally more interesting to me, but here, apart from the storyline of her interview with Shi Yan, it didn't grab me that much either, though it wasn't extremely boring. I was more interested only in the introduction of her online edition. I hoped this motif would be developed a bit more at the end. Purely professionally, I liked Qin Shi Yue's storyline, which was the most interesting in my opinion: her initial laziness and reluctance to work, developing into a desire to become a journalist.

Now I'll move on to the second couple: Bi Ruo Shan & Guan Ji. Personally, the outline of their relationship was the most interesting for me. I'm a fan of people who don't want to commit to a relationship but fall in love with each other. At the beginning, for most of the time I liked how their relationship progressed. I liked the chemistry between the actors, the tension in the air, the games and the budding jealousy. Sometimes I was even waiting for the scenes with them the most. But ultimately, I consider the moment they got into a relationship wasted potential. It didn't hook me the way I thought it would. I also missed their scenes after they got together; I had the impression that they completely vanished from the screen. A pity.

Next, the third couple: Qin Shi Yue & Yu You. At the beginning I had the impression that Shi Yue would be a lifeline for him (which I wouldn't have stood, because I really liked her character), but fortunately the writers handled it well, and I didn't even get that feeling. Overall, they excited me the least of the three, but at the same time they had a friendly vibe that you rooted for. On the plus side were the scenes where she tried to flirt with him, and the scenes of his budding jealousy/irritation. Maybe I hoped for some bigger, short-lived fireworks from Shi Yan's reaction to their relationship, but actually there wasn't even much of a reaction. I also hoped Yu You would suffer a bit more from her distancing herself after he rejected her so many times, but he got lucky and karma never came back to him.

I'll single out one more trait of Shi Yue, namely putting obstacles in the way of her uncle and Zheng Shu Yi. She had an outstanding talent for it, and I personally found the moments amusing when she wanted to help but unintentionally did harm.

Now I'll move on to the two less important couples that formed in the background.
1. Guan Xiang Cheng & Tang Yi - a fine couple as background. Even with interesting potential. I was a bit disappointed at the moment of the announcement. Throughout the drama their storyline revolved around that, and at the end it was completely downplayed and made unimportant.
2. Kong Nan & Chen Sheng - they were practically not on screen, but I'm highlighting them for two reasons. First, I liked the apartment rental scene and somewhat hoped we'd get more of them on screen. And second, I missed any announcement of their relationship to others. Nothing like that happened until the end.

Now I'll discuss Shu Yi's ex-cheater: Yue Xing Zhou. I won't write too much here, because he was simply a loser, but I'm incredibly glad that literally everyone couldn't care less about him. He was fired from his job, beaten up by Zheng Su, rejected by Shu Yi. And the cherry on top was that even Yi Yang rejected him. I only wonder what his further fate with Qin Le Zhi looked like. And as for Qin Le Zhi herself, I also wonder what her further fate was, because from what I understood, she was fired too?

Finally, I'll stop at the character of Yi Yang. Honestly, I wasn't a fan of the brat. I don't like characters who relentlessly pursue someone who is in a relationship with someone else and try to win them over, when the other party clearly doesn't want it and is happy in the relationship with someone else. But don't worry, I have Never-Ending Summer on my list, so karma for annoying me will come back to him when I see him suffer.