Wing3dBean

There's always something that draws me to a drama. For this, it was an edit I saw on Twitter. I saw Jianglai on his knees, looking up at Shanbao with those pleading puppy dog eyes, and they had me. Hook, Line & Sinker. Then I found out there was a reverse harem element to it and... Yeah, there was no hope for me. I was going to see this to the end. And that, I did.

🫖What I Liked🫖
🥰The Female Lead - They told me that I was getting a cold and cunning female lead, and they delivered. Throughout the show, Shanbao remains clever (and manipulative), maneuvering not only the men seeking to woo her, but also the tea business, and her very complicated family dynamics. Not once did I feel like she fell back and let the ML run the show. True to her family's traditions, the women are at the helm. And that's where she stayed till the end.

🥰 The Male Lead - Now, if we start talking about my love for male submissives, we'd spend all day here. All you should know is that they have a very special place in my heart. And my 'God, when?' prayer is still very much alive and well in this aspect.
Aside from the perfectly submissive man that Jianglai is, he's also smart and useful. My fear going into this was that he'd 'hide behind her skirts', always waiting for her to save him. Not only can he stand on his own, but he's also clever, ambitious, loving, dedicated, and cares about her business. Lu Jianglai's puppy-dog eyes may have brought me into this show, but his taking the time to learn about the tea business and help out where needed, without having to be told, won me over.

🥰The 5th Sister - Would I say I loved YunShu? No. But she was by far the most interesting of Shanbao's sisters. Miss Ma'am had me suspicious and freaking out for like 22 episodes. A true definition of a snake in the grass. She was also really smart. I respect smart characters, regardless of whether they are the villain or not.

🥰The sisters' relationship - In the beginning, it was tumultuous, at best. Over time, however, it evolves into what true sisterhood is. All the ladies grow, understand each other, and change, leading to a united Rong family. The kind that their ancestors had created and hoped for, for their future generations.

🥰The tea tidbits that were shown at the end of some episodes - I'm from a predominantly tea-drinking country but we have NOTHING over China. I mean, I didn't think we had anything close to them, but those tidbits showed me just how vast the difference is. The history of tea in China is truly vast and rich. Incredible

🫖Things I Didn't Like/Appreciate🫖
👵🏻Grandmother - Listen, I am all for respecting your elders, but this woman.... Yo! She had me heated. She was out here, increasing my blood pressure from how utterly horrible she was. YunShu and I might not have agreed on a bunch of things, but I was squarely on her side when she mentioned that their grandmother was basically the root of all evil. At least in their family.

She was supposed to guide the sisters. Help foster their relationships not just for their good but also for the good of the family legacy and traditions. But no, she made 1 mistake back when she was young, and her embarrassment over that became every generation's problem after that. Not only did she become like those rich snobby nobles, but she, a woman from a matriarchal home, becomes patriarchal - the biggest sin of all IMO. Believing that the man, the match between her daughters and some man determines their success as a family. She had zero faith in her family members

That person who called granny a 'dusty bag of bones' was on to something. She's entirely horrible, callous, and so judgmental towards her family. Let's not even start on how loudly she insulted a child of 4/5 years. I'm too young for a blood pressure medication prescription.

📚The story from episode 26, but largely from ep 30 - I would try to leave a note after every episode or every 2 episodes. However, after episode 25, I stopped. Clearly, that's where my excitement for the show started waning. But I think the biggest letdown was from ep 30. I don't quite know what the point of Jianglai's 2nd (and apparently OG) family was for.
At 1st, I thought they wanted to highlight the sad reality of the women from this time. The Rong family is obviously the exception, being matriarchal in a patriarchal society.

A quote that stuck with me from this arc was said by the duke's wife. It partly states
"Even if her father committed a grave mistake and disobeyed her grandmother's orders, as a daughter, she should kneel and beg again and again. Even if it meant not eating or drinking, starving to death. She should have sought her grandmother's forgiveness."
It clearly shows how the women of this time were expected to pay for the sins of the men in their lives. And were even punished for them. I thought that this was the point. To show the stark difference in how the Rong family treated both their men and women, and how the rest of the world did.

However, as the arc unfolds, things get weird, with the biggest issue being that Shanbao and Jianglai no longer work together. She seemed to be making decisions for him, doing that whole 'I'm hurting him to protect him from him/myself'. I fucking hate that trope. And then it was a family drama/murder mystery.... It was a lot, and for what?

All in all, I didn't appreciate those last 7 episodes. It felt like they used it to increase the viewer's anxiety about whether Shanbao and Jianglai would make it to the end together. Instead of all that, we should've gotten the final ACTUAL wedding, and a glimpse into the sisters' stories with their men. Namely, Yunshu & Bai Yi Sheng, Xiang Ling & Zhu Sheng (Jiang Lai's deputy. I'm making the executive decision that they belong together), as well as YunXi & her baby daddy ( I forget his name)