This drama is like joy of life level of strategy/scheming + blood of youth comradeship + three body style mystery. What a fantastic watch! Hope there’s a season two.
Only part I didn’t understand was Bai liyuan being shocked that the mirage got destroyed cos he seemed to be in control of everything, was that due to his lack of knowledge regarding the reversal as well as the consequence being mirage destroyed?
As a veteran drama watcher, I always took pride in seeing twists before they happen. But wow this drama really made me surprised over and over again, twists are really good and what a clever plot! Highly recommend to anyone who loves a good sci fi story filled with unpredictable twists.
Changed my original thoughts after I rewatched the ending. Stop reading here if you haven’t seen the ending.
This is what I gathered from the ending.
We see the drama screenwriter (ren Zhuang Liu) typing out the script for “书卷一梦 (a dream within a dream)” and answering the call from director 郭虎 Guo Hu who is the actual director of this show. This means that both the costume world (with yimeng and Nan Heng) as well as the modern world (with xiaoyu and Nan Feng and the male screenwriter bixiong) are fake and fully created by the real screenwriter. The script xiaoyu was reading was titled “清宁一梦 (a dream of qingning)”.
Upon rewatch, I realized the original script xiaoyu was reading (清宁一梦 a dream of qingning） before she fell asleep had been changed when she woke (became 书卷一梦 a dream within a dream). It could be the characters in the costume world awakened and changed their ending, and the script travelling xiaoyu also awakened and managed to change her ending together with Nan Heng who travelled through the mysterious portal (you could see background is the imperial garden)
Breaking down the layers:
1. A dream of qingning 清宁一梦: costume characters like the song family awakened and led their own independent lives. Bixiong wrote this script and disrespected the characters. 2. Dream within a dream A 书卷一梦a: characters are xiaoyu who travelled into the script of a dream of qingning, bixiong, nan Feng, the managers etc. Characters like xiaoyu also awakened and things changed like the name of the script they are acting. Nan Heng successfully travelled from layer 1 to layer 2 to be with xiaoyu and to ensure all intimate scenes are done with him instead of Nan Feng? Drama version ren Zhuang Liu wrote this script and disrespected the characters as just fictional. 3. Dream within a dream B 书卷一梦b: the layer drama screenwriter ren Zhuang Liu and drama director Guo Hu are in. It is implied that they are also part of a bigger script since we could see ‘time reversal’ happening to drama ren Zhuang Liu. 4. Real life: The layer we are in. Where ‘real life’ ren Zhuang Liu wrote the script and Guo Hu directed it. But this is what we perceive as real life, what if we are also part of another script? How much of our fate is within our control or is already predetermined?
Omg layer within a layer within a layer within a layer and possibly even more to come. I wonder if I got it right.
It gets philosophical and makes me ponder on how I’d live my life. Don’t we sometimes feel like NPC/nameless side characters in our lives?
Truly multi-layered and nanheng was absolutely right that xiaoyu is also a fictional character in her modern world. This also effectively allows them to escape china censorship and allow nanheng to travel to where xiaoyu is and have their own happily ever after. I choose to believe Nan Heng is a separate person from Nan Feng.
Your explanation helps... Clearer for us who cannot read chinese characters.. Maybe that is the weak point of…
Yeah actually the subtitles appeared for a split second that the script xiaoyu was reading was ‘a dream of qingning’ while the script the female screenwriter was typing was ‘a dream within a dream’. That’s the only way the non-Chinese reader could catch it. It’s a lot more obvious to Chinese readers like me because even though the script book looked exactly the same, the titles printed on them were obviously different.
Hi I realize the ending might not be very clear for non-Chinese speakers. This is my take on it. Spoiler ahead for ending stop reading if you haven’t watched
This is what I gathered from the ending.
We see the real screenwriter typing out the script for “书卷一梦” and answering the call from director 郭虎 who is the actual director of this show. This means that both the costume world (with yimeng and Nan Heng) as well as the modern world (with xiaoyu and Nan Feng and the male screenwriter) are fake and fully created by the real screenwriter. The script xiaoyu was reading was titled “清宁一梦”. This also means the post-credit scene is also part of the “书卷一梦” script. Truly multi-layered and nanheng was absolutely right that xiaoyu is also a fictional character in her modern world. This also effectively allows them to escape china censorship and allow nanheng to travel to where xiaoyu is and have their own happily ever after. I choose to believe Nan Heng is a separate person from Nan Feng.
Overall I thought the drama started strong, got quite draggy in the middle and ended off really really strong. Absolutely loved how they included all the ‘nameless side characters’ as part of the fight against cgh. I loved how they overturned the commonly used tropes and had their own fresh spin to it. The 路人甲/乙丙no one cares about were the main reason and turning point that led to cgh’s failure. The wives that were independent and could think and live their own fulfilling lives while their husbands had to pander to them. The totally surmountable multi-class diff gap when yimeng’s servant pursued Nan rui. The OSTs were superb and lyrics witty.
Enjoyable watch overall and one of the strongest endings in cdramaland in my opinion..
The untamed, joy of life, hidden love. These are the only 3 dramas I’ve rewatched after they ended so far and are my top 3. Blossom? I’ve rewatched episodes even before it ends. Incoming top 1? Praying it maintains this quality till the end.
On a side note low key annoyed how I got iqiyi subscription but can’t find this drama there because it’s on viu in my region ><
I'm currently at ep 13 of HL, so far it's nice but still hasn't met the expectations that inevitably come with…
I personally watched HL first then when I fly towards you after seeing it's from the same novelist. While WIFTY was enjoyable (especially the friendship aspect), personally I enjoyed HL alot more, I felt the chemistry between the couple is alot better and the ML is a lot more charming. Think it comes down to a matter of preference eventually, there's no straightforward answer.
The novel has an extra chapter about their wedding night and it is marked with 18+ 😅
Heh apparently it isn’t included in the novel nor extras but posted on the author’s Weibo :) reason? Because it’s a 18+ scene on their wedding night that would have been censored :P
Chen Zheyuan weibo update~I will say goodbye to you today. I know, along the way, it's not easy for you, I've…
Just a correction, it should have been from ‘alone for a lifetime to only (with) one person for a lifetime’. In Chinese, both sentences have the exact wording and characters but the addition of the comma made the big difference
1 
Only part I didn’t understand was Bai liyuan being shocked that the mirage got destroyed cos he seemed to be in control of everything, was that due to his lack of knowledge regarding the reversal as well as the consequence being mirage destroyed?
This is what I gathered from the ending.
We see the drama screenwriter (ren Zhuang Liu) typing out the script for “书卷一梦 (a dream within a dream)” and answering the call from director 郭虎 Guo Hu who is the actual director of this show. This means that both the costume world (with yimeng and Nan Heng) as well as the modern world (with xiaoyu and Nan Feng and the male screenwriter bixiong) are fake and fully created by the real screenwriter. The script xiaoyu was reading was titled “清宁一梦 (a dream of qingning)”.
Upon rewatch, I realized the original script xiaoyu was reading (清宁一梦 a dream of qingning） before she fell asleep had been changed when she woke (became 书卷一梦 a dream within a dream). It could be the characters in the costume world awakened and changed their ending, and the script travelling xiaoyu also awakened and managed to change her ending together with Nan Heng who travelled through the mysterious portal (you could see background is the imperial garden)
Breaking down the layers:
1. A dream of qingning 清宁一梦: costume characters like the song family awakened and led their own independent lives. Bixiong wrote this script and disrespected the characters.
2. Dream within a dream A 书卷一梦a: characters are xiaoyu who travelled into the script of a dream of qingning, bixiong, nan Feng, the managers etc. Characters like xiaoyu also awakened and things changed like the name of the script they are acting. Nan Heng successfully travelled from layer 1 to layer 2 to be with xiaoyu and to ensure all intimate scenes are done with him instead of Nan Feng? Drama version ren Zhuang Liu wrote this script and disrespected the characters as just fictional.
3. Dream within a dream B 书卷一梦b: the layer drama screenwriter ren Zhuang Liu and drama director Guo Hu are in. It is implied that they are also part of a bigger script since we could see ‘time reversal’ happening to drama ren Zhuang Liu.
4. Real life: The layer we are in. Where ‘real life’ ren Zhuang Liu wrote the script and Guo Hu directed it. But this is what we perceive as real life, what if we are also part of another script? How much of our fate is within our control or is already predetermined?
Omg layer within a layer within a layer within a layer and possibly even more to come. I wonder if I got it right.
It gets philosophical and makes me ponder on how I’d live my life. Don’t we sometimes feel like NPC/nameless side characters in our lives?
Truly multi-layered and nanheng was absolutely right that xiaoyu is also a fictional character in her modern world. This also effectively allows them to escape china censorship and allow nanheng to travel to where xiaoyu is and have their own happily ever after. I choose to believe Nan Heng is a separate person from Nan Feng.
This is what I gathered from the ending.
We see the real screenwriter typing out the script for “书卷一梦” and answering the call from director 郭虎 who is the actual director of this show. This means that both the costume world (with yimeng and Nan Heng) as well as the modern world (with xiaoyu and Nan Feng and the male screenwriter) are fake and fully created by the real screenwriter. The script xiaoyu was reading was titled “清宁一梦”. This also means the post-credit scene is also part of the “书卷一梦” script. Truly multi-layered and nanheng was absolutely right that xiaoyu is also a fictional character in her modern world. This also effectively allows them to escape china censorship and allow nanheng to travel to where xiaoyu is and have their own happily ever after. I choose to believe Nan Heng is a separate person from Nan Feng.
Overall I thought the drama started strong, got quite draggy in the middle and ended off really really strong. Absolutely loved how they included all the ‘nameless side characters’ as part of the fight against cgh. I loved how they overturned the commonly used tropes and had their own fresh spin to it. The 路人甲/乙丙no one cares about were the main reason and turning point that led to cgh’s failure. The wives that were independent and could think and live their own fulfilling lives while their husbands had to pander to them. The totally surmountable multi-class diff gap when yimeng’s servant pursued Nan rui. The OSTs were superb and lyrics witty.
Enjoyable watch overall and one of the strongest endings in cdramaland in my opinion..
On a side note low key annoyed how I got iqiyi subscription but can’t find this drama there because it’s on viu in my region ><