LMoon

On my part I am with you here. It was a turning point for me when he forced her to give him the control of what is the purpose of her life at the moment, and the way he did it, unscrupulous and brutal.
I am on ep 22 and never got pass this and this move has tainted badly all the rest of the progression of their relationship as far as I am concerned.
Anyhow I think I am the very minority here so maybe you won’t feel this way.

For the rest things will get better for her. She will still face a lot of problem but it’s ok, the worst is over now.

I do believe that the way you see it is how the writers intended these scenes to be seen. And it’s fine because otherwise I can just stop watching.

It’s just that I am particularly allergic to these tropes which flirt with the consent concept.
XS is the protagonist not the antagonist. If the drama choose to show him doing something morally grey I wish they had acknowledged it as such one way or another otherwise it becomes the standard.
Also, in my perspective, when she says no, for whatever reason, whether she is attracted to him or not, it’s still a no that should be respected.

Anyhow I am not saying that XS is a toxic ML. All these “issues” that I mentioned in my original comment, if taken one by one are not that significant. My annoyance results from the addition of all of them that generate an unpleasant and uncomfortable subtone to the romance.

Yes in ep 14 it is drunk JH who kissed XS because she thought he was Gao Yi.
There is another scene with drunk JH in ep 17 I think where it’s XS who kissed her.

I cannot believe that the screenwriter is a women !

Didn’t know the romance part would check so many wrong boxes in my book.

Kissing a girl while she is completely drunk
Force kiss her when the previous day she refused to kiss him
All this when just few days ago she said that she is in love with someone else !

When XS asks her why she cares if they did it or not, the first thing that pops up in my mind is yes I care because I want to know if you took advantage from me when I was dead drunk, or simply I care because we never did it together before when I am in my conscious mind.
And then it becomes think about it, you care because may be you have feelings for me !

Is the girl consent a thing in this story ?


Why is it that when a girl refuses the advances of the boy she has to apologize for her behavior ?
You know the trope men are not responsible, women are harassed because they led them on ?
JH apologized after being forced kissed, then she had to apologize again when she rejected him !
This feels so wrong to me and the drama did it twice !


And then there is this thing about him being all powerful over her. He can pretty much take away everything from her.
In the scene of the dance, she is usually good dancer, yet she stumbled. It’s because she was not in the moment, she was pondering how to refuse him without upsetting him. She is fearful of his reaction, a bit like when she stood him up for the dinner. This is also why she apologized again and again when she rejected him.
This is not romantic. This is creepy to me !

And I can go on but it’s already too long …

I am with you on wanting to punch this man on his face by this ep.

I wouldn’t mind that much if he is just being all businesslike or insensitive with her, what I dislike is when he uses his dominant position to make her run unnecessary and to take advantages from her (changing his own conditions in the 20000 sales deal and forcing her to give up control of Tengyue).

Together with the fact as mentioned by SsJay that he precipitated the fall of Free Unicorn, i don’t want right now to see anything romantic happen between them.

You mentioned a very good point.
Not sure but I still hope that before the show ends this will be addressed properly and not brushed under the rug.

Despite my rant I do enjoy the drama
In fact it’s because I love it that I rant about it 😅

I hate this portrayal also … but according to the comments here, the description of this business world is apparently realistic and Xu Si, despite how you and I we both see him is a well beloved character to many !
I admit i dont know the Chinese society so … 🤷🏻‍♀️

But he is the ML ! I hope i can root for him before the drama ends … otherwise it would be too sad because GJ is my star crush for the time being.

I will just focus on the last part of your comment (it takes me time to write in English sorry 😬).

I have no doubt that this story is about the achievement of these two girls.
What i am reacting to is that this rise to power as you nicely put it is done under the “guidance” and protection of the MLs.

In the way the story is told, every single step of progress that JH made is thanks to XS.
Starting from he saved her life on the rooftop, then he gave her the pep talk and suggested her to find her own way which led to her decision to buy the Teng Yue brand.
She started with some ridiculous tricks (« women tantrums ») in order to convince him to rent her the factory until he ask her to present him with something more professional like a business plan. Then only she started to think more professionally about Teng Yue.
Then he asks her to sell 20000 pairs of shoes and then she learns how to sell (with advices from XS in the process of course)… etc
I don’t go into all the details but, together with the fact that he owns the land and now the control of Teng Yue, JH learning to become a capable business woman is entirely depending on XS’s good will, protection and mentoring.

ZY couldn’t stand up for herself in front of her toxic mum and YJ had to step in. She was quite defenseless against different types of harassment until XS gives her a way to do to protect herself.

This is what I call women infantilisation that is typical in patriarchy.

Of course this is just my own view. Everyone is watching with their own sensitivity and I respect that you don’t see things this way totally.

Att : Spoiler ep. 11/12 and below is quite anti-XuSi (I can’t stand him right now)


Didn’t XS go back on his words about letting JH rent the factory for 2 years and only pay at the end of these 2 years if she achieves to sell these 20000 shoes ?
Did I miss something ? Then why didn’t she get to question him about not keeping his promise and he gets to give her again a new ultimatum with new conditions on his terms ?

In fact I have started to think that the writing is very biased in favor of XS.
Another example : with Zhaoyang, when he was persuading her to come to TT Media he did promise her a safe environment to work in. Sure he was talking about sexual harassment but still, she accepted to show her face in the streaming and then had to face harassment in the internet where her personal life was being exposed due to an unsafe work environment.
And then the company does not punish the culprit (on XS demand) and she is told to get back to work. Who can say that similar thing won’t happen again as nobody has been punished ?
And then he got to scold her for being petty and making him lose his time when the one who is wronged here is her due to him not keeping his promise.


Something else, the power balance between XS and JH is so unbalanced that their interaction has tarted to trigger me the wrong way. Was it really necessary to give her such a short notice rdv ? or to make her travel with him in his car when she had her own car ? Could he just like that impose new conditions that he knew very well she couldn’t afford to refuse ? All this is abusing of his position toward someone weaker and I am not liking it one bit.

In fact, what irks me most is that the patriarchy vibe is too strong in this dramas. Both FL and SFL are damsel in distress and rely on the help of the ML and SML. Even if I guess they will have their glorious moment at one moment, but it will have been after the “guidance” and help of the ML/SML.

The rational, efficiency part in business is given to male characters, all the women are seen as acting under emotional motivation and not skilled in their business. ZY’s mother is a joke, XS’s mother factory loses money every month, XS’s ex is not good in her domain. XS scheming level is about business strategy, JH scheming level is about girls tricks, etc ….

I am still watching because I still enjoy this drama on the whole but it’s so frustrating sometime !

True there is this slap scene in the trailers … 🤞

I am glad that I am not alone.

The production aspects of this drama is really excellent and I am enjoying it a lot.
However I feel a little bit irritated by the way Xu Si is written.

It’s fine that he is a shark in business, following the business logic and rules without mercy and I’d love to see how he will evolve.
But for now to me he is not that different from the others who took advantage of the situation at Jiang Hu’s expense. Worse, it is hinted that he could also be the one who precipitated everything.

So I am not comfortable watching the scenes where we are supposed to see his kindness/concern towards her (the scene on the rooftop, giving her advice, giving her a ride).
All this seems to me very condescending and hypocritical because we do not see himself reflecting on his own part in her situation and feeling even just a little bit bad about it.

If a love story is supposed to happen between them, I hope (but I don’t believe) that this will be addressed and not brushed under the rug. For now I wouldn’t like to see Jiang Hu having anything romantic with this guy. It’s already hard to see her beg for his help.

I hope the drama will prove me wrong because I like Gong Jun a lot and he is really charismatic as Xu Si.

Yes it has its flaws … but I am already rewatching it 😅. There are plenty of details I didn’t notice the first time I watched.

I have read your review and almost all your comments here I believe lol. It’s always a pleasure to read you.

Tastes and colors are not the same for everybody, as far as I am concerned, this drama is simply one of the best I’ve watched in years.

Of course, having read the book, I agree that the adaptation could have been done better.
But all in all, the essence of what I like most personally in the novel is there, and there are even things that i prefer in the drama compared to the book.
Once I have dissociated the drama from the book I did enjoy the drama as it is immensely.

Yes, there are obvious flaws in the production level, but the aesthetic is right on point (outfits, settings, fight scenes) and, when it is required, the shooting achieves to deliver some glorious moments of grace with the right emotional impact. This drama is capable to entertain and stir emotions in me without anything that usually irk me in a drama. This happens so rarely with me that’s why I gave it 10.
There are dramas with S+ qualities and actors I like that I couldn’t completed because I got so annoyed watching it.

About the writing, even if it deviates a lot from the source material and skips large parts of it, the story is consistent by itself. The characterization of all the characters and their relationships is quite clear and each of them acts and evolves throughout the story in a consistent and organic way. I grew attached surprisingly to a lot of them (including Ji Li, I love Ji Li 😁).

And finally the cast, probably the strongest element of the drama. All the actors fit their role perfectly (maybe not the young LMX who seems too young to me).

This is my first time watching Dilraba and I have to say that I am impressed. She is hilarious in the first part. Her face is very mobile and her expressions are various and on point. She gives out an aura of elegance and strong woman that is perfect for the role. And she cries beautifully.

I am so grateful that Gong Jun has been picked for HY. He brought out a certain vulnerability in the character that makes HY even more touching to me. I have always loved the way he acts, nuanced and subtle, never overacting, expressing a lot of emotions through his eyes. Especially the last part, the way he plays HY in this particular phase is so detailed and precise.
In an interview he said about this role “acting in character of such an unhappy person affects and traps me in a certain emotional state. … Most of the difficult scenes are filled with unhappiness. The mood of the whole day will be affected by this scene.” Now I can see why he said so !

Yes totally true ! I was waiting for someone to say it lol. All the closed up on his hands … I am blessed.
I have watched Gong Jun before but as HY, he is at his peak in term of visual for me.

Han Ye, do you regret it ?
Just with this little bit I feel so moved again !
And the letter of HY, again the feels !! So moving !
There is something magic with this drama that touch me so much.
One of the best I have watched in a long time despite all its flaws.

When she first came back to the capital DZY said “my wedding presents are 30000 naval soldiers but the Crown Prince’s dowry will be the whole Great Jing state”. What happen to this sentence now that she has pledged allegiance to the emperor ?

And HY did remove himself from the picture in ep 35. By doing this he also entrusted the Jing state to DZY care because he believed she could be a better ruler than his father and build a prosperous and peaceful era for the people. How will she achieve that now that she has vowed to never take the power from the Han family ?

Ok maybe this just means that the Di will work for the Han as before (🙄) but I am so frustrated with this. The drama has lessened so much the DZY character’s potential compared to the novel that one of the best things for me in the novel will never happen because of this.

— spoiler from the novel—
In the novel when HY came back, he was physically diminished (blind, no internal energy) and no longer the crown Prince. DZY on her part has become the regent of the Great Jing. She was the ruler of the whole country and he was a common subject. The power balance between them has shifted.
At one moment HY even bow to her and ask her to let him go. And this switch in their positions after everything that has happened was something fascinating to see.

And also, she once said “I will help to grant the crown Prince whatever he wishes because one day I will destroy everything in his life”. And that’s exactly it. Once she has achieved all her goals, HY has lost everything.
— end spoiler—

This would have made a good storytelling for me and I hate that the drama doesn’t go there.

Thank you. I only remember when reading this passage I was so stressed over the situation but not the details lol. So happy they kept this moment in the drama even if it’s done differently.