MimiTheReaper

"Stay Alive." These two words just gave us an epic revenge plot, and oh mine did the revenge hurt, it hurt so good even people who blinked the wrong way got theirs. No, really, look at the casualty list:

Casualties of Zang Hai's Revenge:
- Yang Zhen = Deceased
- Qu Jiao = Deceased
- Chu Huaiming = Deceased
- Zhuang Luyin = Deceased
- Cao Jiangxian = Deceased
- Zhao Bingwen = Deceased
- Emperor = Deceased
- Queen of Dongxia = Deceased
-Gao Ming = Deceased
- Zhuang Zhifu = Deceased
- Shi Yiping = Deceased
- Jiang Xiang = Deceased
- Lu Yan = Deceased
- Lu Yize = Deceased
- Lu Fen = Deceased

And this does not even include them all, these are only the ones I can remember at the time of writing this. Soldiers, services, guards, friends, literally no one was saved on Zang Hai's road to avenge his family.

Listen, you need to watch this, even if it's just to see the man character work every job under the sun. Zang Hai went from being a young master, to an orphan, to a disciple, to mastering geomancy, to a feng shui master, to a scholar, to assistance supervisor of the imperial astronomical bureau, to becoming the imperial astronomer, worked as a coroner, to becoming Vice Minister of Work and then to working in the imperial cabinet. At one point he was even a dream interpreter, dude said the ghost of the dowager came to him on his afternoon nap. LOL. He used a crossbow during a rebellion and hit a few people off a wall, so yay to being a soldier?. Oh, and he also dabbled in kidnapping as a kid, though he fed his prisoner sweets so that don't really count. Like the man was an overachiever to the point, he even said yes to the job/honor of being buried with a dead queen. All that and dude in the finale said, sorry your emperor-ness-ness, but I quit, I'm retiring to the village. I don't blame him, dude's worked enough for a lifetime, plus his retirement includes a beautiful princess. Good for him.

First off, I would have immediately died in that tomb in episode 3. Zang Hai was out there going 'Speaking some fancy poems riddles and going move southwest to the fourth tile.' Where? Whomst? I can't even tell my left from my right on a good day, dafug am I to know where northeast is?'

PLOT:
Plot wise, this was amazing. I love revenge stories. Were there some things that could have been done or explained better, sure, but the overall drama was really well done, so I didn't mind them at all. Zang Hai wasn't martially strong and he relied on his smarts and that made the plot very interesting to watch. The plot of his revenge and the Gui Seal was woven together very well. Discovering who his enemies were, getting to learn about the Gui Seal and seeing how he got his revenge made for a very entertain watch. Most times I was screaming at my screen, hoping he got out of sticky situation alive, and other times was yelling at the villains for being horrible. It was a ride. Some may find the pacing slow, but to me it was perfect for a revenge plot.

And I was not disappointed about how they went about with him getting revenge, everyone hurt, and it was amazing to see his enemies fall until he was the last one standing. The pen is mightier than the sword indeed, and Zang Hai was the embodied of this. Dude had zero martial skills but he managed to defeat his enemies by being smart and knowing how to use his words. And that's the thing, it wasn't even that his enemies couldn't tell when he was suspicious or they knew he was lying, they could, even tried to kill him for it, but he always found a way to outsmart them, which made watching this all the more exciting.

Characters:
This drama was perfectly cast. I liked those I was supposed to, and hated those I was supposed to. The main character Zang Hai was super clever and cunning, and I so love that in a character. Dude was like, when I get bored while patiently waiting for my revenge, I count the bricks in this compound, the roof tiles, and the dead bodies of my father's household. He was fast with his thinking, good at playing dumb so the enemy undermines him, and even when they caught him, he still managed to talk himself out of it. Like he was out there playing chess while everyone else played checkers, but they all thought he was some bumpkin carpenter who he though he was smart enough for them.

Acting wise, everyone was good, and as always Xiao Zhan brings his A game to every project. He was amazing and the perfect choice to play Zang Hai, which he did beautifully with how expressive his acting was. Antu as a female lead was good as well, I came to liked her a lot. I was so angry when his shifu 'betrayed' him and sad when he died. The two friends he had were likable as well, and even the Marquis son managed to grow-ish on me. And the villains, oh how I hated them, but that was the point, I was supposed to dislike them. So yeah, everyone did a good job with their characters.

I didn't trust anyone on this show, which thank the eff, cuz then I would have been shocked with the reveals. I always had at least two reasons why someone was the enemy XD. I'm happy Zang Hai survived this bloody battle for revenge, would have understood if he hadn't, but I'm glad he got to have his happy ending.

All-in-all, amazing drama, highly recommend it to all drama lovers. I can't wait to see more from Xiao Zhan and the rest of the cast in the future.