Nonsuch

Sure. Like every disease is an abnormal condition - but some are fatal and some are a common cold.

I don't want wholesome as such. I want something that makes sense and has some level of originality. I leafed through the book. You are right, they changed a ton, and the book and the characters in the book do make considerably more sense . It is not my favorite subject, but the book works for what it is, I think.

Most dramas are unrealistic and exaggerated, but they have inner integrity and they work. This one didn't for me personally, though I liked many characters. Thanks for the link, I will check it out.

What everybody knows is that you are a troll ,and a hater in chief who pops up everywhere her name is mentioned to spit your bile. Blocking.

sort of but not to the end.

I have not read the novel. In general I find novels often make more sense than dramas. Is there an English translation?
I didn't like the drama because I am sick of asian dramas psychotic evil mothers and other pathological family members. It is like there is never a middle degree - someone is a grouchy saint or a crazy monster. Everything she does is psychopathic, but it is also totally unrealistic. People like that in real life are one in 100 million, but in dramas they are everywhere. ML's mother belongs in psychiatric prison. The the level of enmeshment between the mothers, the orphanage, the car accidents, the obligatory cancer - it all is so trite, and tired, and dumb, and boring. Leading men, no matter what their past, turn into docile lambs just because of 'the love of a good woman'. 12 years old is delivering lines right out of pop psychology, it is crazy. China has so much talent, but they are not allowed to do much of any original work, it seems.

He is a bit of a bad penny .

This is going to be an unpopular opinion, but I think the whole detective/business/criminal line is just ridiculous. The main leads together at tender moments are lovely, ML is great, grandmothers and best friends a delight, but the whole soap opera regarding mothers, past, business, and so on is just awful. Lazy sloppy writing, and a totally absurd, unbelievable plot line. Business wise it is total nonsense. It is also so full of tropes, padding, stupid dialog and the FML behaving like a teenager, it is a flop.

They are lying to you. China doesn't have 1.4B people 😜

I just started to watch and it is interesting so far, though it is very soap operatic. I have a question about culture: is it common for girls to come up to hansom men and ask for their number? And even when he is obviously talking to another woman?

You are just a garden variety philistine.

I am a lawyer, and you are full of crap. That is NOT what a valid contract is, unless you are mafia.

Of course you don't think it is rude. Rude people never think themselves rude.

You have no clue what you are talking about.

Do YOU know what a contracts is? Because it sounds to me you think a contract that puts someone in bontage should be valid and enforceable and can't be terminated. Maybe such is the practice in China, but in most civilised countries it is not.

A good lawyer can always find a way to compromise. A great lawyer can always find a way to break a contract, even in China where they treat actors like chattel.

LOL! If everybody in dramas behaved the way you wish them to there would be no drama, it would a be boring static no point show; if women were to be portrayed as 'fully formed" they should be robots, or already on their deathbed - because NOBODY is fully formed, we learn by making wrong moves, experience something, getting disappointed, falling in love , and grow - at least some of us do. We all start out in life as naive and cute idiots, who think we know better. Many remain that way till the very end 😜 It is love story not a feminist manifesto. Each to their own., but I hope very many women watch it. It is a lovely story, though is gets a tad kitschy at one point.

I think for actors it is very important to sympathise with their characters , otherwise the character will not come to live, but become a caricature. But I agree with your point that for the audiences there is no need to give her character a pass for all the shitty thing she has done.

I think they needed her to love the father, as motivation to put herself between ML and the 'bullet', and die protecting him. Also had she not loved the father I doubt she would allow her daughter to be with the son. So I think her story is necessary as a plot device.
Similar dramas, you probably know them already: Love like Galaxy, Nirvana in Fire, The Rise of Phoenixes - which is long and extremely complex. Maybe even Blossom.

People feel what they feel. If you think fidelity to one's spouse, or even great love for ones spouse, makes a person physically incapable of feeling some level of attraction to others you are mistaken. Whether one acts on that attraction, and to what extent is a different matter. But She is a Queen. She is not, as far as we know, married. She didn't try to break his marriage btw, but she loved him. This is a grownup story, with grown up dilemmas, relationships and feelings. It is not your typical morality play with easy labels. Personally, I prefer this kind of drama to the usual 2D drivel, though it does have several flaws.