batatatamusic

The guy is arrogant, confident, and possessive. Within this circle, he plays the game according to the rules that have been imposed. However, his pride makes him become increasingly aggressive with his words. His words are his defense mechanism, but they end up hurting and offending the girl. And yes, words can be much more hurtful than good actions.

I start thinking: in the end, despite her cluelessness and her personality, she somehow manages to get absolutely everything she wants???

First, at the top of the list: her career, her money, her independence, her recognition, her friends, her family, her own life… And then, as a bonus, an amazing guy: caring, attentive, intelligent, rich, willing to accept all her conditions and go wherever SHE wants. And him, of course, always remains somewhere at the very bottom of her list of priorities 😂

And maybe that’s actually why it works in the end. If she had left too early, he would never have had the time to develop such a strong emotional attachment and dependency on her. But because their relationship continues, he gets attached, starts to fear losing her, is forced to question his own behavior… and eventually he accepts that he has to change and adapt to her conditions.

Meanwhile, madam is just quietly continuing with her own personal evolution . She builds her career, becomes more and more independent, confident and emancipated… and while monsieur is learning how to deal with his emotions, she is becoming even harder for him to catch up with

So, if she really gets all of this in the end, I have to give her credit for one thing: maybe she wasn’t quite as “stupid” as she seemed… she just had a strategy that looked absolutely disastrous from the outside

But now I have a serious question: can every woman actually “train” a man like that??? Because honestly, the difficulty level here is pretty damn high 😂 Great job lol

exactly

:))

ahahaha

Episode 12: FL"Looking at who she was back then, I honestly couldn’t understand why I made the decision not to leave…?

What does this girl actually want? What exactly is the problem that makes her decide to break up with him? I really don’t understand…

I feel like the screenwriters made a serious mistake: they changed the guy’s character quite a lot compared with the novel and made him completely devoted to her, but at the same time, they left the girl with practically the same problems and doubts. So does her decision to break up with him even make sense anymore?

What exactly happened in the drama that made her decide to leave him? Because from what I can see, in this version NOT Novel, the guy is genuinely serious about their relationship and completely invested in her. So what is she still missing?

The novel is an urban romance written in a very realistic, almost documentary style. Personally, I found that this style lacked literary quality: I felt very little emotion coming from the writing itself because the prose is so flat, direct, and everyday. The main interest of the novel, in my opinion, lies in the female protagonist’s psychology and in her professional development and evolution.

The relationship itself remains, for a very long time, fundamentally based on "sexual attraction and physical intimacy", within a highly unequal hierarchical dynamic in which Luan Nian holds considerably more power than she does. This makes the work feel almost "anti-romantic" at times. It presents a relationship that is psychologically complex and realistic, but not particularly romanticized through the writing.

The drama, on the other hand, has "romanticized a story that is much more disturbing in the novel". It adds elements that make Luan Nian’s behavior much more psychologically understandable: his loneliness, more obvious signs that he genuinely cares about her, scenes in which he protects her, and moments where he openly shows his attachment and love.

As a result, I actually find the drama "much more coherent with the conventions of romance".

Because if a work wants to tell a realistic and rather cruel story about a woman trapped for years in an unequal relationship, suffering from that imbalance and struggling to free herself from it, then, in itself, that is not really a romance. It is a realistic story about an unhealthy or unequal relationship that eventually develops into love.

The drama seems to have made a deliberate choice: "if we are going to tell a romance, then let us make the relationship genuinely romantic." Let us make the man genuinely love her, give the audience clearer evidence of his feelings and attachment, and give the heroine more agency within the relationship, with elements that feel more aligned with modern and somewhat more feminist expectations for the female character.

In that sense, I think the adaptation is actually more logically constructed as a romance than the original novel. It may lose some of the novel’s rawness and uncomfortable realism, but it gains something that the novel often lacks: "the feeling that these two people genuinely love each other, rather than simply being bound together by desire, attachment, power imbalance, and habit."

I finished reading the second part of the novel, I didn’t really like the novel itself, partly because of the male character — he is completely different from how he is portrayed in the series. In the seriel, he is indeed in love, and has actually been in love for quite some time. And I absolutely love the way the actor portrays his character in the series.

On the other hand, the female character is better developed in the novel, although the actress in the series also plays her incredibly well.

So, overall, I think I’ll forget about the novel version and focus on the series, which, in my opinion, offers a much better version of the story :)

Just to clarify: she was the one who initiated the rules. He simply played along with her because of his pride.

I can understand the physical attraction and the passion, but when we’re talking about a relationship that has been established for more than a year, I’m sorry, but I just don’t believe there can’t be moments when you’re simply with that person, talking about the weather or some other completely banal thing. Otherwise, it starts to feel almost animalistic, and when it becomes that animalistic, I can’t call it love.

In that case, we could simply say that they don’t love each other. But that’s not what the director is showing us here. On the contrary, he keeps emphasizing that — at least the guy — genuinely loves her, and has loved her from the very beginning.

One thing that is really frustrating about the way this drama is being made — and I think it is essential — is that, so far, there has been only ONE moment where they actually shared something together outside of anything physical: the scene under the stars.

Other than that, we haven’t really seen a single heart-to-heart conversation between them — something friendly, affectionate, romantic, or even just genuinely getting to know each other. Because okay, she goes there on Friday… but what do they actually do otherwise? Not a word? Not a sound? 😭

And honestly, talking is also the key to discovering another person. When you talk about everything and anything, you start building a dialogue, which can lead to familiarity, then complicity, and eventually trust. But here, what kind of trust are we supposed to believe they have built? We’ve actually seen more dialogue between their “pseudo-psychologist” friends than between the two of them.

I feel like drama writers often think that having friends analyze the main characters’ feelings helps the audience understand their inner world better. But for me, at this point, it’s becoming so annoying and honestly a little childish.

Instead of constantly showing their friends discussing and analyzing them, why not just show the two of them having a simple conversation? Eating together, having a drink, talking about random things… ANYTHING. Let us actually see them getting to know each other.

Am I the only one who feels this way? Who agrees with me?

I’m Team Luke without the pride 😂 (although, even with his pride, he’s still the one making the most effort to move the relationship forward and keep it going).

And I’m Team Flora with a more empathetic girl—someone who shows him privately that he matters to her beyond work, and that he’s not just someone she wants in her bed on Fridays.

So far, everything is perfectly done and well handled. TOP 10/10

Now I just want to see what happens after the break. I really don’t want the whole problem to be placed entirely on the guy, with the girl simply becoming an independent, successful woman while Luke turns into a devoted puppy who is there if she wants him, but whose absence doesn’t matter because she can perfectly live without him.

That’s what I’m hoping to see from this series.If that’s how they resolve everything, I’ll honestly feel like the whole second half—and the overall idea and message of the drama—will be a flop for me.

Yes, exactly

Let’s take Jane Austen’s model as an example. It’s that classic “Pride and Prejudice” type of conflict: the feelings are there, but pride prevents them from expressing them openly, while prejudices make each person interpret the other’s actions differently from what they actually mean. In the end, they both want the same thing, but each is waiting for the other to make the first move. And sometimes relationships are destroyed not by a lack of love, but by the inability to understand each other in time.

I think the problem with all these misunderstandings comes from reading the novel simultaneously with watching the drama.
You have to separate the two works.
A drama can take inspiration from a novel, but there are screenwriters, directors and actors who inevitably transform the story and characters. This isn’t a faithful adaptation, but more of an inspired version. So don’t look for explanations in the novel for things the drama itself hasn’t shown. Judge the drama based on what it actually tells us.

If you erase the novel’s version of the characters from your mind and watch the drama with fresh eyes, there wouldn’t be nearly as much debate about the situation, the characters’ reasoning, or the consequences of their actions

There’s no doubt here—the actors are doing such an amazing job that they convey all of their intentions and the complexity of their relationship so well.

She’s such a “tough nut” — basically a career-driven woman . And he’s constantly adapting to her and accepting her conditions. Although I feel that, deep down, he was actually upset and frustrated by her demands; he just pretended that everything was fine because of his pride.

And when he said, "Each of us expresses our individuality in our own way,” I think this line from the male lead describes their inability to truly understand each other so well. It’s a very profound thought.

Personally, I think the guy is incredibly patient and loving here. The girl, on the other hand, needs more confidence in herself and needs to understand that she has the right to love openly and to be loved. She needs to stop living with this closed-off, career-driven mindset.

I feel like she’s the one who doesn’t allow herself to be happy or to love openly.

The guy, even if he can be a little narcissistic in the way he carries himself, is actually kind, caring, respectful, and protective. So I wouldn’t really put him in the category of a classic narcissist. It’s more about his constant need for recognition and glorification, combined with being extremely demanding of himself and a perfectionist.

His ego doesn’t allow him, at least for now, to express himself as openly and explicitly as he should. I don’t even think he fully realizes how attached he is to her, how jealous he can be, or how protective and emotionally invested he actually is.

I think the central theme here is this young woman’s emancipation and autonomy — her journey toward becoming a woman who knows what she wants and is independent, etc. (this has become the central theme in 99.9% of modern romance stories...)

You’re absolutely right to bring up these points, and I agree with you. I think giving a 10/10 can sometimes be too generous, just as giving a 1 or 2/10 can be unnecessarily harsh. But ultimately, what matters isn’t really the score, it’s the text, our feelings, and what the series made us experience.

I agree with everything you mentioned, and I actually gave the story a 9/10. As for the overall 10/10, it’s mainly because, compared with everything I’ve watched this year, this is one of the series that truly delivered emotions, a strong overall atmosphere, and convincing performances as a whole. So, if I were rating it purely as a technical critic, the score would probably be lower. But as a viewer, taking the overall experience into account, it deserves a 10/10 from me.

Here is my subjective list of the 2026 releases I’ve watched and how I ranked them with reviews.:)
https://kisskh.at/list/Lp6EYq84
However, the appreciation of a film or series remains subjective. A critic may recognize its technical or artistic qualities without necessarily liking it, while a viewer may love it simply because it moved or entertained them. In the end, a “good film” and a “film I love” don’t always mean the same thing :))

yes !

Could you please tell me whether, in the novel, the second part after their separation—the reconciliation/reconciliation process—is only near the very end, or whether it takes up a larger part of the story than their initial relationship?