Justine

lol 8.8 is already impressive for a drama that many people dropped and gave a low rating for immediately because of "toxic male lead"

- LX is really attractive, shouldn't be surprising that FSM's attracted to his appearance. There's not much point to it, but not every detail that happens in a story needs a point.
- She's what you would expect a typical good student in her first programming class to be like. She is not a genius or someone who codes for 20 hours a day like LX, which is why it doesn't seem like she does much in comparison to him. On the 2nd half the drama, she does show how capable she's become.
The drama generally does a good job being realistic. I would call bullshit if a student in their first programming class who has little to no passion for coding manages to do more than what ZY did.
- He purposely broke up with the FL so that the FL can move on with her life without feeling attached to him since he's going to jail.
- At episode 19, it did seem like they were on good terms (or at least LX thought so). So, either GJH was very good at hiding his face or they actually made up and became friends during the 3-year timeskip (or so LX thought...).
- L&P is special to them, why would they want to rename it to something else?
- GJH was attracted to XLN the moment her saw her, so she was almost certainly going to play a not-insignificant role in the story.

I just noticed this drama is VERY close to 8.8 rating. The lowest rated 8.8 drama is ranked #98, while L&P is currently ranked #104. Remember to rate if you haven't yet!

LX didn't want to be with ZY because he would hurt her reputation, but that all changed after she went on to tarnish it herself by posting GJH's video online 😂 And by doing so she effectively forced LX to return to her to stop people from gossiping about her & GJH.
How to kill three birds with one stone - Zhu Yun 😂

I've known several people (my brother being one) who would lash out at someone they're frustrated with, in public. Obviously, most people keep it to themselves. But there certainly are others who are more blunt & straightforward with their emotions. I wouldn't say it's because they're not "normal". Everyone comes from different backgrounds (LX not spending enough time to socialize) and have different genetics (anger issues runs in my family).

I would consider LX to be rude, but "toxic" gives off a manipulative, calculative, and "out to hurt you" connotation and I don't think his actions quite fit the bill.

He says some questionable things to try and push her away (for her own good) but stopped once he realizes it's doing her more harm than good. Some people interpret his behavior as being toxic, but they wouldn't be able to come up with a better solution if they were in the ML's shoes.
And nah, the FL is not weak. Her deep love for the ML often gets confused for weakness, but she has shown time and time again that she is very strong. Maybe weaker than the novel version? But that doesn't mean she's weak in the drama.

"spilling drinks on his stuff etc"

My friend... "his stuff" is the laptop he uses to code with. It's VERY important. Liquid damage on electronics can be very severe. That was just a very natural reaction on his part. Not what I would consider toxic.

She was too focused listening to LX's story about his time in prison.

If his motive is to sever ties with her, I don't see there being many better ways to go about it? I mean, he could have said those things in private (instead of in front of everyone else) but didn't he already try that once and she's still attached to him?

He was trying to drive her away because his status as society trash (he's a former prisoner) and being in war with L&P means him being together with her could ruin her otherwise very promising future as a Cornell graduate student.
Keep in mind he did NOT know about ZY's condition. All he sees is a cheerful girl who has everything to succeed in life and no longer needs his protection or help. After he learned about ZY's depression and the medication she has to take, he became a lot softer.

You would expect her to fall victim to the "invincible male lead's only weakness" trope, but nahh... not on her watch.
Zhang Xiaobei lost her career.
Gao Jianhong... well, I think his face says it all https://i.gyazo.com/a5f15ac9311284e1cd542ffdea7dc0cb.png

I'm actually the opposite. I was very satisfied with the ending and the last 2 episodes really gave me a good "last impression" of the show.

Gao didn't actually purposely plan the death of LX's sister. While confessing his wrongdoings to ZY, he said he didn't think his actions would lead to the tragedy. That being said, however, I do wish they showed 1 scene of GJH visiting Li Lan at the cemetery. It would've elevated his character a bit and made it a bit easier to sympathize with him.

It's gradually climbing up the rankings I noticed. 8.8 is very likely, which is incredible for a drama with a "jerk" ML and no super popular actor.

ZY is such a great FL...

ZY's self-sacrifice and clapback at GJH, immediately leading into the intimate scene with LX >>>>

"(Just my opinions. This is penned to get rid of the frustration of not being able to hate GJH as much as I'd like to.)"

The L&P team did a good job then, because I don't think GJH is supposed to be the villain you hate to the core. I think they wanted you to be a little sympathetic towards him, which was why they made him look so weak & pitiful at the end.

"But after the scene where Li Xun mentioned how Hou Ning had no one to pull him up at the right time, the same can be said for GJH. I couldn't help but think (hypothetically) that if Li Xun were only a little bit more gentle or a little bit more passionate about his past friendship with GJH since the beginning, if only Li Xun had given GJH the validation he needed, things would have been drastically different"

You're right, and I think his treatment towards Hou Ning (compared to how he treated GJH in his younger days) shows how much he's changed and grown as a person.

OMG the drama ended with a bang. The last few episodes were SO good. The whole drama was good actually, but very few dramas have such a satisfying ending.
Definitely one of if not my favorite drama of all time. And the rating went up to 8.7! Well deserved.

What she's going through is called depression. It actually happens in real life as well. It shouldn't come as a surprise that someone would become depressed after the person they're deeply in love with will end up being thrown in jail and having his life ruined.

She took a liking to him possibly episode 2.
She was afraid to sit next to LX in their first class. Is it because she dislikes him? No... that wouldn't make sense since they only met once in the cafeteria, and Li Xun wasn't mean to her there. So, she was probably just shy (why?). After sitting down next to him, she kept looking at LX's screen to see what he's doing.

She started to really fall in love after episode LX's sister revealed his past, I think. It helped explain his personality and she started showing jealousy & wanted to be his "princess".

nah but that does sound fun :D