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An informer from out of the town was killed together with his daughter on the streets of the capital and caught the attention of the Interior Guard Services and Court of Judicial Review. One of the killer was apprehended before he could kill himself, but before proper interrogation can be done, he was mysteriously killed in his cell. A mortician, Gao Bingzhu, stepped forward to admit the murder and was taken into custody immediately. On his way during prison transfer, he was attacked but managed to survive by killing the assassin. But because he fled the scene, all the deaths of the guards were pinned on him, and because he was spotted at a minister’s mansion during his son’s wedding, the minister’s death was also pinned on him. A huge chase ensued between the Interior Guard and ML, headed by Wu Siyue, FL. But as she pursued the fugitive, more truth started to come out one by one, and made her question if he was truly the criminal she should be after.

One thing that is obvious about the show is it’s extremely fast paced from episode 1. I’ve never seen a mystery/investigative drama made this excellent. Mystery/investigative genre has never been my go-to drama, cuz they usually bore me to death, i have dropped many of such drama that it became my bane genre. But somehow this title attracted my attention upon reading the many positive comments. I had to say the thing that attracted me is when they said the FL is strong and brilliant. It definitely did not disappoint. There was so much action going on, a lot of fighting and chasing. However the cameraworks made me dizzy cuz sometimes they set the POV on the characters involved during the chase, with the shaking and jittering of the camera as if the cameraman was running with the cast. How the relationship between the main characters come together is also done brilliantly well. A fugitive, an enforcer, an eccentric anti-social youth sound like an unexpected combination, but they came together flawlessly. And the plot twist in the last 3 episodes is definitely unexpected. The useless character turned out to be the most vital of all. i totally did not see it coming. The excellence of this adaptation made me want to read the novel to see how much they deviate from the original work.

Am really impressed with the actor playing Gao Bingzhu. I first saw him in The Mutation and it didnt leave much of an impression on me, and since this is just a filler title that i picked up as i wait for full release of Shadow Love episodes, I had little expectation, especially when it was a mystery/investigative drama. I had a bad experience with The Wanted Detective so I only started on this title solely due to the many positive comments of it and my hunch. And boy I am not disappointed at all. Huang Xuan definitely gave his all to this character, he was fierce and grudgeful when facing the enemy, nimble and powerful when he was fighting off the bad guys, and yet his anguish and sadness was so exceptionally conveyed in his sad scenes. I teared seeing him crying his eyes out, having to bottle everything up for 5 whole years living in guilt made the well burst big time. And to finally know who the assassin really was broke him even further. Who wouldve thought a guy from the slum who has nothing to his name, not fame, not glory, not even money, had two women fawning over him, ready to die for him? And yet he was not meant to be with either of them. What a sad, broken man he is. He has my 10 rating for his performance here. Totally changed my view of him from where i saw him first on The Mutations.

I really like the FL Wu Siyue played by Victoria. She is a proud, strong, brilliant, stubborn woman with great martial art. She works at Interior Guards Services that are mainly guards for the royals. The head of the service was her brother and she hated being known as Madam Wu as it would link her to her brother and gives an impression that she was there due to privelege of connections. Although she and ML started out as enforcer and fugitive, she began to empathize with him after they got through life and death together, and decided to help him uncover the truth. And most importantly, this character doesnt need constant saving like the usual FL, because:

1. They have a character who is the don-in-distress which is the SML,
2. She and ML alternately saves each other 😆

Oh boy, i really love ML and FL chemistry. There’s just one thing that always bothered me with this character, that is how weird her hairline was. The wig looks too obvious and not streamline enough, which gives it away. There are many close ups of FL, so her hairline always becomes the first thing that grabbed my attention. Not trying to nitpick really, i am aware that female characters usually wear wigs especially to make up the buns on their heads and its length, but this is the first time that saw a weird hairline on a female character so it catches my attention each time. Wardrobe and make up department were not meticulous enough in this part.

Anyway, on a side note, how Wu Siyue confronted her colleague and the antagonist, believing they could not have been the real criminal/traitor despite many evidence against them is how I expected Xueman from The Wanted Detective shouldve behaved with her husband who was obviously set up. Not emotional, very clear-headed, objective, and not strike the other party at first sight. The reason why i dropped that title was because the FL is written to be so incoherent with her supposedly brilliant background. Screenwriters should work harder to make their main characters believable and not contradict its nature that they created, like how Louyang’s brilliant screenwriters did.

The SML, Baili Hongyi, is an anti-social, aloof and hard-headed second son of the Baili family who is renowned for their crasftmenship. Baili Yan, his father, was the Minister of Works, and he too worked in the same ministry before his resignation. Known as a talented and educated most eligible bachelor, he is also known as a food reviewer, a highly sought after one by restaurants in the capital that were willing to go tooths and nails to get into his review waiting list. His life is considered sheltered, before the murder of his father on his wedding day, which plunged the family into the whirlpool of conspiracy and sinister plots of the court. This character reminds me a lot of the FL in Melody of a Golden Age. One who doesnt know any self defense, keeps poking his nose where it didnt belong not bothering to inform anyone of his whereabouts, and keep needing saving when he’s stuck in a tight spot during his investigation. If MoGA’s FL keeps needing saving by the ML (yea the rule of the script kind), this Baili Hongyi keeps needing saving by either FL or ML, and most of the time by both 😆.

I never liked characters who throws themselves cheaply at the one they love, especially when the person doesnt like them back, Liu Ran played by Song Yi was such character. But her devotion to Baili Hongyi even when he was so cold towards her somewhat grew on me. I didnt like this character in the beginning, but her patience and indulgence made her character hard to hate when it was towards the middle. I feel sorry for her, but i still couldnt ship them both. The awkward scenes between them as they were supposed to warm up to each other look too forced, especially Liu Ran’s desperate acts in attracting Baili’s attention. I feel like their couple story is a waste of time and takes too much off the fast-paced plot. Maybe theyre supposed to be the tension relief to the gripping storyline, but i feel that their romance isnt necessary.

I am more interested in the subtle attraction between Gao Bingzhu, Wu Siyue and Yao Niang cuz they didnt have to try too hard to make it work. The ambiguity of their relationship is somewhat more intriguing than the married one, even though i’ve always had a soft spot for marriage of convenience where the love grows after marriage than before. That said, this character began to get on my bad side when she started to cling to Baili unnecessarily, getting in the way of his investigation efforts and disrupting his plans. Maybe this character really had a purpose - to be the SML’s bane on his road to the truth 🙄 other than her irritatingly coquettish crybaby personality, the notion that 80% of her script only contains the word “Er Lang” is also rather annoying.

And what’s up with FL’s bro Wu Youjue? I didnt see him doing anything about the informer case that the empress asked him to investigate, and yet when there is progress, he was the one being rewarded bu the empress when everything was from FL’s efforts. It seems like the only thing he does on the show was to threat to kill people whenever FL goes missing or in danger while investigating the very thing the empress asked. She’s just doing her job, it’s her job to be in the middle of danger, she was supposed to protect the capital after all 🙄 if you don’t want her to be in danger then why did you let her enter the service in the first place? This character is very hot-tempered and ridiculous, threatening people left and right just because his sister goes missing, lol is this supposed to be the head of a department? So unprofesional and unrealistically impractical incompetent fool is all he is. How laughable. All he knows is to blame everyone around him for any mishap that his sister encounters. I wish somebody would just smack some senses into his empty skull for once. It’s really funny that the empress think so highly of him when he literally does nothing in the background but cough all day long. And whats even funnier is that the court won’t accept a talented man with an extra finger but is fine having a sickly man lead two departments that deals with security of the kingdom. Thats even more laughable than Wu Youjue’s ridiculous temper! However as the story unfolds, I started to understand the reason this character exists, though I am still puzzled why Liu Feng was thrown into the plot. Now this character’s utter pointlessness level is off the charts.

I really love the comic relief Bai Lang. He was there almost every time ML needed some helping hand. He is like his unofficial sidekick. Bai Lang was one of the kids ML knew from Unwelcomed Well who got away and made a living in the capital. He was originally a swindler to get by day by day, until he met ML again while he was fleeing the interior guards.

It’s a first time that i saw in ancient costume drama where the characters stop at a post station to change horses before continuing their pursuit. Before this i’ve only read such practices in novels where long and hasty journey would require frequent change of mounts since the horses are made to run all the way and without this change they wont be able to cover the intended distance before the horses tire themselves out. Such attention to details shows how meticulous the production is.

It’s too bad the soundtracks here aren’t much of an impress. Only 2 caught my attention but unfortunately it’s too slow to be included into my running playlist.

All in all, it was an extremely fun ride eventhough the ending might not fly with some audience.