This is such an incredible drama! The story is so engaging, and the performances of both William Chan and Zhao Lusi are absolutely amazing. Their chemistry is on fire!
China loves a good creepy love with an old man with a young girls. We know it
Both the actors, and their characters are adults. Yes, their is a significant age gap between the actors but they are not a creepy old man and a young girl who is being taken advantage of or anything. Same goes for their characters. This age gap is not creepy or exploitative in any way.
The drama is popular because of its story and performances. If you can't appreciate it, that's fine but do not make generalised assumptions about anything.
1. I am so over MLs acting emotionally immature as a way to "get the FL back." This is not a high school…
In case of your mother (mine too🥲 she's the same if not worse) and Shen Hao Ming, their definition of love and ways to express love is based upon what they have been shown and experienced.
I completely agree with you that love isn’t just a feeling, it has to be shown through respect, care, and healthy actions. Shen Hao Ming’s behavior makes it hard to see that, and yes, many of his ways of expressing love are unhealthy or even harmful. But I think that doesn’t negate the fact that he truly feels for her.
People express love in the ways they’ve been taught and experienced. For example, my mother often showed care in very harsh or critical ways, but that came from what she had learned about “love” in her own life, painful as it was, it shaped how she expressed affection. Similarly, Shen Hao Ming grew up in a world where relationships and love were transactional. He was rewarded only when he fulfilled expectation. From that, he internalized that giving and receiving love is tied to power, control, or achievement. So while his ways are unhealthy, messy, or even controlling, it’s a reflection of his upbringing and past experiences, not the absence of real feeling. His love may be flawed in expression, but, it’s genuine.
1. I am so over MLs acting emotionally immature as a way to "get the FL back." This is not a high school…
He loved her all along because one of the for sure way to fall in love is when you are pretending to be in love with someone all the time. I have used this as a plot in many of stories too.
It's like when you do something continously it becomes your habit and so very natural to you that you don’t even realize that your pretence turned into interest. And this is what causes the internal conflict. Like how conflicted he was when Xu Yan got hurt by that knife while protecting him.
He didn’t know how to react because, up until that point, he might have told himself she was manipulative or only with him for money. But if that were true, why would she risk herself for him?
And the real turning point comes after their divorce. Just a few weeks back, he was calling her a fraud and liar, ready to cut her off. But then she left him without taking any money, without asking for assets or alimony, refusing even his investment in her business. She is struggling, building her life on her own, avoiding him completely, and yet staying true to herself. That shattered the argument he had been holding onto, that she was a gold digger and materialistic. With that belief gone, the wall blocking his true feelings crumbled. The love he had been suppressing, hidden under contempt and mistrust, finally emerged clearly. All of these moments, her selflessness, her independence, her refusal of his help, made him realize that he cannot live without her, and that what he feels for her is real, not just guilt or obligation.
This happens in real life too, it involves some complexities but psychologically, repeated pretense can trigger real emotional attachment through familiarity, cognitive dissonance, and the brain associating care and affection with genuine positive feelings.
He didn't believe she loved him. He thought she was acting. He only realized she was sincere when she asked for…
I feel he loved her all along because one of the for sure way to fall in love is when you are pretending to be in love with someone all the time. I have used this as a plot in many of stories too.
It's like when you do something continously it becomes your habit and so very natural to you that you don’t even realize that your pretence turned into interest. And this is what causes the internal conflict. Like how conflicted he was when Xu Yan got hurt by that knife while protecting him.
He didn’t know how to react because, up until that point, he might have told himself she was manipulative or only with him for money. But if that were true, why would she risk herself for him?
And the real turning point comes after their divorce. Just a few weeks back, he was calling her a fraud and liar, ready to cut her off. But then she left him without taking any money, without asking for assets or alimony, refusing even his investment in her business. She is struggling, building her life on her own, avoiding him completely, and yet staying true to herself. That shattered the argument he had been holding onto, that she was a gold digger and materialistic. With that belief gone, the wall blocking his true feelings crumbled. The love he had been suppressing, hidden under contempt and mistrust, finally emerged clearly. All of these moments, her selflessness, her independence, her refusal of his help, made him realize that he cannot live without her, and that what he feels for her is real, not just guilt or obligation.
In Romance of Tiger and Rose, she was a cannon-fodder villainous princess meant to die early, and the story was all about her surviving and eventually becoming the heroine - not about being the "favored daughter."
In Love's Ambition, being unfavored matters a bit more, but the focus is still on her struggles, heartbreak, and rebuilding her life and finding love again.
Both dramas are about the characters' journeys and growth, not their status. Bring favored or unfavored holds little to no relevance.
Even if she was favored sister in TROTAR she was a canon fodder villainous who was meant to die but after the transmigration of the screenwriter into her script she changed the dynamics and became a worthy female lead for the novel while the OGFL became the villain.
So the whole unfavored vs favored argument does not apply here.
The drama is popular because of its story and performances. If you can't appreciate it, that's fine but do not make generalised assumptions about anything.
I completely agree with you that love isn’t just a feeling, it has to be shown through respect, care, and healthy actions. Shen Hao Ming’s behavior makes it hard to see that, and yes, many of his ways of expressing love are unhealthy or even harmful. But I think that doesn’t negate the fact that he truly feels for her.
People express love in the ways they’ve been taught and experienced. For example, my mother often showed care in very harsh or critical ways, but that came from what she had learned about “love” in her own life, painful as it was, it shaped how she expressed affection. Similarly, Shen Hao Ming grew up in a world where relationships and love were transactional. He was rewarded only when he fulfilled expectation. From that, he internalized that giving and receiving love is tied to power, control, or achievement. So while his ways are unhealthy, messy, or even controlling, it’s a reflection of his upbringing and past experiences, not the absence of real feeling. His love may be flawed in expression, but, it’s genuine.
It's like when you do something continously it becomes your habit and so very natural to you that you don’t even realize that your pretence turned into interest. And this is what causes the internal conflict. Like how conflicted he was when Xu Yan got hurt by that knife while protecting him.
He didn’t know how to react because, up until that point, he might have told himself she was manipulative or only with him for money. But if that were true, why would she risk herself for him?
And the real turning point comes after their divorce. Just a few weeks back, he was calling her a fraud and liar, ready to cut her off. But then she left him without taking any money, without asking for assets or alimony, refusing even his investment in her business. She is struggling, building her life on her own, avoiding him completely, and yet staying true to herself. That shattered the argument he had been holding onto, that she was a gold digger and materialistic. With that belief gone, the wall blocking his true feelings crumbled. The love he had been suppressing, hidden under contempt and mistrust, finally emerged clearly. All of these moments, her selflessness, her independence, her refusal of his help, made him realize that he cannot live without her, and that what he feels for her is real, not just guilt or obligation.
This happens in real life too, it involves some complexities but
psychologically, repeated pretense can trigger real emotional attachment through familiarity, cognitive dissonance, and the brain associating care and affection with genuine positive feelings.
It's like when you do something continously it becomes your habit and so very natural to you that you don’t even realize that your pretence turned into interest. And this is what causes the internal conflict. Like how conflicted he was when Xu Yan got hurt by that knife while protecting him.
He didn’t know how to react because, up until that point, he might have told himself she was manipulative or only with him for money. But if that were true, why would she risk herself for him?
And the real turning point comes after their divorce. Just a few weeks back, he was calling her a fraud and liar, ready to cut her off. But then she left him without taking any money, without asking for assets or alimony, refusing even his investment in her business. She is struggling, building her life on her own, avoiding him completely, and yet staying true to herself. That shattered the argument he had been holding onto, that she was a gold digger and materialistic. With that belief gone, the wall blocking his true feelings crumbled. The love he had been suppressing, hidden under contempt and mistrust, finally emerged clearly. All of these moments, her selflessness, her independence, her refusal of his help, made him realize that he cannot live without her, and that what he feels for her is real, not just guilt or obligation.
In Love's Ambition, being unfavored matters a bit more, but the focus is still on her struggles, heartbreak, and rebuilding her life and finding love again.
Both dramas are about the characters' journeys and growth, not their status. Bring favored or unfavored holds little to no relevance.
Even if she was favored sister in TROTAR she was a canon fodder villainous who was meant to die but after the transmigration of the screenwriter into her script she changed the dynamics and became a worthy female lead for the novel while the OGFL became the villain.
So the whole unfavored vs favored argument does not apply here.
Shen Hao Ming and Yu Yi Ming conspiring to chase their respective partners🤣🤣🤭🤭
when he did a paternity test, Fang Lei tampered with it so she can be "blood related" to him via her nephew Shen Haochen"
So yeah, you are right. That psycho baby trapped Hao Ming.