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FINALLY - the two leads start to behave like humans towards each other.

This is the first episode this whole series were Shi Yan actually starts to behave like a normal person towards Shuyi`. He's still slow to communicate, but she manages to squeeze real responses from him and for a change his responses start to make more sense. Hopefully this trend will continue, but I'm scared to put too much hope in it, given this script writer's love of 'misunderstandings' and the cartoonish 'cold cruel CEO' tropes. She also wrote As Beautiful As You and that one was full of similar awful behavior by the ML that never gets properly accounted for. I'd love to see Dylan and Bai Lu paired up in a show with a much better script than this show.

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So tired of the stupid, contrived, 'misunderstandings'

This show is an exhausting exercise in how a script writer can go way, way overboard with absurd, contrived 'misunderstanding' plot tropes. We are 9 episodes in and the characters do not behave or communicate anywhere close to the way normal human adults do and so fall into one stupid 'misunderstanding' after another. And there seems to be no end in site as the episode ends with what is obviously yet another misunderstanding as Shuyi obviously mistakes Shi Yue's weichat address for that of Shi Yan's. Speaking of Shi Yan, this ia a good point to talk about what an absolutely crap character he is, that the writer has handed off to be played by the (then young) Dylan Wang. I can't blame Dylan at all. The character has clearly been scripted to be have like a 12 year old petulant, moody child with the _worst_ communication skills and that is exactly who the character has been straight through these 9 episodes. There is almost nothing 'likable' about him so far yet in this series and so it is extremely difficult to root for him as the romantic interest of Bai Lu's character. Yes, I'm sure that the writer will magically transform this jerk into a great guy by the end of the series. But it's just so stupid and unrealistic. People can't really change THAT much and he has way too far to go to become a likable character. This whole 'cold, emotionally stunted CEO' that falls in love with an changes just for Cinderella is just so tired and over-done in C-Dramas. Who on earth finds such characters to be 'attractive' as the male lead? Shi Yan screams, "toxic!" in every way. Oh well. I like a lot of the rest of the cast and I will grit my teeth waiting for the show to finally turn over and away from these two stupid, annoying plot tropes and hopefully become something more. The many positive reviews can't all be wrong, right?

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A great series, but ....

I'm personally really tired to the over-reliance on the 'noble idiocy' drama trope for both FL & SFL. Both ZiYi and Ling Su are stupidly, idiotically torturing themselves (and also harming the ones they love) for absolutely no good reasons by keeping their extreme secrets. ZiYi's head seems to be brainwashed to believe all kinds of absolutely stupid nonsense planted in her head by that psycho "All-Knowing Nun" master of hers. And Ling Su is just driving strait over a suicide cliff by not revealing her need to return to Medicine Valley just to stay alive. Each has contorted their thinking into believing they are doing this for 'selfless' reasons, but both are actually hurting - or going to hurt. - other people because of this. Noble Idiocy is one of the most annoying, hated drama tropes and there is almost never a good plot reason for using it other than to drag out contrived drama. It never feels realistic because it requires characters to act unnatural - not like real humans.

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Epic sword duel between Hu Fei and Miao Renfeng!

The way they spliced footage of their duel in with that between Miao and Hu Yidao from 18 years prior was so cool. The fact that Miao was still blind and could duel with Hu Fei like this was incredible, though it may have helped that they were often replicating the movements of that duel from the past so maybe that helped Miao out. The episode ends with Fei and Renfeng's goals and interests aligned and Fei and Ling Su set out to the Capital in search of answers. She sadly realizes that Hu Fei loves someone else but still is willing to stay with him for now. We are now 22 episodes complete and three plot mysteries bother me: 1) Whatever happened to Ma Chun Ha after the Shang Fort incident? 2) Whatever happened to Nan Lan's father's sword? 3) What exactly is the reason that Tian hates Miao so much that he tried to poison him 18 years ago (and ended up killing Hu Fei's parents)??

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As predicted the writers kicked in with the Noble Idiocy trope

having Ziyi give up on romantic love, leaving Hu Fei all because of the absolutely stupid, idiotic teachings by her Master, the 'All Knowing Nun', that romantic love will bring bad karma. What a complete pile of horse crap. It makes zero sense philosophically and it's a ludicrous thing to be teaching anyone. This really makes me suspect that the Nun has some sort of ulterior motives. At any rate, the writers are using this as a cheap plot contrivance to send our two lovers on separate journeys and we the viewers can only hope that they find their way back to each other soon and that they don't drag this out for dozens of episodes. Otherwise the rest of the episode is pretty well done. We get some good action scenes and, we also, unfortunately get some tragedy involving Nan Lan which leads to Tian turning angrily to his evil side. Hu Fei finally may have found himself a master to teach him in an unlikely place.

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Drama-preserving handicap trope & Noble idiocy trope

This episode starts off with the writers threatening to use the ever-annoying 'drama-preserving handicap' trope. It's been ages already since we've had a fully healthy Hu Fei (way WAY back in episode 7 !!!!! And now, just when there is a pathway to him finally getting fully healed (and maybe able to start pulling his weight in their relationship) ... the writers yank that away so we think we will have to endure watching handicapped Hu Fei for a bit longer ... and then just when they provide a solution to that ... they threaten us with the freaking Noble Idiocy plot trope as we see Ziyi promising to her master to go back to the temple and seclusion once his leg is healed in order to 'pay back karma'???? This is SO STUPID I want to throw something. The All-Knowing Nun accusing Ziyi of being 'greedy' is such broken logic. She's not 'greedy' for wanting to help people. Feng Tianman was a villain and didn't become one just because Ziyi went down the mountain. Hu Fei was headed to Foshan independent of Ziyi and almost certainly would have clashed with Feng anyway and probably would be dead if not for Ziyi. So to make her feel like all the tough things that happened are her fault for 'going down the mountain' is just stupid. And it makes me very suspicious of the Nun that maybe she has some ulterior motive. Now, even if they don't actually follow through with the noble idiocy trope, it's very annoying that they are yanking us around with the threat of these tropes.

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Miao Renfeng was a truly horrible husband & father

and I cannot blame Nan Lan for choosing to give up on their marriage. He was never faithful to her - he loved his promise to dead people more than his promise to her. He was an absentee husband and absentee father. He very clearly pushed her right into the arms of his 'best friend' - who is secretly his worst enemy! Lots of commenters blaming Nan Lan for being unfaithful but WTF is she supposed to do? Her husband is more faithful to a promise made to dead people 18 years ago than to her! And then, in an ultimate act of cruelty to her, he takes her child from her!!!!! I will not blame Nan Lan if she hates Miao Renfeng from now on for what he has done to her. I can't blame Renfeng for not wanting his daughter to call another man, 'Daddy". But it's just as cruel to take her away from her mother. And it's just going to get worse when Nan Lan eventually realizes that the man he pushed her to is a murderer who is the very poisoner that her husband has been hunting for all this time! What an awful, horrible mess this plot is. Tian Guinong is such a slime ball. He saw a crack in their marriage and wedged himself right in there. But it was Miao Renfeng who left that crack open. Now that their marriage is broken and he's ripped his ex-wife's heart open by taking her child, I hope he's learned a lesson and will prioritize his daughter above all other things like he's supposed to. God this plot has been so painful to watch unfold. On the other plot, I hope Hu Fei understands just how much he owes Yuan Ziyi. That girl has done SO much to save him it's not funny. He needs to get healthy and start to carry his weight. She has carried him up 10,000 steps Nursed him back to health. Fought numerous battles just to get medicine to save him. Slept on the edge of his bed. And fed him hot porridge, blowing on the spoon to cool it. So many romance tropes checked off on her list! He has a lot of catching up to do!

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Naive, trusting idiots

I've seen this again and again in wuxia dramas but it's so frustrating at just how stupid and naive the two male leads, Hu Fei and Miao Renfeng are suddenly made out to be. It's absurdly out of character based on their prior life experiences. But the writers have chosen to make them stupid in order to create plot dramas. Love so much about the series but have really not liked what they've done to both characters now that the prequel is over and they are in the 'current' storyline. Hopefully this plot-induced idiocy will only last a short time once they have setup the drama crisis that their stupidity is leading up to.

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