Editorials 
A lot of this episode was very good. It was nice to see Wen Xiao finally getting more lines and a more significant role in an episode after being mostly sidelined the last several episodes. But my god, the conversations between her and Li Lun were like a roller-coaster going from her delivery of well-composed questions and answers and then sinking to pathetic Snidely Whiplash level cartoon-villain-speak pouring out of his mouth. Every time Li Lun speaks it's hard to not giggle at his ridiculousness. His arguments are infantile and his words are just silly and impossible to take seriously. I like the growth in Zhou Yichang's character. He started the show as just a dumb jock. Steadily becoming a more complete person, able to see and understand nuance.
Was this review helpful to you?
as Zhu Yan wakes up from the blood moon malicious energy spell only to find he's once again committed a very bad thing. Some really good conversations. Ms. Pei and her dead brother are kind of the perfect people to console Wei Xiao since they were faced with similar difficult emotional conflict. And Zhou really stepped up from his usual lummox brain self to prod the massively depressed Zhu Yan with the challenge to stop giving up and wanting to die but instead to proactively make amends. Like others, I'm still frustrated with how useless the show has made Wei Xiao's character so far. And where the heck did Bai Jiu pick plums when they are up on a snowy mountain?
Was this review helpful to you?
The show still has a tendency to drag out moments way past their due dates, but this episode was definitely a big improvement and full of a lot of action and plot reveals and movement. One (continuing) negative is the relative uselessness of Wei Xiao. The show continues to just have her standing around - or, in the case of this episode, half lying on the ground - doing and saying very little. Such a waste. In shows like The Glory, she commands the screen and dominates. In this show she's kind of an NPC so far.
Was this review helpful to you?
This episode barely moves the plot. It starts out with some promise, with Wei Xiao contriving a 'lie detector' game to try to find out who the mole is in the group. Her setup finally has Chen Du Ling acting to her strengths as a strong female manipulating others .... but then the whole scene ends up going nowhere and we have to put up with more Bai Jiu pitiful antics that ultimately are nothing but distraction. I mean, the show took for-ev-er just to pull up his damn sleeve to show his wrist. So much fake, drawn out 'drama'. Yes I understand that he is a child. But ultimately he signed up for this and he's not supposed to be stupid. He should be smart enough to understand that (a) the group has to take the threat of a mole seriously and (b) he wasn't really put under any more suspicion than the others. So his petulant behavior was just annoying from a character that so far just is more distraction than interesting, And my god - why do so many of these characters wear so many darn annoying bells? The constant jingling as Zhou and Bai Jiu walk is so annoying. Nothing much happens in this episode other than they finally arrive at Mt. Kun Lun Temple.
Was this review helpful to you?
Sigh ... this was a real snoozer of an episode. The whole story of Qing Geng and Fei could have been told in about a third of the time. This whole episode felt like filler. The bit near the end of Zhou telling his little headband story to reassure Jiu was definitely pure filler. Each of the moments with Li Lun on the screen, mouthing his comic-book-villain lines also felt like useless filler. The story so far often feels like it barely involves Wei Xiao or Zhu Yan, wasting the two most interesting actors in the drama.
Was this review helpful to you?
This episode has a decent basic story and fine performances and production, but the pacing crawls so slowly. The whole thing could have probably been done in 20 minutes without feeling rushed. Fei and Qing Geng are lovely and tragic but also maudlin and sort of tiring to endure. Young Dr. Jiu continues to be annoying every 5 minutes with yells and screams and cowering.
Was this review helpful to you?
Running screaming to hide behind Zhou every 5 minutes was no longer funny after the 1st or 2nd time. I hope they don't keep up that gimmick. Overall a bit of a slow moving episode. Not bad. Not great. A little annoying at how easily Zhou is defeated and captured since it relies heavily on the "good guys' strengths are neutralized by bad guys' casual use of poisons/drugs/spells/whatever" plot trope. But at least he appears to have been somewhat willing to get captured on purpose.
Was this review helpful to you?
This episode gets points for featuring their first kiss. But loses points because once again the show has an important emotional moment only take place with at least one character totally drunk. This show has used heavy drinking scenes almost as often as it has recycled the Zhou-Chuan-acts-like-a-petulant-child bit. This episode unfortunately also features lots more frustrating, not-funny, childlike behavior by the ML. He really is just so full of problems that even though I hate screen time wasted on love triangles and always root for the main couple, I find myself more and more thinking that the female lead, Chu Li should punt on ZC and go find an adult, mentally-healthy man. But then I note that there are almost no such creatures in this show. The ML is probably the most broken, but so are all the other male characters in one way or another (other than maybe Mr. Xia and Chu Li's dad).
Was this review helpful to you?
because a LOT of activity happens around the book event, keeping all the characters busy and less time spent on recycling the ML-throws-a-fit-of-pettiness mini-plot that the show has regurgitated a zillion times. The end of the episode is a bit sad but realistic.
Was this review helpful to you?
Both the two male leads, Zhou Chuan and Jiang Yucheng, are both freaking idiot childish 5th graders. Neither of them really deserve Chu Li. It's really hard to root for a romance when there is no likable character to root for to be the FL's partner. At least Jiang finally bows out in this episode but not before acting like a manipulative jerk. Granted, Zhou continues to act like a petulant jerk, so isn't really any better.
Was this review helpful to you?
Other than maybe Mr. Xia, all the male characters in this drama are just awful in one way or another. Including and especially the first, second and even third male leads! The 3rd lead is just simply a child who has confused admiration for Gu Bai Zhi (the SFL) with love and is too immature to respect her choices so just keeps hanging around hoping Gu Bai Zhi will magically start to have reciprocal feelings for him. The 2nd male lead , Jiang Yucheng, is more complex, but ultimately is also childishly selfish and a coward. He obviously still has strong feelings for GBZ but is too scared of the emotions so refuses to resolve them with her and instead keeps running away. He feels 'relazed' with Chu Li and confuses that comfort with love. But he feels so relaxed _because_ she has no weight on his heart. His emotions aren't really threatened by anything she does so he's only gravitated towards her because she is a naturally safe emotional harbor. In this sense, he's a jerk because he is using her as a safe place. And even though he obviously knows that she has feelings for someone else, he doesn't respect her choices because he insists on continuing to pursue her. Finally, we get to the First ML, Zhou Chuan. He's just a wreck of a human. He's obviously traumatized by his upbringing into being an emotional coward who, just like his father, hides behind a shield of constant sarcasm and pettiness. It's just a made up act and not the full, 'real' him. But it is the manifestation he presents constantly to the FL, Chu Li. And it makes him a completely absurdly unlikable person. He has another shield, the Mr. Fox online-identity and he talks to her like a normal human being so we know he's capable. But once the latter identity is exposed and that shield is gone, will he be able to finally learn how to open himself up and communicate in real life to Chu Li without the absurd, constant sarcasm, criticism and pettiness? His father never learned. Chu LI's patience with Zhou Chuan's behavior to this point is almost as absurdly unrealistic as his behavior.
Was this review helpful to you?
Nothing really too different in this early setup episode. Establishes the characters. Esther and Yuxi both look great. Her future work challenges are foreshadowed by the various other characters with an early foil being the deputy editor who is obviously favoring FL's nepo-baby competitor at the intern spot. One thing that's a bit annoying is that this plot does exactly the same boring, cliche' trope as far, far too many c-dramas by starting off with the ML acting like a complete and total a-hole. Seriously, the way he is acting he is not a good person. Petty. Ignorant (of other's concerns). Self-centered and spiteful. Not at all a likable person. I understand that these plots love to overplay the 'enemies-to-lovers' drama trope but it's really kind of boring and silly. We all just have to grit our teeth and wait until events magically turn him into an empathic, good person who makes sense for the FL to fall in love with. This criticism isn't really at this show in particular. It's a stupid pattern repeated in drama after drama and it's getting tiring.
Was this review helpful to you?
This show started with a great premise and a fine cast of actors and characters .... and every now and then it teases that it could deliver on that early promise. But mostly it's just gone downhill steadily from the 3rd episode onward. The main problem being just how unrealistically _incompetent_ so many of the characters are and especially how frustratingly incompetent the script has made the female lead. Sigh ... annoyed that I'm vested enough to finish this out now.
Was this review helpful to you?
Not just because it heavily features guest roles by Gulnezer Bextiyar and Ryan Cheng. This episode has the smoothest and most coherent main plot advancement since the first two episodes - which were really mostly just expositional. Still had a sprinkle of cringe dialog bits (specifically anything that came out of Li Lun's mouth) but not a lot. The big plot reveal in this episode wasn't really a big surprise but the timing came sooner than I anticipated and that was cool.
Was this review helpful to you?
Last episode we got Ryan Cheng as the demon Changhuang. This episode we get Gulnezer Bextiyar as the Original Goddess. This episode really dragged through the painfully overly rehashed Pei Si Heng story. How many times did they have to keep basically restating the same sob-story in almost the same way? But the guest appearances were nice.
Was this review helpful to you?
