maboheme

omg this is such a sweet, feel-good BL. it is so refreshing and cute. the dynamics, the family stuff + Rock the best boy, the surprisingly awesome sibling dynamic, and these two boys and the way they're figuring it out together. I've been watching a lot of dark, angsty BLs lately with a lot of toxicity, and I didn't know how much I needed something this cute, but also surprisingly deep at the same time.

I'm going to be so mad if Kay isn't the killer. I need them to be brave enough to actually have him be the killer.

I can't believe I waited so long to watch. Absolutely one of my fav all-time BLs. Gorgeous.

This exactly!

Oh this makes sense b/c I definitely sensed queer-coding with Ju Li (it seemed to me that she was in love with the FL), as well as the subtextual undercurrents to Wen/Fu's bromance. Very nice.

I miss this series already. Nothing has hit the same since it ended. I miss this found family. :(

People love to accuse others of "reaching." If this was a female and male friendship with their same dynamics and chemistry, you'd absolutely be okay with people shipping them. Let people ship what they want. Being upset about it is a sure sign of homophobia.

They were definitely a typical C-drama queer-coded couple. You see this in a lot of C-dramas where they use bromance in a secondary couple because they could not make it explicitly gay. So we get "best friends" but who are coded as a sort of exes-to-lovers in the subtext. I loved their story in this.

What a journey. I did not at all expect to go into this and end up crying for several episodes. I'm a huge fan of found family dynamics, traumatized people finding each other and healing together, and sports-centric bromances, so this was enjoyable to watch. Absolutely loved the little rascals, and I wish all those young actors much success in the future.

Definite queer undertones from her from the start...she was basically the female equivalent of the unrequited third wheel in your typical C-drama love triangle. Even when she was first introduced you saw the ML being jealous of her.

China has a lot of mountains, so now I'm assuming people were just falling off cliffs left and right in the old days.

A simp with personality, yesssss. Like he still has his own schemes and eccentric personality, but he loves his girl down bad.

People complaining about a "SIMP ML." Like, why? If you don't like it, there's thousands of other C-dramas to watch. So give me all the simp MLs. Better than having a toxic narcissist I'm supposed to ship the FL with. All that to say, I love the ML in this, he's hilarious, he's smart and scheming and calculating, suffers a good amount of whump, and he adores his crazy manipulative strong FL lead. Can't ask for better IMHO.

I disagree

Yep, this!

The rating should be higher.

I finally watched this for the first time a couple of months ago and haven't gotten it out of my mind. Whew. I wish there were more series like this. If you know of any, please tell me!

4 episodes in and the ML and FL are already giving me power couple + married couple vibes (with a ready-made child). The chemistry is great. Also I so love the red color theme!

This is such an underrated gem! I've rewatched this one several times because I love it that much, and every time I still get so mad at the injustices the ML faced, so much so I'm yelling at the characters on the screen. The ML's acting was so great in this. I'm always wishing for more K-drama mystery thrillers that keep my attention like this one did!

From what I understand Yanzhi is a hostage to the empire (but acts as a spy for his original country Talhan and his uncle Suhe, which is why he sends letters to them). From what we've seen so far it appears Yanzhi teamed up with Crown Prince and Suhe to help them usurp the throne. We haven't been told explicitly why, but we can assume it was in part to protect Qi as we are told that Yanzhi had hoped that Crown Prince would spare him and Qi. But as we saw in Ep. 1, the Crown Prince and Suhe betrayed Yanzhi and killed both him and Qi in the end. If I got anything wrong or am missing anything, others please add! I also want to better understand the political dynamics and maneuvering!