Martina

The story follows Xie Qing Yuan, a woman who returns to the Xie household carrying both her own secrets and a desire to uncover the truth surrounding her mother's death. Along the way, she becomes entangled with Shen Run, a man with his own hidden identity, motives and complicated relationship with the Xie family. What starts as a story about revenge gradually expands into family conflicts, political schemes, old grudges and secrets that have been buried for years.
And I have to say, the first part of the drama handled all of this really well, the story immediately gives you a reason to keep watching, and most importantly, Xu Kai and Zhou Ye are absolutely fantastic together. Their chemistry is easily one of the biggest strengths of the drama, and honestly, I could have watched these two interact for much longer.
There is something very satisfying about the way the story initially builds its characters and relationships. Instead of throwing every secret at us immediately, takes its time establishing the complicated dynamics inside the Xie family.

I especially liked Xie Qing Yuan as a protagonist. She is intelligent, determined and capable of standing up for herself, but she is not written as someone who always has the perfect answer. She makes mistakes, gets herself into complicated situations and sometimes has to rely on other people. That made her feel much more human to me.
And then there is Shen Run.
Xu Kai is really good here. He can be intimidating when necessary, but he also has softer moments that make his relationship with Qing Yuan much more interesting. Xu Kai and Zhou Ye have the kind of chemistry where even relatively simple scenes become interesting because of the way they look at each other or react to one another. Their relationship doesn't need constant dramatic declarations to work. There is a natural tension between them that makes you want to see more.

Unfortunately, this is where I have to talk about my biggest problem with the drama.
The last five episodes.
Why do we always do this?
After spending so much time building the story, the characters and all these complicated relationships, the final stretch suddenly feels like someone looked at the episode count and said, “Okay, guys, we have five episodes left. FIX EVERYTHING.
And that is exactly what it feels like.
Things start happening very quickly. Plot points that could have been given more time are resolved almost immediately, characters make important decisions and suddenly we are jumping from one major event to another. Instead of allowing the story to breathe and giving the emotional moments the weight they deserve, the drama seems to be in a hurry to finish everything. This was particularly frustrating because the beginning had been so carefully paced.
I can see the drama it could have been.
The ingredients were there. A good revenge story, complicated family relationships, political intrigue, strong leads, gorgeous visuals and, most importantly, a fantastic central couple.

Would I have preferred a few more episodes? Absolutely.
Would I still watch these two together again? Without hesitation.