What a nicely written article and the pictures are awesome. But you were not successful, at least in my case, to get me to watch it. Not your fault, but rather the ML is the culprit.
"What's even more impressive is the production team's choice to wholeheartedly embrace the tragedy of the story, and being unafraid to market it as such, since this usually drives potential audiences away."
I would like to disagree. Chinese dramas are notorious for having bad endings.More often than not they have a tragedy or an open ending, especially if it is historical. It as as if they are saying that bitterness is a part of life, so we are doing the same in dramas. How many of us are waiting for the Chinese dramas to get completed , get an inclination about the ending before we watch them?
I would rather the M die and the FL have an extremely happy life with someone else. Yes, maybe the ML will regret and remember. But for how long ? Human mind is very fickle. With passage of time the memory fades and so will the FL who was the innocent in this case.
All the men who loved the Dugu women were so deeply in love. Amongst Yuwen Hu was the best and Yang Jian was the worst in terms of love. Even LiHua's husband did so many bad things just to get a reaction from her.
I would have loved to see Yuwen Hu's realisation that Lihua was his daughter and was disappointed that they did not show his battle or death, just a conversation that he is dead.
And Yang Jian, even in his 40s after many years of marriage sees the face of Dugu MaNtuo in a maid and cheats. Wow.
After watching so many dramas, I can say for sure that this drama is very unique and different and one of the best I have seen so far. I am stingy with my rating and this is one of the 2-3 that has 9.5 from me. This drama has many real life situations in a business background like two best friends with one want to get a job in own merit, two people who were in a relationship in the past working in same office but have lingering feelings, a sexy secretary who has an affair with boss, a single mom who gets pregnant again by the same man, a guy who finds that his school mate is working in the same company as him but high up in the ladder etc. I really did not see that ending coming.
I didn't know that in China too they had non-human stand ins for grooms/brides., just like some superstitious Indians. Imagine getting married to a chicken!
Cheating is cheating regardless of which gender he/she is cheating with.If Vincent had that feeling he should have openly talked to Lily and came to an amicable parting rather than cheating on her.I did not like the ending, the guys should have suffered(not because they are gay but because they cheated).
LOL. This reminds me of a real life incident in Kerala's Guruvayur temple in 1990s, where 200+ marriage takes place in a single day within a short auspicious time frame .One couple actually married the wrong person by mistake in the rush.I think a poor taxi driver got married to a rich girl, there was even a movie on that later.
1 
I would not say the ML regrets leaving the FL. But she gives back nicely. Mostly business oriented.
Another drama where the ML regrets leaving the FL and is heart broken is
https://kisskh.at/1218-the-person-i-love
"What's even more impressive is the production team's choice to wholeheartedly embrace the tragedy of the story, and being unafraid to market it as such, since this usually drives potential audiences away."
I would like to disagree. Chinese dramas are notorious for having bad endings.More often than not they have a tragedy or an open ending, especially if it is historical. It as as if they are saying that bitterness is a part of life, so we are doing the same in dramas. How many of us are waiting for the Chinese dramas to get completed , get an inclination about the ending before we watch them?
I would rather the M die and the FL have an extremely happy life with someone else. Yes, maybe the ML will regret and remember. But for how long ? Human mind is very fickle. With passage of time the memory fades and so will the FL who was the innocent in this case.
I would have loved to see Yuwen Hu's realisation that Lihua was his daughter and was disappointed that they did not show his battle or death, just a conversation that he is dead.
And Yang Jian, even in his 40s after many years of marriage sees the face of Dugu MaNtuo in a maid and cheats. Wow.