ziugae

There's a mix of just barely enough of a story, a stunted communication trope, SA, the fake-out to the dark themes, and a rushed ending that overall made it fall flat, it seems that you need to watch the behind the scenes to get much enjoyment out of this. To me, the plot was killed off way too soon, and the "dark" underlying theme to it took on too much of a bubblegum effect as episodes went by. The more we were left with the pieces to the story, the less they make sense or add to the series. I understand one of the main underlying themes is that Chi Cheng changed, shed that cocoon he had wrapped himself in to wallow in misery, but I would've liked more in-depth scenes to this change he went through. I would've liked to have a full-circle moment where they actually communicated for once, but the viewer is kind of left to fill in those gaps on their own. Maybe it's the subtitles, I don't know.

Though the second pairing weren't that much better, I did find them a lot more palatable even though they were a struggle to get to that point of enjoying their story.

And a bit off topic, but the dubbing and breathing constantly added to Chi Cheng (like when he'd drink) drove me up a wall.

Overall, I would not watch it again, but it was good to see a sense of progress for Chinese BL, and I am glad the cast had so much support from international audiences too.