Reviews

Bawling my eyes

Dmnnn I'm so happy I'm literally crying 😭😭😭 The moment Yi Chen came running back to his MANNNN huuuuu fhdkdjdjdjdj. After everything they've been through, that scene hit me so hard. And can we talk about Lu Feng's character development??? I mean, after all the things he did before, of course there had to be some character development somewhere 😭. What I love is that it's not the dramatic kind. It's in the small things. The careful words, the way he acts around Yi Chen, how he tries not to pressure him, and how willing he is to let Yi Chen adjust at his own pace. That alone shows how much Lu Feng still loves him. And the fact that they remained friends first before getting back together is what makes it even better for me (as someone who still hasn't read the novel yet 😭). However, despite all the happiness this episode gave me, I don't think Lu Feng has fully regained his sense of assurance yet.And Ayden... DAMN. The way he portrays that lingering anxiety is so good. Even when Lu Feng is smiling and happy, you can still feel that fear underneath. Like he's still worried that one day Yi Chen might change his mind.I just hope Yi Chen realizes that his man is still anxious and scared. That after losing him so many times, a part of Lu Feng is probably still wondering if Yi Chen will one day choose to leave again. Especially when it comes to his brother. I just hope Yi Chen continues to show Lu Feng that this time, he's choosing him. Not because he has to, but because he wants to.And now I think I finally understand why Yi Chen's brother and his partner were able to be happy together while Yi Chen and Lu Feng spent years suffering. At first, I kept wondering why one couple seemed so stable while these two were constantly going through pain after pain 😭.But I think the difference is commitment. Yi Chen's brother chose to fully commit to his relationship despite everything. He made a choice and stood by it. Meanwhile, Yi Chen has always loved Lu Feng, but he was afraid of what that commitment would mean. Afraid of hurting his family. Afraid of disappointing people. Afraid of choosing himself.And because he's the older one, I feel like he carried even more responsibility and guilt on his shoulders. That's why Lu Feng was always the one chasing, waiting, yearning, and fighting for them. Huuuu, when you really think about it, Lu Feng spent years proving that he wanted Yi Chen.The question was whether Yi Chen could finally choose Lu Feng the same way Lu Feng had always chosen him.And seeing Yi Chen run back to him??? That wasn't just a reunion scene for me. That was Yi Chen finally making a choice. Not his family's choice.Not society's choice. Not his brother's choice.His own. And maybe that's why this episode made me cry so much 😭✋.

Read More

Goodbyes, ambushes, snakes and rescues

There is an exchange of stories and Ye Li eventually falls asleep. She is gently forehead kissed by a very loving husband. Somewhere along the way her acts of kindness and radiant smile has touched his heart and he is completely smitten. The next morning she gets the promised painting. Xiu Yao pays utmost respect at her mother’s memorial and sees that Ye Li’s life consisted of hardships and that the stories of her mother were not a correct accounting of what took place. He sees the hands of the Marquis in the mistreatment by soldiers and is most likely spurred on to add it to the Marquis’ account of misdeeds. There is a touching farewell from the crew that spent two plus years working on the mural. They have become like a brotherhood sharing their last drink before parting ways. We did not get to see, but Ye Li is a very active drunk getting into all sorts of mischief. She is repeatedly admonished by her angry husband and his spy friend encouraged her to shut him up by kissing him.🤣😂 That stopped the lecture. 😂They leave the temple to be attacked by bandits and the spy thinks a bag of gold will handle it. He is very surprised when it didn’t and the guard is a very capable soldier. It is heartwrenching to see how desolate the prince is at his invalid status. He is reminded how incapable he now is and he is so angry and frustrated. He is grieved that Ye Li ran off to distract the group so that he could stay in hiding. Our humerous assassin shows up but there is a miscalculation and Ye Li does the fall from the cliff.🙄 What is even more annoying than this trope is she is now in Prince Li’s villa. 😝🤬 so the question is…did he happen to be there moaning and run across Ye Li purely by chance? Or, was he instrumental in the attack on the carriage to try to kill Xiu Yao and steal his wife? The would be assassin is the one she rescued and he had already changed course to help her when he miserably failed and caused her fall. Who killed the snakes? And how will Ye Li react when she recognizes who the lord of the villa is? He is spared her wrath as the venom has her temporarily blinded. The assassin is spared when his tattoos verify what clan he is part of. Wait til Prince Li learns his wife is the one that placed the bounty😝 Xiu Yao is in the temple looking at the mouth his wife painted and remembering how beautiful she was on the platform. He has spent every effort to find his wife and the assassin group is surrounded by an angry Prince and guard. Half want to know who she is and the other half where she is. It will be a very interesting encounter the next time the ‘brothers’ meet. The story continues to be fast paced and interesting tho the cliff fall is a letdown for as good as this drama is. They lost cool points for that feeble maneuver. 😝🙄

Read More

Younger's brother perspectives

So many people are hating Yi Chen's brother, but there are always two sides to every story.Put yourself in his shoes. If someone hurt your family, caused your mother to end up in the hospital, pushed you down the stairs and left you crippled, how would you feel? He spent years in rehabilitation just to get back to normal. Then he suddenly lost contact with his older brother, and years later he found out that Lu Feng was the one who kidnapped and imprisoned him, and that his brother almost lost his life.Yes, the younger brother is a hypocrite in some ways. He is gay himself, yet he hid the text messages and interfered with his brother's relationship. He is also in a happy relationship with his own partner. I know many people will say, "If he can be happy, why can't he let his brother be happy too?"But how many times did Lu Feng hurt his brother? From the younger brother's perspective, Lu Feng was never someone he could trust. Everything he did came from wanting to protect his brother, even if he went about it the wrong way.At the end of the day, he still let his brother go and accepted his relationship with Lu Feng. I'm not defending all of his actions, but I can understand why he acted the way he did.I honestly don't know why so many people keep hating on the brother. He is a flawed character, but that's what makes him interesting. Without him, this series wouldn't be nearly as good as it is. Just enjoy the show and appreciate the different perspectives.

Read More

Making choices

The eldest son’s lack of multitasking skills is not working in his favor. As a doctor, it should be a given that multitasking is a key necessity. His lack of communication with Bo Mi is going to bite him in the ass because he will seem fickle. He is at the age to question everything but he lets others decide for him and then falters under the pressure. When trying to make a stand for himself he is still wavering. I like that his dad did not try to make the choice for him, but truthfully said all decisions good or bad should be dealt with forthrightly and owned. That it was a given consequences would result no matter the path. Here Bo Mi is way ahead of him and has been gently steering him to become his own man. But he pretty effectively cut her off to have time and he then goes to Seoul with no further info given. As much as Bo Mi doesn’t want to choose officer Park, he is showing himself to be the more stable and trustworthy choice. The mom — I have very mixed feelings. Where did she get money forcing her to leave with kids? She has good intentions but her panic attacks are caused by her need for control and she is blackmailing the entire family whether on purpose or not. We learn that she came from a rural background and has very good reason to want her children to have more choices young. But the point she completely misses is that she feels empowered to make all the important decisions for a young adult rather than telling him her story and letting him come to his own conclusions with the most information possible. This is where dad gets it much better. While I understand the mom’s motives better, I find I like her even less than initially because of her tunnel vision of living vicariously through her son. She has opportunity with her other two boys and the oldest has the bulk of her attention. She has been talked down from intervening in the college interview but whether she will comply is another damn good question. Mr Seong and village chief knows the company is doing something flakey with the reports and Mr Seong even now knows who. The company seems to want to steal the land from the villagers and using fake soil reports to lock them out of commercial farming. Mr Seong brings this up to his superior and is offered a deal. It is unclear if this is to do the right or wrong thing because ultimate loyalty is demanded and a contract expected to be signed. Is this with the real or fake information? The troublemaker boss is possibly leaving but what exactly is the top boss wanting him to do? That is the real question. This episode has father and son being pressed with a life changing choice. The wife needs to come clean about her debt and maybe that will calm her down a bit. The villagers know something is up and waiting to see if Seong fails and wondering what happens to them if he does.

Read More

an okay ending to a show that didn’tr actually happen

okay that was kind’ve an extremely abrupt ending. but this was okay. i think the first thing i want to say is that i like the president. it just makes zero sense azs to why he is getting himself so involved in miko’s love+life. he was a gag character with no stronger substanced until literally this episode it’s so bizarre. & this also effects reiko. she does not have the layers to make you care for her atonement. i can’t open my heart to somepony that didn’t open hers. i also don’t like how shu & yuuki are reduced to the same interchangeable position in this episode. it’s lazy. it also shows how neither of them have grown in any discernible way ，shu’s just ununiquely miko’ds reject with yuuki ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆　　 ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ ki think ren was pretty okay. he is more indicative of the show having the ingredients but not knowing how to cook them. there is no flesh which is why reiko falls apart ，why the president is out of place & why the band members don’t hold stake. i have nothing else to say about miko. this conclusion would’ve been fine for her if she did anything note+worthy to getting there but ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆　　 ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ & I’m serious about the material being there. ren ，nana ，reiko & miko they all intertwined interestingly enough & paralleled each other butg they made nothing of it to actually get you to care about anypony outside of the main couple. i also do like the message of taking your own fate & making your own happiness instead of relying on gods & miracles. but like . .. WHEN HAS MIKO DONE THAT. SHE SUUUCKS. THIS SHOW SUUCKS. ayumi was actually right I AM MAD.

Read More

Ambiance vs top tier decorations

Even in this last episode I can’t like Qing Ye’s dad. While he acquiesces to her choice, in his heart he would prefer Meng to Xing Wu. This is even with the knowledge of how his parents treated Qing Ye. I loved that Xing Wu showed him a workaround that let both plants reside in the same garden. He was not pleased there was a resolution to the misfit plant but accepted that it was a reasonable choice for both plants to be together. I am happy Xing Wu made a good showing at the golf course and that Meng was in on getting dad to accept the couple. He is at least a kinder rendition of his parents. We get to see the changes that have occurred over the last five years and that Qing Ye and Xing Wu are still smitten with each other and that never wavered in their time apart. The only mystery that was never really cleared up is who Xing Wu’s father was and why his mom ran away. This unknown backstory may be the reason Qing Ye’s dad was convinced the gap was too wide with the families and why Xing Wu’s mom wondered about that as well. We did not find out til very late that he and gma not blood related which meant the worthless gambler was not his dad. What it really came down to in the grand scheme of things is what’s most important — money and high social tier or accepting and loving those that embrace us for who we are regardless of status and income. I like to think that Qing Ye’s mom’s spirit pushed her to meet her ‘sister’ and family and that fate took care of the rest. I think the cast and production team did an excellent job of making these characters relatable whether we liked them or not. While some of it was paced a little slow, we got to see that money and position did not secure love and acceptance, and that poverty and harsh circumstances did not deny dreams if willing to see more than the past and public opinion to look and work for a brighter future. This drama did that well. Our couple chose ambiance and their future will be dazzling. 😁

Read More

Take a sniff

Lol, their Master has a special ability to slow ageing.... I wonder how old she actually is. 🤔I do love how Haixia always makes a plan, but then Hailou executes it with some extra something on top, and then they need to deal with the chaos it has created. 🤭😅Their dynamics are just amazing, I can't stop enjoying them—always naughty and mischievous Mr. Salty and composed and analytical Mr. Shrimpy. 😂 Their snarky comments are so fun to listen to.P.S. Hailou making Haixia sniff the cigarette like he was a dog... OMG! 😅 To be fair, I am not sure if I'd enjoy an ability to smell everything.... some smells are better left unsensed. 🤢

Read More