[ spoilers only at end of post ]

I stumbled upon this drama by chance after seeing it pop up on my Douban app while looking for something new and I am so glad that I did! It's been about a week since I've finished watching this title and I am still thinking about the drama and wishing that it were just a little bit longer (can they please do a sequel of them in 2020 LOL)

Prefacing this by saying that I normally do not seek out dramas that aren't happening in the modern era but thought that this one would only be spending a little time in the 70s and fast forwarding to now but that wasn't the case at all. Within a span of 36 episodes, you really get to grow up with the Qiao siblings, watching them go through each phase of their life. I will say that the timeline of the drama is a bit confusing to me. There were moments where I thought maybe a few months had passed, but it was actually a few years. However, there is no real indication to when certain time skips might happen (particularly when all of the siblings are older and they are no longer being played by a different actor because of the age).

The acting of this drama blew me out of the water as they really brought me into the story that they were living. While I'm not a fluent Chinese speaker and was watching this without subtitles, I was still able to grasp onto most of what was happening simply with just watching the body language and listening to the tone of how they spoke.

My family and I sped through the first few episodes very quickly but my mom was also reading spoilers on Chinese sites while we were watching as we were behind and so she was tempted to stop when people started talking about how the drama was becoming nonsensical and stuff; however, we pressed on and I'm so glad we did. I do think the drama ended a tad bit abruptly as there was a LOT that happened in that last episode, but it at least tied everything together well and wasn't one of those endings that leaves you feeling unsatisfied (even if I do selfishly want more).

The side characters also add a wonderful touch to the storyline and didn't feel overbearing or unnecessary. However, nothing can beat the love and care that these siblings have for one another. An emotional roller coaster but a lot of fuzzy warm feelings that come from witnessing such a bond.

If you haven't watched yet, you might want to skip the below because ~SPOILERS~. And if you have watched it, I would love to know your thoughts on these random thoughts I had while watching the drama!

1) For the longest time, I had no idea what the point of Qi Qi's character was, though, now that I've finished the drama, I can certainly appreciate his character a bit more and the purpose of why he's necessary. However, I honestly still don't understand the plotline of having him knock a girl up and having a baby. Was it to force him to mature quicker? Didn't really understand the point of this but maybe there's a nuance I didn't understand.
2) I would love to better understand how these characters decided to get married because it felt like there was no chemistry that built up between the characters that would make me believe there was love between them. However, perhaps most of it is a marriage of convenience? And also maybe why those marriages ended up in divorce?