This drama seemed cute but then the overall plot becomes boring. I think the biggest issues are that the chemistry feels very slow for 20 episodes, and you already know the empress dowager is bad very early on. It should not take 40 episode to resolve.

Once FL becomes an official she is happy, but agrees to not openly marry ML. Of course none of this ever happens in historical china, so there are a lot of modern themes in the drama. The only interesting side character is the widow Princess . I also don't understand why Zhuohua was a talented doctor and then becomes an official..?
Overall the lines of script were feminist thoughts all the time,(not that that is bad), but gets boring hearing it repeatedly. The leads would look very sizzling together...if there actually was much courtship? The man is very passive in this drama.