Sidneylandsam

After watching Ci Sha play second fiddle in Forever and Ever and A Date with the Future, it was so refreshing to finally see him as the chosen one, the man who actually gets the girl. He had spent far too long being the handsome, emotionally significant Other Man, so seeing him finally get a character who stands on business was ridiculously satisfying. And waouh, does he wear the ML role well! There’s something delicious about the contrast in his character: utterly tender with the love of his life, and quietly dangerous to pretty much everyone else.

And his chemistry with Ren Min??? HELLO??? 🫣 The drama understood something very important: romance requires physicality. Not necessarily explicitness, but believable attraction. The way they looked at each other, stood close to each other, touched each other, the casual intimacy once they became comfortable together… You actually believed these two people desperately fancied each other. 😂 The skinship didn’t feel like the standard C-drama “our sleeves brushed; please alert the censorship board” romance. There was HEAT. 🔥

But the funniest part to me is absolutely the Ye Xian /Chen Xuan Qing collective meltdown because SIRS. WHAT EXACTLY WAS THE PLAN??? 😭😭😭 They had apparently both filed Jin Zhao under 'Woman I love and intend to marry at some unspecified point in the future after I have completed every side quest available'. Neither one properly secured the bag. Neither one clearly told her what he wanted. Neither one established an actual relationship with her. They just… assumed availability.

Meanwhile SanLang was like: ‘Oh, you love her? Fascinating. Anyway, I’m courting her. 😭 THAT is what made the whole thing so satisfying. Chen Yan Yun wasn't merely the guy who happened to win because Jin Zhao preferred him. He actually pursued her. He was INTENTIONAL! He made his intentions increasingly obvious. He created opportunities to be around her. He paid attention. He moved the relationship forward. And while those two were off adventuring with the serene confidence of men who had mentally reserved a woman without informing the woman in question, Jiu Heng was doing the paperwork. 😂😂😂
So when the bethrotal happened and Ye Xian and Chen Xuan Qing suddenly went: WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE'S GETTING MARRIED?! I had approximately zero sympathy. My brothers in Christ, you were there. 😭 You guys fumbled the bag while Jiu Heng simply kept becoming more important to her until suddenly everybody else looked up and 💍.

The ending is the one thing keeping this drama out of that 9.5 territory for me because after spending so much time building these relationships, the drama suddenly seemed to realise it had a limited number of minutes left and started clearing the board. But the central romance delivered so much that I can forgive quite a lot.