KSM4

Agreed. I'm so annoyed by these "I gave a promise to [insert a relative] and now I must honor it no matter what" tropes. If his mother asked him to kill his neighbors, would he have run to do it, too? Even love and devotion have to have a boundary of sanity. I used to be able to tolerate weak characters, but the latest quality dramas spoiled me, so now I'm very frustrated.

She's a fantastic author, so I can't wait for more of her works to be adapted! No annoying stereotypes in sight there.

What do you mean why? Dark romance is a genre many people love. It has always been my favorite, and though I'm not enjoying this particular show, I'm delighted that I finally have so many options to choose from. There are plenty of other shows with lighter plots and romance, way more than the ones in this genre.

My theory is that the new special episode will be posted on June 3. Apparently, there is a To My Shore fan tour that starts then; the studio responsible for the drama made a post about it stating that it anticipates this date, plus it's Wednesday, so here's to hoping))

I was hoping they'd give them a more modern twist.

Yeah, Fan Xiao is very slow on the uptake when it comes to love... only when all the quick but wrong methods don't work, he considers switching an approach. It's heartbreaking to watch.

Happy watching, you are in for a ride! If you like the show, be sure to watch the special episode on YouTube after you're done with all the episodes, it has a lot of goodness.

They do end up together, yes.

Haha, wait for E10 and E11 :D More lows are coming. But the suffering and groveling are delicious.

There is definitely another episode. The trailer has about 50% of scenes we haven't seen and the director and the original writer confirmed its existence. But there are no updates yet :(

I really hope so, but there is literally no info. These Chinese production companies are so weird, you never know when and what you are getting, it's frustrating.

Oh, you see, that's not it. At the end of E1, Suowei sees Chi Cheng with Yue Yue and thinks, "No wonder he's been against me all along and caused me to mess up several jobs! He's Yue Yue's new boyfriend and he's taking revenge on me for her!" And this thought is repeated several times through other episodes until he finally realizes that Chi Cheng's father is a big shot and that Chi Cheng didn't mess up his jobs out of revenge, he was just working. This doesn't make sense because, like you said, Chi Cheng not knowing that Yue Yue and Suowei were together is the whole point of the plot, and Suowei always worried about him finding out.

Ooh, I think I saw it recced before but I never tried it. Thank you, will go hunt it down now!

Oh, you know, it's not that I criticize Yichen for choosing to go back to Lu Feng; my complaint is mainly about the quality of writing and its execution. I didn't feel like the assault had even a slight impact on both characters, considering the happy times that followed quickly afterward. Take it away, and absolutely nothing will change. I don't find their relationship authentic or convincing, and they don't feel real to me. It's like Lu Feng is a combination of typical dark romance ML traits, while Yichen is just trait-less. I didn't sense any cohesiveness, and the lack of character reaction to assault just reinforced it. Maybe the book is better in this regard, but the show's writing feels very weak to me.

Ironically, it ended up being not dark and angsty enough for me. I really enjoyed the flashbacks with terrible Mo Ran, but the reincarnated version felt like just a moody teen with some problems. The novels are so well-written, but alas, I didn't vibe with the characterization. Hope you enjoy it, though!

I dropped it at volume 5; it didn't work for me. But it was such a pain to drop it after all the volumes I've already read. Truly a dilemma!

Did you get to E8? Zhen Zhen makes a very important appearance there, everything goes to hell, and Fan Xiao doesn't become happy until, like, the special episode :D

That's uncalled for.

No. Be sure to watch the epilogue on YouTube.

Well, in To My Shore, rape had serious consequences. It was never dismissed and it played an important part in the plot.