RozeGold

I watched this show because I loved them in The Princess Royal, so seeing them together again in a completely different genre was definitely an adjustment.

Now, my review is going to sound contradictory and maybe even a little confusing at first, but trust the process. Once you get the end, you’ll understand.

And yes, you read that rating correctly.

9/10.

I’m sure you’re wondering: How can you hate a show and still give it a 9/10?

Baby, cue the spoilers. 🚬🫩

We start with younger Qianxu and Yingtao. They’re kids playing together, studying, talking, supporting one another—you know, doing kid things. But even early on, we’re given glimpses into their completely different family dynamics.

Qianxu is raised in a home where love is suffocating and overbearing. He lives in the shadow of his dead brother and never really gets the opportunity to discover who he is.

There’s a small moment that becomes incredibly symbolic: Qianxu discovers that he likes the color red, but his parents insist that he doesn’t. They tell him he likes black.

Think about that.

This child isn’t even allowed to decide what color he likes.

That pretty much tells you everything you need to know about his upbringing.

Then we have Yingtao—fearless, bright, optimistic, opinionated and full of life. Naturally, these two form a strong bond.

Fast-forward to their teenage years. Qianxu’s mother takes him to another city, while Yingtao mourns the friendship and connection she lost.

And this is around the point where I started wondering whether I had accidentally signed up for emotional damage and trauma because BABAAYYYY…

I hated every second of this relationship.

I did NOT root for them.

But trust the process because eventually all of this starts making sense.

We have two completely different upbringings.

On one side, there’s Qianxu’s controlling, overbearing mother, who still hasn’t processed the grief of losing her first son and, because of that, has never fully acknowledged the son she’s currently raising.

On the other side, Yingtao has loving but extremely passive parents who sometimes come across as enablers. Yes, Yingtao receives plenty of love, but she was never really taught appropriate boundaries—and GIRL crosses them quite often. 🫩

Qianxu grows up in a home where he isn’t accepted for who he is. His home becomes suffocating, so naturally, he learns to avoid. When things become emotionally overwhelming, he runs.

And this is where the story became interesting to me.

Despite how much these characters irritated me, their family dynamics gave them dimension. Suddenly, I wasn’t watching some fantasy version of love that C-dramas can sometimes give us. I was watching two people whose childhoods shaped how they would eventually love as adults.

This drama forces you to look at how circumstances and choices create a domino effect.

What shapes us?

What do we yearn for?

What are we willing to sacrifice to protect the person we love?

And at several points I found myself asking:

Should this relationship even survive?

Because make no mistake—this relationship is TOXIC. 🚬🫩

Back to teenage Qianxu and Yingtao.

Yingtao eventually attends the same school as him.

First 🚩: Qianxu doesn’t acknowledge her after she came all that way to see him.

Eventually he realizes his mistake. He misses their friendship and begins inserting himself back into her life.

Fine. I’ll give teenage Qianxu a little grace. For some teenagers, reputation is everything.

They start getting close again, and this is where their family dynamics really begin colliding.

Qianxu’s mother has his entire life mapped out. Competitions. Academics. Future plans. The whole nine yards. She’s even trying to control who he spends time with, especially Yingtao.

Eventually Qianxu can’t take it anymore.

He and his mother have a FULL-BLOWN screaming match.

And let me give the actors their flowers here because that scene was beautifully executed. You could hear years of resentment pouring out from both sides.

Did that make me enjoy watching it?

Absolutely not. 🫩😩

The whole neighborhood can hear this fiasco unfolding. Yingtao and her parents are outside.

And what does Yingtao do?

SHE ENTERS THEIR HOUSE TO HELP HIM ESCAPE.

EXCUSE ME?! 🤨

Where were the adults?!

Why didn’t any of these grown people who could hear this child having a complete breakdown with his mother step in and try to diffuse the situation?

HER PARENTS INCLUDED.

Some viewers may see Yingtao as Qianxu’s safe place here.

I saw the beginning of a pattern of overstepping boundaries.

And baby, that wasn’t even the icing on the cake.

Qianxu goes to Yingtao’s house and her parents allow him to miss school for TWO WEEKS.

Again:

WHAT?!

Now Qianxu is out enjoying his newfound freedom. Yingtao’s father eventually wants to talk to him about his plans and offer some loving adult guidance because, despite everything happening at home, this kid is a math genius with an incredible future ahead of him.

Yingtao tries to stop her father from talking to Qianxu because she thinks he’ll become overwhelmed.

And that irritated me.

Her father is an adult. Qianxu is still a child. He still needs direction.

Yingtao has become so consumed with protecting Qianxu that she barely seems to know what SHE wants for her own life.

🚬🫩

I could list every infraction, but we’d be here all day. You really have to watch it unfold to understand how deeply this dynamic becomes embedded in their relationship.

Eventually things get worse, and Qianxu decides he wants to drop everything and study overseas.

But does he communicate those dreams to Yingtao?

Of course not.

Naturally, she’s hurt.

But girl…what exactly were we expecting from someone whose coping mechanism is avoiding difficult situations and running when life becomes overwhelming?

Then he leaves.

And doesn’t contact her for TWO YEARS.

Two. Whole. Years.

Now they’re adults and in college, so I’m sitting there thinking:

WHAT IS THE HOLDUP?! 🤨🚬🚬🚬

Meanwhile, Yingtao has not let him go. She’s basically on a wild goose chase for this man despite being ghosted.

And YES, by now I’m screaming at her too.

Eventually she catches him sneaking out of his house.

EXCUSE THE FUCK OUTTA ME?! 😱

You couldn’t call?

Couldn’t answer a message?

Couldn’t send a text?

But you’re HERE?!

Does Yingtao ask the obvious questions?

NOPE. 🙂‍↔️

She immediately comes up with explanations that satisfy HER, Qianxu basically lets her, they kiss, share their little moment—blah, blah, blah.

And guess what Qianxu does?

YUP.

GHOST. 👻🏃

At this point my dude is a smooth criminal.

Before disappearing, he tells her not to forget him.

Does Yingtao eventually move on?

Of course not.

She holds onto this man like he’s her emotional lifeline. 🫩😩

Fast-forward to adulthood.

Years have passed without a word from Qianxu. Yingtao has physically moved forward with her life, but emotionally?

Girl is still in an unofficial relationship with a man who isn’t even participating.

Then one day her friend finds out where Qianxu is and eventually gives her the information.

Tell me why Yingtao PACKS A SUITCASE and trucks her ass to another city looking for this man.

🧳🚬

And when Qianxu finally sees her?

HE RUNS AWAY FROM HER.

🤣🤣🤣

At this point, the whole thing has become annoyingly comical.

Eventually, after Yingtao has pushed and chased about as much as one human being possibly can, Qianxu realizes that he doesn’t actually want to lose her.

And FINALLY…

We get his side of the story.

This is where my entire perspective shifted.

Up until this point, I’m yelling:

LET HIS ASS GO!

He’s selfish.

He’s a terrible communicator.

He ghosts you every chance he gets.

Why are we still doing this?!

Then we learn what happened to Qianxu.

His family falls apart. He ends up staying with his cousin, someone he looks up to, but an unfortunate accident destroys their source of income. Qianxu suddenly has to shoulder the responsibility of helping support a family while attending university in Hong Kong.

His life went to shit.

And then he says something to Yingtao that changed how I interpreted almost everything that came before it.

He explains that if Yingtao had found him doing well, she would have eventually walked away.

But if he’d told her that he was suffering?

If she’d known about the poverty, hardship and responsibility he was carrying?

She would’ve dropped everything and climbed right into the gutter with him.

And that’s when I went:

😱

Because…

HE’S RIGHT.

He knows exactly who Yingtao is.

Now, we can argue that Qianxu should have told her the truth.

Normally, I’d agree.

But then I had to ask myself:

What would Yingtao have done with that information?

We’ve spent the entire drama watching the answer.

She is all-consuming when it comes to this man. She would’ve tried to fix everything. She would’ve inserted herself into his struggle. She would’ve put his problems before her own future.

And Qianxu knew that.

While he stayed away, Yingtao continued building a life for herself.

She accomplished things.

She progressed.

She became someone.

And Qianxu didn’t want her life to stop simply because his had gone to shit.

That realization completely changed how I viewed his sacrifice.

Through Yingtao’s eyes, he abandoned her.

Through Qianxu’s eyes, he let her go.

Not because he stopped loving her.

Because he loved her enough to accept that he might never have her if losing him allowed her to keep moving forward.

He was ashamed of the person he’d become. He didn’t want a relationship while his life was in that condition.

And…

I agreed with him.

🫩🚬

THIS is where the writers earned their stripes.

Because suddenly this wasn’t simply a frustrating romance anymore.

It was a coming-of-age story about how our childhoods shape the way we love, how circumstances alter the people we become, and how one decision can create a domino effect across multiple lives.

And then I realized something else.

These two had ultimately been sacrificing the same thing in opposite directions.

Yingtao loved Qianxu enough that she was willing to sacrifice her life for their love.

Qianxu loved Yingtao enough that he was willing to sacrifice their love for her life.

And THAT is when this damn drama got me.

😩🫩🚬

Do I think their relationship is healthy?

Absolutely not.

Would I personally want this kind of love?

HELL NO.

Did I spend most of the drama wanting Yingtao to leave his ass alone?

YES.

Did I spend the other half wanting Qianxu to learn how to communicate like a functioning human being?

ALSO YES.

But by the end, I had to respect them.

Yingtao loved Qianxu for who he was—not his potential, accomplishments, money or status.

And Qianxu loved Yingtao enough to risk losing the person he wanted most because he believed staying away gave her the best chance at building a life beyond his suffering.

Their happily ever after?

They earned it.

And that irritated the hell out of me because after spending almost this entire drama refusing to root for them…

I caught myself SWOONING during their happy moments. 🫣

The AUDACITY.

Then the ending had their adult selves essentially communicating with their younger selves, reflecting on who they had become and the journey that brought them there.

And that broke me.

Because how many of us wish we could sit across from our younger selves and explain:

You have no idea what’s coming.

The heartbreak.

The mistakes.

The choices.

The people you’ll lose.

The person you’ll become.

And somehow reassure that younger version:

We made it.

🥺

That symbolism was beautiful.

So yes.

After ALL that…

9/10.

Did I enjoy watching it?

Absolutely fucking not. 🫩🚬

Did it stress me from beginning to end?

YES.

Did I want to give this show a 3/10 at several points?

BABAAYYYY, the 3 was READY. 😭

But good storytelling isn’t always about giving me characters whose choices I agree with.

Sometimes it’s about making those choices believable.

This drama made me dislike these characters, question them, judge them, reconsider them, understand them and—against my will—eventually respect their love.

That’s why it gets a 9.

The writers earned every damn point.

Would I recommend it?

Hell no. 💅

We don’t need too many people voluntarily signing up for the same traumatic viewing experience. 🫩🚬

But I will give this drama its flowers.

It captured something painfully real about love: our decisions don’t exist in isolation. Our families, childhoods, fears, circumstances and sacrifices shape how we love—and sometimes the very thing we do to protect someone becomes the thing that hurts them.

Their love wasn’t clean.

It wasn’t healthy.

It definitely wasn’t the kind of romance I personally root for.

But I believed it.

And sometimes that’s the mark of a damn good story.