timotey
This review may contain spoilers
A really good drama with two very different pairings that went through very different experiences. One was your typical friends to lovers lovey dovey coffee shop pairing - Licheng & Muren - the other had much, much darker undertones of non-con and incest - Xingsi & Yongjie. I started the drama for Licheng & Muren and they were cute and hot and sweet - but their story was also nothing new, nothing I haven't seen done a dozen times over, so in the end who caught my attention more were the step-brothers Xingsi & Yongjie. Now that was a pairing I haven't seen done yet.
Their parents married when Xingsi was in high school and Yongjie in elementary school - and Yongjie very early on decided that he would make Xingsi his one day. I'm not really sure if Yongjie was borderline sociopath or psychopath, there was definitely something off about his mental state and I wish the drama dug at least a little bit into that beside a word dropped here and there because it was apparent that their whole family knew that he wasn't exactly... well, sound.
What fascinated me was that the drama didn't skirt the fact that what Yongjie did to Xingsi that one weekend at the sea was wrong - just like his mom was wrong for knowing about it and not stopping him - and that Xingsi decided to forgive them so easily? That wasn't because they deserved it or whatever but because it's who he was, too kind for his own good and they all knew it.
Another thing that fascinated me was that the fact they were step-brothers wasn't just brushed over. Xingsi's father never accepted it, not truly, that Xingsi and Yongjie became lovers, he only gave them his blessing because they were dead set on doing it anyway but without his blessing, Xingsi would've been forever miserable - like I said, they all knew what Xingsi was like. And the father's love for his flesh and blood was stronger than his aversion to their relationship.
Also, I loved that even though Xingsi insisted that he truly loved Yongjie, there was still the lingering question if his feelings changed from brotherly to romantic freely or if he let Yongjie manipulate him which was what his step-mom and his dad feared.
Goodness, what a fascinating story!
Their parents married when Xingsi was in high school and Yongjie in elementary school - and Yongjie very early on decided that he would make Xingsi his one day. I'm not really sure if Yongjie was borderline sociopath or psychopath, there was definitely something off about his mental state and I wish the drama dug at least a little bit into that beside a word dropped here and there because it was apparent that their whole family knew that he wasn't exactly... well, sound.
What fascinated me was that the drama didn't skirt the fact that what Yongjie did to Xingsi that one weekend at the sea was wrong - just like his mom was wrong for knowing about it and not stopping him - and that Xingsi decided to forgive them so easily? That wasn't because they deserved it or whatever but because it's who he was, too kind for his own good and they all knew it.
Another thing that fascinated me was that the fact they were step-brothers wasn't just brushed over. Xingsi's father never accepted it, not truly, that Xingsi and Yongjie became lovers, he only gave them his blessing because they were dead set on doing it anyway but without his blessing, Xingsi would've been forever miserable - like I said, they all knew what Xingsi was like. And the father's love for his flesh and blood was stronger than his aversion to their relationship.
Also, I loved that even though Xingsi insisted that he truly loved Yongjie, there was still the lingering question if his feelings changed from brotherly to romantic freely or if he let Yongjie manipulate him which was what his step-mom and his dad feared.
Goodness, what a fascinating story!
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