Long review: Even two months after I finished watching this, it lingers in my mind, I think about the plot, the side-characters, about the message. And yes, I think about the romance, of course, Song Wei Long has the longing wistfulness down pat.

But seriously, the romance is just a vehicle for the message in this drama, and so is every other side-character. They are all spinning around the question, if personal happiness is more important than coherence in society and the general satisfaction of your family.

Entering Spoiler-Territory:
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Every couple in this show approaches this question differently, and found different solutions.
They don't lead to unhappiness either. He Fan Xings Parents for example chose the first best option in each other and though they bicker here and there, they are generally happy. But they are also quite forward thinking, which contributes to this, giving their childrens happiness a higher priority than fitting into the norm.
Compare this to their neighbour Mrs.Wang, who can only be happy if her son marries a woman his own age and has babies with her. Her son is not honest with her in turn, about how he met his wife (and probably other things as well.)

Her friends also show different facettes of relationships. One very classical, get married/have kids and one is an unmarried, childfree couple. The conventional couple is going through troubles and so is the more carefree couple. It shows that no matter what choice you make, you will end up in troubles, so the question is, will you choose the path that looks like trouble from the start or the one that looks like the easy path but then turns out to be full of trouble as well.

The romance He Fan Xings brother has also is there to show that some paths are seemingly closed by sheer misogyny, as is blatantly pointed out by the character. While everyone finds it odd, but ultimately shrugs their shoulders at this superior-inferior, age-gap romance because the man is the one in power and the older one, the scandal is much greater when the woman in the relationship is older and higher up at work.
As does the plotpoint where for a while everyone assumes Yuan Song is some kind of boytoy for an older, rich lady, though this is in turn reflected when people are equally appalled by the supposed relationship of Ye Lu Ming and his much younger niece. And also kind of in the relationship and power dynamic between Yuan Songs father and his stepmother, who is also younger by quite a bit, but is his equal or maybe even stronger.

Also, Ye Lu Mings approach to love is so realistic, on the one hand you want it to be like magical destiny, but on the other hand he thinks he can control it, if you do XYZ, the girl of your choice must fall for you. But life does not work that way, nothing is foreseeable and troubles will come your way, even if you find the ideal match with the ideal person it might not work out.


I could go on and on about every minor detail, about the growth in both He Fan Xing and Yuan Song, how their levels of maturity complement each other and all that... but just go and watch it.