L13

Yep, but I feel like the show is setting her up with Li Ran.

Yeah, I agree with that.

If people can’t stand a character being angry and insist that male characters never show anger because it’s not model boyfriend behavior, that’s their problem TBH.

The summary sounds promising as far as modern romantic cdramas go and the leads are both charming; I hope the drama will strike a mature and subtle tone and showcase realistic sources of conflict and nuanced characterisation. China has been making some good office and slice-of-life romances in recent years like Fake It Till You Make It and Meet Yourself.

Bro really went from shaking her like a rag doll and screaming in her face that she's a bodysnatcher to piloting a whole makeup service at the corporate level in secret just to make her happy in three episodes. Men are weak!

OK, I'm watching today's episodes and the most pressing question I have at the beginning of episode 9 is WHY IS MS LING STILL WORKING AT THIS HAIR SALON??? She tried to harm the health of a client, which could have resulted in DEATH since she had no idea how severe that person's food allergy was, and on top of that she's clearly a disruptive element in the workplace because she thinks she's too good to be compared to Jiang Xiaoyuan, hates her and puts her down/expresses her displeasure openly all the time while using her seniority to bully the other interns.

Letting her stay on and continue to make trouble after she almost KILLED A CLIENT (on purpose!) just because she's worked there for a long time is NUTS. It was obvious from the moment that whole mess went down that Ms Ling has terrible judgement and wouldn't just stop scheming and antagonising JXY after being publicly humiliated because of her! She's a nightmare employee by any standard.

Sure, but I suggest that you watch the drama first before you decide if your critique applies to this character or not. For the record, I do think he was quite nasty to the female lead and needs to apologise and make amends. But I don't mind characters being nasty or unfair as long as it makes for good storytelling; if viewers see everything a character does as good or desirable simply because he's good-looking, that's their problem.

On that note, I think some people were blinded by the ML's good looks in the first 6 episodes and didn't notice that he was shown to be a cold and ruthless person from the start. Now that his conflict with the FL has come to a head, everyone realises he's in the wrong.

Being a woman myself, I like to watch shows whose plot is driven by complex psychological tension. I don't project onto the female lead and I don't treat the male lead as my imaginary boyfriend, so when they're at odds or pursuing different goals, I am entertained rather than upset.

If you had actually watched this show before commenting on it, you'd know the male lead has been mean to the female lead for two episodes and will stop being mean to her in the next two episodes, which is called conflict and is a core element of storytelling aimed at people above the age of 8.

Well, Jiang Xiaoyuan basically figured out why and confronted him with the truth: he feels guilty about standing up the original JXY all those years ago and thinks he's responsible for her life going downhill after that point and possibly for her disappearance as well.

He must also feel conflicted about how well he's treated the other JXY up to now, offering her support and affection that were meant for "his" JXY, and must be trying to distance himself from "our" JXY and to make up for being so affectionate with her, which feels like cheating on "his" JXY in retrospect, by being cold and mean. But what's already passed between two people can't be undone, which probably frustrates him further.

It's not right to be cruel to JXY because of these feelings, but we've already seen indications that Qi Lian is a pretty cold-blooded person normally—unless you're one of the very few people he values and considers to be "his" (like the original JXY and Xu Jingyang), in which case he's capable of going to any lengths necessary to keep you close. Right now, he must be thinking that he's been treating JXY as his person, but that's actually not what she is and she tricked him into showing her his closely guarded soft side, so he's unleashing the full force of his fierce personality on her in retaliation.

But of course, we all know he's gonna change his tune soon.

Of course she wants to go home, but she's also attracted to him; this is pretty obvious? She was charmed when he washed her hair, she's curious about him and his home and she keeps thinking/saying that he's really good to her. (Or at least this was all true before he finally accepted that she's not "his" JXY and changed his attitude.) This is also a romantic drama and a lot of their scenes so far were clearly directed with that in mind. 2+2=4.

It's not an insult to JXY to say she's become attracted to an attractive man who keeps being nice to her even if she has higher priorities that take precedence over everything else, like figuring out what is going on with the parallel universe stuff and how to go home. She's not "holding on" to QL or looking to be saved by him and no one is implying that she is; she's clearly uncomfortable with the idea that she's in his debt and keeps saying that their friendship should be more two-sided. At the same time, again, he keeps helping her and even if she *wants* to think of herself as an independent girlboss who needs no man, she would be homeless and jobless without QL, so her sense of pride (and your perception of her) is at odds with the reality of her situation.

They would make a charming duo, I think, but the plot summary sounds really underwhelming, like this is going to be one of those moralising legal kdramas with a stupid protagonist and a reactionary message.

Uh, no. There were always red flags about Qi Lian, like his ability and willingness to use violence, his obsession with JXY that led him to follow her around against her will and orchestrate her life behind her back, and the fact JXY has no idea what he does for a living, yet he’s seemingly rich and has a bunch of dudes treating him like their boss. Oh, and the serial killer room in his house...

I like his character a lot and think his emotions in the latest episodes make sense, but if people are surprised that there’s a darker side to him, they weren’t paying attention to the RED FLAGS (that’s what a red flag is: a sign that something may not be quite right, not a person you don’t like).

Yes, it is. IDK what the other person is talking about. Reset is a sci-fi drama with slight romance; this is a romance drama with some sci-fi.

I’m worried that even if Yushan gets into a top university despite her family’s net negative contribution to her life, they’ll just leech off her and continue to rely on her for everything and tell her what to do the way they’re currently using her as a maid and planning to marry her off to the first guy who offers money for her. Getting into university won’t be enough to sever Yushan’s ties with this family.

I’m really hoping that the stepfather’s sexual abuse will be exposed because that’s the only way her mother will wake up and leave him, I think.

Oh, sorry, I misread your comment and thought you said you didn't like any of them. If you like the genre, then definitely give Derailment a try! It's not QUITE as good as Reset and SOOD in my opinion, but it's still very good—definitely better than 7.9 by the standards MDL users usually apply to cdramas, so I have no idea what’s going on with the score on this page—and most importantly, it makes you want to keep watching. The leads are great and I think their relationship gets more and more interesting after the first 4 episodes. Derailment is more of a romance than Reset and less of a tragedy/melo than SOOD (at least so far).

If you didn’t like any of those dramas, you’re probably not going to like this one either. I’m a huge fan of Reset, personally, and this drama is pretty fun for me. So far the sci-fi element is quite limited, but based on trailers and teasers it will be a big part of the plot later on.

Your thoughts are all interesting and I’m not saying you’re wrong, but I had a different interpretation of the scene where she met her other self. I thought that was her rich self from her previous life. Didn’t she dress glamorously in the other world too?

I'm on episode 2 and I'm really liking this. I do have one question, though: is the Qingbei people keep referencing a real university? Sometimes Chinese shows will mention a university or city that I can't find on the internet and I never know if it's because they made up a fictional place for the show or because they're using a different name for a real place that the subtitles didn't translate well.

Yes.

I'm really liking this so far! I do hope we get some development between the leads soon, though. Either Jiang Xiaoyuan needs to learn more about what happened between her other self and Qi Lian in this timeline—does she even know his job or why he has such a fancy house or why he can fight? do we?—or Qi Lian needs to at least realise that the JXY in front of him really doesn't recognise him. Right now they're stuck misunderstanding each other and I'm getting a bit bored with their interactions. (Not with the show itself or with their characters, just with the repetitive nature of their scenes together!) They need to learn more information about each other in order to have more meaningful conversations.

It's fine to have such a relationship after 4 episodes, but as I said, I hope we see some progress soon.