Rachel

I totally get what you said. Unfortunately, for Cheng Yi's case, it's far from it being normal viewers (especially when the drama just started airing). I'm Chinese, I'm on weibo and bilibili. There's a always huge smear campaign towards Cheng Yi. Every actor naturally has haters but he's probably the most hated male actor despite also having high popularity.

I actually have not rated the drama yet (but I'm enjoying all 10 eps so far so I might rate it), but just 12 hours ago, the ratings were at 8.2. For it to jump to 7.8 in 12 hours, maybe I'll give it a benefit of doubt?

Also, rn in China, on weibo, haters are picking out screenshots of Cheng Yi's hands and nails in the drama (it's a TRENDING topic), saying that he used nail polish and he's too girly...A lot of the reviews on this unfinished drama on bilibili are trending and targetting Cheng Yi's LOOKS and voice. I can sort of understand the voice part if they are talking about it being unclear sometimes, but targetting looks is what CY haters always do :').

Unfortunately, all this baseless hate indeed do come from other fandoms (especially on weibo). Constructive criticism is welcomed which I, myself, also have for this drama, but many are specifically targetting Cheng Yi and are just rating it for the sake of hating him (not the drama).

Yangzhouman is unique to LXY, he developed it himself which is why other can use this to identify LXY. This is also why LXY is revered as a prodigy and No. 1 in JiangHu. His Shifu and Shiniang's inner powers are different. I'm not sure if it's stated in the drama but more proof is that LXY developed Yangzhouman around when he founded Sigu Sect, which is way after he left his Shifu and Shiniang's mountain.

Cheng Yi is an introvert and socially awkward and slow in social settings (something that I understand because I'm similar). However, I feel like the current Cheng Yi has been too affected by cyberbullying from years ago. I'm a new fan but I have heard that after Cheng Yi rose to fame from Love & Redemption, he and the other cast attended this conference (?) called 云歌会. During the conference, he was quite awkward with and didn't interact much with the female lead, which led to netizens condemning him, even saying that he ruined the drama for them. He lost a lot a lot of fans after that and gained tons of haters that spread lots of bad stuff about him online. I think this affected him very badly which caused him to be more fearful and anxious of live broadcasts/ conferences and variety shows (any social setting in public's eye).