Okay hear me out. Do I think this is a well written series? Overall no. It doesn't even come close to something like "Trapped" or "Make Our Days Count", however I gotta say I did not completely hate this. At first I did because I thought they were glossing over the sexual assault elements. However, they don't! If you kept watching after that you'd realize its clearly said it wasn't right by multiple characters. There also is added things to the situation that try to make it kinda grey a little bit. Yes Xing Si was drunk and irl you cannot consent if you're drunk obviously. However, he was conscious and was asked if he knew who was with him which he answered clearly. He also asked why he wasn't being kissed on the mouth so that was weird. Why would someone whose unaware of what's going on say that? Or have enough awareness to answer direct questions. Still wrong of course, but its food for thought. I still hate the step brother trope because I think its weird af. But at least its not glamorizing sexual assault to be romantic like some other BL's have in the past. I also don't take physical scenes totally to heart in shows because it's meant to be overly dramatized or extreme for shock value/to make more interesting content and conflict. Yong Jie's character was really interesting too. So whatever.

Moving past those two. The main couple I actually really started to like, I watched the series pretty much for them and that's it. At first the series was really boring for me, but it picks up some with those two. As well as the cameos from MODC which I loved of course. At first the one main guy (Li Cheng) was really annoying and said some semi-offensive dialogue. However this shifted, so I wasn't completely turned off to his character. There's this scene between them which is the real first sexual awakening scene in the series. It's in a bathtub and its actually beautifully shot. I was shocked it was in this series! Like hello budget! The warm lighting, beautiful music, sensual movements and stellar acting from Mu Ren's actor. He's also very gorgeous so that was nice as well lol. I was overwhelmed. I kinda wish it wasn't in this series, but what are you gonna do?
Favorite characters though were Xing Si and Mu Ren. Their interactions actually were some of the nicest too! Then of course there's Sun and Zhi Gang, but they are obviously cameos so not a ton of screen time lol.

Moving on to the negatives, this show has caused quite a diversity in viewership which I understand totally. However, these were my issues with it. There's wayyyyy too much unnecessary s*** in these eps. So when they end I started to get pissed off because not much has happened progression wise! Like why throw in a work crisis at the tail end of a series? That should've happened way before. Then the resolve of it was basically all in the last episode and its not very satisfying at all. Total bummer. Again I don't like the step-brothers trope, they could've just made them childhood friends or like ex step-brothers? Idk, having them live together too with the parents was extra weird. We loved seeing a gay wedding at the end, however it didn't really answer any questions as to what's happening in MODC season 2. Which I was hoping for because that was the opportune moment! We just know Hao Ting is still abroad, which he is in both endings technically. So boo. This felt kinda just like a filler season in between the stuff fans really are looking forward too overall.

In conclusion, the actors from this seem lovely. Seeing their behind the scenes and reaction videos added a lot for me about them. Which was kinda lacking in the show itself. I hope they get more work after this and I would say go into this series not expecting HIStory level storytelling. It's messy but has its moments