I am adding my thoughts to compare to other recent dramas.

With high melodramatics and several overtly theatrical visually cinematic moments, despite plot weaknesses, this drama works. Her cleverness, his cunning-- are a match of witty and eye-candy moment that are 'steamy' due to acting and visuals--for a censored C-Drama. This drama made me think of The Ingenious One with Chen Xiao but I thought it failed because he was too self aware of his intellect (which despite being a genius would fail time and again), whereas here, you get wrapped up in the attacks and counters from the lead pair against crazy evil injustice. This was more enjoyable despite the tragedy and cruel events that occur than Lost You Forever 2 which left one drained over the selfish melancholy.

That said, the apparently deep affection between the Emperor and the prior generation Consort was not explained (perhaps because in history there really was an Emperor who love a woman old enough to be his mother--but in that case she had raised him!--featured in Sleuth of Tang Dynasty, and an episode in Hi Producer with Joseph Zheng), which might have been more believable/palatable had we understood their backstory since the backstory for Emperor and ML, and all others were adequate (not necessarily justifiable) to explain their motives and actions.