Exquisitely enjoyable slow-burn romance

The slow-burn romance was exquisitely enjoyable. I love how the ML quickly became impressed by the FL and trusted all her plans while being ready to lend a helping hand if necessary. They took their time openly expressing their feelings for each other, but WE ALL KNEW (including the side characters who saw them together), and when they eventually got there, it felt so rewarding. I lived for those 5-10 mins of main couple scenes in each episode and have rewatched them multiple times.

Wang Xing Yue was so good as the Male Lead who was economical with his words but conveyed a lot with his gaze and expression. I had seen him in "Amidst a Snowstorm of Love" but had no idea he could be that good!

The overall storyline was good in the sense that it was complex enough to be interesting, but simple enough to follow (I hate overly complex plots in historical dramas, especially when there are too many characters involved and unclear timelines). However, a bit too much screentime was given to the baddies. I get it that they were trying to make sure they were not one-dimensional, but maybe they could have cut down on some of the baddies' plotting to give more scenes to the main leads. I think they really underestimated the draw of the main couple to viewers.

I am not a fan of the last 10-15 mins of the final episode - it felt unecessary and rushed to add on a new final villain when all the previous episodes had been building up to one set of villains.

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