This is a difficult drama to review. There are so many things I liked about it- the female lead, the sets, the costumes, the secondary characters and story lines. There was enough that I didn’t like about it as well- the male lead, the ending, the title. (Did it lose something in translation? I don’t know. This is yet another I would like to have renamed. I may go through and rename for myself all the ones that I find are a spoiler alert or just plain wrong.)
Upside:
Xiao Feng comes across as someone I could have a few beers with and watch c-dramas… she seems that fun and real. She’s not ms. perfect and is kind of headstrong, and I appreciate that in a female lead. I really liked almost every female character in this and when they were all hanging out together, I would have wanted to hang out with them- and I don’t think there’s another show that really has me saying that. It’s nice to see this kind of camaraderie, especially between women. Too often every other woman hates the main character, and it’s tiring. On a completely frivolous note, how cute is Serena Cheng, aka Yong Ning, with that haircut? If I had her face I would just run with that chin length hairstyle forever. And can I have A Du as a bestie even if she decides to not vocalize for half our friendship?
Also, I could watch the General Pei’s facial expressions forever. Always subtle. Occasionally hilarious. He has a gift. I ended up really, really liking him. On a side note, I appreciate the way he was able to carry a girl down a half dozen hallways without showing any strain. It kind of ruins it when a guy lifts the girl and there’s a noticeable struggle. (cough cough.) There was no struggle here. Definitely one of my favorite characters.
Oh, and Gu Jian. Again, the secondary male lead won my heart. Why does this always happen? Well, in this it is truly and deeply justified. He’s an amazing person, noble, self sacrificing for our female lead, sensible most of the time. He chips away at the wall you have up to keep you from voting for the second lead because you know he’ll lose in the end. Well done, sir. Not the heartbreak, I’m a little resentful over that, but Shawn Wei gently and slowly wins your over to the point where you’re thinking, why the hell don’t you just run off with this guy already? You were in love with him once, why do you keep getting sucked in by the other one?

Downside:
Which brings me to Li ChengYin. Keep in mind I am not panning the actor, even if he does look a little too much like Keanu Reeves to me. He played his role really well. Seriously. It was the character itself that I deeply disliked right from the start. I hated that they had such amazing chemistry together, because he was such. A. Jerk. When you’re watching a drama and you just really hate the male lead, what’s the point? Even so, she wanted him, so I selflessly tried to stop rooting for Gu Jian- hey maybe I can have him if you don’t want him?- and tried to have faith in her and let her figure things out on her own.
NO. Some people just do not make good life decisions. Without utterly spoiling it, the ending made me just want to yeet myself off my balcony. And as I treasure this life, that made me resent it too.

To sum up: If you want something that will make you laugh, cry, watch with ease, and eventually make you want to slash your wrists in the end, this one's for you. If you want a male lead and story line that doesn’t ultimately make you sad in a very dastardly way, skip it.