I won't go as far as declaring it a masterpiece or the perfect drama of the year. Cdrama tends to go down the drain towards the second half most of the time which was the case here as well. Story wise, the premise was really good, though it depends on your personal preference for me I found myself skipping a lot especially in the second half. In the beginning it felt quite a mix of Novoland pearl and Princess Agent. The torturous life of FL and her evolution from a slave to an independent strong woman is what reminds me of the other two shows. Plus I am a sucker for a strong female sort of storylines hence I continued watching it despite everything. ML on the other hand looked like a jerk, snobbish and a typical cdrama ML but he was more than that. The more you watch the more you understand his pov. His own experience and the way he represented a life that was not full of roses to FL made his character more grounded. He never helped her in things or showed any affection to her, never bend his harsh rules for her or showed leniency whatever may come. His reasons were simple. 'You won't find kind hearted people out there so one should be strong enough not just physically but mentally as well to deal with a world like that without expecting someone's help.' That was the biggest contrast between him and the SML, who showed her a world full of kindness and goodness shit and what not. I understand him to some extent but would not agree with his ideologies of kindness returns kindness. This only works only in some cases but rest of the time it is pretty much what happens with FL during her business ventures in the beginning.
Side cast in my opinion was not explored enough that I would find myself thinking about their characters. Except for another tomboy female (Shijie) I do not think there was anyone worth remembering. Her character though was strong and tried to portray an antagonist which people could sympathize with but she felt little extra at times and I couldn't feel much sympathy for her. Music was good and costumes were beautiful. l am Not a fan of CGI here they could have done better there but overall it was an intriguing drama. And obviously with one of my fav CPs. I wouldn't say it has much re-watch value but it is definitely a one time watch.