Blossoms in adversity, this drama was aptly named.

The main theme and plot line that carried us through all 40 episodes of this drama was well done. Watching the Hua family's fall from grace and their eventual comeback through hardwork, preseverance, trust was so uplifting. The relationships between the women of the Hua household and how they worked together was the best part of the series and that is truly the main essence of the drama. This whole aspect was well done, so I rate the drama highly for that mainly.

In terms of the romance, the love between Hua Zhi and YanXi was the healthy and romantic type. Although I didn’t really feel amazing chemistry between the actors, the romance between the characters was great to witness. I loved how they both started out as friends and their relationship grew deeper. It was beautiful to see them be each other's confidants, with HZ feeling safest talking with YX and seeking his opinions on things she wanted to do, especially early on in their relationship.

My main disappointment with the drama is specifically the main lead, Yanxi's, attitude(?). To put it short, he did not stand on business. Despite how physically strong he was and how many times he protected HZ and her family, his character/state of mind/personality as his own person just fell so flat. In terms of personality, I even preferred the Second Male Lead's attitude and how he carried himself. YX acted in ways that went against his own beliefs/desires/morals all because the Emperor ordered it and that was dissapointing. He came across as a weak willed man and that is definitely not a trait I'd like to see from a ML, especially when you compare with the FL who is courageous enough to speak out when she sees something wrong and SML who spoke out honestly without fear for the consequences. This also feeds into why I felt a bit dissatisfied with how the end to all the adversity played out, I wish it was more directly through the hands of the main leads' actions than that of third parties. The fact that at the end of the drama I was rooting for one of the villains to accomplish their revenge plot and was pissed at our main leads for trying to stop them was a new feeling I experienced watching a drama, lmao.

Overall, the main story line being the rise of Hua family was enjoyable and very well done, there are also so many lovable side characters and romantic story lines (ShaoYao x Shen Huan, Uncle Pingyang x Aunt Yu Niang, Empress Dowager x Grandma iykyk lol, etc) that made this very enjoyable, so I still had a good time watching this drama.