I decided to write this review because I greatly disagree with the criticism exposed until now. This drama is one of the first one I watch and it took me time to decide to post a review but here I am

I won't say back what everybody wrote but there's some things where I disagree, especially concerning the male lead acting skills. First of all, he plays a character who is described as cold and emotionless by the other characters so if you agree with them, it means that the actor did his job well. You like his character or not, it's your choice but it is not the fault of the actor. I even think that you can see the emotions in his eyes if you try. His face is expressive, just not openly since his character can't. He is the son of an emperor, with a failing health he behaves the way he was taught to and the way he needs to protect himself. He also fears that his death will be too much for the girl he loves so he hopes she can find love in someone else. He also has to find who is trying to assassinate him.
Secondly, we now know that Yu Menglong was seriously injured while shooting and became blind in one eye though he continued shooting the drama. From what I gathered from the Chinese source (I don't speak Chinese well), he uses to wear contact lenses but could not due to his injury so he shooed the scene while not being able to see afar. I actually think it is quite incredible he was able to perform that well while injured and I would love to see all who criticized him try to do the same.
As for him being camera shy, you don't need to fix your glare on the caerma while shooting.

Fot the rest of the cast, I agree with the reviews. They were great. I still get annoyed with the main female mead because I think she is way too stupid sometimes and I skipped a lot of the scenes with the second male lead because he was way too carefree at the beginning. It took him his father's death in order to mature. That's probably why I prefer the male lead and wasn't bothered by his acting. I thought the female leads mother quite annoying, blaming the male lead for his mother's mistake when he was able to overcome the past. Actually, a lot of characters annoyed me.

It may seem weird that even though I skipped several part and hated so many characters, my rating is still so high. Actually, I think that the second part compensated for the introduction (which lasted several episodes) and the first part. I love how it became darker and deeper, how the characters evolved. Which is why my rating is so high.

Lastly, the songs are really great as is the whole ost.