So, this was the first drama I've watched in a while. I watched this without knowing much about the story, so I was really excited about the revenge assassin, enemies to lovers, type of show, but it fizzles out after the first few episodes. I LOVEDDD Mei Lin acting as an assassin and trying to seduce Murong Jing He, but that tension dies out quickly, and they're just partners working together to get revenge, which is okay, but all that tension they had in the first few episodes goes away and they're just like...coworkers.

There were a couple of unsatisfying parts of the show, which include:

General Yin deeply falling in love with the crown prince. She loved Murong Jing He for so long yet quickly moves on to the crown prince after she sees the room he dedicated to her? Like okay, but bffr.

The crown prince dying--Mei Lin wanted to kill the real Qingzhou mass murderer or at least see him die, but instead of Mei Lin (the main character, mind you) getting what she wishes for, the crown prince gets a nice, comfy death as he's straddled in the arms of the one he loves. Like, he didn't even show remorse at the end, he said some bs like "Oh General Yin if only we were together earlier [I may not have turned out like this." LIKE?!?!?! That made me mad.

All of the side characters dying--I think another thing is, the side characters weren't developed enough for me to be really sad when they died. Also, I already knew Concubine Yan would die when they showed that slow mo shot of her in the first few episodes. I was really sad when Qingyan died though. Also A-Wei. The writers didn't need to do that to me.

Last, but not least--KILLING MEI LIN?!?!? Like I have dried up tears and snot on my face because the writers wanted to fuck around and kill her off WHEN IT DOESNT EVEN HAPPEN IN THE ORIGINAL NOVEL 😭😭 When Jing He and Mei Lin were finally together, it was really satisfying to see them come full circle in their journey together. But seeing them have such a short amount of time with each other really made me sob. But I sobbed in vain because the novel allegedly has a happy ending. w h a t

Here's some satisfying parts: the first few episodes

All in all, I spent a week pushing back assignments to watch this show, and...it ended up being okay.