Plot Overview

In this drama, there are really 3 main components:

1. The romance
2. Politicking 
3. Crime solving/detective work

Romance

The romance between female lead Yan Xin and Shen Du has many cliches are largely works. The two of them actually met in their childhood when Shen Du was imprisoned and Yan Xin would sneak in to visit this random boy to give him food and chat with him. After they grow up, she remembers him because she learned his name and even as a young girl vowed to help get him out of imprisonment, but he didn’t learn her name. While he remembered her as a young girl, he didn’t realize the grown up Yan Xing was the same girl who helped him back in the day. I’m a little skeptical that after several meetings he never asked her name but we’ll just go with it. 

They grow up, and the Yan Family is a scholar family where the father is a member at court, but relatively lower ranking. Yan Xing’s 3rd sister is arranged to marry Shen Du who is now a feared and ruthless general. (I have no idea how to translate his title so we’ll just go with general). He has the ear of the Empress Dowager and is a formidable young man. Women are scared to marry him but the Yan family is arranged to do so under threat of the Chancellor. Shen Du’s new wife is to be a spy on Shen Du for the Chancellor. Yan Xing’s 3rd sister elopes with her beau before the wedding can happen. In order to save her family, Yan Xing takes her place. Because Yan Xing’s met Shen Du as a child, she is not as scared of Shen Du as other women. 

Politicking

Though set in a fictional world, we can see comparisons to the Tang dynasty. The Empress Dowager is running the show as the emperor, her grandson, is a very young boy. She has a trusted female official who helps run matters at court as well as a daughter, Princess Yong An, and a son, Prince of Xian, both moving in the background for power. 

Shen Du’s position at court is Da Ge Ling and he is balanced by Lai Luo Zhi, another high ranking official at court and primary antagonist of the show. Shen Du must help the Empress Dowager manage the various powers at court while also fending off Lai Luo Zhi’s barbs. Additionally, he has the monumental task of overturning his father’s wrong conviction where the Shen family was sentenced to death or jail for treason. 

Crime Solving/Detective Work

Before Yan Xing was married to Shen Du, she actually had a job as a clerk in the Ministry of Justice. She loves solving crimes and learned many skills from her master on finding the truth amongst various threads. Though not a coroner, she’s not afraid of dead bodies and will do whatever she can to find the truth. Yan Xing and Shen Du work together on a number of crimes as there is a flame moth cult that is stated to be able to revive the dead wreaking havoc in both the capital and beyond. 

Overall Thoughts

A drama that flew under the radar when it first aired, it did make a small splash in August into September. Viewership stats on Hunan television are not amazing, but did hold at number one for regional television stations. You could say that this drama exceeded expectations given that it was not highly anticipated and there are not 2 “idol” headliners for the show.  Ding Yu Xi has been consistently on the small screen but female lead Deng En Xi is a newcomer. Born in 2005, she’s just 19 right now! This drama at least added a fresh face to the current, you could say, repetitive slate of actors and actresses. The main couple did do some marketing and Ding Yu Xi did joke that his “wife” had to do homework on the side since she is still in school. 

Plus, the drama was filmed just in the beginning of the year, wrapping in April before being brought to audiences. I’m actually shocked that there was such a quick turnaround time of only 4 months before it aired. How many dramas are just sitting there waiting for its opportunity to be seen by audiences? I don’t know the mechanics behind this but it also meant there was little time to build anticipation for audiences like other dramas. 

Douban currently has the show at 6.0. I actually liked it a bit better since I was in the mood for some lighter romance. While there were funny moments, it’s not as slapstick or intentional on the comedy compared to some other shows. Instead, it’s more of a charming and cute show. Not something you need to actively chase, as is the case with many other shows in the summer, but something cute to have on. 

What I liked

• Decent romance: Of the three main components of this show, I thought the romance was the best piece. I mean, there are so many romance tropes in it. The main couple knew each other from childhood and then fate brought them together when they grew up. The main couple fell in love after being forced to marry first. The man is brutal and coldhearted but is warmed by his wife and starts to exhibit immense jealousy when she’s not around. He is also exceptionally devoted to her. It’s hard to go wrong with all these ingredients. The first 3rd of the drama skewed more on the romance where Yan Xing would impress Shen Du with her tenacity and crime solving abilities. More importantly, she’s not scared of him.  The chemistry between Ding Yu Xi and Deng En Xi also decent enough such that I quite enjoyed watching the romance unfold on screen.
• Well casted: While I thought the main couple was fine, I really liked Mao Zi Jun’s Lai Luo Zhi, Mao Lin Lin’s Princess Yong An, Zhang Tian Yang’s Prince Xian and the He Sai Fei’s Empress Dowager. I really lament that Mao Zi Jun didn’t have a bigger career because I’ve found him quite handsome in roles for the last decade. But he doesn’t seem to be able to carry lead roles since he doesn’t have a ton of range. Instead, he does quite well as the nefarious antagonist. It seems like his comfort zone is in a role like Lai Luo Zhi and even though the role suffers from poor writing, his character is sometimes more captivating than even Ding Yu Xi’s Shen Du. As for Princess Yong An, many people online are reminded of her evil character Zheng’Er in 2013‘s The Prince of Lan Ling. She hasn’t been in the spotlight for quite some time so seeing her here has been a treat. She has the gravitas and energy befitting a seasoned Princess that is vying for power. Sometimes I wish there was more focus on what’s happening in the palace with the Princess, Prince and Empress Dowager vs the main couple.

What Suffered 

• Crime solving:  Perhaps because this year there’s been a plethora of crime solving dramas with very similar tropes (I’m reminded a lot of In Blossoms, then there’s Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty etc), it’s easy to compare which dramas did crime solving better vs others. Unfortunately, I felt that the crime investigations were less interesting and less thought out than the romance and politicking components of the show. The tension of the crimes and the intrigue therefore is not as captivating, particularly because the first part of the show really focused on the romance. The main female lead also flip flops on intelligence. One second she’s able to pick up on the smallest detail, the next she runs off to follow a lead without thinking of the dangers. She then has to be saved by the male lead who has men and physical prowess. This is a trope that really drives me up the wall but alas, allows us to see that knight in shining armor swoop in to save the female lead.
• Underutilized second male lead: Lai Luo Zhi had many opportunities to be more of a foil for Shen Du but maybe because there was so much focus on the romance that Lai Luo Zhi didn’t seem like that much of a menace. I wish there was more given to the character for him to be a bigger threat. He also wasn’t that interesting until later on. From the get go, he was portrayed as an antagonist and there wasn’t much mystery around that. They added his romance storyline with Lu Chui Chui to add some dimensionality but it didn’t really stick. Princess Yong An and Prince Xian’s motivations and actions were more interesting in the background since they were more mysterious. 
• Overly familiar voice dubs: One of the main comments online is that the voice dubs for the main pair are overly familiar. I can see that. Shen Du and Yan Xing’s voice dubs have done numerous other voice dubs so it’s not unique and actually brings you out of the show. I read that it was to quicken the turnaround time of post-production so the show could air. This might not matter for non-Chinese speaking audiences but reduce the show immersion.

Stray Observation: Ding Yu Xi definitely bulked up. He’s much larger than he was in prior roles. It threw me off this entire drama. Haha