It took me up until episode 4 to really get into the groove of this drama. I mean, half of the first episode is about a young Hua Zhi on a boat with her grandfather as they weather a storm. There’s also many members of the Hua family that are introduced that I was trying to remember all of the characters. However, the drama then moves on to the core conflict of the drama. The men of the Hua family are sentenced to exile, leaving only women and children including boys under the age of ten behind. The rest of the Hua family must try to survive without their original luxuries, with Hua Zhi taking charge. Once the drama focuses on the women in the Hua family, that’s where the drama truly shines.

I binged watched the first 14 episodes because it’s been a surprisingly heartwarming drama, almost like a nice cup of tea. It’s about family and sisterhood with a nice sprinkle of romance. I do have quibbles with the drama but overall, I’ve had fun. As of the first 20 episodes, the drama has reached 9500 on Youku’s popularity index. This is quite respectable and I suspect will climb higher if the quality of the story continues. I was thinking of reading the book but it’s several hundred chapters long. I’m not sure if I’ll get to it. Book readers have noted that there’s been many changes to the book storyline, but as only a drama viewer, I haven’t had many issues following along with the story.

Overall Thoughts

The ladies first open a pastry shop and the viewing experience for me was like a fruit tart. A little sour, a little sweet, but a very satisfying little treat. I had to keep waiting till the weekend so that I could binge the episodes that were released during the week. This drama rewards the viewer for following the women of the Hua family and makes it very clear that it is these women that are front and center in the drama. These women are allowed to make mistakes and they do, but they learn from it and grow from it. They know that in the end, they will always have a family to go back to.

This was a decent performance from Zhang Jing Yi, although online commentary has been more focused on Myolie Hu and Lu Yu Xiao. It certainly generated more positive buzz for Zhang Jing Yi and removed her from the shadow of Lighter and Princess due to Arthur Chen’s scandal. Hu Yi Tian didn’t fare that well (see my thoughts below) and I thought this was actually a puzzling career move for him since he historically has focused on male dominated dramas. 

This was another good win for Youku. The drama did breach 10,000 and generated a lot of positive momentum for the cast. I thought the rest of the drama moved at a brisk pace, perhaps too brisk. Plots were being developed and resolved so quickly that I was wondering how they were able to reach a conclusion by the last episode. I kept on feeling as though there was more story to tell, but due to the 40 episode limit, we only got these 40 episodes. I want to now read the book, even though its extremely long, to learn what I missed from the drama. 

What I liked

• Family First: This drama has been very refreshing in that all of the family members, whether that’s the men or women of the Hua family, truly want to support each other. Yes, when the family was wealthy and powerful, the women had their squabbles, but when the family fell into ruin, the women (albeit begrudgingly) did not abandon the family but stuck together as a family unit. Sure, every family also fights and the drama doesn’t shy away from each person’s strengths and weaknesses but ultimately, these women understood that they needed to stay strong with each other if they ever have hope of saving their loved ones. I was very pleased at how often I was surprised with how characters behaved. I’ve seen too many dramas where sister-in-laws backstab each other and in this drama, there’s basically none of that. There are several tear jerking scenes of the ladies supporting each other and I will admit that I did shed a tear or two. This is what a family drama should be, the family should act as a unit and solve problems with each other, not create problems with each other
• Strength of the Sisterhood: Hua Zhi has and develops genuine female friendships with her servants and also Shao Yao. Hua Zhi and Shao Yao’s friendship develops even though she doesn’t know anything about Shao Yao’s background. She treats all of them as her equals and fiercely protects them. Each in turn also protects Hua Zhi as she takes up the mantle of head of the family and has to find ways to earn money, which as the drama points out is very low class in imperial China. These young women are also intelligent and bright in their own way, with their own unique skills. Hua Zhi doesn’t take all of the limelight from these characters and each gets her moment to shine.
• Honest Communication: The characters in the drama actually have honest conversations with each other and secrets aren’t kept long. This is the case with members of the Hua family and the main couple. Hua Zhi and Gu Yan Xi begin to develop feelings for each other, but Gu Yan Xi is the head of the infamous Seven Night Department and was responsible for the rest of the Hua family. He also saves her several times as the head of the department. He finally tells Hua Zhi the truth before halfway in the drama and she reacts in a healthy and logical way. For members of the Hua family, they sometimes gossip about certain events, but when push comes to shove, they will share their knowledge and concerns with Hua Zhi so that they collectively can make a decision.
• Individual Characterizations: In this drama, we’re actually able to follow the different wives of the Hua family and are shown their individual characters. There are 4 sons and each has a main wife. The first wife is weak willed and believes her husband is her whole world and she constantly tries to push her submissive ideas to her daughter. The second wife’s son is adopted and worries that his birth mother will steal him from her. The third wife is from a merchant family and works doubly hard so that others don’t look down on her. The fourth wife is newly married into the family and perhaps the closest aunt to Hua Zhi. This is just 4 characters in the drama, with plenty more. Even though we don’t spend too much with all of the characters, they seem alive, rather than just paper-thin characters. As I was watching, although I didn’t agree with all of the characters’ actions, at least I knew where they were coming from.
• Cute Romances: There were plenty of romances in the drama, each with different amounts of screentime, but my heart was all a flutter for several of these young couples. They all had their own fun flavor, and for each, I was rooting for them. The ladies kept to their own lane and there was no stealing other’s potential partners. The ladies also grew alongside their partners so that I thought most were evenly matched. They were also a treat for the eyes, so I didn’t mind them the little detours.
• Respect from men: In a drama that focuses on the sisterhood, there were plenty of male characters that were depicted in both a positive and negative light. The main men of the drama who were associated with the Hua family, including Gu Yan Xi, Shen Qi, Shen Huan, were all very respectful and gracious towards the women of the Hua family. They were the positive role models for many of the younger kids in the show, and happy to be second fiddle to these ladies. The scumbags in the show all got their comeuppance, but not because of the men, rather because of the women of the Hua family.
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SPOILER – Ending thoughts

I thought the last 5 episodes revolving the Emperor, the Moon Disciple, and Hua Zhi was way too rushed and completely unrealistic. The Emperor’s desire for control forces Hua Zhi to donate all of their wealth to divert the river in order to save her family. After a year (which, highly unlikely), the Hua family is successful, and then the Emperor essentially locks Hua Zhi up again. He completely ignores the other threats from his son and the Moon Disciple but that basically comes out of the left field in the last 2 episodes. I couldn’t understand how the Emperor could be that paranoid but then just dies in 2 scenes. I felt this whole plot for the Emperor was such a letdown that I wanted to just pick up the book and read the actual ending to see if I was missing something.

Stray Observations: Hu Yi Tian has top billing even though this has been a very female focused drama. He does have more “clout” in the industry so I guess that’s why, but I do wonder why he accepted this drama if his character mainly revolves around Hua Zhi and isn’t the main protagonist.

Cathy