Plot Overview

Duan Wu 端午 grew up as a pearl gathering slave on a pearl farm. It was a brutal place that saw many people die. One day, her life changed after she procured a prized pearl and was given the task of selling that at a high price. At the auction, she meets Yan Zi Jing, a wealthy merchant from the West, and Zhang Jin Ran, a kind gentleman with ties back to Chang’An. Chaos ensues as Yan ZI JIng only came to the Cui family pearl farm in order to enact revenge for his family that was wrongfully convicted and slaughtered with the help of the Cui family. Duan Wu is able to escape from the pearl farm after her mother sacrifices herself and gives her a prized blood pearl that was an heirloom of her fathers. Duan Wu ends up on Yan Zi Jing’s merchant boat.

On the boat, she devises ways to retrieve the blood pearl that Yan Zi Jing confiscated. She learns ways of trade and making money from Yan Zi Jing. Their travels take them all around the land and out west to the desert. But tragedy leaves Duan Wu alone and she heads off to Yang Zhou to change her fortunes. 

Overall Thoughts

Zhao Lu Si as a 95 flower has a sizeable following and therefore this drama was highly anticipated. People were eager, myself included, to see a continuation of the “Hao Yan” CP or ship of Zhao Lu Si and Liu Yu Ning from 2021’s The Long Ballad. It’s a ship I absolutely adored.  Perhaps that anticipation plus the fans from both Zhao Lu Si and Liu Yu Ning helped push this drama to be the fastest drama to break 10,000 on Youku’s popularity index this year. Shortly after airing online, it also started airing on 3 network television stations. 

I’m not sure what goes into the calculus of the different networks but this drama started airing at the exact same time as Esther Yu’s new drama, Love Game in Eastern Fantasy. The media immediately started pitting these two 95 flowers against each other to see who would win this battle for viewers and also quality. Unfortunately, The Story of Pearl Girl ended up 3rd behind Love Game in Eastern Fantasy in both quality ratings and viewership numbers. On Douban, The Story of Pearl Girl opened with just 6.3. Surprisingly, Love Game in Eastern Fantasy was also beat out in the last few days of airing by The Romance in the Alley which featured a more modern storyline. 

My general view is that this drama took on a more serious tone and in instances is quite brutal. Therefore, people looking for a more light hearted escape may be turned off of this subject matter. Zhao Lu Si, to her credit, does seem to take this role more seriously. It seems like she is TRYING to take on roles with more gravitas and complexity. It doesn’t land though but more of that I attribute to the script and plot. However, I also cannot help but shake off the feeling that Zhao Lu Si is trying to grow up too quickly in these roles where she either doesn’t have the acting skills or the maturity to match this type of role. 

Public perception has also really turned on Liu Yu Ning. He has been panned for being “ugly” since Journey to Love and now he’s lead again with Zhao Lu Si, the negative commentary has continued. It’s odd. This type of commentary only comes up in this major idol dramas. There’s been plenty of other dramas he’s been in and there hasn’t been nearly as much backlash. If you like him, he’s perfectly fine in this drama. If you don’t, then you’ll be turned off by his antics. 

What Suffered 

• A strong independent woman that fell flat:
  • The screenwriters of this drama I don’t think really knew what it means to be an independent woman. Especially at the beginning of the drama, Duan Wu would have died several times over if not for Yan Zi Jing AND Zhang Jin Ran. Both of these men are generally there to help be Duan Wu’s backbone and help clean up various messes. I absolutely despised the phrases that Yan Zi Jing would say to Duan Wu in the tune of “I taught you well” or “You learned from me”. It’s as if Duan Wu didn’t learn from Yan Zi Jing, she would not have been able to survive at all. That really undermines her growth and independence. Plus, Yan Zi Jing’s numerous behind the scenes machinations aimed at helping Duan Wu also reduces Duan Wu’s own effectiveness. 
  • Throughout the show, I often felt that Cui Shi Jiu was more fitting of a female lead role. She was confined by her gender from being more for the Cui Family. She was truly all alone when she was trying to save her family. 
• Power Imbalanced/Ineffective Romance
  • Duan Wu was literally beaten by Yan Zi Jing and severely talked down to by him when she was first on the ship. She then turns around to fall in love with him? Umm…What? Then, later on, Yan Zi Jing causes major miscommunication with Duan Wu which sets off the second half of the drama. Her romance budded almost too quickly and there were too many ups and downs throughout the drama which for me actually dragged. Zhang Jin Ran initially wanted to introduce Duan Wu to a better life in Chang’An but she refused to have more “freedom” on Yan ZI Jing’s ship. I don’t know, that doesn’t sound like the best trade. I generally preferred when Duan Wu was on her own as Su Mu Zhe building her own empire vs moments when she’s affected by romance

What I liked

• ACTUAL SWIMMING: I will give major props to Zhao Lu Si for her scenes in ACTUAL water in the first couple of episodes. It’s exceptionally rare to see real swimming in dramas and there were beautiful scenes of her swimming. Credit where credit is due. I was impressed. 
• Beautiful production: Regardless of your thoughts on the plot, it is evident that the drama had $$$ to spend. The costumes were stunning and hairstyles elaborate. The various sets that sometimes only showed up for a few episodes were also intricate. The few episodes where Yan Zi Jing and company went out west into the desert was also jaw dropping. 
• Cui Shi Jiu (+ her romance with Zheng Wu): The person I most respected in the entire drama, was Cui Shi Jiu (Cui Zhuo Hua). She was the wealthy daughter of the Cui family but was always looked down upon for being a woman. She lost everything after being outsmarted by Yan Zi JIng. She did what she could to survive and turned to Zheng Wu, someone she was previously betrothed to. She didn’t like him before because she didn’t want to simply be married off but he was willing to take her in. Was he a paragon of goodness? No, but throughout the drama, we could see he really cared about her. She was truly alone and had to fight to survive. If it wasn’t for Duan Wu being female lead and had the backing of Yan Zi Jing and Zhang Jin Ran, Cui Shi Jiu probably would have lived to be the “female lead”. Only in another universe. I thought her story line was more tragic and interesting.