After watching the whole thing, I really hoped they named this drama with a different title. The Rise of Ning wasn’t t just about Yi Ning. It was mostly about Shen Yuan’s quest to rise up to the top and avenge his teacher and fellow disciple. It’s a beautiful drama. The FL calling Shen Yuan “Third brother” up until the last episode was just kinda weird. I know they’re not blood related, but still. How can you have feelings right away with a person who’s from the same family and you call him “Third brother” all the time? Anyway, I know it’s fiction, and I’m not the writer. The adoptive sibling trope is a little tricky for me. There’s not much romantic scenes between them. Kisses were meh. I wanted to see more. Great acting goes to the actor of Lu Jiaxue. Great job. He really got under my skin. I adored the fight scenes very much. I love the female empowerment message here. Love the characters, especially Duke Ying. Best dad ever! I just wish they didn’t spend so much time on the wedding scenes. We all know what happens in wedding scenes anyway. 40 episodes should have been cut down to 32. A lot of people were complaining about how Yi Ning should be more successful having a business. I mean, she does have a business. They had their struggles. It became successful with the help of her sixth uncle and his wife overtime. We don’t have to see everything. The FL is pretty, but her voice. OMG it’s like listening to a little girl. I get a little distracted by that. Especially when she keeps calling Shen Yuan her brother here. I blame it on the writers. Overall, I’m happy with the ending. I watched this because of Zhang Wan Yi. He’s a great actor to me.