Story: Synopsis here is missleading. Although Romance is present in the drama but that's never a major plot. Major plot is how both Female and Male lead use their genius ways to either win something or get out of tough situations.I will describe both differently here.
Minglan- Our Female Lead, born to a mother who was bought to marry her husband. Her mother was 3rd wife of his husband whom he never cared about. Even when her mother was murdered her husband didnt care. Ming lan then was brought up my her grandma who was very intelligent and Ming lan learned this from her. Minglan acted to be dumb, sumbissive and as a good girl till her adult hood, so that she can never be percived as threat to any of herstep siblings. But she still played games behind doors to get out of dangerous situations or to make herstep sister or stepmother pay for her wrong doings but nobody ever judged that It was Minglan who was behind everything. She even made a very dangerous plot to MURDER her stepmother who was responsible for her mothers death. She not only succeeded in Murdering her same way her mother died but she also made sure that her step sister who was the daughter of eveil stepmom can never have a good life. Nobody ever came to know that minglan was behind all of this. Once she got married to marquis she started showing her true intelligence and how dangerous is she. After her marriage people started to realise that it's imposible to deal with her and if anybody tried to harm her or anybody close to her they will definetly loose their life. She even got empress out of many difficult situations by her intelligence. She was not only intelligent but highly brave who could fight against world if any body close to her was harmed.
Gu Tingye- I find him equally talented and intelligent But Gu tingye always have had the opportunity and title as son of marquis and later General and Marquis himslef to show his intelligence but he rarely did. He was opressed as child but never knew till his father passed away. He was deliquant hence was never believed to be a better person. Later on when he decided to turn around his life after Ming Lan convinced him only then you can start to see how good of a planner he was himself. Unlike Minglan Gun tingye was always direct and never pretended even in dangeroud of situations.
Minglan was cool, Composed and Defensive Guntingye was Fiery and Offensive but both were highly intelligent and hence as a pair when they married it became imposible for anybody to defeat them as a pair.
Direction 5/10- I saw shaky footage atleast 3 times in entire show and apart from that there were many flaws but still they were digestable.
Character Development- Character development of each and every character from Main leads to mother of supporting characters to even servents was very good. You grow attached to these characters and this character development was also the reason why show is 73 episode long. You never feel that drama was draggy its imposible to skip even a second of drama.
All in all one of the best C dramas out there.