Im not new to girl chasing the boy storyline. There’s plenty of that on cdramas. The difference here is that she was the one who broke his heart 10yrs ago. And that’s why some people started a hate train on her and on the guy who’s brutally shutting her down. if Im being honest I WAS semi on the same train too.

If it was the boy who left (even for a vague shallow reason) and is now pinning for the girl, I assure you, we would be ALL for it and even cheer him on. We’ll enjoy it together as she shuts him down over and over until she gives in.

But its the girl and people are annoyed. Because as much as we want a strong female character, we are still not used to a flawed ‘selfish’ one. We like our female lead who can do no wrong. Much better if she was wronged by everybody else including the male lead. We relate to that. But we dont want a girl begging attention from a boy whose heart she broke years ago.

That was interesting for me though. Dont get me wrong, I was annoyed of her too! There was one time when I was cheering the male lead on to get together with the second girl (the female firefighter). I was having the Itaewon Class dejavu where Im like - ‘just leave that girl and move on to the other one!’ The annoyance wasn’t enough for me to drop the story though. The flashbacks and ML’s obvious lingering feelings left me asking what happens next.

And Alas came Episode 10. My turning point. Drunk ZuQin bared her heart out. The line that hit me like a train - “I’m thinking about what I can do to make my parents not oppose us and not disown me as their daughter”. “Why would I walk towards you when I know if I do I will lose everything while you will still be just there standing” (rough translation). I cried because I saw her helpless. I personally felt it. It was never easy trying to please your parents and at the same time chasing your own happiness. I felt so bad for her. And thats when I started looking at her in a new light. Slowly, I was rooting for her.

It came easy for me to love this drama after that. I dont think its the perfect and best drama of all times but what got me going is the chemistry of the leads. Their eyes are talking even without words. I love how, as the show goes on, I see the male lead slowly softening and no more an angry wreck. I love all the supporting actors too. I love how they portray impactful rescue scenes. Especially the one rescuing the baby. I love the “HE IS MY LIFE” scene the most. Made me cry a ton.

Wang Churan is now slowly becoming one of my favorite Chinese actress. Yangyang I realize now is still my favorite chinese actor tie with Arthur Chen (though I dont follow both closely as I do with korean actors).

Now if you ask me why I rated it 8.5 and not higher it’s probably because I hoped that we saw more school days scene instead of other filler scenes. That could have helped me understand them better and avoided the misconception on both the leads.