Outstanding depiction of love and story building

This has to be one of the most rounded, best written dramas out there, with every single episode of 49 episodes enticing and engaging!

Starting off with an outstanding opening song, the story and the characters pull you in with real suspense, great character development and the best written and acted out depiction of a healthy love I have seen. Its a slow burner that gets so strong, that one can easily start to obsess about some of the characters.

Especially the male lead Ashile Sun was written so perfectly, that I can't remember a book, manga or series, where the male lead in a romance plot was written and/or acted out better. The writers outdid themselves and set a new standard.

There is so much to say about this drama. But to sum it up, it delivered something, that most dramas nowadays fail to: something real and a love story unbound to the clichées of late. It's fresh, relatable, admirable and so new. It seems like the whole production is teaching us, what a great story is all about and how it's meant to be done originally: not reheating the same old over and over again and letting fantastic characters unfold themselves naturally and come together naturally instead.

Spoiler:
If not for the missing scene of the two main leads kissing (they blurred it up and instead showed 2 cutesy little birds kissing instead), the missing wedding scene (though they declared each other their spouse, we didn't get to see their wedding) and the happy but half-open ending - I would have given this drama a straight 10.
Spoiler end.

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No real suspense - can't take the characters seriously

First of all, I dropped it after dragging myself through the drama since about episode 20.
It has become so boring.

What I liked:
Yunxi is a lively, vibrant and forgiving character. The actress carried the show for me and made me watch on. In the beginning I didn't like her for several reasons, but either I've gotten used to it or she outgrew those reasons a little.
The male lead finally has some expressions after that many episodes. He is handsome.
The costumes are nice, they did a fine job with interior decorations. The rooms were crafted well.
I like the way they started to weave in Dr. Gu's character, they managed to be a little more subtle about it.


What I disliked:

The sound effects/ music:
Omg. Who commited that crime? I'm not talking about the Intro and Outro songs, I skipped them.
It was just... NOISE. HUGE noise. When they wanted to add suspension or make a point, it seems somone thought it a good idea to let the orchestra hit their instruments all at the same time and then throw them in the trash. Repeatedly.
It really diverted the attention from the drama to the off-music, sometimes to the point where you lost track of what was happening. The worst effect/music choice I've come across so far in a drama.
I give it a 5, because I think the other music was at least decent. But described sound/music was desastrous.

Plot:
In the beginning there was some plot, but it gradually became less and lost traction. Now even if new plot elements seem to plop up, I feel bored about them and don't bother investing emotionally.
The comedic relief didn't work for me. Yunxi didn't have enough funny scenes to make up for it and I started to strongly dislike Tang Li's character, who seems to was supposed to be a comedic role.
They kept it flat. The plot doesn't really happen, it's quite often only talked about and without finesse - no suspense, compared to other dramas.

Romance:
It can't find itself solid ground. The reasons to develop a good romance between the leads are there, and yes, there are kiss scenes included up to episode 27 and I suppose "some right scenes". But the feelings don't carry at all.
The second male lead? Nope. Unfortunately they gave him too much boring screen time in scences that lead to nothing really.

Actors/characters:
This is probably my biggest misfit with this drama: I can't seem to invest emotions in any of the characters but Yunxi. And I really had to warm up to her first, too since I felt she had a forced entry.
The male lead often doesn't do it for me. He seems too little involved with his surroundings and some of his decisions are not what I'd expect from a male hero, even controversial. Somehow he doesn't pop out, he just looks handsome, that's it.
The characters stay superficial to me.
Places where the story could build rapport with the characters and viewers are often lost, when the story cuts beginning threads of thoughts or character changes off or overtheatrically ridicules them.
I CAN'T TAKE THE CHARACTERS SERIOUSLY.
Also, lots of characters are really dislikable to me for too long a period of time. It's not well balanced for me to really enjoy it.

Rewatch value:
Maybe only the kiss scenes in a fast compilation. The prospective dragging will likely keep me from trying to finish this show.

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