I. The Ugly:
The ending, while fitting, is not a happy one. Stop at episode 26 if you wish to force a happy ending, even though it would seem abrupt. The last 5 seconds of episode 29 hint at a second season but no news as yet.

Also, trigger warnings: Sexual assault and attempted suicide.

II. The Bad:
While the story is intriguing, the telling of it was more convoluted than wired earphones left in a bag. I had to watch the drama a second time right after the first to understand what is going on. It doesn't help that the English subtitles available on YouTube are atrocious and I resorted to watching it with the Chinese subtitles and whipping out my trusty Google Translate where necessary. The FL was 17 when she meets an imperial examination candidate with vision impairment (Xie Qing Chen's older brother, the Major General, also portrayed by Lin Ze Hui) (episode 21). They fall in love, and they were engaged when the FL was 19. Before they could marry, the Major General goes off to fight a war. A year later, the FL happily greets him at the city gates when he returns victoriously, but that's when the old libertine emperor spots her and plots to steal her (episode 22). The old emperor had perverse kinks and tricked the FL into submitting, in exchange for her parents' and the Major General's lives. The FL holds out, believing that the Major General would rescue her. Unbeknownst to her, the soldiers had already killed her parents when they tried to protect their daughter and the Major General when he stormed the palace trying to rescue the FL (episode 23). The FL only finds out when her companion maid enters the palace a year later in search of her, and the FL attempts to commit suicide. After the day she 'died', the FL rose to claim vengeance against the ministers who assisted the old emperor to kidnap her and murder her parents and the Major General (episode 24). This circles back to episode 1, where she chose to submit sexually to the ninth prince Xiao Zhi (portrayed by Richard Li Fei) "since she was unable to attain the one she loves, she might as well attain the one who loves her", presumably to secure his assistance in getting vengeance.

The drama in its entirety suffers from an identity crisis. This is apparent from the absence of a dedicated theme song; episode 28 uses a song from Love Like The Galaxy and episode 29 uses the Dream of Chang'an theme song. At first glance, one would be confused by the costumes and set, as they are highly reminiscent of the Deliberations of Love. However, when you look up the director (Zhou Xiao), you realise that she was also involved in Ru Hua Ru Tu (2022) & (2023), The Deliberations of Love (2023), and A Tale of Love and Loyalty (2024). That is not to say that the costumes and set are not beautiful (that gorgeous fan in episode 4!), but it is difficult to dive deep into the story when half my brain is trying to connect the pieces to the dramas I've watched previously. It is as if they finished filming one drama and thought "Let's not waste this" and continued filming the other dramas back-to-back, especially when all the dramas involve Richard Li Fei and Lin Ze Hui in one form or another.

I finished Legend of Lin Ye and Ru Hua Ru Tu prior to this and thought to myself "I'd like to see more of RLF and LZH in the same drama", and lo' and behold I come across Chao Ge Fu. These two are very beautiful men, but note that this drama is focussed on Hui Yi Yao as the female lead and so, the two men receive limited onscreen time. Because they had such limited onscreen time, it is difficult to evaluate if they acted well or otherwise (although RLF gets a whole episode to cry and I thought that was... barely adequate).

III. The Good:
I watched HYY as the FL in Secrets of The Shadow Sect (2024) prior to this, and HYY more or less played the same role (profligate seductress bent on revenge) except in Chao Ge Fu, HYY also reminded me of Ming Jia Jia in A Tale of Love and Loyalty towards the end. I relished HYY's role as the vengeful, sharp-tongued, self-aware gorgeous puma in this drama. I absolutely cackled each time she refers to herself as "aijia 哀家" before flirting with some toy boy or swiftly verbally flagellating insurgents. Special mention is given to the FL's companion maid who acted very, very well. She is uncredited even on Douban, so if anyone knows who she is, please comment below.

I enjoyed and wanted more of the scenes between HYY and her companion maid if anyone knows her name, please drop a comment!). The duo had really good chemistry, like an old married couple who are used to each other's shenanigans. For example, in episode 14, when the FL asks the maid to frame up LZH's painting, the maid roles her eyes in exasperation. In episode 16, when the maid speaks impolitely to the FL's brother and the FL's brother exclaims that she's rude, the FL snappily says "yes, like your housekeeper who rudely snatched a woman off the streets and beat her husband and child to death".

IV. The Verdict:
This is an opportunity for an indulgent, self-insert fantasy where the FL is so beautiful that every man who lays eyes on her, including her brother-in-law, falls in love with her but she holds true to her one true love and the only thing she can do for the one who came too late was to leave him for his own good. If you can ignore the plot fallacies and absurd storytelling, it's a drama full of melodramatic dog-blood but beautiful scenes, good for one or two rewatches (the first rewatch is absolutely necessary to understand the story).