Is it a perfect drama? No. But I give it a 10 because it averages a 10.

The first 20 episodes were hard for me to watch because I had a hard time figuring out what was going on and why so many seemingly unnecessarily long scenes were there. I felt some things could have been truncated. BUT, when you get to the last 10 episodes or so, you understand why they did the first 20 episodes the way they did. Thus, the later episodes justify the beginning ones.

I would put this drama on in the background just to listen to the music. It's that good. I play both the zither and the flute, so listening to music was especially touching. Love, love, love the arrangements and duets. Love how much they emphasize music is important. (Haha, shameless music teacher here making a plug why everyone should learn at least one instrument.)

Superb acting, especially from the two male leads. You can't imagine anyone else playing their roles.

While I don't prefer the danmei genre, I must say MXTX is an amazing story teller. She doesn't waste words. The plot from beginning to end fits so beautifully. It's almost as if she is the mere scribe of a story unfolding. The consistency of the characters she creates is mind boggling. After reading her novels, I find it hard to focus on other translated wuxia works. But then again, 1) it's hard to find English translations of wuxia/xianxia novels and 2) I simply need to read more of them to make a more compelling judgement.

In short, while I have this drama a long break, I'm glad I came back to it and finished. I like dramas that make me ponder, and this one definitely definitely does that.