It is truly rare to find a 50 episode historical drama that can keep me hooked and ready for the next episode. This is one though I admit sometimes it was out of exasperation just to see how this next conflict was going to be solved. This drama definitely had its high points which I enjoyed and low points which frustrated me to no end and had me plotting characters' painful deaths. However, the high points kind of stuck with me and the ending (for me) made me happy enough to give this drama a high rating purely because I quite enjoyed it. STORY - 7/10 it's kind of mind boggling to look back on how much has happened on Yunxian's journey over the several years in which the drama takes place. There are some points you're questioning character's sanity and there's huge amounts of palace makjang and the evil plotting to go along with it. The story alternates between being interesting to cute to eye-rollingly exasperating and/or boring to heartbreaking to wanting to kill everyone and everything between those categories. As I've said before, it's really a roller coaster ride of feelings and despite the low points, I think it was enjoyable. ACTING/CAST - 9/10 Honestly, I love Liu Shi Shi and I might be biased in saying this but I thought she kicked butt in this. There's not a lot you can do with Yunxian's character who's really virtuous and kind and basically a cinnamon roll but I think she rocked it. I've seen a lot of complaints about her acting and again, I might be biased but I think she did a fabulous job. Yunxian also reminds me a lot of her other historical roles like Bu Bu Jing Xin's Ruoxi and I love how I felt as if I was growing up with Yunxian throughout the drama. Wallace Huo also deserves his own paragraph of praise because I love how he portrayed Zhen Qi's character progression. Both Zhen Qi and Yunxian evolve as characters as they go through their own trials and tribulations and in the end, I think they portrayed it well. Wallace has played unrequited love characters before and he always plays them so well that my heart is literally crushed while watching him as Zhen Qi. I really believe he did a great job in this and he is one of the major reasons why I stuck with all 50 episodes. He emotes very well and you can see how Zhen Qi grows into a better man. The other actors and actresses also portrayed their roles well, most notably (for me anyway) the villains like Mei Lin and Qiyu's mother. When they were on screen, they had me plotting terrible schemes for them to go through. Then there were the characters who I loved to hate (Qiyu) and the characters I probably should've hated but ended up loving anyway (I'm looking at you, Ye Xian). MUSIC - 8/10 I loved the music in this drama. It's not much songs really, just about 3 or 4 but they're incredibly meaningful and honestly add to some extremely emotional scenes. Definitely some of my favourite OST songs. REWATCH VALUE - 7.5/10 It's 50 episodes long and I'm probably never going to rewatch the entire thing but I definitely have scenes that are my favourites and that will have me coming back to this drama. OVERALL - 8.5/10 I quite enjoyed this drama particularly because of its lead characters, the female lead's passion for medicine, love stories (unrequited, triangles, squares) and its ending. The journey was a great ride and I'm happy to complete it and add to the favourites pile.