I am a huge fan of Zhao Lusi.. although her roles are not very diverse, I love every time she tries to portray these cute characters. I have pretty much watched all her dramas except this one. When it came out, I was so busy that I didn't have time to watch. After it ended airing, there were so many bad reviews about it but I wanted to try it out myself. I had been contemplating it ever since and finally made some time to watch it and now I feel like I really wasted my time.

First of all, the storytelling was really bad. I heard the novel itself was really well-written but the way drama tells the story was so confusing. Only after reading the comments, I found out that Fu Jiuyan had been following Qin Chuan for ten lifetimes or something like that. The ending was so confusing too because I didn't know whether it was a dream or did the spiritual lamp redo the whole history. The story sequence didn't make sense to me too. 90% of the time Qin Chuan wanted revenge for the Li Guo but I feel like she was just being stupid and dumb. Xuan Zhu's character development was supposed to be emotional but her acting lacked a lot for me to feel sympathy for her. I think most of the actors except Zhang Ye Chang did a very okay job with their roles and nothing stood out. Zhang Ye Chang did play his role well and if the other actors could work well with him, this drama could've been ten times better.

Second, there was no chemistry between the main leads. I feel like if the storytelling shaped the POV from Zhang Ye Chang chasing her ten lifetimes, maybe it would've been better. But because the story started from Li Guo being invaded and Yan Yan having to run away, I felt like the whole story weighed on her. So her falling in love with the "wick of the spiritual lamp" felt so unnecessary. I feel like Qin Chuan, Zichen, Xuan Zhu, and the 2nd prince felt like a better squad, and Fu Jiuyan being a smaller role. The two leads didn't even spend a lot of time together for most of the episodes and it was Jiuyan helping her from behind.

I feel like this drama had the potential to be a great success if it met the right cast and the right staff working on it. The story wasn't very bad to start with but the way it was told sucked. Zhang Ye Chang is a very capable actor and I was definitely convinced by his role as Fu Jiuyan and look forward to his future works. However, Zhao Lusi like I said isn't a very diverse actress. This kind of role did not fit her because here wasn't much comedy in the latter part of the drama. She isn't fit for this serious role. Maybe only if she worked on roles like this she could build her experience.

Overall, I would say this drama was really a waste of my time. However, I'd still end up watching this because of my greed to finish all Zhao Lusi's works so I can't say I regret it. But the OST was nice lol