My first 10/10!

I'm a relatively-seasoned Asian drama watcher and this is my first 10/10. Even other titles that I've loved and obsessed over haven't gotten ratings this high. I scored rewatch value a little lower as I don't know honestly how much I will want to rewatch it, but it's otherwise really perfect. I won't go on and on on why because there are plenty of other reviews that do just that.

My only tiny gripe which isn't enough to even really knock off any points for? Minor spoilers below:

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I don't know how much the things with the Hua people mattered. I think it did add a layer of shock to Prince Yu and Xia Jiang's ties and added a layer of complexity to motives, but it kinda fizzled out. I'm also a little perplexed on why they started hinting at the Princess Consort (Prince Jing's new wife chosen in the last few episodes) was treated with suspicion but in the last second, Surprise! She's on the good side. Ok that's all it amounted to.

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Refreshingly unpredictable

This is probably the highest I've rated a drama, especially a modern one since I prefer Chinese costume dramas. I picked this up because it was widely recommended and am glad I did. I thought initially it was very shounen-anime-esque (Tournament arc, superpowers), but no it's definitely distinctly Chinese in many ways and not cliche. There are SO many surprises and very unpredictable, which I loved. I hate when I can predict how things will go, and even if you think things will fall into a trope, it always surprises you.

I won't make this a long review as there are others that go in-depth already, but overall I'd consider it nearly perfect with the exception that the I didn't particularly care for the humor of the first few episodes. After that the humor is genuinely hilarious (not cringey like the first 2 episodes), and it handles the serious aspects so well also. Storytelling, acting, music, visual effects, pacing, were all very good. Visual effects and pacing are especially impressive because Chinese dramas tend to not do as well in these aspects (no hate, I love Chinese dramas but I think even the biggest fans will agree on that).

There definitely needs to be a season 2 considering the ending (not all aspects of the main mystery are revealed). I believe the manhua it's based on is still ongoing so we'll see what a second season will bring us!

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Understated but well-done

A little slow in the middle which is where I've deducted the points, but fortunately it's not a long drama so it's not endlessly dragging. Beautiful and understated, really tugs at your heart string both with their love but also with the grief you'll feel at the end. Not a well-known drama (probably because it's exclusively on iQIYI subscription as far as I know), but a gem!

This is my first drama with Ren Jia Lun but he and Bai Lu do a great job at playing restrained characters but their love is palpable. There was an online blog review I read (Cyn Lynn) that mentioned that typically, Bai Lu's acting always carries a bit of her real persona in there, but in this Bai Lu the actress is completely gone and she fully embodies Shiyi. I fully agree! A lot of people find her character boring but she is strong in her own way, acting in the confines of her noble status, but she uses her smarts to assess dangerous situations and act accordingly, so that only people equally as smart can catch wind of what she's thinking.

The supporting characters and their relationships are also beautiful; sometimes there are side couples that I just could care less about but I deeply cared about all of them.

I'm glad that I read spoilers because I probably would have passed out crying if I went in blind. I put a lower rewatch value simply bc it is very slow, but other people in the comments on iQIYI mentioned they've rewatched several times.

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Better starting w/Yangshuo arc

The first arc is cringe, with the FL acting like a wide-eyed cat girl and the ML coming off as creepily forward. You don't find out until the end how he knew her before she realized, which if they showed us that earlier would have made it much less ick. As others said, it's like a weird fanfiction where the ML is literally perfect at everything and yet he's magically in love with you??
Oh and the second couple is ick, their age gap is wider and more obvious, exacerbated by the 2nd FL's weird short straight hairstyle/wig making her look even younger.

Once you get to the second arc, the Yangshuo 10th anniversary performance arc, it's much better. The story and music is more interesting, there's more focus on other things than the main couple making googly eyes at each other. After this, they're much more relaxed and comfortable with each other. Zhou Ye's character is less of a weird snack troll and finally acts more like just a normal shy girl. By the end of the drama I felt overall this was a nice watch, it's just the awkward first arc that brought the rating down.

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Angsty and sad, but too long

Overall good and sad, but too long. Honestly I had to read episode summaries from Drama Slot to get through it and I had to fast-forward through a lot of the last 10 episodes. For people who don't use episode summaries I could see them giving up midway.If they had tightened it up properly by cutting some stuff from the beginning, middle, and particularly the last 10 episodes, I would have given this a 7.5 (note that I almost never give anything above an 8.5 or 9, so 7.5-8 is actually a decent score). For how much it drags I will bring it down to a 7; normally I might knock off a full point for stuff that feels too long, but I think that this drama is actually pretty good and so a 6.5 feels a bit too low.

Overall acting was good; Li Qin's character in the beginning is a little annoying but I understand she was trying to play a young version of herself and be very naive, and she gets better. Darren Wang was actually very good as a complex and conflicted Wolf Boy/Prince Bo that you get angry with and yet understand his reasoning even if it's painful. The whole Noble Idiocy thing (where one character is hurtful to the other to protect them) is hard to pull off and feels manufactured for angst. It's frustrating and painful, sure, but it doesn't feel quite as much like an unnecessary trope thrown in: it feels like it really is the product of all of the circumstances. Xiao Zhan did fine in his role but I don't think it was nearly as difficult of a role to plan as Prince Bo. The girl who plays Bao Na is annoying but the person who played Yao Ji did pretty well.

I'm pretty doubtful that I would rewatch it (I certainly wouldn't in its entirety), but I don't really think Rewatch Value should impact an overall score. A good rewatch value is nice to have, but with so many dramas out there, I rarely rewatch stuff anyway otherwise I'd never get through my list :P

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Moving story with wonderful acting

The score I gave it the combined score for the whole drama with Parts 1 & 2, though I would note that for scoring Part 2 alone I'd say it's a 7, simply because it was good but not enough to grip my attention constantly; I often got distracted, versus I gave Part 1 my full attention most of the time, which is a lot for me since I admittedly don't have the greatest attention span (enough to finish most dramas I start but not enough to give all the hours of watching my undivided attention the entire time). Then again, there were so many spoilers floating around when Part 2 aired that it was hard to avoid them, so seeing spoilers dampened the emotional rollercoaster I would have experienced if I watched it without knowing anything.

Part 1 is better than Part 2 but Part 2 is still awesome, at least from my perspective as a drama-only watcher. Obviously the novel readers have strong negative opinions about changes but if you don't know about all that, the drama has a lot of value on its own. I assume no one will really read my review, it's mainly me just getting things off my chest, so I won't go into a lot of detail. Everyone's acting was gripping and convincing, the music was fantastic and moving, and the story was poignant. I definitely still had a lot of "OMG" moments in Part 2, with my mouth literally hanging open.

As for her choice, I 100% think it was the right one. Jing has a lot of haters but he gave her what she needed and healed her traumatized heart. She didn't just choose him because he was the least toxic, she truly loved him. I love how different and special each of her relationships were though. Tong Hua really wrote a wonderful story. I think the drama was fantastic.

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Even my favorite dramas normally only get up to 9.0 or 9.5 so that's considered really high, just an FYI.
It's beautiful, healing, and delightful. The characters are complex but even ones you may not initially like (such as initially-stern Aunty Feng who later smiles to light up a room, surly old Grandpa Yang who eventually comes around even if still surly), you'll grow to love. My favorites are the children and Granny Xie ("A'Nai" as A'Yao and Hongdou call her). I won't go on and on about everything I liked since many other reviews already covered it.

I also have a special place in my heart for this because the grannies and aunties remind me of my family and family's friends (as you know, in Chinese and other cultures, you address your elders as grandpa/grandma/uncle/auntie even if they're not blood-related). They touched me in ways that other cdramas modern and costume have not; though it's a slow drama, it's because all characters are fleshed out to feel real.

Minus half a point mainly because:
1. A bit draggy, but mainly on storylines about supporting characters I wasn't as invested in like Mr. Ma (the guy who is always meditating in the beginning) and the musician's romance.
2. The English songs used are annoying. Why do modern C-dramas always use English songs?? The non-English songs are good, though I wish they used some of them more (like "Hao Hao De" by Sa Ji was only used like twice despite how good it is, while they used other songs a bit too much).

These are just nitpicks though, which is why I only took off half a point.

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Warm and comforting

First of all, I know that my ratings are all 7's and 8's, which many might think is low, BUT if you look at my other reviews you'll notice I have never given anything a 10 because I feel like giving everything you like a perfect score makes it lose its meaning.

Overall this is a great, heartwarming drama. I don't care much for the family politics and stuff about the ML's research lab, but I can't say that it's bad or poorly written, as it's actually just fine. I just didn't care about it as I mainly wanted to watch this to heal my heart after One and Only (as most people did). On its own, this is actually still a very cute drama; their awkward interactions are squeal-worthy because it just makes the romance feel so genuine and honest. It's like high school awkwardness but with adults, but not in an infantile way. They are both mature adults who understand the world but are new to romance, so it gives me the warm fuzzies. Great for older people like me who aren't really into high school romances but still love the innocence of first love romance.

Obviously there are characters that you dislike (Zhousheng Chen's mom), but there are also family members you adore like the grandma and Zhousheng Ren. The kind supporting characters also heal your heart.

As a sequel to One and Only, the connections are very subtle, especially if you are not fluent in Chinese (as I am not). I actually had to read Cyn Lynn's blog for episode recaps as she draws more attention to the connections: https://cyn-lynn.blogspot.com/2021/09/forever-and-ever-recap-and-review.html

That being said, the connections do make everything all the more sweet, so it's still very nice.

Overall the drama does have some angst, but not within the main couple's dynamic itself, which is the most important. Their previous lifetime was so sad, they let nothing stop their love now that they finally can be together in this lifetime.

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Just watch for Luo Yunxi + Bai Lu, the rest is whatever

This is worth watching for Luo Yunxi and Bai Lu's chemistry alone. The business stuff is fine but I personally don't really care about that, the 2nd couple (Xu Li and Li Xiaochuan), nor the SML rival (Du Lei) at all. I just want to watch the main couple be cute together, and they definitely did not disappoint. They were cute and funny together and made my heart go pitter patter. Chemistry between the two leads is 10/10, everything else is 5/10 for me. It's better than a lot of modern cdramas, but I just don't care. I don't think things were poorly executed, don't get me wrong; modern office dramas with business dealings and jealous coworkers just isn't my jam, so keep that in mind that that lowers my ratings. I'm usually more of a costume-drama watcher; I just watched this because I wanted to watch LYX and Bai Lu make out some more since they were so great in Till the End of the Moon.

I knew that, as with all dramas, after they finally get together, there would be other shenanigans to drive them apart. I was amused by some of the business dealings they had in the first 10 episodes and stuff about Li Xiaochuan's project (no spoilers), but otherwise only care about the main couple. Once they finally got together, I just read episode summaries to get an idea of what would happen, and skipped to the end.

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Better than I expected but still not great

This series is very divisive: people love it or hate it/couldn't even get through it. After watching it I can see exactly why. If it was entirely bad or mid, that's one thing, but there is so much potential and there are genuinely good aspects that kept me hanging on. Each time I wanted to drop it for one of the negatives, there was still enough positives that I was intrigued enough to watch a little more, then a little more.

Negatives:
-Cut scenes not only took out some of the kissy-face stuff we craved but it also made the story hard to follow at times or just made moments we were really looking forward to fall flat (like a key scene we've been waiting for so long to see got cut and only part of it is shown via a freaking FLASHBACK). The ending sucked, thank goodness they gave us the extra episode (that was actually filmed and not just a voiceover reusing old scenes!)
-Tonal shifts felt like whiplash. They may have been able to spin it as a dark comedy but the comedic parts were too slapstick and the dark parts were really too brutal.
-Yukee Chen's acting was better than I expected but still needs work. You can read other reviews, I won't dogpile on her.

Positives:
-The story was actually quite intriguing; not just the premise but enough of the story through the whole series has just enough interesting aspects that as I said above, kept me curious and wanting to see it through, despite the negatives. I wish someday we could see the whole thing uncut.
-The FL is not stupid and the couple trust each other. Obviously the plot needed there to be a few times where ML rushes to her aid but that's mainly early on when he doesn't realize she's capable of handling herself. As things go on they trust each other; there's even one time when she's captured as a trap for him but he doesn't go rescue her, assuring his aide that she can figure out the situation herself. There's other times when he had to act out but she trusted him to not hurt her. Other than one instance of noble idiocy, they're mostly pretty understanding of each other.
-Dylan's acting was good, he could do both the cold smoulder as well as convincingly play a man who isn't actually cold at heart but is tired of putting on the facade. Some people didn't like that he fell for the girl early but I think it made sense in this way. Usually the cold ML is truly cold but melts for just the ML, who then changes him; in this, he's never actually cold at heart but has had to pretend for so long that he's tired of it and found refuge in being able to lower his guard with her.
-Yukee Chen's acting was better than expected. She was funny and devious but in some serious moments she actually was quite chilling.
-Peter Ho's acting was very convincing, a bit too convincing in fact, it was honestly frightening

I rated the rewatch a bit higher because I think after watching, you can then know where to skip to watch the good parts. You can also find most of the cut scenes on YouTube to fill in gaps.

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