My first watch through I liked this drama a lot, but I didn't "appreciate" its qualities like I should have. On the second viewing this drama really improved on me. Things that bothered me about the plot, didn't bother me the second time around (except for three different events that still don't make sense).

Firstly, this drama does have some melodrama aspects to it, which might bother you if you need everything to be realistic. It's quite a huge coincidence that the FL ended up growing up and living in the same house where something happened involving her biological parents. Her adoptive parents just happened to get the same house as that event took place? Anyway, this was one of the plot quirks that bothered me.

The acting was amazing on all fronts here. I don't care that people criticize the ML for his lovesick attitude, because I also found it off-putting during the first viewing, but then, on the second viewing, it all made sense. He's a young man, immature, and deeply in love, but he is nobody's fool. He's still damn smart, just rather innocent, but in no way is he foolish. He shows good taste in pursuing the FL, who yes, life has formed her to be a very icy, closed person, but she still has a strong sense of justice and right and wrong, and it does the ML credit that he sees her goodness and is drawn to it. He could have easily been led astray by any of the beautiful women pursuing him, but he chose the most educated, cultured, and demure of all the female characters. He didn't choose the most bubbly, naive, and stupid woman he could find, like in most C dramas.

This ML acted like his age (20), instead of being a cold, aloof icicle, like most MLs. He pursued the FL by doing everything he could to help her. Others have said that he didn't have enough facial expressions, but that is nonsense, as every glance was emoted through his eyes. He was far from emotionless, or without range. He WAS the character he was acting, and I can't imagine anyone else who could have done a better job. This has to be one of the best MLs I've ever seen. I didn't think so on first viewing, but that's my failing, as his acting was very subtle. The FL was perfect in her role, even though her character was meant to be cold and aloof at all times, you couldn't help but like her intelligence and goodness. The chemistry between the ML and FL was fantastic (the actress playing the FL always has good chemistry with her acting partner in every drama I have seen her in so far).

Well, on first viewing, my favourite character was the SML, because he had more depth of character, and his character remained a mystery throughout the drama. The actor playing the SML is a personal favourite of mine because he is an amazing actor that never disappoints. I was pissed off at the coup that took place at episode 26-27, as it was such a clumsy event, and made the SML seem like he had lost his mind, and then we are meant to forget all about this coup only a couple episodes later, as if it never happened, which is just bizarre! There is no way that this genius of a SML would have arranged such a clumsy, useless event, after years of planning! And what the heck was the point of making him out to have gone mentally ill for two episodes??!! After which, he went back to being the character we knew and loved again (or thought we knew). This was an asinine scripting decision! And there was sexual assault written into the plot at this point for NO REASON!! This makes me so mad, that they changed the character for two episode, and included a devastating plot point, for apparently no reason other than raising the drama. Pitiful scriptwriting!

There are two characters that look exactly the same. One is the ML's fiancé, Lang Xi, the other works as a nightclub entertainer/ actress and is an associate of the SML. Even their actor headshots look almost the same. Maybe they are related in real life, as the resemblance is downright uncanny. Just something I found interesting. This is a drama with a few big plot holes (the two I mentioned above are the largest), but overall, the acting was perfect, the sets, costumes, cinematography were of high quality, and the story was intriguing and captivating throughout. There were some rather odd music choices, when there was a high action scene, they played some sort of modern heavy rock music that was so distracting and unnecessary. Just a very bad choice for OST.