This drama grew on me from an 8 to a 10. First I wanted to give this drama a 9 after finishing because I used two days of wondering about what really happened in our character's first life and what Xie Wei was thinking at that time. But then I decided that it was a good thing that I don’t know, the guessing makes it more interesting and the characters become more complex.

This drama has so many great things going on. The actors does an impeccable job. Bai Lu is very good at this sort of light comedic roles and Zhang Linghe surprised me as a very good morally grey male lead. I need to see him as a fully bloomed villain in the future.

The foundation of this story is interesting because it doesn’t tell the viewer everything we want to know. The flashbacks are balanced and the tempo of the story is good. Some parts of the story is predictable and tropey but not to an extent that it is bad in any way. Somehow they manage to give everything a fresh feel, perhaps because our characters aren’t always good persons. They make mistakes but they deal with it. The story is easy to follow without being simple.

The word that keeps coming back to me is “balanced”. A bit of love, mystery, tropes, fighting scenes and palace intrigue. At first I was a bit disappointed by the main leads inability to defend themselves but later I found that refreshing.

It is the combination of not knowing everything from their first life, with the fresh take on tropes and the high quality acting, costume and art direction that makes this drama worth a 10. I can’t find anything to critique. The more I think about this drama the more I like it. This 10 grew on me.