The story started strong, then about episode 10 or so the plot became nonsensical. Smart people doing outrageously dumb things over and over. At about episode 20 the decline in the show started going exponential.

Almost every single actor is putting on a bad performance. The male lead started strong but as soon as he became stupid in his decision making and became mr. Lovey Dovey his acting went downhill right along with the story. The female lead is bad in all her roles as she can't convey any emotions with her always staring blank face. At least she smiles a few times a episode in this show. She has zero onscreen charisma.

Every single secondary character is uninteresting and poorly acted, especially the prince of xiyan and the general. Every scene that doesn't have the leads can be fast forwarded after the initial episodes. Whether it contains the emperor, the concubine, the general, the crown prince etc etc. All of those listed are giving horrible performances, besides the concubine.

From the male leads disappearance during the hunt, around episode 14, the story just kept getting worse each episode. How does the male lead go from being extremely smart to our dumbest character? But apparently the writers needed that to finish the show in the worst possible manor.