Rated= 8 ~ 27/50 ~ 5.4
RPG Scene // Mermaid stranded in the Crumbling Castle. Axe is blunt.

This is my 3rd series with Li Hong Yi where I feel like he's played the same character. I definitely feel like he's been type casted now as this silent and brooding mystery guy, and if it's a romance, he'll utterly adore you type of character. Whether this is a deliberate play on his good looks or he just likes these characters, who knows, but I hope he gets a different kind of character next time. I feel it's a shame as a viewer to see an actor just play the same character over and over, just in a different story so I can't imagine how frustrated the actor must feel at not being allowed to stretch their wings and see what they can do in their craft.

This story starts of on a very unusual note and then it just kind of forgets about it. We start off in the future with our FL telling 'the system' what she wants in her partner, then getting into the machine and waking up in her new reality as a girl with amnesia and in the middle of a crime scene. Since we never go back to this future life, there's no mention of her life there, family friends, there's nothing, so I can't help but feel like it was a little unnecessary. I understand it's the opening to the show and the reason why this girl is dropped into a mid-plot story, but I feel like there could of been other ways of conveying that without giving you visuals of a future reality and then dropping you back into ancient China because I then spent the rest of the series thinking all the other characters were other people within the system and everyone was just hooked up to a machine like a sleep project. It was very disjointing for me but that may just be me.

FL is in this reality because she gave up her immortality to find her idealistic version of true love, hence the title but funny enough, the whole basis of the plot is a supposed 'fruit of immortality' that we spend the whole series watching all the righteous sect leaders massacre each other in search of.

In the midst of this we have our FL, and 2 ML. I opened this review stating that I hope Li Hong Yi gets a different character next time but in this show, I feel like he carried most of the weight here. If it wasn't for his character, I would rate this show more around a 5 or 6. But I've given it an 8 simply because I love anti heroes like the one he plays and he kept me watching.

Qui Yue is scheming, suave, very powerful and a little unpredictable. I really hated his main wig. They have it brushed back and tight to his head which kind of gave him a slimy, creepy vibe. I much preferred it parted in the middle that we see for a while later on. He also was very bent over in this series as well. I don't know if is bad posture for Li Hong Yi because this was 2019 but it was giving Severus Snape LOL Hard to see Li Hong Yi's beauty kind of spoiled a little by bad styling.
From the get go, we know that Qui's wants our FL, badly, and apparently has already had a love affair with the owner of her body. This, much to my disappointment was never really explored and really wish they had, to give some sort of weight to the drama that Hua wakes up in. But it was left open and just kind of brushed away, only brought up when it was convenient. He's clearly seen her body but it's later, with one sentence, Qui says that she took her clothes off in front of him. She liked him but he didn't like her but from the start was clearly a little obsessed. That was very confusing for me which is why I wish the 'affair' had been explored more because it was almost like baiting you with complicated entanglements and then the writers chickened out and focused on everyone killing each other instead. Qui's character is the reason I finished this series because he's my favourite kind of character and I kept waiting to get more about his background and the complications that have made him the way he is, but I only got crumbs. So as much as I loved the character, I really hate the writers for not giving me what I wanted.

Our other ML is Xiao Bai and he's your typical lawful good character. He was another character that the writers tried to be deep with and then they just kind of give up. Once we get to the what I call 'breaking the ego' scene that you get with very stoic characters, he becomes possessed randomly and then once the star item is returned, he goes back to normal. Once again, a plot device that just kind of falls away. The writers were trying to do something here and it never works out. Why did that happen? Was he being poisoned or was this a type of curse from the ice star thing? I was a little confused because they never really explained it.
I did feel kind of sorry for XB though because he was guarded from the start against Hua, who just throws herself at him and between his friends, eventually develops feelings and then is left to look like the villain because he stuck to his values when his values have always been apparent. At least to me, this not a choose his lover type of man. He's the son of the head of chief of all the clans, he's going to pick his responsibilities first and expecting anything else is a kind of unfair.

Poor CaiCai gets cast aside as a love rival but quickly shows herself to be very compassionate and emotional mature, in comparison to Hua, and I'm disappointed that there was no real ending for her. We got baited again that perhaps XB would recognise her feelings but it's made out that it's because he's possessed, he's rebounding and she's just kind left at the end with no real closure on anything. I wish there had been some sort of understanding between them in the end rather than just leaving her with the knowledge that her father was a crook. We don't know what happens to her after that and for such a supportive character, who doesn't act vindictively towards the FL, which is highly unusual for c-drama romances, I'm kind of angry on her behalf that she wasn't given a conclusion.

Our secondary couple are a sweet breath of air amidst all this confusion. They are sweet and funny and for me personally, both give off a little BI vibes and perfectly OK with that LOL And we get a brief conclusion for them thanks to the chopping editing, which becomes increasingly more choppy half way through. It's very apparent at times, that a lot of scenes are being cut to fit into the time frame. Which is sad from a story telling pov. The audience is not meant to see that. It breaks the flow of the narrative.

The music and sets are pretty regular for these types of shows and honestly, my favourite set was the flower field.
As the styling, OH. MY. GOSH, was it a failure like I have never seen before.
I could see the wig lining to every single male character's forehead, just caked with makeup. And at times, Li Hong Yi's eye make up looked smeared. I don't know what happened there but what on earth was hair and make up doing?

Li Hong Yi is a gorgeous young man to look at and I've never been so distracted from a beautiful face, with cakey flour make up, smeared and sometimes uneven eye liner with a wig line in full view. It would seem all the men had the same problem yet the women looked nearly flawless. I don't understand what happened there.

As for the ending, I'm satisfied with it. It was an emotionally mature approach to the series of events and I guess for our FL who starts off like a love-struck pre teen with a very idealistic expectation of love and romance and ends much humbler and confident in her choices.

Overall, my full rating should be a 6 but I'm giving it an 8 simply because I also include how I feel watching a show as well as the logical breakdowns. And I was pretty invested and at point, did feel emotional. If I wasn't so interested in Qui's character, and for that one scene that had me misty eyed, this absolutely deserves a lower rating. I probably won't be watching it again but I enjoyed it for what it was.