The best thing about the drama is the relationship between Cui Xingzhou and Liu Miantang during the amnesia arc. Everything else is draggy, boring, and forgettable.

One thing I like is that both Xianzhou and Miantang are independent characters who move with a purpose. Despite amnesia, Miantang is an extremely intelligent and capable woman. And, Xianzhou continues to pursue his goals regardless of his growing feelings for Miantang. Both are cunning and manipulative who plot against each other adding spice to their chemistry. However, the drama doesn't do a good job at exploring a serious side of their relationship. They are both morally ambiguous characters. Miantang biting Xiangzhou's lip to show him what hate tastes like is sexy, sensual, and a little bit disturbing. It could've been a great start to a darker and more passionate romance. But, the writers choose to fall back on comedy and boring romantic tropes where both characters do nothing but smile and hug each other.

Miantang disappointed me quite a bit. At the beginning, she is lovely, devoted, intelligent, and charismatic. After the amnesia arc, she magically switches personalities and becomes an emotionless hard-ass. There is no nuanced character development to show a gradual change from a loving housewife to a ruthless bandit. Instead, the writers completely revamp her character, as if she suffers from a dissociative identity disorder, and give her a new personality even though she is the same person.

Another thing that annoyed me is Miantang's treatment of Xiangzhou. Yes, he deceived her, but his transgressions are not egregious enough for her to stab him and plot his murder, especially when they are meant to get back together. Moreover, he is the only one who has to continuously apologize and be humbled in front of her family while she gets on her moral high horse about deceit and betrayal. I blame these issues on inconsistent writing. Miantang's character has no logical development. She is a housewife, a bandit; then, she proceeds to plot revenge, abandons revenge, abandons Ziyu, abandons her plans to never marry, and comes full circle from being a housewife to being a housewife again. Because of this, I have no idea what kind of a person she is and what drives her. Her actions are sporadic and are not properly explained. Xiangzhou is a ruthless and cunning warlord with a voice as smooth as velvet, who falls hopelessly in love. Instead of exploring that side of his personality while he tries to get back together with Miantang, the writers reduce him to a cliche simp begging for her to love him after she betrays him back and stabs him, which should have been a point of no return in their relationship. Although, she becomes nice and loving again, it is hard to ignore her insanely unfair treatment of him and a complete lack of accountability for any of her actions.

The drama does have some fun and touching moments, but the plot lacks depth and direction, and, the pacing slows down quite a bit in the second half. First, the story focuses on Xiangzhou and Miantang's romance. Then, it drastically changes to a political intrigue making the main couple's interactions very scarce. The villains are shallow and underdeveloped. Prince Sui is a caricature of a mustached bad guy trying to seize the throne. There is no deeper dive into his thought process and scheming. Sun Yuner disappears for many episodes at a time making her completely forgettable. The story overplays cliches and goes overboard with some side arcs, instead of focusing on the characters that matter to the plot progression. And, all the secondary characters are extremely bland and forgettable.

Overall, I enjoyed the first half and was mostly bored with the second half. The drama would've been better with a more serious plot and a lot less episodes. Xiangzhou and Miantang are both gray and complex characters who do not fit into a typical rom com setting with passionless vanilla romance.