A nuanced story with excellent acting, this setting will be especially familiar to people growing up in Chinese households. There isn't really a villain in this story except for Wan Chuanjia, but this guy really takes the cake. The pacing imo in the first ~20 episodes is on point (not too fast, introducing the cast slowly), and although Xingfu faced many obstacles, I found the plot well thought out. In terms of Zhao Liying's shows, this is probably the best acting work of hers that I've seen, though her character here is very similar to Minglan.

However! The irrational way that the characters except for Xingfu and maybe Guan Tao act might be realistic, but it is really frustrating. The elderly villagers are stuck in another time, most of the time incapable of reasoning and sometimes really disregard human rights. Small problems and defects of character seed thousand dollar lawsuits. The most irritating for me is Wang Qinglai, although his situation is understandable, but he really seems so small-minded and incompetent next to Xingfu. Chuanjia is meant to be careless and detestable, but sometimes Qinglai can surpass him imo.

Unfortunately, as the show progressed past ep ~30 a few kind of unrealistic plot points were implemented including Wan Chuanmei's story. The Wan family children are really the root of evil in this series, what they did is really too unjust, they almost become 2d villains. However that's not to say some of the side stories have no flavor, for example I found Qingzhi's difficult relationship with his father in law to be relatable and well depicted.