This is more of a fluffy and cute romance drama than it is about sports!

When I started the drama, I thought its primary focus would be sports, but boy was I wrong! Sports are more of a medium for the fluffy romance between Luo Na and Duan Yu Cheng to ignite/take place; I mean, come on, it was evident from the very first episode when he made it his goal to enroll in the university she coaches in. He had an unparalleled passion for high jumping, sure, but let's not forget he also had the fattest crush on her from day 1.

Putting all that aside, what I liked most about this drama was how smoothly the plot went. There were no breakups, no unnecessary quarrels, and no miscommunications. Furthermore, despite there being situations where the ML could've lashed out, he kept his zen instead, and whenever he was pushed down to the ground by others, he didn't hold a grudge on anything of that sort. He simply helped himself up and stepped aside, maintaining his peace and the peace of others. As for the FL, I loved how she didn't make it awkward to retain the friendship she had with Wu Ze even though he pulled the I-am-grieving-and-I-will-kiss-you stunt on her (that was kind of annoying and cowardly -- Trying to kiss the person you like because they're sympathizing with you in your mourning process). What I also liked about her is how serious, firm, and unwavering she is. Once she had her mind set on a belief, she protected it, and I guess that's where her personality intersects with the ML's. Other than that, I liked how the ML was only clingy around her. He never showed that side of himself to others, which I found kind of cute.

Moving on to the things I didn't quite enjoy: kissing without consent threw me off BIG TIME! I don't know who still thinks that's romantic. It ultimately isn't. Moreover, there is the fact that the ML was switching track fields around. At a certain point, because of his height, he was told that high jumping ain't for him, so he became a sprinter, but then again, a trainee in high jumping, what??? Besides, the way he left the national team after all the sweat and tears he put into training was silly and dumb. He could've stayed. Gosh, that was frustrating.

To put the last nail in the coffin, what happened to Shi Yin's one-sided love?? Out of nowhere, the girl vanished. She didn't even profess her love to Yu Cheng. I still don't find meaning in casting an actress whose character is pointless and does nothing to the course of events.

The plot and characters aside, the drama was shot beautifully, but there were some scenes where I really thought, Is this being shot by the same person? There was a particular scene where I couldn't look straight at the screen because the camera was rolling on and on and on until I felt dizzy. I am not even going to talk about the editing. Some scenes were so saturated, especially in the ML's hometown, I hardly enjoyed them. The music, however, was top-tier.

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Slow burn fake dating romance trope meets blood pumping athletism

I picked this drama in the first place because Song Zu Er's performance in The Bond blew my mind, so I wanted to see what she had in store for anyone who keeps up with her in this drama, and honestly, I am amazed. I guess everyone would agree with me on that. As a young actress, the talent she possesses is unmatched.
To review this drama properly, I will start with what I loved most and that some people will find offputting. I live for slow burns. I love pain, I guess. If you are a sucker for a good slow burn for a solid 20+ episodes, then this drama is for you. Usually, after a couple gets together, anyone who loves slow-burn romances gets fed up quickly, but this drama's main couple didn't repulse me; in fact, they kept me interested 'til the very end. Even the second couple's romance was top-notch and well-done.
All in all, the romance bit of this drama was immaculate. Moreover, some parts seemed childish and silly to a lot of people, such as confessing to the wrong person and tearing the fake dating contract.. while watching all those scenes, I tried to see them from a birdseye view so that I would understand them, and quite frankly, I didn't find them to be tacky, cringe, and annoying. I hope anyone reading this before they watch the whole thing remembers that neither of the main characters had experience in romance. They're both clueless idiots who will find each other at one point and develop feelings that they will only be aware of after a good while.
Moving on to the things that I hated, or at least wished they'd done them differently. I was confused about Luo Xiao Yi's character and Coach Xiao's for a hot minute. I couldn't tell if they were good or bad people. Their intentions are unclear, and their characters aren't well-developed. They would show for a bit, say a line or two, and then disappear while leaving us either with an eerie feeling or the opposite of that.
Furthermore, we see Luo Xiao Yi finally agreeing to partner with Shen Zheng Yi at the end. Cool, that's what we wanted, but I was expecting them to talk together as teammates, break the ice, and then hop onto the ice rink together to compete because there's a lot of unresolved bs between them, but no. A couple of flashbacks to them talking briefly were shown during their last competition, and that was about it. I didn't like that at all. That's about it. This drama was a fun, cozy watch, and I recommend it.

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An Emotional Family Bond

This drama was the best meaningful drama I have watched in so long. The plot development, timeline, characters, music choice, etc., exceeded my imagination. Whoever wrote this story deserves a pat on the back.
Without further ado, I will point out the things I loved most about this story. Let's talk character development of each of the siblings. Yi Cheng had to grow early, so he matured fast to shelter his siblings and protect their backs. What really marked me is how he wanted a kid with Ye TOEFL, as Si Mei likes to call her, from not wanting to have a kid because he came to realize that he's been a father ever since he was a kid. But really, we can notice how worn out he was towards the end because the guy was always rushing to his family's aid. Moving on to Er Qian, he was clueless all along, but seeing him finally find his passion for culinary and following it as an income source made me feel happy for him. What people don't notice about Er Qian is that he never had it his way. He lost his mom, he then lost the pet animals that gave him comfort, and lastly, he lost his Master. Deep down, he was hurt, but he never showed it nor complained, yet eventually, things worked out for him, and he started smiling and living life the way he always wanted alongside his Master. As for Sanli, boy, oh boy, the girl went from being insecure because of the man who attempted to rape her to accepting a partner and a spouse in Yi Ding. If that isn't an evolvement, I don't know what is. Before moving on to Qi Qi, can we talk about how Si Mei came to realize that finding a partner isn't all about looks as she used to preach, and also about how she decided to let go of her cheating husband that she was holding onto so severely? I guess, amongst all the siblings, she is the one who changed the most. She went on a quest to find herself, picked up photography as a hobby, and followed what made her heart palpitate. Lastly, our boy Qi Qi didn't have it easy either. The guy grew up separately from his family, got tricked by his high school classmate and was left with a kid, started running his own business, which is something he worked hard for, and had to give his kidney away. Man, quite this was quite the plot.
I won't talk about their father, though, because the dude was a constant. When everyone was changing, he never did, but I guess he finally started to wake up from sleep during his last days.
Besides the character development of our main cast, can we talk about how smart it was to name the kids following a numbering system? Yi as in one, Er as in two, San as in three, Si as in four, and Qi as in 7, and that's many because he was born in 1977. That was cute. It gives you perspective about who was born first and who followed.
All in all, this was a beautiful drama. It was emotional, heartwarming, and cozy. I highly recommend it to anyone, really.

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This drama is everything I needed in 2021!

What a ride! This drama was amazing, by all means. I haven't enjoyed a Chinese drama this much before, let's just put it out there. The acting and storyline are some god-tier stuff. However, since I don't have any constructive feedback to throw out there, I will tackle mainly the things that I loved most about this drama. Can we take a minute to appreciate the small gestures they were doing for one another, like when he got her the double-Penta kills but didn't mention 'em to her, or like when he bought her a piece of Baozi when he visited his friend in the hospital and just casually handed it to her without having to let her know that he got her the damn bread even though she didn't ask for it, and can we also talk about how she's invested in his field only to understand his dream and the things that he gravitates towards, but like, she NEVER told him, " know so much about aerospace, that's how much I love you!"? THEY FUCKING GET EACH OTHER WITHOUT HAVING TO UTTER SHIT, and this aspect is hella apparent when she went to her classmates' gathering when in her hometown ONLY to meet him. He immediately got it and hurried to the gathering as well, like, what in the rom-com world? On the other hand, I quite loved the pace of the drama. Some might find it rather slow, but it was perfect for me, and the episodes weren't that long, which fit amazingly well. Finally, given how beautiful this drama is, I will surely be watching and re-watching it in the future. And please, the gods of dramaland, make this pair work together again because their chemistry is over the top.

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This drama didn't hit like I expected it to!

I started this drama while it was airing, dropped it because it bored the hell out of me, and picked it up again recently because of an edit.
Before I comment on the plot, I want to say that the younger male, older female trope in this drama, didn't cut it for me. Although the female lead is 28 and the male lead is 22, I rarely ever felt like there is an age difference between them because Lu Jin's character is more mature than Liang Chen's somehow. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing, but I got to say that threw me off, mainly when she acted all childish and all after she learned that he was supposed to study abroad without telling her. He had to stay outside her place in the cold for the entire night, waiting for her to forgive him, like why? She hopped to a conclusion on her own and punished him without hearing that he didn't intend to go in the first place, and studying abroad was forced on him by his father. Seriously, I felt like the male lead was older than her most of the time. That aside, the plot of the drama was pretty good and all, but I wish the second couple's story weren't dragged until the very last episode, and the gaming sequences didn't feel like fillers at a certain point. As much as I enjoyed their little escape to a gaming world, I found them a bit redundant and unnecessary because there wasn't any creativity to them as they always escaped to the same places in the game time and time again.

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A drama that feels like a warm-hug!

Here is my unsolicited opinion concerning this drama. Overall, it was an amazing drama. But, the biggest issue I had with it is how they handled the breakup of Wu Yan and Nian Qin. The miscommunication and blame game killed my vibe for a bit. Moreover, I expected more details about the death of Cheng Yin and how Wu Yan's paranoia healed little by little. I was waiting for them to disclose more information about Wu Yan's roommate in her hometown and how her mother and friends have been helping her cope with her mental illness, but no, that wasn't what happened since it is not the main focus of the plot, I guess. Besides, in the final episode, they kept going on about how boys shouldn't cry and how women are weak and are apt to be protected by men. That kind of mentality throws and tips me off. What was the point? Moving on to the things I loved most about the drama. The first thing that stood out for me is how Wu Yan didn't give special treatment to Nian Qin when he was blind. I loved that a lot. She treated him the way she would treat someone who doesn't have a visual impairment. The same applies to the autistic kid she was taking care of. Furthermore, the cozy, relaxing vibe and music choice in the background were top-notch. Besides, the characters were conversing with one another in a close-to-whispering style; it started to feel like an ASMR at one point. I would love to keep going about this, but I will stop here because I do not want to make things unnecessarily lengthy.

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The bookish bits made me watch this drama all the way through

Before I delve deep into things, and to break it out for you, this drama is but a pile of cliches and typical stuff that we have seen over and over in multiple dramas/series, so if you want to watch something fresh and completely out of the box, this series isn't for you. I personally love me cliches and traditional love stories, that is why I enjoyed this drama, hence if you're like me, give it a shot.
First off, the cast is amazing. I didn't have an issue with it, but when it comes to acting, I sometimes was thrown off by the unnecessary squawking or screeching to sound all cute and lovey-dovey. It was a little bit over the top for me. It would have been better if they minimized that a little.
Moving on to the plot, I understand that Zeng Li and Ai Jing Chu are the main characters, but it would have been swell if Deng Hao Ran and Ma Yi Yi had more time on screen because their story development was fast-paced. Out of nowhere, we learned that they dated in the past, which was so random and misleading, especially that I was rooting for them to be a new item the whole time. Moreover, as a librarian, I wanted to see many book-talk scenes, but none of that was a focus. It felt as if Zeng Li's profession was just an event to motivate the romance between her and Ai Jing Chu a little bit more. Now, when it comes to our second main couple, I couldn't point anything wrong with them, but boy, did they waste their time quarreling over whether or not to keep the baby! They barely got together because of the age gap between them, and I thought that's going to be it, Liu Yu Cheng won't struggle anymore about the age factor, but no, it got dragged even farther.
The major thing that I didn't like about this drama is something everybody is pointing out anyway, and it is viewing being 26 years old as being 30. There is a huge difference. Now, this wasn't mentioned once or twice, which led me to have a little bit of temper tension. I understand that when being 26, one feels as if they are nearing 30, but I don't want to be fed this kind of bullshit on television because it doesn't allow anyone to live and enjoy their actual age fully.
Concerning what I liked a lot in the drama, I found the dental treatment sessions done so well. I thought I would dread that stuff because it would be ugly to see someone's mouth and teeth being treated, but both Betty Wu and Bi Wen Jun were such naturals about it and made it look less awkward and disgusting.
This is mainly my review of the drama. It was a traditional romantic story with some faults here and there, but I still loved and enjoyed it. I would re-watch it even if I am craving some sweet romance.

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