I usually start my reviews explaining what the drama is about but this one is misleading as hell. You think you get a second chance romance where the main leads rebirth from their late 30s back to 18, work on repairing their broken relationship and the corrupt court. But the story revolves around the past history and family rivalry between the female lead and the second male lead. If you are a fan of Zhang Linghe or like your male leads to be more than a love puppy support role, you will be massively disappointed with this drama.

Even though I very much enjoyed the first 12 episodes, the drama totally lost me afterwards. I was only able to finish it for ZLH, and also because of my NDD + FOMO.

The female lead in terms of her interpersonal relationships is a bully at first and emotionally insensitive to others. Although a smart cookie, confident and authority at court, in matters of the heart, she spends half the drama confused about her feelings. The second male lead has many romantic scenes with the female lead, and the focus is on his tragic first life. The director creates scenarios to make you want to sympathise with him but it all falls short and in fact annoys the audience even more. The male lead’s sole purpose in the drama is to be a love puppy and nothing more.

If the story was actually about the female lead and second male lead, I would have liked it. You have a love-hate relationship, power or love dynamic, family or love themes. I see the potential. But the writers did ZLH dirty by making him a lovesick puppy with no purpose in the plot. The poster of this drama is totally misleading and they should have put the second male lead in there (no hate to the actor, he is super cute) instead of ZLH.

POSITIVE:
- Zhang Linghe (ML). He is hands down the best part of this drama. I loved him in every scene, all his line deliveries were wonderful, he was great at comedy too. His character is a sweet, green flag cutie pie and the actor brings in the sexy factor too.
- Confident and authoritative female lead in terms of court/politics scenes.
- Lighthearted for the most part.
- Flashbacks from previous life are woven well into the story.
- Good comedy for the most part.
- Male lead’s jealousy scenes were 10/10. He cracked me up every time.
- Great acting from the main leads Zhang Linghe and Zhao Jin Mai.

NEGATIVE:
- Second male lead is actually the male lead. First half of the drama he has many romantic moments with the female lead (and even a special OST), and in the second half his story completely takes over the screen time. Giving him screen time is not as much of an issue as the way he was written and portrayed which drove many viewers into angry fits. He became an unwatchable character to the point that a lot of people were skipping his scenes. If the writers wanted to create a tragic villain, they failed.

- Male lead is just a side accessory and has no story arc. His emotional world is never explored. In all the major political plot points, he doesn’t contribute much to anything. His sole purpose is to be a love interest for the female lead. In fact, the female lead treats him badly many times but he still stays madly devoted to her. His mad devotion is never properly explained either which makes his character feel very one dimensional.

- Flat romance. The foundation of the romance is written poorly which didn’t allow me to connect with the couple. The reason their marriage failed in the first life is due to a somewhat silly misunderstanding. Even if I can find reasons why it makes sense, my biggest issue is that in episode 11 the male lead suddenly confesses that he has always loved her. But we aren’t shown why, how or when he fell for her. Aside from 2 second flashbacks where they glance at each other lovingly, we have no substance for this confession. It’s just a fact we are supposed to blindly accept. Throughout the drama he is blindly devoted to her and the writers failed to show me why. So even though the main leads looked good together, even though ZLH delivered beautiful romantic lines, I felt nothing for the couple. On top of that, their one steamy bath scene was abruptly cut, leaving the audience very unsatisfied.

- Love triangle. Usually in cdramas the female lead only has eyes for the male lead so love triangles are not really triangles for me and don’t bother me. But in this case, the female lead has actual confusing feelings for both men and is pondering for many episodes which one to choose. The worst part is that, even at episode 30 the director shows us romantic shots with her and the second male lead. In fact, they even have telepathy scenes where they stare at each other and speak the dialogue in their minds. Total soulmates right. Well, this love triangle could have worked if it was written right. But the fact is that pretty much everyone hated the second male lead and absolutely nobody was rooting for him to get the girl.

- Lacklustre politics. Nothing new I haven’t seen before, very simple and boring at times. In fact, the first life's story has more angst and is definitely a more exciting story to tell than the second life (which is the main plot of the drama).

- No logic. The male lead is the hottest piece of cake walking in and outside the court and the writers tell me that nobody wants a piece of that? (not even his wife for the most part?) #plothole (Ok it’s more of a joke but you know it’s true. It would have been a bit more realistic if he had at least one girl pining over him).

OVERALL:
Even though I didn’t have extremely high expectations I found myself very disappointed and misled by this drama. It’s one thing to highlight a second male lead and deepen the story but it’s unacceptable to reduce the male lead to nothing when he is one of the reasons many people have tuned in to watch. But even without the male lead issue, I found the plot of this drama very forgettable and boring. Nothing much stands out. Considering this is a S++ production (one of Youku’s highest budgeted dramas), this is a fail for me and one of my 2024 biggest disappointments.