I usually avoid melancholy melodramas because there's too much angst to be enjoyable - especially when it's 70(!!) episodes - but I caved and watched this because I like Sun Yi and Wallace Chung. I liked the relationship between their characters and there are a number of memorable scenes between them, but didn't care about Ma Tian Yu's character at all, and the back-and-forth and ridiculous situations were exhausting. Note: I didn't read the novel so I had no expectations.

First of all, I pretty much skipped all of the childhood scenes and flashbacks. I understood that their purpose is emphasizing the deep brother-sister bond between Jiang Sheng (Sun Yi) and Liang Sheng (Ma Tian Yu), but I just cared about the present-day events. In the beginning of the story, Jiang Sheng is a spirited and hard-working college student (with her brother) and I love the way her relationship with Tian You (Wallace Chung) begins and develops. It was surprisingly light and funny! Unfortunately, the three of them end up separated and there are multiple characters scheming against their reconciliation. A miserable back-and-forth fills the rest of the drama, but I couldn't stop watching because I had to know what happens.

It's difficult to say which character is the worst... is it Liang Sheng's girlfriend Wei Yang (played by Zoey Meng), who is possessive and jealous of how much he cares about his SISTER? Or is it Tian You's brother Tien En (played by Alan Yu), who bullies Jiang Sheng behind Tian You's back and then pretends to be innocent in front of him? Wei Yang's behavior is especially apparent when compared to Tian You, who supports the siblings being reunited and gives them space. Meanwhile, Tian En does his best to force Jiang Sheng to leave his brother and I hate that he never truly apologizes to Jiang Sheng. Liang Sheng annoyed me as well because he doesn't listen to what Jiang Sheng tells him and tries to make decisions for her. Why did he even keep Wei Yang by his side all those years??

This drama really pulls out a lot of ~dramatic events~ and I swear every other storyline involved someone being in the hospital. Some kind of accident was always occurring: car, fire, falling, serious medical conditions... Yikes. Towards the end I was confused by why Jiang Sheng was just going along with everyone else's plans and not speaking up about what she wanted. There were some bizarre situations and then all of a sudden another accident occurred and everything was resolved.

Jiang Sheng's friends had storylines as well and I liked how close they remained over the years, but ultimately I was here for the Jiang Sheng and Tian You scenes, which I would actually re-watch.