I had major second and third male lead syndrome.

I really hated the male lead character. He really does not deserve the female lead. I don't know why everyone loves this couple.

His actions were despicable. WHY doesn't he tell the emperor what he found, and instead hunted for the murderer on his own, when the emperor throughout this whole drama has been acting like a father to him?

I can see that he holds things in, if he does not trust the emperor. But after he found out who was behind it all and all the conspiracies, why does he take justice in his own hands and commits murder?

And....there really was no repercussions for his actions.

We had way too many episodes of the couple being angsty and honestly I think she can do much better. Fine if she doesn't like Yuan and also says she wants to live a fulfilling life and invent things, wtf doesn't she follow through and do that, instead of hiding herself in this "cold palace" - she's not even the empress' child?

The characters motivations don't even make sense.

Towards the end, I find myself glazing over the character's actions because I don't understand any of it. Also, the ML has a huge protagonist halo. It seems to be impossible to kill him. Also, just how many crazy people are on this show??

Anyways, I ship the FL with Yuan, A'yao or she can just remain solo, but I really don't think she should marry Zi Sheng, who acts deranged quite a few times in this drama.

As for the acting, Wu Lei needs to work on his "intimidating" facial expressions. I think he was overacting in those scenes. Everyone else was fine.