Cold–Lukewarm–Warm / Timid / Tsundere / Falls in Love First / Noble Idiot / CEO / General
The FL:
Bold / Cute / Cool & Independent / Falls in Love First / Better than ML / Noble Idiot / Business-woman
Describe the Relationship (the tropes):
Annoying Love (F/M) Rivals +++ / Bickering Start / Childhood Connection / Cohabitation / Contract Marriage or Fake Couple / Enemies to Lovers / Hidden Identity / Harem / Love Triangle / Married Couple (Real) / Rebirth / Secretly in Love (F/ML) / School to Adulthood / Star-Crossed Lovers
Relationship Progress (officially together; first (official) kiss; breakup*):
This show is slow in a way that will either lull you or slowly hook you. For me, that switch flipped somewhere after Ep11, when the lethargy stopped feeling like a flaw and started feeling like a vibe. Is it still slow? Oh yeah. But show is also different and that kept me going.
It doesn’t follow the usual xianxia blueprint of the past decade. There's no revenge. There's no stake. And there's no blood-spitting in this xianxia. Mind: blown. So what am I watching? A whole show where Yang Yang is minding his own business, living in a cave, running away from chicks, and running away from a certain man cultivating.
Han Li is not your standard xianxia hero. In fact, he’s barely a hero. He's more a survivor than saviour. He makes me smirk because hes just not that good. Cautious, self-interested, and calculating, he sidesteps responsibility until he’s certain he can win. Man never lets his walls down, but you won't even know he had walls up around you. He never truly opens up or gives his heart. His only real goal is becoming more powerful.
Nangong Wan is not your standard FL either. Firstly, is she even a FL? Girl interacts with the ML maybe 3 times for the whole show. It's crazy. And I'm convinced she has less screen time than Zhao Qing as 2FL 🤯. Good – or bad? – thing I was somehow amused. The teasing kept me curious, and their interactions made me laugh every single time. Other women in the story...not so much, though I did find the oblivion-pill hijinks with 3FL funny for all the wrong reasons.
Do not come for romance – or do, if you want an experience that’s both the saddest and the most unintentionally hilarious part of the series. I actually had fun, but it was equally sad, lol.
Overall: 2/5. Because this is slow. But if there’s a S2, I’ll still be there; partly out of curiosity, partly because I do enjoy watching Han Li in cruise mode.
P.S. Isn't it ironic that Han Li is one of the fastest ML alive...but trapped in a slow story.
There’s a running joke about the ML being "very fast." In Chinese, you cannot praise a guy for being fast without their other brain taking it way too personally xD. The characters here will take "fast" at face value, but Show knows exactly what it's doing with the innuendo. See this convo between ML and FL in Ep11:
Her: “This wicked beast has astonishing strength. I can’t hold on much longer. Fast!”
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