Finally finished this drama and I must say it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a wholesome drama, with relevant side characters, that is not too draggy, and has a good ending.

As my intro, TLitBH is similar to Story of Minglan where the main story revolves around the butcher Hu Jiao and her fiancé Qing Jia. Like in Story of Minglan, both the ML and FL are given almost the same amount of scenes to give life to their characters. The first half the focus is the FL but the ML is still in the episodes, while the latter focused on the ML while the FL is the supporting lead. Though this has a more similar plot to my Heroic husband, the focus is better in TLitBH because none of the couple disappears in an episode. Unlike in MHH, there was a story arc where the FL wasn’t even in the same location as the ML that you can almost forget that she exists.

In terms of chemistry, this drama reminded me of the older/more traditional Cdramas which are very chaste so you don’t get a lot of kiss scenes, so the actors have it harder to make the audience see their chemistry in their interactions. SoM will be in the forefront in terms of chemistry, followed by TLitBH, then last will be MHH.

In terms of plot, SoM with its 78eps definitely had more time to deliver a great plot. MHH and TLitBH both have 36 eps and though MHH showed us several story arcs with better plot developments and villains, I still like TLitBH more. It’s because it’s the right amount of serious and light at the same time. They don’t give us unnecessary angst, problems are resolved after 1 or 2 episodes, and we still get our happy ending.

PS. IMHO Qing Jia (Tong Meng Shi) is also better looking than Ning Yi (Guo Qi Lin).