ABOUT THE STORY
Fascinating story - 10 years of the life of a simple village girl who came to Shanghai to realise her dreams. It was really entertaining to watch how LiuWenjings (FL) life has progressed and how she has changed and grown up. As a sideline, there is also a love story between FL and one of her friends. The story although has some far-fetched ridiculous coincidences (as a lot of Chinese dramas usually have) in general is quite realistic. The life of the main characters is full of ups and downs, twists and turns. Although I have noticed, that while in the beginning series side stories of FL's friends have been nicely detailed. But by the end of the drama, some of her friends have been barely shown and the development of their stories becomes a little messy...
The main story is about how life paths can really go in predictable ways. Also about how one can change his/her life if they work hard and stood up for their principles. About how lack of communication can lead to misunderstandings in relationships, and how small lies can ruin someone's life. Another thing that I like - is the representation of time passing by. The story encompasses 10 years, and if you watch it one series a day - and not binge-watch, then by the last half of the drama you really have this feeling of things having happened a long time ago.
(SPOILER ALERT)
On the YouTube, where I was watching it, a lot of people in the comments have been complaining that "ML is actually not with FL until the end" and " we came here to watch ML+FL chemistry, where is it?" seem to misunderstand what the drama is about ))) I didn't feel cheated, because I have been expecting nothing more than what the story the director wanted to tell

ABOUT THE CHARACTERS
Many people in the comments have been complaining -"Why Professor couldn't confess to her, why Hua-Hua is so mean etc." But actually, when you look at the characters a little closer, all of their behaviour starts to make sense. Professor - such a passive in love guy - he would not have the guts to confess or say NO to someone he doesn't love. In reality, this kind of guy ends up in a relationship with a proactive girl that he doesn't like, just goes by the way of least resistance. FL (Wenjing) - is this kind of self-sacrificing girl, she would do anything for her family, allow friends to walk over her and always feel that it's her fault, not theirs. Hua-Hua is a typical toxic friend.
Although the characters were well written, ML and FL s chemistry was .... bad. It was difficult to understand their feelings for each other, especially Professor's feelings for FL from the beginning till the end. By the end of the drama when they are finally together, their interactions look outright fake. It could be either bad work of an ML actor or director. FL chemistry with 2ML was quite nice though.

CONCLUSION
All in all, it was nice for me to watch this drama because of the storyline. But regarding expressing feelings, ML FL interaction, actors play, well there are better dramas out there.