Hooo boyyyyy this is the longest drama review I've ever written, the note in my notes app has seen all my rants lol. Now, that I finally finished it, I'll boil everything I've noted down.

First of all, I think this drama should come with a trigger warning for triggering topics like bullying, feeling of abandonment, loneliness and depression (also abuse). Honestly, if my struggling younger self would watch this, it would cause me a serious spiraling down.

TL;DR and don't want to get spoiled review: I think the storyline along with the topics have a great potential to discover more and it wasn't fully there for me. Truly outstanding acting, very beautiful costumes and really good CGI. Could've been made into more episodes.

Small spoilers ahead:
I've been waiting so long for this drama to air (didn't we all). I'm one of the few people who didn't come to watch for Bai Lu and Luo Yunxi (such a gorgeous man). I came because of Xiao Shunyao. I'm very much conflicted on this drama. While I absolutely loved the base storyline and the topics of time travel, butterfly effect, alternative storylines, changing personalities, character development, even the psychology level, I just disliked a good part of the storyline. I liked it until ep 20, eps 21 - 29 were just "what...is happening, you're losing me here" and I then watched pretty much only to see how it will end. Ep 30 gave me hope again, I liked how the storylines intertwined there, it felt complete. But the end of that episode made me afraid again. Episode 35 would've been such a great season finale, especially when a second season was planned. If the producers would have cut it here, then it would have been a good drama in my eyes. Buuut as tradition follows, I knew exactly that the writers are going to turn tides in the last 5 episodes completely and come back with a tsunami to hit the viewer right into the gut. 17 minutes into ep 36 the sh!t started to go down (do we always need such gut wrenching turn of events and so many deaths? I guess we do, just not my cuppa tea). Ep 39 just further cemented my opinion that this drama had THE potential to discover alternative storylines, dreams, different realities, like holy moly this episode was so good?? This energy should've been throughout the drama. Is it someone dreaming? Is it a main story? Is this someone's Bo're Life? That, my friends, is the potential I see in this type of story and prompt and it just wasn't fully there in my opinion.
Why I am conflicted on this drama: I mean, the storylines had their logic, it was clear where they were coming from but also not at the same time. I'm not going to go into much detail, to not spoil everything. What I was conflicted about (let's say contradictory statements and deeds in general) was resolved and explained in the last two episodes. Also sidenote, idk if I got it correctly, but the ep where Sang Jiu came to get her wedding night from Ming Ye, left quite a bad taste in my mouth, especially since she silenced him.... ?? raising my eyebrows

I don't want to end on a bad note, so here are I things I liked - Pian Ran x Ye Qingyiu storyline - perfect. Of course that I loved Xiao Shunyao as the evil brother, I think that the writers could've given this storyline more screen time, because we had a serious potential here (I felt that it was way too side storyish). At first, I loathed Ye Bing Chang/Mo Nv with every ounce of my being but in the end?? Mo Nv turning her character was very great development, I liked that. And of course, Luo Yunxi and Bai Lu are truly outstanding actors. Great applause for acting for everyone, in general. I nearly cried along with Luo Yunxi at the end.