Lu Si & Yu Ning by now knew each other pretty well so there's no hesitation and have strong familiarity in their acting. Their close friendship and the interaction is pretty comfortable so their chemistry is strong and abundance, their hugs are tighter and locking eyes without hesitant. Liu Yu Ning has gained experiences and involve in many great dramas recently, he is no longer a newbie because LuSi helped him to gain his notoriety in Long Ballad. Ep23-onwards, the big number of head-peace & trinkets start to overwhelm. What we can see are big hair and burst of colors bling ornaments/jewelries, LuSi natural beauty is replaced with cheesy show-girls beauty standard. Unfortunately, the story went down hill from there, no longer pulling interest and insignificant characters develop. Cui Shi Jui started with bravado, type A kind of girl, why are we watching her? Her choice of life is apparently miscalculated and cost her unhappiness or unfulfilled. Not feeling sorry for her though...

This time around, we can enjoy maturity of YuNing's acting as Yan Zi Jing, his misty eyes are real, passionate glances and caresses on LuSi's shoulder shown affection. Nothing is fake - all sincere. Although he's over her head tall, he manage NOT to look giant over anybody. He can be cynical or sweet as well, his facial muscle seems to know how to work it, great expression. He smiles quite a lot in this drama (than Long Ballad). His life goal is to take revenge to those people who killed his family, a high-risk businessman on the side. After injury and live at 'Clear Mind' shop, he's like a domesticated house-husband.

Tang Xiao Tian (Zhang Jin Ran) came in joining 2nd ML whose in love with Duan Mu (LuSi) at the first sight although she's only a pearl diver aka a slave under duress. As a gentleman scholar who is Prince Ying's study buddy, he has job to go around the country to investigate crimes, bribery, thefts, all wrongs in the country so he can give recommendation and/or uphold justice for the Kingdom. He's a handsome guy & rightfully a scholar. While Yan ZiJing endeavor in revenge, Jin Ran works hard to find the bad guys, he's a bit partial to Su Mu Zhe so any 'justice' he does always benefit to the duo Su Mu Zhe & Yan Zi Jing.

Zhao LuSi (Duan Mu/Su Mu Zhe) Her dance is seductively mesmerizing, her dive is what divers do, her terrified look on the abuse, tears that break heart. Her tiny figure seems the cutest besides tall LYN & TXT, she doesn't have muscle so when she did manual labor scenes she appears tiny fragile. I want details, if Duan Mu go through so much painful experience and ocean-diving - her appearance doesn't show that. She still has flawless skin, healthy hair, cherry smiles. Dry crack darker skin, dry rough shorter hair should be from frequent diving in to salty sea water. Because of the hardness of reality, she changed personality to pursue harsh business endeavor. One thing she needs to do better is she needs to take vocalization lesson, she's great when doing cutesy scenes otherwise she sound like misplaced. After ep 25 she's patronizing and becoming a 'mentor motherly-figure', a sober personality like she's 40-50yo woman (supposedly she's on her 20th).

I am pretty sure besides these 3 actors (& Kang Ju guy) the rest aren't worth mentioning. The story on the middle are pretty dragging, about business competition or jealousy (I want to slap Bai Niao, Zheng Si & Qin Mu guy the acting are so S***ty bad) This drama can actually be shorten in to 28-30 episodes instead of 40, I bet the producer(s) is milking this production to make more money for this drama than some quality deliverance.
1. Too much fillers, unnecessary scenes/plots
2. The Extras and supporting actors are terrible in acting, seems like they've recruited randomly without audition.
3. Main actors change characters/personality -change direction of mind-set.
I think because of these three main causes, this drama lost audience and getting lower score as it progress.