I watched this drama because of the main actor Leo Wu, whom I saw in another drama and I was very moved by his performance. I wanted to see how she does in other dramas and I was not disappointed!

This drama is actually complete in every way:
the cinematography - which was very good - the camera manipulation - the slow, steady movement of the camera and showing the emotions of the main characters was amazing!
Indeed, the director went to great lengths to recreate the atmosphere of the era, taking care of the details, from the costumes, the girls' hairstyles, to the scenography - great!
Casting - very good. Virtually everyone did their job. However, I personally do not like the actress Zhaoo Lu Si, whom so many adore. I watched several series with her and she plays very similarly everywhere, she is too childish for me, although funny and intelligent, but for me she lacks femininity, that something that at the end of the development of each character she plays, what should mature in her is a woman about mature emotions... I don't see it in this actress's game, she's like a spoiled kid... and romantic scenes with her participation are directed with a great distance to the partner... those kisses that should be engaged as the main characters' feelings develop, are the kisses of a 5-year-old child...it spoils these romantic moments. I've never seen this actress have more involved kissing scenes with the main characters ... I don't know if it's the fault of the script, the director or the actress herself, who has some restrictions in the contract about these scenes ...

I liked all the characters of the CSS family, even the annoying grandmother who was obnoxious at first, but in the end it turned out that she is not so bad and cares a lot about all her family members. I must also admit that the character of the emperor, who was very involved in the affairs of LBY and was a very positive character in the whole story, was presented very nicely. Also interesting characters of Empress Xuan and Consort Yue - for the first time I saw in the drama that both wives do not compete with each other, they do not fight, on the contrary, they support each other like sisters, which was great to see. They also did not compete when it came to children, and even the empress was objectively able to admit that her son with his character was not suitable for the future emperor. That's an impressive stance. I liked these two emperor's wives very much.
The opposite were the daughters of the emperor, generally these intrigues of the fair sex were unbearable. These young princesses were always competitive and intrigued - they had nothing better to do. Fortunately, the parents of the emperor and empress and consort did not accept these girls' behavior and rebuked them.

In general, in the Part2, I think that the revenge factor was thrown in again at the end, especially since the main characters were separated for 5 years and it wasn't really shown how they get back together... how CSS finally decides to forgive LBY - here's the scene in the last episode when she thought that he died and she would never see him again and in fact it was the only moment when she realized that she loved him .... and that's it ... you could safely throw away these unnecessary threads of revenge in the end, and focus on the close-up of the main characters of CSS and LBY... At the end of the last episode, they focused on a long scene of the CSS family, and you could not waste this time and show a shot of CSS and LBY's wedding, which scene was missing so much and I was waiting for this finale with wedding for so many episodes, and here the director came up with a pasta-like I'm dying with my family and only verbal information spoken by the emperor that there will be a wedding without his participation .... pointless, that's why I lower the plot to 8.5! I hope they can do an extra twist with that wedding scene!!!

In general, the best character for me was LBY - brilliantly played by Leo Wu - a complex character of an intelligent general whose traumatic childhood experiences made him cold, secretive, distrustful, eager for revenge, but with his heart in the right place, especially in relation to CSS., for whom he changes dramatically by showing love, tenderness, passion, infinite patience and indulgence of her, forgives her every time for her mischief. LBY wanted revenge for killing his family and didn't assume he would fall in love in the meantime and that it would be that young 15 year old CSS girl. However, he fell in love, and from now on he had difficulty balancing love and the pursuit of revenge. In the end, he chooses to take revenge on his "alleged father" or rather uncle and does a terrible carnage - this scene was hard to watch and he sacrifices his love of CSS. He knew that CSS was most afraid of being abandoned by his loved ones and "betrayal", he knew that he would be forgiven, but he chose revenge ... only in exile he realized that it was the wrong choice - he alluded to in the last episode in an interview with CSS. For me, the role was brilliantly played and these hot emotions in the LBY and CSS scenes, including in the first part when she pulled the arrowhead out of LBY's body and their first closeness, when LBY zooms in on his face staring at CSS - great.

CSS as the main character in Part 1 was empathetic and likeable. Shaoshang of Part 2 is immature and frustrating to the point of being dislikeable, but it was supposed to be like that, I suppose. However, I couldn't stand her stubbornness, which stayed until the very end of the series, even though it had been 5 years since the breakup with LBY and she was almost 21 years old, she still had this anger towards LBY and his "betrayal" and digested it constantly without sense not being able to forgive.... the scene when after the death of the empress Xuan they made the empress' favorite juice and talked about the future, when the CSS stated that she was going her own way without him, it was heartbreaking... how can you continue to be so stubborn and anger..she didn't give him a chance, even though he asked her for forgiveness...horrible! He had to almost lose his life again for her to get the hang of it and understand that she couldn't live without him... so here I missed the development of this character... after so many years she should mature and not be guided by anger, stubbornness...

What I really liked about this drama was the very nicely intertwined humorous and comic threads... and especially one scene when LBY, in love, decided to become friends with the CSS family and one day he did exercises for them in the yard - I just cried laughing at the the sight of the CSS siblings and the servants exercising with weights... their faces and eyesight... it was not proper to refuse them, so they gave in to these exercises, which turned out to be very demanding - great scene!
The side characters are well developed, bringing both comic relief.
Rewatching value - 10 ! I already rewatched the first and second season. I recommend it - you have to watch it.