When I watched the trailer, I was not interested to watch the drama. The trailer was not able to convey the good qualities of the drama. However, I am glad that I gave it a chance to watch it.

This drama is intricately beautiful. It was based on the novel with the same title. The drama focused on the life story of Ming lan, who was born in the Chinese imperial era. She was born from a concubine who was not favored by her father. Her father already had a legal wife and concubine Lin by his side. He was the type of person who loved high and good reputation and liked to avoid trouble. Without her father protection, Ming Lan and her mother had to suffer being abused by concubine Lin. Ming Lan grew up to become a person who was able to discern a person's behavior and motive behind them. She used that ability to act accordingly and protect herself. I really like Ming Lan. She is a very interesting main character and a great role model too. She is not your typical naivete and the weak lady who need to be protected, although she pretended to be one. She is actually an assertive, brave and can be ruthless and cunning if she needed to be.

The drama had a very strong nuance about the culture of China in the past. Which is very interesting too. A lot of the lines dialogues had hidden meaning and it was very interesting to see each person masked their emotion, going on a circle to confess one's intention. Sometimes it helps to rewatch the drama and pay attention to the lines which were spoken.

The love story is also bittersweet. The chemistry between the main leads is amazing (maybe because they are husband wife in real life too?). I love how their relationship was slowly being built in the drama, and how their characters who were the exact opposite were able to complement each other. Together they were unbeatable.

My problems with the drama were the fact that there were too many characters being introduced and the fact that Molan was being accepted back into the family. Those characters had a certain role which was important for the plot. Like the Wang family of Ming Lan's stepmother. They are too many to the point makes it hard for you to remember them.

Regarding Molan, she did not deserve to be forgiven. She looked very docile at the end which was pretty fast for her to turn around after so many years being abusive? She did suffer and reap what she sowed. But her transition being back into the family felt weird.