The art of letting go

This show essentially IMHO is about learning letting go. Li Xiangyi could let go his fame, glory, romantic love, and hatred and transformed into Li Lianhua, whereas the villains couldn't let go of their jealousy and obsession. Other characters are in between for letting go.

This is the first time ever I leave a review for a show as it left a deep impression for me. It's also my first Cheng Yi show, I had no idea who he was although I knew he played a judge in "Draw the Line" which I haven't watched.

I knew this show existed because I saw some Youtube comments about this show was the show they most looked forward to. When I saw the first 2 episodes were available in iQiyi, I was prompted to watch.

I don't know what to expect as I hadn't read the synopsis. But once I started, I couldn't stop. It had all the ingredients in dramas that I enjoy, which are Sherlockian mysteries, humor, bantering, with plenty of bromance. For the mysteries they gave enough clues to let people guess but with some twists that sometime the audience wouldn't know such as changing gender, changing appearance which were not common in "normal" stories. However the conclusions they arrived are logical so that is a plus for me.

Some of the cases are heart breaking and show the best and worst of human nature plus the compassion of our duo detectives.

Now let's move on the duo (which occasionally became trio). Li Lianhua is the Sherlock of the show. He is smart and has very strong observation and deduction powers. He also lies as easily as he breathes. He is also a renowned physician although nobody knows about his past. The Watson of the show is Fang Duobing, a wide-eyed rich kid who wants to be a detective. When he discovered that Lianhua could deduct really well, he stuck to Lianhua like glue to the annoyance and amusement of the latter. They later formed a deep friendship and camaraderie. To complete the trio is Di Feisheng who knows Lianhua's real identity and was determined to have a duel with him. Both he and Lianhua tried to hide Lianhua's identity which made a lot of funny stories in the beginning of the show.

There is also an overarching arch in the story and some of the stories are actually related to a big conspiracy dated 10 years ago which Lianhua and co tried to uncover. This arch is closely related to Lianhua's past which he tries to let go and triggers the development of each character.
One of the most profound part in the show is when Lianhua told someone the transformation from Li Xiangyi to Li Lianhua. Li Xiangyi was at the top of the world to the admiration and envy of a lot of people in Jianghu. Because of some misfortunes, he became penniless and his main focus was not to get hungry as he grew his own vegetables. During this time, he couldn't hold on to any grudges and resentment or even former glory as his main focus was survival. This part was very touching and Cheng Yi truly delivered. As Lianhua, he could roam freely in his lotus tower and helped people through medicine.

Acting wise every one did great, especially the main characters. I need to check out the main trio works in the future. I deducted some points because the villains were too one dimensional even though they were well acted and Li Xiangyi could let go of everything except his guilt which in fact he was not really guilty about when we later found out. He could forgive others and let others to live their lives without guilty but he never forgave himself.

It's definitely a good show for mystery, humor, and wuxia fans. Upon rewatch, we could appreciate the story and acting more.

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