This my first ever review and I felt compelled to write this after watching the drama and then reading the novel. Prior to this drama I had no knowledge of the novel or any of its content at all. This was a no skip drama, and like the other reviewers have commented, it left me feeling empty and wanting more, which led me to read the novel too.

First off I will do a review on the drama before I read the novel, theres a review for the novel comparison afterward, that may contain some spoilers.

Initial Rating: 8-9
Final Rating: 9
*Story*
The story speaks about how Lin Qiu Shi finds him self stuck in this virtual world where he has to pass these "Doors" in order to escape the game and the overall story very compelling with each arc representing each door getting more interesting than the other. Each of the arc is a standalone story and kept me on my toes. I do not usually watch horror, but the mystery and the story telling of the this drama kept me engaged. From how the main character slowly piece together the puzzles within the door and how the level of difficulty each door gets, To how Lin Qiu Shi's character building up his skills to pass through each door, as well as his interactions with Ruan Nan Zhu. The characters itself also made it more likable to watch and the interactions between each character really brought this drama to life. Knowing this is based on a BL novel versus not knowing makes no difference. The interaction between the main leads, mostly comes off as more friendship or like someone of great importance which makes alot of sense, since they are basically entrusting each other with their life for every door they go into.

Acting:
Majority of the acting cast of this drama are new actors or relatively young actors with minimal experience. However each of these actors managed to bring each of these characters to life and embodied the characters themselves. I will mostly speak of the main characters as this drama has a pretty large cast, but I will have to say that almost all the minor characters got me relating to them in some way. Some that made me cry or laugh because of their interactions.

First of all Xia Zhi Guang, for those you who may not know him, I've known this guy existed like almost 6-7 years ago, because I watched X-Fire and then I also watched Produce 101 season 2 china version. I will have you know that if you watched him in any of these none of you will think of him as Ruan Nan Zhu. There was even a post about it on weibo that was questioning "How on earth did the directors and producers managed to see a Ruan Nan Zhu in Xia Zhi Guang? Cause I sure as hell didn't" and the proceeds to pulls up his past clips. I have seen him in these shows and his existence was practically invisible, guy has strong skills in dancing, but he didn't really stand out to me much. His acting here was amazing, from the occasionally drama queen to coolness and coldness of Ruan Nan Zhu. Of course, he is still a new actor and his acting isn't perfection, but I felt he really embodied Ruan Nan Zhu.

Huang Jun Jie should be consider as relatively experience actor, I have seen him in other works and can say that he act well in certain roles and sometimes his acting is not good. In here, while I wouldn't say this acting is phenomenal, I say he brought out the character Lin Qiu Shi, showed his growth and coldness as person, once he started adapting to the world of doors where you don't have time to worry about other people life or death when you have to manage to survive yourself.

Music:
Definitely not the best, tbh for a low budget drama, they did a pretty good job. I felt the team that worked on the music and background noises did a pretty good job of putting sounds at the appropriate timing to bring in the mood. Such as when something eerie was gonna happen or when Lin Qiu Shi/Ruan Nan Zhu felt something was off. I think the importance of the music/sound used in this drama really added to the element of it and made it easier for me to get more absorbed into the storyline and naturally feel scared. I almost didn't dare to even watch this at night time. However, there were 2 songs that stand out, the song for Lu Zuo Zi, which is still stuck in my head and did it creep me out the almost every time I heard it and I Know – 高佳依.

Rewatch Value:
I will definitely rewatch, the attention to detail in this drama is pretty insane and while I watched almost every episode without skipping anything. I feel like I missed some clues and I definitely will rewatch it, just because every arc and story is so engaging, I don't feel like watching it once is enough.

SPOILERS
Now below is where my review comes after the novel. It will contain a bit of spoiler towards the novel and the drama so read at your own risk. It is also comparison between 2 and how it affected my final rating. I will try to avoid major spoilers, but no guarantees.

First off compared to the drama, where it is based on a virtual world, the novel is more mystery based. The whole concept of the doors are actually different between the 2 and if you were watching the drama, im pretty sure there are a few plot holes that didn't make sense at all. Once you read the novel and the setting it will fall in to place. In the drama, Lin Qiu Shi is stuck in a virtual world where supposedly his "old friend" mailed him a game and unless he plans on stopping to play game entirely he can't avoid it. This concept actually doesn't really sound realistic and the only reason this reasoning works is because Lin Qiu Shi works with game designs (If I remember correctly). However infact, this concept of compelling people to play unless this person doesn't plan to play a video game at all doesn't work for all people. In the novel, the condition for doors to appear for a person is if they are approaching death whether it is an accident, murder, suicide or a terminal illness and the only way to prolong their life is through doors. So now the players don't really have a choice but to go through the doors, cause regardless they'll die and this also gives reason for people to cheat and play dirty. Also, the level of each persons door is heavily dependent on players performance, on their first door which is their test. So what determines the condition of their first door is how close they are approaching death, the closer they are to death, the higher the level.

The drama downplayed alot of the story and pretty much revamped alot of the concepts of the story, however it is still phenomenal on its own, though the novel is definitely the better one. In the drama, where Lin Qiu Shi was connecting with the NPCs and helping them resolve their stories, this did not happen in the novel at all. The novel was more gruesome, horrifying and gore. The door gods had feelings, but they didn't all have back stories, they simply just wanted to kill the players. It is definitely not for people who are scared of horrors or easily able to have nightmares. Reading this novel, I got a bit scared opening and closing doors, turning off the lights or even looking at myself in mirrors. For people afraid of gore, I don't think you'll be able to eat for awhile. Also, the novel had more arcs than the drama, but I believe due to budget problems, they couldn't cover it or possibility of censorship that they took them out. The drama did alter some of the arcs most likely due to the gruesome nature of the original story and to be honest great choice, cause if they kept it, this would have been classified as full on horror. They honestly did so good with the altering in stories, that I thought it was the original story until I read the novel. I won't speak into some specific details, because some are just way too gruesome. Also, there are certain drama plot holes that were explained in the novel, i'm not sure if they filmed and it was cut, or they just simply forgot about such small details.

Also, compared to the novel, the drama actually brought more interaction between the characters. In the novel, they were more like a few lines about each characters interactions with the main leads, while the drama really brought more of these interactions to life. Compared to the novel, I related more with all the characters in the drama since it was told from a more third person point of view, while I think the novel made it point that is from Lin Qiu Shi's POV, he really shouldn't get that close to people when there's a chance he might not see them again. Also, they changed a bit of the interactions between Ruan Nan Zhu and Lin Qiu Shi, which I'm sure everyone expects this due to the censorship. The writers tried their best to keep the lines, but took away some of Ruan Nan Zhu characteristics, which is he especially shameless to Lin Qiu Shi and loves teasing him alot, which doesn't show in the drama.

Overall, after reading the novel, I got to give this drama a solid 9, the novel in every arc there was new characters and zero repeats, but i'm pretty sure considering how low budget this drama was, there was no way they could hire that huge amount of people, especially when they got so much other small details and different sets they have to afford. The creation of this mysteries organization really saved this problem and explained why we would see some repeat characters. After reading the novel, I realized how many choices the director/producer/writers made to ensure this would be able to air and though this drama was only able to go online for 30 mins to an hour which is really sad. It really showed how much effort was put into this show. They really tried to reflect the drama each and every arc sets as realistic to the novel as possible and it was almost to perfection. When I was reading the novel, I had a clear image of how their surrounds would actually look like.

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An Inspiration Not An Adaption

I have read the novel, before attempting to watch this drama, so this would contain novel spoilers. You have been warned!

The overarching story premise was very well written, the flow and the progress, while seemingly slow was actually progressing and in a way to make sense. We are introduced to the FL (Luo YiNing) and ML (Luo Shen Yuan), who are siblings born in scholar family during historical times. FL was born as the Legitimate Child, but wasn't liked by her father and was sent away when she was young returning to the family after 10 years has passed, which was the beginning of the story. While ML was an illegitimate child who wasn't even recorded in the genetically book and was never recognized as part of the family scorned by his father, he didn't even have the right to learn how to read from a teacher. Both leads who weren't raised surrounded by love, began to rely on each other, becoming each others pillar.

ML (Luo Shen Yuan) was a diamond in the rough, a prodigy, he was extremely smart, had his own business that was thriving, and was strong martial arts skill. However, he had to do everything under another identity, because he was an illegitimate child, that was not recognized by his family. His own father wouldn't even let him learn how to read, and he self taught himself, with little guidance from a teacher. The most impressive part of this story was not the romance, but the character development of ML and FL, and for ML while he was prodigy, he lacked love/compassionate. He learned to be righteous from his teacher and fellow classmates, but never really had anyone truly care for him. Which FL teaches him, tries to give him, telling him he's not alone and he doesn't have to do everything himself. Which I liked this premise, because novel to FL was obsession (not a very good one), novel ML and drama ML were both born to be politicians, but novel was much more cunning and ruthless. He didn't really care for anyone, but FL, which to be honest, all the characters written in Luo Family was quite dumb or "not very nice people". Nobody in the Luo family really ever treated ML like family, while in the drama, we see how he is accepted. The scene when gets written in to the genealogy book, perfectly filmed, show the nervousness and the moment to be remembered.

What makes this character even more memorable was the actor Zhang Wan Yi, the slight expressions, movements, and the tension he creates in the room OMG, just such an impressive actor. He perfectly acted how ML slowly falls in love with FL, and his slight changes from how his surroundings changes, like when he goes from being an illegitimate child to Legitimate child, become FL's actual brother on paper. He changed the way he walked, and the air around him goes from being nobody to a confident noble scholar.


I also love the portrayal of FL in the drama compared to the novel, the more I read the novel the more annoyed with FL I got. This drama seems to have taken the criticism towards the novel and rewritten FL setting, and they did so in an impressive way, Lets make one thing clear, novel FL was reincarnated after dying at 17 and then spent 20 years as a soul in a hairpin so she knew of some future event. She knew ML would become a prime minister and did everything to treat him well, but she reincarnated into a 7 years old after 7 years she died. She was married before she died and had a husband which is SML, that was well alive in his late 20s. In the drama, instead of starting FL as a 7 years, because no way is anyone watching a grooming process and pedophile happening, they started her off in her teens who came back after being sent away for 10 years. The good thing the production did was avoid mentioning age at all times, which the novel kept mention (aka shes 10, 12, 14 - the main story ended at 15 and she had kids....). During those 10 years she was sent away, she so happen to come in contact with SML, who was blinded because of an injury, and they become close. SML falls in love with her and he was set on marrying her, but some situation happened that led to FL being badly injured believing that SML tried to kill her. SML develops an obsession with her, while FL has moved on and matured from that experience, which was portrayed very well, she was firm toward SML, not even letting the slightest action to hint towards anything except for her personal hobbies/habits. Novel FL will piss you off, supposedly over him, but some how always thinks of him, remember what he likes, and what he did, and the past, what even gave her away was that she remembered that SML went gambling. Drama FL was mature and intelligent, she grew up in a house with only a few maids and developed an independence by herself. So when she came back to the family, she started her own business, navigated herself away from trouble. Her only weak point, was that she was still too soft towards her opponents, and ML will take care of that, but overall she didn't really need saving from ML and there were even instants of her saving ML. The actress really portrayed YiNing as her natural self of caring and her love/care to ML was what gave comfort to ML, that he would even sharing his deepest secrets with. The relationship was mutual and balanced, with no problems at all, even when FL was hiding her assiocation with SML, and he was deeply jealous, he never forced her to say anything.


This is a slow burn drama, for more than half the episodes FL still didn't know ML was not her biological sibling, but what I appreciated was the character growth of the characters. Like how Luo Yi Xiu and Lin Mao (i kind of skipped alot of their story), growth from each other company and to be honest while Luo Yi Yu didn't have much screen time, her character growth was probably the most interesting one. Luo Yi Yu was raised to be a proud scholar girl by her mother madam chen, and madam chen always wanted better for her kids, so her strictness towards her children was suffocating especially to Luo Yi Xiu and Luo Shan Yuan. While YiYu was her mothers perfect child, she initially was slightly arrogant, but she wasn't a bad person when Liu Ming proposed, she initially didn't like him because his family wasn't exactly known/wealthy, nor was he good looking, and he didn't score on the yearly examination. However when encountering a family crisis, he was the only one that didn't ostracize her and she finally understood, to live a good a life you don't need all the other worldly things, just having someone there to stay by you was the most important. I do with they expanded more on how FL finds out shes in love with him, because they kinda of wrapped up everything pretty quickly near the end. The pacing wasn't bad, I wish there was more.

Somethings I do wish they kept in the drama was novel Lin Mao's character setting, they revamped him to a guy whos terrible at studying and in to medicine. However novel Lin Mao was a very interesting character, he was carefree and does pretty crazy thing like he caused an explosion because he was trying to create an elixir XD. Lin Mao characters was smart, but he was very eccentric and liked to do things by impulse. I also wanted them to keep ML confidence, novel ML was confident in everything he did, no matter what trouble FL caused, he always had a back up plan, while drama ML did portray him as smart, they took out the absolute confidence he had in his plans, which to be fair make sense with the character setting they set for him as he does fail.

I highly recommend this drama, do not even bother reading the novel, you will not like it. The character growth and the story flow, is the quality point and you won't get bored of the interactions between characters. There is no misunderstandings and if your a fan of mutual support relationships, this is for you. FL and ML supported each other through out the novel and they never overshadow each other. They both have their expertises and their own strong qualities, and how these qualities come together to support each other is most fascinating to watch.

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A Relationship with Flaws

I picked this up because I like the actor Chen Xing Xu. He’s a very versatile actor and I have seen him act in different roles. After watching it, I regret not watching this sooner and it is also what led me to write this review.

Chen Xing Xu acts as Qian Zheng a cold and strict person to himself and those around him. He has a very strict outlook on life and his own personal ideals. Which led him to success as a lawyer, as he is able to handle any case with a calm and steady mindset with only his clients claims in mind. On the other hand, our female lead Cheng Yao, a rookie lawyer, got into his law firm through some back door and perceives life in a more gentle and naive sense, which led to much conflict. Throughout the story, we see both of them grow their careers and how they both influence each other. They mostly handle family disputes (divorces, inheritances, etc.) so you will rarely see them in court, since cases like these are settled out of court.

I love the story a lot, it is very realistic and there’s no sugarcoating when the FL makes mistakes. While she does get few chances, she learns from it and improves. We see her shape as a lawyer and as an independent woman and it is amazing to see.

Though watching her get many chances and knight in shining armor brings you back to the fact that this is a drama. It infuriates some people who knows if they commit any of the mistakes she was committing, they would have been fired instantly and pushed to face the blame, so that no harm will come to the law firm. I like the fact that it was mentioned as an option, and common practice to do this. So watching the first half of the show was a bit frustrating watching her so naive. While she does get saved by the ML, we see her standing up for herself towards the end. The last couple of episodes was her showcasing her growth, while she has studied under ML, she took what she learned applied her own ideas into the way she handle cases. She didn’t let go of her gentleness, but used what she learned from her mistakes to prevent any mishaps in happening and she aims for clients interests. Not just what client specified which is the ML way to go, but consideration for the overall outcome and with both sides interests in mind.

Overall I will rewatch this, when I run out of stuff to watch. It’s a sweet drama and watch ML treat FL throughout the series was SO SWEET. The best part are the supports, they got me cackling at their jokes and FL co workers way in treating each other was just so heartwarming. Both ML and FL are flawed, they have problems, but are willing to listen to each other and learn. We see them grow as persons and by the end of the story, we see ML learning from FL. Showing how much FL as grown from being told off on what she should do to backing up her input with solid evidence.

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