Honestly, I have a mixed feeling about this drama. Some good some bad.

From the personal preference and liking, I don’t like weak and too naïve character – that’s why I have a mixed feeling about this drama. This story is not for me but I am trying to be objective here.

If you like plotting and scheming stories, this drama is for you. The story is well written and excepts for the obvious villain eunuch sometimes you are just not sure each character stand on which side, the good or the bad. Some twist here and there because of the ulterior motives and sometimes you are just not sure what the motives are. So, quite surprisingly here and there.

However, watching at this drama from the beginning till the end, I must admit that it is a good drama. Here’s why…

STORY:
The story is quite interesting, whereby the imperial court was dominated by a very powerful eunuch chasing wealth, power, controlling the military and government. The emperor wanted to eradicate this powerful eunuch but failed and backfired whereby the eunuch cronies killed loyal officials and their family. Qi Yan the brother of the emperor played along with the eunuch just to gain trust and make plan for future retaliation. During the backfire by the eunuch, Qi Yan already planned to at least leave some survivor from the loyal officials.

Fast forward to 8 years later, Qi Yan now is the emperor – he introduced to Cheng Ruo Yu that become his sword bearer – the protector to the emperor. Ruo Yu is one of the survivors of the killing 8 years ago. She was rescued by Qi Yan’s uncle and handed over to a special force to be nurtured and trained as loyalist to the emperor.

On the other hand, Ruo Yu’s older sister Yan Zhi also survived and sided with the eunuch becoming prodigy while hiding her identity to seek opportunity for revenge to the eunuch for killing her family.

Besides those main characters there are also quite a few other characters building up the stories and it makes the story quite complex whereby everyone has their ulterior motives, and some were being manipulated to do things out of their will. Therefore, like I mentioned earlier, everyone is a chess piece.

ACTING:
Cheng Yi plays Qi Yan, as a puppet emperor under the powerful eunuch. Qi Yan is planning to overturn the situation and try his best to fight the eunuch. However, he must be very careful and discreet so the plan can be successful. Here through his acting, you can feel his pain, his sorrow, his helplessness, his ambition, his determination, his affection, his worry, his distrust and trust, and all other emotions. Superb acting by Cheng Yi.

Zhang Yu Xi plays Ruo Yu, a sword bearer protector of the emperor. Her character is building up from immature, weak, childish, fun loving, happy, optimistic person to more reserved, strong, and trusting the emperor and giving her full loyalty to him. During the show you can see and feel her transformation.

Other actors and actress also giving their best performance and able to depict the character very well.

OTHERS
The costume and sets are also quite impressive. Not overly done.

So, after long planning, fighting, and struggling to break from the powerful eunuch – you would expect a happier ending of this drama. But through out the story you kind of able to predict the ending because Qi Yan get stab multiple times in the chest so this impact his health for sure.