I love Republican Era settings and this even has Jing Tian, only the sight of Jing Tian dressed up in that style was enough to get me on for this.

Talking about the plot, the overall conspiracy stuff is a mixture. Their is a revenge story going on but they also want to show the viewers about Opium consumption and it's ill effects on health and life… All the ways to trick each other are mainly related to Business stuff. So maybe some people could get bored of it, though that's a genre I enjoy… Their are many complicated family feuds (trust me MANY)… they show us struggles for freedom and dreams too. The plot twists are really strange but unpredictable too. It's quite fun to watch but not too much intriguing for your brain either.

The deeds of the main villain is a total MESS. Once I got attached to the characters and started understanding the story… what was waiting for me next door was hate, anger and frustration. Many things annoy you to death here but the story will be left with nothing without them. Anyone looking for light weight fluffy stuff, just run away. This ain't for you.

I realized the cinematography is good and those Qipao dresses, the wavy silky hairstyles keeps us reminding of that era. The visuals are definitely a very big advantage here especially because it's a long 40 episode drama so there has to be something on screen that people can focus on. Of course, in addition to this setting, Jing Tian and Xu Weizhou are the best eye candies to stare at.

Jing Tian ( as Feng Shizhen ) — Feng Shizhen is strong and smart and she knows what she's doing. Jing Tian carries out this role very gracefully. From spying secretly with the gentle look of a governess (teacher) to expressing her emotions at the right moment. I was so hooked up to her character and totally rooting for her from the beginning.

Xu Weizhou ( as Rong Jiashang ) — he is the young master of the Rong family. Jiashang is an arrogant boy and was trained in the military academy from a small age. He is capable but pretty reckless too. He seemed like a puppy in love who wants to do so much but he needs to grow big first xD. I really pitied him all the way.

It's kinda funny how Jiashang's favorite sentence in the whole drama was "please give me some more time". He said this so many times that I couldn't even count it now. He reminds me that most of the scenes between him and Shizhen were repetitive. Though I agree they had their chemistry to carry it on.

Jing Chao ( as Meng Xu An ) — he is super cunning. In the beginning he maintained a cool gesture and a strong aura around him. But his character changes a lot throughout the drama.

{ My issues with the drama…}
—•• The biggest problem here is its pacing. The drama just gets super slow that you feel like the energy is missing. No matter how the plot goes, I literally felt the urge to speed it up like 2x or 3x many times… and every incident is so connected to each other that you can't even skip anything.
—•• I have another problem with the plot which is a spoiler so in the comments section.

The songs were fit for the occasion but didn't sound so special to go to my OST playlist.

✧ Favorite dialogue — "You have to live on, to see hope and a favourable turn" ✧

As to conclude, I am quite satisfied with this drama as all I was expecting here was a good revenge story and a strong female lead, which I got… So this turned out to be a good one time watch.