Destined is a historical drama about the importance of responsibility, family and love. The plot is full of twists and overall is a worth to watch to those who enjoy historical dramas that have politics and still a heartfelt romance in it.

STORY:
Liu Yuru has been mistreated most of her life due to her father having a concubine who dislikes her and her mother. Liu Yuru has been trying her best to get an engagement with Ye family and just when she was about to get engaged to Ye Shi an, She happened to offend Gu Jiusi, the son of the wealthiest family in Yangzhou. Gu Jiusi has a bad reputation. He is known to slack in his studies and for using his time having fun and playing around.
Gu Jiusi plans a small revenge on her and loudly informs in front of many people that she is the one he wants to marry. When Gu Jiusi's parents hear about this, they immediately arrange an engagement between Gu Jiusi and Liu Yuru. Liu Yuru and Gu Jiusi get married against their wishes and soon after marriage Liu Yuru starts to learn business from her mother-in-law while taming her new husband, helping him to study and make Gu family proud.
Gu Jiusi and Liu Yuru get closer day by day, but at the same time they must take new responsibilities as they need to keep their family safe.


SPOILER PART OF THE STORY, MY OPINION:
The plot is complicated as there were many things happening in a short period of time.
Liu Yuru is forced to marry a rich man who is a free-spirited idler, who believes he can live his life without working hard, relying on his family's wealth.
After they get married, Gu Jiusi informs Liu Yuru that when he or she finds someone they truly love, they will divorce. Gu Jiusi is still kindhearted and tries his best to comfort the sad Liu Yuru. Liu Yuru was lucky to have a great mother-in-law, as she understood her and decided to help her learn business and to let her take over the Gu Family business. She also trusted her to be able to tame Gu Jiusi. Gu Jiusi was a free-spirited boy who soon began to take responsibility and was inspired to learn and grow up thanks to Liu Yuru. This couple was so inspiring and truly helped each other grow. When the commissioner of Yangzhou wanted to kill every rich family in Yangzhou, Liu Yuru and Gu Jiusi helped many of their family members to escape ahead of them to Youzhou. Gu Jiusi and Liu Yuru saves each other many times during the long and dangerous journey to Youzhou. When they finally arrive, they need to start over with new problems arriving as war rages on. The plot gets even more complicated when they move to the capital and Gu Jiusi becomes a minister.

The drama had a lot of things happening and in my opinion, my only problems with this drama only come from the lack of logic. After settling down in Youzhou, I understand wanting to contribute and help to protect the new hometown. Everything after that seemed very weird to me. Even though Gu Jiusi had done well protecting Youzhou, i don't understand why he would want to become a minister in the capital. It's understandable for him to be kind and fair, but the closer you are to the emperor, the more enemies you will have. I just couldn't see why Gu Jiusi would want to risk his or his family's life again and again for "the world". You would think that someone would not be willing to cause problems to their family after going through hardships and losing their father. Gu Jiusi, despite being warned of danger, continues to investigate logs and try to find out who has embezzled money. In the end, the emperor faked Liu Yuru's death, and they were apart for 3 years. In those 3 years, he thought his beloved wife was dead. But so did Liu Yuru's mother-in-law and mother, and many close friends of hers. He didn't even get to spend the 3 years with his mother and Liu Yuru's mother, but he was in another town building a dam.. And when Liu Yuru and Gu Jiusi meet again, they still decide to risk their lives to save the country...

Destined was entertaining and had its sweet moments and had a slow burner of a romance. We get to see Gu Jiusi and Liu Yuru slowly trust and fall for each other. The villain was great in the beginning, but in the end he left me a little confused as to why he was so obsessed with becoming the emperor. The only things i was actually disappointed were the lack of kiss scenes and the fate of some side characters. But the ending is a very happy ending for our main leads!

ACTING:

Song Yi as Liu Yuru,
She was great. I think her acting was pleasant, as she was supposed to be someone who has elegance and was taught well by her mother. Song Yi managed to act weak, determined yet strong Liu Yuru very well.

Bai Jing Ting as Gu Jiusi,
His acting didn't leave me cold. Truly fit for the role of a playful boy who grows up to a passionate man who wants to protect the ones he loves but also the world. Great acting from him!


Overall i would say that the drama is an 8.