This is by far the best Chinese drama i have ever watched. It is a masterpiece. Seriously just watch it.

Characters -- 10/10
I have never seen better written characters in a drama than this one. Mei Changsu, our MC, is a brilliant strategician. However, he is not perfect. You can see the groundwork in his plans, his struggle to balance morality and success, his physically weak body, and his emotional past. All of these and more create a unique character with a believable motivation, a distinct personality, and clear flaws. It's not just our MC that is a great character. Other characters also have their well written motivations and backstories. The melting pot of all these complicated characters in the dangerous political landscape that is the capital city creates an exhilarating and beautiful story.

All the villains are multidimensional. They are intelligent, ambitious, and resourceful. But just like every other character, there are no perfect villains. They can be manipulated as well by the other players.

Costumes and Set -- 10/10
Despite being made back in 2015, the set and costumes are very high quality. Everything has this sharp and fitting feeling that really immerses you in the setting. You can really tell that the production value was really high. A lot of Chinese dramas can feel dated because of bad costumes or effects, but this one does not at all. Initially, I thought this was a much newer drama until I checked the date.

Tone
This drama has a very realistic tone. Unlike a lot of action or ancient setting dramas, friendships are not made instantaneously. Friendships here are cultivated over long periods of time so that's its very believable when someone is willing to risk their life for someone else.

Acting -- 10/10
Every single actor here is phenomenal in their role. I was always fully immersed in the story. Their expressions of love, pain, determination, and sadness are perfect and they pull you in. I found myself feeling a range of emotions to go along with their performances. It got quite a few nervous shakes and cries out of me.

Pacing
I never had a problem with the pacing. I found myself always trying to watch another episode when I had the time. The beginning may start of a little slow in order to introduce the world and characters, but once the setting is in place, the ball gets rolling and doesn't stop.

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I find that with a lot of detective genre media (Detective Conan, Sherlock Holmes, etc), the mysteries often involve "knowledge tricks" (tricks that require prior knowledge such as match, forensics, physics, chemistry, etc.) for you to be able to figure out who the killer is.

This show does not use that type of cheap gimmick for the mysteries. The mysteries are very much grounded in logic. You don't need fantastic knowledge or a great memory to figure out the killer. I found myself making guesses based on the hints revealed throughout each case and figured out the killer before the main character explicitly pointed it out. It's an incredibly fulfilling feeling to know that you can pick up on these hints and figure out the logic. I highly encourage anyone watching the show to try to follow along the mysteries and make your best guess as well.

Even the huge reveal by the end is actually something quite logical if you've been following along. Throughout the show from the very beginning I had my suspicions about the reveal. It doesn't make the show any less exciting even if you guess right though.

It's very short, only 25 episodes. Jump right in!

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