This is one of those dramas that started off great and it goes downhill from there. If I split it in parts, there are some parts which I absolutely love but the parts that are done poorly are too glaring to ignore.

So the drama started off with a built up story about Xiao Duo's journey to revenge his twin brother. You become invested in the whole revenge plot only to be distracted by the evil (and crazily obsessed) emperor. There are so many moving parts that everything ends up losing its meaning because it was only good at the build up.

Let's talk about the story. I wish they stick with the revenge plot until the end because they have done such a good job building the foundations about it at the beginning. You have this mystery villain that is difficult to catch, empress in the palace who is power crazy and greedy ministers. That is like a perfect formula to a good, big, dramatic revenge story. Instead, they have wasted the potential of these characters with poorly developed story plot. The three villains are not really that bright after all. They seem to always be losing which makes you wonder how they survived that long. Xiao Duo's determination to revenge seems minuscule towards the end because he was so focused on Bu Yin Lou.

They did a good job building the emperor's character from this cowardly weakling who wants nothing to do with the court to a crazy, evil and obsessed emperor, still a coward though. If they had focused on that from the beginning instead of pushing us to be invested in Xiao Duo's revenge, it would have been a solid story.

The flow of the whole drama is so horrible, it's difficult to like the drama. This is how I feel throughout the drama:
1. The grand starting with introduction to Xiao Duo as this powerful eunuch in the palace and Bu Yin Lou as this smart lady who does a good job surviving in whatever difficult situation she is in. The emperor (useless 'huang ye' at that time) seemed to indicate some serious drama is coming. I was excited to see how the revenge plot develops and how Xiao Duo plots all his chess pieces in the palace.

2. I became fond of Xiao Duo's relationship with his subordinates and his cold attitude. The way both him and Yin Lou got closer together is very natural, too. The emperor's obsession with Yin Lou was starting to become annoying because the reason he "fell in love" with Yin Lou was quite forced and it's starting to take the spotlight away from the revenge. Love at first sight, sure but the obsession is farfetched in my opinion.

3. Then you have the romance scenes which is very choppily edited in my opinion. I understand the censorship but it is very badly edited. The revenge comes to an end with great disappointment. The three villains are really easy to defeat and because of the emperor's plot, this revenge has already lost its meaning.

4. Don't get me started on the ending. I have no idea why the scriptwriter would write an ending like that, but at that point, I'm just glad that the drama is finally ending. The drama became draggy with all those failed attempts at escaping, it's like an end to this never ending loop with that final episode. I was starting to become frustrated with this constant attempt to save Yin Lou out of the palace when to be honest, the emperor is not really that difficult to kill. With Xiao Duo's connections and network, it's not difficult to kidnap Yin Lou out of the palace and hide her in a place where the emperor can't reach. The ending without a proper closure is like a cherry on top.

Overall, I really think the story needs a lot of tightening. I like how all the main characters are portrayed, though. They seem to have some good chemistry, too. What a waste, the story is underwhelming.