Hi everyone!

I hope you enjoyed my episode 1-2 notes on My Sweet Mobster.

Today I’m sharing my episode 1-4 notes on The Tale of Rose, because I am completely sucked in, and I was wondering if you’d like to join me? 🤗

These are my episode 1-4 notes, exactly as they appear on Patreon, ie, without screenshots (I’m saving those for the actual review).

I hope you all enjoy, and I hope you’ll consider joining us over on Patreon, for the rest of the discussions! ❤️

Episode notes:

E1-4. My friends. I have to say that I really like what I see, so far. 🥲

From the opening credits, which I find beautiful and mesmerizing, to Liu Yi Fei herself, whom I find utterly spellbinding onscreen, Show’s got me quite entranced, overall.

I do think that one needs to go into this with an adjusted lens, and that is, that this isn’t going to be a romance in the traditional sense of the word.

Just based on the casting alone, we can see from the fact that there are three male leads, who each play a significant part in Yimei’s life, that it’s unlikely that we’re getting a romantic happy-ever-after in the way we tend get, in traditional romantic stories.

Instead, the romance here is in Yimei’s life; she is the reason we’re here, and this story is named after her. This is her story, with all the good, the bad and the ugly, and she alone makes this worthwhile.

And I have to say, Liu Yi Fei is killing it, and making it look effortless while she’s doing so.

She lights up the screen as Yimei.

Literally, every time she walks onto my screen, I marvel at just how beautiful and graceful she is, and how she makes everyone else look like mere mortals, next to her.

That beauty and that grace, coupled with Yimei’s free-spirited nature, with that streak of stubborn independence, makes her a compelling protagonist indeed.

That opening arc, where she obliviously shakes up Shihui’s life so much, that he’d break off his wedding for her sake, tells us everything about how naturally charming Yimei is.

Could she have done more to establish some boundaries with Shihui?

Yes, but she was so young, with so little life experience, and only an intern, while Shihui was her supervising manager, that I can completely understand how she ended up just going with the flow, mostly.

And, to her credit, when Shihui does confess his feelings and gives her that necklace, she declines the gift, while reminding Shihui that he’s engaged to be married.

After that, the thing that really sealed the deal, for me, with Yimei, is how she’s this curious but wonderful mix of bold but kind, during the fallout.

She doesn’t hesitate to show up at the office, in the aftermath, even though everyone’s staring and talking, and when she hears that Shihui’s ex-fiancée Zhizhi is in the office with her brother Zhenhua, she doesn’t hesitate to face Zhizhi.

I love that she even wrist-grabs Zhizhi – and then takes her to a nearby cafe, where she asks Zhizhi, with sincerity, why someone as great as her, would want Shihui back, after what he’d done to her.

I love even more, that Yimei goes all gentle-cheeky with Zhizhi, and offers her cake – because it calories consumed when you’re sad don’t count.

I just LOVE that visual, of the two of them sitting calmly together, sharing that slice of cake, when not so long ago, Zhizhi had been ready to tear out Yimei’s hair.

Isn’t Yimei just fabulous? And effortlessly so? 🤩

It’s little wonder that she has suitors lining up to make an impression on her, and is used to receiving flowers for no reason at all. It’s also little wonder that her default mode is to decline all the attention.

I like that she decides to assert herself when it comes to her career direction, even though it means going against her parents’ wishes for her to do her postgraduate studies.

In the process of her getting the job, I like how we see that she’s bold yet guileless, at the same time.

Doesn’t she have chutzpa, applying for a job when she doesn’t have the experience, and then asking to borrow that scarf off a stranger – who turns out to be the hiring manager?

And yet, when she answers that out-of-left-field question about the scarf during the interview, she demonstrates intelligence, wit and an ability to think fast on her feet.

And then, when it comes to dealing with her new boss Tina, Yimei is observant of her new boss’s moods and quirks, and quick to adapt.

Like that whole thing about the lucky color, and how Yimei switches out the corn for sliced red apple in the salad, because red is Tina’s lucky color that day.

And how about the way Yimei finds a way to sneak into that private event, in order to secure a meeting with that private collector, Mr. Teng, whom Tina really wants to meet?

SO BOLD. And boy, does she look gorgeous while pulling of her little heist.

The stars in my eyes for Yimei just continue to multiply, y’know? 🤩🤩

On another note, I also wanted to say that I am really enjoying Yimei’s relationship with her brother Zhenhua.

The bickery sibling dynamic is very believable, and yet, they help each other and depend on each other, on a regular basis.

Like how Zhenhua shows up to pick up Yimei after the ball, when she’s stranded with no money with which to go home.

And in return, Yimei helps Zhenhua with nudging his blind date towards meeting up in person, which he’d been angsting about, on his own.

I thought that was pretty great.

As for Zhenhua’s blind date arc, I find it surprisingly pleasant.

In many dramas, young people squirm when their parents try to get them to go on blind dates, and yet, here is Zhenhua, actually open to the idea, because he likes the look of his blind date.

Importantly, she’s not a show-stopping beauty like Yimei, so I rather like that Zhenhua’s able to appreciate her quiet charm, just from her photo.

I also find it dorky and endearing, how he puts so much thought and effort into connecting with Xiaohe; it makes me feel like he genuinely hopes that things will go well with her, even though he still barely knows her.

The awkward yet honest vibe between the two of them is something that I find quite charming.

I like that even though they barely know each other, they try to be upfront about how they feel, and how they’d like to take things forward.

That feels like such a refreshing contrast to the other potential loveline that we have brewing in our story at this point, the one between Yimei and Eric, the handsome stranger she’d approached at the ball, who’d turned out to be Mr. Teng’s key business associate.

I have to confess to being quite invested in the push-pull that we see happening between them, so far.

First, I watched with bated breath while Yimei did her thing, trying to get Eric’s attention, while being as subtle as possible about it.

It felt like the tables had been turned so completely, with Yimei being the one angsting over whether to send a text, and wondering how to nudge this possibility forward, without appearing to be too, well, forward.

(I thought it was pretty great, that Zhenhua comes to the rescue with advice on how to successfully flirt with someone, to gain their interest. I found it amusing, that he would remark that someone as beautiful as Yimei has no game, because she’s never had to have any. So true. 🤭)

It had felt like such progress, when Eric asked to exchange phone numbers, and then it had felt like such a setback, when Eric seemed to be giving his attention to Yimei’s colleague Han Ying (whom I’m stoked to place as Zhang Yue, who played Qiqi, in Love Like The Galaxy!).

So what a delicious reveal it is, when Show takes us back to a week earlier, and shows us everything from Eric’s perspective, and we realize that Eric had been completely mesmerized by Yimei, the moment he’d set eyes on her in that ballroom – long before she’d actually approached him.

I loved seeing everything from his perspective.

Like how Yimei had walked into that meeting room, and been discouraged that he’d been surrounded by a bunch of ladies eager to talk to him, but we now see that he’d been waiting for her all along, and had snuck looks in her direction throughout the meeting, not unlike how she’d been sneaking looks at him.

Ooh. So much fun!

And how ironic, that the macarons that Han Ying had been handing out, proudly letting drop that they’d been from Eric, which cause Yimei to feel convinced that Eric and Han Ying had a thing going, had actually been bought by him, with her in mind – because the black and red of the macarons, had reminded him of her outfit.

Where we end off episode 4, Yimei’s reluctantly attending the work gathering because Eric had called for one – as a way to deflect Han Ying’s invitation to dinner, and a way for him to spend time with Yimei, without being obvious about it.

It’s again so ironic, that she almost didn’t even attend, because she’d felt discouraged about Eric “liking” Han Ying instead of her, and Eric had to use his authority to get her to attend.

Right now, she’s still getting bothered by every attempt that Han Ying makes to be closer to Eric, while Eric’s getting all bothered by that male colleague who keeps clinking his drink with Yimei’s.

I feel like things are going to come to a head soon, and I’m really curious to see how this continues to unfold.

In terms of overall flavor, this one is giving me a vibe that feels like.. a briskly paced family drama, almost? Except that this is clearly mostly about Yimei, of course.

And I find myself very much up for that.

*This show is being covered on the Early Access Plus (US$10) Tier on Patreon*

To view episode 1-4 notes in Patreon, along with everyone’s comments, you can go here!

You can find my Patreon page here, and for all future episode notes for this show you can click here. Currently, notes for episodes 1 through 8 are available.

Episodes 9-12 notes will be out soon! I hope you’ll consider joining us!

It’ll be a way to have fun, and support me at the same time? 🥲❤️

PS: For more information on what the Patreon experience is like, you might like to check out my Patreon update post for June, which you can find here!