You might have noticed that I’ve been doing more of these quick reviews of light, cute and easy-breezy c-dramas lately.

That’s because I’ve really taken to them as a very enjoyable form of drama nightcap (they’re so relaxing and easy to watch!), and this show falls into that category very well too.

I will say that this one worked especially well for me as a drama nightcap, so much so that I was honestly very wistful when I got to the end. 🥲

WHAT IT’S ABOUT

Tu Xiaoning (Karlina Zhang) wants nothing more than to have a stable life, both in work and marriage, but finds that nothing is going her way.

Not only has she been recently dumped by her long-time boyfriend, she also fails to get converted from a contract worker to a permanent staff, at the bank where she works.

When she runs into her ex-schoolmate, Ji Yuheng (Wei Zhe Ming), who’s now a high-flying successful manager at her company, things begin to change – starting with an unexpected agreement to get married!

OST ALBUM: FOR YOUR LISTENING PLEASURE

Here’s the OST album, in case you’d like to listen to it while reading the review.

I generally found all the tracks very pleasant, and would name Track 2, “Exclusively Engraved,” as my favorite of the lot. 🥰

MANAGING EXPECTATIONS / THE VIEWING LENS

Here are few things that I think would be helpful to keep in mind, to maximize your enjoyment of your watch:

1. The romance is a slow burn

It takes a while for the romance to get going, and progress is on the slow and steady side. Knowing to expect this helps, I think.

2. The romance leans sweet instead of spicy

The OTP skinship leans on the tamer, more sanitized side of things, which might leave some viewers wanting.

Adjusting your expectations around this helps too.

STUFF I LIKED

The OTP premise

If you’ve been around the blog for a while, you’d probably know that I have a huge soft spot for contract marriage stories.

And this one is that – but it also isn’t.

[BROAD FOUNDATIONAL SPOILER]

I honestly love that Xiaoning and Yuheng agree to get married for real, which is very different from the typical contract marriage setup.

In contract marriages, both parties tend to agree to the marriage for a stipulated length of time, and it is made very clear that it’s all a business arrangement – at least, until they start falling for each other, heh.

In this story, however, I love that our OTP is sincere in wanting to get married, and agree to marry each other based on what they perceive as their compatibility.

I love this idea, that they get married, with a view to getting to know each other better and truly develop their relationship, as they go.

There’s just something very refreshing about the idea of them being sincere about wanting to make the marriage work, right from the get-go. 🥲

I felt that this added a whole new dimension to the setup, and I liked this a lot.

[END SPOILER]

Karlina Zhang as Tu Xiaoning

I have a great deal of affection for Karlina Zhang from her outing in Shining For One Thing (review here!), and was just glad for her presence on my screen, on that principle alone.

I have to admit that there were times when I wanted a more natural, less affected, cutesy vibe from Xiaoning as a character, but I do think that Karlina was just doing as she was directed.

Overall, I appreciated Xiaoning as a character, because she has so many positive qualities.

She’s earnest, kind, goodhearted and very determined and resilient, without being a Candy type.

Yes, she might be an underdog at work, but she only gets down about it momentarily, here and there. Most of the time, she’s optimistic and up for the challenge of proving herself, both to herself and to her naysayers.

Because I liked her as a person and admired her good qualities, I found it easy to root for her, both in work and in love.

Wei Zhe Ming as Ji Yuheng

This was my introduction to Wei Zhe Ming (also known as Miles Wei), and I have to say, I am quite smitten with his Ji Yuheng. 😍😍

There are many things to appreciate about Ji Yuheng: he’s handsome (and looks good with or without his glasses, though I have a soft spot for him in glasses 😍), smart, successful, reasonable, fair, kind, and all-around pretty cool and not easily flustered.

But my favorite, favorite thing about him, is his voice; his gentleness really shines through in his voice, and each time he turns that gentleness in Xiaoning’s direction, I melt and spazz a little more. 🫠🫠🫠

In fact, I’d go so far as to say that his voice, and the gentleness that always came through, was one of the biggest highlights of my watch. 🥰

The development of the OTP relationship

Like I mentioned earlier, the OTP relationship is developed in a slow-burn sort of way, and while this might make some viewers antsy, I found that this actually worked really well for me.

I liked that Yuheng and Xiaoning took their time to really get to know each other, and didn’t try to rush their relationship.

[SPOILER ALERT]

Of course, I very much loved the idea that Yuheng had always been in love with Xiaoning, and is just sooo happy to be with her like this, in the present, while Xiaoning has no clue.

Essentially, I loved all the various indications that he was already in love with her, and I was always holding my breath, waiting for hints and clues to come forth, that Xiaoning was falling in love with him too.

It struck me as a very loving thing, that Yuheng would just wait patiently for Xiaoning’s heart to find its way to him, even though his own heart must sometimes have felt like exploding from holding in his feelings for so long. 🥲

Maybe some viewers might find their relationship too low-key, but I personally found the various little relationship milestones sufficiently gratifying, that I still counted this OTP relationship as a highlight of my watch.

[END SPOILER]

Xiaoning’s parents

Liu Jun and Hu Ke play Xiaoning’s parents, and while it took me a hot second to get used to this couple’s kookiness, I soon came around to their appeal, and actually came to find these openminded, easygoing, supportive parents a very refreshing thing.

The blending of the two families

Another thing that I found nicely refreshing, is the portrayal of the relationship between the in-laws.

Most times, in-laws are written as being politely pleasant at best, and at loggerheads at worst, I think, so I found it a really nice change, for these in-laws to genuinely like one another, so much so that they’d spend time together for fun. 🥲

I definitely counted this as a good thing.

Our secondary OTP [SPOILERS]

They start out as bickering colleagues who don’t get along, but somehow, when Show starts teasing a potential loveline between Zhao Fanggang (Zhou Cheng Ao) and Rao Jing (Wang Zhen Er), it actually works really well!

I honestly found it quite entertaining and engaging, to see Fanggang come around to his crush on Rao Jing, while she has no idea what to do with him, now that he’s always wanting to hang around her. 😁

Yet, despite the more comical beats in their courtship, I honestly found it quite touching, that even when she’s hidden her loneliness under her tough shell, he’s the one who manages to see her loneliness, and reach her there. 🥲

Honestly, she might look like the one who wears the pants in their relationship, but in reality, I do feel like he’s the one who’s rescued her, and he’s the one protecting her, and I do find that all very sweet and touching. ❤️

STUFF THAT WAS OK

The thing with Yuheng’s mom [SPOILERS]

We find out fairly early in our story, that Yuheng’s mom (Lu Ling) is battling cancer, and even though she does have a pretty serious relapse at around the two-thirds point of our story, I honestly had expected her to survive.

I guess I’d just assumed that with our drama world being of the fluffy, wholesome variety, that Show would have had her live on to the finale, y’know?

In my head, I would have preferred that, with Mom continuing to live happily with Xiaoning’s parents, while she and Yuheng enjoy a new lease on their mother-son relationship.

However, I appreciate in-principle that Show tackles the hard thing, of Yuheng losing the only family he has left in the world, and how he and Xiaoning work through this difficult time.

That said, I do think that I would have preferred if less time overall had been spent on this arc, because it did add some drag to the middle stretch of our show.

STUFF I DIDN’T LIKE SO MUCH

Xu Xiao Han as Tang Yuhui

At the episode 10 mark, Show introduces Tang Yuhui as a self-declared contender for Yuheng’s heart, and I did not like her very much. 😅

[SPOILER ALERT]

I understand that she does function as a bit of a catalyst, since Xiaoning’s jealousy does play a part in nudging Xiaoning towards embracing her own feelings for Yuheng, so it’s not all bad.

Every time Yuhui acted all vain and entitled, believing that only someone as qualified as she, deserved to be with Yuheng, I wished harder, that she would be metaphorically slapped in the face, when she learns that Yuheng already loves Xiaoning. 😏

Given how annoying I sometimes found her sense of superiority and her clingy tendencies, I do think that Show let her off easy; I’d wanted her to feel more mortified at the reveal. 😅

[END SPOILER]

Wei Yi and Qi Yu

There’s one more loveline in our story world, between Weiyi (Ke Ying) and her on-again, off-again longtime boyfriend Qi Yu (Dai Yun Fan), and I have to say, this loveline interested me the least.

In principle, it was quite interesting, I suppose, given that Weiyi is a pampered little rich girl who only works for fun, while Qi Yu is an ordinary working class kinda guy.

However, I felt like Show didn’t quite know what to do with their differences in mindsets and expectations, causing this loveline to just mostly go in circles.

Additionally, I hate to say this, but I found Weiyi’s manner of talking rather too cutesy-whiny for my taste, and that added to my reasons to more or less tune out, when this couple was on my screen. 😅

THOUGHTS ON THE ENDING [SPOILERS]

Like I mentioned earlier, this drama nightcap was working so well for me, that I felt genuinely wistful, when I got to the final episode. I just didn’t feel ready to say goodbye to our OTP, y’know?

Or maybe I should say, I didn’t feel ready to say goodbye to Ji Yuheng? 🤭

All in all, I’m satisfied with the way Show gives out happy endings to pretty much everyone in our drama world.

We see Fanggang and Rao Jing happy together, and paying a visit to Rao Jing’s family altar, so that Fanggang can meet her parents properly; we also see Weiyi and Qi Yu running into each other, implying that they’re not truly over each other, and that this is the beginning of their second – well, third – chance.

And we also see Yuheng finally execute the perfect marriage proposal, and Xiaoning gladly accepting, and then we also get to see them looking very happy together, during their wedding photoshoot.

I do very much appreciate that one year timeskip later, when Yuheng asks Xiaoning if their one-year anniversary is rather too humble and low-key, Xiaoning answers contentedly, that as long as they are together, it will be the best wedding anniversary.

Aw. I really like that. 🥲

To my eyes, it brings out the essence of this relationship; that they are there for each other, and love each other, through all the various ups and downs in life; that their days may be ordinary, but they are also deeply happy ones.

Given that one of my favorite things about their loveline, is how it’s romance in the everyday, this feels like a perfect moment on which to leave our OTP, where they are celebrating and basking in their love, in the midst of the ordinary. 🥰

THE FINAL VERDICT:

Low-key, sweet and wholesome.

FINAL GRADE: B+

TRAILER:

MV:

WHERE TO WATCH:

Show is available on YouTube, and Viki.

If you know of another platform that has it, please share in the comments!

BONUS EPISODE!

Big shout-out to ABV, for letting me know that there’s a bonus episode 33, which features more time with our main characters!

It’s available on Viki, and because I’d watched on YouTube, I’d missed that!

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