Disclaimer: this is a review, and as such it contains spoilers of the whole series. Please proceed to read at your own risk if you still plan on watching this show or if you haven’t finished it yet. You have been warned.

Love Me Like I Do
(我的老板为何那样 / Wo De Lao Ban Wei He Na Yang / Why Is My Boss Like That?)
MyDramaList rating: 6.5/10

I love that my Spin-the-Wheel app is picking out more short and sweet Chinese dramas lately, they make for nice little pallet cleansers in-between the heavy emotional stuff I usually watch, lol. As soon as I saw the duration of this show, I knew I would be able to finish it within a week, but I had to plan it a bit because of my schedule. Now that one deadline is done, I felt like it was safe to write another review. I did not exactly remember putting this show on my list, but it started out really cute and funny and I can understand why it got high ratings on MDL. For me though, while I could appreciate it as a light romantic comedy, there were some things that kind of rubbed me the wrong way and I also didn’t really get the pacing towards the end. In any case, I’m excited to share my views on this, so let’s go.

Love Me Like I Do is a short iQiyi C-Drama with 18 episodes of about 30 minutes each, which makes it a very short and digestible watch. I watched it fully on KissKH, with decent English subtitles (🔥).
The story follows the romantic relationship between aspiring toy designer Tian Tian (played by Zhang Mu Xi) and the eccentric CEO of toy company Qiansheng Group, Liu Xi Lai (played by Liu Yin Jun). Being from completely different worlds in both social status and personality, these two initially get off on the wrong foot, but Xi Lai finds himself unexpectedly dependent of Tian once he realizes she’s the only one that can annul his hemophobia. As a repercussion of a childhood trauma in which he lost his parents in a car crash, Xi Lai has developed a fear of blood that runs so deep that he can’t even look at the color red without passing out. However, for some reason, when he touches Tian, all his symptoms cease to exist, he doesn’t get dizzy and he’s able to look at red things just fine without sunglasses. As such, he decides to hire Tian at Qiansheng, mostly so he can summon her at will to accompany him to work events where he needs protection from the color red.
Tian is a talented illustrator who aspires to become a toy designer. After getting kicked out for making a scene during a job interview at Qiansheng Group when she discovers someone plagiarized her work, she only accepts Xi Lai’s offer to work there because she is keen on developing her career, not because she agrees to being his personal assistant. However, as the two spend more time together and go through different experiences that allow them to get to know one another better, they start seeing each other as more than just a beneficial tool to help themselves.

From the bat, I’d say that the summary on MDL is quite misleading. It really focuses on the aspect of Tian being the ‘medicine’ against Xi Lai’s phobia, which creates the expectation that this is the leading plot throughout the entire story. But no. Xi Lai’s blood phobia is literally cured in the fifth episode, after Tian accidentally kisses his forehead. They bring it back a couple of times as a plot tool (for example him lying about it re-emerging), but it never actually comes back and that puzzled me. I found it odd that they would come up with this very unique preface of Tian somehow being able to ‘cure’ Xi Lai’s hemophobia, only to have it serve as nothing more than an introductory element to connect the two main leads before getting rid of it. I expected something along the lines of Crush and The Secret Life of My Secretary, where the ML’s handicap was a consistent element throughout the story that the FL had to assist him with. Practically speaking, Xi Lai could’ve severed ties with Tian as soon as he was cured, since he also didn’t have feelings for her yet at that point. I thought it was a shame that they didn’t let the hemophobia element go on for a bit longer. They could’ve at least made it last until their feelings for each other were a strong enough reason to stay together after he was cured. I’ll talk a bit more about the pacing later, but this was something that I immediately found a bit weird and unexpected.

I’d like to go through all the main characters and their relationships briefly. The story is very straightforward and there also isn’t a lot of emotional depth to the characters (apart from Xi Lai’s childhood trauma).
To start with my girl Tian Tian: I loved her from the start. She immediately exuded such a cool energy, and her fashion style was ✨on point✨. I loved how she immediately stepped up when she recognized her plagiarized work at Qiansheng Group and demanded compensation for it. Throughout the show, I kept respecting her for her valid responses to different situations and how she was just such a mature queen until the end. Not gonna lie, I got tired of Xi Lai multiple times, but she always found a way to forgive and accept him on her own terms, and I admired that. She consistently acted and responded in ways that just made sense, and that was a nice contrast to Xi Lai’s persistent delulu behavior. I really loved having such a strong and mature female lead, even if things got a bit more sappy in the end. She stayed true to who she was and didn’t let herself get swept away by the antics of others, and I really appreciated that kind of stability and consistency in her character.
I also really loved her dynamic with her bestie/roommate, Shan Rose (played by Wu Wei Miao). I’m not exactly sure how these two knew each other (I’m guessing college?) but they had such natural chemistry, and I loved how they could go from fun and gossip to actually supporting each other through rough patches. Rose was my favorite side character by far, and I’ll write a bit more in detail about her later.
One final thing about Tian that I loved was how quickly she picked up on things. It was so refreshing to not have misunderstandings dragged out throughout the entire story. It was great how she literally overheard one sentence and immediately connected the dots about how Xi Lai would always faint when seeing the color red, except for when she was with him. I don’t even care if the writers did this to save time and make things easier, because it happened at just the right moment, when I started going: ‘why doesn’t he just tell her the real reason he needs to keep her close?’ I just loved how smart and quick on her feet she was, and how she immediately snapped back at people during that party in the beginning. She was such a cool and refreshing female lead, I really appreciated her.

In contrast to Tian’s consistency, Xi Lai goes through quite a drastic transformation. He’s introduced as a rigid CEO that doesn’t like to spend any more time on things than necessary, and even walks out at the slightest delay or mix-up because ‘he doesn’t have time to deal with incompetent people’. He claims to live his life minute by minute and devotes every second of his precious time to important things, aka his work. The way he was introduced actually reminded me of the Grey Gentlemen from the book Momo by Michael Ende, which I’m currently reading. Because of this lifestyle, it’s no surprise that Xi Lai doesn’t have any friends or people to hang out with outside of work, and he’s only ever accompanied by his faithful assistant, Tang Sai (played by Zhang Chen).
Despite introducing himself as someone who doesn’t like to waste a single second, it doesn’t take long for Xi Lai to start spending every waking moment on Tian, and mostly on how to get her to confess to him. It was quite an unusual shift, and there also wasn’t a very defining moment for it. Like, if it had been a more gradual development where he suddenly realized that Tian made him want to throw away his time-regulated habits, it would’ve made a bit more sense. But no, he just started obsessing over her overnight and then the whole time-strict aspect of his personality went out the window, so that was another thing that didn’t really make sense to me. I personally think it would’ve been nice if they’d kept that characteristic of his and made him ease into his new feelings a bit more gradually, also to make him more self-aware of the sudden shift in his own attitude. They definitely had time to drag it out a little bit more, if you ask me.
Anyways, the only backstory that we get from Xi Lai is that he got into a car crash when he was young and lost both his parents. Through flashbacks, we learn that a young girl stayed with him and kissed him on the forehead, which made him relax. Of course, this ultimately turns out to have been Tian, and that explains why his phobia gets cured after she kisses him on the forehead.

While I liked that they created a psychological link to make sense of the phobia and how it got cured (it kind of reminded me of the connection between the main leads in My Demon), I still think they could’ve done way more with it. As I already mentioned, they got rid of the phobia very early on and because of that, the impact of the childhood trauma was also diminished a little bit. Because his phobia got cured so quickly, it didn’t become a very defining aspect of Xi Lai’s character, also because we don’t learn anything more about the relationship he had with his parents (except that his father apologized for not spending more time with him before he died). It definitely feels like they missed an opportunity to give Xi Lai’s childhood trauma a bit more weight in his character development. Instead of fleshing him out through more flashbacks, they only inserted some lines here and there that revealed some extra information, for example when he admits to Tian that his tendency to be so self-conceited and neglectful of other people’s feelings had to do with his upbringing after becoming orphaned. While that did make me go: ‘Okay, well, at least he admits to it’, it still felt a bit insufficient to me, like a very quick and easy solution to tie the final loose ends together.
Honestly, after the first forehead kiss, I was inclined to believe that it was just a temporary fix to his hemophobia that just had a slightly longer effect than holding hands. Being the romantic enthusiast I am, my mind immediately went: ‘Ohhh, if a forehead kiss will actually cure him for a while, I wonder what a real kiss will do’ 👀🫣🤭. I actually started wondering if they would build up their intimacy as a way to cure his phobia. In any case, I was waiting for the forehead kiss’ effect to wear off and the phobia to re-emerge, so when that didn’t happen I got slightly confused as to why they introduced it in the first place. Even now, I still think they could’ve kept it going for a while longer and used it as a more foundational plot for the story instead of just a way to create an initial connection between the main characters before throwing the whole thing out the window.

Regarding the relationship between Tian and Xi Lai, I actually had major mixed feelings. In all honesty, while things started out really funny and cute, Xi Lai’s extra personality became kind of obnoxious to me at some point. As much as I liked the idea of a completely inexperienced and socially awkward CEO trying to get into his first relationship, he just got completely delulu and only ever acted out of his own personal interest, which became a major turn-off for me.
I personally liked their romantic development best when neither of them were trying. There were a couple of scenes that were genuinely sweet and touching, like the ones with the firefly and when she helped him hug a kitten. These were moments where I felt like she was helping him see the beauty in things he used to steer clear of, moments that he would later refer to as her curing him in more ways than just his phobia. The way they both opened up to one another during these parts was really sweet and it also made Tian look at Xi Lai in a new light and go: ‘Hm, I guess he has some cute sides to him’ in a very natural way.
In my opinion, it all started going south as soon as Xi Lai became aware of his feelings for Tian, because instead of trusting the process and cherishing the quiet moments in which their worlds converged, he started lovebombing the heck out of her. Not just to express his own feelings, but mainly to get Tian to come to him, because he just immediately assumed she felt the same way. He was already picturing their life together while Tian was still at the ‘huh, I guess he can be kinda cute’ stage, and that just became really awkward at some point. This is when Xi Lai and Assistant Tang started spending every single moment thinking of plans to woo Tian while she wasn’t even into him like that yet. It was also the part where I appreciated Tian the most for her realistic reactions. She responded exactly how a normal person would to the sudden change in Xi Lai’s behavior: confused and turned-off. From her perspective, they were just starting to warm up to each other, and then he suddenly started acting all close and clingy. He saw a sign in everything she did and said to him, while she was actually getting annoyed at him for constantly summoning her at work, as it made it impossible for her to focus on her ambition to become a designer, which was still her priority.
I appreciated how they balanced the perspectives of both characters through these situations, for example when Xi Lai thought posting on social media that he’d go on a blind date would make Tian realize her feelings for him, while it only made her go: ‘Oh, I guess he doesn’t like me, after all’. Like, he literally just told her not to look at other men the previous day, and then went on a blind date with someone else the next: of course that’s going to come across as insincere! But no, in his head everything seemed like a successful plan to make her realize her feelings for him. The fact that he also didn’t give her any space and just kept interrupting her meetings with her senior got pretty annoying.
Speaking of this senior, Luo Ci (played by Yu Yan Long) is a famous designer that Tian looks up to a lot. Although he develops feelings for her, Tian has always made it clear that she only admires him as a senior, and that her feelings for him never became more than that. Still, Xi Lai keeps seeing Luo Ci as a threat and feels increasingly insecure when he keeps seeing the two of them together. At some point, Xi Lai manages to see eye to eye with Tian and she agrees to him becoming her ‘probationary boyfriend’. In other words, Tian agrees to consider Xi Lai as a potential boyfriend, meaning that she’s willing to see where it goes and doesn’t have any interest in other people at that point.
But then, Xi Lai pulls the worst move of the entire show. I’m not gonna lie when I say that this still bothers me. Tian wins a contest at work that allows her to go on a very special 3-month training with top designers from all over the world, including Luo Ci. To Tian, this is a major breakthrough and she’s over the moon with excitement to follow her ambitions. Xi Lai, on the other hand, is immediately intimidated by the idea that she’ll be with Luo Ci for three months, and decides to do the most despicable thing ever: he lies to Tian that his hemophobia has re-emerged in tenfold and that he can’t be apart from her for even a single day.

Honestly, this part baffled me to the bone. Xi Lai only acted out of his own insecurity and didn’t even think about what this training meant to Tian, which was incredibly selfish and childish of him. The worst thing is that Tian was willing to give up on her training without a second of hesitation, that’s how worried she was and how much she wanted to help him. In turn, he just went along with it without a shred of guilt. I think he uttered: ‘Hm, did I go overboard?’ like TWO times, no more. He very conveniently decided to ‘find a good moment to tell her the truth’ right after the deadline for the training had closed. In the end, she found out in the worst way possible, because he let his guard down helping her when she cut her finger and then she overheard him talking on the phone about it. Honestly, as soon as this whole charade started, I just wanted to skip to the part where Tian found out he’d been lying, because I was going to ✨savor✨ that slap in the face. It was such a stupid, immature move of Xi Lai, and I never truly redeemed him for it until the end. After being busted, the only way he knew to apologize was, again, lovebombing. It never felt like he actually realized the opportunity he’d taken away from her purely to satisfy his own insecurity against Luo Ci, even though Tian already told him she didn’t have feelings for him. The fact that he explained his reason to her as if he was expecting her to go: ‘Oh well, if that’s the reason, it’s OK’ was unbelievable. Xi Lai became so immature at some point, it got very annoying and frustrating.
Apart from this, I also really didn’t agree with the first two kissing scenes between Tian and Xi Lai. While the kisses in itself were fire (no complaints there) I just couldn’t fully condone them. As much as I welcomed the idea of using kisses as a means to fix his phobia, the fact that he used it as a trick to get her to kiss him while he was actually lying about his phobia really didn’t sit right with me. The second kiss happened while she was completely drunk, so yeah, it wasn’t very satisfying to sit there watching them kiss while all I could think was: ‘You’re still lying to her, though’ and ‘She’s drunk, though.’ The first real kiss between them happened on the hot air balloon, and then Tian suddenly forgave him and the last three episodes were filled with teeth-clenching sappy romance. Even after they slept together for the first time (which they completely skipped, of course) they were just super giddy with each other the next day, it was a bit stereotypical. It would’ve been interesting to see the actual emotional impact of their intimacy on them, especially on Xi Lai, since he was so inexperienced.
All in all, while their development started out really sweet, it completely turned me off when Xi Lai started bulldozing and thinking of selfish ways to keep Tian by his side. I appreciate that they at least made him acknowledge that he didn’t handle certain things very well in the end, but in the moment itself it just didn’t feel right to me. I kept thinking that Tian deserved better, and I still do. I guess some male leads just really aren’t my cup of tea, lol.

Moving on to the next set of characters – the second main leads, if you will – we’ll have to take a look at Xi Lai’s family. After being orphaned, his uncle Liu Jing (Shang Bo Jun) raised him together with his own son Liu Xi Zhao (played by Zhao Huan Ren). Xi Lai is very fond of his younger cousin/new brother, and has always tried to treat him well. Xi Zhao, on the other hand, has never truly warmed up to Xi Lai, and even harbors some grudging feelings towards him. His father has always treated Xi Lai like a son to be proud of while Xi Zhao only ever got criticized and reprimanded. He was always told to learn from Xi Lai and become better, and this has fuelled his annoyance with his cousin all the more.
I actually found the dynamic between the two cousins quite interesting, mostly because I could really relate to Xi Zhao’s feelings. When I was young and had a friend over, I also sometimes got jealous of the way my parents catered to them more than me, so I can imagine the agony of having to go through that every single day. From the few flashbacks that we got, I could totally understand why Xi Zhao was fed up with Xi Lai. It was quite relatable, seeing how oblivious Xi Lai was and how everything he said and did, no matter how good the intention, tended to come out wrong. His gestures to be thoughtful tended to come across as tactless, even as adults. I can’t deny that this was also something that bothered me about Xi Lai, so I really couldn’t blame Xi Zhao for feeling the way he did. I’m just glad he didn’t let his negative feelings towards his cousin get the upper hand and still ended up siding with him in the end.

Apart from Xi Zhao, there’s also the cousins’ childhood friend, Wen Xian (played by Ma Qian Qian). Xi Lai, Xi Zhao and Xian grew up together and even used to call themselves ‘The Golden Trio’ or something along those lines. Xian has always had a crush on Xi Lai and is initially very hostile towards Tian. As the story progresses, Xi Zhao develops more than just brotherly feelings for Xian, and while she initially refuses to see him as more than a younger brother, she ultimately realizes that he’s always been by her side, and she reciprocates his feelings. In contrast to the build-up in the main leads’ relationship, I actually really liked how the romance between Xi Zhao and Xian developed, and their first kiss was genuinely sweet. It really made me go: ‘Ah, see, it can be unproblematic!’ No, but seriously, I appreciated that they didn’t keep Xian purely as the bitch character that wanted to break Xi Lai and Tian apart. As soon as she switched to Xi Zhao, she didn’t even care anymore when she heard that Xi Lai and Tian had already kissed. It was also cool how she told Tian that she’d be handing over her former crush to her at the end. I appreciated that they made her more than just a spoiled little princess, and that she was mature enough to realize her own worth and the fact that she’d been missing out on Xi Zhao while fruitlessly pining for Xi Lai.
One scene that made me feel really bad for both Xi Zhao and Xian was when they celebrated Xian’s birthday at the beach. Here, Xi Lai exhibited some of the most insensitive behavior of the whole show. Not only did he literally copy Xi Zhao’s birthday present, which he had designed specifically for Xian’s birthday, but he also rejected Xian’s confession in the most brutal way ever. While we already knew Xi Lai was living in his own little bubble, I could not believe how socially incompetent he was in this scene. He didn’t even let the confession sink in, he just immediately scolded Xian for making ‘such a ridiculous joke’. That was so awful and uncalled for. I guess people can forgive him for being eccentric, but his lack of social skills, emotional maturity and self-awareness really made it hard for me to like him. At some point it just wasn’t funny anymore, just annoying. It was like talking to a robot that only followed his own programming and didn’t even stop to think about the feelings of other people.

The relationship between Xi Zhao and Xian served another purpose than just a cute romantic side story. Xian was the daughter of one of Qiansheng Group’s most influential directors (I believe), Wen Zhi Cai (Pei Yi). Since their families were also connected through the business, Wen Zhi Cai was initially set on having Xian marry Xi Lai, so he could get his hands on part of the shares as an in-law at some point. However, after Xi Lai rejects Xian, Wen Zhi Cai starts a little conspiracy against him together with the guy who plagiarized Tian’s work before, Kai Wen/Kevin (Wang Hao Dong). He also starts sweet-talking Xi Zhao into applying for the CEO position, claiming that he will help him and support his relationship with Xian all the way. In doing this, he played right into Xi Zhao’s beef with Xi Lai. He may have even succeeded if it weren’t for Xi Zhao’s vigilance, because he picks up on his manipulative tricks and informs Xi Lai about it. I loved how Xi Zhao ultimately stood up for Xian against her own father, saying that he shouldn’t use his own daughter as a transaction tool. He didn’t even care about the CEO position, he just wanted to be with Xian, that was enough for him. Although Xi Zhao did have some rash tendencies at times, I appreciated him for being so solid and never losing sight of what was important, even if he had to set aside his personal qualms for it.

Moving on to the final ‘couple’ of the series: Rose and Jack. 😆
I already introduced Shan Rose in Tian’s part, but I wanted to elaborate on her a bit more since she was my favorite supporting character. As I mentioned, she was Tian’s best friend and roommate. I assume they met in college and just remained super close. Rose is an aspiring journalist, which also means that she’s not afraid to walk up to people and ask the real questions. In this regard, she and Tian were a really good match, as they both didn’t let anyone walk over them. You could tell from the way the two friends interacted that they were at that level of closeness where they didn’t need to mind their words around each other. I really loved the scenes where the two of them were just hanging out and having a drink together, they had all the bestie vibes going on.
On Xi Lai’s side, the only person that came close to being his friend was Li Huai (played by Gao Kai), who was also the doctor in charge of his hemophobia. I’m guessing he was more of a psychologist or a health expert or something? I don’t think he did surgeries or anything like that, but he did do house calls. In any case, I liked this guy, mostly in the scenes where he got dragged along with Xi Lai into things that he really didn’t care for. I loved that he was the friend that just sat in the back rolling his eyes and facepalming while Xi Lai was acting like his weird and delusional self. I took a lot of comfort from him since I would probably be the exact same way around Xi Lai, lol.
At some point, Rose and Huai get into a fender-bender while they’re both heading to pick up Xi Lai/Tian when they’re stuck in the countryside somewhere. After this, the two keep bumping into each other and it’s later revealed that they actually used to be classmates. More than that, Huai actually used to bully Rose for being fat. Before this was revealed, I was already shipping these two because I thought the way they met made for a really cute encounter and I liked how Huai kept sending Rose unsolicited health advice articles that just made her go 😒😒😒, lol. It was also funny when Huai revealed that his English name was Jack and they even played the Titanic tune in the background for a moment, lol. I wasn’t really sure what to think about the revelation that they used to be bully/bullied, not just because it brought back the whole typical and nonsensical fatshaming trope, but also because it was added quite last minute. Their ‘relationship’ was only confirmed in the very final episode, when Huai offered to write up a healthy diet plan for Rose. As far as I could see, Rose was the exact same size as Tian, so I don’t know where the fat aspect suddenly came from. Compared to the other two couples, their development was quite stagnant throughout the story and they only allegedly started dating in the final episode, without any physical intimacy to prove it, except for linked arms and a head on a shoulder. I would’ve personally liked to see their relationship get covered a bit more in-between, just like with Xi Zhao and Xian. It would’ve been nice to see some more romantic sparks between them, instead of bringing in the whole unnecessary diet plan to kickstart their relationship.
My absolute favorite Rose moment was when she and Huai came to visit Xi Lai and Tian at the place where they stayed when Xi Lai took a break from the company, and Rose witnessed how lovey-dovey they suddenly were with each other. This actually made me laugh out loud, so I made a GIF of it. The way that ‘Kill me’ came out SENT me. 😂 I expected her to comment something, but it still caught me off guard, lol.

Before I move on to my other criticisms, I just want to briefly comment on some side characters from Qiansheng Group.
To say a bit more about Assistant Tang, despite the fact that he was mostly a comic relief character that only kept feeding Xi Lai in his delulu, I did appreciate him for being so consistent and loyal. Besides his funny banter with Xi Lai, it was nice to see that he also served a proper purpose at the company, and he definitely cracked me up multiple times.
Some characters that I would’ve liked to see more of throughout the series were Tian’s teammates at the designer team of Qiansheng. I really thought they would become regular characters, as is common with a main character’s workplace, but they all kind of disappeared at some point, which was a shame. There was Zheng Qian (Lin Zhi Min), the chief designer and leader of the team, who was initially quite harsh on Tian but then acknowledged her talents, and I also liked Brother Guo (De Bai) and Jiang Jiang (Li Song Ci), the two gossipers who kept complaining about how everyone around them was a couple, lol. Even as filler characters, they created a nice atmosphere at the company and I honestly wouldn’t have minded seeing a bit more of them.

I would now like to go over a couple of personal qualms I had with this show, besides the ones I already mentioned. First of all, in relation to the previous paragraph, I found it a pity that they kind of dismissed Tian’s work at Qiansheng altogether at the end. One of the things I loved most about her was how driven she was to fulfill her dream of becoming a toy designer, and the scenes where she got to work on projects in the beginning were really defining for her character development. If it wasn’t bad enough that Xi Lai kept dragging her away from her work because of his selfish reasons, at some point Tian just didn’t return to the company at all anymore, and her teammates also disappeared from view. I thought that was a real pity. I would’ve liked to at least see Tian continue to thrive as a toy designer, since that was such an essential part of her character, but then they just dropped it and focussed completely on the romance.
In relation to this, I was kind of surprised when we suddenly started seeing the story almost exclusively from Xi Lai’s POV instead of Tian’s. I honestly thought we would follow Tian, as the story started with her job interview, and we also got the scenes between her and Rose at their apartment. But at some point they started showing mostly scenes in which Xi Lai was overthinking everything and Tian just occasionally popped by in response. As the number of her personal scenes decreased, so did her cool individual traits, as she really kind of shrunk into the forgiving and smiling girlfriend. I thought that was a pity, because I loved Tian’s spunk so much and she really didn’t seem like the type who’d settle for being a housewife. She had actual ambitions, she should’ve been allowed to explore those.

Next, I have something to say about the pacing of the story as a whole. It started out pretty good in the beginning, and I appreciated that they dealt with certain things very quickly, such as Tian already finding out about Xi Lai’s phobia in episode three. But then at some point it started feeling like the writers realized they’d taken a bit too long to drag out Xi Lai’s delusional attempts to lovebomb/apologize to Tian, and then there were only three episodes left.
I found it so weird how they literally went about solving all the remaining important plots in back-to-back scenes in one single episode. They really went:
Scene 1. Fix the relationship between Xi Lai and Tian (‘I love you, can you please forgive me?’)
Scene 2. Establish their encounter as kids (‘Did you happen to kiss the forehead of a kid in a car crash in the past?’)
Scene 3. Officially cure the hemophobia (‘Your hemophobia has been completely healed forever’)
Scene 4. Wrap up the final company issue (‘We busted Wen Zhi Cai’s conspiracy, the company is safe’)
Scene 5. Get Tian and Xi Lai married (‘Will you make me your little miracle’ ‘You already are my little miracle’)
The End.
The way they just skipped through these one after the other in such quick succession made me feel like they were in a rush to tie up all loose ends as quickly as possible. It even felt like they had that random guy attack Xi Lai with a bat on the beach, just so they could briefly put him in the hospital and reenact that forehead kiss to come to the realization that it had been Tian all along. Although I had really enjoyed the pacing of the break between Tian and Xi Lai after the latter’s lie came out (Xi Lie?🤔), the final three episodes made their reconciliation feel very rushed all of a sudden.
The addition of the company issue in the very last episode felt a bit rushed to me as well. I already mentioned that I found it a pity that they didn’t cover more of the work that was being done at Qiansheng, because a toy company is definitely an interesting area to explore and I would’ve loved to see more work-related content covered in the story. Instead, they suddenly threw away all of Tian’s work ambitions and only featured one company issue in the very final episode. I never thought I’d use this, but I think even Lucky’s First Love did a better job at this. Especially as the company was so important to Xi Lai, I would’ve liked it if they’d raised the stakes a little higher and spread the issue more evenly throughout the series, instead of just adding it in the final epsiode, as a kind of afterthought. The way it was, I really didn’t feel any kind of connection to the company, even though it should’ve been such an important setting to the main leads. It felt like they just lost sight of it halfway through and only started focussing on the reconciliation between Tian and Xi Lai. As another result of this, all of the intimate scenes were stuffed into the last five episodes. I don’t know what happened, but they really started rushing things in the final couple of episodes, and that made me feel like they suddenly realized they’d taken too much time for the first half and didn’t have enough time left to pace out everything the same way in the second half.

Moving on to more practical things, I would like to comment on the title, as the English title is again quite different from the original Chinese one. What’s interesting to me is that ‘Love Me Like I Do’ seems to be written from Xi Lai’s perspective, as he’s the one who falls in love first and persistently tries to win Tian’s affections. However, the Chinese title ‘Why Is My Boss Like That?’ is clearly written from Tian’s perspective, as Xi Lai is her boss and she frequently comments on how weird he is. The latter also gives me major What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim? vibes, lol. But yeah, it’s funny how the English title was decided as something that pertained more to Xi Lai’s POV, as opposed to the original title. If I had to choose, I’d say that the Chinese title definitely represents my feelings about this show better, because I still have no idea why Xi Lai was like that, lol. Also, the persistent tone in the English title immediately brings me back to Xi Lai’s delulu lovebombing of Tian, which I didn’t really like. It could even refer to him saying ‘love me as much as I love myself’, which makes it even more narcissistic, lol. Anyways, I do wonder how they came up with the English title, since it’s a lot more generic than the original title.

In terms of dubbing, I thought this show was a bit sloppy at times. It felt like they only used voice actors for the main leads, and those voices occasionally didn’t match the actors’ mouth movements at all. On the other hand, other characters like Rose looked like they weren’t dubbed at all. I’m not sure what the usual procedure is, if they sometimes only dub certain actors and not others, but it was definitely visible and audible in this series, especially with the main leads.

To end my review on a positive note, I just want to jot down a couple of things that I did like about the series. As I mentioned before, I thought it started out really funny and cute. The humor and the timing in combination with the sound effects were really effective and I genuinely enjoyed how it started out. I respect that a lot of people find this a very good romantic comedy, and I definitely started out on a positive note as well. It’s just that, for me personally, characters that seem a bit more eccentric and animated can get a bit too much sometimes, and Xi Lai just went too far for me at some point. It felt like his behavior mainly stemmed from a comedy purpose which stopped making sense in a real-life setting, and that’s where they lost me. Apart from that, there were a lot of enjoyable parts, I liked the female lead and the supporting characters and their respective dynamics really made me laugh out loud at times. It also really helped to have decent English subtitles, because now I could actually understand all the jokes and word puns for a change (unfortunately, these often get lost in translation).

As is common with Chinese dramas, I didn’t know any of the actors, but I’m very excited to make comments since I thought the overall acting was pretty good!

I can’t get over how pretty Zhang Mu Xi is. I really loved her look and specifically her fashion style in this series. The way I constantly got distracted by what cool earrings she was wearing, lol. No, but in all seriousness, I really liked her performance as Tian Tian. She brought such a cool and likeable energy to the character, it immediately made me want to be friends with her. Her acting was really natural and even though there weren’t that many emotional outbursts, I think she tapped into Tian’s deeper emotions very well, for example when she found out Xi Lai had been lying to her. I also really liked her chemistry with her co-stars, especially with the actress who played Rose. They showed a couple of behind-the-scenes clips at the end of the final episode that made them look very close in real life too. I always love it when they manage to make two best friends actually feel like besties, as it’s often more in the body language than in the dialogue. I’m happy to say that there’s a couple more dramas with her on my watchlist, so I’m really excited to see more of her!

To be completely honest, Liu Yin Jun was the only actor in this series that I sometimes would’ve like a bit more immersion from. He just got so caught up in playing the caricature that was Xi Lai that he often didn’t seem to be acting ‘in the moment’. I think that was also part of the reason I found it hard to relate to Xi Lai, because he just didn’t seem like someone I’d be able to properly communicate with. I don’t want to assume anything of course, and it’s not that I found his acting awful, but I do feel like he often laid it on quite thick in terms of words and less in terms of feeling. I also thought his face sometimes just went blank, which made it seem like he wasn’t even taking in what the other characters were saying since he was too occupied with himself. Of course, this could all be intentional since Xi Lai did live in his own bubble, after all, but as a viewer this made it hard me to relate to him on a deeper level. Again, I don’t mean to say that his acting was bad, he did crack me up with his pure little ‘Unbelievable’s and his kissing scenes with Zhang Mu Xi were absolutely there. There’s at least one other show on my list that he appears in, so let’s see what more he has to offer!

Zhao Huan Ren looks so familiar to me, but from what I can see on MDL I’ve only seen him before in Meteor Garden, which I don’t remember him from. I see that he’s also in a bunch of other dramas that are still on my list. I thought he did a solid job as Xi Zhao. I liked that, despite his immediate negative attitude towards Xi Lai, he never became a nasty person because the reason for his behavior was so well-supported. I also thought he performed the genuinety of Xi Zhao’s feelings for Xian in a very disarming way. I loved how he initially got puppy-eyed and flustered, and then immediately pulled her close as soon as he didn’t have to hold back anymore. I thought he was a very good casting fit for Xi Zhao, also in how he portrayed the discomfort with the CEO position and switching dynamics between Xi Lai and Xian. I liked his performance.

Ma Qian Qian is such a little doll, and she also looked really familiar to me even though MDL tells me I haven’t seen her in anything yet. I was really worried that she would be the token bitch character, but I’m really glad she came around and showed she was much more than just a spoiled little princess. I liked that she took the time to reflect on Xi Zhao’s confession and figure out how she really felt about him, that was really mature of her. She and Zhao Huan Ren also definitely didn’t disappoint in the kissing scenes, I may have actually liked their kisses more than the main leads’ 🙉🙉. I liked that her acting became more genuine as soon as Xian’s character developed, she did a nice job.

I just realized that Gao Kai was one of the prank brothers in The Big Boss! I knew he looked familiar, lol. I liked Huai’s character, mostly because he stood in such stark contrast with Xi Lai. He was like the voice of reason that Xi Lai never chose to listen to, lol. I enjoyed the scenes in which he got dragged around because his annoyance was just so relatable. I also liked that they paired him up with Rose. Some dramas pair up side characters purely for the sake of giving everyone a romantic plot, but in this case I actually thought it was cute. I just wish we’d have more development between them, more Jack and Rose time🛳️. I have at least one other show with him on my list, so I hope I’ll get to see more of his acting.

I can’t believe Wu Wei Miao isn’t even credited on MDL! I was only able to find her on DramaWiki, which says that she’s only done this drama. I find that very hard to believe that, since she was such a natural and she also looked really familiar to me. Anyways, as I said, I loved Rose. She and Tian were probably my favorite characters, both as individuals and together. Her natural chemistry with Zhang Mu Xi was addictive to watch and I really appreciated how she portrayed Rose’s unfiltered realness throughout the series. I would’ve loved to see her get more sparks with Huai, as well. I really hope I get to see her again in something else, because I refuse to accept that this is the only thing I’m going to see her in.

According to MDL, this is also the only drama that Zhang Chen has ever done, which again surprises me. Just from his face I thought he’d be a regularly appearing actor, that’s how natural he looked. That final scene during the wedding when all the couples were linking arms and he was like ‘It’s okay, I can grab my own hand🥹’ lol, I felt that. In all seriousness, I really liked his performance as Assistant Tang. Even though he was mostly a comic relief character, he took himself very seriously and still contributed a lot to the story, which was nice. I certainly hope he hasn’t completely stopped acting after this!

I know I’ve barely mentioned Luo Ci in my review, but I still wanted to comment on Yu Yan Long’s performance since he was essentially the main love rival standing between Tian and Xi Lai. I actually liked Luo Ci, he was a stand-up guy. I didn’t care much for the scenes where he and Xi Lai competed for Tian’s admiration (and then completely lost of in the process, I really don’t seen the point of drinking competitions😒), but apart from that I thought he was a nice addition to the story. He also completely disappeared after getting rejected. It’s like they just completely got rid of a character once their ‘arc’ was done, which was kind of a pity. I would’ve like to see more of him, even if it was just a glimpse of what he got up to in his designer work.

I think that’ll be it for my cast comments! It always helps when the main cast is small and the story is simple and straightforward. All in all, I did enjoy watching this, it was entertaining and had some funny and touching moments. I personally just got turned off by Xi Lai, he really wasn’t my cup of tea as a male lead, and that occasionally made it hard for me to really root for the main couple since I did really love Tian. Anyways, it was a cute little story with an interesting premise and cool side characters. In conclusion, I would say that I just wished they used certain aspects of the story more, specifically the blood phobia and the toy designer industry, since those were two very original and unique elements that could’ve made the story way more interesting if applied more elaborately.

I’m curious to see what my next watch will be. I honestly didn’t expect I’d be able to finish more than one review within November, but depending on the length of the next one, who knows! I might be able to share another before the end of the month (don’t pin me down on it, tho).

Until then! Bye-bee! x