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.

Only for Love
(以爱为营 / Yǐ ài wéi yíng / Campaigning For Love)
MyDramaList rating: 8.0/10

Hello everyone and welcome to a new review on this rainy November day. Life got a bit busy – in-between watching this series I got to perform at an award show, caught a cold and finished an anime, since ages – but I’m finally here to share my thoughts on this gem. Some shows have been on my list for so long that I don’t even remember when or why I added them, but with this one I’m definitely happy that I did. I adored it to bits. Remember my review for All I Want For Love is You, where I said I’d keep an eye out for good Chinese romcoms, because there were bound to be plenty of good ones out there? This is the kind of show I meant. I’m really excited to share my views on this, so let’s get started, shall we?

Only for Love is a Hunan/Mango TV Chinese drama that consists of 36 episodes of about 45 minutes each, and one special of about 11 minutes. I watched it in full (series + special) on KissKH. It’s based on a webtoon called Accidental Love by Qiao Yao and focusses on the love story between a successful financial reporter, Zheng Shu Yi (played by Bai Lu), and the CEO of an investment company specializing in startups, Shi Yan (played by Dylan Wang).
Zheng Shu Yi is one of the top reporters at Financial Introduce, a well-known financial news magazine. She’s widely respected for her writing style – thorough, sharp, perceptive and well-organized – and her interviews show that she has a very deep understanding of her field of expertise. She doesn’t just write up questions and ask them, she goes the extra mile to do her research, in order to get the most in-depth answers from her interviewees. Throughout the years, she’s been acknowledged by many a company, and built up a really good reputation. When we first meet Shu Yi, she’s in a relationship with Yue Xing Zhou (Lu Cheng Jue), a guy she’s known since college who persistently pursued her for years before she finally agreed to date him. However, it doesn’t take long before she finds out he’s been cheating on her with another, younger woman called Qin Le Zhi (Zheng Shu Huan). Part of the reason for this affair is that Xing Zhou believes his new girlfriend is the niece of Shi Yan, the young and successful CEO of the investment company Yunchuang. As a matter of fact, Shu Yi has been trying to get an interview with Shi Yan, so when she hears this from her ex, she decides to get even closer to him as a way to get back at Xing Zhou and his new girlfriend. However, this initial motivation to pursue Shi Yan comes back to haunt her later, when she really starts falling for him.
Shi Yan comes from a wealthy family: his father is the CEO of Mingyu, from which he ultimately formed the side branch Mingyu Yunchuang. Although he is already aware of Shu Yi (from way before even, as we find out in the end) and admires her writing style as well, it takes him a while to actually allow her to come close enough to conduct an interview with him. As they keep meeting more often, he finds himself more drawn to Shu Yi as well, although he can’t fully shake the feeling that she’s hiding something from him. Besides having a CEO for a dad, Shi Yan also has a famous sister: Shi Huai Nan, stagenamed Song Yue Lan (Dong Xuan), a famous singer who keeps her marriage and the fact that she has a daughter under wraps because she wants them to remain anonymous from the public eye. Her daughter, Shi Yan’s ACTUAL niece Qin Shi Yue (played by Shen Yu Jie), is at some point assigned to Financial Introduce, where she becomes Shu Yi’s intern.
As Shu Yi and Shi Yan grow closer through work as well as in private, the guilt regarding her initial vengeful intentions start to gnaw at Shu Yi, and puts a strain on their relationship. But, as professional as these two are in their respective fields, they should be able to make their relationship work, right?

As I mentioned in my intro, I absolutely adored this show. There was only one arc that annoyed me – the breakup – but I can let that slide since it only lasted a couple of episodes. It was so refreshing to have a strong, independent and confident female lead that took no BS, stood up for and spoke up about all the right things, and let all the haters hate while she minded her own business. The chemistry between the main leads was PHENOMENAL, even the initial flirting stage had me giggling and kicking my feet. Of course there were a couple of nasty and annoying people for the drama aspect, but the way they were dealt with was so real and satisfying that they didn’t even bother me as much. All the supporting characters were fun and interesting, I loved all the friendship dynamics… It was a real pleasure to watch.
For your reference, this was me for the majority of the series:
Also, the fact that it started with the sponsor logo of the National Radio and Television Administration immediately took me back to Love Me, Love My Voice, and in my head it was immediately followed up by that opening song (“Hey~”), lol. I don’t know if the NRTA just happens to sponsor all sorts of banger series, but this definitely set a bar from the start.

Let’s start with a character analysis of the main leads.
Shu Yi grew up as an only child in Qing’an, a place she occasionally went back to, to visit her parents (Wang Mei Ru and Zheng Su, played by Yang Ming Na and Shi Yu, respectively). Despite being from a middle class family, Shu Yi always stood out because of her looks and intelligence, and she moved to Jiangcheng to study Finance and Economics. I don’t remember exactly how long she’d been working at Financial Introduce, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she started quite young, because she already built up quite a reputation for someone in her late 20s (which I think she was). In any case, her work has always been the one thing she could fall back on and excel at. Even when facing specific situations in her personal life, she could always throw herself into her work to distract herself. As such, she’s been consistently aiming high and striving for more. At the moment we meet her, she’s persuading her boss to allow her to take charge of a digital magazine for better media integration. This has been a big dream of her for a while, and she’s worked very hard to reach the level of expertise to make it come true.
What I loved about Shu Yi, and about this series as a whole, was that she/it’s so clearly written from the female gaze. Even though the director is a man, this story was originally created and screenwritten by women, and it showed. Shu Yi is a strong, independent and confident businesswoman who’s fine where she is. Her work means the world to her, and this even sometimes becomes an issue in her dating life, because she can’t help prioritizing her professional ambitions over getting married, for example. As natural as she is in flirting, she will only settle for a life in which she can equally balance work and romance – she doesn’t play around, and this went for other things and situations as well. Whereas many a female lead would get awkward about meeting their ex, even when THEY were the ones who broke up with HER, Shu Yi was the refreshing example of someone who’d go: ‘Why should I be embarrassed? I didn’t do anything wrong’. She put petty people in their place in the most satisfying way possible. I didn’t just love her for being sassy, I loved her for being real. Admit it, this is how we should all react to haters, honestly. Not diss them, but actually say what needs to be said in order to make them realize they’re acting like idiots. Of course, she had her childish quirks, like getting all pouty when things didn’t go her way, but she also made it very clear that that was just an act. It was great to see how confident she was with herself, and she never felt the need to change or adjust her behavior in order to please others. One favorite scene of mine was when she met Le Zhi in an elevator after conducting an interview with her boss at Yunchuang. Le Zhi actually had the audacity to start speculating about how Shu Yi must have seduced her married boss to get an interview, to which Shu Yi, with sincere surprise, went: ‘I’m sorry, are YOU instructing ME on how not to have an affair? Does that mean you changed your ways?’😂😂 Like, DAMN, right on the head. I just loved how real she was. As I said, it was so refreshing to have a female lead who knew exactly what she wanted and didn’t settle for less. This is what we love to see.

In contrast to Shu Yi’s natural bubbly nature, Shi Yan initially started off as the typical, seemingly cold CEO that didn’t let many people into his personal life. As such, it was kind of surprising to me how quickly he joined in with Shu Yi’s flirting. It makes sense after finding out he’d already liked her from way back, but at the time it seemed kind of uncharacteristic. Still, I liked that about him, because it set him apart from the stereotypical cold CEO character. It was so exciting to have him actively flirt back and catch Shu Yi off guard when she thought she was taking the initiative. While the way he was written definitely screamed ‘female gaze’ to me as well (especially in the way he always made time to see and contact Shu Yi despite his busy work schedule), I liked that we also got to see him at work, outside of their relationship. We see him run his company, meet with directors and board members, and deal with problems in assessing and working with potential collaborations. We find out why he started his own business instead of taking over from his dad, we learn about his ambitions and dreams. In many dramas, male lead characters are written as CEOs, but then we never actually see them do much except order people around or talk about having meetings all the time. By actually showing Shi Yan at work and in meetings, they managed to make him a much more fleshed out character. I really liked how they unveiled the different layers behind his stoic exterior, like how weirdly affectionate he became when inebriated. There was so much more to him than his cold exterior, and that really set him apart from the stereotype.
One scene that I loved was when he’d had a rough day at work and was drinking at home, and Shu Yi came to find him and consoled him to the point where he actually went: ‘okay I want to kiss you now’🤭. Also, the scene at the horse ranch, when he was confused about why Shu Yi still acted like she barely knew him when they’d already kissed and he just came inside her changing booth to put her belt on for her while whispering in her ear: ‘what do you mean you barely know me, we saw each last night’ ??!!?!?!!? 🫣🫣🫣 Excuse me sir?!?! That was unnecessarily hot, not gonna lie. That actually made my heart race, lol. He definitely knew what he was doing, and it was strangely satisfying that he didn’t even cringe at himself either, because that’s just how confident he was.

As far as Chinese romcom couples go, these two are definitely up there on my favorites list. I’ve said this before, most recently in my review of Love Me, Love My Voice, but I just love a romance story where we see both leads thrive in their own lives and careers besides their budding relationship. I loved seeing Shu Yi and Shi Yan go to work and then come home to each other to show mutual support as partners, regardless of how their work intertwined. It made their relationship so wholesome to watch, even when there were still unspoken things between them. I loved how brazen Shu Yi was in her pursuit of Shi Yan, she didn’t shy away from sending him corny messages and blatantly flirting with him, but I also loved how taken aback she was when he unexpectedly returned the favor. I’ll keep saying it, but the flirting in this series was unparallelled. I’ve never seen this level of push-and-pull and hot-and-cold in a C-drama before, it was amazing.

Having said this, I still have to address the elephant in the room. I know I said I could let the breakup arc slide because it only lasted four episodes, but I still want to discuss it because it really, REALLY pissed me off. First of all, and this one’s probably on me, but I actually didn’t realize that Shu Yi had in fact started pursuing Shi Yan out of revenge towards Xing Zhou and Le Zhi. I don’t remember this being specifically mentioned – then again, I also didn’t really clock how exactly she heard about Le Zhi being Shi Yan’s niece. The fact that it had been Xing Zhou’s misunderstanding from the start only became clear to me later. Anyways, I wasn’t really aware of how much the initial revenge plot played into it until it genuinely started bothering Shu Yi. I thought that all would be well when it came out that Le Zhi wasn’t actually his niece, because that would dissolve the misunderstanding and then she wouldn’t even have to tell Shi Yan anything. But apparently it had been a big part of it, because she started feeling REALLY bad about it. Even though I was convinced that it wouldn’t have mattered to him as much if she’d just told him. What mattered was that her current feelings for him were real, that’s the only thing he wanted to hear.
Let’s start with Shi Yan’s side of things. Of course, hearing the truth from someone else before Shu Yi could tell him (literally a day before she decided to) sucked, but what aggravated me the most was the way he immediately jumped to his own conclusions and just cut her off like that, without even hearing her out. Just a couple of scenes earlier he’d literally said out loud: ‘I don’t care about her initial intentions, I just want her to be honest with me’, but then when he found out, he didn’t even give her the chance to explain it. He just stopped talking to her. What’s even worse: he even went so far as to drag their companies into it. This guy, who’d always been so good at separating his work from his personal life, actually threatened to break off Yunchuang’s contract with Financial Introduce. What the actual fuck. That was beyond petty. It took me back to that part in Lucky’s First Love where this random dude refused to provide funding as long as the FL worked there. For him to not only ghost Shu Yi and ignore her apologies, but also actively sabotage something she’d been working so hard for for such a long time, really rubbed me the wrong way. It was straightout unprofessional. Also, to top it up even more, after pulling all this he still had the audacity to expect Shu Yi to come crawling back to him. He took the fact that she didn’t contact him either as proof that she really wasn’t serious about him. DUDE. Do you really expect her to text you again after you cut her off so harshly?! She literally sent several apology texts in which she admitted her wrongdoings, but it still wasn’t enough for him.
On the other hand, I couldn’t completely sympathize with Shu Yi, either. As petty as Shi Yan was behaving, I understood that he just wanted her to tell him in his face that she wanted him for him. He just wanted her to confirm that she wanted to talk to him because she loved him and wanted to be with him. Although Shu Yi kept begging for an opportunity to talk and apologize to him in person, when push came to shove, she kept making up lies and excuses. She kept using her work as a shield and never used any of the chances she got, even when Shi Yan started approaching her again. They just kept going in circles and kept waiting for the other to break the silence. They both refused to be the first one to reach out, but then when they actually came face to face, they still chose to beat around the bush. It was agonizing to watch.
What also really bugged me was seeing Shu Yi so deflated. At first I was proud of her for only moping around for a couple of days before going back to work again, but she kept getting more and more miserable, and completely lost the spirit and energy she usually had. Adding the fact that I found the whole misunderstanding overrated anyway, it just seemed exaggerated to drag out the beef between them for that long. In the end, all it took for them was one moment where Shu Yi finally told Shi Yan to his face that her current feelings for him were genuine, and then it was suddenly all good and well again. That just dissolved his anger and they went back to normal overnight.
I actually binged the whole breakup arc, because I wanted to get it over with and proceed to the part where they made up again. I know dramas need drama, but I never like it when said drama is based on a simple misunderstanding that shouldn’t even matter anymore at that point, and is just pulled out of proportion for the sake of it. I’m glad it only lasted four episodes, but they still were excruciating to watch. As I said, I’m willing to let it slide because the way they got back together and the fact that Shi Yan immediately took things to the next level when they did made up for most of my frustrations, but man, gotta hate that darn ‘let’s stop communicating’ trope.

Now that I’ve talked about the main leads, let’s move on to the second lead characters. I can’t emphasize enough how nice it was to have these other supporting storylines play out in the background, because they made everything more enjoyable. I honestly really like the cast of characters for this series, everyone served a clear purpose and was integrated in the story in a very natural and relevant way.
I want to talk about Shan Shan. Bi Ruo Shan (played by Jiang Pei Yao) is Shu Yi’s best friend and a fellow journalist, that works at a company called Interactive Entertainment Net. While they specialized in different areas of journalism, they still got to meet up for work events every now and then. Shan Shan was a bit more outgoing than Shu Yi, she liked going to bars, hanging out with friends and have the occasional short-term fling. She could never really keep a serious relationship going, I guess because she was more focussed on having a good time rather than settling down too soon. Of course, this changed at some point, but I’ll talk more about that in a minute.
I liked Shan Shan, she was a really cool person and an amazing friend to Shu Yi. Honestly, their friendship took me back to the female leads from A Business Proposal, two peas in a pod. I loved how they were always there for one another, to hype each other up or provide comfort and encouragement. The scene where Shan Shan consoled Shu Yi after the breakup really hit me, the way she wiped her tears and how the shot panned to the picture of them together. We love to see these kinds of female friendships. Even when she had her own things going on (she definitely didn’t tell Shu Yi about all the details of her own love life), she was always at the ready to reply to her friend’s messages and be there for her. Aside from that, what I liked the most about Shan Shan was that she was so much more than just a promiscuous best friend. She had her own life and morals and her own job, which we also saw her go about. As outgoing as she was, she never lost her dignity or pride, and it was really cool to see how she held her own.
Speaking of holding her own, Shan Shan too gets her own little love story, one that challenges her to change the way she’s always looked at relationships. Without either Shu Yi or Shi Yan knowing, Shan Shan has been meeting up with Guan Ji (played by Liu Dong Qin), Shi Yan’s childhood friend and the heir to Guan Capital, which is run by his father. While both of them start out claiming they’re just having fun and aren’t looking for anything serious, they clearly keep gravitating towards each other. From how it looked to me, Shan Shan kept up the ‘not ready to settle’ act but then also kept getting disappointed whenever she saw Guan Ji hang out with another woman. She convinced herself that he wasn’t serious about her and that, even if he sincerely pursued her now, he wouldn’t be able to settle for her down the line anyway.
On Guan Ji’s side, I’m really glad they took the time to explain where his mindset came from. As a child of divorce, seeing his parents’ marriage fall apart caused him to believe that marriage was overrated and didn’t necessarily equal a happy ending. Despite this belief, he still found himself becoming more and more serious about Shan Shan, but he just couldn’t find the right words to persuade her of that. I honestly felt bad for him, not gonna lie. It was crystal clear how much he cared for Shan Shan, and I couldn’t help feel sorry when she kept shutting him down at first. On the other hand, I absolutely loved that he was the one to take the first step in making his feelings for her abundantly clear. I remember this happened during the main couple’s breakup arc, which made it all the more satisfying because at least ONE couple was getting a breakthrough. His confession to Shan Shan was the best one I’ve heard in ages. It was just perfect. Genuine, self-reflective, to the point, and exactly what she needed to hear. I loved every sentence of it and I was so proud of him for finally stepping up, making his feelings clear and not letting her get away again. These two were absolutely adorable together, and seeing Guan Ji turn into a literal puppy for Shan Shan afterwards made it even more worth the wait. The only thing I found a shame was that, ironically, they never had a proper kissing scene. We see them kiss once, back in their ‘playing around’ phase, and even that was cut painfully short. You’d think they would be even more physical with each other than the main leads, as they’d already been physical during their ‘situationship’, yet they didn’t even have a single on-screen kissing scene after they got together.

Moving on to the second second lead couple (there are no third places here), I’d like to discuss Shi Yue and Yu You.
The way Yu You (played by Miles Wei) was initially introduced immediately gave me second male lead vibes. He was Shu Yi’s senior from college who now worked as a professor at that same university, teaching in the Finance and Economics department. He and Shu Yi immediately hit it off as friends, so when their parents arrange a blind date between them, they just go to have a good time together and complain about their folks’ determination to get them married as soon as possible. While Yu You does develop feelings for Shu Yi, he never becomes a love rival. Once he figures out she likes someone else, he’s more than happy to remain friends with her = green flag guys all around. Besides his connection to Shu Yi, he also happens to be a close friend of Shi Yan, who calls on his financial expertise multiple times during his work.
What I liked about Yu You was the stark contrast between him and Shi Yan and Guan Ji – they were basically the three musketeers, despite the fact that they apparently had no idea about each other’s relationship developments, lol. Yu You was the eldest of the three, and whereas Shi Yan and Guan Ji were both rich and confident, Yu You was much more of a loner. In hindsight, I think he must’ve really thought of himself as boring, and that’s why he didn’t have any motivation to look for a partner, either. He was happy with his life as it was, even when his mother kept nagging him to find a wife. As such, his love story was probably the most unexpected one.

I already mentioned Shi Yue before, but I really want to talk about her because I loved her so much. This girl was the most precious being in the entire series, and I even like to think she had the most character development out of everyone. While introduced as a spoiled little princess who suddenly had to get her hands dirty and was desperate to get out of a job that she never wanted in the first place, she transitioned from a baby girl to a proper lady in terms of behavior, ambitions and dreams, and even the way she looked at and treated other people. It was immensely satisfying to see her grow so much. A quick recap: Shi Yue is Shi Yan’s niece – the daughter of his famous sister. At some point in the beginning – right around when Shu Yi sets her vengeful plan in motion – Shi Yue is suddenly assigned as a new intern at Financial Introduce. I believe this had to do with the fact that her family (parents, grandfather, uncle) wanted her to get out of the house and pursue an actual career – she could start out with journalism, see if she liked that, and figure it out from there, something like that. Although she initially tried to get out of work as much as possible, groaning even at the most basic tasks like transcribing an interview, under Shu Yi’s guidance she keeps getting more interested and inspired, and ultimately even develops her own dream of becoming a great reporter.
One of the main reasons she’s able to establish this dream, is Yu You. What starts as an innocent crush after meeting him at a conference Shu Yi dragged her along to, becomes a persistent pursuit. Shi Yue is immediately so smitten with him that she doesn’t hesitate for a second to make her feelings known to him, to the point where it makes him kind of uncomfortable. She even starts sitting in on his classes while not even attending his university, purely to see him. This also rubs him the wrong way, because he is of the mind that she should at least take on a serious attitude and learn from his classes.
Honestly, at first I wasn’t really sure what to think of these two, and I even got a bit of second-hand embarrassment from the both of them. While I admired Shi Yue’s straightforward attitude, I couldn’t help but feel like she was REALLY blind to the fact that she was inconveniencing him. The fact that he declined her offer to come to his house with the excuse that his door was broken and she actually started looking up door repair shops… 🙈🙈🙈 On the other hand, Yu You was at fault for not declining her advances more harshly. Instead of telling her from the start that he wasn’t interested and she made him feel uncomfortable, he kept evading it by making up excuses – the kind that only ended up giving Shi Yue a new opening to try again later. However, I had the faintest feeling that he would eventually warm up to her and I was right: at some point, he genuinely starts caring about her, even if it’s initially just about her wellbeing. In hindsight, I really liked the ‘she fell first, he fell harder’ trope they had going on. When Yu You finally confessed his feelings to her, it was, again, such a nice speech. I can forgive him his wishy-washiness from the beginning, because of how introspective he turned out to be. I guess he just never expected such a cute and bubbly girl to fall for him, and he was so insecure about the fact that he was older and had such a simplistic lifestyle that he convinced himself she’d get bored of him eventually. Their confession scene was a close second to Guan Ji and Shan Shan’s, it was just so stinking cute. Now that I think of it, even these two got more kissing scenes than Guan Ji and Shan Shan. What’s going on here?! 😂 The only thing I’d say was that, while their buildup was really nice and gradual, it did feel like they kind of rushed their relationship once they got together. I mean, weren’t there only a couple of scenes between their confession and their first anniversary? Or was that just me? In any case, I really loved their relationship dynamic. All the main couples were so innately different yet equally adorable, and I was rooting for all of them.

Now that I’ve covered the second leads, let’s move on to the next batch of important supporting characters, starting with Shu Yi’s colleagues.
First of all, I really liked her boss, Tang Yi (played by Zeng Li). There was such a nice sisterly dynamic between the two of them. I loved how much Ms. Tang supported Shu Yi’s professional growth without giving her the preferential treatment. She was a very just and pragmatic boss, yet always prepared to empathize with her employees’ personal circumstances. The way she actively rooted for Shu Yi to strive higher was so nice to see. I also really liked that she got her own little storyline with Guan Ji’s dad, Guan Xiang Cheng (Nie Yuan). They made for an unexpected but very sweet side couple. At first I was worried that she might not see it through, as she’d appeared so anxious throughout, but I’m glad she did and they had that wonderful wedding ceremony in the end. I guess just in general, I really appreciated how much detail and context went into each and every character. From Shu Yi’s boss to the interns, everyone got enough coverage to be relevant to the story.
By the way, the aspect of romance was definitely not limited to the main leads, and although it did become kind of typical that they found a match for almost everyone, it didn’t bother me because each and every couple was cute. The same went for Nan Nan and Chen Sheng.
Kong Nan (Vian Wang) was Shu Yi’s colleague and closest work friend at FI, who also sat next to her. She didn’t admire Shu Yi out of inferiority towards her, but actually respected her and acknowledged how good she was while still not lacking the confidence in her own work. She supported her against her haters and stood up for her when necessary. At some point, she comes in contact with Shi Yan’s secretary Chen Sheng (Liu Ming Hao) and they somehow hit it off, even though Nan Nan is initially a bit self-conscious about the fact that he’s younger than her. During the breakup arc, Nan Nan and Chen Sheng are often in contact to report on their sides of the warzone, which was kind of funny. It definitely lightened up the heaviness of the story at that point. They were really sweet together.

Now that we’ve gone over all the nice people at Shu Yi’s work, let’s move on to the less pleasant people.
Xu Yu Ling (played by An Yue Xi) was Shu Yi’s colleague and biggest competitor at FI. That is to say, she’s the one who competed with Shu Yi, not the other way around. She was one of the people who actually hated on Shu Yi and even spread nasty rumors about her, going so far as to assume she’d slept her way to the top. These characters are always meant to annoy us, and Yu Ling definitely played the part. I mean, I got to give it to her: she had guts. The fact that she just went and stole Shu Yi’s interview in the beginning of the series – wow. It honestly surprised me that she didn’t receive a bigger punishment for that, because she actively went against her boss’ orders. The audacity of her to just go: ‘you know what, I know Shu Yi is scheduled for this interview, but I’m gonna do it anyway’ was almost admirable, in a way.
With characters like her, I always harbor the hope that they’ll come around at some point. I have to admit I kind of expected this to play out, because at some point she really seemed to stop bothering Shu Yi for a while, and she even seemed kind of concerned for her when she saw Shu Yi at her lowest during the breakup arc. I’d hoped it would’ve been the kind of trope where, when she saw her rival all down in the dumps, she’d be like: ‘that’s not how I know you!’ and she’d actually start hyping her up or something. Still, even during the period where she laid low, I had a feeling she’d make a comeback at some point. I would’ve loved to see her show some kind of self-reflection in the end, but unfortunately she didn’t. Which was a pity, because she was just as genuine a character as everyone else. She undoubtedly had her reasons for wanting to succeed, and I couldn’t help but feel for her whenever Ms. Tang took Shu Yi’s side. I could understand how tough it must’ve been for her to never come out on top over Shu Yi, but that didn’t excuse her behavior. She went to very petty and lowblow means to get a win, and I honestly think it was for the better that Ms. Tang ultimately relocated her: she’d simply gone too far. What baffled me the most was that she pulled the kind of things that could very easily be tracked back to her. Stealing Shu Yi’s interview, spreading rumors in a group chat – what was she thinking, really? It became kind of lame how smug she went about it too, like girl, we already know it was you. Still, despite all of that I can’t forget about that scene where she accidentally bumped into Shu Yi, who then fell down crying (not because she was bumped into, but because of her breakup situation) and you could see Yu Ling genuinely go: ‘are you okay?’ even after Kong Nan pushed her away. Even after everything, I can’t help but feel like Shu Yi (or rather, her jealousy of her) just brought out the worst in her, and that being relocated would actually be good for her: she could make a fresh start in a position where she could thrive on her own strengths, without having to compete with someone else. In my head, that’s how I forgive her. Tiny bit of redemption for Yu Ling.
Someone I found as annoying (if not more) as Yu Ling, was Ai Da (played by Lu Zhao Hua). When she first appeared I let out a yell of recognition, since she played the female lead in All I Want For Love is You. I can’t deny it was kind of ironic for me to see her in this series, because it’s AIWFLIY that made me crave such a great romcom like this. Anyways, Ai Da was the closest to Yu Ling in the office, and she always backed her up when she was dragging Shu Yi’s name through the mud. You know that one person that never takes action themselves but always just chimes in with ‘Yeah, she’s the worst!’ ? That was Ai Da. No redemption for Ai Da.

Moving on the final character on my annoying list, let’s talk about Yi Yang.
Yi Yang (played by Daniel Zhou) was the CEO of a new startup called Dark Horse, which posed a bit of a threat to Shi Yan’s collaborations. I don’t know if he grew up in the States or just studied there, but he’s introduced as soon as he comes back to China, where he quickly discovers Shu Yi through one of her articles. He immediately asks her to conduct an interview with him, and keeps showing his personal interest in her from there on out. Admittedly, he didn’t get as bad as the second male lead from AIWFLIY, but he definitely took ‘persistent’ to a whole new level. Even after Shu Yi rejected his advances about fifty times, he remained determined to change her mind. The only good thing about their ‘friendship’ was that he provided Shu Yi with some well-needed distraction during her breakup, but it never became more than that, luckily. Honestly, just like what I said about Yu Ling, I kind of had to respect Yi Yang for his determination. This guy came in with the air and confidence of a gamechanger, yet never succeeded to make Shu Yi sway for even a second. It’s kind of admirable, lol.

Actually, in terms of annoying characters, I can’t really skip out on Xing Zhou and Le Zhi, can I?
Seriously, when comparing Xing Zhou to Shi Yan, it’s a goshdarn miracle how the former ever managed to land Shu Yi. He was a sorry excuse of a man, which again felt very female gaze-coded to me. Some characters just don’t need redemption, and Xing Zhou was one of them. He got what he deserved. As I said in the beginning, the fact that he cheated on his absolute goddess of a girlfriend to kiss up to another girl, just because she was allegedly some successful CEO’s niece, said all you needed to know about him. And of course, as soon as his girlfriend started acting out – and all the more after he realized who her uncle was – he immediately lost all interest in her and even had the audacity to come crawling back to Shu Yi. What a lameass. The fact that he still thought he’d have a chance at landing a job at Yunchuang after that, as well. Some people are just unbelievable.
As immature as Le Zhi was, especially in the way she kept trying to one-up Shu Yi, I can chalk up her behavior to genuine insecurity. She rightly felt intimidated by Shu Yi, even after she managed to steal Xing Zhou from her, and she was terrified that Xing Zhou would go back to her. Still, I never like it when girls are pitted against each other, and her attempts at getting back at Shu Yi (for what, even?) were about as ineffective as Yu Ling’s. The only right thing that she did was lash out at Xing Zhou when she found him getting drunk and looking at Shu Yi’s pictures that one time. I’m glad she didn’t retaliate in Shu Yi’s direction after that anymore. I’m guessing that’s the moment she realized how much of a loser Xing Zhou really was and that she deserved better. Which she did. Tiny bit of redemption of Le Zhi.

I can’t end my character analysis section without giving a major shoutout to the GOAT, the LEGEND, the absolute HERO that was Mr. Fan.
Fan Lei (Kong Lian Shun) is Shi Yan’s driver. The plot twist of him being Le Zhi’s uncle was AMAZING. I cackled SO hard at that reveal. Besides that, I just loved this guy to bits. I loved how they gave him the best lines and quirks at the best possible moments. The way he respectfully turned his back when Shi Yan kissed Shu Yi in public for the first time, the way he apologized to Shi Yan for his niece’s behavior and told him about the misunderstanding surrounding them, the way he literally punched Xing Zhou in the face when he spotted him outside of Shu Yi’s apartment… He was the absolute best. My favorite line of his was when Shi Yan and Shu Yi were in the car and he told her that he was bothered by the fact that every other guy seemed to be pursuing her. This was followed by a short silence and then Mr. Fan going: ‘I’m not! I swear!’😂 Bless this guy.

And with that, I’ll conclude my character analysis. As I said, I thought the characters in this series were all very well-established and fleshed out, which caused me to even occasionally feel for the nasty people. It comes down to motivation, I think. As long as I can understand where someone is coming from, I can at least empathize with their feelings and what makes them act like that. All in all, I think everyone’s storyline was wrapped up pretty well.
Having said that, I have to admit there were a handful of characters that I thought were wasted a little bit. Not that they were a waste, but they were only brought in very briefly for a very specific purpose, which felt a bit typical.
For examplem Bei Lin. Bei Lin (Liu Xie Ning) was Shi Yan’s ex-girlfriend, and a famous actress. Initially, she was only mentioned by people speculating about Shi Yan’s current love life, but then suddenly, during the breakup arc, they brought her back purely to make Shu Yi jealous and to throw in a ‘let’s get back together’ out of NOWHERE. I guess it was meant as a turning point for Shi Yan, because that’s when he finally started approaching Shu Yi again, and he even tells Bei Lin then and there that he only loves Shu Yi, but I still found it typical that they brought the rumored ex back in full glory (gala dress and all), only to let her get rejected and sent back, basically.
Another character that I found underused was Fiona. Tian Fei Fei, nicknamed Fiona (Tu Zhi Ying) was Shi Yan’s childhood friend and daughter of Mr. Tian, one of the board members. She suddenly came back in the second half of the series, also during the breakup arc I believe, and while it was clear that she also had feelings for Shi Yan, she never became an actual love rival. In the end, she did help Shi Yan out with some work thingies, but other than that she really didn’t get a lot to do. Which was kind of a pity, because why go to the trouble of introducing a whole new character when you’re not even going to utilize her?
Lastly, and this was the most random case of all, Hu Qing Hua (Sun Ao). This guy was literally flown in as a new intern at FI in the final episode, only to be made a love interest for Cheng Bei Er (Duan Xing Xu). I actually liked Bei Er, also because it was clear that she liked Shu Yi way more than Yu Ling, despite being the latter’s intern. But I can’t deny that it was very typical that they assigned her a love interest this late in the game. Immediately after introducing Qing Hua they skipped to three months later, where he’d already become an integral part of the team and even contacted Shu Yi directly on a daily basis. So yeah, that felt a bit weird. Seeing how well they fleshed out the majority of the other characters, I couldn’t help but feel like some of these characters were a bit redundant, if they were only going to be used so minimally.

As I mentioned, this show consists of a main series of 36 episodes and one short special of 11 minutes, but that ‘special’ is basically just Shi Yan and Shu Yi’s wedding. I guess they chose to feature it as a little bonus episode instead of adding it to the final episode, which I also wouldn’t have minded. Since the final episode of the main series ends with Shu Yi, Shan Shan and Shi Yue all jumping to catch Ms. Tang’s wedding bouquet, you could say that the special was a nice way to reveal who ended up catching it, as well. I really liked the way they ended it. I know I already mentioned that this series deserves an award for its confession speeches, but nothing beat Shi Yan’s final line in the special, when he revealed to Shu Yi that he’d been interested in her the first time he saw her: ‘I’ve had my eye on you for a while, Mrs. Shi.’ UHM HELLO?!?! CAN SOMEONE GET ME ON LIFE SUPPORT PLEASE?!?!

Before moving on to my cast comments, I’d like to make a few more remarks about some other elements of the series.
First of all, the corporate aspect. To be perfectly honest, I was a bit overwhelmed by all the company names and affiliations that were thrown in my face as soon as I started watching – I even made a list for myself to keep track of all the mentioned companies and who belonged where. While this seemed to form kind of an obstacle at first, I did actually find myself getting into it more throughout the series, mostly because the storylines pertaining to them were so clear and relevant to the main story. For example, I remember Zhanlan was the company that sold the faulty auto batteries, because they divided a short arc to get to the bottom of that, and it was also a situation that brought Shu Yi and Shi Yan together. I also really liked the ongoing storyline of Le’an Technology, which was drawn out over the entire series. It was cool to follow at least one entire collaboration between Yunchuang and a startup from start to finish, and very gratifying to see how Chen Kang (James Yang) gradually gained more confidence throughout the series, especially through all of the bumps in the road his company went through. It really attributed to Shi Yan’s character as well, as he was determined to keep financially supporting Le’an, despite all the setbacks. This, in combination with everything Shu Yi went through at FI, only made it all the more satisfying when the series ended with her writing the golden article to solve the issue Shi Yan’s company was facing, her winning the 10th Financial News Award, and Le’an finally getting a breakthrough in their newly established collaboration with Dark Horse. In a way, I also kind of liked the twist that Shu Yi initially didn’t get permission to take charge of her proposed media integration team on the account of still being ‘too young and inexperienced in management’. After everything we’d seen of her, and how well-respected she’d become in her field, even Shu Yi could still face a setback. I don’t know, I just liked the realistic aspect of how even someone as professional as her still couldn’t take things for granted: she had to start working even harder, to gain even more experience.
I just loved the way every single storyline was weaved neatly into the main story. I thought this show was very well-written, even down to the side plots. Props to the writers to even make corporate business interesting!

Using that as a segue, I just want to emphasize once again that I really liked the fact that this romcom focussed on an equal balance between career and love. I know I keep using the term ‘female gaze’, but I just felt it in everything. I loved that this didn’t focus on a female lead who blindly followed her crush everywhere, just for the sake of pursuing him. The fact that Shu Yi was driven more by her professional work ambitions than by her desire to find love made a world of difference. In that sense – again, leaving the breakup arc aside – I thought this was a very healthy love story between two adults with equally successful reputations that connected, not just because of their feelings for each other, but through a mutual understanding of their (and each other’s) work fields. They were able to work together as well as have a fun time together. That’s why arcs like those with the Zhanlan auto batteries were so relevant, because they highlighted how well they worked together and how they could mutually contribute to the matter: Shu Yi by writing an article about it and Shi Yan through discouraging the idea to sponsor them. It all just fell together so nicely and simultaneously added to the buildup between the main leads. Two birds with one stone.

As I usually do with Chinese dramas, I like to give my take on the translation of the title. Honestly, I personally don’t feel anything for ‘Only for Love’ – it doesn’t really say anything, nor does it refer to a specific element of the story. On the other hand, the original title translates to something along the lines of ‘campaigning for love’, adding a reference to the business aspect of the story. Needless to say, I find the latter much more fitting, as the story itself is literally about a couple that manages to find a balance between professional and private. Not that it matters of course, but I think it would’ve been better to translate the English title to something similar to the original, to at least refer a bit more directly to the story.

Lastly, I just want to add that I really enjoyed the music for this series, especially (surprisingly!) the BGM. There were so many fun and quirky music tracks. They’re not titled unfortunately, but my favorite from the attached link was definitely BGM 4.
Actually, now that I’m on the topic of music, I do have one last remark to make, and this will be a repetition of something I’ve already mentioned in many a C-drama review. We are introduced to Song Yue Lan, Shi Yan’s sister, who is a famous singer. Everyone talks about how big of a fan they are and at some point, almost all the main characters even go to see her in concert. What happens at the concert? Song Yue Lan lipsynchs to a song we don’t even hear because a completely random sountrack is taped over it. Seriously, what is it with Chinese dramas and not letting their musically talented characters sing a real song?! Even at Mr. Guan and Ms. Tang’s wedding (or was it Shu Yi and Shi Yan’s wedding?) she’s seen playing the piano and lipsynching to a song that’s taped over by the soundtrack. I need someone to draw up a petition for this because it happens way too often and in this case, I frankly don’t believe they didn’t have the budget to cover this. They used dubbing actors for all the other characters, why not this one? Even in Love Me, Love My Voice all the songs were sung, even if it wasn’t by the actual actors. This is such a weird thing to me, every single time.

It’s time for the cast comments! Although I didn’t know many of the actors from this series, I’m still excited for this section because I was so happy with the cast for this series.
I’ll start with some familiar faces: the main leads.
Bai Lu is actually coming up to become my favorite Chinese actress. The yell I yelled when I realized she was the female lead from Lucky’s First Love! I didn’t even recognize her in the opening credits sequence, I only realized when she appeared on screen and started talking. I absolutely loved her portrayal of Shu Yi. What a difference of night and day, both in appearance (no more tacky hairstyle!) and attitude. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t dislike her character in LFL, but since I only remember her being dragged back and forth by annoying men in that, it was incredibly refreshing to see her as such a sassy boss lady in this. Playing a confident character suited her so well. I loved the energy she exuded, as well as her subtle yet hilarious facial expressions. Her chemistry with Dylan Wang was off the charts, as well. Amazing performance, can’t wait to see more of her.

I only knew Dylan Wang as Daoming Si from Meteor Garden, so you can imagine how different it was to see him as this kind of character. At first I was worried that I’d get a bit second-hand embarrassment from him, but honestly… I’d never really considered him that attractive before, but he definitely did something right in this show, lol. He actually made my heart flutter on several occasions! I really loved seeing him slowly start to let his guard down around Shu Yi and those kissing scenes…🫣🫣🫣 Let’s say I approve. It was cool to see him portray such a serious and seemingly indifferent character this time around. I really liked seeing this more mature side of his acting, although he never completely loses his boyish charm, in my opinion – I think it’s the smile. Anyways, great to see him in this and I’m really excited to see even more variety from him!

The other yelp I yelped when I recognized Miles Wei in the opening credits sequence! I’ve only seen him once before, in Perfect and Casual (another really good Chinese romcom). Actually, he also played a professor in that, now that I think about it. I guess he fits the type.😌 Anyways, I was really happy to see him in this. His chemistry with his co-stars, from his friends to his on-screen lover was really natural, and I liked his dynamic with Shen Yu Jie, both in the initial awkward phase and when they finally got together. While I had a feeling of how their relationship would play out, it still managed to surprise me in a good way. Also, no matter how boring Yu You thought he was, I gotta say I would’ve probably fallen for him as well. Not just because of Miles Wei, but because I usually find myself drawn to guys who are happy in the background. Just saying. Anyways, I was pleasantly surprised to see him appear in this, I really liked his character. There’s still a bunch of his shows on my watchlist, so hopefully I’ll get to those soon!

Apparently, this was only the third drama that Shen Yu Jie appeared in. I hadn’t seen her in anything else, but she still looked pretty familiar to me. Anyways, as I said, I adored Shi Yue. She was such a cutie patootie, even when she was acting a bit bratty at first. I thought she did an amazing job at expressing all of Shi Yue’s natural bubbliness, and made her even more lovable when she started letting people walk all over her LESS and standing up for herself MORE. I’m really glad I got to know the actress through this drama, which was probably the best possible introduction. Her chemistry with Miles Wei was very sweet as well. I hope I’ll get to see more of her!

Again, I thought I recognized Jiang Pei Yao from something, but I haven’t seen anything else she appeared in. I really liked her portrayal of Shan Shan. Her friendship chemistry with Bai Lu was so natural, it didn’t even seem like acting. I also want to compliment her on her emotional acting and the fact that she didn’t shy away from sultry expressions. The glances and smiles she and Liu Dong Qin exchanged were SIZZLING. I loved how she just went for the mature vibe and completely nailed it without it getting awkward or cringe. She was a really nice fit for the role, and I can’t wait to see her in more.

Liu Dong Qin was another familiar face that I hadn’t actually seen in anything before. I’m glad they didn’t just make Guan Ji a hardcore playboy – in fact, I never really got that vibe from him, because he already seemed to have a soft spot for Shan Shan from the get-go. It was really nice to see him gradually get in touch with his feelings more, to the point where he was the first of the three musketeers to jump up to go get his girl. I’ll say it again: his confession scene was one of my favorites, because it was so heartfelt and genuine. I’ve never heard such a perfect confession speech before. For some reason, my mind immediately went back to the absolute joke of a confession scene from Soft Memory – they could learn a thing or hundred from this show. It was cool getting to know him through this, I wonder what else he did!

I don’t know what it was with actors that looked familiar to me in this series, but the same went for An Yue Xi. Oh how I wished to see a side of Yu Ling that wasn’t drenched in pure nasty sauce. Then again, if a character aggravates you, it means the actor did a good job and she really did. I still liked that she wasn’t purely one-dimensional, and there were moments where she genuinely seemed to worry about Shu Yi. As I mentioned in my review, I’d like to think her jealousy of Shu Yi just got the better of her, and being relocated would help her calm down and thrive in her own strengths. I still really liked An Yue Xi’s performance.

Not gonna lie, when Yi Yang was first introduced, for a second I was afraid he was the male lead from Lucky’s First Love, lol. Daniel Zhou also looks really familiar to me. He also looks really young, which immediately eliminated him from even being considered as a love rival. However, as I said, he definitely came in with a lot of confidence and determination, and I couldn’t help but admire that. While he didn’t exactly stir things up as much as he himself probably expected, I did like how they weaved in Dark Horse into the ongoing storyline with Le’an and made him a part of the final arc. He held himself really well as a 21-year old (!) playing a startup CEO, and for that I have to compliment him.

I’m going to leave it at that for the cast comments. This is the first Chinese romcom after Love Me, Love My Voice (which I’ll never shut up about) that I had a thoroughly enjoyable time watching. I was surprised by the good writing, the interesting story and the amazing chemistry between all the characters. Honestly, it took me back to when I watched Search: WWW – we love to see mature career-oriented women who don’t settle for less than they deserve. What a difference a strong and independent female lead character can make, honestly. It’ll never cease to amaze me. I had a great time watching this. If that wasn’t clear enough already. Give us more Chinese romcoms written from the female gaze, please! I’ll be keeping an eye out!

So yeah, that’s going to be it for this review. I managed to write this in one sitting again, probably because the story itself was pretty straightforward and there weren’t many side paths to take. I just really wanted to put out how much I loved and appreciated the characters and the way this was written, which I think I managed to do quite well. I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a good Chinese romcom – they’re not always easy to find, but when you find one, it’s so worth it. And again, I might actually check out what other series have been sponsored by the NRTA, lol.

Thank you so much for reading this far if you have, I love promoting these gems to whoever is interested enough to hear about them.
Having said that, I’m ready to move on with my list and I can’t wait to find out what I’ll get to watch next.

Until then!
Bye-bee! x