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.
Lucky’s First Love
(世界欠我一个初恋 / Shi Jie Qian Wo Yi Ge Chu Lian / The World Owes Me a First Love)
MyDramaList rating: 6.0/10
Man, was I glad to see a single-season office romance drama pop up on my Spin-the-Wheel app after three double-season shows! 😂 It already feels like such a long time ago since I watched something that didn’t go into too much psychological and emotional depth.
Having said that, my review of this series might deviate slightly from the mainstream opinion, since there were a lot of things that aggravated me and I didn’t find it as cute and uncomplicated as I expected it to be. I have a long list of criticisms, but there were also things I genuinely liked and enjoyed about it, so I hope I’ll be able to balance these two sides well enough.
All and all, this series really felt like a pallet cleanser after the three long shows that I watched before this, and I want to appreciate it for what it had to offer, since the quality and the acting were definitely up there and I did like the concept of the story.
Lucky’s First Love is an iQiyi C-Drama with 24 episodes of about 50 minutes each. As with many C-Dramas (unfortunately), the official iQiyi YouTube channel only has the first four episodes subbed in English, but I was able to continue watching the full series with good English subtitles (a nice change) on this Dailymotion channel.
The story centers on the relationship between Xing Yun (played by Bai Lu), a passionate employee at a gaming company called TIG Games, and her boss, Xia Ke (played by Xing Zhao Lin).
Besides being a very driven employee, Xing Yun, whose first name is written with the character of ‘luck’ (运), is known throughout the company as TIG’s mascot and lucky charm. Not for her good fortune per se, but because she often gets into accidents that actually result in a fortunate outcome for the company.
Although she doesn’t necessarily dislike her nickname, Xing Yun is quite serious about proving her worth as an employee through effort and hard work. As such, despite her background as an animation illustrator, she applies for the position of head planner for a new project related to the company’s best-selling mobile game, a dating simulator called ‘Infinite Unknown Love’.
Xia Ke is willing to consider her on the condition that she needs to get some dating experience first in order to get a better feel for the game’s purpose. Since dating doesn’t mean much to Xing Yun, she quickly agrees to a blind date that her cousin set up for her, thinking of it as just another hurdle to help her get better at work. However, when she actually starts dating her blind date, Chu Nan (Huang Ji Dong) Xia Ke suddenly doesn’t seem as pleased anymore and actively tries to keep her from meeting up with him.
Besides this, Xia Ke’s two closest college friends He Yu (played by Zhai Zi Lu) and Yao Qing (played by Chen Hao Lan) come into the picture as the former also starts competing for Xing Yun’s affection while the latter has her sights set on Xia Ke himself.
Throughout the story, Xia Ke and Xing Yun find themselves drawn to each other more and more among the many advances they receive from other people, and they gradually become a better team, both at work and in life outside of that.
Before I state my case on the unconventional structure of this show and my personal criticisms, I’d like to start with my character analysis as usual, starting with our titular main character, Xing ‘Lucky’ Yun.
Xing Yun grew up as an only child and has a distinct talent for drawing. She’s kind, driven and forgiving and tolerant to a fault. With her simple and loving upbringing, she’s just happy to be where she is, with the work and the friends that she has. We don’t get a lot of emotional backstory from her, which I actually thought was pretty refreshing. I saw a lot of negative comments about her on MDL – apparently a lot of people found her really dumb? – but I didn’t feel that way. I quite liked Xing Yun.
Apart from the occasional tendency to be gullible and inconsistent in her decisions, I feel like she was very driven and passionate, and even if it took her some time to figure out her feelings, she was very clear on how she felt about certain things and people. There were some moments where she spoke her truth and called people out which were very satisfying to watch. If anything, I actually got more annoyed at the instances where people kept gaslighting her for standing up for herself. The fact that she was made to apologize even after she was nearly kidnapped really ticked me off.
At some point it also started to feel as if every single time Xing Yun was approached by someone she didn’t feel comfortable with, she was forced to spend time with them in one way or another. Even when she clearly said: “No, thanks” multiple times, there was no one (!) who accepted it immediately, which got pretty annoying at times. What bothered me wasn’t so much the fact that Xing Yun let herself get dragged along so easily, but the fact that it felt like no one listened to her or cared about her time. She was always forced to go along with other people’s wishes even when she made it clear she didn’t want to.
Despite this, I really appreciated how frank Xing Yun could be, and her dry remarks kept cracking me up. Like when He Yu kept asking her to find his stuff for him at the office and she was like: “Can’t you hang your belongings around your neck or something?” or when she learned about his 28 ex-girlfriends and went: “Bruh… you can fill three football teams with that”, lol.
One of my favorite snap-backs of her was when Xia Ke asked her if “all women tended to ignore advice” and she asked if he was talking about his sister, which made him go: “heh, I guess I can’t keep any secrets from you 😏” and she deadpan went: “nah I’ve just never seen any other women around you” 😂😂😂. That was so real, I loved that.
I really liked her parents, as well. I loved how playful they were in their marriage and how they would actually dress up and hold anniversaries for every single milestone in their relationship, that was really sweet. I also liked that they never turned on Xing Yun or dissaproved of her choices. They were always super supportive, even when it seemed like she was going from one love interest to another. Her father was quite protective of her when it came to whom she was dating, but I’m glad they didn’t add a whole ‘Dad doesn’t approve’ arc and he was persuaded pretty quickly by one look at Xia Ke’s car, lol.
I also loved her friendship with her work friends Amy and Yi Yi. They kind of reminded me of the ‘SWAG’ squad from Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo at times, lol. I loved how these girls always had each other’s backs and kept standing up for each other, both at work and in times of personal emergency. Amy and Yi Yi just always rooted for Xing Yun, and never thought of her badly no matter what nasty rumor came out about her. Honestly, these girls pretty much made the show for me and were two of my favorite characters.
The only person in Xing Yun’s family circle that I didn’t like was her cousin, Xing Cheng (Bi Hui), the one who also set her up on that blind date with Chu Nan. She was really nosy and I really disliked how she just left Xing Yun at that karaoke bar all by herself that one time. Distributing her information at that marriage market without her consent was also a big no-no. I’m actually glad she didn’t appear as a regular character because I kept getting annoyed at her, lol.
If I had to give some criticisms on Xing Yun’s personality, I would say that as much as I appreciated her for all the times she stood up for herself, I do admit I got occasionally frustrated by her gullibleness. For example, even though she seemed to have a very clear idea of the kind of person that He Yu was, she still didn’t seem to suspect that he was just messing around with her every time he asked her for a favor. Even her colleagues saw through the fact that he was paying her back for hitting him on the head that one time. The amount of times I went from “YES EXACTLY YOU GO GIRL” to “GIRL ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW” was pretty much 50/50, lol.
All in all, I did like Xing Yun as the female lead character. It’s been a while since I’ve seen such a down-to-earth female lead in a C-Drama. She just felt very real and didn’t try to pretend to be more than she was. She was just happy with her life and her work, even without romance in it, and I think this independence from love as a determining factor for success in life should be normalized way more. I thought it was cool that she was so ambitious in her work, and that she was prepared to step out of her comfort zone of drawing to build up her game developing skills more. She just wanted to be more than her company’s mascot and worked incredibly hard for that, and in the process she just happened to fall for her boss as a bonus.
Speaking of her boss, Xia Ke came from a completely different background. He grew up as the youngest heir of Tomorrow Group, ran by his grandmother, and basically started TIG as a side project. That isn’t to say that he didn’t take it seriously; he was a very responsible and diligent director, and he actually cared more about his gaming company than about taking over Tomorrow Group. He has one older sister, Shen Qing (played by Lin Ruo Yan), who took her mother’s surname, and a four-year old nephew, Shen Qing’s son Shen Xiao Xi (Fu Bo Han, the biggest little sweetie).
Although his exterior is usually quite cold, Xia Ke has a very playful side to him, which he expresses most clearly to Xing Yun. Xing Yun was the first employee he hired at TIG, and he’s always treated her like his lucky mascot because of her name and her beforementioned tendency to create ‘happy accidents’ that benefit the company. Even though Xing Yun isn’t his secretary or personal assistant, Xia Ke always turns to her for personal errands, probably because he feels the most at ease with her and she knows his preferences better than anyone.
Xia Ke expresses his affection for Xing Yun mostly through teasing her, and while this can be cute, I did think it went a bit far sometimes, especially once it started feeling like he diminished her feelings by joking around while she was actually reasonably upset. Even as someone with such great social status as him, he still had a lot to learn about being emotionally mature and dealing with personal conflicts. Although his heart was in the right place and his intentions to protect and stand up for his friends and family members was admirable, he consistently struggled with the best way to help them, and he wasn’t the best at admitting fault after realizing he made a mistake.
From what we see of him taking care of his sister, playing with his nephew and hanging out with his old college friends, I definitely felt that he was a good guy. I feel like the way he dealt with his feelings for Xing Yun was also due to his own inexperience in romance, no matter how much he tried to deny that. In Dutch we have an expression that goes: ‘meisjes plagen, kusjes vragen‘ (‘teasing girls is asking for kisses’), basically meaning: ‘when a boy likes a girl, he teases her’, and I think this was very fitting for how Xia Ke treated Xing Yun. It was clear from the get-go that he’d already liked her for quite some time, maybe even from the first time he saw her, but he always stuck to teasing as a way to keep her close and express his affection, which didn’t always work and/or feel right.
Apart from his teasing habit, there was one consistent toxic trait to Xia Ke that I couldn’t look past during the story: he had the habit of keeping certain things to himself in order to ‘protect’ people, even when these people would have benefitted way more from knowing the truth than from being kept in the dark.
To be fair, I’d say it’s good that he had a consistent flaw as it contributed to his personality, and it’s pretty realistic for someone to keep dealing with things a certain way even after being told it’s not the best way to go; some habits are hard to break, after all. However, as a viewer, this habit got increasingly frustrating because it kept coming back to the point where it seemed like he just never learned anything from his past mistakes.
Mind you, I actually have a LOT of criticisms on Xia Ke’s personality and the way he treated Xing Yun throughout the story, both before and after they became a couple.
To me, it felt like Xia Ke was continuously teasing and appeasing Xing Yun, only to brush it off when she expressed a valid emotional response. It occasionally got so bad that it even reminded me of the relationships in Douse Mou Nigerarenai and Road to Rebirth, both of which I found extremely toxic.
Xia Ke would always tease Xing Yun and act coldly, only to smirk when she walked away. Why didn’t he have the guts to be nice to her face? What was the point of only caring for her behind her back?
I also didn’t understand why he kept using her to deal with his work responsibilites. Asking her to run errands for him was one thing, but he also made her clean up after accidents that he caused and even forced her to spend time and have one-on-one dinners with people he wanted to get on board for his business. Linking this to what I said before about Xing Yun always being forced to hang out with people she didn’t like, these ‘business partners’ were also usually people she didn’t feel comfortable with. What’s more, Xia Ke would sometimes even follow them on their ‘date’ to eavesdrop on their conversation and make sure things went smoothly. Why not do it yourself then? If he wanted to train Xing Yun to become more familiar with business collaborations, surely there were more ways to help her than to just throw her into the deep with a person she didn’t feel at ease with? This made it seem like he didn’t even trust her enough to blindly believe she’d actually pull it off by herself, so why make her do it then?
Despite the beforementioned good intentions and his clear affection for her, the way he treated Xing Yun in general at first just rubbed me the wrong way. Even after she was almost kidnapped by a freaking human trafficker (!!) and then found out the guy who proposed to her never actually had any real feelings for her, Xia Ke kept making light of her situation and even lowkey gaslit her for responding so emotionally. While Xing Yun had every right to be hurt, mad and disappointed, Xia Ke couldn’t even say sorry for actively lying to her face while he’d known Chu Nan’s interest in her hadn’t been genuine from the start. It seemed like he just didn’t want to take responsibility for his own contribution to the affair.
Admittedly, the trope of ‘lying out of consideration’ might have hit me harder this time because I recently went through something similar. Of course it doesn’t apply to every single case, but if it has even one serious repercussion on your friendship or someone else’s life, lying about something and then justifying it by saying: “I was just trying to be considerate of your feelings” doesn’t cut it in my opinion. Even if your intentions were good, fact remains that you actively chose to hurt someone by lying to them while actually knowing that the truth – however painful – would help them so much more.
So yeah, all in all I wasn’t a big fan of the couple dynamic of the main leads, and I specifically thought Xia Ke had the tendency to be very toxic at times. He avoided taking responsibility for his own behavior and just continued to tease Xing Yun when she expressed her rational and valid emotions, even when those were in direct response to his behavior.
Still, from the way his character was written and his backstory, I can at least respect that this was an intended flaw in his personality, and in contrast to Douse Mou Nigerarenai, I could occasionally appreciate Xing Yun for looking past that and loving him nonetheless. At least he was willing to listen to reason and he did get better at standing up for Xing Yun and voicing his feelings more directly.
Moving on, there’s He Yu, Xia Ke’s old college friend and the alleged second male lead of the story.
Although we don’t get a lot of backstory regarding He Yu’s upbringing, he is introduced to us as Xia Ke’s womanizing friend/brother who fills his life by hanging out at clubs and bars and seducing women he only sleeps with once and/or dates for like a week, max. From how he was introduced and the way he’d been living his life and treating women, I didn’t think he’d get interested in Xing Yun at all. As such, his interest in her came completely out of the blue to me.
He Yu first meets Xing Yun when Xia Ke picks her up from the police station after she’s almost been kidnapped. During this encounter, there’s not a single spark between them: He Yu doesn’t seem that interested in Xing Yun and she barely even looks at him because she’s too embarrassed about the situation.
Their next encounter in the karaoke bar is even weirder: He Yu recognizes her despite being tipsy and having only seen her once before, and immediately approaches her in an overly familiar way from behind, causing Xing Yun to freak out and hit him hard on the head in self-defense. So hard, in fact, that he needs to get it treated at a hospital.
From this point on, He Yu starts getting more and more determined to get under Xing Yun’s skin. Not only does he first demand that she apologize and pay his medical expenses for him, but when he finally starts helping Xia Ke out with his business, he even demands that Xing Yun help him out with every single thing, as ‘playful payback’ for what she’s done to him.
As if Xing Yun wasn’t being teased enough already by Xia Ke, now she also gets He Yu to deal with, and his behavior quickly escalates into an obsessive infatuation with her: he starts following her around EVERYWHERE and keeps assuming she likes him back, even after she repeatedly rejects his advances.
If it wasn’t already clear from my tone, He Yu aggravated the heck out of me. I seriously haven’t felt as annoyed with a second male lead character like this in a very long time. He actually set my teeth on edge, and this didn’t change until the very end of the show.
This guy brought ‘delusional’ to a whole new level, as he just didn’t seem to realize that he really did not stand a single chance with Xing Yun. We all know the trope of the womanizer who finds himself attracted to the one woman that doesn’t immediately fall for him, but this went too far. He kept popping up literally everywhere to ambush Xing Yun and always demanded confirmation for every single thing he did to help her: “Aren’t I amazing boyfriend material?” “You can go out with me to repay me, you know”. Seriously, UGH.
What made it all worse was that Xia Ke retaliated just as pettily. I’m not even exaggerating when I say that these two men started fighting about Xing Yun when she wasn’t even interested in either of them. 💀
At one point, Xia Ke actually excludes Xing Yun – and only her – from the pre-release party of the game that she is in charge of, purely out of spite because he thinks she’s dating He Yu. The scene where she stomps off and completely ignores He Yu who is presumptuously waiting outside for her with this huge bouquet of roses was actually so embarrassing. I lowkey loved that Xing Yun didn’t even acknowledge He Yu and just walked away, she was so done with the both of them at that point, lol.
I just couldn’t with He Yu. He literally kept forcing himself on Xing Yun and then gaslighted her for not appreciating everything he did for her, even though she repeatedly rejected him and never asked him to do anything. This guy brought ‘what part of no do you not understand’ and ‘bro, she’s just not into you’ to a whole new unbearable level. He actually confesses to her with the words: “Just be my girlfriend. I won’t force anything on you, but you better give me a satisfying answer within a week.” ???? I don’t know what he thought he was doing, but ‘being delusional’ didn’t even begin to cover it.
One of my main problems with the story was the kiss at the restaurant.
I already hated how He Yu took advantage of the fact that Xing Yun was drinking a lot and didn’t stop her – he later even told Yao Qing to do the same and shoot her shot with Xia Ke when he was drunk 😒🚩- but the fact that Xia Ke actually went ahead and kissed Xing Yun while she was drunk, unconsented, was just wrong. I really don’t like that that was their first kiss. Xia Ke was finally starting to show his feelings for her more clearly and he should’ve restrained himself if he really cared about coming clean to her.
This kiss brought me back to the incredibly unsatisfactory first kiss from So I Married an Anti-Fan, where I actually screamed at my screen in dissaproval, Michael Scott-style. This just wasn’t it, man.
While Xing Yun vaguely remembers kissing someone the next day, she isn’t sure who it was: Xia Ke or He Yu. And of course, instead of telling her honestly and saving her the extra embarrassment, both men actually start gaslighting her for not being sure about who she kissed. While they were the ones making her confused by not telling her. And after both of them took advantage of her while she was drunk. 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩As much as He Yu annoyed me for continuing to be so persistent in his advances and making Xing Yun think he was the one she kissed, Xia Ke was at fault for being the opposite and beating around the bush and ‘punish’ Xing Yun for not coming to him out of her own volition instead of making his own feelings clear to her in the first place.
I’m not even gonna lie when I say that the only characters that made me feel better and saved the series for me were the women. I generally felt like the women were constantly the ones who had to tell the emotionally immature men what to do. Even Yao Qing was mature enough to encourage Xia Ke to pursue his feelings for Xing Yun despite having a crush on him herself.
I really loved Yao Qing and how mature and professional she was. She was one of the few people that didn’t let her personal feelings get in the way of her work and friendships. I’m so glad they didn’t make her the bitchy second female lead who teamed up with He Yu to break Xia Ke and Xing Yun apart.
She somehow reminded me a bit of Da Eun from Yumi’s Cells: even if she had feelings for someone, she immediately accepted it when it wasn’t mutual and supported her crush in his feelings for someone else. She never got petty towards Xing Yun, either. These are the kind of female friendships that we love to see. Yao Qing was never biased towards the girl her crush liked: she met Xing Yun, saw for herself what a nice person she was, and just became friendly with her. Every time she ignored He Yu’s suggestions that she should be more proactive in pursuing Xia Ke and told him that she cared more about his happiness than about forcing him to be with her was so satisfying. I loved what she said to He Yu on the ferris wheel, because that also felt like a personal stab at him for how he had been pursuing Xing Yun.
“Do you know what it’s like to sincerely love someone? I will pursue him confidently without begging shamelessly, let alone forcing him by any means. If he loves someone else, I will only wish him happiness.”
The fact that she was able to see things so clearly and maturely while the men were constantly being so flaky only made me love her more. She was a really strong female character in both mind and body.
It wasn’t until she pulled an all-nighter with He Yu at work that one time that I felt like there might be something happening between them. I mean, I don’t think anyone would suddenly start touching another person’s face while they’re sleeping for no reason, right?
I lowkey loved that Yao Qing continued being the baddie that she was even after she had a one-night stand with He Yu and he was suddenly completely smitten with her. Again, although it was established that his feelings had probably been slumbering for a long time and he just never noticed her appeal before because they’d known each other for so long, his feelings kind of came out of nowhere and then suddenly Yao Qing was his new obsession. Honestly, this guy’s feelings were a big hot mess. 🙉
I don’t know how he kept doing it, but even after finally getting together with Yao Qing, he kept living in his own delulu bubble. I couldn’t believe it when he said he’d introduce her to a new job – which she was desperately looking for – and it turns out he just wanted her to meet this wedding planner he’d been eyeing. Aside from the fact that they hadn’t even talked about marriage yet, bro didn’t even take Yao Qing’s job search seriously and just decided to take the next step in their relationship without discussing it with her first.
I am so glad that Yao Qing walked away from that and went: “When did I even agree to marry you?”, because that was crazy. She literally cancelled three actual job interviews for that. That wasn’t even a romantic gesture anymore, that was actually disrespectful to her current needs.
He Yu just couldn’t accept that Yao Qing wanted to keep her career and make her own money. He kept saying that his family was “like a transnational company” and would provide her with anything she wanted, even after she told him multiple times that she wanted to work and not be fully dependent on his family’s wealth.
Honestly, at this point I had no idea what He Yu was doing anymore. Even though he had a job, he was just goofing off and wasting his time hanging around his obsession’s house, indulging in his own romantic fantasy and trying to drag the woman he was interested in into his delusions with him. Even after Xing Yun agreed to go along with his act ONE TIME, he kept referring back to it as that they actually dated, and he even invited himself to live with Yao Qing and had all his furniture moved to her house, again without her consent. Meine Güte.
Although Yao Qing did go along with his antics in the end, I really appreciated her for returning fire to He Yu when it was necessary. She worded everything I was thinking out loud and continued to be the bigger and most mature person of them all. I absolutely loved her character.
Speaking of another admirable female character, Shen Qing. Whereas Yao Qing’s strength lay mostly in her principles and physique, I thought Shen Qing was incredibly strong, mentally. She went through so much, losing her first love, giving birth and raising her son by herself for four years and then getting hurt in love again, because her boyfriend’s mother disapproved of their relationship. All that, and she still managed to not let her personal feelings cloud her judgement.
Despite her initial suspicion towards Xing Yun for allegedly being Chu Nan’s new girlfriend, she was so supportive of Xia Ke’s feelings for her. I specifically loved how the whole ordeal with Chu Nan only strengthened her compassion for Xing Yun.
I also thought it was really mature of her to send Chu Nan away because she couldn’t overlook the fact that he had been prepared to hurt another woman, even if that meant choosing her. That just showed what a good person she was. I was surprised when she actually reflected on how his mom had treated her, and that she’d feel the same way if her own son would do the same. No matter how much she still loved Chu Nan and how much it hurt her to keep sending him away (we saw how she smiled when he hugged her), she was still mentally strong enough to not overlook his treatment of Xing Yun and know that she shouldn’t forgive him that easily. I really appreciated Shen Qing’s decisiveness.
After the whole thing with Xiao Xi’s biological father was resolved and she and Chu Nan finally got back together and married, she became a significant supporting character to both Xia Ke and Xing Yun. It was nice to see her pop back up every now and then after her own story arc was finished, and how she always continued to support her younger brother’s relationship, even if that meant telling him off (and rightfully so). I loved how she also became an older sister figure to Xing Yun and helped her figure out her feelings for Xia Ke while baking cakes together #qualitygirltime. I’ll admit she and Chu Nan made a really cute couple, so much so that I honestly fail to see the latter’s reasoning for trying to get over her with a random new girl.
No matter how kind Chu Nan was, introducing him through that fake dating thing with Xing Yun really ruined the first impression of his character. I wish we could’ve just gotten to know him as the man he was to Shen Qing and Xiao Xi from the start. Instead, I’ll always think of him as a spineless coward from what he put Xing Yun through.
Seriously, when he told his mom that he was only planning to marry Xing Yun to divorce her to make a point of proving his love to Shen Qing, I really welcomed Shen Qing’s slap in his face. Screw him for trying to defend his actions towards Xing Yun as: “For what it’s worth, I felt terrible about it the whole time.” He freaking proposed to her! A marriage proposal should not be used to get back at someone or involve a completely unrelated person in your plan to make a point of loving someone else. This man was already going: “I don’t know what I’m doing” before he even proposed to Xing Yun, so there’s no excuse for him dragging it out and keeping up the pretense for so long. He actually got Xing Yun to fit a wedding dress and contemplate her life with him.
Maybe I carry a grudge for too long, but when Xing Yun started defending him against her parents and friends for ‘not doing anything wrong’, I strongly disagreed. I honestly think that the reason why she was able to brush it off like that was because she realized she actually never had feelings for him. It was a shock seeing him with Shen Qing, of course, and she got rightfully mad at Xia Ke for keeping it from her, but she didn’t cry or lash out at Chu Nan, and forgave him very easily. I guess we’ll just have to attribute that to her good nature.
I really loved the addition of little Xiao Xi to the cast, also to show a more caring side of Xia Ke. This little boy was such a sweetie, and his energy and enthusiasm were really addictive. It was nice to get a little glimpse of how much he liked Chu Nan, and how he immediately called him when his biological dad suddenly showed up again, to urge him to come claim his Mommy before it was too late, lol. The flashbacks of Shen Qing, Chu Nan and Xiao Xi’s trip to the amusement park together was really sweet as well, Chu Nan was already more of a father to him than his real dad could ever be.
The only female character that I disliked in this series was Zhang Sirui (played by Zhou Rui Jun). She is only introduced in the fourth-to-last episode to stir things up between Xia Ke and Xing Yun towards the end of the show. Sure, because we didn’t have enough drama to deal with already.
As happy as I was with supportive and emotionally mature female characters like Shen Qing and Yao Qing, Zhang Sirui was basically on the same level as He Yu when it came to persistence and pettiness.
Long story short: she and Xia Ke used to date in college, but she suddenly dumped him out of nowhere and went abroad during one of the most critical times of his life. As such, he never forgave her for leaving him so cruelly and still holds a grudge against her.
And then suddenly she’s back to represent a company that TIG desperately needs the investment from to finish their project. And then she just thinks she can start over with Xia Ke as if nothing happened between them.
Even after Xia Ke personally tells her to her face that he is dating Xing Yun and keeps showing her that he doesn’t even want to be in the same room as her, she keeps trying. She even ‘coincidentally’ bumps into his grandmother and starts sucking up to her before finally sharing the true reason she broke up with Xia Ke… with his grandmother, not with Xia Ke himself.
Turns out, she broke up with him because ‘her claustrophobia was getting so bad she couldn’t function normally anymore and she didn’t want to burden him with that’. So, not only did she lie about the reason she broke up with him, but she very conveniently hit him with it at a time when he was at his most vulnerable. My goodness, this woman. Even if she explained the real reason to him now after all this time, did she actually believe that he would just forgive and fall back in love with her?! Honestly, I could not believe her audacity. She bumped into Xia Ke and Xing Yun time and time again, saw them hug and kiss, and still she was like: “nah, he’ll come around”. It actually got so bad that she started using his grandmother’s health against him, and refused to approve of his project if he didn’t come back to her. She was a whole new level of unprofessional.
I loved it when her boss in the final episode was like: “Girl, you’re my best employee, but I won’t allow anyone to influence the company’s judgement based on their personal feelings. Whatever you write in your report, I’m going to invest in TIG.”
It was so annoying how she kept trying to one-up Xing Yun in how well she knew Xia Ke while she literally had no game with him anymore. In the end she never even got around to tell him about her claustrophobia, which kind of made the whole element neglectable.
You could say that she actually pulled the same trick as Xia Ke tended to: she kept Xia Ke in the dark about the real reason she broke up with him, even though telling the truth from the start would’ve probably saved their relationship.
To end my character analysis on a positive note, I just want to touch on my two favorite supporting characters that partially saved the show for me: Amy and Yi Yi.
Amy (played by Li Lin Fei) is Xia Ke’s secretary at TIG. She’s very diligent and gets along with the other ‘regular’ employees very well, too. I loved the balance between her professional side and her girl friend side, as she never neglected her friends no matter what work threw at them. I loved how she stayed on to help find the person actually responsible for the game leak because she just knew that Xing Yun was innocent and never doubted her for a second.
Xu Yi Yi (played by Li Zi Xi/Jessie Li) was one of Xing Yun’s teammates, I believe their desks were right by each other’s as well. In contrast to Amy, at least in appearance, she was a bit more of a tomboy, always rocking the dungaroos and sneakers. Yi Yi was such a breath of fresh air, I loved how she always managed to see things so rationally, even though she also loved to gossip. I appreciated it when, as soon as she realized she might have been responsible for the leak, the first thing she did was go to Xing Yun to convey her shame and guilt to her.
These girls always had Xing Yun’s back, never doubted her and always supported her. I also loved how, when Xing Yun expressed her idea to apply for the head planner position, they immediately encouraged her to go for it, saying: “Oh yeah, you always wanted to try your hand at that, right? Why don’t you shoot your shot?” Amidst all the drama surrounding her blooming relationship with Xia Ke and the misunderstandings caused by He Yu and Zhang Sirui, it was really nice to at least have these two girly pops at Xing Yun’s side. The only thing I wished for was to get a little bit more backstory on them, for example about how they came to TIG and became friends with Xing Yun. They were so close it felt like they became friends ages ago, and not just after meeting at work. Amy and Yi Yi were the best, and I really loved the energy and humor they brought into the series.
Admittedly, there were a couple of parts where I thought they could have taken a slightly different stance towards Xing Yun.
For example, when Xing Yun got mad at Xia Ke for keeping the Chu Nan thing from her and started treating him passive-aggressively at work, Amy and Yi Yi actually kind of diminished her feelings by calling her behavior “audacious” and even appeased Xia Ke by saying that Xing Yun just “wasn’t getting enough sleep”. Because of my disdain towards He Yu, I also didn’t like it when they just went along with the story that Xing Yun was dating him and encouraged it. I think that, if they’d seen for themselves what was going on and how He Yu was pestering her against her will, they would’ve probably acted differently. So in a way, their support of Xing Yun could be said to be a little one-sided, but I still really appreciated the vibes that they brought to the series.
Now that I’ve concluded my character analysis section, I’d like to move on to the most criticizing part of this review.
When I checked the MDL page for this drama, the top reviews were all immensely positive and recommended the series on being a ‘light watch without much drama’. Of course, people’s opinions differ and I’m not going to say that people are wrong just because I don’t agree with them, but in this case I genuinely wondered if we were watching the same show because, from how I see it, this series was nothing BUT drama, and fairly unnecessary drama at that.
First of all, I have to say that I did appreciate the start of introducing us to a main couple that already knew each other and had been working together for a long time. It gave me What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim? and The Secret Life of My Secretary vibes at first, with the sole exception that Xing Yun wasn’t Xia Ke’s secretary but just one of his employees. I liked that they started the story off with a dynamic that was at least slightly original in itself. I also liked the trope that Xia Ke was supposedly already in love with Xing Yun, and that she needed to develop feelings for him from scratch. It was just a bit different from the usual office romance drama, and I liked that.
Having said that, I was genuinely aggravated by the build-up in the romance and how certain things were written, and I’m overall very confused about the structure of the story as a whole.
To me, it felt like the show kept adding more and more unnecessary drama that pushed the main leads further away from each other, rather than that it consistently focussed on building up the relationship between them from the start. It was as if their romantic progress only happened during the rare moments in-between all the drama. Every time one arc ended I was like: “ok FINALLY now they can get together” only to be hit by the next inevitable “omg what is it THIS TIME”. Even when they didn’t have anything standing between them anymore, it was like: “no, we can’t make things official before this work project is done”. They kept delaying making their relationship official, which got a bit annoying.
I feel like the story can be divided into three main arcs, and this is already where things get weird. The first arc immediately throws us into a crazy double love triangle that lasts the entire first half of the series (yes, I counted). When this is finally resolved, we only get a very quick respite before the following arc is introduced, which is about the game leak within TIG. When this ultimately gets resolved in episode 18 (of 24!) the writers apparently decided they still didn’t have enough and brought in the bitchy ex-girlfriend to grace us with her presence for the final four episodes. As far as story structure goes, I found this very unusual, especially because there were never more than two episodes in-between arcs that gave us a tiny bit of progress between the two leads.
I’d like to give a summary of the three arcs and add some more critical remarks pertaining to these.
Arc #1: The Crazy Double Love Triangle (Episodes 1~12)
Aside from introducing the main characters, episodes 1 to 12 immediately throw us into a very messy affair when Xing Yun starts dating Chu Nan after meeting him on a blind date. While things seem to go very smoothly at first – despite the fact they both don’t have much time to date – it soon comes out that Chu Nan is the ex-boyfriend of Xia Ke’s sister Shen Qing. They broke up because Chu Nan’s mom didn’t like Shen Qing for being a single mom (and therefore damaged goods?) and they had been forced to break up. Either that, or Shen Qing chose to break up with him because she couldn’t take it anymore, I forget. In any case, there are still a lot of lingering feelings between them since they didn’t exactly fall out of love with each other and Chu Nan had also been acting as a perfect father figure to Shen Qing’s son, Xiao Xi. I still don’t know exactly what Chu Nan was thinking when he started dating Xing Yun (in my defense, neither did he), but it eventually comes out that he had the reckless idea of marrying another girl and then dump her to drive the point home to his mom that Shen Qing was the only one for him. Or something. Anyways, he did Xing Yun incredibly dirty.
Honestly, I was baffled by how fast Chu Nan was bulldozing through their relationship. It literally felt like their first date, him introducing her to his parents and his proposal all happened within a single month.
By the way, the way he lured her to his house under the pretense of ‘watching a documentary’ instead of telling her that he was going to introduce her to his parents who were already convinced that they were going to get married was WILD. I couldn’t believe Xing Yun just went along with that. I think I would’ve exposed him there and then by saying: “Dude, you invited me over for a documentary, what the heck is this?!” It really seemed like he just proposed to Xing Yun on a whim, only to later sit in his car all depressed going: “What am I even doing?” Bro, get your shit together before you ruin an innocent woman’s life.
Anyways, apart from the forced love triangle between Xing Yun, Chu Nan and Shen Qing, they add yet another layer to the circus with the return of Shen Qing’s baby daddy Ling Shan (Gao Shi Ming), creating another love triangle on top of the first one, between Chu Nan, Shen Qing and Ling Shan.
I have to say I was suspicious of Ling Shan from the start, and I didn’t like the way he just wanted to suddenly be a part of Xiao Xi’s life again after missing the first four years of his upbringing. It reminded me of that mother from Road to Rebirth who came back after abandoning her son for seven years and then just thought she could claim him back and literally grabbed him yelling: “I AM YOUR MOTHER!!” (that part is still ingrained in my brain, my goodness). I believe Ling Shan also went: “But I am your real dad!” one time, but the worst part was that he actually kidnapped Xiao Xi after Shen Qing rejected him for good. No matter his excuses, the fact remains that in the heat of the moment he was actually capable of hurting his own son. What a freak.
Whilst all of this is playing out during the first ten episodes of the series, Xia Ke is basically just loitering around the side lines until Xing Yun finds out about Chu Nan and Shen Qing in the worst way possible.
Coming back to Xia Ke’s beforementioned toxic habit of lying to people out of consideration, he exhibited this trait TWICE within this first arc. He kept both Xing Yun and Shen Qing in the dark about things that could’ve had really bad repercussions on their lives: Xing Yun almost got married to Chu Nan without knowing his true intentions and Shen Qing almost allowed Ling Shan to get back into her life without knowing what a true A-hole he was.
Xia Ke knew who Chu Nan was and that he was still hung up on Shen Qing, yet he didn’t tell Xing Yun anything. He only came up with childish ways to keep her away from meeting up with him, which of course didn’t convey at all that he actually wanted her to stop seeing Chu Nan for a valid reason.
Honestly, Xing Yun getting mad at Xia Ke was one of the best moments in this show to me because it felt so valid and satisfying and it was nice to see her stand up for herself like that.
I loved how she turned the argument around on him by pouring salt in his coffee and going: “there was no sugar, but I didn’t know how to tell you so I just replaced it with something else out of consideration“. I didn’t even care that it was petty, it felt so good, lol. Xing Yun had every right to be mad at Xia Ke and treat him passive-aggressively.
When she walked away from him after discovering Chu Nan’s real intentions, Xia Ke literally started throwing things at her like: “If you walk away, I’ll cut your monthly bonus!” and “Don’t kick my car, you know how much repairs cost?” Bro was actually cracking jokes. He probably thought he could swoop in as the hero after she busted Chu Nan – too bad she immediately realized he’d known about it the whole time. He deserved what he got from her.
As if it wasn’t bad enough that he didn’t apologize or acknowledge that he’d dealt with the situation the wrong way, Xia Ke also had no idea how to properly make it up to Xing Yun. He didn’t even consider the fact that the best way to deal with someone who is angry at you is to show that you’re sorry about hurting them. Instead he just kept running after her, saying things like: “Seriously, you’re STILL angry?” and continued to look for opportunities to tell her how dumb and naive she was.
Trying to make up with someone without admitting fault and trying to divert the attention so they’ll forget about the issue is the worst way to go about it – I say, again, from personal experience.
I actually hated that Xia Ke eventually ‘made up for it’ by creating an amiable opportunity for Xing Yun at work, and got her to admit she’d been ‘acting childishly’.
In my opinion, those were two different things. There was work, where he helped her grow and get in the good favor with other departments as her boss, which she was allowed to feel grateful for. But the Chu Nan situation should’ve been separate from that. I still thought that Xia Ke had no right to butt in to how she dealt with the repercussions of her ruined engagement. As long as he didn’t apologize, he was never truly in my good favor.
I also thought it was completely out of line for him to order Xing Yun to apologize to He Yu after she defended herself when he tried to hit on her at that karaoke bar. Really, after just brushing over the Chu Nan issue without owning up to his own part in it, he just AGAIN gaslighted her for rightfully standing up for herself, and didn’t even blink at the notion that she’d gotten more sensitive to being approached by a random guy after almost getting kidnapped by one.
This part actually had me yelling at my screen for Xing Yun to stop apologizing because AGAIN, she had every right to be cautious with unfamiliar men that approached her. She didn’t owe He Yu anything, certainly not his medical expenses. He approached her with a seductive intent, knowing who she was, she defended herself, not recognizing him as more than a random drunk guy at a bar who was trying to grope her. She couldn’t be blamed for that.
Besides that, Xia Ke also knew what a jerk Ling Shan was, as he knew he had cheated on Shen Qing before. As a matter of fact, it’s eventually revealed that Xia Ke purposely hit Ling Shan with his car after finding out he was cheating on his sister. Ling Shan took the money their grandmother offered him to disappear and they made up the lie that he just abandoned Shen Qing to spare her feelings, not considering the possibility that Ling Shan would suddenly reappear four years later with every new intention to be a father to Xiao Xi and a husband to Shen Qing.
This was another thing I just couldn’t understand. Xia Ke should’ve just openly exposed Ling Shan from the start. I think it would’ve been much easier on Shen Qing to cut ties with him for good if she’d known about his previous infidelity. It was because she didn’t know that she was quicker to forgive him for suddenly disappearing on her and even giving him an opening back into her life.
Ling Shan turned out to be a scumbag that didn’t just cheat, but then even accepted a great sum of money from her family to bail on her without a single word, only to shamelessly turn up again four years later, pretending to care about his son while he just needed more money from Shen Qing’s wealthy family to pay off his debts.
By keeping the truth about Ling Shan’s harmful true nature from his sister, Xia Ke actually caused her more emotional damage, by lying in order to let her ‘keep the happy memories of her first love’.
I was so glad that Xing Yun managed to get it through his thick skull that the way he kept the truth from Shen Qing wasn’t the right way to go about it, and that she also would’ve preferred knowing the truth about Chu Nan. I feel like this was the first time she really got through to Xia Ke and made him realize that he had made a mistake, so that was something, I guess.
Though, as I said, it’s not that he seemed to learn from it. Even after going through these things and being repeatedly confronted with the fact that – believe it or not – people actually prefer to be told the truth, Xia Ke kept pulling this habit, causing more misunderstandings and damage than necessary. Admittedly, he did get better at it, but it always took him a while. Rather than immediately going to Xing Yun to clear the air about what was happening, he kept keeping her at bay and telling her not to worry while he took care of everything, which only caused more friction and distance between them. Like I said, I get that this was part of his personality and he probably just wasn’t good at breaking old habits, but I kept wondering why it didn’t occur to him that he only kept making the emotional damage on the other person bigger by acting like that.
Act #2: The Case of the TIG Game Leak (Episodes 13~18)
At the end of the first arc, Xia Ke finally starts treating Xing Yun a little bit better before He Yu turns up to mess everything up again. On top of the drama that unfolds between the two male leads, Xing Yun suddenly gets accused of leaking crucial information of the game: a rivalling company suddenly releases a promo video that’s almost exactly the same as TIG’s project. Xing Yun is immediately accused because she’s friends/ex-classmates with a woman who works at that rivalling company and they recently met up and took a selfie together.
Honestly, what the heck was up with that Mr. Duan (Zhang Shuo)?! He appeared out of nowhere to accuse Xing Yun based on the sole ‘evidence’ of one selfie and an out-of-context text message between her and her friend.
At this point, I was already not taking the continuous misunderstandings and gaslighting towards Xing Yun well. I also couldn’t believe Xia Ke didn’t at least stand up for her and just told her to take a paid leave. His intentions were good and he was just trying to keep her out of the crossfire while they searched for the real culprit, but acting like that in front of her only made it seem like he didn’t trust her and it only created more emotional distance between them. Every single time when it felt like they got a bit closer, something happened that made Xia Ke lash out at or push Xing Yun away again, it was really frustrating. At least in this case he did eventually explain his reason for her temporary suspension, but it still felt really unfair that other possibly responsible people were allowed to continue working and Xing Yun was the only one who had to stay home even though no one actually believed she was guilty. I get that it was to lure out the person who was actually responsible and to make her lay low until things blew over, but it still felt really unfair.
All in all, this whole arc felt to me like they were just dragging out the actual build-up between Xia Ke and Xing Yun, from the way they kept bringing new people into focus that suddenly went: “Oh, actually, I think I may have accidentally leaked it…” “Oh no, actually maybe I did…”.
Even after it was revealed who did it and Xing Yun’s innocence was proven, that freaking Mr. Duan KEPT being on her case. I honestly have no idea what his beef was with her. First he came out of nowhere to accuse her aggressively without any substantial evidence, and then even after her name was cleared he kept trying to cut her off from the project saying: “people like her are untalented and inexperienced”. Xing Yun literally carried that project and everyone at TIG loved her and vouched for her being an incredibly passionate and devoted employee, so where the heck did this guy’s judgement come from? Of course he also didn’t apologize for falselu accusing her of the leak, either.
Seriously, this arc was dragged out so much. They just kept spawning new people that suddenly somehow had a problem with Xing Yun and it got pretty exhausting.
My least favorite part of this arc was when Xing Yun took it on herself to resign. This situation actually had me pause the episode several times because I couldn’t take it anymore. I was constantly waiting for something to happen to lower my irritations, but they just kept building up instead.
The hate of Mr. Duan towards Xing Yun didn’t make any sense, let alone that he refused to give TIG his company’s investment as long as Xing Yun was kept on.
From what I understand, Xing Yun felt like she was standing in the way of the investment, because Mr. Duan would only agree to invest if she’d quit the team. This was quite a noble reason, since she basically sacrificed herself for the company, even though Xia Ke kept telling her not to worry and that he would take care of it. Xing Yun saw how much he was struggling and wanted to make things easier for him. It was a valid reason that also showed how far she was willing to go to save the game, even though it shouldn’t have been necessary.
So why in the holy name of all that’s holy, did she have to lie about that? Everyone knew why she truly quit, it was the most obvious and valid reason ever, so what the heck was up with that super random, irrelevant explanation that she quit because she ‘suddenly got together with He Yu and wanted to focus on building a household with him’? How did that have to do with anything?! It was so freaking random, especially since she’d just rejected He Yu and Xia Ke knew this.
Being Mr. Delusional, He Yu just popped out of nowhere to persuade her that she should pretend to date him because that would ‘ease’ Xia Ke’s guilt for her resignation as a result of his failure to secure her position at TIG. He Yu actually pretended to act in favor of his friend while taking advantage of the situation to put himself in the position of Xing Yun’s boyfriend. What the actual helly.
It didn’t just increase my annoyance with He Yu for literally not doing any work and still sticking to Xing Yun even after she clearly rejected him, but I could not for the life of me understand why Xing Yun went along with it, and how Xia Ke just immediately believed their lie, causing him to get all jealous and petty again. He knew she’d rejected He Yu already and what her true reason for quitting must have been, so that was just another piece of really unnecessary drama.
Why did everything have to get turned around like that all of a sudden for no reason except to create more misunderstandings?
When they built up Xing Yun’s resignation as such a sad and dramatic moment with flashbacks of all the good times she’d had at the company, I couldn’t feel anything because nothing about the entire situation made any sense. He Yu was literally the only one benefitting from it since he finally got to at least pretend to be Xing Yun’s boyfriend. He actually went that far to live out his fantasy.
This charade continued all the way until episode 17, when Xia Ke kissed Xing Yun on the ferris wheel and she finally admitted that He Yu wasn’t really her boyfriend.
Arc #3: The Return of the Bitchy Ex-Girlfriend (Episodes 20~24)
And then, after Xia Ke and Xing Yun FINALLY clear the air and become a couple, Xia Ke’s ex-girlfriend Zhang Sirui suddenly shows up for one final unnecessary dramatic showdown, and this made my annoyance towards Xia Ke act up even more.
Seriously, after everything the main couple went through and every single time Xing Yun had told him that she preferred him being honest with her over being kept in the dark, Xia Ke really didn’t seem to have learned a single thing.
First of all, he doesn’t even bother to clear the air with her about his past relationship with Zhang Sirui. Next, he starts lying to her and hurting her feelings again only to ‘protect’ her from getting targeted by reporters. My goodness, you’d really think he would’ve learned something and just be upfront with her saying: “Listen, I really want to celebrate your birthday with you but we might want to change locations because the reporters have already found this place.” But no, he just lies that ‘something came up’ on her freaking birthday, to which she of course responds with: “oh yeah no sure I totally didn’t get dolled up or anything and leave the house just now, who cares about birthdays amiright?” I am so sick and tired of people making themselves small to accommodate other people’s flakiness. If it were me, I would’ve demanded an explanation right there and then and told him: “Well, I just got ready and left my house, are you seriously just gonna stand me up like this?”
Even after Xing Yun had openly kissed him in front of Zhang Sirui at a public party, Xia Ke still pushed her away in front of the reporters, saying: “If you are worried about me, just put in more effort at work.” What the effing heck?! Like, I get that he didn’t want her to get ambushed by all the reporters and keep her out of the crossfire as much as possible (again), but to not give her a single explanation and just randomly give her the cold shoulder was unbelievable. I kept getting more and more baffled by how this progressed, even in the second-to-last episode.
I also hated how he just let the rumor about him and Zhang Sirui exist. Yes, he had already told her that he wasn’t into her anymore, but she kept persisting and the way he only walked away from her and avoided her wasn’t the way to go. Sure, Zhang Sirui was delusional for continuously pushing through even after learning he had a girlfriend and seeing him and Xing Yun being intimate together, but his way of handling it didn’t do anything to stop her. He should’ve taken her threats to not approve the assessment if he didn’t come back to her and sucking up to his grandma way more seriously and openly called her out for it. Xia Ke really had a knack for not clearing up rumors, we already saw that when people mistook Shen Qing for his girlfriend in the beginning, but this went too far.
As an overall note, I just didn’t like that they kept adding more and more drama to drive a wedge between the main leads until the very last episode.
Whereas Xia Ke was at least consistent in his roundabout way of dealing with things and keeping people he meant to protect in the dark, Xing Yun was quite inconsistent in her responses. One moment she kisses Xia Ke in public for anyone to see and to ‘mark her territory’ in front of Zhang Sirui and has no problem standing up for herself, the next she goes along with the most random and stupid ideas to help others and makes excuses for the behavior of people that actually did her dirty. One moment Xia Ke expresses his approval of Xing Yun’s public kiss, the next he gives her the cold shoulder again. For someone who literally said: “I’m gonna propose to Xing Yun as soon as we finish the project”, he was undeniably flaky in his treatment of her until the very end and I just didn’t wike it.
I just wanted a cute office romance that focussed on a healthy relationship between two people without too much added unnecessary drama around it. Instead, I got a lot of stress that was only eased by the emotional maturity of the majority of the women and the fun supporting characters.
I’ll keep it at that for my main criticisms. While they may sound very negative altogether, I just want to add that there were also many light and funny parts in-between that made everything more bearable, and I didn’t let my annoyance take over my entire watching experience.
I’d just like to make a few more separate notes about some aspects of the story and the show that jumped out to me while watching.
First of all, the element of the work field that the story focusses on. In the summary on MDL I thought they emphasized very much the aspect of Xing Yun developing her work skills and transforming from a sketch artist to a game designer/developer. When I think of dramas that center on gaming, I immediately think of Love O2O, which gives a real immersive insight into the workings of online RPGs. I always love to get a look inside a work field that I’m not familiar with, and so I was kind of curious to see how this series would depict the behind-the-scenes work that went into creating a game.
In that sense, I was a little disappointed. In hindsight, I don’t feel like I’ve learned anything about game design; despite the occasional jargon that was dropped and people playing games, they didn’t show any systems or programs that they worked with or gave any detailed summary of what their work actually entailed. As a matter of fact, I never truly understand what ‘Infinite Unknown Love’ was even about, or what the ‘instance zones’ were that they worked on for the project because they never really explained what it was and how exactly it related to the already existing dating simulator. Sometimes they’d just mention things like “oh, maybe we can add this kind of module!” and I was just sitting there like: “…what’s a module?😀“
I didn’t really notice Xing Yun’s transformation from artist to planner that much because all they ever did was talk about how much work she was doing rather than actually showing us the work she was doing. I think it would’ve been better if they’d focussed more on Xing Yun’s personal development at work instead of adding in all those irrelevant love triangles and misunderstandings. As someone with very little knowledge of how games are actually made, I would’ve found it more interesting if they’d zoomed in a bit more on the contents of TIG’s work, but that’s just a personal preference, I guess.
Apart from that, I also couldn’t help but notice that the writers were not very creative when it came to having different people respond to certain situations differently.
Firstly, they kept bringing back the trope of people blackmailing each other through work, based on personal feelings. He Yu, Mr. Duan and Zhang Sirui all refused to cooperate with TIG based on some kind of personal issue with either Xing Yun or Xia Ke, which overall made them look very unprofessional. I honestly find it hard to believe that this happens in real life, that a woman refuses to approve a report from her ex-boyfriend only because he refuses to get back together with her. Especially in a corporate business environment, surely this wouldn’t actually be tolerated? I can only hope there are more people like Director Qin who tell their employees off for such behavior.
Secondly, was it just me or did every single character deal with their sorrows by drinking them away? This was honestly quite an unhealthy depiction of dealing with things. I think it would’ve been a bit more interesting and realistic to see people respond to and deal with situations in different ways. I can’t help but think about Just Between Lovers, which is the perfect example of how one tragedy can impact different people in all kinds of different ways. I personally would’ve like to see some more variety in the characters’ respective coping mechanisms, rather than seeing everyone drunk at a bar every time they faced a disappointment.
Now that I think about the title a bit more, I believe the nickname ‘Lucky’ is only mentioned once in the very first episode, when Xing Yun introduces herself through a narration. No one actually calls her ‘Lucky’ throughout the entire show. Of course there are more than enough references to the meaning of her name and the lucky cat that Xia Ke buys for her is basically a paid actor, so the title still makes enough sense, but I did find that peculiar.
I also feel like there’s something to be said about the official title ‘The World Owes Me a First Love’. On the one hand, I feel like it’s quite a fitting title, especially if you look at how many failed and fake relationships Xing Yun goes through before finally developing real romantic feelings for the first time.
At their wedding in the last episode, Xing Yun tells Xia Ke that she finally realized that a first love isn’t necessarily the first person you date, but the first person you truly fall in love with. While I didn’t find that a particularly mind-blowing new perspective, it did make me reflect on her relationship with Xia Ke. In hindsight, I still feel like the build-up in their relationship wasn’t the most healthy, and I couldn’t really tell when exactly Xing Yun started falling for Xia Ke, but I guess all that matters is that they managed to find their way back to each other in-between every arc.
By the way, can I just say that I actually found the double wedding kind of cheap?🥲 The way they framed it was that He Yu and Yao Qing planned their wedding and Xia Ke and Xing Yun just jumped on the opportunity to join them, lol. I don’t really know what to think of it. On the one hand it was original and kind of sweet, but I couldn’t help but go: “Really, Xia Ke? You couldn’t even come up with a way to propose to her without asking help from your employees, and now you’re also not even gonna give her a personal wedding ceremony?” He really wasn’t good at coming up with ideas and meaningful gestures by himself.
Finally, I’d just like to make one final comment on Xing Yun’s hair. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a wig, seeing how her hair was always styled the exact same way with the only exception of it occasionally being tied back in a ponytail. Heck, they couldn’t even give her a nice hair variation at her wedding! The same went for Yao Qing by the way, she was always rocking that top bun, even though I believe she did let her hair down at a bar at some point. But yeah, I’m not really sure why they couldn’t change up Xing Yun’s hairstyle every now and then, that wouldn’t have cost anything, right?
To sum up my final comments with a positive remark, one thing that really stood out to me in this drama was the acting. As much as the characters aggravated me, that didn’t have anything to do with the actors’ performances, just with the writing. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen such natural and down-to-earth acting in a C-Drama. C-Dramas are usually kind of low on my list since the acting tends to be a bit over-the-top and the overly apparent dubbing often ruins it for me, but in that sense this drama really raised the bar. Even if they used dubbing, I barely noticed it. I loved how Xing Yun’s voice was a bit lower, and I thought overall everyone’s voices matched the actors very well (again, I’m not sure if there even was any dubbing, that’s how natural it sounded). In that sense, no matter how annoying some characters got, I could at least appreciate the actors’ performances, the humor was really good, the sound effects to certain facial expressions were great. I really liked the quality of the series, also in how it was filmed and it was nice to finally have some decent English subtitles as well.
Finally, we have come to the cast comments section! As is common with Chinese series, I didn’t know any of the actors, so I can only comment on them based on their performances in this drama.
I see that I have a couple more dramas starring Bai Lu on my watchlist, so I’m looking forward to seeing more of her acting. I really liked her performance as Xing Yun. Despite all the flaws of her personality, I thought she portrayed the role with a very down-to-earth vibe and I really liked her facial expressions. C-Dramas tend to be quite conventional in their portrayal of gender stereotypes within romantic relationships, so I appreciated it that she was often the one calling Xia Ke out for his flaky behavior. Even though Xing Yun wasn’t the most sentimental person (again, a nice change for a female lead), I think Bai Lu put in a lot of feeling in her deliverance of Xing Yun’s more emotional moments and monologues. She had really nice chemistry with the rest of the cast as well, she seemed very at ease with her surroundings. I’m really curious to see her act in different roles now (and see her with different hair).
Just like with his co-star, I have a couple of dramas with Xing Zhao Lin on my watchlist, so I hope I’ll get to see him act in more different settings as well. Although I have to say that I found him quite the stereotypical choice for the rich and handsome boss, I did like how he switched between a cold pokerface and a playful smirk. As I said before, I was mostly annoyed by the way his character was written, not by how the actor portrayed him. I think he did a pretty solid job and showed proper variety. The story didn’t drive him to the edge in terms an actual crash-out or emotional breakdown, which wasn’t bad per se, but I did wonder what would need to happen for Xia Ke to actually melt down. He seemed to be such an easygoing guy who never bothered dealing with rumors and brushed emotional outbursts away, but I couldn’t help but think it would’ve been cool to see a slightly deeper layer to his psyche. Apart from that, and besides all my criticisms with regards to how Xia Ke was as a person, I liked Xing Zhao Lin’s performance.
Apparently, this was Zhai Zi Lu’s second drama project, so he really hadn’t been doing it for a very long time when this aired. Let’s be honest: in terms of appearance and vibe, he was the best casting option for playboy He Yu. I’m not going to deny that he was handsome and had a kind of devilish charm about him. I’m mostly disappointed at the writers for making him such an unbearable manchild, but Zhai Zi Lu did a really good job at it. I really liked his chemistry with his fellow actors, specifically Xing Zhao Lin and Chen Hao Lan. I’m glad to say that in the case of this drama, I was able to appreciate the actors’ performances enough to not let the characters ruin the vibe for me. He brought a cool energy, and I bet I would’ve actually liked He Yu a lot more if he’d been written as more than a playboy that turned obsessive once he actually fell for someone. A bit more depth, a bit more compassion and some emotional maturity, and I’m sure Zhai Zi Lu would have pulled off a much more sympathetic character. I see I have one more show with him on my watchlist, so I’m curious to see far he’s come in his acting since this show.
Just like Zhao Zi Lu, this was also Chen Hao Lan’s second drama project, which surprises me because she seemed incredibly natural at acting! As I said in my review, Yao Qing was one of my favorite characters, I loved how emotionally mature and strong she was and that she never let her personal feelings influence her actions, unlike so many others. Chen Hao Lan brought a really cool energy to her character which made her very relatable and likeable. I still love how chill she was after that one-night stand with He Yu, while he was like 😵💫😵💫😵💫, lol. She had a really natural chemistry with her fellow (male) co-stars and seemingly had no problem standing above them. Same as with every other actor in this show apparently, there are some more dramas with her on my watchlist, so I’m really excited to see more of her.
Liu Ruo Yan currently has eight drama projects to her name, starting from 2017, which isn’t a lot compared to her fellow actors in this show. I also currently don’t have anything else from her on my watchlist, so I’ll have to check out some new shows to see her again. In any case, I really loved her portrayal of Shen Qing. Despite her emotional arc in the beginning, I appreciated how mentally strong she was and her chemistry with little Fu Bo Han and Huang Ji Dong was really sweet. I loved how she was able to switch between her tough love and her compassion and vulnerability. She exuded something really warm and welcoming, which was perfect for Shen Qing. It’s a shame she kind of disappeared after her arc ended, I’m glad she at least kept coming back every now and then. She did a great job!
This show was actually Huang Ji Dong’s debut drama! He also only has eight dramas to his name as of this moment, starting from this one in 2019. Despite my criticisms on how Chu Nan was written, I do think he portrayed the role very well and as I said, I wish we could’ve gotten to know him whilst he was already with Shen Qing and Xiao Xi because he really seemed like the sweetest guy when he was with them. My issues with his character are purely directed at how he was written to use Xing Yun and force his relationship with her for such a weird reason and acting so spineless. He seemed like a genuine actor, he has a nice friendly face and vibe, so I hope he has been able to build up his acting career more since then. I do see on MDL that he’s only had supporting roles so far. Anyways, again, I may not have liked his character based on the first impression we got from him, but I still thought he did a great job.
What I loved about little Fu Bo Han was that he wasn’t just cute, but he also seemed so natural whenever he appeared. I’ve seen child actors in C-Dramas before that really just say their lines but you can kind of tell that they’re not completely understanding or immersed in the acting yet, which can’t be helped of course. But this little boy, a seven-year old playing a four year-old, actually impressed me with his pure energy and enthusiasm. He actually seemed to understand what he was doing, even at his young age, and that was really impressive. I’m not surprised that he’s already done so many dramas starting from 2019. I really loved him as Xiao Xi, and how he portrayed the little boy’s emotions when he suddenly came to stand in-between his dad of choice Chu Nan and his biological father Ling Shan. He did so well!
So far, Zhou Rui Jun has only done five dramas and two movies, which is surprising. I was even wondering if I hadn’t seen her in anything before, but apparently not. Of course it’s always kind of a curse to portray the evil ex-girlfriend, all the more when she appears at the end of the story to cause some last minute drama. As much as I disliked her character Zhang Sirui, I do want to compliment Zhou Rui Jun on making her so unbearable. I always say that when you truly come to hate a character, it just means that the actor is doing a good job, and she definitely did a good job. I still feel like the writers did her dirty by kind of throwing in that claustrophobia element when it never actually led anywhere, but Zhou Rui Jun did a solid job with what she was given.
Li Lin Fei has such a lovely vibe around her, I really enjoyed her performance as Amy. It was great to see that she was such a genuine friend and ally to Xing Yun, even if her work position sometimes disabled her from standing up for her at work and going against Xia Ke. I really loved her facial expressions and proactive attitude, and how she remained so professional whilst being a total gossip girlie. It was nice to see a little glimpse from her perspective when she temporarily left TIG and immediately came back when the company came back on track again because she just belonged there. I’m really glad they didn’t make things too awkward with her being Xia Ke’s secretary, like make her fall for him as well or something. I keep thinking back to Jugglers, where even fellow secretary friends started rivalling against each other, so it was a relief that her work position never came between Xia Ke and Xing Yun and she only ever encouraged their relationship. I hope I’ll get to see more of her soon!
Apparently Jessie Li also appeared in Love til the End of Summer, although I don’t remember her character and I also don’t think I mentioned her in my review at the time. In any case, I really liked Yi Yi, just her vibe and style. She had great facial expressions and natural acting and her chemistry with Bai Lu and Li Lin Fei as the Unit of Three from TIG (that rhymes) was really fun to watch. I appreciated that Yi Yi immediately came to Xing Yun when she realized she might have been responsible for the game leak, and that she didn’t decide to stay quiet and betray her friend out of shame for her own actions (I mean, it happens!). I’m just glad she always remained true to her friends and the company and genuinely supported Xing Yun in any way. Apart from the fact that I would’ve liked Amy and Yi Yi to get a bit more backstory to flesh them out as individual characters a little bit more, these girls and their unwavering support of the female lead really made the show more enjoyable to watch for me. I hope I get to see Jessie Li in more things!
We’ve reached the end of this review! Despite it being quite a straightforward story, I still had some trouble constructing this review since a lot of things happen and I didn’t just want to go on a rant about all the criticisms I had about it. All in all, I think the lesser points like the structure of the story and the emotionally immature male lead characters were made bearable by the strong female characters and the quality of the show and the acting.
I’m still kind of disappointed that this wasn’t the cute and uncomplicated office romance that I thought it would be, and that the focus was mainly on adding more and more unnecessary drama between the main leads. I would’ve preferred zooming in more on Xing Yun’s personal development while she honed her skills at work. Still, despite my frustrations I was able to appreciate the actors’ performances, and that allowed me to still have an enjoyable watching experience.
I’m always excited to discover more Chinese actors and it seems like I will be seeing most of the main cast from this show in other shows in the future, so I’m really curious about that.
I’m glad my Spin-the-Wheel app has started to mix things up again, and I am very curious to see what I’ll be watching next. I’m not sure yet when I’ll be uploading my next review since I’m going to get busy with work, concerts and a new musical theatre season, but I will be back as soon as I can.
Thanks for reading this until the end and see you soon!
Bye-bee! x
