> A non-conventional & Intelligent drama that get you laughing but the story gets dreary later

Guo Qn Lin as Ning Yi does not have the handsome face of a typical male lead, nor does he have years of experience as an actor. He is a former comedian and regular in TV shows. It is these experience that gives him this aura as an actor that pushed him up to his popularity as Fan Si Zhe, the cute brother in Joy of Life. It is his cunningness to trick his opponent, his talent to win friends, his sweet relationship with Su Tan Er, his consciousness for what's right and what's wrong that makes him very attractive as a male lead to all the ladies in the show. The way he talks in his own voice, especially when he delivers long lines, creates a positive mood and makes the audience want to listen to him. Just like when listening to the perfect way a comedian talks..

> This drama is overall enjoyable but there is a large amount of dissonance between the first and second halves.

**The first half** is basically a transmigration business comedy, where the main character helps his wife succeed in business and family politics. There are a lot of fun shenanigans and interesting moments despite the small scale of the story. Ning Yi's journey from becoming a Matrilocal husband to really falling in love with Tan Er is a sound love story. However, the first half sets up viewer expectations for how the second half of the drama will progress and these expectations are not met.

**The second half** is more of a political story and despite the higher in-world stakes, the writing and plotting is much less clever. The story is also much less funny. The second half isn't necessarily bad and it could have been a good drama by itself but the amount of dissonance transitioning from the first to the second halves really hampered my enjoyment of the story.

Overall, the acting is good. The production is clearly fairly low budget but everything looks decent. The plotting is very contrived but the characters are charming and dialogue is well-written.

The Beginning ties with the ending ...The importance of brotherhood and have one's back is shown throughout the story. If you understand Sun Tze's Art of War, you know all the tactics are deployed not only as a cloth merchant but also as a conquering Jing strategy. The weak crown Prince of Wu and his weak personality are shown. His Ministers and Generals' disrespect is why the previous Emperor doubts before he died to plan a Secret division and gave a secret eredict to Minister Qin. Although the bandit arc is long and tedious, there's a great significance as to why it went that way. Corruption, disloyalty and even cunningness have always been in ancient Chinese literature. If you can understand this, you know why the bandit arc is of great significance to Ning Yi's story. He had to make a hard decision; let Lin'an fall or be killed for trying knowing that he at least tried. Xi Gua (watermelon) will be a significant support cast for Season 2, I hope as i really loved her pairing with Ning Yi than Tan'er ..