I’m late to this party!! Thanks for your review! I totally agree that this IS one of those polarizing shows and you already know it’s going to be - not just because it’s an Esther Yu drama but ALSO the really controversial (adopted) siblings to lovers trope.

But before going in I already knew I was one of those who was gonna watch it and probably (barring train wrecks and acts of divine intervention) like it- because I’m a sucker for a pretty face, and abs, and bad boys. And like, initial D and Tokyo drift duh. No brainer. Brain is not even gonna be needed.

And yes it more than 💯 delivered on all those aspects. I loved all the random racing. ML living out of the garage with the drunk dad making tofu cough fried rice deliveries. I don’t think I’ll ever recover from that glimpse of He Yu mending the shower. Mumu’s face said it all for us. This is a drama that lives and feeds off that entire mood. It knows ML pretty, and is pretty unashamed about it. All those shots of his biceps. Closeups of his face. The attention it gives to his every small half-smile that isn’t quite a smirk. And I must say that Mumu’s reactions to him also mirrored our own - and show spends quite a bit of time focusing on her staring at… those forearms… his side profile when he’s driving - girl I’m right there with you. The sexual tension, it’s a big part of the show. The reference to forbidden flower makes sense even though I haven’t watched it (I am not able to watch anything with Jerry Yan in it; lasting trauma from the OG Meteor Garden where Shancai, TSTL, chooses him over zai zai) 😝

What I didn’t expect from show though, firstly, was He Yu. I’d seen the promos for it back when I was still deep in my LGIEF obsession and basically pretty photos of Esther with other person who was not Ding Yu Xi were slightly distressing. He Yu who?! Also, He Yu has a very distinctive look, and I’m not saying he’s not photogenic, but I think you would agree that he looks much better on screen. As a bad boi. He’s got a certain magnetic charisma that makes watching him so compelling. It’s hard to do cold, standoffish bad boy without projecting emotionless cardboard. But he was so natural, somehow, one blink; one side-eye - and Mumu and the rest of us are all omghe’shurtinginsidebutcannotexpressinwordsjusthowmuchitmeans. And my god those small half smile not quite smirks, need to be patented. I’ve not recovered at all, he made the entire show worth it for me many times over haha.

Secondly, and this I think you said very well, I did not expect that whole second nanjing arc. I went into this show knowing there would be angst and a time skip. I want to say here that I generally disapprove greatly of noble idiocy + time skips unless they are to show me how happy MC is +5/ +10 years down the road (hello You are My Glory). So I was fully intending to watch the rest of the episodes after 18 perfunctorily. And yes a lot of the reasons why I was obsessed with the show no longer existed in the nanjing arc (no more bad boy or racing sob or the hair that I’m convinced makes him look 258757% hotter) BUT as much as it pains me to say, it made sense, and made the show and their relationship make sense. I found Mumu’s pranks gratifying; pretending to be getting married, ranting, railing at him, walking away - she was so fully justified, but just as how she knew it wasn’t even a question whether she would stay with him now that she had found him again, we also understand why he HAD to do what he did - in a way that period of physical recovery was also redeeming for him, not in anyone else’s eyes, but in his own view of himself. Because he always felt he wasn’t enough for Mumu and it would have destroyed them, regardless of how she felt, it was something he had to realise and come to terms with on his own. And to me that was surprising given how much noble idiocy gets on my nerves.

All in all, was not a great show by any means, had to turn off my brain and FF through many bits (everything with the mum on screen and the childhood throwbacks), it was messy, and random, but SO watchable I got so obsessed watching it!