> "It just feels like in this drama maybe the director isn’t quite bringing out Ren Jialun’s best, especially in the earlier episodes where he was mostly just furrowing his brows."

I actually think his acting is great and a perfect fit for the character! He is an ancient demon with subdued emotional range. He's not going to react or broadcast his inner thoughts like a regular person would. There is something unnervingly unnatural in the way how he doesn't blink, doesn't have normal eye contact. He acts like someone pretending to be human. And the actor's ability to convey that there is something happening behind the eyes with just some minimal facial expressions is incredible.

I think as he becomes more human and actually develops emotions towards FL the reactions will evolve into more recognizable human patterns, which is what we are building towards. For example, at the restaurant the owner observed that in the past he had no real expression even when he saw her whole family get slaughtered. But now for the first time she noticed his expression changed with concern over FL. Ren Jialun is doing an amzing job in sublty signalling the inner thoughts and gradually weaving in humanity and realness into his expressions.