![]() ![]() There's a nice bit of fan servicing or should I say lip servicing from Episode 16 onwards. When she's not romancing him, she's doing cosmetics livestreaming with her bestie Lu Anan (Li Xinran) who doubles up as love interest for Xicheng's PA and brother-in-arms, Situ Shuo (Wang Xudong). Lin Xiyi is the good-hearted Xixi whose good naturedness is calculated to thaw the CEO faster than the speed of sound. Besides I watch these things mostly to see the male lead fall for his fated love and I wasn't disappointed. ![]() He doesn't have to extraordinarily good here (and he's not) but he does enough to convince me that he's in love with Xixi. I liked his chemistry with Lin Xiyi who plays the woman he falls for. Luo Zheng certainly looks the part and easily slips into the one-woman-only man role with ease. The show makes no claim to originality but gets plenty of mileage (as one might expect) from having attractive actors at the helm. His fixation with Xixi comes across as rude but it can't be disputed that it keeps Gu Xicheng on his toes. He too may or may not have special feelings for Su Yanxi aka He Jinxi. Then there's Fu Boye, a childhood friend of Su Yanxi. In no time she turns into an emotional basket case when she can't take "no" for an answer. the clingy type who is an utter disgrace to womanhood with her antics. One being Nangong Liuli, who has the oddest idea that Gu Xicheng used to be in love her ie. It's everything we've seen before but of course this is a 24 episode C drama and obstacles to happiness must come into it sooner or later. Moreover, like all tsunderes that have come beforehand, he is a man living with trauma and abandonment issues. Meanwhile he romances her like there's no tomorrow proving that there's a beating heart 'neath the harsh exterior. Soon he's pleading for her to stay and indeed who can resist those puppy dog eyes? She succumbs to the wooing but suffers pangs of guilt from time to time for the deception, dreading the day that he will have to be told about her real name. In predictable fashion, the nicer younger sister enters the Gu household and very quickly the tsundere CEO, Gu Xicheng falls for her winsome ways affecting an indifference he doesn't feel. ![]() Being the good grandson that he is, (and he's probably sick of the nagging too) he complies and settles on He Jinxi who forces her twin sister Su Yanxi to take her place to fulfil the contract. Right out of the romance playbook is the grumpy but ridiculously good-looking CEO who is being pestered by his doting grandmother who uses her ailing health to force him into finding a bride ASAP. Hence things play out very much by the numbers: sign the contract, cohabitate, misunderstandings, feelings develop, obstacles from within and without, last-minute separation and then the happily-ever-after. Too much can undoubtedly lead to indigestion. In other words, it's unabashedly a tropefest. It's moreish, a guilty pleasure and we know exactly what's on offer. I'm a sucker for contract marriage tropes in the same way people hanker for Korean fried chicken. (A Business Proposal did test my resolve) Despite the fact that the C drama production line churns them out as if entire livelihoods depend on them, I always manage to find one to suit the mood I'm in. Formulaic and Fun Fluff In decades of television watching, I haven't met a contract relationship drama that I find completely unbearable. ![]()
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