listen im not particularly picky when it comes to romance especially not shoujo ai so me having enough interest to complete this was a nobrainer. really you could give me the most boring shoujo ai manga on earth and id still give it a high rating. that aside though it fell off at some parts and i didnt particularly like some tropes and aspects of it. i found some characters to be quite...creepy in a way? perhaps im overthinking this but i found cui xins interest in qi lin and cang shus relationship quite odd and some parts were just flatout unnecessary. side note: it may have just been the translation i cant speak chinese fluently enough so i cant really confirm but i found some of the language used to be quite....eh i actually started reading this quite a long time ago but ended up dropping it for reasons that i couldnt remember but now that ive picked it up again and read it until the end i think i kind of remember why i didnt go through with it then. but ill put these complaints aside and praise it now. i actually liked how it approached character flaws and trauma. cang shu for example is someone i can say i somewhat relate to. that fear of failure is something that i strongly feel myself and to see a character have that same fear and experience it almost exactly the same way as i do was something that made me feel quite satisfied. its a small thing i know but seeing pieces of myself in characters in media i consume is something i find quite nice. also i liked how cui xins whole thing with his gender was dealt with. the whole arc surrounding him and his identity as kyokochan was honestly one of my favorite parts. that fear he felt as the issue regarding his persona and his true identity began to spread and that pain he felt as the hate comments started coming in was something that really hit me. the frustration he felt as people began to spread misinformation and misconceptions about what happened was played out so well that i got mad too. i think my favorite part of the arc was when a fan messaged him and told him about his story about how he like cui xin liked wearing skirts and dresses and presenting feminine and was ridiculed and shamed for it. what happens after was somewhat of a tearjerker for me because cui xins words kind of struck a cord. i saw a part of myself in that fan i felt something similar. so sure maybe what cui xin said was quite frankly bare minimum at best but bare minimum doesnt necessarily mean its bad. i felt seen and i liked that. final verdict: would recommend if you arent particularly nitpicky about what language and tropes are used but if you are then i wouldnt really say its a mustread. its a pretty cute read though so id say just give it a try and simply drop it if you think it doesnt suit your taste.