I've been watching Korean dramas the past 3 years and Taiwanese and Thai dramas for the past 2, but I had avoided Chinese dramas up until this one.
I don't tend to write reviews for shows I really really love or hate, I write them for the ones where I don't know how I feel about them. So to organize my feelings I will first write about what I didn't like and them what I did like.

So what I didn't like first of all where all the things that got set up that the writer just didn't end up picking up again, or were forgotten. (very mild cryptic spoilers ahead) For example, why did the sister get a flower? We never saw her again after that. And how could he've considered blowing that guy up in that house, after whats revealed later? And it may've been because I wasn't focusing but what did Tommy actually dig up? could someone please tell me?

I also didn't love the female leads character, she was set up to be strong and confident but in the end she kind of cried a lot and was saved by the male lead a lot, her acting was great, I just didn't love the character.
But the main thing I didn't like was that this show couldn't go through with any dramatic decisions. Any big deaths, that left me thinking "wow! good on you show for killing off that character/ those characters, that's a bold move!" ten minutes later were like, "guess what...they weren't really dead!" and it just felt like a cop out and it made big dramatic moments less dramatic, because you quickly realize no ones life is really on the line.

For what i did like, I liked the set up of the relationship of our 2 leads. There were some very cute scenes in the lead up of them becoming a couple (the accidental kiss!!!) and their first real kiss was all sorts of amazing! But after a while their relationship kind of started to bore me, but the few cute scenes they did have throughout the show did reignite my love for the pairing.
The second thing I liked- no LOVED was Wallace Huo, his acting...straight up amazing. As was Edward Zhang, the 2 of them were the big standouts of the show for me.
I liked the early mystery's and the long mystery for the second half of the show at times was a real chore to get through, but then it also had certain moments where I was squealing because it was so intense and insane. But there were a few too many "hes the guy! No, actually he's the guys! No, wait its him we've been looking for!" -it got a little bit tiring and I was only paying half attention to the final 2 episodes. (I was more of an Edward Zhang fan!)

This was a good choice for my first Chinese drama, it had brilliant acting and it was also a lot shorter than the average Chinese drama. Although I had a lot of issues with the drama I can see why people love it and why its quickly become a classic. I wouldn't watch it again because I know all the reveals, but was it a fun journey to find them out for the first time...mostly, yeah. I will definitely be watching more Chinese dramas in the future.

(P.S But they better not give me any more Breaking Dawn Part 2 endings like that, what the hell was that???)