CAST: Zhang Han and Zanilia Zhao

DIRECTOR: Liu Junjie

Based off Gu Man’s very popular internet novel, the story tells of a kind hearted young girl named Xue Shan Shan (Zhao Li Ying) who works at a big conglomerate as a finance assistant. She is from Hunan and making a life for herself in a big city like Shanghai is tough but she must do it for her family. She is naïve, cute and very vulnerable. However one of her weaknesses is eating, she loves to eat, and so upon discovering this her boss, Feng Teng (Zhang Han) decides to intentionally fatten her up; she just so happens to share the same blood type as his sister, and thus has the motive of making her the blood donor. Hence comedy ensues as she melts his heart with her exceptional appetite and her innocent, cute charm.

Shan Shan is perhaps one of the most cute, vulnerable and innocent characters ever written. She does not exasperate the audience with her lack of ambition or ignorance. She clicks and connects with the audiences in the most natural manner. She gets not only addictive for Feng Teng, she grows on us as she grows on him.

Her character growth as she faces set backs and heart breaks is one of the strongest writing we have seen in Cdramas. As she realizes her potential she becomes a more mature and determined woman. But she is a character who puts her man first and she is not afraid to be judged for it in the feministic context.

Feng Teng’s character is most enigmatic. Anyone would fall for it. He is cold and difficult to decipher but you can feel the entire process of him getting obsessed with Shanshan as he watches her eat her lunch everyday behind the shaded windows of his office balcony. You can see how his moods start mapping themselves to hers and he falls deep head over heals.

In a world where a high profile heir like him would have fallen for someone equal to him in stature- he falls for her purity and innocence, worries for her gullible view of life and people around her and protects her unbeknownst by her.

He worries how their relationship and what attention comes with it may change or effect her. In the end he just supports her through her mistakes, learnings and helps her become her own personality with her own ideas and dreams.

Where can we find a Feng Teng please?

As an audience, you understand why Feng Teng fell for Shan Shan and why he wants to protect and hide her from the big bad world. You root for them and you keep rooting and be invested till the story does not conclude.

You want to cuddle shanshan too. You giggle when she her mind voice is how yours would be in those situations – when she has to decipher things and situations to make up for Feng Teng’s mood swings and his low communication frequency. And you want to cry with her when she sees Lishu kiss Feng Teng. The pain hits your heart.  But she had to pass over all those things in order to become the strong and determined woman and especially when Feng Teng finally concedes that his little fatty Shahshan has grown up.

Ultimately she achieves a level of equality with him when she realizes that  she may not be the best person for Feng Teng, but she would do anything in order to be the best version of herself for him.

NGL, Li Shu was one of the worst antagonists in cdrama history. Not because she loved Feng Teng but how she treats the naïve Shanshan and how she tries to create misunderstandings between the two lovers. Even when Feng Teng tells her he does not feel anything for her, she continues to torment Shanshan.

Giddy, beautiful slow burn romance with very beautifully created characters. This series streams on Netflix