I know this pictorial screams Out of Africa or The English Patient but it also brings back all the expectation and dash hopes of a previous drama to novel adaptation. C-actress Liu Shi Shi graces the cover and pages of the July 2023 edition of Elle China and it’s a shoot set in the backdrop of a desert and plateau. It totally whisks me away a decade ago when Liu Shi Shi starred in the C-drama adaptation of Da Mo Yao (Ballad of the Desert), she was perfectly cast but I could not get behind the two male leads one of whom should have played the other character. So alas one of my favorite novels became a drama I couldn’t finish but it’s all good, Shi Shi will be back in the wuxia C-drama A Journey to Love and is currently filming the second installment of the Fox Spirit Matchmaker series the Zhu Ye chapter.