Over the weekend saw the premiere of new iQiyi period romance and revenge C-drama Spring of the Blade (一瓯春 Yi Ou Chun) adapted from the same name web novel. Starring Xu Kai and Zhou Ye, the drama is so far off to an average start. The highest it has hit is 8000 within the streaming portal so far and probably won’t go much higher if the first impression reviews are to be believed. There are more criticism than positive feedback with criticism centered around the stiff acting of both leads especially Zhou Xu, a particularly far-fetched plot, and cold chemistry so far with the two stars. The female lead’s revenge plotting is being called so lame and dumb and require the antagonists to also react in stupid ways to make it happen. And making the two leads work together feels like such an artificially construction connection. Lastly, Zhou Ye has once again gotten more buzz in this drama for mockery on her bad acting with a meme video going around of her “crying” scene that is being called soooooo bad for how she’s trying to show sad emotion but failing because it’s clear she doesn’t want to also look unpretty onscreen hence the awkward crying.