I feel like between Zhou Ye and Xu Kai neither have had a well performing C-drama in each of their last forays and joining together for this outing in Spring of the Blade just continued their lackluster performances. The drama has earned it’s low 5.4 Douban opening ratings after a slew of criticism from the start with the dumb script, poor directing, bad acting and chemistry, and overall giving off budget drama vibes. This drama is like the polar opposite same time slot airing bizarro twin to Against the Current and it’s strong reception and praise, a good reminder that it’s really hard to make a good drama and getting popular stars in the typical revenge plot doesn’t guarantee anything.