At the end of the day, the core of any good drama remains the Story, it has to grip the viewers to give it tens of episodes to unfold and take us on a journey. The Story of Pearl Girl even has story in the title but sadly it had a very uninteresting story. Coupled with choppy directing it just couldn’t gain any traction despite coming in with tons of buzz and promotions. The acting was solid IMO, the chemistry was still there with leads Zhao Lu Si and Liu Yu Ning, and you can see the budget spent on all the jewelry and outfits and making the visuals looks rich but it wasn’t enough to overcome a story about one girl’s transformation into jewelry magnate and along the way having a side romance that didn’t develop enough sizzle before the fizzle was put out midway and now just sits in the corner occasionally peeking its head out to remind viewers it’s still alive. The opening Douban ratings are here and at 6.3 it feels apropos. After the push early last week to transform the drama from girl power to CP shipping trotting out the OTP for couples stuff, all the promos have since stopped and Youku is basically letting this just finish airing before moving on.