If the author had just stuck to the school youth slice of life formula I wouldn't be bothered, but I really feel the conflict in this story towards the end is cheap and unrealistic. It uses the drama caused by homophobic parents to force a separation, but minimizes all the consequences. Having your father drag you to mother's grave to force you to confess to her tombstone that you're a homos*xual is such a despicable and hateful act. Especially considering Jiang Ou was used as a kind of substitute for Mingyang's first wife. Tell me which is more disgraceful? The only consolation is that Sheng Wang doesn't forgive his father. Unfortunately, he doesn't cut him off completely either. Jiang Ou can be forgiven only as far as she did not force the separation, but her existence serves as a kind of emotional blackmail that prevents Jiang Tian from pursuing Sheng Wang because she'll have a mental health crisis whenever he's mentioned. This all sounds serious but the only real consequence of it is that we're given a six year time skip. The author really just wanted to skip straight to the reunion lmao.

As many other critics have pointed out, the main characters are somewhat 'overpowered'. For example, despite being publicly outed Sheng Wang faces no discrimination either from his school or his classmates. Despite being deprived of a welcoming home, being abandoned by his sweetheart, and cutting financial ties with his father, Sheng Wang isn't described as facing any real hardship. He continues to dominate academically and even though the author tries to pretend he is mediocre Sheng Wang still has no trouble qualifying to enter national training teams and obtaining other outstanding achievements. If we were to tell a more realistic story we'd have to completely re-imagine our characters as somewhat ordinary.

If you want to read how things might have gone if everything was less than perfect here's an idea:

The reunion feels forced and the love feels fake. This ending feels like something written just to please readers who consider anything less than together-forever-true-love-monogamy to be a bad ending. Worse, it's probably the product of sheer laziness, as the author simply has no capacity to imagine an ending where Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian don't end up together.

MC and ML nearly became half brothers. they lived under the same house but were pretty standoffish to one another at the start. then they bonded over schoolwork, fell in love, and started dating secretly under their parent's noses. ml's side of the family has unresolved family drama and that comes to bite him in the ass, which ultimately forced MC and ML apart. years down the road, they reunite as working adults and leave behind the drama to start a new life together.

jiang tian's mom and dad let their own childhood drama get in the way of their happiness and their son had to shoulder the aftermath of their failed relationship. in the last quarter of the story the author focused a lot on their backstory, and tried to make the mom all pitiful and such, but I could not muster a single ounce of symapthy at all. the mom couldn't get her life together after a divorce and was incredibly negligent - essentially abandoning jiang tian during his most formative years even though she had custody. after they reconciled, jiang tian had to help her shoulder the emotional baggage that she couldn't make peace with after all these years. and as the cherry on top, she has the audacity to lose her sh*t (publicly!! in the middle of a crowded hospital!!) at the prospect of her son being gay. and despite all that, jiang tian still had it in him to support her in her recovery. she is a grown ass adult of her own devices, she knows she hurt jiang tian, yet even til the end of the story she did not say a single sorry. I absolutely can't stand her.

i also disliked how she tried to treat sheng wang as her own to overcompensate for her failures. like... lady, your biological son is still here, why don't you treat him right before thinking of raising another one??

also not a fan of sheng wang's dad for forcibly separating the two. my impression of him took a nose dive after that stunt he pulled trying to shame sheng wang in front of his deceased mother's grave. and that "jiang tian goes, or you go" was so incredibly manipulative I was genuinely shocked he had it in him to pull that bs.

it's funny because my first impression of the parents were pretty good, but as the story went on it's glaringly obvious they have a long way to go.

When Jiang Tian and Sheng Wang visited Old Man Ding after getting back together in their 20s, instead of saying they've already grown up, his reaction was why Sheng Wang's still wearing a thin set of clothes. His memories were still stuck in that summer when he fell at the stairs, same time when Jiang Tian and Sheng Wang's relationship got exposed.

Although, I hated Ji Huanyu (Jiang Tian's father), I still felt sorry for him after he received his "retribution", and that is, living all alone without anyone taking care of him. He probably loved Du Cheng so much that he could bare to leave his son and wife. To also think that Du Cheng was supposedly in love with Jiang Ou (Jiang Tian's mother), I wonder how they got together.

Lastly, it's when Sheng Wang prepared a surprise for Jiang Tian's 24th birthday. He prepared the same cake but with only him, Jiang Tian and the two cats' (leader and Wang Zai) on it instead of their previous family back then. After that, he kissed Jiang Tian's face and said "Happy Birthday, Ge. You're already 19" up until to the latest, just to fill those years when they didn't celebrate it togather. (╥﹏╥)