This show is a road trip movie inside a political historical drama with a romance thrown in to make us all weak in the knees. It’s outstanding, people. We are talking flawless immersion. The editing, the music (ya’ll the music is exceptional! – including the sound effects used to comedic perfection), the sets, the costumes, location shooting, horses galore… a lot of money was spent on this show. Well spent.

It’s the writing, though, that really shines. Dialogue that shifts from official and political to playful and casual. There’s witty banter. Believable interactions between friends and strangers. Complicated politic situations presented in ways that were easy to follow. Nothing feels forced or quickly patched in with a trope, characters just feel natural and naturally complicated.

This drama is full of gossiping, bickering, matchmaking, and interesting people will surely win you over.

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The story is relatively simple (kinda sorta): A small group of elite warriors are tasked to deliver a young princess disguised as a prince to a neighboring kingdom, rescue a royal who is hostage there, and try not to die along the way. There’s the core group of guards in charge (our fab 5!), who have all been to war together in the past and have a shared history, and there are other guards and servants, as well as the young princess and her advisor. After a few weeks of travel everyone in the traveling group is familiar with each other… and growing increasingly comfortable and casual around each other as each episode progresses. It’s a very organic development of relationships.

They are eavesdropping and comfortably joking around. Let’s face it, there wasn’t much for entertainment on long trips back in the day so you learned to entertain yourself and each other. These people had paper windows, ain’t no secrets in close quarters.

Front and center of this motley crew are the leading lovers. We shall call them MURDER MOM & DADDY NING.

Our female lead is a female assassin, a master chameleon, a deadly martial artist, and also a woman with a heart (though she would vehemently deny it). She was the top assassin in her secret organization before faking her death and going rogue. Murder Mom is on a mission… to avenge the death of her (mother substitute) patron queen and to honor her last request (which is to get knocked up).

I may be in love with her. I mean… LOOK AT HER! Some people just win the genetic lottery, eh?

Murder Mom… or Ren Ruyi (formerly Ren Xin) of the Scarlet Guard Assassins is played to perfection by Cecilia Liu / Liu Shishi and voiced by Bai Xin Zan. No one could have played this role better. She is the definition of beautiful badass. Her posture, her facial expressions, her athleticism… her natural dominatrix vibes… and Bai Xin Zan, whoever you are, your voice is velvet deliciousness and I ain’t mad about the dub.

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Daddy Ning, our male lead, is a military leader who has become jaded and wary of the intentions of the government (yet ironically remains stoically patriotic). But no one wants to let this tall glass of water pop off to early retirement while he’s still useful to the cause so he’s blackmailed into escorting the princess to the neighboring country.

With his caring eyes and carefree smiles, he is instantly lovable as the leader of the pack. He’s not all smiles though, this dude can shift like lightning – going from humbled subordinate to brutal assassin, from stern leader of men to kind father figure within a five minute stretch.

Daddy Ning… or Ning Yuanzhou, leader of Liudao Hall – is played by Liu Yuning. He’s 6’2”, multi-talented, and very handsome… in an almost cartoon animal sort of way, am I right? Like the Disney fox Robin Hood or something… but the anime version… I dunno, I can’t quite put my finger on it but he’s got distinctive facial features. His voice has a very pleasing timber to it, too. He’s got a tiny bit of an overbite which gives him just a hint of a lisp or a breathy rounded quality when he speaks. I really love his voice. Did I mention he’s 6’2″? Which is apparently like being 7’2″ in China, I dunno, cause he seemed huge this whole show.

_{go hide behind that huge tree, baby girl! gifs by @01432853 – link}

The romance of Murder Mom and Daddy Ning is top tier and feels fresh and exciting. They’re both pushing middle aged (for that time period 30 years old was well over the hill). They’ve been too busy murdering people all their lives to form any romantic relationships. There were interesting dynamics and motivations driving our lovers together and apart. I’ve never seen anything like this romance, so it really stuck with me. Applause once again to the writer for giving us such a nuanced and impactful relationship.

Here’s when they clicked for me as a couple.

There’s a scene in the second episode (yup, 2nd episode and I was like they are OTP!)… our leading man is calling out our leading lady for being deceptive by calmly but calculating pressing his fingers into a wound on her shoulder. He’s just so politely savage about it, too. It’s such a wonderful character establishing moment because she’s crying and sticking to her disguise as a helpless maiden even though he obviously does not believe her b.s. even a little bit. He’s hurting her, yes, but he’s also showing her that he knows she can take the pain and he does not find her helpless.

And then as they’re standing there staring at each other there is a sudden flicker of attraction between them… both their expressions subtly change… I was holding my breath, ya’ll. It looked like they were second guessing all their life choices.

Then our baby boy shows up, breaking the spell, and she bites our huge male lead on the wrist (like, she digs in too! girl is gonna mark that big tall man as hers!) and he finally releases her. He seems flustered and bewildered looking at these teeth marks deep into his skin, like who is this woman??!!

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I was in heaven.

From then on our sexy assassin starts to actively tease him in all these subtle ways, while still maintaining her guise around others, cause she knows he sees her as she is – a tough and cunning woman and not some helpless person in need of rescue. She keeps revealing more and more of her real personality in these small little moments and you can tell he’s totally mesmerized and also quite wary cause this lady is not something he can control. Hmm hmmm – I was already shipping them hard.

Their cues to each other are so subtle but they always pick up what the other is throwing down (and no one else does – it’s like a secret twin language). Their martial arts training is so good they can sense each other from a distance. And their interactions are so unique, as they are both professional liars (Daddy Ning the Gaslightling King, eh?). So they’re relying on what’s unsaid and their shared awareness of the game they’re playing though they’ve both drawn different lines that keep blurring.

Yum Yum Yum, my complicated creatures you spoiled me real good in this show. It’s gonna be hard not to compare all future couples to these two.

Not to mention they’re both so gorgeous. They are the perfect couple (and it’s okay to hate them a little for it, everyone else does too).

When they fight back to back it’s like… poetry. Murder Machine couple activated! This ride or die pair had my whole freakin’ heart.

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Be prepared to be swept up into the whole #couplegoals relationship, too. For an assassin / warrior pairing, these two are shockingly touchy feely. The cuddles? The amount of hugs and tender moments in this show… ugh… how dare they encroach upon my bitter heart like this!

If nothing else watch it for these two.

Though they aren’t the only dynamic duo in this show.

There’s also my two besties, Daddy Ning and dandy Yu Shisan whom we shall call Playboy. These two come across like a divorced couple more often than not. Their constant bickering, playful bullying, and yet undeniable magnetism is extremely fun to watch.

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They just know each other so well. Close like siblings, who can torment each other without ever questioning the unconditional love shared between them. It’s just… there. I mean, the yin and yang is all in the outfits so need I say more?

^{who goes to battle in white? this guy is a trip.}

And Playboy is such a riot.

He’s got bisexual king energy off the charts, prancing around over dramatically, swishing his robes. He will definitely be one of your favorite characters as how could he not be? He’s so adorable and funny and ridiculous.

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Speaking of characters you are bound to love, let’s dish on my favorite characters in the show: The Teenagers.

I’m just going to give you an overview of the young apprentices of our lady assassin Murder Mom: Yandere Extremist Li Tong Guang and Princess Yang Ying. The Princess of Wu was also a fun character but I’ll leave that for you to discover. And I can’t write about our other teenage baby boy for… reasons (see spoiler section). So let’s dig into our young nobles.

Princess Yang Ying is the young lady the whole team is responsible for escorting across the border. She’s disguised as a Prince (badly) and is nothing but terrified and uncertain as the show begins. This sort of pitiful, helpless character can come across as cringy or unlikeable if not handled correctly, but thanks to great writing and even greater performance by He Lan Dou she is one of the most gripping characters in the show. Our sweet little lady naively signed up for this political mission, completely unaware she’s in way over her head… though it dawns on her real fast, ya’ll.

Murder Mom is tasked with teaching her. Curriculum: the art of deception, politics, and how to top men.

Watching our little princess’ slow but steady growth over the course of the show is a rewarding experience. Every inch of her progress was hard earned, too. I would have loved more of her story at the end, but we’ll get to that in the spoilers section.

Maybe this is a bit of a spoiler… but Marquis Li Tong Guang is Murder Mom’s former disciple who has an unhealthy attachment to her (understatement of the decade – he is batshit crazy about her, emphasis on crazy).

But for the first half of the show, before he meets her again, he’s just this calm and calculating upstart. A devious badass, plotting and scheming, winning battles and playing women like chess pieces. There’s a ferrety quality to him… or maybe I just saw this meme and stuck with me.

He’s deranged over his master and is absolutely shameless in throwing himself at her feet and acting the fool. Like, he is not trying to hide it. At all.

People who’ve gone insane for love are some of my favorite characters, the more fucked up and intense they are the better. So needless to say I was well fed by this young illegitimate noble and all of his petty, bratty behavior and extreme jealousy. Towards Daddy Ning, of course, but also towards the young Prince/Princess who is currently under his master’s care.

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The tantrums this boy pulls!

I’m not even sure I’d call this crazy in love. It’s more accurately described as severe PTSD or a trauma response or psychosis or something (whatever, a psychologist I am not). Let’s just say our Marquis has got ISSUES. Our boy is NOT OKAY. Unhinged, if you will.

And his femdom kink is off the charts. (Ya’ll, this show goes there. Often.)

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I cannot say enough about how this shifu-obsessed yandere elevated this otherwise amazing drama to an OMG I AM SO ON BOARD FOR THIS CRAZY MESS drama. The writer obviously reads danmei novels, am I right?

The actor tears this role to shreds and I could not take my eyes off him. Chang Hua Sen, I’ll be looking for you in other dramas.

I also really appreciated how obvious the age differences were between the characters in A Journey to Love. The teenagers (our princess, the crazy marquis, the princess of Wu, and the adopted “son” of Daddy Ning and Playboy) acted like teenagers.

Listen, it’s quite difficult to write a realistic teenager (as is evidenced by 90% of all televisions shows depicting teenagers). They are often written too cool, too well spoken, too aware, and too mature. Not the babies in this show, though. They felt so authentically young and messy.

Real teenagers have flashes of being articulate and self aware, but this is a time in your life that trial and error rules the land. You’re figuring stuff out. You’re fun and silly when you’re not morose and brooding. You’re getting things wrong all the time. You embarrass yourself a lot. You’re shifting between moods and fighting hormones all day long. You’re daring but not calculated. You can revert back to childishness when things don’t go your way. And most of all, your focus is turned more towards yourself than other people cause this is really the era of figuring yourself out… so that’s only natural.

The teenagers in this show are all learning how their actions affect other people, which is one of the biggest lessons that must be learnt to become an adult.

I’m really fighting the urge not to write a novel about this show right now. It’s just so good!

With that said, I will be the first to admit my interest slightly waned in this show once they got to Wan and the thick of the political saga kicked in. I took a nice viewing break around episode 24 and gave myself some time before going into the second half of this show. I’m glad I did, too, cause holy shit. I’m not sure if you’re aware of what the ending has in store for you but suffice to say there will be tears. War has its casualties, ya dig?

I’m a pacifist, but I love these intense depictions of heroism and patriotism in historical war dramas. It’s idealistic and delusional… but how nice is it to dream, eh? Is that not why we tell stories? To picture the world we’d rather live in?

Daddy Ning is patriotic in the extreme, always ready with an inspirational speech about the pride of the country or whatever, while simultaneously loathing the actual leaders of the world he lives in. To him the country is all the people in it and he fights so they’ll have a better life, but the vast majority of the people’s problems are directly created by the government he works for. And sometimes he seems very aware of it, but five seconds later he’s like “I would never kill the political leaders, I will die for them as will we all!” It’s an interesting feat, actually, how he can maintain these two conflicting realities in his head. Cognitive dissonance, thy name is Daddy Ning.

Murder Mom Ruyi, on the other hand, knows that unchecked patriotism is a trap but she keeps her mouth shut when the men are gushing over it. She has no problem at all slicing up a problematic political leader from any country, be it male or female. You get ’em, honey, love you for it.

A Journey to Love – Overall Rating: 9.5/10 – When Murder Machines Fall in Love

Let’s gush over details together… oh yes, I could go on (and I did!) so if you’ve already seen it and are so inclined, come with me into spoiler land…

SPOILERS BELOW!

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One of my favorite things about this show is that we get to see the main couple DATE.

Since they are both independent, they are not constrained by the normal decorum rules and can run off together to canoodle, sneak into each other’s room easily, and openly date in front of the whole delegation party. There’s no disapproving family or servants or eunuchs or whatever following them around maintaining “room for God” between these two.

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Especially in historical dramas, it’s not something we often see – open dating of unmarried couples. Past the stages of will they / won’t they – this couple is firmly established before the halfway mark – and it’s deeply satisfying to witness how they navigate the challenges of their relationship for the remainder of the show.

So we get to witness this gorgeous couple for twenty freakin’ hours.

We get to see them play with each other when they can manage to squeeze in some time.

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We get to see them watch out for each other and dote on each other and become this amazing unified front.

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We get to see them comfort each other when things are rough, as they learn to talk to each other, open up about insecurities, acknowledge their differences, and make amends.

Every time they have a relationship break through moment I was so happy for them! Gah. They are disgustingly perfect but they’ve both been through so much they deserve their love story. They are the ultimate MURDER MOM & DAD to their motley crew within the delegation and will always put others before themselves. Their relationship is a purposeful contrast to the royalty, or the “mothers and fathers” of the nation, who always put themselves first.

There’s also a definite nod to some BDSM stuff going on here. It’s so cute and I love it.

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There’s full tilt BDSM going on with Murder Mom and her apprentice, our Crazy Marquis. I mean, it’s not sexual but also you can’t really blame the boy for being warped by this type of relationship. Uhm, ma’am, no wonder he’s obsessed with you! She took that master/servant relationship to the extreme and he’s not going to feel good about himself until his mistress gives him some praise.

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You can tell he learned a lot from Murder Mom. Good boy.

One of my other favorite things was watching our Crazy Marquis torment the ladies around him. First the wife of his lord, then his fiancé, the Chu Princess. Like… holy shit. It was stupidly hot, which may prove there is something off with my brain chemistry, but watching him hate-tease these women and pull their strings like puppets just mesmerized me. You can touch me but you can never touch me type situations. My power hungry asexual darling boy, you know what yer doing.

That scene (ep 24) where he’s got his fiancé pulled against his chest and is saying he’ll help pick out the best lovers for her in the future while running his fingers across her face, my god! Who wrote this show (Zhang Wei, I’m your fan, girl, you rule!) and can I please read their fan fiction?

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I love that he ended up with our little shivering pansy girl who turned into a strong stalk of a princess. I firmly believe they will slowly fall madly in love or at least put together a good BDSM contract… eventually. And I adore this pairing and my deepest regret is that we did not get to see more of it.

Why do I ship them? Cause… did you watch the same show I did? The hints are all there.

There’s even this great fan fic that extends their story (it’s G-rated, if you’re curious, no BDSM contracts in this one, ya’ll, that’s just my filthy mind at work). A Journey to Love – a Yang Ying fanfic – Living with Ghosts. It imagines Yang Ying and Li Tongguang, one year after the war, and it healed my soul. I highly recommend it – it’s not a long read but it’s wonderful. The writer is on Tumblr, too, so go follow her if you chill out over there – @thefeastandthefast

Anyways, I could go on about this show and all the characters involved all day.

But let’s wrap this up and talk about the deaths before we go.

Allow me to indulge in a small vigil for my angel baby boy, Yuan Lu.

Readers, I cried. A lot. Like… the whole episode.

From the moment he said goodbye to his mother (Playboy Yu Shi Shan) – omg that hug took me out! – to him passing by his daddy (Ning) and new stepmom (Ruyi) at the inn on the road – devastation!!! I wilted to the floor like those poor horses he was riding to death. Then our baby just runs on foot! Baby, no! He makes it all the way to the castle… the stupid guards are holding him back… his heart is fed up and the boys gas tank is way past E. Then that damned tracker butterfly flits out alerting his honeypie he’s there… and she comes running… omg…

It was the most beautiful death scene. Held in the arms of his beloved. Pitifully asking for acknowledgment… I am the fastest runner… getting his message delivered and completing his duty… and then using his last breaths to finally confess his feelings to his princess.

I was sobbing just like our princess was sobbing. When he asks her to promise to be together with him in their next lives?!

Ya’ll.

It hurt.

I did not need the montage to all his sweet moments during his life because I remembered every one. This boy was my favorite character. I was in proper agony.

I’d already started to get an ominous feeling once the medic died. It’s never a good sign when your team’s doctor bites the dust. The cat loving dude looked almost grateful to be dying… like he was glad it was finally over but upset it hurt as badly as it did. It was after this second dude’s death that I started to think maybe no one was going to make it out alive in this show. Our baby boy’s fate was sealed the second he took off. I just knew it. Ironically he was the only character I figured they would kill off for emotional effect – as we knew his heart was a ticking time bomb – but gah! What about my heart?! His death hit me hard.

Magically I had managed to avoid all spoilers for this show – so I had no idea it was going to end with the deaths of almost our entire cast. I hadn’t started following a bunch of content creators for Chinese dramas yet (the joy and curse of fandoms) when I was first watching this show. They punked me with Ruyi’s fake death which did not even upset me, necessarily, until I realized her man was putting on that robe she bought him with clear intentions to quickly follow her to the afterlife and then I started to feel some kinda way. Then the war hit and the soldier boys started dropping like flies. My anxiety was through the roof during those last few episodes.

Our Playboy literally facing death blindly was a nice touch, as a pretty princess like him should not have to witness the ugly horrors of war and at least he was spared that nightmare in his last moments. The actor was selling it too – the visceral pain he was in while trying to keep his voice calm and playful so his temporarily blinded crush wouldn’t be suspicious of his suicidal motives. Plus the dude got to explode, which is kinda marvelous… no disfigured corpse to leave behind. He would have been so upset to have his beauty marred so I loved the writer’s choice here.

However, I still think he should have screwed that Chu Princess the night before. The lady was begging for it. Literally. At this point maintaining her honor or whatnot felt dumb. They could have at least fooled around, take the horny girl to second or third base, sir, she’s a warrior and might die any day! But no, no. Sigh.

Controversial opinion here but if things were never going to go anywhere at all between these two, I don’t know why spent so much time on them. I would have preferred to spend that time developing our other princess and her new relationship with the Freaky Marquis (newly promoted to Freaky Deaky Duke).

Playboy could have died defending anyone and it would have had the same emotional weight. Honestly, I would have been happier if he’d been saving Daddy Ning’s life… or this gorgeous honey’s life. These two had… je ne sais quoi.

_{thank you AJTL for this hottie}

The script distinctively faltered at the end, towards the last six episodes. I don’t know if they had to edit a bunch of stuff out, the writer was rushed, or there were other factors at play but the otherwise steady plot kinda ran all over the place in the final stretch. I’ve heard a 40 episode limit was imposed on Chinese dramas by the government recently so if I had to guess, I’d say this was the culprit. Cause I do believe the writer had it in her to give us a more satisfying conclusion but something went awry. I mean did anyone give a shit about the succession process going on back at Wu? That was the most awkward episode, in my opinion. Due to this kinda messy ending, I couldn’t give the show a perfect score.

But let’s continue our eulogy for the dead and stop griping.

Daddy Ning. Ya big stupid hero. When he asked that punk (my beloved crazy) to call him master, I groaned. It knew was over for him. That moment was like the hug goodbye for my sweet Yuan Lu. I was pleased they gave him a properly overdramatic death, but upset for my widow on the balcony. Her face when she saw him die. My god. What a performance.

We’d already had that fake out of Ruyi’s death, so foolish me did not actually think they would kill her a second time. Foolish, foolish me. I absolutely loved her suicide at the end, though, and the calm grim determination she had while getting ready with her lady friends before setting out to ruin the fuckers responsible for taking her honey’s life.

I have seen a lot of discourse about the kid at the end. And yeah… it certainly implies the Murder Couple survived death. Ruyi, sure… but we are supposed to believe our Daddy Ning survived being a human shish-kabob? Really? Were they all galloping through Chinese Valhalla together or were there survivors? It was a little frustrating to go out this way… and with the random Chu Princess, no less… but I’ll give it a pass.

I personally like to believe they all died heroically and their legends live on, with people naming their kids after them. But I’m overdramatic like that. Regardless of who really lived or died at the end, they’ll all live forever in my heart.

Every single one of them.