I'm actually surprised by how much I enjoyed this story. Listen-- I'm a simple gal. I see a man with long hair, I'm interested. YOU GOT ME, alright.
Actually, I had heard the ED song for the radio drama a couple years ago and had planned to read the book at some point but then the stupid video got deleted and I couldn't find it anymore and also my Chinese wasn't that good at the time either, so I couldn't even remember what it was called anymore BUT a couple days ago I found it again, by some miracle, and had intended to check out the first chapter, just so I could be like "eh, not that good" and then move on with my life without ever having to think about the "mystery danmei with that makeup artist who had long hair." Anyway, I ended up binging the story in a couple days.
The characters were written so well, lots of depth, to the point where they acted like real people. Li Baixi's entire arc about makeup artistry and painting and how all of that turned out was beautifully done. Even watching his relationship develop with Cheng Ping, there was never a moment where I was like "why is this happening." Their interactions were so funny and sweet, I genuinely enjoyed every moment of their story. There's a scene at the end where the two are dancing together and both are fighting over who has to take the woman's role-- it's so ridiculous and silly and I LOVE THEM.
I was also really impressed with the background and how much research the author seemed to have done to write this story. I've read too many stories where the characters are artists and then its clear the author knows nothing about art. This is one of the only stories I've read where the author actually seemed like they knew what they were talking about and weren't a dolt about writing from an artist's POV.
There were some minor things that annoyed me like the placeholder names (xx makeup brand, xx actor etc) and I felt the villain could have been better integrated, but overall, this story is a hidden gem in the world of danmei and I wish it got the love it deserved!