Main Characters:
Ada Choi- Yun Fok
Steven Ma - Cao Zhi (3rd brother)
Moses Chan - Cao Pi (1st brother)
Lau Don - Cao Cao
Sonija Kwok- Kwok Hsuan (Hsuan Hsuan)
Cheng Chi Seng - Sima Yi
Gilbert Lam Wai Sun - Yang Suo
Evergreen Mak as Cao Zhang (2nd brother)

What, when, where and who
This story is base on the the parts in the very famous Chinese novel "The Romance of the Three Kingdom". The story focuses on one of the kingdom, the Cao family. Ada Choi plays the character Yun Fok, who is a real life historical person. Due to her intelligence and her beauty, everybody wants her, including Cao Cao, Cao Zhi and Cao Pi. Also, because of she is way too perfect, she has a very tragic story... Steven plays Cao Zhi, who is a very intelligence son of Cao Cao, but he is way too kind, so that Cao Cao could not give his power to Steven, instead, he gives his power to the oldest son Cao Pi (played by Moses). Cao Pi is more cruel than the others, that's why Cao Cao wants Ada to marry Cao Pi to help him, and advise him. However, Ada and Steven were deeply in love, but for Steven's protection, Ada had to marry Moses instead... Sonija plays the most evil person you can ever imaging, she gets jealous about everything Ada has. She thought Ada is always on top of her. Sonija plays many tricks and finally got Moses' attention and soon becomes Moses' second wife. Later, Sonija causes many people's death and even tries to get rid of Ada...

I thought this series is pretty close to the history, because I know lots of the characters, and lots of the small stories in here, it reminds me a lots of things related to "The Romance of the Three Kingdom", which is my favorite Chinese classical novel.

Series Links
1. Program information from TVB official website (Chinese)
2. Series review from SPCNET (English)

THE FACTORS
- Hate Factor
Let's start with the character you will hate to the bone: Sonija Kwok's Kwok Hsuan
This is about the worst character you can ever imaging! Kwok Hsuan is not only evil, she is also cruel, ugly, and stupid! First of all, she like Steven, but Steven rejected her because Steven is in love with Ada. Kwok Hsuan gets really jealous and mad, and tries to get the second brother's attention. However, the second brother falling in love with someone else. Later, Kwok Hsan started to get Moses' attention, and uses tricks to marry Moses and becomes his second wife. Kwok Hsuan caused many people's death, such as the prostitute XiXi, Steven's wife, Steven's teacher, and Ada. I think her ending is way too nice, she should suffer a lot more than just illness.

Second, the famous evil guy from the history, Sima Yi
You might hate this character very much, because he basically changed Moses, and makes him become very cruel. However, Sima Yi himself is not as cruel as Kwok Hsuan, he is just very ambition, he wants to help Moses become the king, so that he can easily take over. I didn't think he was that bad when I read "The Romance of the Three Kingdom", but in this series, you will hate this character because of his ambition. In the real history, his son Sima Zhao is the more evil one.

- Love Factor
Ada Choi
I think Ada gave her best performances in this series! However, her character is such a tragic (you will know why when you read further). I think Ada is the best at playing tragic characters, because she can cry really well! Have you notice most of her characters are really tragic? And, the people around her character is most likely to turn evil! For example, Louis Koo in ATE II, Nick Cheung in Secret of the Heart and in this series, it is Sonija Kwok. Poor Ada, she has to face all these terrible facts!

Steven Ma
Steven Ma was really good in this series as well. His character is also very tragic because he is too kind and too smart, just like Ada. I didn't like Steven Ma before, but after this series, I will start to pay more attention to him, because he can act and cry really well.

- Pity Factor
To all the characters who died in this series, this is the section contributed to you...
There are lots of pity factors and lots of emotional scenes in this story, especially towards the end, the characters started to die one after another.

Let's begin with the prostituteXi Xi (played by Kei Kwan Gu)
At the beginning, Cao Cao's first wife did not like Ada at all, so she bought this very beautiful and talented prostitute named XI XI The first wife plans to use XI XI to get Cao Cao's attention, so that Ada will be ignored. However, XI XI and Ada becomes great friends. XI XI has a very good voice, but she also has an illness that could destroy her voice. So, she tried to protect her voice really well. That's why she often rejected Cao Cao and refuses to sing to him, that makes Cao Cao really mad. Sonija uses this chance to let somebody else to learn from XI XI and tries to replace XI XI So, Cao Cao killed XI Xi's voice because he felt XI XI is not useful anymore! Poor XI XI, her life is depends on her voice, now her voice is gone, so she suicide!

The second character who died is Yang Suo
Yang Sui is a very famous person, his death is really famous, too. He is very intelligence, he can guest what Cao Cao is thinking, and he is always right. However, because of his intelligence, Cao Cao wants him dead, and the excuse Cao Cao used was the chicken ribs, that's why it makes Yang Suo's death really famous. Poor guy, he is too smart, but he died because of the chicken ribs! Ok, here is what happens: there is once, Cao Cao did not want to fight in the war, so he uses "chicken ribs" as his military order. Yang Suo knew Cao Cao will not fight the war, because of his military order. (The chicken ribs' taste is not tat great when you eat it, but if you throw it away, you will feel pity, in this case, Cao Cao was not sure if he wants to fight the war or not, so he uses chicken ribs as his order.) Yang Suo knew about Cao Cao's thinking so he tells others don't have to get ready for the war, that makes Cao Cao really mad, and he uses that excuse to kill him!

The third one is Steven's wife Cui Fok
You will probably not enjoy this character at the beginning, because she is not that nice. But, after she married to Steven, she changed a little. Cui Fok loves Steven very much, and she wants him to become the king, so her uncle and her started to help Steven by building relationships with the emperor's officers. Because of that, Cao Cao killed her... Poor girl, she completely changed to a better woman after she married to Steven, and she wants to spent the rest of her life with him and support him, but because of that, she died!

The fourth one is Steven's teacher
He is also a very smart person, also the best friend of Cao Cao. However he got killed by Sima Yi, who do not allow him to exist, because Steven's teacher is very smart, and he always support Steven.

The fifthe one is Cao Cao, in the history, he is evil, but he is also a hero. In this series, the producers tried to make Cao Cao a better man. Cao Cao has a very big ambition as well, and he knew Moses is the only one that can finish his job and be the king, so he had to give the power to Moses even though he likes Steven more. Cao Cao killed so many people because of Moses, because he needs to clear out any difficulties that Moses might encounter in the future. However, Cao Cao did not realized there is a more ambition guy behind Moses, which is Sima Yi. When Cao Cao realized that, he wants Moses to kill Sima Yi, but Moses would not do it, that makes Cao Cao so angry and died... Poor man, he tried so hard to work out a future for Moses, but Moses would not kill the man who is going to destroy everything for Cao family...

The sixth one is the second brother, Moses poisoned him! I can't believe he killed his own brother just like that! Poor guy, he has a wife and a daughter waiting for him, but he can never come home!

The last one, the most emotional one perhaps, which is the one and only Yun Fok, her entire life is a tragic! (I will mention that more later) Sonija and Sima Yi made up the rumor that Yun Fok's son is Steven's son, and Yun Fok is still in love with Steven, that makes Moses decided to poison Yun Fok to death! Yun Fok knew about it, but she still drink the poison, so that she can protect her son, she wants to use her death to prove her son is Moses' real son...

- How Come Factor
How can Kwok Husan be so evil all of the sudden? I mean, at the beginning, she was very nice and saved Ada many times, that's why Ada and her becomes sisters. All of the sudden, she is in love with Steven, Steven rejected her, and all of the sudden she changed... I think she changed way so fast.

FAVORITES
- Cast
Ada Choi
As I said above, Ada did really well in this series

- Character
Ada's Yun Fok
Okey, Yun Fok is such a tragic character, she is way so perfect, way so smart, and way so kind! Because of that, she has to go through a tragic life. Her story is like the tragic tale of the fairy Lok Sun, who is well known as the fairy in the Lok River. Lok Sun was punished into the mortal world for being the cause of rift between her husband and another god. It is not hard to guess that Yun Fok is the reincarnation of Lok Sun and will have a similar fate. Yun Fok is in love with Steven and even agreed to marry him, however Cao Cao chose Moses to be the king, and Cao Cao wants Ada to marry Moses, because he wants her to help Moses, and to advice him, remind him of kindness, also the main reason is to protect Steven Ada had to accept the marriage and helps Moses, however, Moses did not treat Ada well. After Sonija also becomes Moses' wife, Moses begins to treat Sonija better because Sonija likes to use tricks. Poor Ada, who is slowly lost faith in her husband and her friend Sonija... At the end, she died because of the two, poor girl!

Steven Ma's Cao Zhi
Cao Zhi is just like Ada, really smart, really perfect and really kind. Because of his kindness, Cao Cao could not gives the power to Steven even though Steven is his favorite son. Cao Cao knew if he gave Steven the power, Moses will not able to give up, he will try to destroy everything. For Steven's protection, Cao Cao gave the power to Moses and let Steven's true love Ada also marry to Moses! Poor guy, he had to face his true love as his sister in law! Steven married to Cui Fok, who is truly in love with him, but she was killed by Cao Cao because of the way she is trying to help Steven... Later, he had to face the fact his brother is going to kill him, but he uses his intelligence to produce the very famous "seven-steps" poem, and that poem finally makes Moses regret about his way of pushing away his brothers...

- Couple
Ada Choi and Steven Ma
These two would be perfect together, however, they can not be together because one of them is the most beautiful girl, the other one is the smartest son of the Cao family... Their destiny meant to separate them apart...

- Scene
Here comes the list:
1. When Steven propose to Ada
2. When all the pity factors (as I listed above) died, emotional scenes!
3. Everytime you see Ada and Steven together, they are the perfect couple... but they can not be together... so pity for them!

LEAST FAVORITES
- Cast
Sonija Kwok
Sorry to all the Sonija fans, I really don't think Sonija can act. I hate the way she cries or talk. Her performances skills have disapproved since "A Step Into the Past"... I don't know why the TVB producers decided to let her play in a villain role.. Her acting skills are not that good to be a villain.

- Character
Sonija's Kwok Husan
As I said above, you will hate this character to the bone. Usually, I enjoyed the villain, because they made the stories interesting, but this character is just too stupid and too cruel. Plus, her ending is a little better than I thought, she deserves a much worse ending that just illness...

Moses Chan's Chao Pi
Moses' acting skills are average, he is good at being bad, like the character he played in Armed Reaction III. In this series, his character is not that enjoyable...

- Couple
Sonija and Moses
I hate to see these two together! They make me sick!

- Scene
Everytime you see Moses and Sonija together!

COMMENTS
Overall, I really enjoyed this series, because it is emotional, it is tragic, I like tragic stories ~,~ I think TVB did a good job of producing the series, the outfits are wonderful, especially the girls' outfits. There are characters you will love and hate, there are performances you will love and hate, there are scenes you will / might cry, there are scenes you will hate. It is well balanced...

IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
For all the Steven and Ada fans, this is a must see! All the Sonija fans, you might like to skip this one, because it might offend your feelings!