Love’s Ambition

Native Title: 许我耀眼

Source Material: 大乔小乔 by 张悦然 (Zhang Yueran)

Genre: Modern (Urban)

Network: Tencent🐧

The Drama Meter’s translation of the official blurb on Douban: Raised by her dear grandmother from a young age, Xu Yan (played by Zhao Lusi) always had a strained relationship with her parents. With that stubborn personality of hers, however, she left her small town and entered a prestigious university, working hard for a decade before establishing herself in the big city. Yet there were still many moments when she found herself at a loss in this city. Though she married the talented and successful Shen Haoming (played by William Chan), for instance, differences in their backgrounds and ways of thinking gradually created a rift between them and led to their inevitable separation.

Not only did she lose her marriage, but she then also lost her job. Faced with such successive blows in both love and career, Xu Yan had to quickly pick herself back up and begin again. Only through this journey could she gain a new understanding of the true meaning of love and family.

The drama is adapted from Zhang Yueran’s novel 《大乔小乔》。

The Drama Meter’s translation of the official synopsis on Amazon: Qiao Lin is the legitimate elder sister; Xu Yan is younger sister born by accident. And though the unexpected birth of the latter brought great joy to the former, it also caused their father to lose his job, their mother to bear the brunt of public criticism, and Xu Yuan herself to become homeless, left to be raised by her grandmother. Because of the unfair punishment they received for having more children than allowed, her parents spent much of their lives petitioning for justice to no avail and instead turned into the town’s laughingstock.

While Qiao Lin truly loved her sister and protected her in every way, Xu Yan secretly envied her sister in her heart of hearts. That is, until Qiao Lin had an engagement broken off because of her parent’s tainted reputation, gave birth to an illegitimate daughter, and then drowned herself. Only then did Xu Yan begin to re-evaluate her life and responsibilities through new eyes.

Zhao Lusi did her own makeup and styling for the drama. Follow along with her makeup vlog for her character on YouTube. 

Love’s Ambition marks the second time that Zhao Lusi and Tang Xiaotian collaborated on a drama together. They first collaborated in The Story of Pearl Girl (2024). 

The director, 陈畅 (Chen Chang), also directed Zhao Lusi in Dating in the Kitchen. More recently, he’s known for As Beautiful As You (Tan Songyun, Xu Kai) and Nothing but You (Wu Lei, Zhou Yutong).

The source material was also turned into a movie, The Unseen Sister (Zhao Liying, Xin Zhilei), which premiered in October 2024 at the Tokyo Film Festival.

Filming started in June 2024 and ended September 2024.