GOODBYE MY PRINCESS: CRUELTY IN THE GUISE OF A LOVE STORY
There are only a few characters that chill me to the bone. Li Chengyin isn’t the most psychotic character I’ve seen, nor the most blatantly evil. He’s worse. He is deliberate. Calculated. Horrifying precisely because he doesn’t lose control - he wields it. Every smile is a strategy, every touch a manipulation, every promise a trap. Out of all the characters I’ve seen, he’s the one who terrifies me the most (King Jeong Jo / Yi San of The Red Sleeve being a close second).
The Crown Prince of the Central Plains is the very definition of cunning wrapped in silk. He is calculating, manipulative, and utterly ruthless - a man who sees people (especially Xiaofeng) as chess pieces to be moved, sacrificed, or discarded in service of the throne.
Li Chengyin thrives in palace intrigue. Every smile conceals a strategy, every word is layered with intent. He’s the kind of man who can orchestrate massacres without hesitation, lie with ease, and weaponize affection whenever it suits his ambition. His brilliance is inseparable from his cruelty - he knows exactly what he’s doing, and he never pretends otherwise.
What makes him so devastating as a character is not some hidden softness or misunderstood heart, but the fact that even when he loves, it’s still tangled in power and betrayal. His story isn’t about redemption; it’s about the inevitable tragedy of a man who chose ambition over humanity.
Li Chengyin is not a romantic hero. He is a cold, calculating prince who destroys as easily as he rules - the perfect villain disguised as the male lead.
Chen Xingxu plays Li Chengyin with terrifying precision. Even when the prince seems aloof or laidback, you can see the hunger for power burning beneath the surface. The second your guard drops, his smile fades, his eyes harden, and the sneer slips through. It’s not just good acting - it’s unsettling, because he makes you believe this man could exist. Jesus fucking Christ, it’s chilling.
There’s nothing romantic about Goodbye My Princess. It’s not beautiful, it’s not tender - it’s a slow-motion tragedy built on lies, betrayal, and the cold reality of power.
What makes the drama brutal is how thoroughly it dismantles the fantasy of romance. Li Chengyin uses love as a weapon, offering it only to take it back, binding Xiaofeng to him while destroying everything that makes her free. His tragedy isn’t that he “can’t love” - it’s that his love is inseparable from his ambition, and therefore poisoned from the start.
Watching Goodbye My Princess is less about yearning and more about enduring - a portrait of a man who will sacrifice anyone, including the woman he claims to love, and a reminder that sometimes the male lead is really just the villain.
