Battling expectations

When the company encounters a financial crisis, Gu helps her husband find a new client by trying to penetrate a social circle studded with billionaire wives.

Zhang says Zhong Xiaoqin, portrayed by actress Mao, is perhaps the character closest to the lives of ordinary women. A Shanghai native married to a man with a stable career, the role leads a simple yet insipid life, where lounging on the sofa watching dramas on her tablet is her favorite form of entertainment. As time goes by, the couple get bored in their relationship－they have few topics to share and would rather look at their phones during dinner.

"I am glad that audiences noticed most of the details I included in the series to create an atmosphere," says Zhang, adding that she usually watches her dramas twice to get feedback from real-time audience comments during screenings.

A literature-major from the Communication University of China, Zhang recalls she started to conceive the story of this show in late 2017, when her daughter, then over 12 months old, helped her understand more about being a mother.

Aside from seeking inspiration from her own life for work, Zhang says a key method to making scripts more audience-friendly is by interviewing others.