Loving Strangers

Jiang Jiaqi (姜家齐, played by Zhao Youting, known internationally as Mark Chao) is nearing forty and worn down by a failing marriage and office politics. When his outspokenness costs the CEO, Gu Chen (顾辰, played by Zhang Chao), the approval of a new drug, Gu looks for a way to be rid of him.

Zhou Yu'an (周遇安, played by Zhang Zifeng) is a young woman paying off her father's debts while caring for her paralyzed grandmother. Gu hires her to help drive Jiang out of the company. What begins in suspicion slowly turns into understanding, as the two recognize something in each other's isolation and start to support one another, building a bond the series describes as deeper than romance.

The setting is a contemporary Chinese big city, and the producers chose Chongqing. Producer Bu Xiaoqiao (卜小俏) said, as reported by Beijing News and International Online, that the whole series was shot on location there, using the city's steep "8D" terrain, light rail along the Yangtze, night lights and street hotpot as recurring images.

It is a remake of the 2018 Korean series My Mister (나의 아저씨), which Douban rates at 9.4. The Chinese version was directed by Han Tian (韩天) and is also known as Xie Xie Ni, Ting Jian Wo (谢谢你，听见我, "thank you for hearing me"), one of its alternative titles.

Reception was mixed. According to World Journal, summarizing Beijing News and International Online, viewers praised Zhang Zifeng's portrayal of a worn-down young woman and Zhao Youting's subway breakdown scene, while others criticized plot logic and called the early episodes emotionally flat and heavy on sadness.