So far, all the way to the middle of the novel, the fact that she doesn't know he's reborn and he doesn't know she's been reborn, it feels frustrating. He's being an actual good partner this time. He's attentive, caring, and protective. However, it's like showering diamonds on a different person. For the female lead, she's confused at why he's acting so clingy and her biases from her past life doesn't allow her to see that it's out of (newly born) affection. Also, the fact that he misunderstands that her dying wasn't an act of love for him was funny initially, but meh. Her not-liking him is basically standard for a typical male lead's reason to start liking someone.

I think my general dislike is to do with the fact that we're reading this from the female lead's perspective the whole time. While she's not entirely a reliable narrator, the author constantly writes that she doesn't really like him but has to tolerate his actions. In his perspective, he can see she doesn't like him either. She showed a happy face on the possibility of getting married to someone else. He ruins her marriage prospects and forces her to get married to him. She gets along with his concubines and treats them like genuine sisters --- he constantly ruins their fun. Sometimes, on some level, it's justified, but I find it feels iffy.

With every other character, she comes out on top of the situations they get into. With the male lead, she's like the girl who's pigtails is being pulled and everyone is telling her to just tolerate it because he's just being a boy and he likes you. (No one is saying that, it's just the situation where she's his wife and no matter if she doesn't love him, which he knows, she's not allowed to say no because of public backlash and the power he has over her).

She wants to sleep alone, but he insists on sleeping with her, holding her. He watches as she removes herself from his grasp when she thinks he's asleep and pushes herself to the corner of the bed despite how cramp it is. He still insists on sleeping with her. Also, despite her not liking him at the moment, the only thing stopping him from actually having s*x with her is the fact that the Imperial Doctor said her body would not be able to take it.

It's a complex feeling to me because of the time period and expectations of being Crown Princess/Empress/Wife. On one hand, it's not like she couldn't get out of the situation either. I think she's clever enough to be able to manipulate public opinion so if she truly didn't want to be Empress, it would work out in her favor. At the same time, she's a 15yo? girl, kept in the yard of her family, so maybe not.

Just, as a person in the modern world, in regards to romance and appropriate ages, consent is my thing and someone portrayed as reluctant and not wanting to should be a valid enough reason to not do it.

But, still, it's not very satisfying when you go into the story expecting her to be happily laying about... but the scenarios are like:

ML: You're really weak and sickly. Let's have you exercise!

Cue constantly waking up waaay early in the morning and being not allowed to sleep in.

ML: She used to make really good tea for me. *forces her make tea for him*

FL: *MAKES REALLY BAD TEA*

ML:... it's great.

ML: She used to make really good clothes for me. *forces her to make pants for him*

FL: *MAKES UNCOMFORTABLE PANTS*

ML:.... they're great.

Maybe someone else will like it, but just being forced to do it despite her not wanting to, is ehhhh.

The fact that he wouldn't have dared to make her do it if she were reborn as well, which he mentions in his perspective, makes it less satisfying and more annoying that they don't know they're both reborn!