She deeply swore to herself with a clear and sober mind that she'll never give her heart to a man and from the beginning til end she stuck to that. She did mostly everything to protect herself and the family that raised and loved her with all their hearts. The only touching moment when she stood up for the male lead was when the sister came to bully the two.

Novel revealed along halfway through how ML felt about MC, but honestly, it made no sense to me, as it could very well be just infatuation due to her uniqueness and nothing else. It might be also due to her overwhelming beauty but meh, all I felt from this couple was pure respect and cooperation. There were a lot of sweet and pampering moments but all in all, far from actual romance. (Heck, if you didn't put names in, I could imagine him spoiling a pet instead of a human being, excluding the very very subtle rolling in the sheets hints. No srsly, the s*x was so subtle, I doubted for a long time that they even consummated their marriage on their wedding eve.)

Additionally, there were things ML had done at the risk of MC's reputation and before they revealed the private thoughts of ML, I could definitely imagine him tossing her to the wolves, figuratively speaking.

While the writing was overly passive so was the scheming of ML&MC, everybody falls hook line and sinker for their plots while they dodge matrix style from everybody else's. They played an observer role until the finishing move for a big table turn that, guess what, also was passively narrated. So all ML and MC had to do most of the time is to act the heck out of their white lotus roles and then strike in the end, they didn't even round up a couple most annoying roles like the Zhang aunt and ML's female cousin.

Predictably, Hua Xi Wan and Yan Jin Qiu ascend the throne to become Empress and Emperor respectively, much like Qu Qing Ju and He Heng. In TVW that’s far from the end, we got to read how their relationship grows further. We got to see Qu Qing Ju get pregnant and give birth to Tun Tun and later meet her other children. We got to watch as they overcame more plots and schemes, as they overcame the challenges that came with the being the Imperial Couple. In Eight Treasure Trosseau, Hua Xi Wan and Yan Jin Qiu ascending the throne marked the end. Not to say Yue Xia Die Ying didn’t tie up all the loose ends but it was too succinct, the crowning and life after was concluded in the last 2-3 chapters and while sweet, much less satisfying. Basically they were crowned and most of their life after was summarised by a few paragraphs at fhe end which tells their story from the modern point of view (like in a history book) although one part that amused me was when they (modern people of the novel) wondered if Yan Jin Qiu had transmigrated from their time... to put it simply, he’d done what most transmigrated in other novels (usually Japanese world building ones) do.

Nobody's over-powered, but everybody's just moving and positioning themselves and manipulating (or trying to) events and people since the throne is at stake.

Who gets the Best Acting Award - the Imperial Family - that includes the relatives, some of who just want to be left in their indolent and literati lives, except the Crown Prince is infertile and the Emperor is a rapist, and etc etc etc.

The ML and MC start with just acting a role, a devoted and so in love husband and wife. The ML truly falls in love with the MC while MC, we are not really sure but she is behind her husband 110%. As a matter of fact, her decisive actions (really just small personal decisions, nothing major like the Malicious Empress) helped secure the throne for her hubby.

it seems that the conflict in the story isn't something stemming directly from the MC but is more centered around the ML, with the MC not trying to get involved, and

In fact, the biggest reason I like this story is because ONLY the ML seems to be black-bellied while the MC seems largely unambitious. She has a pretty cushy life (compared to others around her) and doesn't seem to wish to exert more effort than she has to. I'm interested to see how that plays into and contrasts with all the conflict the ML is in. And speaking of the ML, I'm really liking how ambiguous his feelings towards the MC are (so far) and can't wait to see where and how things change between them.

Though I really found it awkward and weird when the members of the Royal family died or thrown into prison in a span of two years. I mean, is that kind of thing really possible during that era? Who knows.