OK, I feel bad for them, andddd I kinda don't at the same time. Her biological family favours their adopted daughter, Zhao Yuan, more than the MC. They found MC when she was 15, and took her in for 2 years. In those 2 years, in order to make Zhao Yuan feel unthreatened by MC's existence, they treated MC horribly.

MC had to suck up to her family a lot, and had lots of expectations of love, but didn't get anything in return.

There's the younger brother, superstar older bother, CEO older brother, mum and dad. All of them realise too late that they've treated MC badly. Then there's a whole spiel about how blood is thicker than water when they finally lose MC. Really have no idea how their brains work. It's revealed that they've been tricked by a nanny, but what does that have anything to do with their own treatment of MC and moral conduct? Honestly don't feel bad for any of them except the little brother who genuinely sees MC as an older sister and was just immature. The rest can go into tr*shbin. They are all adults and should know how to act!

Then, Zhao Yuan. I am really conflicted about her. She is not malicious, just petty. She is naturally insecure about her position in the family, so she would find ways to pit herself against the MC. Purposefully, making MC seem jealous and dumb, that kind of stuff. Everyone spoils her, so she thinks she can do anything. Later on, she is kicked out of the family for something that's not really her fault and goes down a dark path. WTH, she is a child, if the adults around her enable her behaviour, of course she will act like how she acts. MC's family is just tr*sh ok!! I don't hate Zhao Yuan, but don't like her either.

Personally, I found the family's end kind of bittersweet but I think that's the perfect way to end things. Although I felt kind of bad for that family, especially Zhao Yuning, the oldest brother and the mother, I really liked how Mingxi did not choose to forgive them but instead chose to move on without them.

It has opened so many avenues for good plot lines that feel so spread out and untouched. It's only the middle of the story, so I have no problem with multiple plot lines going at once. It makes the story interesting, but I feel that the romance needs more help. Desperate help.

Ever had a friend trapped in an abusive relationship, but they're too desperate for love to leave? That's Mingxi (FL) and Yangxi (ML). Mingxi met Yangxi for the explicit purpose of living. She gets close, gets touchy, and takes all signs of affection that Yangxi gives, but, this mentally 23 yr old woman, doesn't know that he likes her? EVERYONE knows at this point BUT her for too long. Yangxi deals with heartbreak after heartbreak, and still treats her well because she's the only one who cares about him. It's frustrating because I want someone better than the FL for him.

She's so manipulative and unintentionally cruel/standoff-ish. Her family may have used her to keep everything stable, but does Mingxi believe that she's any different? Apparently she doesn't even connect her using Yangxi because she does everything a couple would (except the explicit stuff), and can't see that Yangxi is amazing or likes her until he pulls away. Am I supposed to like this mentally 23 yr old s*upid FL?She can clarify everything immediately but the important stuff. She's so exhausting and hypocritical.

Nevermind that she knows her family are under the influence of the adoptive daughter's halo, she doesn't spare them her ire at all. I can't help but feel bad for them as they're only free when it's too late.

A victim of never having any comfort, so he latches onto the first person to show him any. Doesn't help that his friend coaxes him into the delusion of having a secretive romance with Mingxi. Then he created boundaries, only for her to step over them. I want him to get help because his whole family is tr*sh, and he doesn't deserve to endure love triangle after love triangle. Can't wait for the truth of his family to come out, so he can finally get closure. Don't want him depending on this s*upid FL for help.

One word to describe him: delusional. I bet if Mingxi punched him in the throat, he'd choke out a thank you. His friends will even say that all women are violent towards their crush. Honestly, his friends are villains, and he's dangerously s*upid. How many rejections can a s*upid man take before he learns his lesson? Who knows.

Super forgettable for a villain. She doesn't take action or stir too much trouble because her factory settings won't let her act out loud. She's a dumb insecure child, and this world was created for her success. Why would the girl be anything but one dimensional?

He talks to his family, the FL talks to them too, and the relationship, while not perfect, becomes better than before. So why couldn’t the FL do the same with her family?

Not to mention that by the end of the novel, the family has distanced themselves from her until they ultimately kick her out of the family. Her worst fears come to fruition as a result and it makes her go crazy at the end.

We know that she's smart, so why couldn't she have gotten a tuition at some university where she could start over? Why did we see her become a washed up idol trainee who wears "revealing" clothing? Why did she all of a sudden get a loser boyfriend when she had a fan club at school? Even if her background was shady, she still had rich guys who wanted her.

Let me preface by saying that I don’t condone the actions of the FL’s family. They were jerks to her and didn’t appreciate her until she died or left.... but because we know that there’s a heroine halo on the OGFL, it makes their actions excusable since they were conditioned or brainwashed into feeling this way.

Excusable might not be the right word here, but whenever an author introduces a system like this, it makes me harder for me to view the characters affected by it in a negative light. If it wasn’t for the heroine halo, would the family be this vicious to our FL? Probably not.

They might have just raised both of the girls together and called it a day.

And while the ending does make it seem like there might be some sort of reunion between the two, it didn’t sit right with me that she was so cold to him. If the heroine halo wasn’t there, then I’d understand her apprehension towards him and her wariness to get close. But there’s a heroine halo, so it’s not like he could have controlled himself. And because he can’t control himself, is he truly at fault?

The FL has a system that lets her take the luck of the ML, which then lowers the OGFL’s heroine halo. Before this really kicks into gear, we see the little brother defending the FL. At most, he’s a spoiled, ignored brat. Which makes sense, since he’s given everything but is practically ignored by his family. The only way he knows how to get attention is to be a brat.

His personality and his desire to change, along with the backstory of the heroine’s halo, made me feel awful for him. I wanted a scene where at least he could get a proper reconciliation but we never got it.

The only time I cheated with spoilers was to check who the ML was because I really liked MCs dynamic with the 'bad boy', but I didn't actually believe the romance would be between them because he's introduced with vibrant red hair and the opposite of the typical ML personality (he's aggressive, he isn't attentive in class and his grades suck, and he doesn't respect his teachers).

I was surprised that MC's family wasn't actually terrible in comparison to most families in this type of story, and even more so that I actually wanted her to accept her brothers' apologies pretty early on. Its kind of hard to blame the family for treating her differently than the 'adopted' daughter whom they'd known and raised for 15 years.

I'm assuming this is meant as some type of parody to the 'false daughter is treated terribly after the real daughter is found' trope that I also happen to really enjoy LOL.