MC knows the plot of the original novel. He uses this knowledge to protect ML. However, there is a deeper conspiracy that wasn't uncovered in the original novel.

ML wasn't mute due to his genes. His mother, the late empress, was poisoned while she was pregnant and this led to his mutism. The empress and ML's fourth brother were both mu*dered.

The mu*derer is actually the 6th prince's mother. She wasn't his real mother and her identity was fake. She was originally a foreign princess who married the emperor many years ago. She tried to assassinate him but failed and was suppose to die. However, she killed the empress' maid and took over her identity. Then she schemed her way back into the role of concubine. She wanted to make the emperor suffer for conquering her country.

The baos!!! This is the first danmei where I got seriously attached to the kids. Their antics are so funny and adorable, and I love how effortlessly they managed to charm everyone, especially the Emperor lmao

Like when MC in fish form slapped the woman early on and took revenge

I didn't like that the novel's final enemy turned out to be the last survivor's of an exterminated nation. Although their actions paint them as the villains, the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth. This plot was just there as a backdrop to the main leads' relationship, so it's easy enough to ignore, but... ultimately, I didn't like the Emperor very much.

I was also kind of bummed they went down the route of "curing" MTC's disability, but it does get points for not simply making him suddenly be able to speak and having that be the end of it. The fact that he has to take time learning to speak from scratch, and the fact that his voice still isn't quite the same as someone who didn't grow up mute, felt like a more realistic portrayal of the realities of learning to speak for the first time as an adult.

Li Yu starting up a women's support network for the widows. Even though this plot did kind of come out of nowhere, I liked the way they went about it. A lot of stories which feature a modern person trying to impart modern feminist ideas onto women in the past feel a bit... sanctimonious, like the only reason these women are in their predicament is because they don't try hard enough to change it. It's a saviour complex. However, this story didn't go down that route. Li Yu gets an idea to help a woman in need, and puts forth his idea to do so. It's another woman who suggests to him that simply helping her at an individual level won't really change her situation because she'll still be socially ostracised and will have given up the safety and security of her widow status. Li Yu takes this on board and finds out what Liang-shi actually wants. When she turns down his help, he trusts that she knows her situation better than he does and doesn't judge her for her refusal - however, he still resolves to change society for the better and set up a support network for other women like her, and once he's used his position of privilege to do this, he allows it to be run by other women of this era who understand their individual needs better than he does. Overall, this plot felt a little on-the-nose, but I still really enjoyed it.