First, let's clarify that this is a transmigration story, with our MC Ji Man waking up one morning as Nie Shangyu, main wife of Ning Yuxuan who had just been demoted to a mere concubine due to her outrageous behaviour.

A bad MC can spoil an interesting concept that I'd drop the book on the first few chapters. Ji Man isn't like that. Her fighting spirit is great and her outlook is pragmatic. She really just wants to survive in this new world she's dropped in while cussing the original Sangyu. The story starts with her husband thinking the worst of her and everyone always badmouthing here because, I kid you not, it's entirely justified. That brings us to our second point.

Second, remember the original character whose life she took over? Nie Sangyu? She sucks. Original Nie Sangyu is a bona fide inner court villainess. Nie Shangyu was out of control, domineering, and bullying. She'd tried to ruin another concubine's face. She slashed the budget of other concubine's courtyards.

Sure, she's immature/wasn't raised well since her mother died when she was little, but that's still not an excuse to be a horrible example of what a love-crazed human being could be. She'd ab*sed her power as main wife and ab*sed people with it while the husband was away and busy dealing with politics, relying on her strong family backing (her aunt is an imperial consort) and her mother-in-law's bias for her. Heck, the marriage was practically forced on the Marquis by his mother and the imperial consort because the original Shangyu was so in love/obsessed with him. You can't accuse the other characters of being unreasonable—their wariness is entirely justified. And so is the Marquis' habit of always thinking the worst of all possible actions about her in the first 50-80 chapters or so (at the very least).

So, look, if you can't bear seeing the MC bearing such unjust circumstances for a while, like a twin whose blamed for crap their doppelganger pulled off, yeah, you might need to find another story where the atmosphere of the new life is lighter instead of all these pressures on Ji Man's life. For me, it's still an enjoyable read because the MC really doesn't take those troubles seriously, the main benefit of her modern outlook when facing ancient inner court problems and drama. 'Not my circus, not my monkeys'. Ji Man just considers it as a life someone dumped on her to fix. "You wanna go compete for the Marquis' favour? Go ahead. Not my business. Like I care." That's basically her attitude.

In fact, the point where I identify the most with her is when she can sense some drama brewing or play-acting about to start and she tries to get the best seat to watch with her metaphorical popcorn instead of trying to break the fight up or defuse the tension. Hey, if nobody would appreciate her effort, why the heck should she bother being virtuous? Also, it's not as if she gets a lot of entertainment in this era.

Third, it has to be noted that the ML, the Marquis Ning Yuxuan is a noble with a high position in court and yet not a prince. You may think that this shouldn't really matter that much, right? But no, this is a historical novel with a political bent, so of course it matters. I swear, his court position makes the lives of everyone of note in the Marquis household difficult.

Ning Yuxuan is at that problematic level when you've accumulated enough power that everyone in the fight for the throne is trying to get you into their faction or at least try to prevent the other side from getting you and thus also sabotaging your relationship with them. He's walking the tightrope and juggling knives all the time to look neutral, and as such, even the favours and attention he showers to his wife and concubines are at least considerate of their family background, connections and political backing too (same with his disfavour and why he couldn't divorce the MC easily).

Why does this matter? Look at all the few historical c-novels with the best MLs or decent/not-so-bad MLs. To Be a Virtuous Wife (He Heng), Eight Treasures Trousseau (Yan Jin Qiu), Rebirth of Malicious Empress of Military Lineage (Prince Rui), Chu Wang Fei (the eponymous Chu Wang whose actual name I've forgotten since I didn't read that far). They're all at least Junwang. The only people who can really oppress them is the emperor or more heavily favoured prince. The more the story progresses and we see other perspectives other than Ji Man/Nie Sangyu's, the more we see how much power (or not, really) Yuxuan has. Heck, when he's starting to like her, he can't even show it clearly because it might be taken as proof that the Marquis has finally fallen to the side of the Nie family's faction!

Ji Man is mostly oblivious to all this, which made it more entertaining. Whatever calculations and dilemmas Yuxuan has on showing his feelings for her or faking disregard, she's not even aware of it because she's not even watching his every emotion and mood like practically everyone else in the harem. She probably thought he's just doing the male equivalent of PMS-ing and move on.

Yeah, that's my primary entertainment value from this. Her fighting to keep her life comfy enough and his mounting aggravation to her lack of giving a $#!^ about his feelings and whether he likes/loves her or not.

Also, if anyone is idealistic enough to think that the marquis can easily resign his court position, dismiss his other wives/concubines and go to the countryside with only the MC to live the rest of their lives there (or something) to avoid politics once he realises how much he likes the MC.... seriously? Have you read enough historical novels? Someone is going to try offing him on the journey to make sure he's out of the way 'permanently'. Or take the opportunity to frame him to get someone else to take him out for them, once more, permanently. And that's not talking about all the people in his clan/extended family he's probably trying to shelter.

Even nobles aren't as free as they seem.

Four, the novel Ji Man had been reading was a romance novel, and thus glosses on many in-world details, and she was more focused on surviving that she didn't have the time to look at the big picture of what's happening at court/in the world in the first half. This meant that she's certainly not omnipotent about the potential shenanigans that can happen. With this comes my fourth warning of this novel; the reversal of fortunes can come so suddenly and of such extremes that the characters are shell-shocked. Readers might rail against more injustice piled upon Ji Man by the world, but such was the way of those days; life sucks and then you die.

Sure, the shifts in the political currents comes over the time span of months, and maybe a year or more, and the author is subtle with the foreshadowing and dropping of clues beforehand (the translator's comments and discussion are also enlightening in this matter), but readers who are like Ji Man/Sangyu and had only been paying attention to the matters of the inner court can get blindsided. Even Ji Man has her obvious blind spots.

Look, I don't blame the ML if he has to play the 'MC has fallen out of favour' card again to save his entire household from some execution-happy prince. Again, there are limits to his power and the ploys he could enact against them. I don't even care if she has anything more than an 'eh, that guy' feeling for him, though considering all the chasing he's doing and the happy-ending trope, the writer seems to ship them.

I'm shipping the MC with the second male lead... Like, god, I hope she won't end up with the so called male lead because that man is childish af when it comes to handling with the women problems. But I don't blame him, he is after all an ancient man. For real though, I hope the second male lead is MC's male lead....... F*ck, we all know that won't come true

The fact that he ends up inlove with her fewls so unrealistic to me. The author doesnt sell the fact that they will live together forever and be inlove very well because he'sso terrible to all the women in his harem. Like hes always falling in love with one discarding them, dalling inlove with another etc smh like theres no way they will grow old together if this was a irl story

I felt like a fool when I read the writer's note at the end of this book. It's like I got invested in this book for nothing. The clue is in the title itself.

Anyway, Ji Man found herself in the body of one of the characters in a book she read. Because she mostly skimmed the book and even forgone the ending, she did not have much information except for the basic outline. That triggered my consciousness because when a book tends to lean toward the boring side, I do the same too.

Nie Sangyu was the abandoned main wife and the body that Ji Man inhibited. To get back to her world, Ji Man has to help Nie Sangyu achieve her one wish. In the book, Nie Sangyu was portrayed as a selfish woman who would do vile things to get the ML. Ji Man got glimpse of Nie Sangyu's life and what turned her into a villain. So, Ji Man got a one-track mind to help Nie Sangyu and at the same time exact revenge.

But, as the story progressed, the writer decided to turn it into a HE. And so, we couldn't have a black-bellied ML anymore. How to turn a black-bellied ML into a hero deserving of praise? By making Ji Man realize she and Nie Sangyu were two different people and what happened to Nie Sangyu shouldn't affected her. All the ML bad deeds were pushed towards someone else; either his other women or anyone as long as it's not the ML.

I almost abandoned this book because for the life of me, it's not romance anymore. It's more like a Stockholm Syndrome. The writer did her best to tie up all loose ends but hey, she's only human.