Where FL start in a Ml's harem. She tried to change the story, but at the end of book 1 she didn't change anything.

After fleeing from the capital, she start her own business. And she single handedly (the ML helped her, but I think she would do this her own but it took time) changed a Emperor. And reunite with Ml.

but kinda unrealistic that our MC who was a modern (I assume successful) salesperson, fails to express her 'undying love' and act like it to the ML after taking over said devoted FL body to continue the act to expedite her return instead of going for revenge and 'my feelings have cooled for you' which adds on to her suspicious behaviour.

At one point I was screaming for her to just run away with 2ML already. What was the point of staying with a man who could kill his own kid even after being scolded for that immoral thought by MC and manipulating the circumstances to further his own agenda?

She would have been better off with a man that would love her whole heartedly without a messy harem (2ML) with her finances to live out the rest of her life instead of trying to win the love of such a man and trying to survive the poisonous struggles when it was uncertain that she could leave this place afterwards.

Such as:

• • ML believing in FL despite lack of concrete evidence, meting out punishments at the whim of FL by acting pitiful and innocent (Common troupe used in many web novels) -- how it looks like from the other end with the 2FL being ab*sed and struggling against the FL halo.

• • Misleading first impressions leading to reactions that would have otherwise gained sympathy from the truth

''2nd ML is always better'' than do a 180 and still for for the ML and even insult 2nd ML.

NOTE! ENDING spoiler ahead!!! I think my only regret with this novel is that the last arc was poorly handled. I feel as if the writer had lost the energy to write in their "Show Not Tell" manner and they had traded important plot points for Ji Man to have a perfect happy ending. One really good standing fact in the storyline is that it admits that Marquis Moyu is an a**hole, not a typical domineering ML as*hole as the original novel implied but a scheming and calculative a**hole. This had been an important detail to me as often time, novels gloss over the fact of their ML's cruelty. I had admired this one for not doing such... Until the ending, at least. His actions, unfortunately, had been over-glorified in the end in favor of giving Ji Man a happy ending, which although I can understand, but still feels subpar to the very intense and serious story the author had initially put forth.

The romance may have been slow, they may have misunderstood each other along the line and even separated at a point. The ML really did love her albeit not from the onset, but then understand that there was a limit to what he could do, he wasn't a god. He couldn't do everything for her or rescue her at any time. Some readers fail/failed to understand that. Bear in mind, this was ancient times, you can't be careless or show weakness or it could be used against you.

I'm not saying that all his actions were completely understandable and his past deeds could be wiped off clean because he changed... but then he did try his best later on.

Like with her business getting exposed.

The main protagonist, Ji Man (JM), is forcefully thrown into this fantasy world of a web novel that they were reading initially before they fell asleep. The plot starts off like your typical female lead transmigration stories, fulfill the regretful dying will of the former owner of the body. The protagonist's point-of-view and a brief interaction with the original body owner, Nie Sangyu (NS), portrays the typical trope of how the transmigrator must repair and rekindle a broken relationship in order for the protagonist to return to their world. However, as you progress through the story, the protagonist finds out that Nie Sangyu's wish is far more simple and pure, she simply wanted the male lead, Ning Yuxuan (NY), to wear the cloak that she embroidered. This embroidered cloak was something that Nie Sangyu arduously worked on for months, to the point where she got sick at some point and continued to work through nights to complete so the male lead could wear it.

Additionally, there's the chaotic and formidable influences of the fictional world that the protagonist must adapt to and face that further complicates the plot. There's the social norms that reflect the patriarchal society of ancient China that benefited and empowered men over women along with its complicated and venomous politics in both the harems, royalty, and the government. Within the short duration of the story, the throne changes its owner about 4-5 times, with the aftermath leaving behind a young emperor who will inevitably be a puppet figurehead who is portrayed as someone who has developed into a better emperor through the influences of the Ning clan (i.e. Male Lead and Second Male Lead).

Overall, the author did a stellar job in portraying the less than glamorous life of ancient Chinese life. The tribulations that the protagonist, Ji Man, faces throughout the story is truly enormous and I could even say borders the hard tasks a typical hero of ancient mythology would have to take to become a legendary figure written down in history to forever be remembered for their achievements. Furthermore, much like how the author does not portray ancient China in a sugarcoated lens, they also show the aftereffects of a transmigrator's actions that causes numerous changes in the original story. For instance, all that beauty & business expertise of a modern-life transmigrator allows the protagonist to earn a lot of money along with dire consequences. In similar web novels, the transmigrator makes huge profits but usually little to no repercussions for making an impact in their fantasy worlds. However, this story's consequences for the protagonist making money via their modern-day knowledge is the root cause of how they cause the entire extermination of their family bloodline (The Nie clan). It's said by Ning Mijing, Second Male Lead, that her business was just an excuse that the Second Prince needed to get rid of her clan, but this is based on what the other characters shared with the protagonist.

Overall, the story is very complex if you step back and consider that everything you're given in detail is based on the limited point-of-view of our protagonist, who has had lapses in their judgement many times throughout the story even though she's had her shining moments of wisdom as well. Every action and inaction led to these tragedies and tribulations.

It can be argued that the characters are what really drives the plot/storyline. That sometimes, the characters are the plot. Well, I have to agree for The Dreamer in the Spring Boudoir as you take on the limited first person point-of-view of our protagonist, Ji Man. Through her point of view, you can see internally much of her many strengths as well as her many weaknesses. It's what truly makes reading this story into an inevitable marathon (if you have enough time to binge read). It's because our protagonist is flawed, and we can only see the other characters through this limited point-of-view, that we can kind of truly immerse ourselves into the story. As you read through it, you can see that every character is flawed, and come to dislike some and like some as you would in real life. It's these believable characters that further supplements the story into another level that goes beyond your typical fan fiction styled novels where you get your typical Mary/Gary Sue who are invincible.

I will admit that in certain points in the novel, these characters do embody the almost perfect Mary/Gary Sue, especially the Ning Yuxuan, Male Lead, like when they are almost perfect in their planning and always gets what they want in the end-- but it can be pardoned I feel, since we're only limited to the point-of-view of our uninterested protagonist, Ji Man, who for the most part is oblivious to the background scheming and plotting that are done by the various characters in this complex ecosystem.

Essentially, the author's choice of a limited first person point-of-view saves them from the usual plot holes and flaws in a story, as it can be easily argued that this is mainly due to the lack of perception/awareness of the main protagonist, who doesn't catch certain things that we might usually get as a reader from other types of stories.

The ending speaks of a history being written down of the two legendary Ning members (First and Second Male Lead), as well as the loving and almost mystical wife of the Marquis Moyu (Our Protagonist). This is to be assumed to be from a narrator's perspective which should be more omniscient (although not absolute) compared to our usual limited perspective via Ji Man. This is what the majority was led to believe of these legendary characters. It could be argued that as winners in the long game of political chess, they were also the ones who wrote the history (manipulated what the public and historical documents would portray them as).

I will go into one aspect about the most hated and controversial character in this story (based on other reviews). Marquis Moyu, or Ning Yuxuan (the Male Lead), is definitely an extreme character when you read through the first book. As a reader from a modern world, you can see how unreasonable and terrible he is-- Much like how Ji Man sees in her own perspective as a modern working woman from China. Understandably, the social norms and perception of what's right/wrong is different in modern China as compared to many Western countries. This is something the reader should keep in mind, as it's very common I feel that every male lead from Ancient China seems to have this abusive/possessive nature that seems to almost be portrayed as the ideal male form for that setting.

I'm no expert in the Chinese culture outside of what I read in the web novels, but it's safe to say that whatever the case may be-- the author did a stellar job in crafting their flawed characters even in the Male Lead. In my opinion, it's because of the talented writer that the reader can feel such emotions for certain characters such as sadness, happiness, anger, and even loathing of a certain fictional character. In movies and TV shows, we see such hateful characters, and we believe it's because the actor/actress is truly skilled in their craft and praise the writers and director for this type of character that can evoke such emotions. I feel the credit must be given to the talent writer and the amazing translator for portraying these characters who can be liked, disliked for whatever reasons a reader may have.

Lastly, it seems to be a common issue with the author where they portray this antagonist who seems to be very formidable, but suddenly the same intellectual who was able to orchestrate and scheme seemed to let their guard down so much to the point that they would almost seem like they were drunk/drugged and had their mental capacity cut in half for parts of the novels. Of course, this is only in the limited first-person perspective of our main protagonist so it's very possible that's what Ji Man perceived even though the antagonists were truly formidable to the very end. Perhaps Ning Yuxuan was simply too great at what he does and was able to make his opponents seem like cannon-fodder. Either way, it didn't really affect the overall enjoyment of the read as I'm sure no one wants to read about the protagonist and her allies suffering and unable to retaliate for long periods of time.

I think the weakest aspect in The Dreamer in the Spring Boudoir, is inevitably the setting. While I do understand the author's reasoning for keeping the reader informed of the many politics/plotting/characters/dialogue/interactions/etc., the world-building aspect felt somewhat weak. It could be said that this novel was written perfectly for a TV series where it has select number of sets that the characters frequently appear in, but as a novel it failed to captivate me in this fantasy world that didn't tell me much outside of the characters' lives. Sure, the side-stories did definitely paint a wider picture and was enjoyable to read, but I honestly wanted to read more about how this world was different, like when Ji Man was acting as Haohao's (First Son) teacher -- This was a possible time to give a small explanation about the world, the dynasty, or anything else that the reader wasn't aware of-- since understandably we were looking through the limited first-person perspective of our protagonist the entire time.

Although the author's use of time skips were well utilized for the plot/story and the length of the overall story so it didn't feel dragged on-- I feel the author could have given us some fillers to give us some 'breathing/relaxation' parts between the constant action we were given. I do know that the actions we kept getting is what kept us hooked, but some bits of 'calm before the storm' could have been implemented better I feel, and world-building along with characters going out on unplanned outings/talk could have been built to expand upon the already interesting characters that we only got to see more of in those short stories.

The reason why Translations are not part of the overall rating is because it's part of the NU policies for reviews (where translation ratings do not directly impact the actual book).

I still wanted to leave translations to its own section because I feel it's one of the major parts on why the read was so enjoyable. The translator involved in this work did an amazing work, and perhaps their own translation/editing/writing is what made the author's writing look so great overall. Without a talented translator, no matter how great the writing is for a story -- it might seem like a mediocre novel.

Thankfully, this story had a dedicated translator who obviously is a veteran and skilled at what they do-- and they also have passion for the work as you can tell in their translator's notes that they do really think about the content. I did read their comments every once in a while, but I decided to skip them to try and get my own interpretation of the novel, but the parts I did read, I do believe the comments did supplement the novel. Furthermore, the translator has a trait that many translators and translation groups seem to lack -- dedication. Without dedication we could have ended up with a novel that gets abandoned part way through which is probably the worst feeling for any fans of a series.

Overall, the translation content is very fluid, has minor errors but are mostly things that can be overlooked, and does not ruin the actual story or the dialogue. The annotations in between texts to explain the poems that are referenced and various other pop cultural references that someone like myself couldn't possibly know of was something I really appreciated while reading it.

I truly do hope that Ji Man had an amazing and fulfilling life in the novel world, and can wake up from her comatose state in real life and live that part of her life in happiness as well with all the life lessons she must have learned from that world.