The inner ring's protagonist is eventually revealed later on as well, and she too, is a transmigrator.

The inner book's "rule" is that the inner protagonist must be with that particular ML. The middle book's "rule" is to have the protagonist have many accomplishments to further develop the setting world. The outer book's "rule" is to have it's protagonist to have little difficulty in passing conflict, which is seen in the other books "rules" too.

She's just that one person you'd get along with at first, only until something bad happens. Then she leaves you in the dust, which is technically a fake friend. But like with most fake friends, she comes back once something good happens.

She was a college student. But good GOD she was not allowed to have any brains at all in this novel other than just giving the emperor some cool invention from the future. Yes she is a jealous bit*h yes she envies for things far beyond her reach but she was just written as a brainless cannon fodder who cannot see a moment of happines from MC and I hated that. Those are her only personality, smart in inventions, jealous of anyone having a good life, shitty at making plans that it backfired badly on her, and her fear of the emporer. She's just a puppet for the author to speed the plot. I have placed higher hopes on her being much clever but no it was nothing but dust. I am just— sigh. With how much golden finger she has, I am dissatisfied with the execution that's all.

Although, there's a multiple transmigrated people from modern times (3 in actuality) and 2 got reborn, even the OG Ruan Xi of the novel (the one who married Qi gongzi) , got a chance to be reborn and have her happy ending with Qi gongzi again even if she was in different body.

Anyway, you can say that the MC, transmigrated Ruan Xi, got a ' good luck halo'. It is not an OP golden finger but was needed and a must in her current life.

Unlike Ruan Ning/San Niang, she got a 'platinum level' of golden finger (having a healing system and a plentiful knowledge of modern inventions blueprints). Although her golden finger is a first class but she lacks the proper IQ for that time era (she got the modern concept of lifestyle). On her 1st transmigration, she lives as if there's no Emperor above all and even if she knows, she thinks that ancient people are s*upid and got that supremacy vibes that she's above all. In short, she's courting death in a lavish way 😅. Maybe that's the reason why the Emperor edicts her to follow his deathbed.

On her 3rd life, being reborn in transmigrated novel. She didn't acts lavishly just like her 2nd life. Since she's envious of her 4th sister's life from the 2nd life of her, she wants to continue the engagement of her's to Qi gongzi (the one she was engaged with and push to her 4th sis on her 2nd life). Pity, she doesn't have the memory of the OG Ruan Ning in both lives where the OG already 'insulted/looked down' Qi gongzi, making Qi disgusted to her.

Later on, still, Ruan Ning keeps pestering people around her, dragging people to a pit or shameful manners without feeling remorse as if they deserved it and its their fault first. Ruan Ning totally lost her braincells 🙄🙌. At least, she didn't lost the 'inventions' due to lack of IQ.

In the end, she still follows what's the supposed plot of the OG novel (Plot-sama is actually strong in this regard, although some things diverse from the OG novel but the end result is there 😬).

Speaking of the OG novel...

The OG novel is supposed to be, Mu Qingci, the novel's female protagonist, is a transmigrated modern girl to ancient times. She doesn't have a golden finger and only knows to eat good food 🤭. It wasn't mentioned what her previous life but always mentioned that she's a foodie 😅. She later on marries 4th Prince and bear the 1st son of him that will be the future Emperor making her the Dowager Empress. Its supposed to be a slice of life type novel for her.

Whereas, her fellow transmigrator, Ruan Ning, got a golden finger of a healing system and a plentiful of 'inventions' and 'discoveries' on her plate when she got transmigrated. It makes her feel that she is like the protagonist of a novel. She throws away her engagement to Qi er gongzi (an illegitimate son of a Marquis family) to her 4th sister, Ruan Xi (an illegitimate daughter of an Earl family).

She lives a lavish life and 'invents' a lot of useful things and even 'discover' high yield crops and seeds, making her a well-known young lady that's being admired by many low to top class men. Also, making the Imperial family aware of her, specially the current Emperor 😏 that she laters regret. Since she was an unmarried girl in a noble family, the Emperor (who's on his 50s) makes her his concubine (since she cures the Emperor of his illness via her healing system). This Emperor is not that muddled not to used RN well and later discard when his life ended, avoiding trouble for his descendants.

When RN becomes the concubine of the Emperor, she really hated it since she wants to marry good looking and top class man (like Wen Ting Zhou and later on Qi Yue An-the ex-fiancé of hers). She regrets a lot of things and envies her 4th sister's good married life with Qi er gongzi. Making it her demon when she got reborn.

like how her calligraphy level recovered after a few days of practice

How she can miraculously sense when something is poisonous

How her marriage literally dropped into her lap despite all the factors against it. Like how zhang shi suggested it to wen furen despite how much she hates concubine born children. How wen furen even mentioned it to WTZ despite the fact that FL is a concubine born daughter and all the rumors about FL up to that point were that she's beautiful but mediocre. Like I get the process about how WTZ convinced his mother and grandmother. But why did his mother even mention it to him in the first place? Like wouldn't the normal reaction be to just disregard and forget about it because the suggestion itself is just so ridiculous? Like a small noble family is suggesting that the handsome intelligent heir of an important minister, the di grandson of an imperial princess should marry the unimportant noble family's concubine born daughter whose only reputation is that of being a beautiful but mediocre female.

How she miraculously knew to trust her fiancé even though based on whatever was revealed in the novel she read should say otherwise. Like he's supposedly gay and he's the minister in charge of the boards of punishment (which I assume is the ministry of justice) and he's characterized as a ruthless character. Based on this, why would she instantly trust him enough to ask him for help and reveal her real personality the first time they met?

How ML sent in lin mama to teach FL which also provided her with protection and support in her natal family. I mean yeah ML's fam is superior to FL's but why would FL's fam accept it? I mean it's basically exposing the internal workings and issues of FL's fam to an external party. If it's like FL was marrying into imperial fam, it's understandable because FL has to learn imperial fam etiquette which is unique and it's actual historical procedure. But in the case where a noble fam is marrying another noble fam, it just does not make sense that the author tried to make it seem acceptable.

How her father's wife suddenly discovered antagonist took over her daughter's body, so she kind of stopped targeting FL and started targeted RN.

How everyone that matters just likes her immediately, like lin mama, ML's mother, ML's grandmother, ML's cousin.

How FL was all about laying low to avoid attention and she tried to keep to it even after she was engaged to ML. But suddenly she just stopped laying low and it was all good.

how her grandmother started supporting FL after she revealed her true intelligence. But shouldn't the fact that FL is engaged to ML be more than enough? Even if FL was a low key mediocre person, it's still a big jump for her family for FL to be able to marry ML. Like FL's grandmother and father are shown to be huge pragmatists, so unless FL is awful, why wouldn't they immediately put in effort into supporting FL. Why does the author make it seem like they supported FL because of FL's intelligence rather than it solely being based on her marriage?

The way they can openly meet each other in private. when ML's servant just came over and asked FL to meet ML, and they just chatted alone in a room without any accompaniment from their servants. his mother knew and it was like not an issue because ML is the one who asked so it's ok.

the way it's ok for engaged couples to date openly at parties and ML's cousin even asks FL if ML has held her hand yet. it's ancient China. Talking about holding hands??

the way ML hugged FL in public at the entrance to her home. There was some crap excuse that the carriage blocked the view of this. But cmon? The carriage blocks out one side, how can it block every other angle?? like if the carriage blocks it from the front there's still the right left and back view of this??

and what irritates me the most is that the author can't seem to make up his/ her mind about the societal environment. On one hand, it's conservative like how MQC originally became 4th prince's concubine because she fell on the 4th prince. Like she fell on the guy fully clothed but that contact is enough for her to become his concubine. but it's also so open minded that just because ML and FL are engaged, it's ok that they publicly walk around together, it's ok that they exchange tokens and flaunt the tokens from each other, it's ok if they hold hands, it's ok if they hug, it's ok if they flirt publicly, it's ok if they meet in private. It's just... irritatingly different. stick to a construct instead of wildly veering from liberal to conservative depending on how the author wants the story to progress.

For example, the sister / legitimate daughter is a transmigrator. She is aware of the novel's plot, has "golden finger" and given her birthright and family background, she could have had an ideal life (or as ideal as a woman could have had in ancient China), but instead, all her plans backfire upon herself and in the end, she ends up with a worse fate than her previous life because she refuses to conform. Basically, her behavior is abhorrent and her lack of self-awareness only causes things to exacerbate.

I was actually hoping she will repent and grow brain, but unfortunately no.

1). The MC got married and pregnant at 14-15. I know it's in ancient setting and it was normal at that time. I understand. I DO understand. But understanding it and liking it are two different things.

2. What's wrong with the 3rd young lady? She was s*upid, annoying, and a troublemaker, but they just let her be? While other villains (legit. mom, concubine of ML's father and her daughter) were killed? Is it because she didn't killed anyone yet, but they did. So it was justified to kill them? I am sorry but I had been waiting for her to be killed and had killed her several times in my mind. I am tired reading her s*upid actions, but she lasted until the end and wasn't killed... or am I too evil??

3. And the poisonous rogue/cosmetic. It was mentioned at one chapter, then was forgotten? Or did I skip how it was solved? I mean it was mentioned as the caused for ML's aunt death which made ML avoided female and possibly the death of MC's mother. I didn't read the continuation of this

4. And the last was the forever-young formula. What happened with that? Did the Yang get it back? Or...?

They got married sooner than expected due to circumstances in the family and had s*xual interc**rse, multiple times, that led to having a child, but I suppose that's the realistic part of the story.

ML did plan on taking her hand in marriage soon after she had her coming of age ceremony and moving away from the capital and settling down in a quiet place. But due to ML's grandmother being close to death's door, the ML's family settled all the descendants of age's marriages in a hurry on the fact that bringing positive vibes to dispel the bad and their children would've had to wait on for 3 years as a mourning period. What's not mentioned is that marriage arrangements can possibly change during that period, which I've seen happen in other instances in other novels.

The wedding had to be consumed due to ceremonial traditions and one would consider the madam unfavoured if the master did NOT bed her (plus they needed to show to ML's parents the proof of their consummation in form of a white handkerchief stained with bits of her virg*n blood). The issue of her rushing in having a child at the young age of 15-16 was also due to tradition, mainly because the illegitimate branch was also about to have a child and ancient folks placed great importance on the legitimate branch having a son first.

The OG plotline doesn't seem fitting for a novel at all, not from an FL's perspective nor from an ML's perspective. FL is bound to be a concubine of his whilst he's got a prospering harem despite heavily favoring FL. After ML became the emperor, FL remained as a concubine/noble consort. I do not consider the story to be targeted originally towards a male audience either, since this ML perishes very early on (35-40?) whilst FL's child becomes the next emperor and she the empress dowager. FL doesn't possess any hacks/golden fingers, merely a meek and mellow disposition and an unending love for the gourmet.

Unlike her, the side character in the OG novel who becomes later on a villain in the following was packed with knowledge and mysterious abilities. Any mysterious illness is no match for her and she brought along various progressive inventions and ideas. Using the knowledge, she progressively stepped ahead with great fanfare and flaunt but didn't even intersect with the main OG couple.

The laid-back side character (og Ruan Xi) and her overly glamorous and prosperous life had no impact on the OG story either, and seeing a couple thriving better than the main couple is definitely unheard of.

I'm truly baffled by the point of the OG story and this character's existence. She takes things for granted and treats everybody as s*upid despite not even knowing it's a novel universe. She's heavily afflicted with the main character syndrome also despite knowing she met a gruesome miserable end while others thrived.

Many would probably not be satisfied with her ending in the rebirth version, but I like that it's not overly bloody and vengeful. Harmful cannon fodders will be removed and those who can be kept in check, like the villain who's a rabid dog in a cage, can be ignored.