• • MC's sudden change of nature. Ning Ziying (original MC) spent her life being a pampered, gentle, and naive maiden. It didn't make sense when suddenly she became so adept of scheming after being reborn as Ning Xueyan. She could even predict her enemy's move with such high accuracy. Scheming needs experience and cleary MC didn't have any experience at all as an innocent Ning Ziying. It's understandable if she came back to the past but she actually came back as Ning Xueyan at the current period. So when did she learn how to scheme so perfectly?

• • In her childhood, Ning Yuling and her servants stripped MC (Ning Xueyan) and almost killed her. Why was nobody aware of MC's birthmark at that time?

• • The schemes of MC's enemies were a bit repetitive. It's either making her lose her reputation or directly killing her. And the enemies were like a c*ckroaches. They just won't die and kept coming back again and again with similar schemes.

• • The translation is a bit messed up. Sometimes, the names were also mixed up especially MC's name and her sisters. And the terms were also a bit confusing. I think some of chinese terms shouldn't be translated to english and the translator should leave it as it is.

ML was depicted as a bloodthirsty and cold man without any feeling but actually, his childhood was harsh. His mother died in conspiracy and he spent his childhood in the battlefield. After he came back to the capital, he still had to face his brother's scheme who wanted to pass the throne to his own child instead of ML as the rightful crown prince. It's understandable if he grew up to be like that.

But he became a bit warm after falling in love with MC. She understood him the most. Maybe because she also had a bitter past like him. They helped and depended on each other. She completed him and vice versa. Although he was domineering, he's not r*pey. He actually waited until MC recovered her health before having their wedding night.

Xia Yuhang and Wen Xueran only used MC as a chess piece. Xia Yuhang suspected that MC (Ning Ziying) was the eldest princess of the previous dynasty and wanted to marry her in order to gain the previous dynasty's treasures and military tally. But when he doubted MC's identity, he didn't hesitate to kill her. Later, he regretted it because he realized that he actually loved her. He guessed that Ning Ziying was reborn as Ning Xueyan although MC never admit it. Later, he had the audacity to proclaim that he will treasure MC if she was reborn but he easily took back his vow by scheming against MC with her other opponents. What a hypocrite.

Wen Xueran was actually an interesting character. He was a decendant of the previous dynasty's royal family. In other word, he was MC's cousin. He initially was Ning Ziying's fiance but he didn't care about her and even left her to die in the hand of Xia Yuhang, Ning Ziyan, and Madam Ling. But when Ning Ziying became Ning Xueyan and had a change of nature, he fell in love with her. However, he still chose his ambition to revive the previous dynasty over MC and even wanted to make her his chess piece by letting her marry ML as a way to approach ML in the future. Like Xia Yuhang, he also regretted it later. He confessed to MC but MC didn't want to have anything to do with him. It's understandable because she was also Ning Ziying and in her previous life, Wen Xueran left her to die although he was aware of her identity. He also tried to take MC away forcefully but of course he wasn't ML's opponent.

To be fair, ML also used MC in the beginning but it's a fair deal. MC occasionally helped ML but he also gave something back to MC as a compensation unlike Xia Yuhang and Wen Xueran.

As for Ao Mingyu and Ao Mingwan, although they also loved MC, they didn't want to give her a main wife position. At most, they just wanted to make her a concubine. In the end, they even wanted to take MC away forcefully and hid her somewhere. Of course they were failed.

• Ning Yinglun. Did she marry Ao Mingyu in the end?
• Madam Ling's family. Did they just let them off? In the past, they also contributed to Madam Ming's demise.
• Heng Yuwan. She tried to seduce ML and helped Consort Xia's rendezvous with ML. She also supposed to marry Xianyun's cousin because of her failed scheme. Did she marry him in the end?
• Ning Huaiyuan. Why did MC let him off? He tried to assassinate her in the past and almost killed her.
• Ming Yuanhua (MC's nominal cousin) and Heng Yuqing. Heng Yuqing clearly liked Ming Yuanhua while Ming Yuanhua secretly liked MC but it's unknown whether she could marry Ming Yuanhua in the end or not.

She actually fears him when they meet and their interactions stem from her owing him favors for him to help her. He does not instantly fall in love with her, rather he finds her intriguing. He looks at her as a chess piece and a way for him to get an important military object in her father's study. She recognizes that she is useful to him and acknowledges that she does not have enough power so is willing to be used by him so she can gain benefits. It is an interesting twist since she is a FL who must depend on her own knowledge to try and escape from the plots by her stepmother and stepsisters.

He is not for the faint of heart- black hearted, utterly ruthless and focused on his goals. He beheads concubines sent to him during a scheme to show his bloodthirstiness and also takes the FL to a scene where spies were being tortured. This is not a fluffy ML who dotes and acts lovingly.

Chp 124 is the slow start where he feels a touch of warmth. She recognizes her weakness and will do what she needs to survive and get her revenge. She will not abandon him as long as he does not abandon her. He is ruthless but admires her resoluteness and strength. At the same time, she recognizes she is useful to him and is only alive as long as she is continues to be useful.

As of chapter 154, there is still no romance as he usually kidnaps her to act as a pretend concubine and has cold-bloodedly killed people in front of her.

still don't like ML. He gets better but not until closer to the end. I don't like the idea of pressing on wounds to make a point