You go in not liking the 3rd branches wife because she's spoiled, unruly and a bit lazy. But she matures after getting a reality check and isn't as lazy & gets along with MC. Shes sharp tongued but not against her trusted ones.

At first I like the oldest couple and mother zhou but the greediness of 1st couple was too much and you grow to dislike them. Like at first the 1st 2nd and 4th branch got along better and they did things equally. But things changed due to separation caused by 1st boy.

The oldest son is a moron if he didn't have brothers waiting behind him to marry, he wouldn't have been allow to marry a widow. I have no problem with remarriage but to bring in her former mother in law and let the MiL take all the profit off selling your wife's family recipe is crazy. And that old woman even beyond the grave just made so much trouble. They moved into her town home after she died, okay fine she bought it with the money you earned but then they started to act as if they were rich, bought nice clothes and showed off jewelry, not taking care of mother zhou even though it's usually the oldest (meanwhile MC had a lot of land and money while being humble, let MIL move in bc MIL was lonely) then they got robbed because they were such show offs and yet didn't learn their lesson since later on they picked up random bags of money they found. Like MC and ML helped them out even after their relationship turned sour. But it took prison for them to finally learn and be more low key.

But nah personally I wouldn't have helped them. After they accused my husband of purposely losing their kid as revenge for a childhood incident (oldest boy and third boy purposely lost ML imo probably bc there were too many mouths to feed and lacking providers) but the kid was inside the whole time. Like 3rd boy never did them harm or overthought it, he thought things were settled with ML inheriting stuff from the man that saved him as a kid. But 1st boy had in the back of his mind that it was the first thing to pop out when his kid got lost. I could never trust or help someone after such a thing but they're better than me I guess.

Mother zhou started off good, she had boundaries and was firm but after all her kids were married off & the grandkids were born she was more focused on them and got muddled. Her oldest boy keeps disappointing her but it's her oldest so she expects things from him. Like the bad relationship between 4th branch (our main couple) and 1st she kept meddling likely because she didn't want her oldest to be cut off from the family since fourth branch was more of a figurehead for Zhou family.

Mother Zhou: why don't you get along for the children's sake. Help out the first branch from their mistakes because they have a child 🥺 they're your family 🥺 don't be angry with them you know they were just scared and didn't mean it. 🥺 Reconcile 🥺

She also got unhappy whenever MC was generous to her parents like her dads 2nd wife was awful, overworked him and eventually left him (only trying to come back when she was desperate) MC helped him out many times with food farming medicine etc until he married his 3rd wife and even then they were still filial. Anytime MCs mother stayed with them even for a short visit MiL got insecure and kept asking when she would leave. Eventually MCs mother and half brother moved back permanently, MiL wanted her out of MCs house and for MC to stop helping her. Like why are you mad they're still helping her family, they have more than enough money to take care of you and her parents.

Side note I thought little moments with her half brother were cute. He's a cute and sensible child though I don't like his wife much. Though I blame it on how she was introduced. It was just weird and a little vulgar for the setting.

Her few interactions with Yan Yan (don't remember her name, the embroidery girl) weren't enough for me to like her as a character.

She sold a kimbap recipe. There were mentions of her having other things to make and sell but the author went in a different direction.

I don't even know why he liked her enough to guard her grave for a lifetime. The author did this to show his dedication, but without the proper justification it became a gimmick instead of a story line. The problem is that they don't have a getting to know you phase. When I analyzed it she married at 15 or 16 in her last life a she and the ML had passing interactions but weren't close. The segregation of male and female unless intending to marry was emphasized at the start. The she died and he guarded her tomb and she watched him do that. That's it. The have daily interactions but not a single frank conversation. I don't know anything about the ML because they don't talk. It would be different if the FL wasn't written as a bold and frank person, but she's like that with everyone but the ML. They even dance around the issue of them both being reborn for more than half the book for no reason. It was tedious instead of being interesting or sweet.