in the previous life, he pursued the 'og!fl' because he saw her in a shooting, wearing dress, mask, and jade bracelet, he felt interested and asked around to find her name- not realizing that the one he saw was actually the 'og!fl's stand-in, Yup, our FL was the stand-in. He fell in love with her but didn't know it. When he learned the truth in the previous life, he began to feel distanced from the og!FL because without that 'first look' filter, he felt that the og!FL was just common at best. And he felt it was too bad about the FL's fate.

He was an as*hole in the beginning. He became even more of an as*hole when he practically froze FL's steps in entertainment world because she refused to play 'fake fiancee' with him, he thought the FL was a hypocrite whilst still chasing after her himself in his own twisted way. He threatened the MC by suspending her drama, endors**ent, suspending her manager from getting anymore resource, also suspending her friend and friend's manager from getting resource. It was at this point, I was really mad at him. The FL was forced to come and agree to be his fake fiancee, she demanded why did he hurt the people unrelated to their problem and you know what's his answer?

"They're friends with you."

Damn you, you little b*tch.

My favourite moment with him was when he learned the FL broke up with him not because of future prospect but because of being threatened by his mother. He acted all guilty and sensitive after that, trying to make it up to the FL and stuff, still not enough tho. The FL tried her best to get job or gigs so she could stay away from their shared villa.

Tell, he be doing crap like this, would you root for him? Whereas the second lead stayed by FL's side, encouraging her with his own way and cheered up the FL somewhat.

And then came the previous life dream and the ML turned desparate to get back to FL, he began to make amend, not wanting to force the FL. Truth be told, I don't get why the FL agreed, maybe the guilt-trip from the entire family, begging her to get back with the hopeless ML. From my pov, she didn't seem that excited at the prospect, she was unhesitant when she said she wanted nothing to do with the ML and there was no inner turmoil in her heart when the ML promised to make it up to her.

I guess at which point, the author realized that the FL's feeling had been really cooled off, too cool, there was not even a spark of ember to lit up anything. The FL was too similar to me, cold and detached, hard to trust again after betrayal, and I'm not attached to relationships I ended myself. So, maybe the author realized it would be hard to convince her daughter to get back to the intended ML so the author arranged a dream sequence where the role was switched. The FL was the rich heiress and the ML was the poor dude breaking it up with her because her family threatened him so.

Well... That's not a fair comparison. Why?

BECAUSE THE ML WAS A COMPLETE PRICK IN THE PREVIOUS LIFE! He swore to give the FL a second chance after the FL jumped down the third floor and got injured, he loved her, really so. So because he loved her and she already shown that much devotion, logically speaking he'll talk properly with her about their relationship right? Nope.

The ML brought the og!FL to his office when the girl he promised a second chance to waited and watched as he disregarded her. The ML purposefully waited till evening before bringing out the og!FL out of the office for a dinner of sort, right in front of FL's eyes just for the sake of making her jealous. Then, the ML mocked the FL for being a gold-digger who left him when he's poor and begged him to come back when he's rich to the og!FL while being fully aware that the FL was listening from outside and let a random girl (og!fl) to insult her too, because he wanted a reaction from her. He banned the FL from entertainment world because she 'bullied' the og!FL (she did not, only an emotional girl got caught revealing an emotional reaction, but she hurt no one) why? Because he wanted the FL to come and beg him. Many things had been done just for the sake of playing with the feeling of the supposed woman he loved.

Rather than a second chance to make it up, I want him (him, because he had dreamed of the original storyline and although he hadn't done any of the thing above, he still threatened the FL to get engaged to him and the thing didn't play out as it was because the FL had been reborn) to see the FL became happy with someone else. Preferably the second lead. Then, he'll realize how s*upid and hatefully manipulative he was. I'll like his character then, a deserving tragic man who sincerely tried to mend back what was broken but failed.

before he remembers everything in the past life he realizes that his mother was the start of the problems and he just made them worst. So our ML Meng Yi'an realizes that he truly doesn't deserve her love. He's sitting on the couch in a dark room in the fetal position with tears running down his eyes as he says "I'm sorry, I'm sorry yanyan, I'm sorry" over and over again presumably all night

I especially liked that the ML turned out to have loved the MC all along in the previous life. It's also perfect he "recovered his memories" as well, otherwise it just wouldn'thave worked out, I think...

both the orphan girl they picked up for the show, letting her become close to the MC and then never seeing her again (although she got adopted so bonus for that even though the reason was a bit... mnh) and how the MC and ML treated their own children. I mean, it'snot the fact that the MC went back to work after having children (girl power to the win!) it's just that... they just appear completely ignored...