The story is well-written, and the story flow is very good. Some might not understand it, but you can't expect the main character to be a saint after all his past; being unloved, condemned, and seeing the important people in your life die one by one.

The main character shou was instigated by the witch, his further actions were on point within the story as aside from his mom and the male lead, he's not aware of any other else that would treat him well, with him trusting the witch too much. The misunderstanding between the two is on point, if you know ERHA which quotes something about "misunderstandings" this story is another example of it. Every action of shou is always backed up by something, he's at fault for doing disgusting things to others, but he grew up in a bad environment (the witch's) most influential teaching.

MC is... yeah, as the title says, obsessive. Or rather, was obsessive. There’s no justification with how crazy he acted, that’s true, but I feel like it could have been avoided if the ML was truthful and confided in him. Which brings us to the second point: the ML. In his pov, we can get that he can’t bring himself to trust the MC with his plans, hence why all the secrets. Maybe there’s the fear that MC will be uncooperative, go crazier, won’t understand him, etc. But they’re married, and marriage is supposed to be a unification process. They were in it together, but instead, the marriage became more of a reason for them to drift from one another. Which is the wrong of ML

His biggest mistake is not communicating his worries to the MC. He should have shared his burden with his empress. He should have communicated his plans, cause that would avoid misunderstandings, and maybe then the MC wouldn’t have become so overbearing. His major flaw is how he kept his mouth shut in moments the MC needed the reassurance the most. MC is smart, I wish the ML saw that and how they could have solved the problems together— both the country’s/court’s problems and their personal ones. But alas, he chose to be secretive and alienated his beloved.

i can’t fully justify MC, because after all, he was indeed crazy. the lack of trust led him to do all that, but he didn’t have to go that extreme. But moving further, despite knowing that there were misunderstandings, I still liked how he schemed. Maybe I am just really into strong-willed MC who are cunning. I personally like morally gray characters. He was never a push over, both in the past and present life. His flaw is... well he loved too much. Too much to the point that he let himself go. He allowed love, or rather obsession, to win over his rationality in the past life. And when he was reborn, even tho he realized that, somehow the blame was still on the emperor. “I was obsessive and you didn’t like me then” felt like he didn’t really reflect on his actions as HIS but rather he only acknowledged it as somehow a weapon against ML.

I like how even the ML waited for a long time to achieve sincerity, there's more to the price that has to be paid, so being reborn isnt just an easy as a few spells & magic. And not only that even tho he suffered more than enough, it doesnt automatically exempts him from working his a off earning MC's forgiveness.

played chess with one of his concubines that he absolutely had no feelings for

Because it's not a s*upid misunderstanding that makes you want to bang their heads, but misunderstanding because of one's schemes.

In the first lifetime the over protection and secrets kept from Yun Qingci (empress) which lead him to misunderstand the emperor and finally commit su*cide. The double rebirth of the emperor and empress is all about getting revenge its not until the emperor stops keeping secrets from the empress are all the misunderstandings cleared. I like how the reason behind their rebirth is also explained even if it was kinda sad😭.

the shou may seem childish and unreasonable but when you think about how he was raised you would understand that he didn't really understand how to control his own emotion. His mother coddled and pampered him since young while being isolated from his father and siblings, then when his mother died when he was just seven he turned everyone away until the time when ml, who was also still a child, persistently wanted to be close to him so the MC could be happy again. That was why the MC became so attached to ml, because he was there when MC was at his lowest. When he was just seventeen, he married the ML who also became the emperor three years back after his emperor father died.

Before the time regressed for them, there are only two people in the most part of mc's life, his mother and ml. He met ML when he was seven, married when he was seventeen then died twelve years later. Can you imagine the betrayal he felt when he was sent to the cold palace by the only one he truly cared about all those years. Although it was all just a ruse to confuse the enemy, the ML didn't explain nor say anything to the MC and thought everything would be fine after, the MC didn't know anything that's why he thought ML didn't really love him and only used him to bring down mc's family.

The real villain here is the empress dowager who brainwashed the MC into thinking that everyone in the palace are scheming against him and seducing the ml, she was the one who made the MC into a paranoid, obsessive and cruel person that everyone viewed him as in the previous timeline. She even encourage MC to hurt himself so ML would notice him.

It's all misunderstanding and was cleared in the end. It should have an angsty or psychological genre to it. First of all, both have faults in their way of portraying love. Don't completely judge the ML or the MC. They are seriously not perfect. Both suffered to their own medicine and learned from it. In reality, this will not work because we don'tget second chances. But they did by going back to the past. All their suffering was instigated too. The quote in the end where the brother said... "one has brain but doesn't use it and one has no brain at all. Speaks a thousand word. The ML do is the one who have a brain but because of his position and receiving obsession from MC. He couldn't communicate properly. He just want to make the MC learn more. MC completely one sided thinking led to his obsessions too. Mind you they really are inlove to each other when they lost it they fell madly in the pit of dispair.

The ML suffered after the MC killed himself in the tower. His obsession spurted out after the su*cide. His regret increasingly grew. He really was innocent, too. Well, moreon oblivious of the mc's feeling of heartache. ML went mad. He tried to go back in the past by feeding his flesh to the snakes and making a blood wax to lit up when the white lamp turn red. ML was cleaning the mc's unchanged dead body. Until in the end where the lamp finally went red. ML realized he couldnt go back and still thinks one of his version went back. MC watched this while his soul went to the future. The last part where the ML was eatin by the thousand snakes till only his bone left made the MC realized that both of them love each other

even MC think that he doesn't know if he really was in love or he was just obsessed

both gave up their lives which became balanced

I liked how even though YQC and YL's relationship is horribly toxic at its worst and unhealthy at best, they are both working to make it better. On YL's part, he recognizes that he privileged things (his rule, political harmony, toxic manipulators) over YQC that he didn't actually care about as much as YQC, and that he needs his Lord Empress much more than he thought he did and should have treated him better and communicated with him more. On YQC's part, he recognizes that he was unhealthily attached/codependent with YL, and that he needs to maintain some level of independence and healthy relationships with others, so he rebuilds relationship with his family (who genuinely loved him before, but he threw it away for LY; in fact, his family is pushing for YQC and LY to separate because they want him back and they recognize how bad this has been for YQC).

So they both grow, while also still being recognizably themselves: YQC is healthier in the way he lives his life but still a petty-ass, jealous, somewhat paranoid bit*h who's more than a little obsessed with LY, while LY still sublimates and subordinates himself to what he finds important, it's just that he now recognizes what is genuinely more important to him personally and that, unlike the emperorship, YQC can be reciprocal in that devotion and care. (LY is also as petty and jealous now as YQC used to be; in the next-to-last chapter, the reveal that he stole the ear mufflers YQC made for the second male lead was both horrifying and hilarious. These psychos are both petty and jealous and obsessive, and it shows just how much these two deserve each other!)

I also think the novel did well in keeping me 100% behind YQC until he sees LY's future, and the over-the-top suffering he does to get his second chance with YQC (which admittedly is 100% a gutpunch, with the "two" Li Yings), and so I began thinking "OK, LY has suffered enough, I think I like him now" at the same time as YQC did (which is hard, to ensure your reader has that switch in feeling at the same time the protagonist does!).

morbid 😣!!!

They know what was already wrong and they can just heal like an ideal couple BUT NOOOOO THE MC'S PRIDE HAD TO BE THERE. f*ckING HELL, I know couples don't reconcile smoothly because of their individual prides, but damn, seeing it in a novel gives me flashbacks on irl couples and their s*upidity.

They both suffered because of miscommunication and manipulation from third parties. There's a villain here but there wasn't much detail on how the villain was defeated. Although it has been implied that the ML really made that person suffer.