He's adopted, his parents were close friends of his adopted mother but the whole family treats him like their real son/brother.

Even so, Huo-Parents are perfectly happy with MC not calling them mom and dad, they understand that MC remembers his biological parents and don't even want to steal that spot in his heart.

They know he loves them just as much even when they are "only" Huo-ma and Huo-pa, and they don't let anyone criticise their relationship.

Binging followed by purging via induced vomiting (/laxative misuse), often enough to demineralize and weaken her tooth, is most likely bulimia. The reason why she started it doesn't really change that she has an ED. She was not even one of the evil and unpardonable cannonfodder villains that the MC needed to ‘take care of’ to avoid a dead end. So I don't understand why this poor minor side character was dragged out to a public execution just for sh*ts and giggles. She was not malicious nor was she harming anyone (except herself. No one with two braincells to rub together will assume simulating her binge eating habits is going to be a good idea anyway). Sure she was lying but I really don't feel that's unforgivable to the point of ganging up on her. Bulimia is a manifestation of a distressed mind... pressuring and cornering the patient is NOT how you treat an ED. Especially not one like Bulimia that is more strongly associated with depression and suicidal ideations. She needed support and therapy, not character assassination in the middle of the night. Idc how much MC, ML, the rest of em, the netizens or the author thought it was funny but you should treat an illness like an illness. I cannot support the author's choice of disparaging a mentally unwell person for the sake of creating funny situations. Idc what anyone says, I'll die on this hill that this melon was both unnecessary and too bitter to swallow.

This is YL's inner thoughts when he first heard Yang Qi's (the side character) name, this is also one of our first introductions to this character. [Another one with a crafted persona, a foodie persona? Isn't that the easiest to fail? I remember a female celebrity named Yang who had a foodie persona but was exposed for inducing vomiting after every live stream... ].

YQ is a female actress who crafted a foodie persona and went on a lot of food shows and live streamed eating due to that. To specify, she is an actress and not a food streamer, she chose to craft her foodie persona. The way the novel treats it makes it seem like she did this because it brought a lot of fame and attention quickly.

Here are some excerpts on how she interacts with food and how others in the novel view it. I underlined her name because personally I get confused while reading quotes if I haven't read the novel before.

This is when the cast members were planning dinner.

Ye Leyao was still hesitating when Yang Qi suddenly came over and asked, "Leyao, do you have any more instant noodles?"

The production team had anticipated that not all the guests would be good at cooking, so they had bought two large packs and put them in the fridge.

Ye Leyao nodded, "Yes, we do." Liu Yan was somewhat surprised and looked over, "Yang Qi, are you having instant noodles tonight?"

As fellow actresses, they were all very strict with body management. Their daily meals consisted mostly of boiled vegetables, with carbs being a rare luxury. Liu Yan hadn't had any carbs in a long time.

Yang Qi laughed at this, "You don't know me well enough. I'm a carb lover. If I don't eat carbs at night, I definitely won't be able to sleep!"

Liu Yan was even more surprised, "And you still manage to keep such a good figure? Do you never gain weight?"

Yang Qi just smiled without saying anything.

[...] After dinner

and the guests in the villa happily finished their dinner, except for Yang Qi.

Zhou Zijian was very good at cooking, so he prepared the ingredients in just the right amounts.

Even without knowing Du Yueqin wouldn't be eating tonight, he had prepared a portion for her.

So the food Zhou Zijian prepared tonight was more than enough.

Liu Yan was the first to put down her chopsticks. As a female idol, she had always had strong self-control.

Following her, the other male guests at the table also gradually put down their chopsticks, leaving only Yang Qi still eating.

She looked around in surprise and asked, "Are you all full already?"

Liu Yan wasn't full, but she didn't dare to eat more. She looked at Yang Qi enviously and said, "Sister Yang Qi, don't you gain weight eating like this?"

Yang Qi smiled, "No, I eat like this every day!

[...]

After finishing a bowl of rice, Yang Qi glanced at the others and suddenly stood up, saying a bit embarrassedly, "I want to make some instant noodles. Do you want any?"

Zhou Zijian kindly asked, "Do you need any help?"

Yang Qi smiled and said, "No, I can handle making instant noodles."

Ye Leyao stood up first, smiling, "I'll help you cook?"

Yang Qi's smile froze for a moment but quickly returned, "No need; it's too much trouble for you."

[...]

Yang Qi returned with the instant noodles, and seeing the three of them surrounding the kitchen, she almost couldn't maintain her expression.

The water quickly boiled, and the three had no intention of leaving. Yang Qi couldn't even sneak in half a noodle cake and had to tearfully put the whole cake into the boiling pot.

[...] YL's mother is watching the show and starts commenting with some netizens responding to her.

Seeing the viewers getting anxious, Mama Huo couldn't help but send a comment: "Is it possible that Yang Qi is already full? Leyao is laughing at Song Zhehan for offering to fry an egg, knowing she can't eat anymore?"

—"What do you mean by 'full'? Yang Qi didn't want to trouble anyone; that's why she didn't ask for help."

—"Forget it, I can't be bothered explaining to people who don't know Yang Qi. I just feel sorry for my baby, who didn't get enough to eat and had to cook noodles herself."

—"Anyone who's watched Yang Qi's live stream knows she can eat a lot. But that Ye whatever Yao is laughing for no reason, like he's got some big disease."

Li Li: "... "

There was indeed a bit of a problem.

Mama Huo saw these comments and was both amused and angry. She directly opened her keyboard and typed: "Wasting food isn't a disease?"

The comment continued to scroll in bold at the top of the screen.

Li Li opened her mouth, wanting to advise Mama Huo, considering Yang Qi is known to have a big appetite, and continuing this might bring more negativity to Ye Leyao.

[...]

Half an hour later, Yang Qi finally finished her bowl of instant noodles with difficulty.

Ye Leyao glanced at her and saw her face looking quite bad.

[Looks like she overate.]

Qin Yao couldn't disagree; she did overeat.

My original take on YQ wanting more food (noodles) after eating dinner is that she was craving the taste of noodles and just wanted a little bit (half the package). But due to the rest of the cast practically forcing her to eat an entire package, she struggled. But after reading YL's mom's livestream message, it looks like the novel wanted to show that she was completely full but got a bit more food to keep up her foodie image.

As someone who does not have an eating disorder I can't claim whether I know if she is struggling with one or not. The way the novel stated things about her and thus the way YL interacts with her, clearly shows that the author of the novel did not plan to write about her having a disorder. However, I think the way the novel states things about her relationship and the way she interacts with food could be interpreted and seen as an eating disorder by some readers.

To sum it up, the novel very specifically does not treat YQ as someone who may have an eating disorder and uses her as a plot point for drama and gossip. But readers can possibly see it as her struggling with a disorder. Comes down to the way the reader would like to interpret it.

Basically, I'm extremely uncomfortable with the joy in others' scandals, discomfort and sorrows, and the way the MC, his family and the ML all feel entitled to witness these.

Overall, I have been enjoying that the MC is a fairly happy-go-lucky character. He doesn't have any major worries and knows it, he's confident in his adopted family's love and support, and he demonstrates the same in return (he enters the entertainment industry with the aim to earn enough money to support his family if they end up failing victim to the disasters the strike them in the novels). At first, his thoughts about the scandals he witnessed were amusing. There's a lightness to reading him and this story that was fun.

The main problem so far is that we have two types of scandals: the first are scandals that are directly or indirectly related to his family members and have the potential to ruin their life or an aspect of it. When reading these, we're invested in the scandals being uncovered and the true villains revealed so that the family and the nice people relate to them won't be harmed. The MC's narky thoughts are directed towards the farce the immoral characters play while trying to trick or take advantage of others.

However, the other kind of scandal have essentially nothing to do with the MC or his family at all (except in a loose way, such as being a social acquaintance or on the same entertainment show). For these scandals, the MC and Co. secretly chase the scandal subjects about in delighted anticipation of when the scandal will be revealed, determined to be there to watch. I understand the cultural "melon eating" trope (similar to rubber necking) is being played up here, but...

... it's not a very nice trait, is it? So far, the justification has been that these people are acting immorally and so deserve to be humiliated in public (and yes, some really are that bad and don't deserve sympathy or reputation), and so it's fine that the MC & Co make sure they're there to see it in person, right? To quietly point and laugh to themselves. I don't really find this a likable attitude in the first place. But what's worse is when the scandals aren't even that bad. Sometimes they will even be in a position to help, and they just sit back and wait for things play out and entertain them, rather than sympathising.

One example is a guy who is dating the mother of his friend. Yes, that is scandalous, especially for someone in the entertainment industry, and yes there MAY be some moral or relationship issues depending on the exact situation but...

... when it's finally exposed on live television, it seems obvious that the couple sincerely care about each other and the son/friend already knows... so why does the public need to know? Let them sort it out privately. I think we're supposed to have made the judgement that the couple are shameful and don't deserve consideration, but even if I agreed with that, does the son deserve to have his awkward family business exposed?

The MC&Co. acted as if they're entitled to know, to watch, to laugh when the world finds out, to scoff and scorn. Not once did it seem to cross their mind that they could have helped to avoid this being cruelly exposed to everyone, but instead they eagerly waited for everything to blow up.

And then we have the actress who had an eating disorder.

The book never once calls it that. Instead, from the start we're supposed to condemn her as a "fake" - that is her crime, and the reason we and the MC&Co are justified in laughing at her and scorning her. Because she pretended to be able to eat normally and not watch her figure, but then would later vomit to maintain her figure, this character was surrounded by everyone on the TV show, hounded until she was exposed and scoffed at with sarcastic remarks. She was then shunned online for "wasting food, " which was started by the MC's family.

And the MC not only laughed scornfully at all of this in his head, he scoffs that she doesn't want to go to the hospital because her decaying teeth from excessive vomiting will be exposed and so forth.

There are more details to this part of the story, but the whole thing was rather harrowing to read. This woman is a victim of impossible appearance standards for women in the entertainment industry and the pressure to maintain a certain persona, which has lead to a very dangerous eating disorder and presumably mental health issues (eating disorders usually fall under the psychological category of anxiety disorders and have mental heath at their root). It was horrific. Of course, the book presented it all as the actress being fake, scheming, lying to her fans, pretending to be something she's not etc. But to so actively want to see this woman exposed, to enjoy seeing her hounded and harassed...

...

If the scandals that are unrelated to the family gave us a reason to sympathise and be invested. If the MC got to know and like sympathise with some of the people entangled in these scandals... if we got to see the MC&Co helping, supporting or at least quietly rooting for those characters, even if they're also trying to watch and enjoy the downfall of the villainous characters, then these stories wouldn't be bad.

But instead we're getting introduced to an array of characters each with their own scandal, and their only purpose is to be the next one for the MC&Co to watch and laugh at.

Which means that even the characters who are unpleasant and I don't have sympathy for... I'm not at all interested in. I still don't WANT to watch them be face slapped, that's just tedious. And even if I don't feel as uncomfortable with the MC&Co enjoying their misfortune, I still don't enjoy seeing them so actively and callously go out of their way to witness it and laugh...

And it's especially disappointing because I was really enjoying the initially writing style, the premise and the family dynamic.

(So far the ML is just whatever, he's there, he's generic, I'm not interested.)

The author mentioned corroded teeth so it’s obvious they know that that eating disorder is not healthy and has more serious consequences than weight loss, but they frame it as if it was some character flaw the character was continuing for the sake of fame.

I read past it because I was hoping that was the only unpleasant part of the novel. I’ve been right so far, but there have been some other “antagonists” that I feel uncomfortable reading their downfall of. Most cases it’s the situation of “this person has wronged me so who cares about their reasons or that I’m absolutely ruining their lives so long as I am being entertained by their humiliation”.

It’s justified in story as the “antagonists” reaping what they sowed, but if taken out of the context of the story and into the real world, it gives the feel of some rich guy deriving amusement from vulnerable people’s misfortunes.

It’s frustrating because it’s really a mixed bag. Some “antagonist’s” downfalls are really satisfying to read, like the two-timing cheater or the boyfriend faker, but others feel like the author is unnecessarily dismissive of like the character with an eating disorder or the character that seems psychologically unwell.

Even the most recent chapters, like sure, the “antagonist” was with the older brother for money, but he’s freaking pregnant with no support, did the author really need to completely ruin him on live TV with no way to defend himself? No matter how in the wrong the “antagonist” was, that was still really freaking cruel.

when ye leyou being a system was revealed my whole world shook. We took a whole 180 from light, comedy gossips to tragic love story. But I still don't understand why he had to die ? In the last. But I read the mtl version so meh I wasn't really interested in understanding

throwing it up. To be clear on how it seems to be described in the novel it doesn't seem to be body image based but more reputation based for the sake of her job as a mukbang type

Not a spoiler... On the side note, this novel reminds me of that one concubine that got a gossip system. And the only one who can hear her inner thoughts is the Emperor. And the Emperor is also impotent (got cured tho)... Anyone who knows what's the title of this? I wanna leave a review there as well lol. Thanks.

this girl literally forced herself to eat the food enough for 3 grown men and then also went to make ramein that she took half an hour to eat because she was not hungry at all. She wasted the food they could've saved as leftovers, just for some attention. Imagine if you and your friends go to a restaurant, order food and then one of you keeps eating up everything that's left saying "y'all so weak, you are too focused on dieting, I don't diet", when who'd thought of packing up the leftovers and taking them home to eat when you're hungry. Then that person waits till everybody is gone to puke it all out. I'd get so angry.

This novel true title from me :

Go gossip with me and my family who I don't know that they can eat melon because of telepathy. But... I'm not a human!?