In reality all, and I mean ALL of MC's actions are the consequence of them either keeping stuff from him or blatantly abandoning him. Him and ML. Hell, ML was responsible for raising MC from day one! I repeat: a nine-year-old child was left responsible for a toddler. What. The. f*ck?! Honestly, this right here is the reason why ML is like that: feeling responsible for everything and being bad at socializing. MC's relationship with his parents was never that close (with them never being there, lol), but then they had to go and f*ck everything up. The person MC was close to? The one he adored? The one who cared about him. His big bro. Once ML graduated from university, he was going to start his own company and take some time to spend with MC (who did not have close friends, was lonely and bullied). But the father fell ill and had to step from his duties. ML had to abandon his dreams of... living his own life, I guess? and start managing the company. Well, the father being ill and ruining his son's plans can't be blamed on him, but you know what can be? Forbidding everyone telling MC that he is ill. So imagine, you are literally a child, you are looking forward to spending time with your favorite person ever, but one day this person just abandons you, no explanation given. I don't know about you, but I am with MC: feeling abandoned and betrayed. (Also, remember that now the father is lazy and dumps his duties at every given chance? Yeah, he (unintentionally) ruined ML's dreams back then and does not feel a little bit of self-awareness about that and continues to ruin ML's plans now (when he is healthy). Father of the year, isn't he?). Some misunderstanding, huh? And of course, once MC learns of this he is feeling guilty of being so selfish and immature.

Also, the father is a bit a HUGE failure as a CEO: out of sentimentality he left his greedy brothers in a position of power. Those relatives fought with ML for control of the company and were a reason why MC died in the first timeline: the father caught them providing cheap materials for full price and instead of dealing with them here and there he left them in the company to do it again - that was the reason why the safety rope snapped and MC fell for his death. Businessman of the year, isn't he? The extra about the first life tells us that not only greedy relatives fought with ML, but the father himself also fought tooth and nail with ML on their side. Like, he was actively destabilizing his company for people who stole money and materials from this same company. And this is a story about MC, so we don't have a whole picture, but how many other people died because of bad equipment? The father was complicit of mu*der of countless people. At the end at the gravestone of the father ML was like "I sealed with them bc of what they did to [MC], I know you would understand my reasoning" because f*ck those nameless people who also had their lives ruined.

There are a lot of small things in the novel that left me aching to reach into the screen and smack the parents, but, thankfully, I don't remember them all that well (I started reading this novel from when the first chapter was published, but I am incapable reading it as it goes - a chapter a day, so I wait until a couple of dozen chapters is written to read them in bulk), but here are my "favorites":

When MC was a child he had a favorite toy given him by his big bro. One day he returned from school to find it missing. His mother decided that he is a Big Boy to play with plush toys and gifted it to some relatives. Already a shitty, shitty thing to do, but his mother dismissed him when he was upset, and told him that if he wants, he could go there himself. Well, he went and found his toy ripped apart. He tried to fix it but failed. His mother's reaction? Pure confusion, not even a little bit sorry.

And maybe I am projecting, but I also have face blindness, have trouble connecting to people, and have attachments to inanimate objects. Also, I am not a child, like MC was, I am old enough to have my own children, but reading this scene? I was literally crying. If my mother did something like that, and not even apologized, I don't think I would've forgiven her.

That is why it feels like a spat in the face when MC thinks back about this scene and feels guilty of overreacting. f*ck you, author. f*ck. You.

Another one is when everyone learned of MC being not their biological child. He grabbed the money that he managed to earn in this period of time, and left with only clothes on his back: "everything, including these birthday presents, belongs to the real young master, not me". And no one even thought to talk to him. No "we love you", no "these are presents to you, not the young master", nothing. Just "oh, you are leaving? Take care!". After some times MC's parents started meeting their biological child, always bringing MC with them. After some time the mother noticed that MC seemed less than happy about these meetups and she had the gall to be confused about why. ML shut her down with "what do you think he should be happy about" and reminded her that they know nothing about MC since they were not the ones to raise him. It was a cool scene, even if short. Also, it was the only time anyone called them out on being shitty parents. It also showed that the author is not completely unaware about shittiness of their characters. Too bad this was the only scene in the whole novel.

And the last thing that made me laugh, but not in a good way: in the first timeline MC was badly injured and needed a blood transfusion - that's how they learned that he was not their biological child. Throughout his stay in the hospital, his family (neither his parents nor his brother) visited him even once. In this timeline, MC learned that at that time both his parents were in a horrible car accident and were hospitalized themselves. What I expected his reaction to be: why tf has no one told me my parents were hurt? What was his actual reaction: oh, no, I am such a horrible person, I was offended that they did not visit me even once, but they had more important things to do. I don't know about you, but a noticed a pattern: it is Always some other thing that prevented them from taking care of their child.

The reason MC's parents did not visit them was that they indeed were in a car crash while going to him. As a result, the father died and his mother was injured. And the mother blamed all this on MC. She really started hating him bc of that. She was the reason why ML kicked MC away. Like, on one side this failure of a mother wanting to hurt MC, on the other side the father's awful relatives who fought with him for power. So ML had a "brilliant" idea of hiding MC with his biological parents - and bringing the original young master to the viper's nest (this is never explored, but poor kid, he did nothing to be brought into this awful situation. At the coffin of MC, ML was like "we all are at fault here", like, excuse you, but the original young master did absolutely nothing, don't blame others for your mistakes). This is a shitty solution to a shitty situation, but it was supposed to be a temporal solution. Ant this is why the behavior of MC's biological parents is so baffling.

When MC was at the hospital, ML kicked him out and gave him a card with a huge sum of money - as compensation. MC threw it away and bio parents picked it up - for safekeeping, as they later say. When MC started living with them they constantly reproached him for wasting money (he wasn't, not really). They explained it as them wanting "to teach a lesson". They knew that they were supposed to temporarily take care of MC. That after the situation stabilized MC was supposed to leave them. So they decided that a child suffering after his beloved family kicked him out is a great candidate to learn the value of money. On top of that, they did everything they could safe from plainly speaking, to let him know that he is not as good as their adoptive child and neither they love him as strongly as they love him. The final drop that made MC leave was that they accuse MC of stealing money without bothering to investigate a bit. They think that MC left because he is too proud, like really? Do you think his pride is a problem here?

Also, the fact that ML was unable to find MC after he ran away is a big BIG plothole: MC's ex-friend was ruining all MC's attempts to find a normal job, so if he was able to find MC, why ML was unable? I'd lower my mark of this novel just for this.

MC was aware that his attitudes in the past was one of the causes of his demise. so after rebirth, he worked hard to patch his relationships with his adoptive family. but he wasn't willing to make any effort to get close to his biological family. if it were me, I would be more furious with my adoptive family who dumped me just like that. sure they got into a car accident. but even long after that they didn't contact him at all. he was hounded by the press and his adoptive family never sought him out. the timeline is a bit blurry (or I'm just forgetting things) but even when MC was facing a plagiarism allegation, his adoptive family didn't help at all. they completely gave up on him. anywaaay. I'm just a bit ".... eh" with MC. he had changed, he worked hard to get close to his adoptive family, but not with his biological one even though he now knew how to get along with them. like, I can't really say he was clear with his grievances. the author kept trying to justify his adoptive family's wrongdoings I'm speechless. if anyone says it's because the adoptive family genuinely loved him, I would be a bit "???" since I believe the biggest reason he was more loved in this life and didn't get kicked out right away when jian yi was found was because MC changed his attitudes. atp this getting along with his family has a lot to do with his willingness to make an effort.

in this life, his biological parents hadn't done anything to hurt him (honestly, his father seemed kind), so now he looked like he was being mean to his biological parents for no reason.

mc's adoptive parents are a bit.... uh. I feel like they cater to mc's feelings too much idk. they kept postponing jian yi moving in because they were afraid MC would get hurt. and rong zheng wasn't exactly welcoming to him because rong rong had saved jian yi's life twice (?) by that time. if I were jian yi, I wouldn't want to go back to my birth family lmao just visit them occassionally and ask for money lol

They are close as kids, then when MC is in Jr high they aren't in each other's lifes much. Story starts when MC is 18 and ML is 27.

chapter 85-ish is where ML kisses MC and their relationship begins

the original MC has dreams of his first life and tells ML about it. ML puts 2 and 2 together realizing MC is rebirthed from things he has said compared to what original MC dreamed. He of course is distressed for MC and wants to pamper him for life.

"... you see you are a father, and you have to let your son f*ck you" not even sure what this is about, but I about died laughing. It's MC's real parents talking about not drinking and driving, then the mom says that