surprise extra rich villain love interest????

What kind of teachings did women receive back then? What confidence could they have in their own ability to survive alone? In a men's world where women were often considered property, those without a man's protection had no options. FL had no status, no family support, and no other means to ensure her survival. Could she run away? Where would she go? Without money, transport, or a way to defend herself, running was essentially a death sentence—either at the hands of traffickers, robbers, or worse. And setting up a business? That would require money, connections, and protection—all things she lacked.

In this context, her choices were limited. She couldn't afford to wait for a sincere, deep romance to develop. I don't like the idea of seducing or using people either, but what other options did she have? With her third choice, she was upfront about the trade-offs, and it was a practical decision. He was a widower who needed a reliable wife but wasn't interested into a "real" marriage and wasn't a very "desirable" match, so were in the position to negotiate an arrangement. As for the first two choices, they were excellent young men with many options, and she had nothing to offer them except her beauty. Also, parents were the ones that decided on marriage and she didn't have the conditions to be considered "good wife" material. If she wanted to have any chance with them, her best bet was to appeal to their emotions, even if it meant using love as leverage.

I also think FL was influenced by her time in the brothel. In her mind, aside from embroidery, seduction might have been the only skill she felt she possessed. To survive and secure a better future, she had to swallow her shame, guilt, and shyness, using this "skill" for her plan. Once she found another way out, she no longer needed to keep up the "courtesan" facade. At that point, she could finally aim to live with dignity and bury her shameful past. That shift in her attitude makes perfect sense given her circumstances.

Maybe the "sober" choice was the widower, but honestly, who would choose a cold and hard life with an older man over the chance to have a loving, stable life with someone they liked? FL's actions might not be ideal, but in her circumstances, they were understandable.

Plot - With a lot of Spoilers!

But like I said before, if you like sweet and gentle male leads, the novel is really worth.

What I didn't like in the story was the female lead.

My favorite character was Babao, the male lead's servant. He was very cute in the way he advised male lead about love 🥰.

I also like how the FL was actually wary and scared that she herself was a ghost (I guess ancient people think like that, but here the author actually put in writing the FL's confusion and predicament of her rebirth) .

So she's not a super woman who is omnipotent, thus her clumsy plan to 'seduce' a husband (and failed on 2 of her plans) . She smartened up on her 3rd plan, but it didn't go through.

1st target is the ML who fell in love with her at first sight (FL was a fairy apparently, since everyone loves her except the villainous Liu family).

I really like the ML here. He's actually a pretty innocent and straightforward guy. He 'threw a tantrum' when he realised that FL may not be sincere. But once he acknowledged his feelings, he turned back to chase after the FL. And their communication and effort to understand each other is admirable. FL truly trusts him. And that's the best romance~

The 'villainous rival in love' who seemed 'soft-hearted towards the FL' (but cold and cruel towards others) actually triggered the 2nd 'let's severe our ties' plot, which became the ending of the main story.. I also felt a bit regretful of these plots, but I do understand how strongly the main leads wanted to severe all ties with the villain.

The villain claimed himself in love but what the FL said was true- he didn't actually love the FL. He just took for granted his advantage to exert power and control over the FL. So when things got out of his control and the FL died, he went on rampage and tortured others just to remedy his guilt and satisfy his own selfish desires.

The Mr. Liu who was supposed to redeem MC in past life later kidnapped her because of jealousy, only to be told that he and MC can't be together because they were cousins.

Why adding more villain? The story almost end.

Just let him be a decent person.

Apparently MC's cousin (the Mr. Liu) was the grandson of the current regent and both of them was unaware of this fact.

And it's just end like that.

I pity the cousin's father, he never know his real father and was confused all his life about the reason why he was abandoned by his mother.

just imagine how messy it is. We were on the last 10 chapters of the story. MC past caught up to her, there are new revelation, misunderstanding, jealousy and even kidnapping. However it ends up at the point where ML saved MC, MC and the kidnapper guy is revealed to be half-cousin and then done. Like what?

ok maybe the author needed a trigger to tell LYZ he is her cousin, but did we need to kiddnap her? Did we?

Also like why does the author like to punish old dudes and break up family relationships because of younger people all the time. It happened only twice but it was just so abrupt especially the 2nd time bc it was literally the last chapter and her older brother is like "forget your 30yr loyalty, my grandfather's old faithful Servant, our family has no relationship with you and your family anymore and I'll make sure to tell my mom that. Bc ur grandson kidnapped our sister." THE END.. of the novel. That is literally the last chapter before the extras.

Ok uh I mean valid, but also not valid because the grandson LYZ was not a bad person at all until he kidnapped her. They could have had a meaningful heartfelt moment of a conversation of their past and. Moving on and etc especially considering he did love. Her. That would have been refreshing. THAT WOULD HAVE. BEEN DIFFERENT. THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN INTERESTING. To read.

But no. I got for my last chapter a super macho dramatic kidnapping "f*ck u and your family too" burn this bridge btw you're related ending. For the guy who loved her in her past life.

Ok. I love that. I mean valid response. Just boring and stereotypical. Like ok. I kinda just was hoping for idk a good ending but this was I guess an "exciting" but hardly unpredictable ending. And imo boring ending but whatever.

Edit: OMG I slept on this I JUST realized that this is a plot point the author did TWICE in the EXACT SAME WAY for both the ML & MC for some reason??? A little uncreative. Idk why.. what deep meaning ??except to show they're both hot I guess.

1ST TIME:

• Adopted father of the ML (saved by the ML so out of his gratitude helps and loves the ML like his own son) has a daughter who is in love with the ml
• The daughter finds out he's engaged, gets influenced by a social climbing maid to drug him, but is overall a coward who neither takes responsibility, has confidence to do it, nor can move on from the ML even after everything
• Her mom is biased so ruins the ml's family business underhandedly to break off the relationship between the families without her husband knowing
• The ml's family finds out, finds out their daughter plotted against their son, cuts the relationship
• The adopted father finds out, does right by apologizing and agreeing to cut off his status as adoptive father, gets uninvited to the wedding, cries very sadly

The author explained why this plot had to happen and initially I accepted it, but the fact this formula of younger generation falls in loves with the lead, does stereotypical bad thing according to their gender (drug - as female char, kidnap - as male char), and so old dudes who genuinely cared about the families suffer from a Broken relationship HAPPENED TWICE.

It's giving a lack of creativity ngl because she obviously needed a way to showcase a plot point.

Idk maybe my expectations are too high. It's just a little weird it had to happen twice in the same way for both the leads. Like ok we get it, the leads are so hot and so?

and I think honestly I don't know why the author made LYZ into that ending last villain. I feel like he was wronged as a character, like he could've been so much more deep and less stereotypical macho crazy kidnapper especially considering his love for her. Esp bc HE WAS NOT BAD at all to her ever until literally the last chapter. Like idk. I just think it's such an injustice. But whatever. Ancient china ig.

very decent life with Mr Li the widower. Could totally see a different genre of story written if she ended up with him -- childcare and love after marriage unlocked!!

making different sizes clothing, becoming distributors and wholesalers, mass production and line working etc

Throughout the story, it was already hinted that their family came from a noble background of sorts and that the grandmother was someone of a higher status and that certain family "rules" were in place, hinting of their background. So the later part just clarifies it. Could it have been better introduced? Yes. But in the end the author still managed to tie the loose ends which is better than most authors who forgets about them.

I didn't like that the author made the MC's initial "savior" to be that sort of crazy. He really loved her but then, what she said did make sense. He had all the money in the world why not redeem hee earlier on. The author really contrasted the ML who would literally go to the ends of the world for world for the FL vs all the other love interest who claims love but action says not enough when compared to the ML