Jingyi and Yumei are in incredibly privileged positions where they could unshackle themselves from their marriages, and still be able to live comfortably if maybe in less advantageous marriages status-wise but decide to stay with their unaccomplished, s*upid, weak willed, borderline abusive husbands without any real justification. Jingyi, I admit is the most pathetic. Her husband leaves her to gallivant with a prostitute, and she pines for him because when he lifted her veil when they were married, he was incredibly handsome. Makes me want to pull my hair out.

The mothers are all incredibly biased towards their sons to the point of being insane. They have no empathy at all for their daughters-in-law and it’s frustrating and sad to read.

Shi Fengju does not deserve Sang Wan, but since she’s too spineless to actually do anything about her situation, here they are. He showers her with gifts and things and pesters her for s*x, and thinks this is supposed to make up for constantly asking her to push aside her negative feelings from being humiliated by his cousin, sister, and mother, as well as himself. He nearly assaults her, and after a few days of her acting off HE is the one that gets mad that she’s still upset. I’m mad at myself because I kept reading this drivel.

Every man gets a free pass for being the most evil villain towards their spouse and it’s just brushed off or forgotten.

The gentleman who’s friends with Fengju actually seems like a reasonable, decent person, but he doesn’t appear nearly enough and does not play any major part up to 279. I was hoping he would be the guy Sang Wan ended up with but alas.

Not enough satisfying conclusion to drama, romance, interesting characters, interesting slice of life tidbits, or plot to bother reading.

The MC is a gentle, introvert girl from a scholarly family who marries far above her station. Overwhelmed by her new circumstances, and unable to connect with the stranger that is now her husband, she falls into the traps of those around her and dies miserably in her first life. Given another chance, the MC remains a gentle and introvert girl, but smarter and more aware of the sinister thoughts of others, allowing her to adapt to her new position and form a better relationship with her husband.

While the ML seemed disappointing at the start since he failed the MC so badly, he's actually a decent guy who has the potential to become an ideal husband. Reluctant to marry a stranger, especially when he already has a childhood sweetheart, it's only natural he'd disdain the MC as her reputation kept plummeting in their first life. And since his own circumstances are comfortable, the struggles the MC faces never occurred to him. Although he originally fell for his cousin's plots, so did the MC, since both their characters were too honest to suspect her. However, in their second life, the MC expresses herself more, allowing him to understand her struggles and appreciate her for who she really is.

The cousin is the primary antagonist in the story. While the ML's mother married well, her sister suffered under a violent alcoholic. Unable to watch the same thing happen to her niece, she takes her in. Ashamed of her own background, the cousin is determined to marry the ML, to some extent more out of obsession and financial security than genuine affection, manipulating her aunt's guilt over her mother's death, and the misery of other characters to her own benefit. While she does love the ML, she doesn't trust him enough since securing her survival and material comfort is more important, causing her twisted personality.

When he was telling her about all the personal stores and stuff he has because he thinks that if he tells her this, it's meaningful? Because... reasons? Like, how would anybody ever listen to that and think "omg he must love me cus he told me he owns personal stores! wowzers!" Like come on, not even in ancient times would somebody think of that as romantic. Like wtf????

Furthermore, the root of all problems, the cousin who the ML originally loved, STILL effing marries in and even tho he spends no time with her after seeing "her true face" but she still causes 43783178437185013804 problems because she "loves" him aka she LOVES HIS WEALTH which is VISIBLY SHOWN. I don't know why people sympathize with her because it is VERY OBVIOUS that she doesn't ACTUALLY love the s*upid ML, she just loves his wealth and how much money she can have if she marries in. She talks all the time about her dumb dilapidated home and how crap it is and how much she wants all the glories and riches of marrying the sh*t ML. She even gets mad cus her family member died which means she has to go into mourning and can't marry and has to continue staying in her crappy, dilapidated and old home.

And of course, rather than divorcing her cus societal proprieties or whatever, he sends her away thinking this'll totally solve all the problems!! But does it? NO. IT GIVES HER THE OPPORTUNITY TO ATTEMPT TO mu*der THE PREGNANT MC, WHICH ENDS UP WITH THE PREGNANT MC KILLING HER AND THEN HAVING HER JAILED FOR mu*der. LIKE WOW. THIS IS HOW IT ENDS.

this story is about a woman who marries a man in love with another woman and then she dies a sad death due to being isolated, while he takes that woman as his concubine and treats that woman as his main wife than her, who just a victim of this marriage like he was. I hate him! I slowly started to hate him! So she rebirths and tells him she's aware of his feelings of his feeling for the other woman and plans to not get in the way, yay..... this is where it starts to change.

They pretend this fake relationship sigh* the other woman (the one he's in love with, she hasn't married in yet) doesn't like her and bullies her because she's a normal woman to me that's jealous that this woman (MC) has the position she always wanted (his main wife). So as time goes on, he tells that woman the truth that it's all lie (the MC's and his relationship) and she doesn't believe him (understandable as she thinks they slept together and she fears losing her man) - remember women depend on men to survive in this society.

So she doesn't believe him and becomes a little vicious, again, understandable to me. Then he has the audacity to start to like the MC because the woman he loves doesn't believe him and isn't what she seemed as she isn't as gentle as before and she's obsessively jealousy??‍♀️??‍♀️ Screw him.

To me, you should understand where your woman is coming from if you were in the same position. Like in novels we see a ML kill another man for touching his woman so I get why she's mean to the MC. She's a insanely jealous woman whose fears her man loving someone else..... it's not right but I get it.

However, his love is so flakey that he easily likes the MC as she's such a gentle character. I feel like he just loves the idea of a beautiful gentle woman than the woman herself. It's sad. I hate him. I dislike the other girl too but I understand where she's coming from. However, I just hate him the most as he's the root cause of everything and the reason why the woman he loves becomes horrible.

I bet there's happy ending for the MC and him but I feel deeply for the other woman. To me, she's a victim that's blindly in love.

Several chapters were dedicated to the side couple but they're skippable if people want to focus only on the main couple. You don't really miss much since the evil cousin and the main couple don't play a super major role (They still show up though!). The side couple consists of people you already know of from earlier chapters: the runaway male cousin of the male lead (who eloped with some tavern girl, I think) and his abandoned wife. I love how the author drew parallels between the two couples.

If anything, I feel pity for both the MC and the scheming cousin in that he himself is not a sincere or committed man to either of them, he prescribes to the notion that these women must shape themselves into this ideal and once that mould cracks even a little, he becomes disillusioned and dismisses them without thinking further into it or questioning the reasons behind their change, because to him, these women are just dolls in a play to act out a performance of this 'perfect woman' for him

The ending itself was pretty predictable, and realistically speaking, its not surprising that the MC chose to stay in her marriage out of practicality as well as societal judgement, I would have preferred if her feelings were slightly more ambiguous towards the ML, like it would have been more empowering if even though she did choose to resign herself to this marriage, she never truly fell in love with him due to distrust or trauma from her previous life or even just due to her resignation about her role as a woman during those times. Also, I feel pretty pissed that the ML got his happy ending in both the past and present lives. F*cking b%stard

As an extra note I must add that the MC falls in love with the ML slowly overtime. As of chapter 90 she is still in the process (...). And the ML slowly falls for the MC without realizing it. When he does, it is very satisfying. It is very realistic in my opinion.

I would like to add that though you may feel frustration about the ML being deceived by the other girl and not realizing it... You can't exactly blame him. He grew up with her. He never once was shown her evil and cunning side. The ML also realizes that he is being deceived overtime. It is extremely fulfilling when he does realize.

Contrary to what others may think the MC is extremely capable. Could you do any better in her position? The ML isn't weak but adhering to his previous emotions of devotion to not only his cousin but the rules of the society they live in. If you make it past this point the relationship between the ML and MC becomes very trusting and loving.

her useless, drunk, no-good, rotten, sleaze bag father

He only appears briefly though... before dying.

fallen in love with the MC and realized his cousin's true nature and it is so satisfying.

his sister and her useless manwho*e husband

• Gu Fang Zi has a alcoholic gambler father, hence... her obsession to secure monetary and power comfort in Shi Family. However- her bad experience with her father also cause her skepticism towards men and no matter how much she loves ML she prioritize money and power behind him than the person himself.
• This distance made Fang Zi never really view Shi family as her true family but as means to a better life, this become apparent when this antagonist starts using ML's sister and mother to sow discord and discredit MC.
• Having so long wearing a mask to make ML fall in love with her, Gu Fang Zi never really earn his genuine love and it gets progresively worse when he saw how far she would go to secure her position in family, and she is not above harming her family.
• It become increasingly ironic when Gu Fang Zi's mask actually match Sang Wan's personality, a honest, caring and hardworking lady.

He was also fell OUT of love with his cousin, disillusioned when he realize her feeling towards him isn't that sincere and there's greed behind her love and he doesn't really know the real Gu Fang Zi in the end.

It gets so bad that ML come to a realization the woman he loved in his cousin only exist in her mask and once he gather his wits, he was horrified of his past self to be so throughly deceived by his lover. Especially when his cousin starts sowing discord in family to discredit his wife, he can't stand she was heartless enough to harm his family who had kindly raised her since she was young for her own gain.

When ML beg her to stay and promise to make her happy, she didn't fall for it. She bravely told him that it wasn't a concubine she can't tolerate but his concubine who can't tolerate her. At this point Gu Fang Zi had tried her best to alienate Sang Wan from ML's mother and sister and Sang Wan feels his love doesn't worth it. What's the point of being loved by ML if she has to suffer injustice that might land her to her previous fate?

And didn't ML fell OUT of love? What guarantee Sang Wan can keep his favor? So she gave him an ultimatum, if he didn't send his concubine OUT of the house, she will leave as they promised to each other. No matter how nice it was to be loved by her husband, she doesn't want to suffer living in the same house with a woman as wicked as Gu Fangzi

The ML's elder sister and her husband -- they were so irritating that I was hoping for a much much more satisfying form of retribution than how it was dealt with in the book.

It really grinds my gears how the ML's mother was so easily influenced by the ML's cousin's words and easily blames everything on the MC at the slightest provocation. If it weren't for her, most of that cousin's schemes wouldn't have come to fruition. At the same time, I also had the nagging suspicion that if they had told her of the cousin's true nature earlier then everything might've been resolved more quickly. Their main reason not to reveal it earlier was that they were worried about her health... and yet everything was revealed in the end anyway... without any real repercussions to her health.

ML is the best husband. The way he loves MC is so sweet. When he knew the true color of the cousin, he never give her chance to sway his heart again. Then, he devoted all his heart to MC. I like the way the main couple love and trust each other.

But I have to give the title of the best wife for JingYi (the second young master's wife). She fall for her husband at first sight, forgave him without a word of complain, and never even consider to remarry. I am happy when they get together.

FengJu and FengMing, these two cousin just hopelessly nice stubborn brother. When they love, they love with their all, no matter what.

FengMing is so cute. I forgive his s*upidity for that.

Chapter 1 tells you almost everything you have to know about this novel. The subsequent chapters show how she overcomes them. Well, quite similar to many other romance/drama novels. This is all I know so far (Haven't read that far for this novel)