Qin Yi, the "soul" in the jade pendant was her only true friend. Aside from teaching her etiquette and calligraphy, he was also her 'jade' to cry on. He is the Crown Prince, the only son left by the deceased first Empress. Betrayed by two people he respect, he developed an aloof and indifferent personality. However, I don't consider him as cold-hearted. When he was trapped in CJY's jade pendant, he could have stayed quiet but he chose to comfort this girl who was hiding her tears. Although he did have his own agenda later, I felt his sincerity in helping CJY. He's closed off his emotions to protect himself so it took some time for him to realize his feelings for CJY.

"I will always be with Your Highness. Wherever you are, I will be there." (CJY, stop being so fluffy)

I'm usually not a fan of slow burn romance. Oftentimes, I get too impatient and just drop the novel. It's different here. I got a rare satisfaction from watching CJY and QY turn from forced companions to friends to husband and wife, and eventually just two people in love. I believe CJY did have feelings for Qi Ze, but she had to bury it because she thought it's impossible between them (she thought he's cultivating to be an immortal). Towards the Crown Prince Qin Yi, she felt indebted towards him, and was resigned to be a virtuous and reliable Crown Princess. I think when she found out Qin Yi was Qi Ze, she has two conflicting feelings: gratitude and like.

On the other hand, we have Qin Yi, groomed to be the future Emperor, and ignorant to emotions. He always had an excuse for his actions towards CJY. Married her as his Princess after she was demoted to become a side concubine for Lin Xiyuan: "I just want to fulfill my promise".

He was reluctant to admit that a woman could affect his emotions, that "like" his Father, he would be willing to indulge a woman. But then you read these little moments from his POV such seeing the fireworks in CJY's eyes, how her eyes are more brilliant, or teasing CJY (messing up her hair, pinching her cheeks). He's like a teenager (which he is) who's falling in love for the first time. Later, CJY becomes more and more dependent towards him. Her warmth, innocence, and kindness slowly let him open his heart. He was scared of his feelings for CJY because he didn't want to be confused like this father but towards CJY, he truly had no chance. "When he finally realized all this, he was already and utterly defeated".

"Your Highness, I will definitely grow up so that I can stand shoulder to shoulder with you." QY doesn't have that arrogance or superiority complex over CJY. He talks to her about everything, including politics because he sees her as his equal, not a possession nor a trophy. He let her grow instead of treating her like a canary.

Empress Xiao Qi. If I have one word to describe this woman, it would be "disgusting". She is a big tr*sh sl*t. I would have understand her actions if she had no other choice but no, she's a pampered daughter of a prestigious family (Marquis Zhenbei), and sister to the (former) Empress. She probably would not have a hard time marrying into another noble family but she chose to seduce her older sister's husband while acting like a loving aunt to Qin Yi. She had s*xual interc**rse with her sister's husband right before her sister's sick bed. She destroyed Qin Yi's childhood. If that isn't disgusting, and lowest level of sc*m, I don't know what is. After driving her sister to her death, she had the audacity to act like an aunt-mother (*puke*) to Qin Yi, all the while plotting to steal his Crown Prince position for her son. I think she deserved worse than what she got tbh. In an alternative timeline, I hope QY's Empress Mother goes through rebirth and make her tr*shy younger sister live a life worse than death.

Chu Jinmiao- Another snake. I would have tolerated her after all, it's not her fault her biological parents decided to ruin the life of an innocent child just to have her live prosperously. Unfortunately! Chu Jinmiao is jealous, selfish, malicious, prideful, and everything BAD. She grew up safe, wealthy, and monopolized her mother's entire love yet she's not content. She constantly compares with Chu Jin Yao, schemes and fails, and blames CJY for her punishment. She's an annoying c*ckroach that just won't die.

Chu Jinwan - Sixth Miss of Chu. I thought she would have been a challenging opponent to our MC. She's smarter than Chu Jinmiao. A true venomous snake, she could have had more potential as a villainess. Unfortunately, it seems as if the author had forgotten her, which is understandable given that her father is shu born it would be difficult to incorporate her to the latter half of the story that focuses on palace intrigue.

FL's biological mother: At first, I wanted to understand why Zhao-shi was indifferent to her biological daughter and biased towards her fake daughter, because she was the one to accompany her for 13+ years after all. I would have been disappointed if she casts away the fake daughter just because of blood connection however, I see her as narrow-minded and unreasonable. She's not a good mother towards her own two biological daughters. I hate her blatant favoritism.

I can't forgive the biological brother and mother's blatant favorism towards Chu Jinmiao. You don't know how satisfying it was when FL finally put them in their place.

the MC was decisive in dealing with her when she betrayed her and her elder sister and left to die. She was killed immediately without any drama as it should be. The mother on the other hand was the worst character available.

Apart from the dumb villains, who are just infuriating. Since the ML is the Crown Prince, we see lots of girls trying to climb up the social ladder, but none of them are smart (I'd be having high blood pressure if they were so I'm not complaining). Coupled with the most horrible mother (s) I've seen, be it the FL's mother or the Empress, both women are just horrible people. Although FL's mother not only gets her retribution but at the ends finally seems to become less hateful, but still I can't just forgive that woman. It's like this author has a peculiar pattern in all 3 of the novels I read yet, where none of the leads have good/alive parents, so they become each others only direct family.

And I love how it takes him time to actually open up even after the marriage, like he's the Crown prince and so he has grown up in the Imperial Harem and seen everything, so he knows exactly how horrible it is to let women or anyone for that matter control his emotions and feelings. So, despite that he actually really likes the FL, he takes his time to settle his emotions and take things slowly. I also like how he too seems to be a little insecure as he kind of 'robbed' her lol and thinks she might regret. (I think she was more happy to be robbed but oh well).

At first, the male lead did not intend to marry Chu Jin Yao, because he knew that being Crown Prince Consort would expose her to many dangers. His route to the throne is fraught with danger and he could not risk her. So the best he could do was give her gifts so that she can live a normal life as his subject. But, shenanigans by Chu Jin Miao ruined Jin Yao's marriage chances, where Chu Jin Yao would be forced to become a side wife rather than a main wife. This was practically an insult to her lineage, because she is birthed from the main wife, why is she expected to be a side wife? The family thought that Jin Yao was unfilial to her adoptive parents and feared her because of Jin Miao's plans. Even the boy Chu Jin Yao was about to marry was disappointed by his family because he genuinely liked Jin Yao.

Qin Yi then chose to marry her and save her, and Jin Yao chose to devote herself to him, and this was way before she realised that the spirit who used to be in her pendant = Crown Prince. He finally dropped the ball on her when he realises she is still clueless on their wedding night, by introducing him the same way he did at the start of the novel. It was SO wholesome as Jin Yao gets the flashback to her first meeting with her, and she starts crying on the spot. She had been feeling so inadequate and lonely since he left, and for her to realise it has been him all along makes her determined to step on the same boat as him and fight with him till death do them apart. I love it. She was willing to just die so she doesn't become his hostage and it's just chef's kiss how they love each other and communicate and care for each other.

For instance, Chu Jin Yao could not get rid of Chu Jin Miao completely because Jin Miao abused the relationship she had with her mother and older brother just to get back to the capital. Then, they isolated her after CJY bluntly scolded her brother about the reality of their position. However, Chu Jin Miao decided to show up and sabotage Jin Yao's life when the enemies tried to capture Chu Jin Yao as a political hostage. It's not that CJY did not want to kill her, but she couldn't be bothered, and it concerned her family reputation if she did something outrageous considering her position was not stable as the Crown Prince Consort. Naturally, CJY had her executed after a close shave with death and Qin Yi coming to save her.

Another example is Qin Yi, the Crown Prince marrying Chu Jin Yao. He tells her bluntly that there will be many people trying to hurt her, and he can't protect her all the time. Indeed, Chu Jin Yao faces a LOT of sh*t in the palace, namely the stepmother empress, and many other girls who feel that she doesn't deserve the spot. CJY works hard to learn how to scheme and at least preserve her life, as well as not wanting to drag him down further. Qin Yi naturally helps her all the way as well as her steady pillar of life. They truly do care for each other and I live for it.

Like when she didn't get that the crown prince is the jade spirit until he told her himself.

Like, are you kidding me? Everything pointed to that but the only counter argument of "he was at the border at that time" and "it's an insult to think of the royal family like that" somehow made it possible for her to throw that possibility away? Where did that "cleverness" go? Out of the window apparently.

All the pro arguments: looking exactly the same, similarities in their actions, all the hints that he gave when he was still the spirit like him teaching her palace etiquette, him talking casually about them, him knowing so many things about the royal family and other things. Besides that, the crown prince fulfilling her wishes like giving her a store and many pricey brocade. And last but not least: the crown prince being especially nice to her when he doesn't even pay attention to other people.

All this was thrown away because of "he was at the border at that time". Like you yourself or people around you have seen him at the border jumping around personally. Biggest bullsh*t ever.

- FL having the jade pendant where the ML recided in until his wounds would heal. -≫ if she lost it somewhere, these 2 wouldn't have met at all.

- she crying because of injustices to the point where the ML had to show himself. -≫ like I said before, if the villainess wasn't that bad, ML wouldn't really have a reason to come out. So they would never interact

- she being forced to be a concubine so the ML taking her as his official wife. -≫ she would be married to the shizi if the villainess didn't take her adopted parents there that day or if the parents couldn't make it there.

Just one small change to the three major "progress" parts, and we wouldn't have a main couple. As they both didn't even know their feelings. Too fragile of a progress in my opinion

Most characters are pretty easy to like. ML's a bit too snobby and taciturn for my tastes but since this is one of those novels where the lovebirds meet early, the feelings are also cultivated much more stably. I've seen some people complain that neither of the characters ever said "I love you" but do note that throughout the novel, they do show affection and love through their actions and words (just not so... directly... it's not dignified to say that sort of stuff. probably also not very romantic to condense such deep emotions into three simple by their standards because these people seem to lOoOOOve long ass flowery language).

MC's maids and permanent momo are also very loyal and sensible. Having recurring characters that don't grate on the bones and nerves really help the reader imo. Two of them were actually sent by Chu Old Furen to influence her but these two were smart (and emotional) and eventually put their entire hearts on MC instead. Since they accompanied MC everyday, they couldn't help but feel biased in favour her because despite being the righteous young miss of the Chang Xing Marquise fu, she wasn't loved by her biological mother and her father was aloof. What's more, her grandmother wasn't too fond of her either and wanted to force her to marry up no matter the implications of her living conditions.

MC's eldest sister (Chu Jin Xian) is especially lovable. At the start, she wasn't too warm to MC but she still treated her fairly and decently. She did her best to guide her instead of solving all her problems personally because she worried that MC would become reliant on her. Later on, she married her older biao cousin and gave birth to a son. Because of MC's longing for her, ML transferred CJX's husband to the capital so she could accompany MC more conveniently. When the chaos of the fall of the border happened, she was living with her son and the pregnant MC in the Western Suburbs. She knew how important MC was and took the initiative to disguise herself as her and told her to run with her son. Fortunately, everyone would end surviving.

Sometimes, this novel could be such a drag... That little rat Su Miao was a massive tumour that the author milked for antagonist points. She did s*upid trick after s*upid trick but still kept coming back like it was nothing. She ended up dying eventually but it was still annoying to see. The endings of several characters were also pretty unsatisfying. Empress Xiao Qi built up to be so smart and formidable as to grasp the Emperor's heart and his harem for almost 20 years but in the end, died from poisoning and even garnered the sympathy of her husband. Consort Shu and Su Wang were the same. They were supposed to be the hidden dangers of the harem and court but towards the end, Su Wang was unceremoniously shot to death during ML's rebellion while Consort Shu committed su*cide (i think.... MTL sucks)

You know.... MC's mom is pretty gosh darn s*upid for digging her heart and lungs out for that sewer rodent Su Miao but at most, she was just annoying. The whole Chang Xing Marquise fu was pretty tolerable. Like MC said, it's natural for everyone to exhaust all their means to climb up. Some of the young misses used rather dirty tricks but ultimately, only Su Miao was a rotten one. For the most part, no one was so dumb as to cause trouble after MC became Crown Princess Consort because they knew her living well was equivalent to them living well. Zhao shi and MC's brother made the mistake of taking care of Su Miao but eventually came to their senses when MC and her grandma gave them a hard scolding.

There were plenty of antagonists in the novel, but no one was more annoying that that s*upid Emperor. This man is the most useless pos I've ever seen. His incompetence and mental incapacity baffles me. How this man survived the past 40 years without getting his pecker stuck in a man-eating plant or something, I'll never know. So what if Empress Xiao Qi was a cheap wh*re for what she did when her sister was dying? The Emperor thought his with small little pp and decided it was soooo hot to rawdog his unmarried sister in law at his sick wife's bedside. Appalling. I can't even hate Xiao Qi because of this. All the fault is on him I'm afraid. Also, even if Su Wang colluded with his little psycho friend to get the 300, 000 troops killed at the border, I must say, the Emperor's contribution to this effort shouldn't be overlooked. This man truly is something else. He singlehanded destroyed the bulk of his clan's generations of military personnel. He's so effective at doing nothing and still messing things up. He honestly should've stayed home and stuffed his wanker into a leech's mouth for a quick death instead of going to war and dragging 300, 000 people down with him.

Her mom and older brother are biased toward the fake daughter, her dad is always absent, her grandma is calculative and pragmatic, the other girls in the family despise her, and the only one to actually care for her in the family was her older sister. She grew up being beaten and used to the bones by her adopted parents and thankfully, her adopted older sister cared for her.

Emperor and his aunt had an affair beside his mother's sickbed, which led to his mom dying from anger.