First off her story is so tragic. She went through so much pain from ML starving her almost to death and her whole family dies because of the ML. She gets framed time and time again and her kid is kidnapped as soon as he was born then poisoned, but the ML basically never sides with her. She needed to solve all these problems herself. Basically she does not have a single good day. But in the end she decided to stay with him. IDK why! At first she laid down her guidelines with him that she will only stay with him if he is loyal to her (stop sleeping around/taking more concubines). Yet two chapters later, she things about how truthfully she doesn't really expect much from him as long as she is still treated as the "best" or be the one he "loves". She went from a strong woman to a dumb woman that knows the ML is a jerk but still stays with him.

The author keeps mentioning how intelligent and powerful he is, but he belittles the women in his harem to the point that he is clueless as to who kidnapped his son and poisons his son later on. How is this the same guy who can apparently plant spies in the palace and overthrow two emperors? You cannot be all knowing and powerful and yet be clueless about the true nature of the women you sleep with or WTF is happening in your own home. What a failure! And then he gets betrayed by his concubines, yet he doesn't kill her and continues to let her stay by his side which later causes more harm to Sangyu. WanWan betrays him and rats about Ji Man to the emperor and tried to kill Ji Man many times but apparently the best he can do is just let her live in a corner peacefully so she can continue to disturb our female lead. Yes this definitely shows that he loves Sangyu very much.... Oh and don't forget the Liu Huayuan concubine who he keeps praising as gentle who ends up kidnapping Ji Man and lying through her teeth then poision HaoHao (Ji Man's son) and lie about it even to her death refusing to give the antidote (which to the end he still believed her and even gave her a grand funeral). He seems so kind and gentle doesn't he, letting his enemies live well? But apparently he is the same minister that has killed his own unborn child multiple times in order to preserve balance in his harem. Okay he is heartless enough to kill an innocent unborn child but not one of his mistresses even when they've plot his beloved near her death?!?!?!

Zhu Yunrun a chubby girl who got together with a man Qiang Yunchen something unbeknownst to him because he was to drunk to remember that he initiated and gets pregnant. He hates her to the point he pushes her down the stairs and she loses the baby but all is fine. She does not even get mad at him and still loves him despite him treating her quite like tr*sh. WTF. Then the story shows how they get love dovey and I just want to vomit.

Don't forget about Pengxin and Mingjie though. I thought Mingjie would be an example of a good man in the story but nope epilogue ruined it. He marries Pengxin and she loves him very much and they sleep together too. She gets pregnant and he doesn't even know and he takes in like 2-3 more concubines who poisons her and mistreats her apparently without him knowing depsite her being a neighboring country powerful princess and the legally wedded first wife. All the hardships she suffered because he couldn't care less about her is all forgiven later when he later spends more time and starts to develop feelings for her.

ML is a d*ck whose life embodies 'spoiling the concubine and destroying the wife', hence his inner courtyard being on fire 80% of the time. This seems to be a political calculation, but I honestly can't see how it gets him ahead in terms of the imperial court.

Pre-transmigrated FL was a b*tch, but the story basically goes into how the ML slowly drove her insane/destroyed her life because he never valued her to begin with. No wonder she went nuts and took things out on the concubines. Pre-transmigrated FL was apparently an easily-manipulated moron who was head over heels for him, so if the ML had spent the slightest effort he probably could have controlled her and prevented the utter disaster that was his inner courtyard.

Pretty much the entire story, I've been going, 'MC... you may as well forget going back to the modern era and just take your money and run away with the supporting ML.' But honestly, that isn't a solution for her situation either. She's backed up against a corner and has no outs because her own family is tied up in the struggle for the throne.

The point I quit reading was after she went through a huge struggle just to carry a baby on behalf of the original owner of the body, just for the story to go into a hugely depressing spiral. It was a tragedy conga and I finally gave up because I couldn't see how the situation could be turned around in the MC's favor.

The final goal of 'get the ML to fall in love with the MC' is just... I just find it depressing. The ML set his own backyard on fire, but the only possible happy ending for the MC is for the ML to also get a happy ending.

Nesting a spoiler because this was what made me quit reading:

After the MC goes through some insane struggles just to actually have the baby, the ML ignores the birth of the baby (he has good reasons for doing so) and the actual birth turns into a trap that destroys the MC's reputation and also results in said baby being handed to an enemy who wants her and her family dead. The ML is the one who personally hands the baby over. Again, he has his reasons for doing so, but honestly...

You can see this trap coming from miles away. The pregnancy itself is depressing enough, but it's very obvious during the pregnancy that things aren't going to get better when the baby is out of the womb.

(That said, I admit I thought it would take slightly longer in-universe for something to actually happen to the baby. I thought the MC would at least get one happy moment with her kid before it all went to shit.)

You'd think super awesome ML would have picked up on clues like 'the enemy who wants the MC dead showed up to stab her with a knife while she was pregnant because it looked like her husband was favoring her too much' and took some extra care with the birth process, right? Nope!

This dude can't decide on what he wants and he can't protect his own family. He also can't steel himself enough to clean out his backyard and instead runs around getting everyone he can pregnant. This is probably politically calculated, and MC's pregnancy was an accident he purposely tried to prevent, and like... I get it. I get why the ML acts the way he does, but I really do not like the guy.

I would honestly like the ML better if he had just killed off the original MC. At least that would mean he could make some hard decisions. Instead he's this guy who has one foot in one camp and the other foot in another camp, and the people who suffer for it are not him but rather his mother, wife and concubines.

ML probably has good reasons for ending up in this situation. It's the nature of the fight for the throne. But he has so few redeeming qualities made obvious up front, it's really really difficult to like him or root for him to get together with the MC in the end. So, I'm stopping at the point I'm at. Maybe I will pick this story back up later, after I work up my mental fortitude.

claims he’s “in love” with JM/NSY despite killing her entire clan, I can’t handle it anymore. Furthermore, he’s holding their own baby hostage because she won’t give him attention.

Things are definitely tenuous at the beginning of the novel. There is no doubt that Ning Yixuan loathes the girl Ji Man transmigrated as, and even though there are actual reasons for his dislike (Nie Sangyu had originally forced their marriage upon him) this does not justify his cruel treatment toward her. However, as Ji Man slowly differentiates herself from the past Nie Sangyu and proves that she is smart and useful, Ning Yixuan begins to more or less respect her decisions/capabilities. He occasionally asks for her advice and actually tries to help her out in some sticky situations (for example he even saves her life from an attempted assassination). He doesn't actually 'love' her at this point, but it's a big step from the absolute hate he once harbored for her, and to go from loathing someone to loving them is a process that realistically requires many steps anyway. As the novel progresses, Ji Man continues to express her 'love' for Ning Yuxuan many times, demonstrating through her actions that she is willing to die for him (like when she took care of him while he had smallpox even though she was at risk of catching the illness herself) and that she cares (checking up on him and sending him food and what not). Of course, Ji Man is only acting like she loves him because she thinks she needs to gain his affections in order to return home, and Ning Yuxuan is well aware of this because Ji Man can't quite mask the indifference she actually feels toward him all the time (again this is realistic. Ji Man wasn't a professional actress when she transmigrated so it would be hard for her to perfectly act in love with someone), but he slowly begins to love her anyway. I personally think this development is sensible. Though this doesn't excuse his immorality, Ning Yuxuan is well aware that no one harbors any pure love for him, making it so that it is difficult for him to trust others. Even Wen Wan, who was supposedly his true love and destined wife, is easily reduced to scheming for favor at the risk of Ning Yuxuan's wants and needs. He is also in a position where he needs sensible people by his side, especially as a Marquis walking the fine line in between opposing royal factions. So when Ji Man shows how clever she is and demonstrates that she is willing to throw away for life for him, it's not unreasonable for Ning Yuxuan to fall in love, even if he knows it's likely not reciprocated. He may not show it well... but that's a whole other issue.

As for Ji Man, it is very realistic for her to remain apathetic throughout the majority of the novel. She doesn't get jealous when Ning Yuxuan sleeps with other women, doesn't really care that he doesn't love her, and most of the time she is just making fun of him in her head. In fact, she soon gains a lot of good reasons to actually hate Ning Yuxuan because, as mentioned earlier, he a questionable character who in turn does questionable and sometimes harmful things. So how does she fall in love with him at the end? Actually, the novel hasn't gotten to that point yet so I'll update once it finishes, but the way the winds are blowing show clear indication of how this romance is going to occur, and again I feel it's going down a pretty reasonable path.

Ning Yuxuan gets drugged with an aphrodisiac (not by Ji Man) and she pushes him into her servant's room. There is very obvious dubious consent in this, but I just want to say that the servant was very willing to sleep with Ning Yuxuan. I can't say the same for him though.

Ning Yuxuan kills some of his unborn children through staged accidents for political reasons, which is obviously pretty horrible of him. Then, in order to 'protect' Ji Man, he keeps her separated from her child and tricks her to believing her child is another woman's, knowing all the while the amount of emotional pain he is putting her through (at one point she is borderline suicidal). Also, he lets Ji Man's entire family except her and her brother die in order to save her life. The list goes on.

caused the death of MC's family, caused her depression because of her child and became suicidal. even if its for a good reason that ML did that it wasn't right. When I saw the note of author at the end, when she admitted of purposely whitewashing scum ML I was like- dead omg... u can't white wash a man who caused the demise of MC no matter how /lovingly/ and /kindly/ he treated her!!!

Plus, she was already in the modern world but went back for a scum... I will never

When one get pregnant, he kills the unborn child because he doesn't want to get pulled on the crown prince's side.

(He could've just used contraception pills if he wanted to avoid troublesome issues. Or better, avoid sleeping with his concubines.)

To start off, let me clarify some of my points by introducing the characters:

[1] Female Lead's family is powerful.

Now, what do you think happens to an FL who has a powerful backing and then married to an equally powerful house but not a Wang? (1) She is an eye-candy politically, so (2) a lot of people want to manipulate/use her, have her killed or get her as an ally. ML-FL relationship isn't simple.

[2] Male Lead's

family is powerful but not Imperial.

Now, what do you think happens to characters that aren't Imperial but powerful? Their family hangs on a scale. Princes either wanting to recruit them or have them killed. So to this, the ML tried his damnest to balance things out.

This ML has layers upon layers of schemes of his own and really manipulative.

(1) He is not Imperial so (2) he has limited privileges, and (3) he is good in martial arts but not ridiculously good, but (4) it doesn't matter anyway because martial arts is not a central point in this thing. So he isn't OP.

Now, the reason I say it's similar to TBAVW is because it's more of a politically intrigue novel where characters are not what they seemed.

In character temperament, and the romance aspect, both novels followed the same formula:

In both novels, ML use their women to gain advantage.

[1] Except in TBAVW, because the ML is a Wang and FL bg is powerful, he only had to look at her and insta-support. No need to be antagonistic to FL. Moreover, FL transmigrated early so she immediately behaved herself. Hence, we don't have drama and ML is only loving to her. Readers love him and everyone is happy.

[2] Here in DSB, on one hand we have an FL background who is skewed to one faction (i.e. FL's aunt who is the favoured Imperial Concubine, say IC) and another hand the scheming crown prince's under the Empress. FL married the ML because of IC in the first place, so yknow. Anyway, ML hangs on a delicate balance. And since this is ancient setting, we don't have the privilege of seeing an overly-doting ML on the FL.

Instead, he used that "ancient setting sh!t" to his advantage by:

using his harem like 100% more than TBAVW

because (1) he needs to, (2) yeah, he still has a choice not to but why not anyway, and (3) original owner's behaviour (original owner of body before FL transmigrated) was very disagreeable at the start so they had a major fall out.

Imagine being in a tricky situation where you are trying not to offend people to preserve your life, then here goes a person waltzing in and cannot even understand what you're trying to do so unintentionally wrecking havoc in your plans? I think ML felt that way to original!owner and so she lost his favour. And rather than doting on her, his original actions is more on the negative end and being antagonistic by appearing not too biased on a faction.

I stand my ground that ML on both novels are scheming and manipulative (and both FL's know this). Just that, because of circumstances, ML on former is doting on his wife and ML of latter is hot-cold.

This is also the reason why I say both followed the same formula. Most other novels followed a different one (and one that readers loved best) : ML is black-bellied, FL may or may not be black-bellied, and ML is only doting to FL because they are both black-bellied anyway so they don't mind offending people. Case in point: DCF, PGC, BBM, all other novels with once-assassin/doctor female transmigrated to ancient times.

That aside, other things about this novel so far:

The FL's modern knowledge doesn't make her OP, and she is sympathetic to fellow women.

But that doesn't make her the holy mother, that role belonged to OFL (lol). It's just that... she's not vengeful, very tolerant but doesn't mean she'll just allow others to bully her. She understand why women have to do this and that, and so doesn't take it against them.

Her view on love is also very similar to TBAVW's FL: she really doesn't care about ML but also won't actively push him away. To live well, she has to pretend to still like him. She also knew ML's status and so behaved properly according to her role.

Also, like I said she's not OP (unlike in DCF perhaps where later on Nee Bai used her knowledge on bombs and stuff to gain leverage and help ML) which is something I appreciate 'cause hey, it's not like you can just randomly see formulas of bombs anywhere, remember it and use it. Instead, her "modern" knowledge comes in the form of production of beauty products (which is more realistic imo), having business skills despite being a woman, earning money, and being able to cook despite being noble.

The characters have depth, the OFL halo is strong and FL's life is not given on a silver platter.

The characters aren't 2D, enough said. Putting aside ML's asshol-ic personality, I'm hands down to author for not making him black-bellied but still someone who knows his sh!t nonetheless. I mean... I appreciate his character the most. He is not all-good 2D. He is scheming, manipulative, to a point I find him hateful, funny, but interesting (yes, I am weird).

Not just he ML, but basically everyone. Cannon fodders aren't just cannot fodders. They didn't become hateful just for the sake of being one, but because they were pushed that way (another example is the antagonist of Rebirth of an Abandone Woman), as opposed to say OFL of DCF where, tbh, she became hateful just for the sake of it: I don't understand her because she's just too s*upid. Something like that.

I appreciate smart antagonists, as oppose to plain unreasonable ones. And so far, the development here is good. Like, for example, the development of OFL to a true antagonist after her fall from grace is reasonable. There's a step-by-step process we get to see and I like that, and isn't because she's just inherently/became s*upid.

OFL's halo is strong. Unlike DCF where it was slowly but surely being clipped, here it isn't (at least not obviously), which I appreciate. A lot of people might hate ML because she dotes on her while being antagonistic to FL, but do remember FL

is

villainous and cannon fodder originally. So why would ML have his sights on her?

It's strange how people don't bat an eyelid when ML of other novels act harsh on antagonists, but flip heaven and earth when ML is harsh on FL who is (again) supposed to be an antagonist. You don't pity women antagonists on other novels who died and was tortured by MLs, but complain when ML here had FL be punished and ignored her in favour of OFL who is the original protag? lol

FL's life isn't given on a silver platter. Unlike in DCF or TBAVW where everything is smooth-sailing, here is obviously not. Not only because the OFL halo is strong and the tricky part of FL's background, but like... every action of FL really has consequences.

I read a bit later on (before MTL fried my brain) and, yeah, the consequences can be

heavy. It's heart-wrenching, but provided the realism I need that not everything is rainbows and ponies. Just because she is now the FL doesn't mean she now gets the express lane in everything. In fact, the things that happened just made me appreciate her character more, for being strong, independent and... just so far, I really like her.

The ML is someone else's husband, so the FL who is the spirit in the body of his wife whom he sent to suicide is not supposed to have a relationship with him, let alone love him. That is pretty much universal across all cultures, monogamous and polygamous alike: keep your eyes and hands away from someone else's hubby! Yet she does grab him for herself and even uses him as a gigolo of sorts, just for s*x. I don't judge that man with his job in politics and government and his domestic life with many wives and concubines, mostly because I simply don't care - he is someone else's husband after all, why should we as readers be interested in him romantically or even as a person?

The story is well written and well translated and there is a thread of goodness that runs throughout - the spirit of our dreamer, our FL who in her dream is placed in a world from which there is no escape and the spirit has to keep going, no matter what happens, until the body of the dreamer awakens. So, this novel got the idea of nesting a story within a story to the extreme: it's a story not only about transmigration of a spirit from this world into another world, it's a book about characters in another book, and it's a story that takes place in the mind of a dreamer who dreams inside that dream and communicates with the spirit of the deceased owner of the dream body. All these factors force you to see it as unreal, yet the writer lures you into the trap of feeling that everything is as real as it gets and you can't help but feel the feelings and lose your sleep over the plot and the characters of the story. At least half of the readers find this dream to be a nightmare of sorts and forcefully exit that dream, stop reading the story. I had that impulse myself several times as I was reading. I gave up when the story reached ch.400 after the scene in the ox cart where he asks he whether she still hates him and she feels that not so much anymore. It's not that she forgave him, but she is slowly forgetting. I understand that love is unpredictable, we fall in love against our best intentions and this is a story of a decent woman falling in love with a serial killer, a murderer of his wives and children and his other relatives, let alone citizens and emperors of his country. But hatred is a different emotion and forgetting to hate takes more than just time and falling in love with your own murderer.

I liked mostly the great storytelling skill of the author, some domestic details, funny parts that made me laugh, The FL's background as a migrant worker in modern China, as a chemistry student in modern China, her work with clients and relationships with coworkers in modern China, her business acumen. She does feel thoroughly modern, there is that feeling in the book, that you are inside of a mind of a modern person. I disliked strange plot twists and behaviors, which are only justifiable in dreams, they are impossible in real life, like her interactions with the crown prince - her tireless killer. She is way too neutral towards him. And reading this caused me to experience too much disgust and aversion, pain and heartbreak. Another huge controversy is that in real life she dropped her boyfriend of 4 years after catching him with another woman in his bed, but in this dream life she is quite the opposite, she integrates into polygamous life and even wants to go back to it when she realizes she has that choice.

In the end, I became one of those readers who brought down this novel's rating on NU, because I love drama, even tragedy, but not senseless torture and sociopathy. This book is praised for being realistic which is of course a joke. The setting is not an ancient China, but a dreamland with no good people in sight. None. The author has no way of knowing what forced polygamy or even polyamory is like in real life to describe it for us either, all of this is but a dream within a dream, her aimless senseless fantasy about loving someone else's husband. And by describing polygamy/polyamory without knowing what it is like in real life, she makes a mistake, depicting it as a constant fight for a piece of d*ck and for the opportunity to be inseminated as if you were an animal kept for breeding purposes, not a person - a soul who thrives on love and loving.