the hint of BL for some real romance

There was one chapter where he realizes already that she loves the MC but when the concubine is acting coquettishly in front of him saying why is she ignoring him, He promises her that he will come to her to spend the night.

I was baffled when I read about this system for the 1st time! It sound absurd to me as I heard of this system nowhere! I knew that some men in ancients are allowed to have 4 wives or kings having harems but nowhere I heard a normal man can have so many women! Thank God! My ancestors are not from china otherwise as a woman I would be so disgusted having lusty ancestors who mistreat so many women! (No offence to any Chinese. I feel if a man is doing polygamy in ancient at least all his spouses should have same rights, not some of them are treated like dirt!)

I rated it 3.5! Don't know why it's showing 2.5 anyway The FL is a modern transmigrated woman who's cool but the ML is umm I can say as per the ancient china setting (not global setting cause in that setting he's a lusty scum man) he's a local product of china. I also hate him for not caring about his other wives and ignoring his children just cause he was conquered by mc's cooking. Either free them or treat them right! Why're you killing all of them author? Didn't ML promise to protect them! Why is he so scum??

The ML is a scheming black bellied noble. All his wives, concubines and even family is the same. He's also perfectly aware when there's schemes going on. After the 1st wife commits su*cide, she is replaced by the MC who has a good/violent personality yet almost magical food that basically drugs people into being her allies. Then the harem scheme against her to get her kicked out (told MLs mother that MC was beating the ML and they all witness it) and he gets super angry when the 2nd wife gets mad that he's angry when he knows all the terrible stuff the original had done. I think I would have rather the story had a twist where the 2nd wife gets revenge instead of a magical chef and a crappy ML the whole cast tries to whitewash to the MC. As a reader if I'm feeling more for what's probably the cannon fodder love rival than the ML or MC then this book is definitely not for me.

I love villians or heroes but I can't stand hypocrites in a righteous light. The ML is a straightforward hypocrite pos but the MC is in a dazzling good light yet her food d*** near turns people into addicts yet she's innocent.

Well, in the end, only 3 concubines left in ML's harem. Madam Yun was killed by Madam Jiang because she poisoned the latter child for the sake of deposing MC. Madam Jiang was forced to stay at Buddhist hall by ML because she killed Madam Yun. Madam Lan went crazy after being betrayed by her own maid. She was also the one who instigated Madam Yun to kill Madam Jiang's child. Only Madam Jing was managed to avoid all of the schemes because she didn't have any ambition and only wanted to have a good life. She became MC's confidant and even helped MC managed the household.

As for the children, they were quite adorable. They loved MC like their real mother. I only hope that they stay pure in the future and won't fight over who was gonna be an heir of the marquis.

In the end, he devoted himself for MC and didn't touch his concubines. He even apologized to them because they had to live as a widow because of it. Maybe ML thought that his move was quite romantic but on the contrary, I think it's a very bad move.

To let young woman to live as a widow for the rest of her life is so cruel. ML was the one who married them and promised to cherish them but in the end he abandoned them. If they were childless, they could still move on with their life but they already had children so how could they leave their children alone?

ML's neglect only made it worse for MC. The concubines will be more eager to get rid of MC because she monopolized ML's affection. Also they were afraid that MC will get rid of them. It's understandable though because the original MC was a horrible woman who schemed to kill other concubine and even harmed ML's child. ML could forgive her easily because he knew that she was a transmigrator but how could the other concubines know? That's why I really couldn't blame any of them for their actions.

I couldn't blame ML for having many concubines because it was norm in that era. Even his own father did it. I also couldn't blame the concubines because they just wanted to survive and protect their own child. And of course I won't blame MC just because she didn't want to share ML with others. Also, she couldn't be blamed by the original MC's action because it wasn't her who did those. Original MC also quite pitiful. I believed her viciousness was party caused by ML. Who could bear watching her husbad took so many concubines and got them pregnant when she herself didn't manage to get pregnant after so many years? It's really like a vicious cycle.

• • What happened to MC's family in the end? Did they manage to reinstate their noble title? The author didn't mention it in the end.

• • MC mentioned that she was transmigrated to a novel but till the end there is no explanation about what is that novel about, who's the MC and ML, and what's the original plot.