"The Empress, she's the right person that he met at the right time. This is probably what is called fate."

If they had met later, like if the Emperor had already ascended the throne, then the Empress would, at maximum, become the Emperor's most favored woman but not his only one. She, herself, would not become Heng fei, but one of the many feipin the Emperor would have forgotten. She may not have even gotten the rank of a guipin.

Up to the very end, Zhuang Luoyan was never Feng Jin's only woman and he never loved her the way He Heng was devoted to Qingju. It is also because of this that Zhuang Luoyan never truly loved Feng Jin.

He Heng knew Qingju hadn't given her full heart to him and he also knew why - she didn't have the assurance that he will only love her and protect her, so for self-protection and to survive, she couldn't give her full heart. It was his persistence that won her over, he showed her through his actions that she could trust him. Feng Jin couldn't give Luoyan that same security - she wasn't his only woman and he didn't love her as deeply. This meant that she was in constant danger of losing the emperor's favour no matter how slim the chance was. I was glad that she never fell in love because if she did, she could never see things as clearly which was really needed in this novel because the emperor was not above using her to maintain the power balance. Also, because she never loved, she wasn't hurt - Some of Feng Jin's actions were, although understandable as an emperor, disappointing as a man/ lover because he simply did not love deeply enough. Also, unlike He Heng, until the end, Feng Jin never knew that Luoyan didn't love him. He really thought that she truly loved him and like one concubine said at the end, he was pitiful, really pitiful because he couldn't even see through Luoyan's fake affections.

Tbh, Feng Jin's indifference to his children made him a really tr*sh absent father. He already had a bunch of kids when Luoyan transmigrated over. I don't remember the princesses ever being mentioned and he wasn't concerned about his princes either, I imagine them only seeing him during events or when they caused trouble. If Luoyan's son wasn't a genius and the other princes not as capable, Feng Jin would be like those tr*shy emperors in other novels only doting on his favourite consort's son. (Although I think Feng Jin is too level-headed to make him crown prince if he wasn't the most capable.)

I felt that although I know what kind person Luoyan was - calm, decisive, rational and willing to take risks, I also never really knew who she was. It's like some sort of invisible veil around her? She is a fighter who is very perceptive and understood the emperor's heart. So the way she acted - from pretending to be honest with him (she was taking a gamble), to crying in despair (nothing was wrong at all), being upset that he didn't trust her (she wasn't upset cuz she didn't even love him) etc, was all to gain the emperor's affections or manipulate situations. I think her occasional monologues scolding the emperor and calling the concubines his little wives cute yet at the same time I felt that just like the emperor who will never know her for who she really is, I wouldn't know what she really is like with her guard down and what she's actually feeling when not acting (although I think we all know her better than the emperor lol).

I like how she never tries to aim for the spot of the empress. In fact, she doesn't want it. When the emperor asked her in one scene what she thinks of the empress, she very cleverly shows she doesn't have the ambition and doesn't want the trouble.

One thing that I was a little skeptical is the ML POV in the extra.

Like other reviewer said, in the POV, the ML felt bored until he met MC then thought when she's here it's fun.

This kind of personality really deviates from the ML original character! There might be some truth in that but it's only a small part.

What makes this so thrilling to read is that how deep the ML schemes. He meticulously planned things that happened in the novel to come out the way he wanted even if it's not the truth.

That's why when you see he actually believe that FL is in love with him when she's actually not felt so good!!

That's why even thought he's a scheming scum (like what FL said) but he's the only one from author's other novel that actually believe that the FL is in love with him. And fact: he will never get FL heart ever.

If you ever think the emperor is gonna change his status from a polygamous person to a monogamous person who is only loyal to MC.... No WRONG! That ain't happening. The emperor still sleeps with other females even at the end of the chapter. He only highly favours MC cuz he thinks MC is interesting and feels that if MC ever dies, the harem would be a boring place. He thinks she s*upidly loves him but NOPE. MC is just good in acting that she loves and care for the emperor until the end. In the end, the emperor might have love her but it wasn't declared much. Like you can only see through his action that he cares for MC.

Overall, the story has a lot of mysteries of death, attempted murder on MC but failed in the end. The way the story potrays really is accurate base on the ancient china custom. No Cinderella fairytale story. Personally I feel this story is not as good as to be a virtuous wife.

She's cold in her affairs and cold in her passions, which makes for an excellent combination for surviving in the imperial harem. I'm torn between admiring her, because she's truly a master at portraying this perfectly tailored version of herself to the emperor and other concubines, and pitying her, because all that acting must be so tiring. She never drops the mask, always on her toes for voyeurs, constantly paranoid to step out of line. Some might fault her for how coldblooded she is, but she's trying to survive. She can't escape, she can't truly improve her position to the point where she could relax, so she's stuck acting for the rest of her life. Truly sad.

To me it seems like she's constantly disassociating in order to protect herself. She's lost her entire world, but it's like she doesn't even care. I think she's actually just incredibly traumatised by the transmigration so she's avoiding thinking about it or thinking about her previous life, focusing on material things like the tea and the jewellery and the food. She used to be a business woman, clearly had some ambition, but now she's just floating through the harem with zero aspirations beyond living another year, prostituting herself to Feng Jin, and treating other people like they're not real people, like they're cardboard cut-outs who just so happen to be capable of speech. She's also incredibly high-strung, paranoid, and hypervigilant, convinced that the second she lets her guard down, she'd end up dead. Which, is it paranoia if they really are out to get you? She's doing her best to survive, but it's still an incredibly unhealthy way of living that only fosters more fear and resentment in her, which she mostly aims at Feng Jin, for being the reason everybody else is lashing out at her for being favoured. But almost none of this reaches the surface. Outwardly, she's a porcelain doll, parroting her lines. Repression is a nasty thing, but it's necessary for her. If she showed everybody what she really thought about them, Feng Jin would execute her in a heartbeat.

He's just as cold as Laoyan, but even more cutthroat and callous. The way he deals with his concubines is frankly atrocious. He manipulates them for political gains, then discards them the second they stop being useful. And even while they're useful, they're treated like they're not all the way human, like they don't have feelings, like they exist solely for him to use.

He's a terrible father, his children run amok in the harem, and he doesn't care at all. I get that some people just aren't made for parenthood, but the way Feng Jin acts is more like utter indifference. One would think, given how devoted to politics he is, that he would take enough interest at least to avoid his sons growing up into tyrants, but no. He's just.... super apathetic. It's like he sees them as some wild birds that broke into his house, not his to care for, but it's also too much trouble to bother kicking them out.

His relationship with his mother and his late father is hinted to have been, by modern standards, outrageously abusive and neglectful. His mother is such a messed up person too, and they have a relationship so bad that they can't meet each other more often the a couple times a year without angering and upsetting each other. His mother basically lives in isolation, and Feng Jin keeps finding out about the terrible things she did when his father was still alive, and it's all just feeding into his trust issues, misogyny, and superiority complex.

His brothers also seem to have followed in the tropey ''imperial princes all hate each other and back-stab each other for power'' fashion. I'm pretty sure Feng Jin arranged to have his last brother burned alive, along with said brother's palace.

Feng Jin does have his good moments. He can be incredibly charming, and when he goes out of his way to do something nice for Laoyan, he really goes all out. The moment where he told her that they would have a child of their own was genuinely touching, and I think that, though he said it to console Laoyan, he surprised himself with how much he himself was moved by the notion. He craves love, he craves a true human connection, but he's such a mess that the second he gets near anything that resembles true affection, he breaks out in metaphorical hives and boots that person to the curb, or, well, the cold palace.

Feng Jin seems to recognise that Laoyan's actions indicate that she cares for him, but he's unable to realise she's faking it. I honestly can't tell if he's really ignorant or if he's willfully fooling himself, because Laoyan at least seems to have zero expectations of him and as such puts no pressure on him.

Laoyan doesn't need Feng Jin in order to survive, she's smart enough to claw out a living for herself without him, and therefore her acting the lovesick wife for him is just a way to get more benefits and security. But even if she lost favour, she's crafty and could think of something.

The two of them are basically two people pretending to have fallen in love with the mask the other wears. But when you wear a mask long enough, it becomes you and you become it. Feng Jin, I think, is very much on his way to really falling for Laoyan's mask. Laoyan herself is nowhere near that point yet, but maybe after more years have passed, when she's established in the harem and has a child to hide behind, she might allow herself to soften towards Feng Jin.

It's not a love story in the tradition of, say, Romeo and Juliet, or even love in the western sense of the word at all. It's a mutually beneficial co-manipulative coexistence of two incredibly screwed up people with trust issues through the roof, who keep trying to fill the void in their psyche with material goods and social standing (in Laoyan's case) and sex, respect, and adoration (in Feng Jin's case), and they're using each other as a way of fulfilling those needs.

Feng Jin's eunuchs and Laoyan's maids, as well as the other concubines and maybe even the empress, are all under the misapprehension that these two are having some great romance. The way Feng Jin's head eunuch sighs over that incredibly pretentious flower pot Feng Jin gifted to Laoyan had me in stitches. It's a tragicomedy, how Laoyan and Feng Jin have everybody fooled.

I think from the very beginning, he wanted to cripple the Su family and the Empress' family. From what I gather, their families are too influential and they seem to be using this influence to make themselves richer and suppress other people. Since the emperor wants to consolidate his power, he needs to put these families down.

At some point, he even tried to distance himself with the MC because he thinks he's already falling for her.

Of course the FL did not allow him to continue doing this. She gambled her life but she ended up a winner in that round. The ML realized that he already can't bear to lose her.

By the way, the female lead will not fall in love at all. The female lead will continue stand by her opinions and goals (which is to survive in a environment created to pit women against each other), and she will never throw this all away for love. This is the part that I have enjoyed the most so far.