FYI, there are 6 couples, not 2. "Harem intrigue" also doesn't remotely come close to being the plot. Seriously sounds like the reviewer posted about the wrong book.

The second half, the MC is in a male body, which is why this is tagged BL/yaoi. The romance only really begins when he is in a male body. The ML really does fall for the MC regardless of his gender, which is a very interesting plot point!

The ML is portrayed very similar to how you'd expect strong emperors to act: fairly ruthless yet pretending to be noble, speaking half-truths-half-lies, difficult to guess, never showing his true thoughts, good at manipulating the masses etc., which was something I enjoyed a great deal, but may not be for everyone.

update: the MC jumping to a new body (male) after the queen body died! And there is papapa between him and the ML! Hehehehehehehe....

this is the man who literally killed his wife, the person who he himself accepted meant the most to him, and yet he's all flirty flirty with him, even before he learns they are the same person

As of now, MC still has little feelings for ML. For example, he gets sleep deprivation when forced to lie in the same bed as ML. I'm kind of rooting for TY to hold out much longer until ML really proves himself. It might even be in the second half of the novel where he becomes a man again.

The thing I like that most is that, normally in this setting, the ML would force himself upon the MC sooner rather than later, but it actually hasn't happened yet! I am sort of on the edge of my seat here and there though, as I don't prefer the r*pey type ML.

For example, when he found out that teng yun is the late empress and the current teng ying. In his thoughts, teng yun as one of the biggest threats for him comes first and after that he added that teng yun was also the person that he once loves when he's still in the empress body:)))

He didn't die, and he didn't leave the ml.

When teng yun woke up in teng ying's body, he made a deal with the ML that if he can succed in his task, he will be free to leave the imperial city. THAT IS HIS ONLY WISH.

But after he finished the task, he didn't leave which I tried to understand with him bailing out the ex emperor of teng (his father) from prison. And in return the ML wants him to replace his father as marquis of tengnan.

I understand emperor loves talented people, but to spare the murderer of his wife (that is also now the MC that transmigrated from empress to his own murderer) and let him live because he was useful and then forcing himself on him for NO APPARENT reason was somehow... weird. First, he says how much he loved empress and then he wants to

literally r*pe a person because his eyes give the same fire as his empress? what?

r*pe. That should have been tagged from the beginning. Torture.

It's BL because... at first MC (a guy) transmigrates into a woman. He never acts like a woman or is referred to as one by the author if I remember correctly.

Anyways, if that leaves you skeptical: after lots of chapters and ML falls for MC, MC dies and transmigrates into a man's body. ML eventually finds out and the story ends (HE) with MC (in the guy body) and ML together so it does end on a male x male note both from the soul and body lol

There was one side pairing that really irked me because it felt like they didn't add value to the plot other than more romance and made the story unrealistic - but it's very easy to ignore because you can just skip the chapters with them in it (it's the spy x prince/emperor of another country).