FL reincarnated after her transmigration as a villain (a woman disguised as a man). So it was her 3rd life where she thought she'd live in a new world.. But, it was the same dynasty as her last life.. And many things were contrary to her expectations..

ML was the FL's student in her 2nd life, and they were estranged before her death (all part of her grand plan). He had regrets of her death (just like all the other side characters).

What's unfortunate (or maybe fortunate) is that the reincarnated FL has the same face as her 2nd life character, and thus she really couldn't free herself from her past life.

One of the most heart-wrenching moments was Master Yuan's death. The scene captures an overwhelming sense of guilt, helpless pressure, and the sorrow of parting. She had the power to save him in many ways, yet could not fight the natural process of aging. It was one of the most moving passages in the entire story.

For me, it's refreshing how they decide not to have kids because I'm tired of always seeing the nuclear family ending. I think it's in line with their characters too.

We basically see Cen Jing navigate her unwanted third life trying to avoid people from her past because of her previous role as a villain, assuming that they all hated her to their cores. Little did she know that despite her actions as Cen Tunzhou (her identity in her 2nd life) meant more to them and the hatred were somewhat misunderstandings.

There's another transmigrator named Ye Jindai who also has a system tied to her, which was the updated version of what CJ has, and thus, could do more. But YJ's system seems to be more cunning because it wanted her to get the capture targets. YJ eventually grew tired of trying to "capture" them and wanted the system gone because she didn't even want to be transmigrated and wanted to walk her own path in this life, and CJ, knowing exactly how she felt since she's been in that position before, encouraged her, making YJ's system hate CJ to the point of showing YJ the original endings of the characters in an effort to show that listening to CJ was s*upid, and she should turn her back on her. Of course, YJ revealed these things and this was basically how CJ realized that maybe, just maybe, she wasn't as hated as she thought. But of course, she still has some trouble accepting this because logically, there's no way that they still valued her even knowing what she did, right?

I also felt bad for Shen Linyin (the empress and original protagonist). She was on the verge of losing her mind because of her life in the palace and all the political scheming. I would've been slightly disappointed if she ended up turning evil completely, but fortunately, she managed to get her life together in the end.

As for our main antagonist, it won't take you long to realize that it's the emperor. Now, because of the things CJ deliberately did in her past life to make everyone hate her, he's gone off the deep end, and there's no bringing him back. The relationship between him and CJ is rather complex, because at some point, they used to be close friends, but because of CJ and the fight for power, it's not surprising that he ended up the way he did and CJ knew that this was completely her fault. She even wondered if this mess could've been avoided if she didn't choose to die in her previous life, but alas, she valued her original family more than this.

All the characters are smart and well thought out. Even the antagonists aren't s*upid. They matched well with Cen Jing who was also very skilled.

In fact, the story makes it huge plot point to have characters tell you that she is very different from her past self. You learn more about her abilities from character memories than seeing her in action, aside from towards the end. Maybe it is the apathy? Maybe it was her physical health too. But I also experience the same "huh" moment whenever I try to connect the MC with who she was in her first life. She also manages to escape all of her problems because of people's love and protection for her, which is also unbelievable at times?

A man wanted to ask the emperor to marry her? He falls off his horse, crippled??

Her old family wanted to kidnap her and later suffers a complete downfall?

Some of these situations happens off screen? and is explained away with a few lines. HUH?

The novel's only shortcoming is that you step into it knowing all these people love and miss her, but you don't see that build up. It is like watching the after of happy ever after? Or you came right after the climax of the story.

Also, once some key characters hit 100% affection, they stay that way, there is nothing she could do to change how they feel about it. Is this just the "white moonlight" effect— like why is the Emperor the ONLY one who has any ill feelings towards her..?

That is not to say that some characters do not hold grudges, but it is almost never that serious? They would hate her initially thinking she is taking advantage of her shared appearance with her old self, but that is resolved pretty quickly.