Female lead Yu Qingjia, in her previous life was the Mary Sue (golden finger) main character that had a happy ending, while her half sister Yu Qingya, in that previous life had a horrible fate.

So in their second life, the half sister with the help of a System wanted to eliminate female lead and replace her as the main character. But through premonitory dreams, female lead discovered the plot.

While trying to survive, female lead faced another problem: her father that swear would never have another woman after the death of female lead's mother, brought a young and beautiful concubine to the house. The concubine was actually a disguise of the male lead Murong Ya, that was a Prince that was trying to survive and hide while strengthening himself to dethrone the tyrannical uncle Emperor.

First, female lead was a childish fourteen years old girl. Of course, she was a spoiled noble young lady, so we could ignore her behavior.

But if you think that in Ancient Times, girls at the age of fourteen or fifteen were getting married and having child and men at that age could be crowned Emperors. So a fourteen or fifteen ancient youngster should be more responsible and mature.

Of course, this isn't realistic literature so in fictional novels, an Ancient young girl could behave like a teenager Modern young girl.

... I started noticing that for me, majority of the novels I read about Ancient Times, the male leads are more mature at younger age than female leads.

Since male leads are normally going to become Emperors, Ministers or Generals that are going to deal with politics and wars and decide the future of empires and their people, they are always smarter, mature and more capable.

Meanwhile the female leads are somewhat childish or not so mature and not so smart, only becoming Empresses or Noble's Wives that can only deal with the harem or domestic and s*upid matters and sometimes even worse, they have to borrow the intelligence and power of the male leads to solve those internal domestic affairs. This is such a sexist mentality, that only reinforces the incorrect belief that men are inherently more valuable than women or superior in some way.

Of course, that was the reality of Ancient Times, the men, the Emperor are responsible for the nation's politics and the the women and Empress are responsible for the internal and domestic affairs of the harem and palace. But, for God's sake, again this is fictional, not reality. So why can't we have more strong female leads dealing with politics and the future of Empires?

(Oh dear God, where are my Chinese Mulans, the embodiment of strong and smart Ancient Women that changed and challenged the fate of nations? Despite Mulan being only a fictional character of a legend, it's true that throughout history really existed some intelligent and strong women leading armies and changing the fate of nations like the medieval French girl Joana D'arc)

When she saw her father bringing a "concubine" home, she kept pouting and trying to argue with the "concubine". But instead, why she didn't act like a grown up and had a serious conversation with her father to understand why he was breaking his promise of not bringing another woman in the house?

Besides, she was trying to annoy and anger the "concubine" like a spoiled child, but while female lead was pouting and throwing tantrums, the "concubine" male lead that was only one year older, was training to govern an empire and become the next Emperor, surpassing female lead by leaps and bounds both in intelligence and strength.

We can see the big gap of their mentality and maturity in this situation when female lead asked her father who was more important, she, the daughter, or this "concubine" and her father avoid to answer, saying that he couldn't compare both, so she started crying, and the male lead "concubine" told her:

"Just a little matter can make you cry. It's really useless.

What's more, what is the use of crying?

You can't even fair well in both civil and martial arts (since we are both studying together), and now you are also abandoned by your father. What you should do now is to surpass me or expose me in front of Yu Wenjun (her father). Hiding and crying by yourself.

What is the use of it excepts to give me one more reason to laugh at you?"

That only shows how brainless female lead was... her father asked if she wanted to study politics and have horse riding and archery lessons together with the "concubine", but she said she didn't want to. In the end, she was forced to study and learn... 🙄

But Omg, she knew that the villainess of the story would try to kill and overpower her but instead of polishing herself and get more knowledgeable which maybe could help her to avoid death and defend herself, she didn't want to learn anything...

Meanwhile, the male lead that was in a similar situation in which the Emperor was trying to kill and overpower him, in a intelligent way, was sharping himself by learning the max he could, to survive and face the Emperor head to head.

Maybe I'm exaggerating. It's just a silly novel, so why bother? But if we deeply think about it, isn't sexism to portray a young woman as childish, spoiled and brainless noble, while the male lead of almost the same age is portrayed as a smarter and more capable noble? 🙄

Of course realistically and historically speaking, in ancient times men always had more privileges than women, having access to education and being able to interfere in politics thus overpowering women. Also, women only had the right to vote around one hundred years ago and in a patriarchal world, women rights still have to be fought even in our modern times.

But for God's sake, this are fictional novels not reality. So why women can't be as capable as men in these Chinese ancient time novels?

I really wish to find novels like that...