So, I could ignore Wanyan Xu's very passionate love developing way too quickly for me. As he have been surrounded by dishonest people his whole life then he meets a honest person. But still...

We have Su Yi, a general who feels that he is responsible for all of his people's actions, their lifes etc. The first one was logical actually, Wanyan Xu was blackmailing him with the live of the soldiers that had been captured, it made sense. The second one was good too, this time Wanyan Xu was blackmailing him with the life of his friends. But the third one just didn't make any sense and this whole blackmail thing was becoming too repetitive and boring. Okay so this time, other people blackmail him with the life of rebels. This really didn't make any sense to me. He knew and observed that people actually had a way better life than they had with Qi. And he didn't even personally know the rebels.

So he takes the punishment and now is a slave. I was becoming a bit fed up with this story but if this wasn't dragged out for so long I would still probably enjoy it. Okay, I kid you not this whole thing goes on like 35 chapters. And to be honest when I remembered that this character was supposed to be a general, it didn't seem plausible. He was much like a damsel in distress.

Overall the story feels implausible, like there was this pink filter. Everything dissolved too quickly etc.

Actually, now that I think about it, Wanyan Xu's love developing so quickly really doesn't help the situation at all. It adds to that pink filter feeling.

That goddamn bit*h who put him through hell was about to get her punishment, and he!!!stopped!!!!!IT!!!!!

She planned to cripple him for life and kill him off, with no remorse, and he just lets her go!

And the people around treat it as a good thing. She even walked away coldly and someone remarked that she's actually feeling grateful on the inside??

(╯°Д°）╯︵ / (.□.) she should choke on that gratitude and die!

In the first scene (around chapter 12) the ML forces the MC to perform oral s*x on him. This was the turning point where the ML started seeing the alluring charms of the MC and the novel switched onto the romance track. Although I cringed throughout, I did find the ML’s lust for the MC to be realistic. It wasn’t love that fueled him to r*pe the MC the first time (but I’ll get to the “love” part later). The second time s*x happens is after the ML starts pursuing the MC in earnest and I would call the scene dubious consent. There were undertones of blackmail and “Is this r*pe? Is this not? It’s actually r*pe, right? Right.” Except the ML was very sweet and super attentive throughout the act and after, striking all my meng points, so I gave it a pass.

Her name is Zi Yan. For someone with the status of a maid I think she carries herself with a noble air. She has legitimate reasons for disliking the MC. During the war, the MC killed her brother, and now her emperor, the ML is starting to favor the MC, and she’s afraid that the MC will mislead her emperor because the MC is so loyal to his former country. She also doesn’t blindly hate on the MC. She is capable of acknowledging his good traits and even expresses admiration to the MC. She has always been straightforward in her intentions towards the MC, to the level of announcing it point blank to his face. (At the time the MC even welcomes it, because he was looking for a way to die. He couldn’t suicide for fear of the ML taking it out on the people of his country, so he wanted to borrow her blade to kill himself, so to speak.) Later she sees how deeply in love her emperor is and repents, trying to help the MC restore his glory instead. When her past treachery comes to light, some people might complain that she got off too lightly. I personally don’t have much of an opinion on how she should be punished, but since things turned out okay, I don’t think she deserves to die.

did he have to put himself on the line for a bunch of scholars that he didn’t even personally know? And they (the scholars) also knowingly committed treason. It would be well within the emperor’s (ML) right to execute them. MC standing up for the common people was because they’re innocent to political affairs and warfare, and therefore do not deserve to be treated unfairly just because their country is annexed by another, but the scholars knew what they were doing when they plotted a revolt and should therefore take responsibility for their actions.

that broken leg and the healing method. First off, I’m not too clear on how the leg was broken or even what kind of injury it was. They said his knee (knees?) was ravaged, but afterwards it sounded like one of his femur or maybe tibia was broken. And then the injury was healed with magic ointment that causes excruciating pain during the absorption process. (-_-) Boy, you can’t fix broken bones with just cream, even if it has unicorn poop and fairy sparkles in it. (Okay, maybe that could work...) But you gotta reset the bone first! Like, was it just cracked? Yeah, I didn’t understand that part, but the technicalities weren’t the point, the leg injury was brought into the story purely for the angst factor. And then later it was to demonstrate the ML and MC’s love for each other during the healing process.

Wanyan Xu goes from hatred and contempt to love and admiration very fast and this seems very artificial.

And it is serious that after conspiring against Su Yi causing him to be torturing to the point of breaking one of his legs and being hated and despised, the author still made us read excerpts in which shows the attitude Zi Yan as being commendable only because she confessed and helped show the truth? There is nothing to be applauded about. She just noticed that her plan was not going as she expected and decided to change her attitude.