- #1
Plus, later in the story, the MC even states that he's not against or dislike being s*xual with ML. Just that he doesn't have the stamina to keep up. And the author purposefully keeps the s*xual scene short, vague, and abstract to leave it up to reader imagination.
This is also in a setting of ancient China where concubines, which is what the MC is and is the only one, are expected to relieve the s*xual frustration of the Emporer whether they like it or not. It's a duty to fulfill, not a relationship built upon emotions. If anything, ML is very lenient to MC throughout the beginning of the story. Then they start indulging once they start to actually like each other.
[collapse]With that being said, this story is very easy to read in my opinion. This is one of those self-indulgent stories where MC is an overworked office worker that doesn't give a f*ck anymore. Literally. He doesn't care about the consequences as long as it doesn't affect his quality of life but he cares enough to where his actions doesn't affect those that don't deserve it. He's not one of those MCs that want to save the world or fight fate with a machete, he just want to sit tight and live life.It's there that MCs character development blossoms. Beaten down like a stray dog and with no expectations for the people around him, MC learns what life can be and it's like reading a coming of age story. MC learns to love life again.The ML is almost like an accessory to MC's development to learning to love life again. Yes, the ML has his own character growth, but the main focus is the MC. The ML is literally there to play the good supporting husband for his wife. It seems shallow to describe him as such but ML's character growth is just the typical 'melting the ice from his heart' type of guy. Standard stuff.Of course, the setting is ancient China, so there will be epic face slapping, ans dog-blooded drama. That balances so well with the romance. It gives reason for the MC and ML to interact at the beginning of the story. In turn, their budding relationship help drive the plot by giving solutions and uncovering mysteries surrounding them.I think what this story does really well is that they don't drag out an issue or lead on the reader for no reason. There's always a clean resolution without dragging out the details of it.SpoilerExample, there are a few points in the story where someone f*cked around, gave us a good foundation on how'd they went about it and why, and kept the interest there. And a clean break from those issues were simply stating that they either got punished accordingly or straight up killed. No extra details and moved on to the next plot point.
[collapse]The one thing I will complain about are the scene transitions. This is more on the translators. It's not a problem with the current translator but the initial one that started on this story didn't have a line break to indicate a scene transition like the current one does. While this story is easy to read, it can be a little disorientating because a sudden scene change. But it's not enough to knock a star off.5 stars!!