Gu Yi has it hard. Contrary to other FL in other reborn novels she doesn’t have the luxury of „maybe following the storyline“. She
has to follow the storyline, at least with mayor plot points - or the novel will just kill her off and everything will begin at the start.
So she has to navigate the palace life as a low-ranking concubine / Meiren while simultaneously trying to facilitate the relationship between the emperor and the ogFL. Which is frankly exhausting- especially since the emperor seems more interested in her than the supposed FL.
The ML/Emperor is a rational and calculating person. His harem is not really a place for contentment and tender feelings but a mirror of court politics and fractions. This is something he knows and something (most of) his harem knows. As he gets to know the FL he’s kind of stumped and doesn’t really know what to do with her - on one side he wants to be closer to her and on the other side he doesn’t understand why she just doesn’t get his hints or tries to curry favor with him (he himself doesn’t really have that much experience, if any, in the romantic department).
As for the FL, while she has her moments of despair, she’s resilient, optimistic and resourceful. She tries her best and hopes for a serene and peaceful life once the emperor dismisses the harem at the end of the story. In her interactions with the emperor, she generally goes along with his wishes but also guards her heart because she knows, no matter what she feels, the novel won’t allow the story to go awry.
While the novel has comedic undertones, it’s still tragic and sad at times, it gets more somber in the middle.
Spoiler
Around the middle of the novel, everything seems to be going great - the ML seems to be in love with the FL, their relationship seems somewhat stable and she finally gets to breathe a little bit and then - boom - everything back to the start. It’s only natural that the FL feels completely disheartened. Only this time everything seems to be a little bit different. The emperor is even colder and more dismissive, so it’s harder for her. Still, the emperor seems to unconsciously remember their former time line, but everything seems to be layered in mist. I liked who the emperor found out about their former timelines and her deaths, and how he fought against their supposed fate
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The ogFL:
Spoiler
While she’s not really a white lotus, she’s not really that innocent either / her approaching the ML is very much calculated but seemingly out of affection although it later seems like she just wanted to have power.
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Still, I enjoyed it a lot and especially the interactions and the banter of the two leads.
