Lenterel

It was FL who constantly pushed him to serve the prince (partly for her own purposes), and he spent five years risking his life, and now he can't turn back because the emperor directly orders him - and the emperor himself painted a big target on him

There's still zero marketing here, and after tonight, my hatred for tencent and the producers has reached an indescribable level. At least do the bare minimum of marketing on your platforms, bastards.

ML'll be rejected. Father Fu doesn't seem like a good person or a good official yet, and I suspect he's in Father Yu's faction. So ML'll have to remove him so that his approval or disapproval won't matter anymore.

You know that blood-pressure-raising trope in c-dramas where parents do a ton of shit but are eventually forgiven because they're TEH PARENTS? That's it, that xiao (I hate it). Even now it has an impact on the worldview.
And since the writer has decided to stick to a "realistic approach," the characters must follow the rules where their situation depends on it—or face a situation where fulfilling 孝 is impossible (I suspect this is the direction the plot will take)

They still live in an extremely Confucian society where 孝 is valued above all else. When they were on their own, ML showed that he didn't care about 孝 (when he cut off his hair), but it would be wrong for a high-ranking official to go against 孝

Political capital, economic benefits (tax exemption) and high social prestige.

It’s not about his ego, but about his current role

By the eighth episode, it becomes repetitive—him constantly being humiliated and defeated

He hasn't won a single fight

Blossom never have official a-budget and it has massive marketing, so I don't understand why you keep comparing them.
This show already has plenty of brands thanks to DYX; the brands don't provide marketing for the show—the show was supposed to provide marketing for them

Blossom is S-drama and had a major marketing push, and the platform had a larger active user base thanks to the success of LGIEF; these are completely different situations

Well, tencent didn't want to pay douyin to promote their series, and that has already affected the popularity of shows released after the divorce.
The broadcast starts today; hopefully, that will help

Without marketing no one will see their show. It’s absolute nonsense

Producing dramas isn't an act of charity.
And he doesn't have the resources to play any role he wants—what on earth are you talking about

It is a huge mystery why Tencent spent so much on production yet is skimping on marketing. DYX fans are working hard to promote the show, but the capabilities of any fanbase are limited. And the divorce between tencent and doyin makes reaching a broad audience even more difficult.
Perhaps things will change once the satellite TV broadcast begins

They aren't doing any marketing, not even within their own app. This is the first time I've seen such poor marketing for such an expensive production

Your insults won't change the fact that the show failed to capture the interest of the general chinese audience. And given the platform's literally non-existent marketing, ML still hasn't had a single significant scene that fans could use for promotion (and they’re the only ones promoting this series right now.) Don't care about popularity? Great—there won’t be any, because the show doesn’t offer anything special, unless something changes by the third or fourth day of the broadcast.
A weak male lead isn't refreshing; it's boring

In the novel, CP was impressed by the ml's combat skills at the temple, whereas in the series, he was drastically nerfed

I feel the same way you do. ML is weak (and according to spoilers, it won't get any better)

No, he has very little screen time