Pks

SRQ is from one of the most powerful noble family of the Kingdom and the king is vary of its status that's why he wanted the princess to marry someone who is less privileged like Pie wen and not SRQ, else with enough power the SU family could easily rebel against the king and dethrone him

Main couple doesn't love or trust each other till yet they only treat each other as friends or partners while SML and FL had loved each other for 17 years just before their death and it's not easy to remove all those emotions that they build throughout the years

Exactly in novel the leads had a marriage of 37 years but in drama they reduced it to 20 years

Exactly in novel they had a marriage of 37 years but in drama they reduced it to 20 years

He was mentioned as a toy boy in the novel as she only used to eat food when he feeds it with his own hands, they used to sleep together and loved each other for 27 years,... Love doesn't mean only having just sex.

Princess can have haram of their own if they had power

He just loves getting cuckold in all his dramas, our man let's his wife who he seems to love sleep, eat and live with some other guy for 17 years,... And even leaves the other guy alive in the end in second life after knowing that he killed his wife in his first life and wanted to treason and kill his wife, brother and king in the second life..., just because the other guy loved his wife in both life's and was once his wife past lover.....

He isn't creepy at all, it's what the director wants to show as they both took glances at each other in hiding when SRQ spend night with her with both working together/ the beating of Li Rong heart and her glances at SRQ when she is in embrace with SRQ shows the affection they have for each other, also the camera angle with the perfect song makes it seems that they still have remembrance of their past affection ( as we see in the novel that Li Rong once asked SRQ to get together while she leaves Pei Wei by divorce because of their love and affection but was rejected by SRQ stating that he was castrated now and can only be attached to her emotionally and can't give himself to her completely) , they still have love for each other in the second life even though they can't be together because of political reasons,..

In both timelines he loved her that's why at the end of the novel when he tries for treason again in second life, Pei Wei gives him a escape route for the sake of his love for Li Rong. It's just that SRQ is a very ambitious person who believes in familiar ties and loved his family deeply making him take revenge as priority rather than romance after the carnage of his family by the emperor, even Li Rong knew this and that's why she loved him and kept him by her side for 17 years and forgave him even after knowing he was the reason for her death in the first life just like she was the reason of Pei wei death in first life......

The story is now getting really better and after a long time I 'm finding a mature relationship between the leads were both care and value eachother. Mostly the dramas nowadays have one-sided romance with only one working his ass off to impress the other while other person remains a dick till half of the drama.

Exactly, I too didn't find it healthy as a teacher, and it's extremely creepy even thinking about it. There are some cases here and there but they are extremely rare and it shouldn't be romanticized as a normal love.

Towards the end

The relationship is extremely toxic between the leads, the ML is completely Simp and loved the FL till the end even when after ep 30 she broke up with him for silly reasons ( she never told anyone that they were dating even to her pursuers), starts dating another guy just after the break up and they starts being intimate with each other while the ML left his work goes to Village and starts taking care of the FL sick grandmother in her hometown as she is on her deathbed and died later on, while the ML kept trying to call the FL all in tears but she was busy sharing beds with Du Heng guy and never cared to even pick his phone, and at the last episode the DU Heng just told her to fuck off as the company was more important to him than her or thier relationship when the FL asked him why he wanted to break up and wether he puts more importance to her or the company?, hearing the answer she started crying but then the simp ML once again comes to her rescue and she again starts blaming everything on him, are you crazy girl ???
The other guy just kicked you out after getting into your pants and using you for his project and it's the MLs fault for even that??. And near the end the FL is in danger and the ML saves her than she told him that she always loved him 😂 😂, what were you doing dating another guy just a few days ago and crying your guts out when he told to fuck off and than the leads have sex and are together with happy ending!!!!!!
Are these Chinese writers crazy or are commited to make the endings awful and MLs miserable lovers who even accepts being cuckold but never stops loving the FL

Now that I have watched till the latest episodes, I think he looks at the FL not like a cousin but as someone who is interested in her, also sometimes it feels like he know who she truly is and knows that she is not related to his family. Maybe like you said, he could be a secret admirer of the original FL before her marriage with scholar shen

I haven't started yet but is Ye shi jie the third wheel in the story??

We don't know who's baby it is as she was playing both sides just before her marriage.

Do we know anything about Tae oh yet, except him being happy from SY death and becoming a hero for our FL. And it just amazes me how all the fan girling for him is going on in the platform just because of him being young and hot.
He doesn't have any reason at all in all the unnecessary screentime he is getting in the latest episode and it's only making the FL weak if she depends on everything on him or try to have a romantic subplot at this point of her life.....I think JW should introspect herself and her surrounding before believing anyone and becoming completely dependent with all the things that happened to her till now from the people most close to her.

Dude you can't blame everything on SHJ , we as a 3 rd party knows all the facts about the incidents happening in the story but he doesn't. Both JW and SY were faulty in their married life but SY was also a victim of the schemes as much as a JW was, and they both needed their own revenge and a happy ending but all we got for SY a tragic life and a sudden death.

Maybe cheating; as kdrama have barely any drama were married couples doesn't cheat or on the verge of cheating.

Yura is the upcoming fiance of the ML, whom his grandfather mentioned in the last episode as one of the most successful women in the Airline industry. In the novel she was like SFL, who liked na-in-woo from his past during the college days and maybe she will appear from ep 11 or 12