i think she's hoping if she doesn't get close to him it will end in divorce and she can go off and do other stuff. but since she holds all the years of memories of them together it's hard for her to be more than just standoffish to him. ofc it's going to backfire since she is doing so good in everything else.
She's letting the fate between the main characters go with the flow, it's just that she hopes she doesn't end up dying like in the original texts.
(Also, I pressed follow instead of repky, idk how to fix that LMAO)
I understand you, but based on my understanding, before she leaves the position as an empress she wants to change her mean reputation so she decided to let the plot flow while also changing it but for her only as an extra (this is only my opinion and my understanding pls dont hate me…. I also havent read the novel yet soo….)
If she was planning to "let it(plot) flow" isn't her being nice totally wrecks the plot? Especially if she's being overly nice and all, she could've maintained atleast a factor that makes her seem like the old FL/villain, I'd find it more interesting as she'd be balancing her actually being nice and pretending to be mean