I think it's hate by association.
I generally agree with you,
but also have to mention that ml was quite ruthless, like, at least when I read it, it seemed like he more or less consciously overlooked some discrepancies in both brothers' versions of reality?
I was a big hater of mc, until he became a victim, since he was just so unreasonable, but then .. yeah I pretty early got the shake down, realised that actually ml is pretty unreasonable himself, like dude, you literally.. and then.. but then he acts like he's holy Mary.. but it was violent.. so like.. and then when they're more or less together he was damn cold, it was very shitty. And at this point I think he must have realised that mc's home situation is off, but he still went through it.
Actually maybe because he was an instrument in MCs *fall* that it just makes me so frustrated. And since the little bro is not even human at this point, I instinctively am more angry at ml. Like there's no point getting angry at the bro, he's just pure evil, but thie guy he had some morality, and integrity.. and now he's just too much with literally manipulating the grandfather, basically the only real family mc has . That was below the belt.
ohhh you are so freaking right when you said hate by association. I actually agree with you and the younger bro is indeed evil, like I really want to put him in a large oven. And dang I almost forgot about the ML and Suiying’s grandpa. Sht I wanna slap the ML so fvkng bad.
Maybe I think the ML is still redeemable that I feel quite torn whether I want the ML and MC to be the endgame or not. A huge part of me thinks that their dynamic is not working at all, and I think you summarised well the reason. The hot and cold treatment is so frustrating
ok so I decided to pick this up again bc I was so confused why the majority of readers in the comment section is cursing the ML, calling him all the worst names and saying that he’s the biggest trash and doesn’t deserve the shou. My azz got curious bc what did Li Yu do to warrant so much hate (when in fact, he was the one being harassed by the MC) and after catching up to the latest chapters, I am more confused than ever. Probably bc I read too many dog blood cn novels/manhuas with toxic MLs that Li Yu seems like a kitten compared to them. Bro cannot even compete against those scumbag male leads from 188 series. Like the real villain is actually the younger brother, that mf deserves to be slapped with a baseball bat.
Anyway, Im not saying that Li Yu is not a red flag (he literally SA’d the shou, he also betrayed him) but I think he’s mostly naive and a fvkng idiot. I would say his age plays a big factor why he did a lot of stupid things and there’s also a power imbalance between him and JSY due to their age gap. Li yu was young, didn’t know better and got easily manipulated by Suiying’s younger bro, using his childhood affection to coax him and making him an accomplice for his revenge. I think what’s sad about LY and JSY situation is the fact that they fell in love with eo and Li Yu still chose the younger bro and betrayed Suiying. Now, Liyu is just reaping what he sowed and I’m glad Suiying never fold easily. I know Suiying is not a saint either, he’s also a red flag and he did harrass Liyu so many times but I think he didn’t deserve all the shits that happened to him. I also think the chasing arc is not that bad since LiYu was so pathetic chasing after Suiying who didn’t give af about him anymore.
But yeah, my most hated character is definitely the younger bro I wanna slice him in half with a samurai. I might read the novel as well bc most of the time, manhua adaptation doesn’t give much justice to the characters of the OG source