
randomly stumbled across this story, a lot better than expected tbh, hope for more updates

this part is me trying to clarify/understand the current plot:
-so FL’s BS father married the mother and had the son and FL with her but they aren’t royals. I think. or rather I hope bc of the purple/gold-eye boy. high ranking nobles obviously tho
-Mr. BS has a secret side girl who also recently had a female baby and tried switching the two babies (failed, tried twice)
-mother has a sister/female relative who’s in a higher position and has a son as well (and was raised poorly)
-bs father wants to put his side girl + her daughter as the main wife + daughter and get rid of the mother/son(kinda? it doesn’t seem like it tho ngl)/FL
-hes also ambitious (I think) and is trying to weaken the mother’s sister/relative family by having the son/heir be stupid (or is this someone else’s doing lol)
-the novel’s plot already happened in this world tho and the purple-eyed (and somehow hides the gold eye, cool) boy died and regressed
-that boy is def a royal tho (and my hopes that the FL and that boy aren’t closely related get smaller and smaller) and is currently hiding out since he knows how the future goes
def a Chinese novel she went into, the overly complex plot is in full force lmfao

Noooo ok wait there r some things wrong. the FL's mother has 4 kids with the deadbeat dad. She's his 5th legitimate child. And they refer to him as the prince of changsei(mightve spelt it wrong) so im assuming he's part of a royal family but maybe not the first born/hier.
His third son is the heir bc his first son wasn't interested and the 2nd wasn't from his legal wife (she was a concubine). But then he purposefully raised the third son to be incompetent as a heir bc then it would weaken the mother's power in the end and also make it easier for one of his lovechildren to take over later probably.
The boy, (ML?) Seems to be referred to as a prince but I think he's apart of a different royal family because he refers to her as related to the 'nanyue(?) Royal family' and he is from a different regions. Im not sure yet but worse case sceneriao they are cousins..... ┗( T﹏T )┛ but i dont think they are.
OH also I the aunt of the FL is the empress, wife to the emperor.

Based on my experience of watching c-dramas for years, I think fl's father is related to the royal family but not closely.
The title "prince anping" or "princess anping" was given to a royal family member (most of the times, blood relatives) for great achievements in war or being a lady of grace. It's like a dukedom. But, as we see fl's father's a lil sissy. He definitely has never went to war. So, we can deduce that the fl's father might be related to the royal family through once removed (uncle's children).
Then again, in those times, the heirs had to follow the path of their family head. So, if fl's paternal grandpa was a military officer, then her father had to follow along too. But, he doesn't.
So, probably the grandpa wasn't a military personnel. Or her grandpa himself could be once or twice removed already. So, her father could be twice/thrice (2nd/3rd cousins) removed. So, fl could be 3rd or 4th cousins.
P. S. Just my speculations.

There are three kingdoms
North (wants to cause trouble and start a war with south) FL is from South (Nanyue)
ML is from another Kingdom (Beijing) in this other kingdom ML is the 7th prince, his father is dying and his step-mother wants to seize the power and maybe kill him.
North and South don't get along and currently there are peace talks
spoilers for chapter 36 bc that was something
got me shouting WOAHHH so damn loud, she went in for the KILL lmfao. I'm so used to some side character/possible ML/male family member doing the killing or just leaving the villain alive for some more chapters, ty Tracy