The chapter about her childhood in Hanyaling makes me want more details. It’s mentioned she learned there, but I want to know how she became an assassin. The training backstory is left open, which is frustrating but keeps me invested.
The family meal scene feels chaotic in a good way. You have seven people or more around a table, grabbing food, arguing under their breath. The hierarchy is clear: Granny Wei rules, Old Man Yu mediates, and the daughters-in-law have their own agendas.
The tripwire trap scene at rooms 401 and 402 was a great example of “show, don’t tell.” Just a subtle mention of crystalline threads connected to grenades, and I immediately understood how dangerous this world is. Yu Yuan wisely noping out of trying to disarm them was the right call. It shows he’s not greedy, just cautious. That’s how you survive.
Old Guo seems super suspicious right from the start. The way he dismissed the floating corpse was too casual, and his excuse about "storm a few days ago" felt rehearsed. Plus, he knew exactly where to look for that hanged body. Something's off about him, and I don't trust him one bit.
1 The description of the old man's death was surprisingly emotional. "One month before Yang Nuo turned eleven, he still passed away." The author didn't drag it out, but the buildup of the old man's exhaustion and the son taking over at ten really hit home. It's a quiet death after a loud life. The fact that Yang Nuo feels he "gave the old man a prodigy son" is a bit cocky, but earned.
One criticism that I haven't seen touched on: the dialogue tags are sometimes a bit repetitive ("Qin Sheng said", "Ye Fan asked"). It's a minor thing typical of web novel writing, but it can break immersion in a big narration block. Still, it doesn't detract too much from the overall chaotic fun of the plot.