That’s the ending for the first novel only I hate how ppl don’t explain this but there are still many novels after this and Taeui and Ilay’s relationship gets explored a lot more and they eventually become healthier they even make a promise that if one of them happens to die the other will follow immediately
It’s way more than just financial independence their relationship becomes way deeper and their bond is probably the second best out of passion after the twins bond wich is first i honestly recommend reading the novels to understand because it takes them a lot to get there since Ilay himself knows he can’t change his evil nature and struggles with this fact a lot but taeui keeps assuring him that he accepted him the way he is

Sure looks like theyre all happy but wont he grape him after this over a misunderstanding bc he thought he was gonna run away with xinlu?