It is not that taeui is a pushover, far from it. If taeui didn’t understand what he was doing then he wouldn’t do it, his brother,xinlu etc are enough to get him away from Ilay. He understands how horrible of a person ilay is but he is indifferent to that fact,in the novel he says that he knows there will consequences to his and ikays action ir karma for all that they’ve done but he is ready to endure it all together with ilay. He LOVES that man but is quite nonchalant about it

will this even get better? spoilers please