The comments are full of the same guess of the plot and yeah, it's probably gonna end up in the obvious way but the writing of the plot is actually good so I don't really give that much crap about it. What makes me sad is the fact that OG Princess may have a moment of reflection like, "So my life could've gone like that, I just wasn't strong enough to make it like that". Cuz the emperor legit only started to care for the Princess when she resembled the Empress and then started to grow fond of her little by little. All of the bonds that MC created, she could've had but would never be able to. And that's the main difference between the.
You can't beat first loves LOL