@Snowolf
They are indeed realistic (accurate), would be anywhere in the world, not just ancient China inspired fiction. However, accurate and perfect are two totally different things. If she had a perfect family, they wouldn't have tried to sell off their daughter to a scumbag, she would have parents with solid personalities, helpful uncles and aunts, and she would have siblings that would be jolly good buddies for Nie Li. None of that is present. Even Ziyun is better off with her somewhat broken family. More or less everyone at the Ye family is considering what's best for Ziyun, even if they can't express it too well, and they all consider her a treasure. Still, even the Ye family was apparently considering Ziyun might be married off to the sacred family. But we can be relatively sure the city lord wouldn't have accepted that anymore if he had heard anything dubious about them. He's super protective, after all.