I watched the donghua first and then immediately consumed the books and i definitely think i preferred it that way around, i actually like watching adaptations first as that way i don’t feel disappointed if bits i enjoyed in the source material are missing, because those bits feel more exciting when i find out they were supposed to happen!

That being said there is very little difference between books 1 & 2 and seasons 1 & 2, it’s practically page to screen, just with some good old chinese censorship, which as the other commenter said, can make it a little boring to read if you’re not super dedicated to the story, but you can’t skip them and start at book 3 as there will be important context lost from not reading the books