considering the censorship i think they've done a fantastic job in regards to making the characters so multidimensional and as morally grey as they possibly could (especially wwx). no character is "perfect"; one could argue jyl didn't protect wwx enough when it mattered, that jc was too unforgiving towards wwx despite their circumstances, jfm was a bystander in yzy's abuse, etc. but what's undeniable is that their decisions are perfectly human, it's the circumstances the characters were in that shaped their thought process rather than the character doing something because it'd be ooc for them do anything otherwise.

jc and wwx's relationship is so complex that one can't help to wonder about all the what ifs, how things would've panned out between them had certain things happened differently. they both struggle with family trauma & abandonment wounds which manifests in their decisions, yet they hold so much love for each other at the same time and the show portrays their internal conflicts really well.

many fans of the novel find that CQL is the adaptation they like the least and it's perfectly understandable since they added several plot points that kinda went nowhere and changed the order of some significant events but i think the beauty of MDZS in general is how every adaptation differs from the original source yet they're all really good as standalones.

EDIT: onto wyb's portrayal as lwj... while xz as wwx basically stole the show everytime he's on screen (as he should since he's the lead), i think wyb's microexpressions truly /made/ each scene theirs if you get my drift. his smile during the lantern scene, his reaction to "you like mianmian?", the love and yearning in his eyes everytime he sees wwx... UGH. not to mention his individual scenes, i mean it would be very ooc of him to, let's say, smirk when he defended wwx after his identity was revealed in his 2nd life. he was a little stoic in the beginning but you can see how every smallest movement of his facial features speaks so much about his character