I have to point this out because. It really has been a good while since I've seen or read an antagonist without....despising them? I think lately I've just been indulging in a lot of media that has villains who are framed as abusers/bullies, and that's literally the only thing going for them - they exist to cause trouble to the protagonists and annoy the readers into wanting them gone.

I don't know if I'm just too deep into Link Click but its antagonists all feel....really different in some way? I mean, Liu Min felt like your standard "abuser/bully" antagonist who was actually losing it. Qian Jing feels like your typical rich jerk except he's given a tragic backstory without it really taking away that he's just a rich jerk. But Li Tianxi....she's somehow both seriously creepy and mysterious yet human and relatable. You feel burning rage and frustration over her but also confusion and sympathy. She's absolutely off her rocker but so cold and calculating. She was a little girl with sensory overload issues in an abusive household. She's a teenager(?) with a soft voice and cold, cold heart.

For some reason, it doesn't feel like she exists solely to cause trouble for the protagonists - none of the villains really do. She exists and it causes trouble for our protagonists because they happen to have mysterious abilities they used to try and pay a debt, which somehow led them to another person with mysterious abilities (like attracts like, I guess). Sure, our boys may have been an integral part of Li Tianxi's still-unknown-as-of-yet plan...but whatever her goal is, it genuinely feels as if that exists for herself rather than simply to inconvenience and severely traumatise the MCs.