So I have a story I'm writing that's extremely (well not that much) popular, and I'm wondering if I should go with my original idea and piss off the readers or go with what the readers think the story is about. Summary of the original plot: So the story starts off like any typical Chinese novel, where the mc dies and transmigrates into the body of the orphan-former young master of a clan, but ever since the disappearance of her parents, her uncle took charge. The uncle is a good guy, but it's just that he turns a blind eye to his wife and daughter's bidding, instead he trains his three sons so that he could pass on the clan's title. The Mc is a part of empire A. As some time passes, the mc meets two nobles' sons: BY & BH, who's from empire B. Mc's clan is a medical clan and so lots of ppl sought after them to heal them of whatever disease. SO you can say that the Mc and BY and BH are childhood friends. The Mc often suffers from nightmares, insomnia, sleep paralysis, etc. Mc speculated that it had something that has to with her original parents, but that's just a theory of her's. Just like everyone in her clan, Mc becomes a doctor and becomes acquainted with a certain princess. The actual story starts when the Mc is about 15-17 years old and has to travel to Empire B because Empire D began to break the peace treaty. In this time period, is when the story gets immensely fluffy and sweet however under that fluffiness, the Mc's actual mission is the slowly destroy empire B because, in actuality, Empire A, D and c are working together to work on the downfall of empire B because the emperor is doing something bad. The ml is BY. However, if I make the story go on this plan, the empire B and D will battle each other with empire C and A aiding both sides. BY will mistakenly kill MC without knowing the person he killed is the MC. Then after a meeting, peace is granted between the 4 empires. The endings are: MC: dies after giving birth to ml's son. ML: marries another woman (also having serval children with other women and his wife), before becoming an alcoholic and dying. MC & ML's son: taken care of by MC's maidservant and her husband. Extras: MC's ghost is still wandering around the earth and seeing all her friends live happily, her wish is completed and she passes on. So it's like a bittersweet ending. BBBUUTTT If I go with the readers' wishes, them the sweet fluffiness continues until the end. Btw, the MC's sleeping problems are related to a curse she has which is that she will be repeatedly reborn with the bits and pieces of her previous lives and how she died in the hands of her lover and so from this trauma, she develops a personality disorder.
Just go with what you think is the best - no matter which ending you pick, there are bound to be unhappy readers. It's your story, you should be satisfied with it. I don't mean you should totally ignore the readers, but if you acquiesce too much to their wishes, you will get something... monstrous. It's impossible to satisfy everyone, just read the comments under your favourite novel and you will see.
Whatever you write, it should make sense. Even if readers expect one thing, as long as you have some sort of foreshadowing and/or events leading up to the twist/after the twist to explain why things happened why they did, it should be good. Most people hate a curveball with no explanation. Of course, if you wrote this entire novel solely to troll, full steam ahead!!!
It all depends on how comfortable you write it. Although, I would prefer the fluffiness to continue, I would not be happy if it seems unnatural and forced. At the same time, even if the MC dies and the whole world gets pulverized to smithereens as long as you wrote it well, I'll be a happy reader (whose just sad about how it ended).