Family/Village/Clan/Wealth Building, Poor to Rich, Business Management
Family/Village/Clan/Wealth Building, Poor to Rich, Business Management
Any recommendations are very welcome! All the family/village/kingdom building poor to rich, wealth making business type of stories I've read because this is one of my favourite tropes of all time! Including any business management! (Just discovered there is a tag for it haha) Its just that usually its not done very well or only the kingdom building is good and the characters and scaling is so bad its not enjoyable to read anymore. The stories included will have things like improving the quality of life of the village/kingdom, introducing modern advancements into an ancient/medieval culture type of place. And with likeable characters to keep you going. I'll only include the novels where I read 100% of it or most of it. Probably won't include any dropped novels.
Hard-Working ProtagonistModern KnowledgeCraftingAncient ChinaAncient TimesBusiness ManagementPoor to RichClan BuildingFarmingKingdom Building
44 Followers
Created: Aug 22nd, 2022, Updated: Jul 4th, 2025
Created Aug 22nd, 2022
Updated Jul 4th, 2025
JP (4.2)
118 Chapters Every 103.1 Day(s) 13592 Readers 165 Reviews 09-21-2024
5 Stars!... more>>
I love this series! It's ongoing, so ugh but the official translations + extra comics + art are so worth the wait! This series has awesome worldbuilding and cool magic when it gets there, it feels like an actual fantasy series with real characters and feelings and plot and love and care in its crafting! I adore all the characters introduced with my favourites being Rozamyne and Ferdinand! I've read some minor spoilers(in that after I don't know how many books, we still don't get many hints of it) for the Ferdinand and Rosamyne romance! I'm not squick about the age difference because Rosamyne's age is too obviously mature enough for it haha. I adore all the building up from scratch knowledge and info that goes into introducing future advanced knowledge into a medievalish setting by Rosamyne and of course, profiting from it haha. I just love this type of stuff. Add in all this lore, character relationships, super likeable and fascinating characters, fantasy setting and all that ahhh I love it! Not to mention the humour all over. The vibe is wholesome-ness with an ambitious and likeable heroine and her friends and family. I adore this series.
Part 2 Vol 4
Dayum, I'm more and more impressed by these books as I go along. I even look forward to reading the short stories in other characters' POVs when I normally hate reading those because short stories usually are very boring and lacklustre compared to the main story but the books really hyper focusses on Myne's pov and there are surprisingly a lot of things she is not involved in that when you read these short stories you get so much new information, worldbuilding and scheming by everyone that it's so interesting! Plus, you really feel the love Myne and the people she cares about feel for her. The ending of this book was so sad I was a sobbing mess T.T
Part 3 Vol 1
Hahahahaha, the whole thing with Ferdinand was hilarious! I actually laughed out loud so many times! And the whole bringing the idol thing from modern times into these ancient fantasy setting is brilliant hahaha
Part 3 Vol 2
Oh wow!! This was the best book yet! Mostly because of all the family drama part with the archduke! Pheww, Rozemyne was so very cool there hehehe. The only thing I was disappointed in was that there was no pov about the whole scene in the short stories :( I wanted someone, Karstedt, to actually narrate what happened when all this was going down. I wanted to see what he thought from an outside perspective of Ferdinand, Rozemyne and Sylvester discussing Willfried hehe. Especially when Ferdinand was displaying how bitter and furious he was when he came in! Speaking off, we have learnt a bit more about Ferdinand and Rozemyne also finding out about how all that made him who he is today. And I also loved how she's helping him stop piling on unnecessary work on himself even if it's for her own selfish intentions haha.
Part 3 Vol 3
8/10
Still good but not as satisfying as the previous volume, only because that one had such a cool scene of Rozemyne being super capable and informing the archduke family what's what and also helping out Ferdinand all the way. I wanted more in regards to the Winter debut but I now realise that would have been too naive because these are just seven-year-old kids who barely know how to read and write and play compared to Rozemyne who is basically in all ways an adult, not in any way shape or form their equal lol. I love reading about people close to Ferdinand observing how he has changed and come to like Rozemyne in the Prologue and Epilogue haha. But I didn't really like Ingo's pov, I sympathised but didn't like feeling all of his feelings just because they were all negative feelings lol. And of course, the bonus comic scenes were very nice as usual.
Part 4 Vol 9
Nghhhh, Ferdinand's departure kinda unnoticeably broke the distance between MC and himself and all the feels is glorious. And guh, the art has a dramatic upgrade in displaying the sadness that is happening and the depth of the emotions involved. And ahhh, you can see more character development for Ferdinand because of all this! He asks for help and especially from Rozemyne! In fact, he asks her for help so naturally that it isn't until the end or when you are reading all the POV from the other side characters that you see the breaking of barriers hehehehe Ahhh, why aren't the translations complete so I can just binge and stay in this world until the end T.T
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CN (4.4)
315 Chapters Every 148.7 Day(s) 11717 Readers 164 Reviews 08-16-2019
4.55 Stars... more>>
Writing/Translation: 3.5/5
The translation I read is from C1 to C265~ is by lesyt. It was pretty good. Very readable with some errors that are not really noticeable. However, after 265 ish, the translator is FangMama and it's such a whiplash from the previous translator. Some names and important terminology were changed. Some snippets of the story were also removed. Also, there are more errors. In the end, I also read from the novelhi website. The names and terms are more consistent with the previous translator and have the missing tiny bits of text. Less errors too. Not the same or as good but much better than the new translator. It was weird. It was like reading two different descriptions of the same event. The WangMama one is missing so many details and even has different meanings. Like Gui Ze was peeking at our MC having trouble tying knots and wondering what happened in the novelhi website translation. But the WangMaama one skipped all the lead up to this scene and then translated as the MC was staring at his knotted hands and wondering if he is s*upid for not being able to tie knots. Two different meanings here. However, I also basically read the two translations side by side because of some slightly awkward new terminology.
At C286~, the quality of both translations kinda fluctuates. Some parts are better than others. So, again, highly recommend reading both side by side. If when reading one translation something feels off, it is highly likely the other translation is a bit better. And vice versa from this chapter on.
Ahh, I’m too lazy to note down all the details anymore lol. Basically the first TL was the more easily readable and enjoyable one while the rest had all their own little issues. So it's best to read the other for more info when the current scene or whatnot is confusing or seems off somehow. You won't regret the extra work because it clears things up. But anyway, please read the story! The different TLs aren't a deal-breaker! Most of the details are kept, so it's still quite enjoyable!
Pacing: 4.6/5
The pacing is pretty smooth, except for the last 40 chapters and especially the last like 5 chapters. The ending was kind of perfunctory and things weren't as detailed or explained as much as expected based on the previous parts of the story.
Plot: 4.8/5
The setup is pretty good! I like how we are thrown right into the story after the MC is transmigrated in. I also liked how we followed the MC 6 months after he arrived in the new world because we immediately got into the juicy details of this new place haha. This was my favourite part because we saw things through his eyes as a 6-year-old child. So he's basically at rock bottom lol. He has to learn everything from scratch. This intimacy gets less after the tribe achieves one of its major goals. Then more characters appear, so it's less just him and his mind haha. This part just sets up so many mysteries to learn about and explore! I love the anticipation of it all.
After that, in the middle, it was more about setting up their base and foothold. They are kind of an underdog because everyone else has progressed more than they have. This section also had a lot of group and togetherness feels.
The last third of the story was a bit more tribal politics with their various tribe mysteries in this vast ancient world as the Flaming Horns really builds up their tribe and deals with tribal politics which wasn't quite my thing but still very enjoyable just because of the setting, their unique thing and all the worldbuilding along the way haha.
Sadly, the ending was too lukewarm for me. I also don't understand how that thing is somehow the cause of the MC landing in this world. How did that thing appear in the modern world? Does it mean the MC was transferred to the ancient past then? Why would this thing have the function of transferring people to that era? Also, that last scene with the MC flying over the "edgeless" river. Isn't it just the Flaming River? Why suddenly call it edgeless? Since the disaster had already happened and the river shrank? It felt a bit like the author really wanted to include this thing in the story but it was already ending, so they had to slot it in willy-nilly at the end lol. Also, the final big bad. I just don't really get him as a villain. What was his goal anyway? He planned many things over so many years and did all this stuff supposedly for revenge, but then we see that he actually doesn't really care about it and treats the targets as tr*sh that is so useless that they might as well not clutter up the world? Then why did he go through all that 1000 years of effort?? Also, I feel like there were one or two plot threads that didn't get used? For example, Sapphire’s last shackle and its cult. I thought they were going to have some important role in the final battle but nope.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 4.9/5
So good! The worldbuilding is fantastic! So far, the best worldbuilding in a CN novel I've read! Mostly because it hit the spot for me, ancient world, mysteries, adventure, wonder and unexplainable awe over nature everywhere! I love the feeling of not knowing what is beyond! Most of this was focused on the first 300 ish chapters but there are all kinds of new things to discover in all the later chapters too!
Characters: 4.5/5
The MC is a quiet, smart, calm and silently adventurous guy haha. He's older than his physical appearance so he's more mature. I liked following him around :) The cast of characters is quite big, all have their own quirks and feel real. Especially the various tribes. They all have their own distinct beliefs, traditions, oddities and what have you. The only issue I have is that the longer the story is, the less quality time we spend with any character.
Personal Enjoyment: 5/5
Sooo much fun XD. I read a good chunk of this during my first and so far only, COVID experience XP. So there was a lot of time alone that I willed away in this world, exploring things bigger than myself. And it's so deliciously long too! I think I spent two good weeks on this, so fun! This is my second tribal story I’ve read (I think lol). The Stone Age Husband Raising Journal was the previous one. That one, the world was super vibrant and I loved the whole setting. Their special characteristic was the dinosaurs as the animals haha. I love nature-focused stories so XD This. This is like an upgraded "real" tribal story hahaha. Just about every aspect is at least a little bit better than that. Except for the romance lol. Here, it is non-existent, while the previous one was a BL novel. This one is so much longer with so much more content; the MC has actual drive and is an active main character; the focus is on clan building which is executed far better; and the world is more vast, unfathomable and rich. I would like more deep character development too though ahaha.
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CN (4.6)
386 Chapters Every 38 Day(s) 6106 Readers 47 Reviews 01-04-2024
How the MC used modern knowledge to get that little bit of advantage in a chaotic world so just a bit more people can live so very good. It feels logical and grounded not outlandish what he is doing. So the money making kingdom building aspect is pretty fun.... more>>
4.5 Stars
Date Read: 1/6/2024
Personal Enjoyment: 4.8/5
I enjoyed it very much! Though I dislike war stories, the ones here are reasonably quick and interesting. It is also not depressing so there's that. I also really like how personable the MC is. With more talk of emotions. And I like the romance! It was kind of surprising actually. Compared to the Ming Dynasty, the romance is actually good with emotional growth. The kingdom-building aspect was also very nice.
Short Summary: Basically, it's almost exactly like the Ming Dynasty story but with more vitality and emotionally accessible. With a far better romance. Also an FYI, the story goes until the kingdom is unified and despite the characters talking about them getting older and frailer and dying before the other angstiness, it is not shown on screen. The last extra chapter shows the modern world of that timeline. And the discovery of the MC’s tomb. So it is a slightly melancholic ending but still a happy ending.
Plot: 4.5/5
Very good! It feels tight and pretty complete. Lots of common sense and logic to govern in a time of chaos. Lots of war action and money-making during the first half. There were only a few things that I feel were a missed opportunity like more real scenes with the MC’s original grandfather since he was such a big part of the MC’s life. The other was Luzhu. I feel that how the author ended her character was too abrupt after having her be one of the main side characters at the beginning of the MC’s transmigration. The author kind of married her off, off-screen. We don't even know who the husband is. I feel like we should get a more involved send-off than that.
Writing/Translation: 4.5/5
The translation I read is from Chrysanthemum Garden C1-C138. As usual, it's amazing. Lots of research and footnotes for the complicated ancient Chinese history. The rest I read until C383 from KnoxT. The quality here is slightly less mostly because there are fewer footnotes for all the historical context compared to Chrysanthemum Garden. The feeling I got from the CG translation was a transmigration historical novel while the Knoxt one is a bit more of a transmigration novel lol. But the quality got a lot better over time. The consistency is there and that is good.
Pacing: 4.8/5
Very good, no complaints! I only wish there were more extras. I didn't feel bored or that it was rushed or dragged out at any point. Surprisingly since it has so many war scenes and I dislike war stories lol.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 4.1/5
Hmm, while there was so much history and setting in the story, basically 80% of it all isn't explained and you are expected to know. Like the history of all the members of the Sima family, Buddhism, Confucianism, the government of that specific era etc. It wasn't explained in the story. So a lot of these characters aren't introduced like new characters that joined the MC. They are just dropped into the scene as people who are affecting the Mc’s decisions by their actions. There were so many usurpers and rebels, war chiefs and generals from the enemies that just appeared and died from ancient history. So there is that. I feel like it would have been more engaging if I knew all this history. Or if it was explained in the story. But that might have dragged out the story so pros and cons.
Characters: 4.5/5
So much variety. I love the MC. And the ML has an actual character arc lol. Just wish the women had a bigger part of the story than they did.
Romance: 4.3/5
The romance is good! I didn't care for it at the beginning because it was so instant love from the ML’s side. And honestly, it was so one-sided for the majority of the story. And also, the romance isn't even half of the story but like 1/4th of it lol. But the ML’s character growth and the trials and tribulations of love for the poor guy haha. Delicious! When the MC finally wavered, I have fallen in XD. The ML’s jealousy, the insecurity from the different statuses of the MC and ML, and the era of the time all contribute to his feelings, so good! And all the feels when the MC starts thinking about his feelings and that scene when he came back from that almost suicidal war tactic! So good!
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CN (4.4)
261 Chapters Every 138 Day(s) 12929 Readers 189 Reviews 01-12-2020
4.5 Stars!... more>>
Overall
The beginning, when meeting with the neighbours and the ML made me a bit hesitant because I felt it was too fast. Because I just read the other zombie story by this author before this one. The previous story was very self vs others until like 3/4th of the way through while in this story the MC is open for a companion and other people right from the start. Anyway, I love it! It has all the things I love, heartwarming scenes with friends and family, amazing resource gathering, varied and distinct characters, and a MC that isn't dumb but instead is the meticulous planner and leader of the group, building a life they can thrive in an apocalyptic world. Eventually, there is a kid, then a baby, and then lots of adorable pets near the end! Unlike other zombie works, there is no magical space or golden finger, so everything is somewhat realistic, and wealth growth is smooth and believable. One thing to note is that there is no golden finger so the scale of growth is small! So whatever they do or whatever happens, it will have more weight on the lives of the MC and the team. This makes the story more enjoyable instead of no matter what happens, they will be fine anyway because of [insert golden finger here]. It's a slice of life, farming, resource gathering story with lots of zombie action haha. They level up quite smoothly too. It's only I really wish they didn't include the timeskips in the last couple of chapters. I would have loved to read about all the things they did before those points! Ahh, I already want to reread this!
Writing/Translation
The translation I read is from WhiteMoon x BlackSun. The translation is not as good as it could be. I felt that some details in the setting up/planning by the MC such as how the locations of the planting spaces were set up or how the space is organized were lost because of the translation. Mostly because I don't know if the words chosen for the place are correct. For example, "Plants grown on the terrace." From what I googled, "terrace" means floor to ceiling windows, how can plants be grown on them? If compared to the author's other work, that one was translated beautifully, I got all the nuance. But this one, not as much. Maybe 10% is lost? However, don't let that stop you! It's far more readable than MTL and the detail lost is regrettable but not a dealbreaker. You can get the gist of the space organisation more or less. Other than those, all the other happenings are very readable! I seriously enjoyed it haha. I also think the translator got more experienced later on.
Pacing
The pacing is pretty consistent throughout the entire story except for the last couple of chapters for some people. Before then, you can assume it's already a happy ending if you want actually. The last 2 chapters have a couple of longer time skips because they want to wrap it up.
Plot
We follow our MC strive to live the life he envied and dreamt of when he lived in the basement for years in his previous life. To survive without as much hardship with a companion(a dog haha) to alleviate loneliness in a post apocalyptic world as an ordinary nosuper abilities person. We see him slowly gain companions on this dream along the way until this dream isn't feasible anymore and they have to make a big decision to rely on themselves in the outside world! That happens like 50+ chapters before the end of the story. A lot of the cool lifestyle design happens there haha.
Themes/What Story Tried to Achieve
This is a slice-of-life, farming, resource gathering and a mass fighting zombies for their nuclei type of story. It is super heartwarming halfway through when the team gets closer and feels like family later on. There is lots of delicious food and bonding through meals that happens. I also love all the thinking and planning that happens in a zombie infested world. How to obtain stuff without dying? I also love all the action! It really spices things up very nicely from all the calm, soothing farming scenes haha. The excitement and anticipation throughout the novel, XD. Man, I loved it! I also love how all the things they do feel like they have actual impact! This is because the scale is small, so any of the actions by the MC and the team has a lot of impact on their lives. Because the plants produced are small, they have weight. If there was a magical space, there would be hardly any weight because it would be too easy! The author's other zombie story was like that. There wasn't as much weight as here because the couple could just live in their space indefinitely if they needed to. Here, there is just enough weight that you really root for them! If something bad happens, you feel angry and a bit anxious, if there was an unexpected harvest during their missions, you feel excited for them! Ahh, how the scaling was done. Reading all this, I hope the author will write more stories like this! Wealth building, poor to rich style with close friends haha.
For the romance part, eh, I feel like it's just as a backdrop to the rest of the story. I don't feel the love. I just assume this is an MC ML love thing and move on to the other parts of the story that interest me.
Characters
I love the MC. He's actually a shou but a smart and capable one! He was lonely but a practical survivor. He is very good at planning and leading people. The ML is okay, I feel like he's an afterthought in terms of romance as in I don't feel much as a romantic lead. But he's a cool and strong ability user for the MC and the team in this apocalyptic world! I like him much more as that than the romantic lead lol. The side characters are good people that really help lighten up the atmosphere especially since they are so prominent in the story. I love their presence here. There is a group bond that creates the feels. The you are my people, so I will fight everyone else for you together with you haha. Love that. Then, there are the cute kids in the latter part of the story haha. As for the bad guys, well, this isn't a revenge or faceslapping story so the villains kinda fizzle out or have anticlimactic ends. Not really the focus of the story.
Why 0.5 Star was Deducted:
- I'm still curious about some things that weren't explained. Maybe the author just didn't think it was important for the story. Eg,
1) How the zombies came about, why they were travelling in groups, how were they coordinating like they had intelligence, were they being directed by a leader?
2) What happened to the ML's father and the mother's lover in the end?
3) What happened to Captain Guo in the end?
4) Also, what exactly happened in the leadership shakeup?
- I felt that the story could have been even longer with no issues.
1) The last chapter timeskiped 3 years to a very interesting small bases alliance nearby that they sell things at the market (so interesting! Why didn't the author include these parts in the story?? So many potentially new and interesting characters!)
2) I wanted to know the progression of the pairing up that happened within the team!
3) I would have liked to read how the final nationwide battle 8 years later actually went XP.
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CN (4.5)
193 Chapters Every 81.4 Day(s) 5330 Readers 101 Reviews 04-30-2022
4.5 Stars... more>>
Translation/Writing
I read the translation by TheIronTreeBlooms. The translation is pretty good, there were zero awkwardly translated bits or wrong pronouns. But there are a few typos but it's easy to dismiss. The writing is pretty detailed compared to regular web novels. You can visualise everything, the setting, the mood, the people easily without it being dense.
Plot
Wow, it went on such an amazing journey. We travel from a farm to the best emperor of ancient China. It was epic and the scale of problem solving went from how to set up a safe place for his family in the country to how to give all the common people in China a better life. We watch Lin Yuan grow so much and all the different decisions he has to make until he becomes such a powerful and rational emperor. So epic haha.
Pacing
The beginning was farming and small scale development but from 1/3rd onwards it gets more military and espionage focused, in between exploring law making, researching, kingdom building and the execution there off. I only liked the military fighting parts the least, so that part was a bit slow for me but I just couldn't help being drawn to the story no matter what was happening.
Themes/What Story Tried to Achieve
The main thing here is kingdom building and man, did it succeed. I've read a few other kingdom building stories, not many, but the breadth and width of the details written is amazing. I actually wish there were more details included even though it is impossible to put in everything. Once the provinces were conquered and then the capital, there were just too many things being introduced and implemented that I wanted to know! The author cherry picked some stuff to explain in detail but ahhh I wanted more! It felt super realistic and the setting is really apparently here. It was such a joy to explore ancient China. The only slight con is that there are lots of mentions of apparently famous people in ancient Chinese history? They are now important side characters in the story but I don't have any familiarity with them at all haha But it's still fine, you can get the gist.
Other than kingdom building, the characters are all super developed and with so much variety that the world feels alive, you can really see what is going on with all these small povs scattered everywhere. I feel in other kingdom building stories, either the kingdom building is the focus and the characters get the short end of the stick or the kingdom building is very light and happens too easily. For this story, both the kingdom building and the characters were fantastic. So the whole story had no major point that was bad.
Characters
We follow all kinds of characters in the story, many of them only appear once to represent part of the population to showcase how people who are not the MC are reacting to the changes the MC made. I normally don't like reading about other povs than the MC but here it happens so smoothly and was so interesting I didn't notice haha.
It was such a journey to watch our MC grow and develop into what he finally became. He's so level-headed, with compassion and yet the ruthlessness to achieve what he wants. His close officials came up with a good sentence, the MC is harsh to his officials but indulgent to the common people. I only wish there were more heartwarming scenes but alas, he's way too busy for that. And also, he's at the top now, so it's hard to have anyone close. For the ML, he really doesn't appear much so I don't have any opinion on him in particular. I do like that the MC has someone to be close to though. T.T Ahhh, the ending was so bittersweet! They were alrd past middle aged and they were alrd lovers for a long time by then, the MC said that he wants them to be in the same coffin after they die. That's the final pov we get from the main couple T.T Wahhh, I wanted an extra of them reincarnating in modern times where the MC doesn't have to work so hard and just focus on living happily with his BF T.T
All the side characters were just great. Mister Song, sniff, that ending for him was so freaking emotional gah. If you minus 30 years of his age, all his scenes with the MC can be considered romantic in a different perspective hahaha He has more screen time than the ML lol I loved the Big Brother, he was almost the only source of lightheartedness in the story. It's a bit sad that the generals all lived at the border for so many years. I wished the MC could have kept more brotherhood with them later on in life without worrying about power.
Overall
This story isn't just a simple one-note web novel but a real book haha There were all kinds of emotions from me reading this. The MC is a pretty rare character, there were no major or s*upid mistakes from him, but you don't feel that he is a Gary Stu. He's not a cold-blooded person to reach the status of Emperor but he doesn't let his compassion hinder him. I admire him very much! I do wish we got to see what happened to all the major side characters at the end though.
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CN (4.2)
297 Chapters Every 76.7 Day(s) 10257 Readers 146 Reviews 07-12-2022
4.5 Stars... more>>
Overall Comments
This family building trope really hit the spot for me for the slice of life part! I love the romance, the MC takes the ML along on his work instead of them doing separate actions and then spending time together when they go back home. But I minused the half star because I didn't like the last 1/4th with them having to abandon all their land and hard work to another country sigh. By that point, it was all rushed until the happy ending. I didn't mind because those parts weren't interesting since by then, I felt they were in a good place alrd anyhow.
Writing/Translation
I read the translation by Ontimestory. In the beginning tens of chapters, there were a few mistakes but they were pretty small and infrequent. I think the translator got an editor later on so it got better. However, a couple of chapters at the end felt very unedited but otherwise, it is pretty good. Everything flowed well and was consistent and easily understood. The writing this time is 3rd person pov and you basically read the characters' thoughts on the page so it's pretty immersive. The way it's written, all the bad guys make you really feel so much anger! Very nice haha.
Plot
The first, like 30ish chapters, things were kinda bad for the MC and the things being told in those chapters don't really give you any happy warm feelings. The MC's body's family are seriously self-entitled to him and it really makes you want to slap their delusional faces. The good on the other hand, is how the MC straight up commits violence lol. How he treats them is super satisfying! However, since you as a reader are only just getting to know the MC, he doesn't come off as likeable in any way in these few chapters.
However, as the story goes on and the family is mostly dealt with, we proceed to the improve-the-quality-of-life of himself and his beloved ML part! This part is more interesting and you can see him being nice to people now. For the majority of the book, it is a slice of life, slowly accumulating money, business making and being happy with his ML. However, near the end, like from 120–160, it became obvious that people were making countless trouble for his success, so he had to go out and fight. Then, in 160+, they became fugitives invading another country and setting up modern China... The extras are all very nice though. Needless to say, my favourite parts were all when the scale was still village and county sized. All the heartwarming, working hard to improve their family's quality of life through honest means takes place there. The rest became quality of life preservation almost which wasn't as nice.
Themes/What Story Tried to Achieve
The family/village/kingdom building. What I consider in this category to me is specifically the MC's actions in working hard to improve the MC's lover, family and friend's quality of life. So, for the first 3/4th, I absolutely loved it! It was so fulfilling and satisfying to read how the MC slowly made more and more money to give good things to his wife and in-laws XD. And then, as we got more and more side characters, he took them as his own and gave them a good life too! It was also nice to read how he improved his village as well.
But then, the story started to scale even higher which, of course, comes with its own troubles when you get too successful. People higher up get wary and want to hammer this nail for fear of the nail overpowering them. And all the other bigshot peers want to take down the competition. So I normally do not like it when the hard work gets to this level where it's more about preservation instead of building and growth. So, yes, while this does fit the theme and the characters, it wasn't enjoyable to read. Also, the last part was kinda rushed too.
I do want to put in a comment, I really did not like the last part where the MC had dealings with foreigners and straight up invaded their country, destroyed their culture and brainwashed them to become his vision of modern China. The whole deal with the Japanese ronin and their original country felt so icky and uncomfortable. He treats the Europeans with respect for their technology but treats this Japanese imitation so callously. I really wish the author had just made up a country that has no culture or foreign language that was being controlled by a cruel dictator so he could save them instead. And that the citizens gave their country to him in gratitude or something instead of doing this.
The romance. I actually love them as a couple! I find their dynamic really refreshing from the current CN novels I've read. The MC is the confident "seme" while the ML is the shy, uncertain "uke" haha. Normally, I read the opposite. I also really really like how the MC takes the ML along to be involved with all his endeavours! Usually, we get them doing separate things and then some romance or s*x scenes to progress the romance. But here, Jiang Zhen brings Jinge with him everywhere! I really like that. So much of the work the MC does, the ML is present! For most of the long trips, the ML follows. This way, all the time spent together, the couple is able to have all these different experiences with each other, which really made me believe in their care for each other. How could they not? There are so many events whose situations made their love (especially from the relatively sheltered frog in the well ML) grow in the same direction. I really like them together haha. Also, a great pro for me for the romance, is the lack of explicit smut! And any romps are all in euphemisms and relatively short haha. I normally find all CN novels' s*x scenes either very in-your-face explicit or so cringy. And usually, a lot of words kinda demeaning women and the men or the seme being, they got so excited they couldn't control themselves! And then the women or the uke who's the MC will be like ... ahh, so tired the next day, ahh the bottoms hurt hmm. The subtext is that their man is extremely powerful! *rolls eyes* But this story, since it's all euphemism and kinda short fade to black ish, it wasn't too bad haha The only part that seemed a bit iffy to me was the beginning of the romance. I felt that the MC was coming on rather strongly and that the ML kept being stiff when the MC behaved inappropriately. I felt a wee bit uncomfortable seeing that. But eventually, the ML started to have feelings and became more proactive so at least I was more clear that the feelings were mutual.
Pacing
The pacing overall was decent for 3/4ths of the story and then rushed at the last 1/4th. The first 3 quarters were consistent. Lots of things were happening but we were following the MC all the time in his head. The romance-building was present throughout too. But in the last quarter and especially the last chapter, a lot of things were just narratively told to us. To be fair, I didn't mind that it wasn't too involved because I wasn't interested in the power building and the fighting. There wasn't really much romance here either. The extras were a very nice epilogue though.
Characters
The MC isn't all that likeable in the beginning before you get to know him. He's violent on the first infraction by other people. And he took food from his baby nephew. I mean, yes he's starving but he alrd took the food from his family, did he need to take from the baby too? But as you read more, you slowly see him being nice to other people too so I slowly got used to him. Then, I got to see how he adored his family so I got sold on him haha For the ML, I found him rather cute? He's a strong, manly figure but he's actually a ger, kinda like an omega. I love his backstory and how he grows. His challenges in life and his s*x and how they interact. It makes him pretty refreshing to read about haha. He's actually uncertain and quiet but he loves the MC so he quietly works hard to be as good as he can for him.
The side characters are all good and likeable! Nobody feels like a caricature. The MC made a lot of good relationships here so that is just nice to read about. My only issue is that a lot of the underlings who are there a lot in the beginning and have some character development aren't followed up closely after their quality of life improves. I wish they were present more often alongside the new characters that get introduced too. It's like once their conflict is settled, we don't really see them anymore in favour of new characters with their newer conflict. However, I am sad we don't really see how the children grow or get to know more about their personalities. The daughter was okay but the son felt a bit bland since he's the kid that just follows whatever the elder sibling does. And the last kid is only a baby in the extras.
For the bad guys, nice! I love all the bad guys! Whenever I read about the new thing they are doing to fight with the MC, I always feel so angry! And then they get face slapped so satisfyingly by the MC directly! The MC will actively do something so you can feel his agency and his character. It's all very nice haha. I've read a lot of other CN novels where the villains get faceslapped by their own actions while the MC was just passively living their life doing nothing, or the faceslapping happened off screen which was unsatisfying, or it just took too long to happen. The faceslapping here is just right in every way haha.
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CN (4.3)
514 Chapters Every 4 Day(s) 7147 Readers 31 Reviews 07-24-2025
4.5 Stars at C94 at least... more>>
I read the translation by Rainbow Mushroom Translations. The translation is pretty good.
So far, veeeery interesting! I really love kingdom building elements especially when it is done slowly with thought and proper escalation! The first part was this kingdom building and it is super nice. I love family/village/country building because it's just so satisfying. There is a goal you can support. It cannot be done in one shot. There is a lot of planning and thinking and executing to be done and every time something is accomplished, the feeling of satisfaction is so good! The MC has the power to design the tutorial/beginner mission system for new players so the players won't go crazy and start killing his people to level up as players do haha. And he's basically the designer of the gaming experience for all these players, sooo good!
This story is like a normal CN novel about the MC being reborn as a low-status person, then striving to improve their family's poverty situation to a happy and healthy quality of life. But the scale is multiplied by a hundred because it's not just a few close family members but all his people living on the planet! I love all the characters! They have such a variety of nobles, dead poor, mercenaries, elementals, the army, kids, students, researchers and there are so many just living their lives! Then add in the players XD The large cast of characters really makes the world feel big, alive and breathing. And the MC cares about them so he's working on levelling up the entire planet! It's nice haha. The only con is that I'm not too impressed with the romance and the ML. He's just a typical possessive ML so cue the normal seme uke relationship in bed which I'm not a fan of.
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CN (4.3)
530 Chapters Every 36.5 Day(s) 1894 Readers 22 Reviews 02-03-2024
4.27 Stars... more>>
Date Read: 1/3/2025
Personal Enjoyment: 4/5
Quite enjoyed it. But it's getting into a palace arc and despite all that happened, it still feels like they have to fight to thrive in peace. Which is getting a bit far from the cosy, family feels, wish fulfilment escapism I was looking for. So I'm halting at this point.
Plot: 4.5/5
Very good actually. The plot is pretty solid for a light novel especially the poor to rich kind and especially for something so long.
Writing/Translation: 3.9/5
The translation I read is from akknovel. So it's edited MTL. Lots and lots of pronoun errors and wrong names. But still easily substituted in your head as you read.
Pacing: 4.2/5
It's like every time I get a little bored, the next chapter something interesting happens lol. But I wish the sense of safety and not having something hanging over their heads would ease up. As it is, it always felt like something bigger is always out there to crush them.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 4.3/5
Pretty solid. I love the detail in their business and money-making. Those are detailed and fun.
Characters: 4.7/5
Wonderful characters. All of them.Good guys and bad.
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CN (4.4)
701 Chapters Every 82.4 Day(s) 8907 Readers 204 Reviews 03-22-2022
This is is long and sooo satisfying in the getting rich part. There are so many ways the money making was done, and the process doesn't happen too quickly one after the other so the money made felt a bit more meaningful.... more>>
4.25 Stars
Overall
Ahh, such a journey. We follow the MC for so many years, for 700 chapters T^T It has basically almost everything I want in this type of genre. Some of the endeavours were detailed, some weren't, but so many were done that I couldn't stop reading. It is truly slice of life, getting rich with family and friends haha Yes, it's definitely not perfect and there were some forgotten people and foreshadowing that resolved quite fast at the end but I enjoyed myself so much binge reading everything. It was very satisfying to read them set up all the pieces to be wealthy in the future. I only wish they wrote more detail of them just enjoying themselves and more people exclaiming how rich they are to make it more satisfying haha I also wish the 3 sons were main characters in the 2nd half of the story, like they were back in the village. The further along the story, the more characters are introduced and the older the kids got, the less they appear. Really, it was only the third that kinda stayed until the very end lol. But ahhh, we followed until the end of the life of the main cp so now I'm super sad and need to read a fluffy story lolol
Translation/Writing
I read the translation by Explore, Maggie. It sounds like she only did it because of COVID isolation and made daily updates, so the translation isn't perfect or polished. There are careless mistakes littered throughout. But it is much better than mtl, they included pictures whenever needed and it was perfectly understandable all the way through. There are some name mistakes and a couple of missing words/plural to non plural/gender mistakes and so on but honestly, it's very readable. The flow was uninterrupted for me.
Plot
This is a slice of life story from MC at 20+ to 40 at the end. Then a summary of everyone's lives until 90 and their peaceful death. It really follows the title of the story, raise the kids at the beginning, then develop their families in the capital and/or other cities.
Themes/What Story Tried to Achieve
Truly a properly realistic development from poor village level to mega-rich story. With so many chapters, the author can really detail step-by-step how the cp can go from a to b and didn't skimp on the variety. At the beginning, there is a raising the family with good food arc. In between that, how to actually get the food via the black market with all the coupon restrictions in the 60s. Then there is the studying part to get to university. Then comes the capital part, where they really start doing business and really get wealthy. In between, all the family connections are being deepened and helping the others raise themselves up too. And matchmaking in the last parts.
I love all the business parts, it really ramped up at the capital. But also, in the capital, was also when the cp started going off by themselves to date or make money. It's just this part where they don't go into as much detail anymore. I would like them to describe the real estate more haha But I guess since then there is a lot of them so no need. I like how the author will periodically tell how much money was saved or how much monthly income was made in total. It really helps visualise the scale up to there.
For the side characters, there are sooo many that were given love. It made things vibrant and heartwarming because they are all family. I liked seeing how they will treat each other to food and how they can ask for help and advice and it is given. We see many of them grow up too so it feels close.
I also want to mention the setting. It is quite vivid. This is China in the olden days so the temperament of the characters matches it. I'm Chinese, though not from China, so I am familiar with the beliefs there. So I have to mention that it does get a bit annoying to read about them giving gifts to each other and then the other saying, "Aiya, no need to bring gifts ma, just yourself is enough!" Then the demurring, etc., happens. Then the other party visits the other person instead, and the exact same thing happens. Gifts, saying no, etc., Sigh, doing this a few times and when done well, like when the relatives set up shops and the MC visited there for the first time, when they gave gifts to the cp and let them stay over, I could feel the joy and sincerity because their success and happiness were due to the MC. It doesn't feel like a poor person giving to a rich person anymore, but truly equals sharing their joy. It was heartwarming. Later on, when this happens with the newer, richer people, it just feels a bit fake, even though they aren't. I guess I just don't like the demurring attitude when accepting gifts in Chinese culture. Just freaking accept the gift and say thank you and pay them back in some other way later. So much unnecessary "no you don't have to pay, no we haven't finished what you gave before, nooo I can't possibly accept this expensive thing, no you don't have to give me this thing that I also have a lot at home." Lol.
The other thing is probably also a cultural thing. This was published in 2014 and was probably written earlier. The romance mindset is kinda a typical macho man in bed, just brute forcing their way through and it is romanticised. This is true with the main cp especially vivid in the earlier chapters and even in the extras for the 2nd's daughter. The attitude in normal life is all more or less okay, just the entitlement the men have to the girl's body.
Pacing
The slice of life tag is definitely warranted. With 700 chapters, you can also read it as part get rich activities and also like those tv dramas with the family drama haha Addicting. Some parts are a little slow, some parts a little fast but overall, very slice of life.
Characters
The MC is quite stubborn and domineering. One is and two is two and nobody can say otherwise. She has a big heart for people who are good and if they are bad, straightforwardly cuts off contact decisively and immediately. She's smart and a planner. As for the ML, I don't know if I like him in particular lol. I love how much he loves his wife, his brothers, his family and how he works hard to support. But in all other aspects, he's a typical male of this period. There are some bad parts, like the s*x attitude and the preference of a daughter over the sons.
For the bad guys, wow they can really rile you up sometimes haha. All of them contribute some nice drama for the MC to conquer haha I do find that for the 2nd sister-in-law though, near the end of the village arc, it seems like she was getting okay? But then, it felt like not enough drama, lets change her to a bad guy again. Lol.
Some things that I found imperfect
- Some characters that feel like they will be a bit more important seem to have been forgotten lol Like Wang Li, the university best friend. They promised for the child to be the MC's godchild, but the character was forgotten until hundreds of chapters later and then, it was only a summary.
- The progression of the godchild relationship when the MC got pregnant was way too fast for me. She was there for like four months only. Also, it felt a bit hypocritical of the MC in how well she treated them. The Jiang family very quickly suggested to each other if they wanted to create a godchild relationship for the kid and the parents were very willing to climb up this capital family. But the MC were also quite willing to let them. It kinda feels weird that this family wants to use the Mc to raise up, the MC lets them so fast while others who are worse off does not because of bad character or something. Sure they gave a bad impression first it still feels a too benefit seeking for this Jiang family.
- The transmigration novel's plot didn't have much of an impact in this 700-chapter story. The two leads don't do anything. They don't have any role in the story. They were like only 1/30th of the story lol I wanted more from them. Maybe make them rebirth too and make them bad in character and cause some drama haha
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CN (4.5)
206 Chapters Every 133.1 Day(s) 10730 Readers 173 Reviews 02-20-2020
4.25 Stars... more>>
Overall Comments
Overall, I enjoyed reading this a lot. It could have been better but all is well. I definitely liked The Only Favourite Ugly Husband by this author more because the MC actually actively works hard to improve his husband's and his family's lives but this story is enjoyable enough to read too. The new-to-me setting (it was super vivid to me) and the amazing translation kept me reading all the way through.
Writing/Translation
The translation by XIIN is very good! Top notch! The translator has 2 dedicated editors so there were no errors and everything can be read smoothly! The group seems experienced and passionate about translating so that is to be expected. The writing of the story is also nice, we don't feel distant from the events of the story and it is easy ish to be invested.
Plot
The plot follows half half the romance and the MC raising the ML as he earnestly works to improve the life of his tribe. The extras in the story further follow what happens to the couple and incidentally, the tribe as well in the years that follow. And the last extra follows a parallel world where the MC in the original world at age 48, dreams of the happy life of himself in the main story and decides to check out the Beast King ML. Pretty good.
Themes/What Story Tried to Achieve
The story follows the indifferent MC, who has been living in a terrible apocalyptic world by himself. Now that he has transmigrated to this new Stone Age world, he just wants to be alone and live life. It is understandable that all his actions are to just be emotionally and physically distant from all these strangers after such a life. So all his actions make sense. The person he likes is really the only one he truly cares about. He won't go out of his way to proactively help the tribe but he won't prevent them from learning from him. However, the main draw of a village/kingdom building is when the MC you are reading the pov from has a desire to actively improve the village or kingdom. In the normal trope, this creates this delicious cycle of making the MC likeable and easy to root for so when you see the character's hard work pay off, you also get a sense of satisfaction of seeing something less become more. The feeling of happiness that comes from helping the people you like that appear in the MC is also there to add more dopamine. Then, with the increasing quality of life of the MC, they can continue to earn more stuff. These quick cycles of dopamine hits keep the story addicting for the readerto read.
However, in the story it isn't like that. For one, the MC's situation is not bad. He can grow his own food without any help as much as he wants. He can also hide himself from other dinosaurs with no problem. He can just live by himself anyway so we don't feel any urgency to improve a super bad quality of life situation. Then there is the ML. He's basically the young master of the tribe because he's so capable. Everyone generally likes him because he's a strong yet caring person for them. So his situation isn't bad and is, in fact, much better than the MC. So no need to help him improve either. Only the tribe in general is always hunting for meat but it's all pretty liveable. No one the MC cares about needs to have their life improved. So when the tribe's living situation is improved indirectly by the MC, we don't really care because the MC doesn't care about them enough to actively do something. So for me, the impact of all the tribe building isn't particularly high.
For the setting though, I really like it! It's so unique from what I have read so far, something in the stone age + dinosaurs + tribes + people who can turn into mammals. This is my first story in this clan building genre, so everything is a bit refreshing. From other reviews, it seems there are better stories of this kind out there, so I'm excited haha
As for the romance part, this author has yet another unique ML and a refreshing couple dynamic! I've read The Only Favourite Ugly Husband by them just before this one, and that one has a unique couple dynamic too haha. Here, you can't quite tell who is the shou and who is the gong at first. And even later on, when we realise the strong tribe chief ML will be the shou in the romance, it gives a unique spin haha. Such a manly strong man eagerly volunteers to be the shou in s*x because he's scared being the bottom will be too painful for his lovely, delicate mate haha. It was believable how the romance came about. Lots of convenient situations happened to easily let the couple develop feelings, but it was nice to read. Also, for the s*x stuff, there was basically nothing on screen lol. Everything was super vaguely referenced in like one or two sentences, then the story just skips over and moves on. I don't mind it because I find s*x scenes in cn novels super cringy or someone forcing the other to have s*x, which is unpleasant. The topping and bottoming things also happen here but so much is in euphemism and very short, I didn't have to skim anything which is great for me XD
Pacing
Everything is slice of life so the pacing is like that. Interesting things always happen soon after an interesting thing finishes, so you aren't bored. There will usually be a whole chapter of the Mc cooking nice food after an interesting thing happens, so some people who don't like this type of stuff might find it slow. As for the clan building stuff, it feels a bit more draggy than if the Mc had actually genuinely wanted to improve the clan. As it is, he only wants the clan to be better because the ML and the MC's living situation might become marginally better and not bother him in the future lol.
Characters
The MC is so so for me because of how indifferent he is to everyone. Even when he slowly learns to accept this world as his own, we don't really read this feeling from him so it still vaguely feels like he's not really close. Like, if it was between the tribe and his ML, he would choose to save the ML with zero hesitation. So while he isn't unlikeable or anything, he doesn't make it easy to really root for him and like him. I wish the author had made the MC more vulnerable actually. Maybe with the ML. This would have made us feel closer to the MC and made the relationship between the couple even closer. Here are a few scenes that do this but it's like only one or two scenes and it's only by one character being present in the scene. It would have been so easy to do so! The MC has a horrible past of surviving an apocalypse alone and now has ptsd and all the effects of living in such a place. If the author made him cry or tell something of his situation in a vulnerable way to the ML, I feel like it would make the ML fall deeper in true love! Because this MC who is always too jaded and distant to protect himself, if he can be vulnerable that means he has let down his walls for the ML to really get to know him. I believe there were missed opportunities there.
As for the ML, I adore him! He is just so freaking cute and such a cinnamon roll who just wants the people he loves and his tribe to love happily for all time. He's so excitable and easy to fool because the people at this time just don't have time to learn intrigue because they have to find food to eat! But he wants to protect his tribe and to get as much food as his people wants so he will train hard to be strong enough to do so. He's just so adorable and very likeable XD My favourite character in the whole story.
The side characters are all varied and nice to read about. Barely anyone really sticks around a lot but it is nice to read about when they are there. The villains are okay. My favourite villain is Shi Li but he's not there for a whole chunk in the middle. I really like to see his expectations all overturned and his plans all messed up hahaha.
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CN (4.4)
517 Chapters Every 37.2 Day(s) 6027 Readers 72 Reviews 05-04-2024
4.13 Stars... more>>
"I like how the mc acted like a green tea. But although she’s a green tea, she’s a good one. It’s fun and interesting, I enjoy it. The children (her siblings) are cute too. The story is heartwarming and nice. The face slapping scenes also really nice and satisfying. The mc is clever and strong. Male lead is also nice, he’s kinda cute, a shy type person. " - Jechan95
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Writing/Translation: 4/5
The translation I read is from fringe capybara from C1 to C388. The rest I read in MTL using Google Translate. The TL is pretty good. It's just that each chapter is broken up into short bites, so it's quite annoying to always have to click on the next chapter. The MTL, this was the easiest story to MTL I’ve ever read. Even when the sentences are so garbled, I can still easily understand what they mean. The flow of reading barely had any pause lol.
Pacing: 3.9/5
The pacing was pretty smooth, except for a few instances at the end. Near the end, there were a lot of time skips, so it was a little jarring and weird. But this is normal with CN web novels so...
Plot: 4/5
This was pretty fun. Although it wasn't a farming poor to rich story set in the 70s that I love, it was still a super nice poor to rich story with a good romance and a nice face-slapping story. The starting point of the MC is low and she upgrades her family's quality of life pretty quickly, but it was still interesting to see the MC’s actions in dealing with other people and setting up for her future successes. She does make a point to make money, although she doesn't really go into detail about constantly selling stuff like in other stories. But all her actions are done with the focus of improving their lives, so people who like that will like this.
I only wish the final end of all the bad guys weren't decided to get the worst end in just like two sentences. They spent years of labor on the farm and next thing we knew, they were dead there. On one hand, it is pretty nice to know that for once, the bad guy is dealt with once and for all. On the other hand, this meant the author had to come up with new bad guys. I have an issue with the last bad guy. The whole thing with the friend turned jealous idiot that turned traitor to the country felt kind of out there and not a big enough villain to end the story with. I thought the mother would be that but she died earlier than this girl.
Romance: 4/5
The romance is nice. The ML is pretty cute haha.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 4/5
The setting is different than normal. It's in the capital city from the start but the story is still a poor to rich story. Normally, the capital is the final destination haha. We also get some different settings than normal, like state-run restaurants and scientific research stuff. Also, military.
Characters: 4.5/5
The main characters are all very good. There is chemistry and life in them. No one was really generic, except maybe the greedy relatives. The stars are all the kids haha. They are hilarious in a childish way. I admit that I thought they would play a more important role later on because at the start, there was some focus on their endings previously but they were kinda in the background later. But, ah well haha.
Personal Enjoyment: 4.5/5
I enjoyed it very much. It was one of the few better 50-80s-era story I’ve read.
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CN (4.2)
524 Chapters Every 37.5 Day(s) 1998 Readers 26 Reviews 01-10-2024
4.1 Stars... more>>
Date Read: 4/7/2024
Personal Enjoyment: 4/5
I enjoyed it. A little bit more before the capital because the scope was smaller but the capital arcs went better than all other poor-to-rich transmigration stories I’ve read. This is because of this story’s strength, the varied, lovable and genuine people. They are mostly good people and have a do-good type of outlook. So the vibe of this story is heartwarming and entertaining. So the capital kept the same focus and the MC didn't go crazy rich and fight everyone haha.
Short Summary: A usual poor-to-rich transmigration story. But the vibe is uplifting and the fights aren't really mean and petty faceslapping. Lots of cooking and descriptions of delicious food. It tapered off more towards the end.
Plot: 4.3/5
Surprisingly good for this type of story. There was the normal poor-to-rich progression of selling food as the method. This part is quite good. Lots of detail with the numbers and money. I liked it a lot.
Then, there are all these small little twists to the typical plot like how the MC drove up sales which wasn't the typical hunger marketing haha. And all kinds of side plots near the first half that had important foreshadowing for the capital. Quite entertaining.
I also loved the heartwarming twists those side plots provided the opportunity for. It gave lots of chances for nice and warm scenes and familial feelings. Some of the antagonists got redemption arcs too.
And there were even some action scenes in the middle for a bit of spice haha. But it wasn't too heart-pounding. They provided a nice change of pace and for romance to take seed. And for some minor antagonists to show their not antagonistic side haha.
However, a couple of the plotlines I felt could have been utilised more like the reborn person and the resolution of some of the antagonists at the capital. On one hand, there was an ending but I feel like it could have ended stronger like the noble rivals and the concubine.
And another thing that trailed off a bit was the original character motivation of the MC. She was the heir of a porridge shop from her first lifetime so she planned to do so this time too. And she mentioned her dream of wanting to make branches of her restaurant which she had a strong focus on catering to middle-income people. But her branch in the capital didn't have the same focus as the “base” restaurant in the village. Her 3rd and 5th additions to her capital branch weren't that related to food even. I can't see what her connecting overarching theme was. And after that, her specialty which was porridge wasn't touched upon anymore in the capital.
Writing/Translation: 3.6/5
The translation I read is from Wordrain. It was a bit sub-par but it was edited MTL. Just a few points better than the MTL and the MTL is very readable already. The errors were wrong pronouns and names but it was easy enough to ignore and to understand the gist when the errors happened.
Just FYI, got wrong chapter order for C172 and C173 of the TL. Should be the other way around. Same with C231 and C232.
Pacing: 4/5
It was okay for most of it. The poor-to-rich progression was quite good for this type of story. I've read a couple of stories that were better but also a lot which were far worse. The decision to go to the capital was a bit jarring but not unexpected either. It did make sense. And the plots that happened there continued to be entertaining as well which surprised me.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 4/5
A surprisingly varied amount with a rural setting, mountainside, capital city with operas, houses and the palace. And lots of plots utilised those places as well. Otherwise, it has the usual world-building for this type of setting. It has a rebellion arc too but most of the time it happens off-screen.
Characters: 4.9/5
The best part! The characters are all very lovable. All vibrant with their own endearing idiosyncrasies. Especially in the village arcs! I love all the characters in the MC’s family. They all care for each other and are quite humorous!
Romance: 3.9/5
The romance was okay. It's pretty low-key and only focused on near the end. I'm not easy to convince for romance and this was tolerable for me because the ML wasn't overbearing or the typical strong and amazing at all things type. Though this did have a bit of the usual, have s*x until the girl is exhausted trope at the end when they finally get together but meh. I skimmed most of those parts. If you love romance, this doesn't really focus on that a lot.
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CN (4.6)
80 Chapters Every 87.7 Day(s) 5057 Readers 98 Reviews 02-24-2022
4.08 Stars... more>>
Read: 06/04/2024
Short Summary: The world turned into a survival game called Apocalypse Calamity. The MC is a quiet, solo-playing beta survivor of the actual game and received a camp-level territory at the start. The story is her using her beta-given skills as an advantage to play a resource gathering/management and infrastructure building game in real life to level up her territory, mostly to survive and because she legitimately likes to play this type of resource hoarding game. While all the other characters play a survival and adventuring game lol.
Plot: 4/5
It is a survival infrastructure hoarding novel. There was also a surprising amount of foodie scenes haha. Nice and chill town then a city-building story where no one knows the MC is the lord so she can happily go about gathering and hoarding resources for her territory to level up. The ending couple of chapters, especially the last chapter before the epilogue was such a cop-out though. It is an ending so there was a resolution to the MC's efforts but it was so rushed. Also, I feel like some of the characters' efforts, like the teams who bought farmland, I wish we got some scenes of them reaping their efforts for winter at least lol. A consequence of the rushed last couple of chapters.
Writing/Translation: 4/5
The translation I read is from dreams of jianghu. Pretty good. I didn't notice anything wrong.
Pacing: 4/5
Honestly, it was pretty smooth. I only got stuck at the very beginning with the Lord token. It felt too cheatlike and made me stop for a bit because I thought it would be too easy too quickly. It is just many other reviewers praised the tropes I like which are hoarding, apocalypse and village building/infrastructure. After I accepted all the cheatlike skills the MC got at the start, it was pretty even.
Romance: -/5
The romance is almost non-existent lol. It's not a romance novel so I won't rate it.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 4/5
Pretty interesting. It was different from the normal generic modern or ancient china world where nothing is really described because it is common knowledge. There are some mildly new things like the gaming system, game items, skills etc. And the different weather patterns. Nice variety from the flow but nothing amazing. Just disappointed that we don't get any info on how and why the game appeared. It's like it was just there so we can get a story out of it lol.
Characters: 4/5
Honestly, everyone is a typical person encountering this situation. They feel like people, it's just we only get a few snapshots of their lives. There was such a nice and large variety that it was lovely and refreshing. They give nice world points on how people are handling the game. It feels lived in. The MC and ML are kinda bland and unchanging lol. We don't know anything about the ML either.
Personal Enjoyment: 4.5/5
I love exactly this type of story! Progression through hoarding, resource management and gathering and lots of slice-of-life happy scenes with the food. My only con would be that ending, how I wished it went on for longer and that I wish the MC had more tight relationships with other people like The Reborn Otaku's Code of Practice for the Apocalypse. Maybe by making the NPCs like people. It would be such an easy change. Give them more personality and good feelings for the MC and done.
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CN (4.2)
155 Chapters Every 6.5 Day(s) 1855 Readers 15 Reviews 07-26-2025
4.04 Stars... more>>
*Update 07/04/2024: Ahhhh! Crysanthemum Garden picked up the novel to TL!!! One of my favourite novels in the poor to rich slice of life genre!! Same author as “Stone Age Husband Raising Journal”, “The Only Favourite Ugly Husband” and “I Want To Be a Good Person in This Life”. I love their progression type stories, they are all so satisfying. Poor to rich, weak to strong XD I read this novel with MTL, I am so unbelievably excited CG is picking it up! It was tough reading the browser translated version using 2 different browsers just so I have 2 different translation to better understand. And I am pretty sure I lost some nuances and detail from the story. Ahhhh, I can’t wait to reread it in actual English squeeeeee XDDD*
"Really satisfying poor-to-rich, working, business, to construction with proper safety controls."The Heavens most likely took pity on him and he was reborn back to the year 1994. At that time he had just come of age. He was hungry, and lived beneath a bridge, but the events he regretted had not yet occurred. His beloved person was still alive.
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Writing/Translation: 3.5/5
I read the MTL version. The translation is the default Google and Safari translation. Both have different parts that are not understandable so I will go to the other to have a slightly better understanding. The MtL is actually quite good. The author uses a lot of names in the text instead of pronouns, so when mtled, there are not as many pronoun mistakes as expected. Even all the technical detailed parts of making money were pretty understandable. I say you won't regret giving it a shot if you like this type of novel.
Pacing: 3.9/5
The beginning, when the MC had nothing and was rock bottom, was my favourite part. Because there was so much detail in describing how he made money and how their lives were slowly yuan by yuan, improving. Later on, the details got a bit more high-level, which was sad. It wasn't as day to day detailed, but week to week and month to month. But still, I didn't lose interest at all.
Plot: 4/5
I love this type of story where the main focus is improving their lives and those of their other poor relatives. The businesses were more detailed than most others. Exactly what I wanted!
Romance: 3.9/5
I did like it. No one was unequal here. Both have their own vulnerabilities that don't feel typical BL, fake or not executed enough. The whole thing was surprisingly mature and real enough.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 4/5
The setting feels really real to a person who has never been to China.
Characters: 4/5
The characters feel different from other CN web novels of the same type. The side characters are all self-serving, but in a very normal way. It's kinda refreshing. The relatives and family of the MC from a poor rural mountain all want to sincerely improve their lives, so they all work hard to earn money. In the same way, the stepfamily of the MC is always worried that if they take sides, the husband or son will dislike them and kick them out of the family. So whenever something happens, especially for the stepmother, she thinks about whether this person will take care of her when she is old and sick. But this is all not in a bad way; this is their situation and this is that type of era, and anybody with their submissive temperament will think the same. The interesting thing is that they won't do bad things, so although there are many flaws compared to other similar web novels, these characters feel very very real in terms of attitude. I like this glimpse into the culture in China at this era.
Personal Enjoyment: 5/5
Loved it! It almost hit 100% of my ideal poor-to-rich type of story! If the author had used the same type of family connection vibe from their The Only Favourite Ugly Husband story, it would have been utterly perfect.
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CN (4.3)
61 Chapters Every 41.5 Day(s) 4127 Readers 49 Reviews 12-14-2023
4.04 Stars... more>>
Date Read: 16/04/2024
Personal Enjoyment: 4.3/5
I enjoyed finally finding a transmigrate to ancient China and making money with a heartwarming family moments novel. And I liked it until the end. I do wish it was longer and that they would add more details for some things like travel times, the later hiring process, more bonding moments with the s*aves and hired people etc. But well, it has a certain charm when it's written like this so maybe the charm would be gone if they added more stuff. I like it. Heartwarming family bonding and the money-making were paced reasonably well at least compared to others :) I love the relationships the MC made too. It's nice :)))
Short Summary: Orphan tsundere hardworking MC transmigrates to ancient China after the original body hanged himself in despair because of being married off when he has someone else. Follows the typical make money using cooking and bringing along his family and friends up together.
Plot: 4/5
A more condensed and efficient version of the transmigrate to ancient China to make money storyline. Things go pretty smoothly for the MC. I like how step-by-step the making money part is. Some of the ones I dropped were because there was so much dilly-dallying or additional boring stuff in between or how cheating the money-making was that it completely broke my suspension of disbelief. Or that the MC had a big capital from the start. This one he did small things to get some capital to start doing bigger and bigger things. There is a better sense of progression. It is only that it took a quick few days within the story to get the capital.
My other slight issue is that the author didn't really pay much attention to the physical distance between places. It kinda felt like the MC took a short walk to a shop to buy things when in actuality, the shop is a half-hour walk in the sun outside the village into town. I wish this was included just to make the world immersion deeper.
The progression ends at the town stage which I am happy about. It keeps things within the realm of believability lol. I find when things get bigger, the authors usually get more vague with the money-making details.
Writing/Translation: 4/5
The translation I read is from KnoxT. Pretty good overall. Just some minor pronoun mistakes and one or two name mistakes. But there are lots of hidden footnotes to explain the cultural ancient china things. With some pictures if needed.
Pacing: 4/5
Pretty good actually. I'm kinda impressed. Mostly because I've been reading similar stories but dropped them because the pacing is so bad. Very efficient and condensed. The ending 5 chapters had a sharp danger spike but was resolved within a couple of chapters. And then the last chapter was the house unveiling and a short look at the couple's kid. I wish there were more for these but I also think it's good as is.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 3.7/5
It could be better but it could also be worse.
Characters: 4.3/5
I love all the characters. It's nothing too deep or complex but they are all quite likeable. The Tu family are all sweet and normal people and they help if they can. I love the heartwarming family relationships here. I especially love how the MC has this found family after transmigrating. And he now has the chance to act cute and spoiled with his mother-in-law and the ML after having a short childhood previously. It's nice. All the characters close to the main characters are nice. So genuine haha. And the ML is so cute! Such a big burly gong character but silly, honest and always getting bullied by the MC haha. Similar to the ML in the Stone Age Husband Raising Journal hehe.
Romance: 4/5
The romance is sweet and nice. I love the dynamic between them. There isn't a blushing shy shou and the looming gong here. Kinda the opposite a little bit haha. The MC is the shou and looks like it but he is the one always teasing and bullying the big gong ML. The MC is a bit of a tsundere haha. But the level is always just teasing for a short while so it is short and sweet instead of annoying and uncomfortable to read. The s*x scenes all fade to black and are only hinted at which is good. Since what hints there were is a pet peeve of mine, oof my waist is weak, my legs can't stand up, everything huuuurts because of the wild s*x. It was in a lighthearted jokey way that didn't overstay its welcome :D
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CN (3.9)
23 Chapters Every 68.2 Day(s) 971 Readers 14 Reviews 07-09-2025
4.04 Stars... more>>
Overall
My thoughts are mostly the same as tr*sh_generalist's review. It was quite a solid novel. It is unfortunate that I couldn't find the extras though. I think those might have the ending of that cousin who was transmigrated and also reborn. I think that would have the events in the synopsis of the novel because that didn't happen in the main text.
Writing/Translation: 2.5/5
I read the MTl version so there is undoubtedly a lot I missed. Also, the MtL is not as readable as it could have been. But I still quite enjoyed it. If it were translated, I would have loved it even more.
Pacing: 4/5
Plot: 4.25/5
It was really satisfying to read all the face-slapping XD
Romance: 4.5/5
The romance is actually rather good. Healthy boundaries and all that. The couple has substance. Both the MC and the ML aren't just there to be a typical macho ML of that era.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 4/5
I love these types of era XD
Characters: 4/5
Ahh, the bad guys were so good to hate. And they keep coming back which is very satisfying hehehe.
Personal Enjoyment: 5/5
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CN (4.5)
70 Chapters Every 28.2 Day(s) 1933 Readers 27 Reviews 07-29-2024
4.04 Stars... more>>
Date Read: 26/11/2024
Personal Enjoyment: 3.9/5
I quite like the story. It is more grounded than the usual transmigration-typed stories. And it has a lot more heart than I thought. I like the vibe, it's a bit humorous but still down to earth. With found family and all those feels. And of course, my favourite poor-to-rich development for the sake of friends and family and a fulfilling life.
Short Summary:
MC transmigrate to 1983 and saves his sister by “marrying” a famous gangster. He slowly falls in love and the two proceed to make money to provide a safer and happier lifestyle for themselves and the little “brothers” of the ML. While living a gay, in the happy sense of the word, life.
Plot: 4/5
At first, the MC gets to know life with the ML and all that entails. Then he slowly decides to go all in and help the MC make better decisions with his future knowledge. Then comes the poor to rich aspect although they aren't actually poor. But the author manages to give good reasons to make more money by getting to the heart.
Writing/Translation: 4/5
The translation I read is from Reae at KnoxT. Pretty good tl, you can tell that the translator spent a lot of effort going through and making it all as readable and intuitive as possible even though they don't understand Chinese. I didn't get some of the scenes but the vibe of it was still kept. No spelling mistakes and hardly any grammar ones.
Pacing: 3.9/5
The pacing is decent. There was a 3 year time skip before the last 10 chapters but it didn't really rush that much. Things proceeded logically and I didn't feel anything was too slow or rushed. However, in the latter half, things did feel less interesting if only because everyone was at a very good spot already.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 3.8/5
It's not that detailed. There are mentions of different regions and places but only the very bare minimum. I don't really know the differences between all the places except the obvious like a rural village and a town. Or a coastal area and Shanghai. I like that we go to different places though.
Characters: 4.2/5
I love the characters, especially the main couple. The MC is surprisingly funny. He's young but calm and witty. The ML is also surprisingly more lighthearted and free than first impressions. And all the other side characters were the ML’s found family brothers and they are all cheerful and diverse people. There aren't any antagonists for the majority of the story. Just we see their hard work and the results.
Romance: 4.5/5
The romance is wonderful. Lightheart and real with no insta love. They also showed not tell of the romance between the main couple. And it all makes sense! From a forced marriage of convenience to genuine and sweet love with respect for both sides. I love that while understandably hesitant at first, the shou/MC grows to love the ML without noticing by responding to the genuine care of the ML.
And the s*x scenes, the translation of them is not explicit that it's in your face and is more like fade to grey lol. I like it this way. And the personalities of the two people involved are also involved in the process! So it's grounded, sometimes humorous and practical, full of smiles and love. It's nice.
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CN (4.2)
144 Chapters Every 2.5 Day(s) 3592 Readers 60 Reviews 07-09-2025
4 Stars... more>>
Overall
I enjoyed myself very much. The story's writing is definitely at the web novel level where it's a bit like a trail of what is happening right now without much transition from place to place or scene to scene. But since I love this ancient time, business wealth-making trope, I didn't care and was totally hooked. A unique trait for this story is that the MC starts over more than once, kind of. Compared to other similar stories that go linearly a bit unbelievably from poor villager to business tycoon in the capital with huge jumps, this one is smoother. Also, the time that passes by between jumps in wealth or business ideas is more reasonable. The money doesn't go from a hundred to 50 000 one shot haha. It's interesting. Some parts of the story are too simple and straightforward in the writing and dialogue but others feel more sophisticated in the execution, like the business making, especially in the first 2/3rds. It was also surprisingly quite heartwarming! The moodmaker is the "special" youngest third brother. He's adorable and livens up all the scenes. And happily, the author kept all the original characters from the beginning together in the main scenes until the end more or less. I hate it when characters I like get shoved away after their spotlight.
Writing/Translation
The translation I read is at ArchiveOfOurOwn hosted by MelisaGarcia. I don't know who was the original translator since there isn't a group at novelupdates anymore but I read it here. The translation is okay. It could do with another look through because there are a few wrong names/pronouns/missing words but after a bit, it is easy to autocorrect in my head without a pause in the flow. The writing is too web novel for my personal taste. For example, at the beginning, we get a summary of what we need to know for the story in narrative style from the MC. Then, it feels a bit abrupt when we are thrown into the ML's family so fast. Another example is at the beginning, when I wasn't used to it, it's a little difficult to ground myself in what is happening because the transition isn't clear. Like, we will be focusing on a character and then in the next sentence, the MC who wasn't there originally, suddenly says something. I didn't realise until a few sentences in that this was some time later in a new scene. This only happens for the small transitions. The bigger ones with bigger timeskips like weeks or more or between the bad guys' pov back to the MC are clearly mentioned. Also, after the first few times, I got used to it and have no issues at all. I think I liked it because I could get to the parts I liked the best haha. Honestly, don't worry about it.
Pacing
The first few chapters were kinda rushed and abrupt because the author wanted to quickly start the meat of the story lol. Then, it was all smooth. But the second time the MC restarted at a new place was kinda a wild choice. That part was a little bit quicker, probably because the author assumes we get it. Then, the third time was far more quick. Some parts were new and unique but there were more frequent small timeskips and finally a longer timeskip in the last chapter. It could be better but it wasn't actually a bad thing.
Plot
The MC set up 2 successful branches with ideas from the modern world to sell. Then, he started over in a poor county after selling his hard work in the town, improved the entire poor county, made money, sold off all his hard work again, and transferred to a richer county at the last 20-30 chapters. And live happily ever after near the people he loves.
I really like the idea of starting anew at a different place without a fallback base. It gives the story new opportunities to be creative in wealth making in a new setting with different geography and local materials. So the MC can do new things to make money. It definitely didn't get stale. I only wish that the author would make the characters deliberate more and take some time to discuss the pros and cons before they sold off everything they had to travel to the new places. Because when they sold off the house in the village the Ml was hesitant. When I first read that they sold off all their properties that could have made so much money in the future, I was afraid it was a sign that the next parts would be super rushed since they sold off everything in a couple of sentences. I also feel like someone in the family and followers would have shown some hesitation and advice to not sell everything. That would have felt more real.
Themes/Main Point of the Story
I love wealth-making! Lin Lu is profiting by making novel items until the copycats in the market appear, then creating a new thing to sell and repeat. I love how there is always something new eventually. It kept things very fresh. Especially since the business parts didn't feel cheap. As in, the author didn't make the MC just keep throwing ideas over and over very quickly like fast food. There is some setup and a little bit of legway before the new idea is executed in the business so it felt legitimate and real to me. There are different target markets for the different ideas that were thought of by the MC too so it didn't feel like just throwing ideas onto the wall and hoping something sticks. I also like how they stayed in the thousands for a few years because Lu Lin was already satisfied and didn't want to cause more trouble for more money.
The romance, though, wasn't really there. I didn't feel the chemistry much. It kinda felt like the ML was already there, lets build another room for the kids so we can have sex! I can feel how the ML might like the MC but the MC from the start just liked how good looking the ML was and that's it. It didn't help that after we got to know the ML, he felt a bit like a kid and not like an adult until later. They also weren't really sticky in love with each other. Anyway, I just thought the romance was okay.
I love the family though! The scenes were cute and heartwarming eventually. It was all because of the third youngest brother being a kid and adorable. Since he's "simple", "slow" and "special" when we get to know him, he isn't to me. He just feels straightforward and only cares about things that catch his interest which is anything novel and exciting, just like a kid. Very likeable. The MC will keep making delicious food and sharing it with a lot of people and making many people happy. It's nice to read about.
Characters
I loved the characters. There weren't any deep and draggy plotting people but people who are hard-working and love food. If you love food, it immediately makes the characters more approachable, warmer and lighthearted. I love the Chens and the people who followed the MC. They are all nice and cheerful more or less. I also quite liked all the new characters at the new places they started over at. I was quite surprised because usually, the new characters would be friends very fast without the care taken to win each other over properly. The author did a good job. It's a bit sad we don't bring all the side characters from the village/town/county together with the MC though. Only the major ones.
The bad guys are very good and annoying. They are all just relatives who are entitled and super jealous of the couple. I wouldn't say it was the most satisfying to see them not get what they wanted (the faceslapping in the Favourite Ugly Husband is the most satisfying for me haha), it was quite pleasant to read them getting foiled. Sadly, there wasn't really a final faceslapping for them though haha.
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CN (4.2)
94 Chapters Every 1.2 Day(s) 4492 Readers 89 Reviews 09-16-2021
4 Stars... more>>
Writing/Translation
The translation by Shanghai Fantasy is not the best but it is basically 95% understandable. Much better than mtl. There are some pronoun mistakes throughout the story but it is not too bad and you can always still understand the story. A couple of name errors, but all good. No grammar or spelling mistakes that I know of. Some sentences are a little bit awkward or could be better but you can easily understand the gist of it. Basically, it is easy to understand and read. Apparently, this was an edited mtl.
Plot
The plot structure is pretty good. It is a basic transmigrator rags to riches story with a happy ending. No face slapping or at least it is too minor to be considered the usual cn novel face slapping.
Themes/What it Tried to Achieve
It sufficiently achieved a rags to riches plot using an interesting skill of makeup to succeed. The makeup medium used by the author was very interesting to read about and how this could be done in ancient China without modern technologies. It was satisfying to see how the MC slowly used her sole skill to improve the lives of her family and even friends. It was a very nice wish-fulfillment type of story without being over the top or too unbelievable.
Pacing
Pacing was good, I was kept interested at all times. Was never bored or thought anything was too slow or too rushed.
Characters
They were all likeable! I loved the MC, her new husband and the new kid. The husband is a good man given a bad course in life. He turned out to be devoted and kinda dreamy with how he quietly supported the MC. The little kid was so adorable that it was a pleasure to read how the MC would earn money to buy him little snakes and good food to feed him, who also had a bad start. The side characters were not bad and nice to root for. The villains were all nicely self-entitled that they made you dislike them. However, they were not particularly memorable, just a normal type of bad guy in this time period.
Overall
The only few cons I have is that I wish we could have read some scenes about their reactions to the success of the MC. Make it a bit more cathartic. The second one is the s*x in general. The whole scene about s*x that were shown did not feel romantic in any way. I just feel a bit uncomfortable, maybe it was the sentence choices used. For the MC and her husband, it felt like they did it, next day, she's in pain and the husband treats her like she's porcelain when he was the cause and she dryly jokes in her mind that he should be more gentle, etc. I personally don't like this type of trope/attitude. But the s*x scenes are really quite few and really quite fade to black so I can ignore them. The other thing was that I wish they didn't include the wedding night s*x scene for Xiao Bai the little kid. We spent the majority of the book on him as a kid and only like 2 chapters on him as an adult. It felt too jarring to read about him on his wedding night lol.
Otherwise, I quite liked this story. We go into detail how the MC slowly made more and more money and then improving her family's quality of life quite clearly. I really really like this trope or making use of modern knowledge in the ancient world. And who doesn't like a rags to riches type of story? This was surprisingly wholesome ish with a couple of sudden anxiety during a bit of action. But it was mostly calming and just need to read about the MC working hard and be rewarded for her hard work. It felt earned. I would definitely recommend it.
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CN (4.1)
132 Chapters Every 24.3 Day(s) 2695 Readers 29 Reviews 08-04-2024
3.99 Stars... more>>
Its not a poor to rich using business or farming to get better in live. But it sure does use other ways to do so for the family and themselves..
"Su Yu is the most streetwise MC I have ever read. It's not just the plot but also the way she speaks and how she builds relationships. Even though this is fiction, I think it is very helpful for anyone who works in an office or who have complicated (family) relationships. Where there's a group of people, there'll be politics. The story is quite realistic in this sense. Su Yu is quite the political animal without being b*tchy at all. Sometimes, I think what she says seems over the top, but she did mention the necessity of being noticed and being thick-skinned. She is not pushy in promoting herself and is only indirect in her approach. She plays politics at a very high level - but we are not surprised because we are told right from the start, the background of her past life." ~sassyzoe
"Su Yu is the definite QUEEN of BUREAUCRACY! This story boasts one of the most pragmatic and real female bosses in existence, not a sweet FL but an adult capable woman with the hability of being flexible in pretty dangerous political times. I also liked the light shed on real historical events that happened before this story takes place and that helped me understand a lot more about the reasons behind China´s deep dive into comunism. We can all despise the misery, death and genocide caused and made worse by comunists politics but those happened and it is important to understand why they did. It is totally worth the read if you are looking for real female power and not for sweet, delicate princess like protagonists."~Lissie Furen
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Writing/Translation: 3/5
The translation I read is from MTL which is not bad. There is a drop in understanding which means you don't really truly get what is happening but for me at least, I could still enjoy it. I actually stopped for a few days thinking to drop the story but thinking that there probably would not be anyone translating the story for a long time, I picked the MTL back up to read.
Pacing: 4/5
The majority of the story's pacing is good. No complaints. It's just the ending as usual that feels more quick than the rest. It's typical of Chinese webnovels though. The ending has more frequent time skips and such.
Plot: 4.3/5
Pretty good. It's refreshing to read a more political/bureaucratic (in a way) type of story for a transmigration to the 50’s era type of story instead of a get rich type. It helps that the MC is so smart and capable. Cunning? So the setting is like that haha. I also really love that all those small-minded take-advantage relatives got tamed by her and became part of “hers”. Also nice is the ML. He feels just like her in a way. I only wish the story also continued after they reached Beijing and all the restrictions were lifted.
Romance: 4/5
The romance is pretty good haha. Kinda refreshing. The relationship is more like partners and that makes more sense haha.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 4.3/5
The setting is a pretty important part of the story. Read it if you want to know more about what is happening among the leaders of that time period. This also meant that it was better for the MC to go the political route instead of the business route at the time. It is also explained by her in the story. Nice.
Characters: 4.3/5
Very good. There are so many different characters, although not many are really delved into, but our MC especially likes to make connections so we get to know a lot of characters.
Personal Enjoyment: 4/5
I enjoyed myself a lot. The score would have been far higher if I had read a proper translation of the whole story though. Mostly because a lot of the titles and group names are probably wrong in the MTL so I don't quite know what they really are.
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CN (4.3)
353 Chapters Every 42.7 Day(s) 3715 Readers 55 Reviews 10-29-2023
3.97 Stars... more>>
Date Read: 26/4/2924
Personal Enjoyment: 3.9/5
Despite not having a poor to rich experience for more than half the story, I still enjoyed it. I didn't feel like dropping the story at all. It is just I can't help feeling that it could have been and done so much more. Like for the conflicts.
I wish there was an equal amount of drama happening to other characters and also to the main characters that they had to take action to solve. I compare it to Back to the Sixties, Get Wealthy, Raising Cubs which is another similar story that is Completed and follows a similar trajectory as this one. The MC's career is almost the same too. However, their characters are so different and so much faceslapping was had and I loved it despite the ML's infuriating attitude of heavily favouring the youngest daughter over all the sons. The poor-to-rich element of that story was absolutely fantastic. I still was engaged with this story as is though. This is a more soothing and tranquil slice-of-life story.
And yes, the story ends when the characters are 110 years old when they die. But the tone is pretty cheerful and full of life until the very end. It was still melancholic and philosophical in that last paragraph and I cried lol. Just a warning so no one gets surprised.
*Just FYI to manage expectations, the first 2/3rd of the story is not a poor to rich story. She doesn't do anything to get rich. She just marries a man who has a rich family. She also doesn't really have any special talent or guts to go against the law so other than the very beginning she feels her life is pretty good and doesn't bother to go into any selling business. It is only after some time in college that she starts making money.
Plot: 3.9/5
The first 200 ish chapters are the rural educated youth plot. The beginning starts off strong. The MC is full of agency and urgency to prepare for her stay in a rural area until the examinations start back. So she's making money to prep. Once she reaches the village, it's all about survival and staying lowkey.
However, sometime after she marries the ML and is pregnant, her proactiveness disappears. Because the ML's family is too amazing. They send money and tickets galore. She never does any money-making schemes like I expected after the very beginning. Because the Ml side handled everything.
The next is the college era. Here the OgFL and OgML don't really appear so I feel the drama is even more side character-based and has nothing to do with the FL personally. Not even the OgFL who at least we have more contact with. This has a consequence of the drama feeling a tad more over the top lol. There was an investment in a friend's business at 470+. And then she added another shop. And from here onwards, the poor-to-rich tag really takes place. However, it's not as detailed as I like. But good enough I suppose since that tag was why I started reading in the first place. I only wish she started right from the beginning of the rural farm life era instead of 2/3rds of the way through the story.
This section is all about their life. It is truly slice of life. There are no more overarching aims since the MC achieved her goal of getting back into the city. They just live their lives as happily as they can and slowly get on with their careers along with the MC's businesses. Along the way, we get to know their interactions with the main characters' relatives and their lives. Honestly, everything was smooth sailing. There was no conflict for the main characters anymore. It was all about the characters around them like their classmates or relatives. And it gets solved without their input at all.
A big disappointment is how the OgFL and OgML eventually just disappear from the story. It was disappointing. I thought at least the MC would show her nosyness and keep track of them. They don't even appear in the ending or the extras. Honestly, it is a bit weird because they were so important in the rural part of the story. So I thought we would be getting more stuff about them.
Writing/Translation: 4.5/5
The translation I read is from A Wandering Potato. The first few chapters were super short so it was very laggy to frequently wait for the page to load. Because of the ads. My tip is to load two or three chapters and then cut the wifi on your phone so the ads don't keep popping at the bottom. It keeps popping up after I close them whenever I scroll downwards. My phone felt hot and was struggling to load because of all the extra videos running on the page. As for the TL quality, it is fantastic! Very good :D
Pacing: 4/5
Honestly, the pacing is super consistent! It never felt slow or rushed. It was honestly just nice for this slice-of-life feel. And amazingly, even though the extras or ending was more summarising a time skip, it never felt like it was. The pace was still the same somehow. Good writing style.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 3.9/5
The setting I feel is not bad if only because the story is so long that we have more places to see. The rural village and then the university at the capital. However, the level of detail is pretty low. I can't really imagine the greater surroundings. The focus was really on the characters and how their life is going rather than expressing what the places look like.
Characters: 3.8/5
I really liked the Fl and Ml at the beginning when they just met. They were so interesting. The FL was gungho and decisive while the Ml was hilarious having such a frail body and surprising outlook. I was excited to get more of him. But after being cured, he basically becomes a typical ML. Good at everything, handsome as shit, spoils the FL crazily, loves having s*x until the FL is that annoying tropey mad at his enthusiasm causing her body to ache the next day. Kinda sad about that. The FL too. After getting together there were no more personal conflicts for her to faceslap. The ML does it for her.
I was super interested in the OgFL and OgML though! But we didn't really get to know them, unfortunately. Not even their ending. Because the Mc kept keeping away from them.
All the side characters were nice. None of them felt like that placeholder NPC. They all feel like real people we just passingly know because the Mc just passingly knows about them.
Romance: 3.8/5
The romance is unfortunately typical. Sad because there was a super interesting intro of their first meeting but after everything is done, the romance becomes the typical romance. The ML's uniqueness just goes away. And his presence kinda diminished a bit as the story went on and more side characters were introduced to the MC. I wish we had more focus on their relationship though lol. The Ml also gets busy with his own career. And yes they do have dates and lots of them communicate issues with each other but it's pretty short lol.
Also, I really wanted more conflict of the romantic kind about each other in their college and teacher era! Like even more suitors making trouble for each other so the other person can faceslap them hahaha.
If anyone knows of a CN novel with a frail and interesting attitude ML and a stronger FL that isn't a naive idiot set in rural or ancient China, please let me know! I am curious to read about this type of dynamic in Chinese novels seeing that their culture is deeply entrenched in favouring boys over girls.
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CN (4)
299 Chapters Every 59.5 Day(s) 7739 Readers 137 Reviews 02-28-2023
3.96 Stars... more>>
Personal Enjoyment: 4.25/5
I say, like the first 75% of this story was all to my taste! Poor to rich, so much business management, such a hardworking and sympathetic protagonist, rebirth with lots of dog blood, face slapping and yet, also a lot of heartwarming feelings. All good. But then, I don't know why, the author expanded on the whole rebirth/reincarnation cycle situation and it felt too off and kind of broke my immersion. I wish they had just stuck to a simpler end because it was too messy. I also thought it was unnecessary and didn't add much to the plot. It doesn't help that the last few TV shows and movies that Tan Mu was involved in felt less special and too similar to each other. After the Flesh and Blood TV series, he made a military TV series and then a military movie and there wasn't any personal oomph by the MC in them. So when all these hooha about breaking the record tv ratings and ooooh, on par with Hollywood blockbusters in revenue, all kinds of rainbow farts that completely worked for me in previous other MC works, did not work for me this time at all. It wasn't believable at all, broke me out of the immersion and also made me impatient to finish the story because it was alrd near the end. I'm not sure if reading these parts in MTL was part of the reason why I didn't believe in the story haha. Anyway, if it were only the parts I liked, this would have been in my favourites!
Writing/Translation: 4/5
The translation I read is from Iron Tree Translations. The translation is quite good. The only issue is that some words have weird spelling mistakes. In the beginning, some words have numbers in the middle, like "w6rld" instead of "world." It's almost like in the process of copying over the translation to the website, it got converted. It's not too common and didn't affect my reading experience. I read the translations up to chapter 249 before I ran out of translated chapters and moved to the MTLnovel website to finish the story. So, it's readable enough to get the gist but it is definitely not as pleasant an experience as the translated version. I would say that if the translated version is a 9.5, the mtl would be 8. There are constant "I" and "you" mistakes, which got a bit confusing in some paragraphs but not too often. Surprisingly, most of the sentence structure is intact. The humour also managed to get through. But some of the whole rebirth explanation and the subsequent characters’ planning, I am not 100% confident I understood everything. So take that into consideration of continuing to MTL haha.
Pacing: 3.9/5
I say it is pretty good up to where I read the translated chapters. But maybe it was the MTL, I got a bit impatient and kinda lost interest by then, so I wanted the story to be finished more quickly.
Plot: 3.9/5
This is quite self-indulgent, as the author said hahaha. But filled with all my favourite tropes. Poor to rich, business management, family and friend with heartwarming feelings, rebirth and faceslapping drama XD The plot isn't as tight as it could have been, like some plot points weren't followed up later on, such as the Zhang family. I wanted to know if they succeeded in not going bad, and about the Zhang girl, why did she wait for that bad neighbour at the toilet? What was her intention exactly? Is it to help the MC? Or help herself somehow? Her motivations weren't explained or hinted at at all. On the business side, I don't know if the MC made any money from them too. I also wanted more follow up from the chef academy too, money wise haha. In a family-building kind of way. For the orphanage as well, did the small business take off? Are they financially stable now? Was a sustainable ecosystem able to be set up? All these things, haha. Otherwise, I love this MC because he is a workaholic, a perfectionist, super smart and very detailed! It definitely helps with the immersion and I love learning new things. I also liked all the financial stuff thrown in, it felt like the author knew about this stuff and slid it in appropriately. The programming stuff too. I am a programmer and am very interested in personal finance, so it was refreshing to see some realism about these two things in the story instead of, they are so smart they can predict the market, picked stocks and made a boatload of money without actually going into any detail whatsoever. Or you know, they just learn all kinds of programming knowledge, developed a program single-handedly in like a week on an old laptop to capture all the market data and are able to make predictions on the market to day trade and make boatloads of money. This is too unbelievable because that is big data and needs maybe a supercomputer to do all the computing, or at least a bunch more servers than just a laptop, etc. But I definitely believed in the Mc’s knowledge and actions, so I was even more immersed which is wonderful. I like most of the acting stiff too because it felt real. Just my issues with the whole China is great, the military is super cool and everyone should love it, ehhh not my thing. I despise war and military stuff because it causes me anxiety and angst. Also, I'm not sure why the author made the MC do so much military-themed entertainment so close together. Just story-wise, it's repetitive.
Romance: 3.7/5
The romance is quite little overall but when it is there, I enjoyed its development. It is rather slow burn because the MC is just so work-focused and has a very clear line between business and anything else that he believes everyone else is that way too. After that, there is also the fact that he is a highly suspicious person and wary of betrayal due to past experiences so the ML has to put in a lot of work haha. Also, it can be surprisingly very sweet XD. After that, well, relating to the whole rebirth expanded explanation and the romance, it felt like the author wanted to make it a thing. It's just that I couldn't quite buy it. Again, maybe it's the MTL’s fault haha.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 4/5
The entertainment industry is fascinating to read about, with how the various production elements work together to create a TV show or film. Investors and actors and stand-ins and props, all kinds of things. I also like the Hong Kong part because I don't really know what their relationship is with each other XD. ALSO, there are a lot of details about the financial world, business stuff and the entertainment industry, so I’m happy.
Characters: 4/5
The MC, Tau Mu is very rootable and made me quite quickly immersed in the story. He's sad, hardworking, full of regrets, has a poisonous tongue and is good at taking revenge. Despite this, he is a huge softy at heart for his people. I love watching all his schemes haha. The ML doesn't appear as much but he is surprisingly sweet and fun the longer they know each other. All the other characters are super distinct, real, and have a lot of depth and vibrancy. It's just that some of them don't get followed up on after their arcs, which they were active in sadly. Well, this story is pretty long, so...
They're so delightfully super annoying, the bad guys. Sometimes it makes the blood boil in a good way because then you look forward to seeing the MC kick them away and stuff lolol. It is enjoyable to read how the MC takes his revenge on hurting his people.
I do have to mention that I did get a bit confused on their motivations and what part they are playing in the story. Like the bad guys at the beginning, because the MC has no power and if fighting won't bring enough benefits, he will just suck it up and smile, the bad guys just keep hanging around as friends. Couldn't make up my mind if the author was trying to make them friendly or what lol.
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"[Second Chance, Slice of Life, Poor-to-Rich, Modern Day] This novel surprisingly (or unsurprisingly, if you consider my usual addiction towards poor-to-rich stories) kept my interest for so long! The premise of this novel is similar to most rebirth/second-chance novels. The MC (Tao Mu) ends his first life in complete misery after being brought down by the people he thought were on his side. As such, he welcomes his new life with every intention to live better. Unlike some novels though, his main focus is not on revenge. It's to stay away from the bad elements in his previous life — especially after discovering that he wasn't the protagonist of the story, and that even fate seemed to be working against him.The MC of this novel is the perfect-Gary-Stue type. He starts off very strong in terms of skills, and only continues to make himself stronger by taking advantage of his foreknowledge. If you enjoy novels where the main character levels up constantly in terms of reputation, wealth, abilities, etc." - tr*sh_generalist
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CN (4.2)
117 Chapters Every 19.9 Day(s) 2083 Readers 19 Reviews 10-14-2024
3.96 Stars... more>>
Date Read: 6/12/2024
Personal Enjoyment: 3.75/5
*FYI, the ending Extra 119 is the death of old age of the main couple. I suggest you don't read 119 because it was sad lol. Why do authors do this, can't they leave it as the couple going off adventuring forever lol.
So it was definitely a cut above the typical transmigration poor to rich story. In that the side characters are not NPCs and in fact, sometimes have their own scenes which is ridiculously rare. This includes the ML! Which is quite nice. However, the poor to rich wasn't the best I've ever read or that satisfying. My enjoyment rating is thus not that high. Because that poor to rich aspect is why I read these books in the first place haha.
Short Summary: MC has wood powers from an apocalypse world and transmigrates into the ancient era, experiences his hetero beliefs beaten up by the strong and cute ML, discovers family again and “handles” with his enemies. To support the people he loves, he makes money intermittently using his wood skills.
Plot: 3.8/5
Decent storyline. But I wanted better and more cathartic poor-to-rich money making. But it was more intermittent. I think part of it was because I didn't really feel the pure joy of the characters increasing their quality of life. Possibly because the MC’s family were newly poor and not born from poverty. They have experienced being rich before so being rich again wasn't that special. So the poor-to-rich aspect wasn't as satisfying as other stories.
Also, the author mentioned there will be little ones which made me think there will be a good chunk of heartwarming family scenes with the kids in the 2nd half of the story. But nope. It was like the last chapter that the children were born lol.
A lot of this story was actually fighting with the usual type antagonists. I never felt anxious for the main characters but I was tense whenever they had to deal with them for interrupting the slice of lifeness haha.
Writing/Translation: 4.5/5
The translation I read is from DarkStar Translations. Very good tl! The only con is the website is chock full of obnoxious ads that drains my phone battery like crazy. Luckily, you can just load the text then immediately turn off your phone wifi so the ads don't load.
Pacing: 3.8/5
Setting/Worldbuilding: 3.7/5
Typical ancient time setting.
Characters: 4.2/5
The best part is that the side characters aren't NPCs and can be considered actual characters lol.
Romance: 4/5
The romance is pretty nice. There is actual buildup from both sides. They learn more about each other and then only fall in love. Heck, the relationship took 50 chapters to get together. Isn't that amazing?
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CN (3.8)
64 Chapters Every 51.1 Day(s) 1044 Readers 19 Reviews 06-21-2023
3.93 Stars... more>>
Date Read: 24/5/2024
Personal Enjoyment: 4/5
I liked it. The pictures definitely helped give me that cosy slice-of-life atmosphere. Because there weren't a lot of descriptions of the food. The story is pretty short, I read it in a day. There weren't any frustrating events with only one faceslapping of relatives. Otherwise, it was smooth sailing. But it wasn't boring as some smooth-sailing poor-to-rich stories are. Because the business making was a bit more detailed than others! At least for most of it. All the money numbers were actually stated with costs, expenses and net profits. Of course, near the end, it got vaguer sadly. I didn't like the romance after they got together though because the ML changed and got “cured” into a typical ML who “sexes” the FL until exhaustion every night regardless of how she refuses *rolls eyes*. So sad, I really loved the dynamic at the first 3/4ths of the story though. The ML was so easily flustered!
Short Summary: Girl MC transmigrates into a cannon fodder-ish character wife of a socially stunted scholar and his 2 young siblings. She then cooks her way through life to earn money to cook more food.
Plot: 3.8/5
Pretty simple plot. MC comes in and cooks her way to a comfortable life for her and her family. Her husband grows out of his insular shell from her food and passes his exams because of love. I do feel like there were missed opportunities for more plot though or as if the author decided last second to just not explore some plotlines. For example, what happened in the original book with the protagonists and also the neighbours. There was an agreement for the MC to teach the kid 4 meat dishes and 4 vegetarian dishes but there were zero mentions of her doing that. But we know the husband's sibling got to learn from the neighbour to sew because there were mentions about that. A little odd but it didn't annoy me or anything.
Writing/Translation: 4.3/5
The translation I read is from bekiapobenjieming. The TL is very good. It's edited MTL but the finished product is fantastic. Every sentence has an effort to make it easy to read and understand despite having some minor errors. You can tell that there were multiple rounds of editing. Also, it's full of pictures showing the food and that made the experience very atmospheric and helped increase the reading experience by a lot. Honestly, I think the pictures made this into a ⅘ experience for me instead of a likely 3.7/5 without it. Yes, there were a couple of wrong pronouns and missing words at the end but it all felt like missed typos only. Every sentence was completely understandable. Kudos to the TLtor!
Pacing: 3.9/5
For the most part, it was good. We follow the MC step by step to earn more money for her expenses. And the ML didn't come in and negate all her efforts by showing some hidden past that comes with lots of money or doing something off-screen to suddenly earn double the amount she did. It is only near the end of their stay in town that the pacing got faster and things started to get a lot less specific. This seems to happen with all Chinese novels, unfortunately.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 3.7/5
Pretty generic. I would say 0.2~ stars was purely because of the pictures the Translator added since there weren't many descriptions of the food or the scene.
Characters: 3.9/5
I really liked the MC and the ML at the start. The ML was such a different character than I'm used to in these poor-to-rich transmigration stories. He was so flustered and untalkative, it was cute. The MC was also nice and calming to follow. She wasn't too extreme in character, neither too OP nor too helpless. But hardworking and grounded. The two siblings were a bit generic but not bad. The antagonists were meh. I barely knew who was who because the in-laws' names were so similar and they didn't appear much. The maiden side of the family was mildly more interesting, especially the Mc’s mother.
Romance: 3.9/5
The romance is a 4.3 for most of it until the ML got “cured” of his silent emotionally stunted ways ¾ of the way which the romance then became a 3.6/5 for me. The romance was going fantastic because of the couple's dynamic. The ML was so in his own world and was so confused and flustered by the FL lol. And then, I loved watching how their interactions slowly increased and grew. Then Idk, the ML had a breakthrough, had s*x and all that changed. He suddenly became this confident top official and is a menace to the FL in bed *rolls eyes*. You know, the whole go so many rounds the FL is left exhausted the next day. Also, a lot of the “couldn't resist the FL’s actions and then went to have lots of sex”. Also, a lot of the “FL complains and is resistant but the ML just bulldozes over her and kisses her to stop her complaining and having sex”. The usual toxic romance tropes in Chinese novels sigh... This is normal but it really bugged me because there wasn't any hint of this attitude at the start so I feel let down lol.
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CN (3.4)
8 Chapters Every 115.3 Day(s) 319 Readers 5 Reviews 04-23-2023
3.9 Stars... more>>
Writing/Translation: 3/5
I read mostly in MTL for the whole thing. It's surprisingly understandable. Even when the sentences are almost gibberish, I can still understand them so good that there were hardly any interruptions in the flow. And sometimes, when I don't understand but want to know, I can just check the translation from a different browser and that always comes through. I would rate this much higher if there was a TL.
Pacing: 4/5
Not bad for a story this length. We go from junior high to just graduating from college. There is a time skip in the middle ish from high school to college which I wanted in detail but eh.
Plot: 4/5
I give it a 4 just because it's so long and I was invested the whole way haha. I love this type of stories and it's so long! It's more dealing with adversaries who are jealous of them or want to take advantage of them because of blood relationships and doing business to get wealthy. This part isn't that detailed and a bit hand-wavey, but there is constant doing stuff to make money.
Romance: 3.8/5
The romance is okay. It's not the focus but it is there. The ML is also an interesting enough character. And they only get together near the end lol.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 4/5
Nice haha. She has so many business ventures.
Characters: 4.5/5
Very good! I love all the side characters. They all kind of grow especially the ones close to the MC. Nice to see. Also nice is that some of the bad guys became good guys hehe. That's a bit different.
Personal Enjoyment: 4/5
I like that it's so long and set in one of my favourite era. The length and story are similar ish to Back to the Sixties Get Wealthy and raising cubs or something like that. It's not quite as step-by-step with lots of numbers to get rich but it's good enough lol.
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Comments (2)
I also love this trope. Here's some I personally like.
Fubo
https://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=4167043
Take Taobao with you to Another World
https://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=1335351
North and South Grocery
https://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=2965103
Snow Leopard Farming in Another World
https://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=6376614
Wolf King
https://www.novelupdates.info/series/wolf-king/