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All Novels I've Read Sorted By Rating
All Novels I've Read Sorted By Rating
I have made a review and rating for every novel I've read on novelupdates. Since they don't have the user friendly capability of sorting a user's read list by rank I made one for myself ordered by best/enjoyed the most to least. The ranking within the same number of stars may not be right because it is usually from different genres, too different to compare with each other haha. All in one spot.
The bottom of the list that are my lower rated and unranked/dropped novels, I have moved to a new list "All Novels I've Read Sorted By Rating (3.7 Stars & Below + Dropped)" due to a list only having a max of 100. In the future, this will be basically my Top 100 list. The others will be from ranked 101 onwards. The other weaker alternative is the Reviews section in my profile but it can only be sorted by likes and date of review not by rank.
The reason I want to put my rating and reviews straight in the list is because you can't search for a specific user's review in the novel page if there are too many reviews. You will have to search one by one. Its easier to straight up see why I put the novel in a particular list plus my review in the list itself. Sigh, novelupdates is really not user friendly.
PS: Sorry that some reviews aren't as detailed. The ones with no Date Read and only an overall rating, I hadn't used my new system yet. So they may be at not the precise order but what can you do -.-'
The bottom of the list that are my lower rated and unranked/dropped novels, I have moved to a new list "All Novels I've Read Sorted By Rating (3.7 Stars & Below + Dropped)" due to a list only having a max of 100. In the future, this will be basically my Top 100 list. The others will be from ranked 101 onwards. The other weaker alternative is the Reviews section in my profile but it can only be sorted by likes and date of review not by rank.
The reason I want to put my rating and reviews straight in the list is because you can't search for a specific user's review in the novel page if there are too many reviews. You will have to search one by one. Its easier to straight up see why I put the novel in a particular list plus my review in the list itself. Sigh, novelupdates is really not user friendly.
PS: Sorry that some reviews aren't as detailed. The ones with no Date Read and only an overall rating, I hadn't used my new system yet. So they may be at not the precise order but what can you do -.-'
Poor to RichAncient TimesKingdom BuildingDoting Love InterestsModern KnowledgeModern DayCookingTransmigrationBusiness ManagementFarming
84 Followers
Created: Sep 21st, 2022, Updated: Jul 4th, 2025
Created Sep 21st, 2022
Updated Jul 4th, 2025
JP (4.5)
527 Chapters Every 73.6 Day(s) 10820 Readers 62 Reviews 11-03-2022
3.9 Stars... more>>
I was surprisingly hooked because of the clever and sneaky schemes Kiyotaka was doing. I'm a rather character-oriented person and he is very interesting to read from, a guy that was raised in a spartan environment but is super clever now wanting to learn about living in the real world. I quite liked how smart he is and how he wants to live a normal school life. Most importantly, I liked how all these little snippets of emotional realization/vulnerability he gets in the books the longer he stays at the school and forms meaningful relationships. This is because of the extreme clash between these tiny sentences of uncertainty from the guy who is incredibly ruthless and will do anything if it will keep him enrolled, even arranging for his own classmate to relieve her bullying trauma so that she can be useful to him. Furthermore, the relationships Kiyotaka has an impact on are surprisingly intense and have psychological depth, especially with Kei, Yosuke, Ryuen, Asayanagi and Horikita. He is perfectly fine with tearing people down so that they can be built back up stronger and be more useful to him in the future.
The few cons I have, most of the time, especially in the beginning half of the series, is that the setting up parts of the books can get rather draggy to read through where it's just lots of conversations that don't seem to do anything or even if they're important, it's still a drag to get through. I think 2 of the books were kinda boring in that Kiyotaka just didn't do anything, so it was like reading something meaningless. Now that Kiyotaka has chosen to not hide in Year 2, things are definitely getting very exciting and intense. However, most of the Year 1 freshmen seem like copies of the main Year 2 characters but tweaked a bit to not be exactly the same so that was a bit disappointing. For example, Yagami seems like Yosuke and Ichinose, Hosen like an extremely batsh*t version of Ryuen without the likeableness Ryuen brings to the table, Amasawa someone to bring the shock factor of Ryuen but with female options like asking if people would like to see her panties... It kinda feels like the author is running out of interesting characters so he gives them shock values instead.
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CN (4.6)
#77Glory
389 Chapters Every 44.8 Day(s) 8954 Readers 90 Reviews 08-04-2024
3.9 Stars - On-Hold: C159... more>>
Overall
I liked the characters, they were the best part. Cute and funny. However, although the esports part was good enough for me to read so far in, as the obstacles in the romance got dealt with more and more, I’m also losing interest in the story. Because the esports parts aren't capturing my attention. I don't feel any excitement before the match. And, increasingly, during the matches. This may be because I’ve been bingeing it and all the eSports stuff was draining my patience more than it was filling it. So I’ll probably come back to it in the future. At the beginning, the games were very tied in with the character development and the discovery of the characters’ pasts so I felt quite interested in what was happening. But now, as all the conflicts in the romance seem to be over and there isn't a hint of checking out Close’s background, the esports part isn't good enough to keep me going until then. Which is sad.
Writing/Translation: 4/5
The translation I read is from Chrysanthemum Garden, XIIN. The translation is surprisingly not as polished as I’m used to from them. I noticed some tiny mistakes at the beginning. I'm gonna assume this was some years ago and that's why haha. The rest seems pretty good.
Pacing: 3.5/5
Objectively, the pacing seems fine. But personally, it feels slow sometimes. I’m not really a fan of esports webnovels because I keep dropping so many of them. I usually lose interest because the games aren't described clearly enough for me to understand them or because the games just aren't interesting in novel form instead of animation. Here, the games are explained relatively quite clearly. However, it's too detailed. There are too many heroes and different talents that the novel only explains and hypes up right at the beginning of a match. This ruins the excitement of the match for me because I just want to get into it. Also, a lot of the hype and explanations that are written feel too unimportant to the game for me. Like, there isn't enough distinctiveness that makes the hero unique enough in a situation that needed such a long explanation before the match.
Other than that, all the netizen comments the author keeps putting in feel so superfluous, long and annoying. I'm not a fan of including netizen comments unless they affect the characters or the plot in some meaningful way. If it's for the vibe/flavour/Worldbuilding, it can definitely be trimmed down a lot. Every match, every live stream, there will be at least 5-7 netizen comments from fans, haters, anti-fans, passerby, water armies and CP shippers. Usually, there will be fights among them. But 95% of the time, they are basically ignored by the characters. I skipped all of them after a while and my enjoyment was not impacted at all.
Plot: 3.9/5
Up to where I’ve read, which is just before the new singles opening round, C159, The MC was living his life in the background at the start. Us the readers slowly find out what's his deal as Close slowly tricks the MC into joining his pro club. This is the first part. The 2nd part is joining a winter training where we and the MC learn more about the ML. The revelations really made the MC feel closer to the ML. At the end, they get together. The following section features regular-season competition with some added common sports-related angst. After that is the new singles mode opening battle which is where I stopped.
Romance: 4/5
The romance before and when they first get together is just sooo freaking soft. The MC is just in the throes of first love and I can really feel the happiness, the joy, the sweetness of it all. And the ML, ahhhh, reading all his feelings towards the MC just makes me wriggle with all the honey. I love how love affected these two characters. They suddenly become so adorable, squee-worthy, and just so sweet. I love how they really care for each other's overall well being and their future. I love how they are always thinking about and missing each other. But also, how romance isn't the most all encompassing thing in their lives like how it is in some other stories. They still have other things they like, responsibilities and such. I also like how their shamelessness will just pop up ridiculously funny one liners about their relationship hahaha. I also liked the development of the romance and the troubles they encountered after they got together. Felt a bit more real.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 3.9/5
The setting is the typical world of esports and all that entails. If you like this type of world, it's there. Team training, group bonding, and inter- and intra-team relationships.
Characters: 4.5/5
The MC is just so delightful! He's hilariously shameless and can make me snort and laugh. But he's also very cute and adorable and can make me have the feels. The ML is a cold, stoic and strong male god. But we learn about his super soft insides and how big his heart is. These all make them super nice to read about and very likeable.
All the characters are vibrant, distinct, and have their own thoughts, characteristics, cuteness, living relationships with each other and personalities. They feel real and have their own life that moves and changes without the MC and ML. They can be the main characters of their own story. Very good. It's just that it takes awhile for the readers to get to know them properly.
Personal Enjoyment: 3.7/5
I love all the human relationships part of the story. This gets a 4/5 from me. However, the esports part isn't doing it for me. Too many heroes and talents to keep track of and the explanations for them don't have any long-lasting meaning for the story. Meaning, the author spent a few paragraphs discussing a hero before the match, but the information isn't always relevant after the match. It feels like they will be explained again anyway. I do appreciate the detail though. I can at least understand what is happening in the matches and what all the roles are. There is effort. A lot of other eSports novels are so wishy-washy and very bare. I could not imagine at all.
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CN (4.1)
154 Chapters Every 17.1 Day(s) 6225 Readers 27 Reviews 01-19-2025
3.9 Stars (would be higher if there were more TL from KnoxT)... more>>
"I'll be honest, the novel is beautiful. The relationship between the characters is handled well, even the revenge and slaps are quite good.
The relationship between the MC and ML are one of my favorites, both are a love. The truth is refreshing to see a love that is not related to appearance, since when they fall in love they are both in "their worst" moment. I believe and dare say that's what I love most in this novel, because, hey! MC was fat when ML marries him, he likes him from that moment and does not despise him, on the contrary he likes to play with his belly, and MC... The MC likes ML when he is still wearing an ugly mask, that is, she didn't even know her husband's real appearance when she fell in love with him."
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Writing/Translation: 4.8 (KnoxT), 3.3/5 (Flying Lines)
I’ve read from 2 different translators. The first from KnoxT which was the superior one at 4.8/5 for around 94 chapters which was where their TL was up to. I loved their TL! The translator was using it for Chinese practice; they had already read the story once and they also really liked it. So you can see that they care way more about the TL than most others. There were so many footnotes on Chinese culture and why things are named that way and explanations of the Chinese words for the different relatives in relation to each other. All these extra Chinese-related footnotes gave me so much extra worldbuilding, which was awesome. There were no errors, grammar mistakes or wrong pronouns anywhere. Probably because they were doing the TL themselves and not from MTL.
The rest of the chapters I read from Flying Lines at 3.3/5. The TL is readable, not as frustrating as MTL and I am glad it was already completely translated. But I did feel like I lost 20% of the detail, nuance and thus enjoyment of the story compared to the KnoxT one. I still read the entire thing though and never had the thought to drop it. There were lots of naming errors and some parts were a bit hard to understand. But my trick was to read fast so I could get to the next point quickly enough that I would barely feel any frustration from not understanding something haha. So I just ignored anything I didn't understand. I will get it by context later on.
Pacing: 3.7/5
The pacing is not bad. At least I didn't feel that it was draggy. My only complaint is that the transition between arcs is a little abrupt. The only thing is that I’m not sure if it is because of the not-as-good TL though. I didn't feel any such problems in the Knoxt TL. Ah, and the first chapter about the ending of the MC’s previous life was waaaaay too abrupt and very out there that it felt almost comical. I feel like it should have been longer to make us feel for the MC more instead of relying on the shock factor. Also, I felt that the ending like the last 30-50 chapters felt a little too quick.
Plot: 3.7/5
The ride was quite interesting, haha. The world is a fantasy one with all kinds of magic powers and stuff. It is also a cultivation one just that the story isn't a power up cultivation story so the MC levels up pretty quickly but it is focused on that. Hmm, the first 3/5th of the story is a pure revenge story that is quite fun and engaging. Mixed in with the romance and the feels, you really feel for our MC and his beloved ML. I love the addition of all the emotions in a revenge story so it's not just boring anger and hatred. You have all these “weak” emotions to make you invested in the characters and to root for them too!
After the revenge plots, it focused more on the mystery of the ML, the who and how the MC managed to travel back in time. He realizes a lot of things he didn't know in his previous life, like who his enemies are, what the background of his husband is, and just who he is himself. The mystery and the process of discovery were quite fun and engaging. But I must admit, the last antagonist and the last discovery of the curse at the ending did feel a little lukewarm and the conclusion felt too fast or maybe not hyped enough to be worthy of the long mystery lol. I'm not sure if it is the TL though haha. Well, it looks like I’m not that impressed by the ending stuff. It also had a lot less romance by then sadly.
Romance: 3.9/5
The romance was quite enjoyable! I love the kinda enemies/strangers to discovering hidden love all along plot haha. Especially with the whole, so that is what really happened in the previous life plot. A slow romance XD. The ML and the MC are two distinct characters with their own weight in the story which I really like. They all have their own goals, responsibilities, power and personalities. I love that the couple doesn't have any typical gong and shou actions. They both have their own strengths and vulnerabilities and are both very capable.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 4/5
Quite good in the Knoxt one! Lots of Baidu research and explanations of stuff in the footnotes. Unfortunately, the Flying Lines TL kinda made the worldbuilding “less” compared to the Knoxt one because it has zero footnotes or effort lol. It's a little sad for me because the world got bigger later on but it hasn't been translated by Knoxt yet haha. The world has all kinds of powers, intrigue, many mystery of the half-immortals, secret families, mysterious backgrounds etc etc.
Characters: 3.9/5
The main characters are fun. Very likeable. I was rooting for our MC all the way haha. He can be surprisingly cute. He was so ruthless that I didn't really realise until later on that he's kinda a shou because he was unexpectedly cute in the romance side haha. The ML also lived up to his mysterious background hype from the buildup at the beginning. I was scared it would fizzle to something bland and that he would become the problem solver for the MC like in other BLs but nope haha.
The other characters, of which there are many, are also distinct and different. I didn't not like anyone. Some I wish had more character development but it is what it is. There are a lot of side characters who are close to the MC but have so much mystery to them that it was fun to follow the MC find out more.
The antagonists were good and added some stakes to the story. There were times I was anxious about what was going to happen but luckily it didn't really take too long to resolve. So, still had that oomph but didn't drag it out too much.
Personal Enjoyment: 3.9/5
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CN (4.3)
174 Chapters Every 122.7 Day(s) 11909 Readers 244 Reviews 07-28-2020
3.9 Stars... more>>
Date Read: 14/5/2024
Personal Enjoyment: 3.8/5
I stopped at this chapter because I feel like I got all the parts that I would enjoy and the rest is the romance which I'm really not invested in. The main story is to C155 and the rest are extras. I enjoyed the humourous tone. Also, all the characters were lively especially the MC and his employees lol. I liked all the face-slapping scenes, those gave the story some goal and life. When it got to the major romance parts though, I got uninvested and didn't enjoy it. I really only came because of the synopsis lol. It looked fun. Didn't realise it would be so romance heavy.
Short Summary: Exactly as the summary says but add on like 60% more romance with the "cannon fodder".
Plot: 3.8/5
The business parts were okay and somewhat interesting. I also really liked the face-slapping haha. But the OgML kind of faded out and it got more boring for me. I also thought the MC would do more business stuff with the other tops but nah. He just became friends and uses them to flaunt his wealth lol.
Writing/Translation: 4.8/5
The translation I read is from Chrysanthemum Garden. So it's pretty good! Some very minor spelling mistakes but it is very rare. Lots of footnotes too where you click on the link and there is a small pop-up message. Discrete and convenient.
Pacing: 3.5/5
The pacing is pretty even. Some parts felt a bit slow but those were the romance parts and it was because I wasn't invested in the romance. The fading out of the OgML also contributed to that. I wanted more of the MC fighting against the OgML lol. The romance other than the beginning got more cringe for me lol.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 3.8/4
It was decent-ish. The MC loves to describe how rich his houses, clothes, accessories and vehicles are so we do have some detail of the surroundings which is kind of rare lol. But still a bit generic and nothing special. For the worldbuilding, this was a look into the wealthy lifestyle so that was mildly interesting.
Characters: 4/5
The characters are so lively and fun haha. The MC is just like the synopsis makes him out to be lolol. The ML is a bit more normal. All the MC's enemies are quickly within one meeting with the MC is turned around to become cool-headed CEOs again XD. But it's fun to read the MC quickly going home to change for battle before the meetings lolol
Romance: 3.6/5
The romance is okay, I don't know how to review this section objectively so just be warned this is all subjective! I don't particularly like romances in light novels because it feels super one-note or "lazy" and surface-level. So far, I consistently only like modern school life romances in light novels because those feel way more genuine.
So for this story, it's 65% romance lol. The rest is face-slapping and the MC is hilarious. So... I skimmed or skipped most of the romance part haha. Because I found it cringy lol. They use top and bottom very unabashedly as kinda legit identifiers and part of the story world so yeah, it felt too cringy for me to take at all seriously ahaha. The other BL side romance is also very top and bottom-coded. There weren't any non-consensual things going on which I would hate and also why the lighthearted humourous tone of the story never dropped. But it still treated tops and bottoms as a thing in this world. And the whole seal thing, I found that it just created uninteresting drama? It just made the MC constantly moan and grouch about not having s*x. I guess this made the MC go monogamous. But all the drama about it felt super annoying to me, a person who wasn't invested in the romance at all so take that what you will.
I did appreciate that the ML here is younger so he is also quite innocent in the BL ways so none of that possessive controlling super jealous with misunderstandings and beating other people up type scenes ever happened. And the MC is older and super-rich so there is this opposite power dynamic between them since the bottom and top don't match their careers. And the humorous tone also aided in that.
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CN (4.6)
97 Chapters Every 100.5 Day(s) 12961 Readers 320 Reviews 07-08-2021
3.9 Stars... more>>
Overall
This was a better than average novel. The main focus is the romance where the MC does everything he can to get the ML to like him which involves supporting the MC’s career from an entertainment company's point of view. My favourite part was all the business things our MC does. It was really interesting, I learnt new things in the entertainment industry, specifically in the TV and online series industry. It's a nice change from following an MC to being the best actor ever from shooting to shooting only. I enjoyed reading about all of the steps the MC took, running around and working hard to ensure the success of the TV and online dramas. It is just too bad there were really only those 2 online dramas that the story focused on the Mc’s skills. Then, the story ended lol. I wanted more, as long as other showbiz stories haha.
Sadly, I really don't like the use of misunderstanding as a trope so for most of the romance, I didn't really like it. And this story used misunderstanding as the foundation and reason for the romance. Basically, the MC doesn't understand the traits of ABO so he acts with the ML like a normal young guy he's close to. This causes the ML to misunderstand that the MC has feelings for him and also falls in love with him and does shenanigans. Then this caused the MC to be even more affectionate to the ML. I almost couldn't take it. In my view, anything based on a misunderstanding means that whatever grew because of the misunderstanding is fake because their beliefs are not fact. So I couldn't get into the romance at all. Instead, I almost feel like the ML is one of the bad guys needed for faceslapping because I usually associate these confident assumptions of the MC with the bad guy's inflated delusions and thus, want the MC to slap him down. Lol. So whenever the ML goes, he must love me very much! I immediately thought, get real, he'll never see you! Just like some lovesick girl for the MC. Sigh. It took them longer than I wanted for the MC to realise what abo really means, understand the situation and for him to fall in love anyway. Almost ¾ of the story sigh. It took awhile before I could lose my negative impression and accept the romance.
Otherwise, a pretty good business management story. I only wish that was the main goal of the story instead of together with the romance hahaha. I feel like it could have done with some satisfying faceslapping though. There really isn't much here. I thought the old flame was a bad guy but he only came back in the extras as a guest lol.
Writing/Translation
The translation I read is from Rainbow Mushroom Translations. They are pretty good and polished I feel. No errors that I remember. It read like it was written in English or close enough.
Pacing
It was pretty even the whole way. I did find the first drama shooting a little bit boring because it was all about figuring out emotions, which was a little long but there was an exciting bit there so I gave it a pass.
Plot
The number of jobs the ML took to have lots of details in it is rather small compared to most other showbiz stories I've read. 1 MV and 2 online TV series have the most screentime. Then, a pretty summarised version of a movie in the last couple of chapters. We follow the MC get transmigrated, not mark the ML, protect and support the ML like a precious treasure in his career, overhaul his company and help his family along the way.
Themes/What Story Tried to Achieve
The business side of the showbiz part was well done. The MC made some moves that made me fully believe in his knowledge and experience. There were so many things he did. We also see how he negotiates and what steps he takes before the negotiation so that he has the upper hand. I like that there is a strategy for driving quality traffic to his shows. This helped me get more immersed in the story.
The details of the industry from the actor pov (the ML) were just okay. It was a little bit predictable. The MC shows how hardworking he is by reading the source material (the book instead of the script only) multiple times and writing many notes on the script. He learnt the skills of the characters he is playing so he can be as confident in acting as possible. They are all normal things to do if one wants to get an action job so I wasn't really impressed in that way.
Characters
The MC I liked because of how experienced he was in the business. This was totally in line with my interests. Otherwise, he was kinda like a capable, doting, older gong CEO character. I do really like that he's supporting the MC to do what the MC wants instead of treating th MC like glass. Not take over everything but give the support and tools to the MC. The ML is a typical talented optimistic uke type. He has claws but it isn't really shown much sadly.
The side characters are okay. They are distinct but I don't really have much interest in them.
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CN (3.9)
549 Chapters Every 63.9 Day(s) 7407 Readers 159 Reviews 01-25-2023
3.89 Stars... more>>
Writing/Translation:4/5
The translation I read is from Boba Tea Translation. It is above average. There were some sentences that confused positive and negative connotations but I think it's because Chinese is like that and doesn't quite translate to English that way. A few sentences were a bit awkward. But overall, nice. I love that it's completed too.
Pacing: 3.9/5
Pacing seems fine. I just found the last bits too quick and summarizing compared to the rest. But this is normal for CN novels so.
Plot: 4/5
I concur with everything all the other reviewers said. The story is a bit more josei and has a bit more substance than normal. I also like that there are actual details in all the studying and knowledge of what is being studied. Other similar stories just say they studied hard and then aced the tests, and that's it. I highly doubt anything technical being shown is all that accurate though lol. Also, I couldn't understand anything she was researching at the end. But at least the author tried. And I prefer something rather than nothing.
I do prefer the parts with all the character development and where the ML’s advice was needed. That was way more interesting than when she just researched stuff and the romance at the end.
Romance: 3.3/5
The romance is kinda meh. I loved when the ML was acting as a mentor but I just couldn't get into the romantic relationship. For one, 80% of the time, the MC was just too young emotionally and experience-wise. The dynamic was too skewed. This just made it super hard to understand why the ML fell in love with her. It doesn't help that the author didn't really make the ML all that charismatic or likeable. I also didn't feel any chemistry between the two. It totally felt one-sided.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 4/5
The setting was a bit more detailed than other similar school-type stories.
Characters: 4.3/5
There were some good characters here! The mom has such character growth, the stepdad is cool, the various friends have some screen time and stuff. Nice.
Personal Enjoyment: 3.7/5
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CN (4)
176 Chapters Every 15.5 Day(s) 1128 Readers 14 Reviews 12-17-2024
3.87 Stars... more>>
Date Read: 27/3/2025
Personal Enjoyment: 3.9/5
I love myself a decent 70’s era type story. This one is 1998 though but the tone and vibe is the same. It has a lot of flaws but I still enjoyed myself. Guilty pleasure anyone?
My personal issue was how rather depressing everyone else's life felt. They were all poor, then they started being able to improve their lives after so much hard work. But then, even after that, they get swayed by the rich people's vices. Friends go astray, friends die, people get older and sicker, regret and loss types of what-ifs. Sigh.
In addition to that, the wealthy people they get to know, also have a horrible time. Child trafficking, husbands cheating, wrong identity, sigh. I wanted a more escapism-type story not get hit by the grim realities of the world lol.
Plot: 4/5
The business details isn't that detailed because it's done by the husband. But I surprisingly didn't mind because I feel like there are progress being made and the MC isn't a passive person. She also does things to move the story along. Especially when dealing with family and close friend matters.
Despite my issues, it was decent. Something was always happening to keep my interest. Most of it was how the MC lived her life raising her kid in a less ideal environment, dealing with the in-laws, studying, and communicating with the scary husband. It moved on to more of that and also how the husband was making money, seeing how past bad events can be solved or avoided, helping friends and so on.
It was more of the same as the Ml’s business grew bigger, the intimate scale of the issues surprisingly didn't feel too big and distant. The humanising feeling of them was still down to earth. Like issues with bullying or imposter syndrome. Then with the wealthy people's issues, all the problems introduced were still personal types such as feelings of anger and betrayal when one's father keeps a mistress outside. The focus is more on the personal effect. I like this. I just don't like how depressing it all is haha. Even when you get rich, life is still so messy.
Writing/Translation: 3.6/5
The translation I read is from Shanghai Fantasy. I feel the translation or maybe the author's writing is worse than the Sweet Stepmother in the 60’s story. Lots of pronoun and name errors, different translations of the same paragraphs and a couple of cut off sentences.
The biggest issue for me was how contradictory the characters were written. I'm not sure if this is a translation issue or a writing issue. In the first chapter, the MC transmigrates into a pregnant lady and doesn't know anything. Then her mother-in-law came over to give money and food while complaining she was lazy. Which, I can understand from her view the MC just slept while her son was at the police lockup. So I thought the OGbody was a bad woman and the mother-in-law was just annoyed at her. The MC too. It wasn't written that she went to bail out her husband and leisurely spent all that money that I thought was to bail him out.
Then, a lot later in the chapters, we find out she did pay bail for him from his brother's pov. Bad writing this was. Furthermore, the mother-in-law was portrayed as some annoying lady a few chapters later. Then why did she give vegetables and money so freely in the first chapter? According to her character from later on, she wouldn't have cared?? Contradictory.
Now for the baby. It was constantly written that she has no fear of strangers and wouldn't cry when picked up by them. But then later on, she's written as being pretty shy. Did the author forget what she wrote before? Or is this some quirk of Chinese writing that is hard to translate into understandable English?
Pacing: 4/5
Pacing is good. No parts felt too slow or rushed. Some parts did feel slow like one sentence before something interesting happens.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 3.8/5
I think it could be better but still, it is pretty decent. Lots of different places, schools, rural homes, cities and towns. I do wish it was more detailed.
Characters: 3.9/5
A good variety of characters for this type of novel. The MC is fine. The ML is very good. Love the character development. The child is okay. The friends and family are all unique. No NPCs.
Romance: 3.9/5
The romance is one of the better ones. The ML respects the MC and I like that. The romance is also pretty gradual and not insta love. They like each other because of their actions for one another. It makes sense.
I also like that the s*x isn't ridiculous where the guy chases after it uncomfortably all the time while the girl is reluctant. Here, the MC also likes it and wants it. It feels so natural and normal lol. Luckily it's not explicit.
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CN (4.3)
31 Chapters Every 140.5 Day(s) 9590 Readers 126 Reviews 03-03-2020
3.87 Stars... more>>
Date Read: 28/4/2024
Personal Enjoyment: 3.7/5
This story is rather unexpectedly humourous! Not a lot but there is humour in it haha I was not expecting that haha. I thought based on the characters’ positioning on the cover picture and the summary, it would be a serious, introspective and calm rebirth story. And it is! But it was especially funny to read the ML employee’s hidden inner thoughts whenever the ML does something because of the FL. I love the tone haha.
Plot: 3.8/5
The story is pretty short but I feel the author really added a lot of things. Mostly, after the FL woke up, she focused on living better for herself. This includes all the good relationships that she let fall through before or didn't cherish enough. Especially, with the ML as the title says. She also doesn't just skip classes at college this time. And for her job too.
Writing/Translation: 4.01/5
The translation I read for C1-C4 is from OtomeRuri. 3.3/4. There were some weird missing half-sentences and contradictory info in the same sentence. Like Chen Hao, “Chen Hao was enraged by her speech, with a look of affectionate and wounded, he said: “Lou Yaoyao, in the end, how can I convince you of my sincerity?” Like what does this mean?? He's enraged? But he looks affectionate?? How does the MC know he is enraged then??
Another example, “both of them had grown up together as childhood sweethearts. For her, Qin Zhi had been no more than like a blood-related older brother. “ They grew up as childhood sweethearts. Then the next sentence she viewed him as a brother.
The next is from IsoHungry Translation from C5 to C21. 4.25/5. No errors that I remember. And have some links for more info on some terms.
The rest from C22 onwards, I read from Foxaholic, Alliephant. 3.9/5. No errors that I remember too. However, I really disliked all the password stuff. It drained my phone battery so much from having to load the screen so many times. Once to open the TL notes, then to the password page and then to the actual chapter. It really put a stopper on the flow of reading. Such a short couple of chapters felt so long because of this.
Pacing: 4/5
The pacing is pretty smooth. Because the story is pretty short, there are very quick scene transitions that are a bit more interesting than longer stories. The author will present the next scene right after the previous scene and let the reader figure out it is the next scene. It's not bad. Just something new.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 3.7/5
There wasn't much honestly. It was heavily character-focused even. But because this is a short story, I'm giving some grace to this section.
Characters: 4/5
The characters are so fun haha. I love the FL, she's so unique! She would be that annoying bratty female antagonist in another shoujo but she's actually very honest with her feelings. And this makes it more reassuring to be friends with her.
Romance: 4/5
The romance is a major part of the story. And it is kinda soothing haha. And had some spice to it. The two leads were childhood friends and the FL was such a terror to the ML lol. But he grew to be such a doting and devoted character. He who once hated all the actions of this troublesome nuisance that didn't stop in adulthood grew to accept all the flaws and love her for it.
For the mature side though, I don't like the implication of the FL having s*x so much she cries while doing it though but this is just super common in CN novels. Meh, it didn't happen a lot so it was fine I guess. Why can't the authors show the FL stretching her sore muscles happily from having s*x the night before??? Instead of showing her hobbling angrily to the bathroom and cursing the ML in her head. S*x is a two-person tango and enthusiastic consent is a far more enjoyable vibe to read about.
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CN (4.2)
190 Chapters Every 35.8 Day(s) 4202 Readers 29 Reviews 03-14-2024
C150... more>>
3.857 Stars
Date Read: 1/4/2025
Personal Enjoyment: 3.9/5
It was a bit above average for me. Love the business management parts. I quite liked how rooted in reality it felt to expand the business. It wasn't built on plot armour, dreams and convenience lol. Did not like any of the romances. They felt so... childish somehow? It felt like a young teen’s version of a romance.
Short Summary: MC transmigrates himself into an ancient china world with gers. He sets up an income stream with a snack stall and slowly builds up into a couple of restaurants. Along the way, he deals with getting the ger, helping his family out and then making connections to help his business.
Plot: 4/5
Decent. The poor to rich part is above average. I have nothing to complain about. I also like that the scale is still small and intimate. Although the MC grows the business bigger, it still feels like he's a hands-on person instead of completely hands-off. If he isn't in the restaurant, he's busy doing other business management stuff. It still feels like progress even near the end of the story.The last 10+ chapters seem to be about pregnancy and babies which I'm not interested in lol. So I'm gonna stop there.
Writing/Translation: 4.2/5
The translation I read is from hololonovels. Quite good. They added a ton of food pictures so it adds to the atmosphere. They also added AI art at the top of the scenery or the characters as well.
Pacing: 3.8/5
The romance parts are pretty predictable and kinda annoying to read through so I skipped all of them. The business aspect though was good. I like how we don't get stuck in numerous days of the MC cooking a new dish over and over with nothing else happening which is common in other slice-of-life cooking novels. This one, there are variations. Like in the morning, they cook something new, and the next they cook something new to sell.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 3.9/5
A generic ancient China type of world. However, the town/city has a busy port and that is pretty refreshing. So they have fish and shrimp and stuff like that that is new for me in these types of stories. Nice.I also like that the city on the other side of the river also has some effect on the story. The world feels bigger.Characters: 3.7/5The characters are okay. The side characters are all different and not just there to prop up the MC. But it does feel like some of the other characters got a bit forgotten lol.
Romance: 3.5/5
The romance is pretty meh. The main one, the power imbalance feels too one-sided. It felt like the MC was g*ooming the ML to become someone to his taste. The ML was already 20 but the MC was a lot more educated and also from a modern society so he kept teaching and training the ML to be more confident, talk back, have his own opinions, and be open to s*x etc etc. I don't know if it feels a bit icky or not since all those things are good for the ML to know but I just don't know how I feel about the MC doing it so he can have a partner he likes.
I also am not a fan of the completely unnecessary secrets the ML keeps. The misunderstandings and stuff from that feel so dull. It's not even the annoying misunderstandings that cause s*upid conflict. It's just he kept secrets and then during the thing he has to explain it all later anyway? Like nothing about any of it was contentious or worrying. It added nothing positive OR negative to the story so what was even the point? It felt like a waste of pages lol. You can remove those parts and absolutely nothing would change. It only happened a couple of times I guess.
The side character romance. Goodness, was it weirdly boring. The surprising thing was that the ger is a lively person and was likeable at the beginning. I don't understand how the romance became so boring. It might be because he was weirdly oblivious when he was the one who teased the ML about his before. And also, because he had strong opinions of marrying for love, you would think he would actively go out and get a guy. But the romance was the other guy kept coming on to his oblivious face until it was obvious to him. That feels so boring. I completely skipped all of his romance and don't feel like I missed anything important
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CN (4.5)
135 Chapters Every 12.3 Day(s) 2119 Readers 11 Reviews 02-11-2025
3.85 Stars... more>>
Date Read: 19/3/2025
Personal Enjoyment: 3.7/5
Started interesting but when they got into that mystery case, it got a bit slow. So, I read this very soon after reading Devil Venerable Wants to Know and I kinda felt that it was more enjoyable to read. I rarely read these types of novels so I have less leeway if something isn't good lol.
The action part of the story was not bad but the investigation was pretty dull and slow. It felt a bit like nothing was happening. In any case, I wanted to read them make money, not solve cases hahaha. The romance too, I wasn't convinced so when it got to the exciting parts, it felt a bit over my head. Though I did find the ML’s happiness about it all sweet. I just think they could have tweaked it a bit to make it land.
Overall, at least I finished the story. I was tempted to drop the book at those slow bits but I alrd sunk so many chapters into his that I wanted to see the ending.
Plot: 3.85/5
The plot was decent, just the execution was a bit draggy. I did tear up a bit for the sad parts. And felt soft at the ML’s happiness. However, based on the synopsis, I was expecting a bit more faceslapping from the OgFL that we didn't get. Very unfortunate. Those petty jealous type scenes would have been perfect to keep my interest more during the slow parts.
Writing/Translation: 3.9/5
The translation I read is from akknovel. The TL is pretty good. Just some sentences that were mildly confusing in context. And there is an odd tendency for some sentences’ end to be separated by 3 dots …, and then continued with the rest of the sentence in the next paragraph. It’s a weird error.
Pacing: 3.7/5
The setup and beginning of all the investigations were quite boring and slow. Otherwise, it was fine.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 4/5
Not bad. I'm not familiar with this type of genre so things felt new for me.
Characters: 4/5
I love all the characters! They are all interesting and different with their own goals and personalities. None felt like NPCs.
Romance: 3.8/5
The romance is okay. I'm not a fan of B/G romance because they don't usually take the time to convince me that they have any chemistry or developing romance at all. This one, well, it's a step up from the usual. However, the author used their looks to indicate the romance development. From the start, they were getting along like two peas in a pod. So any changes from being a fellow money-grubber to a potential love interest were indicated by the character waxing poetic on how handsome the other looked. That didn't do anything for me lol. How the ML fell in love felt very deliberate. He decided that he did like the MC. We were there for all of it. But it was never explicitly mentioned why they like each other. So…
I still didn't really feel the love personally aha. So yeah. Is it a me thing or the author thing who knows. Sigh.
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CN (4.3)
104 Chapters Every 79.2 Day(s) 3620 Readers 35 Reviews 06-05-2022
3.83 Stars... more>>
Read: 04/04/2024
Short Summary: MC transmigrates to the 2nd year of high school into a delinquent. He then proceeds to win at life using his book smarts, his love of math, and his earnestly serious personality.
Plot: 4/5
The main focus is the relationship between the MC and ML. I was hoping for a more plotty book with romance as an accompaniment but it's the other way around. It took me until around chapter 20ish to start getting really invested in the romance lol. The climax of the whole story is at the end of year 2 with the extras of year 3 and college. In the end, they solved the issues that were preventing their relationship (it was pretty short and there were zero misunderstandings! It was all external. We find out the back story of the transmigration and they get their college results. I admit I was a little let down with the choice of the conflict since it felt too otherworldly instead of some reality-based conflict like fighting against the antagonist parent or something like that. But it was a unique take compared to other transmigration/rebirth modern high school BL stories so that cancels it out. It has some typical netizens commenting on every trope which I dislike since they don't actually add anything to the story. But it is thankfully, brief. Five or six comments after each exam instead of hiring water armies everywhere for page-long texts.
Writing/Translation: 3.7/5
The translation I read is from WhiteCherryBL. Just a warning that the Next button on their website doesn't work. Need to go from novelupdates. The TL is kinda awkward. Full of weirdly translated words and direct translated slang. But the grammar is pretty good actually. It could definitely be worse. I just read fast and ignored those parts. Anyway, the story is pretty simple so it's easy to understand.
Pacing: 4/5
Pretty good. There wasn't any place where I felt it dragged or was too fast.
Romance: 4.5/5
The romance is rather sweet. I find that I really feel the romance in these modern high school BL stories haha. The ML is surprisingly, not that much of a bully compared to my first impression of him. Maybe my expectations are super low for cn bl novels hahaha. The ML likes to bully and tease the MC but always stops before it gets annoying because he's afraid the MC will be really mad and doesn't like it when the MC gives him the cold shoulder. The best part though, is how thoughtful the ML unexpectedly is. The actions of the ML compared to other BLs are how not over the top his actions for the MC are. Even if its first impressions implied he will be a forceful won’t take no as an answer possessive as*hole lol. And he is. But not that bad. Am I making excuses for this ML or what hahaha. But well, they really are quite sweet. I love how the author gives space for the characters and us the readers to pause and appreciate the MC or ML’s actions for each other. That is how we can feel the proper impact of the romance. It's in the quiet reflective few seconds after the other person did something out of their way for them.
Some cute quotes from the POV of the bully ML, “Even if he usually speaks a lot of nonsense at times, he is still just a young man in love at the moment.
The person he likes is lying next to him, wearing his pyjamas, pillowing his pillow, and covering his quilt, and the joy in Ying Jiao’s heart jumps up uncontrollably.
He wants to jump twice, he wants to roll on the bed, he even wants to go downstairs and run a few laps.
Ying Jiao raised his lips gently.
He is so happy.”
Like aww, it's so innocent and wholeheartedly earnest in his feelings. Around halfway ish, you can really feel that they are a team against the world like a proper couple awww. They each think wholeheartedly of each other and work hard to be the best person for the other. And they are both high schoolers alone against the big world. It's nice to see that there is support for them.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 3/5
It was a generic high school setting. Nothing detailed or special or elaborated on.
Characters: 3.7/5
The main characters are the focus so they have the most screen time. The antagonist was kinda eh. Just an idiot high schooler and the power behind that never got any screen time lol. The hated relatives were pretty generic too. The father and stepfamily. For the side characters and friends, they were just friendly people. The three friends of the ML, two of them have one quirk each and other than that, they were interchangeable. Could have been worse. I could at least feel that the ML and MC cared about their existence lol. I liked the class teacher too haha.
Personal Enjoyment: 3.9/5
I enjoyed most of it until we started with the conflict. Because they had already gotten together by then, the sweet reflecting on each other's little actions for them stop being anxious for each other. And also, the maths competition is legit boring lol. I do wish these stories would put more effort into the material being studied so I can feel the catharsis that comes from the effort of studying. I mean yes, I do like how the ML slowly slowly got good. But I don't know what he's studying. It just tells that he does questions all the time. But it's so bland and generic lol.
I loved all the sweet moments of growing to love each other. But those moments got a bit cheapened by the whole fated love thing we got to know at the end. Still good enough. I read this during my uncomfortable period and it was a very nice, sweet and comforting distraction.
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CN (4.4)
223 Chapters Every 104.9 Day(s) 8013 Readers 132 Reviews 05-25-2021
3.8 Stars... more>>
Translation/Writing
I read the translations by Foxaholic. There are some typos, awkward sentences and grammar mistakes but you get used to them and the translation improves as the story goes. It's definitely quite readeable though and doesn't break the immersion once you get used to it. The translator is pretty enthusiatic in the translating with footnotes so no worries on not getting it. It feels a bit like the level of English is not as fluent as Chinese. No hate though, they know 2 languages haha. As for the writing style, it's not bad, it doesn't focus heavily on just dialogue or just descriptions.
Plot
It's slice of life, making a better life by farming and doing business in the first half, then the capital arc twice, and then a modern world arc. I definitely liked the slice of life, farming and business making way more than the capital parts until the end. Once they become important figures in the capital, we don't get that slice of life warmth anymore. Other than that, there are unfinished plot threads or plot holes in the story. One is the part where there was foreshadowing with the MC helping a pickpocket that apparently will be a super good turn later in the story but it was never mentioned again. Another was the MC's real body, what happened to it? The MC appeared in a 14-year-old's body but we find out in the modern world arc that his body had actually disappeared. I also feel like at the halfway point, the author didn't really know what exactly they wanted to write and was rushed to finish. It was like they included some plot points, then decided they didn't want it and rushed the plot points to the end.
The capital part I actually didn't mind and still enjoyed in spite of some things that I didn't like. First is the whole medicine stuff. I found it rather unbelievable. The MC with zero training can use all these practical diagnosis techniques like just by feeling the pulse, he can tell what ailments they have faced, how many years in between ailments, how long to live etc, all unrelated to what, blood pressure? Heartbeats per minute? Too unbelievable.
But then, after this, they had to rebuild a county. This was done so quickly, it only took a few chapters, none of the detail from the first half. We only got the broad strokes. Then, we get to go back to the modern world. I have no idea what the author actually wanted to do here. The acclimation of the ancient people to the modern world felt like a joke. In what, 5 days/ They can move around in the modern world like they were born there? -.- Next, it felt like they set up lots of stuff like career for the ML, acting for the twins, medicine stuff for the MC, the MC's original family who treated him badly, but then they made the MC change his mind to just have fun sightseeing. It felt like lots of things were left hanging kinda. Then, very quickly they went back to the ancient world again, the end.
Themes/What Story Tried to Achieve
I think the author meant for this novel to be pure wish fulfilment and self-indulgent for themselves haha. There are so many tropes in here that some do feel out of place. I was expecting a mostly farming/business making story but it has more stuff. First was the golden finger space of the MC. This is Ancient China so I was expecting like 85% of the story to be kinda realistic and 15% of the story to be able to happen because of the golden finger. So I thought this space was the golden finger. But then we get cultivators with all the related cultivator elements like pills, moving the Force, controlling other people, spirit sensing, soul leaving the body, illusions, flying, etc. This was kind of a genre clash for me but eh, I went with it. After that, we find out the old man who thought the ML fell through space to get there so he was the only cultivator in the world at that point so then I felt, wow, now there are space time elements too? So then it feels not realistic anymore but it's not really a fantastical setting because really only the main couple uses these fantastical elements. Not only are there too many and too clashing, they've been expanded way too little. Like it just says, there are pill refining and tool refining workshops and books but this was told in like one sentence and all the processes and ingredients and whatnot weren't explained at all. This happened for basically every golden finger except the business parts. So I really wished the author had just stuck to farming and making money because that was the most interesting to read! And actually relateable haha
It can feel self-indulgent, as I said, some parts feel like fanfiction to me. An example is when the couple made a stable high income and finally got good clothes, the description of those clothes and how amazing the author described definitely felt like fanfiction because it was only then that the author really described anyone's clothing in that much detail lol. And then they added all those tropes I said above to give the couple as many good things as possible. So much emergency money, the mystical space that was actually created by a random artificer and alchemist from dunno where that was never spoken of again, intelligent pets that can also cultivate, babies bron from 2 male parents, cultivator powers in a non-cultivator world, a mysterious past ML etc etc.
Pacing
As you can tell, the first half felt smooth more or less but then the ending felt kinda messy and in the end, quite rushed like the author just wanted to end it lol. Also, since from almost the beginning, we knew that the ML had saved a lot of money, there really is no urgency to make money. Just to have a peace of mind to have steady cashflow. I didn't really mind because it is slice of life and they could still live better.
Characters
The MC and ML were likeable. I really loved the first half when the 2 of them were cultivating feelings with each other, getting to know each other, taking action to improve their lives together and just spending time during holidays together. It was wholesome to read about haha.
The side characters are unique and nice to follow. The 2 kids that appear halfway through the story are also developed haha. It is too bad the village characters got left behind after the 2nd half. Then we don't really spend that much time with any side characters anymore unless you count the Emperor which I don't. He's kind of a villain to me since he made it so the main couple had to leave the village.
As for the bad guys, they were satisfying by making drama everywhere and I liked seeing them get beat down by the MC effortlessly hahaha. It's just that their final end all happened suddenly, randomly and offscreen. It's like living with a roar and then dying with a whimper. We don't personally see their end. The MC gets to know what happened to them from a 3rd party for all of these bad guys. So that wasn't satisfying. They were all conveniently taken out of the story just like that.
Overall
Overall, despite all the negative things I wrote above, I enjoyed my time reading this story. The first half alrd justified my time haha. It was interesting, there is a lot of delicious food, lots of cosy heartwarming scenes with the ML, etc. I did not feel like I wanted to stop reading at any point. I know this is no literary masterpiece and I am only here for my guilty pleasure, poor to rich, farming and business making tropes haha. As long as the main couple are halfway likeable, the writing doesn't break my immersion, and I can ignore everything else.
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CN (4.3)
477 Chapters Every 78.4 Day(s) 10061 Readers 124 Reviews 06-02-2022
3.8 Stars... more>>
Overall
It was an okay story, I really liked the business parts when she was just a clothing shop seller. I felt like I was with her with grit and gogogo energy and kids to pick up from school. The selling techniques and promotions were so detailed. But after she partnered with the super wealthy best friend, it never got to that level of intensity anymore because the partner was doing most of the work. The company got so big that I couldn't imagine it anymore. Also, the capital came from the partner, the people came from the partner, it was like everything was handled by that partner. After that, the money numbers dramatically increased in scale and were just never shown anymore because they were too big. So basically, after she joined up, the business side lost interest for me. After that happened, there is just no more tension in the story. I think one of the reasons is also that her partner was the driving force and the ambitious one of the partnership, not the MC.
Other than that, I feel like the business side and the family/romance side felt too separated. The vibe during business and the vibe with the family/romance feels like 2 people. When the MC was doing business, she felt like a confident career woman. When hanging out with the family and romance, I don't feel that personality at all. I just read the Back to the Sixties, Creating Wealth, Raising Cubs story and the MC there has such a strong willed personality that is present no matter what the situation. Even when she's scared, she's still strong-willed. Here, it didn't feel the same.
Translation/Writing
The translation I read is by Fringe Capybara. The translation is very good, no careless mistakes that I can remember. There was a repeated couple of paragraphs once but it wasn't annoying. The flow was good except that the chapters were shorter than normal because the raws were broken up more. Hardly any idioms.
Plot
We follow the MC find a way to divorce the ex and get all his money, sets up a clothing shop for income and achieves marital bliss at the end of the story. The business satisfaction for me ended around halfway through the story because it got so big I felt no urgency or goal anymore. The goal was romance but as the reader I didn't realise it, so I kept waiting in vain for the business part to get interesting again.
Pacing
I felt the transitions between work and life were a bit jarring. The ending part felt a bit slow because the business felt like the achievement had already been accomplished. So the latter half felt a bit aimless. So that left the romance which was okay.
Characters
I liked the MC. She felt super relatable at the beginning, spinning like a top doing everything. Then, she became a boss and was so calm haha. The kids were cute and I wish they had bigger roles and more screen time like at the beginning, when they were the only important characters in the MC's life. The ML is cute and I like him. Whenever he talks about his life in the army, I tear up because the way the author wrote his feelings made me emphasise so much haha.
For the kids' friends' mums, they have so much screen time and always appear but I don't like them! They are typical moms who are slightly b*tchy. The way they were portrayed and introduced, I thought they would be good friends with the MC and have heartwarming female friendships but it was your typical comparing moms. They get jealous, they talk behind the back a bit, they brag a bit, they are superior a bit. I mean, they aren't the bad guys in the story but sigh. It wasn't really pleasant reading about them because they don't wholeheartedly want the MC to succeed. They didn't want her to fail either but it was more that they also want to earn a lot of money so they also all asked the MC secretly if they could also open a clothing business. I didn't understand but it seems this type of friend copying the pioneer's business is common in China? They see a friend do something amazing in business, then they ask that friend how to do it too. I feel like they can't come up with their own business idea? Too unoriginal. They didn't do the hard work because the friend already had the answer.
As for the bad guys, the faceslapping was okay. It wasn't as satisfying as in the Ugly Husband where it is super satisfying! The MC straight up commits violence hahaha. Here, it's overall kind of mild. Mostly because the MC cuts contact and a lot is handled by the Third brother so separated by a wall. The rest are handled by schemes using other people. However, the author reused the 'take a picture of the deed red handed and give them out like flyers' a lot so it got a bit repetitive.
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CN (4)
233 Chapters Every 39.5 Day(s) 1544 Readers 19 Reviews 01-06-2024
3.8 Stars... more>>
Date Read: 8/5/2024
Personal Enjoyment: 3.9/5
Happy to find another poor-to-rich story with lots of business ideas. Pretty long too. However, there wasn't a lot on the emotional side of things that would have carried the story more and covered up a lot of the poor parts of the story. There wasn't much time spent on the relationships. The MC side is even less so. The poor parts need to have suspension of disbelief lol. The modern technology brought over starred bicycles y'all. I enjoyed it enough for the money making and business side nonetheless though it could have been a lot better. I can understand why the rating is more than those 3+ stars but not higher than 4 now haha. It really fits.
Short Summary: 30-year-old assassin transmigrates into some ancient China-esque era as a widow with 5 young dependents, 2 of whom are the eldest just a married couple. She strong-arms her way into living richly in the countryside through a lot of poor-to-rich business ideas. Along the way, she also solves everyone's problems because they keep coming to her for solutions. Zero romance, she remained a widow until the end.
Plot: 3.9/5
The whole plot is pretty long actually which I liked. The poor-to-rich aspect was nice and a bit more detailed than others. Despite this though, a lot of the midway business ideas started to feel unbelievable. Even for this type of story. The MC is OP. She knows a lot of random knowledge in a lot of detail enough to replicate them in this backwards era from scratch. Bicycles for example. Waterways too. Why would she need to know such things lol.
The story also has the usual capital and war plot even though she doesn't move to the capital at all. Luckily, it really is only at the very end. Not a fan of war so I wasn't interested at all.
There are other inconsistencies that you just have to take with a grain of salt. Like everyone commenting how very different the MC is but never justifying the change in behaviour even in their heads.
Writing/Translation: 3.8/5
The translation I read is from akkNovel. Some minor translation mistakes like Bay instead of family branch or something similar. Overall it is pretty understandable with only some minor hiccups when the name is the wrong person but from context, I could understand the correct person.
Also, some of the naming is left untranslated so I'll explain here a bit. There are 4 sons so Da is big, Da Zhuang is the eldest son who's married. Er means 2nd so any combination of Er something is the 2nd son. San is 3 so San anything is the 3rd son. Sometimes the author appends Er to the end of the name and this is an affectionate suffix. Xiao Si is Little Four so he's the 4th and youngest son. The translator didn't make it clear and the names can become one word or three words.
Pacing: 3.7/5
Some of the business stuff was pretty detailed but some felt like the achievement came, was done and is on to the next one in a short amount of time. Or the story just didn't elaborate on the time in between business ideas so it felt fast. Again, this might have been fixed or be more hidden if the author had added some genuine family heartwarming scenes with feelings to take place between businesses.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 3.8/5
Because it is so long, there was some variety in the setting. The village, town, county, border, palace, mountains, forests etc. Unfortunately, most of them are pretty generic. But some places do get expanded apun like the MC’s home, the mountains and a few others. Still could have been better.
Characters: 3.7/5
Characters are all mostly one note. The minor young adult antagonists had a bit of character development and were more fun for me than any of the good guys lol. The MC is quite OP and every single person is heavily dependent on her. So they never come up with their own thing. It never got annoying like some other similar stories but it was noticeable.
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CN (4.6)
67 Chapters Every 150.1 Day(s) 13449 Readers 370 Reviews 07-02-2019
3.8 Stars... more>>
Overall
This was short, I finished it in a day. I enjoyed it to kill time. I cried a bit at the beginning for the poor MC and was a bit anxious(good writing style there haha) when the MC tried to handle all the bad future things for the people he liked previously. The family stuff was kinda cute. The showbiz was semi-interesting. The romance was soso but I liked the MC.
Translation/Writing
I read the translation from White Sky Translations. The translation is very good, you can tell the translator is fluent in English and Chinese. There are only very minor typos like a missing letter in a word but this happens rarely. The writing style, not sure if it is because of the translator or if this is really how the original Chinese text is, but it is a bit serious. There aren't any throwaway lines or scenes. Of course, this is no literary masterpiece or anything haha so don't set your expectations too high.
Plot
We follow our MC live his life from 10 years ago and makes better choices for himself. We follow him go from a little star to an international one but that happens in the extras lol. In the meantime, we see how he forms a family with the ML and his child.This didn't take long to happen though.
Themes/What Story Tried to Achieve
This is a showbiz story and luckily, the MC only focuses on acting. The author didn't add being idols and singing and writing for the MC too. This story is short so we know in relatively more detail about like 4 acting gigs but the rest were only told not shown. There were some thoughts on how the MC planned his acting and what/how to act but not anything new. I enjoyed these parts enough.
For the romance, I didn't really get the beginning. The MC basically sold himself to pay his brother's debt at the start and we know why the ML started liking him was because he stubbornly refused him. But since he sold himself at the start, I don't really see how he continued to like him. Basically, I wasn't really convinced of their relationship. All the bonding that seemed to happen was during s*x. But the s*x was all euphemism, brief and fade to black. While I am happy to not read it because it seems the ML is a typical super dominant with little care for the MC in bed type of person so I don't want to read all that, the cons are that I didn't really get any bonding scenes at all. The ML will go to his place 5 days a week at night for s*x. And the food scenes are quite short, just that the MC cooks, and the ML is possessive of his food and loves pancakes with spring onions. No bonding activities there. So when the MC had feelings for the ML a bit further on, I didn't feel it. However, I did manage to just accept that they really liked each other and go with the flow lol.
Pacing
I felt it was all normal until we got the highest achievement for the MC in the main story. But the main story didn't end there but instead focused on dealing with the main bad guy of his previous life in his current life once and for all. This part got pretty boring for me. There were lots of chapters just on him encountering all the traps by the ML. I just didn't care about him at all so I was wondering if this was finally where I dnfed a story that was almost at the end lol.
Characters
I liked the MC. He's quiet and went through a lot in addition to having a condition. But he's hardworking to continue acting and it's likeable to read about how serious he is about it.
The ML is a typical caring, possessive rich businessman gangster seme that unexpectedly has a little kid. I was quite moved by him at the end of the MC's previous life (I even cried for him!) but then I had a bad impression of his actions before that. He forced himself on the MC while the MC was drunk at the club, fresh out of college in a bad situation and kept playing around with him just for fun. He honestly sounded like a villain in his previous life?? I think this was also part of why I didn't jive with the romance at the beginning. He was in a very good position to help the MC then but didn't. And in the end, all the bad things piled up on the MC until he died. But the ML was right there. Sigh.
The little kid is cute though haha. And kinda dumb lolol Added many heartwarming scenes to the story. Also, he made the ML have a warmer side. With him, also came his little best friend haha. Some of the outtakes in the chapters are quite cute.
The bad guys. Hmm. There is the MC's family, the ML's family, the first love of the ML and the ex from the previous life. The ML's family was all plotting to bring down the ML for power in the family. This was the dangerous part. I didn't really care about them because they didn't show up much. Also, it wasn't personal, they just wanted power by getting rid of the highest contender.
For the MC's family, it was more personal. However, with the MC's regular attitude and outlook in life, he just goes on to live his life. He doesn't go out of his way to personally make them go down. But it's the ML that plans it all out to make them miserable. So the MC doesn't really do anything much and all the bad things kinda happen a bit too offscreen for me. It's too bad, I wanted faceslapping hahaha.
For the first love, as a bad guy he was more effective and present in the story for our MC. We also have some plot with him. The ML was really angry and I felt it too haha. It's too bad there weren't any screaming and yelling denial to the ML's face. In the end, he was just resigned, which was a bit anticlimactic for me.
As for the ex from the previous life, I really didn't feel much. Honestly, all the bad things he did to the Mc that made me mad happened in the previous life. Not the current one so all the traps and planning from the ML just didn't hit the spot for me. I mean, he barely had any interaction with the MC anymore because the MC cleanly removed himself from him. I feel that they are strangers. He doesn't appear all that much too. So, when the author dedicated quite a few chapters to his downfall at the end of the story, I was quite bored and wanted to skip it. We follow his POV as he falls into the trap set by the ML. I don't like him so why would I enjoy his POV.
Random Notes
I am quite appreciative that the author did some research on investments and didn't just stick in ohhh, he's good at looking at the stock market and can make millions. Investing in the stock market doesn't work like that. Picking stocks like that is just putting all your eggs in way too few baskets. Always diversify. What this story did, is use future knowledge to determine which companies made it big, there is evidence. Then, the ML did the oil thing, and also has evidence. There were also some doubts expressed by the characters themselves that they were outsiders. They had no knowledge of the particular industry they were doing business in for investment, so what if they just didn't know enough to manage? I loved this added detail haha They also have MLMs and real estate. It just shows that there is more than just picking stocks or day trading (honestly all just gambling) to be considered investing.
Also, the wordpress website where the translation is hosted, the background is black and the words are light in colour. You can't change the theme unless you login and read the post in Reader which has black words on white bg but you have to keep doing this for each chapter. I didn't want to read with a black bg because I feel that it makes everything darker and more serious than I wanted. But it is a bit annoying to keep reading in Reader. Also, there is a bar at the bottom of the screen blocking the webpage a bit. You can collapse it but it doesn't disappear.
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CN (4.6)
#91Golden Stage
0 Chapters Every 1866 Day(s) 14051 Readers 197 Reviews N/A
3.8 Stars... more>>
Hmm, what to say, the MC and ML's relationship is fantastic! Healthy respect, love and communication! So rare in this medium haha No s*upid misunderstandings or super denseness in sight. They are mature adults here everyone :D But, the plot is kind of eh. I was pretty hooked in the 1st half ish but slowly my interest dwindled down. Why? Because I don't know what the drive of the story is. If it was the romance, they solved all their issues and really got together by the 70% point ish alrd (the building up and interactions up to then were so good haha) The plot and the mystery were sufficient instigators for the worldbuilding of ancient China's daily life too. But then, we get the war and the fighting parts and.. this has literally no impact for me. It was all pretty much just glazed over in a few chapters and just made them separate for some chapters. Then, with the snap of a finger, the MC recaptured the capital and they were reunited, yay. But the separation didn't really add anything? Except for the MC's hold the world on his shoulders attitude, which is intelligently challenged by the ML I guess. It doesn't really change anything in his actions though, so I feel like it has no impact. So I kinda got bored haha
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CN (4.5)
0 Chapters Every 2520 Day(s) 7644 Readers 70 Reviews N/A
3.87 Stars... more>>
Writing/Translation: 4/5
The translation I read is from Chrysanthemum Garden. The translation is pretty good, as expected. There were only a few minor errors, with about one every 40 chapters.
Pacing: 3.7/5
The pace feels connected to the plot for me. Since the plot is a bit meandering (because there isn't really a main determined goal that the characters are striving for). There was no discernible up- or down-pacing. Not sure how to judge it really lol.
Plot: 3.7/5
It’s quite chill, this story haha. The ML has amnesia but no one is really worried about him getting his memories back. The MC and ML are fine either way, so any actions to get back his memories are treated as a chance to go on dates lol. The plot, as mentioned, is kind of meandering. The story is just narrating what is happening in their lives now and how they deal with it. The main focus is the cute romance of the main couple. The ML lost his memories except for the knowledge that the MC is the one he intrinsically loves. So it's like when they first started dating without the ML’s slight jadedness.
Romance: 4.5/5
The romance is cute, haha. The couple is already together, so they are refreshingly happy, open, natural and excited in their interactions with each other. I love it haha.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 3.8/5
The worldbuilding is a normal modern-world entertainment novel setting. The level of detail is typical of other web novels. I don't really have much to say about it.
Characters: 3.8/5
The main characters are okay. Normal side characters in a web novel. I like how some are unique enough to keep my attention, such as the Emperor and Empress Couple. Apparently, they are the main characters from another novel by the author. Compared to other high-quality web novels though, they could still be improved on.
Personal Enjoyment: 3.6/5
I enjoyed it enough that I finished it, although I had to push myself a few times. This story is a wonderfully lighthearted and enjoyable read. Nothing bad really happens and all the events were rather smilingly cute. The genre/plot point isn't really my thing which is why it isn't 4+ but there was really nothing bad about it.
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CN (4.2)
103 Chapters Every 72.7 Day(s) 2435 Readers 13 Reviews 09-03-2022
3.77 Stars... more>>
Writing/Translation: 4/5
The translation I read is from Inky Dragon Translation up to C22 and the rest by Ars BL Translation up to C91. The first one was a bit spotty and the 2nd was better. Both are far better than MTL.
Pacing: 3.6/5
The pacing is a bit uneven. There are some small timeskips between each arc or event, and that is a bit sudden.
Plot: 3.6/5
The exciting parts are actually nice. The ant nest part was rather exciting and my favourite part of the story, surprisingly. However, all the buildup or mystery of the bad guys felt almost self-sabotaged by the author. The MC doesn't know, and when I read it, I felt like, wow, so mysterious. Who killed the parents? Who is the big bad? What is up with the ML’s background? And then the author shows the bad guys pov and they explain all the mystery then. So I already got the answer, while the MC didn't. Felt a bit weird.
Romance: 3.5/5
I just don't find the romantic relationship compelling so I have this odd aversion to them. I have read other stories by this author before and some of them have this kind of shou. The quiet, timid or naive type of shou that instantly devotes themselves to the MC until I feel it is too overly dependent. And then the shou grows or gains character development not typical of a shou in BL, becomes powerful and then uses this new-found strength to wholeheartedly please the MC. This makes the relationship feel a bit stiff and kinda make believe a little bit. The author made the reasons for the romance so obvious, I cannot get into it lol.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 4/5
The setting is kind of cool. I just wish it all felt as vibrant and real as in the Stone Age Raising husband journal story. That was so vivid haha. But this has worldbuilding and cool monsters.
Characters: 4/5
Personal Enjoyment: 3.7/5
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CN (4.1)
102 Chapters Every 67.3 Day(s) 3444 Readers 42 Reviews 01-30-2023
3.77 Stars... more>>
Date Read: 3/5/2024
Personal Enjoyment:
I liked it enough. Was pretty immersed and engaged with the whole story. Didn't have any point where I wanted to stop so that's good. I liked the MC and how cunning he was. I just wish there were more small clashes where he can show off his smarts and faceslapping haha. There were some parts where the big actions were all done off-screen. But overall, I enjoyed myself.
Short Summary: Reborn MC goes back to when he was six to atone for his previous life's actions of taking down the Mu family by making sure they are happy this time. Along the way, he gets together with a bystander-ish person that he never "won" against. When he is in high school onwards, he also starts to live for himself too. MC is very cunning and smart.
Plot: 3.8/5
The plot was ok I suppose? I do wish we spent more on the school setting and I can see all his interactions and manoeuverings in more detail to take over the school lol. It felt glossed over and we get the aftermath only. Same with the fiance situation. We got a time skip and the beginning of after the time skip was where we find out what he did to overcome the situation. The only big action thing that happened was the kidnapping situation at the end. It was just the ML part after that that started to become a bit too odd. The placement of his deal was after that huge climactic kidnapping. But the Mc didn't succeed in doing as much to help the ML as that huge kidnapping situation so that felt odd.
Writing/Translation: 3.46/5
The translation I read is from Iso Hungry Translation from C1-C19. 3.7/5. It was okay, there were some pronoun and name mistakes which made me a bit confused at the start when I was still learning all the different characters and their attitudes. It was getting a bit worse at the end that I was getting annoyed.
The rest I read from MidnightRambles. 3.4
5. This one has a distinct edited MTLflavour. There were noticeable grammar errors. Same with pronoun errors. Lots of confusing sentences. A teeny bit better than pure MTL but the MTL is surprisingly very understandable. It also has the issue of missing text at the end of some chapters. As one of the reviewers said, it is super frustrating. But, this is solved by just opening the raws on Shubaow and checking there if anything is too confusing or for the missing end texts. This wasn't anywhere near a dealbreaker for me. The story is also enjoyable enough and worth the trouble for my taste.
*C35, 38, 39, 47, and 86 have some missing text at the end. I may have forgotten some chapters. Need to go to the raws and Google translate the missing text.
The author's writing as mentioned by another reviewer kind of jumps around. I didn't really find it annoying but I can understand why they did. Many a time did I find myself double-checking if I missed some text when starting a new chapter because the author jumps to the next scene and it sometimes feels like we missed something. But continue reading and usually, it will get explained from context what had happened. Other than this case, unfortunately, the TL did miss the ending text in some chapters so that feeling of missing something is really because we did miss something lol.
Pacing: 3.8/5
As mentioned above, the pacing can feel a bit at the start of a new chapter. I solved it for myself by opening the raws in another tab with Google translate and checking it whenever I felt like I missed something. The author's style of jumping didn't annoy me so that wasn't an issue. Other than the time skip in the middle and the Ml background at the end, the pacing was not too bad.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 3.6/5
It was so-so. I was looking forward to some university setting but that got time skipped. The school and class setting were also not shown. It was all kinda generic so. Just lots of houses and home.
Characters: 3.9/5
I like the characters. The likeable ones were cute and likeable like the family and the others were deep and mysterious. And the antagonists were annoying and their screen time wasn't frustrating.
I like the MC! He was a sympathetic and hardworking character yet also a smart and cunning person. I love the relationships he has with his family. I wish we had more of the sister though. That hard conversation he had with her was so good! I wanted a more badass sister haha.
Romance: 3.8/5
The romance is okay. I like the different dynamic here where the MC who had such a hard life and was so villainous who I thought was the shou is actually the gong. The cool, genius and untouchable ML is the shou. But I didn't feel the ML completely changed character after getting together. I liked that part. The conflict they had was also short-lived. The smut scenes are not explicit here and are very by the way, they did the do.
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CN (4.3)
#95Jubo
322 Chapters Every 76.7 Day(s) 5953 Readers 29 Reviews 03-03-2023
3.76 Stars - Completed Main Story but no Extras... more>>
Writing/Translation: 3.9/5
The translation I read is from Crescent Moon C1-55 and Closed Window C55-321. The rest I MTLed with Google Translate from random Chinese websites. Overall, the translations were good. And the MtL was very readable. The writing is pretty simple and short so even if the sentences are wonky, they're easy to understand.
Pacing: 3.7/5
The beginning and the end were too fast and perfunctory. But the long middle was pretty even.
Plot: 3.6/5
I went back and forth on how high or low to rate the plot because, objectively, it's super simple. Lots of shallow-ish faceslapping. But it was very entertaining lol. Basically, I have a lot of issues with the story but I can't deny that I read it to the end nonstop because of the faceslapping haha.
Okay, so I almost dropped the story at the beginning because it was very much a tell not show. It got much better 40-50 short chapters in but it was almost a dealbreaker in how poorly it tried to get the readers to care about anything or anyone at the start. There was like one sentence of dialogue every couple of chapters at the beginning. That was how much telling instead of showing was done. Like writing an essay lol. The ending ish was all wrapped up and it was quite tell not show too. I really wanted to read the extras to find out about the adoptive family members but couldn't find them.
The rest of the plot was easy to keep reading about because of all the faceslapping haha. It was satisfying enough because the bad guys always lose in every encounter. It's just that this means each bad guy's action was rather small and shallow. It got better in the end though. All the poor-to-rich business-making parts, which are my favorites in stories, were also rather shallowly done. It felt easy to accomplish, and there was no detail in the prices, salary, costs, profit, etc. It was all vague, big numbers which were too bad.
One issue I have is how short every chapter is. This was especially annoying at the beginning when you were trying to get invested in everything and were also trying to learn who was who and what was what. But the chapters are so short and the writing is so perfunctory with no personality that it was hard to continue. I persevered though.
Another issue I had was all the silent gender inequality happening. It's not obvious, but 90% of the villains are women, and the only good women are family. Also, do not appreciate just how many times the MC commented that he and the ML aren't women, so their feelings aren't delicate and etc etc. There were lots of "they aren't women after all.".
Romance: 3.3/5
The romance, eh. It is better than normal just because there is communication between the two and they have an effect on each other. But the MC or the shou is constantly getting the bottom treatment in the romantic relationship. The business relations part was pretty even but there were constant innocuous comments that the ML would do the MC; the MC has been ravaged by the ML not once, not twice but etc times. And one of the most annoying parts was that everyone in the world except the Mc expected the Mc to carry the baby. Everyone kept saying only if the MC has a child. But there was zero comment about the ML being the one to have a child except the MC. It's only after so many people saying to the MC to have a kid that the ML said it's okay if he doesn't want to but for me, that is way too late.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 4/5
Not bad. There were lots of places in the story even if they weren't explored in a lot of detail. And here were also lots of inheritance stuff and business politics.
Characters: 4/5
The characters all have personalities and their own relationships that are unique. Pretty good.
Personal Enjoyment: 3.8/5
In spite of all my issues, I was still engaged throughout the entire story haha
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CN (4.4)
167 Chapters Every 28.8 Day(s) 3926 Readers 55 Reviews 05-31-2024
3.74 Stars... more>>
Date Read: 24/2/2025
Personal Enjoyment: 3.5/5
Hmm, what to say? The story is exactly what the title says. So it was kinda slow for the first ¾ of the story. I think all the poignant words flew over my head. Or maybe the TL was a bit too over-edited. It probably makes more sense in Chinese. It felt like things ended weirdly, there was a whole lot of one party asking questions and the other party just didn't answer or ignored it. That felt weird. I couldn't really understand what the character was doing for a good chunk of the story. It was also kinda frustrating how the romance was progressing for like the first half. It was so slow and kinda messy actually. Like the MC didn't make it 100% clear to shut down all other love interests. He just like, smiled, ignored them and didn't show on the page his refusal. Except for that Zheng Heir. It made it a bit harder to root for him 100%. Ofc, I do realise now it was because of his depression at the time. But well, it was my reading enjoyment and I wasn't enjoying those parts.
Plot: 3.7/5
It's mostly an exploration of the MC’s day-to-day life after getting his second chance and dealing with the slow romance with his old lover and all of the baggage that came from his death. My thoughts are above.
Writing/Translation: 3.7/5
The translation I read is from 98novels. There were zero grammar or spelling mistakes that I noticed. But not sure if it was the translation or the original text was really like that. I felt I didn't quite get what was happening sometimes. There were a lot of “He smiled politely” or avoiding questions weirdly. I guess that was what the MC meant by his abnormalities? But he never said it explicitly so who knows.
This is the same for the other characters like Zhengfei or the adoptive dad. For Zhengfei, sometimes I couldn't even understand if he was being mean or had bad intentions or not.
Pacing: 3.5/5
The first half was kinda slow. I mostly really enjoyed it when the ML came back and Halley was born. Then I enjoyed it until the end.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 4/5
Quite nice.
Characters: 4/5
Everyone has their own lives. That was nice. You can feel it's a whole world. Are the characters good people? Eh, kinda debatable lol. All the people are just normal people.
Romance: 3.8/5
The romance was good I guess? I did not like how it started in the second life. It felt very messy emotionally from the MC side. But the writing did make me feel that they do love each other.
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CN (4)
127 Chapters Every 16.8 Day(s) 2407 Readers 26 Reviews 12-23-2024
3.74 Stars... more>>
Date Read: 20/2/2025
Personal Enjoyment: 3.5/5
Something inoffensive to pass the time. I admit, feeling kinda lazy to do a full writeup for this.
Plot: 3.3/5
As the author said, it's not that logical, don't think too much on it.
Writing/Translation: 4.8/5
The translation I read is from Chrysanthemum Garden so of course it's good.
Pacing: 3.7/5
I didn't drop it so the pacing kept me going until the end.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 3.7/5
Normal amount of detail for Chinese entertainment style light novels.
Characters: 3.5/5
Honestly, the main characters were kinda bland. I do like that all the side characters felt like their own character with their own motivations.
Romance: 3.7/5
The romance is okay. I like they didn't just hit that right away. But it was still insta-lovey. I can really see why they like each other.
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