The Rebirth of the Malicious Empress of Military Lineage

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Shen Miao, the Di daughter of a military family, was pure, quiet, gentle, and gracious. Because of her foolish love for Prince Ding, she forced her way into becoming his wife.

After six years of assisting her husband, she finally became the mother of the world: The Empress.

She had stayed with him during the fight for dominion over the empire and during the efforts to expand its territory. She even went so far as to put herself in danger and be taken hostage by a neighboring empire. In spite of this, when she returned to the Imperial Palace five years later, she no longer had a place in the Imperial Harem.

That beautiful woman he kept in his embrace gave her a bright, stunning smile and told her, “Older Sister, the country has settled down. It is time for you to step back as well.”

Her daughter died tragically and her son the Crown Prince was deposed. No one in her Shen family, who had been completely loyal to the Emperor, were spared. With arrival of a new reign, everything was overturned!

Shen Miao never thought that all of the perils they encountered as husband and wife, all of the assistance they gave each other mutually, were nothing but a joke in his eyes!

He told her, “Because you have been with this Emperor for more than two decades, this Emperor will allow you to keep an intact corpse. You should be grateful for this kindness.”

Beneath a meter of white silk, Shen Miao established a malicious oath: Once the day of reckoning arrives, every single one of you will die!

Once reborn, she returns to the year when she was only fourteen years old, a time when tragedy has not yet befallen, when her family still lived, and when she was still the pure, quiet, gentle, and gracious Di daughter of a military family.

Close relatives conceal evil intentions, her cousins are vicious and merciless, the new concubine is like tiger watching its prey and that scum wants the previous life’s events to be repeated?

Her family must be protected, the great enmity must be avenged, and the prize must include the empire’s imperial throne. In this lifetime, let us see who comes out on top!

But that Xie Family’s young marquis, that tyrannical and arrogant spear-wielding young man on horseback, stays stubbornly on her side and proudly declares, “It is merely toppling the Imperial Family. Do not forget, the world belongs to you, and you—you belong to me!”

The Thirteen Capitals of You Zhou: This belongs to you.

The Ding Yuan City in the North Desert: This belongs to you.

The Southern River of Yu Zhou, the Eastern Sea of Ding Xi, the Green Lakes of Lin’an, the Ancient City of Luo Yang: All of these belong to you.

“Xie Jing Xing, if all of this belongs to me, then can you tell me what you want?”

“Alright, I want you.”

Associated Names
One entry per line
Chong Sheng Zhi Jiang Men Du Hou
Rebirth of the Malicious Queen of Military Lineage (Mànhuà)
RMEML
The Rebirth of the Vengeful Empress from a Military Family
Tướng Môn Độc Hậu
Venomous Empress Reborn (Webnovel)
นางพญาท้ารบ
将门嫡女之定乾坤 (重生之将门毒后)
Related Series
The Rebirth of an Ill-Fated Consort (Shared Universe)
Rebirth of a Star General (Shared Universe)
Recommendations
The Princess Wei Yang (28)
Chongfei Manual (24)
Chu Wang Fei (14)
To Be A Virtuous Wife (10)
Eight Treasures Trousseau (10)
Mei Gongqing (9)
Recommendation Lists
  1. Best Female Protagonists
  2. 5 RATED HISTORICAL NOVEL
  3. Favorite B/G Historical Novels
  4. MLs in Grayscale
  5. The BEST Historical Novels (BG only)

Latest Release

Date Group Release
05/26/21 verdantscribe c11
05/17/21 verdantscribe c10
04/20/21 verdantscribe c9
04/20/21 verdantscribe c8
04/19/21 verdantscribe c7
04/18/21 verdantscribe c6
04/17/21 verdantscribe c5
04/19/21 verdantscribe c4
04/14/21 verdantscribe c3
04/14/21 verdantscribe c2
08/19/19 Zazajunnie ss 2 part2
08/15/19 Zazajunnie ss 2 part1
08/08/19 Zazajunnie ss 3 part2
08/05/19 Zazajunnie ss 3 part1
07/29/19 Zazajunnie ss 4
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iheartlasagna
iheartlasagna rated it
September 7, 2022
Status: Completed
I actually read this because of all the good reviews. The first half was awesome... the MC’s backstory, her plans to counter the plots against her were attention grabbing. MC’s thoughts and melancholy about her choices, her parents and children in her past life, you can sympathize with her emotions. The vicious way she dealt with her enemies and their comeuppance was really satisfying. It was a real page turner.

BUT then, it felt like the author only thought of the story’s structure on the first half and winged it on... more>> the second. The ML’s backstory, his actions, the sequence of events after they got together, their “love story”... there were just too many plot holes, and I mean crater sized plot holes. It felt like the writer forgot to make an outline on how to smoothly transition everything to an end.

This story is still an interesting read, that’s why I gave it 3 stars... that’s for the first half of the story. I had to withhold the 2 stars because the second half was just meh. <<less
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Devrai
Devrai rated it
December 12, 2021
Status: ss 2 part2
From top to flop. Started out awesome but went down to soap opera level, flatter than a pancake.

In the beginning FL is rather awesome and the scheming is superb. I usually don't like all those schemings but this was done really great. She really with a part of family and even brought down a prince. I felt like this is going to be awesome and couldn't wait to see how she schemes the whole world against her enemies.... but it never happened. After chapters 80 to 90 it went... more>> downhill. Back to scheming the family but the greater things were like forgotten. Then there started the novel to repeat itself... archery again? Abduction again? Hubby to the rescue again? It felt a bit like the writer changed our never really planned beyond the first part because the good scheming became boring interludes and basically everything was resolved by hubby. They didn't even really do anything to the emperor family... the writer changed location (country) and reasons that FL can't scheme since she doesn't know the people so hubby is bringing down two families but you will not exactly see how. There are no details like in the beginning and the revenge with her enemies? Yeah just go and have a war...

The timberline went bogus a lot... like a year long pregnancy. There were story inconsistencies like in the first part all were looking for "that thing" but writer forgot about it and you will never learn what it was or if it really was important. Also ppl that were alive 20 years later needed now to die because FL needs to end up as Empress. That s**ked big time. Writer set up some good things but didn't went through with them and all fizzled out, inserted instead sh*t like long sleep (aka comatose) for more than one person and for month on end, then waking up and being all right. Also a miracle- max guy that made it a bit strange.

The"romance" is.... mediocre. The relationship went down the soap opera road... it felt somewhat fake.

If this really is " the best novel ever" like some reviews state, then I do not want to read another one or you should read more.

5 starts for the first third

3 stars for the middle part

1 star for the later part and ending

3 stars (barely) for the couple dynamics

To long for such a boring ending. <<less
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Brasdf
Brasdf rated it
May 31, 2021
Status: c170
Too long, unlikable ML, but readable. Pretty good at the beginning and the translation is okay. Not very good, but fine (I'm still grateful dear translator). The newer translation is better, but is far from complete.

The novel starts well, but it gets bogged down in all the branching revenge subplots. The female lead was betrayed in her previous life by her extended family, few servants and some random hanger-ons that get introduced into the story later. That is like fifteen people at least and it takes way too long to... more>> get each one almost individually, sometimes several times. About a 100 chapters in, it becomes clear Shen Miao has every advantage over her family so things get boring and you just have to plow through hoping for some future challenge, but it just goes on and on. Worse, this is mostly due to the ML and not her own actual capabilies or her family acting together or anything with any emotional payoff.

Just get to the ninth prince and his vicious future concubine already.

The main problem though, is the main lead. He is too perfect and too useful. Minor spoilers ahead. Once he decides he likes Shen Miao, thouh it does take a while, there is basically no excitement to the plot. He is extremely beautiful (you will get one hefty paragraph every time he makes an appereance, often centering around his brows of all things. How beautiful can brows get?), extremely brilliant (currently unrivaled and truly almost at mind reading levels) , unbetable martial artist (also currently unrivaled) with magical powers like invisibility and telekinesis (how did he make those muffins and ink drop on the floor ? How did he throw a person into the middle of a lake while pretending to be strolling with a whole company of people and no one noticed?) , a genius general (I don't know, but I'm guessing also unrivaled), extremely rich (money is no object), has the best intelligence services and (and this is a slight spoiler) is basically the second highest ranked person in the world politically and has the first one as an ally (probably).

It is tiresome just to list all his capablities. So just by being liked by him, Shen Miao won. She already has more power and authority than she ever had in the past, forget the contender for the Emperor's seat, she actually has more power than the kingdom's Emproer. I don't see why the ML can't just kill him and get things over with. So everything just gets boring.

Also, he is an arrogant a**hole. Not likable at all, unless your fantasies involve embodied perfection with a constant smirk pasted on without regard for personal boundareis or respect for other people. Honestly, I'm not even sure why he likes Shen Miao. Sure, it took a while, but it doesn't really feel like he is capble of love. Moreover, he completely dominates the relaitonship at this point. Where is my strong feamle character ? So I dropped this, not fun anymore.

By the way, I'm not saying there aren't other plot holes or silly issues, like Miao's impossibly perfect archery without ever practing in her new life, but those are things you can gloss over because they are fun to read. <<less
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bookmunchies
bookmunchies rated it
December 27, 2020
Status: ss 2 part2
Well, it's well written, and I mean, really nice writing style with interesting outline, but so many things are just, not good.

Charas keep contradicting themselves so their whole setting is off

-thinks the heavens must be righteous and is grateful but then doesn't believe in heaven

... more>> -say X is not like their parent described, then say they never saw X, legit like, 2 paragraphs down

-biao jie is good at martial arts, and bad at martial arts at the same time AT THE SAME TIME

-oh I don't judge people based off their station in life---- goes on to judge all concubine born, say it's only expected of concubine born when they do something bad, it's only natural that a singer would act like so

so many I just don't wanna count them all

The ML is not bad I guess, their story is likeable, especially when the connection is revealed. There's some small matters, but all in all a fine ML.

The classism is real, the depiction of all Shu born as vile, plus most women are despicable in one way or another And I mean, the plot really really hates women, especially ''low'' women, and legit most of them are ''low'' in one way or another. If you take out the mother, the empress of the other kingdom, the biao jie, the friend and the MC. There is only one who is shown somewhat neither this nor that, and that is the aunt.

A bit of a rant now

Spoiler

Parents are incompetent to allow her to live like that, I mean fine, you didn't want to raise her into a female general, for some reason, ok, but you just up and left without putting a few definitely loyal, older and higher ranked servants to make sure everything is well, and only arranged some random new woman to take care of a baby? Never checked on the quality of her life and how she gets by? Just ignored the fact that almost all the servants were changed? When you thought she was wearing things exclusively low quality didn't think to wonder how she come she only has that kind, or who made her think that was the best? Never inquired about her situation with her personal maids? Never thought to pick teachers for her when she was young? Yet saying bull like you wanted her to be a woman of the inner courtyard, like how do you suppose she does that when when she is exactly the kind of person they would look down on? When she changed and started disliking her brother, you just, went along with it and thought yeah ok, that's fine, and never spoke to her about it?

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Spoiler

She keeps blaming herself and calling herself an idiot when she knows she was raised to be one? And the only way she could save herself is unfortunately what brought later disasters but so what? There was no other way to escape a perverse, sadistic rapist her family wanted to offer her to, but to lose all reputation and go to the one person she knew who, to her knowledge, wasn't someone who looked down on her and relished in her suffering.

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juic3
juic3 rated it
November 3, 2020
Status: c60
Read this if you’re into a ton of mindless face slapping and dog blood. I personally love court intrigue and the various ways people try to outsmart each other in the name of survival/political gain/or just plain revenge. What I can’t stand is when the only good people in the narrative are the main characters & the people who support them?? Why is everyone so one dimensional and brainless?? Basically everyone is evil and attempts to drag the MC down and that only makes them look oh so virtuous and... more>> outstanding in comparison. There’s no depth to anyone but the MC so far and I can’t stand that. But I guess it’s pretty good if you’re just into power fantasy and clever ways to get revenge. Look elsewhere if you want any serious emotional engagement. <<less
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LampShader
LampShader rated it
June 20, 2020
Status: c50
It's what you'd expect. A bunch of build up of 'oh ML is so clever, oh MC is so mature.' But very... s*upidly done. Every chapter is more of the same and there's absolutely zero depth to any of the characters and 50 chapters in there's really no hint to a larger plot besides 'grow up and slap faces.' If that's what you want, have at it. It's good for a bit of a lark as long as you ignore the whole 'shu children are snakes who want to harm... more>> di children' and whatever.

Spoiler

But seriously, saying 'oh MC is bad at painting, but we'll give her first place on the painting exam' or 'oh the imperial family brainwashes children with music and MC amazingly interrupted the music from brainwashing everyone with an intentionally spilled cup of tea'... Like come on author, at least try. -_-

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2 stars because I can't begrudge a wish fulfillment novel for being a wish fulfillment novel. <<less
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Shuuka4ever
Shuuka4ever rated it
May 7, 2019
Status: Completed
This is a masterpiece!! Absolutely amazing! The characters the plots everything... this is the type of novel that makes me feel really sad and lonely one it’s finished. I almost cannot bear it.

Everything in this story is linked and every chapter is important. I’m in love with the male lead and I feel close to the female lead. She deserves this second change. I just finished it and I have mixed feeling. I wish I could continue reading...

It’s been a while since I found a novel as perfect as this... more>> one... what else can I say? I want to cry cuz I finished it... it will take time for me to let this emotions go..

I’ve been enchanted... <<less
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Boon
Boon rated it
May 30, 2018
Status: c1
The story may be brilliant but the translation quality is very poor. An editor picked it up at chapter 37 but the quality remained poor, and of 5-6 edited chapters I selected at random all of them had multiple mistakes in most paragraphs.

It is nowhere near as bad as machine translation, with the common mistakes being mostly incorrect tenses and misuse of singular/plural, but it is not at an acceptable reading level imo. I recommend that the editor open up a google document with all of the current chapters and... more>> allow the public to edit it.

This one is going into my TL needs an editor list. <<less
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Ginko
Ginko rated it
October 12, 2017
Status: c93
Score: 4.7

DO NOT cross Shen Miao!! I've read a number of novels where characters are ruthless, but these women are VICIOUS. There are so many positives that I will just say, it's worth your time to read this. The cons that made this into a 4.7 were : the initial overwhelming introduction of names and descriptions. I don't care about the tint of her skin, nor brightness of every other characters' eyes. Once you get into to the story, it's got you hooked. I knew the day I... more>> would be waiting for translations would arrive, but I'm still irritated. Definitely worth a read. <<less
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akstuben
akstuben rated it
August 7, 2022
Status: Completed
This novel had the potential to be absolutely amazing, and the first half or so of the novel was really enjoyable

The FL was likable and I enjoyed watching her scheme and plan out her revenge, it was satisfying and never felt undeserved. She was ruthless and all the plans she carried out were well clever and really satisfying. We were made to believe her intelligence through her actions, rather than just being told she was smart. A genuinely good protagonist in the earlier parts of the novel.

And I also quite... more>> liked her dynamic with the ML in the beginning, they were both suspicious and cautious of each other but never outright enemies. It got me invested in how the author would get the two of them together. I also liked how the two seemed to be evenly matched, they were both on the same level.

My issues arose when the romance became more prevent in the story. All of a sudden he had much greater status than her and he was smarter, stronger, and more capable than her. She no longer made plans for herself and she messed up the only plan she did attempt just so the ML could come and solves it for her.

This made what the story had been building up to feel rather meaningless. The enemy was easily defeated to show how cool and reliable the ML was and it was just anticlimactic. Everything she'd been putting so much time and effort into was just nothing- a problem easily solved by a smarter and stronger male character. It was quite frustrating to read- it made the parts of the novel that I really adored just feel meaningless as they ultimately built to nothing.

I kind of understand what the author was trying to do with this. How she's been overworking herself and is very stressed/overwhelmed and now that she has a husband she can rely on she can finally take a break and rely on him. But this message would have worked better if she just began working collaboratively with him on stuff, it would have been pretty fun to see them working together. Having her just let him do everything felt like the message was that she's married now so just needs to focus on being a good pretty wife. <<less
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Lunica
Lunica rated it
December 25, 2018
Status: c197 part2
I haven't completed reading this novel yet, but I really wanted to gush about how good it is and how much I love it.

First of all, this is exactly everything I wanted in my novels. An interesting intrigue plot set in ancient China? A domineering male lead who is also OP but loves and pampers the MC? A smart MC who is not unnecessarily ruthless and can set up traps for her enemies skillfully? Angst with lots of fluff?

At first sight, those don't sound impressive, because probably you also have... more>> read other novels with those things. Except the male lead is an as*hole who borders on rapist. And the MC's "smart"ness is really flimsy plot armor or deus ex machina or hand wave. And they drag the angst for 1000 chapters and her enemies are dumb etc etc.

Well I'm happy to say this novel is NONE of that. It gives you all the interesting and good things without any of that rubbish. I will list down all the good things and why you should read it in point form (I try to make it spoiler free.)

    1. The romance is very well done. First of all, the male lead doesn't randomly fall in love with her out of the blue. As the story progresses you can slowly see how his impression of her changes from just mild interest to falling in love with all of the main character and her traits. Which brings me to my next part:
    1. The main character is very well thought out. In the beginning you are given a basically prologue about her past and how she was badly treated and a foolish person and she made herself and the people suffer for it. That's where the angst comes in. Rather than turning her into some "strong" female character where they hand wave everything through a sense of justice, they make her turn into a quietly plotting female character who is not afraid to get her hands dirty to do what she needs to do to protect her family. Also to next point...
    1. Her actions and the storyline is very interesting and makes sense. Many a time you read novels where you don't know wtf is going to happen or the story seems to stagnate but the author is dragging it on. But in this novel, it never happens. Right at the beginning, you are given a clear idea on who is on her side and is not. You know right away she has to take revenge on those people, and the "how" is what you want to see.
    1. The revenge plans are written well and executed well. The "how" part of the story is probably one of the best. It's not overly mu*derous like some other stories, neither does it rely on deus ex machina. Often the MC will return exactly what is given to her to her enemies. And she does it with such a classy fashion, but also in a way that you know she has gone through hell to do it. She is really not afraid to gamble and win in the outcome. You will also be on the edge of your seat seeing how she executes her plans, it's really very ingenious. Reading some other novels, I could either predict how they exact revenge, or it was an impossible plan and the author pulled in some handwaving or bullsh*t to pass it. But with this novel, I could only guess what would happen once or twice. By the way, be careful reading some comments on the website as some comments DO spoiler what happens which takes the fun out of it. But it's still very interesting to see how exactly she does it, since when the comments do spoiler you, you'll still be like "I wonder how it got to that point".
    1. Finally, the angst is also very well done. You are given a brief outline in the prologue on why she wants revenge, but the author does a great job and gives small snippets of flashbacks at certain points in the story to make you truly feel the pain and also understand why she is so determined to go to the lengths she does.
      Spoiler

      Honestly, her not being able to see her two children who suffered in her past life makes me so sad. I almost cried during the part where she gave a burning lantern to them. She could revenge and do so much to protect her family this past life, but she couldn't save her two children ever. They died for the enemy's schemes and she could only watch in her past life, and in this life she can't do anything. Probably it's the only time our MC is so helpless : (

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    1. And finally finally finally, the translator is fantastic :D Shoutout to Zazaunnie and also to those editors!! Zaza updates really regularly, every Mon to Thurs and she has been translating the novel very steadily. I don't feel any hopelessness that she will drop it, because she has been very consistent with her schedule. The translation is also really good and clean, and the few translator comments don't break the flow but rather make you ROFL since they put it at really good points in story. She also cleanly translates all the awkard chinese terms and phrases, unlike some other translators that make me cough out blood with how much hanyupinyin they stuff into their translation. Like... I really don't need to know what is the hanyupinyin for mother-in-law, second cousin once removed, or whatever a cloud flying hairstyle is. I don't. Please just translate it into english and not make me open a goddamn glossary when I just want to read on my phone leisurely, not have a chinese lesson. Thankfully if you are like me, you can read this with 0 knowledge of chinese and you can be happy.
TL;DR: If you like shoujo / josei and are looking for a good revenge, reincarnation, intrigue + politics, set in ancient china story, like good female main characters: This is probably the one of the (if not) the best novel to read. It's just so good. Also note: this story is slow burn. If you like slow burn, you will love it because this is the epitome of it done well. If you don't, then you won't like it at all, because the author takes time to lay the ground works. It's never draggy, in fact this is the most concise and best use of cliffhanger, but if you don't enjoy slow burn you still won't like it. This is slow burn at it's finest.

Spoiler

By the way, I love XJX (male lead) xD He's just the right amount of overbearing and OP male lead, and also the way he pampers and teases the MC is just adorable. He does his job really well as a male lead.

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sukiyuki08
sukiyuki08 rated it
August 23, 2018
Status: c169
i just love it!

this is one of most well written novel that I know, love how the author describe scheme after scheme the protagonist take to exact revenge and return it tenfold?

buuuuttt... the most important thing is, thank you the translator for picking up the story as your project translation?
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autumnscarf
autumnscarf rated it
July 21, 2018
Status: Completed
Plot: 3/5. The author doesn't tie up very many loose ends and a lot of situations are contrived for better romantic tension. If you're looking for a novel which involves political schemes, it's not that great. This is a romantic novel.

Romance: 4/5 plenty of romantic tension between the MC/ML. A couple of secondary couples get some development.

MC: Likable but not especially impressive. This story is about the MC's personal journey and not that great about worldbuilding. I don't think the 'poisonous/malicious empress' title fits her that well given she's not... more>> really malicious at all.

ML: Likable but 80% of stuff that's important to his personal journey is just a reason for him and the MC to get close to one another. This has to do with the author not tying up loose ends.

General Cast: Doesn't get developed very much, which feeds into why this isn't really a good political novel. Especially the antagonists: they're mostly just selfish and out to get the MC for no real reason, which makes them kind of one-dimensional. The MC's ex and his family should be a lot more impressive than they are, but they pretty much don't put up a great fight. Most of the characters in this novel are a lot dumber than the ones in TPW. A lot of secondary characters don't really get arcs or resolutions.

I'm seeing a lot of comparisons to The Princess Weiyang here. I've listened to the audiobooks for both TPW and this novel. They both have their strengths, but Li Weiyang is definitely more vicious than Shen Miao. TPW is good at schemes, and LWY basically cleans up her own messes while borrowing the power of others or strategizing how to get that power for herself. TPW is better for people who like schemes and don't mind a weak romance, while this novel is more the opposite. There's a lot more chemistry between the MC and ML in this novel even though it's a slow burn.

This story's plots are weaker than the ones in TPW, and the first portion of the story involves the MC cleaning house, which in these rebirth novels tends to involve really annoying villains, so it takes some time to get good. By the time she gets around to dealing with national politics, she ends up relying a lot on her man rather than dealing with things herself. The ML is so OP he pretty much doesn't need her for political scheming. The latter half of the story is much more about their romance and the MC getting over her issues than about political scheming. However, the author portrays that pretty well.

Compared to TPW, I'd say this novel takes a little more time to get into it, just because the initial chapters are about how the antagonists are overtly annoying/evil and it takes a while until they get what's coming to them. I feel like I had to choke the first several chapters down and honestly it's probably okay to skim/skip the first ~15 chapters after the initial rebirth introduction if you're familiar with how rebirth novels tend to go. The main antagonists are also kind of disappointing compared to TPW in that the MC has designated enemies, but it's not really a novel-length chess match directly between her and them. The ones in TPW put up better fights. <<less
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FattyTabby
FattyTabby rated it
August 28, 2017
Status: c82 part2
The taste of spice, bitter and sweet is just nice.

Literally the true meaning of 'cunning protagonist', 'power couple', 'revenge', 'ruthless protagonist', 'second chance', and 'slow romance'.

Yes. Slow. Romance.

... more>> But it align nicely with the plot. Everything fits in place and not ML fall in love at first sight with the OP-ness MC that suddenly too OOC and can defy the heaven orders.

No.

She intrigued him and he annoyed (scared sometimes) her.

The love-hate relationship partnership is precious albeit the heart-wrenching-slowest-crawl progress.

The character, side or main, are not 2D and not all of them make appearance just to highlight the protagonist in limelight.

They have their own character, their own plotline, and their own development.

Worth a read. No, worth re-reads. <<less
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hycave
hycave rated it
November 21, 2022
Status: Completed
I love this novel so much. I enjoy reading revenge story and personally, I think this novel delivered the revenge part in the most satisfying way ever. Loved how badass both MC and ML are. The novel focuses more on the revenge and plotting so for someone who loves romance it does feel a bit slow in the romance part but when it reaches that part it was just so satisfying.

I'm really grateful for the translation but I wish the translator/editor stop adding snide remark almost every time the author... more>> complimented ML. I don't mind if it's a side note after the chapter ended but next to the line is just killing the mood when reading but oh well beggars can't be choosers. <<less
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cas_ciel21
cas_ciel21 rated it
January 13, 2022
Status: Completed
As a binge reader that waits until all chapters have been fully translated and read it from start to finish, my thoughts and expectations are different from people who weekly anticipate this novel.

To sum up the experience, I think of the meme of the horse drawing art.

The story is so interesting and engaging, the Female Lead is someone that I liked, I would really be with her through all her problems and solutions, you get the feeling that she really is poised and decisive and malicious, hehe. All details were... more>> laid out, the scenery and the world, the surrounding characters were so vibrant. The scenes that were set and I truly put importance into all the things Shen Miao was planning. I love the greater half of it cause she was the main character and the who solves her revenge herself. But I feel the second half got a little to much for the author to handle, cause the writing became short and to the point. The ending was good, over all the story was good, some chapters are more riveting than others, I love love the family love cause it feels genuine, the main interest was... okay, aside from the trope-y characteristics he's loyal, I truly wished
Spoiler

Shen Miao got to have her revenge with Prince Ding, he died without knowing that he got owned by Shen Miao, most of the revenge of SM with the females got satisfying endings but not the males... which is weird... they didn'y lose as much as the female villain... shame

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.

Honestly, it kinda bums me out when most novels I've read have weird rushed endings, do authors have a limit or a deadline? I thought they could write their novels in the way they wanted.

I want to thank the translator Zzazzajunnie, I see that even if its been years, there were still some current edits to make the chapters cleaner, and I truly appreciate it.

Thank you for this novel, my quarantine isolation has been interesting and this kept my mind away from covid symptoms.

Still I would recommend you to read it cause its a fun read. <<less
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lixue
lixue rated it
May 10, 2021
Status: Completed
I just had to write a review.

First of all there are a LOT of the stereotypical rebirth and revenge story and I have read a ton of them so I went into this one without much expectation, just the usual casual cliché to pass time.

I was so so so wrong. This book is so much more than that. What made it exceptional compared to any other rebirth and revenge story I've read before is that this story evokes emotion at a depth that you would not believe. I read this... more>> in English, and had to find the Chinese copy and reread both of them just because it was that good.

The story progresses slow and while I am normally not a patient reader and would like to delve right into the romance part of a story, this one book was the interesting exception for me. First of all it was very well written, the plot and events are advancing at a good pace that keeps you reading and not bored. Nothing is dragged in the story, and the plots and schemes are interesting and doesn't span for like tens of chapters per arc.

*May contain spoiler*

Now the romance part. It was a slow romance, but interestingly it was not the boring frustrating slow romance that leaves you frustrated wondering when it will start. There are plenty of interaction between the MC and ML or some glimpse of the ML even when they are not romancing. It was quite refreshing, they were not the cheesy couple that shows their feelings much, especially the MC.

The MC understandably wants to avoid romance or having feelings at all, and she was never warm nor flirty with the ML. She was consistent with her sharp, cold behavior (unlike the other MCs who are cold but then turned all adorable in front of the ML). The ML did not tame the MC, and the MC never confessed her love to him BUT she did things, her actions shows her care for him. She stood up for him, and without realizing it she had been observing him and in the end she understood him better anyone and she always treated him sincerely.

I would also argue while the ML seemed like a cookie-cutter ML with the charming, cold but sweet attitude, this was not true. ML was not infatuated with her or chased her persistently or turned into a henpecked husband who waits for the MC to command him. ML maintained his character: frivilous, arrogant and apathetic. As the story started he was merely intrigued by the MC so he watched her but he never makes any actual romantic move on her. He sees her indifferently as how his character is depicted, she was interesting but he doesn't mind killing her. As the story goes and he fell in love with her he also maintained his frivolous character. At this point he has deeper interest in her and naturally want to get closer but he does not go out of character. He teases her and just wanted to be more involved with her, he shows his care but he never brings up matter about feelings. He was a contradictory kind of character which the author managed to portray beautifully, which is rare.

The author's depiction of the ML's character and disposition is perfectly fleshed out, especially when his involvement in the past lifetime was revealed. It was in-depth and couldn't help but make you fell in love with the ML (if you haven't already). All in all, he was golden.

5/5 would recommend. Beautifully written, emotionally-evoking tale of two intertwined fate. <<less
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cimetovi_polzki
cimetovi_polzki rated it
December 29, 2020
Status: Completed
This is one of the best novel I have read, especially in comparison to all the other Chinese novels I have read.

It is about reborn FL with a tragic previous life, who changes her life and takes revenge on those who hurt her in her previous life. Setting is similar to ancient China, with minimal supernatural events.

Of course this novel has its bad points too, but which novel can be perfect and suit everyone's taste palette?

So here my opinion:

Good Points:

    • FL is...
        • mature
        • mentally strong
        • competent
        • able to use her foreknowledge correctly (has enough brain cells to use it)
        • no blushing teenager, who immediately changes her personality after meeting the ML
        • with backbone, able to hold on to her goal
    • ML is...
        • smart
        • competent
        • and only loves our FL (
          Spoiler

          he had no other woman, both in his previous and new life

          [collapse]
          )
    • Side-characters are mostly 3-dimensional!
    • Spoiler

      really satisfying revenge from our FL in the first half of the story

      [collapse]
    • great world building
    • (not included in my rating for this novel) : superb translation by Zazajunnie (if you want to read in dark mode on her website ("ChubbyCheeks"), I recommend to install a browser extension like for example "Dark Reader" or something. For Zooming: every browser should react to the key combination "Ctrl" and "+"/"-")
Bad Points (just some nitpicking) :

    • Even in this novel there is a typical huge ability gap between ML and FL
        • FL is..
            • reborn (meaning she has a lot of foreknowledge, a huge advantage)
            • in her previous life she was not especially smart and quite naive (you could say she has an average IQ)
            • even though she is from a military family and even knowing how dangerous her life is, she never tried to learn even a bit of self-defense
            • she is not really beautiful, Author described her as average in appearance
        • ML is..
            • NOT reborn
            • super intelligent, even much more intelligent and competent than reborn FL
            • super strong in martial-arts
            • SUPER beautiful, face and body, like everything (Author mentions it every time ML appears)
        • Female main antagonist is..
            • NOT reborn
            • super intelligent,
              Spoiler

              even more intelligent and competent than reborn FL, even though she is from a simple merchant family

              [collapse]
            • SUPER beautiful
        • Spoiler

          Female cousin of FL is..

            • NOT reborn
            • super intelligent, almost as intelligent and competent as reborn FL, even though she is just a concubine born daughter who stayed hidden in her room all her life
            • quite beautiful
          [collapse]
As you can see FL doesn't seem that special in comparison, I mean who wouldn't be smart and competent after being reborn? Sometimes it seems like Author is trying desperately to make FL not a Mary Sue, but instead makes ML a Gary Sue or other characters. Why is the ML allowed to be perfect but not the FL?

    • There was just one point, where Author did made ML a bit dumb and incompetent for plot use.
      Spoiler

      ML is ill and is saved by main female antagonist with antidote. FL just comes back from a wild adventure to get such an antidote for him, but antagonist was quicker. A few gossiper in his mansion tell ML that FL didn't care about him, and went out to an outing for fun. ML believes them, instead of investigating himself. I mean every-time else it seems like ML has his eyes everywhere due to his cronies/secret guards and knows everything, but suddenly he can't find out that FL went out to search for a miracle doctor for him, after sitting depressed on his sick bed for a long time? Where is suddenly his high intelligence and his secret guards?

      [collapse]
    • Small Plot-hole (unless I overlooked something) :
      Spoiler

      ML and his crony went to an antagonist's residence to search for something really important and special, being all secretive and sneaky about it, even FL tries to find it, but after that it was never mentioned again

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    • In the second part of the novel
      Spoiler

      (after FL marries ML) I was a bit disappointed that FL leans back and leaves her revenge more for ML to do, after that she never even meets the main male antagonist again (against whom she wanted to take revenge the most).

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      So in short: since meeting ML she becomes more and more dependent on him, and rarely does things herself
To sum it all up: Even with my nitpicking, this novel deserves it's 5 Stars for being consistent throughout the story, a likable FL who keeps being mature until the very end and a likeable ML who only has FL in his eyes.
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njugu68
njugu68
June 30, 2020
Status: Completed
I read once and reread, one of the best books I have read in second chance in life. I wish I could purchase a hard copy of translated version, that's how good it was. Thank you to the Author, translator and editors, well written.
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Akash Bora
Akash Bora
May 10, 2020
Status: --
The story is just go with it and the Author just describe the same thing again and again and again... till it become such that you can understand all the story just by reading the lines in quotation.

And the schemes are just dumb and depends on luck. The MCs plan are just protected by authors convinience
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