5 Stars!... more>>

I love this series! It's ongoing, so ugh but the official translations + extra comics + art are so worth the wait! This series has awesome worldbuilding and cool magic when it gets there, it feels like an actual fantasy series with real characters and feelings and plot and love and care in its crafting! I adore all the characters introduced with my favourites being Rozamyne and Ferdinand! I've read some minor spoilers(in that after I don't know how many books, we still don't get many hints of it) for the Ferdinand and Rosamyne romance! I'm not squick about the age difference because Rosamyne's age is too obviously mature enough for it haha. I adore all the building up from scratch knowledge and info that goes into introducing future advanced knowledge into a medievalish setting by Rosamyne and of course, profiting from it haha. I just love this type of stuff. Add in all this lore, character relationships, super likeable and fascinating characters, fantasy setting and all that ahhh I love it! Not to mention the humour all over. The vibe is wholesome-ness with an ambitious and likeable heroine and her friends and family. I adore this series.

Part 2 Vol 4

Dayum, I'm more and more impressed by these books as I go along. I even look forward to reading the short stories in other characters' POVs when I normally hate reading those because short stories usually are very boring and lacklustre compared to the main story but the books really hyper focusses on Myne's pov and there are surprisingly a lot of things she is not involved in that when you read these short stories you get so much new information, worldbuilding and scheming by everyone that it's so interesting! Plus, you really feel the love Myne and the people she cares about feel for her. The ending of this book was so sad I was a sobbing mess T.T

Part 3 Vol 1

Hahahahaha, the whole thing with Ferdinand was hilarious! I actually laughed out loud so many times! And the whole bringing the idol thing from modern times into these ancient fantasy setting is brilliant hahaha

Part 3 Vol 2

Oh wow!! This was the best book yet! Mostly because of all the family drama part with the archduke! Pheww, Rozemyne was so very cool there hehehe. The only thing I was disappointed in was that there was no pov about the whole scene in the short stories :( I wanted someone, Karstedt, to actually narrate what happened when all this was going down. I wanted to see what he thought from an outside perspective of Ferdinand, Rozemyne and Sylvester discussing Willfried hehe. Especially when Ferdinand was displaying how bitter and furious he was when he came in! Speaking off, we have learnt a bit more about Ferdinand and Rozemyne also finding out about how all that made him who he is today. And I also loved how she's helping him stop piling on unnecessary work on himself even if it's for her own selfish intentions haha.

Part 3 Vol 3

8/10

Still good but not as satisfying as the previous volume, only because that one had such a cool scene of Rozemyne being super capable and informing the archduke family what's what and also helping out Ferdinand all the way. I wanted more in regards to the Winter debut but I now realise that would have been too naive because these are just seven-year-old kids who barely know how to read and write and play compared to Rozemyne who is basically in all ways an adult, not in any way shape or form their equal lol. I love reading about people close to Ferdinand observing how he has changed and come to like Rozemyne in the Prologue and Epilogue haha. But I didn't really like Ingo's pov, I sympathised but didn't like feeling all of his feelings just because they were all negative feelings lol. And of course, the bonus comic scenes were very nice as usual.

Part 4 Vol 9

Nghhhh, Ferdinand's departure kinda unnoticeably broke the distance between MC and himself and all the feels is glorious. And guh, the art has a dramatic upgrade in displaying the sadness that is happening and the depth of the emotions involved. And ahhh, you can see more character development for Ferdinand because of all this! He asks for help and especially from Rozemyne! In fact, he asks her for help so naturally that it isn't until the end or when you are reading all the POV from the other side characters that you see the breaking of barriers hehehehe Ahhh, why aren't the translations complete so I can just binge and stay in this world until the end T.T <<less

4.62 Stars On-Hold: C263... more>>

I read the Manhwa up to c84. Then I read the light novel from the start again until here hehe.

Writing/Translation: 5/5

The translation I read is from woopread translations. Pretty good, zero complaints whatsoever. Now I want to talk about the prose. Yes, this is light novel prose. So not that dense or detailed. But wow, does the author have a way to convey what is happening. When things get intense, how the author writes the events is so vivid and kinda emotional. The further you read, the better it gets.

Pacing: 4/5

There are high highs and not quite lows pacing wise. As with all stories that have arcs, some arcs depending on your preferences start out a bit slow or boring. But once you get like 1/4 of the way through, there are so many twists and turns or introduces a surprisingly feelsy connection that you get so invested anyway hahaha. For me, the arc with the developer's past was that. It was confusing and so kind of draggy until you finally get to the climax and all the things at the beginning of the arc really pay off, and you get all emotional *sniff*. Again, the prose <3. But otherwise, very good.

Plot: 4.7/5

This story is more of a character development story focused on creating deep, meaningful relationships, wholesomeness and doing one's best to help everyone and all the harsh obstacles along the way. It's not really about fighting, even though it's there in every arc. But it's kind of philosophical too. As the Tower says to our MC, [You existence becomes more defined]. We follow our MC as he encounters new and desperate challenges for him and also strangers, and we see how he chooses to live a life that he would be satisfied with and grows strong enough to make it a reality. There is so much depth haha. Stick to like chapter 3 to see the first "twist" and then read until the 10th floor to get the first hint of the depth this story can produce. This would be just the start so stick with it! I can't say whether you read the manhwa or novel first but perhaps both together. The manhwa is a teeny bit more engaging but I feel like the novel makes the inciting incident of the whole thing more impactful because it was described more clearly how cruel the thing was. In the manhwa, I couldn't really feel it at the beginning. So yeah, it might be best to read them both side by side. My one complaint is that the MC sometimes gets really close to people a bit too fast for me haha. The prose and writing somewhat make up for things and still made me get the feels in spite of this but it could be better if the author made them bond a bit longer.

The execution of the overall plot isn't as tight as ORV but it is definitely close in terms of ambition and the execution of it is close enough hahaha. Also, I haven't read to the end yet and who knows, it might reach that level. But anyway, in terms of layers and depth, this might be better if only because the side characters are also explored.

Romance: 3.9/5

The romance is very interesting lol. But I still feel weird because, yes, the chemistry the meeting and all that was very very good. It still felt a bit off how fast they got to this die for each other level haha.

Setting/Worldbuilding: 4.8/5

So good! It's a climb the Tower type of setting, and the author uses the numerous floors to great effect!

Characters: 5/5

The best part of this whole thing! They are just so fascinating. I love our MC! You need to wait a few small arcs before you fall in love with him. He needs to show his good points first haha. And then his relationships with all the other people. That is like the main point of the whole story. Random npcs, will suddenly gain so much depth and meaning when meeting him. Noiceee.

Personal Enjoyment: 5/5

I adored this story. I love how different it is from other epic type stories. This is more introspective and profound kinda. And the author just writes so beautifully to bring the world, the relationships, the events to life.The MC just keep dropping these gems ahhh. <<less

4.5 Stars!... more>>

Overall

The beginning, when meeting with the neighbours and the ML made me a bit hesitant because I felt it was too fast. Because I just read the other zombie story by this author before this one. The previous story was very self vs others until like 3/4th of the way through while in this story the MC is open for a companion and other people right from the start. Anyway, I love it! It has all the things I love, heartwarming scenes with friends and family, amazing resource gathering, varied and distinct characters, and a MC that isn't dumb but instead is the meticulous planner and leader of the group, building a life they can thrive in an apocalyptic world. Eventually, there is a kid, then a baby, and then lots of adorable pets near the end! Unlike other zombie works, there is no magical space or golden finger, so everything is somewhat realistic, and wealth growth is smooth and believable. One thing to note is that there is no golden finger so the scale of growth is small! So whatever they do or whatever happens, it will have more weight on the lives of the MC and the team. This makes the story more enjoyable instead of no matter what happens, they will be fine anyway because of [insert golden finger here]. It's a slice of life, farming, resource gathering story with lots of zombie action haha. They level up quite smoothly too. It's only I really wish they didn't include the timeskips in the last couple of chapters. I would have loved to read about all the things they did before those points! Ahh, I already want to reread this!

Writing/Translation

The translation I read is from WhiteMoon x BlackSun. The translation is not as good as it could be. I felt that some details in the setting up/planning by the MC such as how the locations of the planting spaces were set up or how the space is organized were lost because of the translation. Mostly because I don't know if the words chosen for the place are correct. For example, "Plants grown on the terrace." From what I googled, "terrace" means floor to ceiling windows, how can plants be grown on them? If compared to the author's other work, that one was translated beautifully, I got all the nuance. But this one, not as much. Maybe 10% is lost? However, don't let that stop you! It's far more readable than MTL and the detail lost is regrettable but not a dealbreaker. You can get the gist of the space organisation more or less. Other than those, all the other happenings are very readable! I seriously enjoyed it haha. I also think the translator got more experienced later on.

Pacing

The pacing is pretty consistent throughout the entire story except for the last couple of chapters for some people. Before then, you can assume it's already a happy ending if you want actually. The last 2 chapters have a couple of longer time skips because they want to wrap it up.

Plot

We follow our MC strive to live the life he envied and dreamt of when he lived in the basement for years in his previous life. To survive without as much hardship with a companion(a dog haha) to alleviate loneliness in a post apocalyptic world as an ordinary nosuper abilities person. We see him slowly gain companions on this dream along the way until this dream isn't feasible anymore and they have to make a big decision to rely on themselves in the outside world! That happens like 50+ chapters before the end of the story. A lot of the cool lifestyle design happens there haha.

Themes/What Story Tried to Achieve

This is a slice-of-life, farming, resource gathering and a mass fighting zombies for their nuclei type of story. It is super heartwarming halfway through when the team gets closer and feels like family later on. There is lots of delicious food and bonding through meals that happens. I also love all the thinking and planning that happens in a zombie infested world. How to obtain stuff without dying? I also love all the action! It really spices things up very nicely from all the calm, soothing farming scenes haha. The excitement and anticipation throughout the novel, XD. Man, I loved it! I also love how all the things they do feel like they have actual impact! This is because the scale is small, so any of the actions by the MC and the team has a lot of impact on their lives. Because the plants produced are small, they have weight. If there was a magical space, there would be hardly any weight because it would be too easy! The author's other zombie story was like that. There wasn't as much weight as here because the couple could just live in their space indefinitely if they needed to. Here, there is just enough weight that you really root for them! If something bad happens, you feel angry and a bit anxious, if there was an unexpected harvest during their missions, you feel excited for them! Ahh, how the scaling was done. Reading all this, I hope the author will write more stories like this! Wealth building, poor to rich style with close friends haha.

For the romance part, eh, I feel like it's just as a backdrop to the rest of the story. I don't feel the love. I just assume this is an MC ML love thing and move on to the other parts of the story that interest me.

Characters

I love the MC. He's actually a shou but a smart and capable one! He was lonely but a practical survivor. He is very good at planning and leading people. The ML is okay, I feel like he's an afterthought in terms of romance as in I don't feel much as a romantic lead. But he's a cool and strong ability user for the MC and the team in this apocalyptic world! I like him much more as that than the romantic lead lol. The side characters are good people that really help lighten up the atmosphere especially since they are so prominent in the story. I love their presence here. There is a group bond that creates the feels. The you are my people, so I will fight everyone else for you together with you haha. Love that. Then, there are the cute kids in the latter part of the story haha. As for the bad guys, well, this isn't a revenge or faceslapping story so the villains kinda fizzle out or have anticlimactic ends. Not really the focus of the story.

Why 0.5 Star was Deducted:

- I'm still curious about some things that weren't explained. Maybe the author just didn't think it was important for the story. Eg,

     1) How the zombies came about, why they were travelling in groups, how were they coordinating like they had intelligence, were they being directed by a leader?

     2) What happened to the ML's father and the mother's lover in the end?

     3) What happened to Captain Guo in the end?

     4) Also, what exactly happened in the leadership shakeup?

- I felt that the story could have been even longer with no issues.

     1) The last chapter timeskiped 3 years to a very interesting small bases alliance nearby that they sell things at the market (so interesting! Why didn't the author include these parts in the story?? So many potentially new and interesting characters!)

     2) I wanted to know the progression of the pairing up that happened within the team!

     3) I would have liked to read how the final nationwide battle 8 years later actually went XP. <<less

4.5 Stars!... more>>

I really liked it! It was heartwarming, with high achievers tutoring the delinquents and becoming friends along the way and the butterfly effects from that, the cute romance that made me go aww and the humour that made me smile and laugh the entire way.

Translation/Writing

This was done by Chrysanthemum Garden, a group of translators and editors so the translation is very polished! There was, I think, only one error that appeared right at the end ish. The flow is very good, all the idioms the translator worked hard to make them understandable in English and also fit the flow of the sentences XD The format of the writing also fit the comedic timing of the story very effectively too haha. Basically, if I didn't know this was fan translated, I would have thought it was an official one.

Plot

We follow a 30-year old established couple reborn back to their last year of high school when everything went wrong in their lives and everyone close to them. They basically just want to be sticky with each other since the day they were reborn was the day they were to be married. Along the way, they also want to avoid all the bad decisions back then to make sure all the people they love are on the right track instead. It ends with the college exams and coming out about their relationship to the close family and friends casually lolol. The extras are a direct sequel to the main story plus an additional pov of the MC's badass older sister haha. And a wedding for the cp at the last chapter <3

Themes/What Story Tried to Achieve

Ahhh, this story basically did everything right, I feel moved. This is a high school to college story so there is high school drama with studying and exams and crushes and stuff. Also, this story is the first web novel I've read that has comedy in it! I basically laughed at every chapter. Most of it, if I didn't laugh, I at least quirked a smile with humour. This was a joy to read because it gave such warm and positive feelings the entire time.

The tutoring, studying, and exams part was one of the better executed in these types of stories I've read. There was gradual improvement, believable steps were taken to improve and the details of the subjects were even expanded on! For example, one of the side characters had to declare and explain the problem they still couldn't solve more than five times on the broadcast system in school in detail. It blended into the flow of the story, was in character for that side character and also added comedic effect to the story. With this detailed example of a subject being studied, I was made to believe in the realness of them studying subjects with the knowledge that exists in the story. In lots of these types of CN novels I've read, they just say the MC studied every free time, improved on their weak subjects from morning till night in between working part-time and romance but we never got any content on the subjects at all. So the whole learning part didn't quite sink in for me. Here it very much did, even if that was the only time it gave some content for the characters to learn. With that example, I know the author did some research or thought hard about this aspect of the story and so I had faith in the world they created.

Friendship. Ahh, the brotherhood and juvenile friendship between high schoolers was definitely one of the main stars of this story. The comedic scenes derive from the friendship and the helping actions of the main cp also majorly came from this friendship. And the heartwarming scenes all also came from this friendship haha.

The family drama and angst were not heavy at all! But still gave enough depth to the main couple and also helped me empathise with them which made me invested in them as characters more.

As for the romance, I'll leave it for the Characters section because it is so integral to the characters themselves haha.

Pacing

The pacing was pretty dang smooth the entire way. Nothing felt rushed even at the end when other CN novels can't get the climax and the ending of the novel quite right. The only issue I had was at the very beginning, like 15 chapters in, when I was getting to know the characters and the premise of the story. It was almost pure humour and comedic misunderstandings. I'm not a fan of misunderstandings as a plot device and I wasn't quite into the story or any of the characters yet, so while the humour was funny, it wasn't quite laugh out loud funny yet. So the beginning was a bit slow for me but I believe it's just my personal taste haha. The rest of the story got good.

Characters

Ahhh, the main cp is quite refreshing! There isn't really a shou that I can see in both attitude and actions. Both are mature and confident that they are ALREADY in a relationship together. And they were from an enemies-to-lovers type of couple haha. They spent a decade figuring things out, mending old hurts and injuries already. But now they are back, they can figure out more things they didn't realise as kids that were happening and then healing from it all together. Ahh, it's very nice to read about a couple who have long had each other's backs, know of the love each has for the other and shamelessly show their love to each other! When I read at the beginning during the before plane takeoff, how the MC noticed that the tough ML's hands were trembling because he was still nervous about finally getting married, ahh, I was totally sold on them as characters and their romance hahaha.

All the side characters are the other half of the whole story! Without them, this would be a completely different story, that's how prominent and important they all are. The interactions they all have are the source of all the humour and the warmth in this plot! They feel unique, real and have so much character hahaha. I also really really love that the MC and ML care about them very much and it is straight up mentioned in the story. In other novels, the only people in the CP's line of sight are each other. Like, the MC cares about the family of the ML but really only because the ML cares about the family. Here, they have family and friends of each other that they have honestly taken into their hearts. This is nice haha

As for the villains, good! They are very good villains, when they appear, their small mindedness, self entitlement and small minded selfish plans to raise themselves up by putting others down was so annoying. I love reading how their meticulous plans all got dashed and then they got karma. And they were all handled by the cp haha. I also like how the author loves to torture them lolol They could have gotten the big faceslapping at the end with the cp all present for maximum gloating....but eh, I didn't really mind not having it because the smaller faceslapping that occurs for a longer length of time was satisfying haha <<less

4.5 Stars... more>>

Overall Comments

This family building trope really hit the spot for me for the slice of life part! I love the romance, the MC takes the ML along on his work instead of them doing separate actions and then spending time together when they go back home. But I minused the half star because I didn't like the last 1/4th with them having to abandon all their land and hard work to another country sigh. By that point, it was all rushed until the happy ending. I didn't mind because those parts weren't interesting since by then, I felt they were in a good place alrd anyhow.

Writing/Translation

I read the translation by Ontimestory. In the beginning tens of chapters, there were a few mistakes but they were pretty small and infrequent. I think the translator got an editor later on so it got better. However, a couple of chapters at the end felt very unedited but otherwise, it is pretty good. Everything flowed well and was consistent and easily understood. The writing this time is 3rd person pov and you basically read the characters' thoughts on the page so it's pretty immersive. The way it's written, all the bad guys make you really feel so much anger! Very nice haha.

Plot

The first, like 30ish chapters, things were kinda bad for the MC and the things being told in those chapters don't really give you any happy warm feelings. The MC's body's family are seriously self-entitled to him and it really makes you want to slap their delusional faces. The good on the other hand, is how the MC straight up commits violence lol. How he treats them is super satisfying! However, since you as a reader are only just getting to know the MC, he doesn't come off as likeable in any way in these few chapters.

However, as the story goes on and the family is mostly dealt with, we proceed to the improve-the-quality-of-life of himself and his beloved ML part! This part is more interesting and you can see him being nice to people now. For the majority of the book, it is a slice of life, slowly accumulating money, business making and being happy with his ML. However, near the end, like from 120–160, it became obvious that people were making countless trouble for his success, so he had to go out and fight. Then, in 160+, they became fugitives invading another country and setting up modern China... The extras are all very nice though. Needless to say, my favourite parts were all when the scale was still village and county sized. All the heartwarming, working hard to improve their family's quality of life through honest means takes place there. The rest became quality of life preservation almost which wasn't as nice.

Themes/What Story Tried to Achieve

The family/village/kingdom building. What I consider in this category to me is specifically the MC's actions in working hard to improve the MC's lover, family and friend's quality of life. So, for the first 3/4th, I absolutely loved it! It was so fulfilling and satisfying to read how the MC slowly made more and more money to give good things to his wife and in-laws XD. And then, as we got more and more side characters, he took them as his own and gave them a good life too! It was also nice to read how he improved his village as well.

But then, the story started to scale even higher which, of course, comes with its own troubles when you get too successful. People higher up get wary and want to hammer this nail for fear of the nail overpowering them. And all the other bigshot peers want to take down the competition. So I normally do not like it when the hard work gets to this level where it's more about preservation instead of building and growth. So, yes, while this does fit the theme and the characters, it wasn't enjoyable to read. Also, the last part was kinda rushed too.

I do want to put in a comment, I really did not like the last part where the MC had dealings with foreigners and straight up invaded their country, destroyed their culture and brainwashed them to become his vision of modern China. The whole deal with the Japanese ronin and their original country felt so icky and uncomfortable. He treats the Europeans with respect for their technology but treats this Japanese imitation so callously. I really wish the author had just made up a country that has no culture or foreign language that was being controlled by a cruel dictator so he could save them instead. And that the citizens gave their country to him in gratitude or something instead of doing this.

The romance. I actually love them as a couple! I find their dynamic really refreshing from the current CN novels I've read. The MC is the confident "seme" while the ML is the shy, uncertain "uke" haha. Normally, I read the opposite. I also really really like how the MC takes the ML along to be involved with all his endeavours! Usually, we get them doing separate things and then some romance or s*x scenes to progress the romance. But here, Jiang Zhen brings Jinge with him everywhere! I really like that. So much of the work the MC does, the ML is present! For most of the long trips, the ML follows. This way, all the time spent together, the couple is able to have all these different experiences with each other, which really made me believe in their care for each other. How could they not? There are so many events whose situations made their love (especially from the relatively sheltered frog in the well ML) grow in the same direction. I really like them together haha. Also, a great pro for me for the romance, is the lack of explicit smut! And any romps are all in euphemisms and relatively short haha. I normally find all CN novels' s*x scenes either very in-your-face explicit or so cringy. And usually, a lot of words kinda demeaning women and the men or the seme being, they got so excited they couldn't control themselves! And then the women or the uke who's the MC will be like ... ahh, so tired the next day, ahh the bottoms hurt hmm. The subtext is that their man is extremely powerful! *rolls eyes* But this story, since it's all euphemism and kinda short fade to black ish, it wasn't too bad haha The only part that seemed a bit iffy to me was the beginning of the romance. I felt that the MC was coming on rather strongly and that the ML kept being stiff when the MC behaved inappropriately. I felt a wee bit uncomfortable seeing that. But eventually, the ML started to have feelings and became more proactive so at least I was more clear that the feelings were mutual.

Pacing

The pacing overall was decent for 3/4ths of the story and then rushed at the last 1/4th. The first 3 quarters were consistent. Lots of things were happening but we were following the MC all the time in his head. The romance-building was present throughout too. But in the last quarter and especially the last chapter, a lot of things were just narratively told to us. To be fair, I didn't mind that it wasn't too involved because I wasn't interested in the power building and the fighting. There wasn't really much romance here either. The extras were a very nice epilogue though.

Characters

The MC isn't all that likeable in the beginning before you get to know him. He's violent on the first infraction by other people. And he took food from his baby nephew. I mean, yes he's starving but he alrd took the food from his family, did he need to take from the baby too? But as you read more, you slowly see him being nice to other people too so I slowly got used to him. Then, I got to see how he adored his family so I got sold on him haha For the ML, I found him rather cute? He's a strong, manly figure but he's actually a ger, kinda like an omega. I love his backstory and how he grows. His challenges in life and his s*x and how they interact. It makes him pretty refreshing to read about haha. He's actually uncertain and quiet but he loves the MC so he quietly works hard to be as good as he can for him.

The side characters are all good and likeable! Nobody feels like a caricature. The MC made a lot of good relationships here so that is just nice to read about. My only issue is that a lot of the underlings who are there a lot in the beginning and have some character development aren't followed up closely after their quality of life improves. I wish they were present more often alongside the new characters that get introduced too. It's like once their conflict is settled, we don't really see them anymore in favour of new characters with their newer conflict. However, I am sad we don't really see how the children grow or get to know more about their personalities. The daughter was okay but the son felt a bit bland since he's the kid that just follows whatever the elder sibling does. And the last kid is only a baby in the extras.

For the bad guys, nice! I love all the bad guys! Whenever I read about the new thing they are doing to fight with the MC, I always feel so angry! And then they get face slapped so satisfyingly by the MC directly! The MC will actively do something so you can feel his agency and his character. It's all very nice haha. I've read a lot of other CN novels where the villains get faceslapped by their own actions while the MC was just passively living their life doing nothing, or the faceslapping happened off screen which was unsatisfying, or it just took too long to happen. The faceslapping here is just right in every way haha. <<less

4.5 Stars... more>>

Writing/Translation

I read the translation by Serena Love. The translation is not the best but not the worst either. Everything was mostly legible and any mistakes is easily autocorrected in the head while reading. There were some pronoun errors but it is fine. The only problem is that sometimes I feel like I don't understand what is happening (probably because it was edited from MTL) but you can usually ignore it or guess the meaning. Sadly, there aren't many footnotes or explanations of idioms. Luckily, this isn't an ancient China novel so while it is an issue, it doesn't affect the main pros of the story much.

Plot

The plot is slice of life, people working hard to improve the quality of life of the people they love. So there is conflict but it is smoothed over eventually. The conflicts that arise feel like they got stakes but it wasn't a too insurmountable feeling. I do feel that the choice to separate at just before the happy ending felt flimsy though. But we got through that part pretty fast so it is okay.

Themes/What Story Tried to Achieve

Rags to riches, heartwarming scenes, earnest romance and supporting a downtrodden and beaten young man with life, warmth and good food. Achieved it all. The feelings held by the main couple were so sweet and filled with honey, you could feel the depth of it. The fl didn't really take charge of making money in reality as I expected from the synopsis but it was more she was there to support the ml's efforts by giving nudges, ideas, helping hands, love, warmth and comfort. Surprisingly, the food part was not even half as much in the story as in the Ancient Foodie. But it was nice to read about it. Ahh, the feels here were very good.

The time period also played such a big role in the story as expected of it being in the title haha. I learnt a lot about how things were back then in China. It was so different from how I have always lived. A fresh and eye-opening experience.

Pacing

Pacing was good, I didn't feel like anything was too long or too short.

Characters

I love the main couple and the ML the most! He's so rootable and cute haha. His feelings have touched me deeply. The fl is spunky haha. There's nothing much to say about her but I love her love for her old man and the changes she affected in his life. The side characters are all unique and relatable, which made me root for them too! Especially, the close friends and family. The main villains, surprisingly isn't the ex-husband (he's really kinda a minor one in screentime lol). The main villain wasn't really developed and is just really a plot device lol They were okay haha

Overall Comments

This story is really like reading honey! The romance or well, the feelings of the main couple weren't really like, I love her! I love her I love her! s*x s*x s*x like in other novels. You really read about how, yes, they love each other romantically but also how much you want them to live a good life and to succeed in life. How they will think and act in each other's best interests while living life. It wasn't a story about how to get into each other's pants though there is that, it was about how they could improve each other's happiness and wellbeing. It's very wholesome and sweet. <<less

4.5 Stars... more>>

The translation I've read is by EatApplePies. Ahhh, what a marvellous ride haha. Please stick to the story until at least past chapter 135 ish as that is when the writing gets better and the characters start to get invested in each other. Somewhere here was when I finally felt any connection with Cale the MC lol. Basically, Cale is super dense and he actually really cares for people despite the first 100+ chapters.

After that, all the characters will care for each other and you will find yourself rooting for them. The battles can be hit or miss for me but when Cale is being badass, it is very cool. The parts I most liked were the breaks in between fights where Cale spends time with people bonding and when he gets the ancient powers after the 135+ chapter mark. The intangible characters are hilarious heh. The translation is consistent from the first chapter at a high quality.

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Chapter 98

Hmmm, I do like all the characters and the world. And the writing is detailed enough that I can picture what's happening most of the time, which is usually a huge deterrent for translated light novels where the writing is super vague, direct and simple. Even the plot is pretty good so far, I think. It's just that for every arc/mini-arc, the climax/aftermath feels so normal and anticlimactic. Like the moment an arc finishes and Cale gets the item or achieves his objective, we don't get to enjoy or celebrate it. The author just writes that now it's time for Cale to slack off and do nothing. Then the next chapter will be about how Cale managed to do nothing for 1 month this time. And then the next thing to propel the story happens and we do it all over again. So it's like the tension or plot is constantly at this level and doesn't really rise, so you don't get that rising action, exciting climax, engaging and celebratory aftermath before you hit the next arc...

Chapter 140

Okay, I gave it another go because I read a lot of people saying it was wholesome and stuff which I really like! But I haven't seen anything like what they were praising up to chap 98 so I figured to continue since there are 600+ chapters lol. And as I read more and more, and the plot returned more to the war, it got progressively more engaging! There was more character interaction! And 130+ chapters in with the dragon, I got unexpectedly hit in the feels. And it got more obvious that the healing of these characters haha. The humour was also funny to me then. I kinda feel like the author got an editor to improve the story lol. <<less <<less

4.25 Stars... more>>

Overall

Ahh, such a journey. We follow the MC for so many years, for 700 chapters T^T It has basically almost everything I want in this type of genre. Some of the endeavours were detailed, some weren't, but so many were done that I couldn't stop reading. It is truly slice of life, getting rich with family and friends haha Yes, it's definitely not perfect and there were some forgotten people and foreshadowing that resolved quite fast at the end but I enjoyed myself so much binge reading everything. It was very satisfying to read them set up all the pieces to be wealthy in the future. I only wish they wrote more detail of them just enjoying themselves and more people exclaiming how rich they are to make it more satisfying haha I also wish the 3 sons were main characters in the 2nd half of the story, like they were back in the village. The further along the story, the more characters are introduced and the older the kids got, the less they appear. Really, it was only the third that kinda stayed until the very end lol. But ahhh, we followed until the end of the life of the main cp so now I'm super sad and need to read a fluffy story lolol

Translation/Writing

I read the translation by Explore, Maggie. It sounds like she only did it because of COVID isolation and made daily updates, so the translation isn't perfect or polished. There are careless mistakes littered throughout. But it is much better than mtl, they included pictures whenever needed and it was perfectly understandable all the way through. There are some name mistakes and a couple of missing words/plural to non plural/gender mistakes and so on but honestly, it's very readable. The flow was uninterrupted for me.

Plot

This is a slice of life story from MC at 20+ to 40 at the end. Then a summary of everyone's lives until 90 and their peaceful death. It really follows the title of the story, raise the kids at the beginning, then develop their families in the capital and/or other cities.

Themes/What Story Tried to Achieve

Truly a properly realistic development from poor village level to mega-rich story. With so many chapters, the author can really detail step-by-step how the cp can go from a to b and didn't skimp on the variety. At the beginning, there is a raising the family with good food arc. In between that, how to actually get the food via the black market with all the coupon restrictions in the 60s. Then there is the studying part to get to university. Then comes the capital part, where they really start doing business and really get wealthy. In between, all the family connections are being deepened and helping the others raise themselves up too. And matchmaking in the last parts.

I love all the business parts, it really ramped up at the capital. But also, in the capital, was also when the cp started going off by themselves to date or make money. It's just this part where they don't go into as much detail anymore. I would like them to describe the real estate more haha But I guess since then there is a lot of them so no need. I like how the author will periodically tell how much money was saved or how much monthly income was made in total. It really helps visualise the scale up to there.

For the side characters, there are sooo many that were given love. It made things vibrant and heartwarming because they are all family. I liked seeing how they will treat each other to food and how they can ask for help and advice and it is given. We see many of them grow up too so it feels close.

I also want to mention the setting. It is quite vivid. This is China in the olden days so the temperament of the characters matches it. I'm Chinese, though not from China, so I am familiar with the beliefs there. So I have to mention that it does get a bit annoying to read about them giving gifts to each other and then the other saying, "Aiya, no need to bring gifts ma, just yourself is enough!" Then the demurring, etc., happens. Then the other party visits the other person instead, and the exact same thing happens. Gifts, saying no, etc., Sigh, doing this a few times and when done well, like when the relatives set up shops and the MC visited there for the first time, when they gave gifts to the cp and let them stay over, I could feel the joy and sincerity because their success and happiness were due to the MC. It doesn't feel like a poor person giving to a rich person anymore, but truly equals sharing their joy. It was heartwarming. Later on, when this happens with the newer, richer people, it just feels a bit fake, even though they aren't. I guess I just don't like the demurring attitude when accepting gifts in Chinese culture. Just freaking accept the gift and say thank you and pay them back in some other way later. So much unnecessary "no you don't have to pay, no we haven't finished what you gave before, nooo I can't possibly accept this expensive thing, no you don't have to give me this thing that I also have a lot at home." Lol.

The other thing is probably also a cultural thing. This was published in 2014 and was probably written earlier. The romance mindset is kinda a typical macho man in bed, just brute forcing their way through and it is romanticised. This is true with the main cp especially vivid in the earlier chapters and even in the extras for the 2nd's daughter. The attitude in normal life is all more or less okay, just the entitlement the men have to the girl's body.

Pacing

The slice of life tag is definitely warranted. With 700 chapters, you can also read it as part get rich activities and also like those tv dramas with the family drama haha Addicting. Some parts are a little slow, some parts a little fast but overall, very slice of life.

Characters

The MC is quite stubborn and domineering. One is and two is two and nobody can say otherwise. She has a big heart for people who are good and if they are bad, straightforwardly cuts off contact decisively and immediately. She's smart and a planner. As for the ML, I don't know if I like him in particular lol. I love how much he loves his wife, his brothers, his family and how he works hard to support. But in all other aspects, he's a typical male of this period. There are some bad parts, like the s*x attitude and the preference of a daughter over the sons.

For the bad guys, wow they can really rile you up sometimes haha. All of them contribute some nice drama for the MC to conquer haha I do find that for the 2nd sister-in-law though, near the end of the village arc, it seems like she was getting okay? But then, it felt like not enough drama, lets change her to a bad guy again. Lol.

Some things that I found imperfect

- Some characters that feel like they will be a bit more important seem to have been forgotten lol Like Wang Li, the university best friend. They promised for the child to be the MC's godchild, but the character was forgotten until hundreds of chapters later and then, it was only a summary.

- The progression of the godchild relationship when the MC got pregnant was way too fast for me. She was there for like four months only. Also, it felt a bit hypocritical of the MC in how well she treated them. The Jiang family very quickly suggested to each other if they wanted to create a godchild relationship for the kid and the parents were very willing to climb up this capital family. But the MC were also quite willing to let them. It kinda feels weird that this family wants to use the Mc to raise up, the MC lets them so fast while others who are worse off does not because of bad character or something. Sure they gave a bad impression first it still feels a too benefit seeking for this Jiang family.

- The transmigration novel's plot didn't have much of an impact in this 700-chapter story. The two leads don't do anything. They don't have any role in the story. They were like only 1/30th of the story lol I wanted more from them. Maybe make them rebirth too and make them bad in character and cause some drama haha <<less

Would this really fit the heartwarming tag? Isn't it a kingdom building epic story? Aren't the stakes too high to fit the chill, feel good, family vibe of this list?? Well, it is to me and this is my list so there! MC is reborn into the virtual reality game he was investing in his previous life 10 years after his death as the emperor of this dilapidated planet ravished by dangerous galactic beasts. So, he has to level up the entire planet, improve his reputation with his people in the game and reunite with his real life family who had mourned his death in the real world. To me, family/village/country/kingdom building IS heartwarming by... more>> default! You are literally working to improve the lives of people the MC cares about so good feelings happen everywhere! Satisfaction of improving the quality of life of the people you like, seeing these people be so happy with the good things, the satisfaction of completing goals constantly, etc! There is a large cast of characters here and everyone is likeable and someone the MC cares about so when he levels up he planet it is satisfying to see how these people's lives are improved ☺️☺️ So its similar to the Bai Fumei and the Peasant Makeup Artist story below where they worked very hard to raise the quality of life of these hardworking poverty stricken family they love, only this story's scale is like times a 100 because its all the people on this planet in the Interstellar system.

Review

4.5 Stars at C94 at least

I read the translation by Rainbow Mushroom Translations. The translation is pretty good.

So far, veeeery interesting! I really love kingdom building elements especially when it is done slowly with thought and proper escalation! The first part was this kingdom building and it is super nice. I love family/village/country building because it's just so satisfying. There is a goal you can support. It cannot be done in one shot. There is a lot of planning and thinking and executing to be done and every time something is accomplished, the feeling of satisfaction is so good! The MC has the power to design the tutorial/beginner mission system for new players so the players won't go crazy and start killing his people to level up as players do haha. And he's basically the designer of the gaming experience for all these players, sooo good!

This story is like a normal CN novel about the MC being reborn as a low-status person, then striving to improve their family's poverty situation to a happy and healthy quality of life. But the scale is multiplied by a hundred because it's not just a few close family members but all his people living on the planet! I love all the characters! They have such a variety of nobles, dead poor, mercenaries, elementals, the army, kids, students, researchers and there are so many just living their lives! Then add in the players XD The large cast of characters really makes the world feel big, alive and breathing. And the MC cares about them so he's working on levelling up the entire planet! It's nice haha. The only con is that I'm not too impressed with the romance and the ML. He's just a typical possessive ML so cue the normal seme uke relationship in bed which I'm not a fan of. <<less

4.25 Stars... more>>

Overall

Guh, this is too sweet and wholesome QAQ I just read Chapter 40 and nghhhh, so sweet, so touching that I teared up a little ahhhh. This relationship, sniff, I also want someone to treat me like that sniff.

Ahh, this story is great. It is the sweetest, most tender, most healthy and ridiculously heartwarming romance ever. With the most beautiful characters ever. The story has a comedic undertone, purely because of our beloved and adorable MC lol. And the cruel, silent and cannot be disobeyed tyrant is unexpectedly silly, also because our adorably adorable MC, the tyrant’s pet fish hahaha. After they get together officially, we get lots of dog food. I usually am kinda meh for dog food because the romances can be too cringy but this time, the two characters are just too unabashedly sweet on each other. And they aren't in their own world in seclusion from everyone else nope. The ML loves to proudly show off his BF’s considerations for himself to anyone who notices anything. He is especially adorable because he's mute... so he will prepare written answers beforehand, saying "... my boyfriend" just in case someone asks hahahaha. Honestly, the main draw is the characters and the romance! I'm normally not invested in romances but the writing here made it easy to love them!

On another issue, I love how long the author really stuck to the disabled part of the ML. In other stories, the disability usually gets magically cured almost halfway through the story. Here, it was all part of the story and part of the final mystery in the plot. And it only got solved at the final arc near the end. Otherwise, the muteness has shown its many effects in all the tyrant’s every action. I felt that it really affected his daily life and future and yet the ML still lived his life successfully with it. It's one story where I feel the disability isn't there just as a cheap gimmick to make the MC and the reader pity the ML or to make the MC be the miracle saviour for the MC.

Writing/Translation

The translation I read is from Chrysanthemum Garden so you know it's good haha. The writing has a comedic undertone. The author also writes the characters until they feel so endearing.

Pacing

There are a few arcs. I feel most of them are alright except in the last arc, a couple of scenes/transitions felt like we skimmed some details. But overall, okay.

Plot

The first like 60+ chapters deal with the system missions and a developing romance. The next arc, they move out of the capital and have an established romance + babies hahaha. Then the last parts are more palace intrigue and mystery lol.

Themes/What Story Tried to Achieve

A very heartwarming, beautiful, sweet, adorable, unabashed romance in a setting of a surprisingly decent palace intrigue with the premise that the MC is a fish LOL.

If ya didn't realise it at the beginning, this is one of the super few romances in web novels that I really feel it. The romance is really slow because the MC is a fish and the ML can't speak. So the MC has to really get out of his fish comfort zone to actually achieve anything hahaha. Including interacting with the ML. I love the development here, so funny and cute! This romance is the healthiest one I've read in web novels ever. Both characters you can genuinely feel really love each other and are constantly in that ngawww, I want to see you all the time feeling. Since the MC shou really loves the ML, ofc, he also really likes to have s*x with the ML! He's always happy and excited and looking for ways to happily seduce the ML XD I love this dynamic. Every single romance in web novels is always about the MC getting totally dominated in bed and being used multiple times until the next day. It's a long-running trope of waist tired/limping/"injured"/needing to lay in bed. Also, the MLs will be, "I can't control it, " "you won't let me suffer, will you?", "no definitely means yes", "your mouth says no but your body is honest" *rolls eyes*. I hate all that. In this story, these things never even entered their minds. This is a real effing relationship where both sides adore and are proud of each other. Quite equal.

The palace intrigue is present throughout the entire plot and it is surprisingly good. Better than most web novels that aren't pure revenge palace intrigue web novels anyway. It has stakes that are just enough to feel them, but it is lighthearted enough that it isn't an anxious, suspenseful time. It's not perfect, but I kinda liked it. The face-slapping was reasonably good.

The humour is everywhere haha. All the characters, even those that at first glance are intimidating, stern and scary, can be suddenly funny lolol.

Characters

The characters are the best part of this story. They are so earnest, sincere and very rootable. Also, super sweet and unexpectedly adorable. The MC is a chou and can be very cute when he's in a daze or being absent minded but he's smart, can plan things out and has the determination to commit even if it's embarrassing hahaha. He's no salted fish here. I love how unabashedly he goes after the ML after he finally acknowledges his feelings. He's always thinking of the ML as he should be if he's really in love. In all his actions, he's looking out for the ML. It is wonderful.

The ML is also interesting and very likeable! He's cold, emotionless and ruthless at the beginning but as we go on, we see more and more unexpected sides to him XD We can see his love growing so genuinely. And I love how much he shows his care through his actions. His muteness just highlights this even more. I love how his muteness forces the story to show more nonverbal language to compensate.

All the other side characters are just as good! They all have their unique roles and are distinct. Unfortunately, they don't stay in each arc all the time sadly. I adore the babies, they are so cute and funny. I only wish we have more scenes with them as they grow up. In this story, I like their shenanigans. It's funny and makes me know them more haha. <<less

4.04 Stars... more>>

*Update 07/04/2024: Ahhhh! Crysanthemum Garden picked up the novel to TL!!! One of my favourite novels in the poor to rich slice of life genre!! Same author as “Stone Age Husband Raising Journal”, “The Only Favourite Ugly Husband” and “I Want To Be a Good Person in This Life”. I love their progression type stories, they are all so satisfying. Poor to rich, weak to strong XD I read this novel with MTL, I am so unbelievably excited CG is picking it up! It was tough reading the browser translated version using 2 different browsers just so I have 2 different translation to better understand. And I am pretty sure I lost some nuances and detail from the story. Ahhhh, I can’t wait to reread it in actual English squeeeeee XDDD*

"Really satisfying poor-to-rich, working, business, to construction with proper safety controls."The Heavens most likely took pity on him and he was reborn back to the year 1994. At that time he had just come of age. He was hungry, and lived beneath a bridge, but the events he regretted had not yet occurred. His beloved person was still alive.

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If only there was a proper TL I might really love this since I MTLed it. The type of story is exactly my favourtie with all the poor to rich tropes I want.

Writing/Translation: 3.5/5

I read the MTL version. The translation is the default Google and Safari translation. Both have different parts that are not understandable so I will go to the other to have a slightly better understanding. The MtL is actually quite good. The author uses a lot of names in the text instead of pronouns, so when mtled, there are not as many pronoun mistakes as expected. Even all the technical detailed parts of making money were pretty understandable. I say you won't regret giving it a shot if you like this type of novel.

Pacing: 3.9/5

The beginning, when the MC had nothing and was rock bottom, was my favourite part. Because there was so much detail in describing how he made money and how their lives were slowly yuan by yuan, improving. Later on, the details got a bit more high-level, which was sad. It wasn't as day to day detailed, but week to week and month to month. But still, I didn't lose interest at all.

Plot: 4/5

I love this type of story where the main focus is improving their lives and those of their other poor relatives. The businesses were more detailed than most others. Exactly what I wanted!

Romance: 3.9/5

I did like it. No one was unequal here. Both have their own vulnerabilities that don't feel typical BL, fake or not executed enough. The whole thing was surprisingly mature and real enough.

Setting/Worldbuilding: 4/5

The setting feels really real to a person who has never been to China.

Characters: 4/5

The characters feel different from other CN web novels of the same type. The side characters are all self-serving, but in a very normal way. It's kinda refreshing. The relatives and family of the MC from a poor rural mountain all want to sincerely improve their lives, so they all work hard to earn money. In the same way, the stepfamily of the MC is always worried that if they take sides, the husband or son will dislike them and kick them out of the family. So whenever something happens, especially for the stepmother, she thinks about whether this person will take care of her when she is old and sick. But this is all not in a bad way; this is their situation and this is that type of era, and anybody with their submissive temperament will think the same. The interesting thing is that they won't do bad things, so although there are many flaws compared to other similar web novels, these characters feel very very real in terms of attitude. I like this glimpse into the culture in China at this era.

Personal Enjoyment: 5/5

Loved it! It almost hit 100% of my ideal poor-to-rich type of story! If the author had used the same type of family connection vibe from their The Only Favourite Ugly Husband story, it would have been utterly perfect. <<less

4.04 Stars... more>>

Date Read: 16/04/2024

Personal Enjoyment: 4.3/5

I enjoyed finally finding a transmigrate to ancient China and making money with a heartwarming family moments novel. And I liked it until the end. I do wish it was longer and that they would add more details for some things like travel times, the later hiring process, more bonding moments with the s*aves and hired people etc. But well, it has a certain charm when it's written like this so maybe the charm would be gone if they added more stuff. I like it. Heartwarming family bonding and the money-making were paced reasonably well at least compared to others :) I love the relationships the MC made too. It's nice :)))

Short Summary: Orphan tsundere hardworking MC transmigrates to ancient China after the original body hanged himself in despair because of being married off when he has someone else. Follows the typical make money using cooking and bringing along his family and friends up together.

Plot: 4/5

A more condensed and efficient version of the transmigrate to ancient China to make money storyline. Things go pretty smoothly for the MC. I like how step-by-step the making money part is. Some of the ones I dropped were because there was so much dilly-dallying or additional boring stuff in between or how cheating the money-making was that it completely broke my suspension of disbelief. Or that the MC had a big capital from the start. This one he did small things to get some capital to start doing bigger and bigger things. There is a better sense of progression. It is only that it took a quick few days within the story to get the capital.

My other slight issue is that the author didn't really pay much attention to the physical distance between places. It kinda felt like the MC took a short walk to a shop to buy things when in actuality, the shop is a half-hour walk in the sun outside the village into town. I wish this was included just to make the world immersion deeper.

The progression ends at the town stage which I am happy about. It keeps things within the realm of believability lol. I find when things get bigger, the authors usually get more vague with the money-making details.

Writing/Translation: 4/5

The translation I read is from KnoxT. Pretty good overall. Just some minor pronoun mistakes and one or two name mistakes. But there are lots of hidden footnotes to explain the cultural ancient china things. With some pictures if needed.

Pacing: 4/5

Pretty good actually. I'm kinda impressed. Mostly because I've been reading similar stories but dropped them because the pacing is so bad. Very efficient and condensed. The ending 5 chapters had a sharp danger spike but was resolved within a couple of chapters. And then the last chapter was the house unveiling and a short look at the couple's kid. I wish there were more for these but I also think it's good as is.

Setting/Worldbuilding: 3.7/5

It could be better but it could also be worse.

Characters: 4.3/5

I love all the characters. It's nothing too deep or complex but they are all quite likeable. The Tu family are all sweet and normal people and they help if they can. I love the heartwarming family relationships here. I especially love how the MC has this found family after transmigrating. And he now has the chance to act cute and spoiled with his mother-in-law and the ML after having a short childhood previously. It's nice. All the characters close to the main characters are nice. So genuine haha. And the ML is so cute! Such a big burly gong character but silly, honest and always getting bullied by the MC haha. Similar to the ML in the Stone Age Husband Raising Journal hehe.

Romance: 4/5

The romance is sweet and nice. I love the dynamic between them. There isn't a blushing shy shou and the looming gong here. Kinda the opposite a little bit haha. The MC is the shou and looks like it but he is the one always teasing and bullying the big gong ML. The MC is a bit of a tsundere haha. But the level is always just teasing for a short while so it is short and sweet instead of annoying and uncomfortable to read. The s*x scenes all fade to black and are only hinted at which is good. Since what hints there were is a pet peeve of mine, oof my waist is weak, my legs can't stand up, everything huuuurts because of the wild s*x. It was in a lighthearted jokey way that didn't overstay its welcome :D <<less

4 Stars... more>>

Overall

I enjoyed myself very much. The story's writing is definitely at the web novel level where it's a bit like a trail of what is happening right now without much transition from place to place or scene to scene. But since I love this ancient time, business wealth-making trope, I didn't care and was totally hooked. A unique trait for this story is that the MC starts over more than once, kind of. Compared to other similar stories that go linearly a bit unbelievably from poor villager to business tycoon in the capital with huge jumps, this one is smoother. Also, the time that passes by between jumps in wealth or business ideas is more reasonable. The money doesn't go from a hundred to 50 000 one shot haha. It's interesting. Some parts of the story are too simple and straightforward in the writing and dialogue but others feel more sophisticated in the execution, like the business making, especially in the first 2/3rds. It was also surprisingly quite heartwarming! The moodmaker is the "special" youngest third brother. He's adorable and livens up all the scenes. And happily, the author kept all the original characters from the beginning together in the main scenes until the end more or less. I hate it when characters I like get shoved away after their spotlight.

Writing/Translation

The translation I read is at ArchiveOfOurOwn hosted by MelisaGarcia. I don't know who was the original translator since there isn't a group at novelupdates anymore but I read it here. The translation is okay. It could do with another look through because there are a few wrong names/pronouns/missing words but after a bit, it is easy to autocorrect in my head without a pause in the flow. The writing is too web novel for my personal taste. For example, at the beginning, we get a summary of what we need to know for the story in narrative style from the MC. Then, it feels a bit abrupt when we are thrown into the ML's family so fast. Another example is at the beginning, when I wasn't used to it, it's a little difficult to ground myself in what is happening because the transition isn't clear. Like, we will be focusing on a character and then in the next sentence, the MC who wasn't there originally, suddenly says something. I didn't realise until a few sentences in that this was some time later in a new scene. This only happens for the small transitions. The bigger ones with bigger timeskips like weeks or more or between the bad guys' pov back to the MC are clearly mentioned. Also, after the first few times, I got used to it and have no issues at all. I think I liked it because I could get to the parts I liked the best haha. Honestly, don't worry about it.

Pacing

The first few chapters were kinda rushed and abrupt because the author wanted to quickly start the meat of the story lol. Then, it was all smooth. But the second time the MC restarted at a new place was kinda a wild choice. That part was a little bit quicker, probably because the author assumes we get it. Then, the third time was far more quick. Some parts were new and unique but there were more frequent small timeskips and finally a longer timeskip in the last chapter. It could be better but it wasn't actually a bad thing.

Plot

The MC set up 2 successful branches with ideas from the modern world to sell. Then, he started over in a poor county after selling his hard work in the town, improved the entire poor county, made money, sold off all his hard work again, and transferred to a richer county at the last 20-30 chapters. And live happily ever after near the people he loves.

I really like the idea of starting anew at a different place without a fallback base. It gives the story new opportunities to be creative in wealth making in a new setting with different geography and local materials. So the MC can do new things to make money. It definitely didn't get stale. I only wish that the author would make the characters deliberate more and take some time to discuss the pros and cons before they sold off everything they had to travel to the new places. Because when they sold off the house in the village the Ml was hesitant. When I first read that they sold off all their properties that could have made so much money in the future, I was afraid it was a sign that the next parts would be super rushed since they sold off everything in a couple of sentences. I also feel like someone in the family and followers would have shown some hesitation and advice to not sell everything. That would have felt more real.

Themes/Main Point of the Story

I love wealth-making! Lin Lu is profiting by making novel items until the copycats in the market appear, then creating a new thing to sell and repeat. I love how there is always something new eventually. It kept things very fresh. Especially since the business parts didn't feel cheap. As in, the author didn't make the MC just keep throwing ideas over and over very quickly like fast food. There is some setup and a little bit of legway before the new idea is executed in the business so it felt legitimate and real to me. There are different target markets for the different ideas that were thought of by the MC too so it didn't feel like just throwing ideas onto the wall and hoping something sticks. I also like how they stayed in the thousands for a few years because Lu Lin was already satisfied and didn't want to cause more trouble for more money.

The romance, though, wasn't really there. I didn't feel the chemistry much. It kinda felt like the ML was already there, lets build another room for the kids so we can have sex! I can feel how the ML might like the MC but the MC from the start just liked how good looking the ML was and that's it. It didn't help that after we got to know the ML, he felt a bit like a kid and not like an adult until later. They also weren't really sticky in love with each other. Anyway, I just thought the romance was okay.

I love the family though! The scenes were cute and heartwarming eventually. It was all because of the third youngest brother being a kid and adorable. Since he's "simple", "slow" and "special" when we get to know him, he isn't to me. He just feels straightforward and only cares about things that catch his interest which is anything novel and exciting, just like a kid. Very likeable. The MC will keep making delicious food and sharing it with a lot of people and making many people happy. It's nice to read about.

Characters

I loved the characters. There weren't any deep and draggy plotting people but people who are hard-working and love food. If you love food, it immediately makes the characters more approachable, warmer and lighthearted. I love the Chens and the people who followed the MC. They are all nice and cheerful more or less. I also quite liked all the new characters at the new places they started over at. I was quite surprised because usually, the new characters would be friends very fast without the care taken to win each other over properly. The author did a good job. It's a bit sad we don't bring all the side characters from the village/town/county together with the MC though. Only the major ones.

The bad guys are very good and annoying. They are all just relatives who are entitled and super jealous of the couple. I wouldn't say it was the most satisfying to see them not get what they wanted (the faceslapping in the Favourite Ugly Husband is the most satisfying for me haha), it was quite pleasant to read them getting foiled. Sadly, there wasn't really a final faceslapping for them though haha.  <<less

4 Stars... more>>

Overall

Ahhh, I liked it and then, by the end, I loved the sense of progression and happy new beginning for all the characters in the story in the extras! This story is pretty amusing, pretty cool, surprisingly down to earth, and feel good in a (slightly Natsume Yuujincho helping ghosts-human occurrences kind of way without the sadness) and has lots of worldbuilding in its setting! The little belly ghost is just awww. There are little kid ghosts too! Aih, all the characters are so cool, unique, very fun, kinda tragic but they so easily and happily make fun of themselves that everyone is cheerful too! I also really like how the poor, broke, hell company is slowly, through inexperience and growing pains, developing and growing bigger. They have to have their first ever business development meeting instead of just sitting back and waiting for their descendants to burn clothes and food for them but must use their brains to compete within the mortal realm with other businesses hahaha.

I love the business management trope so this is right up my alley. My only issue is that they don't show the details of their products or the development of their products much. Basically, there is an initial idea discussion, then lots of time passes in other mini-arcs, then a milestone in the product development is reached. The thing is, we are with the characters every day it feels like but somehow we realise the characters have actually been doing product development stuff behind the scenes without us knowing. Would have liked to be more involved but I guess the author was afraid it would get too long. The topic of their business is hell and the management of the afterlife and also how the afterlife is affecting the mortals still living. Since the underworld has combined with the human realm, they need to move with the times and make money to run all their operations! Hahahaha And guh, the romanceee! It's slow burn ish and I really do feel the love and interest the couple slowly have towards each other :) It helps that one of the couple is a Ghost King who's thousands of years old with a personality that loves playing online games, is petty and doesn't like to lose. It makes you curious about, is there anything deeper? Huhuhu

Sigh, after I finished this and then finished another story, I still miss being in this world following all these super likeable characters that just lift the mood. I just smile reading about their antics haha.

Writing/Translation

The translation I read is probably from Chrysanthemum Garden. So it's pretty good, no errors. But since there is so much Chinese supernatural culture involved, there are some parts that got a bit difficult to understand. It didn't affect my enjoyment though. Since they deleted the translation on their website, I’ve read until chapter 36 at novelcool but halfway through, I realised the text got cut and a bit in the middle was missing. So I read on Noveltop as well. The editing here also italicises the thoughts of the characters. However, noveltop has strange symbols like k2026; and k2014; in the text. This is probably when they copied from Chrysanthemum Garden, the -- and... were replaced by these symbols. So, I have changed my reading to reading from novelcool. If I notice any weird jumps in the text, go to the same spot at noveltop to see the difference. Unfortunately, novelcool only has up to 58 chapters. So I just read from noveltop.

Pacing

The pacing is okay.

Plot

The plot follows our MC who was planning to lay low in a small uneventful tech company for the 2 months before his graduation. It's only he joined the modern hell company who are broke and have barely any mortal currency hahaha. We follow him as he uses technology to solve ghostly problems with the company and especially, his boss XD Throughout the one-year contract, the couple encounter many ghostly issues and have to solve them. The MC is learning all kinds of new supernatural things in a lighthearted, jokey manner and also, growing closer to the broke ass boss hahaha

Themes/What Story Tried to Achieve

The supernatural romance worldbuilding the author tried to do is pretty good. I love the supernatural part. It made everything new (for me anyway, I haven't read a supernatural web novel before) and unique! I adore all the many many types of ghosts, there are so many with different lives, a unique outlook on life as ghosts, and all the many ways they died lolol. The majority of the enjoyment I get from worldbuilding utilises all these fun ghosts haha. While yes, if you think too hard, there are so many things that aren't explained to you to understand how everything works but this isn't that kind of super serious story so just enjoy it lol.

The storytelling has this straight man comedy vibe that I quite enjoyed haha. If you read the author's other work, Reborn with My Enemy on Our Wedding, the lighthearted humour is similar, only this one made me smile constantly and not laugh out loud funny all the time. Ah, but the story isn't a pure fluff piece but a proper story if you know what I mean.

The romance is kinda subtle in the first half and then things eventually develop. I really like most of it. I only didn't like that the author dragged out the part where the MC was trying to tell the ML of his misunderstanding that the MC had a crush on the ML. It had stuff conveniently preventing the MC from explaining just as he was opening his mouth. I find this trope super annoying. Luckily, it did finally resolve itself and that during the whole thing, the MC himself wasn't annoyed but felt rather helplessly that this CEO broke boss ML was being very cute. The only thing that saved it for me was I like their dynamic, it's pretty different from my usual gong uke one. This is because the two characters are not taking themselves too seriously and because the MC is pretty confident and a capable person by himself. And that the ML isn't a typical domineering gong but someone who is petty, loves his face as the King (lol) adorably obvious (to the MC, which is adorable and funny XD).

My only wish is that the business part had more details like the level of Transmigration with Lu’s Convenience or Back to the Sixties, Get Wealthy, Raising Cubs. As I mentioned at the beginning, there will be some discussion first, then a couple of milestone updates and we don't really see how or when exactly the MC works on these. Usually, those are the best parts of business management for me. But I am happy there was more detail about the development of the company than I originally expected XD It is pretty fun to read about all the new human hires and their experience working unknowingly (or knowingly) with ghosts. And the last extra where they detailed the new floors and the move was pure wish fulfilment for me, I really like reading how the hard work paid off to improve their lives.

Characters

The best part of the story! The MC is super enjoyable to read. He's funny, capable, confident and a young man who's good with technology. The ML is also a fun person to read about. He's not what you would expect the Ghost King CEO of a company to be. He's funny and cute haha. All the side characters are also super fun and add so much life to the story. Just read for an uplift of mood haha <<less

4 Stars... more>>

Writing/Translation

The translation by Shanghai Fantasy is not the best but it is basically 95% understandable. Much better than mtl. There are some pronoun mistakes throughout the story but it is not too bad and you can always still understand the story. A couple of name errors, but all good. No grammar or spelling mistakes that I know of. Some sentences are a little bit awkward or could be better but you can easily understand the gist of it. Basically, it is easy to understand and read. Apparently, this was an edited mtl.

Plot

The plot structure is pretty good. It is a basic transmigrator rags to riches story with a happy ending. No face slapping or at least it is too minor to be considered the usual cn novel face slapping.

Themes/What it Tried to Achieve

It sufficiently achieved a rags to riches plot using an interesting skill of makeup to succeed. The makeup medium used by the author was very interesting to read about and how this could be done in ancient China without modern technologies. It was satisfying to see how the MC slowly used her sole skill to improve the lives of her family and even friends. It was a very nice wish-fulfillment type of story without being over the top or too unbelievable.

Pacing

Pacing was good, I was kept interested at all times. Was never bored or thought anything was too slow or too rushed.

Characters

They were all likeable! I loved the MC, her new husband and the new kid. The husband is a good man given a bad course in life. He turned out to be devoted and kinda dreamy with how he quietly supported the MC. The little kid was so adorable that it was a pleasure to read how the MC would earn money to buy him little snakes and good food to feed him, who also had a bad start. The side characters were not bad and nice to root for. The villains were all nicely self-entitled that they made you dislike them. However, they were not particularly memorable, just a normal type of bad guy in this time period.

Overall

The only few cons I have is that I wish we could have read some scenes about their reactions to the success of the MC. Make it a bit more cathartic. The second one is the s*x in general. The whole scene about s*x that were shown did not feel romantic in any way. I just feel a bit uncomfortable, maybe it was the sentence choices used. For the MC and her husband, it felt like they did it, next day, she's in pain and the husband treats her like she's porcelain when he was the cause and she dryly jokes in her mind that he should be more gentle, etc. I personally don't like this type of trope/attitude. But the s*x scenes are really quite few and really quite fade to black so I can ignore them. The other thing was that I wish they didn't include the wedding night s*x scene for Xiao Bai the little kid. We spent the majority of the book on him as a kid and only like 2 chapters on him as an adult. It felt too jarring to read about him on his wedding night lol.

Otherwise, I quite liked this story. We go into detail how the MC slowly made more and more money and then improving her family's quality of life quite clearly. I really really like this trope or making use of modern knowledge in the ancient world. And who doesn't like a rags to riches type of story? This was surprisingly wholesome ish with a couple of sudden anxiety during a bit of action. But it was mostly calming and just need to read about the MC working hard and be rewarded for her hard work. It felt earned. I would definitely recommend it. <<less

Hmm, I'm not quite sure if I should put this into the heartwarming category because while yes, the beginning parts have some good friends having fun and happy heartwarming friendship together, that wasn't the main point of the story, the romance is. Also, in those scenes, it was the MC and the ML that had the main focus. I wish the MC was wholeheartedly helping the whole group instead of mainly the ML so it would be easier to apply the heartwarming tag haha. So I'll put it here half for that and half for the sweet love that developed between the couple :)... more>>

4 Stars

OverallAhh, the romance is pretty believable! At the beginning, you can really feel that they were just new classmates, to friends with zero romance in between, and then, there will be a random thought in the ML's head that shows a progression of good will towards the MC. I so far have not seen in detail, within the characters' heads, how they fall in love. It was always from the outside perspective or that love was love at first sight *rolls eyes*. For example, the delinquent group is having a summer camping trip at the beach, it was all high school youths having fun and then the ML just randomly thought, "How can such a good boy be bullied?" XD Overall, this was a sweet high school romance with a more realistic romance development than usual. It was a little short, had some high school bullying and exams and what not but quite nice. The other boys love high school romance I've read is Reborn with an Old Enemy on the Day of our Marriage. That one had more tropes that I prefer, such as wish fulfillment, heartwarming, making better choices in rebirth, and hard work with friends haha.This one doesn't have any rebirth so a significant advantage is automatically gone for me XP. However, character-wise, the couple is definitely cuter, more vulnerable and spunkier because they are actual high school students haha. Also, the cool, strong, tyrant ML is the one in a bad situation and is super vulnerable and finds a safe and loving space with the MC <3Writing/TranslationThe translation I've read is from ThatLazyPotato. The translation is pretty good. Any mistakes are super, super minor and have only happened like, a couple of times. Otherwise, it feels pretty polished.PacingThe pacing is pretty smooth, nothing seems rushed or anything. Maybe some actiony events were a liiiitle faster than expected but this way, you also don't feel like it's dragging. So I have no issues.PlotThe plot is pretty simple. The younger by 2 years from his grade, smart but low EQ at the beginning, MC was bullied at his previous school. We don't know the details. He has transferred to No. 7 high school and is seated next to the scary ML. Then begins the budding relationship between the ML and his group with the MC as brothers and friends. Then, the relationship grows until the college exams in the last chapter. And the extras are from college and beyond.Themes/What Story Tried to AchieveThis is a pure high school love story. The main couple are really high school kids but there aren't any of those s*upid high school shenanigans that make you roll your eyes in irritation or anything like that. The ML does make s*upid actions that if the author had given any warming, I would have went oh, no, don't do it, it's a bad idea, etc, etc and would have reduced my enjoyment of the story but the author didn't! Basically, we only knew what the ML did when the consequences had reached the MC and then, there was a tense, fast-paced sequence of events that was solved super satisfactorily by the MC with some faceslapping haha. Then, there are no more s*upid actions XDCharactersThe main couple are super likeable! The MC is a cute, surprisingly self-confident shou! He was bullied like that at the beginning but with the help of his first real friends and the ML, he got back his childlike and serious deposition. He's a smart guy because he's 2 years younger than his grade so he really thinks through everything, even if he might have had a low EQ at the beginning. In terms of the romance, he is the initiator and really kept up the momentum hahaha. The poor ML couldn't hold on and surrendered eventually XD He's surprisingly quite spunky.The ML is the strong, of little words, tyrant big brother type. But also keep in mind, he's only 17 years old so there wasn't any unbelievable prowess or amazing family situation. Compared to the MC, his situation is basically on a whole other lower level haha. He's all alone even when he has relatives. The ML isn't a s*upid gong who during s*x just goes with his d*ck and ignores the other person. In fact, it's kinda the opposite, he has to be the mature person to cool down the excited MC and run away lol. The author also showed him being vulnerable and at his lowest point. The MC comes to his rescue as a safe harbour! Even though the MC is still arguably just a kid XDThe 2 friends are also pretty good. I find that high school yaoi will have good male comradery compared to het high school romance XP. The friends feel real, alive and have some heartwarming scenes. They don't exist just to prop up the main couple or to have roles to advance the story.The villains are there and they are super ugly but after some time, there is a finale to slap them in the face. I just wish we could have slapped all of them, the bystanders and minor ones too. I also wish we could have seen what happened to the ML's relatives, I wanted to one-up them so much haha but we don't see them in the extras sadly. Like hah, the ML got good grades on the college exams, what about the annoying cousin?? Like authorrrr, you forgot this person to face slappp. <<less

4 Stars... more>>

Overall

I enjoyed it a lot! It was like the right amount of most things. The writing and tone of the story is bright and a solid poor to rich travel to places to obtain things together with friends, cute and smart animals, unique and refreshing setting, wish fulfilment (of making lots of money and then using it to design your desired lifestyle, my dearest wish lol), a not repulsive romance, a system that isn't annoying but kinda interesting, lots and lots of natural environments, etc. Sure, there are lots of minor things that aren't perfect like some sentences the commenters type seem to be a typo because I genuinely do not understand, some transitions seem to the next scene seems to have been skipped, so it's a little jarring, certain minor things that could have been more tight but it's all minor and I don't really notice it. The story is pretty enjoyable to read, not too stressful or bland. I also like how the bad guys really did make me anxious for the MC but the time I was anxious was quite short. It was just a little jump to spice up the story but it is relatively quickly solved so the anxious feeling doesn't have time to become unpleasant haha.

Writing/Translation

The translation I read is from Exiled Rebels Scanlations. The writing is pretty okay. Like 8.5/10? There are a couple of odd pronouns in descriptions or explanations but it's not obvious and not jarring. Some statements, like one statement in the scene, by the netizens are not understandable at all but it doesn't affect the story at all. The rest is pretty good.

Pacing

It was all mostly okay and even. Just the last couple of chapters, the author kinda randomly focused on the MC’s fighting skills? It felt like the author actually wanted fighting with plants to be a thing throughout the story but it naturally focused on the contract animals and collecting gratitude points and left the development of fighting with plants to some training and quick fights. But after the main frictions were all dealt with, the author got excited to finally make the MC a strong fighter lol. It's just that the MC’s development was way too quick, only 2 chapters and he's the Fighting King lol.

Plot

The MC transmigrates to an interstellar world with little edible plants where humans have contract beasts based on the symbol that develops on their body. They have a lifelong bond after they contracted with each other. As a person with a plant system, the MC gives off a natural feeling that is calming, gentle and creates a closer bond with contract beasts. The system needs energy from gratitude by others to be of any use or to level up. Also, to save the MC from his death in his previous life, the system broke into fragments throughout the interstellar.

So, we follow the MC to earn money to survive, earn gratitude energy to live better by exchanging plants with the energy to eat and do battle with, and to be able to find the fragmented parts of the system and also make friends to just live better in this world. Along the way, he grows closer to the ML who's the big bad in a book he halfway read in the previous life. At first, he doesn't want the city he lives in to be destroyed and later, he finds the ML to be a nice guy and doesn't want him to suffer so much he turns into a villain.

Themes/What Story Tried to Achieve

The setting of Interstellar and the whole plant system and the contract beast worldbuilding are pretty interesting and refreshing to read about. I didn't much like all the other interstellar web novels I’ve read before because they were kinda bland? But this had just the right combination of stuff that the setting is a plus. It made the gathering of system fragments kinda fun and exciting to travel to new places. We don't stay at each new place long or explore them in much detail compared to other long adventure web novels but for this type of story, it's nice.

I quite like the whole slowly gathering energy and earning money part haha. All the moves made by the MC to do so make sense. There isn't a random exponential jump in earnings that feels like the author just put it there. The jump in money that did happen makes perfect sense because of the rarity of it all. The progression of the accumulation type of plot that happens here is taken up by the task of gathering all the system fragments. I was not bored once :) It was a happy feeling whenever the MC managed to achieve something haha.

Also, the big money venture where the MC is kinda like a passerby overseer is so cute, warm, and fun to read about. I love the happy, heartwarming feelings their presence adds to the story.

Characters

The MC is a good one. I like him over a lot of other Mc’s or other ukes I’ve been reading lol. He's a survivor of the zombie apocalypse but he's not an emotionless salted fish who doesn't want to do anything. He immediately works hard to earn money to live on and to earn gratitude energy to be able to find all the fragments. His personality is also a thinker and in such a way that I don't find him annoying. He acted like a normal adult lol. But he's also very relatable and it was easy to get invested in him and his goals. He is also relatively compassionate haha. He basically wasn't affected much by the end of the world experience lol. However, this can be a con. I would have liked him to be a bit more desensitised or used to gore and brutality because you know, zombies. But he has normal fears lol.

The ML is a clingy, jealous gong. He has a bad past and lots of betrayals and has latched on to the MC to survive. He's insecure that even this good thing will leave him and gets anxious about it. The MC understands and constantly communicates with the ML about it which is kinda nice. I don't find any parts of him that I dislike :). He's not unreasonable and you understand him too.

The friends and companions are all great. I wish there were more deeper scenes with them but the lightheartedness of this story is pretty good already. They are distinct and don't feel like props to hold up the story. The contract beast is such a blast though haha. Cute and fun.

I love how the bad guys are in the story. They are written as enough of a threat that I feel anxious whenever they do something bad but it is never too long before the bad thing is solved XD. <<less

4 Stars... more>>

Translation/Writing

The translation by Slow Day is very good! Smooth flow, little to zero errors, no wrong pronouns or weird sentences. The writing is such that it is not too detailed and is quite light. However, it uses simple and light sentences to pack a powerful emotional punch. This is an MTL-edited translation.

Plot

This is a slice-of-life romance so there weren't any high highs or low lows. The buildup of the romance was even and included all the typical happy romantic life events.

Themes/What Story Tried to Achieve

This is such a nice, fluffy romantic story. The romance isn't the typical cn novel type but it has some substance, was unexpectedly sweet and encouraging and I liked it which is pretty rare for me in lightnovels. It was just light enough without being shallow. The whole atmosphere of the story is like a healing/wholesome story with good friends who will fight battles with you, work that helps other people and a sweet love story. It definitely executed what it planned nicely. Also, I love how when the MC finally caught feelings for the ML, her personality is still the same even though it was her turn to be shy. It was believable. The previous ancient China slice of life romance I read just before this, this cool and unconcerned MC suddenly turned into this alien blushing maiden whenever there was a scene with the ML, it wasn't believable. So this is good!

Pacing

Pacing, I feel has no issues. It wasn't rushed or slow enough that it was noticeable to me.

Characters

I liked all the main characters and the side characters! The main couple were likeable and I loved that the girl was cheerful, confident and bold without being over the top tomboy and yet was still very mature, as expected of a rebirth 30 year old woman. I love that she is genuinely kind. And the ML is so unexpectedly cute for being a tall gentleman haha. He is basically a typical shoujo maiden hahaha The side characters were all nicely written and didn't feel like typical cardboard cutouts/npcs lol. The MC's girlfriends are especially nice. I adore the female friendships in this; they are so rare!

Overall Comments

To be honest, I don't have anything new to add that the other reviews haven't already mentioned. This story is short (finished in half a day!) but fluffy and sweet without being shallow. It will hit you unexpectedly in the feels randomly that I cried lolol I like it! <<less

3.97 Stars... more>>

From the High Quality BL list by P2wo.

"Special shout to novel's Psychiatrist. His really great and the author really captures the attitude of a good therapist. He does not force his client to talk, he encourages but he knows the limit on where he could push. There's also the talk about confidentiality. And I love his foresight. He told that our Shao Shoa won't have a normal marriage since he have a trauma with older woman.

Special mention with the family's attitude towards mental illness. That's how you should deal with it. Our it was not mention but they were undergoing family therapy. I like how the author advocate mental illness in this novel."

---

Writing/Translation: 4/5

The translation I read is from Chrysanthemum Garden. Not as polished as expected but still way better than most. The only errors are a few very minor careless mistakes.

Pacing: 4/5

It was pretty even throughout and the ending wasn't jarring like other similar stories. By then, the story felt very complete, and the flow of the ending felt the same as before even though there were time skips. My only issue is that I needed a bit more stuff to be happening haha. So some small parts felt a bit slow or something was happening that I was a bit bored by and wished it would finish quicker, like that truth or dare game lol.

Plot: 4/5

I enjoyed it and I finished the story so that's good haha. It was sweet and all the characters were refreshingly wholesome ish to read about. The Mc’s father and therapist were so nice, mature and lighthearted.

Romance: 4/5

I liked the romance too. It builds up gradually until I got it. The romance wasn't shoved in my face to believe it. Usually, most high school BL romance works for me lol. Others not so much haha

Setting/Worldbuilding: 3.5/5

Well, it's high school. Nothing much else.

Characters: 4.3/5

The main characters are nice. I liked all the adults. The friends have personalities and their own dynamics too.

Personal Enjoyment: 4/5 <<less

3.93 Stars... more>>

Date Read: 24/5/2024

Personal Enjoyment: 4/5

I liked it. The pictures definitely helped give me that cosy slice-of-life atmosphere. Because there weren't a lot of descriptions of the food. The story is pretty short, I read it in a day. There weren't any frustrating events with only one faceslapping of relatives. Otherwise, it was smooth sailing. But it wasn't boring as some smooth-sailing poor-to-rich stories are. Because the business making was a bit more detailed than others! At least for most of it. All the money numbers were actually stated with costs, expenses and net profits. Of course, near the end, it got vaguer sadly. I didn't like the romance after they got together though because the ML changed and got “cured” into a typical ML who “sexes” the FL until exhaustion every night regardless of how she refuses *rolls eyes*. So sad, I really loved the dynamic at the first 3/4ths of the story though. The ML was so easily flustered!

Short Summary: Girl MC transmigrates into a cannon fodder-ish character wife of a socially stunted scholar and his 2 young siblings. She then cooks her way through life to earn money to cook more food.

Plot: 3.8/5

Pretty simple plot. MC comes in and cooks her way to a comfortable life for her and her family. Her husband grows out of his insular shell from her food and passes his exams because of love. I do feel like there were missed opportunities for more plot though or as if the author decided last second to just not explore some plotlines. For example, what happened in the original book with the protagonists and also the neighbours. There was an agreement for the MC to teach the kid 4 meat dishes and 4 vegetarian dishes but there were zero mentions of her doing that. But we know the husband's sibling got to learn from the neighbour to sew because there were mentions about that. A little odd but it didn't annoy me or anything.

Writing/Translation: 4.3/5

The translation I read is from bekiapobenjieming. The TL is very good. It's edited MTL but the finished product is fantastic. Every sentence has an effort to make it easy to read and understand despite having some minor errors. You can tell that there were multiple rounds of editing. Also, it's full of pictures showing the food and that made the experience very atmospheric and helped increase the reading experience by a lot. Honestly, I think the pictures made this into a ⅘ experience for me instead of a likely 3.7/5 without it. Yes, there were a couple of wrong pronouns and missing words at the end but it all felt like missed typos only. Every sentence was completely understandable. Kudos to the TLtor!

Pacing: 3.9/5

For the most part, it was good. We follow the MC step by step to earn more money for her expenses. And the ML didn't come in and negate all her efforts by showing some hidden past that comes with lots of money or doing something off-screen to suddenly earn double the amount she did. It is only near the end of their stay in town that the pacing got faster and things started to get a lot less specific. This seems to happen with all Chinese novels, unfortunately.

Setting/Worldbuilding: 3.7/5

Pretty generic. I would say 0.2~ stars was purely because of the pictures the Translator added since there weren't many descriptions of the food or the scene.

Characters: 3.9/5

I really liked the MC and the ML at the start. The ML was such a different character than I'm used to in these poor-to-rich transmigration stories. He was so flustered and untalkative, it was cute. The MC was also nice and calming to follow. She wasn't too extreme in character, neither too OP nor too helpless. But hardworking and grounded. The two siblings were a bit generic but not bad. The antagonists were meh. I barely knew who was who because the in-laws' names were so similar and they didn't appear much. The maiden side of the family was mildly more interesting, especially the Mc’s mother.

Romance: 3.9/5

The romance is a 4.3 for most of it until the ML got “cured” of his silent emotionally stunted ways ¾ of the way which the romance then became a 3.6/5 for me. The romance was going fantastic because of the couple's dynamic. The ML was so in his own world and was so confused and flustered by the FL lol. And then, I loved watching how their interactions slowly increased and grew. Then Idk, the ML had a breakthrough, had s*x and all that changed. He suddenly became this confident top official and is a menace to the FL in bed *rolls eyes*. You know, the whole go so many rounds the FL is left exhausted the next day. Also, a lot of the “couldn't resist the FL’s actions and then went to have lots of sex”. Also, a lot of the “FL complains and is resistant but the ML just bulldozes over her and kisses her to stop her complaining and having sex”. The usual toxic romance tropes in Chinese novels sigh... This is normal but it really bugged me because there wasn't any hint of this attitude at the start so I feel let down lol. <<less

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. <<less

3.7 Stars... more>>

Overall/Personal Enjoyment: 3.9/5

I quite enjoyed myself. I've been in a reading slump since Nov so I said F it and started reading all the poor to rich not Completed webnovels in my list that I had reeeeally wanted to read. Normally, I would ignore the incomplete webnovels because I don't like the quality to drop halfway because of MTL but I didn't care anymore because I have read all the Completed novels with this type of trope haha.

I think I only read two other good transmigrate to the 50s-90s type of stories that were completed and that I really liked, Back to the 60s, Getting Wealthy, Raising Cubs and Bai Shumei in the 70s. The rest were quite disappointing. So I am happy to read this one. The story itself is pretty solid and I love that the business management part played a big role in the story. I wish the story focused more on that with even more detail haha. It only reached the level of the village and maybe the town or city. I wanted a business empire hahaha. I also would have liked more explicit information during the making of the products being sold like the recipe of the popsicles and what fruits exactly were inside. Also, for the greenhouses, I wanted to know in more detail each plant's drawing and planting detail like in the Pastoral Life. And also, what exactly are the greenhouse techniques the Mc learned in the capital. Well, this is my most common complaint for all webnovels most likely. More detail lol.

Writing/Translation: 3.4/5

The translation I read is from Lazy Sakura Translations. The translation is okay, there are often some mistakes but they don't affect the reading experience for me. Some missing words, things like that. Also, the writing is pretty simple and straightforward so any translation mistakes are easily ignored. It isn't finished yet at chapters 85/148 so I continued with the MTL at the mtlnovel website. Like another reviewer said, it's quite readable. Far superior to most MTL and some terrible translations, such as a tea novel, which is simply too difficult to read.The MTL has frequent add-ons to the names, wrong substitutions to nouns and so on, but the grammar is surprisingly good. And yes, sometimes there are paragraphs or something happens but you can't understand because of the mtl but it doesn't really detract from the experience. The cuteness of the baby isn't as clear but it is still there. Basically, if someone wants to clean up the mtl, it really wouldn't take much effort.

Pacing: 4/5

I thought it was pretty good especially during all the money making bits. Nothing really felt rushed or slow.

Plot: 3.8/5

The plot is really simple which is good for what it is. The MC moved to the 1980s with a 2-year-old, broke ass poor, he has to use his brain and rely on himself to provide for this poor child. The money making from the beginning to about 3/4 is quite detailed, especially how much was made exactly, which I liked. Then, as it got bigger and bigger, more people noticed and when it looked like he could live a good life no matter what happens next, the characters' past came back to make some drama. I admit that the drama part was okay but I wished it was more satisfying to faceslap and that it would have concluded much faster so I could go back to the business management part haha.

Romance: 3.3/5

The romance is kinda lowkey haha. It really only happened in the latter half of the story because the MC is just too busy making a living for his family. But I didn't dislike it. It's fine for me.

Setting/Worldbuilding: 3.5/5

This is a typical olden days rural China setting. I wish it was more detailed but the focus was more on the running a business part.

Characters: 4/5

The main characters are pretty good. The MC is lowkey, smart, hardworking and serious. His son is arguably also a main character because he appears almost all the time haha. He's 2-3 years old but he's quite eloquent. Although he is so eloquent, you can tell he's still a little kid which is good. A lot of other stories I read with kids either show them briefly then throw them to other caretakers or show the kid as a mini adult which is too unbelievable that it broke me out of the immersion. This is just right. The kid is super cute and the MC is really involved in the kid's daily life. I admit, the repetition of the kid's unique characteristics, ie, the constant food obsession and how the other characters keep teasing him about being handsome and/or a little fatty, got a bit annoying by the end. But I still prefer this kid. He added a lot to the story. <<less

3.64 Stars... more>>

Writing/Translation: 3.6/5

The translation I read is from Flavourtown. The translation is okay. It has that edited MTL flavour haha. Some sentences were hard to understand, especially at the beginning when you are trying to get into the world. Like the words were slightly wrong. The writing at the setup was also too perfunctory. It felt like many things were missing to help me understand the world. Once the MC starts raising the cubs, it gets way better because you just have to enjoy the cuteness and don't worry about the world lol. The more you read, the easier it is to understand the translation.

Pacing: 3.7/5

The beginning was pretty good. The MC made lots of effort to establish himself in this new world while making sure this baby dragon that is dependent on him can eat. I love the discovery of new cubs and exploring their personalities and relationships. But after they went to the capital, I kinda felt a bit more bored because there were more characters and cubs, so the focus got divided. We lose some of the deep exploration and intimacy. After that, all the renovations happened a bit too quickly and perfunctorily. There and gone haha.

Plot: 3.7/5

This is very cute and heartwarming. Also, have lots of smiles and laughs. The babies also had different personalities that kept their uniqueness throughout the novel which I am happy about. They also appear quite prominently in the story, which is good since this is a story about raising baby dragons haha. It is just after Rhein, (also a character I didn't much like because he's kinda boring. He likes to be idle, so nothing interesting there.), I didn't much care for the other cubs at all. Particularly the Duke. I don't know, I just didn't feel connected to or interested in her. She felt too capable, lol. It doesn't help that the focus didn't really explore in as much detail each individual cub as in the beginning.

Romance: 3.3/5

The romance, when it appeared, felt a bit out of the blue lol. I cannot quite see the signs that the MC liked the ML. It was too well concealed, lollol. So while it took awhile for any progress on the romance front, when they got together, it felt too sudden haha. I do like the ML though. He isn't a lovable idiot, a domineering alpha, a shy maiden or all those tropes that I’m tired about but he's an alpha crown prince that freely adores the cubs, has normal brain circuits but still has no attachments to his face as a crown prince haha. A nice attitude.

Setting/Worldbuilding: 3.5/5

The world is interesting. I like all the different dragons there are. But it wasn't fleshed out as much as I wanted.

Characters: 3.9/5

The characters are cute, haha. I love the first three dragon cubs. They were interesting, adorable and funny. The MC is also a nice person to follow around. The ML, as mentioned above, is refreshing. There was no the alpha male is king and great while the other partner was weak and submissive, so that was a nice change.

Personal Enjoyment: 3.8/5

It was an engaging enough read that I made myself finish it. It wasn't exactly what I wanted, which was to slowly step by step, build up the centre and adopt a bunch of abandoned orphans without the convenience of having rich parents donate expensive stuff to the centre haha. <<less

3.6 Stars... more>>

Writing/Translation: 3.5/5

I read all the existing translations up to C27 by Travis Translations and then moved to MTL with the default Google and Safari browser translations. The Google one was noticeably better than the Safari one, so I would only refer to the Safari one if something didn't make sense in the Google one. I still lost some details though.

Pacing: 3.8/5

The pacing was pretty smooth except at the end ish. When they started getting three-digit earnings, the detail and impact of any subsequent business idea weren't as powerful anymore. Mostly because for the main characters, they have already reached their peak lifestyle.

Plot: 3.5/5

A pretty standard plot only it stopped at the village level instead of going all the way to develop at the capital. It definitely fit the characters and their goals, though, so I'm quite happy about it. I always hated going to the capital to develop part because it always felt unnecessary and bloated. I enjoyed the beginning half more, though, because everything the characters did created a good ROI in improving their quality of life. Also, all the effort of the business-making can be read and felt. But after they started earning in three digits, meh, there wasn't much excitement left. So I do wish there was more detail in the business part.

Romance: 3.8/5

The romance is okay. There was a progression and the writing was also pretty good. No weird insta love or super typical uke and seme relationship. And the ML also had some development that doesn't usually appear in these types of stories. Also, no in your face disrespecting of the uke here. Not bad.

Setting/Worldbuilding: 3/5

Just the typical ancient china ish world. We don't get much outside their land lol.

Characters: 3.8/5

The main characters are okay haha. They are pretty refreshingly gentle, actually. This is quite a peaceful and relaxing type of story and the main characters are a good cause for it. They are just living thteir lives quietly and happily. They aren't calculative, sharp or cunning. But they aren't pushovers.

Personal Enjoyment: 3.8/5 <<less

3.59 Stars On-Hold: C822... more>>

"The first 150 chapters or so are really not convincing enough to say that it's a high quality BL. I was honestly annoyed most of the time. But once the royal arc starts, everything starts to go towards the right direction and suddenly everything becomes good. This story focuses on child care, farming, business, medicine, poison, economic development, palace drama, military training, war, weapons development, and so on. Writing is strong, although sometimes repetitive. Nevertheless, the novel is worth reading."

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Writing/Translation: 3.3/5

The translation I read is from Flying-Lines Guy Gone Bad. As expected of a Flying Lines TL, it isn't exactly good. I would say above MTL but way below good. There are wrong pronouns and wrong names that the translator keeps missing. So sometimes, especially when the author does this info dump in a dialogue by someone in the capital, I have no idea who's related to who or what their goals are until a good deal of chapters later when I get more familiar with the new people. I love farming, poor to rich, family-type stories, though, so this didn't faze me.

Pacing: 3.5/5

Most of the time, I thought it was fine. But sometimes, after some long events happen, the author will cram lots of stuff that the characters did in like a couple of paragraphs. It's a little jarring but it doesn't happen all that often. Also, some of the torture stuff the MC did felt a bit too fast to get results but eh.

Plot: 3.5/5

Hmm, how to say? I love the first half when the MC is just a villager and everything is purely about how to get rich for his family and close people. It was heartwarming and I love reading about all the stuff the MC does to get rich. I also liked reading how they designed a big home to live in, all that stuff. Then, well, they had to go to the capital and get thrown into all the political intrigue and all the face-slap scheming. There are still those setting up shops and stuff but it's like 10% of the story now. I still enjoyed it because the heartwarming stuff is still there. But I would still love more farming stuff than fighting lol.

Romance: 3.5/5

The romance is not bad for a BL novel haha. The main romance is surprisingly, the most “healthy”. The couple thinks about each other's views a lot when doing stuff and never force the other to do anything. The development of the romance is a bit iffy where it felt like for a while the MC was in wait-and-see mode and overnight, he suddenly decides that the ML is a good catch and he probably had long-developed feelings for the ML. Kinda out of the blue, I didn't see the building up of feelings but eh. Just roll with it. The other couples are kinda of weird, though. Like the two princes from the Xi kingdom and the MC’s disciple as well as the MC’s nephew and the shadow guard. Wow, kinda toxic relationships in there “side eyes” but eh, just roll with it “laughing face”.

Setting/Worldbuilding: 3.5/5

The setting is typical of ancient China, which I like. I learned a lot of new stuff, like medical things from the MC and stuff like salty land not growing anything XD. All that was fun haha. After we reach the capital, there is a lot less new knowledge and more about the different families and the other kingdom’s movements. Not much detailed world-building, I must say.

Characters: 3.7/5

The main character is definitely vibrant, has a strong personality, is smart and adores kids. So the adores kids part I really like because it adds a lot of family and heartwarmingness to the story. While I am not a fan of most of the Mc’s decisions in how to raise the kids logically (1000 eyes for an eye and ruling through fear than respect, and teaching this to the kids kind of just make them another arrogant bully, well, this isn't that type of fluffy rainbow of a story hahaha). The ML is a typical adoring strong male lead with a powerful background. The kiddos are all noiooce except the big brother when they were still at the village scale. Gosh, he was so annoying then. The whole nagging the MC thing about money got old pretty fast. Luckily, the author mostly stopped it at the capital part.

Personal Enjoyment: 4.1/5

I am enjoying myself quite a bit haha. Especially because it's so long. I completely forgot it wasn't completed after I started it, so now I have to wait hahaha  <<less