Family/Village/Clan/Wealth Building, Poor to Rich, Business Management
Family/Village/Clan/Wealth Building, Poor to Rich, Business Management
Any recommendations are very welcome! All the family/village/kingdom building poor to rich, wealth making business type of stories I've read because this is one of my favourite tropes of all time! Including any business management! (Just discovered there is a tag for it haha) Its just that usually its not done very well or only the kingdom building is good and the characters and scaling is so bad its not enjoyable to read anymore. The stories included will have things like improving the quality of life of the village/kingdom, introducing modern advancements into an ancient/medieval culture type of place. And with likeable characters to keep you going. I'll only include the novels where I read 100% of it or most of it. Probably won't include any dropped novels.
Hard-Working ProtagonistModern KnowledgeCraftingAncient ChinaAncient TimesBusiness ManagementPoor to RichClan BuildingFarmingKingdom Building
28 Followers
Created: Aug 22nd, 2022, Updated: Apr 28th, 2024
Created Aug 22nd, 2022
Updated Apr 28th, 2024
CN (4.1)
124 Chapters Every 28.9 Day(s) 4581 Readers 56 Reviews 06-07-2023
3.7 Stars... more>>
Writing/Translation: 3.8/5
The translation I read is from Konila. Just small harmless errors like a couple of wrong pronouns and names but it only happened like twice or something. My only issue is that sometimes in the beginning, I didn't really understand a sentence. It got way better after awhile.
Pacing: 4/5
The pacing was chill and even the entire way really.
Plot: 3.7/5
It was good to provide this chill farmer lifestyle. The con is that there weren't really many ups and downs haha. Just two people working hard in their own lives to make up for not having a good life previously. This isn't perfect, though. As I can't quite get a solid handle on all their personalities, goals or motives. If you read it, you'll get it. The other characters kind of feel meandering. I can't really understand if they are bad, if they are good, what do they actually want and stuff. Ambiguous and a bit wavy. For example, the MC’s relationship with Mrs. Zhou. I can't get if she likes her, finds her meh or what. Mrs. Zhou too. Is she a weak-willed person to her four sons since they all keep going against her to marry? But then she was super cool when dealing with the separation and was so fair. And then, at the end, our couple kind of broke things off with her or at least wasn't as close as before. All the interactions between our couple and other people feel so up and down lol. But weirdly, I still get the chill slice of life vibe throughout the entire story.
For the money-making part, it isn't the best, despite what everyone is saying. This is because our MC didn't state any plans she has. So whenever they do something money-making-wise, it just feels like going with the flow. So there isn't that satisfying catharsis in buying more assets or making more money. Because there isn't any buildup. But this is still that poor-to-rich rural area type of story and the chill bibes are definitely there. The fact that it is fully translated definitely helps.
Romance: 3.5/5
The romance is sweet when it's there. At the beginning and first half, we don't really understand the ML’s personality. Is he the stoic type? Feeling inferior type? But he's unexpectedly a bit playful. The only con is that we don't get much romance since they kind of act like an old couple who likes to do things together in peace. Which I admit I do appreciate because normally, the couples in CN novels are very cringey to me.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 4/5
Live the vibe very mych.
Characters:3/5
I like that there are so many characters. But I don't like that they are so hard to pin down lol. An argument can be made to say that this is life and people are not static or whatever but I’m here to enjoy reading and it's hard to know if I should root for a character or not when they are so wishy-washy
Personal Enjoyment: 3.9/5
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CN (4.1)
304 Chapters Every 41.1 Day(s) 2753 Readers 23 Reviews 09-14-2022
3.7 Stars - On Hold: C116... more>>
I enjoyed it enough as a time killer but I feel a bit like I'm losing interest now. So I'm putting it on hold for a little bit. Normally, there is faceslapping to pull me in but here there isn't. There are lots of heartwarming outings or banquets but they are too short and don't happen often enough. And I feel like the meaningful cultivation of feelings seemed to happen at the beginning ish and no more after that.
Translation/Writing
The translation I read is by A Wandering Potato. At the beginning, the translation was above average but had some typos. Maybe it was because I was still trying to wrap my head around the world, I couldn't understand some of the sentences. But whether I have learnt enough about the world, I got used to it or the translation just got much better, probably all of it, the errors don't appear anymore. The flow is good, and the humour was presented effectively.
Plot
Basically, the MC, as the newly transmigrated Demon King, develops his undeveloped demon realm and neutralises the humans who were the manpower that defeated his people by using human culture to turn them into his realm's fans. After the setup at the beginning, we get movie after movie, food after food, and entertainment after entertainment projects from the MC in between which he restructures and develops the demon world to align with his goals.
Pacing
The first few things he did felt impactful and novel but after that, it felt like the highs and lows felt the same intensity. So it felt a bit slow or like nothing much was really happening. Even though he was clearly very busy. Maybe it was a bit repetitive.
Themes/What Story Tried to Achieve
This is very much a kingdom building story but we mostly focus on the business side of creating and spreading Earth's greatest hits to the human realm. At least up to the part I've read. In between the MC is developing his realm too but he needs to raise money to pay off his debts.
at the same time haha. This part is very detailed and quite interesting. I had read/watched a lot of the things the MC was redoing so it was a nice nostalgia trip and also it felt super relatable to the MC's and the other humans' reactions to the entertainment. For the ones I haven't watched/read, it was interesting to read about something new that seems to be popular in real life too. And the level of detail the business endeavours have is quite satisfactory for me, quite detailed! I definitely loved that. The MC also has all kinds of different business endeavours going on, which is very interesting to read about. The kingdom building/business part is definitely the main point of the story.
This story is quite funny! There's basically no drama or faceslapping. Any faceslapping plot was easily defeated and turned into an opportunity for humour and it is actually funny haha Or just easily turned into a fan. Humour is subjective but it definitely landed for me. I laughed countless times at the interactions of the MC and his followers lolol.
Characters
The MC. My only problem with him is how quickly he accepted his role as the Demon King and accepted the burden/responsibility of the Demon Realm and its people into his heart. At the beginning, he was super scared of their appearances and how they were gonna sell his corpse to pay off the realm's debt. Then he has to find food that is palatable and not gross. And do this among strangers, in a foreign land with people who might kill him if he acts too ooc. This was kinda shown at the beginning. Then, a few chapters later, when there was no reason given for him to care so much for the demons because he didn't really spend much time with any of them except his servant, he basically throws himself into his role. There were some sentences that implied he was being busy so he didn't have time to miss his old world but this happened many, many chapters later. Also, we don't get much info on his specific circumstances in his old life which might have made me more invested in him. Aside from that, I find him to be a hard worker, a funny smartass (haha), and a pleasant person to read from.He's funny lol.
The supporting characters. They are all varied, quite unique and have so many different lives and circumstances. And they are all likeable and the followers are all adorable hahaha Cute. It's just that we don't follow the followers who eagerly support the MC in detail. The time they take up is rare compared to other business activities. They basically appear often but shallowly. They are my favourite interactions with the MC though because they are so funny with him haha.
The human collaborators appear more often and go through changes more frequently. We also get the POVs a lot more but they are a bit more serious and have their own thoughts on what they are doing. It's not for the MC really so it's not as much of an investment for me to read about it.
As for the ML..., the beginning was kinda interesting and he has a personality... We get his past and his beliefs and thoughts which I liked. Then, after he turns into a demon, he kinda appears rarely, and when he does, it's just some short banter and nothing really happens. Also, his cute naively serious side is gone and he kinda becomes a little boring. It's like we won't get any new development from him anymore since he alrd reached his peak of character development.
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CN (4.6)
194 Chapters Every 3.5 Day(s) 7760 Readers 71 Reviews 05-04-2024
3.64 Stars... more>>
Not sure if I should add it to this list because it feels like the MC is earning absurd amounts of money just to do it or just because he's in the position to do so and make a name for himself. Because he and whoever he cares about is alrd set for life pretty erly on so for me, the main driver to continue reading this trope is alrd gone.
Writing/Translation: 4.1/5
For chapters 1-43.1 by Betwixted Translation, I rate as 5.
For chapters 43.2-48 by Pure Love Translation, I rate as 5.
The rest I read mtl using google and safari default translation on mobile. I rate as 2.4
Pacing: 3.7/5
The pacing at the beginning is a bit too quick. But I think that was just an intro arc to give the MC some hidden fame and accomplishment and also to introduce the people close to him. The business parts in the middle were fine but the ending felt a little bit lacklustre because we focused more on the bad end of the various villains that were handled by other forces because the MC didn't care about them anymore. It would have felt more engaging if the MC was the one who did it on page.
Plot: 3.7/5
The plot was objectively fine. All the loose end was tied anyway. I just didn't really feel it or really liked it because the money being made was alrd too big to relate to anymore lol. And I couldn't really get why the MC would want to continue making money when all his and his close people are alrd set for a rich life by then. Also, I couldn't really understand the two friends and their interests. They joined the internet course and one of them got really into it a bit later on. But then both aren't focused on internet stuff anymore.
Romance: 3.5/5
The romance is just there.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 3.6/5
It was a modern world so I am already somewhat familiar.
Characters: 3.5/5
The characters were okay I guess. I didn't really feel one way or the other.
Personal Enjoyment: 3.4/5
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CN (4.1)
0 Chapters Every 21.8 Day(s) 1351 Readers 8 Reviews 03-21-2024
3.61 Stars... more>>
"- getting initially rich from interior decoration for individual and then commercial customers"
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Writing/Translation: 3.7/5
I read everything in MTL because the current translation is even more incomprehensible than Google Translate. The MTL is surprisingly pretty good. I didn't really feel like I missed anything.
Pacing: 3.7/5
It's fine except there are some parts before a time skip that the author kind of glazes over all the events. And the ending was also like this. The author lined up the ML’s achievements after college in one chapter so quickly lol.
Plot: 3.7/5
Well, I preferred the author's other poor to rich works because they really started from scratch and step by step, got so great that it was very satisfying. This one, yes, there is still the satisfying building up but the jump to making big bucks felt too early for me. Still interesting, though. I didn't like all the BL in this backwards era, oh noooo side because I feel it was just a token effort that I was not interested in. I would rather they just skipped it. Now that I think about it, I feel like the author could have made it much longer to give the few side characters a better deal. In their other works, they felt... just more to me haha.
Romance: 3.3/5
The romance, eh. I didn't like the whole, ML had long loved the MC and was a total simp for the MC from the start while the MC, for one reason or another, is mature and holds back kind of dynamic, this author likes to do. There isn't as much to like. My favourite dynamic is the one from the Stone Age Husband Raising Journal haha. Very refreshing.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 3.8/5
Pretty okay for this type of story.
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CN (4.3)
41 Chapters Every 32.9 Day(s) 2193 Readers 32 Reviews 12-03-2023
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
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CN (3.9)
55 Chapters Every 18.9 Day(s) 3913 Readers 38 Reviews 03-29-2024
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
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CN (3.7)
0 Chapters Every 87.7 Day(s) 1949 Readers 24 Reviews N/A
3.4 Stars... more>>
Overall
Farming, Business Management, Transmigrate to Ancient Era, Improve quality of life, Slice of Life. This is the same type of story as Transmigration of Mian, Lu’s Convenience, and Favorite Ugly Husband. But I feel it is a bit inferior. The level of depth in the business by the MC is pretty shallow, we don't really follow him in much detail. Instead, he dips his toes into many different business ideas. He sells off the ideas instead. The narration of the story, too, tells rather than shows what happened. The pros of this story are that it is longer than most similar stories, the MC has no golden finger, the cast of characters is kind of big and different even if we don't spend much meaningful time with them, it is not all smooth sailing and there is even death in the story, which is different.
Writing/Translation: 3.3/5
The translation I read is from Flying Lines, Alanese Fantasy. I read at the readwn aggregate website. I believe most other websites have the complete translation too. The translation is okay and readable. There are mostly no grammar or spelling mistakes. However, there are some weird translation choices that are kinda too weird. For like 70% of the story, the men who can get pregnant are just called "Daddy" :) So even adults and elderly people will call others Daddy [name] like Daddy is a title. So the characters will say, "My Dad and Daddy are... " First of all, I didn't realise Daddy refers to gers. I just kept thinking it was a typo because Dad is the short form of Daddy in the English language :) Not to mention I kept confusing the Dad and Daddy characters because I thought they were the same person. Other than that, it's too weird for normal adults who aren't the playful coquettish type, to call their parents Daddy to other people. Then, at the 70% mark where the characters travel to the north arc, the translation started using the word, "childe". And until now, after reading everything, I still don't know if childe means a child, some nobility term or is another word for Daddy or what :) Sometimes, the choices of sentences chosen as the final translation is kinda weird and too modern like the characters calling Bro instead of Brother. Still quite readable, better than MTL, but definitely not perfect.
Pacing: 3.3/5
Most of the execution of the events is even, sometimes to its own detriment. The climax of things is sometimes solved very evenly. However, some conclusions got solved too quickly too. Particularly the final chapter in the extras. There were so many one-sentence conclusions to hanging plot lines lol.
Plot: 3.7/5
There were surprisingly more things that happened other than just farming and business. There was a mystery, disappearances, a disease, some army fights, making a winter, poor province rich, exams, etc. It didn't feel too jarring as well. I could still feel the ancient China vibes from all of the events. However, the story didn't tie up everything satisfactorily at the end. The children's happy ending was only briefly mentioned after focusing on it for so long and the eldest one was kinda open-ended and left to our imagination.
Romance: 3/5
The romance is just, it exists for me. The couple were already married when the MC came over. So they just accept it. There are the usual insecurities, such as both thinking the other is too good for them, and so on. I don't really feel the love so I just went with the flow and assumed that they loved each other. The ML kind of has a weak presence after the first few chapters when he was the pillar of the family since the MC’s body was a fool and there are two toddlers to protect. After the MC came, the ML became more and more a typical female love interest lol.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 3.5/5
Very rural Ancient China setting. Quite typical. When they went to the north, that was slightly more interesting because I haven't read anything with a snowy setting before. And the barbarians' clash was new, although the execution of the arc was kinda shallow.
Characters: 3.3/5
The MC was nice to follow. He's a hardworking person who can sometimes be cute when he's in a daze thinking of new business ideas lol. This isn't used much, sadly. He is also lowkey and really sticks to just being a lowkey farmer and villager instead of haring off to the capital for who knows what. He leaves that for his kids haha. Surprisingly, he doesn't go to live in the town either.
I thought the ML would be stronger when I first read about him. But after the MC took over, the ML became more and more like a typical weak wife type, even though he worked super hard and was a hunter for 5+ years to protect his family. Kinda sad to see.
There is a large cast of characters which I liked. They all have their own personalities and some of them have their own relationships (only as love interests for each other, unfortunately). The unfortunate part is that we don't really get to know them much or develop with them beyond solving one problem for them.
Personal Enjoyment: 3.5/5
I love these tropes, poor to rich, business management, improving the family’s lives, etc so I might be a bit biased. But the execution was a bit too shallow, even compared to other similar stories. And the romance wasn't as investment-worthy. I did like the variety of situations that the MC encountered, even if the story didn't dive too deeply into them.
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CN (4)
107 Chapters Every 16.9 Day(s) 2163 Readers 26 Reviews 12-13-2023
3.33 Stars... more>>
Overall
I finally finished a web novel after a long while! I've been in a slump the past couple of weeks and kept dropping so many web novels but I bit the bullet and read one with my favourite tropes even though this has only 31 chapters translated. Luckily, the MTL is pretty readable, better than some bad translations like Tea Novel. That one, I could barely understand 40-50% of it and it was so frustrating to read that I pity my younger, less knowledgeable self. Anyhoo, this is an apocalyptic reborn novel where the main plot is infrastructuring and setting up the world again after the apocalypse happens. I love this type of stories because I love the hoarding and doomsday preparation for the end times type of work, the more detail with gradual progression the better XD.
Writing/Translation: 3.6/5
The translation I read is from Hololo for 31 chapters. The translation is good. Some minor imperfections but quite good. The rest, until chapter 108, I read from the readwn website which I believe is MTL because there aren't any other English translators and the current translator hasn't updated since Jul 2022. So needs must. The MTL is quite readable. I would say compared to Hololo Novels translations, the MTL is minus 0.7 stars. A few characters' names are frequently misspelled, particularly our MC. His name, Ji Cha, gets translated as season tea around 80% of the time. I believe it's because "cha" means tea in Chinese. Also, some of the detail in the infrastructure stuff got a bit lost but it didn't really affect my enjoyment much because I got the gist well enough and these are some of my most favourite tropes so just because there is so much of it anyway, what got lost can be mostly ignored by myself. I will say that I am glad I read the translated parts first so I could know all the characters, names and other details properly first before I got thrown into MTL land and could better guess what it was trying to say.
Pacing: 3.5/5
The pacing is fine for the most part, but as the scale increased, the intimacy of hands-on farming and working for only a few people compared to setting up and opening larger farms, well, the latter part was slightly less detailed because all of that was already shown with the smaller factory farming. The final chapter sums 7+ years of progress in one fell swoop.
Plot: 3.3/5
It did fairly well as an infrastructure novel. There was a lot of detail in the setup that the MC did and I love learning things from novels so that was good. However, other than infrastructure, I feel like lots of small things in the plot that felt like they would be important later on, were never touched on until the end. For example, the MC's and the grandmother's house, the MC didn't do anything with them after the apocalypse started even though it was implied that the real estate would belong to the locals. Next are the ML's family and friends. It feels way too heartless for the ML to have zero reaction to their existence after he joined up with the MC at the factory and after he got all the power needed to try and locate them. He has that little sister and that golden-haired friend who kept teasing him that he seems to have good relationships with at the beginning. But no mention of them at all. I thought there would be some drama with the father later on but nothing. Also, I thought the classmate who helped and directed the renovation of the factory was gonna join the MC as planned by the MC from the start? But it seems there was no mention of him after that. I don't know if I just missed what happened to the guy after the renovation was completed. Overall, I liked the infrastructure part a lot but everything else has a lot of room for improvement. It didn't detract from the infrastructure part though which, good enough haha
Romance: 3/5
The romance is just meh. The two characters have personalities, are proactive in doing their own things and feel distinct. But their romance is just simple and did not draw me in in any manner except maybe a bit at the beginning when the ML was trying hard lol. After they got together, there was no more chemistry or tension and I skipped all the s*x scenes because they are cringey. Anyway, I don't think romance is the main focus.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 3/5
The setting is average. There wasn't much detail about the world, the zombies or what not. The only thing with detail is the setting up of the infrastructure part.
Characters: 3/5
The main characters are okay. I like the MC because he's pretty likeable, kind and hardworking. The ML is a typical ML for me so I don't have much feelings for him. The other side characters kinda dropped off when the scale got bigger. The villains got refreshingly annoying but got rather casually dealt with lol.
Personal Enjoyment: 3.9/5
I really liked the infrastructure part because I haven't read much of it haha. I love poor to rich and societal development or clan and kingdom building tropes so this was nice. It kept me going until the very end. I only wish it was longer with better everything else lolol.
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JP (4.5)
416 Chapters Every 97.9 Day(s) 24321 Readers 193 Reviews 06-23-2020
3 Stars... more>>
Hmm, the first book was quite bad where all the characters didn't quite make sense and it was hard to really identify with Iris though this may all just be translation issues haha. Moreover, all the ideas Iris gave out just seemed to be completed very fast one after the other that it felt too unbelievable.
Moreover, some parts were left up to the reader's imagination too much or just weren't elaborated such as how on earth did Tanya become basically a leader of an elite spy organisation? I mean I can kinda believe it when it shows her increasing capability in investigating from Milo and Dean's conversation but then how did she get so many people to spy for her? And even loyal enough to just go off to infiltrate overseas in another kingdom in super short time. Her spy kingdom was the most unbelievable.
Other than that, there were some lose ends such as her friends love interest and what happened to Dawson? The Knight's son person. Also, a lot of what happened in the beginning was similar to Ascendence of a Bookworm although it way all just be a common trope thing haha. But Bookworm did it much better so it kinda lowered my opinion on this. Also, I thought the romance were kinda insta lovey and the chemistry was average. Otherwise, all the character backstories were quite good. And the first prince was not what I expected which was nice. Iris' loyal servants too.
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CN (4.1)
136 Chapters Every 40.6 Day(s) 2333 Readers 40 Reviews 09-10-2022
2.7 Stars... more>>
Overall
I feel disappointed because I really liked the Pheasant Makeup Artist. But the details of the doctoring are woefully vague with only the general gist thrown in. For being someone from an experimental lab with modern medical knowledge, she just uses taking the pulse to somehow diagnose diseases. The herb knowledge + farming medicinal herbs was not explained or expanded at all. It was just given like a summary. The MC describes the various herbs she needs the ML to find from the mountain. There is no further explanation. The author will give the MC general modern medical knowledge and these things are deemed good enough for the story like CPR. I expected something more fancy. I also, reeeally disliked how the author really dives into the idea that the son is a fatty sthick. The connotation of fat = insult is deep in my bones so every single time the MC calls her unborn child, fat, little fat man, little fatty, fatty, I keep imagining the body of an obese person with icky massive folds of fat. And since she kept saying little fat man, I kept thinking of the baby as an obese adult man. It's a baby, why keep calling it a man? Also, they know being too fat is a negative because they keep saying they are too fat and you won't get married! I also don't like the decision to make the mother and unborn child in her womb so combative. The author even made it so that the unborn child seems to understand what is happening outside. So when the MC scolds him in the stomach, the baby will kick. Then, when the baby is born, this combativeness continues. And the baby is smart and cunning enough to be sly. And he seems to understand things as if he were not a baby. So this made his baby actions incredibly spoiled which made me dislike him. There was this whole thing about how the kid loves to fake cry to get what he wants and the MC sees through that and scolds him. This whole dynamic and the choices the author made are just weird. Why make him so unnaturally smart and why include this combativeness between mother and child? Furthermore, I’m not a fan of letting 3-year-olds pretend to do adult things like hug other kids and kiss them like adults. Or pretend to drink wine and be so proud of it. It's edging into pe*verted territory for me. I don't understand why the author added those things. It's not cute, heartwarming or funny. Other than that, I am unsatisfied with how Xiao Shitou was handled. He was six years old and the couple agreed to raise him. So, why is he considered a brother instead of a son by the couple? At first, they were acting like parents but then he became the uncle to their unborn child. And then, he just fades out of the story after the child is 3. I thought since he was adopted, his development would also be focused on but we only get a summary at the end. Basically, this story is really very web novel-ly. Not really real.
Writing/Translation
The translation I read is from Shanghai Fantasy. The translation has many pronoun errors but is otherwise perfectly readable. There are some pauses when the pronouns switch but I can easily substitute in my head. I am a bit confused about how the pronouns weren't fixed because the translator seems to really read through the story whilst translating. So shouldn't they easily notice the wrong pronouns? Eh. There are also some footnotes at the bottom. The writing is pretty simple and straightforward, with almost no complicated idioms for being located in Ancient China. No awkward sentences either because it's so straightforward. What you see is what you get.
Pacing
The pacing is a bit eh. The beginning was a little slow when the story was setting up the romance, okay for the 2/3rds in the middle of the story, then, it was jumpy at the end where there were a lot of timeskips.
Plot
We follow the MC's stay with the ML for a few chapters, gets subtly seduced by his goodness and his food, breaks with him to move to the city by herself as planned from the start, realises she really misses him and likes him, comes back with lots of money. Then the fun business part of the story begins until the annoying pregnancy and the addition of the weird mother-son relationship spoiled the story for me. After that, the business expanded which was mildly interesting. There weren't many details except that they did it though. Then, the ending was kind of rushed. The extras summarise the youngest daughter and the son. The last chapter was about the couple dying of old age if you wanna skip that. I really don't like those scenes. Can't we just get a happy ever after into the sunset? Why put in the end of their lives?
Characters
The MC was a refreshing change from other similar novels. She's strong and thinks things through. I also like that she knows medicine. My only issue is her weird, combative relationship with her son. For the ML, I think he is adorable, especially at the beginning. Then he became a husband, and he no longer appears to have any conflict to deepen his character. He just became that husband s*ave. The side characters are just props for the couple. They don't feel real other than to give the couple someone good to befriend. Especially the friend of the MC from the city. They became friends way too fast on the premise of 2 meetings because "their outlook and temperament are the same". I’m like, where? How? What is the same? The lady sounds exactly like a rebellious rich lady while the MC just wants to make sure her shops succeed for her family. What is the same? They haven't talked about their beliefs at all, so how do they know they are similar?? *Rolls eyes* For the son, I found him too unnaturally smart. It's too off for me. Also, when he was unborn and as a baby, his intelligence made me feel that even though he's just a baby, he knows what he is doing and is acting like a spoiled brat in front of the MC that I wanted him to just go away. I wish Xiao Shitou was the son instead. He's cute, smart, has a bad past and they could have built on that. Too bad he got sidelined later on.
The villains were meh. The face-slapping was so mild and not satisfying. The young master suitor has so little presence. After the main brush off, he takes it resignedly and goes back home just like that. No more drama when the couple sets up shop in the city. For the second aunt, after she gets muted for four months, she comes in to try to let her son be a teacher at the school, gets rebuffed mildly, and never appears again. The eldest son that was studying just appeared once to look down on the ML at the beginning and then never appeared again. I was looking forward to some drama there for some spice but nope. We don't get any conclusion for that side of the family in the end. The ending for the youngest daughter was too quick and out of the blue.
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