4.5/5!!! [Transmigration, Poor-to-Rich, Historical: Ancient China, Slice of Life, Drama] I avoided this novel for the longest time because the MC in the summary sounded very pretentious. Don't be misled though! That's far from the truth. It's true that the MC did care that he had transmigrated into the second wife of a disfigured man with two children. However, that doesn't change the fact that he treated them more kindly than the ML's original family from the very beginning. So, yeah!... more>>

SUMMARY:

The MC of this novel is called Shao Yunan. He transmigrated into a young man who had the same name, and who had just been recently married to the ML (Wang Shijing) -- who had just gotten back from the army with a big scar on his face, a loss of vision of in one eye, and two children behind him as little tails. Of course, the MC is unhappy with the situation. He had been living a happy and contented life in modern times as a wine and tea seller. Now that he was sent to ancient times, and was forced to deal with the ML's unreasonable family, his mood couldn't be worse. Fortunately, he has a magical space to help improve the lives of him and his new family. So, it's impossible for him to lose.

THOUGHTS:

The story is definitely a poor-to-rich kind of story. However, because the author enjoys their worldbuilding, it goes a lot more in-depth than other stories I've read. Here, from the very beginning, the MC's ascension to great heights had been obvious. There was signs pointing to him being unable to stay only as a simple, wealthy farmer, as he wished. One of the reasons I've disliked other similar stories is because the ascension of those protagonists always seemed so unrealistic. Here, the author did a good job of setting things up so that there wouldn't be issues later.

Oof, by the way, I was actually going to write a full review for this novel, since I liked it a lot. However, in the middle of writing it, the page suddenly refreshed and all the progress was lost @.@. Sooooo a normal review it is for now XD. I'll write a full review when I reread it next time. For now, all I can say is that I really like this novel. I'm glad I ended up reading it despite the summary. The characters were very unique, definitely not your typical shou and gong pairing (the shou is a spunky shou who knows that he's a bottom and is proud of it, while the gong is not your typical overbearing man. From the very beginning, he had always felt inferior to the MC, and while he was very jealous because of it, he wasn't unreasonable, and never stopped supporting his man.)

As for the writing, there's a lot of info-dumping in this novel, and the amount of information in the first few chapters almost made me give up tbh XD. But in the end, I persisted and was glad for it. The info-dumping just made the world richer later. Though, I admit that I was still very confused about who was who sometimes. Ah ... what else. TL quality is okay, there are some chapters that were pretty much the same as MTL though. I think because of the lack of editing. And, on the topic of the MTL! It's readable, like 75%, so not bad. At least, the names of the characters were clear, which is the most important.

RATING: 4.5/5

For now, I think this is the best rating. Later, when I reread it, I'll fine-tune it a bit, but I think it would only go a little higher or a little lower. Regardless, what's important is that, even if the story definitely has its flaws, I enjoyed it a lot. Poor-to-rich stories are the most satisfying for me, and this is one treasure that I definitely cannot believe took me so long to find. (Ah, warning for those unaware, this is a Mature Fic, and while the Smut is not the most explicit, it happens on-screen and there are metaphorical descriptions of the characters doing the deed. If I had to rate it, it would be 2.5/5 spicy XD. Oh, and this is not just for the main pair, but also the side pairs.) <<less

3.43/5!!! [Transmigration, Poor-to-Rich, Business Management, Sm*t] Pure poor-to-rich kind of novel! The MC is a transmigrator with a mysterious background. He's pretty OP (has a lot of knowledge about very obscure stuff) and has a solid temperament. He takes the position of the 'stoic' party when it comes to his and the ML's relationship. His own goals aren't very clear, but after transmigration, he starts to protect the An family -- going as far as to go to the Capital to seek a marriage for his sister, only to end up being the bride lolol.This is my kind of novel~ I find poor-to-rich novels very interesting, so this was just my cup of tea. In... more>> other aspects, the novel was a bit weak, so I ended up giving up on it after running out of the TL (the MTL is readable, at least... 70% readable, maybe? If you're used to reading MTL, it should be easier) But, anyway, readable or not, I wasn't really invested in future development. Mainly because the main characters lack drive. What are their aims??? I honestly don't know lmfao. The MC being stoic is fine, I've liked many stoic MCs. But, usually they have some kind of goal, even if its to be a 'salted fish'. This one is a little eh. The ML is a bit better, but he doesn't do much either -- outside of being amusingly shameless. SO! All in all, while this is my kind of novel, and I would continue reading it if the TL is finished, I'm not interested enough to suffer through the MTL. For those that are interested in poor-to-rich novels like I am, I suggest giving it a shot~ I don't feel regretful even though I didn't finish the novel, so I don't think it would be a loss to try!

[For the smut aspect, it's pretty explicit, but it's not a focus of the story. Roughly one or two every 50-100 chapters I think.] <<less

???/5!!! [Rebirth, Historical: Ancient China, Political Intrigue] ((Has a smut extra chapter, but it’s just the one I think). Not a bad read, but after a while, the focus is mostly on the political intrigue, so I got bored. Still worth reading though! It’s arranged like your typical revenge-driven rebirth story, but in a more natural way. Not so directed. At least, the MC is not eagerly chasing after it, it’s just the trouble comes knocking no matter what. Which splits the tone of the story in two. One is the face-slapping aspect and the other is the sweet, slice of life romance between the reborn MC and the pitiful ML who stuck with him... more>> in his previous life.Summary: The MC (An Changqing) was a timid and cowardly kind of person. His life at home was not good, and he was often bullied, resulting in a very meek personality. That is why, when he was asked to become the male wife of the rumored bloodthirsty northern warlord, he was entirely against it. He spent his first life like this, always avoiding his husband and just willing his time away. He didn’t realize his wrongs until he died prematurely and was forced to wander around his husband as a ghost — only to be left to see his miserable end. During his second chance at life, he intends to live happily with his husband, and refuses to let anything get in their way.

I liked the romance aspect, it was chill and sweet, despite the fact that the personality of the characters are a bit formulaic (kind, soft shou and apathetic and stoic gong that only cares about the MC lolol). The political intrigue was interesting as well, but after reading many similar stories, I can already guess where things are going, so it’s not as fun anymore.

ANYWAY, as per usual, since half of what I read was in MTL (which is 70% readable), I won’t be giving this a full review. As for the preliminary rating, it would have to be around 3-4 stars out of five. <<less