4.57 Stars... more>>

Date Read:21/06/2024

Personal Enjoyment: 4.9/5

I really enjoyed this! I love the more realistic and grounded experience of the whole rebirth experience. You know how in lots of other rebirth stories, whenever the MC shows the more serious and depressing parts of being rebirth (normally in some tiny throwaway sentences), it would elevate the whole story from just an all-sugar-no-substance type of story? Well, this one is all substance! But you don't lose what makes a rebirth story great ;) I love it all. The MC was so cool and cunning. But we get shown with every single sentence (shown not told!) how much he loves his family. And how much his family loves him! Even with all the typical Asian family awkwardness hehe. Coming from a wealthy family doesn't change that dynamic haha.

Short Summary: A revenge/protect those he loves rebirth story.

Plot: 4.9/5

Very good! I love all the excitement and suspense. And I love love love all of the mc’s plotting and hidden actions and especially the pretending to be a waste schemes. Nice. I love how the author woved in the cause of all this was the trauma of losing everyone he cares about while he was powerless. This is such a driving force of all his actions in this new life. And how the trauma affects him now. But it's not as grim dark a story as all this talk of trauma implies though. This is still a second-chance story. The story is full of the MC randomly feeling happy family feels without realising why (back to that awkward uncommunicative Asian family dynamics lol) because he keeps realising anew that his family is alive now. All the things they would do for/to him that was gone are back. Sniff.

Writing/Translation: 3.8 /5

The translation I read is from White Moonlight Novels. It is not very good but better than MTL. There were multiple times when I didn't really understand the whole sentence. Normally the business scheming side of things. I get the gist but once or twice the specific details got lost in translation. But it's at least edited MTL quality. So understandable most of the time. Not a dealbreaker and I encourage everyone to just read it anyway.

Pacing: 4.9/5

Good pacing, I never felt that it was slow or draggy.

Setting/Worldbuilding: 4.5/5

Lots of variety in the setting. And they felt utilised to advance the plot.

Characters: 5/5

I love all the characters. Especially the MC and his family! The motivations were all clear and I love how that affected their personalities. And the ML. He feels like a real person lol. No one was an NPC-type character. They all had their own interest and they were all realistic and like real people.

Romance: 4/5

The romance is above average. I liked the build up a lot. It's a late romance because the MC is too distracted by his goal. And that there were no obvious top/bottom dynamics. Just a bit in the extras though but eh it's fine. My complaint was that it was just a little bit too much show not tell lolol. The writing tells what physical feelings the MC and ML feel and lets us interpret what exactly they are feeling in terms of the romance. Until late in the story anyway.  <<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,

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?

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

What happened to Captain Guo in the end?

Also, what exactly happened in the leadership shakeup?

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

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!)

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

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

4.5 Stars... more>>

Overall

This is my first full length zombie apocalypse web novel that isn't part of a QT story. And I really enjoyed it! I felt the quality of all the aspects of the story was quite high. The characters, the powers, the hoarding, the worldbuilding and all that. I adore the feeling of living this life and being reborn/time travelled some time before the "event" so they can hoard and prepare for the apocalypse! I really love the feeling of secretly buying/stealing/hoarding stuff to put in their space before they all run out. The anxiety of can they make it in time? Will they be ready? Are they doing it in the most efficient manner possible to get the right stuff? Then, you add in the cool powers and the gradual scaling up is pretty consistent! I don't get the issue of constant one-upping between the zombies and the MC which can happen so fast that it can feel hollow. This one is quite good! My interest in power levelling was kept. My only issue is that I feel the space wasn't used for the most impact in the story. All the benefits that are exponentially too big for the couple were 90% only for the couple. Only in the extras do we see them manually producing food in a factory in their space vacuum sealing food from their space to trade among bases. But it was so short, just one chapter, so it wasn't satisfying. Like I really wanted them to utilise the space completely to obtain an equal or exponentially higher number of benefits for themselves. This is because I am more interested in the details of wealth building hahaha.

Writing/Translation

The translation I read is from KnoxT by komorebi. I found it quite good! The flow is good, the English is fluent and there are only minor errors that are hardly detectable. Good.

Pacing

The pacing is super consistent until the end. But in the end, there were some time skips. Just want to warn you, the story ends when they get to level 5 so no worries, when they are at level 4 and there are only a few chapters left, there won't be a rushed ending where they become god and destroy all zombies or something lol. Keep your expectations grounded haha.

Plot

This follows a zombie apocalypse plotline. The main characters use all the resources they have to get more skills and resources to survive and in the CP's case, to thrive. They aren't aiming to end all zombies to save humanity but to live happily in comfort with each other. But throughout this long story, they unexpectedly and without really realising it, form some ties outside of their two-person world and grow. This part is seen more towards the latter half of the story, just by more contact haha.

Themes/What Story Tried to Achieve

I adored the hoarding resources part haha. The setting being the end of the world with so many dangers outside just gave more meaning to the hoarding. I love the whole process of it haha. And I love imagining the future potential of all the stuff that was hoarded. It's not just hoarding for the sake of hoarding in the apocolyse but because it is dangerous to be outside with zombies. In those ancient time periods with a magical space web novels, hoarding is to give an edge over everyone else to grow wealth but here, it is a necessity.

Characters

The main couple really grew on me haha. We follow them for so long as they go on lots of missions. The MC is the seme and the ML uke. In the beginning, I felt the ML was a bit boring, a typical uke. But over time, he's quite a confident guy now. They both have bad experiences in their past. Well, the MC had a good life but a bad apocalypse past while the ML's is just sad haha. They both grow throughout the story and they really grow on you too haha.

The side characters are all varied and unique! Not just props for the story! They are likeable too and the couple very slowly make friends.

The bad guys though, when they were being scummy to the couple, I liked it but they quickly don't have much interaction with them the later in the story it gets. There was no satisfying faceslapping for them :/ They all basically just died with no help from the couple sigh

Some things that knocked off 0.5 star:

The ending chapters were unsatisfactory even if it oddly fits the story.

Lots of mysteries are still left unsolved like what is the gold power of the MC in the end?

Also, what is the history of the space? Is it another world in the space? And what is Tuanzi exactly? No explanations.  <<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

3.96 Stars... more>>

Personal Enjoyment: 4.25/5

I say, like the first 75% of this story was all to my taste! Poor to rich, so much business management, such a hardworking and sympathetic protagonist, rebirth with lots of dog blood, face slapping and yet, also a lot of heartwarming feelings. All good.

But then, I don't know why, the author expanded on the whole rebirth/reincarnation cycle situation and it felt too off and kind of broke my immersion. I wish they had just stuck to a simpler end because it was too messy. I also thought it was unnecessary and didn't add much to the plot.

It doesn't help that the last few TV shows and movies that Tan Mu was involved in felt less special and too similar to each other. After the Flesh and Blood TV series, he made a military TV series and then a military movie and there wasn't any personal oomph by the MC in them. So when all these hooha about breaking the record tv ratings and ooooh, on par with Hollywood blockbusters in revenue, all kinds of rainbow farts that completely worked for me in previous other MC works, did not work for me this time at all. It wasn't believable at all, broke me out of the immersion and also made me impatient to finish the story because it was alrd near the end. I'm not sure if reading these parts in MTL was part of the reason why I didn't believe in the story haha. Anyway, if it were only the parts I liked, this would have been in my favourites!

Writing/Translation: 4/5

The translation I read is from Iron Tree Translations. The translation is quite good. The only issue is that some words have weird spelling mistakes. In the beginning, some words have numbers in the middle, like "w6rld" instead of "world." It's almost like in the process of copying over the translation to the website, it got converted. It's not too common and didn't affect my reading experience. I read the translations up to chapter 249 before I ran out of translated chapters and moved to the MTLnovel website to finish the story. So, it's readable enough to get the gist but it is definitely not as pleasant an experience as the translated version. I would say that if the translated version is a 9.5, the mtl would be 8. There are constant "I" and "you" mistakes, which got a bit confusing in some paragraphs but not too often. Surprisingly, most of the sentence structure is intact. The humour also managed to get through. But some of the whole rebirth explanation and the subsequent characters' planning, I am not 100% confident I understood everything. So take that into consideration of continuing to MTL haha.

Pacing: 3.9/5

I say it is pretty good up to where I read the translated chapters. But maybe it was the MTL, I got a bit impatient and kinda lost interest by then, so I wanted the story to be finished more quickly.

Plot: 3.9/5

This is quite self-indulgent, as the author said hahaha. But filled with all my favourite tropes. Poor to rich, business management, family and friend with heartwarming feelings, rebirth and faceslapping drama XD The plot isn't as tight as it could have been, like some plot points weren't followed up later on, such as the Zhang family. I wanted to know if they succeeded in not going bad, and about the Zhang girl, why did she wait for that bad neighbour at the toilet? What was her intention exactly? Is it to help the MC? Or help herself somehow? Her motivations weren't explained or hinted at at all. On the business side, I don't know if the MC made any money from them too.

I also wanted more follow up from the chef academy too, money wise haha. In a family-building kind of way. For the orphanage as well, did the small business take off? Are they financially stable now? Was a sustainable ecosystem able to be set up? All these things, haha. Otherwise, I love this Mc because he is a workaholic, a perfectionist, super smart and very detailed! It definitely helps with the immersion and I love learning new things. I also liked all the financial stuff thrown in, it felt like the author knew about this stuff and slid it in appropriately.

The programming stuff too. I am a programmer and am very interested in personal finance, so it was refreshing to see some realism about these two things in the story instead of, they are so smart they can predict the market, picked stocks and made a boatload of money without actually going into any detail whatsoever. Or you know, they just learn all kinds of programming knowledge, developed a program single-handedly in like a week on an old laptop to capture all the market data and are able to make predictions on the market to day trade and make boatloads of money. This is too unbelievable because that is big data and needs maybe a supercomputer to do all the computing, or at least a bunch more servers than just a laptop, etc. But I definitely believed in the Mc's knowledge and actions, so I was even more immersed which is wonderful.

I like most of the acting stiff too because it felt real. Just my issues with the whole China is great, the military is super cool and everyone should love it, ehhh not my thing. I despise war and military stuff because it causes me anxiety and angst. Also, I'm not sure why the author made the MC do so much military-themed entertainment so close together. Just story-wise, it's repetitive.

Romance: 3.7/5

The romance is quite little overall but when it is there, I enjoyed its development. It is rather slow burn because the Mc is just so work-focused and has a very clear line between business and anything else that he believes everyone else is that way too. After that, there is also the fact that he is a highly suspicious person and wary of betrayal due to past experiences so the ML has to put in a lot of work haha. Also, it can be surprisingly very sweet XD. After that, well, relating to the whole rebirth expanded explanation and the romance, it felt like the author wanted to make it a thing. It's just that I couldn't quite buy it. Again, maybe it's the MTL's fault haha.

Setting/Worldbuilding: 4/5

The entertainment industry is fascinating to read about, with how the various production elements work together to create a TV show or film. Investors and actors and stand-ins and props, all kinds of things. I also like the Hong Kong part because I don't really know what their relationship is with each other XD. ALSO, there are a lot of details about the financial world, business stuff and the entertainment industry, so I'm happy.

Characters: 4/5

The MC, Tau Mu is very rootable and made me quite quickly immersed in the story. He's sad, hardworking, full of regrets, has a poisonous tongue and is good at taking revenge. Despite this, he is a huge softy at heart for his people. I love watching all his schemes haha. The ML doesn't appear as much but he is surprisingly sweet and fun the longer they know each other. All the other characters are super distinct, real, and have a lot of depth and vibrancy. It's just that some of them don't get followed up on after their arcs, which they were active in sadly. Well, this story is pretty long, so...

They're so delightfully super annoying, the bad guys. Sometimes it makes the blood boil in a good way because then you look forward to seeing the MC kick them away and stuff lolol. It is enjoyable to read how the Mc takes his revenge on hurting his people.

I do have to mention that I did get a bit confused on their motivations and what part they are playing in the story. Like the bad guys at the beginning, because the MC has no power and if fighting won't bring enough benefits, he will just suck it up and smile, the bad guys just keep hanging around as friends. Couldn't make up my mind if the author was trying to make them friendly or what lol. <<less

3.91 Stars - Main 146 Complete + 1 Side Story... more>>

Date Read: 8/6/2024

Personal Enjoyment: 3.7/5

It was ok. I was expecting more because of the high rating and yes, I can see how it got that high. The TL is good, the plot is pretty logical with not much padding, and the setting is a European-ish setting with monsters and religious magic. And the BL is one of the better ones. But the plot was rather predictable to me. I wasn't surprised at any point and I was expecting there to be a surprise twist or something but I predicted the pilgrim almost from the introduction. I read on because I wanted to know about all the twists and turns from the previous lifetime that the MC had not known and yes, those were engaging for me to discover. At C130 ish, I already know and confirmed most of the mysteries and I can predict the rest. At the very end, we find out how the MC regressed and I was surprised that the reason was the most simple reason. The start of all this was just... short lol. I was expecting more. Though it did teared me up in the side story 1, C147 haha.

Plot: 3.9/5

It was simple but complete. The finding out things are different than the MC thought was above average but not mind blowing. Top of light novel level.

Writing/Translation: 4.3/5

The translation I read up to C147 is from Foxaholic. It's pretty good. Some minor grammar mistakes but it's pretty rare and ignorable. Some of the sentences, not sure if it's the TL or the author's writing were a bit awkward. Some sentences will show an oddly childish tone in the choice of words from the Mc’s POV.

Pacing: 3.8/5

Most of the story was good. Didn't feel draggy or bored. But then the MC discovered an important benefactor’s identity from his previous life and he got hanged up over it for a few chapters. The momentum stalled here for me because I feel that it's a nonissue and/or a really boring thing to fuss over. I can get why he would be but it was so obvious to me the reader that I feel annoyed he only got it now and is making a fuss over it near the end. It might be better if the author emphasised more throughout the story that this would be an issue when the MC finds out. Just power through for 3-4 chapters and then we finally get to the final battle. And a nice happy ending.

Setting/Worldbuilding: 3.9/5

It was different from my usual fare since it's more European. Brief mentions of the different places and all that. It was okay. Could definitely be better but there was some variety.

Characters: 3.9/5

The MC and ML were likeable enough to keep me engaged with the story. Lots of different side characters and antagonists. But a lot of them were still brief and not expanded upon. I like that some of the antagonists got a surprising redemption arc though. However, the main bad guy's reasoning for all his actions fell flat for me. It was so weak.

Romance: 3.9/5

The romance was okay. Some nice direction and turnover in the couple's growth. But once they got together I kinda lost interest a bit. And the latest conflict from the MC’s side felt unnecessary. A big contributor for me dropping it here. I don't feel like what happens next is going to be any more interesting. I liked the beginning when they were getting to know each other and falling in love more. Nice happy ending though. <<less

4.04 Stars... more>>

Overall

My thoughts are mostly the same as tr*sh_generalist’s review. It was quite a solid novel. It is unfortunate that I couldn't find the extras though. I think those might have the ending of that cousin who was transmigrated and also reborn. I think that would have the events in the synopsis of the novel because that didn't happen in the main text.

Writing/Translation: 2.5/5

I read the MTl version so there is undoubtedly a lot I missed. Also, the MtL is not as readable as it could have been. But I still quite enjoyed it. If it were translated, I would have loved it even more.

Pacing: 2.54/5

Plot: 4.25/5

It was really satisfying to read all the face-slapping XD

Romance: 4.5/5

The romance is actually rather good. Healthy boundaries and all that. The couple has substance. Both the MC and the ML aren't just there to be a typical macho ML of that era.

Setting/Worldbuilding: 4/5

I love these types of era XD

Characters: 4/5

Ahh, the bad guys were so good to hate. And they keep coming back which is very satisfying hehehe.

Personal Enjoyment: 5/5  <<less

4.25 Stars... more>>

Overall

Except for the college arc, I reeeeeally loved it! The family drama was super engaging. The best friend's drama was both super engaging and made me emotional too! I was surprised, lol. The important characters who were given screentime had so much care from the author. I love how the perspective of the MC from her past life gave so many fascinating and new dimensions to the situation in her rebirth. All the characters in her family and her best friends were so 3 dimensional and real compared to most other web novels. I also love reading about the MC discovering these new dimensions now that she's an adult and far calmer than her volatile teen self. Ahh, it was so good and addicting to read! It is only some parts like the college arc compared to the rest that felt more lacklustre. This is probably because all the conflict between the people close to the MC has already been solved so the college arc was shorter and nothing interesting really happened. There wasn't a clear goal for the MC to strive for anymore because her family situation was very stable at the time and she had already gotten into the college she wanted. The vague goal is to be a powerful woman. The other issue I had is that the ML didn't have any conflict or bonding sessions with the MC when compared with her best friend and her family. I feel like it was still too insta-love. I still can't quite get the ML’s personality. He feels like a generic perfect ML with no unique personality of his own. The best friend and other family members feel richer than him, which is sad. He doesn't get as much quality screentime either.

Writing/Translation

The translation I read is from Empress Translations. I feel that the translation is pretty good. There are some super minor mistakes in the pronouns and names but they are quite rare. The sentences flow quite well in English. It feels like it was written in English, not a translation. This means the writing is pretty good too. No choppy, awkward sentences here.

Pacing

The pacing is very good for all arcs except the last college arc where it feels like we have sped through more quickly. I feel like the MC doesn't really do any interesting things then.

Plot

The goal of the story is for the MC to make better choices in this life than in the previous one. Last time she died as just another statistic after ruining her life. Now, if she just lives for herself, she won't do too badly. We follow her from the summer vacation of middle school where she catches up on classwork, navigates her family and sets up the foundation for moving forward. She also deals with her family a lot here. Then, she enters high school, studies hard and lives the good student life she missed out on as a troubled rich kid previously. She also makes friends. And made a best friend. And deals with mean girl drama at the very beginning but that ends quickly unlike the stepmother in the last arc. She also makes her first investment! Then, when all the exciting things are concluded, she enters university, has a kid and finally gets married in the last chapter.

Themes/What Story Tried to Achieve

This really feels like a deliberate attempt at a second chance in life. The MC didn't completely change their personalities from the 1st life to the rebirth. She really did make those bad decisions so now there are a lot of reflections and thinking the MC does in her second life. Why did she do it? Was it worth it? She was such a kid then. All the regrets are reflected on and she is always sad that other people can't get a 2nd chance as well because it can really completely change their life direction the second time around.

On a side note, the reason I even chanced upon this story is that it has the Business Management tag. I really wanted to read about business and wealth making and the family drama faceslapping implied by the synopsis was just a bonus hahaha. So the few instances where the MC ventured into investing based on her 1st life’s memories were interesting! It was detailed too, with added development for her grandmother and her father! It's so sad that that was the only occasion it appeared in the story when that was the whole reason I came here lolol.

Her complicated family members are so interesting to read about! I love to read about their interactions and how the MC navigates all that.

Characters

I love the MC and the characters that have a lot of screen time. They get so much character development with the MC. The MC herself is a sensible mature adult compared to everyone else so I like the perspective. She was calm when before she would have flown into a violent rage as a teen. It's also nice to see her face slapped by being so much more mature hahaha.

The side characters are all so vivid and unique. The family members are not so black and white like the father, who is a pure scumbag with no good qualities. Someone said the characters are so nuanced and I completely agree! In the eyes of a troubled teenager, the enemies are always out to get you and deserve to die but in the eyes of an adult outsider, they have good and bad, strengths and weak points. Like the cheating father who had a mistress before the wife even died but he can also be the silly overprotective dad to his kids and have wholesome mother-son memories with the MC’s grandmother.

The 2nd male lead turned best bro friend, also has a history with the MC in the past but now he's only a teenager who thinks he's cool and da bomb. The first impression of him as the bad guy somehow changes throughout the story and he becomes best friends with the MC. He himself feels that he became totally friendzoned towards the MC and cannot think of her romantically anymore hahaha. During his part of the story, I actually teared up haha. I really liked his character arc.

The ML, hurmm. We meet him in the prologue, but we don't see him again until almost all of the interesting conflicts are resolved. And then there wasn't any drama for him to help or for the MC to help him so the level of connection between them that I felt was much less compared to the best friend. It's not that I want the best friend to get together with the MC, but I want the level of investment the author had in the best friend to be the same for the ML too. I don't feel close to the ML at all.

As for the bad guys, the stepmother living with the MC gave a lot of opportunities to faceslap her at home all the time. But the final one wasn't really satisfying, sadly. The others, they weren't really bad, they just had their own interests. The really scummy bad guys were taken care of too cleanly and distantly to feel any personal satisfaction. Well, this isn't really a faceslapping story most of the time anyway haha. <<less

3.77 Stars... more>>

Date Read: 3/5/2024

Personal Enjoyment:

I liked it enough. Was pretty immersed and engaged with the whole story. Didn't have any point where I wanted to stop so that's good. I liked the MC and how cunning he was. I just wish there were more small clashes where he can show off his smarts and faceslapping haha. There were some parts where the big actions were all done off-screen. But overall, I enjoyed myself.

Short Summary: Reborn MC goes back to when he was six to atone for his previous life's actions of taking down the Mu family by making sure they are happy this time. Along the way, he gets together with a bystander-ish person that he never "won" against. When he is in high school onwards, he also starts to live for himself too. MC is very cunning and smart.

Plot: 3.8/5

The plot was ok I suppose? I do wish we spent more on the school setting and I can see all his interactions and manoeuverings in more detail to take over the school lol. It felt glossed over and we get the aftermath only. Same with the fiance situation. We got a time skip and the beginning of after the time skip was where we find out what he did to overcome the situation. The only big action thing that happened was the kidnapping situation at the end. It was just the ML part after that that started to become a bit too odd. The placement of his deal was after that huge climactic kidnapping. But the Mc didn't succeed in doing as much to help the ML as that huge kidnapping situation so that felt odd.

Writing/Translation: 3.46/5

The translation I read is from Iso Hungry Translation from C1-C19. 3.7/5. It was okay, there were some pronoun and name mistakes which made me a bit confused at the start when I was still learning all the different characters and their attitudes. It was getting a bit worse at the end that I was getting annoyed.

The rest I read from MidnightRambles. 3.4

5. This one has a distinct edited MTLflavour. There were noticeable grammar errors. Same with pronoun errors. Lots of confusing sentences. A teeny bit better than pure MTL but the MTL is surprisingly very understandable. It also has the issue of missing text at the end of some chapters. As one of the reviewers said, it is super frustrating. But, this is solved by just opening the raws on Shubaow and checking there if anything is too confusing or for the missing end texts. This wasn't anywhere near a dealbreaker for me. The story is also enjoyable enough and worth the trouble for my taste.

*C35, 38, 39, 47, and 86 have some missing text at the end. I may have forgotten some chapters. Need to go to the raws and Google translate the missing text.

The author's writing as mentioned by another reviewer kind of jumps around. I didn't really find it annoying but I can understand why they did. Many a time did I find myself double-checking if I missed some text when starting a new chapter because the author jumps to the next scene and it sometimes feels like we missed something. But continue reading and usually, it will get explained from context what had happened. Other than this case, unfortunately, the TL did miss the ending text in some chapters so that feeling of missing something is really because we did miss something lol.

Pacing: 3.8/5

As mentioned above, the pacing can feel a bit at the start of a new chapter. I solved it for myself by opening the raws in another tab with Google translate and checking it whenever I felt like I missed something. The author's style of jumping didn't annoy me so that wasn't an issue. Other than the time skip in the middle and the Ml background at the end, the pacing was not too bad.

Setting/Worldbuilding: 3.6/5

It was so-so. I was looking forward to some university setting but that got time skipped. The school and class setting were also not shown. It was all kinda generic so. Just lots of houses and home.

Characters: 3.9/5

I like the characters. The likeable ones were cute and likeable like the family and the others were deep and mysterious. And the antagonists were annoying and their screen time wasn't frustrating.

I like the MC! He was a sympathetic and hardworking character yet also a smart and cunning person. I love the relationships he has with his family. I wish we had more of the sister though. That hard conversation he had with her was so good! I wanted a more badass sister haha.

Romance: 3.8/5

The romance is okay. I like the different dynamic here where the MC who had such a hard life and was so villainous who I thought was the shou is actually the gong. The cool, genius and untouchable ML is the shou. But I didn't feel the ML completely changed character after getting together. I liked that part. The conflict they had was also short-lived. The smut scenes are not explicit here and are very by the way, they did the do. <<less

3.95 Stars... more>>

Overall

Because the faceslapping was not in your face, realistic and were quite minor, it gave the story a more classy feeling than if there were countless s*upid villains making trouble haha. There are mysteries that made me curious to find the conclusion at the end and the hindsight understanding of many of the MC's original life almost gave me goosebumps which says how good the author is. I also like how the couple was portrayed by the author. The achievements were done by the MC by himself. The ML only did the things that were truly out of the reach of someone who doesn't have the lineage. The only issue I have is the translation, which is better than MTL but not great.

Translation/Writing

I read the translation from 3 translators for different parts of the story. The 1st two chapters are by Reader's Realm. The translation wasn't great. It was readable but there were some sentences that were confusing, especially since this is the setting up so everything was new to the reader.

For chapters 3-32, I read from Shunraiki Translations. The first quarter/half of their translations were also not great, many confusing sentences that made me puzzled a bit on what was happening. But later on, it got better so that the flow was pretty good. The only errors were easily fixed in my head while reading.

Then, the last translator, Midnightrambles. The translation level went back down to not great again and basically stayed there until the end. I can understand 85% of what's happening and the other 15% I can guess the general gist maybe. Some of the sentences did impact my understanding, I feel like if the translation was good, I might have enjoyed the story even more.

However, these translations are definitely better than MTL and compared to like Green Tea translations which are just 0.5% better than MTL, at least I can more or less understand the story. So I am grateful to the translators that it is readable and to not let it stop anyone from reading the story.

As for the writing itself, I think it's good! There was some suspense and mystery that I was honestly not expecting lol. I feel like this was a step up from the normal careless web novel. Just a bit haha.

Themes/What Story Tried to Achieve

From the synopsis, I was expecting the MC to work hard to go from bad luck due to unlucky circumstances from the previous life to selecting stocks and working hard at a company to be successful by grasping at the 2nd chance in life. However, the selecting stocks part was very little, only choosing the company he's working for. There was no thinking. Working hard at a company was fulfilled using the varied experience he got from his bad luck in his previous life. And he did become successful at his company early on.

But then, there was an additional add-on of acting in the business vibe of the story. I felt that that was a bit clashing. At least for one of the movies, The Universe. He alrd said he wasn't interested in acting, there weren't any additional benefits other than personal fame and money to acting in this The Universe movie but he actually wanted the ML to open the backdoor to have a supporting role in it. He even won a Supporting Actor award like, too unbelievable just for the acting parts. He had never acted before previously, just watched.

I loved the mystery and action parts too. I just wish there were more business dealing then as well, like it was at the beginning. I felt like I missed some things about the underhanded things happening and the mysteries due to the translation but I understood it all in the last chapter because it was explained clearly then haha.

For the romance, it was okay. I wasn't really invested in the romance because I didn't see why the ML fell in love. Apparently he was already interested in their first encounter? Too insta love for me. The MC’s feelings were much slower and relatable. I do however, greatly appreciate that the MC kept all faculties working in the presence of the ML. And the ML isn't the forceful, overbearing gong that doesn't understand no. Veryyy good. The s*x scenes are fade to black and euphemismly described in like one sentence. I'm happy about that because unless I really really really get into both the characters and their relationship with each other, the s*x scenes will be too cringy for me. So needless to say, I found 99.9% of all s*x in my time in novelupdates super cringy lol.

Pacing

I think it was just right. Nothing was rushed. Since the length is on the shorter side, I felt that they fit a good amount of stuff in there too.

Characters

I like the MC very much. He's lowkey, calm and quiet but he isn't a Garu Stu. He's very capable, cunning and personable with a bad life which makes people sympathetic to him even when he's being a cunning fox. He's perfect but actually not once you know him which is refreshing in the BL scene haha. I don't have much of an impression of the ML except that he's the ML of the CEO nature. I do appreciate that he respects people and also respects the MC’s own capabilities. I do like how they fit together, though. He can do things the MC doesn't want or know how to do haha.

I like how the friends in the story are actual friends with their own personalities, history and lives separate from the couple. In web novels, it can feel like they only exist as a prop for the couple haha. It is also nice to know there are other people in the world that know the MC and ML heart to heart and wish good for them too.  <<less

3.9 Stars (would be higher if there were more TL from KnoxT)... more>>

"I'll be honest, the novel is beautiful. The relationship between the characters is handled well, even the revenge and slaps are quite good.

The relationship between the MC and ML are one of my favorites, both are a love. The truth is refreshing to see a love that is not related to appearance, since when they fall in love they are both in "their worst" moment. I believe and dare say that's what I love most in this novel, because, hey! MC was fat when ML marries him, he likes him from that moment and does not despise him, on the contrary he likes to play with his belly, and MC... The MC likes ML when he is still wearing an ugly mask, that is, she didn't even know her husband's real appearance when she fell in love with him."

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Writing/Translation: 4.8 (KnoxT), 3.3/5 (Flying Lines)

I’ve read from 2 different translators. The first from KnoxT which was the superior one at 4.8/5 for around 94 chapters which was where their TL was up to. I loved their TL! The translator was using it for Chinese practice; they had already read the story once and they also really liked it. So you can see that they care way more about the TL than most others. There were so many footnotes on Chinese culture and why things are named that way and explanations of the Chinese words for the different relatives in relation to each other. All these extra Chinese-related footnotes gave me so much extra worldbuilding, which was awesome. There were no errors, grammar mistakes or wrong pronouns anywhere. Probably because they were doing the TL themselves and not from MTL.

The rest of the chapters I read from Flying Lines at 3.3/5. The TL is readable, not as frustrating as MTL and I am glad it was already completely translated. But I did feel like I lost 20% of the detail, nuance and thus enjoyment of the story compared to the KnoxT one. I still read the entire thing though and never had the thought to drop it. There were lots of naming errors and some parts were a bit hard to understand. But my trick was to read fast so I could get to the next point quickly enough that I would barely feel any frustration from not understanding something haha. So I just ignored anything I didn't understand. I will get it by context later on.

Pacing: 3.7/5

The pacing is not bad. At least I didn't feel that it was draggy. My only complaint is that the transition between arcs is a little abrupt. The only thing is that I’m not sure if it is because of the not-as-good TL though. I didn't feel any such problems in the Knoxt TL. Ah, and the first chapter about the ending of the MC’s previous life was waaaaay too abrupt and very out there that it felt almost comical. I feel like it should have been longer to make us feel for the MC more instead of relying on the shock factor. Also, I felt that the ending like the last 30-50 chapters felt a little too quick.

Plot: 3.7/5

The ride was quite interesting, haha. The world is a fantasy one with all kinds of magic powers and stuff. It is also a cultivation one just that the story isn't a power up cultivation story so the MC levels up pretty quickly but it is focused on that. Hmm, the first 3/5th of the story is a pure revenge story that is quite fun and engaging. Mixed in with the romance and the feels, you really feel for our MC and his beloved ML. I love the addition of all the emotions in a revenge story so it's not just boring anger and hatred. You have all these “weak” emotions to make you invested in the characters and to root for them too!

After the revenge plots, it focused more on the mystery of the ML, the who and how the MC managed to travel back in time. He realizes a lot of things he didn't know in his previous life, like who his enemies are, what the background of his husband is, and just who he is himself. The mystery and the process of discovery were quite fun and engaging. But I must admit, the last antagonist and the last discovery of the curse at the ending did feel a little lukewarm and the conclusion felt too fast or maybe not hyped enough to be worthy of the long mystery lol. I'm not sure if it is the TL though haha. Well, it looks like I’m not that impressed by the ending stuff. It also had a lot less romance by then sadly.

Romance: 3.9/5

The romance was quite enjoyable! I love the kinda enemies/strangers to discovering hidden love all along plot haha. Especially with the whole, so that is what really happened in the previous life plot. A slow romance XD. The ML and the MC are two distinct characters with their own weight in the story which I really like. They all have their own goals, responsibilities, power and personalities. I love that the couple doesn't have any typical gong and shou actions. They both have their own strengths and vulnerabilities and are both very capable.

Setting/Worldbuilding: 4/5

Quite good in the Knoxt one! Lots of Baidu research and explanations of stuff in the footnotes. Unfortunately, the Flying Lines TL kinda made the worldbuilding “less” compared to the Knoxt one because it has zero footnotes or effort lol. It's a little sad for me because the world got bigger later on but it hasn't been translated by Knoxt yet haha. The world has all kinds of powers, intrigue, many mystery of the half-immortals, secret families, mysterious backgrounds etc etc.

Characters: 3.9/5

The main characters are fun. Very likeable. I was rooting for our MC all the way haha. He can be surprisingly cute. He was so ruthless that I didn't really realise until later on that he's kinda a shou because he was unexpectedly cute in the romance side haha. The ML also lived up to his mysterious background hype from the buildup at the beginning. I was scared it would fizzle to something bland and that he would become the problem solver for the MC like in other BLs but nope haha.

The other characters, of which there are many, are also distinct and different. I didn't not like anyone. Some I wish had more character development but it is what it is. There are a lot of side characters who are close to the MC but have so much mystery to them that it was fun to follow the MC find out more.

The antagonists were good and added some stakes to the story. There were times I was anxious about what was going to happen but luckily it didn't really take too long to resolve. So, still had that oomph but didn't drag it out too much. <<less

Now while this is a second chance story, it isn't what I would say super proactive. This is because they don't really have anything big, major or serious to fix by going back in time. It's slice of life ish and the two main characters are a bit go with the flow. But I had a great time still so look at the synopsis and decide if you want to give it a try.... more>>

4.5 Stars!

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

3.56 Stars Dropped: C473... more>>

"I like that MC didn’t just instantly get a gold finger & leveled up from 1 to 10, or knew every single plot or happening/ incident. He continued to better & grow himself, while slowly falling in love with ML keeping in mind love is not the be all n end all. ML also offered MC an equal partnership, helping him to improve his martial arts, political power, personal growth etc - things did not end at just the grand wedding.I love that both a loving family (Lìñg) and the atypical nasty relatives family (Yuwen) was both portrayed for contrast, and I actually cared about the side character of the family.The plot was not repetitive and each incident was carefully resolved through smarts not from just depending on knowledge of the plot, and the characters actually needed to do work to resolve it which makes the resolution so much more satisfying.Overall, I recommend giving it a go as it’s a BL that’s satisfying on plot, political intrigue, a lil smut later on & sweetness of a healthy relationship."~0angel0

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Writing/Translation: 4/5

The translation I read is from Flying Lines Translation, DragonRider. The translation is pretty good except the translator loves choosing super fancy words instead of normal ones. Sometimes, they are so fancy, I don't understand them, not even with context clues. Lol. Otherwise, there are some minor grammar mistakes, like singular instead of plural. But it doesn't affect anything.

Pacing: 3.6/5

Seems okay.

Plot: 3.6/5

The revenge part was interesting. Then, in the capital, it was tense. I stopped at the war with other countries after the climax of the capital and I have zero interest haha. Because there isn't a personal stake anymore to carry me through the story. And the fighting isn't interesting for me.

Romance: 3.5/5

The romance is okay for me. I dislike that the MC keeps being super thin skinned and shy and the ML goes on regardless, but it's not too bad because, as the reader, I can feel that if the MC really didn't want it, the Ml would stop. I just prefer enthusiastic consent from all parties in my stories not this no, but with coaxing, it's a yes type of trope.Setting/Worldbuilding: 3.7/5

The setting is actually not bad compared to a lot of other CN novels. I'm just not really interested in it haha.

Characters: 3.5/5

The main characters are okay. They are distinct and different, with their own personas and stuff. And also have some mysteries to them. It's just that we don't spend that much time on them to differentiate themselves. Or it is taking so long to get to the mystery that I kinda forgot them lol.

Personal Enjoyment: 3/5

It was okay at first, but our MC kinda becomes someone from a small town and is not as experienced as the ML when the ML comes in. So the story made it so that he always has to defer to the ML most of the time. When he's not doing that, he's just learning to be stronger. But that is boring and not detailed, so kinda meh. There are some exciting killings that happen but they were kind of interesting only in the moment. After it was solved, I didn't really care about what happened. Then most of the stuff from the beginning got solved so I don't feel any drive anymore haha. Left the mysteries to explore but I don't feel any interest in that so <<less

3.7 Stars... more>>

Overall

Hmmmm, while I admire and like the complexity of the emotions and what seems to be a commentary on the cycle of revenge and that the writing has quality, I rate stories based on how much I enjoyed it haha. So... I didn't really enjoy my time here. The people and the story were kind of miserable, which I suppose is expected since this is a revenge story. But all the secrets left behind in the past that caused the Mc’s revenge are also ugh. And now, at the end, who should be the target of the revenge actually? That part, I feel like the author could have done better to make a proper resolution for the MC’s feelings then. There wasn't really a conclusion to his feelings of revenge after he found out all the secrets. I think one big reason why I didn't like it is because I wanted a good rebirth revenge plot with satisfying face slapping against villains that are easy to hate. But this one, a major part of the story is finding layers of the past that put into question the target of the revenge. Here, it seems that the bad guys kinda have some reason to be so and the innocent wronged martyr may not be completely the paragon of goodness as remembered.

Writing/Translation

The translation I read is from Xiao YunYun Translations. The translation is quite good. No errors that I rmb. And the sentence structure feels like it was written in English instead of those awkward translated sentences.

Pacing

I felt the time skip abroad at the beginning was too sudden. And it feels unnecessary? 5 years time skip abroad right after he was reborn. It kinda felt like that was just there so the author could say this is why the MC has so much money to get his revenge. Because he did illegal betting that the author doesn't want to detail.

Plot

We start at age 18 as the day the MC was reborn, time skip 5 years abroad, then the MC launches his slow revenge on his family that lasts 6 months ish. Along the way, his cousin, the ML, starts falling for him. The climax is the real evil mastermind accomplishing his grand finale.

Themes/What Story Tried to Achieve

It does serve the revenge part well. The villains, everything really got torn down lol. But it wasn't really satisfying because there were so many doubts about who exactly was in the complete wrong. When it was like generational revenge lol.

The romance part was nice actually. I could really feel that the ML loves the MC. Not the MC side much though haha. Lots of kinda explicit smut fyi. And of course, the in*est tag.

Characters

The MC is surprisingly the shou lol. I didn't realise that because he was so full of hatred towards his family all the time haha. I think he was fine, a normal guy if someone else went through what he went through. One thing I found annoying though, is how many other characters have crushes on the MC. Because we don't really follow up on the crushes. They just seemed to be mentioned a lot but it doesn't add anything to the story so I don't get why the author added them in. The ML is a pretty nice person. He is the source of a lot of good feelings in this story because he is a good person and cares about his family, friends and the MC. Quite doting too.

The other fleshed-out characters are the bad guys, the Mc’s family. Most of the story is the drama about them and also between them. This part was not bad, I liked the exploration of their intentions, thoughts and feelings.

However, the rest of the side characters are kinda missing some parts. For example, the MC’s two friends. I don't know some things like who is Lao K exactly and when did they meet? There was no explanation for his existence or about him. Why does the MC treat him so warmly? I thought all the friends before were from the bad crowd and we don't know if he met LaoK abroad? And we should just assume this spiky, suspicious, revenge-oriented MC is just best friends with this random person abroad? We get so much info on the family but barely anything on this side kick. Next best friend from his past life. The author made him have feelings for the MC. I honestly don't understand what his purpose is in the story. As the best friend, the MC doesn't want to drag him into revenge so he alienated him that way, so there was no deep friendship that I could feel. Then, the author made him have feelings for the MC but the author doesn't do anything with it. There was no misunderstanding or conflict about it for the main CP so what was the point of it? I feel like there would be no difference in the story if you took him out.  <<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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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

3.77 Stars... more>>

Writing/Translation: 4/5

The translation I read is from Inky Dragon Translation up to C22 and the rest by Ars BL Translation up to C91. The first one was a bit spotty and the 2nd was better. Both are far better than MTL.

Pacing: 3.6/5

The pacing is a bit uneven. There are some small timeskips between each arc or event, and that is a bit sudden.

Plot: 3.6/5

The exciting parts are actually nice. The ant nest part was rather exciting and my favourite part of the story, surprisingly. However, all the buildup or mystery of the bad guys felt almost self-sabotaged by the author. The MC doesn't know, and when I read it, I felt like, wow, so mysterious. Who killed the parents? Who is the big bad? What is up with the ML’s background? And then the author shows the bad guys pov and they explain all the mystery then. So I already got the answer, while the MC didn't. Felt a bit weird.

Romance: 3.5/5

I just don't find the romantic relationship compelling so I have this odd aversion to them. I have read other stories by this author before and some of them have this kind of shou. The quiet, timid or naive type of shou that instantly devotes themselves to the MC until I feel it is too overly dependent. And then the shou grows or gains character development not typical of a shou in BL, becomes powerful and then uses this new-found strength to wholeheartedly please the MC. This makes the relationship feel a bit stiff and kinda make believe a little bit. The author made the reasons for the romance so obvious, I cannot get into it lol.

Setting/Worldbuilding: 4/5

The setting is kind of cool. I just wish it all felt as vibrant and real as in the Stone Age Raising husband journal story. That was so vivid haha. But this has worldbuilding and cool monsters.

Characters: 4/5

Personal Enjoyment: 3.7/5 <<less

3.33 Stars... more>>

The Reborn Otaku’s Code of Practice for the Apocalypse is one of my favourite resource gathering stories ever and this is a similar sounding premis.

"[Infrastructure, Farming, Zombie Apocalypse] This novel is packed with infrastructure! The MC gets another chance at life and is reborn ten years into the past, which was a couple of months before the Zombie Apocalypse began. He took this chance to prepare a place for him to live within the boundaries of one of the safest City Zones during the End Times, hoping to create a sustainable living environment for himself and the people around him" - tr*sh_generalist

---Review---

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. <<less

3.7 Stars... more>>

"2nd Chance, Poor to Rich, Business Management, all my favourite things!. It seems to really dive into investing which is novel considering how most web novels treat investments and picking stocks and choosing movies to invest in because of future knowledge and that's it. I've been eyeing Epiphanies of Rebirth becuse of the same tropes and this was one of the reccomendations"

---

Writing/Translation: 2.2/5

The translated parts from Miss Lemon’s MTL I read were quite good. All the investment jargon was clear enough. There were no errors that I remember.

The rest I read in MTL using the default browser translation for Google and Safari. Reading only one version of MTL was kinda bad but if I read two at the same time, it's quite readable. I understood the gist of what was happening. All the investment stuff got more dry and maybe a good translation might have helped in that department but I don't think it would have had much effect.

Pacing: 3.5/5

Hmm, the investing were quite detailed. But after the first setup and establishment of initial funds, the start of the main big business and the rest got quite dry and had a lot of telling what was going on. Yes, there are also a lot of show-not-tell parts but still a lot of info dumps haha.

Plot: 4/5

I think people who love this kind of stuff would adore this story. This is a pure power fantasy for someone who has future knowledge and is ambitious enough to fight on the big stage for it. For me, I am not really interested in such things haha. So while objectively, this type of trope is good but I personally didn't enjoy it that much.

Romance: 4/5

The romance is pretty slow haha. Only in the last fourth of the story did it really gain traction. I didn't mind it. It's better than the normal seme uke teenaged fantasy BL romance lol. The two is a bit more realistic or mature?

Setting/Worldbuilding: 4.9/5

The world setting includes the US and various provinces of China. And in each there are different industries and businesses the MC is doing so the world is definitely bigger in this story. Also, lots of real-world history is being thrown around for that time period.

Characters: 4/5

The characters are pretty good. There are a lot of characters here.

Personal Enjoyment: 3.3/5

Not really a fan of these huge, mind-boggling amounts of money being thrown around. Not relatable anymore for me haha.  <<less

3.64 Stars... more>>

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 <<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

3.61 Stars... more>>

"- getting initially rich from interior decoration for individual and then commercial customers"

---

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. <<less

3.87 Stars... more>>

Date Read: 28/4/2024

Personal Enjoyment: 3.7/5

This story is rather unexpectedly humourous! Not a lot but there is humour in it haha I was not expecting that haha. I thought based on the characters’ positioning on the cover picture and the summary, it would be a serious, introspective and calm rebirth story. And it is! But it was especially funny to read the ML employee’s hidden inner thoughts whenever the ML does something because of the FL. I love the tone haha.

Plot: 3.8/5

The story is pretty short but I feel the author really added a lot of things. Mostly, after the FL woke up, she focused on living better for herself. This includes all the good relationships that she let fall through before or didn't cherish enough. Especially, with the ML as the title says. She also doesn't just skip classes at college this time. And for her job too.

Writing/Translation: 4.01/5

The translation I read for C1-C4 is from OtomeRuri. 3.3/4. There were some weird missing half-sentences and contradictory info in the same sentence. Like Chen Hao, “Chen Hao was enraged by her speech, with a look of affectionate and wounded, he said: “Lou Yaoyao, in the end, how can I convince you of my sincerity?” Like what does this mean?? He's enraged? But he looks affectionate?? How does the MC know he is enraged then??

Another example, “both of them had grown up together as childhood sweethearts. For her, Qin Zhi had been no more than like a blood-related older brother. “ They grew up as childhood sweethearts. Then the next sentence she viewed him as a brother.

The next is from IsoHungry Translation from C5 to C21. 4.25/5. No errors that I remember. And have some links for more info on some terms.

The rest from C22 onwards, I read from Foxaholic, Alliephant. 3.9/5. No errors that I remember too. However, I really disliked all the password stuff. It drained my phone battery so much from having to load the screen so many times. Once to open the TL notes, then to the password page and then to the actual chapter. It really put a stopper on the flow of reading. Such a short couple of chapters felt so long because of this.

Pacing: 4/5

The pacing is pretty smooth. Because the story is pretty short, there are very quick scene transitions that are a bit more interesting than longer stories. The author will present the next scene right after the previous scene and let the reader figure out it is the next scene. It's not bad. Just something new.

Setting/Worldbuilding: 3.7/5

There wasn't much honestly. It was heavily character-focused even. But because this is a short story, I'm giving some grace to this section.

Characters: 4/5

The characters are so fun haha. I love the FL, she's so unique! She would be that annoying bratty female antagonist in another shoujo but she's actually very honest with her feelings. And this makes it more reassuring to be friends with her.

Romance: 4/5

The romance is a major part of the story. And it is kinda soothing haha. And had some spice to it. The two leads were childhood friends and the FL was such a terror to the ML lol. But he grew to be such a doting and devoted character. He who once hated all the actions of this troublesome nuisance that didn't stop in adulthood grew to accept all the flaws and love her for it.

For the mature side though, I don't like the implication of the FL having s*x so much she cries while doing it though but this is just super common in CN novels. Meh, it didn't happen a lot so it was fine I guess. Why can't the authors show the FL stretching her sore muscles happily from having s*x the night before??? Instead of showing her hobbling angrily to the bathroom and cursing the ML in her head. S*x is a two-person tango and enthusiastic consent is a far more enjoyable vibe to read about. <<less

3.8 Stars... more>>

Overall

This was short, I finished it in a day. I enjoyed it to kill time. I cried a bit at the beginning for the poor MC and was a bit anxious(good writing style there haha) when the MC tried to handle all the bad future things for the people he liked previously. The family stuff was kinda cute. The showbiz was semi-interesting. The romance was soso but I liked the MC.

Translation/Writing

I read the translation from White Sky Translations. The translation is very good, you can tell the translator is fluent in English and Chinese. There are only very minor typos like a missing letter in a word but this happens rarely. The writing style, not sure if it is because of the translator or if this is really how the original Chinese text is, but it is a bit serious. There aren't any throwaway lines or scenes. Of course, this is no literary masterpiece or anything haha so don't set your expectations too high.

Plot

We follow our MC live his life from 10 years ago and makes better choices for himself. We follow him go from a little star to an international one but that happens in the extras lol. In the meantime, we see how he forms a family with the ML and his child.This didn't take long to happen though.

Themes/What Story Tried to Achieve

This is a showbiz story and luckily, the MC only focuses on acting. The author didn't add being idols and singing and writing for the MC too. This story is short so we know in relatively more detail about like 4 acting gigs but the rest were only told not shown. There were some thoughts on how the MC planned his acting and what/how to act but not anything new. I enjoyed these parts enough.

For the romance, I didn't really get the beginning. The MC basically sold himself to pay his brother's debt at the start and we know why the ML started liking him was because he stubbornly refused him. But since he sold himself at the start, I don't really see how he continued to like him. Basically, I wasn't really convinced of their relationship. All the bonding that seemed to happen was during s*x. But the s*x was all euphemism, brief and fade to black. While I am happy to not read it because it seems the ML is a typical super dominant with little care for the MC in bed type of person so I don't want to read all that, the cons are that I didn't really get any bonding scenes at all. The ML will go to his place 5 days a week at night for s*x. And the food scenes are quite short, just that the MC cooks, and the ML is possessive of his food and loves pancakes with spring onions. No bonding activities there. So when the MC had feelings for the ML a bit further on, I didn't feel it. However, I did manage to just accept that they really liked each other and go with the flow lol.

Pacing

I felt it was all normal until we got the highest achievement for the MC in the main story. But the main story didn't end there but instead focused on dealing with the main bad guy of his previous life in his current life once and for all. This part got pretty boring for me. There were lots of chapters just on him encountering all the traps by the ML. I just didn't care about him at all so I was wondering if this was finally where I dnfed a story that was almost at the end lol.

Characters

I liked the MC. He's quiet and went through a lot in addition to having a condition. But he's hardworking to continue acting and it's likeable to read about how serious he is about it.

The ML is a typical caring, possessive rich businessman gangster seme that unexpectedly has a little kid. I was quite moved by him at the end of the MC's previous life (I even cried for him!) but then I had a bad impression of his actions before that. He forced himself on the MC while the MC was drunk at the club, fresh out of college in a bad situation and kept playing around with him just for fun. He honestly sounded like a villain in his previous life?? I think this was also part of why I didn't jive with the romance at the beginning. He was in a very good position to help the MC then but didn't. And in the end, all the bad things piled up on the MC until he died. But the ML was right there. Sigh.

The little kid is cute though haha. And kinda dumb lolol Added many heartwarming scenes to the story. Also, he made the ML have a warmer side. With him, also came his little best friend haha. Some of the outtakes in the chapters are quite cute.

The bad guys. Hmm. There is the MC's family, the ML's family, the first love of the ML and the ex from the previous life. The ML's family was all plotting to bring down the ML for power in the family. This was the dangerous part. I didn't really care about them because they didn't show up much. Also, it wasn't personal, they just wanted power by getting rid of the highest contender.

For the MC's family, it was more personal. However, with the MC's regular attitude and outlook in life, he just goes on to live his life. He doesn't go out of his way to personally make them go down. But it's the ML that plans it all out to make them miserable. So the MC doesn't really do anything much and all the bad things kinda happen a bit too offscreen for me. It's too bad, I wanted faceslapping hahaha.

For the first love, as a bad guy he was more effective and present in the story for our MC. We also have some plot with him. The ML was really angry and I felt it too haha. It's too bad there weren't any screaming and yelling denial to the ML's face. In the end, he was just resigned, which was a bit anticlimactic for me.

As for the ex from the previous life, I really didn't feel much. Honestly, all the bad things he did to the Mc that made me mad happened in the previous life. Not the current one so all the traps and planning from the ML just didn't hit the spot for me. I mean, he barely had any interaction with the MC anymore because the MC cleanly removed himself from him. I feel that they are strangers. He doesn't appear all that much too. So, when the author dedicated quite a few chapters to his downfall at the end of the story, I was quite bored and wanted to skip it. We follow his POV as he falls into the trap set by the ML. I don't like him so why would I enjoy his POV.

Random Notes

I am quite appreciative that the author did some research on investments and didn't just stick in ohhh, he's good at looking at the stock market and can make millions. Investing in the stock market doesn't work like that. Picking stocks like that is just putting all your eggs in way too few baskets. Always diversify. What this story did, is use future knowledge to determine which companies made it big, there is evidence. Then, the ML did the oil thing, and also has evidence. There were also some doubts expressed by the characters themselves that they were outsiders. They had no knowledge of the particular industry they were doing business in for investment, so what if they just didn't know enough to manage? I loved this added detail haha They also have MLMs and real estate. It just shows that there is more than just picking stocks or day trading (honestly all just gambling) to be considered investing.

Also, the wordpress website where the translation is hosted, the background is black and the words are light in colour. You can't change the theme unless you login and read the post in Reader which has black words on white bg but you have to keep doing this for each chapter. I didn't want to read with a black bg because I feel that it makes everything darker and more serious than I wanted. But it is a bit annoying to keep reading in Reader. Also, there is a bar at the bottom of the screen blocking the webpage a bit. You can collapse it but it doesn't disappear. <<less

3.05 Stars... more>>

Writing/Translation: 3.5/5

The translation I read is from WJM-MTL until chapter 45. The translation is edited MTL and you can tell. The sentence structures are awkward but still readable enough. At least the translator provides footnotes for references that English speakers won't know.

The rest I read from Midnightrambles. Their TL is much better. There were almost no parts that were hard to understand.

Pacing: 3.3/5

The beginning 27ish chapters were starting to get too slow and too overly fluffy for me. I almost dropped the story at that point because there wasn't a hook to keep my interest since the romance was a bit too slow and too cliche. I wanted more drama from the rebirth portion. Fortunately, we start getting more of the antagonists a few chapters later.

Plot: 3/5

The plot is very simple, cliche and predictable. I would say the story is 75% romance and 25% handling the bad guys. The romance part was interesting to follow at the beginning but it was so slow that I was impatient. Also, I admit it got a bit cringy to fully read so I skimmed a lot of it later on.

The bad guys also had zero interesting plot twists or suspense because this is a pretty short story. All the things got solved right after. It is also kinda sad that most of the tools of the main bad guy were high schoolers and only one adult. Until now, I'm not sure if I missed it but I don't get their main motivation. Money?? Power? It seems too vague. It seemed a bit too personal for me

Romance: 3.5/5

The romance is okay. I like their relationship. It just got too fluffy for me to read so I skimmed a lot.

Setting/Worldbuilding: 2/5

It's just a modern world, high school with a shallow portrayal of the rich family type of setting. I say shallow because the intrigue wasn't that deep or mind bending or what. Plus, most of the characters are only high schoolers. We don't even get much from the other rich families or even the MC's family. I see no uniqueness between the families. Kinda bland.

Characters: 3/5

The main characters are okay. I like the MC because he's hardworking, smart but he can still be cute. I just wish he would show it off far more than the little we got. The ML was a typical doting stoic ML who, since he's young, is in the cute stage lol. The mothers were nice. I wish we had more from the fathers too.  <<less