[Time Princess] Selfie #1

[Chinese BG novel] 主角光环[快穿] / Protagonist halo

Personally, I really liked it. Especially appreciate the novel's approach.

This is a quick transmigration with our protag Xiao Han, she travels worlds and mainly changes fates on those who made a wish/requested her to change the fate. Often times it's like book worlds with main characters and sometimes the bodies she travels to are particularly innocent side characters that were truly wronged without even knowing it. But what made me truly appreciate it were the heroine herself and also the approach to stories in arcs. Approach sometimes is pretty exploratory, there are times where a certain situation or a relationship is explored from the point of view of right and wrong and those many situations are settings that we might have come across in novels not ones.

Mainly I'm too used to the following story plots, especially if the wronged party wants to live better or get a revenge or be smarter and not be used, in such cases we see a lot of wronged women, their families are mostly unreasonable, they're often cheated out of money, relationship, friendship or in marriage. So those MCs follows the path of moving clouds and loud face slaps, but in the end many stories are like brain holes like that, though I can't say I don't enjoy, I also like to read different trashy stories, but I can definitely say that here things are taken from a bit different angle, not to mention that some stories don't even have a background plot that can be provided and Xiao Han has to figure out things for herself (that says a lot about how big her sidekick-ness is). What impressed me in stories/arcs approach was actually the fact that many "popular" or used tropes or settings that can be met in other places were outright dissed here (about it later). Now onto several things I'd like to talk about.

• Xiao Han. I'd say that our MC is pretty Buddhist. And it's not the type of indifference, but just the understanding overview of things. Xiao Han is highly intelligent and talented as a person who traveled worlds and expanded experience/memory/capacities, it is easy for her to adapt and achieve great success, but she's pretty calm about those things, even if she has immense success in the end, yet she is quite calm about all the glory and enjoyments. She has a certain responsibility to her surroundings and people, but actually she has no attachment that can appear in other protagonists, so it's a true solo show without a single romantic interest. Through her and her actions sometimes we can see and hear about some criticism that can follow after several popular tropes that are often used, but here you can hear the pointed question - is it right? is it wrong? is this okay? This temperament of hers I find good, but it can also become an obstacle in reading for others, since it's not the typical ups and down crazy jumping around novel just to get you excited.
• The world stories and what was in them (w/spoilers). Arc 1. Entertainment vase. This had a variety of topics. XH crosses to a young woman who was labeled as a vase, but her only bad trait was that she cared too much about opinions that's why she was always stressed, she also had a bad deal, while having absolutely gorgeous looks she had no chance to develop due to bad agency, yet was used as a stepping stone by a girl who got a golden finger in the end. Did she deserve her fate? Not. She also was unlucky to fall in love with another actor, but was abused because of it all the time, while her "partner" was too high in the sky and evaluated ppl only based on acting skills and never protected her and was never considering, though he himself never had setbacks due to his own background, so he was also a bit arrogant in his bones. The supposed heroine is a small girl who was previously jealous and got a golden finger, but now when she was against an old fox like Xiao Han no golden finger could beat her. Anyway, this is the path to stardom, a screen legend that will be remembered by generations. Funnily, it had an interesting element - a reborn person who signed XH to his agency and basically benefitted from it the most. And everyone got a logical ending, the ex-bf due to his prejudice and lack of defense against scheming was entangled and involved in a scandal that dropped his reputation, so no happy ending with a heroine, he mostly had to face reality. "Heroine" was to conceited about the system and relied on it too much, in the end was abandoned by it. Arc 2. True love in old times. This one was pretty interesting, it starts to pick up on how XH sometimes doesn't do too much and many things depend on timing and conditions, without which things need just a little push to change. In this one XH is a little sister who wishes well for her family and safety of her brtoher. In original story her brtoher was married, but his wife was too romantic in nature and too arrogant due to her family background. She strived for romance and dating, but her husband, who is a soldier, lacked these qualities. She met a student who fell in love and derailed under the great offense. Original trajectory has a family in grief since the ex-husband died during mission, while divorce, new love etc. were covered under the rug and everyone was happy. This time XH got involved early and basically changed few things, especially let her brother face these things early and not be left behind. So this arcs picks up on several topics, such as derailment. The "heroine" doesn't think it's anything bad, she is too arrogant to care about gossip about her and she is too in love to care, she only thinks about her own happiness and not overall situation, especially when the marriage was several years in. It also picked up on morality of "male lead", since he was so in love with a hot head and also never cared if this was good or bad, especially when he was sent away he felt guilty that in the end he fell in love with another girl and also delayed this woman, not to mention he destroyed her marriage. What was unexpected is that this "heroine" went mad in attacking "male lead" and making him a disabled person, also implicating her entire family. There were two phrases that I remember, before divorce mother asked the heroine not to regret it and she was very confident and by the end when finding that her lover was with someone else she asked herself - was I wrong? With her own hands she basically destroyed herself for other man. This was a great arc to me. Arc 3. Halo of the xueba. This was a bit lacking, since it had a lot of campus study content, but it also had its' own twists and turns. Original owner was nothing more but a transparent person and she wanted to achieve good scholar progress so her parents could be proud of her, but she was actually a step-sister to a heroine in this story. In original story the heroine was a true scumbag, she skipped classes, never learnt, but was protected and loved by two best males in school, one was super smart and the other is a sunshine cool type boy who would skip classes with her. The heroine's small world of rebellion is based on her mother remarrying another man. She considered this as betrayal of her late father, so she never considered if her mother had hardships of raising a child alone. She never gave face to her stepdad, though he always treated her nicely and never said a harsh word, espacially considering her studies, basically this tug of three people continued for school years, later they were separated and in the end came together. But in this timeline XH did not care about the heroine who did not give anyone good face and started studying like crazy, in the end her grades and popularity started to grow, she left everyone behind. As for heroine, she never came out of her rebellious period, she treated parents badly, since she hated the remarriage status, to step-dad and step-sister since they didn't understand her, even to the male partner who loved her, because she felt he dropped her for his studies, basically in all her decisions she was simply selfish and considered only her own side and acted like ppl owned her. She never got a decent education, later was with same male partner and wanted to mary, but because this time they were not separated things were different, she was not an ideal wife material and never gave face to the mother-in-law ruining the relationship of the two, so it didn't stand to any trial and got destroyed easily, but who to blame that she never considered things and still was in her rebellious mentality. So XH asked her later if anyone of them was actually sorry for her. She was never abused, everyone took care of her, she didn't know hardships, never considered others and only thought she was right, but basically ruined good relationship. This arc had a surprise - a traverser - a girl who read this novel, was fascinated by the male leads and wanted to replace the heroine, so she approched the trio with ulterior motives, but in the end ended badly, since she discarded all studies, never considered failure and basically ended up with what she got. through her failed scheming. Arc 4. Spy princess. I was really touched at the ending of this one. Original owner wasn't actually bad, she was really intelligent and remarkable, it's just that she was against a traverser from future to ancient time and also against a halo of protag, so she failed her spy mission. This time XH wore a princess who was sent to the neighboring country at the early age, she was trusted by her mother and given a mission to lead a spy mission, everything to lay the groundwork for the future return of 13 states their country lost and as a repayment for defeat and death of their king. Princess failed at the crucial return and was captured, but she chose to committ suicide. The one who shot the arrow was someone she once saved and secretely liked in her heart, but they were on the opposite sides. XH turned the tides, she led the mission to success, all 13 states were reclaimed, she returned and governed her own country along with her brother, but was mostly responsible for everything (it was touching that their family was so united to one cause). Her scheming and reforms basically led to prosperity and consequent tactics slowly won other territories. The person original host liked always stayed on the sidelines, even if he could come with a mission, but only for his own purpose of finally figuring out that he mistook heroine for his savior and the one who saved him was this girl, but they can't even acknowledge it. Unlike original story where heroine stays and helps the prince to ascend the throne, here the heroine still chooses the same person, but she can't come t terms that in future she will share this man with others. Original male protag was driven mad instead, first when he was injured in the ambush, later his hatred and reason were lost because of XH. Original host was always proud to be the princess, that's why it's touching to read about the extra. In the extra we have a reborn saved guy, he goes back to time and saves the princess from comitting suicide, later she goes back to her own coutnry and things develop to the point of confrontation between countries, yet he always tried to follow her news and sometimes comes to help in the moment of need. Yet in the end she sacrifices herself for the victory and is mourned by thousands of her people, even if he knew that there were feelings between them, they never developed and she knew her pride and mission as a princess. So it was actually sad, this rebirth was also like punishment, actually finding and protecting person, but still not choosing side and witnessing her death for the second time, but now with different feelings. Arc 5. This time we travel to world of immortality. In this one we have three timelines. The first one is about the heroine XH is wearing, she came through hardships with ML, but ML was pestered by a sidekick, this sidekick pushed heroine down and everyone though she died, but she cultivated through hardships and came out alone, revenged herself and left ascending by herself. Timeline 2 has a reborn sidekick who also gets a help of a guy who comes from upper realm and takes pity on her, also because she changed temperament and tactics ML also notices her. Heroine gets a ruined reputation and gets killed by the upper realm guy before reaching anything just because of the past, as if it wasn't her who destroyed her own life by doing bad things and now she played the pitiful victim card. Third timeline is now we have reborn sidekick, but XH came instead of the heroine. XH tore the agreement with the male partner, since he got the memories from his past, she cultivated according to the heroine and discarded things that were demons from the heroine, since she cared about love of her companion and feelings of her teacher, though they all turned away from her when the time was crucial. Now with XH the cultivation was fast, but steady. Sidekick on the other hand was selfish in all her actions and never saw anything bad in things she did, she tried to reach new heights, but was unstable, in the end suffered from backlash and turned into mortal. Her golden finger male was silently killed off by XH, since she knew he believed that she was a demon to the girl he liked and killing her might help her. Ex-bf was touched by memories of the past and a hundred years the sidekick spent chasing his ass, so he took pity on her in the end his own cultivation stagnated because of this heart. And XH happily ascended in the end. Arc 6. Substitute Pearl. Maybe this one was not as exciting, but at least brought up interesting topic of cultural differencies and bringing up. I believe if it wasn't for XH arrival than the fate of original host would be really bad, but we don't know since we don't have a plot, but you can more or less derive from what is happening. Why I say if it wasn't for XH, because she crossed into a baby and grew up till she was still small before being kidnapped, later she was going to be sold, but with her wit she attracted attention of a righteous man and he helped her find a temporarily home, which later became her constant residence. She refused to go back, first she was too small, even if she knew martial arts and secondly, the cultural differencies she met while growing up made her think that leaving would be inevitable in any case. The problem lies in women etiquette and that is not only men are above women, but also binding of the feet. Although it was a thing only for noble ladies and basically when XH returned for a while with her feet being normal, she was considered a pheasant girl and a deffective product nobody would want. But this binding XH would never want, it places women even in more vulnerable position, since it's unnatural too. Thus XH stayed in another country and grew up safely, where women can be rulers. Some of the development she did not expect, like the woman who adopted her was one of the main four clans, the man who saved her was from another important clan and later due to civil strife, she also took part and later was appointed by everyone as a crown prince. I think due to upbringing of original mother, who was too protected and silly white flower, original host might have been poisoned a hundred times, also have a temper and later was sold and never had such chances, maybe she was found later, but I'm sure her fate was different and when she went back she was a disappointment and was compared to a new adopted daughter her mother brought in to quench some of the grief. That's what I can conclude from the overall situation described. XH on the contrary came to power, she ruled for a while, made great changes, was popular and decided to travel. Next she was noticed and basically was escorted home, she went only to pay last filial piety, since she can't return to her past anymore. As expected, since she stayed silent about her current position many scrutinized her origins and also the way she was unrestrained, did not cover face, her feet were normal. But XH did not even want to socialize, since the situation she's in is not good for showing face left and right, so she stayed calmly waiting for her mother's birthday. Many things were speculated and her origins were also questioned, but in the end emperor figured out her identity and was astonished, former daughter of the minister is actually a next ruler of the bordering country. Her status changed, but still was kept secret before the b-day passed and her escorts arrived. Then everyone found out the truth, especially astonishing her parents, even if they were sad, but partially they could understand and support her and partially, like her mother, she was too far from understanding who is her daughter now. The only one who did not expect things to turn like this was adopted daughter, she was thinking that her upbringing is the best, but she grew up in a mold built by others, while XH never actually cared (pretty sure originally that would not be the case). I love tidbits about the rest, it was described like she ascended the throne and was the best ruler, making her country progress by hundreds of years, was the stable ruler and when her family, which was under protection, since they were family of the ruler, they took refugee during fight for the throne in their country and later their famly split and develped well in two countries, which was a filial piety that XH could offer. Arc 7. Future boss. This one was interesting in terms of the revengeful bosses who get to a high position. Original owner was a good girl, but she fell in love with a host boy from the club, spent money left and right and he was smooth sailing but never appreciated and thought of it as humiliation. In the end he got what he wanted but when he was found to be a son of a big boss and brought back he retaliated against her and her family. It might sound cool in the story, especially when you describe from the hero's pov, but such arc actually brings up the question - was what the girl did was that unforgivable or you're just such an ass that can't handle it. He treated other poor girl as his light that helped him, but actually scoffed at the girl who provided him with best living conditions and saved his mother, providing funds for surgery. This time XH got rid off the guy right away and things changed drastically. Although it made the guy realize yet he still couldn't come in terms with the situation and his inner pride and desire for revenge were still high. In the end things developed differently, unfortuntely, since his mother did not get best treatmment she did not survive, he who prised himself as clean and noble, though he did not understand the profession lowered himself to selling himself and being supported, when it came time to return as illegitimate son and take part in wars, he didn't even have a chance, XH helped to stabilize position of the original son and heir, they won beautifully without scruples. So future boss turned into one who kept being supported for money, his little love girl left him very early too, since she "couldn't understand how he changed so much". Arc 8. Demon girl. This one again describes a girl who was quite innocent, she had no idea that she was the only daughter of a demon clan owner and was killed with her adoptive parents "in the name of justice". Everything starts from a poor thief girl who stole a jade pendant from original owner, it was a token, she joined righteous martial arts sect and traveled the world being protected, later found out the truth about token, took it to the demon sect, used all resources as the only daughter, but later betrayed the clan and was the winner of righteous path with others and all her betrayal, use and means were described as "she has suffered for the cause". In this timeline XH was completing the original owner's wish - being a great doctor. She indeed developed well and did not touch the demon clan, only wanted to return the token, but unexpected thing happened, her biological mother was reborn, she found her daughter, but did not disclose their situation and used the fake daughter as a shield for what she did in previous life. XH became a great doctor in this life that was praised by people and left a great legacy of her practice that was spread among people. The righteous path was defetaed by her biological mother. The fight brought attention and current emperor started taking measures changing how things should be treated when it comes to martial arts. The fake daughter was killed during the fight. Once again, some things depend on a pov, but when you scrutinize from three views and morality, what the fake girl did was no better than a demon clan, she used such harsh means, betrayal, but was praised and it was said she suffered. And also the righteous path, which is questionable if what they do can be called righteous. Arc 9. Rich and powerful heroine. Oh~ this one I really liked how it basically lashed at one of the settings I particularly hate in novels and that is non-blood-related relatives. In this case we have a setting of exchanged children at birth. Original owner died not knowing why she died, that's why XH had the task of finding truth herself. But she knew that she was targeted and killed, instead of an accident. The exchanged child that lived in a wealthy family was brought up mostly by her uncle, he once knew that she was not a blood-related relative, but his feelings crossed the border long time ago and he concealed the news, although the grandpa of this family, who witnessed death of his son and daughter-in-law was very attentive to the last blood of his son, as he thought. The girl really grew up willful and actually really spoiled, she did not care about her studies, she used her position left and right, since her uncle who loved her wiped her ass everywhere and never reprimanded only saying she was still a child, but one without education. So you can imagine that such relationship they developed was indecent in the end, especially the girl who liked her uncle and when was kicked out gladly put herself under him. XH had some luck and her identity was found early without much push and was brought back, she sent the adoptive mother to prison for trafficking, while the fake daughter simply hated this suddenly appeared biological mother. The uncle, who was actually only an adopted son, not related by blood, bore ambitions inside, as XH concluded, he really did not only care about the fake, but about the wealth and power, he thought he was no worse than original son and did a good job, but the old man still guarded against him in the end. The old man was also disappointed seeing that this adoptive son did not understand him at all, he wanted to leave some things so they would help each other, but what he so was only a resist. The uncle lost his position unexpectedly. When the old man knew about the relationship of the two he was furious and ordered for the fake to leave the country, but again she stayed, just in another place. What XH did was to release the mother of the fake on parole and gave her the address, since she knew that this mother, who did not treat her bad, but did not treat her as a true daughter, thought her daughter was good, but actually when she witnessed her daughter not giving a damn about studies and just being kept by an older man she went mad. Don't underestimate poor people who have nothing to love, the mother attacked him and wounded him. In the end he had to stay hospitalized, while XH took the rule of the group and all industries. She was again excellent in everything she did. The fake daughter who saw her beloved uncle change and did not want to spend time together could not stay in the hospital too long and again ran to party and have fun like she did before. She had no skills, could do nothing, only being supported by others, since she was accustomed to lavish life. In the end she did spend her life like that and escaped her uncle who now lost all the lustre he had before as a heir and one who could rule wind and rain protecting her. So yeah. I liked that this arc brought up the morality of such situations, it was brought through thoughts of others. Like it was pointed out that the love developed even when they did not know about their situaion and were sonsidered blood relatives. So many stories from QT genre, both BG and BL, I met that danced on this borderline theme and I always felt uncomfortable, since, even if you're not blood related, but you grew up together and considered each other relatives for so long, how easy for you to switch to lovers? So I liked that it was met with scorn and one thought about such situation was mentioned that was true - if he was in a high position of a heir, continued to suppress those who said anything bad, everyone would accept it on the surface eventually, because they were made to. This arc also has a "what happened after the original owner died" part, in which the old man found the truth about his real granddaughter and of course harshly retaliated against this adopted son and the fake daughter returning to old means, others asked him to be careful, but he said that he was old, not blood relative was left, what is he afraid of. Arc 10. An orphan. This story for original owner should have been a short life. When XH arrived she found out that original owner has been poisoned for some time, she had to find out who. She acted calmcly and always had a simple look, while continued doing her duty of filial piety. Original owner was a daughter of a general, but father and brothers died on a battlefield, to show his mercy for an orphan emperor bestowed a marriage with a 5th prince, candidate for crown prince. People said emperor was good, but was it good for the girl, she spent time at her relatives (uncle, brother of her mother). She spent time quietly and others started to say that what can she bring to prince, very soon forgetting the sacrifice of her family. The mother of 5th prince is a concubine that reached peak in harem, she played well and managed to get rid off other princes and now was a step away from crowning her son, but something unexpected happened, this was a push by XH who did not want to be a chess piece, but a player. She pushed forward her cousine who was infatuated with the prince, in the end she basically had her reputation ruined, but did not expect not to be accepted, since the one who was promised to prince was a noble lady much higher than her and she hated this lowly fox and scheming girl who dreamed of vanity. In the end XH added fire to the situation and instead of prince this cousine climed the emperr's bed. In the beginning things could be quiet and it was favorable for this concubine, but she had too many enemies and the situation became an anecdote on the streets. It brought a blow to emperor's reputation and since emperor could not be wrong, all blame was put on the prince who soon lost favor. Lost favor to the point of being sent away. In the end the concubine decided to play all out. She used her b-day as a pretense, poisoned the emperor and started a massacre, wanting to leave only her son to rule, her son attacked the city. But because there was XH who felt this change she managed to warn the forces of the other prince whoc ame to rescue, but it was a bit late. Only the one prince, who was luckily saved due to unexpected turn of events, came to rule later, the one who came to rescue was wounded too much, 5th prince died in this battle, the concubine also had a bad ending. The noble lady whowanted to marry the prince was implicated with her family and was executed. The purge was big and the city was died red. By this time XH simply left. She played her role of a filial girl well, but also because she knew that she was poisoned she played a dying girl, when it was time she caught her residence on fire in which she "died". Later she turned into a healthy young man-advisor, who pushed few things behind the scene. The only one who met her and guessed her identity was a young man close to emperor, he always tried to stay away from power struggle, but when he met the girl he asked her why she did this, for revenge? But she pointed out that incompetent rule and power struggle were never pushed by her at all, she didn't make people like that, it was people themselves, like emperor who made many things for the sake of face, disregarding what a simple orphan girl would feel, like concubine, who used her a shield of showing kindness and utilizing her worth, wanting her son to actually win the army of her father and nothing more, she didn't care that the girl was poisoned, the noble lady's family, who were the ones who poisoned her, just to clear the way for the daughter to become future queen. It is a grand power struggle and she gave only a little push, while people ruined themselves by their own hands. In this way the royal family was doomed. The new king was young, but he was kind and good. She left to travel the world and opened a famous academy. Arc 11. Tomb bride. This one was interesting, because XH was kinda a baddie))) In original story we have ghosts and metaphysics forces, she was in her tomb minding her own business, but later raiders came and she saw a young man who resembled her first love, so she followed, to her it was a travel of wanting to help him whenever he needed, for him and his family it was a ghost who got stuck and couldn't leave. In the end for things she did she lost as a ghost and was burnt in a true fire with no trace left. Here XH acted as a true ghost king she is. She cultivated to ascend as a ghost, tried to collect all the items that helped her get rid off grievances that ghosts have. She used the family of protag as her camp base and also there were several episodes, which might not be exciting, but there was humor in it. She found a perfect relic that helped her, but it was received as a reward for saving a family from ferocious ghost, during which she met the heroine who had yin yang eyes and who helped the defeat in original timeline. This time the heroine who was not afraid of anything was deprived of her ability and not even guarded against XH who is a ghost king, all metaphysicians were quiet as quails. Everyone thought she might kill them all, but it was against XH's cultivation method, so they had no idea she'd never touch their lives, might only punish them a little :) In the end XH helped the Netherland and it helped her ascend too, which was a big event. So the ghost king that was considered a threat wasn't that bad actually. Arc 12. Immortal fate. This one is the final arc, in which again XH has no idea about the plot and is free-wheeling before she finds that the carp she accidentally saved and released had a consciousness, which made her realize that it wasn't just ancient times. She had a baby kiss since earlier times with a general's family, but she lived in another city all the time, her parents were wealthy enough and descendants of a famous doctor, but couldn't support the mantle. But they were happy to have a daughter who could marry to a higher position. But XH didn't think so, especially when finding that this world has a trace of cultivation and she wanted to find out the truth. Her reputation was of a silly who believed in fairies, but she knew those existed, she had a long relationship with the carp and helped him cultivate to best of her ability and in the end found a place where she should go, her mother gave birth to a second child, a son, it was the filial piety to her parents, she left to travel in disguise, the mountain she arrived to was the place where she found part of the answer and her biological uncle who everyone thought left searching for immortality. She cultivated for some time, but then her uncle asked to turn back and solve the wordly problems, only then she found out that her marriage proposal was still there, but general's family met a disaster, they were accused of greed during the battle, which resulted in heavy casualties and loss of several cities. This could implicate her and her family. She came to general's house in disguise, cured the eldest son who was on the verge of death, advised him what to do to save himself and his family, uncover the truth. In the end the general's name was cleansed of accusations, their home survived, but surprisingly the young man who helped asked for the token. She took only that and left a message that the youngest son is actually alive and told them where to find. The house of general thrived, two sons were retrieved and survived, were heavily rewarded and entered a new stage. XH got back to the mountain, since she never cared about riches of the world, she was interested in the world of cultivation and in the end got her answer and was helped to reach what was concealed in this world. And this is how the story ends, she resolved the cause and effect of wordly affairs and left.

Actually, as it happens, this story is not the first one where Xiao Han is a heroine of the book, but a second one I suppose. I haven't read previous and can't judge. In general I really liked, it was a calm read in a way, it may be not as exciting as others, but it had a lot of thought and interesting turns and themes brought up. In a way it was exploring setting that are often used, though it appears in other stories too, but it has a questioning tone of - is this really okay? is such a rlationship okay? does this person deserve what they get? are they really as described? do people who were completely innocent deserving what they got? So in the end I quite enjoyed the read. This is a true solo show as well, there is no playing family or with emotions that can be seen in other places, she doesn't use men, men aren't even in the game. She has no relationships and is true Buddhist character that is away from all the worries of these worlds. And she can't be said completely indifferent, she pays back when needed, but does it righteously, sometimes her push is insignificant, but it enhances what was already there. This made me attracted to the fact that maybe I should search for other solo works where characters don't really have a romantic interest and no one is played with or hurt and no character acts like a demon (yes, some heroines I must say left me with impression of being of low conduct). So here it is, very long weird review.

RATE: 4.5/5.

Note: This is a second novel about Xiao Han, first is titled 天生赢家（快穿）, which I also read and reviewed, but later than this one and liked it less, this novel is more mature.

[Chinese BG novel] 当大佬拿了女配剧本(快穿) / When the boss takes on a supporting female script

Before I start, I'd say I agree with the rate of 8.5 on JJ.

We follow our female lead - QingLi - she's a traverser who changes the fates of characters who ended up badly. Most of the time they're victims, so QingLi is sent to allevate their grievances, so basically it's a revenge and face-slap type of novel. I partially started like/dislike with these novels, since if it's written well or just is appealing to me I don't mind that the novel might follow routine, but if it's no fun to me then I can't help but criticize. With this novel it's not that it's written badly, you can feel attentiveness of the author and the novel is readable, but from the other side in many cases I really couldn't feel the thrill and it didn't bring new things to the plate. It also lacked diversity of characters too, which eventually bothered me. Now, a little bit about those worlds and my sudden need to talk about copy-pasting of world hopping novels:

• World 1. We start with an ancient world (btw, unlike others here almost half the stories are about ancient times, not just one or two harem fights). In this world the character of QingLi lived a happy married life, her husband promised to never take a concubine, since the wife was in poor health and was hard to have a child. Her husband took off with the help of her family, but met an accident during which he lost memory and met the heroine, they lived together and husband decided to be responsible after recovering memories, which of course was met negatively by original owner. Original owner was treated badly in this family and had a bad ending due to framing of mother-in-law and consequent abuse through years which dulled her temperament, QingLi used many things like reputation and rumors to proceed with changing the fate of original owner and successfully divorced later not tolerating things like they did in their family. Btw QingLi retaliates against all people who did bad things to original owner, but that's why I find it rigid, since it's the same miserable ending for many "villains". Anyway, not really a common setting, I don't think I saw such combo of memory loss+concubine. But it was a bit slacky arc in terms of being thrilling, QL stayed along to retaliate and toss people, but also find out who killed original owner previously, which only sounds cool, but I wasn't as engaged.
• World 2. This was a boring one actually. Modern world. Original is an orphan, but she actually has a grandpa who is too ashamed to be in front of her because of the past, so he made a deal with a friend, sold patents in exchange for taking care about his granddaughter. Yet didn't really check how she was, he believed in reports made by this friend. So she became a child bride and was hated by the family and was always feeling inferior and suffered from all sides and also bullying. Taking over QL took off from their sphere of influence, became excellent in studying on her own and basically became a scientist like her grandpa, but because grandpa trusted too much into strangers that's why original owner had such bleak end. Tbh QL wanted to retaliate and such, but I couldn't understand the reasoning of appearing in front of her grandpa in all the glowy way, because otherwise she thought he wouldn't believe she was bullied and so he could uncover the truth how she was treated...honestly she could have arranged it differently and I kinda felt bad for grandpa too, because his character is shallow we don't really know if he's so awkward, but he lives with guilt, after QL was done she basically never contacted this grandpa since he caused her grievances... but why really making it so rigid.
• World 3. Again ancient script. In this one original owner was conspired against by her husband. This husband wanted to earn money on the road, but was retaliated by bandits, instead he used this as "saving beauty" plan against original owner and basically milked everything from their family that could be used and wrapped it as his now disability they should pay for. QL later was involved in teaching students who passed the imperial examination cutting path of of her husband's brother who they cultivated for nothing. Anyway, she safely divorced when uncovered conspiracy and later the husband and his family ended up badly.
• World 4. More modern script, but mostly again 70-80'ss. In this one original owner becomes an orphan due to sudden accident of her father, she was talked into a marriage, pension left by father was taken away, she became a step-mom to three devil kids who were against her. In original beautiful script a heroine travels back in time and defeats three devils with her care and love, but from original owner's pov it was a lifeless marriage, as soon as she was married husband left for army and came back not often, three kids were ruleless and often pranked original owner, in the end the accident made her lose a child, while others didn't think it was the children's fault, but accident, she retaliated with violence, which caused children to really deviate. But in this life QL left quickly, it was a trial marriage, new hostess came sooner and married the guy with kids, but things changed, they were same devils and her education didn't help, they were left unattanded since childhood and were lawless. QL instead took back money, started business, adopted a girl, later found a good guy to marry into the door and developed. What is different is that heroine couldn't handle the children and divorced, in the end she was supported with initial capital by QL, since she was sympathetic to the situation, no abs and handsome guy will relief the grief to educate the children. So they both reached success, which those kids regretted in the end their behavior and childish yet dangerous thoughts.
• World 5. In this one we have a reborn supporting role, in original text the original owner should be a heroine, but because of reborn supporting role she had more bleak end. Supporting role set off her excellence and superior background to be always compared with original owner, due to intensive suppression from all sides, plus husband who was moved in heart and never really understood her sacrifice. But it's just a supporting role play, since she wanted to infatuate the guy yet stayed with her boyfriend who loved her in last life. Instead QL divorced and became a dazzling star who didn't care. In the end things became a mess, company crisis of her parents company made supporting role temporarily switch, yet she still hated the male lead. She even wanted to raise child of other man with him, but it accidentally uncovered. Some things actually sound bizarre when you read them, like this loyal dog, he kidnapped the supporting role girl before the wedding and decided to kill them both but on camera, which is..weird, like why camera? Only because for everyone to know the truth.
• World 6. Maybe around 60-70'ss. Original owner had pretty short life, she was sold at the age of ten as a child bride to a fool, in three years was made to give birth and died. All because of the family situation. This is a story of deep pampering with quite often used setting of a late child, a baby daughter, which is pampered to no end. Thus this little aunt is too arrogant and basically because of her playing around and breaking leg family lacked money, parents talked their second son to sell their daughter. QL in this one escaped to mountains for some time, later she developed her mother's thinking to get divorce since her father was this unreliable. And because of this enlightment mother was able to call the police when things happened, in the end father and two parents were convicted and sent to reform. Mother and QL divorced and left. QL made enough money to build a house and started achieving success being technically capable. In the end she did a great job and helped a lot. This little aunt with disappearance of her parents didn't think much, but she hated hardships and only knew how to entangle, in the end was married off, yet hated this marriage and framed mother and son together, in the end she was retaliated for this and was killed, she always lived crookedly and always wanted to get shortcuts.
• World 7. The second child type of story. Similar setting I've read in other novel, just different details and development after birth, but in general same themes. This concerns second child policy. Original owner has quite old parents who decided to have a second child in advanced age. They thought beautifully with their traditional thinking and in that trajectory was a bleak story of a student who had to drop out because both parents had accidents and bringing up her younger brother was on her, she also got married for the money and often took money from family, which estranged her from children and husband. In the end original owner got divorced but was scorned by parents for being divorced and not welcomed by younger brother who never cared how much she paid. QL basically dumped both parents, earned her tuition, became a lawyer, only occasionally appeared to nourish parents, but basically never paid as they thought she would, in the end they became quite old parents and were accused by their son for being poor. Btw this guy actually was reborn. As often in such settings the pampered son was causing all the troubles and never appreciated what parents did for him. Parents also regretted the second child due to pressure to give birth to a son from outside world and opinion of others. So their retirement was suffocating. Once again QL was quite cruel, like paying for nanny yes, but if the nanny does a good job or if they're comfortable - never. This is all based that for years parents did not give her face. Yet in such stories the thing that bothers me the most is the fact that this is a different timeline and people might change, but she just gives a chance or two, but doesn't enlighten too much and in the end she dumps ppl like no biggie. She retaliates for actions of previous life in this life while things were a bit different.
• World 8. In this one original owner is like a tool person. Her marriage was only to help the husband get up from ashes, yet he had a sweetheart in his mind, so in original story the wife was slowly dying and then had to welcome her own cousine who became a consubine, never knowing that it was her husband who changed medicine for her to fall ill for so long. For this one I support that QL retaliated quite a lot, especially with similar medicine. QL nourished her health, pretended to be blind with how her husband treated cousine, later to be "virtuous" she welcomed several concubines, mixed herbs so husband will be active, since she planned to leave children yet become widow. Not forgetting to stumble her husband. The cousine didn't really care that she steals the meal, but later regretted it, especially after the husband was bound to bed. What was shocking because this girl did not want to be bound as a maid always taking care of this man, she eventually killed him and was convicted for this. QL was left a rich widow with a bunch of kids and concubines who treated her as best person.
• World 9. In this one QL supposed to play a heroine role of deep chasing crematorium. Original owner had leukemia, and in her stay at hospital connected with a boy downstairs through wire. But the boy who wanted to find her found the girl who stayed in same room and used QL's name as if it was her, in the end ML admitted wrong person. Later he met this girl again and became bf and gf, but original owner was left with nothing yet fell in love not knowing it's this boy. ML was prejudiced, yet later since the white moonlight actually took money from his family and went abroad, he eventually married original owner, but when the white moonlight came back he quickly dumped her. Only later he realized that he fell in love with his wife, it was her who saved him. But there was a bug, this fake white moonlight found out the future and basically used it to her advances, wanting to be the wife of a rich family, since she always was vane. QL dumped this husband and started her career. Eventually the truth resurfaced in her interview and ex-husband was shocked and realized that he was played around and only because the fake was pregnant with his child what saved her from retaliation. QL in this world is a capable business woman who found herself a new husband who was way cuter, she managed to retaliate against ex-husband and watch him lose. Later the fake left child and husband, since she wanted a rich life, not hardships.
• World 10. QingLi comes to cold palace, she is a daughter of demoted concubine. Now only her and a little brother were left and were on the verge of bad ending, thanks to QL's cultivating her own body and origial mother being taoist she gained taent to calculate things. In this world she should have married instead of a popular and cherished princess and have a bleak end, basically becoming a chess piece in the game and thinking she was cherished but actually not, but now QL used metaphysics to become a national teacher step by step, retaliated against all who originally conspired against her two siblings and ended victorious.
• World 11. In this world QL is a screenwriter and scum is her director husband. He is a DINK and they have more than 10 years age difference. They always lived childless, but she was a shadow of her husband. This was a different arc, since QL crosses two times. First time she avoids being stabbed and losing ability to give birth when catching her husband cheating in the club, instead it was her husband who was implicated. Later she crosses few years later when the plot kicks off. Her husband supported niece of a woman, with whom her husband almost cheated with. Originally she should have been betrayed by husband and nephew she took care of all those years, but in this one she basically chased all of them away as QL crossed. This new actress was actually a reborn person and wanted to enter entertainment and earn fame. Both husband of original owner and nephew were on her side in original trajectory, but original owner was chased away and also because of the wound should have lost ability to give birth, yet her husband decided he wants kids, so this led to betrayal. QL kicked them all away, became the director and screenwriter herself and did all the jobs. Basically she was always head to head with scum husband who eventually became ex-husband. Nephew's career hit bottom, since QL did not shy away saying she fed all those good years to a dog. All the scandals of that year were brought up, so all parties were implicated and public was on the side of QL in this. So it was the loud slap in the face personally and also in their career. Eventually everyone has a gloomy ending.
• World 12. In this one original owner grew up only having a father who had only career in his mind. So even if he knew that his daughter was framed, but yet he sent her to exchange anyway. Original owner in the reality show was often in the pit dug by the program, so she performed badly and was like a rat crossing the street, her father was also disappointed. So later he sent her away. This sending to a program for reform also a setting that can be met here and there. QL who arrived first performed well, but when it was time for reward used the phone to call police which triggered many things. But it made her father notice her more and started to teach and appreciate her. QL did things beautifully and enterted company and did a good job, making herself a next heir quite quickly. The cousine who dug a pit for her originally was tossed, but instead her was aggiated and attacked the father of original owner, which led to hospitalization and long recuperation. While QL was earning money like mad only for onw thing, bankrupt the whole company. And she did it. She later repayed all debts and travelled, but it made the father realize why she did it, but also he saw the dream where his daughter was framed, implicated and later met her worst end and he regretted that the little girl who was waiting for his protection became basically a tool and was not treated as a daughter, but realization was too late.
• Last world. Was quite short. Here QL is a daguhter of supporting role. Her father has a first love he can't forget, this first love was married to a welathy man, yet she later had unhappy marriage due to husband's cheating, she had an early death and as a soul she saw this person visiting her year after year and confessing his feelings, so when she was reborn she decided to switch to him to become happy. QL enlightened her mother and made her start a career, while they stopped caring about the scumbag father who already emotionally did not belong to this family. In the end both were divorced, yet the mother was safe and also changed her way of thinking. Yet for husband and little three, their scandal was known and even if they married later, because the little three wanted to jump from one wealthy family to another when things weren't going well she divorced again without nostalgia.

Anyway. Despite the novel not being brain-dead sometimes I really was a bit bored, YET! I wondered why it all comes to revenge and face slapping despite possible nuances. I just ask myself, why no line of retaliation deviates, because it is already a new timeline and things might change, but at times ppl get all the shit when they didn't do anything horrible in this timeline. Some scumbags indeed deserved bad ending, but not all ppl, sometimes it felt a bit.. too cruel? There is no enlightment at times for these peopl from QL's side, just revenge. But in general it's an ok story with its' own details. Oh yeah this one has no ML, sometimes QL can marry, other times not, can have kids or may adopt or be childless, depending on situation and original owner. SO it's a one-man show through and through. If I'm not wrong it's only one of the novels where QingLi is the main character. But I don't think I want to read the rest.

RATE: 3,5/5.

[Chinese BG novel] 我靠作妖成了反派的白月光 / I became a white moonlight of a villain when I acted like a demon

I'll start from the finish to explain why this is something not worth reading, because originally it actually had an idea too.

We're talking about two lives of Jiang Si. She was born in times of Republic of China and she tragically died in fire in 1938. Next thing she knows she is a cannon fodder in a book, but actually everything happens in the same world she lived in, just decades later. She is in the body of a woman with the same name, biological daughter of the Jiang family whow as lost long time ago and only found her way back, but her family unreasonably loved the adopted daughter and doted on her. Jiang Si is a wife to Lu Rin, head of the Lu family, known as unfeeling person. But actually Lu Rin should be known to Jiang Si, because it is her husband from previous life. Due to her tragic end Lu Rin (Lu Wang in original life) made a deal to exchange his life for her rebirth, he would forget her, change his name and might not meet her, the curse will be lifted when she recognizes his soul.

Everything sounds good, but truth is these things don't start and there is no fore-shadowing, no remembering of the last life by Jiang Si to have a glimpse, it all starts way later in-between the abundance of badly written "sand sculpture" humor that smells like brain dead attempt to being funny. The settings and beginning are not appealing, the female lead is repulsive actually and many things are shallow and glazed over. The fact that I managed to read through it doesn't mean it's interesting. That tiny idea and sunshine of relationship is the only good thing about it, but honestly female lead just spoils it all.

The problem of main character - Jiang Si. I agree with comments left under this novel, Jiang Si acts arrogant and unlikable, how is she better than original girl. Because it's true, although she decided to act like a demon with all Lu brothers, but she always acts way too picky and arrogant and it's not funny or appealing. The most bizarre thing is when she wakes up and starts ordering people around they kind of get under her charm, though there is just the image of a noble lady, nothing else. At least the positive thing is that all servants are happy for the family. In general throughout the whole novel you only hear how squemish JS is. In her last life she was a daughter of chaebols, she was born with a golden spoon, but with troubled times she was targeted and made herself face her fears to become stronger. But she goes around with - my feet are wet, all your fault, put your jacket so I can walk on it. these fruits are sour I won't eat them. you should be happy for bringing my purse. And many, many more. Not funny thing is when she acts like that strangely characters get "enlightened" by her and start to analyze their previous actions and slowly get to change themselves. Anyway it's really something. Everyone gets the brain worms after her phrase or two. Only later when she realized who Lu Rin is she turned her strategies and stopped playing bad, yet her arrogance stayed anyway. As for her career "success" it is also used as a gimmick, since she invested load of money when she only started her strategy and wanted to lose money to get Lu Rin's reaction, yet in the end thanks to the work of brain supplements of her subordinates and those who were cast for movies and show those were all successful, so she was the winner in the end, while she did start with impure motivation. Inadvertantly she changed her image in people's eyes so everyone was like Ms. J yyds when her vest fell off and everyone found out that she and popular Ms. J the metaphysical investor are same person. There's also this part about metaphysics, though it's mostly about luck she got from people, she does turn bad into good, with ppl it works too maybe, otherwise why so many people turn to her after a word or two.

So going from the back to front where the story of Jiang Si and Lu Rin are mostly uncovered in the later part, her career in the middle, we get to the beginning how it started.

Jiang Si thought it was a book, but what she got was a fate where she doesn't appear, adopted daughter who has a system and attacked countles males got her wish to reach pinnacle of life, be prosperous in entertainment world and be winner in life and marriage. Jiang Si actually got similar system, she attacks and gets luck points from those targets and it can be either of emotion, Jiang Si aimed to be hated, since she despised to please anyone of them, yet she managed to turn ppl around and follow her. In the end she got all the luck and adopted daughter was left with nothing, only backlash, all her deeds exposed, the veil of love uncovered etc. etc.

But the style how all of this is written I find horrendous, the humor is not funny, sometimes over the top and feels ridiculous. The whole conversion of characyers and becoming her ally within a phrase or two and it worked for everyone. I understand "sand sculptures", but really it's not worth it in teh end, I didn't like this type of writing, mix and mash of many irrelevant things, shallowness. I feel bad for my time spent on it.

RATE: 1/5

[Games] T O W N S C A P E R

Just build a city

TOWNSCAPER is an awesome city building game. With no real objective, just infinite sea, differently shaped grid and a smart AI that automatically transforms built blocks according to its' own logic and elements. Yet it's so addicting, calming and tbh really cute (pigeons~)

Adorable town has a more classic look with stone buildings and tile rooftops. The color scheme has a full rainbow + beige and whites, which allows you to combine, mix and match. Just before you know it, you already built a small fantasy town.

The game has in-built grid, which can be made visible, it allows you to see that the shapes are usually not uniformely square, that's why it becomes even more fun to build all types of houses.

Experiencing different types of building "technique" it becomes more or less clear how do the elements work and what combination will bring you what result (like how to build an arc, lighthouse, enclosed garden etc.).

It's lovely that despite not having any objective, the game still has few interesting functions, such as lighting. You can position the sun in menu and even if you make the sun go down, it will actually become night time and the lights in windows will light up and it'll become a lively night scene. Tbh I find this part absolutely adorable.

The only function I haven't tried yet is actually a castle in the sky, I had no idea that you can actually do that before I saw a screenshot from the game. Honestly, I was like - hmm, why I haven't thought of it before? 

Since it's a city built on the sea, the only thing that it might have lacked was greenery, yet the game generates cutest folliages her and there, small tree or bushes and if you build an inclosed house with empty area in the middle, it'll automatically convert it into a garden.

 

No, honestly, why it is so cute. As a person who seeks relaxation in their gaming experience, I'm definitely voting for games like these - simple with a heart :)

[Chinese BG novel] 没出息的豪门女配[重生] / Promising wealthy female supporting role

"Promising wealthy female supporting role" is a story about reborn Du Youwei. In her last life she was instigated to be against a woman and this woman happened to be dating a man with whom she had a baby kiss. She didn't really care about that kiss, but bore unbearable consequences for her small actions. Her family went bankrupt, all people left them, she wasn't ready for life at all, she felt unbearable and jumped. She went back in time before things took a serious turn. Now she looks back at some events with not such a simple-minded view and realizes how deeply she was instigated and how she basically took the blame for someone who was left behind the scenes and that is her supposed good friend.

She came back to change things.

At the same time her mother went to a master because her daughter wasn't having a good time and the person told her to wait under the tiger and the tiger will come. She spent two days in a park under a stone figure, got a cold, but also met a really handsome man. One thing is when she politely said hello, he turned around and walked away.

Zhang Shaoyan was at the helm of the Zhang family, others thought he ruled the world, but only he and his personal assistant knew one secret, ZSY suffered from occasional headaches and those weren't connected to brain problems, but were his psychological shadows and only one song he found accidentally was left on his phone as his salvation. Little did he know when he went to a charity auction and when Du Youwei was presenting her lot on stage he finally found the person he was looking for.

That's basically the summary of the beginning of this story. I'm glad I persisted, because I was a bit taken aback by the actions of DYW's mother and how she felt unfeeling and weird. Sand sculptures were a bit aggressive. Later the story actually had a really fun and easy-going side to it. What I liked about the humor that it wasn't built on word-play that is hard to get after translating, but basic humor that can be understood. I also found it refreshing that both people were attracted and began to be together early on, like around 20th chapter already with full length of this novel being 83 chapters (+extras). From inexplicably meeting to later development it wasn't boring too. What is a usual way of things is how either we see a slow development between the pair and it takes time to come together or if people come together it's all boring sweet stuff. What saved the day for me is how DYW and ZSY treat each other with humor, they're joking with each other, it's funny to see how DYW is fanning her partner, it doesn't bring the bad feeling of just being like a licking dog. It's light and humorous relationship. DYW is like a lively bird, the story is not burdened by her depression, since there's no depression, she's a lively little bird that wants to enjoy new life, she only changed a little bit of things that would put her at risk in previous life (like not being framed like in previous life), but in general she doesn't change herself, there's no burdening herself with working to the bone and handling business and such, she just escaped the calamity and that helped her and now ZSY who came into contact with her became her partial golden finger too. She still did many good deeds after the master's advice. It's a really light story and it doesn't really have a goal, since the change and love come really quickly, but there are enough funny moments and changes that entertain you. I only found that at the ending the whole travel to Japan could be cut out, but all in all it was really good :)

RATE: 4/5