[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.