The novel tells a story of Jiang Jingyu, she was on her way to blind date, but as righteous as she is she saved kids and traveled to 60's as a result of her accident. Here she finds herself a part of a complicated family, but also a hard life in the village with everyone not having enough to put on table. This is also a novel with a reborn person and she has to be a cannon fodder, the heroine should be her cousine who wanted to ruin her reputation and get her man who supposed to become richest in the province, but JJY did not allow things to develop in this way, she managed to escape her ruin, but also dumped these two together, which deviated the whole storyline. Yet what was helpful to her is that she was bound to a farming game, similar to her mobile version, but it was a live version here. It helped her to go on and do some small things here and there to provide for family. Although her family wasn't that bad, but everyone had to tie their belts. She also used her talent for drawing to publish in newspaper and cover up many of her purchases as well as taking things out from the game. And she also found out with upgrade that she has a neighbor. As it hapened, the ex-fiance who her cousine wanted to dump was a traveler from future like her, and not only - it was her blind date man. He traveled to become a soldier, he asked for job change and got back to their village, since he remembered that his future grandma could not survive flood that will hit this village and he wanted to do something for it. He also found a new neighbor, as it happened it's the girl he knew from the village and who helped him cook, but it's also his blind date. This hit off their relationship.
Maybe it sounds great, but in reality it was underwhelming. I had to skip many places, simply because they brough nothing. It was constant switch to cooking and description of food, though it wasn't a gourmet novel. It also included so many family relations, which also did not bring anything exciting, it's just many family members with their own situation.. And actually these family members might be close to people who have big families, but also why write about them all. And I don't mention that some of them were brought up and lost in text and were not mentioned much, like what was the point. So far I haven't seen a novel with family so big, they could occupy several seasons of Santa Barbara
In the end this one was incredibly... boring actually? The initial conflict with the reborn cousine isn't anything exciting. JJY with her direction in life had changes of mind several time, more like the novel was leading you to one thing and then the other, especially considering her career.
Family tree and why I think it's too much. I don't put on names, since they're MTL version and I honestly forgot most of them.
Jiang Yuantong (grandpa of the family). His wives:
- 1st wife died of illness.
- 2nd wife escaped with another man, but was said to have died from illness. She left her son behind (2nd son), to live a good and rich life, appears in the novel for a short while, has enmity with grandpa just because he refused to leave the country.
- 3rd and current wife is from humble background, JYT basically saved her from starvation, but they live a fullfilling and good life.
JYT's children:
- 1st son. has shallow relationship with his father, they also separated early. Became a teacher in the village. Married a wife who actually subsidizes her natal family a lot, basic giving everything to parents then to brothers and nephews. She is also one who came to insist on relationships and seek benefits, though never got what she wanted. They have a son who later entered factory and became a regular on his own, married a city girl who was attracted to him, he was one of few who knew his worth and led a stable life. If I'm not wrong they should have two daughters, but mostly the eldest was mentioned, like she was married, her husband had accident when she was 30+, they had two children, she remarried a factory worker who came from neighboring village.
- 1st daughter. Was a military doctor. She and her husband had two kids, when husband remarried it was the same as having a stepdad. brother was older and had his own place, daughter traveled early to JYT and lived with her grandpa. Later was together with anouther educated youth. Forgot if she succeded going to the city since he passed the exam first, but she did not.
- 2nd son. Also has shallow relationship with JYT, basically because of his mother, before he knew the truth that his mother escaped and later did not recognize him. He was all about his own family and was a simple farmer. Married wife who also liked to seek benefirs from relationships, but also with shallow eyelids. They have three children, two unpromising younger sons and Jiang Qiao, the supposed heroine of this novel.
- 2nd daughter. University teacher. She and her husband have two children, one older and one they had much later. They were sent to reform in original novel, but this time JJY reminded grandpa to make them go on their own volition. This is how they preserved. Both sons lived with grandfather JYT before returning to their original city. Eldest came together with a girl from medical family who were friends of their family. She was also the one who gave many benefits when she could, but in hard time 1st and 2nd son never even asked about her, it was the 3rd's family who helped.
- 3rd son. Father of JJY. He is a carpenter, learned from his father, married to Ye Hongxiu with whom they have eldest son, daughter and younger son. Eldest son worked with his sister in the factory their village opened and which JJY and ML helped to build and open. After JJY retired and decided to do business he became the director. Youngest went to study in the capital and later was assigned to foreign affairs. Eldest married a girl and had two daughters, but wasn't sad about it, while youngest also found a wife (a researcher), but was assigned to go abroad when they had first child.
Ye Hongxiu also has her natal family, but she didn't help much, especially when it endangered position of her daughter or her son-in-law might be implicated. She only has a younger brother, whose wife also mentioned relationships and such. In the later part the didn't act as demons, but they also had their own fill with te eldest son who made a girl from a notorious family pregnant and was forced to marry. This daughter-in-law was brought up in a patriarchial family where daughters were treated like shit, and there were many. Almost all were sold off for dowry. But they were brainwashed to help the youngest brother who grew up spoiled and lazy, basic story.
Gu Xiangheng (ML), his family was simpler. His mother and father died, before his father passed away he asked his youngest son to marry the girl from Chen family, the ones who took care of their siblings in hardest times. After his return he became a captain and started to drive the village economy. They started from expanding the number of raised pigs, chicken and ducks, sold most of the egs and meat. Crops also grew in number. They expanded it and built a factory that at first produced canned food and later they were first to create ham/ham sausage. He was promoted to the city, while JJY stayed as a new captain and also factory manager, because it's basically them who proposed and implimented the factory idea, which in the end grew, created thousands of jobs, village was almost better than the city, business expanded even abroad. They also built several branch factories. Many of the villagers who could be smart in this held quite high positions. GXH also has two siblings, namely:
Gu XiangXi, youngest daughter, she grew up along with her brother in Chen family, and always remembered the kindness. She refused to marry at first, but later met her future husaband in the city. Had few conflicts with mother-in-law but in the end her husband was on her side, which was reassuring.
The second brother Gu XiangXing was married to Chen girl on the basis that kids will have Chen last name, he agreed, but when he became a worker and was embarrassed of this situation, so he was obsessed with having the kid with his last name, in the end Chen Ying agreed, but it was a girl and she tried to keep this marriage, but later both were divorced, since the second brother was all about having son and got together with a widow. GXH broke his arm and broke off relationship. Everyone stood by Chen Ying. GXH also helped to build a house for the son of Chen Ying. The widow tried to let children of GXH become closer to the newly baked young brother, but her plans fell through.
GXH and JJY children:
Gu Sheng and Gu Xi are twins and their biological children, but don't really look like each other. Gu Sheng followed his father in appearance and Gu Xi followed JJY. Both grew up in good environment and with load of family members. Always excellent in their studies and are affectionate with their parents. Gu Xi followed her mother a lot and loved work in the end and did not marry as a result, but had two children from two different men. It was already times in the future, so it wouldn't be a big deal. Gu Sheng in the end was with the girl they both saved from a gangster. At first he was indifferent even if the girl followed him to university and even to impoverished village where GXH sent him to get experience (after all Gu Sheng decided to follow father's political career), but later it was basic story, when she gave up he chased her back. Honestly, I loved that Gu Xi was the only one who was not bothered by marriage, but wanted kids, her second child, daughter, was born much later and was a big surprise. This daughter also has a passage, since she describes herself as second generation salted fish (though she should be third if we count), but she was a big fangirl of her grandma (JJY).
GXH also adopted son and daughter of his comrade-in-arms who died. Their mother wasn't around too long ago. Both children were abused despite their father's origin, so he took both children who grew up with love and care. Eldest son went to military academy when he grew up, while the sister went to foreign languages and basically was in the business later.
Jiang Qiao, unlike the first part where she tried to trip JJY she rarely appeared on screen, both regretted their initial choice not once. At first JQ thought that her current husband will develop later and she wanted to wait and be a wealthy lady, for this she endured a lot. First that she gave birth to a daughter at first and was shunned by their family. Later her husband got the job in factory, but became regular through unknown means (due to his relationship with a woman he cheated with). At that time JQ realized that he cheated, but she endured for the future wealth. In the end he couldn't be promoted and stayed on his job, thinking those who go to do business are stupid. By that time more than a decade passed, JQ had three children (two daughters and a son), lived in a small home and endured bad attitude of her husband towards her and especially their children. She regretted her choice, since GXH developed well in his political career and she could live well by now, same goes for her husband, JJY was his initial fiance, but he wasted it on JQ thinking she was more talkative and had more common topics. In the end this is the only part that I could say I liked, JQ endured for future, but was cowardly to do things herself, she mostly wanted to rely on others, but in the end things weren't going how she expected and it was late to change. She married her eldest daughter to a man twice her age to get a regular's job, her youngest daughter escaped when she knew her mother wanted to do the same to her. Their son was a disappointment, he failed in studies, thought he would get a job and be okay, but married some vixen village girl who talked him into squandering family money he got for relationship and getting connected with people. At this point JQ went crazy, but met with indifference of her family and they sent her to a hospital. She failed in two lives.
There's a lot of characters in this one, sometimes it's hard because of MTL, since everyone becomes daughter- son- father- mother-in law, the interpersonal connections are abudndant, but I can't say I care. Since I don't. Many times I asked myself - who is this? Because people appeared and disappeared from screen, but the stories weren't deep enough to care. So I do not mention countless cousines and other relatives and mention of their wives, husbands and kids. And let's not forget all the side-kicks. It's tedious.
The thing is this all took away so much from MC and ML. Their relationship to me was on such a deep background that I barely noticed it sometimes. The only good thing is the reminder how they met in game at night, which was a nice thing as for romance, that no matter where they were they actually could meet in this game. But still it felt like a passing wind. I understand the whole story has strong emphasis on family and connections, but it's all marriage, school, kids, work and because there are so many characters it's hard to even care about any of those, since author themselves doesn't concentrate on any specific character or topic, they're all basic stuff written many times before filial piety, working, conflicts of generations, conflicts of mother-in-laws and daughter-in-laws, patricrchy, those who worked hard got what they deserved, those who didn't bother stayed stagnant on the bottom etc.
For such a small number of chapters you'd think it'll be easy, but honestly I was bored, chapters are really long and there's nothing to think about, it's just random.
What I also could not appreciate is that at first it felt like after they go out of this poverty situation and things get better they don't really need to follow the basic rebirth pattern of going to do business, play stock, get really rich etc. But they did, JJY after many years actually retired from food factory and started her own food business. She started from making sauces, commodity, but a popular one, they opened a market that was close in concept to future supermarkets, she dipped her fingers in real estate too. She's most promising in the family and JYT appreciates daughters actually, since they're so proactive. At first she used her drawing skills from future to publish, they also went to black market to buy and exchange, especially for things that were worthless at that time, like antiques and precious stones. They went with GXH btw. They also used some info from the past to earn something in stocks, but not their main thing. They basically have quite accomplished life when they brought up their village to prosperity, but honestly nothing I noticed why she decided to change. But whatever. She also knows martial arts, but she was described as someone who really knew stuff and was exceptionally strong, despite her small frame. It felt so random. And the story was random too tbh. Do I feel like I was entertained? NOPE. I mostly think that it wasn't worth to keep up till the end, but also skipping many parts helped a lot, otherwise I'd be stuck. There's no literal content to wonder around. So *shrugs*
h forgot to mention, they were vegetative in real life and when they ended their life in the novel they woke up and of course the happy ending.
RATE: 2/5.
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