[Chinese BG novel] 穿成女儿奴大佬的前妻 / Transmigrated as the Ex-Wife of the Villain Who Dotes on His Daughter

So. What this story is about?

In short the heroine - Jiang Rou - is a fresh person at the police station. The first case she came across as intern was a revenge murder case in which ML - Li Xiao - avenged his daughter that was bullied and killed at the age of ten. Unexpectedly, Jiang Rou travels back in time to the late 90's and sees herself living in a delapitated house with her stomach bulging. And seeing the man who should be her husband she realized that she's now that "Jiang Rou", who eloped with a rich man, leaving Li Xiao and her daughter. Before he appeared she already accepted that now it's her new life and she should take responsibility to live the best as she can. This started their road to getting to know each other, having feelings for each other and correct the past.

The novel overall was okay, it tried some elements of slice of life, was filled with a lot of different family situations, basically no theatrical drama, just things that are different depending on which family and the relationships. I don't assume I'm right that this was the author's idea, but I interpret the characters as collective image of what they represent, social circles they belong to and upbringing that developed those characters/personality traits. To get my point across as I interpret it I'll mention a lot of names and their relations.

• MC, Jiang Rou. She's mostly the representative of kindness and correct three views. She grew up in a good family with good relationship. Thus she could influence Li Xiao to correct and let grow from his past to his future self. She's a modern person with modern thinking that doesn't accept any feudal ideas that are harmful within society.
• ML, Li Xiao. He had the biggest transformation out of all characters. Since Jiang Rou is teh correct version of conduct and thinking she is here to influence Li Xiao to change and become better, love himself and be happy. He's the victim of bad upbringing as a result of neglect and lack of attention when he grew up and also with no person around to show him something more than scorn and disgust. Although after finishing the novel I realized that author should not be too old and they handled their most important character not in the best way in the end, because at the end when Li Xiao changed and could care less about previous disagreements they wrote it off as "getting older". Hun, I lived enough to tell you, it's not about getting old it's about changing your views. When we're young we are convinced that we will never change our opinion on things, but it's stupid to think like that. Some may not changed, but generally your life experience will make you see things from above, another perspective and their earlier significance will lose its' power, thus it will become something you will be able to overcome or change.
• RELATIONSHIPS. A big deal of the novel are interpersonal relationships, from blood relations, to those that are better than blood-related. More than anything we see different types of mothers, their situations and personal way of thinking, good or bad.
• Women as marginalized group. As a result of patriarchy. This theme is often mentioned in many of romance novels and not only, which I think is often brought up for criticism of backward thinking and how harmful it is to the victims.

So, let's start from Li Xiao first. Jiang Rou is skipped, since she's already good in many aspects, she's more mentioned as the one who influences others, the one she influenced the most is Li Xiao. After reading I found that his father's situation should have been skipped and left as it was, that he gambled and was not the best to his wife, his wife, Lin Meiru, has more space in the novel and more influence on Li Xiao's upbringing. Lin Meiru is a basic woman who can't live without a man, but her choice in men is the worst, more importantly, she can't see the problem, unlike Li Xiao's father, but she also hates him for bringing so much hurt during birth. Which is completely selfish and stupid way of thinking, putting the blame on others, while Li Xiao definitely could not influence it in any way. Her hate for her son continued, thus she often belittled him and put all the blame on him, despite the fact that young Li Xiao saved her from another abusive husband she chose for herself. After she remarried again, she was easily lured away by rhethoric of filial piety and absolutely lame way of handling her and directing her way of thinking. So she could care less to protect her own son when her stepson framed him and made him drop out of school. Li Xiao lived in secret envy of others who had parents, but after living with Jiang Rou and their daughter he realized that not all things were perfect for everyone, but now he actually has a perfect family and there is no need to envy others. Since childhood he had to use his fists to protect himself and his mother never really protected him, instead making him the one in the wrong everywhere. He grew up with young conviction that many things could be done with two fists, before Jiang Rou criticized him for being impulsive and not considering the safety of himself, and what would they two of them do without him (the first such situation was when he and his close brother/friend went to the city to sell food but were smashed by competitors, of course he went to beat ppl up, for which Jiang Rou criticized him later). As a result Li Xiao began to change from his previous impulsiveness of rushing and beating ppl at the first call to be more tolerant and waiting, if he can serve the revenge later, he'd do it. He was also quite balanced in these things. Even if there were situations that were quite ugly, not always he acted out of his way, he could see that things might be done without him and sometimes he would not join the crowd that humiliate the fallen person, but even help them a little instead (best example is Chang Yong, he was the boss under which Li Xiao worked to earn his first money in the south, he was also CY's benefactor where he saved the other person, but when it came to business CY was the one who smiled and played stupid on the surface, but did a bit of backstabbing. His downfall came from his wife, since CY, who was dependent on his brother-in-law in business and was blinded by riches openly started relationship with a mistress and even had a son outside. As a result his wife, who knew inside information of their company leaked it to competitors. CY's brother-in-law was bankrupt and CY's mistress ran away with money and her son, later again finding another rich boss she complimented for his talent. CY was left in a dump with nothing. Li Xiao in this case still chose to be better, rent him a small apartment and give some money, getting him food from time to time). What made me a bit questionable was Jiang Rou though, I don't mind that she knew the backstory of these relationships, but she also warned Li Xiao, once was enough, but she did it several times and I was like - girl, I know lack of trust but come on, you've known each other and he never gave you a reason for doubting him what is wrong with you. In short what Li Xiao did was he matured, but under the correcting of Jiang Rou here and there, he still has his cleverness and shrewdness, but he's more conscious of things. He's still clever and shrewd, but changed for better. In his life there are things that cannot be forgiven and things that may have a pass. For example, till the very end he dismissed the relationship with his mother, since his mother is a selfish type of person, she came only when she needed something, especially when she suddenly remembered that she could use Li Xiao as her backing, but he knew her better, she can't be allowed into his life, since she has zero sincerity and in the end she will only mooch off of him to again be and feel needed and superior in her current marriage that turned out horrible. There is also another type of relationship with his brothers, they are friends he grew up with, their way of thinking changed for some time and tehre were conflicts, since only one person came to him from beginning to end, while two others wanted to join later when they heard how stable and profitable the business became. It distanced the four people, but in the end due to the change of one of his friends and the death of another, these things were let go (more emotionally, no one expects them to open arms and welcome to mooch off). Thus Li Xiao's character development was the greatest. Some people also changed, like way of thinking, some played a role for the better, some not.

Women and patriarchy. Or bitch human rights where. As I said earlier this theme almost always appears in such novels and with a word of criticism. But sometimes I wish these parts would be handled more delicately and profoundly.

The original Jiang Rou was a victim to such family where sons are preferred to daughters and daughters are brainwashed to bring up the son, almost always sons are younger in these situations. Sometimes it's open patriarchial thinking, sometimes people don't show it, but move things behind the backs of others. Jiang Rou's family has 4 sisters. The eldest was brought up mainly brainwashed to think that wrking for her family is the right thing, in the end she worked herself looking older than her own mother. Jiang Rou saw that her brother-in-law was of different opinion, but he didn't want to push the balance, yet the way Jiang Rou tried to express to her older sister made him realize how mistaken they were. Their family had a better ending, since the moved to work in the city, which allowed their children get better education and opened up their views. The second daughter of Jiang family was almost sold to a wealthy local man, but the thing is he always looked for women outside, which did not result in a happy family, yet the Jiang mother and father as biased as they were always said to bear it all, since they found her such a wealthy man. In the end the second sister escaped, later Li Xiao says that he saw her and knew her story in which second sister found a baby in a dumpster and spent most money she took away to operate on the child, now she lived a small life with this daughter. Jiang Rou is the third, she was taught more and was sent to study to make a combo of beautiful and smart, but original JR wanted to find a way out on her own terms, yet she miscalculated, instead of sleeping with a wealthy local person she had a relationship with Li Xiao and got pregnant, as cheeky she was living with him. In original timeline she would leave with a wealthy man, but don't remember if her end was good. She had some of her horizons open that this hole won't have any prospects, yet she was selfish and narrow-minded due to her family situation. The fourth sister that was born along with the brother was given away, she grew up with adopted parents and was about to be sent as a bride at 14, Jiang Rou was the one who saved her and let her take Li Xiao's last name and become Li Xin, this sister lived with JR and LX as a family of four. You can imagine that in such a spoiling atmosphere the youngest Jiang son was nothing more than a raised and pampered pig, with no redeeming views and values, thinking that everyone owes him. This situation described as such is often mentioned in novels and ends up mostly the same, but I think it shows it quite correct ending. There were other women who were victims to patriarchy with obvious preference to boys. But as often mentioned (not here though) that it's as if the family has a throne to inherit. It actually doesn't really matter who inherits. And actually I think it's weird, since here where I live boys are supposed to start their own family and often men find it very manly prideful thing to do on their own. Yes, family often helps, but not to the point of draining/milking others. I think people in cities are far ahead in their conduct. Anyway, here and there in the story you can meet women who are either made to bend under this system of being filial to your mother-in-law or they really believe in this notion themselves. There are several example. One of those are two women in the hospital after Jiang Rou gave birth. Everyone said that a daughter is a loser, again human rights okay, upbringing, it's the old thinking, the kid just been born, how do you know who they become and if it's a loss. Another woman gave birth to a son and even felt complacent, but compared to her, Li Xiao treats Jiang Rou and his daughter as treasures, yet she was lying withered and lost a lot of blood and left early, which could lead to complications. The other woman on the contrary gave birth to a girl, but she wasn't visited, only by her husband who came late and never put himself in the shoes of a woman for whom such a thing as birth is really harmful. But she was inspired by Jiang Rou, who told her that girls are nto worse, it depends on how you bring them up. The biggest support of this idea and advocate was actually their neighbor, Aunt Wang. When Jiang Rou only arrived she slowly got closer to Aunt Wang and realized that even sometimes she's a bit gossipy, like any woman, she is very generous and progressive unlike others. She and her husband only have one daughter who went to college. The only downside to this positive story is not that her daughter turned bad, nope, but that she was talked into a marriage with a man who was thinking a bit highly of himself and their daughter who was brought up well, but because of it was more innocent in her thinking and observations would listen to her husband, which of course saddened Aunt Wang, both she and her husband put a lot of effort into buying their daughter a house, yet both her and husband's names were written on the certificate, when they came to visit, they lived not in the new house. On the other hand, because of close relationship between her and Jiang Rou, Jiang Rou often called Aunt Wang when they moved to south, they often sent them thoughtful presents and never came empty-handed when they came back. Also Li Xiao was their family's benefactor who helped to find Uncle Wang when that had an accident, so in the end Aunt Wang wasn't that sad but decided to treat and always treated Jiang Rou like her daughter and Li Xiao as her son. Both families really had closer connections, which I think sometimes is inevitable, but also good. It's good to have someone answer your sincerity like that. 

That's what actually was quite alive about the story, that things changed and merged, relationships changed according to the life situations. Most prominent you could say it was represented in relationship between Li Xiao and his friends. His most valued friend through thick and thin happened to be Zhou Jian. He is a kid from a single-parent family, he has a widowed mother and lived poorly. When Li Xiao and others married he was left the only bachelor and was envious a bit, but was able to find a second marriage girl, she was two years older than him and had a little son. She was more or less supported by her family, mostly by her brother with whom she had best relationship. They came together and lived well. Zhou Jian really followed Li Xiao in worst times. They started from food business, inspired by first pot of gold that was earned by Jiang Rou, they later decided to leave to south to earn real money, their snack factory was built from scratch before they moved their families to the south as well. But he's also a good person. There was a moment of crisis in the married life of Zhou Jian, but it was averted to the help of Li Xiao who showed him why beautiful women may approach them and what happens to complacent men who believe them. Two families have best relationship between adults and kids. The other friend that appeared less was Jin Dayou, he was a med student, but more he went into research later. He was almost self-taught and a smart kid, yet he had a pretty tragic background. His older brother was abducted at the age of 7, from that moment their life was ruined, the only one who excluded himself from the situation was their father, he dropped the search and married outside. His mother on the other hand was searching for her son and went missing, she was found not in the right state of mind (though here I had a question, how she survived all these years, is she immortal). Luckily she was found and the missing brother was found by accident too, though all this sounded novel-y. Now less positive friend examples. Zhu Qiang. He was a bit complacent about his family situation because he was most well off from the bunch, but due to his relationship he started to change. The girl he found was from poor family, but asked for a huge bride price, yet she always acted as an ancestor, felt that she was higher than the others. It's because of her practices that his way of thinking also changed and also managed to offend Li Xiao. It was during the wedding when Li Xiao and Zhou Jian were helping, but were left outside and were prohibited to follow through the wedding, this chilled their hearts and they couldn't understand this friend anymore. He never thought of following Li Xiao through thin, but had ideas to join when the factory started to make progress and money. He was given a chance to work, but more physical, yet he gave up and went home. Li Xiao gave him money and asked to do small business. With time his thinking changed, especially when many problems started to arise. As it happened the bride price was given to her younger brother, which was given to other person and this sum of money was swindled. Another thing is that this wife escaped with a rich man leaving everyone behind. Zhu Qiang remarried once again, this time it was another second marriage woman and they lived a simple life. Another friend was Wang Tao. I wish his situation was described earlier than later, because it felt like nothing. His presence was the least and he appeared few time, he gave a feeling of a shameless person, but he just wanted to jump the coattails of others and also earn, alsways treated badly by his wife and deemed useless. Unfortunately, because of their insistence he went to coal mines but died in an accident. This happened in later parts of the novel and only then we find out that actually he was a simple-minded person, not as strong, because of partiality of his mother the one sent away to live better life was her youngest and she also supplied her youngest robbing their already poor family, the wife was alwys full of complaints and was selfish, but she did nothing herself, in the end she took the compensation and left, leaving without paying for the funeral and leaving her son. Through their stories it's apparent how your personal conduct and finding a better partner, not just someone recommended by your mother or someone who pretends to be a different person from their true temperament is part of a family success, only such a family that doesn't allow herself to be blinded can go higher and higher. Despite the tragic past Li Xiao and Jiang Rou became most loving family, doing the right thing when it's right and not beating someone when they're down, being able to forgive if it's possible. Li Xiao's edge was as sharp, but not as indiscriminate. That's the main part of comparison between the fates of these friends and their families.

It's all good in general, no overly dramatic situation, pretty good development, lovely relationship that did not come out of nothing. Pretty fine description of their kid, although sometimes she came across as too smart for her age, but actually she acted like a kid almost always, which was a good change. Sometimes I think that authors describe more an idea of a child than a behavior of a real child. Anyway, I'd say it's good, but in all the entire honey pot there were few spoons of bitterness.

THINGS I COULD DO WITHOUT:

1. First and foremost I really couldn't understand the choice of profession that Jiang Rou made when she studied for college entrance exam. It was described as if she was influenced by words that were said by Jin Dayou, the med student. He is self-taught in Chinese medicine and he said that many laugh at it and diminish its' significance, yet she as a person who came from future knows that thanks to the Chinese medicine they created the vaccine with the virus outbreak (almost calling covid directly). She's right that their cultural heritage should not be written off as a joke. And it's actually in their hands to preserve. I've seen a video on accupuncture where dog paralisi was treated and they started walking again, okay? I do believe if it's a practice that can be put to work then why not, it's not less serious than the other. But even in the novel their professor says that this field depends on talent and by that he meant feeling the pulse. I have no idea about the rest because it's mainly NOT DESCRIBED AT ALL! This is my problem with this author here. Okay, you said it's not bad, I agree. But you haven't shown its' significance anywhere at all! Even when her daughter had fever and she took her pulse I was like - girl, you haven't studied enough, are you ready to brew concoction? I'm sure you'll take her to the hospital. So my thing is - let's not diminish each other, each have their own perks, but if you don't utilize the theme I'll consider it as personal angry opinion. I agree with your anger, because if we look at discrimination that came because of covid omg it was heavy. So I fully understand the frustration, but if you're just throwing it out there with nothing else, then excuse me saying it's just an angry outburst, nothing else. So Jiang Rou was almost always described as "studying". The only time she came in handy was during the epidemic of '08. Again she did the morally right thing being a volunteer, but aside from that she was only mentioned to be a big person in the field of Chinese medicine in the extras where future was mentioned, nothing else.
2. EXTRAS. I think they were.. extra XD SOrry for the pun. But I could do without. Unlike just short extras of Li Xin and older AnAn (daughter). The alternative short version of what if really came across as something I could do without.
3. Descriptive choices. In the first part of the novel there was a lot of cooking. I was surprised Jing Rou never stayed in cooking, but anyway when she cooked the novel turned into a recipe reciting. I don't understand the need to do it like this. One thing is to mentioned food as means to express something, like giving a bowl of hot noodles in winter, but in general I don't appreciate these unnecessary food descriptions. I'm aware of cult of food in China, but just describing it.. is it fun? I don't get it.

All in all these are the main points that I would like to mention. It was okay, wasn't perfect. I liked the beginning more, the second part was sinking more, piling up different situations here and there. Adding character here and there. Many of the characters I haven't mentioned even, because there were so many, some stayed longer, some background ones and some are passing. As someone said it well, this story had quite true things written, but mixed with something a bit out of proportion and unreal, thus creating a weirder mix. So I give it - RATE: 3,5/5.