[SHORT REVIEWS] #6

Some short reviews on several novels, some finished, some in progress. All notes aside let's go!

炮灰锦鲤靠正能量成为团宠 by 听风絮

(mtl: Lucky koi relies on her positive energy to become a group pet)

[BG] The start is okay, but the second half starts to become boring (and repetitive). Chi An had a nightmare in which she saw her ending, which is a tragic car accident taking her life. She lived a marginalized life in her new family and never realized that the root of her alienation from others is a step-sister who claims to love her the most. Chi An is a lucky person, more precisely is to say that she gives luck to people around her. Her step-sister used this luck to become a leading figure among young people, while she plotted against Chi An to slowly degenerate or make bad choices, she was responsible for everything bad that happened to Chi An. If not for the nightmare maybe Chi An would continue to live feeding her luck to the new family. After she moved out she decided to give her talent to the country and after that she embarked on the path of becoming a group pet. Her character is so cliche Holy Mother and all the bliche you could think of, which is actually annoying. Everyone marvels how through such emotional hardships she stayed so kind to others, so trustful, her eyes are always clear, she always wants to help, always feels bad if she thinks she didn't help enough, giving without thinking of getting things in return. Sometimes acts like a really simple person. Of course everyone likes this cute and sensible girl (how else?). But the storyline is actually not that exciting, yes it is full of positive energy and love for the country, but basically routines don't change - there's an emergency, she arrives, emergency solved. And it repeats over and over again. She also gets new neighbors who basically use her luck to improve things, but these are important figures in the country. In the end I find her type a bit unrealistic, but whatever. Also with such a deep emotional dive that explained her life in the family, yet there was no emphasis or cool face slap at least. Boring. Also due to re-marriage of her mother to this family, of course their relationship lacked everywhere, but DO YOU KNOW WHAT ANNOYS ME THE MOST? Is when protags say stuff like - but she didn't leave me as an oil bottle. Gave her money and food. HELLO! You praise her  for basic parent obligation? Is your head okay or if I open your skull I'll hear a wind blowing in the emptiness? RATE: 3/5. The main character is too much. Oh yeah! It's a romance but the romance comes like in the last third of the book and it's only like 60 chapters long, the process of ML falling in love is so fast too *faceslap*.

真千金是真大佬 by 宝典

(mtl: the true daughter is a real boss)

[BG] Metaphysics. Xu Zhao was the true daughter lost years ago, she comes back not to join the wealthy family to enjoy life, but she basically came, saw a red ghost behind the family and ended the very thin relationship between her and the family. Patted her butt and walked away. Why does she need them? She doesn't, she entered the top university with her own skills, she also started making money by educating ghosts and also solving a big conspiracy. The storytelling is pretty humorous a lot of it has to do with Xu Zhao's character, since she lived all her youth in a countryside and never saw a big city, so for her everything in the big city was different and also because her master always lacked money and they lived poorly she was happy to help cheaply. Thus she came across different situation, ghosts and monsters. Some people she saved, which she rushed to save, since to her all those rich people were kind fools with lots of money (in a good sense, no mocking). And she came across the ML who had purple aura of merits and wealth around him. The way they interacted and came together was cute and fun, at least it was quite natural. OH YEAH! The humorous part is also about Xu Zhao's strength, others have artifacts and such, but she beats everything with her fists, catches ghosts and educates demons with her fists. Along the way they solve cases that seem to involve a bigger conspiracy. So while she becomes the darling of the wealthy family, some figures in entertainment and mostly everyone calls her aunt the Xu family faces the promised bankruptcy. The Xu family is very messy btw. It was said to know that as a master of Xu Zhao he knew how to deviate and he came with Xu Zhao to meet her parents, only three years passed and he asked if they lost their child, but both parents smiled and said no right in front of their daughter, not even thinking it's weird to be asked that. Xu Zhao was mature since childhood too (the only thing I think is always harming is to keep children from reality, since because of her upbringing XZ sometimes felt silly). Anyway, the thin kinship. The Xu father actually had a woman outside who gave birth to a son, so at home the official wife only had the adopted daughter. Xu Jian actually knew about the lover and her children and was on good terms with them, when others in the circle found out they despised her actions. Initital RATE: 4/5. Like the feel of it, liked the style, although I finished only half of it and read the ending.

抽卡无涯，日赚十亿 by 江山沧澜

(mtl: There is no limit to drawing the card)

[BG] SHOCKED! This was mad tbh, I only started and I was surprised. Maybe there are similar plots, but it was a first for me, so... Jiang Xingzhou was involved in a big nightmare game among the crowd of people, the game started and it was simple, one by one they descend and have to turn tables or die. Basically all people tried different methods of escape, but they couldn't and all of them wer eaten by a demon who summoned them, only JXZ was left. She already saw things far worse, but her soul wasn't stained by temptations, she constructed her own way of defeating others - drawing cards. Nothing compare to the feeling of greed and she used it to saw discord and manipulate the situation, when it was over she was the winner. She got the system and was sent to a new world on the verge of collapse and her main task was to turn the tides. The world she came to was really weird, so many criminals, some unknown demons invading from time to time, the planet changed and martial arts families tried to monopolize power. Sounds so chaotic, but here's the story behind it. At some time the heaven split and monsters appeared, later called slaughterhouse, there was a countdown of 10 minutes during which monsters couldn't leave the enclosed space. And there were rules: either sacrifice or try to defeat the released monsters. At first people sacrificed, but thing got out of control, since people got convicted for nothing, just to make numbers, the crime organizations grew in numbers, territories were divided, world became more chaotic. Martial arts families came to light, but they wanted power and being on top of the world. This story and this world exposes a lot of human filth basically, not everyone of course. In this chaos JXZ appeared, she created the imae of the Master who some worshipped, her cards and energy were fed by the energy of negative feelings or belief. JXZ's character is in the grey area, because she neither helps nor ignores. Her actions are manipulative, because she wants results, yet some people got help because of it. Basically she started her own cult on this planet and the power she gives are in cards she creates with the power of imagination and the source of energy as I said are emotions of others she collects. Preatty neat tbh. So she realized pretty soon after seeing the initial sight of slaughterhouse that it's nothing more but the same game as she entered and is controlled by someone above her level. I haven't read much, but the initial direction is pretty obvious. RATE: 4/5. SO far insane.

豪门长嫂，在线驯弟 by 池下月影

(mtl: Eldest sister-in-law teaches her younger brothers online)

[BG] THIS IS SO OLD SCHOOL!! OMG ahahahaha! Shi AnAn wore a book in which she's a cannon fodder. Due to original owner's growing up she was easily manipulated and ended up badly. While AnAn who came was a movie queen in her previous life, she used her skills to walk through initial troubles. At first she could pack and walk away and wait for her husband to come back, but her husband's prodigical brothers could completely ruin everything. So she had to become the temporary head of the family and start dealing with holes dug by others. So she pushed the second brother outside to live a simple life to realize the face of his "true love". The third brother came back from abroad and she brought him tenths of beauties to educate him to be a person. The fourth brother was sent to a vice-captain of bodyguards to go through rehab and also educate him on how not to trust and investing blindly. The fifth brother who grew up unruly got into a whole staged skrip of family bankruptcy to return on a path of a human being. She did what their eldest failed to do, keep a track of educating them, not giving them convenience. Everything went well, basically AnAn also got involved in some business, because she planned to leave anyway. But she managed to attract her own husband and other two bosses who appreciated her. But her husband still chased her back. PS: he basically agreed to divorce since the one who married him wasn't her but another AnAn and he wanted to be grand with his AnAn and chase her upright. RATE: 3/5 it was okay, and even the old school feel was nostalgic, but not everything can be left out just because of nostalgia.

穿书渣妈带娃嫁总裁 by 早八

(mtl: Mother brings her child to marry a CEO)

[BG] At least this was short. It was really so-so to me, I kind of felt weird at some cliche parts. Anyway it starts from a one-night stand. Original owner would have died after few years, but newy arrived Cheng Han is different. Although what was done by her roommates was disgusting, but I could never understand why you don't go berserk at people who did this to you. Yes, original owner is a gold digger, but with her growing environment it was understandable and hey, rich people who marry for cooperation and more money are okay, but those who just want to have a good life are gold diggers hmm okay. Anyway, Cheng Han thought she'll give birth and raise her kid herself. But before last months of pregnancy ML finds out the truth. He doesn't want for his child to have the same childhood as his, even if this child was conceived in such a fashion. They began living together and you can say they started to warm up to each other. His mother though still had opinions, since her own marriage failed. But I couldn't understand where her morals went on vocation when she hinted for her son to get a good wife, while Cheng Han can f* off. The cliche trouble comes from original owner's mother, who was bought for money to bring disaster. Cheng Han left and went to teach others who wanted to pass the public examination. Because she left without saying a word some misunderstandings were created due to few words of interested people. ML faced the troubles himself and won, but later tried to find Cheng Han. Meeting each other (he acted like the big president okay) they talked and found out what put a drift in his feelings. Somehow they easily came together again. And while reading and getting bored I thought of a question: if you know that original mother came to bring trouble, why not prevent it, also why tolerating excessive behavior of ML's mother. Sometimes I get annoyed how these women act like indecisive rugs.

真千金其实是超级富豪 by 海船果心

(mtl: The true daughter is actually a super rich boss)

[BG] It was interesting to an extent. Although with some things the author went too far. Zhen Zhen landed as a cannon fodder of a Mary Su, Good thing she's smart and it's still seven years before the start of the novel (which I personally liked). Zhen Zhen went as far as skipping grades and entering university early, all for the sake of earning money. She used the novel's content to rob and plunder, but basically used some things that belonged to toxic ML of the story. There are a lot of loopholes to her age and how she invested. But whatever. The other thing was about her investing into different games, things, platforms etc. They didn't name the names, but you know that one was Google, there was also plants vs zombies game, also Angry Birds etc. The bad part is that all these things were not released in same years and many eras clashed in the writing. She used all these to become a major shareholder in many industries. She also helped many people on-board of her pirate ship, but basically many people prospered under her leadership. In these years she became insanely wealthy, while she started from a small countryside with her small family of three, her limping mother, who she helped to walk out of the shadow of failed marriage and her younger brother who she helped to get on a new path). The ML wasn't obvious from the very beginning but later I found the reason why it dragged so much. Zhen Zhen actually likes to make money, but she has little to do with emotions. While the ML was originally a male partner in the Mary Su novel, but they got acquainted early and he cooked for her a lot (a chef), later he joined her on her adventure of earning capital, continued to cook and keep in touch for so long. Others already knew his feelings, it was Zhen Zhen who was super slow, but she had her doubts and they come from this very Mary Su novel, in which the FL has the power to attract males, her power grew and she walked around those as her backyard. But truth is different, this power came from unknown species that looked like an over-sized egg with ridiculous ribbon to distract attention, but this thing came to plunder, since the IQ of all men being in contact with FL dropped below zero. Zhen Zhen was afraid that this man will fall the same. But despite the magical feeling it had some science to it (not really) and the egg was caught later, everything was fine and safe and Zhen Zhen agreed to be in a relationship. Anyway, it's a lot of here and there, she also helped inadvertantly some of male leads to not fall into confusion and in the end it was a road to success and wealth, so much wealth. The one thing I liked is that she traveled before the story begins, I always think that traveling at some weird points is not neccessary. And also to protect the family of her adoptive mother and brother she created the illusion (like a big play) for the Jia family(biological parents), so they never knew that they never saw the real mother. The fate of Jia family is kind of tragic also, but they're not described as kind people too.

穿成影帝早死白月光 by 项小沐

(mtl: Transmigrating into the movie king's White Moonlight who died early)

[BL] The story has a background of mpreg. Yu Li traveled to a novel where he dies when giving birth, his child finds his father and they lived for several years and his own girl created opportunities for her father to get together with the kindergarden teacher. Yu Li refused to be like that. What is this bullshit about White Moonlight. He indeed had a great night with the movie king Xie, drank pills but forgot one thing - wrong gender. He became pregnant and while on a blind date took off the fake pregnancy tummy and wanted to escape this social death situation. Xie was sharper, noticed physical changes and connected two and two together. He was a responsible father, still he waited for the one he fell in love at the first sight all this time, cunning Xie acted! They had a flash marriage, all relatives were shocked, but having a baby was a bliss. There are several slap face incidents. One is because Xie's collegue fried CP with him (tried to) and wanted to discredit Yu Li as a third party. Was debunked. Since Yu Li and his father lived in a remote county everyone felt that he's a poor person chasing money, debunked. Yu Li is actually descendant of a famous artistic family, also their business is huge, so they both are pretty good marriage partners in terms of wealth. What I didn't appreciate was how Yu Li acted towards his other father, indeed the situation wasn't the best, his father cowarded and chose the spouse his parent insisted on, in the end the two separated. Then he appeared, but I don't understand why would they add him as a character who died from cancer. And what's more, MC was always choosing the no meetings tactic. Which sounded a bit cruel. Maybe I think so because his father was indeed betrayed, but it was never described as a tragedy or depression. The rest of it is all kinds of sweet, because Yu Li sometimes feels unbearable, but Xie is actually a funny love brain))) RATE: 3/5. I completed this one, it's really short.

作精替身她家财万贯桃花不断 by 招财的猞猁

(mtl: Acting as a stand-in she has wealth and endless peach blossoms)

[BG] Here, I didn't like FL and the backstory. My least favorite (even if I exclude these tags, these stories still pop up in the search engine) is the story where there is a system and you HAVE to abide by the plot or plot points to a T. Qing Yun can be considered a retiree, but her retirement plot is still a plot where she has to act as a stand-in for a white moonlight, this heroine white moonlight isn't simple too and the hero of the story was basically led into a relationship in the original plot. Qing Yun has to act as a stand-in with Qi Lan, the hero. But honestly she wasn't anything like a stand-in and their relationship wasn't anything like taking care of someone contractually. And there are many points why I don't like FL's type and her actions and don't understand the high rating on this one (comments are closed, but rating is quite high). I think that whichever stand-in story that would be it still depends on nuances to figure out who is a scumbag or not. What I dislike is when MLs straightforwardly act disdainful towards their canaries and those canaries truly love their partners, but suddenly find out that their loved ones used them as stand-in. In this case I truly understand the script of chasing their wifes into crematorium. On the other hand Qi Lan is a very cleam person physically, emotionally he grew up dependant on this moonlight only because of his family situation, he lacked love and found it in the girl who showed him kindness, but he was too immature to realize that he was hung up like a fish. BUT Qi Lan wasn't without brains and he could make conclusion when witnessing the evidence that his white moonlight isn't saint, plus he was really like a male nanny to Qing Yun, he was cooking, making money and accomodating her in all possible ways, while she acted willful and basically trained him. Indeed they had a weird start, YET she was also at fault, because she was pretty aware of entire plot, she wasn't the original owner she's here to play and she played with man's feelings, where does it make her better than him? This makes their relationship totally different. That's why I find the whole chasing script ungrounded, because she's no better in my eyes. More than that, he realized his feelings during their relationship and was ready to be together, if it wasn't for the plot points. This was the dumbest thing. If the heroine and the hero won't be eventually together then the plot won't collapse, if they're not together earlier, what was the point of going through it and basically FORCING the hero to accept it, it felt so bad. More than that, before this plot point, most characters knew that this white moonlight was just a vain person who chased not love, but an heir, she didn't care who it is, she wanted the heir and Qi family has huge business. She was plated with gold, though she wasn't that outstanding, but her reputation was impeccable, while people around her knew that she was after two people. I really don't get it and I don't like seeing characters like Qi Lan going through hell, because After I read up to 40+ chapters and where Qi Lan started rea; aquisition of a company for Qing Yun, I skipped till the last chapters to basically figure it out what happened after the break-up (also read the break-up chapters, which left me infuriated as one can see). Qing Yun got a lot of money from Qi Lan, companies included, yes she led them to glory, but she basically stripped him off his wealth. What I also didn't like is when it was obviously huge sums of money and a lot of wealth she acted as if he's poor and nothing like an overbearing president, girl, just because you can write a script and exhaust him in bed, doesn't make you THAT worth it rationally. Anyway, she left with wealth, he stayed with broken heart, chased her back and was refused, looking at his ex acting like a heartless bitch tbh. Just the Chu family and Shi AnAn I mentioned in the previous novel, the boy was a playboy and he was trained, he chased and was given a chance, it wasn't a humiliation and trempling on person's pride as Qing Yun did. I also find that writing 80 chapters for this is also long with the basic plotline of QY and QL meeting, getting together, white moonlight getting restless when QL's eldest brother got into car accident and she switched her aims, QL got enlightened, white moonlight acted like a demon behind the scenes and played emotional cards - I'm doing this because I love you - type of shit. QL refused. He had to go through plot point, they broke up, QY left and continued in the entertainment (I suppose picking up puppy boys along the way), she refused QL again and again, while QL humbled after her. Honestly, in such script women don't look empowering, they look like plagues and emotionless bitches. He misunderstood a lot of her relationships, but she never clarified and really it was easy to misunderstand. He was also was held back by his mother, who was stupid enough to believe in white moonlight's nonsense, and what type of mother is she when she obviously sees one woman trying to go after two of her sons, this was so brain-dead that I couldn't handle it. She basically led this wolf into the house. Anyway they tossed till the very end of the novel. White Moonlight kept digging holes, she also acted a bit crazy tbh. The whole finale was dramatized because Qing Yun was kidnapped by former teacher, who used original owner's script to get fame and her own sister, they both considered Qing Yun as a monster who occupied original owner. But whoever it is, try to prove this shit, they acted so righteously, while being so mad. So it gave Qi Lan the chance to save her, because he was almost described as a stalker and he felt that something happened, so he was the first to react, went by himsef and saved her what became beginning to reconciliation. RATE: 2,5/5. I don't like many things about it, even if later part was skipped, but it was enough.

白月光替身摆烂后爆红了 by 船宝

(mtl: White Moonlight's stand-in becomes popular after being laid off)

[BG] Mixed feelings. Like it's not bad, but I wasn't as excited to finish it. But read half and the ending, was pretty enough to do so. I have mixed feeling, because sometimes it feels that people/caracters are dumb and can't say a word, just for the plot to progress. And other characters act like idiots, mindless, to progress the plot too. And I like a better and more natural way of bringing things up, instead of what happened in the novel. It's my personal opinion, but this is why I think so - Jiang Cha was in a coma after an accident. miraculously the one who hit her was the long lost daughter of their eldest uncle. While she was in a coma, the newly found daughter occupied a dearest place in the hearts of the eldest family (Jiang family has two sons, first room consists of husband, wife, two sons and long lost daughter and the second room is husband + wife, Jiang Cha and her eldest brother). Because this daughter was lost the first room really loved Jiang Cha, but more out of guilt, yet when they found their treasure things changed, they didn't even bother that Jiang Cha could have become a vegetable. Jiang Cha saw that it was a plot, she read it all and founf out that three men she relied on were actually thinking of this woman for some reason. When she woke up it was a party for the returned daughter. With the actions of the first room we find out that although they showed love, but the notoriety of Jiang Cha's reputation still spread somehow, while Jiang Cha was just straightforward and outspoken, she was honest at least. And the first room was pretty ambitious and showed their fangs right away. They tried to ruin the reputation and made schemes here and there, if Jiang Cha had no idea about the plot, she might have falled into the pit, but thanks to the prophet of the future she arrived earlier, fixed some plot points and did not end up as badly. But the thing about relationships is what got to me. She at first left her current fiance, first room spread rumors that she occupied this place and were ambitious to change people, sounded stupid since Mr. Xie was okay with his fiance and this returned daughter was a stranger basically. But to avoid everything Jiang Cha left. Here I don't understand why her mother arranged another boy right away, as if she's THAT stupid to not know how this thing will spread on the Internet and ruin her daughter's reputation if found out. At least Jiang Cha's reputation was already bad, but got damaged along the way. She played along, even she knew this boy whom she supported to start a flourishing career only accepted her cousine as an angel who saved him from misery, basically he was a victim of abuse and she was the savior but he never realized that she PUA's him for years. the third ML came for revenge, he wanted to get Jiang Cha away, but how could she leave her parents. And this stupid who was fed lies for years did not bother to investigate himself or what. He believed that silly white flower (Jiang Cha's father) who is harmless in the world could do such vicious things. It's as if he grew up in this family for nothing. Because he planned revenge Jiang Cha was on guard against him. The real ML is her actual ex-boyfriend who she dated in high school, who happens to be an illigitimate son of the Fu family (didn't bother to find out how, I skiped a lot), he was saught after the Fu family, but he acted as an idle rich man, using his brother as a shield and making him have a notorious reputation, as it is when things blew up he was @ on the Internet and many ppl came out to give information who this person truly is. Jiang Cha called him ex since he disappeared without notice and ended their relationship like that, he had an accident and woke up when Jiang Cha trie to get rid off the three men. All of them of course regretted what they did. Fiance was colder than the rest, basically he really regarded the newly arrived lost daughter as a stranger and wasn't fascinated by the actions of Jiang's first room. The second ML woke up from being pua'd and realized belatedly his feelings and who was actually nice to him. Third ML actually had the dream of the scenario and because he had feelings for Jiang Cha he refused to implement revenge on her. Jiang Cha and Gu Xiuran (Fu) tossed here and there before coming back again. The part about Jiang Cha I liked is that she figured out that it's not the real plot and there was an original plot and she tried to fix things, after all in the original plot Jiang Yufen wasn't a winner in life, but a vicious second female. She had some sort of halo or not, but the first room listened and believed in her tea art. Unlike Mr Jiang, the grandfather, he figured her out at once. Jiang Yufen wanted to be popular, but she wasn't that good and involved herself in PR and basically used Jiang resources and future to get better things. White there were disputes between first and second rooms going on. Tbh because I read up to chapter 50 and later read the ending, I was surprised to find that many things like the release of TV shows her company planned and some other things still haven't happened. The only thing that was for sure is that the first room thanks to Jiang Yufei who simply knew the plot get ruined slowly, because she used others as gunmen, her family fell apart, but of course she never bothered about it. Her main goal were always the best men between the three, later she figured out that only Xiuran, the secret villain boss was the strongest, but she had no idea and as a result knowing everyone was pointless, all relationships fell through in the end, her reputation ruined, even knowing the future was pointless. because of her, her agent was sent ti prison, even her mother, her brothers were blamed by their father for any minor detail, because he tasted sweetness of getting money for nothing in stocks and started to get addicted to it. Eldest brother was more shrewd and figured things out, while the second brother was slower, he still found how disastorous was the arrival of this sister and how cunning she is. So the novel was pretty okay, I still don't understand why the mother tried to match her daughter right after the desolution of an engagement, it felt cheap and rushed, also why Jiang Cha couldn't open her mouth and argue for herself, is she that filial or just the plot needed it. That's why despite the high rating I gave it only RATE: 3/5.

顶流的豪门后妈 by 禾也也也

(mtl: Top-notch wealthy stepmother)

[BG] DID NOT LIKE FL. Not that I liked ML too. Although she started doing the right thing in some time, but the first reaction and some of the passing sentences that expressed her feelings made me dislike her and basically I wasn't excited to continue reading after that. When Yun Yisang arrived she was a small wife of a big boss and had a stepson who almost was the same age as her. What I find strange is how despite being adopted son from the eldest son, who unfortunately passed away, this boy easily called Yun Yisang mom right away. She was a freshly baked wife, she got married and the next thing is that her husband who just married her to repay the gratitude of saving lives went to other countries on a business trip. Yun Yisang comes from the same world, but different timeline, her step-son - Sheng Mu - is the boy she chased, but unfortunately this boy comitted suicide due to depression and also sudden break out of black material. Later it was cleared out but the person was gone. This is also a novel world where later the heroine works for the big boss (Sheng Mu's nominal father, stepfather tbh) and later she becomes famous in the business world after Sheng family moves abroad. WHY I DISLIKE FL. When she arrived, she found out Sheng Mu who is still young, but her first reaction and what bothered her wasn't to start doing something for Sheng Mu, no she cared about wealth and having fun. I couldn't get it, you claim that you liked the boy, you know his fate, but you say nothing is as important as wealth. Disgusting beginning, even as a joke. Sheng Mu is an introverted and serious and filial kid, very sensible and likable. I don't know why his brain circuit worked like that, but he basically was on good terms with Yun Yisang right away. WHY I DISLIKED ML. He is described as workaholic. But not only. He could spend months outside and also have fun outside, like sports, but he rarely came back. How could you treat the child left by deceased brother like that, don't you know you need communication, not only phone calls, you need to take part in the kid's life to let him have a better future, but nope, you don't care, you're away on business when it i smost important. I really couldn't be bothered to continue reading this novel. Because it was obvious when Yun Yisang finally started supporting her step-son, the boy came out and his life changed. But that's it. I don't know, I'm mad at these characters who are supposed to be good, but lack humanity, at least try to describe them as such. RATE: 2/5.

继承百栋楼后我退圈收租 by 猫安叶

(mtl: After inheriting 100 buildings I quite the circle to collect rent)

[BG] THIS NOVEL WAS LOUD. Xu Yao entered the retirement world. Here, she meets her eldest brtoher and becomes the long-lost daughter of the richest Xu family. because she never grew up alongside Xu's she got 100 building (free to choose) from entire Xu family wealth. Xu elders loved to hoard estates. In the original story Xu Yao should have been blacked on the Internet and used as a shield for a second ML and a heroine. Instead Xu Yao quit and started her life as a rent collector. Her ML is actually quite a background character, they easily share three views and despite them being an arranged marriage they feel good together. Indeed there's enough about rent, even google thought I was interested and YT recommended me a video about moving and a sappy story about a bad landlord. Anyway a lot of it is indeed when Xu Yao started her renting business, how she changed things and took control of her estates and changed them for the better. WHY I SAY it's LOUD, because there are many hot searches and a lot of hot news about her and her real estate and also other things she invested in by the way, it all felt like a parade of never-ending news. Like she invested in one of her tenants who is a director on the edge, he became famous, she helped her friend who also had bad ending, same thing - famous. She invested in a show, it became a small hit. She invested into research, they produced medicine etc. etc. She later took upon herself entire Xu real estate, her company grew, tenants loved her, a loud network parade. There is also a plot of auction abroad and bringing back national treasures. Which may be ot that far from truth, but tbh it felt a bit xenophobic. Some places, especially lower places where ppl lack education and are fed fake news, I can understand the behavior, but higher class, wealthier class and businessmen usually don't get this hot and heavy, at least they should have a better education and not show such obvious dislike. At least my friend works with Chinese and they never had such conflicts, although both sides understand that both have different mentality. The finish is all about making movie and the very ending is the sentiment of the author - bringing entire 12 animal heads back to China. As far as I know not all heads were found? Or they were not all brought back. So it's a kind of wish from the author I suppose. Partially I applaude people who want to bring cultural relics back home, after all it's their history. But despite all that it's only RATE: 3/5 from me. The only thing I might appreciate is that many things were used together in a good sense, but still those disputes, auctions and suddenly finding treasures in the basement.. sigh.

贵妃母子民国文生存手札 by 寂寂如雪

(mtl: Imperial concubine, mother and child)

[BG] Hmm, I only started it and just for the sake of checking it out, can't say I was fascinated. Mu Yan died twice. Once she was plotted and fell to her death on stage, the second life was of an imperial concubine and she drank poisoned wine when the palace was filled with rebels who usurped the throne. In her third life she came to a novel, original owner had a very miserable life. Her father was plotted against by a stepmother, he lived badly and the wife he chose also wasn't an empty bag, after the death of her husband she listened to her natal family, usurped the last posession of two siblings, and the little Mu Yan was even sold off. Although she was saved, but the family she served had a vicious lady who plotted against her, Mu Yan was r* and later returned home, she was ruined and depressed, sending the child off, later regretted it but the child was trafficked and she never saw him again. In the original story it was a miserable woman, who had her entire family dead and used as a gunman. Mu Yan who arrived hoped to find the child early and save him, hoping it's her son from previous life. She helped her brother, they moved and she escaped those who tried to use her for conspiracy (they arrived at troubled times). Se thought the life would be easier, bt had no idea that not only her and her son, but the father emperor traveled too, he became the empty bag gangster who bullied original Mu Yan, some of his cronies traveled to this world too, so he searched for his wife, but first found his son. It's basically a troubled world, lots of gangsters etc. I don't know I wasn't hooked that much, but others might like it, anyway I don't rate it since I read too little. Oh yeah the one I liked the most must be the kid. Btw the chapters are long and it was the first time when I saw someone entered V after 9 chapters.

渣攻前夫天天都在火葬场 by 鱼生烟

(mtl: Slag Gong ex-husband is at the crematorium every day)

[BL] Very criable novel. ABO universe. But judging from event and the possible cause of misunderstanding the gong deserves the crematorium. Yu Mo was an S-level omega, but he was unlucky to fall for Qin Yan. While others were marveling at the luck of this super alpha, Yu Mo's life was miserable, hated by his husband, hated by his husband's family, used by his husband and living a miserable and tortured life. Qin Yan always blamed Yu Mo for interfering, but still did not propose divorce, he acted as if he was right when he emotionally tormented Yu Mo, despite all the fake, pretentious and obviously vicious acting of his so-called love of his life. Qin Yan never was a good husband, he was an alpha, but he always used Yu Mo for his needs, but never cared for Yu Mo's well-being. Yu Mo's state deteriorated during this time, his love for the other person never worked and bringing the little lover was the last straw, Yu Mo asked for divorce. What I don't like about ABO stories is that many times ppl act as horny dogs. Also to progress some plots A, B and O all come to the same school, although I only support works that have more grounded or well-developed background that allow safe attendance of such schools. because despite having inhibitors, you can't prevent accident (such accident happened at Yu Mo's school and he was treated as a culprit, though he was plotted against), such things for a good background should be thought-through, and I think if it was a real world it might have existed as such, otherwise it's an open way to say - strong hunt the weak, you go into heat yourself, don't blame us. Co-ed school to me in ABO worlds are mostly about A and O divided (better different schools) or O's have a collar, to prevent the gland from being bitten. If I was in such a situation, I'm sure I'd wear that collar, damn, in our world that follows fashion, it'd be a trend. Anyway, quite heavy on tear glands to read how miserable MC is. Oh yeah I stopped at the divorce part.

软饭硬吃[重生]

(mtl: soft rice is hard to eat)

[BL] Mpreg. This one is on-going. I checked out the beginning and it's quite humorous actually. Although MC has some silly sides, but the bickering between MC and ML I found funny. MC has been reborn, last life he's been plotted against and later found out he was pregnant after one-night stand, the child did not survive, because of that night he was riddled with black material, later he fell badly and was disfigured. Now he did not leave from the hotel and did not accept ML's pay. Basically they started bickering from this point. MC is an actor, but because of his embarrassing situation at home he bought the promises from his company and signed the contract, wanting to elevate the financial burden. Now knowing that he will get pregnant he decided to terminate the contract and give birth first. Evrything was planned until ML found out. So this barbarian took MC to make their relationship legal and take care of MC. Although their start is like this, but the relationship isn't bad and ML is responsible, yet it's nothing unrealistic like falling in love at first sight. ML comes from a wealthy family and he's RICH. Yet there are obvious problems in the interpersonal relationship. I have no idea if the vicious male second will re-appear, but there was a person who acted as if he was the main palace, but even MC can tell that with ML's character, if he wants it, he takes it, "procrastination" is not in his dictionary. So they start their married life. The kid is small, but it's cute. Although ML acted a bit of a scum at first, but when it comes to taking care of the kid, he will do it (even with a stone face). SO far the beginning was fun.

穿成菟丝花女主的姐姐 by 暗香漂浮

(mtl: Dressed as a dodder flower heroine's sister)

[BG] Usually, I don't prefer silly girls for the heroine and that's why some of her actions were simply.. eh. Basically, Su Xiyao landed into a cannon fodder script, she wants to get back and that's why she acts according to system and wants to disgust the hero, but instead both of them start to have feeling for each other. Original heroine in the story is her twin sister, but because of eccentricity of her parents and upbringing, both grew up differently, Xiyao was blamed for robbing nutritient of her sister and the small Xi'an believed in this idea all her life, so both sisters were more like enemies. Arrival of Xiyao changed the trajectory, instead it was her who got close to ML and eventually they fell in love. What I don't like is that she still had ideas to disgust him, even hurting his feelings (like hiring someone to play the part). Even if she tried to disgust him according to the system (not really). The reason for such a strong desire to go back is that Xiyao wanted to go back to her world actually, because she wanted to remember something really hard, as if she forgot something very important (not only that she wated to be filial to her parents who passed). What the story foreshadows is that both her and ML aren't really from this plot and their relationship come from a different world all-together. But when the author tried to explain later how their worlds worked I thought that author outplayed themselves, since it was a bit too much of a brain-twist. Because such a sharp turn of events from a love and campus story with two wrongly held children, the story sharply takes turn and both she and ML travel back to another world where ML is a kid living in a strange village that makes sacrifices.. isn't it a sharp turn? Suddenly there are ghosts and grivances... I kinda of was not prepared. Still sillies are not my thing, usually people are not that stupid.

[Chinese BL novel] 咸鱼少爷穿成反派的白月光 / Master of salted fish dressed as a villain's white moonlight

The story seems like a galloping horse. This is my short comment when I finished.

With spoilers.

Tang Yu crosses into a plot, the point is very sensitive - he's about to steal documents and send them to the protag gong, while betraying his husband. The plot promises him a very bad ending after that. As a professional salted fish Tang Yu slumped down, decided to play a trick and then stick to his husband.

Qin Shilu found that his husband Tang Yu changed recently, there's no going out and no communication with the rumored one and only love, his husband plays a salted fish all day long and sometimes sticks to him, asking for "happy time".

The premise and the idea of this novel aren't bad, but the execution suffered quite a bit and I think some places would have been way better, if they were fixed. And I don't mean something big, I just felt that some backstory should have been expanded.

But let's start from the good parts. I personally liked the idea that there is a crossing, but also a rebirth as well. Despite the fact that these are explained almost at the very end of the novel. Tang Yu is a crosser, but also is a reborn person. How it works? And here's the biggest spoiler. Tang Yu crossed for the first time when he was still a baby, his mother was still alive and although he had no idea who his father was, he led a pretty good life. As a traveller, he knew the plot beforehand and some parts were out of his control, like the illness and death of his mother, the uncle who occupied the company and adopted him in the name of caring, but brought him up as a spoiled waste, and never stopped his reputation from being ruined like this. He pretends to be a pig to eat the tiger, he followed the plot, but when it came to his husband things changed, he still reported the bidding price, but it was the wrong one, Qin Shilu noticed it and they came to terms from which their love story started. But their happy life was destroyed in the plotting of protag gong and shou. Tang Yu spent the three years afterwards in devastation, but he still achieved revenge, yet it was not enough for him to stay in this world when his lover died. Tang Yu jumped off the building and this is where the story officially starts. Tang Yu is in the study, the plot point is when he looks at the bidding price, he only remembers the past before crossing, how he lived a happy rich life and the next second he's here, but he considers this a book and he doesn't consider previous Tang Yu as himself, but someone else. These things we find out because Tang Yu finally remembered them at the very end of the book. Yet at the very beginning, he's like a blank peace of paper. He still sent the wrong bidding to the protag gong and decided to change his fate. Then came things like getting the certificate, living together, being intimate and the salted fish did everything he could to not contact all the bad guys or tried to find them something to do, so they wouldn't ruin his life. At a certain point some of his actions were subconscious, like he escaped contact with protag gong, because in last life QSL was offed by them. He continued to do his thing as usual and we find out that Tang Yu actually is very profecient in antiques, his calligraphy is amazing, he can play chess with masters and he also knows how to cultivate orchids. It is NOT explained in which life he practiced these. Except antiques, he needed this knowledge for revenge. But still he's like an all-rounder. This part I thought could be mentioned in some short words at least, but nope. He considered everyone around him poor, even his own husband, who just played a joke on him, so he had to draw and sell pictures (this is how he saw his own painting, but he never really dug deeper into it), selling paintings and also buying antiques he met people everywhere and got aqcuainted with some big bosses who liked Tang Yu in return as a promising junior. Because of these his reputation started to tilt in another direction, some were amazed that the rumored bad person actually looks and does things not according to rumors at all. Tang Yu's life with QSL also developed quite fast, they became closer when they agreed on intimacy and before that QSL actually liked Tang Yu and it has to do something with his childhood when he first saw Tang Yu (it was Tang Yu himself, he forgot about it). But in general things weren't described in detail as why he fell in love, so this part was missing from their relationship and QSL's feelings felt abrupt. After all the image of Tang Yu wasn't the best.

Since the plot deviated so hard when Tang Yu started this time, many things have changed. Like his attack on uncle and his family who occupied the wealth created by Tang Yu's mother. He also discovered some things about his past and origins. His father wasn't the cleanest person when he created his business and even if times washed it brighter, he was killed by an enemy. To protect the mother and child, they never appeared on stage and it was more of a secret love, The father's most trusted subordinate accepted the position of the head, but carried business with the idea of some day returning it and his own son grew up in the love and care of his godfather and godmother, so he was a very dedicated older brother, he came to the city just to be closer and protect Tang Yu.

The events of the storyline are like bits and pieces, but they can be put together, by that I mean some more or less related events that are connected to main characters. The rest is occupied by secondary characters, which are there just to add to the fun, yet they're not really that important. But the main plot includes his involvement with big guys, his reputation changing, his involvement with antiques also triggered the hidden plot of the boss who took Tang Yu father's life. Also the change involved the main characters like Tang Yu's uncle and his family, with Tang Luo, uncle's son, who supposed to be protag shou failing many times in his plans to change things. Also protag gong, who supposed to like Tang Luo but was always entangling Tang Yu. Who got involved in dealing with each other, who changed from previous plots etc.

These are not that bad. The biggest pet peeve for me was the way the novel was written. Sometimes it got on my nerves so much how scenes looked like broken bits and pieces. After all some scenes have no conclusion and it switches to something else, as if I'm reading a cut version. The story often jumped here and there like that, changing from one scene to another like a galloping horse. It felt weird tbh, but partially felt like scenes in a TV show where you're cut half-way, but it's not a TV drama, it's a novel and author doesn't return to the cut scene.

All in all the story was okay. The plot twist of being reborn was cool, but I don't think it played well, there was foreshadowing that Tang Yu was himself and he had dreams and visions of things that happened in the previous life, which saved them once, yet these things came way-way later in the plot. Anyway, the relationship also had gaps. With the dreams of the past it was more emotional, but the gaps are all about how QSL's feelings are not explained and the falling in love doesn't look like it in this life. Although their real love is quite deep. And yes, Tang Yu's life he mentioned. Sometimes I wonder why people are so okay with travelling into the book and don't really mention their loved ones from previous life and this is put away quite fast. Often times main characters are orphans and have no one to miss, so I can understand, but in cases where they leave their family, it's quite sad, but characters themselves are often like no-big-deal attitude, which is baffling. 

Quite a ride it was. It was fine, but I don't have the attitude of recommending it.

RATE: 3,5/5.