[Chinese BG novel] 酒色撩人[快穿] by 三分流火 / Wine and seduction

Actually the MTL says "Wine and sex", not kidding, but to me it sounds a bit vulgar so I decided to change for 'seduction' instead.

Summary: The story follow Yu Jiu, a demon (red lotus) who because of her origins was repulsed by the Heavenly Dao, she now travels the worlds preparing for her tribulation and tries to make plans how not to disappear, but there is a second news, fairy Lianyan she had a feud with came to mortal worlds. A perfect chance for Yu Jiu. But she was prevented from succeeding again and again, before she finally managed to take away the precious artifact - Kunlun Mirror - and with its' help maybe finally turn the tables.

#QT, crazy plots

That's my personal summary of things.

This is the type of trashy but entertaining type of novel. It's not completely bad, few parts that I liked, but unfortunately suffers from bad writing style overall. Fore example, arcs feel sketched out, they start at random point and may end at random point. Not enough details given to care or build a foreshadowing. If you want to know more you need to reach the last arc. The character growth is zero, this is why it just reads as a "revenge" story that repeats itself. The longer it goes on (316 chapter+extras) the more incoherent it felt. What I mean is:

Aims established:

1. Yu Jiu prepares for her tribulation. How she is going to do that is not explained. The first chapter we read she basically digs out the special artifact - Kunlun Mirror - out of Lianyan's reincarnation. We know from the first chapters that she tried to win Lianyan in this worlds many times, but luck of Heavenly Dao was on Lianyan's side all the time, before she finally succeeded. Kunlun Mirror helps her see the "plot", so she can prepare for it and slowly try to drain Lianyan's luck/halo. Spoilers: of course it is obvious that she succeeded from the first arc, eventually she was even able to infect one of the reincarnations with inner demons (I think it was around Urban Psychic arc, which is ch140). What was weird to me is that, she is is so unscrupulous in her actions, if it was any other cultivation novel with basic established laws, she'd have her karma -10000000, but in few last arcs she "does good deeds", I don't think it would offset anything tbh, in the apocalypse arc one guy was able to see the bloody aura on people and Yu Jiu's was the heaviest that almost "covered the sky", so yeah. This is why it's hard to navigate the story that doesn't establish a thing.
2. Feud between Yu Jiu and Lianyan. For the entirety of this novel we have no idea why the feud happened. Just because Yu Jiu is repulsed but Lianyan is favored by Heavenly Dao? Who knows? This is what I was thinking while I was reading. It was evident that Yu Jiu is connected to being a lotus flower, meaning she is not a human cultivator. We find out she had suffered from inner demons for hundreds of years, somehow it is connected to Lianyan. This info came about only in the arc of "Two beauties of the capital" where she taught the Crown Prince who according to her suffered from something similar and she taught him her technique, since she saw her past self in him. I wish I was kidding when I said that details of the feud are sparse and there is no foreshadowing. I needed the story to elaborate, because otherwise it felt like Yu Jiu was just taking revenge. We know she hates Lianyan, I guess we should have concluded the weight of the feud from that only, but that's not enough for me. And Lianyan is not a good person either, of course we need a foe, but she makes it easy for a reader to dislike her. SPOILERS the truth that is revealed in the last arc is not detailed, but basically when Yu Jiu only gained consciousness Lianyan was born and was praised as a cultivator (she did not ascend yet), she killed Yu Jiu and Yu Jiu was thrown into the river. For some reason this river was filled with desires from women (maybe they offed themselves who knows) and somehow Yu Jiu survived in it and eventually transformed into what later will be called Demon King of Thousand Faces, she is the epitome of the desire she absorbed from the river, she also destroyed a dragon vein for her foudation with beaty this is why she is so perfect and could wreak havoc. tbh details are so disorganized and random. This ability indeed came because of Lianyan. But she could not avenge herself since by that time Lianyan ascended and she came to lower worlds only when she heard that Lianyan followed the Heavenly Prince to reincarnations she decided to go to lower worlds and try her luck.

Path to immortality. Spoiler or not, but the Heavenly Prince came to lower worlds and needed to reincarnate many times for his cultivation. Since Lianyan came after him she basically did the same thing. Yu Jiu interrupted the successful reincarnations of Lianyan. Inadvertantly she did the same to the Heavenly prince.

These are the main points of the story in general. The next section should be dedicated to how flat the characters are:

• Yu Jiu. Was and stays the same. There is no development or change whatsoever. She is rough and unscrupulous in her actions, she does not need help from others. Has a strange taste of choosing men to flirt and have a relationship with but never gives her heart (this is why ML of the story calls her heartless later on). To me her relationships were random and outside of her having fun they held no purpose. It felt like she did not want to give either her heart or be controlled (no explanation on these). Next is her beauty. Tbh if it wasn't for the explanation about her beauty, you'd be tired of her in few sentences, because she's one of those FMCs whose beauty is emphasised a lot and is the type to attract attention wherever she goes. This is why first few arcs felt weird to me before I realized it is her cultivation that helps her achieve this. This is explained by the fact that Yu Jiu cultivated in such a way specifically, which of course causes many people to fall for her and it also causes conflicts wherever she goes. One of the arcs demonstrated it fully, it was a transition type of arc where Yu Jiu was injured and she arrived with her body close to real one, and when people saw her they started to act like crazy, the only person who was unefected was Lianyan at the moment and supposed ML of the story. Outside of her beauty she is also multi-talented, since she brings with herself all of her experiences and this helps her to often steal the limelight in the story (that originally should have belonged to Lianyan).
• Lianyan. Outside that she appears in every arc it's very hard to pinpoint what she actually is, what is her true nature. In general I had the impression that she is not perfect at all, all of her reincarnations thought of harming Yu Jiu even if yu Jiu basically did nothing. Only from this I can conclude that even if favored by Heavenly Dao she may not have had a good personality. Although Yu Jiu does lead Lianyan's reincarnation to the direction that promises demise, but Lianyan herself can't let Yu Jiu go each time and is haunting. In her plans she is sometimes no less insidious or even more. Like her later reincarnations may have been called main characters in her own story, but she had inflated ego as well, she might have received some sort of golden finger which would help her suceed, but because Yu Jiu was always stronger she eventually failed at her initial plans. Example from the top of my head, in Eternal Goddess arc, OG was an e-sports pro who was about to retire, Lianyan's reincarnation had a chance to become pro in PC gaming and emerging holographic gaming thanks to a cheat. She used the final farewell match to defeat OG Yu Jiu and step on her, used it for PR and become famous in holographic games, againd efeating OG Yu Jiu in those too. Also exposed her scarred face to the public eyes as a tactic to compare her beauty. Which led to cyberbullying. Although I describe it like this, but it also reads like this with little details and no depth. So yeah Lianyan's inflated ego and making up her own mind actually felt old too. Like she would have no evidence but accuse Yu Jiu of anything and everything that happened to her, even if Yu Jiu really did nothing,s he would make up her mind on it and not let it go. All her troubles she doesn't change but blames on Yu Jiu too. That's a fairy for you.
• Unknown male character. At first (I forgot the first chapters lol) it was mentioned that Lianyan came to lower worlds for him (she followed him with the Kunlun Mirror and even managed to have a relationship in reincarnations), but later it never appeared again. Speculative to me that she mentioned him, but actually never bothered to find him, since she didn't know how to identify him, in my opinion this person and ML are basically the same person.
• ML. The story does have a male lead, but hoenstly... you can't pinpoint or be sure if it's the same guy before he shows the same type of characteristics and eventually (pretty late in the story) starts telling Yu Jiu that she forgot everything and she is heartless. She flirts and dates men almost in every arc, but outside her "choosing a handsome guy" it's hard to tell her criteria of choosing a person, because we don't know the backstory most of the time, we don't know if these men appeared in original timeline. And if not but it's the same person how do they manage to find each other... Tbh I was puzzled by it, from one point Yu Jiu feels like she remembers everything that happened in past lives, at other times she claims to filter and forget a lot of things. This happens in several last arcs when ML tells her she "forgot". She dismissed it many times as if these men had a beau previously. But did she forget him or the original him (if he is a reincarnation of someone). Only in the last arc she lays out her guess that he is the Crown Prince of Heaven and all those men were his reincarnations and she interrupted his cultivation. While he has feelings for her she is not the same (thus heartless)). All this supports the fact that he was mentioned in the beginning but never again before the reveal.

It's funny that after reading this I don't sympathize or feel for any of these characters. Yu Jiu is simply a revenge machine, Lianyan is often manic psycho and ML is just there tbh.

• Romance. I find that it was weird. Although we have only one designated ML in the story it's one of the few times when FMC has so many previous liasons. But also there is no saying who is ML and who is not in those arcs before later half when it became more apparent through actions. Yet I still found the way they met sometimes pretty weird, since they simply crossed paths out of nowhere, it may seem like a fate to others but I still think it's kinda truly random.

1. Arc 1. I skipped after first few chapters since it's about reorganized family and I hate this type of story. I only know that Lianyan was caught bu Yu Jiu in a scandal.
2. Arc 2. Industry Gemini. Yu Jiu is a singer, Lianyan is an actress who rode on popularity and stepping on Yu Jiu as well. Unknown if ML appears but Yu Jiu had a relationship with CEO of their company, who later used Lianyan to make Yu Jiu jealous and was dumped and Yu Jiu never returned.
3. Arc 3. Dreamer of Deep Palace. Skipped because in the settings the one she had a relationship with is new Emperor and she was made Empress Dowager by previous Emperor despite her young age. Lianyan is one of the concubines.
4. Arc 4. Game Lover. Another arc where Yu Jiu had no relationship. Lianyan used the photo of OG to send to a person she had online relationship. This person recognized the wrong person but Yu Jiu was talented and outstanding. Because the man hesitated back and forth Yu Jiu never considered him. Lianyan here was also involed in a scandal of leaking the game they were developing.
5. Arc 5. Gold-digger. Yu Jiu was openly a gold digger after arriving. Lianyan according to logic was a fiancee of the man she was dating. Again involved in a big scandal because she couldn't get her priorities straight and used the project between the companies to frame Yu Jiu, but failed. Since Yu Jiu is always short-lived she once disappeared. Should I mention that all men stayed calibate for her afterwards and were scarred by love? Honestly girl left so much mess.
6. Arc 6. Deduction Method. Honestly weird arc, since no intro and explanation. She became a school punk and got involved with a good student from her class. Lianyan was a good student classmate who eyed this young man too. One day Yu Jiu changed her tune and started studying putting all pressure on unknowing Lianyan, who eventually failed to get into same uni with her crush, while Yu Jiu joined med school of the same uni. They dated for a bit, the weirdest part is that he asked her to teach him how to fight and agreed to date in exchange. They broke up (just because) and made up in uni. Some possessive tendencies started to appear for the first time.
7. Arc 7. Two beauties of the capital. Yu Jiu is a swapped baby. Empress feared manic Emperor who had attacks, so she sent her own child to her family. Yu Jiu should disappeare under the halo of this girl. Now she is overshadowed by the brilliance of Yu Jiu's beauty and talent. In this arc there is obvious ML but they're not in a relationship, she is Crown Princess and he is a Crown Prince, he had same attacks as Emperor and she saw herself in him so she taught him cultivation. As we know it is the reincarnation of Heavenly Prince and she intervened with his reincarnations causing him to fail in tribulation. She died in an ambush but also because Kunlun Mirror revolted against her. We don't really see the end of Lianyan, but the Empress plotted the ambus but I suppose Yu Jiu framed Lianyan, so all evidence directed at her. Since Yu Jiu is short-lived she may frame Lianyan even by dying, like in the first arc.
8. Arc 8. Flower shop girl. Transition world. ML is a special assistant with revenge against family he works for, Yu Jiu opens a shop nearby and gets into contact. She is injured since last time and appears in mostly her own body, which makes her being rejected b the world, before that everyone who saw her were fascinated to the point of madness. After tribulation she disappeared without a trace. For the first time after she disappeared the timeline corrected and only ML remembered her (my assumption from few final phrases). This is different from previous arcs and won't last long.
9. Arc 9. Urban Psychic. Lianyan is a master who came from the mountains and was blinded by the glitz. Yu Jiu is the eldest granddaughter of a renowned family. Because Lianyan acted outrageously someone gave an order not to let her rent a place. She thought it was Yu Jiu and was always haunting after her. Later Yu Jiu showed her the difference between money and power, but when Lianyan gained some she realized it's incomparable to true power and gave up cultivation. This is the world that planted inner demons in Lianyan's heart. ML was Yu Jiu's fiance. When she disappeared her story was again corrected as if she's never been there.
10. Arc 10. Lady of a Wealthy family. My assumption Lianyan is the best friend of OG who had a relationship with OG's fiance. She plays big breasts small brain here. Yu Jiu used them both as pawns in the bigger scheme of getting the hand of the company she got from her father (honestly, it's one of those moments when you think what is the point of so many actions, but otherwise how she will get her revenge right). ML should be a popular young musician who met her by accident.
11. Arc 11. Eternal Goddes. World that enter holographic gaming. Lianyan used OG to step on her as new goddess of e-sports. With Yu Jiu her momentum wasn't as great. ML was some rando guy who is from another planet and it's from his place Lianyan got a communicator which helped her train and enhance. Yu Jiu might have destroyed Lianyan's reputation in this world, but the one who offed her was ML. I hope it's ML, otherwise a rando.
12. Arc 12. Puppeteer of the Apocalypse. Strangely Lianyan's identity may be good but not entirely great. Here she plays some ruthless woman who will try to reach the top of apocalypse. But she meets Yu Jiu who comes in her real appearance and is a puppeteer suddenly (although like the concept). She treated Lianyan as a free labor, but eventually she was chased out for her offence. Later Lianyan found another backer and thought she had it all figured, but the guy who appeared (who suddenly had a system) was nothing in comparison to Yu Jiu. This is a tactic of few last arcs, Yu Jiu seemingly gives Lianyan direction and Lianyan thinks she will win eventually but all her hopes shatter. ML was quite a random ordinary handsome man in this one.
13. Demon Cult. Weird arc where she is a saintess with unimaginable looks who had previous relationship with several bigshots. ML is probably the leader of their demon cult. Tbh this one was so random. Like she was basically snatched a hundred times since she had no cultivation. Lianyan here is some prominent cultivator lady, beauty is pampered but after Yu Jiu appeared she heard her mother crying and thought Yu Jiu seduced her father. Not true. So she made a big scene. Later they framed Yu Jiu's son (the only child ever), but eventually Yu Jiu turned the tables and made Lianyan's family being hunted.
14. Magician. Weird era with mini skirts but magic  tricks are not developed. Yu Jiu belonged to a theater, Lianyan was a magician's assistant. Lianyan fought for the man as if her life depended on it (in last arcs she always has something like this going on) like she seduced him and even got pregnant made a scene etc, while Yu Jiu just added fuel to the situation. ML is some wealthy guy from abroad whom she met by shere accident. She saved him in in a ship wreak, because author decided to play Titanic. Lianyan died there on the sunk ship.
15. Best ex-wife. Yu Jiu is an ex-wife of a CEO, Lianyan is a mistress/assistant. Yu Jiu became known for her charity foundation after divorce, but prior the scandal of mistress became known, so their dirty underwear appeared from time to time. ML was a young master / hacker type of guy. Honestly, including hacking suddenly felt unexpected. 
16. Vampire Duchess. Apparent which role Yu Jiu played. Lianyan was a commoner girl with sweet blood who got attention from a Vampire Duke. Yu Jiu just added to their turturous love more hurdles and misunderstandings. But Lianyan was devoted no matter what and did many things for him, since in the story he was injured and had a long recovery and was no match for others. Lianyan died at the hands of this man too. ML was their Vampire Emperor who suddenly awakened. He began asking Yu Jiu if she forgot him. Building something for the finale. But also first time Yu Jiu did "good deeds" but honestly what can offset her karma.
17. Holy Maiden of Light. Big nope because the age was weird. Yu Jiu had teh holy body of light, perfect for cultivating. Lianyan one of the candidates for Saint's position, but plotted against everyone to get to the top. Also on the opposite site was the Empire. ML was the young Pope. Yu Jiu's body was needed to be sacrificed to restore the seal on the demon world. She was pushed out by Lianyan and eldest Princess who eyed the Pope, but at the last moment Yu Jiu took them with her and also used them to sacrifice along herself.
18. Inner demon. Final arc where we suddenly concentrate more on ML who happens to be Heavenly Prince. Since Yu Jiu interrupted his cultivation, but he was willing. Now we know the origin of the feud between two women. Lianyan was so insignificant in this one... like you spent the entire time to emphasize it but now this. ML used his body to protect Yu Jiu from Heavenly Punishment. But she finally promised him to be together if they survive. They did. But it's not easy for her to grow a heart and he knows it. They eventually will go together to the lower worlds again since he still need to survive the tribulation.

Things I appreciated. There were some, surprisingly.

• The idea of infecting someone with inner demons when they are in their reincarnation form. This happened when Yu Jiu constantly fucked Lianyan over and made her go down the wrong path. In one of the arcs where Lianyan was a promising master (honestly her character in each arc is baffling) who came down the mountain, Yu Jiu made her feel the disparity between their statuses and eventually made Lianyan care not about the cultivation but status (which somehow indeed was mirrored in later worlds, but not entirely). Thus Lianyan was infected with inner demons in that arc and Lianyan doubled down in every arc.

Yeah this lonely thing is the only thing I truly liked 

Because other things feel like they don't matter. I read this for fun to give me at least something. A bit of something was delivered, but overall not recommended.

Note: forgot to mention one of few reasons I think author overstepped. The settings. Starting from the first arc with reorganized family and non blood related pair. Another arc had Emperor and Empress Dowager. So ew.

RATE: 1.5/5.

[MUSIC] Madison Beer - yes baby

 

[Chinese BL novel] 一篇狗血虐渣文[快穿] by 润莹 / Bloody and tragic story

Summary: He Xuezhen was sent to the worlds to experience a hundred years of loving someone who is hard to love and when he finally woke up it was now the path of him to re-live his lives and get rid of his feelings. So in each world he had someone he loved deeply but who did not reciprocate his feelings with the same passion with a lot of misunderstandings and hurt.

#QT, chasing wife to the crematorium (each world has an "ex" Cui Zhi that MC loved in the previous life, who is also reborn in this life and of course finds many things that he missed to realize in the previous life); ML is He Jingshu (appears in the second world); old-school bloody script.

I've read only 2 arcs and will not continue reading, the reason is basically the whole bloody script. Why did I have this in my bookmarks, how old is this even.

Cui Zhi is someone Xuexhen loved deeply, but only got hurt in return. Cui Zhi is the type of toxic jealous and possessive type but with total lack of trust.

He Jingshu as the designated ML is actually a green tea person, what is his deal is unknow at the point where I stopped.

My main problem lies with the MC. So his goal is to get rid of emotions, I bet main ones should be love. But in general his personality feels weak and gullible. I prefer those with a bit more sass.

Like World 1 is a cultivation setting. He and Cui Zhi are a Taoist couple, they've been so for a hundred years, but there is an illegitimate son of his father Fan Xueping who joined their sect and rose to prominence under the guide of his father. Cui Zhi protects Xueping even from Xuezhen because he believes the guy saved him, the world starts from Xuezhen self-destructing together with Cui Zhi because that guy fed his last saving medicine to treat Xueping's wounds which did not need such a precious medicine.

Throughout the years Cui Zhi got used to the dynamic of Xuezhen loving him and forgiving him, but still protected Xueping and believed what the guy sad.

What I don't like in these novels is how low the average IQ characters have, such a low-level tactic from Xueping's side, but Cui Zhi never truly protected him.

Another thing is that the new life has a lot of bit from the past to showcase how bloody their misunderstandings are, but the timeline felt off a lot of the time.

Andhonestly Cui Zhi saved Xueping so many times that he long should have returned the debt of the saving grace, but he continued to support the guy, without realizing how misleading Xueping acted and how he allowed his own partner to misunderstand.

The thing is misunderstanding got so deep that Xuezhen truly believed that his partner did not love him back, while Cui Zhi actually loved him, but his path of cultivation did not allow him to have karmic debts like the one to Xueping. Another part I don't like in such plots is the lack of trust from both sides. Maybe Xuezhen also was in the clutches of going through trubulations this si why he never actually left. Another side of this is how do we know what is true and what is not then.

Not everyone could guess that Xueping not only is a lying sack of shit, but loves to claim what others did for himself. Like Xuezhen was the one who saved Cui Zhi, but Xueping claimed it as his own, Xuezhen never cleared this part.

Also a funny thing about "love" that Cui Zhi claims to have - he never knew that Xuezhen suffered from demonic poisoning and the pill he fed to Xueping in last life was the last. Of course he found out.

Because Cui Zhi is reborn he finds that things do not move as they previously had. He also agrees to break the engagement, being all proud and thinking it's a tactic of Xuezhen... what a dumb thought. But later figures Xuezhen is ready to marry someone else to deal with his father.

The situation of Xuezhen's sect is that his father was helped by his mother's sect to rise to the highest sect leader position, but he betrayed not only their family and brought Xueping to let him be under his guidince, while he dealth with Xuezhen's maternal family with the help of demons with whom he colluded with, which in this timeline led to a big confrontation. Which wasn't exciting tbh.

Cui Zhi first broke the engagement then regretted it but it was too late. Xuezhen married someone for convenience, but I always thought - why he just didn't stay alone? His partner not only loved his sword spirit but even had a child with it. Becaus ethe spirit was killed by Cui Zhi in the fit of anger because he thought Xuezhen's partner cheated, Xuezhen felt guilty and did a lot of things to make up for it. Like he did not marry for convenience and his husband agreed to it himself. This is one of misunderstandings that Cui Zhi had and Xuezhen of course never cleared. That his marriage is fake, child is not his and he never was close to his husband. Xuezhen honestly felt like a marginal figure in entire story.

Cui Zhi on the other hand went through a lot of mental regret and suffering, also making some bad decisions, like marrying Xueping thinking Xuezhen will pay attention to him... dude, are you serious?

A lot of it felt like a forced conflict just to make things worse.

I don't want to say that Cui Zhi deserves forgiveness, I believe in this story this character had the same relationship with Xuezhen in the upper realm, Xuezhen was chasing and this guy did not feel the same, but now his reborn clones go through regret. Same pattern over and over.

I want to say that I basically don't like the chasing wife plot because people often don't write it well. For example they make MC pitiful while MC might have been at fault too, ML is always made a jerk, he always is made into a rag to wipe MC's shoes with. I personally thnk that some relationships can get pretty bad, it's not all sunshine and flowers and I think it would be cool to show more how two characters can work though if they truly love each other and still have feelings (not including this novel, I'm just talking in general). 

World 2 has a deposed Emperor (Xuezhen). Cui Zhi is the male Empress in this one that defected to the opposing prince and he also poisoned Xuezhen to death in previous life.

While Xuezen saved his entire clan by the only thing he could think of, making his the royal family, otherwise his entire family would be offed by the Regent who was the ruling party at that time. Cui Zhi didn't even know that his father managed to cuckold the Regent with his concubine.

Another world full of misunderstanding. Xuezhen lived his entire life as a puppet Emperor, while Regent and the Queen were the ones ruling. Xuezhen did not live a prosperous life but one of constant humiliation and being controlled. Cui Zhi did not understand that before entering the palace.

Although their life was harmonious for some time but he couldn't change his jealousy of the guy who used to be close to Xuezhen. Another streak of misunderstandings.

But tbh I was asking myself, why people are not being honest. The answer is - where would misunderstandings come from. 

Cui Zhi for whome this position was always a humiliation eventually went to another Prince to serve and the previous person whom he thought was the love Xuezhen could never forget also deflected to this Prince, the entire company rebelled and dethroned Xuezhen, while Cui Zhi fed him poison believing that Xuezhen poisoned his brother. Which was a complete misunderstanding and no matter how many times Xuezhen claimed he did not do those things it never did anything.

So yeah Cui Zhi is not a person who really deserves forgiveness, he can spend a lot of time atoning for what he did though. But honestly even by the second arc it becomes tedious to watch that he has the same action pattern at all time. Regretting and going crazy. Now in this life nothing else matter like Xuezhen who is unreachable.

As for Xuezhen to continue his weakass act, even if he took the cultivation to this world with him, he welcomed a new male concubine He Jingshu. But this guy always acted with him and was getting closer to the edge. And what makes me question it is how Xuezhen acts in return, as if he did not recollect that he lived so many lives and the previous one, as if he is untouched virgin who knows nothing. Even the simple difference between Jingshu and Cui Zhi made him surprised time and time again... the guy should get rid of love and says he will not love Jingshu, but acts the opposite.

Oh yeah, another thing that surprised me. Okay Cui Zhi and the other person stayed to serve the Emperor, but they almost did the entire job for Emperor, as they should of course, but Xuezhen felt like hands-off boss who doesn't matter in this plot as well. He just changed the perception of people around him to think he is a chosen one while using some Taoist tricks.

So yeah, same pattern through two arcs. We see Cui Zhi suffering from regret and getting crazy. Xuezhen tries to live a new life, but honestly he doesn't sound like an MC. As for Jingshu, they lived together in this life and in perfect harmony, so you can guess where this will go. But Xuezhen describes it as also feeling like he owned Jingshu something. Maybe there is a secret about it, I don't know, don't plan to find out. I've been pretty strict with filtering what I saved through years in the category "for later" and it's hundreds of titles, so I thought why I still need them to pile up. This type of story does not inspire me to continue, it's been a long while since I realized how I dislike this type of crematorium chase story, so I don't gravitate towards them.

[Chinese BG novel] 女配独自美丽[快穿] by 猫月之谔 / Supporting female character is beautiful alone

Do not be happy with things, do not be sad with yourself.

This is the only truly good phrase that came out of this novel.

Summary: Every world has a supporting role, blinded by love that is ready to give everything she has to the person she loves. But she is not the main protagonist so her fate is to be a stepping stone for others, becoming a basic cannon fodder in the script.

Lu Xi works as a traverser who changes the script/fate for these women and charges to a new and successful future.

Author mentioned ML, which is a spliced character, but basically this is another NoCP novel under the guise of "romance" tag (after all romance is more popular than NoCP), just because FMC ends up always alone throughout her entire short life she has and this ML appears in just few worlds and is such a background character. Thos who pursue FMC are not counted.

Note: I feel like I've read this novel before, because I know this cover, but I couldn't remember a thing, so I ended up re-reading, but mostly skipping through to get the idea of it. And to me it is much to be desired, so no wonder I forgot the entire thing.

I love QT as a genre, it fascinates me, because it covers all types of different worlds, author can create all types of stories and plotlines. But this one undofrtuntely falls under the category of I'm full of tropes and cliches and I have little individuality.

But don't get me wrong, this is pretty much basic novel and there is nothing wrong with it, but on the other hand it doesn't hold anything exciting or particularly new.

Also my main complain about it is how we concentrate on something for the whole period of time, but the conclusion is basically described in few paragraphs. I don't wait from these novels anything spectacular, but if you want to be entertaining, be it. This novel was published in '21, so all the things written in here were done a million times, but because there is nothing to it, it became so forgettable.

The only commendable thing must be the protagonist Lu Xi, tenacious and resilient. But it's again nothing new on the market, there are ton characters like her. And because the work is shallow her highlights are not that bright anymore.

I don't remember if this was under this novel or another one I saw a comment which was quite interesting and I agree on it. Most of the rebirth script are followed along revenge scripts (partially this one too), but sometimes people who our character retaliates against did not commit anything yet, which isn't actually fair. I agree with this take, because most of the time those we claim as villains are foul through and through, but sometimes people have not committed anything yet but they get a full on revenge for those who exist in parallel time. So is it fair for them to go through it or no? This commentator also said they liked to see main characters doing their all in the previous life to get revenge and even if they fail eventually or succeed, at least they tried. I also like when authors logically follow the development instead of mindless - I'll get revenge no matter what!

This was going on a tangent.

Back to the boring.

At least it's kinda whatever to me since everything is all convenient for FMC and follows her "plan", but actually it's better not to look for logic at some places.

Even the beginning, the system shows her stats, which are particularly barren except for some engineering stuff, but she is mentioned to already travel several worlds (doesn't add up, since she has at least some health accumulated and low-level wolrds give her like 1 point of health - her main goal to accumulate the health points - but her other stats are basically non-existent, while in other worlds she tries to accumulate knowledge in other fields as well). In consequent worlds her stats begin to change considering which path she choce, but mainly it is connected with tech. 

The main goal for her is to go back to her original world, like no matter how short her life will be there, it is her original roots.

World 1.

Lu Xi is a supporting character in the period novel. She is childhood sweetheart who followed a boy she liked, but who doesn't like her to the village to build the motherland, because she pestered him she got into trouble and eventually since she had no connections like him she stayed there for a longer period of time and her life was ruined.

Tbh many of the period novels describing '70-'80ss are like self-criticism to me.

Lu Xi changes her attitude upon arrival, she is a tech bro, so she trie to alleviate the problems for the village, like fixing the waterwheel to irrigate the fields. And I was like - did everyone loose all the knowledge they ever had? Or did they off all the intellectuals? Anyway, she became a well-known figure in that village and eventually moved on to capital to work on other things, not mentioned.

I agree with people who said that the OG girl really jumped around and was annoying to the man, but the guy also was unkind since he knew this is a hellhole, he has a way out but she doesn't, and despite her being annoying he could have mentioned it to her or her parents.

The guy ended up badly for some reason. He did not end up with the girl he met in the village, she was a basic white flower type who relied on others. He remembered Lu Xi as his white moonlight in a way, but eventually married and worked at the place of his father (when people inherited the work of their parents), but something went wrong and he was apprehended. See no reason for such an ending for this guy tbh. Just write that they parted ways and that's all. Also Lu Xu was pursued by her collegue in the lab but she refused. She does not need a man and also she lives a short life in these worlds.

World 2.

Supporting character in the campus romance. Lu Xi became a daughter in a reconstructed family, her parents divorced and each got their own family. She followed her father who came around with a new wife and child who was obviously his. With a stepmother you'll get a stepfather. She got along with a person since she was bullied and he saved her, but he was a "bad boy". She became also like him to stay close. But when they guy fell in love with a student he changed his ways.

Lu Xi changed her ways first, she became a good student and other "good brothers" followed along, which eventually changed their life too. She studied medicine since she is in "poor health". Do you think she ever used this knowledge or it was mentioned later? only once I think.

The couple from campus actually dated for some time but then they broke up. She was pretty cruel in her words to the guy I'll be honest. A mature woman who lived for hundreds of years against a teenage boy in love who has not corrected his ways. It was kinda embarrassing.

World 3.

The world says ex-celebrity. While in reality Lu Xi became a household name after her fame.

Tbh the way she came into fame is so weird. She was hyped by her company and used as a stepping stone, but when the guy became famous it was her who sucked his blood as they said.

She went to a variety show and showed how she can survive in the wilderness and everyone was inspired and she became an instant hit...why? She said - I'll become a hit and everyone is like - you go girl.

During one of the shows she exposed the guy who hyped with her. Because she managed to create a hand-made telescope ???!!!!!!!! from thing lying around. You got to be kidding me. And somehow looked out, said - oh, got attention from others and said she saw the guy (insert his name here) and the girl who wanted to get close to this man followed with the live camera and they saw him out of sight at another pool with a woman, so he dated while he also filmed the show. How did she see him? Unknown to me. Anyway the guy was dragged through the mud of course.

She became a hit and a name of variety queen. Why... She didn't do anything except surprise everyone during her "survival".

World 4.

About a Phoenix man. Nothing new here as well, the guy targetted a wealthy lady and his in-laws helped with his job. She became a housewife with a child.

Anyway, since he was also cheating she managed to get everything back since his own lover testified against him lol.

She got everything back, he got basically nothing of worth. He also has weak abilities so he was fired from different places and ended up with a simple job. Regretting to have treated his ex-wife so poorly.

Lu Xi had a son with him but she was awarded the custody because her husband had a baby on the way and she became sterile. She brought her son up to be a good man.

World 5. 

The real and fake daughters.

Lu Xi traveled as a kid and wrote to her parents about her situation, she might as well found another way, but it was one of those.

She was taken back at the age of 11 I think, thin and small.

A lot of flash forwards. Her mother took her to dance since she showed talent and tenacity. While she also managed to be good in her academics and her father also paid attention to her.

Lu Xi didn't care and followed their wishes for some time, because everything will come to fruition later.

Her parents still didn't really care about her as a person but as a product and a puppet.

In OG world it was the same, fake was favored since she was so accomplished, but now fake is a child and can't do anything against adult Lu Xi. Her actions are childish and provocative and she is always hostile. Tbh questionable actions for Lu Xi since she is an adult and the girl is a child still who lacks education. But anyway. When Lu Xi grew up and was praised she retired after winning a dance competition announcing she no longer wants to be her mother's puppet, which created a rift between husband and wife for years, she wanted her to complete what she failed to achieve. While the father wanted her to follow his path. She again chose medicine and was already admitted and said - you never cared to know, I chose the college entrance exam just to experience life.

The fake daughter was found guilty of plagiarism (since she played Beethoven as her own music, essentially this world didn't have him). And after the shame she was sent away abroad, so no beautiful career for her.

And no perfect daughter for the parents, she was known and brought them fame and honor, but not in a way they wanted her to. So yeah.

World 6. 

Weird script that somehow should have tested FMC

In this script she is a chosen illegitimate daughter to be sent to her fiance, this is a bloody old-fashioned script, OG FMC is happy with how it turned out. Lu Xi died several times when she wanted to avoid following the script, but returned at different time nodes, the last one her killing the guy who tortured OG person and this is how she proved she can do it and her mentality is strong....

World 7.

Apocalypse. Because Lu Xi is so accomplished in tech, she used her time to learn Sanda for protection, she knew the doomsday will come. She was again a part of reconstructed family. Biological father, stepmother and a sister (non-related), but her father treated the girl better than her of course. She is the girl who stole her script in this world (OG supposed to be a heroine). She also had a spring in her bracelet that the girl took away.

This time she starts early and prepares. later the apocalypse arrives. Two words - she comes fro her grandparents (I skipped the most of this arc, since it was whatever, and have no idea what happened to them, she took them away and later spent her time at the safe base in the lab, no mention of her grandparents since they arrived).

She met with some guys along the way - one of them is called Yun Xia. Which I guess is supposed to be the spliced ML? He appeared in the celebrity arc as a minor character that FMC saved. Nothing serious. Now it's the same name and face.

Anyway they created their own place full of order, she found her father who was a zombie and used him for tests. I mean... she never learnt these things, it was described as if she is so knowledgable about it, while it is different from her previous surgeries and physicians etc. Anyway she experimented and reliazed her spring has power to cure but not entirely? At least can be used for vaccine. SO they spent like a decade, not to mention their base was the best and msot organized and orderly she also helped with semi-finished vaccines that were useful. 

The step-sister who survived as a woman of a man from another base came around decade later, she was thrown out and among other her skills were much lower even if she had a head start, by this time Lu Xi's father gained most of his original human look back, so when she arrived Yun Xia (ML) showed her the way to the lab and Lu Xi let her meet the father that was pushed to feed zombies by her and she was infected and became a conscious zombie herself. What a fate.

What a pipe dream. So Lu Xi became the savior who helped people to reclaim the land and defeat the virus. Applause.

World 8.

Real daughter again, but now Lu Xi is the mother. Her child was kidnapped and changed by the mistress. OG wife never ceased to look for her daughter, but found her pretty late. This time she took her home earlier and taught her well. Fake/illegitimate daughter is reborn, she knows her fate and wants to change it, when her mother returned with her biological daughter she was pushed aside (since Lu Xi knew that she was an adult in a kid's body). Her husband thought he was so smart but he was promiscuous outside. This time Lu Xi created some buzz online catching her famous husband cheating and while she was taking her daughter away he was out there having fun, which helped her fight for company and custody during their divorce. The husband seeing the company falling down due to the social impact (what a fantasy) decided to take away all the assets like houses and cars etc. Lu Xi took the company and of course led it to suceed becoming a legend. The husband liked the new and hated the old, blamed his failure on everyone around him, since he somehow managed to lose a lot fo many on investments... no comment how a guy who led a huge company with so many ssets managed to get to this point. Possible but still kinda weird. So his mistress (fake daughter mother) escaped eventually with another man lol, the fake daughter stayed since she had nothing and chose her father for money. They moved from good place to worser and cheaper places.

World 9.

Withered Imperial Rose. Interstellar world, she was betrayed by family and her twin-sister who took her identity as famous Imperial Rose, a warrior who chose to settle down and teach and marry and not follow her previous career path. While wounded real Lu Xi was thrown to garbage planet.

The managed to build a spaceship okay? And they landed on a closest planet. She saw the tournament of schools was coming up so she joined as part of some backwards school.

How no one recognized her even if she always wore sunglasses beats me. Her face is everywhere.

So they defeated every school and she won single-handedly the last final and exposed her twin sister also announcing she will put her to trial. Actually because Lu Xi was part of the military the trial in my opinion should have happened despite wanting her or not, her parents should be brought to justice too despie any type of verbal distancing. So the way the mother was untouched was baffling, while father was flogged? Lol what. The twin sister was thrown to a garbage planet.

Oh yeah in this world OG Lu Xi had a fiance but he didn't notice the change, well, he noticed but did not dig deeper, which I think is completely stupid, the fact she has a twin must have been know, so where is the twin while new "Lu Xi" can't even pilot her mecha well. So stupid.

World 10. 

Exiled Princess. European ambience.

Ugh... don't get me started.

In this world the church has the power - you get it? The criticism of church. And the monarchy is a mascot. Also the belief is the darker the hair, the worse it is. Ai No Kusabi where are you?

OG Lu Xi has black hair but she also has open mind, she tried to fight against the dogmatic church but failed and was exiled. 

Her new land is the full of black oil. I was like - how do you gonna process it? Her land is also barren, she used her money to recruit some people at first, so she used to build houses and promised land, which helped her to recruit more people, from rent etc she started to receive the money. While everyone who came by at first were supposed to be quite poor though... Anyway, her small town grew, becoming a city (where she get so much metal producing a lot of stuff, especially engines that worked with gas).

People arrived with prospects, since everyone was treated well and equally. She also had good policies and people reclaimed the land etc. She called it industrial revolution.

Then she also produced guns. Again, where did she get all thematerials is unknown, she's talented, get over it. It is explained, but I felt it is quite perfunctory explanation.

Anyway, at the most peak part she is called back, she returns, frames the Pope for attempting to murder the Queen and strikes a deal with him, letting him return and say - everything church said was a lie, there are no gods, they created it to manipulate public and control people.

He wanted to live so he did as he was told.

Convenience is that many believed in it............... I mean try to convince a brainwashed person.

So she became a Queen herself, introduced her technology, at least because of this people believed that she can bring them mroe than some god figure.

And she became the last queen, letting people choose the ruler from among other people....................

Won't it create other conflicts? So shallow.

World 11.

Short story about the sister-in-law or favored daughter in the family who because of her pursuit of a young man ended up with soiled reputation and ended up lonely.

Although graded A, it didn't feel like it. her family truly loved her. Now Lu Xi also helped them improve their lives through things she knew and could do. This is suddenly more of a gourmet part, because Lu Xi cooked a lot...and I'm like when did she became so knowledgable in cooking again?

Anyway, since it's a very fast and shallow we move really fast.

Lu Xi sometimes goes to the mountains, does and cooks things and then sells them, allowing their family to live a little better. Though their entire family is said to be not good, but she has three brothers, except the second one who is a live-in son-in-law who never contacted them (why include such a character that never appears lol), so two brothers are quite enough for support.

Anyway, her third brother returns from the army with a friend who is Yun Xia.

The previous guy whome OG chased decided to pursue Lu Xi for a bit, but was disappointed, found this part weird. Just why someone whould start regretting their choice all the time, she had so many men in each arc regretting how they separated. This time too. But the thing is, in OG plot he has a girl at home he likes. So wtf?

Yun Xia and Lu Xi were again together in this world. The last part is described again in few words that she led her family to prosperity etc.

World 12. 

Cultivation. Author used the same plot with someone replacing the OG Lu Xi, same as with Imperial Rose of interstellar. She was a guarded girl cultivator of her parents, but when she went down to experience they met a lose cultivator who later replaced Lu Xi with the magic weapon of "thousand faces" the senior brother supported this plan since he didn't want to be punished by the master and his wife who were the ones who took care of him from a nobody to a disciple.

Lu Xi was trapped in Demon Swamp and spent time cultivating there, while finding treasures on corpses of others. One of those was a space which had a lot of good stuff and she could grow herbs there. One of those became purple bamboo she later cultivated as her weapon.

She decided to cultivate a different technique called a thief, which gave her invisibility and other perks.

Eventually she came out and many years passed by.

She used a different school (again same tactic as previous interstellar story) and joined a competition (god, just a copy-paste) where she defeated the pair of scums. Revealing the truth of that time.

The good part is that her parents felt something was wrong with their daughter, but they couldn't put a hand on it, but not only the fake deceived them, but the good desciple and even the sect's master who used "Lu Xi" for prestige, while fake "Lu Xi" did not achieve the same result as OG.

The only cute part is that bamoboo who gained conscience and the scene of him in hot springs, not the novel, but the in my imagination a bamboo thrashing and having fun in the hot springs is cute. Novel just mentioned that it had fun in hot springs.

So yeah, she cultivated, revealed the truth, left with her parents and then when the time was up she came back to the system.

Sigh.

World 13.

Because she wanted a "vacation" she entered another A-world. Tbh there is no difference between them, just because she is exhausted or sometimes wounded is considered bad, but in a low-level world of a celebrity she tried to off herself and had wounds upon arrival, so what's the difference.

Anyway, ancient plane, she is a bullied widow, after her husbands death her husband's family eyed her house and land (have no idea how this happens) so she was robbed of everything and sent to another man to be a stepmother. Her mother-in-law did not treat her well, so she worked for two years before a flood, during escape she fell ill and was left behind.

This is where Lu Xi arrives, she spent the winter in mountains with her son, because her stats in physique were great she recovered, treated it as vacation and mountains fed them well. So they followed to the capital, she found the family that was ready to marry in her good husband, revealed the story, then beat the gond and went through trial explaining what they did to her and asked for divorce.

The scholar was sacked by the wealthy family, divorced and his life plummetted again, while his entire family relied on hm, him trying to earn did not allow to concentrate on studying and he failed the exams and had to return home.

Lu Xi surprisingly met with Yun Xia (he was presiding her trial) in this world and they married and had a happy life, raising her son together. Again described in few passages. 

World 14.

Goddes of Light. She is a saintess, but was tripped by her fellow saintess, who used her brother as a honey trap, so Lu Xi (Lucy) left the temple, fell for the trap and was devastated by betrayal, she is a reincarnation of the goddess so this betrayal left a scar on her and the gods fell. At least her for sure.

Like where is the S-rank difficulty?

Lu Xi just stopped associating with the girl who tried to hurt her and exposed the guy.

She again found Yun Xia (5th and last piece) who is the reincarnation of God of Darkness. They lived together happily, changed the world for the better and returned to their realm where spent.. mtl says 100k years. So if the s-rank comes from time spent then ok. She and her lover were together for so long. How they did not tire from each other haha

And that's it, she completed her tasks, retained her memories and returned to her world. And also found Yun Xia in it. The end.

I can appreciate the effort but this is shallow and hard to praise.

Maybe because the excitement aspect is so lacking?

Mainly these plots tell you "been there, done that" some even done more than that.

Was the technical aspect interesting? Not, I think some novels have done it better. Like my best of all is With the God of knowledge in hand, I own the world (me personal interpretation, since the one on NU is something about learning god) but it's from author of FOD with MC being a genius, yet the arcs are interesting, some I'd call innovative and unexpected. It made me surprised. Here I was not surprised.

Is the story interesting? I find it lackluster, since we just concentrate on one thing, often re-using same material in the same novel (like interstellar and cultivation worlds have the same story, but other stories are basically same situation but from a bit different angle).

Also what comes to OG characters, some do not deserve what came upon them, some tbh do.

As for the FMC, she is a remarkable character, but is she the only one like that? I often review Lan Gui and the way I think her FMC is basically the same character over and over again, but at least the way she is always about "let's stek one step at a time" and doesn't make it sound like things progress with unrealistic rates. Or the novel anout Heng Yu, not to mention that she herself is remarkable and knowledgable, but the plots is touching.

Because arcs are so short it all seems quite shallow and rushed. So what is the point?

RATE: 2/5.

[ANIME] DAN DA DAN - ダンダダン (Season 1, 2)

This was whacky, camp, ridiculous and fun. It was the best. I haven't enjoyed anime this much in a very long time.

My first thought when watching was - what was author smoking? Or my imagination is just not enough to realize where all this craziness and boldness comes from.

The story begins with quite random acquaintance between Ayase Momo and Takakura Ken, whom she (and all of us) later calls Okarun, while she does not believe in UFO he in turn does not believe in ghosts and they challenge each other and what a coincidence both meet UFO and supernatural the same evening in chosen spots for each other. She awakens her superpowers and he is posessed by an evil spirit. What a development (if you don't read any summary it comes as a crazy surprise). And that's just like a basic overview of things that happened, because it has so much more.

I mean, the type of unexpected reactions, turns etc. this anime takes is kinda insane to me. I never knew what to expect from it, I just sat to enjoy the experience. It is fun to watch how it goes wild in all sorts of directions. It's not serious at all, but it manages to have some really good moments and Momo with Okarun don't have the usual romantic development , but they manage to have one of the best on-screen chemistry and romance I've seen in a while. They even have all the tropes others have, but they manage to make it work.

Truly iconic.

The animation style was fantastic, it's bold bright and fun. The plot is ridiculous, but funnily it had touching moments and was relatable in many ways. 

Oh yeah, few words about music. I say and will repeat that I find the most of anime music (OPs and EDs) quite generic nowadays, but I have no idea how they worked it out with performers, but 'Dan da Dan' was somehow included in the lyrics and made as a great point in both OPs. Not to mention the songs were good overall. And the exorcism one, damn.

Note: One topic that surprised me was SA. It's not truly a direct one that was discussed, but it was implied I think, I saw many discussed it.

Spoilers but the scene with aliens who look like office workers remind you of sexual harassment that is often present at work. Even before that or during the school days Momo's first scene is her break-up with bf who surely objectifies her, not to mention he portrays all the toxic traits in one go, only seeing her value in her body, beats her up when she does not agree. Other boys who heard the rumor created by Aira believe it quite easily and the rumor spread far and wide that Momo would sleep with anyone and what would guys want to do? Of course they would one a bit of that. The other scene with hot springs is kinda disturbing also. I don't have the statistics, but again assaulted by some middle-aged dudes, are we surprised. But I think it indeed serves another purpose too, showcasing that the entire Kito family is the local snake and is up to no good. 

Momo's ideal type is Ken Takakura, funnily he is the silent, strong type and she gets Ken Takakura, who is also silent yet strong in a way, but just looks like a nerd.

I will be waiting for new season to come, because it really clicked with me and I enjoyed it a lot. I'll be honest nothing is as easy as putting down an anime these days for me, I had a longest pause in watching any, now they all look the same, nothing touches my heart and everything feels cliche. Sometimes I feel like I'm simply old, but DanDaDan made me remember what it feels like to enjoy anime once again.

RATE: 10/10.

[ANIME] SPY x FAMILY (Season 1, Part 1,2) (2022)

This was wholesome. I mean the topic and settings aren't funny at all, you can draw the parallels. But SxF managed to kind of balance the comedy part and not dig too deep into the true drama of the subject.

It has such a great exploration of the "found family" trope. Where the two people (because Anya is the happiest to have a home) become part of this family for a goal. Just watch them gaslight each other when things are weird for sure, but they let it slide like it's nto big deal. They even constantly mentioned that this family is a sham family. And yet they still follow heart more than cold logic. Basically the entire main cast lives with secrets they must protect, except for Anya.. no wait, she does protect her secret as a telepath. But compared to others it's nothing.

But I was surprised how heartfelt and wholesome it was.

The only thing is it gets a bit old with time. We have a main goal of getting Anya in this prestigious school because only in this way we can organically contact a certain person, but all the side quests are basically have the same pattern of being quite ridiculous and then we somehow make it work.

Anya mainly saves the day to me, because she is a kid with a great storyline a lot of time spent on her and her antics. She is the unexpected element in this one. Also the fact that animation is quite cute and her seiyuu does a fabulous job helps a lot.

[Chinese BG novel] 不孝子瑟瑟发抖[快穿] by 兰桂 / Unfilial son trembles in fear

This author has been reviewed not once, but this time I'm truly disappointed.

Summary: Yun Xi is a demonic cultivator who travels the world to help with her tribulations, collects merits by helping women to re-live their lives and punish their unfilial descendants. Those who disrespect and don't cherish their mothers now treamble in fear and regret their life choices.

#QT, mom system

The most disappointing part in these is that, they are completely nothing new, like a recycled stories that we've seen a ton of times.

The second disappointing part is that author even stops any attempts at being interesting. It's the same plot and same "unfilial children" everyone acts the same and the story progresses the same way.

There is no value in the QT stories when the main character has nothing to do to change their fate, while those she abandoned continue to be dog-kin plasters that continue to pester FMC with the same rhethoric. And each arc it is the same thing over and over again, the same plot but just different settings. Even if FMC changes the fate of OG in the first chapter, but I think at least change something more.

This reminds me of a comment under a different novel that also reflects my thoughts. It is cool to see the revenge story of original character, who fought with teeth and claws instead of coming back and facing people and getting revenge on people who did not comit anything yet.

But to escape this Lan Gui always makes the "villains" act as the worst scum ever who never change their ways. This makes the story feel like you watch the same plot on repeat and nothing changes. I wish she had some changes, but because of the settings the story must follow what they set at the beginning - each person has deep hatred towards their children who made them suffer unfairly, so no matter what Yun Xi must avenge it. But to conform this idea no one changes their ways and stay scumbags.

I only read 3 arcs, with the 4th arc I started skipping large parts of texts because it led to nowhere and nothing was missed.

Arc 1. The hard-working mother in the 70's. Worked hard for her children but each child is more selfish than another, so they always demanded their mother to divide everything evenly. But she brought up all her children but they still did not have enough. But when they were able to work for themselves everyone thought she is a shrew mother who is not presentable, disregarding any feelings.

Yun Xi who arrived separated from her children and went to work, so she slowly advanced with her career, she lived a better life, but her story became known to others in the village, in the city etc. So they were shamed. And because all four had something to look for her several times the impression of these children worsened. Of course their lives were ruined by these events, like losing jobs because of what happened etc. Grandchildren also did not respect their elders and despised them for not sticking to Yun Xi who became a big shot and could ease their life while they have to be poor.

This is the part that I found annoying in any arc and it's not the first novel where they use the same tactic. People who are against FMC always ends up badly. And the better FMC lives the worse their reputation becomes and Yun Xi because of teh settings is unforgiving. And all the children (despite them being adults actually) never change and only live in regret like "what is they sucked it up to Yun Xi".

Arc 2. Rich CEO mom. Very cliche story of unfilial son who found himself a true love and always went against his mother, trying to prove his gf is not for his money. He didn't want to be a heir and live an ordinary life and that his mother is just obsessed with money and doesn't understand anything at all. Yun Xi granted him his wish and disoned him, so from riches to pauper, which eventually revealed the faces of his gf who became his wife, his own and everyone around. Like a story where everyone saw him as a crazy son who thought he is a big shot who means something without his mother and doesn't realize the significance of his mother not truly being harsh on him, he is the sole heir.

So yeah Yun Xi basically brought her company to new heights, but eventually gave it to the country, while her son and the daughter-in-law tried to reconnect many times and failed, eventually getting into troubles because they wanted to harm Yun Xi as they did in the previous life.

Fun fact of previous life, her son was abandoned by his true love wife when he went bankrupt since he had no idea how to manage a company.

Arc 3. Apocalypse. Unfilial son who considered his mother a drag during the travel, while actually he took his friends home who squandered all the stockpiled food she prepared for the two of them. But because he was physically stronger and thought he was a big deal he ordered her around when everything at home was eaten by him and his friends and they set on a path to a base, but he pushed her to feed zombies feeling she is a drag.

New Yun Xi separated from her son eventually, while she also figured the rain in this world has demonic energy she used to cultivate and become the strongest, she had strength, lightning power and spatial space she had originally.

Nothing new, the son always being sarcastic how she is a drag, after he failed to push her to zombies, because of course he is so vicious, they separated and no matter how he cried he of course never took him back, she broke his knee so he would be a drag for others.

Boredom.

Really boring. Disappointed because this should be a more mature author with years of writing.

I decided to put it down after 3 arcs. It's a first for me when it comes to Lan Gui.

Honestly, FMC is always so good, but how can she be bad, she is the FMC, but she has no connection to these children and she just pays them back, that's all. I see no meaning in such stories, after al they're not even entertaining. The plots are very cliche and I've read smething similar. Like something called "Good mother system" or smth, but I'm not sure it was written by Lan Gui.

Also, why put it under "romance" tag, Yun Xi has no one in her life. If someone is in a relatiosnhip outside FMC it's not a romance in my eyes. It's just an attempt not to put into a less popular category.

[Chinese BG novel] 天生大佬[娱乐圈] by 蝎言蝎语 / She was born to be a big brother of entertainment

Accidentally xenophobic.

I decided to review this novel after reading, just to showcase another xenophobic trash. It's not fully xenophobic, I ust have no idea if author themselves realized their actions what they wrote (at one point their praised Hollywood system and the star treatment, which showcased to me they know little about Hollywood at all), from another side they used a balck and white person for very stereotypical roles in one part. Speechless.

You won't know it's garbage, it didn't start like one but eventually you reach a certain point of the story and realize "wow, this is kinda racist" and the more you read the more confusing it becomes.

I wish authors would just stay in the lane of writing their small online novels, because stepping on others to highlight yourself just to condemn the same behavior in your writing is hypocritical. I'm surprised this story has a pretty high ranking on JJ. But I suppose many are okay with what they see.

The story is about Jian Yiyu. FMC comes from the apocalyptic world (at the beginning we know little about it, before FMC reveals that only few bases only in China survived in her world), she does not follow the usual script of starved ghost who survived famish and is not a foodie persona which is abundant in such articles, she is more open-minded and a bit childish about her curiosity about the world she now wants to experience, since her world lacked everything this peaceful time has. But she is not naive or gullible or stupid. The chance to film in a movie and a promise of expanding her worldview she agrees to shoot a movie, which lets her enter the entertainment industry this novel is about.

My main dissatisfaction with this novel (few actually). Objectification. Although it's the fault of the MTL, but if you took a shot every time the FMC is described as "sexy" you'd die of poisoning. Author tries to downplay it by making Jian Yiyu to choose only significant roles, which do not portray her as stupid bimbo or just use her for hype since her figure is so sexy~. But still uses so much time to describe her beauty. The problem of beauty in Asia (like anywhere else, but still) is known globally. Because of it I can't find a lot of redeeming qualities of Jian Yiyu outside of her beauty and body. Outside her personality that is ready to help which is good and love for life and innocence of kids she wants to protect, I have no idea what else to praise. She is always described by others how great she is, how stunning she is, that she is a great actress, but outside of her martial arts that ppl praised for 100 times, I haven't seen at least one good portrayal of her great acting. It's the classic example of tell, but don't show. She has some really good moments actually, but they drown in the praise at other times.

LOGIC. Yiyu openly uses her strength which is beyong normal and no one says a thing or doubts it. I bet you anything she'd be locked up in a second. Logic of many other things is to be desired.

Shallow. Characters, plot, quite everything is pretty shallow. Although it's an entertainment industry story, but surprisingly it's shallow overall. Dialogues, barrages, movie scripts are mentioned as ideas or never mentioned at all, variety shows are lacking etc. Also what author doesn't want to describe will be fast-forwarded. The writing style is mostly meh.

Xenophobia (accidental?). My biggest one. Did not start as such, but managed to touch upon racism and I have many questions. In several instances when other are racist and Yiyu has some cool comeback or smth, to showcase that she is above it. In short when authors decided to showcase how popular Jian Yiyu is with her virality she filmed in several blockbusters, one was about vampires (which again was "just a movie about vmpires" with no further details) where a main actress was racist towards Yiyu and used slurs, but not only to Yiyu. A black guy put a bomb in a car used for filming (head full of questions), which was directed at the main actress but detonated when Yiyu was filming (?), of course she and her super strength saved the day pushing the car far away where it blew up. So the guy did it because the actress was racist towards him (I mean.. come on) and he retaliated (that's a murder sir). Doesn't this remind you of stereotypes about black people? The main actress was fired, later when re-shooting happened she appeared again, was arrested for trespassing, but also was found in drug posession. I kid you not, this stereotype isn't even funny.

Auhor also tried to create a buzz online in her novel, but because they're so bad at dialogues it was just so random. Doesn't fully tell you the picture of how it really is. 

Even a small detail how Jian Yiyu never liked eating Western food. 

And also Yiyu expressed she doesn't want to have an English name and her original name has such a great meaning. That's great actually. I have no idea if Chinese will choose an English name nowadays, but I thought they used original names nowadays. Ppl butcher names of foreigners all the time, not China-exclusive. Easiest way to handle is to have introductory video with correct pronunciation.

Unoriginality. Author had no idea of their own I think. The plot of rifters movie might have been taken from somewhere since author later used basically existing movies to fill the gaps. The killer movie with ML basically has the vibe of John Wick. The Vampire movie, with no plot even mentioned. A zombie move, with no plot. Actor's name was Nolan Statham. A movie about superheroes that is decades old - basically Avengers (note: novel was written in '18, which marked the decade of Avengers, authors said that their novel superhero movies earned less and less and wanted to use Yiyu for buzz..as if she became some international celeb, but we all know that the last Avengers movies were box office hits, ironic).

Note: There is a scene of zombie movie promotion, large-scale prank with actors in zombie make-up. Yiyu told everyone to run and for some reason ppl panicked. I thought this was stupid, because I'm sure ppl will not run when seeing zombies, with Halloween culture of US, even me who sits an ocean apart knows that ppl won't think about an outbreak like her panicky ass. It's good she didn't hurt anyone for real. One actor got a concussion because of her, FMC for you.

The saving grace of this novel is the irony of self-criticism? I'm surprised how such authors can pour a lot out, but manage to criticize their own industry through and through. So confusing.

We all know that each country's entertainment industry is unclean. People use their positions to get benefits. A lot of exploitation happens. And author went hard on almost everything. Through several instances criticized a lot.

Another contestant on Dance with the stars revealed more and more and was more and more suggestive in her moves (again, sexy dances that made FMC famous in the first place), while Yiyu of course did not follow the "path of flesh" and danced with connotation.

This is the only worthy phrase of the entire novel to me that described the situation (but I doubt this one belongs to author too)

"She chose this method to attract and gain attention, which is very short-sighted. It will be difficult in the future for her to put on the clothes she took off so easily."

Of course it's all shallow and described how the career of this woman was ruined and she basically landed only notices where she needed to wear revealing clothes.

Through another actor and a child star they created a buzz around child stars exploitation. Tbh I feel like authors are naive when they create their main characters as if they came to this world to "fix all problems". If it wasn't for her who would expose those unscrupulous filming sets (no need to mention she managed to film several hours of footage being on that set like nobody noticed a girl with a phone, I bet she was a ninja).

Water armies and internet troll, discrediting someone's reputation. I forgot in which year they rectified Weibo for this reason, because it became truly unruly.

On another instance where the vampire movie needed investment author through Yiyu praised the Hollywood system, but criticised how home investors like to shove people in and change the script disregarding the result or original script that already took shape. 

I put this under a question mark because you can throw dirty water in both directions. Doesn't excuse you. I just saw no need to ever mentioning the Hollywood movies and US at all. It didn't add anything, only worked in the opposite direction for me.

I think I read other more compelling stories that handled such instances better and were not so shallow.

I think I'm all over the place with this one. But I just don't want to go on a re-telling journay to pinpoint where I think things did not work. It just generally didn't work for me. And I managed to read like 52 chapters (out of 88).

It's one of those novels that started more or less promising, I liked that the FMC wasn't a naive girl who thought only about food. But later she participated more and more, everything was described in passing like a shallow puddle and did not matter at all. Plus the problematic content that could as well not exist at all. She got her portrayal with a halo around her head that is always right. She used strength to prove a point but not always was right, but it was never mentioned. The story wants her to be an actress but it also is all over the place and like a pipe dream. And because of the way it's written I got bored.

[Chinese BL novel] 豪门亲爸在娃综缺德爆红 by 忘书 / The wealthy father's bad behavior became popular on children's variety show

Summary: Tang Can transmigrates into a novel of a fake and true young masters, while his son is a future villain, while the stepson of his "brother" is future protagonist.

Tang Can as someone with an education loves kids and cute things and his son is not only cute, but the best baby in the world. And he wants to pour all his love into this kid.

The small DengDeng had no idea why his abusive father suddenly changed tactics and became musch better, but as a smart ZaiZai he was going to expose his father on the kid variety show that his father signed up for. But the slow affectionate attack from his doting father melted the 3yo heart.

The only thing the both did not expect is how the other father suddenly re-appeared.

#: swapped babies plot, wealthy family infighting, twists and turns, unreliable narrator

tw: mention of DV and SA

This has so much going on, if you like twists and turns that never end but that don't have much to it except entertainment. I personally got tired of it by the end, since there was too much going on. But I indeed liked one of the main ideas.

Another point to like was probaly the MC, but to me not exactly he as a person but his ability to bicker.

In real eduation you won't continue to inflate DengDeng by praise when his state was stabilized from the previous trauma, it's good thing that Tang Can also had moments of laughter at his own son. I don't wait from a novel like this to be realistic.

The romantic line also suffers from the most common trait, it's lust first, but some emotions later (though where they came from is unknown). But because of ML I shaved off another star, not because he's a cliche, but how story treated him. And also the way MC was thirsty for ML was off putting.

For the reason of my general dissatisfaction we need spoilers~

/SPOILERS/

To make it simple I didn't appreciate that MC was quite often thirsty for ML's body, but there is a part that I actually didn't like at all. The thng is it is described as ML having a reaction from some rowdiness, but later we find out that he was not only a victim of DV, but also SA and prescription drug abuse. The novel would take a dark turn if it explored more into ML, because he talked about shame and other stuff (when Tang Can and he had a fiesty night when both were drugged) and later when he did not outright say things, but the implication was about his childhood. While in reality it is possible for victims to have some sexual deviations. Aka getting hard from pain. The most low-class to me was that to me it read like a butt of the joke, although we don't know the details yet, but the way MC treated it all was written poorly.

The twist and turns that I talked about. And why I got tired of them. Let's make it true and false section.

False: Everyone thought that it was Tang Can who drugged Huo Jingyuan, at least that's the legend.

True: Both were drugged, including Tang Can who was sent by his newfound family.

False: Everyone thought that Tang Can as a true master still lakced class etc. but Tang Yichen ("fake") was still popular among the crowd.

True: There is no true and false script at all, but everything was thought out by the Tang couple, they found the other Tang family and scripted it all just to send their own son away, while sending Tang Can to then infamous Huo Jingyuan who was rumored to inherit his mother's mental illness. This is the only true twist that I liked, like it's all a ploy.

False: Huo Jingyuan and his mental illness.

True: ML got rid of the plot chains when he was a step away from being offed. He did not care about his husband and child, only wanted to provide for them, especially since he was disgusted by the previous Tang Can. He also had no illness, but again a plot by his own father. His mother was young and because of her beauty was exploited, the old Mr Huo (not the initially mentioned father Huo) made thw young woman mad and let the child fend for himself, later he let the boy return to the family and later trained him before Jingyuan felt the release from the plot. He came back and saw the changes in Tang Can.

False: Tang Can thought he transmigrated into the plot

True: He later remembers that it was his life but somehow many of the events were changed in his head. Tbh unknown about the period of few years when he supposedly changed and who is the other Tang Can. But he lived in this world, it was him whose father was gambler who pushed his own wife into serivng other men for favors. Later when his mother "ran away" (another story twist) and his father was in prison he was taken care of by the Tang family, basically working his ass off all the time. This is why who knows if his life as kindergarten teacher even happened. Later his family agreed to the whole shebang with true/fake young masters and he escaped after being sent to the bed of a man.

Another big twisty-twisty section is about Tang Can himself.

So Tang Yichen, the fake young master who tried to use this show to step on Tang Can and showed off his married life with husband Gu and stepson ShengSheng. But Tang Can changed and no longer was a pushover, plus he had a husband on his side and a powerful aid to deal with Yichen who jumped around all the time. And it's the tang family who revealed that Tang Can falsified the paternity test, but this did nto work when it was revealed Yichen had plastic surgery )meaning he new his blood type etc prior).

But along with Yichen the actions of his husband were weird. And he happened to be less described pervert who actully did not appear much, only mentioned.

He was madly in love with his brother-in-law and that led him to commit many crimes, insluding killins wife and also the mother of Tang Can died because of him. His wife died in birth leaving ShengSheng, she came from Chu family where except her mother, no one was alive. Her brother and father died in accident and her brother left no descendant (or did he?).

At that time gambling father Tang offered his wife to brother Chu, because he wanted his wife to get pregnant from a wealthy person. She indeed got pregnant and gave birth to Tang Can. But before everything else she disappered, others blamed her for running away, but she was taken by traffickers and the instigator is of course the Gu person. She died on the way by jumping, she never wanted to abandon her child. 

Everyone's life experience is honestly so dramatic. And I mean every single character who matters. MC, ML, Dengdeng, original protag, original FL.

Yishen and his husband were main disturbances, but eventually apprehended for their crimes. Basically those in Huo family, both Tang families, Gu and OG FL father and few other fodders.

Although I just summaized it, but I got tired from all the revelations because they never ended.

/-/

Te novel like any other suffered from word count, so too much content is watery. Funnily, at other times I felt liek we do not give much attention to things that matter. Like we're rushing and have no time for dwelling.

Although I think it started more or less promising but to me it lost its' luster in a while.

RATE: 2/5.