Beautifully written and so interesting!!
Yet again, the slow trickle of chapters has dried up, leaving us with a veritable desert for the umpteenth time. In my opinion, this shows great disrespect for we who pay through the nose to read your stories. It's well past time to provide us with the entertainment we have paid well for. ...
You really have to be taking this into consideration cause I’m sure you know we pay before we able to read
Yea I rate it
Excellent story that was very well written. I was completely invested in the characters and what was going to happen next. I literally could not put it down!!!
Amazing plot .A book you should definitely check out
I loved this book!
There is seemed to be an issue in Chapter 76. From the Chapter 75, it jumped to Chapter 77. Some readers might not get the following scene on Chap 77 but I am now communicating with my editor about this. I’m just waiting for her reply. Thank you and I’m very sorry for the inconveniences!
I realy Hope the MF stops being so weak and stands up for herself.
I love this book. Can’t wait for the second part very well written if you’re looking for a great book, this is the one for you.
This story is obsessed with food, and I think that's the point. Every major emotional beat in these chapters is marked by something being eaten or cooked or withheld. Meng Wan hasn't seen meat in four or five months. The first time he tastes it, he cries. Not because it's the best food he's ever had — though it clearly is — but because eating meat is a luxury he thought he'd lost forever. When Chang Jinhua adds two more pieces of pork to his bowl without a word, that's the closest thing to a love confession in the entire passage. More powerful than any dialogue. The rendered pork fat. The dry-fried pork belly. The eight eggs Chang Jinhua boils and then hides one for Meng Wan. The pancakes with lard she makes for her son's journey. Even the rice husks she scatters for the chickens. Food is the language these characters use when they can't say what they mean. And then there's the grain versus money question. Chang Jinhua keeps all the grain for her son to eat while other families sell theirs for cash. "The grain we harvest is enough for my son and me to eat." This is a mother's calculus — survival over prosperity, her child over everything else. The father's eighty taels of silver are gone, spent on education, spent on hope. What remains is seventeen or eighteen taels and a son who might pass the exams or might not. The cloth wrapped around Meng Wan's face at the market is another symbol that haunts me. He's beautiful enough to attract danger, but he has to hide that beauty to survive. The villagers know something is different about him — the birthmark, the slave status, the fact that he doesn't quite fit — but no one can prove anything. The story keeps asking: what makes a person visible or invisible in this world? Your registration? Your family? Your body? Even the name matters. "Meng Wan" — the evening glow. Something beautiful that fades. Song Tingzhou asks about it specifically, and Meng Wan confirms it. The scholar notices the poetry in a name while the villagers only see a body to be used or discarded. That contrast isn't accidental.
Before reading this review, I had read a few others and thought it couldn't be all that terrible. Given its compelling antihero/revenge theme introduced early on, I expected something intriguing. However, instead of deepening the dark aspects, the story unexpectedly took a sharp turn into a romantic comedy. The darkness that was initially present in the first part of Volume 1 virtually vanished, leaving behind an overly generic, overpowered protagonist who accomplishes extraordinary feats, resembling countless reincarnation/teleported-to-another-world narratives that were popular at the time.
It wouldn't be such a problem if the overall plot or writing were enjoyable, but unfortunately, the author seems to rely heavily on descriptive prose, which can be engaging when it serves a purpose. But when a substantial portion is devoted to characters who make brief appearances or are mere retellings with excessive focus on their growth, it comes across as the author trying too hard to create interest, in my view.