This historic Chinese webnovel starts strong. Our female lead (Chu Lian) transmigrates from modern times unto one of the key players in a novel a few days before her marriage. She doesn’t have a magical system or the host’s memories. Worse, she never finished reading the novel. This Lian rejects the original plot and decides to respect her upcoming husband and try her best to live a carefree life of luxury. ONLY plot twist, He Changdi/Salang has regressed and remembers a past where his evil wife pursued her relationship with Xiao Bojain destroying his life (and many others) so he pours out their nuptial wine, curses her, and enlists in the northern army days after their marriage. The mashup premise is fun and act one is good. It drops you right into the action without a lot of explanation or buildup and moves at a quick pace. It plays on a lot of the usual tropes, but it is interesting because readers get to see multiple ways of dealing with a scenario. Chu/He Lian knows many of the early antagonists and plans counter offensives, but she laughs off much of the emotional turmoil since she is not invested in the hosts relationships and only retaliates against those who attempt to actively hurt her. Meanwhile He Salang is traumatized by nightmares and doesn’t wait for people to prove they are the same as before. We can compare the paths and results.
Meanwhile these inquiries, emotions, and philosophies are lightened by comedic exaggerations of expected tropes. For example, our leading lady often uses her cooking skills to gain favor and fortune so there are heavy food descriptions. This pads the length of chapters, but also makes people curious about the cuisine being described. The current food and military rations are described as so bland, one-note, mushy, sickly sweet, or otherwise awful that by comparison her food appears to be a form of mind-control catnip. Crowds will surround her anytime she is cooking. And if you don’t find it funny the first-time people obsessively scarf her food from the table or steal her snack bags—by the third time you realize this is a self-aware embellishment. It’s not taking itself too seriously which helps given all the melodramatic elements (time travel, body swaps, royal politics, faked pregnancies, assassination attempts, ridiculous rumors, etc.). The main characters skillfully weaves her way out of traps laid by jealous madams, concubines and peers—but this garners her attention which lands her in almost as much trouble as the inciting incident would have. Some events in the world seem fated as they cannot be avoided despite her efforts to cut ties with certain parties and locations. While claiming she wants to be lazy, FL slowly becomes a business tycoon with the use of anachronistic media blitzes, special trading practices/routes, PR management skills, and advanced knowledge.
Again, I really appreciate the first act (adjustment to the world and He household). Lian has very different goals regarding marriage, money, status, and responsibilities from the OGLian and her surrounding characters. It doesn’t make her better; it just means that she navigates events differently. She wants to cut ties with her old family not because of their lack of love for the host during childhood or even their current schemes—she just doesn’t want to pretend to be the old character. It’s a refreshing take on the standard better-to-be-a-orphan plot points. Lian is hindered by her poor dowry, surveilling spies as aides, and the shocking personality of Chandgi but she takes a rather positive personality approach to her change of circumstances. She focuses on what she can do instead of what she can’t. She tries to maintain some grace and attaches herself to characters that are kind or helpful instead. I like that her brother-in-laws are not terrible people and even her new grandmother respects her choices. So often in these drama, everyone is terrible… and that is not very realistic. It suffers some because there is no real tension or doubt about the FL success, but that is the genre expectation.
The second act (on the frontlines) is a bit more complicated. Under the guise of a medical condition that requires rare ingredients and a national war, circumstances are contrived so our male lead is forced to interact with our heroine. So far, he’s been disappointed that he’s failed to make Lian’s life harder and readers have only had occasional flashes of his activities. I was surprised that Changi remained sympathetic for the most part despite his tsundere personality and refusal to apologize for attempted murder. Yet the story was peppered with hints regarding his misery, being forced to watch innocent people suffer, and these bonds he had with side characters. It does take entirely too long for it to sink in that she behaves nothing like the original version did, but he eventually comes around. It’s not romantic but he does become less of a direct obstacle, they both try to find a new balance for their communication and goals, etc. There are a lot of injuries, abductions, and outside influences which force the change which is more believable than we fall in love instantly.
The third act (return home and separation of the branch family) is problematic. First it is repetitious. Every chapter introduces a new character or two to be jealous of Lian and Changdi. We repeat issues of embezzlement, inappropriate seduction, confronting rumors and staged deflowering scenes. We repeat descriptions even calling Lian an angry kitten a dozen times. We fixate on this new medication which makes her tired, hot, and horny which she is taking even though she didn’t ask for it or need it. The pace slows down dramatically. You would think that would be good because it allows for more nuance and detail, but it remains surface just takes much longer to solve issues. It is also rather inconsistent. For example, the grandmother has a complete personality flop. I’m not saying her own daughter shouldn’t be her favorite—but you don’t break every promise and feeling regarding someone who saved your kids’ lives, provided financial security, and raised your status in a moment. Also the ML who was broke and semi-incompetent suddenly switches to being crafty and fifteen steps ahead of our FL. Her servants stop being loyal and listening to her instructions. Some characters disappear. We still had subplots to explore and problems to resolve but we muddy events with backwards progress, repeated issues, and contradictions. I miss the reckless and capable lady from the start. Then it just sort of ends abruptly.
Honestly, it became a bit of a slog to read which led to more issues because these stories fall apart the more you consider them. You start focusing on all the toxic relationship elements in our love story. You wonder why the interesting support characters are underutilized. Why are none of the ladies have been instructed on arts, household management, cooking, or other survival skills? Overall, it’s a shame because there is some good stuff here beyond the wonky execution. The concept of a lucky star bringing good fortune to a family is a common folklore element which feels abandoned halfway through—like the food descriptions and independent nature of our heroine. If we had understood Xiao Bojian heritage as a motive for revenge and his obsession with power and value in any form earlier he would seem less like a cartoon villain. He can still be evil or trashy, just less cardboard thin. Similarly, if we saw Changdi’s relationships with others (like Prince Jin, General Qian, or Laiyue) and got his perspective on matters more then we might overlook his possessive tendencies, archaic perspectives on gender roles, and jealous nature because there is a balance. If it had focused on real communication struggles after the earlier misunderstandings, then the couple would have been a united front and shown growth which is good for a finale narrative. Instead the weak romance elements are mostly physical interactions without good emotional atmosphere. Parts of it feel very similar to Adorable Food Goddess; other reviewers mention Doomed to be Cannon Fodder instead.