Today, I am a substitute for your fiancee. Tomorrow, I’ll become your sister-in-law!
Mu Mingtang is the substitute of the male lead’s first love. After she lost her family, she was adopted by the Jiang family and eventually became engaged to the male lead, the Prince of Jin.
Understanding very well that she was only a substitute, she removed her claws and fangs and turned herself into an imitation of the Prince of Jin’s first love. She couldn’t speak or laugh as she wished, she was prepared to live in the shadow of another woman for her entire life… until one day, the real Miss Jiang returned.
The real Miss Jiang was reborn. When she learned that she was the male lead’s first love, she immediately returned to fight for her engagement and identity.
In order to please his first love, the Prince of Jin gave the substitute to the Prince of Qiyang, who had become a dying madman. She was just a low-quality fake, anyway. If she dared to anger his first love, he would turn her into a childless and powerless widow for the rest of her life.
Mu Mingtang, the target of their mockery, finally snapped: Okay, since you gave me to another man, I’ll make you bow and call me sister-in-law!
However, none of them expected the Prince of Qiyang, the God of War, to actually wake up!
—
Xie Xuanchen is the son of the late emperor. The whole world once trembled beneath his feet, but one day, for a reason unknown to even Xie Xuanchen himself, his nature suddenly changed. He became cruel and bloodthirsty, leaving his father with no choice but to pass the throne to his uncle.
Eventually, Xie Xuanchen was unable to resist the illness and fell into a coma.
When he woke up again, there was a beauty standing before his bed, looking at him in surprise. Then, for the sake of his domineering little princess, he revived his name as the God of War, reclaimed the throne, and united the world.
I once captured the world to satisfy my own ambition. Now, you are the reason for my ambition.
24 May 2023 Rating changed to 4 stars from 2 stars
1. Sigh. I AM SORRY, all the people who liked the previous review. I don't know what changed this time around but I liked it a lot more than I did the first time I read it. Maybe it was my headspace- I read this one while I was in the mood for rebirth/revenge dramas and this was clearly a romcom.
2. Anyway, I was in a more romcom-y mood when reading this, and I have to admit that it was pretty enjoyable. The antagonist I was so bothered about still faces a steep decline in common sense and brains, but I read more of the story this time around (I read less than I thought I did the last time) and she's like an insignificant part of it. The main part of the story is clearly two bickering teenagers who become more and more fond of each other as time goes by and they are adorable.
3. And okay, it's not like it's a unique story. But it's cute. The ML is a dramatic little shit with no shame. The FL is very practical and resilient. I spent most of the story looking forward to all scenes between the two of them because I shipped it.
4. Part of me still thinks the antagonist should get her own story, though. She went through some pretty rough shit in her past life, and there's plenty of potential for drama there. Too bad she's just incredibly dumb in this life.
**old reviews**
15 Jun 2021
@ch85 of novel translation (note; that's about chapter 30-ish of the actual novel)
1. As usual the GR app is the worst because it ate my review and it makes me mad but I'm still using it because my browser is overloaded. Sad circumstances all around.
2. Right. The protagonists and the main romance are pretty cliche. There are a few funny moments between them and I still hold out hope because of said funny moments but it's mostly just cliches. The female lead is bland and stock and occasionally sharp tongued but with very few teeth to back it up with. The male lead is almost entirely constructed out of cliches. There's barely any emotional weight to the story too, and that makes it relatively lifeless.
3. It's interesting how this is not even the first novel I've seen which emphasizes on the importance of military matters over scholarly matters and I'm starting to suspect there's cultural subtext I'm missing out here.
4. Having the northern barbarians treat the villainess as inferior because she is a Han is an interesting choice in today's political climate. Not an expert, but from whatever I see it feels a lot like the Indian excuse of "the Mughals once conquered us so we are justified in treating all Muslims shittily forevermore."
5. The villainess is BY FAR the most interesting character in the story with motivations which are complex and born out of both experience and cunning. In another book she would be the protagonist but I can see her becoming an increasingly shrill and ineffective supporting antagonist as time goes on. Shame.
This was a bit all over the place and we never really get a good feel for the original novel but it was still a good read. I loved MMT. She was smart and resourceful but never perfect. I like XXC but I wish we had gotten a couple flashbacks to him before the coma.
I felt like the antagonists got too many of the 100,000+ word count, though.
“When I almost couldn't live anymore, it was you who kept telling me to live. My life ended in the third year of Suihe. Now, every day, every year, I'm living for you.”
A nice and cute read. I enjoyed their dynamics very much. I always looking forward for their scenes together. Somewhere in between the author messed up his character but i'm glad that it turned to normal later on. I can't help but think that it would be a really nice tv drama of adapted.
this was a 5 star for 400 of the 589 chapters(the translation i was reading split the chapters), and then they lost me
For 400 chapters, Xie Xuanchen was like one of the best ML I have read. In terms of character. He had depth!! They gave him distrust, fear of abandonment, survivors guilt, compassion, maturity, you name it. He was so well rounded, and with his backstory, his characters made sense. Their relationship😭 He treated her so well and was so down bad like sooo down bad.
One of my favourite lines is "There is only one person in the world who can hurt me, and she is waiting for me at home."
urgh, I can't, just so good
and then chapters 400+ happened. You're hear wondering what changed?? Well ⚠️Minor Spoiler⚠️ they got together officially around chapters 400.
AND THE AUTHOR BUTCHERED HIM. personality? what's that? no, instead, he's a sex hungry bastard that DOESNT CARE IF SHE SAYS NO. WHY. And I see this happen with so many of these books. why is consent a foreign concept in this genre of Chinese literature.???
Like if you like your wife enough to want see a lot, then fine, but if you are doing her to the point of exhaustion and you know she will feel pain the next day, why force her the day before a big ceremony where her clothes weight a ton and she has to stand and bow a bunch of times and then you watch her struggle and smile to yourself all proud??? Like no regard for her comfort. Treating her like a piece of meat for you to enjoy when you want to. It was just disgusting. And the faking sick/injured was cute one time. After the first time, if he tried it again, then he can stay sick. I dont care. The boy who cried wolf and all that. I dont play around. Especially since he was truly sick when they met and ur gonna use her care for you as a weapon against her? absolutely not. It's so insensitive.
Sorry, I was just so upset. the plot was good, though.
In the plus column, I like how the regressor in this historic adventure is not our main characters but a side one (Jiang Mingwei) who fails to capitalize on her knowledge as a foil to our leading lady. Still, we get enough of her story to understand her motivations and resentments. I also really appreciate that allows for a digression where our main characters are not caught in the typical face slapping dramas and aphrodisiac subplots typical of the genre. The revenge elements don’t often work in that they seem unequal to the crimes but that is true to life. The couple itself is fine. Mingtang rolls with the punches of life pretty well and struggles with monetary spending. Xuanchen pretends to be sick to get out of arguments and gives zero fluffs about any threats. Their angsty issues and miscommunication problems get a bit of leniency considering they are just teenagers despite how much flack the ML gets for being old. You root for them to have happier times and it is easy to accept their codependency. In the minus column, the plot armor is too high. There really is no tension about deadly assassination attempts, strange diseases, rebellions, etc. They face all these issues and must negotiate with foreign powers and go to war—but they walk away from all these things with no damage or major conflicts. They are too OP. Most characters have two or three titles or names to juggle as they are mixed intermittently. Also several scenes or explanations are repeated multiple times adding to an already length word count. Further, they handled the transition to physical relations poorly, I’m not sure I agree with the base argument that military efforts are more important than intellectuals ones, and it really doesn’t step away from cliches.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
ML, Xie Xuanchen, Prince Qiyang later Prince An a.ka. The War God, was the rightful heir to the throne. However, because of a recurring manic attack, his father, the late Emperor, left the throne to his uncle. He was predicted to only last for a couple of years. He was awarded a wife by his cousin.
MC, Mu Mingtang, lost her family and was adopted by the Jiang family. She was to replace the real Miss Jiang and when I said replace, she was to imitate everything about Miss Jiang. She was engaged to Xie Xuanji. She was then awarded to Xie Xuanchen upon the return of the real Miss Jiang.
Xie Xuanjie, Prince Jin son of the current Emperor and Xie Xuanchen's cousin. He was the protagonist in the previous life according to Miss Jiang.
Jiang Mingwei is the real miss of the Jiang family. She was also the childhood sweetheart of Xie Xuanjie. She ran away with a prince from a neighboring country. She was later reborn and decided to reclaim what she thought was hers from Mu Mingtang, her substitute.
One of the readers mentioned that the true protagonist was Mu Mintang. In Jiang Mingwei's previous life, Xie Xuanjie was the Emperor and Mu Mintang was the Empress. Even though Xie Xuanjie had lots of consorts and concubines, Mu Mintang was still number one in his heart; the reason Jiang Mingwei proclaimed that Mu Mintang stole what should have been hers.
In this life, Mu Mintang was married to Xie Xuanchen and her life was much better because she did not have to share. Jiang Mingwei took the mantle as Xie Xuanjie's wife and yet her life was not as she envisioned it to be. She did not have the virtue or knowledge of Mu Mintang; a true meaning of flower vase.
Honestly, one of the main reasons I started this book is because of the 'handsome husband-mediocre wife' sub-theme. In almost every chapter, without fail, the writer will iterate the beauty of Xie Xuanchen. Lol.
Love the way it started, but this is a web novel, and it really takes too long for anything to happen. It could use an editor to help distill this down. For example, we get the other female's internal thoughts for 3 paragraphs, over a statement someone else has made, when they go shopping, when they meet with FL for a morning greeting. It's too much. It also would be more powerful if they showed instead of tell.
The fact that they have these scenes where nothing happens but the other ML and FL comes over for breakfast greeting, or goes shopping, then is jealous of FL's life, tells you how this one gets dragged out.
My other problem is the ML is weak. He was poisoned so he's physically weak, but he also has given up. Even after the FL lead has come in to save him, and his health is getting better, he just hopes to be alive for a few more months to help her out. I get he doesn't want to get her hopes up, but he should set more goals for himself while managing her hopes. But no his internal thoughts are just like ok I'll hang on for a bit longer and then I'll probably die.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I enjoy a female lead who takes her own future in her own hands. Set in a version of ancient China, a young woman finds a way out of life as a refugee when she’s adopted by a minor noble family as a replacement daughter. The OG Daughter has run away with a plains prince - but suddenly, she’s back and ready to take on her family duties AND that pesky engagement. Our Heroine is happy to give up living as a substitute daughter and snaps up an engagement to the rough, violent “brother” of the OG Fiancée.
Turns out he’s the young man who brought her out of that war zone years ago - he’s the hero she’s been looking for. Only - he’s being poisoned and Our Heroine is rolling up her sleeves and ready to solve his problems.
Outside of the romance, this has a lot of military planning and political maneuvering. Really quite interesting for a fairly short novel. I especially liked the plot twists concerning OG Daughter’s life.
I like these strong female character stories. Somewhere in the middle of this her character became too submissive and idol worshiping. I expected the infatuation to die off as true romance took over. The couple was close, but, in a codependent kind of way based on their similar family history. There are sweet and funny moments between them. But, they got tiring for me near the end.
Not even sure why the transmigration subplot was needed. Added no value to the story and shifted the focus too many times. I started skipping those paragraphs very early.
Superpowers? The author missed a good opportunity to create a separate novel with this character’s abilities. Because, it was not needed or written well in this novel. There was definitely not enough history or explanation on how this came about.
12/28 ok so one day I need to find hopefully a properly translated version cuz I bet it'd be so much better ... I loved this utterly shameless ML. It's funny that FL falls first ... but it's ML who REALLY goes all in once he falls - and then has to coax FL. (She's ... so derpy emotionally/romantically.)
I also loved his ~duality like this insanely scary will crush you like a bug persona to everyone else and to FL like wuuwuu I'm a soft little tofu baby my arm has a papercut and I can't move it anymore you have to feed me. LOL. It was ridiculous but cute. It only worked for him though/this character. Too good.
The stupid ass exfiance. And the fake sister. Just SOOO much oof. This poor wronged ML too being fucking poisoned by his uncle the fake emperor/guy who snatched the throne who was also UTTERLY INCOMPETENT.
I loved how this ML gave ZERO FUCKS like when he smacks down the "empress dowager." He's like "you're just the little sidepiece my dad never even really wanted and you think you can lecture me?" Some of the spending did stress me out but I get in comparison to the trash emperor largely it was nothing. Also that was another slight form of revenge/the little they could do at the time to get back at the current emperor.
It's hard for me to "review" this book considering what a mess it was overall trying to read ... T_T but still I loved it. And I really hope if there are extra chapters/side stories one day I can find and read them!
This would be at least an A- as is.
~*~*~*~ Reading commentary: Lol I love that FL tried so hard but once she truly saw what the Jiang family’s characters were like “oh okay well fuck you all.” LOL to her being crass/common 😅 And heh a bit eyeroll but OF COURSE ML is the guy who saved her years ago.
WTF with the ex fake fiancé though. And DEFINITELY his emperor father stole the throne 😒
*sigh* these translations are a mess but c155 in https://fanstranslations.com/novel/il... 😹😹😹☠️☠️☠️ FL spending effectively the emperor’s money like water 😹😹😹😹😹
Lol c40something of https://novelhi.com/s/Ill-Be-the-Male... when ML accidentally sees her naked back & 47-48 when he had to rub bruise medicine on her. Dude is 75% fallen in lurve 😹💯❤️
C263 literally snickering - so ML has had love brain for a while, esp clear at the lantern festival (heavy foreshadowing there with the special dragon lamp…) but here where she in seconds does a 180 on demonstrating that special (pitch pot?) thing. Which! I wish there was a picture!
C265(?) DYYYYING where FL throws his old words in his face about him wanting her to remarry & he’d prepare a dowry for her & his SHAMELESS lie that he doesn’t. Then cuz the performer pleased her him buying all his fabric EXCEPT for the green. Lololol.
C382 ML continuing to be “sick” (yet basically negotiating the peace treaty) - but acting SO shameless at home & the servants lowkey just enjoying the show ☠️ I snort laughed at the last paragraph.
C424 - lol kinda disappointing (and confusing? Like which time was it?) when they finally consummate their marriage but shoutout to ML for insisting on practicing his gentleness 😹💯
😹😹😹☠️☠️☠️ https://novelhi.com/s/Ill-Be-the-Male... c105 here. ML: 😡 I have to win this was ASAP so my wife stops denying me sex. 8k vs 100k? Pft. 30k vs 80k on unfavorable terrain? Child’s play to me. I’ll win in less than 10 days. 😡 Lolololl
C110 “Everyone at the table was shocked by this scene. Hsieh Hyun-chen dared to charge into the enemy camp of twenty thousand people alone. He dared to point his sword at the Emperor's imperial envoy and shout at him to get lost. But in private, he actually obeyed the Princess's orders?
Hsieh Hyun-chen was unperturbed by these gazes. He never felt that he needed to prove his face with wine. He also didn't think that being fierce to his wife in front of outsiders meant that he was capable. He wanted to let the whole world know that his darling was not to be trifled with. Even he couldn't afford to offend her.” I loved this so much ❤️
C116: “ "I swear on my life that I will not have a second woman in this life. Even if I have to find you for all of my lifetimes, I will have you. If you are not married, I will go to your family to propose marriage. If you are engaged, I will steal the bride on the day of your wedding. If you are already married … … then I will steal you from another man's hands.” Goddamn yo!!! 😻😻😻❤️❤️❤️
😿😿😿 sad I can’t seem to find translations of the extras