Second Marriage in the 1970s

3 Stars



I must say, the story isn't as comforting and chill as I was expecting. Honestly, this feels like a more snapshot-esque, far shorter, lower-intensity version of "Back to the Sixties, Get Wealthy, Raise Cubs." The characters are less vibrant and have less personality than those in the other story. There is less detail in everything as well. Kinda meh about it overall, but I was at least engaged enough to read until the end.

In the first part, the bad guys are super annoying! Since the bad guy is the sister-in-law, and they live in close quarters, they have a lot of page time :(. The MC is a tolerant and side-stepping kind of person, so there isn't any face-slapping from her. The face-slapping isn't satisfying because the bad guys don't learn or understand it. After the initial fear and alarm of the face-slapping, they very quickly become more entitled. Like punching cotton. Sigh, the suffocating tight feeling of annoyance is present throughout most of the story because the face-slapping is not thorough enough to clear the air. When the final, more satisfying face-slapping happened, it took a few chapters to complete. And there were some time skips before it was done. Sigh, why so many time skips willy-nilly.

Writing/Translation

The translation I read is from Shanghai Fantasy. Very enthusiastic but the translation is still kinda eh. Better than machine translation, but not good. There are quite a few sentences where I don't know who's who or their feelings towards anyone; I just don't understand. I can somewhat decipher the sentences but don't wish to use my brain so much. Until the end, not sure if it's a translation issue or just the writing, but I still don't understand some paragraphs. It also has a lot of pronoun errors. And random repeated paragraphs. And sometimes, there are two paragraphs of the same meaning but explained slightly differently, not sure if the translator forgot to delete the other one. And missing double quotes for dialogue sometimes. So, sometimes I don't know if the sentence is someone thinking or if it's dialogue.

As for the writing, the style is not quite in the head of the MC every single chapter. I feel like this story is written in such a way that it is just depicting the lives of people in that time period that just happen to be the MC and her family. It doesn't follow them 100% of their lives but picks important events to show. So you don't feel as close to the MC as in "Back to the Sixties, Get Wealthy, Raise Cubs." Especially in the latter parts of the story. Personally, I don't like the author's style of introducing a bold idea for someone to make money, doing some setup/decision-making for the business, then writing a few paragraphs of what happened regarding the business years in the future, which is basically, became a tycoon and made millions of money, then coming back to the present time to resume the business idea. I feel like the flow is interrupted all the time.

Pacing

The beginning is surprisingly quite slow. It took 16 chapters for the couple to meet and agree to be married. They finally get married in chapter 25+. Lol. The pacing is a little weird because we don't follow every single day-to-day life of the MC, but the main events we go into detail, then skip some months or half a year or almost a few years before we go into detail about the next big event. Sometimes, I feel that the event is too long lol. Like the weddings. Also, in the same chapter without any section dividers, we can go from one scene to suddenly years in the future without realizing it. The time skip is not clear. I feel like the story is a journal instead of an in-depth story.

Plot

I feel the ending of the story focused way too much on the side characters. Especially for the youngest sister-in-law's wedding. The POV wasn't the MC anymore but the side characters. I like them fine but am not that interested in their wedding details or the romance they had.

Themes/What Story Tried to Achieve

I thought there would be more business ideas, but that honestly isn't the major part of the story. The business details are there with planning, projections, profit, and stuff, but we don't go into the day-to-day or the nitty-gritty of it all, which is sad. At the end, lots of the relatives were given ideas to make money. The execution of the business idea felt too unrealistically smooth. There were no true objections by the old-fashioned relatives. I would have thought that there would have been more pushback or some diversity in how they reacted. It was too much wish fulfillment at the end. Especially like the eldest sister and her husband. Their characters until the end are too rural and too easily bullied to handle something like a high-end luxury hotel. The business and the people are too clashing.

For the romance, unfortunately, in bed, the MC is that shy blushing wife that the husband will go crazy in bed for. When she says anything discouraging in bed, the husband gets even more excited about doing it. So the next day, everything aches, and the MC angrily beats him. But the husband just grins and takes it as a joke and congratulates himself by saying overindulgence is also good *rolls eyes hard*. Other than that, the ML is pretty good as a husband. I actually like his personality here more than the ML in "Back to the Sixties, Get Wealthy, Raise Cubs" because over there, the male ego and daughter adoration are worse lol.

My Created Lists (I include my rating and review in the list itself XD)

- All Novels I've Read Sorted By Rating - Where I ranked every single novel I read on NovelUpdates.
- Economic Reform! 50's-90's
- Heartwarming or Feel Good or Wholesome Stories I Liked - As stated haha

MC was initially shy, but that didn't last. Everything went smoothly, though the later parts of the story were a bit rushed.

, it's a very nice slice-of-life story.

Very simple premise. A modern individual transmigrates to the past. She doesn't cause much of a stir, except for handling gossip skillfully. She adapts easily to the challenges of 1970s life. The story feels more like an idealized portrayal of nostalgic modern China rather than a magical fantasy. Good people are depicted as hardworking and generous, while the wicked are shown to be gossipy and envious. There's nothing overly dramatic about this narrative; it serves more as a window into the life of an ordinary family in 1970s China under ideal conditions.

It was a relaxing read. While there were a few mistakes here and there, the translator was cute and worked hard to update frequently. I appreciated their hard work so much that I even paid for the chapters, which I usually don't do; I tend to support with Ko-fi instead.

Anyways, about the book, it was interesting and a leisurely read. However, the ending was quite disappointing.

**Spoiler**
The main character (MC) was good at business, so I thought she'd become a business tycoon or something, but nope, she ended up as a translator. No matter how the author tries to glorify the translating job—like the MC translating for foreigners and whatnot—it's still just a translating job. What about the business ideas and money-making ventures she was so good at before? Additionally, the male lead (ML) was pretty useless. The author tried to make him appear smart and capable, but in the end, his younger brother, who used to be nowhere near as competent as the ML, became much more accomplished.
**[End Spoiler]**

I liked the interaction between the leads. I also appreciated that the author didn't spend too much time on the cuteness of the children. I don't really care how perfect fictional children are; I just want the plot to flow. Some novels spend way too much time on such details. , I really enjoyed it. Not the best novel, but definitely enjoyable.

I don’t usually post a comment, but this is in response to one of the comments already posted: I really have a hard time understanding how someone can twist a story so much.

1) According to the commenter, the main character (MC) unilaterally decided to wait at least three years before having a child, then stopped using contraception and got his partner pregnant without warning her. This is already bullsh*t because it’s clearly stated that they both agreed to wait before having children. If he didn’t use other contraceptive methods besides withdrawal, and if he stopped doing it, she would have definitely noticed. She wasn’t oblivious to what was happening for the entire year before she got pregnant.

2) You can’t blame him for hoping that having a child would make him want to leave his family to go to the city, especially since:
   a) It was before the exam results were confirmed.
   b) She hadn’t informed him of her intention to move the whole family to the city when they were studying.
   c) When she told him about her plans, he not only accepted them but also helped convince the rest of his family.

3) The dumbest comment: His ex-wife, Wang Mei, had a lover in town from the start, married the main lead (ML) with the intention of joining her lover in town later, and left ML to join her lover. It’s even clearly specified that she had hoped ML would live a miserable life after their divorce. Despite the fact that she had already remarried, when she saw ML’s living conditions, she suddenly wanted to restart her life and that of the children she had abandoned. So, no, I really can’t see how she should inspire any pity.

It started out great. I loved the vibe it gave off, reminiscent of my own rural lifestyle where everyone knows each other and talks about everything.

I enjoyed the FL and ML; they worked well together as a unit.

However, I lost interest around chapter 80 and beyond. The story shifted to a money-making scheme, a get-rich-quick plot that I find tedious when it becomes the primary focus, rather than a backdrop as it was in the earlier chapters.

By then, I found myself skimming through the content, and the ending was also underwhelming.

If chapters 80 and beyond had been more engaging, I would have added this to my list of favorite books.

Good plot, poor execution. I can see where the author was aiming, but things quickly spiraled out of control, resulting in a messy, albeit completed, work. The story flowed smoothly after the sister-in-law scene, but there was an almost complete lack of conflict. I found myself wishing the ex-wife would make a scene, and while she did appear, her presence was so brief that it barely made an impact. Despite some heartwarming moments, the overall boredom and flatness made it unenjoyable.

Loved it! I MTLed it, so some details about time skips and the kids' ages weren't clear, but it was a great slice-of-life read overall.

It gives you great insight into how family isn't always defined by blood. When someone loves and cares for you like the FL did for her step-children, they are more than qualified for you to proudly call them family <3

The only thing I didn't like was how messy the second brother's marriage and divorce became. There was definitely a better way to handle the entire situation.