Rebirth of the Treacherous Official’s Madam Chapter 209 Discussion

As the translator, here my very short and brief review. I actually had this written up a while back, but completely forgot to post it.

Originally I actually hadn't planned on translating this. During my first read through, perhaps because I'd skimmed through too quickly, I didn't end up liking it enough to want to translate it. However, two years later as I was finishing my first translation project, I decided to reread it again and ended up liking it a lot more. Thankfully this novel is relatively short so I can squeeze it in between my long projects.

Overall, the premise itself is just both the male and female leads going back in time and trying to change the future. Both of them in the original timeline suffered many tragedies and both lost their family due to the battle of the throne. Although they only spent three years together, due to ML only having three years left to live, they still ended up developing feelings for one another. They eventually reunite again in their second life and work together to not let the same tragedies repeat itself.

The plot itself is pretty straightforward. The usual battle for the throne shenanigans, ML wants to help the least favored first prince onto the throne. This was one of the reasons the novel didn't stick with me during my first read through, because the political battles isn't really that exciting. I suppose my favorite part of the novel is just the characters. I really like the cast a lot, especially the leads' interactions. In general, it's a pretty light read. There's no glaring plot holes or flaws, and not overly cliche, but not that deep or intricate either.

The romance is really good though, very heartwarming. In a way, in the previous life, after they'd both suffered a lot, they helped heal each other emotionally, but ML really didn't have long to live. When FL had married him in the previous life, he was already told to only have eight months left to live. However, he ended up lasting three years because he didn't want to leave FL behind, even though it was very painful for him because he was dying to poison. There's a line in the novel that describes their relationship in the first life really well: "For Xun Che, Yu Lingxin was that last bit of warmth at the end of his life, and for Yu Lingxin, Xun Che was the only light left in her life."