- #1
A complete waste of time. There are many disturbing things about this novel the longer I think about it. The longer it went on the more issues I had but it wasn't seriously awful until the last 50ish chapters once Spoiler
the main villains had been disposed of.
[collapse]- Author completely neglects to properly develop MC's "friends" so she's just too full of it and never listens to anyone's advice because she knows better and teaches everyone else what to do instead.
- She's extremely beautiful, absolutely incredible at cooking all kinds of recipes -some she hasn't tried before but she gets things right the first time- and is somehow able to make whatever food she makes authentic to a area while no one else can succeed, can play the piano and other instruments pretty well -author is inconsistent about her being merely amateurish but then amazing people with her skills-, has the patience and open-heartedness to raise two kids not hers simply because they grow up to become "good and loyal" kids while being cruel and vicious to the kids that she raised in other life because they 'betrayed' her.
- One of the step-kids she'd raised pre-rebirth was eight months old when she'd married his father and so all he'd known was her as his mother figure but he was somehow easily turned by his brother and grandmother to hating her and preferring a newborn baby sibling 20 years younger than him to the step-mom who raised him like her own...? The eight year-old whose mother died exactly the same way grew up to choose the baby over the mother as well? Why would any of the two even want to have a sibling so much they'd choose them over the convenience of having a step-mother who was s*upidly kind to them? If they were such selfish people they wouldn't want to share their inheritance with yet another sibling. XD
- Then the same step-mom (MC) who raised these kids turns completely vicious after their betrayal even though she considered them her own kids. The author doesn't bother to show a moment of emotional turmoil or hurt as the MC reflects on her life and the kids she raised. Instead, she's absolutely angry and devoid of any maternal feelings that a real mother would have even after her kids betray her deeply. It makes me feel like her maternal love is very conditional and the only reason she's even capable of loving Dabao and Xiaobao is because of the guaranteed future she knows about, which is a chilling thought.
- MC also resorts to some absolutely petty sh*t just to show off in front of the same people she insists over and over are insignificant. Scenes showing other characters being envious of the main characters is extremely common in c-novels but the ones in this story made me raise my eyebrows multiple times. It felt like the MC was doing things not for her own sake but to elicit people's admiration and jealousy. There were also many scenes of her implicitly looking down on those petty, small people who did not work hard enough at earning a better living for their families and so deserved to burn from jealousy at not achieving the standard she lives at. I had to quit once those types of scenes only got more and more ridiculous. The MC seems to be totally disregarding the situation at the time and how limited the ways of earning money were at the beginning of the 80s. People mostly worked government jobs and government jobs paid very, very little. But the author has so many unrealistic opportunities fall into her lap to elevate her financial situation.
- One last thing that made me deeply uncomfortable was the author's persistent belief in blood begetting the same kind of blood. Bad parents have bad kids who are completely hopeless and a reflection of their muddied blood. Good parents have good children. I don't have to wonder too hard at what she thinks of the children of criminals. It's a very toxic and simplistic way of viewing the world.
- Extra note: The author is absolutely obsessed with Chu Peng for no discernible reason. He's a terrible character who doesn't truly care about his own family or even other people + is very mercenary in the way he deals with her yet the MC keeps him around her and really likes him...? The author is too in love with her knock-off Sherlock Holmes which is too baffling to me. His "deductions" make absolutely no sense so I can't buy that he's as clever as the story shows him to be. Why even...?