- #1
3.5 - Good, easy to read.You get what you expect with this novel - in fact, you get EVERYTHING with this novel: farming, cooking, business, face-slapping, cultivation, magical animal companions, child-rearing, fluffy couple moments, magical space, power couple, typical taciturn doting (and h**ny) ML, politics, medicine...I read this when I was unwell and I just needed something that wouldn't strain my brain, so it suited my mood. It isn't a masterpiece, it doesn't transcend the standard level of this genre of reincarnating/transmigrating to ancient times, dealing with a petty family and starting from scratch to gradually become wealthy and successful. But it managed not to be as overdramatic nor annoying as these can get, either. There is a broad cast of characters that are written with distinct personalities and motivations (although not to a deep level) and some characters are not completely good or bad. Overall the interactions feel warm and lively. Problems are not dragged out and the main characters solve everything fairly effortlessly. Occasional slower SoL parts where it went into detail about cooking or farming (or their somewhat repetitive intimate moments) were easy to read if I was interested and easy to skip if I wasn't.It was generally a plus for me that it was a story where the main characters leaned towards kindness and amiability and goodness was generally rewarded with goodness - I personally find it harder to get into characters who are too self-focused or uncaring of the more innocent characters who get harmed in the process of ruthlessly dealing with the evil ones. It was a more soothing tone that I appreciated while unwell.It's not a story you expect to stand up to close inspection or reflection in many ways, for instance in terms of realism nor internal consistency, but it's intelligent enough that it usually wasn't too ridiculous (usually things like how quickly many things took to be learned, organised or produced/constructed, and of course how easy most things were for the main characters). Similarly, the more the story progressed, the less time it spent on things, until it started to feel a little like the author just wanted to briefly put in lots of things they like. I have some recurring irks with Chinese reincarnation/rebirth/ancient times novels, and I still found many of them here, but luckily they were mild enough or balanced out by other positives - I know these things come with the genre and look past them if I can.The extras at the end are skippable if one wishes. One is mainly a bonus mini-arc where we get to see the main characters temporarily redeveloping a remote region, and then a modern arc that feels like a summary of a full novel, with the very end finally explaining a bit more about the connection with the magical dog/wolf. Both are fine to read.Overall, it's a solid slice-of-life poor-to-rich using modern/magical cheats in ancient China story, one to read when you're in the mood for something simplistic and easy without being completely inane. Not something to try when you're looking for something intensely exciting, deeply emotional, or highly clever.