- #1
Shi Sheng & Feng Ci are the best couple that I ever witnessed in countless Chinese romance novels. Their love could be regarded as lightning fast due to real life time, but it was tested through more than 20 "lifetimes".
Yeah, Feng Ci us the actual hero, but he's the only one for Shi Sheng. His love during thousands of years in one lifetime for her deserves every cell of her love. The third transmigration (from c52) was the start of their love story.
However, both Shi Sheng And Feng Ci carried tons of past baggage and scars. They didn't manage to love each other until their feelings way surpassed the typical love driven by feelings. Their love was in fact carved into their blood, bones & souls. It was only then did they acknowledge their love fire each other (after like more than half the novel).
So, this love was beyond plausible to me. It was natural, certain, definite.
Shi Sheng is the strongest character I've ever encountered. Regardless of hardships she faced, with or without her tools, her secret xianxia abilities, Shi Sheng could still survive, break the main couple and reunite with Feng Ci. As I watched Shi Sheng through her ups & downs, I couldn't help but admire her resolve & wits beyond things/skills she own.
The system is anoying till the very end, so don't expect it to ever turn super useful to Shi Sheng. She had lots of tricks in her sleeves but they are hers truly.
This novel has a lot of secrets and plot twists about Shi Sheng's ability, Feng Ci's origin, the entire ordeal of transmigration, and the intervention of the system (or even its existence). The thrill to discover such things was the best motivation for me to plow through that many chapters.
The real villain they have is super unexpected, and could only be found after the overarching plot is revealed (1000+++ more chapters to go?).
I wouldn't say every plot resolutions presented by the author (more about that later), but generally, the overarching plot was pretty plausible. It was intersting enough to not disappoint me once I figured it out. There was also enough shadowing prior to major revelations.
[collapse]The novel was well-executed overall with entertaining hidden plots and amazing chemistry of the main couple.However, nothing is perfect. This novel also has some major flaws which didn't convince me.Spoiler1. Shi Sheng was first introduced as an irresponsible author. This fact is changed by the time the overarching plot is revealed. It was still well resolved as I mentioned, but it's like negating the whole basic premise of this novel.
Every time she destroyed either main, the world would collapse because it's a novel world. So, she should help end it to make up for her incomplete novels.
If repaying her debt was never the goal, it's just weird to force her go through tasks to complete the transmigrating worlds and weirder to have them collapse based on the fates of some random leads besides her.
Basically, it's weird to have her transmigrate into novels, but the author also tried to explain it. I just didn't buy the reason and still thought she gave Shi Sheng too much power and had to change her identity half way through the novel.
My mind still went in circles whenever I thought about this 1st plothole.
2. The author used AI and xianxia family heritage as resolutions to Shi Sheng super powers & knowledge. It's original to see the two together. But it turned Shi Sheng into another protagonist with golden fingers.
This negated my original imterest to read this novel, as I was hooked by her identity as an irresponsible author and wanted to see her learn to complete novels by the end. I was not dogged with that expectation, but I was still disappointed.
3. The reason why transmigration should take place in novels is due to consideration of the system's creator about not disrupting history of other real dimensions. He wanted worlds where Shi Sheng could learn to love, but he knew she would destroy them. Thus, novel worlds were chosen as her love sandbox.
It's a decent reason tbh. I could even add more benefits myself like novels are controlled environments with known progress & outcomes. Yet, the premise of this explanation was forced because it changed the novel from a karma journey of an irresponsible author to a love-experiencing journey of the most powerful woman in the universe.
4. It turned out that Shi Sheng's tasks during transmigration were meant to melt her heart & force her to experience true love for a not-so-convincing reason. So, in her real life, there's a central AI that decided one day to erase emotions from all humans for better productivity. And a concerned representative of the authority got this info & made a bet with the central AI that even the most evil person in the universe, Shi Sheng, could know love.
Look at that whole mess of logic. I didn't add in any details, so it didn't make sense at first glance. I tried to infer the author's intentions myself until it made 80% sense, but I won't share as it was still flimsy. I wanted to to find a better resolution so I continue to read 600++ chapters after the overarching plot got revealed. I didn't reach the final explanation regardless due to the 5th flaw.
5. The quest of finding Feng Ci & gain back his love when he reincarnates & loses memory became extremely repetitive & boring by the 20xxth chapters.
It officially starts after the overarching plot comes to light & Shi Sheng agrees to participatw in the bet of AI in exchange for Feng Ci's freedom.
6. Shi Shend would do 90% of the hard work herself and cheat 9% in order to get Feng Ci. Feng Ci just has to be pretty or occasionally does the last 1%. That's the general trend in every world but the 3rd.
Some may like it, but I don't. I hope there's more equality between the two.
7. The author attempted to write scifi in Shi Sheng's real world, but it's terribly built. The technology is only mentioned with super generic terms like AI, central database, advanced security appliances & military devices, biological weapons. She lacked the descriptions of how existing technology could evolve up to that point to make that world believable ?.
I'm a big fan of scifi so I like to see scifi romance as long as it as a well-constructed world.
Lastly, I don't think Shi Sheng's relentless pursuit of Feng Ci over many lifetimes/novels is the same as loving only Feng Ci. Even Feng Ci doesn't consider his reincarnation as himself when his memory comes back and gets jealous. It's just my personal belief though. It's not really a flaw of this novel.
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I have others issues like the actual fate of Shi Sheng's best friend, Shi Sheng's real motivation for participation in the bet with AI, its true nature, the real scheme of the system's creator, etc., but I don't want to bother with them because I can't push myself to go through the repetitive love quests and reach the end any more.
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