- #1
Currently sitting at a 3.5 stars, although I'll be back to read until the end. Even though I enjoy the premise, writing, and characters, I still feel a bit disconnected while reading. Perhaps I'm just not feeling the passion?For context: I enjoyed REBIRTH OF THE MALICIOUS EMPRESS and indulge in revenge plots.DENG HUA XIAO starts out with the FL Lu Tong coming back to her village after a wild and traumatic apprenticeship under a poison mistress/medical doctor only to find her family schemed against and dead. From there, she takes her maid and poison/medical skills to take revenge against everyone involved with their deaths. Lu Tong starts from the bottom and investigates it to the top, making sure no stone goes unturned. While, yes, the people and families involved are killed/taken down and the revenge is satisfying, it wasn't as bloodthirsty and vicious as I expected. In ROTME, we see a lot of sick and twisted parts of the FL's revenge: r*pe, g*ry deaths, and even b*stiality. DENG HUA XIAO's revenge is more methodical, cold, and rote, which makes it, hmm, not as fun and tantalizing. This is exacerbated by our one-track-mind FL, who was not reincarnated or transmigrated. Her characterization is limited to her traumatic childhood as a poison tester for her mistress on an uninhabitable mountain, turning her from a spoiled, sweet girl into an emotionless, resilient doctor. Don't get me wrong, there still is character depth, as everything she does is for her fallen family - but, a character with this set-up even in a revenge setting inherently falls flat compared to other revenge schemers out there. More of her introspection is reserved towards the class divide (as she's a commoner/nobody while the people who framed her family are high profile) and the unfairness of the social hierarchy - this is repeated quite often in the story. The only time I was like "how interesting... " was when the FL and ML have a stand off where she was ready to kill both her and him if he continued to target her. In this regard, I was quite impressed with her revenge path and resilience.In summary for revenge: it's there, but not as vicious as I would like.At ch 106, there is not much progression with the romance. The pattern is: 1) ML helps FL out, 2) FL gets suspicious as he's meddling in her affairs, 3) FL retaliates, not knowing they have a common goal. I'm okay with this happening once or twice, but they're still going at it while I'm here twiddling my thumbs for any progression, lol. Right now they have an uneasy truce, although I had to take a break because of the FL being oblivious. The problem with a slow burn romance like this is that the ML is clearly interested and knows they have a common goal, the readers know as well, but the FL doesn't because of her one-track revenge mind, despite them being on the same frequency 90% of the time. So, readers have to be reallyyy patient to get the FL on the same page as everyone else. To make it even harder, the FL actively has a bias against the ML due to his higher social standing. The only dude the FL took a second look at is the presumed 2ML who has had 2 cameos thus far.I do have to say, there are some cute moments between the ML and FL - albeit separately. One is the ML calling her "female Yama" to his servant and the FL calling him "God of Death" to her maid. Like I said - on the same frequency most of the time.In summary for romance: usual slow-burn for this author with the FL remaining oblivious despite the ML helping her out.At ~100 chapters so far, we have two major families that have fallen because of the FL, leaving us against the Grand Tutor's family at the top of the totem pole to break down. Hoping this time we can get some duo team action between the main couple.Oh, and the translations are great! Super readable and skillfully conveys the original work's prose and descriptions. In awe of the quick updates. Thank you translator!Current TW: mention of r*pe, death
