I really enjoyed the first part of the story, when the transmigrated soul in a weak body overturns schemes and outwits villains. The translation is very good. The story involves multiple countries and certain parts are exciting and fun. The last past of the story, where all the loose threads are tied up, was excellent.
However, as enjoyable as the story was, I had trouble reading parts of it for several reasons:
- There are way too many chinese names and terms. Because of the similarity of Chinese names, cousins and siblings have very similar looking names, and they are called by their full names throughout the entire story.
I'd rather read about Fourth Miss Murong, Prime Minister Murong, rather than Murong Qing Lian, Murong Qi Qi, Murong Xin Lian, Murong Xin Yue, Murong Tai, etc. The cast is huge and almost everyone is referred to by their full name.
I can't remember the difference between XXY, XXS, XXK, XXE. I wish the translator had said Maidservant XXY, Concubine XXS, Empress Dowager XXK, Emperor XXE instead. I'd rather read Lotus Courtyard, rather than Cui Zhu yuan. Why not just say Empress instead of "huanghou"?
The translator even included all of the royal/servile pronouns - the king calls himself "zhen", the imperial wives call themselves "bengong", the prince calls himself "benwong", concubines calls themselves "qieshen", the empress dowager refers to herself as "aija" and the list goes on and on. Even the two stores in the plot have chinese names. Just translate them please.
I can't tell if Bei Zhou is a place, a name, a gem, a country, or a store. It's actually Northern Zhou country. Jue Se Fang should just be translated as Jue Se Fang Couture Shop. Shangguan Fei Yan should just be Empress Dowager Shangguan.
There are multiple chinese terms for every single relative, every single royal status, their homes, etc., There are just a lot of unnecessary, bewildering, chinese terms included and it makes the story very hard to follow over 200 chapters. The reading would be greatly improved if every name was prefaced by Maid X, Guard Y, Miss Q, Prime Minster R, Emperor W, Dr M, etc.
- I've noticed that several chinese novels punish the female villains (usually pretty young jealous mean girls) with
Spoiler
abusive husbands/gang r*pe/anal/incestuous r*pe to death/su*cide, as if because they are so evil, they deserve severe domestic violence/sexual torture. Several girls have brains crazed by hate and jealousy, and they end up gang/incestuous/an*l r*ped by crazy Imperial men/bandits, and it was just unnecessary and graphic.
This book is very graphic in the villainess' punishments. Gross. There were many punishments that could have been less violent/rapey, and many insane monologues that could have been shortened.
Also, almost every villain is someone who turns evil because they want/lust after the too-beautiful male and female leads. This gets tedious. I've simply lost track of how many self-entitled ladies and princess want the male lead, and how many covetous men and princes and Emperors want the female lead.
- There are 4
Spoiler
fake-incest relationships in the middle of the story. Fake, because although one brother didn't actually touch his sister, he was insane and used substitutes. Another couple found out that they might be siblings (but they weren't). One brother found out his sister was someone else pretending with a face mask, so he... while the mask was on. And there was an adoptive brother who developed insane possessive feelings towards his adoptive sister.
The main couple are many superlatives - in a span of 5 years she becomes
Spoiler
the world's number 1 doctor, fashion designer, jewelry designer, poison master, martial artist female
, in addition to being the most beautiful woman - he is super handsome/talented/martial artist, etc. It's over the top, but I can overlook that in a story. There is little character development and the plot does drift quite a bit.
On the good side, the translation is excellent, the male lead is very good towards the female lead, and the story is wrapped up very well. There is a very long epilogue that includes the love stories of the main couple's children, which was well done.