Eldest Sister, Why Haven’t You Married Yet

WuxiaWorldEU

By Xian Jiu Qing Shan

Completed

121929 Views

163 Chapters

⭐4.46

37 Reviews

Once transmigrated, she entered a fire pit. Yue You Jin, as the eldest daughter of the second branch, was adorned with a bunch of younger sisters. Her strong soul, however, didn’t have a strong physique. So she could only swallow her anger until she was twelve years old. A scum Dad, who can’t give birth to a son, cheated while married and brought home the third wheel with him. A grandmother, who places more importance to son over daughters, doesn’t treat her granddaughter as a human being. And also cousin sisters, who want to climb high branches, looked down rural people and a ‘superbrain’ cousin brother, who emptied the family wealth to bribe examiners … Fortunately, she finally found a chance to escape from Yue Family, this bunch of oddballs. Yue You Jin had to shoulder the heavy burden of supporting the family of ten, She can only to empty her brain for money-making ideas. Finally raised her sisters. Initially, she thought she could retire in honor. What? You guys are starting to rush marriage? The little sisters: “Eldest Sister, you and your brother-in-law have been in a nameless relationship for so many years, just short a ceremony. There’s no time like the present, so let’s do it today?” The brother-in-law who never got the chance to get formal/legal status was moved to tears. “Sisters, add oil (go for it)! Brother-in-law wants to buy you a big house!” The female lead’s family surname was Yue in the early stage and changed to Su in the middle period.

Categories

Fantasy

Historical

Slice of Life

CH 1

Surprised at the low ratings for this. I found the few translated chapters really interesting so I decided to MTL the rest. Fairly readable, just needs a bit more comprehension.

Contrary to most c-novels with dog blood drama between women, this novel beautifully writes about women helping women. It's very refreshing and heartwarming, and you can't help but wish happiness for most of the characters. My only issue is that it ended too soon! I had hoped for their thoughts to be more fleshed out, be it the MC or other side characters... but it's still a really good story overall.

I had read one review comparing this one to Ming Lan, another ancient slice-of-life transmigration story that also focuses on familial love, with several characters that have excellent characterization. I have to say that the writing for that one is far more superior, but this story also has its own charms.

Main focus of the story isn't just MC, but people around her as well. MC has been strong and mature from the beginning, so the growth expected from her character leans more towards tangible stuff like wealth/status rather than mental/emotional growth. Character growth from side characters are instead more obvious.

Considering our MC is a woman struggling to support her mother and seven sisters in an extremely toxic and abusive household, most of the characters are women. Through the first forty chapters, you have to endure reading as it's mostly about her and her family surviving under the hands of her evil grandma and scum father. But after leaving, things go smoothly for our heroine, so it's pretty rewarding. Romance is secondary, and it isn't until the last few chapters that you get to witness some of it. It's mostly slice-of-life with some minor mishaps.

MC was a soldier in her past life, but other than practicing martial arts for self-defense, it doesn't really impact her life much. Instead, with her strong sense of responsibility, she uses her modern smarts to look for opportunities to earn money to support her family.

Her grandmother had an extreme bias against her family since they were all daughters, and she (grandma) detested her mother even more for not birthing sons. As a 21st-century adult woman in a malnourshied 11-year-old girl's body, MC knew her limits and had to really endure, and after leaving, she strongly enforced to her sisters that they didn't need to be sons to be worthy of love. She proves to everyone how capable she is despite not being a boy, and she also gets the respect she deserves.

She's not OP at all (a pet peeve of mine!) ---you get to witness her journey from being a poor village girl to a rich young miss. She doesn't have any special skills, but uses her modern knowledge to her utmost advantage. She isn't a know-it-all and hires experts to execute her ideas, and her success mostly stems from the fact that some things common to the modern world still weren't popular in that era, especially in a lesser-known village far from the capital, so she pioneered most of them. And she achieves all of this purely from her own strength and perseverance, with very little assistance from the ML.

She's cool and composed, but not too overly calm or aloof, and has a few emotional outbursts that are completely justifiable. She doesn't ignore unfavorable feelings (like sadness and anger), unlike other transmigrated and too-composed MCs who think they aren't themselves anymore once they lose their cool. She values relationships and doesn't just condemn people if they're the least bit disagreeable, but she's also a bit vengeful and is decisive when she retaliates.

Spoiler

After leaving the abusive Yue family, we don't hear much from them except for a few chapters later in the story. I had wanted to see MC and her family rub off their success on their faces, and that daughters are just as worthy as sons and have them regret mistreating them so hard they cough blood. But the grandma just dies off-screen and... her father and scum uncles... well, I guess they got the endings they deserved.

The ML is also very human. He isn't a prince or a high official, but a normal young master of a distinguished clan. He's kind, gentle, intelligent, and respects MC and wholeheartedly admires her for being headstrong and independent. He assists her a few times to strengthen her business, and they start off as business partners and eventually develop a deep friendship. He has his own struggles and he does his best not to implicate MC in any of it. The romance is slow, a little sparse but rewarding.

Spoiler

It actually takes them 8 years to finally get together!

I also really appreciate that it only brushes lightly on descriptions of how attractive the main characters are. No long paragraphs in every chapter about their peerless jade-like features that can ruin cities and shit. This is pretty pedantic of me, but I'm sick of that.

There's not much politics in this, but you get to witness the effects of the decisions made in the imperial court through MC's life.

If you're looking for a light and heartwarming read, then this one is definitely for you. Although a little short for my taste, but still great overall. Would love to read this properly translated, so I can fill out the stuff that got lost in translation from using MTL.

2023-07-11

CH 1

Wow, I had plans to give up on Chinese novels and then I found this gem. This is a complete breath of fresh air. Not gonna lie the MTL is a bit jarring on the brain but the story is really worth reading, here's why:

It's short only 164 chapters. I'm so tired of those repetitive 1000+ chapters novels where the story just drags on and on when it could clearly be summarised in less than 500 chapters.
The Female lead is not OP. The FL in this does practice martial arts but it's just for self-defence. This is a massive plus because usually when the FL transmigrate they are super strong (genius doctor, killer, super-agent thief etc). This is usually so annoying and impossible since the new body is usually malnourish and weak.
All 9 sisters learn martial arts but they rarely used it, which feels way more practical considering the period.
The mom had 10 kids. 9 girls and 1 boy. All the sisters are amazing and have their own personalities. Although the MC is the central focus the sisters are not there to just prop her up and make her look better. The girls really love each other and strive to make their lives better
I love that each sister found their own husband, nobody was trying to find/steal anybody else's man (also their husbands really suited their personalities and they didn’t fall for a man who already had concubines, you go girls)
The mom had some issues and was a bit useless, but she really made efforts to changed and wasn’t stubborn to the point of not being able to accept criticism and improve
ML isn’t annoying, overbearing, or sees female lead as a weak woman needing his protection. Whenever they worked together each benefited from the business deals, ML doesn't just give in to the FL whims.
The girls usually resolved their own issues and didn’t need a man to save them/ MC didn’t get crazy and give up everything or mistreat family members when she falls in love. Most importantly, no sisters got left behind. The characters had great development and it felt like you get to know each sister personally and not just see things from the MCs point of view.
FL priority was to ensure all her sisters were happy because of the abuse they suffered she really didn't want them to be sad anymore. You really see how the abuse affects some of the sisters which feels somewhat more realistic instead of them just moving on from the abuse without any trauma.
There's no annoying second ML or FL who doesn't know how to give up.
Problems are resolved in a logical manner/ MC didn’t go around killing everyone who offended her
My only criticism is that I was itching to see the vicious family members get their just due, but instead, the MC lived brilliantly which was also satisfying.

In short, if you're tired of those novels where the sisters are just fighting for one man (as if there's only one man in the novel world, urgh!) and want to read a novel about sisterly love and girl power them this is a must-read

2023-07-11

CH 1

I was so excited when I read the summary and find out that AT LAST there's a Chinese novel about sisterly love, and not only that IT'S GOOD. 1. 1. I think currently this is the only Chinese novel where sisterly love is in the forefront of the story, which is very rare considering sisters in Chinese novel are always the rival and the antagonist, even in the story where "girls power" is supposedly the main theme. Even in a story, where the female lead does have some female friends, it's just briefly mentioned or is just a tool for the fem prota to know the male lead, atool for the story to show how capable and charismatic the fem prota are (oh look at that prota, even when she are ignored by her family, she could easily find friends in the higher place that are attracted by her charismatic aura and elegant posture).

1. The protagonist is not OP, she used to be a soldier but because she is trapped in the body of a malnourished child, there is not much that she can do, which for me is a plus, since there are so many Chinese stories where, the protagonist become hella OP just because the transmigrator is an "assassin", "police", "soldier", nevermind that the original body is malnourished, nevermind that the original body is only a kid (5-13 years old), nevermind that the muscle of girl cannot kick a f*cking adult until they hit a wall. If you want to read a quick face-slap story, which the protagonist can just slap anyone regardless of logic, this is not for you.
1. The Protagonist is well done, she's not just some basic OP mary sue with a depth of a puddle. She loves her sister and her mother, she helps them and always want them to have a better future even when they are a burden and she could've just run away and still live just fine, with her survival skill and her resourcefulness, which is refreshing because, in another novel, most prota in this kind of story just leave the "useless burden" (mostly her mom, but it's not really all her fault, she is a victim of abuse and in the later chapter she starts to be stronger) to suffer (unless they are hot and could be added to their harem), and it's very nice to see the sisters care for her as well, unlike in another story where usually if the fem prota saves a girl (a rare occurrence), the girl will pay it back by trying to take their man or some shit, which is just tiring, insulting and so overdone. She is resourceful and always have a way regardless of her situation and she's not some perfect flawless goddess, in some of her plans she doesn't mind to take a few lose, she doesn't need some handsome god of a man to save her and she doesn't have a god halo where everything goes accordingly to her plans.
1. This is one of the true "girl power" c-novel, because the protagonist a woman, not some perfect goddess and also because the protagonist has a good female companion and not an op mary sue whose "friends" are her handsome and godlike male harem, who even if she has female friends, her friends are most likely a cannon fodder who are there to lick their feet and compliment them on how perfect they are. It's a story about the female lead escaping an abusive home along with her sisters and mother and triumph in the face ancient male patriarchy, sisters helping sisters so that they can become boss b*tch, girls being badass regardless of her circumstances.

Anyway, this is my first review which is obv mostly fueled by me getting tired of the same female hating female trope in c-novel and finally find THIS, a breath of fresh air.

2023-07-11

CH 1

1. The protagonist is not OP, she used to be a soldier but because she is trapped in the body of a malnourished child, there is not much that she can do, which for me is a plus, since there are so many Chinese stories where, the protagonist become hella OP just because the transmigrator is an "assassin", "police", "soldier", nevermind that the original body is malnourished, nevermind that the original body is only a kid (5-13 years old), nevermind that the muscle of girl cannot kick a f*cking adult until they hit a wall. If you want to read a quick face-slap story, which the protagonist can just slap anyone regardless of logic, this is not for you.
1. The Protagonist is well done, she's not just some basic OP mary sue with a depth of a puddle. She loves her sister and her mother, she helps them and always want them to have a better future even when they are a burden and she could've just run away and still live just fine, with her survival skill and her resourcefulness, which is refreshing because, in another novel, most prota in this kind of story just leave the "useless burden" (mostly her mom, but it's not really all her fault, she is a victim of abuse and in the later chapter she starts to be stronger) to suffer (unless they are hot and could be added to their harem), and it's very nice to see the sisters care for her as well, unlike in another story where usually if the fem prota saves a girl (a rare occurrence), the girl will pay it back by trying to take their man or some shit, which is just tiring, insulting and so overdone. She is resourceful and always have a way regardless of her situation and she's not some perfect flawless goddess, in some of her plans she doesn't mind to take a few lose, she doesn't need some handsome god of a man to save her and she doesn't have a god halo where everything goes accordingly to her plans.
1. This is one of the true "girl power" c-novel, because the protagonist a woman, not some perfect goddess and also because the protagonist has a good female companion and not an op mary sue whose "friends" are her handsome and godlike male harem, who even if she has female friends, her friends are most likely a cannon fodder who are there to lick their feet and compliment them on how perfect they are. It's a story about the female lead escaping an abusive home along with her sisters and mother and triumph in the face ancient male patriarchy, sisters helping sisters so that they can become boss b*tch, girls being badass regardless of her circumstances.

Anyway, this is my first review which is obv mostly fueled by me getting tired of the same female hating female trope in c-novel and finally find THIS, a breath of fresh air.

2023-07-11

CH 1

Solid 4.5. Would be a 5 but there were a few things missing in my opinion. 1. The awful family

Spoiler

Was hoping for their father's family to find out so that they can rub it in their faces like: look, all girls but more prosperous than you'll ever be. Money wasting things? Seems like they can make more in a day than your family has in their entire life combined!

Sisters with their husbands

Spoiler

Super dissatisfied about the fact that the sisters never even mentioned their pasts to their husband. Maybe the second sister did after her shock of seeing the father and then the fiancé comforting her. But we never got to see it. Like how can't you tell your husband these things? Why I disliked it so much was because basically no one knows what they had to go through, and how far they have gotten except the family members themselves. They don't have to be stuck in the past, but at least mentioning it to your husband in the way of: "We are over it and appreciate everything we have now. We appreciate the eldest sister the most who made it possible to begin with." But no. Never.

The village doctor

Spoiler

Was waiting for FL to repay the doctor of her village like she said she would when she has more money to repay him. But it never happened. Disappointing.

These were missing and then there was one thing that happened but infuriated me:

The mother's thoughts

Spoiler

I always understood why the mother didn't want to leave. The hate she got was undeserved. Because she was right! If the FL wasn't this FL, her worst nightmare would 100% come true. In that time, that many girls would die on their own or meet other miserable ends for sure! The only reason why that didn'thappen was because FL was reincarnated and had a lot of skills/knowledge that made it possible for them not to meet that miserable end! So I understand (even if I didn't like it) why she didn't want to leave and why she kept hoping for her husband to change. She doesn't know that FL reincarnated and knows how to survive. She was actually realistic.

BUT where she lost me was when she fought with the FL about the youngest twin son. The AUDACITY of the mother saying that the family property, that the sisters have worked so hard for, will be given to the toddler brother when he grows up. The author made me despise her after this. Because the author didn't even make her realize that this thought is horrible. Because she should know better! That mindset should be clearly challenged after her daughters proved that women can be as competent as men. And after the eldest sister said that HER and the sisters accomplishments and profit will be split equally among them, she still didn't think she was in the wrong.

She kept thinking she was right. Even when the son literally became a person that hits his maids without remorse because of HER upbringing. And even after the eldest sister took over the upbringing and the boy toddler changed for the better because of it, she still didn't admit her wrongdoings. It was just glossed over. No redemption arc for her or anything. Infuriating!

2023-07-11

CH 1

A typical example of a story that started out beautifully but ended up chewing more than it could bite.

The FL starts out as a child of an abusive family. The outlook towards the female gender by the society as a "Money loosing goods", their dependence towards male gender during the ancient time line is well depicted. The beginning of the story is engaging, gets us emotionally invested. The FL is a pragmatist, doesn't hit back when abused and endures it as she is a malnourished 11 yr old child and knows that she and her 7 sisters and her mother is dependent on that family for food and shelter.

Spoiler

We follow the FL as she drags he family out of the cess pit in the guise of family, how she and her sisters work hard to barely cover food costs for their newly established female-only household and slowly become richer and richer. But sadly it goes all downhill from there. The story starts to focus on the side characters and her sisters. If done in moderation it could have been called character development, but this one takes it a step too far and achieves it at the cost of loss of our emotional investment to the FL or the story in general and becomes an assignment we need to finish.

There is barely any romance despite the title being so and as the tag says, it is a late romance.

There is no cheat like powers, no ML that falls in love and spoils the FL (without which she wouldn't hve been successful).

So, in summary a novel that starts out great but looses sight of what it was supposed to be in the long run.

P.S.

Spoiler

Stick to the novel atleast till ch45

2023-07-11

CH 1

Spoiler

This story starts off as so heart-breaking T^T. The MC and her little baby sisters are abused and bullied by her family extremely badly, to the point that they are badly whipped at just wanting food. T^T they're malnourished, wear torn tattered clothes and have to depend on MC going deep into dangerous forests to get them some food, since the grandmother wouldn't give food to 'such money wasting things' ヽ (`д´；) /; (｀Д´) ;. Its like that because in the ancient times, boys were favored over girls, so the MC and her family of only girls are treated worse than the pigs they raise, which is mostly due to the scum-of-a-human Grandmother of theirs. Can't wait until they escape this pigsty home and move on to get happiness

2023-07-11

CH 1

I MTLed the series so I don't really have anything to say about the translation quality since I didn't read the translation. The MC is wise and rational, and her encounter with the ML is like a meeting of both hearts with kindred spirits. The romance in this novel is very low key so if you're here for a big romance fix, this isn't for you.

What bothered me about the novel:

Spoiler

What really bothered me was the last part of the novel that spoke about the romance. You can't tell me that someone with such high EQ with the ability to assess and manipulate people would be so immature in the face of a relationship. Yes maybe she's a romance noob, but she's not a human relationship noob. The whole last bit was super OOC for me. She just seemed so petty. Yes she's angry he hid that he had survived and all but he's alive and that's what counts. Instead of romance, it was like taking the IQ and EQ out of her for the last portion of the novel. Why cripple your MC at the very end. It was a torturous last read and I only stuck it out because most of the novel was quite decent. My actual rating is more like 3.5. The author gets a 1.5 drop specifically for how the ending was handled. Okay end of rant.

Aside from this, I do enjoy that the author gave each side character an opportunity to shine. It gave them some distinction and enriched the background of the story.

All in all not a bad read. It's more a story about how a girl leads her family to success, but I do congratulate the author for avoiding a lot of the s*upid subplots common in historical novels though. It's a breath of fresh air for this genre and definitely more about female empowerment.

2023-07-11

CH 13

For now I’ll give a neutral rating of 3 stars.

The story doesn’t have an OP protagonist that easily turns over her horrible circumstances, but it also has a long slog of chapters where she has to endure abuse from her family. There are times when she gets the upper hand but these victories are short-lived and not very satisfying. On one hand I like the realism of a little girl trying her best to survive a life where she has no advantages, on the other hand I wonder how long I can read about little girls being beat up and starved every day.

For now I’ll wait and see if the glory she’s sure to have will outweigh the author’s build up of abuse in the first third of this story. There should at least be a surplus of face-slapping returns to heal my heart. The sisters and mom don’t even leave the house until Chapter 41, and I’m already feeling tired after reading ten.

I’ll amend my review once the translations reach that point.

2023-07-11

CH 1

MTL ☆☆☆ is fairly readable (just have to take note of names, cause seriously, there's alot. And I dont know if its because its MTL, alot of surnames are the same even if they arent related). Seriously, its a good read.

Spoiler

However, I have to admit I skimmed from about C 1-40. I just cant stomach the domestic violence the sisters felt. I mean a 2 yr old girl getting slap. That's just nasty.

I can understand that even if MC is a well-seasoned, 30 yr old soldier in her past life. The fact that she was in a child's body, with alot of little sisters (they range from 12-newborn) and a weak pregnant mother. She doesnt have a lot of room for improving. She had to wait, she had to bid her time. Pass C 40, I was able to read it normally. Novel center on sisterly-sibling family love and making money ideas.

MC is not OP. But she's not helpless. Which is what I love about her.

She doesnt have any magical abilities or golden finger. She work her a$$ off. She doesnt try to create modern things to get rich. Nor does she magically solve all their problems. She has very realistic emotions. ❤

Romance is very sparse. Like 1/10 of the novel is their interaction.

ML just okay. There wasnt enough of him to judge. He was just portrayed as gentle, smart. He was able to find ways for his family to avoid execution. But s*upid enough not to come clean to MC (couldnt fault MC if she's angry. She was devastated. She mourned for him, for years. Then suddenly, he shows up).

I just have an issue with his mother. Dont wanna bother with her, its just irritating.

2023-07-11