DANMEI Reading List (RAW) Pt. 2

365. Living by Beauty in the Chronology

Translator: N/A

Title: 在年代文里靠美貌苟活

Chapters: 69 + 2 Extras

Tags: transmigration to a novel, crossdressing MC, countryside, 60s-80s, unreliable narrator

Synopsis:

Lin Sheng woke up and became a small cannon fodder in a dated fiction.

In the original book, the fate of the little cannon fodder was bleak. Because of his stepmother's upbringing, he was very arrogant and domineering. In the past, he offended a lot of people, and made so many enemies that it was not surprising to be retaliated.

First , he was pushed into a small river in the village and then rumors came that he had been defiled by the second-rate man living in the cowshed. His bad luck came one after another, and finally he died in an accidental fire.

After transmigrating in the book, Lin Sheng inexplicably became the daughter-in-law of the village chief's family. This situation made him a little trapped, but he learned something that made him even more trapped.

Because this is a daughter-in-law who is pretending to be a woman.

At the same time, Lin Sheng suddenly realized that he seemed to be missing a part of his memory. He racked his brains to scrape the memory, but he could only remember the surging lake and the cold death message.

Through daily contact, he found that whether it is his mean mother-in-law, his  frail and indifferent husband, or the little sister-in-law who likes to play and the seemingly fair-minded village chief father-in-law, they seem to be hiding something behind them.

It seems to be a harmonious family, but everyone seems to be guarding an unknown secret.

Until, a sudden flood caused Lin Sheng to get a glimpse of the secret from the plot that had already deviated thousands of miles.

——It turned out that his so-called husband was actually nothing, and the two did not even apply for a marriage certificate.

Then, in the process of several rumors and rescues, he found out that the pup who was willing to live in the cowshed seemed to be the only warmth he has in hesitation and loneliness.

Impressions: To be completely honest, decided to read this cos I was tempted by the cover. And hey! It's less than 100 chapters, it should be okay right? And it is, just...barely(?) okay.

So our MC transmigrates into a novel as a cannonfodder. OG just came back from abroad and his Dad discovers his crossdressing hobbies and sent him to the countryside an an educated youth "to be reformed". Unfortunately, his stepmother bribed someone to change his documents and his gender was listed as Female, so he had to hide his real gender. In the novel, the OG was pushed into the river and was said to be defiled by the criminals in the bullpen, then the villagers started bullying/targeting him, until he died in a fire accident. MC transmigrates when OG was pushed into the river. He wakes up 3 days later in the village chief's house and everyone was treating him as the village chief's son's newly wedded wife. MC also has amnesia of the past 3 days so he follows this setting.

Then there's our ML, our ML was drugged and he remembered rolling the sheets with someone, and the person might be a man so he started to investigate but couldn't find the person, he then turns his attention to the female educated youths. He tried to test it with MC but with amnesiac MC's reaction, he guessed that it must not be him (It's him!). Anyways. MC recognizes ML as the villain in the novel and wanted to stay away from him. However, after living in the village, he realizes that the OG doesn't have a good relationship with the villagers or other educated youths and when he encounters troubles, only ML would help him. 

Anyways, it was a back and forth between MC & ML, they would have small arguments wherein MC would say hurtful words in anger then later, he will still be helped by ML again and again. Some troubles because of MC's status as a "wife"  of the son of the village chief and ML being the son of the landlord which is Black Category during the 60s-80s. Laters, MC learned that him and the village chief son doesn't have a marriage certificate so he dismissed the marriage and moved out. Some conspiracies targeting him and ML happen again and again. Finally, they found the enemies (and boy, there were many of them) and solved it (and also uncovering a huge corruption/abuse of power going on in the countryside btw). Ending is MC & ML moving into the City. MC works in a cloths factory and ML works in the noodles factory. They plan to get married later so they didn't restore MC's real gender. Extras is their life/career in the City and some years later.

Hmm... I finished it for the sake of finishing it. I actually didn't like our MC that much. I mean, from his POV, he thinks he's a tough cookie but all I can see is him suffering loss in the hands of his bullies again and again. There was no faceslapping. I mean, the villains only stopped giving him troubles at the very end of the book. I think there were easier ways to deal with them early. It's because MC & ML are not resolving things that why they get played by these people over and over again. It's also the reason for the unreliable narrator tag, MC would get it into his brainhole that someone must be reborn or transmigrated that's why the book plot is all messed up now but for all the scheming and prancing about by the villainess under MC's nose, our MC never found her =_=

There was also MC's character in general, his method in the early chapters of stepping on ML in order to clear his name, or his unreasonable tantrums to ML. Some of his brain processes was...ridiculous to me. Like when he tripped and almost rolled down a hill and ML hugged him so it was ML's arms which were injured and MC was like "If it isn't because he was giving ML medicine, he wouldn't climb this hill. So he shouldn't feel grateful that ML saved him." and he got up and left without a thank you. There's also MC's disappointment that ML refused to learn to read and think ML is 'unambitious'. Like, ML already has a hard enough time just trying to feed himself and his family (AND MC!), how can he still have thoughts to enrich himself? I'm not saying that ML is right but MC's thought process of "Oh, you didn't learn = without ambition" as if ML had a choice in the matter, somewhat annoys me. MC has tsundere moments but then, he also has moments like THIS which lowers his favorability rating XD

On our ML, ML was cute at first. He is paying so much for MC...and his posture was so low. There were many times when I felt like MC was being shameless cos his food, furniture, even his bathwater are all helped by ML but when someone asked, they have "nothing to do with each other." (Wow). Laters, ML's thoughts (just his thoughts though) became somewhat darker like it'll be best to impregnate MC so he can only stay in the village etc. (didn't know MC was male yet) so his little pitiful image was replaced by a big-tailed wolf.

And lastly, I guess its quite harmful to the three views/values (hahaha), early on, when MC & ML were being ambiguous to each other, MC was still being treated as the wife of the village chief's son. He unilaterally declared that since there was no marriage certificate so they weren't married, but it wasn't like a big announcement/clarified to the village that's why rumors would still crop up. And for awhile, ML was pushed as a scapegoat and was recognized as the "Father" of the pregnant educated youth's child (and ML never defended himself). So if you just looked at it from the view of outsiders, a married woman and someone who already impregnated someone else...got together. I think that it's okay to NOT always care about what other people are thinking, but at the same time, reputation is still important. At least the reputation of being adulterers or making someone pregnant while unmarried is still important to be cleaned up/clarified. 

Lol. Anyways, MC can be unbearable sometimes (moments mentioned above), but most of the time, he's just plain tsundere or is just funny. ML as well is cute, especially doting to MC. I feel like author-sama could've just...expounded on the idea of a crossdressing MC, like what are the difficulties he would encounter trying to hide his gender or funny moments of almost-reveal. Just saying...  Too bad, all we get our brief mentions of this, but the main focus is still the enemies conspiring against MC & ML and them trying to find who's behind it (It's not a surprise).

Read this for crossdressing MC in the 60s-80s.