被嫌弃的童养媳是锦鲤 (The Abandoned Child Bride is a [Lucky] Koi) by 尹云白 (Yin Yunbai)
Historical romance

The Wang Family’s child bride Su Wan is a lucky koi.

After Su Wan entered the Wang family, her future husband Wang Luo Sheng passed the imperial examination and the Wang family became increasingly wealthy.

But the Wang family believed that everything they had was thanks to the well-educated concubine Yang Yunyan and that the legal wife Su Wan was ignorant, clumsy, and could only bring shame to the Wang family.

Su Wan, who transmigrated into the book, was furious. She had the luck of a lucky koi but still suffered such a humiliation.

So before she married Wang Luo Sheng, Su Wan packed up her things and went to find Shen Lin, who treated her like a treasure in the book after she was divorced.

Wang Luo Sheng got rid of the ignorant child bride as he wished and made Yang Yunyan his legal wife.

However, why did his family become more and more destitute? Where were the fame and money he had in his previous life?

Wang Luo Sheng looked at the big house and the new shop that the once poor Shen family had bought in the city, and fell into confusion…

So the prompt for this month’s TBR Challenge is “New Year, Who Dis?” and I felt the last book I read, 被嫌弃的童养媳是锦鲤 (The Abandoned Child Bride is a [Lucky] Koi), where our heroine gets rid of her trash ass ex was the perfect choice. I’m a staunch supporter of “die with regrets, asshole” and this book embodies it. Look, it’s not a good January, and in the states we’re only looking at worse and worse, thus finding joy where we can is key, and this is my joy. A glow up man, a good life, calling out people for their shit, and winning in life. It’s a bit of a “turn your brain off book” and we all need that sometimes. The “who dis” vibe is strong where the toxic people are cut out of their lives completely.

Our heroine is Su Wan. She’s been living with the Wang family for 2-3 years. The setting is ancient China. She was sold to the family to be a child bride (look, we’re not judging what her family did – I don’t know about the historical accuracy but this is a pretty common thing in the books I’ve read – so we’re not going to fixate on this). The Wang family had been poor and were afraid their son wouldn’t be able to find someone to marry, so they were all “hey we got an insta-wife for cheap.” Su Wan is essentially their slave. A good family wouldn’t treat someone that way, but we already know the Wang family is not good. Not only that, but she does the work of like five people all on her own, and does it incredibly well. (She even has to work in the mill they own.) Even as a “lucky koi” it was too much, and the book starts with her collapsing for over work. I’m not familiar with the term, but a “lucky koi” seems to be slang where the person is incredibly lucky. Just whatever they touch, whatever they’re involved in, will turn out great. Like the Midas Touch but not just money. (I WANT TO BE A LUCKY KOI, UNIVERSE! I’M SO OVER BEING THE OPPOSITE!) *Ahem* Anyway not only is Su Wan a lucky koi, she’s also a transmigrator who lands in the book she was reading, so she’s got a lot of cheats knowing certain plot points. Plus that whole luck thing. Satisfyingly she doesn’t get mired in the plot and understands things can change. She’s also smart and proactive. Our girl knows once she wakes up she needs OUT.

I’m actually a bit hesitant to say this, but our hero is Shen Li. Not because he isn’t, just that … this was barely a romance. I don’t know if it’d exactly even qualify under [Western] genre romance norms. More this book is a slice of life with romantic elements? Shen Li is tall, handsome, smart, thoughtful, considerate,  hard working, and/but there’s just no real relational development. (DAMMIT AUTHOR.) There’s like one moment where there’s a spark. But then the next step is him just saying something like “when I pass the imperial exam lets get engaged.” Su Wan is almost the one who pursues him more – but she’s also pretty passive because she just assumes they’ll end up married because of the book. I liked that Shen Li had a lot of character growth too, realizing his extended family is awful, and he shouldn’t let the “filial piety” cudgel used by his grandparents ruin his life. (Quick note: filial piety was incredibly serious – I believe I’ve seen/read in some dynasties individual found to be unfilial could be put to death. They could lose their official positions, so on and so forth. It’ll ruin your life.) He doesn’t want Su Wan to ever lift a finger when it comes to manual labor. He’s also willing to let her take the lead in things, which in a very male dominated, largely misogynistic society, is a huge deal. He’s a really great guy.

The secondary characters, well they’re a mixed bag. We have a lot of villains, and they’re mostly one dimensional. Just relentlessly awful. The Wang family want to work Su Wan to death. They also are trying to make her a concubine not legitimate wife, and feel she should be grateful to them “for the honor.” Shen Li’s grandparents basically would suck the marrow from his bones if they could. They take everything from him – and he’s trying to take care of his young sister and very ill mother all on his own. I don’t think I’ve ever read such an awful low stakes family. (As in other books I’ve read horrible things, but those are like, people vying for the throne and such. Here it’s “just” his grandparents are assholes.) They literally barge into his home and start eating the food on his table, because they expected him to take it to them but he didn’t. (He’d been sending them food constantly, despite barely having enough to eat himself or for his family.) They’re bottomless holes that only take and never give. It’s so outrageous Su Wan even wonders if Shen Li’s father was their biological son or not.

On the other side, Shen Li’s mother and sister are darling, and our couple does make a few friends, but really the whole story is them succeeding in life and getting to break ties with the Wang and extended Shen family. Good enough for me. They work to make money and move away.

I did feel the ending somewhat petered out. Unfortunately something I feel like a lot (way too many) C(hinese) romance novels suffer from. There might’ve also been some translation issues – so there is that too. At one point I made a note the chapter is “word salad.” However the story is pretty simple so I still felt I got the gist of it. Lucky Koi isn’t a book where they’re quoting poetry and such. It’s full of people getting what they deserve – both good and bad.

I’ll definitely keep an eye out for more of the author’s translated books. And I found a new trope I like – if it’s even a thing – the “FL is a lucky koi!” We need more books where our heroine wins in life and doesn’t go through a hundred chapters of suffering. This was a very satisfying read and I’m on the lookout for more like it.

Grade: C+