咸鱼继母日常 (The Laid-back Life of a Stepmother) by 明栀
Historical [Chinese] romance published in 2023

Wen Ye, who had worked hard to become a company director in her previous life, was reincarnated as the daughter of a concubine in an ancient aristocratic family after a car accident.

After learning the truth, Wen Ye completely gave up.

She had no interest in the power struggles and favoritism within the household; she just wanted to lie down and be a lazy person, occasionally turning over.

The consequence of her laziness was that she was still unmarried at the age of twenty. Her concubine mother was extremely anxious and pleaded with the main wife.

The usually strict main wife gave Wen Ye three options:

1. A newly minted scholar

2. A cousin from the main wife’s family

3. A widowed Ministry of Justice official with children

After considering for a day, Wen Ye finally chose the third option.

Upon hearing this, the concubine mother grabbed Wen Ye and began to worry: “These days, being a stepmother is difficult. Why are you doing this? I think that new scholar is quite good.”

Wen Ye swallowed the last bite of mung bean pastry and said, “This new scholar has a cousin who grew up with him in his hometown.”

The concubine mother was speechless for a moment: “Then there’s your main wife’s cousin…”

Wen Ye took a sip of tea and said, “There are too many people in that family, with two mothers-in-law alone.”

Moreover, each branch of the family had so many concubines and aunts, and she couldn’t be bothered to serve them.

The concubine mother: “…”

Wen Ye put down her teacup and continued, “This Ministry of Justice official is different.”

The concubine mother: “How is he different?”

Wen Ye: “Both his parents are deceased, he has a carriage and a house, an elder brother and sister-in-law above him, and a son below. When I marry him, I won’t have to manage the household or bear children. As for the little one, I don’t have to worry about him either. As the saying goes, a sister-in-law is like a mother. Mrs. Lu can be considered half a grandmother to the little one.”

The concubine mother: “…”

Mrs. Lu, the sister-in-law who was only twenty-five: “…”

The topic for the TBR Challenge this month is “rizz” which is “romantic appeal or charm” and after thinking about my recent reads, this is the book that most fits. In both a romantic and general sense. The actual title/translated a bit more directly would be “The Daily Life of a Salted Fish Stepmother.” “Salted fish” also being slang – it now means “people who have no intention of doing anything” or “someone who lies there and does nothing.” It started as an insult but was adopted by people in response/as a backlash to overbearing and excessive work culture. It’s very “yay slacker” and to be honest in this world, you have to respect and celebrate it. Writing this review also had me wondering about reincarnation (not exactly something I know about, and people disagree on whether or not you “can” reincarnate into the past, but let’s leave that for another time).

Wen Ye is an absolute delight. Our girl hustled her first life, died, and was like “oh I’m alive again? Well that fuck that shit – how about I just lie down?” She’s also very hashtag: goals to me. Heh. Would I love to have her life in the novel? Absolutely 100% yes. 1000% yes. She’s shameless in a sweet way, and knows how to use what she’s got. Her face makes her look innocent, and the fact that she never takes things too far and behaves with perfect propriety yet works when she really has to, lets her get away with a lot. Wen Ye so charming she’s allowed to be lazy and incompetent. She can also talk circles around people or frustrate them in the gentlest ways. In fact, she essentially weaponizes incompetence but also knows not to take it too far. She curries favor with all the right people to live a good life. There were also some points where I was wondering “is she really clueless or just pretending?” At times (a lot of the time) she’s definitely pretending, but our girl is so clever I think for certain aspects she really is lacking knowledge because she knows smart people will see through her – and always pretending is annoying. If she really doesn’t know, then there’s nothing to be done. For example, when her sister in law is trying to teach her how to go through account books – she’s so slow and asks so many questions earnestly her SIL thinks “doing it this way would take two years.” Wen Ye later passes on checking the accounts she’s assigned to her first rank maids. However, while adding on to their workload she rewards them generously. Wen Ye wins over both her husband (who kinda starts out as a block of wood), and almost more importantly, her sister-in-law in order to maintain her good life.

Xu YueJia (XYJ)  is our hero in this book. While he’s also good, honestly he’s a pretty minor part of the story. I think the sister in law may well have (a lot) more “screen time” than he does. XYJ falls in love first, and honestly largely wins Wen Ye over with his good looks. He’s also smart, but isn’t so great with “EQ” (emotional intelligence). I think that he gets it, but he just can’t be bothered because he doesn’t care to. Until he meets WY. There’s also a big twist with his son, which explains why and how their relationship was the way it was until Wen Ye enters their lives. What’s interesting and kills me (boo censorship) is our couple seems pretty into role play in the bedroom, but of course we only get hints of it. Xu YueJia is quite self aware and also knows how to keep his wife interested – and that she married him as a means to live the way she wanted, not for him.

One issue I had with the book was the writing, and I can’t entirely be sure if it’s just the way it was written, or it was so extremely confusing because the terrible translation. What I read was clearly machine done, and there were a lot of errors. Unfortunately so many I don’t know that I can recommend it. (You have to be able to tell when things are wrong, and then in my opinion have a slight grasp of Mandarin also to know character address. For example it often said “my father” when it meant “your father.” And 🤦🏻‍♀️ in a way I don’t even know how they got it that wrong other than a terrible MTL and even worse “editing.”) It also left me a bit confused on the actual truth of relationships in a big reveal, but I also felt it wasn’t that important because I got the major factor. It was very frustrating.

I’ve been enjoying reading about slacker characters. The ones smart enough who know how to get what they want with minimal work. That’s not to say they do nothing. In fact Wen Ye makes major contributions (sometimes through sheer luck but her smarts made it happen) by capturing criminals in major cases. She effectively saves the lives of the princess, a prince, and later even the emperor. One thing I wish had happened that I don’t think we ever see is the emperor meeting Wen Ye. That would’ve been hilarious, as they’re both somewhat chaos muppets.

Being around Wen Ye makes XYJ more mischievous as well. When he’d usually turn down rewards and such, after gaining merit when the emperor offers a villa. XYJ knows Wen Ye would like it, so he readily agrees, which surprises the emperor (who may not really have wanted to give it up, but wanted to make the gesture. Ha). What was nice though was all the major players get along. XYJ likes to needle his brother (and vice versa) but they’re actually very supportive. There’s no talk of separating the family despite their parents being deceased. They also know maintaining such a close relationship is mutually beneficial. It’s a bit funny though, Wen Ye charms her sister in law so much the SIL at times disdains her own husband, so Wen Ye’s BIL gets jealous of her.

If not clear, the reason why Wen Ye needs her sister in law to like her – enough to not suggest separating the family/branches, is because running a major household is a lot of work. You have to make sure the accounts are right, check the shops, manage the small army of servants, maintain social relationships, the visits, the gifts, so on and so forth. Wen Ye has seen all that her legitimate mother does, and already knows she doesn’t want that. Wen Ye also loves teasing her son and nephews – and her husband too in fact. Give her an inch and she’ll take a mile, smiling at you the whole time.

The Laid-back Life of a Stepmother is a feel good funny and sweet story, and I might even re-read it (seriously the “translation” is … rough. I’d absolutely re-read it and recommend it if it’s edited or done better by someone else). It’s nice when there aren’t overwrought drawn out misunderstandings, or excessive scheming for status and wealth. Here we have a fun cast of characters who largely only have petty entertaining squabbles living their lives. This would be an excellent book to transmigrate into.

Grade: C+