Novels like A Cruel Mother, a Broken Home, and Me, Unbroken
Books Chinese readers most often put in the same booklists as A Cruel Mother, a Broken Home, and Me, Unbroken, best match first.
- 51 Reborn in 1978: Don't Even Think About Stealing My Life Again 重生1978，别再想偷我的人生 [This is a long novel about fated cycles of reincarnation across several lifetimes. No transmigration with memories, no System. Each volume is a complete story of its own: Volume One: Years Like a Song, a 1978 college entrance exam rebirth story. Later volumes include the flames of war in the Republican era.] In her previous life, she studied day and night beneath a kerosene lamp, tirelessly preparing for the college entrance exam. In the end, the acceptance letter went to someone else. In 1978, 189Reads—Score10214d adds
- 52 Old Huang and Old Hei 老黄与老黑 [Period Drama] [Countryside] [Married Life] Set in the early 1980s, this novel tells the story of four families, the Lins, Wangs, Lius, and Chens, in an unremarkable village on the Loess Plateau in the Great Northwest. They scheme and struggle against one another, while brothers and sisters-in-law within each clan bear their own grudges and grievances. But it is better to resolve enmity than let it fester. Lin Junjie is the first young man in the village to get into college, bringing honor to th 56Reads7.4Score—14d adds
- 53 The Newlywed Young Widow 新婚小寡妇 In the winter of 1976, Li Yanmei was newly married when her husband died. Branded a “husband-killing” jinx, she was pregnant when her cruel in-laws threw her out with nothing. On a stormy night, she gave birth in a melon shed. Starving and freezing, she swallowed the slur “loose woman” along with her tears. For the little one in her arms, she wiped away her tears and turned humiliation into a stepping stone. She went from selling goods at a black-market stall to reclaiming land for farming, from 1.6kReads6.5Score11114d adds
- 54 My Mother, Wang Juzhen 俺娘王菊珍 [Based on real life + hardship + historical era + the struggles and perseverance of ordinary people at the bottom of society] This is not a feel-good power fantasy. The protagonist of this book is my beloved and respected great-grandmother, a poor old woman who struggled through the surging tide of an era. Wang Juzhen never had an easy life. Her parents starved to death while fleeing famine, her own sister sold her for a mouthful of grain, and a landlord lusted after her. Only Wang Long gave her 109Reads—Score—14d adds
- 55 Reborn in 1980: After the Family Split, I Make a Fortune with My Wife and Daughter 重生80，分家后带妻女吃香喝辣 [Period setting + reborn + everyday family life + raising children and doting on his wife + daily life + building wealth + business + food] In 1980, forty-six-year-old Lin Guoqiang was reborn. In his previous life, everyone praised him as a good-hearted man. He lent his hard-earned money to his eldest brother for a business, gave his third younger brother his demobilization allowance to marry a wife, paid for his fifth younger sister’s tuition, and tended to his sick parents at their bedside. Bu 182.7kReads7.4Score7k14d adds
- 56 The 1980s: A Fisherman's Little Life in Southern Guangdong 八零：南粤渔家小日子 [Period Piece] [Shore Foraging Golden Finger] [Fishing and Hunting] [Everyday Child-Rearing] [Family Life] [Cozy] [A Complete Guide to Seafood, Food, and Livelihood] [Later Development in the Pearl River Delta and Hong Kong] Chen Lizhen had spent half her life working at a fish stall. At last, she got to stay with her daughter for a few days, but after falling asleep, she woke up in a small fishing village in Nanyue in 1985. She was only twenty-five again, and her daughter was a four-year-old li 583Reads—Score10314d adds
- 57 Sanxi: From Village Beauty to Village Bully 三喜：从村花到村霸 A beautiful country girl marries in a daze, only for upheaval to strike her family. She goes from depending on others to growing strong on her own, but in the end, desire consumes her and leads her to ruin. In her final moments, she realizes that human nature cannot be controlled… 127Reads—Score3214d adds
- 58 Reborn: From the Start, I Save My Mute, Delicate Wife 重生回来：开局拯救哑巴小娇妻 [Rebirth + Repentant Scumbag + Doting Dad + Devoted Husband with One Female Lead + Funny Everyday Life + Family Life + Revenge + Sweet Romance] In his previous life, the pretty widow in his village drugged him and set him up. He had no choice but to marry her, then leave his hometown with her and her adopted son. In the end, when he was old, his adopted son pulled the plug on him. He was reborn and woke up in the middle of the night in 1983. The widow came to his door, just like she had in his p 36Reads—Score—14d adds
- 59 Rural Chronicle 乡村纪实 The little details of life, all those everyday moments, come together to paint a picture of a changing countryside. Generation after generation pursues its dreams, working hard in the mountain valleys. They make it through the winter, then the hills turn green in spring. Summer crops blanket the mountains, and autumn is always a season of joy. 249Reads8.4Score1414d adds
- 60 Great-Aunt Xile's Happy Life 姑奶奶喜乐的幸福生活 Home is a sheltered harbor, and family is always there to support you. This is a story about three generations of the Song family living happily in an old building on Tianjin's Five Avenues. It features Tianjin's delicious food, as well as the family's joys and sorrows over the past thirty years. 698Reads9.1Score10414d adds
- 61 No Mercy for the World 不赦人间 For the first twenty years of her life, Chen Qingxing lived by one rule: never count on a miracle. When someone else took the spot she had earned as a student in need, and her part-time wages were withheld, she signed a harsh sponsorship agreement. Her benefactor would pay for her to finish college, and after graduation, she would repay the debt with a marriage of convenience. There was no romance involved. It was a deal with a clearly marked price. She relied on careful calculations to plan eve 24Reads—Score—14d adds
- 62 Rural Sisters-in-Law 农村妯娌 This is a story of war and peace between two women, and also a miniature epic chronicling the transformation of rural China from collectivization to the modern era. When the well in Liuxi Village was filled in and running water reached every home, the women who had once argued, wept, and whispered secrets beside that well proved through their lives that time can bury old grudges, and that a resilient spirit can blossom in the soil. 2.2kReads7.1Score25914d adds
- 63 My Husband Cheated, So I Swapped Husbands with His Mistress to Change Our Fates 老公出轨，我和小三换夫改命 A new novel currently being serialized, with its rating just posted! [Not a wish-fulfillment story] [Period setting + remarriage + devoted husband + marriage first, love later] [Some ensemble cast elements] [No System] [No pocket dimension] [Realistic everyday life] In the height of summer in 1977, Xu Nan, a temporary worker at a machinery factory, caught her husband, Cheng Peng, having an affair with Liang Yan Min, an employee at the same factory. To protect his reputation and prospects, Cheng 16.7kReads8.4Score1.2k14d adds
- 64 A Way Forward Through Mountains and Rivers 出路之山重水复 [Period setting + Family + Women + Career + Workplace business battles + No romance + Society + An exploration of human nature] No cheat powers, no dramatic comeback. A deep look at the struggles and prospects of 99% of ordinary people! Wish-fulfillment stories are everywhere, but once the excitement fades, only emptiness remains. In the end, we all have to face the grind of daily life and the warmth or coldness of human relationships. This slow-burning work of realism offers no lucky breaks or 2.4kReads9.5Score34314d adds
- 65 What's Got You So Proud? 你牛什么牛 Also known as The Yueyue’s Terrible Mother-in-Law. Through the story of an unusually strong-willed woman’s life, this novel offers a profound look at the dialectical relationship between personality and fate. From many angles, it examines the rise of extreme feminism in contemporary society. It also gives serious thought to marriage and romance, raising children, and human relationships in the modern world. It offers important guidance for a new generation in the twenty-first century on developi 12Reads—Score—14d adds
- 66 A Capable Village Belle and Her Good-for-Nothing Live-In Son-in-Law 能干村花和她的窝囊倒插门 Zhao Hua is the capable, no-nonsense village beauty of Taiping Village. She supports her family with a small shop, while her adoptive parents hope she'll marry a man who can support them in their old age. A scandalous affair involving a potential match ruins the marriage prospects outright. Unable to find a man willing to marry into her family, she chooses the impoverished Li boy who lives behind her house. His family is buried in debt, he's timid by nature and always lowers his head when troubl 3.8kReads—Score12414d adds
- 67 A-Dou’s Comeback 阿豆的逆袭 He was born with a disability: no neck, his head almost resting on his shoulders... On top of that, he lost both his parents as a child. Yet this very man eventually made a comeback like Forrest Gump. He not only married the village beauty, but also found success in his career. How did he turn his life around and rise to the light? Was it luck? Character? Talent? Maybe it was a bit of everything. 9Reads—Score—14d adds
- 68 Finding True Love Inside and Outside Marriage in Midlife 人到中年婚姻内外寻找真爱 Yang Duo is a flower in full bloom. Though she’s forty, she’s still young and beautiful. A woman in pursuit of true love, she yearns for romance and has spent her life exploring and experiencing it. A passionate love affair that nearly cost her life in her youth, a joyless marriage in middle age, and an unexpected encounter outside her marriage: whenever she falls for someone, she loves with wild abandon and suffers heartbreak that tears her apart. Her three close friends have very different l 637Reads8.7Score10114d adds
- 69 The Plains' True Colors 平原底色 Beginning in the twenty-first century, this novel follows Fang Lizhu, a child of the post-80s generation growing up in the rural Jianghan Plain of central China. Through Fang Lizhu's education, work, and the many people he meets and events he experiences, the novel portrays how life has changed for people across the plains since the start of the new century. It also depicts the many ways ordinary people respond to sweeping changes in a new era and a shifting social landscape: the choices they ma 23Reads—Score114d adds
- 70 The Tail Fire Tiger and Kui Wood Wolf 尾火虎奎木狼 As the old saying goes: Reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles; traveling ten thousand miles is not as good as meeting countless people; meeting countless people is not as good as spending every day with masters; and having an expert show you the way is not as good as reaching enlightenment on your own. Over the years, I’ve read plenty of books, traveled many roads, met many people, and experienced many things. I’ve also spent time with masters, and gained a fe 11Reads—Score—14d adds
- 71 The Long Summer 悠长夏季 The quiet, secluded town of Guanhai welcomed two strange young men one after the other. From then on, the monotonous life of an eighteen-year-old high school girl was filled with laughter… But all good things must come to an end, and eventually they had to leave… Many years later, they unexpectedly met again, but everything had changed… 6Reads—Score—14d adds
- 72 Memories of a Small Town 小镇记忆 A story of ordinary life in a small town in Northeast China, charting the town's changing fortunes over the thirty years of reform and opening up. No detail is too small to matter. Joys and sorrows come together in a song. A vivid portrait of the town's many residents and a lifelike panorama of life in a changing era slowly unfold. 115Reads—Score—14d adds
- 73 The Butcher's Fierce Wife Is My Third Sister-in-Law 卖肉悍妇是我三嫂 When Wang Xiuying was eighteen, she chased two men through the streets with a shoulder pole. Everyone in the village said she was too fierce. Who would dare marry her? And yet my useless third brother insisted on marrying her. On their wedding night, she laid down three rules: from now on, I make the decisions at home; don't let anyone bully you again; wherever I point, you hit. We all thought our third brother had married a tigress and that their life together would be impossible. But who could 986Reads—Score10514d adds
- 74 The Young People of Chemen Courtyard 车门院里的年轻人 This is a symphony of destinies spanning generations. In a small courtyard in northern China in the 1970s, several families struggle and drift with the tides of the times. Lei Shaxiao, an orphan whose parents died young, falls in love with Aiai, another orphan from the neighboring courtyard. They were an ordinary couple, but amid the raging currents of the era, Shaxiao rises to become a renowned lawyer who commands the room. Money, power, and desire come one after another. He loses himself in th 35Reads—Score314d adds
- 75 A Second New Beginning 二次新生 [No System] [Not Reborn] [Realistic Urban Life] [Restaurant Startup] [Slice of Life] It wasn’t until the day I got divorced that I understood: closing the noodle shop wasn’t the hardest part. The hardest part was watching my ex-wife get into someone else’s car, then having to smile as I served the last pot of bone broth to my summer customers. Later, I won a bet to take over a restaurant. I thought my life was finally turning around. Until I realized that every step I took was a square on someon 16Reads—Score—14d adds
- 76 The Blood-Tear Tung Blossoms 泣血油桐花 In the 1970s, Zhao Zhicheng was an older bachelor. Because he had one disabled leg and came from a dirt-poor family, the women from the surrounding villages all refused to marry him. In the end, he married Yan Wenyin, a woman of similar age who also had one disabled leg. From then on, the fates of these two determined people, each with a physical disability, were bound tightly together! That year, he said, “My left leg is lame, and Xiaoyin’s right leg is lame. Put us together, and don’t we make 2.6kReads6.6Score31714d adds
- 77 Reborn in the Eighties: No More Being a Doormat! This Is So Satisfying 重生八零，不再当受气包！爽翻天 [1980s setting + plot-driven + slow burn + reborn + making money + entrepreneurship + daily life + heartwarming + steady and gradual + family matters + building wealth + one-on-one romance + happy ending] In her previous life, Chen Baorong worked herself to the bone to support her family. Eventually, she fell ill from overwork. She had no children, and only before she died did she discover her scumbag husband’s affair with her younger sister. When she opened her eyes again, Chen Baorong had retu 20Reads—Score—14d adds
- 78 Home on a Unicycle 独轮车上的家 The novel follows Liu Shouren and his family from the late 1970s to the present day. As society changes and the countryside is transformed, they weather a tumultuous journey. Through stories from in and around the village, it portrays the lives, resilience, struggles, and growth of countless ordinary rural families across China... 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 79 A Traveler in Years of Famine 荒年客 A survival epic about ordinary Chinese people. From rural China to the torrents of modern life, three generations of the Hou family are swept along by the tide of history. The grandparents put down roots in the land. Their values, admonitions, and “family scandals” form the family's original identity and its shackles. The parents struggle through a time of transition, inheriting heavy burdens while kindling a desire to change their fate. As someone born in the 1980s, I linger at the divide betwe 140Reads6.6Score10514d adds
- 80 Transmigrating into a Book in the 1980s: The Good-for-Nothing Big Brother’s Comeback 穿书八零：对照组废柴大哥的逆袭 One punch landed, and Shi Huajun, a young man from the modern world, transmigrated into a book. He became the most pathetic side character in a period novel: an unemployed, good-for-nothing older brother who had returned to the city in the 1980s, a laughingstock whom everyone in the crowded courtyard looked down on. In the original story, he was beyond help, slumped in a tiny ten-square-meter room and doing nothing for more than a decade. His wife was used as someone else’s pawn, forced to tak 621Reads8.3Score10314d adds
- 81 Reborn in the 1970s: After Divorcing, I Cleared Out My In-Laws’ Home and Went to the Countryside 重生七零：离婚搬空婆家去下乡 [1970s Setting, Rebirth Power Fantasy, Spirit Spring Space, Making a Fortune, Miracle Doctor, Revenge] Synopsis: On the sixteenth day of her marriage, Xiao Mandong grabbed a thermos full of boiling water and smashed it over her cheating husband and widowed sister-in-law on the bed! In her previous life, she had given everything to support the Lu family, only to have her child switched, her loved ones die tragically, and herself left to die alone with terminal lung cancer. Reborn, she refused to 5.4kReads6.5Score60214d adds
- 82 Fireworks on the Islet, Where People Make Their Homes, Starting in the 1970s 洲上烟火有人家，从七十年代开始 [Rural Romance] [Family Life] [Educated Youth Teacher] [Neighborly Disputes] [Eerie Shadows in the Village] [Country Living and Laughs] This book has no pocket dimension, no System, and no transmigration or rebirth. It tells only of ordinary people’s rural lives and the hard-won warmth and bustle of everyday life through years of hardship. The story begins in the 1970s and follows several families living in the countryside. Among them are educated youths sent to work in the villages, militia mem 108Reads8.3Score—14d adds
- 83 San Biaozi 三彪子 In 1980, in Kaoshan Village on the banks of the Songhua River, the Gao family’s fifth child is born. Dubbed “San Biaozi” because he is a bit dim, he grows up amid poverty and gossip. His mother bears the painful memory of having been assaulted, while his father quietly shoulders the burden of their broken family. San Biaozi drifts through life in a daze, but after a string of fires, people begin to suspect him of arson. While working the night shift guarding the grain depot, he learns to smoke. 769Reads—Score—14d adds
- 84 The Phoenix Woman Marries a Phoenix Man 凤凰女嫁给凤凰男 This is an inspirational story about Yan Yan and Liang Liang, two top students who make their way from the countryside to Beijing. Through their own hard work, they put down roots there, buy a home and a car, and raise a family. Their journey is filled with hardships and laughter, as they keep facing new challenges and growing along the way. 242Reads—Score—14d adds
- 85 The Comeback: From Wage Slave to CEO 逆袭！从打工仔到总裁 This book tells the story of Lin Qiang, an 18-year-old from a rural village in northwest China. When his family was struck by sudden hardship, with his father seriously ill and debts piling up, he had no choice but to give up his place at a prestigious university. With just 200 yuan in his pocket, he set off alone for the prosperous coastal city of Donghai to make a living. He started out hauling bricks at construction sites, then seized opportunities to learn new skills and struggle through the 13Reads6.5Score—14d adds
- 86 Jiang Xiaohua 姜晓花 In the bitter winter of 1976, Jiang Xiaohua was sixteen. Her family had almost nothing; her father was gravely ill, her mother weak-willed, and her younger brother still a child. Desperate for food, she was forced into a bride swap and nearly sold off, struggling on the brink of life and death before finally marrying into the Chen family, the most quarrelsome and favoritism-ridden family around. Her sisters-in-law ostracized her, her mother-in-law mistreated her, her husband stumbled, her childr 866Reads—Score—14d adds
- 87 The Shoe Factory Worker Holds Forth, and She Knows So Much! 鞋厂女工论道，她知道那么多！ [Urban slice of life + romance] The heroine is beautiful and works at a factory. She takes care of looking lovely while the hero works hard to get ahead. He climbs the factory's management ranks and even puts in time on the production line, all so the two of them can tie the knot and enjoy a long, happy life together. But things aren't that simple... 137Reads—Score—14d adds
- 88 Aunt Mei 媚姨 Male Lead: Ding Yuan Female Lead: Liu Meiyi No one is reborn, and there is no System. This is an era of struggle belonging to the older generation! That year, Ding Yuan earned top marks in the imperial examinations, only to have his life stolen from him when his stepmother conspired with her family to switch his results. His father, unaware of the truth, set out on a rainy night to sell goods in the mountains and raise money for Ding Yuan to retake the exams. But the tractor overturned in a ravi 5.6kReads8.8Score48014d adds
- 89 Her Secret Thoughts: A Young Man’s Hidden Diary in a Small Village 致她的心事：小村青年的隐秘日记 No formulaic plot | Not a wish-fulfillment novel | Realistic fiction | Zhou Zhiqiang grows up amid poverty and chaos in her birth family, with her father instilling in her the survival rule that “you have to please people to survive.” She gets into college and lands a job at a bank. A well-off man, Ke Qingyan, pursues her, but as the truth about her family comes out, she gradually loses her self-respect and her relationship. Later, burdened with debt, she returns to her hometown and, under he 2Reads—Score—14d adds
- 90 Water Willow 水性杨花儿 (The rating was just added and will rise. It's already going up!) Neighbor Guo Hongmei ran off with another man? What? That man is Yang Hua'er's husband, Zhao Dashan? Talk about gossip coming right back to bite you. They say nine out of ten people born in the Year of the Sheep are fated to have a hard life, but Yang Hua'er doesn't believe in fate. Even without a man, she can still make a warm and happy life for herself. 10.3kReads8.2Score67914d adds
- 91 The Sun and Moon in the Steamer 蒸屉里的日月 Set against the changes sweeping the northern countryside in the 1990s, this story follows an ordinary rural woman as she spends half her life juggling household chores, conflicts with her sisters-in-law, small business ventures, and her children’s education. With only an elementary-school education, she supports her family with her skill at making steamed buns, putting her son through college and helping him build a life of his own. She lives through the transition from earthen houses to brick 307Reads—Score—14d adds
- 92 The Man with Six Marriages 六婚男人 A marriage spanning half a century, full of ups and downs, and one man's six sorrowful, blood-stained journeys into wedlock. In the late 1970s, at a state-owned coal mine in Northeast China, Kim Dazhuang, an ethnic Korean Chinese who had returned from Korea, was tall and burly, with a fiery temper. He sweated through his work amid the roar of steam locomotives. Over the course of his life, he went through six marriages. Each time, he entered with hope, only for almost every one to end in heartbr 25Reads—Score—14d adds
- 93 Reborn in 1990: Escaping My Toxic Family from the Start 重生90开局逃离原生家庭 [One heroine] After being reborn, I hadn't even had time to enjoy my new life before Qian Lao saw through my identity when I predicted the breakup of the Soviet Union. This is so hard… I start a media company and recruit Liming and Huang Jiaju to take on the Hong Kong and Taiwan entertainment industries… Then I do everything I can to find the love of my previous life. In this life, I'll live for her… 105Reads6.8Score1114d adds
- 94 The Family's Hidden Guards 家族暗卫 A story about rural revitalization, bringing a family back together and creating an ideal life. Before the Spring Festival in 2025, my second uncle asked me to return to the village to meet him. He handed me a black stone passed down through our family and told me to inherit the duty of the family’s secret guards, protecting our family’s development from the shadows. I also inherited a fortune passed down through the family, along with the friendship of eight families who had been close to o 7.8kReads—Score1k14d adds
- 95 Reborn in 1986: I Open a Supermarket in the City 重生1986我在城里开超市 The ratings have only just come in, so they’re bound to rise!! Everything is handmade from scratch~ [Period setting + reborn + feel-good story + building wealth + opening a supermarket + devoted husband and father] [Buy one, get one free] [Trade in your old goods] [The Vegetable Basket Project] … Reborn in 1986, with no awful relatives to deal with, he sells wild greens, opens a supermarket, and starts a franchise... Free eggs with every in-store purchase! Spend 10 yuan, get 1 yuan off; sp 38.1kReads8.3Score3k14d adds
- 96 The Rise and Fall of Boss Fan 范老板的沉浮人生 This story follows 1980s entrepreneur Fan Chenhui through the ups and downs of the business world in Shenzhen. It explores real-world issues including financial crises, family conflicts, workplace rivalries, and tangled relationships, portraying human nature and the changes of the times in vivid detail. 114Reads8.2Score—14d adds
- 97 Daring to Act 大胆作为 She was as beautiful as a celestial maiden. Raised in a remote mountain village, she became famous far and wide for her beauty, but she was neither delicate nor dependent on men. With an excellent memory, high emotional and intellectual intelligence, and a stubborn refusal to give up, she carved out a place for herself in the world. She studied opera, ran a stall, worked odd jobs, and did business, eventually making her mark in the commercial world. Because of her unusual birth, her life was far 7Reads—Score—14d adds
- 98 Reborn in 1976, My Father-in-Law Hopes I Die Every Day 重生1976，岳父天天盼我死 [Rebirth + period setting + logging + no System] In his previous life, Chen Beishan was the chairman of a timber conglomerate worth tens of billions. As he died at his rosewood desk, the last document he received wasn’t an obituary. It was a lawyer’s letter from his son, contesting the inheritance. He opens his eyes in 1976, in the Greater Khingan Range, at minus forty-two degrees. He’s now the “softie Beishan” everyone at the logging camp calls a coward: a good-for-nothing who abandoned his p 976Reads6.5Score10814d adds
- 99 I Married My Best Friend’s Boyfriend 我嫁给了闺蜜的男友 They were high school classmates. She was an ugly duckling living under someone else’s roof, while her best friend was an elegant swan, high above everyone else. After dating the swan for a long time, he told the ugly duckling that she was the one he loved. This book tells the story of their love, friendship, and family ties in their youth. 129Reads—Score—14d adds
- 100 A Wounded Woman Doesn't Talk About Love 受伤女人不谈爱 She raises her husband’s mistress’s child! This is a story about a woman’s growth, inspired by many real-life stories. Wang Shengnan was born into a rural family that favored sons over daughters, and her mother named her Shengnan, meaning “to surpass men.” She started working as soon as she graduated from middle school. At a beauty salon, her boss sexually assaulted her, but timid and meek, she did not dare speak out. Later, she married an ordinary man, only for him to die in an accident. After 123Reads—Score—14d adds
