Novels like Old Liu and His Daughter
Books Chinese readers most often put in the same booklists as Old Liu and His Daughter, best match first.
- 151 Leave Some Space, My Humble Abode 留白，寒舍 A diary about love, written from a wife’s perspective and addressed to his wife. Some people love flowers simply for their blossoms, and love watching them bloom. Others love a flower from the moment it is still a seed, anticipating what it will become. They watch it sprout, break through the soil, and keep growing upward. Its trunk grows ever sturdier, while leaves seem to appear from nowhere, one after another. They watch the leaves turn from pale green to deep green, then from deep green to a 29Reads—Score—14d adds
- 152 A Marriage of Money 钱婚 To become the dutiful daughter, good wife, and loving mother everyone expected, Liu Xiaoqing buried her youthful dreams and deepest desires before the age of thirty-three, living a life of constant compromise. After graduating, she painfully gave up her dream of becoming a writer and took the civil service exam, becoming a government employee. At home, she endured her in-laws' repeated provocations, again and again, just to preserve her marriage. At work, she likewise chose to put up with her 57Reads—Score—14d adds
- 153 A Little Story About Helping My Sleepless Girlfriend Learn Math Formulas Through Hypnosis 女朋友失眠催眠学数学公式小故事 A little story about a girlfriend with insomnia, hypnotism, and math formulas —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 154 I Just Want to Retire on Time, but the Dean Is Making Me a Big Shot 只想按时退休，院长逼我当大佬 With a slacker's attitude, the protagonist takes down every task that stands in the way of his retirement! He turns a laid-back life into a path to greatness. Reborn at forty-five as a finance department head, his only goal is to coast until retirement, but the workaholic dean forces him to become a power behind the scenes. Watch him grumble to himself while wielding Excel to devastating effect. The thrills and laughs are off the charts! —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 155 Madam Plum and Mr. Plum 梅娘，梅郎 She is the apple of her family’s eye and the dream girl of countless people in the Land of Tenderness. Yet she is also a lonely outcast, one who carved out her place in that world of pleasure through her own strength, a triumph forged from ice and fire. 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 156 A Depressed Person's Soliloquy 抑郁者的独白 An inner monologue from someone living with depression. Just as her life was about to wither away, the will to live drove her to break free with all her strength from the invisible chains holding her back. Suddenly, she understood that there are many ways to live. This book can also be seen as the author's own journey of redemption and healing through a life on the road. It also introduces the scenery and local culture of the places she visited. 47Reads—Score—14d adds
- 157 Rose Works as a Tutor in a Wealthy Household 玫瑰在豪门做家庭教师 [Awakening through divorce + elite-family tutoring + a comeback through political maneuvering + mutual salvation + a strong female lead's growth] Rose was once an elementary school Chinese teacher in the public sector, holding onto the coveted “iron rice bowl” of a secure job, until life forced her to break out of her safe routine with her own hands. Divorced, raising a child, starting over: she had her fears, but for her child and herself, she had to build a better life. When things were at t 274Reads9.3Score10014d adds
- 158 Died by the River 逝于江河 Two years into their marriage, Meng Ran became pregnant with Yang Peng's child, but something about it all felt wrong. Those choices that seemed so firm were really just hesitant attempts to weigh the pros and cons. “How wonderful it is to be young” was nothing but an illusion. We all once held lofty dreams, but now we live ignobly. Can Meng Ran and Yang Peng clear away the fog, cross the wilderness, and make a steady passage into the real world? Or are they headed for ruin? 7Reads—Score—14d adds
- 159 Be Brave and Pursue Love: Falling for a Police Officer 勇敢去追爱，追着警察叔叔谈恋爱 This book is all about romance. It is not a story about a strong female lead! It is not a story about a strong female lead! When Chen Youyou was eight, she was in danger and was rescued by a young police officer. He became the man of her dreams, but by a twist of fate, that young officer later became her father’s sworn brother. More than ten years later, Chen Youyou is finally all grown up. Watch her overcome every obstacle on the road to love without fear! She bravely pursues romance, falling i 9.6kReads8.8Score81514d adds
- 160 A Middle-Aged Man's Redemption: The Phoenix Turns Toward the Sun 中年男人的自我救赎：凤自向阳 A man born in the 1980s, now middle-aged, who spent more than twenty years working as a clothing pattern maker. For the first half of his life, he lived trapped in self-doubt and inner turmoil, held back by all kinds of hang-ups about his name, appearance, education, marriage, and children. At middle age, he finally learned to make peace with his past self, slowly tear down the high walls around his heart, and let himself off the hook. This book records the pitfalls I've fallen into, the grie 9Reads—Score—14d adds
- 161 The Men I Met After My Divorce 离婚后，我遇到的男人们 We had known each other for 26 years and been married for 20. We went from having nothing to building an estate worth tens of millions, and from being alone to having a son and a daughter. To outsiders, our marriage looked enviably perfect. At last, after all my years of waiting, it came to a happy ending. At last, I’m divorced and completely free. Now I can observe the men around me as an outsider. Men come in all kinds. There’s a type for everyone. This is my new book. If you happen to come ac 574Reads6.5Score—14d adds
- 162 From Beginning to End! 自始至终！ [Independent and ambitious, occasionally emo HR specialist & confident, arrogant, but actually stubborn and devoted programmer] [Reunion after years apart + rekindled romance + everyday realism + slow burn] Five years after they broke up, Jiang Yu returned to her old hometown. On her first day at a new job, she unexpectedly ran into Jiang Yanzhou. There was none of the polite small talk you see in movies, no “Long time no see,” just a cool “Hello.” Not long afterward, Jiang Yanzhou bluntly told 20Reads—Score—14d adds
- 163 I Took in a Grandma, Only to Discover She Was a Long-Lost Relative 我捡回一位奶奶，她竟是我失散多年的亲人 I took in an old woman, and she turned out to be a long-lost relative 5Reads—Score—14d adds
- 164 The Generation of '90 90的一代 The coming-of-age story of a small-town young man born in the 1990s, a vivid cautionary tale for his younger siblings. Apart from a confidence that defies explanation, he has no family wealth, no education, no life experience, and not even any self-discipline. But one day, he will finally make his way through the fog. The road ahead is like leveling up and fighting monsters, a struggle for survival of the fittest. 2Reads—Score—14d adds
- 165 Scholar or Tyrant: Who Can Have a Good Life? 学霸和枭雄，什么人能过上好日？ (Dual male leads. Period story. Urban.) One is a poor scholar, the other a big shot in the underworld. They struggle for fifty years. What does it take to live a good life? And what is a good life? 6Reads—Score—14d adds
- 166 The Woman Who Couldn’t Be Caged 困不住的她 Pei Xiaocao is someone who refuses to follow the usual path. Along the road of life, she has erased everything she was supposed to do. Her life follows no one else’s rules. She believes only in her own! 3Reads—Score—14d adds
- 167 The Night Is Hungry, and There’s No Escaping His Possessiveness 夜色贪婪，逃不开他的占有 After her fiancé and best friend joined forces to take everything from her, Su Xiaoran fell from the clouds into the mud. In her moment of despair, she stumbled into Gu Haifeng's arms. The man gripped her chin and said in a low voice, “From today on, you're mine.” The scumbag and the bitch? She'll make sure they lose everything and end up disgraced! As for this powerful tycoon? Su Xiaoran only wants to run, but he pins her in a corner, possessiveness overflowing. “Running? Where do you think you 614Reads—Score—14d adds
- 168 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
- 169 A Ten-Year Dream in the Officialdom 十年官场梦 What ordinary people see as a grassroots success story may actually be nothing more than a pawn in the hands of powerful figures, sent out to fight on their behalf. To make the pawn serve its purpose, those figures grant it a measure of power and status for a time. Perhaps that's all a grassroots rise to success really is. The protagonist, Chi Mingyu, may be just such a pawn. During the ten years after leaving university and entering public service, he once enjoyed great success. But in the end, 9Reads6.7Score—14d adds
- 170 I Met You in Winter 在冬时遇见你 [Sweet romance, no angst] [They choose each other] [A slow-burning love] [Gourmet] After Lin Xiaoxi moved to Qingcheng, a small coastal city, she discovered on the night she got her tooth filled that her next-door neighbor was Xie Jingzhi, the dentist who had treated her. Gentle and reassuring when he smiled, Dr. Xie shattered her preconceptions about dentists. It turned out that some of them didn't look intimidating after all. As they spent one day after another together, she learned that some 51Reads—Score—14d adds
- 171 When I Wake from the Dream, Life Is Different 梦醒时分，不一样的人生 [The Story of a Normal Student's Normal Life at a Normal School] [Multiple Heroines] [No Melodrama] [No System] [No Face-Slapping] [From High School to College] [Only Children Have to Choose] [This Time, I Want It All] All for the sake of remembering the youth that has long since passed. 211Reads—Score—14d adds
- 172 From Village to City: Their Lives Swept Along by the Tide of the Times 从村到城，她们在时代洪流里沉浮 Their fates seem to repeat across generations. Three generations of women all grew up under the shadow of fathers who left or divorced their mothers. Raised in households with only their mothers, the women share similar traits: resilient and adaptable, dignified and self-assured, hardworking, and devoted to living life well. From the countryside to the city, women of the new era have finally welcomed a spring of their own. Their lives have become richer and more colorful, full of endless possibi 12Reads—Score114d adds
- 173 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 9Reads—Score—14d adds
- 174 A Motherless Child, Cared for by His Sister-in-Law 没妈的孩子，嫂子疼 [Period drama + No System or storage space] After my adoptive parents died in a car accident, my older brother Zhang Dakui and I depended on each other. Ever since Dakui brought my sister-in-law Liu Chunmei home, our lives changed. And so did my life... 98Reads6.2Score11214d adds
- 175 Chunfen 春芬 Ni Chunfen had known since she was little that her parents were different from other children’s parents. They both spoke with sign language. But they lived a happy life. After Ni Chunfen graduated from college, her parents told her a secret: she was adopted. Now that she was grown up and looking for a job and a boyfriend, they decided to tell her. They didn’t want their daughter to become romantically involved with one of their biological sons. If she ever got serious about a boyfriend, she had 52Reads—Score—14d adds
- 176 I Escaped the Mountains 我逃出了大山 I Escaped the Mountains 9Reads—Score—14d adds
- 177 Peeping: The Butterfly Effect 偷窥之蝴蝶效应 The male lead is a complete loser. By chance, he discovers a female colleague's secret, turning his work and personal life upside down. Two mature adults with sharp minds and social skills engage in an intense game of push and pull. Love begins for reasons unknown and grows deeper with every passing day: they love and are loved, hurt and are hurt, grow through their pain, then fade from one another's memories. This is also the story of an ordinary worker's growth. 578Reads6.7Score—14d adds
- 178 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
- 179 Panpan, I Love You. You Need to Know That 盼盼，我爱你，你要知道 Chang Panpan was born in 1989 in a village in northern China. She studied hard, but still couldn't escape having to retake the college entrance exam. After a year of preparation, she was admitted to a Project 211 university in Beijing, where she met Wu Xiaoyang and continued to grow... 92Reads—Score—14d adds
- 180 Adrift in a Sea of Debt 债海沉浮 The pressure of credit card payments, calls from bank debt collectors, relentless harassment over online loans, and reproaches and complaints from his wife and friends weigh on him like a boulder on his chest. Every breath brings pain. He works day and night, yet still cannot fill the bottomless pit of debt. For him, life has become an endless struggle of helplessness. Every time hope flickers to life, reality cruelly snuffs it out. Even his once-beautiful, virtuous wife gets into someone else's 2Reads—Score—14d adds
- 181 After Being Driven Mad, She Took Revenge on Her Whole Family 被逼成疯批后，她报复了全家 [Revenge] [Both Leads Are Each Other's First] [Redemption] [Feel-Good Story] [Happy Ending] To seize the Su family's wealth, Chen Wei, a man who married into the family for money, plotted to kill his father-in-law and mother-in-law, then pushed his wife down the stairs. His daughter, Su Ying, had the surname Su, not Chen. To him, that was a disgrace. Her very existence constantly reminded him of the humiliating days he had spent in the Su family. So he wanted to get rid of her as soon as possibl 7.6kReads8.3Score46814d adds
- 182 Lameyue 腊月儿 A man at the very bottom of society. An ordinary story about an ordinary person. He is right there beside you. He might even be you. Life is like a glass of liquor. The longer it sits, the richer it becomes. Light a cigarette, lift your glass, and let's savor it slowly. 4.7kReads8.9Score37214d adds
- 183 The Brash Stepmother from the Eighties Becomes a Nobody 八零泼妇养母成了路人甲 Liu Peiyun was ready to enjoy a quiet retirement, but instead transmigrated into a book as Lu Xuebi, a village girl whose engagement had been broken off in the 1980s. Since she was already here, Lu Xuebi decided to make the best of it. She studied for college entrance exams while leading her whole family to seize the opportunities of the times. Only later did she learn she had transmigrated into a book: she was the heroine’s shrewish adoptive mother, an obstacle on the heroine’s road to wealth a 646Reads5.8Score11614d adds
- 184 Little Leopard 小豹子 After her grandparents, who had raised her, passed away, the abandoned Situ Lingzhi was left with no one to rely on. Taking the Medical Prescriptions of the Situ Family that her grandfather had left behind, she went to America to find his relatives. Six years later, the first major event that awaited Situ Lingzhi, now a medical doctor returning home, was her classmate Dongfang Xiangrui trying to force her into marriage. The Dongfang family had once been a leading force in Yunhai City's business 314Reads8.6Score10114d adds
- 185 Breaking Free 逃离束缚 Su Yu and Tang Yilan met on a blind date arranged by their university professor. After spending some time together, they both decided they liked each other, so they went to meet each other’s parents. At first, everything seemed to go smoothly, but after they got married, they argued over whether to rent a place of their own. Su Yu also has an older brother, Su Lun, who has been married to Zhao Yanan for years, but still has no children of his own. After finally getting married, Tang Yilan reali 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 186 Flowers Born of the Earth 土生花 The land is silent, yet it can hold all the hardships endured by three generations. On the barren yellow earth, three generations of women are pressed into the mud by fate, bound hand and foot by patriarchy, and slowly tortured by life. They have no choices and nowhere to turn. They don’t even dare to cry aloud. All they can do is endure the darkness, bear the despair, and keep going through days that have been ground to dust, sustained by sheer will. Yang Jinlian is deaf and stutters. All her 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 187 The House and the Car 房子车子 House and Car 4Reads—Score—14d adds
- 188 When Ji Comes, Make Yourself at Home 季来之，则安之 As the empire teeters on the brink of collapse, Ji Shuhe sees through her fiancé’s false affection and turns around to marry Ji Bai. She intends for them to spend their lives treating each other with polite respect, but finds herself falling deeper and deeper under his doting care... 126Reads—Score—14d adds
- 189 The Invisible Blade 无形的刀刃 In this restless world, people seem eager to voice their opinions on everything. They pay too much attention to others and forget to focus on their own lives. Those incessant displays of excessive concern and so-called positive energy in the name of justice have become the sharpest knives, killing young people one by one in the darkness. Those young people question themselves and feel anxious in the night, wondering what they did wrong. In truth, they did nothing wrong! And what have those who a 3Reads—Score—14d adds
- 190 Conflict and Choice 矛盾与抉择 Leng Yan was an attractive, capable, energetic woman with a master’s degree. Thanks to her looks and abilities, she became the office director at the Commercial Bureau of District X before she turned forty. By chance, she met Gao Jian, a fitness trainer. Over time, a special bond developed between them. One day, her husband, Li Mo, learned of their intimacy, and their marriage of many years came to an end. Just then, Leng Yan’s career was beset by one crisis after another, leaving her barely abl 358Reads—Score—14d adds
- 191 There Was a Girl Named Xiaohua 有个女孩叫小花 My new work is here! You’re welcome to read it on Tomato Novel. I hope you’ll enjoy it. Your support inspires me to write, and I’ll do my best to tell every story well! This book captures some of the culture and food of rural northern Fujian in the 1980s and 1990s. Follow Xiaohua and her family as they work hard and lead warm, ordinary lives. No exaggeration, melodrama, or foolish antics. It’s not a feel-good power fantasy, and there’s no rebirth or transmigration. There’s no golden finger, just 33Reads8.9Score—14d adds
- 192 My Father's Era of the Fortress Villages 父亲的崮时代 Yimeng Mountain is a work of documentary fiction about the second generation of military-industry workers, telling the true story of the mysterious “Third Front” military factories. It retraces how the children of Third Front workers and their parents pressed on through successive waves of change. “Good people and good horses head to the Third Front.” The companies were reorganized and moved out of the mountains... They rose from the ashes as a red-culture base, as the home of China’s peaches, a 10Reads6.9Score—14d adds
- 193 Middle-Aged and Alone, With No One to Lean On 人到中年，无人可依 A middle-aged couple have no sex life and barely communicate. With elderly parents to care for and children to raise, they hit a dead end at work and struggle through a life full of endless chores. Then suddenly, an unforeseen and terrifying crisis sweeps them into a storm. What should they do next? Can they keep going? How can they turn things around? 220Reads7.4Score13314d adds
- 194 I Hastily Married a Poor Guy, but He Turned Out to Be a Tycoon Who Dotes on Me 闪婚穷小子，他竟是豪门大佬宠我入骨 I married a poor guy on a whim, but he's actually a wealthy tycoon who dotes on me 20Reads—Score—14d adds
- 195 My Tenth Year as a Simp 我当舔狗的第十年 Mo Ziyan screamed because Yang Dun had knocked her to the ground, and the fall hurt. Yang Dun screamed because he had accidentally pressed his hand against Mo Ziyan’s chest... Embarrassed, Yang Dun quickly scrambled to his feet, then awkwardly helped Mo Ziyan up. But Mo Ziyan thought Yang Dun had knocked her down on purpose. “Team Leader Yang, how could you be so naughty? You told me to stand right here and not move, but it turns out you were lining me up so you could knock me over!?” —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 196 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
- 197 Sails Together on the Vast Sea 沧海同樯 A bloodstained ship’s nail from the Ming dynasty links a tragic tale of sacrifice and protection across six centuries. During the Yongle era, 108 fishermen from Tanmen joined their boats in a desperate battle at Twin Reefs to defend their waters. Their masts toppled, their oars shattered, and every one of them perished at sea. In the present day, Huang Qinghe, an inheritor of intangible cultural heritage, and his granddaughter Huang Fan swear to defend the Brothers’ Temple, a symbol of sovereign —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 198 Let Me Build You a Home 我来给你装个家 Who would lose the house they worked so hard to earn just because they fell in love? Jiang Ning. Who would scrimp on everything, from food and clothes to housing and travel, just because they fell in love? Yang Wu. They were both willing to do it for each other. The road may have been hard, but together they were always happy. In the end, they found a home and a life together, sharing three meals a day through all four seasons. 1.5kReads9.4Score14914d adds
- 199 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. 2.3kReads7.1Score26214d adds
- 200 Happiness, or the Lack of It 幸福不幸福 If memories were a game, Happiness would have died many times over. If reality were a game, Happiness would often be left battered and bruised. She wanders the streets of memory, where every shop is shuttered. It seems this world has no room for Happiness. Even as she scrapes by, enduring harsh words and cold looks, she still isn’t ready to give up... 146Reads—Score—14d adds
