Novels like Zhao Xiaodao's Turbulent Life
Books Chinese readers most often put in the same booklists as Zhao Xiaodao's Turbulent Life, best match first.
- 151 Reality Has Nothing to Do with Ideals 现实与理想无关 Ideals are ideals, and reality is reality. Never confuse the two. The road from reality to ideals is long, so long that most people spend their whole lives without ever reaching the end. There are countless cases of ideals crumbling into reality, so many that every day someone gives up on their dreams and accepts the way things are. If someone is still living in reality while drawing ever closer to their ideals, congratulations. But are you sure that someone will be you? 3Reads—Score—14d adds
- 152 Fallen into the Mortal World 坠落红尘间 His father is critically ill, and she can’t scrape together the money to save him. A poor college girl grits her teeth and steps into the late-night world of KTV! She masks her youth with cigarettes and alcohol, trading her dignity for medical bills. Can she make it to the end of this road? Will she succumb to the temptations of the neon lights? 87Reads—Score614d adds
- 153 That Boy Was My First Love 那个男孩，是我初恋 ❗️❗️❗️Dating in your teens may be wrong, but first love is never a mistake. Pen pals, QQ, school arts festivals, basketball, little handheld phones, red date rice balls... This is a story about first love. Deng Yang and Zhang Yan: three years of first love, and never a reunion. The streets they walked side by side, the hands they held, and their first kiss tasting of cake became the gentlest echoes in their memories of days gone by. People say first love is a regret born of youthful chaos. But w 14Reads—Score—14d adds
- 154 Nothing Major in Life 人生无大事 I was born in the abyss and raised in the netherworld. Lost, struggling, helpless, despairing. The hardships along the way shaped my body and mind. When everything had finally calmed down, when spring had come and flowers were blooming, when everything was just right, I finally reached the most important moment of my life. 4kReads8.1Score43914d adds
- 155 Workhorses Don't Die on Mondays 牛马不会死在周一 The Working Stiffs Don't Die on Mondays 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 156 Early Spring Frost 小春霜早 Xiaochun Shuangzao tells the story of the lives, changes, joys, and sorrows of the three Gu siblings at the end of the twentieth century. Through their story, the novel explores the profound impact of Reform and Opening Up on people's thoughts and lives, and the sweeping changes brought by the new era. [Print edition published] 1.1kReads8.5Score10014d adds
- 157 The Boy Who’s Been Clingy Since Childhood 从小黏到大的他 A heartwarming, healing romance! Steady childhood sweetheart ✖️ clingy childhood friend The gentlest confession isn’t “I love you.” It’s “I’ve liked you since we were little.” “Me too.” 291Reads—Score—14d adds
- 158 From the Start, I Sold Beer, and a Goddess Undercover Agent Took Out the Hitmen 开局卖啤酒，女神卧底坑杀手 Volume One: How Many Undercover Agents Are There? (Realistic Arc) [Undercover agents + goddess + no saintly heroine or simping + realism + values + intelligence] [No simps, white lotuses, self-righteous do-gooders, or scheming green-tea girls] [No sugary romance or obsessive romance fantasies, and no white-porridge sisters or cake sisters] (Read the realistic arc first, then the wild-imagination arc. It's funny and fun!) A major city in the south is a city that never sleeps. At ten at night, the 22Reads—Score—14d adds
- 159 So Sweet! The Mad God of War Prince Cooks for Me 甜！疯批战神王爷为我洗手做羹汤 [Traditional historical romance + no System + food + devoted love + mutual firsts + size difference] [Food-averse magistrate’s daughter ✖️ mad war-god prince] When Wen He learned that her father had died from exhaustion after defending the city for six days and six nights, all the strength seemed to drain from her body. At first, grief made every mouthful of rice porridge feel like a knife in her throat, and her brocade quilt like a freezing pool. But before long, she couldn’t sleep even whe 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 160 The Perfume Mask 香水假面 Independent, driven female lead vs. cool, calculating heir to a corporate empire (IP-focused) Three men and one woman, a beautiful-but-tragic couple, women supporting women, no rivalry between women A family-arranged blind date between two equally formidable people. An intense push and pull disguised as a deal, as they see through each other’s masks and uncover the secrets beneath... “Between you and me... is this really just a deal, or...” “Be my woman, and I can take you out like this every da —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 161 Borrowed Dignity, Then She Lost It 借来的体面，然后她弄丢了 Borrowed respectability, then she lost it 3Reads—Score—14d adds
- 162 A Media Veteran's Career Change in a New Era 传媒老兵降维求职记 If you're looking for a job, about to start looking, or planning to switch jobs, this one's for you! This novel is based on real people's experiences of falling into job-hunting traps. It's practically an online job seeker's guide to spotting scams and avoiding pitfalls. Read Tomato Novel and learn how to protect yourself from fraud. It's fun and useful, a win-win. Dong Shizhang and Zong Jinli's media company is on the verge of collapse, and the online loans they took out are coming due. With no 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 163 Ling Yun Returns to the Mountain 凌云归山 I'm Ling Yun, an ordinary vocational school student. When I was young, I headed south to Dongguan with a head full of ambition, hoping to make something of myself. Instead, I spent every day tightening screws on an assembly line. Unable to stand a life where every day looked the same, I gritted my teeth and switched to elevator sales. I stumbled into one mess after another, hit wall after wall, took abuse, and ran myself ragged. Somehow, I went from a complete beginner to an invisible fixer in 12Reads—Score—14d adds
- 164 The Chinese Bodyguard 国产保镖 54Reads6.3Score87714d adds
- 165 The Rainy Night That Summer 那年夏天的雨夜 During the summer vacation of his sophomore year, Xue Yang took a summer job at a cafe to earn some money. The story between Xue Yang and Xu Yao began with a collision on a rainy summer night. With nowhere to go, Xue Yang was forced to stay overnight at Xu Yao's home. That night, Xu Yao, who had been a widower for many years, felt his heart stir. He opened his front door, and his heart as well. From their first meeting to falling in love, and from falling in love to building a life together, the 118Reads—Score—14d adds
- 166 Gray Industries: On the Fringes of the City 灰色产业：游走于都市边缘 In 2005, the college entrance exam took me from the countryside to the city. I thought that if I worked hard enough, I could make a life for myself there. But reality taught me that in the face of power and money, hard work counted for nothing. For people like me, born with nothing, making something of ourselves means taking a road less traveled. First-person narration, no cheat powers, no over-the-top melodrama. My values are more respectable than my looks. Come give it a try. 102.2kReads9.1Score10.8k14d adds
- 167 The Top Scholar Came from a Dump 状元来自垃圾场 Zhou Yingchun had a dream. In it, her husband Li Haoyu was injured on the job and lost the ability to work. Their family struggled to get by on a small island in Taihu Lake, and their children had no chance to get a proper education. Life was hard. She told her husband about the dream, and they managed to avert the misfortune. She started working at a garbage wharf and gradually put down roots in the city. Their child got into a good school and ranked first in the city on the college entrance ex 408Reads8.7Score10514d adds
- 168 The Fire Burns Bright 炉火正红 A person’s life is like a lump of coal. Only by resisting the lure of superficial pleasures, enduring crushing pressure, and quietly growing stronger can you kindle a bright, fiery tomorrow! This book faithfully records the rise of a coal-mining family worth tens of billions, giving readers a glimpse into how the first generation of wealthy entrepreneurs made their fortunes in the 1990s. The title itself is ironic: the wave of private appropriation back then made a great many well-connected peop 628Reads8.9Score10014d adds
- 169 800 Reasons to Want a Divorce 想离婚的800个理由 Everyone has countless moments after getting married when they feel like getting a divorce. If they don’t, it must be because they’re in love. And if they do end up divorcing, that doesn’t necessarily mean they stopped loving each other. 5Reads6.5Score—14d adds
- 170 Running Toward the Exit 寻着出口奔跑 In life, everyone has to grow sharp horns and iron hooves, and put on armor. Even if you’re weak, you have to try to become stronger. There are too many things in this world that can hurt you. Even if you never learn to hurt others, you must learn to protect yourself, so you can protect the people you care about. No matter how many difficulties you face, don’t back down. Summon every last bit of fighting spirit and make sure those who have always wanted to see you fail never get the satisfaction 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 171 The One Who Blows Away the Ashes 吹灰的人 “I slept with twenty-one men before I had enough money to spend without worrying.” At two in the morning, Lin Xiao, a girl who had just lost her job, came across this post. The poster’s profile picture was exactly the same as that of the person she was dating online. She thought it was a coincidence. Then she discovered that a woman named Yu Fei seemed to know all her secrets, including ones she didn’t even know herself. Yu Fei said, “You’ll walk the same road I did. But I came back so you wo 73Reads—Score13514d adds
- 172 Someone! Buy Out This Fish Stall! 来人！把这鱼摊给我包了 [A universally adored heroine who is mildly stone-faced but has a vivid inner monologue, an illiterate wooden dummy of a girl, x a brooding, tsundere male lead who is nothing like his original version] Yu Niaoniao was neglected by both her father and mother. After finishing middle school without earning a diploma, she inherited the shabby little fish stall her alcoholic father left behind. Yu Niaoniao never imagined that the male lead of The Bewitching Cold Emperor's Darling would walk right o 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 173 Back on My Feet: I Paid Off 500,000 Yuan in Online Loans with My Own Hands 上岸：我靠双手还清五十万网贷 On a farm in Northeast China, Wang Chen, a 33-year-old married farmer, falls deeper and deeper into online-loan debt as he struggles to pay for his daughter's medical treatment and keep his agricultural business running. This is the story of how he eventually turns his desperate situation around. —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 174 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
- 175 The River at the Village Entrance 村口那条河 I once thought this river would flow forever, until that summer, when it carried away every secret and brought new stories in their place. 6Reads—Score—14d adds
- 176 Smoke and Fire in the Northern Lands 北国烟火事 The winter of 2000 in Northeast China. He was Wang Jianjun, a laborer at the bottom of society, covered in dust but full of sincerity. She was Liu Jiajia, radiant and determined, from a well-off family. One chance meeting, and a love neither dared to hope for. Their families were worlds apart. Their relatives pressured them to marry, and reality weighed heavily on them. Forced apart, they loved each other with all their hearts but could only let go in pain. He swallowed his grievances and fought 4Reads—Score—14d adds
- 177 On the Seventh Day of the New Year, I Poured My Life into a Nongfu Spring Bottle 正月初七，我把人生倒进了农夫山泉瓶 On the seventh day of the first lunar month, I poured my life into a Nongfu Spring bottle. 5Reads—Score—14d adds
- 178 Thorns and Moonlight 荆棘和月光 My new work is out! Come read it on Tomato Novel. I hope you enjoy it. Your support is what keeps me writing, and I'll do my best to tell every story well! 23Reads—Score—14d adds
- 179 Village Chief, Don't Mess with Me 村长，别来惹我 Liang Yuzhen is a widow in the village, beautiful and kindhearted. The village chief is a local bully, but seeing that Liang Yuzhen has no man to rely on, he often stops by to help her with whatever he can, putting on a show of being a good Samaritan. 94Reads7.1Score—14d adds
- 180 Women, Houses, and Everything in Between 女人与房子那些事儿 An unremarkable woman stops at nothing, steadily climbing the ranks until she makes a stunning comeback and becomes the president of a real estate company. Her life is full of hardships and almost legendary twists. The novel also reveals many little-known secrets of the real estate industry. 18Reads—Score—14d adds
- 181 My Girlfriend Didn't Reply for Three Minutes, So I Broke Up with Her 女友三分钟不回我消息，我直接分手 My girlfriend didn’t reply to my message for three minutes, so I broke up with her on the spot. 2Reads—Score—14d adds
- 182 My Wife Didn't Reply for Three Minutes, So I Divorced Her 女人三分钟不回我消息，我直接离婚 My wife didn’t reply to my message for three minutes, so I divorced her on the spot. 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 183 The Sheep Are Here, the Sheep Are Here 羊来,羊来 The sheep are coming, the sheep are coming —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 184 The Commoner Who Rules the World 草芥执宰天下 The imperial authority collapses, warlords carve up the land, and human lives are worthless. Li Zicheng's soul travels into a chaotic age, where he rises with a blade amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. Watch as he, a nobody, takes sole command of the world. His soul travels into the Great Prosperity Dynasty, where he becomes a lowly commoner. Fortunately, he has three brothers by his side. The four young men join hands to brave the chaotic age, rising from country bumpkins to rulers o —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 185 A Feast of Empire and Beauties 江山美女一碗宴 Livestreamed to the entire internet, with millions watching, Zhang Qingshan, the "God of Cooking," tastes a twelve-yuan prepackaged meal kit and passes it off as handmade cuisine. His reputation is gone, his endorsements are gone, and he slinks back to his hometown of Hongshan. Beneath the old stove at his family home, he finds a handwritten cookbook, a kitchen knife engraved with numbers, and a bronze fragment dating back three thousand years. His grandfather left him one instruction: Take t 4Reads—Score214d adds
- 186 I Do Makeup at a Funeral Home, and the Dead Started Talking 我在殡仪馆化妆，死人开口说话了 Others use makeup to prepare the dead with greasepaint; I listen to their final wishes. Blending, concealing, stitching. Every time a sponge touches skin, the last words the deceased uttered before dying appear in my mind. [The Eleventh Sentence: "Tell my mom... I haven't gone far."] The woman on autopsy table number three had been abducted into the mountains for twenty-nine years. She escaped three times, only to collapse at the entrance to the police station where she had gone to reunite with 95Reads—Score10314d adds
- 187 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
- 188 A Poor Kid's Rise to Billionaire at Thirty-Five 穷小子逆袭三十五岁成亿万富豪 (Slow-burn setup in the early chapters; urban life, emotions, sweet and heartwarming everyday moments + one female lead + 1v1 + mutual devotion + office life + romance + childhood friends and first love) This book mainly follows the many ups and downs in Zhu Zilong's life, and the warmth and harshness of the world around him. After succeeding as an entrepreneur and changing his fate, he grows more mature and dependable. Yet even after achieving success in his career, he remains single. He can't 16Reads—Score—14d adds
- 189 The In-Laws' Web of Schemes 婆家局中局 Tang Guo, the heroine, and Lu Ziming, the hero, marry just three months after meeting. Not long after the wedding, it comes to light that Lu Ziming owes 500,000 yuan in online loans. When his mother learns what happened, her first response is to demand that Tang Guo divorce Lu Ziming and to take their property deed. Everyone else reacts differently, each with their own agenda. It turns out that behind the facade of a loving family lie nothing but schemes and calculations. Tang Guo stands by Lu Z 999Reads—Score10114d adds
- 190 Since I Stopped Putting Up with My Marriage, I've Been Living My Best Life 自从婚姻不再忍着过老娘我爽爆了 Hua Roulan stayed in the big city of Hailing after graduating from university. Her husband, Cheng Chuanhe, had a doctorate and ran a company. “You don't earn as much as I do. What gives you the right to make me do the housework?” Whenever Cheng Chuanhe flew into a rage, he erupted like a landslide, completely hysterical. Arguments between married couples are inevitable, but he resorted to verbal attacks and emotional abuse... She really couldn't take it anymore. She didn't want to keep enduri 49Reads7.1Score—14d adds
- 191 Turbulent Times: Stories of Our Fathers' Generation 疯狂年代之父辈故事 It was a crazy, absurd, and bizarre age. Those who came of age in those years knew the thrill of creating opportunities and seizing them. Some said, "Coming through that era, we truly took our fates into our own hands!" Others said, "We made it through those years, but we had no choice in the matter!" In those wild years, three men with different destinies either banded together for warmth, sharing life and death, or went their separate ways and fell apart! There was a nerve-racking politica 833Reads9.0Score10114d adds
- 192 Fan Hua Like Brocade: Taking Down the Scumbag, the Vixen, and My Cold-Blooded Parents 樊花似锦【撕渣男贱女冷血父母】 A realistic story of a woman’s growth, blending satisfaction and heartbreak. There’s no floating comeback powered by a golden finger, only an ordinary woman ground into the dirt by life, slowly crushing the mess of her past and turning the chaos into something beautiful. The more stifled you feel watching her in the first half, the more satisfying the second half will be. Love yourself first, and everything else will fall into place. Everyone and everything that wronged her will have to pay her 2Reads—Score—14d adds
- 193 Two Years at Teachers’ College, She Stole My Heart 师专两年，她偷走了我的心 This book is the college-years installment of "Old Days in a Wineglass and a Telephone Receiver". In the fall of 1992, I arrived to register at Ancheng Normal College. The journey was forty kilometers. Tuition was 760 yuan. Eight boys squeezed into one dorm room. On the first day of class, we drew lots for our seats. I drew number 9, and she drew number 10. Numbers 9 and 10 sat together. Her name was Zheng Anlan. Over those two years, I got to know them: Wu Xiaoman, Zheng Anlan, Wang Ying, and G 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 194 The College Loser's Comeback 大学校渣逆袭记 Poor young Gao Xiaojian secretly loves Zhao Lusi, the daughter of the richest man in the country. At university, a moment of lust leads him to make a mistake, and he suffers relentless bullying from his wealthy classmates before fighting back. By sheer coincidence, he becomes the son-in-law handpicked by the richest man and unexpectedly inherits his fortune. He navigates the ups and downs of the business world and the tangled love and hatred of wealthy heiresses like Feng Yuanyuan, eventually ri —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 195 Northeast Stories 东北往事 The 1960s: real life, raw human nature. The ordinary joys and sorrows of life, separations and reunions, and the changes of an era: this work is about them, about you, and about me. This is documentary literature without artistic embellishment. Its greatest strength is its authenticity. Spanning from the late 1950s to the present day after the Reform and Opening-Up, it depicts the tremendous changes in Chinese society and the ups and downs of ordinary people’s lives from multiple angles, perspec 187Reads9.4Score—14d adds
- 196 Under the Influence of Dopamine 多巴胺作祟 [Mutual pining + reunion after years apart] Sweet, with a little angst, moving moments, warmth, and plenty to relate to. "Sweet, gentle, restless small-town exam ace" vs. "handsome, gentlemanly, brooding ABC" Everyone says Liu Yuqiu is the ideal man. Only Zhou Lingwei knows just how bad he can be. Everyone thinks Zhou Lingwei is harmless. Only Liu Yuqiu knows how ruthless she is. Where’s the love in the CBD? Where’s the romance? It’s all a contest between "bad guys" and "ruthless women." A thou 775Reads8.9Score10714d adds
- 197 Writing and Lying Flat on the Northern Frontier 我在北境边境笔耕躺平 Orphan Lu Ze had had enough of workplace hypocrisy and the clamor of the city. He took his entire fortune of 560,000 yuan and headed for the northeastern border, where he found an empty village that had been erased from the map: Wangbeitun. As the youngest border resident in Wangbeitun’s history, his life went like this: · Annual income: a few hundred yuan from writing flop novels, plus a 3,500-yuan border-resident subsidy. The main goal was simply to stay alive. · Daily KPIs: write 4,000 words 264Reads8.1Score—14d adds
- 198 A Trap Within a Trap, a Lie Within a Lie 局中局，骗中骗 Greed grows in people’s hearts, and scams can find their way through any opening. No one is born lucky or immune to being deceived. The only reason you haven’t fallen into a trap is that you haven’t yet encountered one designed specifically for you. Desire is the bait, weakness is the opening. As long as greed remains, there will always be a scam waiting to draw you in. 2.3kReads8.3Score27314d adds
- 199 The Wall Is Four and a Half Meters High 高墙四米半 The author is a grassroots police officer who drew on personal experience to write this story. Using a detention center as its starting point and major cases once reported by CCTV as its basis, the novel recreates the reality of life inside a detention center and the process of investigating cases. Its greatest strength is its authenticity: this is a realistic novel that reads more like literary reportage. 137Reads6.8Score—14d adds
- 200 Love Is Simple 爱很简单 Before I became a billionaire, I was always searching for love. What is love? I hope you can find the answer in this book. This book is about love, desire, life, philosophy, gender equality, and society's discrimination against women... 40Reads—Score314d adds
