Murder in a Distinguished Family

What disgusted me the most about this book was Wang Dong. His first love's home was confiscated. He couldn't disobey the family and didn't rush to see his first love. Then he was forced to marry a wife, take a concubine, have an aunt, and give birth to four children. Then he ignored those children. Then there was always Bai Yueguang in his heart. It was to the point of obsession.

I read this book after finishing "The Scheming Heir," and I'm currently on chapter 335. The female lead is intelligent, rational, and calm, and capable of solving problems, but her way of dealing with people is frustrating and unpleasant to read. I still prefer the kind of satisfying stories where revenge is taken, grievances are settled, and scum is slapped in the face and the villains are punished.

The aristocratic family depicted by the author is more like a nouveau riche family, with wives taking concubines to raise children, the matriarch openly embezzling, and the patriarch constantly spewing vulgarities. Furthermore, the female protagonist's maternal grandparents' family is said to be the richest in the area, yet their only legitimate daughter fights over a bolt of fabric. In short, the entire situation is utterly chaotic and disorganized.

They always emphasize that the older brother is only eleven or twelve years old, which is equivalent to a primary school student today. So the female lead is at most around ten years old, the third in her family, and the fourth, fifth, and sixth children are even younger. A bunch of little kids act like adults...

Seeing that there are currently two things that make me particularly dislike the heroine. The first one is that Wu Niang is lost. She is still flirting with the male protagonist. No matter what the reason is, Wu Niang has not hurt the female protagonist but relies on her. Her attitude towards Wu Niang is really unbearable.

In fact, some of the author's settings are quite strange. For example, someone's piano skills are extraordinary, but he never plays. It takes ten years to sharpen a sword. How can you get a sword if you don't sharpen it? It is also said that a certain stable woman can almost bring the dead back to life, but she only serves a certain household, and no one can hire her at ordinary times. Please, midwifery is a nurturing and technical job that requires experience.

The female lead's character is quite contradictory. You could call her a saintly, innocent type; she's not exactly ruthless towards Wu Niang, but she's not exactly soft-hearted either. You could say she's vindictive, but Hui Lan and Er Niang are both shrewd and calculating from beginning to end, and the female lead seems quite detached about it…

The villains in this book are too weak; the female lead controls everything. Even when Aunt Liu was killed and the second wife was forced to leave, no one suspected it was the female lead's doing. Every time the villains harmed the female lead, I hoped they could last a little longer. Because the female lead would be unscathed, while the villains would suffer a terrible end.

I thought it was good while reading, but the biggest problem I found was why, knowing that the second wife hated her to the core, she kept causing trouble for her instead of dealing with her directly. Even if she couldn't handle it herself, she should have told the male lead and asked him to help. I don't believe that the female lead and the male lead together couldn't handle it.

I endured reading to 70% before giving up. I really disliked the female lead, and her romance with the male lead felt inexplicably awkward. I really enjoyed the author's other works, so perhaps this is because it's an early piece. The female lead isn't cold-hearted or ruthless towards family, but she inexplicably shows mercy to villains. As long as they don't kill her or those she cares about, she can ignore them completely. I really, really dislike her.