A Show of Daughters

Don't read this! If you do, you'll discover the protagonist's grandmother is a truly despicable, elderly, hypocritical, and sanctimonious figure. She showers the enemies and their descendants who killed her son and daughter-in-law with sympathy and pity, even after they repeatedly bully and frame her grandchildren.

I've been reading on Qidian for seven or eight years and rarely leave comments. I'm only leaving this comment now because the author has written so much. It's not an attack on the author; I respect all writers. But I still have to complain: a one-year-old child can write, make polite conversations, and talk about everything fluently. Has the author never interacted with a one-year-old before?

If you can barely accept a female lead being precocious at seven or eight years old, then writing a twelve-month-old baby with the speech patterns of a seventeen or eighteen-year-old is horrifying! A baby who can barely say "daddy" or "mommy" suddenly speaking fluently and logically overnight, without being seen as a monster! I just can't accept it! The female lead's age setting is terrifying.

I only realized after reading a few chapters that I'd read it before, though I hadn't finished it and was disgusted by Zhang Shi. Now, reading it a second time… I still can't accept Zhang Shi's saintly heart, so I have to stop reading. She forgives her son and daughter-in-law for harming her, but she can't accept her husband being harmed…

This book is really just passable, especially the later parts and the ending, which are a bit wordy. There are too many awful characters in it, and Zhang Shi is also a particularly hypocritical "white lotus."

Most reviews are negative, but I found this book quite enjoyable. It doesn't follow the typical plot tropes of many current historical romance novels. Nor does it give the female lead any overpowered advantages. Instead, the various events, whether the initial events in the capital or the return to the old family home, are well-paced and engaging.

Zhang was too saintly; if she hadn't kept backing down, her son and daughter-in-law might not have died.

Can I say it's terrible? The writing is okay, but the content is unreadable. It's a monotonous slice-of-life story, from the female lead's first year to her marriage. Where do all these extreme characters and oddballs come from? Aside from the main characters, the rest of the characters are incredibly stupid. I really want to complain.

A toddler who's just over a year old saying these things—anyone's first reaction wouldn't be precocious, but rather that he's a monster. It's ridiculous!

As I watched further, I increasingly felt that the female lead's grandmother was just a stubborn and vain person, always caring about what others thought 😐. So old-fashioned...