“Người ta xuyên không thì không làm mỹ nhân quốc sắc thiên hương cũng là tài nữ vạn người sùng bái. Đến lượt Tưởng Nhược Nam lại biến thành một cô nàng đanh đá ai cũng không thích, một nàng dâu bị thất sủng không ai ưa, nàng phải làm sao đây a?
Bảo nàng nhẫn nhịn để người khác cưỡi trên đầu trên cổ ư? Đừng hòng!
Kiếm cách bỏ chồng? Đây là hôn nhân do kim Thánh thượng ban! Nàng còn coi trọng cái đầu trên cổ lắm.
Phải chung chồng với kẻ khác, phải nhìn mặt “hắn” để tìm sự sủng hạnh? Không đời nào!
Tưởng Nhược Nam nàng không tin không có cách tồn tại ở thế giới này, nàng sẽ sống, thậm chí sống tốt, rất tốt cho hắn, cho những người từng ghét bỏ, hãm hại “cơ thể” này phải chống mắt lên xem!”
I didn’t plan on writing a review on this so soon since I have so many books and novels I have lined up but since I just finished this book today, I should do it while it’s still fresh. Its weird how I came to find this book both in paper and online. I was browsing through the web the other day looking for new books to read and the one thing that attracted me most is how the main female applies modern medicine concepts to treat diseases in ancient time. I’ve read and I will use the word “read” loosely here because I haven’t actually finished any book where the female lead is using modern medicine in ancient time, but for a few excerpts I have read it wasn’t the core of the story the way this book is. Anyway, so after I saw that I was interested and after reading about 20+ chapters or so, mind you this is after 1am and I have work the next day, I realized I have this in hardcover, all 4 books to be exact. Then I thought it has got to be fated that I ended up reading this because when I was in Vietnam 3 months ago, I went to the book store twice and skipped over this series for at least 6-7 times because I was in this one section for a long time and literally bought all the books off the shelves except this one. I didn’t know what the reason was but when I came back the second time and bought everything else that I didn’t buy in the same section the week prior, I skipped over it again. I didn’t have a list of what I bought previously so I had the cashier checked for any duplicates since she still saved the receipt from last time and she came back and told me I didn’t buy this series yet so I was like why not and bought it then. I checked my books collection and found it in the bottom of the pile. I told my sister that I will bring it to work tomorrow and asked her to guess what I’m going to do, and she nonchalantly answer “read off your phone?”. I didn’t admit it then but I did end up reading off my phone.
To summarize this story, it actually isn’t that long-as in not complicated at all. Tuong Nhuoc Nam (TNN) travels back in time into the body of Tuong Nhuoc Lan (TNL) on her marriage day to an official of the emperor, Can Thieu Khang (CTK). It’s actually a double marriage and while TNL is the first wife, CTK actually prefers the other wife, Vu Thu Nguyet (VTN). The reason is because TNL supposedly asks the king, or rather forces him to marry her off to CTK in front of everyone and the king “had no choice” but to do so which is actually a taboo and make a laughingstock out of CTK because that just wasn’t done. TNL is known to be a rude, ill-mannered, obnoxious, and stubborn individual that no one dares to interfere with because she has the love and support of the dowager queen, the king’s mother. SO when she found out her husband CTK also marries someone else on the same day and plans to spend his night with the concubine, she is furious (as she should be) and came looking for them, but CTK pushes her into a table and kills her. This is when TNN from modern time came into her body and woke up already married but injured by CTK. TNN with her wits and intelligence slowly wins other people over including CTK’s mother, little sister, other official wives and daughers, the queen, and etc…CTK realizes what an extraordinary woman TNN is and fell in love. At the same time the king also notices what an excellent woman TNN is and he started to have a serious case of FOMO, but in his case it’s actually (fear of having missed out). So when TNN and CTK decided to finally consume their marriage and finally become a real married couple, the king interferes by gifting CTK with this beautiful woman, Thanh Dai (TD), who is actually a secret agent in disguised and is actually on a mission from the king to separate the main couple. She successfully did it by drugging CTK and made it look like CTK cheated and of course CTK can’t defend himself because he was drugged and unconscious. TNN left, and 5 years later appeared to be wandering around curing diseases with her twin boys. She came back when she heard the dowager queen is really sick to treat her. The king uses this opportunity to force her to marry him but she refused and the queen dowager bestowed the princess title on TNN making her his sister therefore put an end to his obsession. But just because he can’t have her does not mean he’ll let others, so he decreed CTK to marry another but CTK refused knowing disagreeing with the king will result in death. TNN forgave CTK and the king after a lecture from his mother, grudgingly let them have their happy ever after.
I like TNN’s character in the first half of the book, in the latter she became a stubborn idiot. I don’t like the fact that she uses sex as a weapon for him to give in. She’s a modern woman for godsake and she already demonstrated a great understanding of what she has to do and what to give up to survive in that time yet she still stubbornly has this mind set that she can do whatever she wants. Her mother in law is correct in the sense that she’s only doing this because she knows she has the backing of the queen. There’s a fine line between being principled and being stubborn and i think TNN crossed it when she refused to sleep with him because he has other women. Mind you at this point he had already giving up on other women but she doesn’t care she wanted his vow that he’ll have only her which in my opinion is a stupid move, like asking a man in modern time to be faithful. If he’s going to cheat he’s going to cheat, no promises is going to stop him. If CTK is a lesser man he would have lied just to bed her and then leave her. Then her stubbornness in leaving him after she caught him dead drunk passed out in his concubine’s room. She came up with the conclusion that he has cheated and then has the audacity at the end to tell the concubine TD that it wasn’t the action but more so the thought that bothered her. Uh he was drunk and unconscious. She did not give him the benefit of a doubt then and left. I think she didn’t love him enough, as a matter of fact i’m not sure if she ever did. She definitely didn’t love him enough to trust him, didn’t tell him about his kids, and left without a thought for 5 years. I really didn’t like her toward the end and is tired of her stubbornness. Love isn’t about quantifying what was giving and received, it’s about trust and willingness to forgive despite thinking otherwise. At the end shes just really a petty woman.
As for CTK, I think he’s not the kind of man I would like in a husband either. He’s caring towards the people he loves and is a dependable man but in situation with Thanh Dai, it shows that he isn’t cutthroat enough. I don’t know how he survives the cruel world that of working for the emperor but he’s pretty silly in dealing with women. I guess all I can say is he’s inexperience with women but I expected him to be wiser. He seems like a wise man in the beginning to see through VTN schemes. How can’t he not see Thanh Dai’s and even the king’s intention. There is this powerful guy who is competing with him for his wife’s love and CTK had no idea. How can he be so oblivious? Not sure if anyone else is bothered by this but it boggled my mind a little bit whenever i think about it – that is, CTK actually killed his wife on his wedding day. I don’t think anyone should overlook that. It was so easy for TNN to look passed that but I don’t see how I could, this man that the main girl is marrying, who she thought was a gentleman, killed her. She had every reason to cause a scene that led to her death. No woman should be treated like that and frankly CTK is wrong for marrying both women on the same day and ultimately showed favoritism towards the 2nd wife on the wedding day. Little is said or known about TNL except some parts revealed by TNN but I think she isn’t a bad person. She fell in love at first sight with CTK because like TNN said later on, she thought CTK can protect her and love her like her father did her mother. Therefore she asked the emperor for her to marry CTK, they might not like the way she did it, but honestly who can blame the girl. She knows to go after what she wanted which is more character than a lot of people in the books who secretly scheme against each other. I pitied TNL’s character, I really do. She lacked maturity and worldly experiences like that of TNN but she has a good heart. She wasn’t surrounded by good, caring people that ultimately allowed her to become who she is. I think TNL is a more interesting character compared to TNN. TNN is a modern woman through and through, her life in modern time shaped her into the woman she is in ancient time and we all can relate. But TNL is an ancient woman who thinks like a modern woman but did not have enough experience to carry out her dreams. It’s a ashamed she died the way she did and for that I can’t forgive CTK.
Overall the storyline is good but the love story sucks. I expected more from the main couple. Even the side story of how CTK’s sister win her husband’s favor is more interesting than the main couple.
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