Lady of Fortune, Jiao Niang Chinese web novel review

I haven’t read any Chinese romance web novels in a while. I enjoy the face-slapping and the romantic tension, but they were always kind of… rapey. Or full of over the top dog-blood drama. Or otherwise uncomfortable to read, either from the start or as the story developed.

I dreamed of a world where a Chinese romance would exist with no rapey prince/CEO and insane antagonists, and at last I found it in the form of Lady of Fortune, Jiao Niang. Even better, it’s complete and relatively short at 215 chapters including side stories.

Summary (condensed from NovelUpdates):

Ye Jiao, an ancient ginseng root, woke up to find herself already riding in a wedding sedan chair—a wedding meant to bring a sick groom good fortune.

Qi Yun was frail and sickly, plagued by an ill-fated birth chart and constantly hovering near death’s door. Yet after marrying Ye Jiao, his health began to miraculously improve.

Only then did they realize the luckiest person under heaven was actually his own wife…

Just because it’s complete doesn’t mean I finished it, however. I stopped around chapter 64 firstly because I ran out of the better translations and had to switch to brain-melting machine translations, and secondly because the main character Ye Jiao got pregnant, and romance series always decline for me when babies come into the picture. Most readers seem to live for the precocious “little bun” scenes, but that’s where I lose interest unless I specifically signed up for a child-raising series, in which case the baby had better come early.

That said, I still highly recommend Lady of Fortune, Jiao Niang for any readers looking for a series full of positive and supportive relationships. It’s not just the one between Qi Yun and Ye Jiao: almost all the relationships in the series are positive. For example, their world is some alternative ancient China where almost no one has concubines. The Qi patriarch doesn’t have one, none of Ye Jiao’s acquaintances do, even the third prince they run into has only one wife. Improbable, yes, but it also reduces the drama and tension of a series set in ancient China by 70%. Happy (one) wife, happy life.

Meanwhile Qi Yun is, of course, appears to be the usual “cold to every one but sweet to my wife” character, but we quickly discover he was largely that way because of his long illness. He’s actually fairly warm and caring not only towards his wife, but also towards his family, especially his two brothers Qi Ming and Qi Zhao. There’s no sibling rivalry even when he recovers and begins to shine brighter, and although his sister-in-law Madam Fang is shown to be a bit petty, she only tries some minor scheming and quickly gives up (as of chapter 64 anyway).

Meanwhile Ye Jiao is initially sold into the Xu family by her sister-in-law and her second brother Ye Erlang, but unlike most examples of this trope, her family doesn’t hover around trying to suck up or insisting that she owes them money. Since she’s not the original Ye Jiao anyway, she doesn’t go looking for them and they don’t come looking for her unless they have business with her. If you’re looking for annoyingly persistent relatives being face-slapped ever chapter, this isn’t the series for you.

The theme runs throughout the whole Lady of Fortune, Jiao Niang. People are generally nice and decent to each other, and those who are not are still not as terrible as other examples in other series.

The romance—the whole point of reading a romance series—is extremely positive. Qi Yun does get slightly jealous of a few things (including a rooster, of all people) but he’s secure enough to understand that Ye Jiao only loves two things in this life: him, and food. And he respects that by not being jealous or confining, not trying to touch her against her will, no rape, no harassment, nothing. Even when they finally sleep together, it’s fully consensual with no hints of hesitation or discomfort.

For Ye Jiao, there’s genuinely nothing in her head besides loving Qi Yun and eating good food. Okay, and she’s interested in medical herbs to make her beloved husband better, and she treasures good relationships. But in general, due to her past history as a spiritual ginseng and not a human being, she is too empty-headed and disinterested in others to be a Mary Sue. If she has food and Qi Yun, that’s enough for her.

By the way, shockingly enough, she cannot cook. If I had a dollar for every heroine in a Chinese web novel who wows the whole world with her astonishing cooking skills, I’m positive I could retire, but for once there’s a series without such powers.

She’s not even that great a healer either, and mainly helps Xu Jing recover by holding his hand, being near him and eventually raising a medical plant that makes him much better. Though apparently he always remains a little weaker than others despite that. A Chinese fiction heroine who isn’t an action girl, isn’t a miracle doctor, isn’t a fantastic cook, can’t even embroider… what kind of rare beast is this?!

So Lady of Fortune, Jiao Niang is a nice change from the usual toxic dog-blood series in a lot of ways. It’s not perfect, however. The biggest thing, and the reason why I quit, is that the lack of drama unfortunately makes the series highly predictable. Like yeah yeah, Qi Yun will become filthy rich, Ye Jiao will have babies, the third prince will probably become emperor, blah blah. In most series you can guess the conclusion, yes, but you stay for the twists and turns and the face-slapping along the way.

Or at least if the heroine does anything beside eating and sleeping, then you read for the delicious recipes or to see whose life she saves with her mighty healing powers or whose butt she kicks with her awesome ninja skills… something, anything! There’s nothing like that here, so if you want the fluffiest of fluffy romance series with the greenest of green flag MLs, this is your series.