Title 

EN: The Leisure Life of the Xuanxue/Metaphysics Master
CN: 玄学大师的悠闲生活

About the Novel

Translation Status

Not translated; I read the raws

Translation Possibility

Has a lot of jargons; no intention to TL at all

Author

柔桡轻曼, Rou Rao Qing Man

Genre

slice-of-life, supernatural, romance, transmigration (from ancient to modern),

Tags

golden finger; beautiful characters; farming/countryside life; pretty, smart and OP female lead; quiet and OP male lead; happy marriage; accidental encounter; power couple; modern-day; village-life; agriculture; start up a family business from scratch; supernatural encounters

Background Information

Blurb (CN):

福玉公主是大魏朝至尊至贵之人，万千宠爱，锦衣玉食，柔弱娇贵，精通玄学五术。
双十年华这年，她算出大魏朝大难将至，耗尽修为心血保大魏朝百年安康。
再次睁眼，她重生到两千年后同名同姓的少女身上。
这是个让人震撼的，眼花缭乱的繁华世界。
人人都憧憬都市的繁荣生活。
她却向往不一样的人生。

Blurb (EN):

The beautiful and delicate Princess Fuyu, adored by thousands, was the most distinguished person in the entire of Wei Dynasty. In a luxury of good food and beautiful clothes, the princess was proficient in the five arts of metaphysics (neo-Taoism). The year she turned twenty, she predicted that the a great calamity of would descend upon the Wei Dynasty. In her efforts to protect the Wei Dynasty for the next hundreds of years to come, she exhausted her cultivation in exchange for her kingdom’s safety.

When she opened her eyes again, she was transmigrated into the body of a girl of the same name two thousand years later.

This new world she was in was shocking, dazzling and prosperous. Though the city life was something everyone yearned for, she longed to lead a different lifestyle.

Characters:

(mild spoiler alert!)

Yun Yu, the female lead is a well-adored and loved princess in the Wei Dynasty. She was gifted with a source of holy/godly water (灵泉) and as a result fared extremely well in cultivation; she is also skilled in martial arts. In the face of a huge calamity she’d predicted her kingdom would face, she sacrificed herself to save her kingdom and her people. As a result, she transmigrated into Yun Yu’s body, a girl in the 21^st century who had the same name as her and looks similar to her.

Qin Yu Sui, the male lead, is a reserved, cold, skillful Special Ops guy from the Supernatural Department, and he comes from a very strong and influential background. He is closer to his maternal family (surname Long), who is well established in the supernatural circle in the city; his paternal family (surname Qin) on the other hand has members of their family in important and significant positions (e.g. business, governance, etc.) in the city.

Entire Summary:

(mild spoiler alert!)

This story takes place after Yun Yu had graduated university. During a class gathering at a club, Yun Yu was schemed by a few people that didn’t see her eye-to-eye; she was drugged and pushed into a room where she would be taken advantage of by a profit-driven old man, but later turns out that she was mistakenly sent into someone else’s room. The ancient princess transmigrates into the modern Yun Yu’s body when they were at it, and she lost consciousness shortly after.

As she didn’t understand the major she’d just graduated from hence saw no possibility of herself securing a job in the city, the transmigrated Yun Yu decides to return to the village the original Yun Yu grew up in shortly after the incident. Soon, she realised that even in the modern world, she’s equipped with the holy water source from when she’s still a princess back in the Wei dynasty. During her time as a princess, she’d started training in martial arts since young, and had attained a very high cultivation in the five arts of xuanxue (metaphysics/Neo-taoism). As such, even in Yun Yu’s untrained modern body, she was able to see ghosts and spirits, draw talisman, do face-reading and read fengshui. Hence, Yun Yu decided to take the road less travelled – return to her village even though she’s a university graduate, and become a metaphysics master that dealt with supernatural happenings.

(high spoiler alert!)

Coincidentally, she later encounters the guy she’s spent the night with again unexpectedly during one of the first few jobs she’s taken up. The job she took up exceeded her expectations and her body’s ability. After landing herself in the hospital due to over-exertion, it was discovered that she was pregnant with Qin Yu Sui’s child. After a period of interaction, with the suggestion from her grandma, and mutual agreement, the two decided to get married.

As time passed, Yun Yu took on more supernatural jobs and gradually established a name for herself in the supernatural circle. During this period of time, Qin Yu Sui took annual leave from his post, resided in the village with Yun Yu and took care of her. The story continues even after she’s given birth to their child.

Review 

Writing: 3.0/5

It’s ok, pushes the plot forward, there aren’t any useless conversations. The descriptions about the supernatural parts seem comprehensive, an interesting read and entry-level enough for someone who’s not well-read about it.

Plot: 2.8/5

(major spoiler alert!)

Romance with Qin Yu Sui is secondary; the plot is mostly about Yun Yu’s encounters with supernatural happenings and how she solves them; how she met and impressed other established figures her age and older in the supernatural circle; her farming life back at her village and how she watered all their agriculture with her holy water; how she set up the now wildly popular eatery at her village from scratch, which is managed by her grandmother and mother; how she purchased an entire stretch of undeveloped land and transformed it into a scenic agriculture area; how she built up a holiday, countryside villa and hot springs on the land that no one wanted to buy due to the seemingly infertile land; how she dealt with nosy villagers; how she earned in thousands with every job she takes on, manages her finance and spends them on developing the agriculture and land.

Romance with Qin Yu Sui also slowly took flight. Though he doesn’t speak much, he dotes on her, cooks for her and looks after her well.

Comments – Opinions

This novel has ghosts, spirits, exorcists and all sorts of supernatural happenings, even though it’s not that scary or bloody, whenever I read this at night (which is incredibly often) I creep myself out hahaha.

Comments – Pros

In terms of character development, nothing overly-cringe-y. Even though the beginning was incredibly cliché, it turned out much better than I’d thought it’d be. Though Yun Yu is incredibly OP given her “golden finger”, she remains cool-headed throughout. Qin Yu Sui also later displays his physical prowess (but only very slightly, there wasn’t much content on the male lead).

(mild spoiler alert)

I especially like flashbacks of her past life in the Wei Dynasty. I’m still reading the novel as I write the review, and there’s a few hints here and there that the author has dropped that leads me to think that the General Major that visits the princess’s courtyard after she’s passed away was the same bodyguard that followed her around and looked after her, and subsequently, after many lifetimes, and thousands of years, is reincarnated as Qin Yu Sui’s soul – else why would Qin Yu Sui find the sword Yun Yu received familiar?

I’m a big fan of the symbols the authors used, especially the one about the trees, the one in the palace courtyard and one at the entrance of her village, both of which she revived with her holy water.

Comments – Cons

The romance could’ve been more realistic. Even though they’ve had intimate contact before they even knew each other, their interaction in the beginning was very minimal. There wasn’t much explanation to Yun Yu’s sudden change in attitude, and the attraction from both sides could have been much more rooted over common experiences rather than physical attraction. Towards the middle, it got sweet and diabetic as normal romance novels do, I’m ok with the development, kinda cute.

Also, this is a very SOL (slice of life) read, there’s a lot of description on the supernatural encounters, followed by the village and planting life. Personally, I find the latter much more interesting than the former, so the supernatural part may seem more lengthy for me; there’s about 180+ chapters too so I found it easy to get bored, especially when the story is a downward slope after a huge climax when I was about ~100+ chapters in. Though the overall writing isn’t too bad, there were a few cliche (cough cough lame) supernatural encounters that made me want to facepalm really badly…

Though the female lead’s OPness was incredibly satisfying to read, I kinda hoped that the author can add more elements of suspense instead of solving everything straight up – not saying there aren’t any.

Also there really wasn’t much content on the male lead Qin Yu Sui. Felt that the author could have made him more mysterious or give him more feelings/things to do rather than send Yun Yu around, watch over her and look after her… Both the female and male leads are too perfect, I do get that this is a very-SOL-with-very-OP-characters novel to begin with… but still…

 Overall 5.8/10

It’s a meh-ok read, it’s fine to give it a miss; recommended only if you have time on your hands and want to learn a lot about exorcism, talismans, fortune-telling, face-reading and the likes.

Some of the arcs were interesting while it lasted, but as to whether I’ll read it again? Nah.