That was an interesting encounter. Wondering who Jeijei is, and if the person we encountered was indeed her, or our protagonist's poor eyesight getting in the way. I feel like I missed some crucial context to make that interaction make sense, but I enjoyed it all the same.

?

The "Emperor", as we know, is actually a woman, so she's got this secluded spot in the palace where she can walk around as a woman without anyone noticing. Obviously, the heroine, through the power of protagonism, stumbles right into her. The reason she conveniently can't see anything is of course so the Emperor doesn't execute her for figuring out her secret (though were I the Emperor I wouldn't trust that one moment - off with her head! ^^).

At least that's my read of this. Seems fairly straightforward, especially compared to ch.1 ...

Thanks for explaining. For a moment there I thought there was a new character or body double shenanigans going on, since she said "we" when describing herself. I guess it could just be a royal kind of "we".

That was an interesting encounter. Wondering who Jeijei is, and if the person we encountered was indeed her, or our protagonist's poor eyesight getting in the way. I feel like I missed some crucial context to make that interaction make sense, but I enjoyed it all the same.

?

The "Emperor", as we know, is actually a woman, so she's got this secluded spot in the palace where she can walk around as a woman without anyone noticing. Obviously, the heroine, through the power of protagonism, stumbles right into her. The reason she conveniently can't see anything is of course so the Emperor doesn't execute her for figuring out her secret (though were I the Emperor I wouldn't trust that one moment - off with her head! ^^).

At least that's my read of this. Seems fairly straightforward, especially compared to ch.1 ...

I actually wondered whether the protagonist immediately recognized the Empress and started putting moves on her in a roundabout way, pretending extra hard to be blind, vulnerable, and innocent to be just like the Empress' late lover. Even with the power of protagonism at her side, she hit way too many targets in short succession for a (well-written) coincidence.

The art is gorgeous, but I must admit I'm having a bit of trouble telling the characters apart at times. Just to make sure, the woman(?) in the first two pages of Ch. 2 is the "emperor" and the one that gives our sickly protagonist the fluffy scarf is the wife who defended her in Ch. 1?

The art is gorgeous, but I must admit I'm having a bit of trouble telling the characters apart at times. Just to make sure, the woman(?) in the first two pages of Ch. 2 is the "emperor" and the one that gives our sickly protagonist the fluffy scarf is the wife who defended her in Ch. 1?

The woman in the first two pages of ch2 is indeed the emperor, and also the same person who gave MC the fluffy cloak! The lady who defended MC in ch1 is Xiao Qianxue (the original FL of the novel MC transmigrated into), who doesn't appear in this chapter.

So the protagonist, while half blind, did not recognise the emperor and just thought it was a random woman as she called her Jeijei, which i google tells me is a term for an older female friend basically calling them big sister.
Is that right?

I just remembered what youre pretty is in chinese "Ni de piao liang, jiejie"

So the protagonist, while half blind, did not recognise the emperor and just thought it was a random woman as she called her Jeijei, which i google tells me is a term for an older female friend basically calling them big sister.
Is that right?

Yep, generally speaking. We put a TL note in ch1 about this already, but in some cases jiejie is used to flirt, just like used the same way as unnie and onee-chan. It's especially popular in Chinese wlw circles.

So people don't know the emperor is a she, or it's just the protagonist? It's funny that the little fairy (?) doesn't bother to tell her.

last edited at Aug 25, 2022 4:25PM

This actually makes me think that we could use a proper tag (with an explanation on its page) for this kind of specific setting, since more and more manhua with it are being translated. system transmigration or smth along those lines.

Yeah that's what I was thinking too. My question is, what is this genre commonly localized as?

Most, if not all, reader sites I'm active in localize it as just that; both System and Transmigration. I mean, those two are technically still separate genres that just so happened to be grouped together often enough to have its own subculture.

Sysadmins currently having a field day with the new System Administrator tag.

So the protagonist, while half blind, did not recognise the emperor and just thought it was a random woman as she called her Jeijei, which i google tells me is a term for an older female friend basically calling them big sister.
Is that right?

Yep, generally speaking. We put a TL note in ch1 about this already, but in some cases jiejie is used to flirt, just like used the same way as unnie and onee-chan. It's especially popular in Chinese wlw circles.

Aside from that, calling an unknown older lady who doesn't seem too far away in age "姐姐" [ jiějie ] is a form of respect. It has the same connotations as calling someone "miss" but in a less formal way.
Alternatively, you call a younger lady "小姐" [ xiǎojiě ] (transliterates to "little big sister") which means "little miss" or "young lady".

The corpse is just a corpse (lol), no relation to the overarching plot whatsoever!

Ahhh, alas. XD

The "Emperor", as we know, is actually a woman, so she's got this secluded spot in the palace where she can walk around as a woman without anyone noticing. Obviously, the heroine, through the power of protagonism, stumbles right into her.

The woman in the first two pages of ch2 is indeed the emperor, and also the same person who gave MC the fluffy cloak!

Yep, generally speaking. We put a TL note in ch1 about this already, but in some cases jiejie is used to flirt, just like used the same way as unnie and onee-chan. It's especially popular in Chinese wlw circles.

...I may be stupid. That all makes a lot more sense now, thank you!

The thing about Chinese manhua that I can never like is how weird they tell their stories.

Like, I've read quite a few Chinese novels and THEY'RE GOOD! Sure they're cliche and a bit too poetic sometimes, but they are really good and the writers do a decent job of writing.

And yet the moment the novel is adapted, it became horribly jarred and just feel so wrong. The plot isn't explained much, and readers are left to interpret a lot of things, the transitions between scenes are hard to tell and poorly done, and the characters lost a lot of depths for some reasons. And while the art might be nice, some artists tend to fall into the same face syndrome and makes the already confusing story much harder to follow.

So what I'm trying to say it, I understand and sympathize with all of you who are confused by this story. Imo, I think you all should just read Chinese novels instead. They're better written and easier to understand than these manhuas.

Yeah that's what I was thinking too. My question is, what is this genre commonly localized as?

System Transmigration is a much more common term and easier to understand. System Administrator is not only uncommon, but also wrong, because in some stories the System Administrators do exist and their roles are not at all like the Systems.

last edited at Aug 26, 2022 10:03AM

Chinese manhua are always so pretty and full-colored but they always move much too fast compared to the novel!! The story is so much more developed in the novel + extra details on both sides POV (MC and female lead) so I really recommend reading the novel: http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=4677684 (official site). For those who can't read Chinese, MTL is your only choice but do give it a shot!

last edited at Aug 27, 2022 10:11PM

I will be trying to read this, but yeah the pacing feels off, and the characters look similar to each other. Still seems interesting, I'm willing to try to go through a few more chapters.

Wonder why chapter 3 and 4 (by the same group) are not on here yet. I can't make judgement about the story with so few chapters out, but the art is really pretty.

Chinese manhua are always so pretty and full-colored but they always move much too fast compared to the novel!! The story is so much more developed in the novel + extra details on both sides POV (MC and female lead) so I really recommend reading the novel: http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=4677684 (official site). For those who can't read Chinese, MTL is your only choice but do give it a shot!

Please Bully Me, Miss Villainess! is the exception for giving more details than the novel. But yeah, most manhua move too fast.
Especially this one, the art if beautiful but nearly expressionless, the layout feels cramped, the way it describes the events is too rushed and a bit of... cringe

So, just to make it clear, the system avatar outright tells the MC at the bottom of this page that the "beautiful jiejie" is actually the emperor, and she still keeps referring to them as if they were different individuals? She is not very good at this game, is she?

So, just to make it clear, the system avatar outright tells the MC at the bottom of this page that the "beautiful jiejie" is actually the emperor, and she still keeps referring to them as if they were different individuals? She is not very good at this game, is she?

No, the hatching indicates the system is merely thinking it.

My thoughts:

The MC still doesn't recognize that the emperor and the beautiful jiejie are the same person lol

The MC doesn't seem to understand the concept of seduction, given that she was very much seducing the emperor while trying to do something completely different. Funny scene

Qianxue basically shouting "This lady just had sex with the emperor!" is very funny

As far as I can tell it looks like it'll be a triangle between MC, Qianxue, and the emperor.

The ability to smell poison that is, presumably, meant to be disguised by the smell and taste of food is really impressive, especially considering that this isn't a migration power, it's literally just bc she's familiar with stuff from her old life

last edited at Sep 14, 2022 5:44PM

So, just to make it clear, the system avatar outright tells the MC at the bottom of this page that the "beautiful jiejie" is actually the emperor, and she still keeps referring to them as if they were different individuals? She is not very good at this game, is she?

No, the hatching indicates the system is merely thinking it.

Ah, that makes more sense, thanks. I am just not used to the shape of the speech bubble indicating different modalities of dialogue (more used to the traditional western comics speech/thought bubbles...).

Is this like a twin situation? Why was the emperor so interested in qianxue until she wasn’t anymore and was more concerned with the mc’s health?

I kinda want to see her use that card that makes the target bang the nearest censer...

Chinese manhua are always so pretty and full-colored but they always move much too fast compared to the novel!! The story is so much more developed in the novel + extra details on both sides POV (MC and female lead) so I really recommend reading the novel: http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=4677684 (official site). For those who can't read Chinese, MTL is your only choice but do give it a shot!

What's MTL?? Do you have a link to an English translation?

MTL = machine translation (aka stuff like Google translate)

in other words you can amateurishly "translate" it yourself with a program but its legibility and accuracy will be questionable