里正大人何时登基

This is an infrastructure-ish story that turned a bit strange later down the line. Honestly not too sure what to think about this one!

MC, ML and their relationship

MC is a modern man transmigrated into the past. He is captured by some bandits, gives them a way out (also to ensure his safety) and picks up ML, a “lost” prince who was living as a beggar. MC essentially becomes the godfather of ML. MC and ML spend a decent amount of time away from each other, so towards the end of the story, ML just seems to kinda fall in love with MC suddenly (which apparently, has a long story becomes MC is reborn but has no memories of his past life).

Anyway, it’s so complicated. I don’t really feel like MC likes ML that much, and ML’s thoughts aren’t really described much because they were developed offscreen. Their relationship is a natural one, but definitely not an immersive one for the reader.

The infrastructure

The first half does infrastructure moderately well. MC presents some of the popular items - paper, printing press, glass, cement, gunpowder etc. It’s pretty satisfying. The side stories and various snippets during the main timeline of infrastructure novels really like the opinions of the “future”. Those weren’t in this story, which definitely made it way less satisfying.

The second half is done pretty poorly from an infrastructure perspective. Yes, the second half is usually about the transition towards becoming the emperor, but the effect of MC’s infrastructure projects is simply glossed over. Like, how did the investments MC made impact other people’s lives? Effect of education? Anyway, it was unsatisfying.

The ending

The ending of this story is a weird one. You get a lot more people being reborn, soul swapped and MC is probably even a quick transmigrator who has completed multiple missions before this one? It’s not necessarily a confusing ending, but it is rushed and gives you the feeling that “oh, I see, very cool but whatever”.

Conclusion

The story starts off at a decent pace, but noticeable drop off towards the end. A lot of events were poorly foreshadowed, making it confusing and leaving with a bit of a weird taste. Yeah, not sure about this one.