Chicago Trip!

Oh man, all we did this trip was basically eat until we couldn't take another bite... and then eat some more! This all stems from the fact that my cousin is a foodie, and she was our tour guide the whole trip lol. We came to Chicago on a whim with no plans except to eat and see the Bean lmao.

Tuesday, May 3rd: 

• This trip feels so long ago already! I feel like all we did was eat lol
• Landed in Chicago around 9am and became confused on how to get onto the CTA lol
• Got on the CTA and got off on an exit near Cafe Con Leches for brunch. I don’t remember what I ordered, but it was great. The fried plantains were the bread!
• 
• Walked in the sprinkling rain over to Gaslight Coffee to chill for a bit before we could check into our Airbnb, which was so cool!
• Our Airbnb was southwestern themed and had all of these cool desert/cactus theme items throughout the whole apartment. There were TWO teepees! One inside and one in the backyard!
• 
• Found out my cousin was nearby, so she came over to chill for a bit
• Went to my cousin’s apartment to chill until we met up with her friends for dinner at a KBBQ restaurant nearby. Cousin wanted to go because they didn’t order the meat ferris wheel last time lol. It was insane! Also, the salad was REALLY good
• Went back home and ordered Pequod’s pizza for a midnight snack cuz all we do is eat even though we’re stuffed. Lmao we were on a mission to try as many of the famous pizza places in Chicago as possible
• Ate a slice of pizza and passed out

Wednesday, May 4th: 

• The only sunny day during this trip, so we walked for miles outside!
• Ate leftover Pequods for a quick breakfast
• Went to the backyard to check out the bigger teepee
• Took the CTA to Hanabusa Cafe for their pancake souffle. Unfortunately, they’re other side dishes and ramen were only available for dinner, but the pancakes were good and *aesthetic*
• 
• Walked across the street to Garrett’s to get their famous popcorn as a snack for later
• Found out Magnolia Bakery was nearby and that Jessica and Alec have never eaten it before, so bought a large banana pudding also as a snack for later
• Walked along the Chicago Riverwalk through the Magnificent Mile along the Lakefront Trail and resting and snacking on our popcorn before walking all the way to Navy Pier
• 
• Walking along the lake was nice and all until we found a bunch of these big gnats stuck to our clothes. Then, Jess and I were grossed out and ran the last stretch of the lake before getting back into civilization lol
• Went into the building in front of the pier and had a hotdog as a snack before deciding to take the bus to Millenium Park to go to more tourist sites since my cousin was picking us up around 4 and it was already 3
• Walked to the Bean and took pics before walking across the BP Pedestrian Bridge and around a few blocks to Buckingham Fountain only to find out that the water was off for the season. It was around 55-65 degrees the whole trip, which was a huge difference from GA’s 80 degree weather lol
• Cousin picked us up from the corner and drove us to our happy hour reservation at Machine: Engineers, which is known for their fancy, aesthetic drinks. It did NOT disappoint. They looked awesome!
• 
• Also, look at the bar decorations!
• 
• We ate a snack and mainly drank at Machine: Engineer, so we walked around to Kurimu for some ice cream since my cousin said that they have lots of Asian flavors. Unfortunately, the white rabbit flavor wasn't in rotation at the time, so Alec and I split the earl grey flavor instead.
• Drove around and went to Time Out Market for dinner and got food from half of the vendors inside
• Even though we were stuffed, we were committed to ordering Giordano’s pizza and trying it later
• Jess ordered it online, and my cousin drove us there only to find out that they had already locked their doors for the night and wouldn’t let us in until some customers left. Then, they said that they didn’t have any pizza orders left, and Jess was about to throw down before my cousin said that we had the wrong address! Lol, so Jess was all “my bad” and we booked it to the other location closer to my cousin’s address and got our pizza lol
• By the time we got back to our apartment, we were still super full and tired from walking all day, so we didn’t even eat the pizza lol

Thursday, May 5th: 

• Reheated a couple slices of Giordano’s for a quick breakfast. Wasn’t trying to eat much because we made plans for brunch already
• Went to Kusama for brunch with my cousin’s recommendation since it recently got its first Michelin star. Awesome Filipino food and pastries!
• Drove around multiple blocks trying to find free side street parking before walking to the 3 Arts Club Cafe. We were 30 minutes early for our reservation, so we went up the floors and checked out all of their fancy rooms and furniture that we couldn’t afford lol
• 
• We ate appetizers and had drinks at this place purely for the aesthetics and fountain lol. The charcuterie board was pricey but delicious, too
• Drove to the 2D Cafe for the novelty! The donuts were pretty nice. The strawberry milk was aesthetic lol
• 
• Went back to the apartment so Jess could pack since she was leaving soon.
• Walked to Furious Spoon across the street because we saw that they had $.50 dumplings for happy hour online and REALLY wanted dumplings. Then, they told us that that offer period was over, so we couldn’t get unlimited dumplings, and we were sad lol. We ordered drinks and two ramens to share because we had been eating all day. The ramen was good!
• Dropped off Jess at the CTA since it was faster that way to get to the airport
• Went back to my cousin's apartment to chill since our next reservation wasn’t until 9. We ended up watching Kitchen Nightmares upstairs in the free area until it was close to time for Gaijin
• Ordered more drinks in honor of Cinco de Drinko and two different types of okonomiyaki: Osaka style (the ingredients are all mixed into a batter and then grilled) and Hiroshima style (a small crepe-like pancake is grilled and then other ingredients are layered on top)
• 
• Also ordered the matcha donut for desert, which was SO soft and chewy freshly made <3

Friday, May 6th: 

• Ate the rest of the pizza for breakfast
• Walked to Colectivo for tea. The Masala Chai Latte and Windy Ci-Tea were great!
• Took the CTA to my cousin’s place to drop off our bags before going to Matchacita for more aesthetic drinks and waffles. The whole place is instagramable
• 
• Ordered frozen pizzas from Giordano’s to take back to GA with us in their free freezer bags when you spend a certain amount of money
• Picked up the pizzas and headed to the CTA to go back to the airport
• Made it home around midnight

Mini Reviews: The Male Lead Wants to Destroy the World [Transmigration]; After Being Dressed As a Cub, I Was Picked Up by the Male Lead; After Rebirth in the Last Days, I Picked Up the Villain Boss

Title: The Male Lead Wants to Destroy the World [Transmigration]
Author: Walk on Water
Chapters: 61 chapters + 2 extras
Publication: N/A
Summary from Wattpad:

What should I do if I find a demon king who wants to destroy the world when I wear it into a book of eschatological essays? Yin Li decided to transform him into a docile white lotus, but the white lotus accidentally turned into a man-eating Tyrannosaurus rex. Was it swollen? Wait online, anxious. 

Passing through the heroine vs rebirth of the female partner 

1. The heroine has a portable space 

2. The male protagonist is blackened from head to toe 

3. The golden finger is thick, sweet text

1.5 STARS - I DIDN'T LIKE IT

MY REVIEW: 

I did not like how everything led up to the ending. It was basically a BE right until the last chapter, and I avoid BE's because I don't like how depressing it gets. Like, the entire book was just about shitting on the main character. But things would get even shittier whenever the male lead had to go off on some trip. 

Not worth your time unless you like increasingly shitty situations happening.

Title: After Being Dressed As a Cub, I Was Picked Up by the Male Lead
Author: Xīn Shuǐ Yú Nǐ
Chapters: 98 chapters + 2 extras
Publication: 2020
Summary from Wattpad:

Xu Tutu, who had crossed into the orc world, hadn't leaped cautiously for two days before being strangled by a huge white tiger. She thought that she was going to be buried in the tiger's mouth, but Baihu only teased her every day, feeding her food from time to time, and finally became her 'gege', bothering her. 

One day, a woman was picked up from the tribe. The woman had a soft voice, a good heart and a good medical skill. At first glance, she was holding the heroine's script. Only then did she realize that she was in a book, and she It is a female cannon fodder who has not survived a chapter in the book, and only flashed in the memory of the male protagonist for a moment. In addition, she later realized that the big white tiger who was licking her fur happily was the protagonist of the loyal dog-like heroine of the book. 

Xu Tutu also imagined that the heroine would marry the hero, and she held the thighs of the two protagonists and changed her fate to find a powerful man to live a happy life. But she found that the male protagonist's eyes looked at her less and less energetic...

The big white tiger male protagonist: The fat water does not flow into the field of outsiders, of course the little female she raised is her own.

 [Reading Guide] 

1. In the orc world, humans and beasts can freely transform into forms! 

2. I don't like the heroine of Hei Yuan! 

3. Overhead, after all, the author does not know what the world of beasts is like. 

Tag: Traveling through time and space Xianxia Cultivation Sweet Text Search Keyword: Protagonist: Xu Tutu || One sentence brief introduction: I regard you as my brother, and you regard me as my daughter-in-law. Raise your intention: Even if you wear a book, you can choose your own life.

2.5 STARS - IT WAS OKAY

MY REVIEW: 

It got a bit boring towards the end. I felt like the author dragged out the ending after the climax. There was just so much focus about this one thing, and it was really boring to read about after the multiple misunderstandings and miscommunication. 

Otherwise, this was a pretty nice slice of life monster orc fantasy story.

Title: After Rebirth in the Last Days, I Picked Up the Villain Boss
Author: Bai Gu Gu
Chapters: 83 chapters + 2 extras
Publication: N/A
Summary from Wattpad:

After the rebirth in the last days, Xu Sangyu vowed to become a strong woman. As a result, she picked up a man who was beautiful, weak and blind. It would be better if he were not Xie Fan. fall! Who knew that Xie Fan, the only zombie king who reached level 9 in his previous life, was really a weak and beautiful young man before his death! Is it too late to throw it away now? 

The beautiful, weak and blind Xie Fan: Ayu, did anyone make you angry? Then I will help you kill him, by the way, who did you just say you want to lose? 

Xu Sangyu: ... 

Author's tip: The male protagonist will restore his eyesight! 

One-sentence introduction: Explosive Juli Girl x White Cut Black Disease Beauty Youth

4 STARS - I REALLY LIKED IT

MY REVIEW: 

This was hilarious! I loved the role reversals, and Xu Sangyu's out of the box thought process! 

First, there's the super dense and super strong Xu Sangyu who just wants to keep getting stronger and live better than her previous life. Then, there's the super beautiful, blind, and sick Xie Fan who keeps trying to seduce her. 

Her friends are equally as hilarious as the main leads, especially Xiaoxiao who is only eight but has learned a lot of life experiences from watching dramas lmao. 

This was a fun take on humans and zombies coexisting in an apocalypse. I definitely recommend it if you want a break from super tense and depressing zombie apocalypse novels.

Weekly Haul 147

I ordered this last month from Obvious State, and they finally came in!

On Love: Collected Works and Poems

Women Writers: Collected Works and Poems 

Romantic Poets Bookmark Set

Mini Reviews: Why is the Holy Son So Delicate?; In Order to Support Me, Big Shots Kneels Down Before Me!; The Daily life of the Apocalyptic Passerby

Title: Why is the Holy Son So Delicate?
Author: Gu Yan
Chapters: 75 chapters 
Publication: 2020
Summary from Novel Updates:

Pei Xia transmigrated into a discontinued western fantasy novel and became the unlucky cannon fodder who had a pure body that was coveted by evil spirits and was constantly suffer death threats.

The protagonist of the novel was Lucifer, the holy son from the Church of Light. He possessed a beautiful appearance and divine purification ability.

The novel’s description:

The Holy Son, who had a charming physique, feels extremely distressed by his popularity.

Therefore, Pei Xia decided to become a guard for his chastity to avoid the fate of being possessed by evil spirit.

It’s just that…….

When his admirer overbearingly pursued him, the Holy Son weakly leaned against Pei Xia’s arms, pitiful and adorable, “He is so fierce, I’m scared.”

When the demonic beasts attacked, the Holy Son held Pei Xia’s waist and buried his head into the crook of Pei Xia’s neck, shivering, “Xia, protect me.”

When assassins struck, Pei Xia blankly watched as the Holy Son decapitated one of the attackers with a single slash of his sword. His blood-stained lips raising into a seductive arc, but the moment he saw him, he let out a wet sob as he fainted onto the ground.

Pei Xia, “…..”

Holy Son, “Why don’t you have wicked thoughts towards me?”

Pei Xia (who actually does have wicked thoughts but has forcefully suppressed them), “Because w̶e̶’̶r̶e̶ ̶b̶o̶t̶h̶ ̶b̶o̶t̶t̶o̶m̶s̶ I am very pious in my faith.”

Lucifer smiled and said, “In that case, join me in my room tonight, and let’s hear the lord’s voice together.”

3.5 STARS - I LIKED IT

MY REVIEW: 

This was hilarious! Both of them lied about themselves, so the misunderstandings kept on building and building, which led to hilarious situations. The best misunderstanding was that Pei Xia kept on assuming that Lucifer was a bottom and that there was no way they could get together since he was also a pure bottom lmao. It didn't help that Pei Xia was too oblivious to notice any of Lucifer's hints lol.

Title: In Order to Support Me, Big Shots Kneels Down Before Me!
Author: 凉皮就面包
Chapters: 103 chapters
Publication: 2020
Summary from Novel Updates:

Mu Yao has been living a miserable life by working hard and saving money as much as she can. Meanwhile, her blood-sucking auntie will always take her hard earned money by saying guilt inducing words to Mu Yao about her dead parents.

The foreman of her performance group owed her many of her wages, while, the brother next door, who she had a engagement deal with, hooked up with a Bai Fumei (White, rich and beautiful girl) and abandoned her.

One night, when Mu Yao went to the vegetable market in order to grab groceries at discounted price, three elegant and luxurious cars suddenly stopped right in front of her.

The three handsome guys, who looks like stars, walked towards Mu Yao together.

Each of them took out a black card and said: “Sister! Come home with us!”

Mu Yao: “Wait a minute! Let me just grab some discounted eggs!”

Her three brothers were reborn, so they knew about Mu Yao being their long-lost little sister.

In their last life, Mu Chunchun, the adopted daughter who was regarded by the family as their own child, has been trying hard to prevent Mu Yao being found by the Mu Family.

Now that they were reborn, they are determined to give double the favor and wealth robbed by Mu Chunchun to Mu Yao!

Multinational group bosses, entertainment celebrities, national treasure-level directors, young scientific research, stars..

Almost every big shot with a good looks are holding big gifts and begging Mu Yao to spend their money.

Brothers:? ? ?

3 STARS - I LIKED IT

MY REVIEW: 

I liked it enough. 

This was a different perspective on transmigration and rebirth novels. For once, Mu Yao, the main character has no idea that she's living in a book world or that her brothers are all reborn and that another character transmigrated into the book. This leads to a lot of people knowing the general direction of the book except for the main leads themselves lol. 

Mu Yao's growth in her career and romance was a nice slow burn, but I got tired of the internet opinion sections being used to serve as future faceslaps because it became repetitive and boring after the second time it happened.

Title: The Daily life of the Apocalyptic Passerby
Author: 对游绝
Chapters: 92 chapters
Publication: 2020
Summary from jjwxc:

Pei Qinqin is an accidental book wearer. She is neither the protagonist nor the supporting role. She is not even the cannon fodder ABCD. At best, she is just a nameless passerby who participated in the beginning of the end times without any psychological preparation.

When she escaped from the dead and was driven to a dead end, the "God" came bathed in morning light.

This "God" was wearing striped pajamas, carrying a simulation|gun, and stepping on the cobblestone roof with his white jade feet. It was immortal and grounded.

Seeing that he had finished solving a wave of zombies, Pei Qinqin quickly wiped his face to promote himself: "Brother, brother stretched out your hand! I can do laundry, cook, and clean, and I can also tell jokes and warm the bed!"

No need.

Qin Chuan glanced at her sadly, then turned around to go back to the house.

Pei Qinqin looked at his vegetable garden, then watched the new wave of zombies yelling: "Brother! I will grow vegetables, fish and hatch chickens!!"

Hatching chickens?

Qin Chuan throws away the simulation|The gun stretched out her hand and said: "Jump over!"

Pei Qinqin looked at the distance between the two floors at least half a road wide: "..." If I can jump over, I still have to ask you for help.

Little Superman X stubborn peasant weary hand

light abilities / little Buddha Department / partial salted fish / species Tada / plant Meng Chong / mutual support

3.5 STARS - I LIKED IT

MY REVIEW: 

I really liked the main characters and their bantering! I loved how Pei Qinqin kept on testing Qin Chuan's bottom line to see how far she could get without making him angry in the beginning and seeing how their dynamic slowly changed as they spent more time together. 

Pei Qinqin's pet plants were also super cute and hilarious! 

I liked the twist near the end as well. The villain really is a super delusional creep though. 

APR: Scrapbooking, Job Offer, Leaving My Job, Hiking Trip, Being Sick, Hanging Out With Friends,

Last month was a rollercoaster of emotions. It was nostalgic, bittersweet, and exciting.

First off, I got into scrapbooking lol. For the past few weeks, I've been cleaning up my room and decluttering since we were doing a big donation to the VVA. I kept on finding a lot of pictures, stickers, and small papers that I wanted to keep in addition to my growing notebook collection, so I decided to pile them all together and start scrapbooking. 

Well, after weeks of talking and not actually doing anything, I ordered a bunch of washi tape off of Amazon, and finally started scrapbooking! I also found a lot of printed memes and notes that I kept at work, so of course, I had to add them to the scrapbook, too! 

It was really nostalgic looking at all of the memes I had hanging in my cube. Just look at them! 

We went back to the office last month, so I had to unpack my stuff that I packed up in 2020. Who knew that I would have my second round of interviews with a company a week later and get offered a job later that day! 

After thinking about it over the weekend, I decided to accept the offer even though I had a couple more interviews coming up. I still wanted to see what else there was to offer, so I had another interview with another company and was waiting to hear back from Papa John's since their hiring manager was on vacation. In the end, the role wasn't what I was looking for, or they were taking too long to get back to me, so I declined them.

I eventually had to tell my manager and team that I was leaving, offboard all of my content, and go back into the office to pack up my stuff. It was a whole thing. You can read more about it here. I'm glad that we were back in the office for two days a week, so that I could say goodbye to a lot of my friends in person. 

However, before I left the company, I still had a personal day I could use before leaving (they were use it or lose it), so I took Good Friday off since Alec had it off as a holiday. We went on a whole day trip instead! 

We left a little later than expected in the morning, but we made it to Yellow River Park to go hiking. It was a lot more wild than I thought. There's not many signs, but there's a lot of trails that branch off, so it got a little confusing for a bit. Good thing we decided to walk on the trails near the river as our guide. But it was super green and nice!

Then, we drove to Yuki Izakaya for lunch because I was craving okonomiyaki the night before and saw it on the menu. Unfortunately, we found out at the restaurant that it was only served during dinner along with a lot of their skewers and other izakaya menu options. Instead, we ordered different ramens and really enjoyed them. I also liked all of the banchan included, especially the salad.

For dessert, we went to The Coffee By Hand for their bingsu to cool off. We ordered the strawberry snowflake, which was really good! I liked the pieces of strawberries and condensed milk drizzle. If we had more stomach room, you best believe we would have ordered the Bing Teuk A Set which included a bingsu and tuokbokki!

We went back home after that and chilled for the rest of the weekend. I just wanted to spend more time with him since he was flying out the next weekend to go to his friend's joint bachelor and bachelorette trip and then flying out to Missouri for a few days the next week. 

It just figured that I caught his cold a days after I went back home that weekend (he had a cold two weeks before this, so we all thought he was better until he started getting congested again when I was with him that weekend). So while he was out in Vegas enjoying all the food and drinks, I was sniffling at home trying to get all of my work together lol. Luckily, I mainly recovered by the next week.

That was my last week of work, so I was trying to get lunch with my coworkers and go into the office to finish packing all of my stuff. I also made lunch plans with Tobechi on my last day to get all of the tea because we spent over an hour catching up just on what was supposed to be a quick call earlier that week lol. But that changed quickly because I had to quickly drop my equipment off at the office before cancelling on Tobechi to go pick up Alec from near the airport because his engine fired twice when he was on the highway.

He called me not long after it happened. He had pulled off the highway into a side street in front of two buildings, so he wasn't in the way of traffic. After he tried his car again, his engine lights came back on, so he called it a loss and called his insurance to hire a tow truck to pick up his car. They said that it would take around 1.5-2 hours for them to pick up his car, so I actually made it to him way before they came. 

When it was around 2pm, the towing company called and said that it would take longer to come pick up the car. Since Alec wanted to watch them pick up his car to make sure it was handled correctly since his type of car is notorious for easily being fucked up if lifted incorrectly, we ended up waiting in my car for over four hours. 

AND his director was still calling him to see when he would make it home because they had a deadline to turn something in by the end of day. He, however, offered to let us eat on the company card, so of course we didn't turn him down. After the tow truck came, we drove to Shoya Izakaya for a pricy dinner. 

We ordered so much food, I can't believe I forgot to take a pic of the feast! We sat at the bar because it was a lot faster than waiting for a table, so our area was packed. We ordered a sashmi regular set (serves 2-3 people), cucumbers with spicy sauce, vegetable tempura, okonomiyaki, and baked katsu curry (from Kelly's high recommendation). I think because we didn't have a lot of carbs for the meal, we were able to eat almost everything and only had to box half of the okonomiyaki and baked katsu curry. It was a great meal. Definitely want to come back and try their ramen and skewers next time!

Then we went back home, and Alec had to work for a while. Poor guy really can't catch a break lol.

We hadn't hungout with Carina for a while, so we made plans to visit the Peachtree Road Farmer's Market, since we had so much fun hanging out at a farmer's market last time. This one was a lot bigger than the Marietta Square one and with a lot more food options! We had a lot of fun trying out the food and drinks and catching up. I'm really trying to convince her to leave her job because it sounds terrible. Lol we actually passed by one her offices on the way to the mall.

When I accepted my job offer, I decided to take a week off before my start date because I was originally supposed to be in London for a work trip with SITA. I still wanted to travel, so I made spontaneous plans to go to Chicago with Alec and Jessica. It was purely based on using Google Flights to see what was cheap during this week lol. It was tied between Chicago and Denver, but majority voted for Chicago, so that's what we booked!

But closer to the date of the trip, we checked the weather, and it kept on saying that it was raining almost every day. That was a total bummer to see. Alec and I wanted to go buy some rain jackets for the cold because it was forecasted to be in the 40-50s in Chicago, so we went to the Lenox Mall after hanging out with Carina. Luckily, we found our jackets at The North Face. 

You can find out more about the trip soon. I'm still sorting out the pics lol.

But yeah, this was a busy month!

DNF Reviews: Dao Of The Salted Fish & The Richest Daughter is Three and a Half Years Old

Title: Dao Of The Salted Fish
Author: bafflinghaze
Chapters: 113 chapters + 13 extras
Publication: 2021
Summary from Chrysanthemum Garden:

Wen Zhihao is tired of life. When he dies…meh. That’s life.

But when he gets transmigrated into the body of a young cultivator of the prestigious Golden Sun Sect, full of possibilities…no thanks! He has no effort/energy to work hard on cultivation! He just wants to be a salted fish!

…it turns out sleeping = meditation and absently watching beautiful scenery = meditation.

And meditation = cultivation…

This is not the Dao of Indifference. This is the Dao of the Salted Fish!! With calm emotions, Wen Zhihao accidentally cultivates strongly!

…but he’s still a salted fish, bah. Don’t make him fight!

Feat: slow build / slice of life~ [subtitle: Salted Fish Cultivator~]

MY REVIEW: 

Made it to chapter 53 before giving up.

I really tried to give it a chance, but I just got SO BORED. I understand that this is a slice of life novel, but the writing and characters really couldn't keep my attention. 

If you've read enough fanfiction, then you can easily recognize the writing style. I don't know how to describe it other than amateurish writing that adds too many unnecessary details in most sentences. 

The characters themselves weren't that interesting and were pretty stereotypical. Wen Zhihao basically treated everyone around him as kids just because he was mentally older than his peers, and Sun Fuyu was the pure shou who fell for the first person to be kind to him. Their fluffy interactions actually weren't that fluffy for me since it felt like an older bro spoiling his younger bro with the younger bro mistaking his feelings for something more since someone was nice to him.

Title: The Richest Daughter is Three and a Half Years Old
Author: 扇墨竹
Chapters: 74 chapters
Publication: 2020
Summary from Novel Updates:

After the three-and-a-half year old MiaoMiao was rescued from the human traffickers, the entire very rich Wen family placed the little princess that they had nearly lost into their hearts.

So…

When Father Wen just finished a video conference, and was just about to get ready to go inspect the company, MiaoMiao tugged the hem of his clothes, puffed up her cheeks and stared at him.

“If Daddy doesn’t accompany me to the hospital, I refuse to go get the body checkup!”

“Okay, okay, okay, I’ll listen to everything the little princess says.”

So as a result, during the health checkup it was discovered that Father Wen had early stage lung cancer. Due to the timely discovery, Father Wen recovered very smoothly.

Brother Wen planned to take his wife and sons to a foreign country for a vacation, the tickets were all booked, but MiaoMiao wanted to be with her nephews, so they changed their destination at the last moment.

Brother Wen gently patted the troublemaker MiaoMiao and said, “Wherever you go on vacation is the same, so we’ll just follow what MiaoMiao says.”

On the day of departure, the flight they were originally planned on taking crashed, with no survivors.

The Wen family looked towards their naive and innocent daughter, she is their lucky star!

From then on, the Wen family’s MiaoMiao is the Wen family’s sky, the Wen family’s earth, and the Wen family’s truth.

***

MiaoMiao has an older sister called System, but no one else knows.

Sister System told her that as long as she gets close to her family, she can use her family’s Intimacy Values to increase her family’s wealth, charm, health, luck, and even change their tragic future.

MiaoMiao worked tirelessly being a little tail to change the fate of her family. When she peacefully returned to kindergarten, she met a little chubby boy.

The kids at the kindergarten laughed at him for being fat and bullied him. MiaoMiao immediately stood in front of him to protect him.

“So what if he’s a fatty, Fatty has good potential!”

When MiaoMiao discovered the Sister System can help the little fatty lose weight, MiaoMiao chose to help him without any hesitation.

When little fatty got skinnier, he became known as a little handsome boy, he could even fight well too. After counterattacking he grew up with MiaoMiao as childhood sweethearts.

After growing up, MiaoMiao discovered that from early on, she has held this “good potential” in her hand.

MY REVIEW: 

I only read halfway through chapter 9, but it was enough for me to realize that I wasn't interested in this book. Don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of slice of life novels, but I am starting to realize maybe I'm not into slice of life novels from a kid's perspective. 

Being a kid is really limiting compared to an adult, and their daily antics aren't that interesting when they have a system that basically explains everything (including how to solve their current problems) to them. There wasn't much tension or anticipation because all of her family's problems were solved almost instantly. 

Also, the book goes into excruciating details about MiaoMiao's day including solving math homework and her whole Kindergarten itinerary, which was really boring for me as a reader. I think I just need more excitement or drama in a book to keep my attention.

Left My Job

It's such an odd, bittersweet feeling leaving your job. This was my first serious corporate job. I've had summer internships in the past before, but I knew that they were only for a few months. Meanwhile, I've been with this company for four years. That's a long time to get to know so many people and the business.

Saying goodbye and handing over my projects for the past few weeks has been crazy. I didn't even know how to tell people the news at first. Other people would tell everyone else before I could! Lol, I didn't have a chance to tell my team in our weekly team meeting because Michael joined the call late and thought that I had already announced the news! My manager had just told him the news in an earlier one-on-one call after I told her I was leaving!

But once I got used to saying announcing my news, it became a lot easier to tell everyone. I was also reaching out to friends in the company who I hadn't talked to in a while because we don't work together, and it was nice catching up and hearing about all of their news, too. 

I think the pandemic definitely made it harder for us to connect, but it's nice to know that we still got along just as usual two years later. And so much happened in between! I found out that one of my coworkers was about to illegally visit his family in Brazil because it was taking so long to get the visa paperwork done with the embassies. Luckily, everything went through on time, so he was able to travel legally lol. I also found out that my other coworker started her own luxury candle company last year and also had a baby at the same time! It's crazy!

I turned in my laptop and phone the other week, and it kind of felt surreal. Driving to the company was normal since I've been doing it for so long, but just dropping off my equipment felt like I lost a part of my identity. Even now, I keep on saying "we" when I mention anything about the company or airline news lol.

I'm sad to leave the people, but I'm excited to start my new job. I've been meeting with my new manager for the past few weeks to get to know more about the company and the onboarding process, and I really like what I've seen so far! 

Today is my first day at the new job. I'm excited!

Books I Want to Read This Month

I'm out of the house for at least a third of the month, so I'm actually not sure how much time I'll have to read anything. But there is always hope! :D

1. Oksi by Mari Ahokoivu
2. Spy x Family vol. 1 by Tatsuya Endo
3. Spy x Family vol. 2 by Tatsuya Endo
4. A Man & His Cat vol. 3 by Umi Sakurai
5. A Man & His Cat vol. 4 by Umi Sakurai
6. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
7. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? vol. 12 by Fujino Omori
8. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? vol. 13 by Fujino Omori
9. Tamiko and the Two Janitors by Forthright 
10. Love Looks Pretty on You by Lang Leav
11. Euphoria by F.S. Yousaf
12. Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda
13. The Anatomy of Being by Shinji Moon
14. Home Body by Rupi Kaur
15. The Sun Will Rise & So Will We by Jennae Cecelia

April in Retrospect

I spent a lot of time reading webnovels this month since I caught a cold recently and didn't do much other than rewatch My ID Is Gangnam Beauty with my sis, since it recently came onto Netflix.

I read: 

1. I Inherited a Planet by Did the villain die from talking too much?
2. Cross-Species Love by 妖霏 
3. The Villain Just Wants to be a Salted Fish by 夕朝南歌
4. Where is Our Agreement to be Each Other’s Arch-Rivals? by 輕風白楊
5. Reborn As the Ex-wife of the Paranoid Male Lead by Zhi Tang
6. After Running Away With a Cub, I Became Everyone’s Favorite by Zhi Tang 
7. Celestial White Rabbit Pregnancy Nursing Guide by 池翎
8. After Rebirth, I Just Want to be a Salted Fish by 雕雕子
9. I'm Cannon Fodder by 开花不结果
10. Seventy's Fortune and Wealth Raising Cubs by 啾啾不吃鱼
11. Awakened as a Fine Female Cannon Fodder by Lan Gui
12. Heartthrob Omega Awakens by Yun Chuxiu
13. Big Guys Love Me [Quick Wear] by 开花不结果

I watched: 

1. My ID Is Gangnam Beauty (2018)