Title: 地球人的小商铺| The Earthling’s little shop
Author: 醉饮长歌 | zuì yǐn cháng gē
Original Publisher: JJWXC
Summary:
Liu Ze, a handsome face and long legs, height of 1.80m, an eligible bachelor with excellent career prospects. After picking up some portable real estate, he established a new dream—
Fire his foolish boss and return home to farm.
Constantly flirted with yet unmoved workaholic Shou X Irritable, Jealous, Boss Gong
Review:
What do you do if you get your promotion stolen from you? Why not fire your boss, go home to farm and sell your produce!
At least, that’s what Liu Ze does in The Earthling’s Little Shop.
Having gotten his promotion taken from him by his boss’ son, who happened to be his ex-junior, Liu Ze decides to quit his job as an architect and return to the village he came from to start a farming business. Not just any farming business, but one he gets access to through a video game style farming interface that seems more technologically suited to the interstellar age, aliens and all. Just as everything was going smoothly, out pops out his slightly childish and promotion-stealing school junior, Ye Hongshu, who…… might just have a business opportunity for him?
While The Earthling’s little shop might start off as a farming story, it actually focuses on three things. First, Liu Ze’s lifelong goal and the reason behind why he chose to become an architect. Second, personal growth and responsibility, about how it’s never too late to start learning. Lastly, the slow romance between two people from different walks of life, and how communication solves a lot of things.
The readers can follow along Liu Ze’s story as he works his way through playing a farming game with real life impacts on his wallet, encounters aliens and technology beyond the scope of humans, and takes the first step in fulfilling his lifelong dream of opening a resort.
The relationship between Liu Ze and Ye Hongshu starts off as a slightly strained boss-subordinate relationship, but soon changes when Liu Ze quits his job. Both of them are flawed in different ways, and slowly, as they start to interact with one another outside of a work environment, they take in the best parts of each other as they continued to carved out their own path in the world.
This story is a slice of life business story about two workaholics and their slow burn romance. There is no face-slapping, no rival companies or third parties, and no alien invasion on the rise. Nevertheless, this does not mean that there is no conflict in their relationship. Both Liu Ze and Ye Hongshu come from very different backgrounds and have very different histories and upbringing. A huge part of their relationship is focused on personal growth as they both aim to become a better version of themselves.
Compared to the author’s other works, The Earthling’s Little Shop might have less fluff, but will evoke the same warm feelings as the readers follow Liu Ze bumbling his way through a farming system that insists on micro-transactions, learns how to deals with loss and pain, and perhaps, lets his ex-boss enter his slowly thawing heart.
Personal commentary:
While showcasing itself as a farming story, The Earthling’s little shop is actually a business story with romance in-between its workaholic pages and characters. The system in the Earthling’s little shop doesn’t simply stay as a farming system, but instead, moves from a VR Farmville to a Tycoon game, bringing along with it extra and unwanted features, such as the food chain.
Personally, what I enjoyed most was the way the characters grow throughout the story. While at first glance, the main character Liu Ze might seem like a regular pushover that never gets angry, his hidden depths and the reasons behind why he acts he in the way he does gets revealed as the story unfolds. On the other hand, Ye Hongshu might start off as an overbearing, rich and childish male lead, but through his interaction with Liu Ze, he becomes less immature and grows up, while still keeping part of his unrestrained personality.
There are a multitude of side characters, from the always good-looking Liu Family robots to the excitable little alien in a warzone. Each of them have their stories and are very distinct characters, and are not just accessories to the main couple.
Without conflict from outside sources, this is a nice, sweet story about two people who slowly but steadily fall in love, and learn that communication is very important. Above all, The Earthling’s little shop is a story about personal growth, intermixed with farming, business, and the occasional alien.