So... I've been exploring webnovel.com, and to me the only thing worth reading to the end is TKA and My House of Horrors. Any chinese novel worth reading besides those? my requirement is that they are not xianxia (xuanhuan cultivation is alright, but so far all of them gets dropped), not yaoi and not josei. Also... I'm a fan of the showbiz genre (through manga like skip beat and act-age), so a plus point if you give me that one. So far those novels with "superstar" in their name just bore me. It is not a necessity though.
TBH, I don't read on webnovel. But Superstar of Tomorrow is good, so are both Gourmet novels. Though Gourmet Food Supplier is kind of racist. Gourmet of Another World is definitely better. I do like Another Worlds Versatile Crafting Master, OP MC. The Great Thief is also good. I love Legendary Mechanic and I don't even like Mecha or Mecha like stories. That one is super good., And Hail the King is pretty good too. For showbiz, honestly the best ones are BL and Josei. I highly recommend getting over that if the story is super good. Rebirth of a Supermodel and One Useless Rebirth Are pretty freakin good. I do like Rebirth of the Film Emperor's Wife but the FL is a required taste and most males wouldn't appreciate the ML. But if you are really a BL hater, I highly recommend you read The Earth is Online anyway. It's way more plot than romance anyway (Very little tbh). It's super good too. It's a thriller. Not sure which one of these are on Webnovel. But none of these are xianxia. As a fellow reader, I always recommend going outside your comfort zone. While you will still see a lot of trash, you'll miss gems. I would have missed Legendary Mechanic normally, but I push myself to give things a chance. Just think about how much trash is in your favorite genre? It's the same in others. Just we love certain genre's so much we ignore it. I am a thorough book otaku (snickers), so I do my best to find good stories.
If you want showbiz and don't mind KR novels, maybe try "Top Management". Disclaimer that it isn't completed because the novel rights got bought out/adapted to Kdrama. But it's a pretty good run while it lasted. There's also "I'm Really A Superstar" (CN comedy), but it is a tad heavy on nationalism. Eventually got into hiatus as well ... probably because of way too much real-life plagiarism. Most other CN showbiz type novels I've seen are shoujo/josei genres with unrealistic depictions of the entertainment industry. My fundamental problem with music-only novels ("God of Music", "Superstars of Tomorrow") is that without a real life reference (Youtube video, etc), you have no idea what's going on. Even Nodame Cantibile had references to real classical music pieces. And you can at least imagine a fictional movie scene. How do you imagine a non-existent song?
Dropped this one done reading TM to the last chapter. Dropped The Great Thief and The Earth is Online in the past. I seem to remember dropping the legendary mechanics in the past, but I am not sure. I just plain don't want to read BL. For josei, I am tired of romance. I am avid reader of shoujo manga, but josei genre is just... filled with too many intrigue and romance. I don't mind reading sparse romance. But drama filled backstab, cheating, hate and rage to the other love rival, etc. for the sake of drama is not for me. The story must contain much more than interpersonal relationship for me to read that. I'll check out the others. Hmm... I dropped trafford's trading club in the past. Thank you for recommendation. this one's review is not promising, in the character's development department. what do you think?
There are numerous instance of character development in Lord of the Mysteries, spanning both - the supporting cast as well as the main cast. I think the review is probably referring to personality/alignment instead of character depth. For instance, we see characters gaining maturity as show progresses- Naive characters become wiser, wiser become humble etc. Regardless, the laws governing the novel will restrict certain characters from changing alignment. Eg: People of Aurora order are mostly insane, a demoness/abyss pathway character in novel must have killed a few innocents to progress etc. It is a part of world building as opposed to mediocre writing so might as well try it out
Not to convince you to read Josei, just not all Josei is romance. They aren't mutually exclusive. But I do want to make one more recommendation. And that Lucia. It's smutty but with a good plot though at first you don't see it. And if you never read Legendary Moonlight Sculptor, I recommend that too. Bring A Farm to Another World is also surprisingly good, just don't expect the summary to truly encompass the story. It doesn't. Currently I am actually read Death Mage, but that isn't CN. Well, I hope one of these stories gets you. I did try to base my recommendations off of your first post, though I did also try to nudge where you didn't want to go. Lol. Can't help it, I want everyone to appreciate the glory of certain genre, even if generally they don't like it. Always exceptions I say.