Down the Yaoi Hole

Right now, I’m resisting the urge to say sorry for not writing a blog post since March. I feel like I’m a kid again, starting a diary entry with an apology for not writing for long stretches of time, weeks and months sometimes passing between entries. Anthropomorphizing my diary, I worried that I’d hurt its feelings by leaving its pages unattended for too long. Maybe that’s just how I write, since I still take long periods away from writing as an adult. Maybe I just went through a breakup and then work got crazy! And maybe you’re going through a hard time, too, because summer can be tough for us introverts: there’s too much pressure to enjoy yourself.

So, if you’re like me, and you want to beat the heat by staring at a screen or a book all day, here are some of my recommendations for getting through the popular danmei series, The Husky and His White Cat Shizunby Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou, a smooth-brained story if there ever was one.

Credit: Seven Seas Entertainment

Seasoned danmei fans should feel free to scroll past this prologue to the fic recommendations below! Newbs, gather round, it’s time to learn you about some Chinese boys love novels.

According to Wikipedia, danmei literally translates to something like ‘addicted to beauty’ (hell yeah), but it’s basically the Chinese term for Boys Love, or BL (yaoi, in Japan). Most of the danmei that have gained popularity in the West are web novels, meaning they’re self published online, one chapter at a time. They often include elements of xianxia, or Chinese historical fantasy that usually takes the form of billowing robes and martial arts fighters flying through the air. Picture something out of a wuxiamovie, but with more beautiful wizards kissing each other.

Before we move on to more silly, smoochy fun, though, I need to acknowledge the harsh political reality of making gay erotica in China today. In 2025, at least 30 authors were arrested for writing danmei, with at least 10 people receiving prison sentences and many others being heavily fined for profiting off their writing. Despite the huge popularity (and presumably, profits) that a show and book series like The Untamedcan garner, anti-porn, anti-LGBTQ censorship and criminalization is having a materially harmful impact on our fellow fangirls in China. I’m honestly not sure if there’s any political action Americans can take to support these specific writers, but let me just say this: sex workers in the U.S. have been warning us about SESTA/FOSTA for years, and if you think the censors aren’t coming for us, too, think again. Read your porn, and fucking VOTE.

Mo Ran is emotionally tormented by the sins of his past life, but Chu Wanning loves him unconditionally anyways. Don’t we all desire the warm embrace of forgiveness from our mommy/teacher/daddy/lover? Credit: Tanox

Since I mentioned The Untamed, I also want to include a very important disclaimer before I launch into describing Husky: it is NOT the best danmeiout there, and probably not a great entry point for the genre, in my opinion! It’s super long, very confusing, and frequently uh… bad. It’s kind of like, really bad? But the characters are great, the sexual dynamic is super hot and problematic in all the best ways, and it’s got a wonderfully active fan community creating wonderfully horny fan works.

So, if you’ve never read a danmei novel before and want some advice on where to begin, I would recommend you start with Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (abbreviation: MXTX), of which the TV show The Untamed is an adaptation. I haven’t read much danmei beyond MXTX’s works, but I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that Grandmaster is some of the best the genre has to offer. It’s got everything you want from a romance novel: love, death, reincarnation, a perfect enemies to lovers dynamic, size difference nonsense, sword fights, and sword fights (wink). But I digress.

You’re here because you want SMUT. You want a surly, scowling, older bottom to be absolutely destroyed by a cheerfully stupid fuck boy top (said fuck boy’s name is literally “Mo Ran,” as in a homonym for “moron.” It’s… not subtle). The series’s English title is a play on the trope of a “black cat / golden retriever relationship,” except the cat is white and the dog is black because of good vs. evil color symbolism (just try not to be overwhelmed by the literary sophistication). Or, maybe you’re here because you’re a sick freak who’s in it for the teacher/student dynamic (I certainly am - my other favorite MXTX novel, The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, also features this dynamic and I am unabashedly Hot For Teacher). You might want to read the Husky books before diving into the fan fiction, or at least some of them? There are so many, and I gotta be honest, I tapped out by book 9 and just started skimming for the sex scenes. This is, for better and for worse, a story crafted by and for fangirls, and uploaded online in serial without much (if any) editorial assistance. There are whole books that could be cut from the narrative, and frankly, the ending just kind of… peters off? It’s drowning in genre tropes and hackneyed clichés that can either feel like the nourishing mental meal you’ve been craving, or sickly sweet candy rotting your brain-teeth. Just remember, most treats are best in moderation.

Before sharing my fanfic recs, here is a brief spoiler-lite summary of the Husky series. And some excellent gender-swap fan art from the artist Vivernt.

Credit: vivernt.tumblr.com

Let’s start with the TLDR: you can probably just read books 1 through 6 of the series, and maybe books 8 and 10. Maybe. 1 - 6 contain the main romance arc, and then we get sucked into a 5-book battle saga that I simply did not enjoy. The later books have some fun plot twists (villains! spirits! demons! daddy issues!) but in my opinion, you could easily read the fun romantic books, and then skim through an online plot summary of the rest.

Husky (also called Erha, or 2HA) is a transmigration novel, meaning the drama begins when the evil emperor Taxian-jun dies, and then wakes up reborn in the body of his teenage self, Mo Ran, a disciple of the cold but beautiful teacher (“shizun” in Chinese), Chu Wanning. Mo Ran is initially defined by his stupidity, since he refuses to see that the teacher he hates so much is actually always looking out for him. He’s arrogant, cocksure, hung like a horse, and always causing trouble. Chu Wanning is his polar opposite in every way: he’s insecure, quiet, temperamental, and sharp-tongued. If Mo Ran is a big dumb dog, tail wagging happily as he follows his master, then Chu Wanning is a shrewd little cat, swiping his claws at anyone who gets too close. They’re both stubborn as hell and secretly obsessed with each other, but of course it takes ages for Mo Ran to discover that he’s been given a second chance at life to make things right with Chu Wanning. If you enjoy the tag “idiots in love” on AO3, then this story is for you.

There is some grade-A pining in this book, let me tell you. Highlights include: an accidental encounter in a hot spring (classic), and jerking off on either side of the same wall, Pyramus and Thisbe style (noice). The sexiest bits are often in allusions to Mo Ran’s past life via flashbacks or dream sequences, in which Taxian-jun holds Chu Wanning captive in his castle and torments him with lots of deliciously deviant, pseudo-BDSM sex. It’s a lot of CNC (consensual non-consent), since the novel’s gimmick is that Chu Wanning is too stubborn and repressed to admit his own desires, so the “evil” emperor Taxian-jun has to “force” him. In contrast, the reincarnated Mo Ran learns to love Chu Wanning as an equal, and insists on treating his teacher-lover with the utmost respect. This way, you get both horny ravishment and tender lovemaking, depending on which timeline you’re in — it’s the best of both worlds! The downside of this approach is that Mo Ran and Chu Wanning never have sex that is both emotionally open and rough and horny. That’s where the fan fiction comes in handy.

Chu Wanning as a ravished concubine. Aww, look at the baby, he’s so sad, he hates it. That’s why he’s hard, because he hates it! Come on, who wouldn’t want to torture this belligerently bratty bottom? Credit: snackage.tumblr.com

Without further ado, here is my current fan fiction ranking list from least-to-most beloved. All of these are rated Explicit because I don’t fuck around with stories about fucking around.

wicked games by tagteamme - Mei Hanxue bets Mo Ran major ca$h to ask out the next person who walks through the bar door, and who should it be but Mo Ran’s horrible, grumpy boss from the office, Chu Wanning? This one has lots of jealousy and lying and hurt feelings, and it takes like, 4 or 5 chapters for Mo Ran and Chu Wanning to get back together once the truth is revealed. The sex is solidly explicit, but it’s not the most dynamic or original on the list. Still, it’s a very popular read! 11 chapters.

Every Step You Take by glacierdust - Yes, I read stalker fics, fine, okay, you got me. I just love somnophilia, okay? Basically, Chu Wanning gets to live out the fantasy of being the ultimate pillow princess, because his lover is content to remain an anonymous (if deeply eerie) force of one-sided kink and care in his life. It makes no logical sense, but it sure is steamy! 1 chapter, but there’s a part 2 if you like it.

荷官牌型 ♠️ The Croupier’s Hand by bloodsongs - Chu Wanning is a washed up former school teacher working as a croupier at a casino. Mo Ran is the flashy new manager looking to turn the place around, but as Chu Wanning’s former student, he’s bitter, angry, and obviously super horny about encountering his once-belovèd, now-loathèd teacher. Enemies-to-lovers angry sex, with a sordid teacher-student past. The best part is a sex scene which includes Song Qiutong, who normally gets done dirty both in the novel, and in too many fan fics, in my opinion. (Side note: a lot of danmei is disappointingly super sexist!) 4 chapters.

Hard to Love The Lonely Night by bloodsongs - Set in the world of the original novel, Mo Ran and Chu Wanning have to go undercover as a newlywed husband and wife in order to catch a monster terrorizing a country town. Of COURSE they have to sleep together in the same bed when they check into a hotel for their monster fighting — otherwise they would blow their cover! Sleep groping and wet dreams ensue. 1 chapter.

a pseudonym to fool him (he couldn’t have made a worse move) by sweetsweetdays - "Mo Ran is an idiot” is an underutilized trope in this fandom, but luckily this fic takes full advantage of his stupid-sweet puppy love. It’s a modern AU in which Chu Wanning and Mo Ran are married, and Mo Ran decides to “test” his husband’s loyalty by making a fake Instagram account, pretending to be a stranger hitting on him. When Chu Wanning reciprocates (because it is obviously his husband playing some sort of sex game), Mo Ran unknowingly becomes jealous of himself. 1 chapter.

the place you belong by orphan_account - Why are people deleting their AO3 accounts? Don’t they know we want to keep reading their beautiful spanking fics until the inevitable heat death of the universe? I want to read about Mo Ran sleepily groping Chu Wanning in their shared kitchen and saying, “Be a good boy or Daddy will have to spank you,” until the earth crashes into the goddamn sun! Anyway, you can still read this one, you just have to be logged into your AO3 to do so. 1 chapter.

Let’s Fall in Love for the Night by purloinedinpetrograd - Purloined, if you’re out there reading this, I just want to know why? Why did you delete your beautiful, horny, perfectly kink-and-plot-balanced AO3 account? You have a gift, you should share this with the world! Anyway, some scoundrel saved all your fics and uploaded them to this Google drive, so me and my fellow perverts can keep jackin’ it to your wonderful words. Hope you’re doing okay. As for this fic: sex pollen! Enough said. 1 chapter.

Mutual Agreement by tagteamme - Mo Ran and Chu Wanning are office nemeses who start an enemies-with-benefits arrangement, and naturally fall deeply in love. Office sex, gym sex, bed sex… it’s got it all. It’s simple, but that’s what makes it work so well. 1 chapter, but it’s really long!

Sweet Talk by purloinedinpetrograd - Mo Ran is a grad student moonlighting as a camboy, and Chu Wanning is an ashamed, horny professor who stumbles upon his favorite student’s OnlyFans account. Chu Wanning signs up for Mo Ran’s live stream, and when he admits to cumming too soon in the video chat, something about his username catches Mo Ran’s eye. Insisting upon a two-way video stream for the first time in his camming career, Mo Ran seeks out more and more information about this anonymous client who reminds him so much of his beloved professor. Very kinky, very fun. 5 chapters.

Clocking Overtime by Anonymous - This time, Chu Wanning is the camboy! Even though he’s really bad at things like lighting, and camera angles, and touching himself, Chu Wanning still manages to captivate Mo Ran’s attention. Naturally, Mo Ran stumbles upon the livestream one night while fantasizing about his handsome supervisor at work. It’s a slow burn where they’re jerking off on screen together the whole time. Chu Wanning gets his ear pierced in a horny fugue state, Mo Ran cooks for him in a fit of domestic bliss, and both of them are idiots the whole way through. I squeal every time I read the final identity reveal. 10 chapters.

Risk and Restraint by purloinedinpetrograd - This is the kind of fan fiction that inspires me to write my own. This story is so perfectly plotted, so humorous yet horny, so kinky and creative — I simply cannot praise it highly enough. If you read one fic on this list, it should be this one, and honestly? You don’t have to read the books to understand what’s going on here — it’s that good. This story blends the curmudgeonly characters of Husky with the premise of a Korean manhwa called, “A Man of Virtue,” in which two office enemies are thrust together by a horny curse that makes one of them vividly hallucinate the other one’s sexual fantasies. Remember when everyone got really into “Cherry Magic” like two years ago? This is like that story, but with incredibly explicit BDSM. Highlights include cum play in a public restroom, all the exhibitionism and voyeurism your little perverted hearts desire, and choking with black leather gloves. Sigh. I’ve died and gone to horny heaven! Purloined, I hope you’re out there writing the next great American erotic novel. You’re a genius. 8 chapters.

BONUS CONTENT: The wonderful BL artist, Lucid, is currently working on a Husky office doujinshi, because there is still some good left in this world. If you want to read it as it comes out (along with her other horny vampire and werewolf comics), you can subscribe to her Patreon here! If you want to wait until the finished book is ready for purchase, check back in a few months; she said it’s going to be a longer fan comic, but she’ll probably post a Kickstarter to fund the print comics sometime this fall.

Sometimes, there’s someone out there, somewhere in the world, who just sees right into your soul’s deepest desires, you know? This image makes my heart bark like a dog. Credit: Lucid

If you have your own Husky fan fiction recommendations, or other danmei novels you think people should be talking about, please leave them in the comments! I am always looking for more BL nonsense to fill my squishy little brain.