#cpme

(links below go directly to the Mao'er/Missevan website)

以沫 / "Yi Mo" by 奇然, 小魂 from 默读/Mo Du, Season 1

你温柔那刻 / 茫茫人海化作粉末 That moment when you become gentle / the sea of people fades to dust

I'm not sure if it's just that good or if it's just because we spent so much time with this song throughout the audiodrama, but I remember wanting to cry when it started playing at the end of the final episode. 星港/"Star Harbour" is great, but this song is Modu.

娘子 is rio / "NiangZi is rio" by 陈张太康 from 我嗑了对家X我的CP/I Ship My Adversary X Me, Season 1

开始在文字里寻找 爱的方向 I started to search in the words to find the direction of love

This is the first modern-era novel and audiodrama in my danmei journey. This song is such a perfect encapsulation of the story, and I love that it's performed by the main character's voice actor.

百变总裁/"Transforming CEO" by 景向谁依， 羊仔 from 迪奥先生/Mr Dior, Season 1

生活虽然地覆天翻 / 却更缤纷而绚烂 Life has been turn upside down / but also more colorful and splendid

This is another song that left an impression because it's sang by the main voice actors. The music is upbeat and cheerful, and lyrics are funny and sweet just like the story itself.

闯入一片盛开的夏/"To Stumble into a Blooming Summer" by 奇然 沈谧仁 from 我只喜欢你的人设/Rose and Renaissance, Season 2

所有浪漫与理性的梦话/都得到回答 All the romantic and rational words from your dreams / have gotten their response

I remember this ballad for playing in the background when I finally worked out a good French Toast recipe, and an incorrect(?) reference to the myth of Prometheus. But it sounds so romantic and so perfect for relaxing playlists.

逆风/"Against the Wind" by Mario from 破云/Po Yun, Season 1

一条线划分地狱天堂/谁不想乾坤朗朗 A single line separates heaven from hell / who wouldn't want to live in a bright and just world

A bit tense, a bit cheesy, and a bit dramatic -- I wouldn't have liked this song by itself but it sounds perfect as a theme song to a police procedural show/audiodrama.

夏日冰/"Summer Ice" by 根小八, 海疼 from 彼得·潘与辛德瑞拉/Peter Pan and Cinderella, Season 1

在盛夏结束前/送你上千句蜜语甜言 Before the summer ends / I will gift you thousands of lines of sweet words

I Can Do It :: 我行让我来[电竞] 酱子贝 – [Esports] I had to look up quite a bit of LOL references for this novel, but it says something about its quality that made me want to do the research! The story follows Jian Rong, a mouthy LOL live-streamer who gets recruited into his idol’s professional team. For me, it combines the comedy of having a snarky troll protagonist with the passionate energy of Esports. The Gong is around five years older than the shou, who turns 18 just before they start a relationship; but the sense of the age gap is quite strong between them. The key source of angst in this novel is the stress of injury and retirement for the more mature players, but the story’s keeps a mostly positive and upbeat focus is Jian Rong’s growth in professional gaming (and his cool, handsome boyfriend). 

This Prince has Something To Say :: 孤有话说 楚寒衣青 - [NOT TRANSLATED] [historical, political, wuxia] – This novel is split down the middle across two genres. The first part is a political intrigue in which the crown prince Xiao Jianshen (gong) tries to consolidate power in a (hilariously) hectic imperial court, while the second part is a wuxia tale in which a sect master Fu Tinghuan (shou) sorts out his old jianghu rivalries. They cross into each other’s worlds for their own objectives, but also fall in love. Fu Tinghuan’s vulnerabilities in love are heart wrenching, especially considering his backstory. Xiao Jianshen reads like he is on the ace spectrum; his love seems a lot more reserved in comparison, but from his POV he is as devoted to Fu Tinghuan as he possibly could be and isn't attracted to anyone else. The novel is also focused on the Gong’s POV, which is typical for this author. 

The Legitimate Son’s Dilemmas :: 嫡子为难 石头与水 – [NOT TRANSLATED] [historical, transmigration, “household drama” aka 宅斗] – Though this story is technically a danmei, only 2% of the text is relevant to romance. It isn’t even a true HE (Maybe OE? It’s HE in the sequel), and it’s realistically cynical in that both the protagonist and love interest marry (and consummates their marriages with) multiple women. Protagonist Feng Mingzhan is in a very awkward position as the sole legitimate “di” Son of the Emperor’s brother, but seemingly born mute so unsuitable to inherit his father’s title. To appease the Emperor, Mingzhan’s father sends him to the capital as a political hostage. This enrages Mingzhan (who is actually a transmigrator) and prompts him to seriously compete to become the heir with his more favored half-brothers. The political maneuvering is fun enough to keep me going, and it’s also an interesting examination in the kind of familial relationships and dynamics that can be formed (and destroyed or rebuilt) under such a social context. But honestly don’t read this for the romance. 

Woke up and Heard I Was Married :: 一觉醒来听说我结婚了 木瓜黄 – [celebrities/actors, system, mystery] – This is a story in which the main characters are celebrity actors, but they are actually solving mysteries, mostly at the direction of a system inside the protagonist that doesn’t do much of anything else. The protagonist is smart but lazy, appears very uninterested in the world around him, but wouldn’t shy away from doing the right thing when it counts. His older love interest is doting and suave, (and light spoiler: also rich enough to buy them out of most problems). Despite its lighthearted tone and premise, the “cases” veers into surprisingly deep and dark themes like homophobia, cyber-bullying, and the human cost of such cruelties. I generally like mysteries and procedural novels, but I never thought I could somehow enjoy them with an entertainment-industry context, which gives such themes a much-needed touch of lightness. 

After Dawn :: 黎明之后 冰块儿 –[celebrities, reconciliation, rival families] – This story looks like it’s trying to max out dog blood tropes that can be fit into one novel: there’s misunderstandings, a returning ex, ‘indecent proposals’, framed for a crime, inter-family rivalry, a sex tape, bastard sons competing for recognition and wealth, (quite a few very steamy scenes,) and so on … but fundamentally it’s two people meeting again after years, and reconciling after several rounds of misunderstandings. It’s very angsty in the process, but rationally you just really just want to grab and shake these two characters because they keep on saying just enough of the wrong things to make their misunderstanding worse. Perfect read for when you want to take your heart on a ride with good old-fashioned melodrama, and perfect demo for how NOT to communicate in a relationship. 

Heart Eyes :: 心眼 北南 –  [NOT TRANSLATED][reconciliation, (eventual) step brothers, hurt/comfort, slice-of-life ] Liang Cheng enters Qiao Yuanlin’s life three times, as a stranger who saves his life during a cardiac event when he was 13, as a mysterious tenant living in his grandmother’s extra room when he was 16, and as his step-mother’s son six years later. However, there is another hidden thread connecting their histories together.  In many ways, this is a coming-of-age story for Qiao Yuanlin, who is born with a serious congenital heart defect that has permeated every aspect of his life. Still, he manages a very realistic blend of good nature, naivete, and bratty-ness as he moves through adolescence and young adulthood, and together with Liang Cheng, learn to confront and move beyond the hard patches in their histories towards something better. It also has the most satisfying hurt-comfort-recovery arc I have ever read thanks to Qiao Yuanlin's heart.

Cherish :: 钟情 静水边 – [NOT TRANSLATED][guides and sentinels, sci-fi, space opera] – In a interstellar society with Sentinels and Guides, a weak Guide who doesn’t even have a familiar accidentally encounters and hits it off with the the most powerful Sentinel in the world, the Emperor, and is then pulled into the schemes in elite politics. I really enjoyed the novel for it’s fast pacing, because it’s not often that I find myself really drawn into a novel halfway into the first chapter. I feel like it leaves much to be desired as a sci-fi because it only very, very superficially address the social and political implications of the setting (and events of the plot).  However, the story is a very fun ride, and is full of funny details like the Emperor’s familiar being a dragon with the “heart of a teenage girl” who would like pink rhinestones on EVERYTHING, thank you very much. 

Floating Dream :: 浮生梦 白芥子 – [NOT TRANSLATED][historical, political intrigue, mpreg, meta] – It’s kind of cheating to put this one here, since this is an AU the author created for her two other stories in a shared universe. The premise is that men can carry children if they take a special potion. In the first story, Crown Prince Zhu Yunjing is framed for a crime, deposed and sentenced to death. He escapes the capital with the father of his unborn child, and builds a life with the man whom he once thought of as a rival and one night stand. In the second story, his younger brother Fifth Prince Zhu Yunxuan becomes the emperor by making a deal with a powerful court official, and their tenuous relationship deteriorates rapidly as he takes the throne as their power dynamics grow more complex. In this AU, the Crown Prince manages to save himself from being deposed; his own situation becomes less desperate, and he is also able to stick around and look out for his little brother, who doesn't need to end up in complicated political bargains. In the net, everyone seems to have it a easier in this version of events, though the Crown Prince’s love interest needing to wait longer for the prince to work out his feelings, and their lively and mischievous son needs to learn to turn down his nature since he is now the crown prince.

PUBG Online Romance of the Century :: PUBG世纪网恋 酱子贝-- [online gaming, live-streaming, past trauma] – Conglomerate CEO Yi Chen accidentally becomes the first viewer of Yu Yan, a new PUBG live-streamer on his platform. As Yu Yan navigates this new career to pull himself up from lackluster living conditions, he takes generous viewer and noob player “Yi” under his wing in the game as a part of his streams, unaware that this is the platform CEO “learning about his business”. Out of the four gaming-themed novels I read from this author, this is by far the least lighthearted and most involved with game play, though thankfully Yi Chen is also a new player that needed noob-friendly “tutorials” from Yu Yan. While the premise sets up a struggling protagonist and a rich love interest, Yu Yan still forges his own path, moves on from his trauma and flourishes on his own terms, while Yi Chen has his own baggage to resolve. The ending is happy but more hopeful, and leaves you feeling like these characters will grow into better and happier people.