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The notorious imperial court lackey and the meritorious military general were well-known for their mutual dislike, a pair of arch-enemies set in stone. Who could have foreseen the unexpected change in the winds of heaven: the general injured on the battlefield, both legs disabled, and even forced by the emperor to marry his nemesis.
With one marriage edict, two people with mutual hostility are forced to marry and live under the same roof. Yet after these long days together, they come to the realization that this fellow is not truly devoid of any saving grace/unattainable and high out of reach.
Novel | Novel [translated] | Audio drama
Comments **contain spoilers**:
Before I start my review, a disclaimer: this review will be very difficult for me to write; because a) I am unsure of how to translate all the different ranks and titles into English; and b) historical novels - especially those focused on historical politics - are not my cup of tea. I must admit that I almost dropped the novel the moment I read the first chapter, because it opens with an exposition that reads very much like a historical textbook. Nevertheless, I held tight, and in the end, quite enjoyed several aspects of the novel.
A quick summary: the story follows the general Fu Shen, who was injured after an attempted assassination. He returned to the capital to recover but was pulled into a marriage bestowed by the Emperor. His partner? None other than his ex-friend-cum-political rival Yan Xiaohan. The two were known for their adversarial stances in court, an enmity that had some of its roots in past misunderstandings (largely driven by Yan Xiaohan who kept things secret).
Life after marriage turned out to be surprisingly harmonious, as the two focused their attention on solving the mysteries surrounding the attempted assassinations on Fu Shen and the Emperor. These incidents are entangled with woes stretching back to the previous generations. All of these unfold amidst ongoing conflicts within and outside the Imperial Court. So expect wars, rise and fall of different rulers, the spread of drugs, separations and reunions, back-(and front-)stabbings, and your good old complex politics.
I enjoyed reading about how the main couple develops their relationship despite all the insanity surrounding them, gradually overcoming the differences that are inherent in their roles: one as the general of the Beiyan Army and Marquis of Jingning, and the other as the commander of the Feilong Guards and an Imperial Investigator. They are both equally clever in how they carry themselves in private versus in the public, and in how they strategize based on their standing in court. There is an element of the enemies-to-lovers trope, though not to the extent that they hate each other’s guts (Fu Shen is cognizant of why Yan Xiaonan made certain distasteful decisions, given his role as the Imperial Guard). If anything, they were quite good friends at one point during their youths, so perhaps it is more accurate to say that this is a friends-to-estranged colleagues-to-lovers trope haha
Of course, being a novel centred on politics, the political intrigue is one of its highlights. The story essentially presents a situation in which different factions, and the characters thereof, have their own vested interests and desires for powers. This creates an interesting multi-player chess game where characters try to manipulate one another, set people up, and forge temporary alliances that dissolve just as quickly. Note that there is not one clearly good or bad guy in the novel. That being said, I dislike the Changzhi Emperor very much. This is partly because I had hopes that he would become a more enlightened ruler than his father, but turns out he is just as fearful and lacks the political acumen that his father possessed.
Finally, the pacing. There are parts where the novel spends more time elaborating, such as moments of tenderness between Fu Shen and Yan Xiaohan, and parts where the story just skims over, such as the months of war. The latter of which, I am grateful for, otherwise the story might have dragged on for too long. However, do be aware that these mentions of war can sometimes read like a historical textbook (e.g. xxxx year, this happened, then in xxxx year, that happened).
Ou Renjin likes keeping beautiful young men because he likes watching the drama.
Watching them be arrogant and conceited; watching them be obsequious and sycophantic; watching them have ulterior motives and fight with each other, seeing all the evil side of human nature.
Until, he picks up a poor little guy.
The poor little guy is ignorant and helpless, treating Ou Renjin as his whole world, spending all his salary to buy him gifts, standing in front of him in times of danger without hesitation, even…
…saying to him in the calmest and lightest of tones after knowing that their heart matching is successful, “I am very grateful that you have been hiding it from me, but I have long been ready to give my heart to you.”
* * *
036 was born as a test subject, without parents or friends.
As the only successful “petri dish of renewable organs”, he had every organ in his body cut out and transplanted to the rich and powerful countless times.
After getting used to the pain, he met the most special person in the world.
This person was so good that he wanted to cut out his own heart immediately.
Novel | Novel [translated]
Comments **contain spoilers**:
This is a pretty short and straightforward story. On a rainy night, businessman Ou Renjin’s car ran into a stranger who appeared out of nowhere. After taking the stranger to the hospital, Ou Renjin learned that the man seemed to have no knowledge of the outside world and no proper identity. As the owner of an entertainment company who likes to collect beautiful young men, Ou Renjin decided to take this stranger home and named him Ou Shaowen. What Ou Renjin didn’t expect was to fall in love with this young man.
There was just one problem: Ou Renjin had an ailing heart, and for some reason, Ou Shaowen was convinced that he could donate his heart to Ou Renjin without harming himself.
Based on the summary, I was expecting a lot of dogblood drama and the wife-chasing crematorium trope. What surprised me (in a good way), however, was that the story is overall very sweet. Ou Renjin’s initial motives might not have been pure and he had some dubious approaches to caring for Ou Shaowen: such as installing cameras to monitor the other and arranging for his ex to make an appearance, just to test Ou Shaowen’s response. However, once he developed feelings for Ou Shaowen, he truly wanted what was best for the other.
Case in point, Ou Renjin genuinely wants Ou Shaowen to succeed in his career so that should something happen to him, Ou Shaowen can still survive on his own. Moreover, Ou Renjin rejects Ou Shaowen’s proposal to donate his heart and would rather risk waiting for another donor to become available.
The other highlight is Ou Shaowen’s genuine attitude towards Ou Renjin. He truly wants to repay the man for being so kind to him (by Ou Shaowen’s standards). Ou Shaowen’s cheery attitude, despite the traumas he experienced earlier as a human organ donor, makes him a likeable character. It also makes it all the more heartbreaking (no pun intended) to see him constantly offering his heart as if it was nothing more than a merchandise.
My only nitpick about the story is how quickly they jumped over the revenge arc for Ou Renjin. Despite all the setup suggesting that his uncle might have been involved in his parents’ accident and deaths, there’s no clear explanation of the uncle’s motivation, and the issue is resolved quickly.
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To love someone deeply is to wish to imprison them with a golden lock.
When Duan Yelin first saw Xu Hang, he wanted to lock him up and hide his beauty in the golden house—in fact, he did so.
If he seized him by force, he is a robber; if he is being patient and indifferent, he will be meat in someone else’s chopsticks.
Xu Hang was unwilling, but he wanted to live. There were still many things he had not done, so he finally entered Xiaotong Guan.
It’s a long-standing battle.
Even after four years of entanglement, Xu Hang always seemed like a bowl of freshly brewed medicine, with a faint aroma, but only after drinking it could one know whether it was poison or antidote.
It was a long time later that Duan Yelin realized that what he had locked up was not a cold and arrogant golden sparrow but a cold and sharp golden hairpin.
Novel [translated]
Comments **contain spoilers**:
Set in the Chinese Republican Era (1912 - 1949), a tumultuous period rife with many internal and external conflicts, our MC - Xu Hang - is a doctor known for treating everyone, including the desperates and prostitutes. He is also a golden canary kept by the commander of the Xiaotong Guan: Duan Yelin. The various events in the story are tied together through a series of murder cases involving golden hairpins. Through each case, Xu Hang’s tragic backstory slowly unveils and his motivations become clearer.
It has been some time since I read a Republican Era story and the whole military x performer dynamic is still very much a staple of such stories. The main couple has an equally tumultuous relationship, characterized by a certain degree of attic-wifing and dub-con, given that Xu Hang is gifted to Duan Yelin by his very own uncle. Within this relationship, Duan Yelin is the first to fall and is often frustrated by a lack of reciprocity from the other, whereas it takes almost the entire novel for Xu Hang to warm up, as he is more preoccupied with seeking revenge for his parents and himself. While the relationship is quite one-sided, it is nice to read that Xu Hang decides to prioritize his survival in the end so that he could return to Duan Yelin.
Although Xu Hang is a doctor, he is also a trained opera performer, forced to learn different performance styles to please his uncle’s guests. With a knack for ingenious planning, Xu Hang is able to use his various identities as a doctor and performer as guises to conduct his revenge. To add to this list of achievements, Xu Hang is also versed in using guns (surpassing even those of military men) and fighting, a deadly combination to his ruthless nature and beauty. However, it is never explained how he gained these martial and firearm skills, so it ends up coming off as a convenient ‘by the way’ to get our MC out of tricky situations.
On the other hand, the MC Duan Yelin plays a secondary role to the story and sometimes as a tool for Xu Hang to carry out his revenge. For example, Duan Yelin’s authority prevented others from questioning Xu Hang, despite how sus the latter is. As with many danmei stories, Duan Yelin is cast as a possessive lover, who can be so obtuse when it comes to Xu Hang’s involvement in the murder cases. In fact, it is the side character Yuan Ye that figures out the truth before our own MC.
There are also a lot of side couples and one-sided romance in the story, which I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, one can say that one of the themes of the story is the multifaceted ways that love can manifest, and how it can make or break a person. For example, the assassin who willingly sacrifices himself to protect his crush Duan Zhanzhou, or how Gu Fangfei is willing to wait for Yuan Ye in spite of the negative news surrounding the Yuan Family’s downfall. On the other hand…I’m just not a fan of love being the sole motivation for characters, especially when almost all characters are victims of their emotions. It gets repetitive after a while and comes off as being overly dramatic.
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Jiang Yanli/Jin Zixuan
Characters: Jiang Yanli, Jin Zixuan
Additional Tags: Bittersweet Ending, Historical AU, 5+1 Format, Oneshot
Series: Part 16 of Jiang Sect's Logbook
Summary:
They meet under a lantern light and for many years thereafter, the lanterns accompany their journey.
Title: 烈火熔金 / 暴君分化成omega以后 Fiery Flames Molten Gold / After the Tyrant Differentiated into an Omega
Author: 蓝白内裤的猫
Length: 245 chapters
Tag: a/b/o, sci-fi, politics, drama and action
Summary [taken from novel updates]:
Nero, the disabled and ruthless villainous tyrant Alpha in the famous tragic novel The Passion of the Holy Son, wakes up to find himself bound to a system.
System: Maintain your tyrant persona + accumulate Hatred Points from the protagonist tops + be killed by the joint efforts of the protagonist tops to complete the task. Failure will trigger a random plot punishment.
Nero: …
Nero: Oh.
To complete the task as soon as possible, Nero brings his targets back to the capital in advance.
For instance, he finds Big Boss A in a dangerous exile, pardons his crimes, and pushes him step by step to a commanding position, yet demands his Omega sister as a trade for status, deeply humiliating Big Boss A.
He rescues Big Boss B from the prison cage of star pirates and forces him to wear the empire’s most elite heavy armor to fight the hardest battles, never showing him a kind face in the imperial court.
He takes away Big Boss C when everyone scorns him, but sends him to the front lines with ample scientific resources, denying him the luxury of being the empire’s prime minister.
As for Big Boss D, who grew up with Nero, he initially doesn’t know how to provoke his hatred.
Until he discovers that every time the Holy Son, the protagonist bottom, blesses him with a kiss, the Hatred Points of the big bosses soar.
So he immediately hooks the Holy Son’s neck, deciding to get more kisses from the protagonist bottom.
System, weeping with joy: Host, the Hatred Points are skyrocketing! This host is amazing.jpg
Nero is also very satisfied: Holy Son, very useful.jpg
The day the Hatred Points finally maxed out, the system was happily preparing to wrap things up. However, the key plots of revenge and defeat had not occurred.
The silver-haired emperor stood atop the peak of the mecha, proudly overlooking the defeated invaders. His crimson cloak was drenched in blood, yet it shone a million times brighter than the sun of Delphi.
System: …How could this happen! Major plot deviation warning! Random plot punishment warning!
Nero smiled: What kind of punishment will it be, I wonder?
Just as he finished speaking, his differentiation period ended.
Confirmed countless times by the imperial medical officers to be the future powerful Alpha of the empire, the emperor silently and stoically differentiated into a top-tier Omega amid the fervent gazes and cheers of billions of subjects.
Secret pheromones wafted down from the throne. Four pairs of seemingly submissive eyes suddenly widened.
—In their eyes, a scarlet thirst appeared.
***
You are the rose on the high branch
You are the molten gold in the fire
One day I will use the most extravagant golden chains
To imprison you in the cage that belongs to me.
Novel | Novel [translated]
Comments **contain spoilers**:
Nero played the role of the disabled, tyrant alpha - i.e. fodder - in an explicit novel featuring the saint shou with four other gongs. Per the original storyline, he was supposed to be beheaded after the Zergs’ attack; and per the System, a host was supposed to occupy his body and complete the mission of earning hatred points from the gongs and letting himself be killed. However, Nero used his strong spiritual energy to kill the host prior to being taken over and the System mistakenly made him privy to his ‘fate’. Upon learning that his Empire would be devastated by the Zergs, Nero set out to change the storyline and save his Empire.
As for the four gongs? Well, Nero had plans for them in his Empire-saving journey.
~oOo~
Based on the summary, I entered the story thinking it was the typical smut-filled, unserious a/b/o, and boy was I delightfully surprised by the intense plot therein. The a/b/o part feels more secondary to the main storyline of Nero trying to establish his powers in the Empire and prepare for the inevitable Zerg invasion. Only around chapter 200 did we switch back to focusing on Nero’s new gender dynamic and heir-making. Even then, Nero seems more driven by his ambitions and duties, while the romance takes a backseat.
A few notable highlights: I love the politics behind how Nero tricked the nobles into thinking that he was a useless flower vase. In reality, he was working to collect talents and amass his own force. There is a certain level of face-slapping when Nero disposes of various nobilities, but it is not excessive and feels deserved. The story is nicely paced and at no point did it feel like it was dragging or rushed. 150+ chapters in and I was still flipping the pages eagerly to see how Nero builds up infrastructures and manpower against the Zergs. The focus on Nero’s tactics and smarts are so well-written that I find myself kicking my feet in excitement when the Zergs finally invaded.
Talking about invasion, the action component of the story is also very well-written. The author has a knack for describing the formations of the ships, the strategic placement of resources and evacuations of civilians, and most importantly, the author doesn’t hold back on the brutality of the wars. So many lives were lost in the conflicts and Nero was often severely wounded (in fact, he had a physical disability where the tendons in his feet were cut by the space pirates while he was a kid).
Another element that I like is the clever introduction and use of the Asimov collars. Initially it is just a tool used to suppress the omegas into breeding machines. Then it is introduced as a means of punishment and used on slaves or political foes. In the end, the Asimov collar helped Nero fight back against the Zergs and dark matter creatures. In addition to the Asimov collar, there are also a lot of flashbacks to Nero’s childhood. This is skillfully tied in to the reveal of the fourth gong much later on in the story. The constant reference back to elements that were introduced at the start of the story showcases how well thought-out the plot is.
Now just a few notes that might be of concern to some readers: One, there are quite a bit of dubcon - if not outright non-con - in the story. The original novel features explicit, non-con elements where the four gongs and other side characters forced themselves on the saint, who had a low IQ. This is not elaborated in the actual story; however, what is elaborated on is the fact that the four gongs are mature alphas lusting after Nero, who is - by definition - a minor and hasn’t fully presented yet.
Second, the relationship between Nero and the four gongs are fraught with power dynamics and dubious at best. Nero and the first gong are childhood ‘friends’. ‘Friend’ being a stretch considering that the White Wolf Knight serves under Nero and treats the other with reverence. He constantly berates himself for harboring lustful thoughts of his master. The second gong is an ex-political enemy of Nero’s family. I’ll say he is by far the most normal of the gang and fulfills the enemy-to-(one-sided)lover trope. The third gong is an ex-slave-cum-prisoner and a half-blooded Zerg. Similar to the first gong, he sees himself as subservient under Nero. The fourth gong - and by far the most dubious - is sort-of Nero’s older brother and their relationship can be seen as partially grooming. You see, Ye Siting is not connected to Nero by blood, however, he often acts as a stand-in for Nero’s oldest brother (then-second prince). Over time, he transitioned from seeing Nero as a younger brother to something more. *spoiler alert* He is the gong that Nero finally settles with and till the end, Nero sees him as half a brother (even admitting that it is kind of weird to kiss Ye Siting and wanting the other to teach him about sex…as an older brother). Do what you will with this information lol.
I’ll say most of these dynamics are pretty secondary relative to the overall storyline and only becomes more prominent around chapter 200. Putting these considerations aside, the story is very well-written and I truly enjoyed every bit of it.
A compilation of three short danmeis that I read while commuting:
Novel 1: 赏金猎手前往山林深处 Bounty Hunter Goes Deep into the Mountain Forest
Author: Matthia
Length: 14 chapters
Tags: Fantasy, magic
Summary (from NU):
The bounty hunter took an ordinary job and went to an ordinary village. There lived a mage in the mountain outside the village. It is said that he protected the villagers for a long time. The mage is very elegant, his identity is very mysterious, his speech is extremely irascible, and his communication methods are very difficult.
Highlights: Love the mystery incorporated into such a short story - just what happened to the mage?
Novel | Novel [translated]
Novel 2: 骑士,恶龙又抓公主了 Knight, the Dragon Snatched a Princess Again!
Author: 红口白牙
Length: 14 chapters
Tags: Fantasy, comedy, amnesia
Summary (from NU):
The dragon felt that the worst thing that could happen in the world was to suddenly become a super fierce dragon without knowing anything!
He felt bored.
He wanted to go snatch a princess and have some fun.
As a result, he fell in love with the knight.
––Then, he should be even more persistent about snatching the princess.
The s*upid dragon seriously thought so.
Highlights: Fun little story, it definitely got me hooked initially wondering why the dragon had amnesia.
Novel | Novel[translated]
Novel 3: 领主与龙 Lord and dragon
Author: 大圆子
Length: 20 chapters
Tags: fantasy, adventure
Summary (from NU):
The young lord of a small and weak country saves a dragon beside the sea one day.
Since then, his country became prosperous, rich, and powerful.
This is the story between a Lord who is a tease that refuses to get married, and a poor dragon who is teased day in and day out.
Highlights: For a short story, there’s a surprising amount of twists and turns!
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A compilation of three short danmeis that I read while commuting:
Novel 1: 我爱上了白月光的死对头 I Fell in Love with My White Moonlight’s Arch-Enemy
Author: 三月桃胡
Length: 11 chapters
Tags: Historical, xuanhuan/xianxia, dogblood
Summary (from NU):
I used to have a white moonlight.
He came from a prestigious background of the righteous path, an immortal lord of noble and benevolent character and was highly revered by the masses.
He took me to his monastery when I was young and allowed me to live in his residence standing at the mountain top. In other people’s eyes, the me who wasn’t able to cultivate was tr*sh.
I didn’t mind being called tr*sh as long as his Immortal Lord loved me.
But not only did he not love me, he even wanted to gouge out half of my soul to nourish his little lover.
His Immortal Lord’s arch-enemy was a little highness in the demon realm, known for being a scoundrel in all three realms. He was treacherous and ruthless in nature, and whenever interest struck him, he would take up his sword and go to the spiritual pool to massacre evil ghosts.
But when I was in a tight spot, the fiendish little prince in everyone’s eyes would exasperatedly bully me while helping me wipe my tears.
————–
To say something completely tasteless, I love him.
————–
Strong overbearing protective gong x beautiful but pitiful shou
Xianxia redemption story
Written in first person narrative
Highlights: Cute, dogblood short story.
Novel | Novel [translated]
Novel 2: 我的室友可能不是omega My Roommate Probably Is Not an Omega
Author: 过期仙女
Length: 25 chapters + 1 extra
Tags: sci-fi, slice of life, school, a/b/o
Summary (from NU):
I closed my eyes and slept until the next morning. Climbing up from my bed in a daze, I saw that my roommate’s bed is still neat and tidy, like no one has slept on it before. I first checked that no one is in the bedroom, then carefully locked the door before I pounced on his bed and took a big breath.
… Really the same smell from last time! A very light scent, pheromones will not lie! My roommate is an Omega, that’s right! Just that he is a little bit bigger and taller. I vaguely estimated his height by comparing the gap between his head and the door last night.
Me : “……………………………”
…What did this Omega eat to grow so tall?! He’s, like, half a head taller than me!! Not talking about those Alphas who have crazy growth spurts, my height itself is already very tall amongst the Betas! This Omega is even ten centimeters taller than me…
My self-esteem has suffered a hard blow…
Highlights: A fluffy little story with a lot of misunderstandings, particularly on the shou’s part who thought that his roommate is an unconventional omega. The smut was nice. Do note though that there is one dubious event in the novel.
Novel | Novel [translated]
Novel 3: 许愿熊的礼物 The wishing bear’s gift
Author: 过期仙女
Length: 33 chapters + 2 extras
Tags: a/b/o, slice of life, school life, fluff
Summary:
When Wen Xi was 17, his younger brother pranked him into dressing up as a mascot in the theme park.
This immobile mascot bear sitting by the Wishing Pool is very strange, and no one dared to come close.
Finally, a brave young kid came over and said she wanted a pretty doll. Wen Xi silently noted it down, and ordered one to be sent to her school.
A second small kid came up and wished for his mother to recover. Wen Xi contacted his family’s hospital to arrange for a space for the mother.
A third sm…big kid came over, eyes and nose red, saying pitifully that he wanted to become smarter.
Wen Xi asked: “How smart?”
The little pitiful boy was shocked and looked at the mascot bear who suddenly talked: “Only to pass the exam…”
“......”
Wen Xi arranged for the best teacher to go to the little pitiful boy’s school, and gave double the salary to the teacher for daily tuition. However, three years passed, Wen Xi already graduated from university, and the Poor Little Boy had yet to pass his exams.
Wen Xi was anxious about not completing his mission, so he decided to help the Poor Little Boy himself.
Highlights: Another fluffy little story with a ton of misunderstandings. High IQ but low EQ alpha gong x low self-esteem and low patience omega. Part of the series of the 'My Roommate Is Probably Not An Omega'.
Another compilation of three short danmeis that I read while commuting:
Novel 1: Python入门指南 Python Starter Guide
Author: 许半仙
Length: 15 chapters
Tags: Romance, comedy, mature
Summary (from NU):
Elite gong (seme) x Foolishly cute shou(uke)
P-Friends turning into true love, a no-brainer sweet treat.
Highlights: Straightforward, light-hearted read about a programmer shou abandoning his cannon-fodder ex and getting together with the director gong (yes, these exact terms are used lol). Also, I can never look at python file extension the same again OTL.
Novel | Novel [translated]
Novel 2: 两条尾巴的小狐妖和他家道长攻 The Two-Tailed Little Fox Demon and His Taoist Priest Gong
Author: 榴莲巧克力
Length: 56 chapters + 3 extras
Tags: mature, xianxia, fluff
Summary (from NU):
This is a short story about a naive and meng little fox demon and a handsome Taoist priest who falls in love with him.
Highlights: Your usual naive shou x black bellied gong dynamic. The fox demon needs yang qi to cultivate, the taoist is more than happy to provide. Do expect smut!
Novel [translated]
Novel 3: 天地无用 Heaven and Earth are Worthless
Author: 青丘千夜
Length: 16 chapters + 1 extras
Tags: crime, psychological, twisted love
Summary (from NU):
He found me.
He kissed me.
He taught me how to drive. The gun, taught me to kill people, taught me to survive in this sinful city.
The only thing he didn’t teach me was how to love him.
Highlights: A quaint little story about an assassin being tasked with learning how to love. The worldbuilding for such a short story is fantastic!
Through his scope, he could clearly read the words on the billboard, despite its peeling colours and inverted position.
‘Let the Main City’s sunlight wake you every morning’.
It was a real estate advertisement.
It was anyone’s guess for how long the billboard had remained in this state since Lian Chuan first passed through this place, as if proving its slogan, “Let the Main City’s sunlight wake you up every morning”, to be merely a collapsing dream.
The Main City no longer had the space or supplies to accommodate more people.
.o0o.
Lian Chuan woke up to the unchanging system greeting, commencing yet another mundane day as the most powerful “Hyena” of the Main City’s “cleanup squad”.
He was tasked with ridding the Main City, now short of natural resources, of its “redundant” population. However, as the annual “Festival Day” of the Main City approaches, the unvarying life takes a turn. Beneath the city’s unusual projects, are there hidden schemes? What secrets do the wild and unconstrained Travellers hold? Meanwhile, the “Bats” residing on the Black Iron Plains beyond the Main City watch them covetously from the sides like a tiger eyeing its prey…
Novel | Novel [translated]
Comments **contain spoilers**:
The world is crumbling and different factions have different ideas about escape-slash-surviving in this crumbling world. We have two individuals - one from the Main City and another from the Ghost City - coming together to figure out the truth behind the collapse of the world and their identity.
Per the title, the City is Melting…and so is my head. Reading this has been a loopy trip through different phases of: ‘what is going on’ → ‘oh I get it now’ → ‘wait, I don’t’ → ‘maybe I do got it!’, rinse and repeat. There is a strive for a grand worldbuilding, with the details revealed in bits and pieces, but the way these elements are pieced together isn’t very reader-friendly. I appreciate the lack of exposition and choice of using context clues to flesh out the world, my main issue is that all these concepts are packed too tightly together. I have barely just figured out what the Main City, Black Metal Barren Fields, Ghost City, and Tongue Bay are before more concepts and characters are thrusted into my face (Bats, Hyenas, Natives, Travelers, E, dew drop, and many, many more!).
Reading this feels like a constant chase to understand what each concept and character is while trying to figure out if the detail is of importance to the overarching storyline. This is exacerbated by the frequent narrative jump between Ning Gu and Lian Cuan’s POVs. As such, I find myself constantly losing the direction of the story and only have a loose grasp of what is going on.
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A vagabond x a straightforward man. The gong is a difficult man to woo.
A story about reaching out and catching someone in your hands.
Read at your own risk.
Novel | Novel [translated]
Comments **contain spoilers**:
Ning Yu was invited by his mother to go on a graduation trip to Thailand. What she didn’t tell him, however, was that his half-brother was also going. Ning Yu therefore decided to leave the two of them and tour on his own. That was when he ran into A-Chong, a jack of all trades, whose free-spirited outlook on life and easygoing personality drew Ning Yu in. A story about how two strangers met in Thailand and, through Ning Yu’s persistent pursuit of A-Chong, how the two of them came to terms with their troubled past and learned to love.
My immediate impression of the story is that the writing is reminiscent of the Chicken Soup stories that I read when I was young, filled with detailed descriptions of everyday things and how they connect to the characters’ inner worlds and backgrounds. There’s an idyllic and romantic tone to the entire story, truly capturing the hot, lazy tropical climate of Thailand. In short, the writing is amazing (and yes, the smut scenes are detailed and steamy too).
Something else that stands out is the dynamic between the two characters. The wife-chasing trope is very common in danmei, but this time we have the shou actively pursuing the gong, taking the majority of the initiatives to approach A-Chong, even despite numerous rejections. The first part of the story is set in the past, when Ning Yu met A-Chong, with the story focusing on Ning Yu’s perspective; the second half of the story is set in the present, after Ning Yu quits his job and returns to Thailand, where the story switches to focus on A-Chong’s side of things.
For the most part, A-Chong isn’t invested in a long-term relationship, preferring to tease and have short flings with Ning Yu. In fact, Ning Yu isn’t quite his type, and he considers Ning Yu to be one of those prim and proper kids (i.e. “boring”). He does come to like Ning Yu eventually, though be warned that it can be at times frustrating to read about how one-sided the relationship is.
theartofmadeline
blakekathryn