[Chinese BL novel] I cried, I pretended / 我哭了，我装的 [PART 2]

Continuation to the 1st PART of the review on this novel. Reading the first part is required for better understanding of who and what.

I won't be beating around the bush and say - this is the novel of licking dogs.

Usually, its a routine thing to write about how being a 'licking dog' is almost deragatory and something to look down on. We often hear how in some novels MC crosses to novels where original owner is supposed to be a licking dog that runs after gong to infinity and beyond, he doesn't know what pride is, doesn't know what shame is and is always on call and ready. Most of the time, if it's not needed for the storyline, MCs in such situations try to change their fate and never follow such behavior ever again.

But in this novel it is the opposite, ML from the proud president becomes someone who is not his original self.

As I mentioned in the previous part of the review, there exists an extreme imbalance in the relationship between MC and ML. Mostly MC trained ML to become what he wants. At first it was okay, since MC had a system task which was more like a threat - follow the story, then break up or die. MC chose to follow the story, but with his own rules. He basically started to shape ML to his own liking, most of the time his behavior was a bit too much, since it's always "either we do it as I say or we don't do it at all" situation, MC rarely gives back anything and it's always kind of in non-chalant way. Of course it coincides with his character settings, but sometimes it felt like not caring at all.

I made a long pause with this novels due to one thing. At first when MC started to show ML other sides of life it felt more like opening the hard shell of ML who knows nothing how to live to have more fun. But later the behavior of MC creates the imbalanced difference between MC and ML. When MC had to finish the task, he basically patted his ass and said - we break up - and he walked away, while ML was ready to propose. Here ML started to run after MC all the time. Good thing this part is not too long, but still I can't find it pleasant. It's not really chasing wives to crematorium, but still ML bowed his head, everything that happened was treated as his fault (yet let's not forget that MC approached ML not with clear mind as well, OKAY?), the one who apologized and bent down was only ML. 

My initial good opinion of it started to collapse along with MC's behavior. At the end of the novel he openly accepts ML more like a person he trained to follow his own liking, because omg he'ss o bored, than a person he loves. He played ML, played with his emotions, sometimes openly trampled on his pride and dignity and ML had to follow only his way, when he changed his attitude it always sounded capricious. It was always explained by him having a very high intellect, so he was always bored and ML happened to relieve his boredom...But.. What type of motivation is that? I really can't grasp my head around it still.

I still don't know the purpose of this novel, except maybe showing how proud MLs can come across very high intelligent MCs who are better than them and they can shrivel too.

All in all not impressed. I really don't click with ideas of this author I suppose and my reate is basically 1/5, because I simply don't like it.

[Chinese BL novel] I wear it back after becoming an Emperor / 成了武帝的我又穿了回来

Shortly: very good. I really liked it.

It's the epitome of light-hearted and humorous reads.

Short introduction: MC becomes a Wu Emperor in the world of cultivation, he reaches such a level that he can finally connect to his previous world, find the timeline and wear it back. He lived for almost a thousand years with an obsession. In his original world his mother died on her way to MC's school, later he found out that someone hired to hit his mother, but when he wanted revenge he was pushed off the rooftop by the child of his father and his new wife. Now he comes back, but things do not go as planned, he also brought back his opponent who fought with him for hundreds of years and reached the same position as him. Yet he has no time to think about these things, while crossing he was injured and now with almost abolished cultivation he runs fast to save his mother, because the moment he crossed was exactly the day of his mother's death.

The story is basically not that grim, though MC does slowly untie all his heart knots that kept him going for all these years, but there is no real danger to MC, he's OP in a cool way and the story is wrapped in a nice way with a tiny twist at the end.

Although some part are a bit rushed and at other times some characters seem to be forgotten, but still I find it a cool story and an easy read. It's mere 128 chapters, the development is upbeat and changes are great.

ML is basically his "enemy", both had a feud when they first met and from then on they kept fighting, but it wasn't anything serious, but many around considered them as mortal enemies. When they crossed to modern times ML was intact, his cultivation involves physical cultivation, while MC regressed from a thousand years cultivator to a 18 year old kid. Both of them at times act like kids that just toss around, but the situation made ML look at the feelings that kept appearing but he still didn't recognize it before, but now realized that slowly but surely their interactions made him fall in love. Then he confessed to MC and although MC is OP in other fields he is awkward about real feelings, yet same longing and realization was in his own heart too.

The story spoilers is as follows: In the original timeline MC's mother dies and he is pushed down and crosses. At the time of crossing back ML saw a shadow and followed into the channel. This made MC almost abolish his cultivation and crystalized cultivation actually entered this modern world. MC came to the day when his mother dies. His diary which was forged by the child of his father and his new wife was posted and everyone ridiculed him as gay, while principal's lackey asked for MC to quit school. MC managed to save his mother that day and next knew that he will not leave the school but will face his father and his new family who were responsible for the hit and run of his mother. His father is the principal in this school, he got position through marriage to the prominent family. He actually derailed in the first marriage and almost caused the death of MC when he was a child just born. These things MC found in previous time when his mother died. At first he came to school since he longed for his father, but later when witnessed his father on the same roof he was pushed from his heart changed completely. There are several conflicts between him and his father and his lackey in school, slowly he washed his name and exposed his half-brother to public. He came as a champion in the exam as a result, while the new wife was found to be originally a junior (Bai family). Their family is the only one that lacks in IQ in this novel. During this time MC realized that parts of his cultivation were located here and there, so basically because his cultivation was shattered in the tunnel, it crossed at different times to Earth. Because he found that if he won't do something he won't live long, but he had a big plan how to make his mother's life comfortable. On the other hand ML came in contact with the cultivators right away. MC was a bit different, he stumbled upon cultivators accidentally, but from that time people started pestering him from time to time. Since in this world the aura is scarce, no one took MC seriously, since MC is a master of formation and in this world such masters are rare. Anyway it's the usual underestimated me you get faceslap routine, which is fun at times. This way for a period of time MC tried to hide well, first no one took his seriously due to his age, next he appeared next to ML often and ppl thought he's just a gadget, but MC didn't care since he tried to restore his strength, since he had not only his mother, but now had to send ML back. And the thing is they had a great combo, MC is a pure spirit, while ML is a physical cultivator, he works like a purifier, he uses everything for his cultivation and basically gives a pure aura MC needs, so they worked like that, but were mistaked for a couple for the longest of times before becoming one. There are several conflicts within the cultivation world, like involving the schemes of on of the sects that used other people's souls as a base for cultivation, which also touched MC's mother original family. 

What I liked is the connection of MC, who is profound in formations and this world's problem, the lack of aura due to stolen formation, which was moved to another country. You can guess that the formation was moved back and also proved their guess that two worlds are connected and that is why MC could fly there and then they could get back. And the fact that MC's cultivation entered world at different times and a bit changed the history. Anyway I think many things were played well. Despite a bit of naiveness at times and how it was rushed at times, but in general I really-really enjoyed it.

RATE: 5/5. Moder + cultivation can be fun :'D

[Chinese BL novel] 全娱乐圈都等我掉马 / The whole entertainment is waiting for me to fall

My short opinion after reading: God, it was tedious. And it was messily written.

In the short summary it is described as Xia Yun crossing to being a notorious black artist hidden in the snow. But our Xia Yun is a popular actor who earned a lot of fame, now he comes across and through a show where he should be a stepping stone for another artist from same company, but instead he started to reverse the black materials on him and people around started to uncover the high IQ and talents of this boy.

Now. Me bombing, since this is really written in a weird manner. There is no crossing the bottom line, it's just weirdly paced.

Now, why is it weird? Because simply I finished it and couldn't understand why the original and MC were mixed so much. MC is described to be a star who went from the bottom to the top. But when you hear the story of MC from the novel it's a boy who was maliciously mixed, then abandoned, then picked up by a lab for his high IQ, then, presumably, saved and brought up by an old professor, this professor died and his last wish was for MC to go to his biological mother and join family she re-married into. He joined entertainment (supposedly original owner) and was maliciously blackened by company for hype etc. He was hidden in snow for 2 years. MC comes back to entertainment for a purpose? Not explained and only later it is mentioned that he has an emotional outbursts through acting which he likes. You can't tell from his indifference described at the beginning, only later foreshadowing and revelation of his past is mentioned. He also does things in school so he can join the lab and find the evidence of why and what happened to the prof who brought him up who worked in this lab (which is the final part of the novel, it's so short and miserable). Parallel to this he slowly changes his image in people's eyes. And this is why I find it weird, MC is the one who mentioned of his crossing, but he is also the one with memories and also helps his professor who died.

Multi-talented or too OP. Well, I don't mind OP-ness, but in moderation. For example, in God of Knowledge by Casanovanic Bookworm MC has high IQ like a God, but his IQ is applied always in technology. Even if the world background may be around vampires, but MC defeats the vampire race with technology. This I find fascinated. I don't mind when MCs have system and they get help or it is described that they traveled for so long and absorbed so much wisdom etc, that it doesn't occur weird. Here MC can do ANYTHING. Starting from acting which he should be profound about, but then he draws like a god and people exaggerate about it, he composes songs and same happens here, he knows how to play several musical instruments, his fitness is great and he learns fast. His high IQ can be applied to anything basically. And most of all, his hacking skills are the best. And this part made me weird, I felt it was just.. too much? At first you often hear how great he is, but he doesn't care (only later you find out that it's because of those experiments that he thinks like that). But despite that many skills I don't know why I felt sparse in descriptions, as if author perfuncts you about it and then it just passes. This part of being shallow bothered me a lot, like I felt that despite so many chapters, so many descriptions, it felt like it concentrates on wrong things and it makes you feel how the story is shallow.

Villains and blackness. Honestly, all those who blacken MC at first they all sound too one-sided. It also felt weird since no one describes things that happened two years prior when MC just joined entertainment as black as possible, like he did something really wrong, while only things mentioned were just hyping with ML and that was done by company too. All villains are like brain-dead people who walk around proud before they get owned by MC, but not in a cool way, it just happens, sometimes MC finds something (hacker, remember?) or something like that and it passes. Same feeling of shallowness happens when other fans start to like MC, like I haven't seen a good reason for them to go wild but they do.

Relationship. What is the weirdest beginning ever is how ML offers to rent to MC, while also knowing he's the one who hyped with him two years prior. He just wants to use MC as a shield at first, but later falls in love. Still find it strange like they lived from the beginning. Also MC falls in love rather easily, at least accepts his feelings. Although ML fell first and he slowly boiled MC's feelings for him. Again sounds a bit shallow.

Anyway. I have no idea how I handled to finish it, even if I skipped a lot by the end. I was bored to death. I missed the good descriptions that involved some emotions, I missed the part where MC would be somehow explained or given feelings from the beginning instead of portraying him as indifferent. I just miss a lot of things in a novel that seems to include all walks of life and create some crazy mix, but not in a good sense. It doesn't cross any moral bottom lines, it doesn't have anything weird, but just couldn't grab my attention and awake my emotions, one of few times when I agree with initial low ratings for this novel. But I applaude my stupid self for persisting and not dropping, though I found a good novel right afterwards. At least I got some emotional compensation as a result.

RATE: 2/5 for attempt.

[Quick review] 豪门真少爷改嫁中（重生）/ The real young master is re-married (rebirth)

Quick review of currently on-going novel from Tangerine Boat. 

I must say the premise of this novel is quite the same as their previous novels, with a reborn protagonist who was a cannon fodder that was not loved by everyone and had a miserable ending. Nothing new. But what I personally don't welcome is the dependense of protagonists of their recent novels on MLs.

Synopsis: Qiu Han is reborn at the day of his wedding. He is the real young master of the Qiu family. He was lost when he was a child, was returned when he was a teenager, but his place was occupied by adopted child who was found along the way not to make people sad and because he looked like him. A typical situation of unloved child who wants his things back and the love that he lacked. But of course he failed and ended up miserably. Now he is reborn and in front of him is the abovementioned adopted child who came to the wedding with two kids who were born out of wedlock with the groom. But now Qiu Han is not in stupor to not react, but turns the tide in front of public and the scandal of this day spread. His aim is to get his things back as a righteous heir and get revenge on people who made his life miserable, for this he decided to aim for his ex-husband's uncle, who is rumored to have a White Moonlight in his heart and Qiu Han didn't care if he's going to be a substitute, he only wants to achieve his goal.

Here it is. Now. Where do I start:

• I ask myself time and time again, why protagonists don't distance themselves after achieving part of the plan. In the story it becomes obvious that Qiu Han is not only a heir, but also holds the secret recipes to the wine-making of their family winery, which are not written on paper, but only heirs know the recipe. Qiu Han was found accidentally by his maternal grandmother, who took him back, she was the only person who loved and cherished him, so he was mostly at her side. But she died in fire which burned entire ancestral residence. Here I have a question - why is there no will? And I will tell you why, otherwise things would be simpler. The thing is the will is left with the lawyer, it does not lie around. This grandma was not ok with the situation between Qiu Han and his biological parents who treated adopted child better. So this type of person who started to teach Qiu Han, why she hasn't left the will to protect him you might ask. Even without a will Qiu Han is still holding the recipes and he is a direct line, so even if he distanced himself from others with the money he got, he still could start anew, achieve heights and be more shrewd. I think with how that wine is described many would be happy to protect him if there were benefits, but instead of course MC goes to ML with a purpose and that purpose is to marry;
• Protection and dependence on MLs. This part is also giving me a headache. He comes around and asks for a marriage, but honestly if he was the least bit honest and just asked for protection with exchange of benefits, things would move quicker, BUT NO. He must ask for a marriage, so he will be same protected as a spouse, but what? He still isn't really described as being dedicated to the winery, but instead asked to work as ML's assistant and here I started to lose it. I really don't understand some of the events and why they brought up. Like ML is funding several young people, MC thinks they remind ML of his White Moonlight, but honestly they sound just like funded students. But these students act arrogantly, all want to be close to ML and have unreasonable ideas. Their problems are also are solved by MLs assistants constantly. I don't really get it, you can just stop the funding, what the big deal. In latest chapters that were released it's all about it and I'm like - what's the point? I know MC wants to marry to ML since they made a deal, if within a half year he can achieve his goal they'll marry. Like what type of logic is that honestly (-_-). Anyway, I still think if he was under the ML's wing just quietly doing his business with wine it'd be more perfect. AND HERE'S WHY I THINK IT IS. He is described as a person who was loved by grandma and even in last life was too shocked by her death, but right now with his involvement with ML and less description of wine-making (no description), it feels like his feelings are really cheap, there's no real pride in him as a heir. I understand his main goal is a revenge, but it's not like his family will hunt him down or use means to get those recipes if he knows how to protect himself by himself. And those around will know, the one who knows the recipe IS the real heir. 

By far I was bored with the releast 17 chapters. Even if it started bumpy, but from the day he divorced and got part of things he planned to take, he could go on his own path and it'd be more inspiring, but nope, again the line is taken where we depend on others and others will say - leave it to me. Like...can you pick up your ass and do something by yourself? Although I truly like to read easy and less dramatic stories like these, but doesn't mean I won't pay attention to how these stories are simply copy-pasting each other. Dramatically sighing I don't even know I'd like to go on. Other authors go from bad to good, but in case of Tangerine Boat it feels like they wrote better before.

[Chinese BL novel] I cried, I pretended / 我哭了，我装的

Title: I cried, I pretended / 我哭了，我装的

Author: 艳归康

Year of realease: 2021

# of chapters: 68

Status: ONGOING

Link to NU: n/a

Tags: knowing the plot, game/tech genius wears the plot, supposed to be a stand-in plot but it's actually not

*all names/titles are an MTL version

Synopsis: Kang Yao, a tech genius, transmigrates to a book, in this plot his character is to be a stand-in and later go to the background. Basically he can't do anything except accepting the task that appeared in his head, but he decided to go his own way. The only part he plans to repeat is the break-up scene to finish the plot. Xu Yao is a president of a media company, he once had a crush on his neighbor and a friend, but before he confessed he heard his crush to confess to his own father, which completely broke his heart and he never mentioned those events since. One evening he notices a beautiful boy who had a small mole at the same place his first crush had, it was the first thing that caught his attention, but the boy was completely different from his first crush, more opened, passionate, broke his boundaries. They started from the agreement and little did he know that this and his past will backfire on him.

Sounds not bad, right? But I post this review before the story is even finished for one simple reason - I HATE IMBALANCE IN CHASE PLOTS.

My problem started in recent chapters where Kang Yao as MC continues to be a power figure in their relationship, but it starts to turn into misery. To understand what I'm talking about I'll start from the beginning.

Kang Yaoi arrives in this world. It's a DO or DIE situation, he either presses agree to he question or he will be obliterated. In this story he is just a stand-in, before the first crush of his target will re-appear. But what he's given is not the full story that happened. 

Original host is a ballet dancer, while Kang Yao is a technical genius and an awesoem hacker that lives off technology and developing games. First thing he does is quitting school (while he only enrolled), became friends with one of the school flowers, QiaoQiao, btw. And hooked up with Xu Yao as his target. He of course agreed to play the part, but on his own terms. Their meeting and hooking up was quite calculated by Kang Yao. And throughout their entire relationship sometimes it's hard to say if he has any feelings towards Xu Yao developed or he just enjoys the play. Because everything is quite subtle and is concealed in actions.

They start their relationship with an agreement at first, which to me was understandable, since they barely knew each other. Kang Yao was ok with it too of course. But with time the dynamic of their relationship begins to change, onviously. I must mention how Kang Yao acts with Xu Yao and what attracted me into reading at first. With his words and actions he conveyed that Xu Yao should not act with his status on him or just alwas acting or saying things that are not in accordance with normal routines. And that is how Kang Yao started to mend Xu Yao's bottom line and basically shape him. In their relationship Xu Yao is the one who usually gives in, either it's a small conflict or anything similar, he comes to admit he was wrong. The good thing Kang Yao did to Xu Yao is that he started to break his shackles of being a bit stiff, he made him experience things that he might never do, starting from basic visit to parks and ending with parachuting. Kang Yao also made sure their sex life is full - it was more like him demanding Xu Yao to work for him and not the opposite, he was the one with condition of often sex. Basically his hooks were deep if you look at it. And to no surprise Xu Yao realised that he fell deeply in love. The only resemblance between KY and his first supposed crush was the mole on the upper lip, but that fleeting moment stayed in their first meeting, Xu Yao never treated KY as a stand-in and was very sincere, but on the confession day Kang Yao asked to break up.

For Kang Yao it finally finished the storyline, but for Xu Yao it was a start of devastation.

And here we come to the current chapters that describe the after break-up period and they are making me feel sad. It was such an upbeat beginning, characters didn't follow the routines, but now the balance tilted too hard towards one side.

After KY claimed to break up he did what he did, as per agreement their apartment now belongs to him, he also cut all connection to XY and blocked him. XY couldn't even enter the community he was a resident of, just because he was removed by KY homself. KY was only talking about breaking up, saying that XY put all those conditions himself and when XY apologized about concealing his past it was brushed aside. My last drop of 'wtf' moment was actually a cene where XY waits at the entrance to the community and while they talk KY again manages to spark a bit of inside anger in XY (he previously had ana ngry moment, due to which KY didn't talk to him, so he had to apologize first and even in this moment he felt that he shouldn't say anything bad, since KY is still in his heart). But KY asked if he can't say anything harsh even? And he laughed, laughed harder and left.

This is what I call imbalanced feelings. XY never spoke about his shameful experience of falling with someone who eventually confessed to his own father. It was a shameful episode for him which no one knew about. He forgot about this person all-together and never cared, but he didn't know how to explain that maybe the very first fleeting moment he thought about those things, but not later, to him both are completely different and KY is absolutely dazzling. He never thought it will come to haunt him down later when he saw KY and his first crush together, at first he escaped, but later he came to the door and honestly explained and apologized, he admitted to all his sins, but with no positive result (it's all after break-up period).

But the thing is.

XY's first crush happened to arrive not because of anything, but Kang Yao himself. And this is why it makes me feel how I still can't find a solid ground to justify KY's actions and find the depth of his emotions, because it all becomes feeling like a play and you get lost to what is real and what is not with KY, while XY is steady with his feelings.

Now, remember the part where Kang Yao is a tech genius? Supposedly he came from the future with more developed technology. After he quit the school, he became a NEET. Xu Yao tried to offer for KY to enter any school he'd like to but KY refused, but also never shared his ambitions he had for this world. Part of Kang Yao's arrogance comes from confidence, since KY is his own capital and he doesn't care about money and power. He created a program that became a ground-breaking point in tech world. He sold it to XY's company (Xu Yao never knew about this, he just knew that KY was fascinated with games and such and agreed to any modifications, sets at home etc.), created his own company and started to creat the first holographic game. He patented all his creations with his name and by the current chapters he managed to succeed. But also another things happaned. KY as one who knows part of the plot also knows about the first crush of Xu Yao - Yan Lai. Yan Lai is a painter who is all about his painting, he is more refined, calm etc. KY offered him a job and took him back to the country. And that is why I see this whole thing as a play for KY. Sure thing with arrival of Yan Lai it should progress the plot, but it all happens under KY's meticulous orchestration. Remember I said about his hacking skills? It is mentioned at the beginning how through monitoring and hacking he knows where is XY, how to mett him etc. And in last chapters you feel the deliberate undertones too. Which eventually makes you think - well, if he didn't have ANY feelings, he shouldn't have done all this.

And that's the question I ask myself often now - if he had no feelings, he shouldn't do all this, right? But here's the problem, it's subtle. Like you know that many things were set ups created by KY for the sake of stimulation. And you wanted to answer - he must be doing this with his own idea. But from other side, you see a character like Xu Yao, who managed to fall in love for real, was dumped, was reminded of the conditions he set himself, he apologized for it, he revealed the secret that he considered shameful, he apologized for everything, he time and time again said he doesn't want to break up, he basically lowered himself, and you know why he doesn't even want to say harsh things - because he doesn't want KY to remember those too, he had no idea that his lover had never shared his ambitions with him and at some things was not honest, but in the end laughed at his sincerety and found out that his lover wasn't so simple second-handedly).

I realy-really-really hope this novel will start to rehabilitate from here. Right now to me it starts to become another lost cause in the range of novels where MLs who didn't do anything horrible to the extent, but described as miserable, beaten up dogs, who lost all their pride, just because they loved.

I know many like to read about the 'chasing wife to crematorium', but I hope to see logic in such stories, but often see how the conflicts for such novels are sucked out from the dry finger. They exist only for the sake of making MLs miserable, despite deserving it or not.

[END OF PART 1]

[Chinese BL novel] After marrying a wealthy family, I just want to start a career / 代嫁豪门后我却只想搞事业[穿书]

Title: After marrying a wealthy family, I just want to start a career / 代嫁豪门后我却只想搞事业[穿书]

Author: 一点桃花痣

Year of realease: 2019

# of chapters: 111+extras

Status: Completed

Link to NU: n/a

Tags: knowing the plot, marriage to business giant, jewellery deigner, face-slap present, raising children

*all names/titles are an MTL version

Summary: Ning An, who is only 19 and is awaiting his trip abroad for further studying finds himself crossing into a 24 yo Ning An in a book he read. Ning An is a cannon fodder created to progress feelings of protags. One is his brother, the other is a person original Ning An fell in love with. Now Ning An who crossed found himself being older, dropping out of school, having bad relationship with his family, doing modeling and having debts. But also due to agreement of two mothers he found himself also getting a husband, who was a business giant in the book, but also used as a board, yet now he is still at the beginning of his career.

Second novel from this author and I can conclude these: 1) Author loves to be "poetic", it doesn't matter they jump through three totally different epithets, they just can't stop, but funnily when I thought there would be good to add more details author writes quite plainly; 2) Author who likes to be angsty, more like let's write the biggest chunk about how we're mulling over this one problem and can't decide for a long time and things get some conclusion in the last 3rd of the novel.

Tbh not the best author or story to me in both novels. Probably because I am not fascinaed with mulling over things for long periods even if supposed motivation is present. Secondly, it all depends on characters, basically uncertainty of those characters create the drama itself. Oh yes, in this novel let's not forget the shadow of secondary CPs.

Characters:

• Ning An is a 19 years old student who learnt to be a model and later got interested in fashion and wanted to move to study, but at the crucial moment he crossed. He is portrayed as this hard-working individual that is actually unsure of his own level of skills in designing, but he wants to grow in this field and not give up at something he chose. His description often suffered from this 'hard-working' title, because indeed he worked hard to work as a model and self-learning, but the mention of his talent is sparse, which actually got him what he wanted in the end. Surprising to me that his wish to follow the designer that he appreciated from day one in this world was turned into a sort of emotional drama. I also find him self-confident to a point, because despite his uncertainty he describes, after coming to this world he looked for opportunities to meet this designer and show his works with idea of becoming an apprentice. While he is basically no one in this world of designers. And surprise he feels sad when he is refused, but mostly he is self-taught only and a lot of time is basically spent on that instead of applying to courses or going at least somewhere and starting somewhere, only fearing that if he goes he will def skip on this big designer. In the end he did become an apprentice, so yeah. About emotional drama I will mention separately.
• Feng Yun is 23 when the story starts. He is an illegitimate son of a big boss. His mother brought him up to strive an be the best in everything. Basically if it wasn't for his grandmother she might have completely stripped him from childhood and damaged him. Although there is no real dive into her, but you can basically see from actions that she brought him as a heir, so he can take a position and basically squeeze out everyoen else, especially the woman who became wife to the big boss. The mentioned wife is actually a very kind and sweet person and love between the two is genuine, while ML's mother is a typical I want best for my son, I want his position to be what he deserves and who cares what her son wants. She obstructed and helped to ruin his original start-up game company, so he would have nowhere to go except to his biological father. He is portrayed as one who went through a lot, which is true, he became emotionally cold on the outside, but he also has no one to emotionally depend on except MC, with him he can show his soft and vulnerable side and he also slowly fell in love with him in these hard times they went through together.
• Secondary characters. There are a lot. Mostly concentrated on two sub-CPs of Ning An's two friends. What amazed me is how these characters, who did not bring anything to the table, occupied enough space for unknown reason and also got more opportunities than MC at first. With how the novel kept repeating the 'hard-working' notion it really was redundant, since hard work isn't everything, it is also an opportunity, which MC never took, since he was like a one-way railway, not with an adoptive mind, but waiting for that one opportunity, while he could develop hi sopportunity in many other ways instead of most traditional. But also not mentioning MC's talent, but giving more to secondary characters was really unusual. For example, one of his friends got a really unique voice and in the end signed with a company and became a hot singer. The other friend was younger and described as prettier, there is also an episode of a movie opportunity for him and MC, but he was mentioned as protag for this movie first, while at first he refused the opportunity was second-handed to MC, which he also refused since he waits for that one day to be accepted. And btw this younger boy even took part in the show of this designer MC was infatuated with, while MC himself was dropped at the final stage. But he is 'hard-working'. Yeah. Really contrasting.

Emotional drama:

• I'm not from here, I might leave. The emotional drama of MC who crossed, basically a lot of it was based on his feeling of belonging and missing his original world. I can get where it comes from. He came from a good family, unlike the one in this world he crossed to. he was supported and loved. So his attachment to his original family is strong and part fo him believes he will leave one day, that's the prerequisite to the relationship drama between him and Feng Yun. I can understand that he is not afraid of mishaps in his career, since he can use it as a learning experience, though he treats his career rather seriously, not as someone who is constantly afraid of going back. But he treats the love of ML like that. The biggest problem of him accepting ML's feelings comes exactly from this. He is afraid of someday leaving and causing him harm, while not realizing that he causes emotional trauma either way, by that I mean either leaving or not answering. Basically, most of the time before he settled down it was all about being in this elevated state where he couldn't decide what he wanted to do and how it will affect ML. It was really annoying, because he couldn't see that he was getting nothing with doing nothing, while harm was being done already. I still find his soft-geartedness harming. Again MC doesn't realize it, or author doesn't realize it too. Only once MC regretted that he flirted with ML in this uncertain period, but def forgot that it was his soft side and desire to support that led them to this point, he was soft-hearted even before this and indulged in the feeling himself. So most of the drama was sucked out of this situation. And I might tell you, with 111 chapters of the main story, they get together in the last third. As well as MC moves on with his career in the last third. That's why I consider it a stretched drama.

Where my boredome came from:

• From sucking on the situation of MC constantly not being able to make up his mind. As if existing, but always ready to go. It was just stretched enough to become too long.
• Nothing interesting happening. Although some "drama" is supposed to happen, but I really didn't feel it, I was reading this novel with a brick face. Basically the story starts with MC arriving, then he marries ML, while ML dislikes him at first due to his prior investigation and seeing the original Ning An's antiques, so they taunt each other for some time. Later MC goes through changes and is "hard-working". Honestly, this work was repeated hundreds of time of not more. Later ML goes through troubles where his mother leaked his game they developed, so all wok was wasted, he in the end due to everything had nothing but to move to his biological father's company and start from there. MC was working as a model and despite all the "opportunities" he was only thinking about opportunity of apprenticeship and skipping on those. ML fell in love with MC, realized his feelings, at first was silent, but then climax of the conflict comes with him telling and MC asking for time, since he is uncertain, if he'll leave one day, last third of the novel is him being accepted by the designer he wanted and there is also a scandal, clearing up and moving on with his career. Basically no evident and bombing success tbh. Secondary characters to me got a bigger pie when it came to popularity and the only thing MC got was that by the end when his teacher had another collection which he helped to hold etc. He got to put two of his models on the run-way and well it was noticed, but that's it. To me MC always lived in the shadow of glory of others till the end of the main story.

So that's it. That's the deal. Mainly both novels have similar antiques of mulling over for a long time about one thing. It's very humah I'm not rejecting it, but also this is a novel where some things should be controlled to an extent.

RATE: 3/5. Not my type of author. Not getting back to them. I don't like the image of MC and the story it portrayed. Hard work isn't everything in the novel, if that then many would have opportunity, MC also doesn't show any sign of plasticity, which is also a bad example how to be. While others adapted way better tan him, that's the thing!

[Topic] Currently reading (completed/ongoing)

 CONTINUE READING:

1. 走红后豪门大佬成了我粉头 by 雁飞行 [on-going] / After becoming popular a business giant becomes my fan. This one is still on-going. The burn is slow. But in general it's all the MC who went to entertainment basically to earn money for the lab and equipment, since science is his way to persue life. Where he meets his love.
2. 和残疾巨佬闪婚后 by 惗肆 [on-going] / After a flash marriage with a disabled business giant. It's almost done, but it's one of the best I've read in a while.
3. 我哭了，我装的 by 艳归康 / I sried, I pretended. THIS IS WILD. The genius programmer and game developer crosses to a book. His role is a stand-in before the first love of protagonist appears. He agrees, but follows his own line. In life he is diametrically opposite to the shou. He is wild, he dropped out of school, since he didn't want to follow the dance path. No one knows that he set a game company and everyone treated him as a layman, including ML. His relationship is always push and pull, he has many times crossed the lines and acted not like any other people would do. In their personal life and sex life became exciting from all angles, MC would pierce his nipples, wouldn't shy from sex on a windowsill where ML watched his first love, would simultaneously make love and broadcast it on all displays in his computer room, but he also would break ML from his shell, he'd take him to experience most boring things, but also most exciting that he'd never go after like parachuting or diving. Slowly ML realized that the person who attracted him at first just because he has the beauty mark at the same place as hi first love, but later the personality of MC conquered him. While others think he uses MC as a stand-in, but he doesn't know how to explain that these two are completely different people and his first love betrayed him by confessing to his own father. It's ongoing and it's very dynamic. MC is just a queen.
4. 渣攻的白月光替身不想干了 by 壹枚 [completed] / Stand-in doesn't want to do it anymore. Brings nothing new, I actually don't like the ending, it was unnecessarily cruel. Plus it has loopholes in motivation etc. MC is reborn, he died from a car accident. In last life he treated his husband he loved dearly with all his heart, but that had only white moonlight in his head and openly cheated in their marriage. Getting his heart trampled on MC decided to switch, but he found out that the only person who treated him well in last life didn't leave abroad like last time. Later he found out that this person and himself shared a past he forgot about and both missed each other in last life. All basic stuff. But the way some are ended up in prison and such it's all... so bad imo. Like most cliche. It's also stupid like some characters that hated both MC and ML the most just disappeared from the novel after declaring that they'll get revenge. Don't know, it was nothing new, sometimes logic was not present and it felt a bit of a waste, so 2,5/5.
5. 道长他盛世美颜[娱乐圈] by 胖啾的月光 [on-going]. Relatively interesting! It reminds me of the previous novel where MC could see ghosts. Why? Because here MC also finds ML, while the other person is in a state of a soul. Everything else is different. MC comes down the mountain to earn money for his temple. A lot of onmyoji stuff going on here. He can see/fight ghosts, also draw talismans. He meets ML who is in the state of a soul, ML has a very unfortunate fate and is very delicious to all evil-doers. MC in a while helps him return to his own body, but it also met with difficulties, someone tried to harm ML not once. From small villains to bigger villains in the world of Taoist and Buddist priest who try to solve what evil was unleashed.
6. 死后我又叒叕爆红了[古穿今] by 佐川川 [completed]. I still read this one, but... MC is a painted that died more than a thousand years ago. He know strives to paint again, but not only Chinese painting, but try Western paitings as well. He at first doesn't know that he became famous after death. But he is not the only one who was reborn. MC's apprentice is also in this world and suspects that the one who changed recently might be his master he always loved. In original line MC was switched at birth and grew in a rural area, being taken home he suffered from cyber violence, was framed, in the end was sent abroad where he was bullied and under depression comitted suicide. But now MC wanted to move away from this unreliable family who favors their now adopted son and not deal with them and completely dedicate himself to painting. One things can be said the logic behind some events is just infuriating. The switch of opinion and the whole - next day [---] family became bankrupt. Come on, so dumb. Also the motivation or logic behind some actions is pretty idiotic too. Like the change of opinion of netizens, braindead characters and the easily believed rumors is just... Often mistaken relationship between the two everyone saying they're a couple, no matter how MC refuses and no one cares to listen. It's so dumb, I don't know. I'm thinking of dropping it.
7. 专职备胎，断情绝爱[穿书] by 润莹 [on-going]. MC suffers from a rare syndrom, he needs something that will support him during meals, otherwise he doesn't have an appetite, the first person used it to his own advantage and MC always was around the first person, but actually fell in love, yet his heart was broken as their promise to be MC's soothing prtner for eating. Even when he picked up the person again from the street and thought that they finally can fall in love, in a year he came back to an empty apartment where the person he thought finally loved him in return left him. He came back to China and married a man, they had several years of good time, but was framed in his work, was attacked and dropped his favorite occupation - paiting. The first love his husband dropped him for came back, he was actually a subordinate to MC's company and was the one who leaked designs and created the turmoil. Husband was too occupied with his first love return to see the changes and care for MC's being framed. MC asked for divorce and left. His heart was broken for a second time. Later MC found out that several books are happening at the same time, his first and second love were protags and he was just a garbage others threw out, but in the end he was hollowed out so much that he didn't care, he used handsome men as meal partners. At this time he also met a scientist, a person who actually was a genius and although was younger than himself was aready a known person. It is our ML, but one that doesn't want to conquer MC with brovado, but slowly occupy a place in his heart. I have no idea how they'll come together later. Of course the thing is MC believes in plots, but ppl deviated from the plot long ago. His first person came back to claim he'll love him, but for MC it's too late. His husband realized that the first love he cared so much about was replaced by love for MC during their marriage, but he realized it late. Only ML tried to heal MC's trauma for drawing and open him up with time. Have no idea where it'll go from here. The settings are pretty dog blood and such, sometimes MC acts cheap tbh and that's what I don't like, it is also contradicting, he had ppl who agree to his company, but he doesn't turn away from his exes too. Basically his cheapness what distracted me from fully enjoying. And although it's supposed to go somewhere, but I have no idea how he and ML will end up together later, since it feels very bleak and ML's appearance in the story is rare for the longest of times.
8. 影帝只想咸鱼(穿书) by 挂星星 [completed]. I am in the reading of this one, but again. Lots of cliche stuff. Zhu Yu crossed to be an illegitimate son. He knows the story, knows he will meet a big boss who has trouble sleeping, but feels fine when MC is around. Plot progressed in different direction, Zhu Yu left the Zhu house early and signed the contract with the big boss earlier. He now is considered a child for Mr. Zhou to raise. Some parts of it are really brain-dead, writing feels messy. Like the tossing from one event to another and then suddenly changes. Like for example sudden;y MC's new friend gets a call that a boy from orphanage he comes from had an accident, other guy said that MC is richer than them and could pay for the operation, while MC's friend was upset with this dude. In the edn MC indeed paid for it bringing up some bs reason. Anyway stuff like this: abrupt, out of nowhere and serving nothing, happens a lot in this story. Lots of cliche. I'm not sure if I want to continue. After previous good finds it feels too bleak and uninteresting to continue.
9. 一觉醒来影帝揣崽了 by ：禁庭春昼 [completed]. Dropped, got bored.

A lot of try-outs, it's actually good, if in around 30+ chapters I don't feel like it I let it go, it is sometimes hard to keep up for so long to see if it's good. But it also helped to find some crazy stuff.

[Chinese BL novel] After the flash marriage with a disabled business giant / 和残疾巨佬闪婚后

Title: After the flash marriage with a disabled business giant / 和残疾巨佬闪婚后

Author: 惗肆

Year of realease: 2021

# of chapters: 94+extras

Status: Completed

Tags: knowing the plot, marriage to business giant, jewellery deigner, face-slap present, raising children

*all names/titles are an MTL version

This is the 5th novel from this author that I've read/reading. Although they started from a pretty cliche start with rebirths/knowing the plot type of stories, but they do have a knack for pacing and good relationships. Their style is getting better and better to me. So I'm pretty sure about them in this field and this type of stories. Which are just good for leisure.

Summary: Shi Yunnan saw a realistic dream in which the third young master of the Shi family is actually a transmigrator, a protagonist Xie Kueye, who will reach the pinnacle of life. He knows who to befriend and who to use. While Yunnan's fate is to be betrothed to a person from the Luo family, tossed and never getting a good ending anyway. But the promised groom later becomes lovers with protag, frames the patriarch of the Luo family and they live like nothing else matters. Yunnan was sceptical at first, but here he was called from abroad to get back because their family promised his hand to the abovementioned scum, although Yunnan decided on the wait and see tactic, but not when it came to his own marriage, so when the current patriarch of the Luo family came to the door, the promised groom changed. From agreed marriage to deep love and the secret past of the two.

From all 5 novels I personally liked this better, I followed it from start to its' current finishing line and I must say it's nicely paced, it's dynamic and the feelings are in place.

The story starts from Yunnan having the realistic dream about the third young master of the Shi family. Yunnan in his life basically had no good feelings for his family. The reason for it was simple, his mother died when he was young, she had a heart disease and at a crucial time she wasn't saved. The natal family of their mother due to the quick re-marriage of the Shi father to another mother not long after the Wen mother's death made them cold in their feet and they wanted to fight for the right to bring up two brothers back to Wen, in the end only one brother was taken and Shi Yunnan was left behind. But the new stepmother was not alone and brought a baggage, her son Xie Kueye. In a short while it became an open secret, that most likely Shi father cheated on his wife with children from the very beginning and Xie Kueye must have been his illegitimate son. While Yunnan's twin brother moved out and changed his last name to Wen Yibei, Yunnan was left alone unloved. And he soon even was sent away abroad. He got a miserable pay to live, which made him start working early, he was bullied and traumatized, he had to drop music and just lived abroad for most of the time. Wen family wanted to take him too, since he was left alone, but soon he was framed by his cousin and decided to move away for good and never come back. When Wen grandpa found out it was too late to change Yunnan's mind. He lived mostly abroad before one day he was called back by the Shi family to "pay back" for the upbringing. Yunnan laughed at the hypocricy of the Shi family, so when the current Luo patriarch came to their house he suggested to change grooms.

Luo Lingsheng survived man-made car accident, he had to fight to reach the top and missed the best time to treat his legs. Partially he gave up on treatment to get better. But what pushed him further that the person he secretely loved was finally bound to him, yet to protect this person by himself he decided to fight the battle which brought him so much depression in the past.

Both at first agreed to just create a play, Yunnan gets a partner and is protected and Lingsheng gets a cover, which was just an excuse. Yet with the time flow Yunnan realized that he cared about Lingsheng a lot and slowly fell in love, even knowing that the other person had a white moonlight in his heart, he decided to squeeze the person out of Lingsheng's heart and hand in hand go forth to their happy future. And in the end to find out that the White Moonlight in his husband's heart always was and always will be him alone.

Lingsheng and Yunnan met on an 18th birthday of Wen Yibei, Yibei grew up loved in the Wen family, he became a famous cello player, while everyone laughed at Yunnan for being thrown out abroad and being treated even worse as a son who was brought outside. Although he and Yibei were twin brothers and had a good relationship, deep-deep inside Yunnan felt the wall that was across them and had an drunk emotional outbreak where no one saw him. That day all Lingsheng could remember was a drunk teenager who said he was handsome and that he wouldn't forget him, but also cried for being unloved. It was their first meeting and first drop of love, but Yunnan forgot everything after being sober and left, while Lingsheng had his own worries. Life separated them for years. But in the end when Lingsheng heard the Shi family plan to marry Yunnan to Luo Yanchuan of the second room he rushed to play his part at least to take people away, never knowing that the person he loved would agree to marrying him and he could tie them together and finally fulfill his dream, to be with the person he secretely loved all these years. But his own inconvenience was the first obstacle he had to conquer between himself and their happy future.

The story itself is a chain of events with a professional line growth, but also face-slapping. Since Yunnan after getting the dream was always on alert against Xie Kueye. Yunnan in the end learned jewellery design and was very talented in this field, so he basically developed in this direction. Plus he and Lingsheng were always on alert against Kueye and Yanchuan. While Kueye always looked ike he had nothing, but behind Shi family's back he earned a fortune, while Yanchuan pretended to be a playboy while he always wanted to get the power of Luo patriarch in his hands. In original storyline they were both protags to reacht the pinnacle of life, while others ended up tragically.

In general it's not a road to success, more like road to success in love with Yunnan slowly falling in love. With occasional spots of events and face-slapping. The sweetest parts are all family parts, especially with Lingsheng's nephew, whose parents tragically died wduring the Luo family war for inheritance. Yunnan and Lingsheng brought up little Jinyu as their child.

The text is really nice, well-paced, it has several emotional outbursts which are understandable, but no deep and brooding melancholic drama. It's a good read to have a good time.

RATE: 5/5.

[Chinese BL novel] My crossing worlds and seeing ghosts / 我在阴阳两界反复横跳的那些年

Title: My crossing worlds and seeing ghosts / 我在阴阳两界反复横跳的那些年

Author: 半盏茗香

Year of realease: 2020

# of chapters: 103+2

Status: Complete

Tags: crossing, entertainment, ability of seeing ghosts, "overterning the car"

*all names are MTL'd, title is my frivilous interpretation to be close to the story

Summary: Xun Lan crossed to become an 18-th liner who was currently sprayed online for a harassment case. The original Xun Lan since long been gone by cutting wrists, when Xun Lan crossed he not only was in such a situation, but also got a bonus - he could see ghosts and the yin energy around him was abundant too. He never was an actor in his previous life, but he taught himself many skills, but firstly he solved the one person who decided to use him as a stepping stone and accused him of harassment. Later Xun Lan saved two men from the ghost bus, what he didn't know that one of them soon got into a car accident (man-made) and became comatose. How he knew that? The triple actor emperor Qi Nian (ML), to be precise his soul, was next to his apartment door when he got back. From then on they set on a journey of seeing ghosts of wronged people and helping them bringing justice to their stories. From then on a legend was born about Xun Lan's metaphysical body - if you've done something bad, be prepared overturning your car when you get close to Xun Lan. 

This story is really entertaining, although there will be quite dark stories from ghosts, but in general things will get resolved pretty easily. There will be many cases, so they occupy the biggest portion. On the background you can slowly see Xun Lan opening up about himself and his world, while he and Qi Nian get to know each other better, but also become confidants and later lovers. It will also involve a little bit of Qi Nian's story of his family, which will be solved in the end.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, it has a lighter tone when reading, despite dark backstories of ghosts. Sometimes the writing is a bit silly, but you realize it was quite intentional. I rarely look out for the 'seeing ghosts' stories, but this one was a good exception to me. I felt for two protagonists, their feelings developed slowly, but surely. Also the whole overturning the car and metaphysics by the network and people and entertainment was quite funny.

RATE: 5/5. For a good ghosty time :D

[Topic] Currently reading (completed/on-going)

• 和残疾巨佬闪婚后 by 惗肆 [on-going] (no kidding, if you run this through MTL it'll translate as 'Shameless', isn't that cute?)/ After a flash marriage with a disabled business giant. This comes from the author I've been reading recently and it's my 5th novel from them. Summary: Shi Yunnan returns back home being called by his family from abroad. Once he had a weird dream where the story was about road to success of their third brother, who is an illegitimate child of their father. In that dream he and his twin brother are nothing more but cannon fodders. He doesn't know if to believe it, but first he must solve the family that wants to engage him to a dude from the Luo family, what happened next the Shi family didn't believe. The ptriarch of the Luo family came himself and actually agreed to Shi Yunnan's proposal of a flash marriage. Luo Lingshen is a notorious character, his legs suffered from the car accident which took his family, he now sits in a wheelchair after getting a strong grip on entire Luo family. No one knows that Yunnan and Lingshen share a few encounters in the past, it's just Yunnan who doesn't remember about them, but he still couldn't help his feelings that grew strong from simple agreement to deep love. It's a very well-paced story, the supposed protag is a vicious person who simply knows what will happen, but his adaptability isn't strong. Yunnan has see and act attitude towards him, since he caused many people demise in the original story, especially Lingsheng. Yunnan is a jewellery designer, so some connecting events will be present, not without face slapping routines, steady pacing, cute characters. One of few stories where family has a kid, nephew of Lingshen who is really adorable.
• 走红后豪门大佬成了我粉头 by 雁飞行 [on-going] / After becoming popular a business giant becomes my fan. Summary: Jiang Fang is contacted by his younger brother whom he hadn't seen for a long time and asked to take part in a variety show that requires to bring their relatives. Jiang Fang agrees with a clear goal in his mind - earn money for the laboratory - and sets foot on a path of a traffic star. When Jiang Fang was little he was sent to a temple, since both him and Jiang Qi had tendency to get sick a lot and their family wasn;t well off at that time. The temple was a new home for him from then on. He mostly spent time there or in school, rarely even coming back. Slowly he became an independent individual where his parents hadn't seen him, but he was an outstanding student of the best university. The only stumble on his road to research were money, he didn't quit uni, he simply agreed for the show at first with one goal, I earn, but Jiang Qi goes back to school and passes entrance exam. Jiang Fang has extraordinary temperament, a bit alienated, a bit of a black-bellied person and has some sass to it. On the other hand, Cheng Si, the head of the Cheng family witnessed his family coming back to life when their lost daugther was found recently. His eyes long lost affection, since he had to bear the heavy responsibility of their family since he was young and had no support from his parents during this time. But then the little sister suddenly wanted to spend 2 million on chasing a star and as parents they were worried that she'd be cheated, so instead of her it was Cheng Si who added Jiang Fang on WeChat and started conversation. Both had no idea that this will be a start for them to become friends from strangers, and from friends to lovers. ML is very cute, he had never loved before, so his reactions are authentic. MC never cared to love despite the attention, but found Cheng Si really lovely and cute (his reactions, ML is taller and is hella handsome). The story is also a road through entertainment as traffic star to earn money, but without losing integrity. MC is a really cool and sassy character, so he's the main star to watch out for. Both were somewhat left by their parents, Cheng pair always was concerned about their daughter (Jiang Fang had a leg to save her actually) and Jiang pair kept Jiang Fang away for too long and also stopped even mentioning him at home since Jiang Qi always fought with them over it, before he saw Jiang Fang and became a bro con.
• 和渣攻退婚后，我被豪门父母找到了 by 夕朝南歌 [on-going] / After retiring from a scum attack, I was found by my rich parents. Weirdly paced and constructed. MC is reborn and now plans to give a big surprise to his nominal fiance and his best friend who cheated behind his back. In last life he had no idea this happened and he had no idea why he was killed even, but now he can get back to them. He was also discovered through a variety show by his biological parents and now he realized why his "parents" never loved or really cared for him. Why I say it's weirdly paced, because first part is a routine revenge, MC is all scheming and more confident. He also meets his parents with whom he clicks pretty quickly, well he saw the evidence of how they loved and searched for him all these years. They also started to help him deal with the scum who actually bought MC from his adoptive parents. But then suddenly the scum dude family was discovered to be responsible for death of several ppl and they collected their severed head in a safe. Like wtf this was sudden. Also the scum had his revenge on the best friend of MC who seduced him for resources and actually abolished his legs. When it was suddeny over it was time between MC and ML, Both could be called childhood sweethearts, ML is a friend of MC's brother, he saw MC growing up before abduction, he always liked him and after reuniting continued to like him again. The whole tossing of MC was pretty fast and they enter the sweet love phase quite quickly. Also MC has a this strange change in character. There's no overall backstory, just these parts, it also feels strange due to sudden inserts of murders and stuff. And also how strange the whole MC being talented in acting is written. I dropped it.
• 我在阴阳两界反复横跳的那些年 by 半盏茗香 [completed] / Those years when I jumped repeatedly in the yin and yang worlds. EXCELLENT! Really interesting take on crossing, but also seeing ghosts. I'm still reading, so giving a general idea. Summary: Xun Lan woke up in unknown place. He became a 18th line actor who has been hacked online and comitted suicide. The thing is the original owner did die, but Xun Lan crossed into his body with a bit of a bonus. He can see ghosts and talk to them, but ghosts are a bit afraid of him due to his abundant yin energy. Once MC helped two men to escape the ghost bus, but one of the two still got into  a serious car accident. How Xun Lan knew? He saw the person's soul near his house and from then on both were close to each other, trying to figure out how to return Qi Nian's soul back to his body while he was in a coma. Xun Lan helped to convey Qi Nian's words to his agent and in return Qi Nian taught him acting skills, but also they spent time together and helped people. Firstly, Xun Lan cleared his name from the harassment accusations. And later set on the path of acting. But actually his fans saw him more on social news. Arresting traffickers, saving people from comitting suicide, saving girl from a predator, running after a robber. There was no end to it making his agent almost having a heart attack every time. But this all happened in front of Qi Nian who actually took part in it and also had emotional changes in his heart, while witnessing Xun Lan time and time again, being reckless in saving people. Really great and interesting read to me.
• 穿成替身后我跑路了[穿书] by 瑜眠 [completed] / I ran away after dressing as a stand-in. Just NOPE. I really feel weird about this one. The MC, Yu Xiang, is a realism painter that crosses to a cannon fodder type of person, he is kept by a gold master, but his next plan is to just leave. He is not a pro painter in this world, but he was a renowned painter in his world, he used it to his advantage to paint and slowly become famous, before he finally left. His main pet peeve was that hs gold master, ML, was in control of his life. But tbh it wasn't that bad. Sure thing ML was a bit selfish of - I need you here and let's meet here. But his biggest mistake was not protecting the person you're with against the so-called friends and such. He never made it clear about his White Moonlight he didn't really cared about. The story also feels weird, while it started as a normal routine with fighting against others and later getting a master to follow. He basically had a chance to move to new country where he escaped. ML wanted to understand MC and be more respectful and slowly integrate in MC's life, but just in spite MC did some really stupid shit. Especially befriending some weirdo that is obviously had a plastic surgery to look like ML. Which is impossible, but all in all weird. This dude happaned to be a serial killer, which was a sudden turn of events so ML saved MC from that dude. Later the gallery he worked for had an accident and he also helped to deal with it. Anyway many turns of events just didn't follow logic and were weird. The murderer part was the weirdest, like why suddenly bringing that in. I read it all and didn't like it in the end.
• 我靠算命成为万人迷 by 凉白开开 [completed] / I became popular by fortune-telling. I finished this one and it's relatively good! I think I've mentioned it before, it has several loopholes that are connected to details, more than the story. It has a painter MC who had a car accident, he was hit by a car and the driver disappeared. His left hand that others praised as godly was abolished, yet he earned a bonus from it, if he looks ppl in the ey for 5 seconds he'll see their fate. Especially if they're close to their death. That's how he saved ML. ML comes from a wealthy family, but because of a fortune teller he was claimed as unlucky. That's why he hates fortune tellers and had a bad impression of MC at first. MC had to conceal everything to stay in the company and later became assistant to president (ML), which brought them closer together and ML started to see the good sides of MC. MC's hand was saved later. There's a bit of a family scuffle during the process, there's also a part where MC saved several people due to his ability. They also found a person responsible for hit-and-run that time. The only loopholes in details are actually about MC's hand. Like ML asked to tie his tie a lot, even though MC supposed to have rehab at that time or before when his hand wasn't really functional. There's also little about post-op rehab. So basically it's said MC can't use his hand, but used it a lot. I've read this one close to the one mentioned above, both had painters MC and actually a perpetrator, but here at least it was wrapped more logically. Also MC's painter path was shown different and although he had his hand working again he didn't leave to become a painter right away, he actually got used to his new life and didn't see it as bad. The other painful thing was that both MC and ML were quite oblivious and I'm not a fan of that.
• 穿书后与偏执大佬HE了 by 有诗无酒 [completed] / After crossing the paranoid president and I have a HE. Summary: Shen Shu crosses to become a cannon fodder in the story of BE. Where an actor who is infatuated with the president creates all types of obstacles for all people who come close and has no scruples. But when Shen Shu crossed he didn't want to be near Qiao Rong, yet when he saw absolutely stunning and handsome man he thought he might as well do the deed. Although they had this night, Shen Shu later refused Qiao Rong's contract to take care of him, yet their encounters never stopped there and eventually he felt for Qiao Rong and saved him from BE. Pretty easy and leisure read to me. 

This is part of works I've completed or read on-going lately.

Canaries in danmei

    I have no idea how I managed to cross the search engine of jjwxc (probably 'revenge the scum' tag :'D) that I came across a fair amount of works that are all about raised canaries a.k.a. lovers that are nothing more but a beautiful vases to business marriages or smth like that.

    Don't get me started on the point where all these novels are like a copy-paste version of each other. I don't expect anything extraordinary, after all we've all seen what a trending writing/genres are. And they are actually that. But for some reason people still see logic to some of those, even though the events that mostly happen are a bit weird from a perspective of normal human thinking and actions. We all know that everything is playing for the convenience, but that's exactly what I don't like about it.

Common pre-settings for 'canary' plots:

• As the 'canary' suggest the attack is in the dominant position, both in profession adn the relationship, such as a president usually, while the receive is a beautiful being and taken advantage of for various reasons. Character settings are always the same, until the canary escapes and the whole chasing wife starts;
• Canary has no status. Usually the relationship might not be official or even if it is, friends and colleagues might not know about it or disrespect the partner. Nothing is done by the gongs in such cases of course;
• No communication whatsoever prior to break-up (which basically leads to the conflicts, duh, u surprised?). It either existed before, but ceased to be meaningful, or stays shallow. While two people live together, they often have more sex together than conversations;

And here's my pet peeve with such stories:

• The lack of communication what first starts the problems. Authors often portray shous as if they're the biggest victims, but actually they don't do anything about their situation and act very submissive during the relationship. It lasts only until they say - bye, I'm leaving - that they suddenly have the guts to oppose, which I find funny, because it seems they didn't really care about the relationship at all as authors try to convey, because they show character (that they have one and are not just sloppy rags), but they refused to fight or do anything or cause a havoc in the relationship, while they had all the chances to (e.g. I've read one where both agreed to consolidate relationship in 8 years, but shou didn't do much of fixing his partner's attitude when it started to go wrong, just started to accept his bs, later just packed up and left);
• Exchange of roles/positions. As you can tell canaries and presidents often exchange positions when the relationship is broken. Because gongs start the mad wife chase, everything that mattered and kept them busy before loses meaning entirely, only the wife exists. Which puts everything under the weird light. Due to miscommunication both parties don't really understand each other and their own motivation, which in my opinion makes both partners bad and not only one that is chased. And I guess it's a thing, because gongs are put into a position of being shoved into the ground for some sort of satisfaction. They're surely not the best partners to begin with, but it ticks me off the most that only one side is the bad side, but if you think carefully you'll see that no one is good though.

    It would be cool, if people wrote something not this weird. It doesn't mean the whole theme of raised lovers should cease to exist, I do think it might show the relationships that are not all sunshine, but just why it's written in the same damn  weird way all the time.

    Anyway, if you come across a novel like that, be sure you'll read something like the abovementioned.

[Chinese BL novel] I ran away after wearing as a stand-in / 穿成替身后我跑路了[穿书]

Title: I ran away after wearing as a stand-in / 穿成替身后我跑路了[穿书]

Author: 瑜眠

Year of realease: 2020

# of chapters: 78+1

Status: Complete

Tags: wearing the book, art, painting

*all names/titles are an MTL version, never official translation

Synopsis: Yu Xiang wore a book of doog-blood drama and happaned to be a stand-in for a White Moonlight in the protagonist's heart. He was a renowned painter, just had a bad heart, now he has a healthy body and can pick up art again. As a result the first thing he thought of was to kick the unwanted people like blood-sucking family, get a foothold in the art industry and leave the protagonist for good.

The following will contain story spoilers, usually I rarely do it, but it only happens when I'm baffled by the choice of writing and storytelling that in my eyes looks really weird or inconsistent. And teh following criticism should be accepted as a healthy one and has nothing to do with author's health issues.

I must say I was lucky to stumble upon two novels that have MC as a painter, which makes me think that jjwxc has a type of trends when writing. This story for me came from 4/5 to 2/5 in the last third of the story, all thanks to the author suddenly proposing to include a serial killer, which was really out of nowhere.

The story in short is as follows. MC wore the book, decided to keep away from the gong (actually our ML). He was part of a plagiarism accident, later was discovered by an old professor who became his mentor though original owner never was taught art. MC got rid off the blood-sucking family, who were not even his biological parents. Later got into few contraversies, like his signed company, he later retired from broadcasting. Had few paintings, got a bit of fame, took part in filming, got a project for another city, then to broaden the horizon left to a signed gallery in Europe, spent time in creations, in one city met with a man who got himself plastic surgery same as ML, held his first exhibition, was abducted by this fake man-serial killer, got out unscathed, took part in the gallery contarvercy and then went back to China to apply the same way of bringing new artists as the previous gallery, it ended in success. At the end promised ML to be together. The end. Now...a bit of things I find are weird:

• The serial killer storyline. It was damn abrupt and out of nowhere and honestly, it only brought me rage. I was quite upset at author who led relatively ok story into.. this. The backstory: MC travels to France and meets a man who has obvious plastic surgery remnant signs, he looks almost exactly like ML, he also wants MC to paint him and in the unknown city, looking at unknown person, MC actually agrees. This was inconsistency with MC's character that was always keen to people, but now even feeling weird, failed to distance. Later he also had several moves out of rebellious psychology against ML who basically was worried that the person who approached MC is not ok. This further made it possible for murderer to contact MC and later he didn't guard against him at all. He was kidnapped and only thanks to timely appearance of ML was saved. This really showed MC from the dumbest side ever. It reminded me the previously read novel (previous review) where MC could be super dense like a concrete wall. I also want to mention one part which made me feel strange, when police called and showed MC the murderer's diary where he wrote atrocities about MC. Like.. MC is a victim and the murderer is dead, why would you want to bring the victim new grief?
• Helping the gallery. This part would have been great if the murderer part was cut out completely. It could have been a struggle of commerse and art instead this episode comes last before MC returns to China. Basically the gallery owner fell ill and was in a coma, while this happened his son was one of those who wanted to sell the gallery completely under the reason that their gallery sold a fake and it will ruin the reputation, though it was him who carried out the plan of selling fake and hanging this as gallery's fault. This was solved arther quickly, a matter of few chapters, but honestly there was one part that made me surprised, when MC questioned why the granddaughter of the owner called him back, while previousl it was described they became friends and the owner also had good feelings for him. Wouldn't you rush back just because someone you care about was sick?
• Unexistent romance and bad relationship building. The romance part was actually just a whatever part to me. I didn't feel emotional or anything from these two. 1) There is no strong foundation for ML's feelings, as well as any foundation of their relationship. We start from the very bland start where MC is in ML's house, but they just co-exist together. And suddenly ML starts to notice MC more; 2) MC was often very unfeeling for many things that ML did to him after accepting his wrongs, though at least later looked at things from ML's point of view too. He basically didn't like ML for his oppression, though ML never really imprisoned or obstructed MC, just wanted him to consider going back, because he doesn't want him to leave him, not because of oppression; 3) The way they came together and MC promised at the end was mostly like whatever, they rarely communicated, there was no explanation or hint on inner feelings, mostly MC was in his career, only by the very end he started to notice ML as something not that bad.

When it started it was entertaining enough and it felt like a 4, but when it came to last third, it just got weird with all that thriller and throughout the whole story the whole idea of writing this as danmei was pointless to me.

RATE: 2/5.

[Chinese BL novel] I became a heartthrob by fortune-telling / 我靠算命成为万人迷

Title: I became a heartthrob by fortune-telling / 我靠算命成为万人迷

Author: 凉白开开

Year of realease: 2020

# of chapters: 70+1

Status: Complete

Tags: fortune-telling, art, sweet and cool text.

*all names/titles are an MTL version, never official translation

It's funny, because I found this by searching and as a result stumbled upon the author of the previously read novel I didn't like in the end, but this one in comparison is fairly better.

Synopsis: Tang Yan was claimed to be a genius painter, but his path was interrupted by a car accident when he was hit by a car and the driver disappeared, leaving him with mutilated hand and enough debts after healing. But after the accident he started to see people's path and also danger to their life. Although from the outside his sudden outbursts to help were treated differently, but he still couldn't see when someone's life was in dire danger. After selling his most successful paintings at an auction, Tang Yan came to work at a firm to work in a design department where he met his boss he recently saved.

In short this is a short and sweet text, the storyline of how MC helps several people is well-thought through. He doesn't use it much, since he doesn't want to interfere too much, but some people were crytical and he just couldn't watch people die. It brought several misunderstandings with other characters, like MC just wants to help, but boss at first thought he was a magic stick and he hated fortune-tellers to the bone, due to his own reasons. Other character, an idol, thought MC is his fan. And so on. 

The biggest and greatest idea was connected to the MC's paintings he auctioned. They happened with three people and at the end all painting came together with the new one after MC's rehabilitation.

The outline of the story is as follows, MC saved his new boss (ML), came to work, did some projects that pushed his career. ML got acquainted with MC and made him his assistant. MC followed along in the end and they had several crisis situations due to ML's family members. But in the end they ended up winners in this situation. MC helped few other people along the way, which earned him favorability from others. But he helped from the good heart. One of those was an idol who in the end made a movie and MC's paintings ended up being a props to it and he also drew the final one in the quartet after successful operation. In the end he also found the person who caused his accident.

Now, several flaws and parts that were not that impressive:

• MC's character inconsistency. Sometimes he acted very tough, but other times he was just too dense that it was hurtful. You can't be THAT dense tbh, but he managed. So in general he was too oblivious to other people's feelings and also his character of I don't want to hurt anyone or just being guided by others made him look not that cool, but silly instead.
• MC's unhealed hand. At first it was said that MC can't use his left hand much. Later when he performed some "operation" that helped him he should have gone through rehabilitation which was described as quick, but he was told not to use his hand, but later author describes many times actions that should be done with both hands, like tying ML's tie, which he asked to do a lot, so basically this was the biggest flashlight in the eye in this story. Because in contrast there was the moment where MC had to use his left for few minutes and he described it as painful, but then he goes around using it all the time.
• Naive and convenient type of writing. I understand why, after all this author doesn't have much works and experience, so when reading it was really like 'awe'. At other times the level of convenient was a bit too much. Like the level of MC's being dense, which actually led him to be tossed around at times and I just wanted to slap both MC and author for this type of storytelling.
• Slowburn that was too slow. Basically MC and ML come together at the very end. The level of romantic acts was just over the top throughout the whole story, but both ML and MC were just too oblivious to those things. One didn't get that he fell in love for a long time and other thought that his boss was just that good to employees, like come one.

In the end, it was fairly enjoyable, the idea about the paintings was the best about the whole story tbh and at the end I thought that maybe it would have been better if it was more concentrated on that than many tossings in-between.

RATE: 3,75/5.