[Chinese BL novel] Vicious male partner must do whatever he wants* / 恶毒男配就要为所欲为

Title: Vicious male partner must do whatever he wants* / 恶毒男配就要为所欲为

Author: 甜椒最甜 / Bell peppers are the sweetest

Year of release: 2020

# of chapters: 225

Status: Completed

Link to NU: n/a

Tags: quick pass, drama

*all names, titles etc. are an edited version of MTL, not an official translation

Summary: Lu Bai is bound with a system and must travel to different worlds to first collect favorability of the target and become a White Moonlight in these people's hearts. But Lu Bai doesn't follow the script as recommended, slowly unflding conspiracy behind the reason why he was sent to transmigrate.

- - -

It's that type of branch that snapped under too much tension.

I will start from the ending to unwind the whole idea of this novel. Not surprisingly, another greedy god decides to use a powerful soul for nourishment, the  target is out MC. In his original world he suffers greatly, as the story goes on we find out that he changed 6 goldmasters and they are all weird maniacs with their own desire for a stand-in. Lu Bai has been trained since early days, but was too young and unfortunate to being practically exchanged and get from one golden prison to the other. But the secret to these people obsessions is the White Moonlight in their heart, which ended up being Lu Bai himself, since Lu Bai travels to six worlds in all of them he finds one person like his goldmaster, they are main god's tentacles which are put into worlds to make, as it is know later, Lu Bai's reincarnation suffer in those worlds and nourish the soul through suffering. When Lu Bai in the end crushed the worlds he returned to original world where all 6 lived and helped to arrest them, because only in original world we find out that Lu Bai actually went to do it volunteerly and became police's informant. All six actually remembered Lu Bai from other worlds and Lu Bai became their White Moonlight from the on. And crushing them down also brought the main god down and Lu Bai changed places with him.

But. This novel after reading this amount of drama makes you feel - will Lu Bai be able to return as a normal person. The novel says that yes, since Lu Bai is so strong, but from other point reading all that makes you doubt the possibility of it. The ending was anti-climatic due to excess of drama on the way too.

CHARACTERS:

Lu Bai - our MC. He was left at the orphanage where he was picked up by first goldmaster. He had tough time growing up, but prevailed. System chose him, but first of all MC did not follow system's suggestion of catering perpetrators and repeating the script and later only when relationship between him and system got better shared the fact how some characters in those worlds are same as goldmasters in the original. He goes through enough suffering to finally reach the end and have his own happy ending, finding home and finding a beloved person.

ML - represents law. He is sent by the Heavenly Dao to supervize, since Dao noticed main god's moves and thus bound MC to deal with it, but ML is the law that can be used only when MC has no protection, he can usually be only a support. He and Lu Bai go through all worlds when finally reaching the cleaning of 6 goldmasters and being together.

System - takes little space, only serves as a support, has many limitations. Later changed contract of binding with Lu Bai to share soul pain with him. 

- - -

ARC 1

Tbh the 1st arc started not that great. It felt like other novels where character are too brain-dead for one seemingly weak person they want to protect, basically green tea bitch.

Original story: Lu Bai is a long lost son, he grew up for 20 years when he found he actually was mixed at birth, he came to look for original family, but for outsiders he wasn't only never aknowledged by his brothers but everyone thought he was a suitor. Lu Bai was bullied to no end and in the end had a bitter end. Later they aknowledge that he was a brother, but it didn't change much.

Lu Bai story: Lu Bai arrives when original host already lived at the Lu house for half a year, he was met with constant ridicule and bullying from his brothers and everyone around. This includes more serious stuff like hitting Lu Bai with a car, leaving him to live in a modly cold room, left alone in remote places and has to walk back home by feet etc.

Lu Bai leaves the Lu house and retalliates against the Lu brother and unfolds the mystery of original story, it has a great twist where Lu Bai finally uncovers the truth of his life in front of two brothers (one is a target) who did care about him. The mystery is that his father knew he was mixed, since he did it himself, so his weak son can be cared for, he used cold shoulder to treat Lu Bai all his life and even used his own life to cause psychological damage by comitting suicide next day after Lu Bai's b-day, he also left a loan on his head that might have ruined the boy's life. He also proves that not only the youngest brother they all were afraid would not be able to survive outside knew about it from young age, but that he knew his father, their parents knew, but didn't care and these two brothers were manipulated by the eldest brother into making Lu Bai's life unbearable, making them be his arms and feet in punishment but not doing it himself. This eldest had unclean thoughts towards the youngest brother, both knew they were not related by blood and by the end the youngest used it so the eldest would care about him for entire life and asked to deal with Lu Bai, but they were caught red-handed. Although this part was quite thrilling, but the ending of the arc was pretty smudged and hurried. As a result Lu family reputation was damaged, all brothers were detained for different charges, including attempted murder. Lu Bai due to body trauma didn't live beyond 35 years and became a world-renowned painter.

ARC 2

Arc 2 is more like a thriller story, although again has this feeling of too much which comes from the character behavior, almost all secondary characters act either really bad or minority has a good heart and it feels really flat.

Original story: The target - Xu Rui - has a White Moonlight of 10 years who went abroad for a long time, when he came back, Lu Bai, who acted as a stand-in, was ruined and spent, disappearing into nothingness.

Lu Bai story: Lu Bai crosses when the scandal breaks out, he is pitted by the so-called friend, but actually this friend was the one who brought Lu Bai to be a stand-in originally. The target happened to be a type of psychopath, for his idealistic image of White Moonlight he used to train children into the perfect stand-in. Lu Bai was trained with other 19 children from time he was 16, he debuted at 20 and had such a life of a copy before White Moonlight man turned back. But instead of falling Lu Bai became very aggressive almost pitting everyone around him using either black material or other stuff, since almost everyone around him used his status as a toy of a gold master to humiliate him. White Moonlight guy is actually a fake one, he just pushed those idealistic things for good image, but this became a template by which Lu Bai lived, his body was tortured, he was drugged to submit and even had electric pads for control (which already sounds too much). He also scared the White Moonlight with the love of this gold master to the point of him leaving to go abroad again and gold master leaving to chase as well, which opened Lu Bai a path and time to try and catch target's handle. And his aggressive image of course became more tempting in the eyes of the target who by now knew that White Moonlight lied about his leave to foreign country and that instead of recuperation after a case (which was fabricated), he married a wealthy man and waited for his death to inherit. The image of clean person was destroyed. On Lu Bai's side he uncovered the case of 19 boys who disappeared under Xu Rui's care, they all failed the test to become perfect and were actually burned alive and the ashes were to be used to create diamonds for the ring, which he will present his White Moonlight. It ended with Lu Bai's victory of course, of him stepping out of th shadow and finally realizing the dream of original host, but because his body was badly injured previously, Lu Bai in this world didn't live past 30. 

This arc made me question the character building, since many acted very one-dimensional. Plus it was kind of weird that all subordinates took part in killing children, it was justified that Xu Rui had a handle, but I don't understand what type of handle one must have to exchange for 19 lives. To me it sounds weird how almost entire company has a handle in the arms of Xu Rui, but no one did anything with him, everyone was so passive.

ARC 3

This is where things started to get weird, because after finishing I can say for sure that my intelligence wasn't enough to understand why author wrote the way they did. 3rd world is an ABO world and it has pretty weird structure and law enforcement.

Original story: Lu Bai is one of the twins, his parents, he and the twin brother get into a plane crash, but only he survives, the fiancee of his twin brother retalliates against him, damages his gland, never helps with heat periods and in two years when twin brother arrives Lu Bai is pushed into asylum from which he escapes in few years but caught again, the end.

Lu Bai story: Lu Bai starts from the asylum escape with other people, he helps them to escape safely, but realizes that the team has a traitor, at one point he separates the team and goes into an experiment which is directed to helpt the equality rights between Alpha, Beta and Omega, which was carried out in a special prison (really weird setting tbh). And Lu Bai was put together with others, including Alphas, the experiment was broadcasted live. He came the winner of it and joined as a new part of Omega Association and created a special task force, Omega Association changed from the place that helps omegas to one of a deep waters. Lu Bai works to destroy the chess game against the target - Long Xiao, who puts traps at every corner for him. But Lu Bai concluded that this Long Xiao isn't the original Alpha, so he plays to revenge for all the harm done. In the end he uncovered a big case that it all started from fake Long Xiao's mother who got pregnant from Long family father, she also carried human experiments for gland transplantation (which I think would have ended illegal, since otherwise too many people woul suffer) and fake Long Xiao grew up under such care and thoughts that everyone is not even human formed. Later fake Long Xiao took place of the real heir and continued his mother's experiments in his desire to become the real Alpha (which make me question again, there was almost 300 children victims and no one has noticed for so long). Original twin Lu Yuan who framed his brother did it all for the money and fame, but didn't expect that as Lu Bai's value grew in Long Xiao's mind, less he will be needed. Long Xiao lost, real Long Xiao was saved, in time Lu Bai created a drug that will help omega to cope with heat and period after washing the mark. He lived far longer in this life honored with glory.

This arc Lu Bai guessed why he was put into reincarnation, since originally worlds and his original host should have served as nourishment for Lord God, but Heaven Dao intervened and chose Lu Bai who has a tough soul and won't act accordingly original script that is filled with humiliation. The connection of worlds Lu Bai concluded since people he comes across look exactly as ones from his original world he suspects not to be real too.

I had most questions for this arc, since I don't really see logic in such world-building, that first we go to prove Omegas can and only after create a drug. Because to prove equal right Omega was to be put into prison with others, despite the heat periods, not given inhibitors etc. Basically proving their point of strong Omega at the price of Omega's health, since it directly damaged Lu Bai's health and he later said he won't leave pass 40 years. Second question of mine was that there is a great number of pharmacist as mentioned, but no one is searching for a drug that might help the Omegas. The other question was about Long Xiao who has such deep roots and has people everywhere which sounded over the top, since as described he started planning early on and placed his people in many establishments, which come in conveniently in the story and this convenience seems out of proportion. And another thing concerning the storyline, it felt weird how the story spent enough time at first on secondary characters, but when it came to the villain he was dealt with pretty fast.

ARC 4

The vacation world where Lu Bai could let it go and act like a scum without much effort.

ARC 5

In this arc I felt that the reason for Lu Bai's suffering was pretty... cheap.

Origial story: Lu Bai got driven mad by his husband who used him as a talent to share burden of opening company and as a cashcow when it came to doing ads. It was a big conspiracy in which his husband had a love relationship with his White Moonlight, and intersex person, and they also had a kid and both aimed to drive Lu Bai mad.

Lu Bai's story: LB managed to overturn his overtrashed image and become a sad person who was neglected by cold domesting violance and was drown in his fantasies where he had a loving husband. In this world villain used hypnosis and psychological suggestions to slowly drive Lu Bai insane. ML could not be present, but he appeared as Lu Bai's hallucination, which only added realism to LB's play. Though it is obvious that White Moonlight is also used by the villain, but still the whole idea of driving people mad sounds so over the top. Sure thing the more mad the better for the main god, but the ending just fell flat because of that. In this world Lu Bai managed to drag the villain out, many people witnessed husband's derailment even during their still married status. He managed to drive the person to thec cliff and destroy his empire that was built on LB. LB didn't live long in this world due to mental illness and comitted suicide early to go to next world.

ARC 6

This is a school campus story. Again has a bit too brain-dead characters. Like why they keep appearing -_-

Original sotry: In this world Lu Bai has been bullied by protag at school, but since the status of the bully was so high many cases were scrapped under the rug. MC never got justice and comitted suicide leaving his diary and evidence which blew up, making bully leave abroad going through bullying too and returning to China where he met MC's younger brother, who became psychologist and helped him cope with trauma and slowly fell madly in love only later realize his lover was the one who drove his brother to suicide. He had accident, but was reborn and went to protag to "save" him, but with butterfly effect his brother who could have been saved was sealed in a barrel and slowly suffocated leaving no perpetrators.

Lu Bai's story: LB travels to moment where he was sealed, he was badly wounded, his kneecap destroyed, he managed to smash the barrel and use phone to attract attention of police, call ambulance etc. His braindead brother was with protag at this moment. Later even accused LB as one who tried to ruin these childrens' lives doing such a selfish thing as caling police etc. Of course he got his share of suffering in the end realizing the truth about protag and life too. Since no one listened LB tried to uncover the truth in his own way, by the way due to effect of rebirth now protag realized that he bullies LB so much since he is in love with him, he wants to see him bend and beg. That's why he used the little brother as a substitute, what this idiot later finally figured out after being practically tortured and almost shared with a group of people. As it happened LB's birth has a secret that is he is not the pro son, but was asked to be brought up (the reason why his case was sold for money originally), he belongs to a Lu family and later used their power to slowly chip off all bullies, including bending the protag's family (partially thanks to braindead brother who still promised to be with protag, but helped with colelcting evidence against protag family, later moved with his parents a lot and in the end was sold). Mostly LB used other people's hands. In this world main god wanted to get to LB portraying ML as a silent listener of MC's suffering, but it passed. LB had later a successful life helping others who went through school violence etc.

ORIGINAL WORLD:

LB gets back, helps deal with all six masters, who each have an arm too deep in some shady business. He also gets recuperated, honor for his service and has a lovely life before leaving this world at the end of his life and going to main space and finding main god who lost vitality due to all worlds being cut off and main god disappeared. MC and ML became what you call immortal and the system also turned into human.

- - -

And after reading I had several questionable places. Like that amount of drama all the time made the ending insignificant. And in general it bare the amount of too much. Sometimes motivations were so... like really cheap or weird. Just for the amount of suffering MC goes through motivations like just getting expensive sounds unequal. Although I doubt that MC could return to being at least somehow normal, but it was justified that his soul is really strong, ok, though under such psychological burden it is hard to imagine, since basically he was most influenced by physical reactions/conditions of the bodies he got. Next is how in the original world he gets to smash all 6 masters at once, like why they were left like that was skipped.

The only satisfying thing was to finally see MC happy. He waited for who 6 worlds to get into his original body to fairly be with ML. But by this time I was honestly exhausted.

RATE: 3,5/5.

[Chinese BL novel] Atypical desire to survive* / 非典型求生欲[快穿]

Title: Atypical desire to survive* / 非典型求生欲[快穿]

Author: 讳疾

Year of release: 2020

# of chapters: 293

Status: Completed

Link to NU: n/a

Tags: quick pass

I don't know how to describe it, really. It is supposed to be another quick pass / world hopping / transmigration. I honestly managed to read only 1st arc that was a xianxia world all of a sudden, but that's the xact reaction, I think I barely survived how boring to me it was. Sure thing it was supposed to be poetic etc. but 46 chapter of particularly nothing exciting.

1st arc was basically like this. MC who claims to be an old monster, transmigrates into xianxia story in which he was rescued from a lower world and taken to upper world, he was cultivated for one reason to cut his dao bones and give it to his first desciple. MC transmigrates right before the two of them become the Taoist couple ceremony. Which ended in blood since MC cut his own bone and left it to the man (supposed to be ML, my assumption). Anyway, MC cuts his bone out and leaves to lower world.

The story isn't anything complicated, the MC leaves, then he goes to his own sect where he becomes an elder since in lowe rworld cultivation is limited and when they were visiting a secret realm for wining his desciples disappeared, he went to find them and it happened they were in spiritual realm that connected lower world and upper world. He saved them, but got acquainted with other Yun Shu, he is actually a part of YS's soul that was lost before, his emotions, that's why he was so unscrupulous for the Dao Bone of MC. He also met the desciple that got the bone, but honeslty the conflict there is lukewarm. In the end YS soul left to the main body to become the main body itself and be together with MC, MC got this secret realm and used it to enrich lower world with spiritual qi, he helped cultivate many disciples from his sect and other sects, enriched the soil and slowly the world started to change. He also used that realm to cultivate and got the call of Heaven that explained that the world was changing and the road to ascend was closed so no one can ascend to immortality (including Yun Shu), but because of what he did they voice talked to him directly of the situation etc. In the end he used his life to fill up the missing part in the road of scention which made Yun Shu ascend to immortality, but MC disappeared from this place. In time many things changed. This includes many side-character that were fascinated by MC's beauty and character.

I'd say honestly, there was nothing much happening and not many conflicts happened too, everything felt lukewarm like a literature that wanted to be more than it is, but it barely could hold my interest due to lack of direction except one that appeared much later. There was no direction if things will change between ML and MC or if there will be some main aim of this arc, but no, it just stayed like that and I have no idea what was the whole point of it.

RATE: 1,5*/5 for the first arc, it might have been beautiful, but pointless.

*I've read only first arc (chapters 1-46)

[Chinese BL novel] After wearing as a cannon fodder, I got a baby* / 穿成炮灰替身后我怀了崽

Title: After wearing as a cannon fodder, I got a baby* / 穿成炮灰替身后我怀了崽

Author: 逸烛 / Yizhu

Year of release: 2020

# of chapters: 100

Status: Completed

Link to NU: n/a

Tags: wearing the book, mpreg, comedy 

*title is MTL'd, not official translation

Summary: Chy Yu read a bloody text that had a character with the same name, who was attacked by a scum gong and had a miserable ending. But soon Chu Yu found himself crossing and wearing it as a stand-in had a night with the scum gong's adoptive father, who is supposed to have some hidden illness, but what Chu Yu wanted to ask: Does this hidden illness imply that he makes men pregnant?

Thoughts: It's a really light-hearted and warm text. Although the original should have been a drama text but since Chu Yu gets together with Shi Zheng right away the drama becomes non-existent. Big spoiler, but ML has also transmigrated and he is actually a dragon, that explains why he could impregnate Chu Yu and have a cub together. In original text because he didn't have the partner he needed for survival he eventually died, but now he has Chu Yu. Shi Zheng is actually a remarkably funny ML, he is awkward and it was pretty humorous when he tried to conceal that he's a dragon from Chu Yu, only slowly revealing his nature (like by dropping scales, he also had glowing eyes in the night etc.) The funniest moment I still remember is when ML transformed into a dragon and trying to escape from Chu Yu got stuck in a doorway due to his size :D Chu Yu also was very acceptive of this fact and that he ended up pregnant, like a good socialist and responsible youth :'D So they ended up in a win-win, loving and caring relationship.

As for adoptive son of Shi Zheng, well, he was adopted just for the sake of having a kid around, since Shi Zheng had his own issues not to have kids and he was responsible for a big family. And the family is big, as any dragon he sits on wealth.

RATE: 5/5. I remember I had really great time with this novel. It also made me wanna read what type of novels would Chinese authors produce if they dealt with Western type of creatures, it's really interesting :) And yes, I put these here, because while I still have my on-going quartet, I touched few bad ones I'll write about later, I needed to calm down and think of positive things.

[Chinese BL novel] Business Paradox* / 营业悖论[娱乐圈]

 Title: Business Paradox* / 营业悖论[娱乐圈]

Author: 稚楚

Year of release: 2020

# of chapters: 109+11 extras

Status: Completed

Link to NU: n/a

Tags: entertainment, boy group, from misunderstanding to love

*title is MTL'd, not official translation

Summary: A boy idol group that is on the verge of being tossed and forgotten thanks to two members go madly viral, they finally have a chance to show their talent and attain a strong foothold in the entertainment.

Storyline: The two boys had a close video in the airport and thanks to rotten women it went viral, while these two boys actually don't even have a close relationship. Thanks to this chance though they can get invitations to programs and try to bring back the days when they were once famous. Their popularity was spoiled by rumours about the MC, he left his previous company, hasn't debuted with the group that is now their opponent and is pretty popular and also was drowned in rumors of unspoken rules, which MC never condoned to. He and ML get several invites, but most want them to be together that's how they shoot photos, then go to a program etc. Slowly getting closer and clearing previous misunderstandings about each other.

MC is a bit special boy, he can't see a thing in the darkness and has amazing talent for feeling time.

Tbh I made a pause when reading and hasn't finished since, just read several final chapters, which are obviously about a happy ending, recognition, getting rewarded. The group of them are actually pretty talented boys, but surely someone wanted to piss on their parade when they shot for the first time, so they got into trouble with rumors, but all member didn't really blame MC.

What I've read is enough to say that this is a pretty easy and romantic story and has nice good feelings. Both MC and ML slowly clear all that was in-between them and appreciated each other., then fall in love.

RATE: 4,5/5, since I haven't finished I shouldn't be rating it to be honest)))

[Topic] Omegaverse, ABO, ger - the overabundance of the mpreg genre on the market, can it stay interesting?

Omegaverse, also known as ABO, firstly was known as subgenre of speculative erotic fiction and originally a subgenre of erotic slash fan fiction. The genre describes a dominant hierarchy where Alpha=dominant, Beta=neutral and Omega=submissive, focusing on wolf or canid-like behaviors of humans, such as rutting, heat cycles and pheromonal attraction between A and O, breeding etc. Omegaverse is a world of 6 sexes: female and male A, female and male B and, of course, female and male O. The gland of O and A is located on their neck and emits pheromones that for A can be used to supporess and for O are used to attrackt. 

With time, since Omegaverse is proven to be a free to explore genre for anyone, it was established as a separate genre and grew rapidly on the market within last 7 years (my own judgement from the number of released during this time commercial and non-commercial works). Of course the genre itself existed for far-far longer and it's hard to pinpoint who was the first one to introduce it into fiction.

Since we're mostly BL blog here, I will be taking note on mostly slash fiction/comics. With time slash fiction and comics started to take place in different eras, such as modern, ancient, interstellar or primal. Initially due to the genre itself being based on canid-like hierarchy the characters described in it had werewolfe attributes, so what we see today might describe worlds of humans, human/human-like animal world or pure animal world.

While I personally concentrate on three Asian markets - Chinese, Japanese and Korean - I was introduced to this genre for the first time around 2013 in Japanese manga and witnessed how this genre due to high demand grew rapidly from several series in magazines to publishers starting a separate ABO magazines, specifically for this genre (e.g. B-Boy Omegaverse, from 2016). Japanese market mostly explores Moderm World Omegaverse, quite often concentrating on the aspect of slash/erotica rather than storyline or ABO world exploration. It's hard for me to pick up some remarkable works, since they all mainly explore and portray only one thing - porn. There's an abundant number of works with dominance and submission of A/O pairings, with rare exceptions of uneven pairs like A/B or B/O and even less works that point out Omega oppression in such hierarchy. But this is the only thing that this market usually explores - relationships. Later Japanese market slowly introduced Omegaverse with human/animal relationships. But, actually, it would be wrong to say plain animals, but they're human-like animals to be precise, walking and speaking like himans, partially having human bodies, but also bearing animal attributes, such as fur, ears, heads, tails, claws etc.

My personal opinion on Japanese Omegaverse manga market: It's shallow. The strucutre of Omegaverse they use is the classic structure of hierarchy, mating, bonding, marking, pheromone attraction and also due to it being a modern world the use of inhibitors (in pill/shot form). It often times glorifies very toxic relationships and, although ABO should be about characters who are driven by their animalistic characteristic, I see it as another excuse to write slash/eroitca without substantial storyline. Many works just explore relationships between people, the only extra is that Omega can give birth to children, but actually it doesn't explore any other aspects of Omegaverse world itself, giving the stories of Japanese mangas I've seen a very shallow meaning. They could be same just modern world BL works without the ABO and it'd be the same. Japanese market also suffers from the limited-space phenomen that directly affects the quility of Omegaverse and other BL works. Due to fixed numbers of pages per chapter and high risk of failure to step outside of troupes or not wanting to take a riskier route, many of the works in Japanese manga are pretty simple and hardly bound to overused cliche troupes. Thus, unfortunately, the works on Japanese market are destined to be repetitive, reminding basic yaoi, but with ABO features. Amen.

As for Korean market..tbh I haven't seen a single story of ABO genre produced by a Korean author (I'm sure there are, but the question is that I haven't read any), not that I truly follow the market now.. because let's be honest, they already produce enough SM-type, toxic relationships and abuse type of works. I personally find it the worst stories I've read in my life.

On the other continent Chinese BL market uses ABO as to refer to this genre and often time binds it with Interstellar World, combining two - Omegaverse and Zergs - where ABO human six sexes are actually evolved people in a far future due to scarce population after Zergs' universal dominance over other species and human annihilation. There are also many modern or ancient stories, but they're second in number. Modern stories usually use simply mpreg, without ABO settings, where only certain males can get pregnant and society isn't divided into six sexes. The greatness of interstellar stories opens the path to many universe explorations, power struggles and sci-fi galore that is very interesting from the reader's point of view. And the open door to imagination keeps this genre self-refreshing.

*Zergs are bug-like aggressive species, maybe they appeared earlier than that, but I believe they start their path from Star Troopers (by that I mean the book written back in 1959, which was used as a base for same-title movie).

Due to censorship that exists on Chinese market, which I personally find a great thing, ABO worlds of Chinese BL thus are concentrating on storylines and relationships over explicit content.

ABO world of Chinese works also mostly are based on the classical hierarchy structure, but due to unlimited space of digital writing the worlds described in novels are more detailed and complex. Despite the often usedtroupes where Alphas are scarce in numbers, but they occupy the top positions and Omegas are at the bottom as the weakest existances due to their physique being frail. This start introduced a path for many works to take on topics exploring unequal human rights, power struggles etc. 

Along with six sexes, ABO interstellar worlds introduce different physical and mental powers (from F grade to S grade, as the highest, above that is only 2S, 3S or even 4S, depending on the story), both these factors also influence the future development, physical problems and deviations for characters. Thus introducing variaty of possibilies that the story can take and making it more interesting. For example, the physically frail Omega can have strong spiritual powers that may be used as a body condition or on the contrary use the spiritually strong Omegas as mecha workers, which can be handled only by people with strong spiritual powers. Omegas can be kind and stay at home or they can lead an army to fight etc. This is just one of a hundred possibilites how these attributes could be used in a story.

As I mentioned the ABO interstelar worlds take the human six sexes route with widely used physical attributes, such as that the gland of Omegas is located on their neck, but this is a gland among others, its' destruction won't lead to death, but infertility. Omega's death is always linked to Alpha, either marked Omega can die because their Alpha left them and doesn't mark them during estrus or their Alpha is dead etc. One of very few works that took ABO to another level was an Arc in 学神在手，天下我有, where the gland of Omega and Alpha isn't only the source of their pheromone, but also source of their life and having problems with the gland or having it completely removed is the same as slow death. Which I found a good twist on already established genre.

But Chinese authors didn't stop there, they actually expanded the mpreg subgenre and ABO became only a part of it. Expansion covered novels about Gers, babies conceived after dual cultivation in xianxia (or cultivation genre) as well as pregnancy with spirits (often ghosts). I don't know where the word 'Ger' originated from, I met it in Chinese BL novels for the first time. Unlike ABO, Gers are feminine and beautiful males that can give birth to children, usually Gers are set into ancient China settings where Gers are more like daughters that can be married off. The attributes of Gers are: feminine and beautiful complexion, sindoor or a circular mark from pale pink to blood-red color that represent Ger's fertility, from low to high respectively. Such settings also often explore the unequalness between Gers and men, but unlike Omegas they don't enter estrus, they're just compitable for male x male. These topics are only a part of the stories that may expand to many other subgenres and locating in basic cities, imperial palaces etc. Gers can be the center of the stories, as well as just a part of it.

My personal opinion on Chinese ABO BL novels: They are the most interesting works I've read throughout the years, unlike many comics that simply use ABO to draw slash stories, novels expand the worlds to something bigger and actually become true great stories by themselves where ABO is only an aspect of it. Surprisingly the limitations because of censorship, that simply don't allow pornographic content, served as a stepping stone to exploration of vaster universes and more complex worlds and characters.

As a conclusion I can only say that this genre (including mpreg in general) can actually be pretty interesting and continue to be such, if you're not repulsive to this subject. I personally am not and what I find interesting is how although this type of world has a rigid structure, but it actually makes it interesting to witness how characters will exist in this frame or they will instead break it. The difference is in approach and the vastness of possibilities that digital writing holds. The only pity is that with such as Japanese market, ABO serves only as a slash story ground, that is narrow-minded and many works don't differ from others and if there's no change in approach these works will continue to resemble each other and will never grow. Although novels can suffer from it too, but they managed to introduce a more vast world and much more interesting settings.

[Chinese BL novel] I can't leave after the agreed marriage* / 协议结婚后我离不掉了

Title: I can't leave after the agreed marriage* / 协议结婚后我离不掉了

Author: Xie Yi / 百户千灯

Year of release: 2019

#of chapters: 111

Status: Completed

Link to NU: n/a

Tags: agreed marriage, emotionally dumb MC, domineering boss ML, falling in love after marriage

*title is MTL'd, not official translation

Summary:

Lin Yuhe enters an agreed marriage as a screen for a big boss Lu Nan from his family, his idea is simple, he felt obligated to his step-mother who provided him funds for an operation and consequent therapy medication and agreed to be married to a big boss and play his role, then return to his casual life of a medical student, but when it came to inquiring about divorce the big boss's answer was "Don't mention divorce from now on".

Storyline:

Tbh this is a very frustrating novel to me, I have no idea for what reason more than 5k people on jjwxc rated this 5 star, which bought me at the beginning, but when I struggled to read 70 chapter my patience simply disappeared, because it couldn't handle such violation.

The storyline covers several months, the basic events include: meeting, engagement, marriage, dealing with misunderstanding and finally accepting the love and proceeding to it. If there is a family drama you think would appear, I will disappoint you, drama will only tickle your feet and will run away, since as author claims time and time again that this is a sweet text, but they don't realize it's actually hardcore boring sweet text.

I don't like the content and most of all I don't like MC. I for sure think that all people deserve to be loved, but it doesn't mean that reading about emotionally dumb people is an interesting sport.

The settings of MC are close to what should be called - alexithymia - inability to identify emotions. The author actually fails to deliver it with a 100%. Partially they mention autism, but the trait of inability to interpret emotions is only part of autism, not definition of it. Why I say author fails to deliver? Simply because the settings of MC contradict each other and the settings. From one point MC is described as being unable to interpret what ML feels towards him and can't grasp the emotional signals from the other party. BUT. There are several scenes of MC being confessed to, where he definitely understands the intention of other party as love for him, he just doesn't answer to the feelings and acts indifferently. What is the second point is that he perfectly can interpret other people malice towards himself. Like he surely understands that he is being sold by his step-mother's family for benefits, there is also a moment when ML's grandfather comes into contact and although acts and speaks kindly, but it's obviously hiding knives in his words (it was ridiculous to read how a special assistant following MC said how keen to malice MC was). That's why the entire setting of MC as emotionally blunt to love is simply non-existent and dumbly written to me. A bit more about later.

The story starts with the communication between MC, Lin Yuhe and his step-mother, who constantly contacts him on ML's whereabouts and deeds, time and time again brainwashes him on rules etc. ML, *Lu Nan (*names MTL'd) comes from a wealthy family, his natal Lu family is in conflict with his parents and consequently with him too. His parents were in uneven marriage, his father married a racer and later they created a big business, which ML gets at the beginning of the story and becomes a big chairman. His natal family is described as basic feudal family with many wives and many sons and grandchildren, most of which act as if they're nobility, basically described by author in two words as one-dimensional stupid villains.

Lu Nan and Lin Yuhe enter a contract marriage where, supposedly, Lu Nan uses LYH as a shield from his family. Which already sounds hella stupid as a setting, but for some reason nobody questions it, especially MC. He is basically described as this sensible person who is ready to marry anyone and there's a hint that it is his gratitude towards his step-mother who gave money for an important operation, MC has severe asthma since childhood and step-mother paid for operation and therapy, which is a big sum. This part is also baffling to me, since later MC offers a payment of several millions for all these years of upbringing, including operation fees etc. And he paid it before being marriad, it was his own money and he used his own earning and everything he had on hands, so I ask myself - why he agreed to marriage and didn't care how the pratner looks like while he had all the money and could refuse from the get-go? At this point the story setting started to irritate me quite a bit.

His step-mother is quite an annoying bitch too and totally one-dimensional, it is obvious she sells the step-son and she also feels hate because she down-married and this step-son resembled the first wife a lot. Which is totally childish. And basically their family live in a perfect world of three with Lin's father, stepmother Wu Xin and WX's daughter from her own first marriage. Her constant calls and constant text about rules etc. was another part of immense boredom.

LYH and LN meet at first and since the get-go it's obvious that ML is very attentive, more obvious to the reader that first of all ML already has feelings for MC and secondly they for surely knew each other before. The only difference is that MC doesn't remember much. due to his asthma he lived with his grandpa after his mother's death in a mountaneous area, he also had a severe fever at that time that almost burned him. Later only in high school he had operation and was better. Relatively, since the very beginning MC has complications in daily life, not to mention to his frail complexion and also that he is always cold. Thus he was always bookish since childhood and had very good grades, thus he is now a med student also first in exams. Here I have another logic breakage, since being a med student etc. requires logical and analytical thinking, meaning he needs to analyze the information in front of him and interpret it, but for some reason it surely works in his life as a med student, but when it comes to realizing that LN eats a spicy hotpot of his hometown just for him he is incapable of.

The following events are pretty boring, he either goes to uni or listens to his step-mother or they meet with ML, who tells him not to mind what his step-mothers tells him about rules. MC is also a good thing because he simply can't lie and doesn't lie always fully sharing what happaned and what was done. Basically sometimes being like a machine.

Tbh the whole setting of contract marriage is also very icky to me. Basically instead of normal romance and such ML bound MC by this contract and later coerced MC into being more intimate so they can fool everyone etc. While only a dumb idiot won't guess that there's no need for MC to be a shield, it's all ML's plan to get MC, which already sounds like tricking someone into a relationship..it honestly lives a bad taste in my mouth. The only thing that makes it a little better is that ML is really loving and caring, he cares for MC's always chapped lips, for him being warm etc. But it sometimes has a bad taste and even author comments on it with relish how MC helps count money after being sold...I really didn't get author's happiness for that.

Later they have engagement, which is a big event. It wasn't uneventful, MC was almost implicated, which again I couldn't understand why he was stupid to think why the person who led him was from ML's people, while previously MC was protected like a vase. He totally always acts like a damn flower, dumb flower. This is a guy who gets 1st place in exams ladies and gents. And it's not like he is incapable of feelings, he obviously went to high places to calm himself down after few meetings with his step-mother and did that to seek comfort, he also has a piece of agarwood for the same purpose of calming himself, so this ability/inability are contraditcing to no end.

Later btw when they have dinner when Lin father finally realized the indifference of his own son who once loved him, but now didn't bother with what was happening around him again he's this indifferent machine. With conflict between step-mom and step-son, Wu famly actually got troubles from ML for breaching the agreement. Only then father Lin also found out that his wife was trying to sell his son to other people before and when they got Lu Nan she installed malicious programs into son's phone to follow and even listen to conversations. After this incident the entire family, including the moment when MC came back to pay, was left behind in the story, only occasionally appearing, since step-mother was pregnant and the daughter was hysterical since they promised she'll be the only child, so she even almost made her mother drink meds to miscarry.

Next a series of boring events that should have been for cultivating feelings. Anyway MC is responsive to ML so ML thinks LYH had positive feelings towards him. But I can't understand why MC can't catch the sentimental side of ML who brought him to the city where they married in the same hall where ML's parents married and they also had rings of his parents. But he thought ML is really dedicated for this stuff. Even their first sex was treated as - well, you have a different walk and have signs of love making etc. And MC feeling he did too little for their contract actually agreed to sex and such, but also found comfort in it. Here's another thing, MC with his condition is always cold, so he even sleeps with a warmer, later when ML proposed to live together ML takes him to master bedroom to sleep together and it's the first time where MC gets warm and sleeps well due to ML having high body temperature. It was another brain-dead moment when MC couldn't rule out that he surely sleeps in ML's embrace thus he feels warm, otherwise when ML is not around he's always cold...and he couldn't guess it for a very long time, before he woke up in ML's embrace. He also has these half-conscious moments when he sleeps and acts like a baby.

Again the Lu family never appeared and MC doesn't realize they were never going to appear. Only later heard that ML snatched a big project from the Lu family for which he worked hard. I like how authors are very vague on business, it's all deals, working long hours, signing etc. no details. ML also poured real dirt on another grandson of Lu family, who is notoriously popular for lace news in their city, but media covered real hammer with nude photos of a nude party. He did it in order to divert news from his own marriage and always protected the identity of his partner. Again MC realized these things only later and only after being told.

There's actually not a fight but a bit of a conflict, which resulted in nothing, ML still was attentive with several days of alienation, it all happened because ML confessed why he cared for MC's well-being, but MC answered that for him love is a task, since within his own family his father was praised for a loving husband, but acted the same towards the step-mother and doing identical things, thus perfectly copying emotions from one person to another, totally uncovering his true understanding and indifference to love.

Surely it raised suspicions in ML's heart. But just a bit later the friend he met at engament party told him of his wrong thinking that if ML didn't love him, he wouldn't do this and this and that. After which though MC still thought of this love as a task, but still felt that he wanted ML to be happy and they are in uneven relationship where he only receives, but never gives back. Then they get closer and cozier with ML.

On Spring Festival MC and ML visited MC's hometown. Where MC finally found out more about his past and how they met with ML. Prior to that his childhood friend came back, then he found that ML, speciall assistant that followed ML and his childhood friend all know each other. He didn't get it at first too, which is annoying af. AT one time he is sharp, at other times he is dumb as a plack of wood.

Anyway, MC and ML met when MC was still a kid and followed this big brother, ML, around. ML was recuperating after being wounded (basically targeted as a heir to big corporation to get his inheritance), he also felt guilty because of him MC fell into water and had a sever fever later, but MC didn't blame him. Here my brain exploded, the reason for it, since I mentioned ML thought MCs conduct is weird he invited a psychologist and within time MC confessed that he "killed his mother", but basically he blames himself that because of his birth his mother had her health declined and later she had lung infection which led to her death. And it made me crazy.. because he's a fucking med student. Why you should blame yourself for events that weren't under your control even. He should know these facts that some women indeed may suffer from health decline due to birth, birth in itself can bring a variety of weird symptoms. But nope, we're a guilty flower that's why his inability to understand love was born - because he didn't love himself, thus he didn't understand why others should love him and for what. Anyway this is where MC found more about the past between them and heard a lot of stories of his own actions towards ML and later ML explained that because MC cared for him, he became his emotional pillar at that time and helped him to go through many difficulties.

Honestly this is such a hurtful novel to read, I reached 70+ chapters, 2/3 of the book MC treats marriage as a task and love as a task, while on the background ML treats him well and caring, brings him to places he for sure cares about, makes him meet his parents, even asks him to bring parents' ashes home as a legal partner when he couldn't leave etc. which is infuriating to me. Since there's little to no drama events it's also pretty boring. Like the one drama with Lu family where they fabricated news of ML's rigid personality and such...but honestly he is in a business circle, news are nto about breaking a law, business people don't even care for such bs that happens online and his business doesn't even depend on population. Not to mention such stupid stuff till be forgotten. It was so... dumb. The only purpose of it for MC to finally start realizing that he really does too little for ML and he is tightly protected from all sides, ML never takes him out, never makes him face people he is uncomfortable wuth etc. The only thing he can give is love with his body and even in this department only after ML asks him to sometimes initiate things between them and it will make LN happy, only then LYH does something.

Thus if it wasn't for the 4 novels I follow which are good, I'd drop this way earlier, but I reached 70+ chapter, read the last one, which was just some random stuff and decided that I'll drop it for good. The main parts which made it infuriating for me I described, as for the rest..I really don't care, i can imagine what will happen in 30 chapters I missed. Also it has extras with MC's childhood friend and special assistant. The purpose of writing extras about them is beyond me, since it feels like a cash grab just because people felt they had a vibe.

RATE: 2/5. I suffered. This MC made me suffer.

[Topic] Currently ongoing reading

    The list of novels that I'm currently following, which I don't rate, but find promising:

• The male partner just wants to be a tool man [entertainment] / 男配只想做工具人[娱乐圈] Very light-hearted and humorous novel. Basically it's wearing a book where MC tries to be a tool man before the protagonist arrives, but of course things don't follow the route right away. MC has a strong personality and doesn't accept any bullshit. MC and ML although start as one-night standers actually quickly develop good humorous relationship of an old couple in love, not realizing it. I find this one so far as very light-hearted and easy read to ease your mind and enjoy the fun.
• The return of White Moonlight / 豪门白月光归来 Starts with MC waking up without prior 4 years of memories due to head trauma, but realizes that his temperament actually changed from previous sensibility. News of his family leave him shocked. Their strained relationship with his once good family due to his own father deciding to acknowlede illegitimate kid that grew up outside that actually caused MC's mother drowning into depression and later her death. But no one from his family actually took his side, only his cousine that cared for his disappearance for 4 years. The only person who rushes to him as a support is the one to whom belong the lost memories. MC acts very real when he's angry with his family, he is also resolute and strong doing his own thing and not wanting to indulge his family into trampling him.
• He blew A after wearing cannon fodder 0 / 穿成炮灰O后他A爆了 MC wears into Omega, he was once a genius mechanic creating a bunch of wonderful mecha, but he was disabled and could never realize his dream of driving it. Now he wears into a healthy body, but with low mental and physical strength. He firstly dissolves the marriage contract with his fiance to rush to his dream. The ex-fiance thinks that MC does everything for him, but actually doesn't even realize that person's remperament changed so much. MC is really in love with mecha and to stay in school and prove himself he works hard to realize his aspirations with his own power. ML is not the ex-fiance, but the current top A.
• I have entire world with god of knowledge in my hand / 学神在手，天下我有 The only novel I can rate already 5/5 no matter how it ends, this one from the author of FOD, surprisingly, since I don't like FOD, but this novel is super exciting :D MC is a super devilish queenly personality, it's always a pleasure to see him arrange things. I also keep a spoiler thread on NU for this novel, because surprisingly it wasn't picked up yet (and it's already nearing 500 chapters). It's really different, has a lot of new ideas on plot twists and world-building, their ABO approach also made me think of writing a note on ABO and Omegaverse pros and cons and ability to be interesting.

    Basically, these four are my main to follow daily. Except the last one they all started right before New Year, so they are all fresh from the oven. Partially it's really hard to follow something on-going, since you have to wait for a daily update wondering if releases will be as steady. During this time I found some authors who unfortunately either went on hiatus or sealed their pen. Which is such a pity.

[Chinese BL novel] Giant little stepdad (rebirth)* / 豪门小后爸（重生）

Title: 豪门小后爸（重生）/ Giant little stepdad (rebirth)*

Author: Tangerine boat / 橘子舟

Year of release: 2020

#of chapters: 84 + 1 extra

Status: Completed

Link to NU: n/a

Tags: rebirth, family drama, mpreg, dancing

*the title is MTL'd, not official translation

Summary: 

In his previous life Fang Li was unlucky to have his leg broken and under schemes finally lost his life to Yue Wenxi, his actual cousin. After being reborn he realizes that he is actually just a cannon fodder to a glorious life of Yue Wenxi. Driven by the desire to revenge himself Fang Li decided to seduce Yan Moyaoi, who is the current patriarch of the Yan family and is also a nominal adoptive father to four sons, including Yue Wenxi.

Storyline:

Fang Li wakes up realizing that he was reborn, there was no broken leg, no scars on his face. He was again a 19 year old student of a dance academy, living with his actual aunt. His first goal was to leave this family who stole his family's property and used it for their own good, but still treated Fang Li with scorn and hate.

It's been some time since Yue Wenxi was adopted to the Yan family. His and Fang Li's mother are actual sisters, but YWX was always jealous of Fang Li's happy life. And even after his own parents were to beblamed for an accident that took 4 parents lives, he still spread rumors and especially blackened Fang Li's name in front of his step-brothers to help him retaliate.

In this life Fang Li decides to seduce Yan Moyao, since to pay all four back he must be above them. An accident where Fang Li rushed on the road and was hit by Yan Moyao brought them together and Fang Li couldn't help but thicken his face and started chasing Yan Moyao, although without much success. But since he was at fault for hitting people and also briefly knew Fang Li's father he still couldn't help but worry about the kid.

Fang Li and YWX both are dance students, but unlike YWX Fang Li is a dance genious, always working hard and placing first,w hic drives YWX's jealous mind till the point of breaking. He tries to pit Fang Li in several occasions, like during the trip they wanted Fang Li to break his leg, but it was intersepted by bodyguards that Yan Moyao sent to keep an eye on Fang Li.

Emotional entanglement between MC and ML was based on ML's past. Yan Moyao was rumored to kill his wives. He was married thrice and each wife died unexpectedly, after which his mother met a fortune teller who helped to find auspicious dates for kids who migth be good to bring back, Yan Moyao was opposed, but his mother still brought four kids along the way. Yue Wenxi was like a lucky star to these people so they liked him a lot.

But because Yan Moyao didn't know of true nature of those accidents, he still didn't want Fang Li to be involved, so he refused him time and time again, but later was really harsh in his words. Yet after appearing and being ambiguous as if hanging Fang Li, MC couldn't take it and was finally angry, but tides turned, now ML under guise of caring didn't leave MC a way out. He couldn't leave MC to other people who were not worthy of him.

By this time feelings of Fang Li changed, they have encountered each other countless times and Moyao was really considerate and kind, so he couldn't help but long for this warmth, while his last life and struggle lacked an ounce of genuine care from other people. He was basically caught by this. And although angry at Moyao's selfishness of constant attack and then stepping back he agreed they should be together, especially with perspective of marriage and having kids.

One accident actually made Moyao think that he should finally disclose their relationship, since he already couldn't see Fang Li being wronged and the last thing he wanted to see is Fang Li unappiness. Their marriage untied a heart knot for MC, but actually tied ML's knot being afraid for his beloved person. Fang Li on the other hand was happily taking care of himself for the future birth of children only from time to time to instigate the 3 son (one was abroad for half the story). Which was obviously just a tease to make them restless and do stupid stuff. One of which was YWX again trying to frae Fang Li, but people who followed him took the video as evidence of YWX's scheme.

Mrs. Yan was biased towards these grandchildren since they lived under her care for years, so she often was on their side even questioned by Moyao how does she think it's ok to stay behind outsiders, but not her own son.

Fang Li as a reborn person also knew about some vague things that were important in the future, that's why he paid close attention to people around. And once noticed a person who appeared in his dreams of future, that's why he brought him to his side.

Out of four adoptive sons, who weren't even sons, since they weren't legally adopted, were just nominally named that and used it to theor advances, only one who came back from abroad acted respectfully towards Fang Li. But it still felt strange and fake. But listening to this son reaction to You Ran (the boy from his dreams) he delivered the news to his husband to deal with and investigate.

Many schemes of three to sow disorder failed miserably, two took a turn to leave the house at first. But when Fang Li became pregnant, other two were asked to leave as well. YWX of course cried and refused. I don't remember when he didn't cry or acted hysterical etc. But after hearing that Fang Li is pregnant Mrs. Yan who was ooposed to these two leaving was first to change her words and softly but resolutely asked them out.

Last part, which concerns the old family drama is about Moyao's father. Mr. Yan actually had a mistress outside, Moyao before becoming adult and dealing with his father and his illegitimate children had to pretend and hide deep. Right now the scheme of Mr Yan who pretended to have dementia for years was way deeper. He put his own kid into a Yan family, who gave their own child (You Ran) away, then after creating the legend of wife killer, they schemed with fortune teller to make Mrs Yan take several kids under protection, including this illegitimate kid who they wanted to inherit Moyao's properties and businesses. It'd be all good, if Fang Li didn't catch that strange reaction to You Ran. So the plan was thus uprooted.

Conclusion:

This is the third novel in the shared universe of rebirth/mpreg. Tbh I like the second novel the most out of three. Third one is a little weak in the aspect of the plot. It's also strange a bit the way Fang Li and Yan Moyao fell in love, there wasn't really a time before and after. It felt like were led by emotional stimulation to reach love so fast. Villains are not very prominent at all and also act stupidly. Maybe it was an idea, but it wasn't really delivered that Mr Yan was actually indisriminately wanting to place kids from his beloved woman as heirs to Yan family (all the riches actually coming from Mrs Yan family), but his kids are not that smart at all and just waited for the inheritance to fall on their heads. And although this 4th son tried to be worth it, it still lacked in delivery if he was truly worth it, since later it was disclosed that he did a lot of illegal thinsg for which he was put to jail. This I find flaw, since Moyao always guarded these 4 "sons", so I have no idea why he never found those things prior to the final showdown.

YWX as protagonist was really vain and weak, only in extra it shows how vain and unwilling to work hard he is, although partly it's obvious how he likes to show off and such, but there was part to want to win against Fang Li fairly (then not) and he worked for it, still later as a result of being thrown out of Yan family he gave up pretty easily and mixed with bad people and later just sold his service to rich people.

All in all it is an easy read, like true easy read, that can be finished during one evening. When you don't need to think much. The drama is relatively weak, there's no true suspence and such. It becomes a bit bleak on the background of the previous novels. The only good part is the relationship between Fang Li and Yan Moyao when they finally came together. It definitely could have more in-depth.

Character-wise one particular thing I found good: interestig how Fang Li is attrackted to unusual animals and also loves exotic birds a lot, he is also super cute when he was happy to find out that they finally had a child and it was heart-warming when they shared this joy together. It's funny how their son Fangyao in extras doesn't like Fang Li to read bedtime stories, but since he loves his father he doesn't say it, because stories make him excited instead of sleeping, n the contrary Fang Li is the one who sleeps first, but Fang Li is a cute dad, he tries his best for his son what he deems good for his kid. This is a really wholesome part.

RATE: 3,5 / 5.