baihe_media | Entries tagged with recs and reviews: novels

Scrapped (谁将报废, pinyin: shui jiang baofei) by Lü Bu Wei (吕不伪) is a near-future sci-fi thriller set in the year 2208, where society has somehow contrived to become even more stratified by wealth than it is now. Much of the labour, including creative labour, is being done by robots. There are a few holdouts — small businesses, artists and artisans who value the 'human touch' — but this is decidedly not a mainstream or profitable position to take. Working-class humans have to scrabble for work that will pay them enough to survive to work another day; wealthy humans (whom we never meet an actual example of in this book) are presumably kicking back and enjoying these fruits of civilisation. Human life itself is also highly stratified in another way. All babies in this universe are now gestated in 'baby factories', but some are much wanted babies whose parents pay painstaking attention to each stage of their development, while others are factory-gestated, factory-raised and factory-socialised at scale and in an impersonal way to serve as a source of cheap labour. The novel doesn't go into the details of how this takes place, but does make it clear that these children are viewed as distinctly expendable. It's also not clear precisely how 'second-class humans as a source of cheap labour' meshes with 'almost all work is done by robots now', but one plausible explanation is that they started with the second-class humans first, then pivoted to robots as the technology improved (and indeed, most of the working-class human characters we meet in this book are in their late twenties, suggesting that they may have been the last big batch of factory-raised 'cheap human labour' who came of age just as the robots were beginning to take over the jobs they would otherwise have done).

These world-building details are sprinkled throughout the novel, which is really the story of Wanxu, a household robot owned by Lizhi, who ekes out a living as a designer of theatrical sets and props. Lizhi, one of the aforementioned holdouts, refuses to use any machine assistance in her work, and insists on doing everything by hand. In accordance with her programming, Wanxu does her best to be an exemplary household robot, but Lizhi seems continually dissatisfied with her, and the fear of being scrapped looms almost permanently over Wanxu's head. She simply can't work out why Lizhi is so displeased with her, or why Lizhi often looks so sorrowfully at her. Lizhi also insists on doing eccentric things like asking Wanxu to eat with her (robots don't have a digestive tract), taking Wanxu on trips away from the city, and telling Wanxu endless stories about her ex-girlfriend, who is no longer around. One day, Wanxu finds a discarded robot at the recycling centre and inexplicably (because nothing in her programming should, in principle, allow her to do this) brings it home. Things escalate from there.

I found this a gripping, fast-paced read, with plot twists and reveals seeded in at just the right time to keep me turning the (digital) pages because I wanted to find out what was going on. Wanxu and Lizhi's shared and separate plights cohere very well with the dystopian world-building — there's some good thematic consistency going on here, and the author is thankfully never didactic about it. It's also an incredibly sad book, and not sad in an uplifting, cathartic way, but in a sort of heavy, resigned, hopeless way (thanks, late capitalism). It has a tragic ending, but that's clearly signalled from the first chapter, and the oppressiveness that hangs over the entire book makes it feel inevitable. I think it would stand up to a reread, especially since the final reveal colours so much of what comes before, but I'm not masochistic enough to attempt that so soon after finishing the book.

I read the Chinese original of the novel here on Changpei. The whole book is available for free, and it's also a very reasonable length (only 115k words!)

douqi

As a person with a PhD who refers to her PhD supervisor as shifu (for the avoidance of doubt, it is absolutely unthinkable that our relationship could be anything other than platonic), I have somewhat complicated feelings about the shizun romance as a subgenre. I started reading them periodically mainly because I wanted to be able to recommend something to the many people I see clamouring for 'MEATBUN BAIHE' on Twitter. It was in this spirit that I picked up The Wayward Disciple (孽徒, pinyin: nie tu) by Jiang Yi Shui (江一水), an author with a decent following on JJWXC. Her oeuvre is a mix of historical, xianxia and contemporary novels.

The novel summary sounded promising enough: orthodox cultivator Si Nan takes half-human, half-demon, mostly feral child Miao Xingxuan as her disciple. Miao Xingxuan is, in turn, the daughter of Si Nan's ex-fiancee Miao Xingchuan (deceased), who as far as anyone knows at the start of the novel, cheated on Si Nan with Helian Wuyou, daughter of the leader of the cultivation world's pre-eminent demonic sect. The summary also tells us that Si Nan had been motivated to do this in part because she had received a cautionary dream, in which she kept the child Miao Xingxuan imprisoned and attempted to use her half-human, half-demonic blood to achieve immortality. In the dream, this backfires badly: Miao Xingxuan consumes Si Nan alive, and goes on to terrorise the cultivation world until she's finally destroyed by the efforts of the orthodox sects. Si Nan wakes up from the dream determined to take Miao Xingchen into her care and ensure that none of this ever comes to pass. The summary also describes Miao Xingxuan as an 'unhinged' (疯批) disciple, who is motivated by the desire to drag Si Nan from her lofty pedestal and into the dirt with her.

( some spoilers )

In short, this novel frustrated me for the exact same reasons that Reading the Remnants (问棺, pinyin: wen guan) did (my review here), without even the saving grace of a character as brilliant as A-Yin. There were also some bits of plot-relevant xianxia machinery I felt were under-explained, but this could be due to the fact that I got so annoyed with the novel I basically skimmed most of the last quarter.

There is some fun world-building I guess. I like that Si Nan is the sort of cultivator who specialises in artifact forging/crafting (I haven't read a huge number of xianxia novels, but my sense is that the protagonists tend to be sword cultivators or something overtly cool). I also like that, unlike seemingly 95% of the shizun romance interests around, she's explicitly described as well-built and muscular. This particular cultivation world is a queernorm world, and most of the prominent characters are women. Cultivators of any gender can procreate with cultivators of any gender by combining their spiritual essences (though pregnancy canonically takes a huge spiritual toll on the carrying partner). The sex writing (such as it is, given that JJWXC content rules now don't allow anything explicit) would have been effective if I had actually cared about the main couple (there is a really good 'let's fuck spiritually while surrounded by enemies and on the brink of death' setup at the end). But I'm mostly happy to have finally finished this so I can move on to something less frustrating. A final note is that the demonic sects are explicitly linked with non-Han, central Asian peoples; this is not a strong theme at all within the novel, but it is present.

I read the Chinese original of the novel here on JJWXC.

llonkrebboj

Hello o/ While looking for baihe novel recs on twitter, I was encouraged to post an ask in this com, so here I am!

Super amazed and grateful that there is an English language dreamwidth community for Baihe novels in Chinese. Thank you for setting this up <3 <3 <3

I'm very new to baihe (currently reading 病弱美人的钩妻技巧) and am more of a danmei and no CP reader. Recently, there have been more baihe novels popping up on the daily top new VIP list on the JJWXC app, and I'm curious to check out this genre. Here's my problem though: I need a certain trope or variants of that trope to be in the stories I read... and I've not found many so far. For other genres, there are lots of rec lists and even weibo groups - it's not been as easy to locate these for baihe novels. Plus, in my experience, authors don't always put it in the title or the tags.

So! I'm hoping readers here would have come across what I'm looking for and can direct me toward them.

Trope(s) applicable to the main character in order of preference: 病弱 of delicate health > 战损 serious injury from fighting/war > 病美人 fragile beauties

- The delicate health part can be due to anything from the common poor constitution from birth, to poisoning, to chronic illness, heart disease, cancer etc.

- I like it a lot when their body is weak but they are strong in other ways.

- But also when they are good fighters or strategists.

Language: Ok with Chinese (simplified preferred xD)

Background setting: No pregnancy (or babies! or children under 4yo!) in general please. Anything else goes! I like to read everything from entertainment industry, to gaming, to unlimited flow, to scifi/space, to xianxia, and to historical settings. Quick transmigration is often more miss than hit, but I'm open to trying too!

Platform: Due to accessibility issues (other places don't want my money TAT), works from JJWXC, afd (爱发电) or lofter are preferred.

/more and more often there are paywalls on lofter now too, but at least for certain tiers access can be earned.

Current Mood: curious

hazevi

千年万岁，椒花颂声。

‘Even after thousands of years, may people chorus your name as I do.’

In 2013, archaeologists found a gravestone epitaph that was labeled with, ‘The Great Tang’s Former Zhaorong of the Shangguan Family.’ The words carved into stone completely changed how historians view some aspects of Tang Dynasty history, they also gave baihe planters a new clue about a previously unmentioned couple in history: Shangguan Wan’er and Princess Taiping. They might be the highest profile, and the closest thing Chinese history will give us to a lesbian couple.

For those who don’t want to read a history lesson, tl;dr:

Princess Taiping: Emperor’s Gaozong and Empress (Emperor) Wu Zetian’s youngest daughter, helped her brothers regain their throne after Wu Zetian’s reign but was killed by her nephew Emperor Xuanzong in a later power struggle. Dealt with Wan’er’s funeral, and on Wan’er’s gravestone epitaph she (most likely) commissioned these words:

‘As if the flowing water halts, the mountains are listing and crumbling. As if the round pearls sinking, a city’s worth of jade shattering. Staring off at the pine in front of the tomb, listening to the wind. Even after thousands of years, may people chorus your name as I do.’

(潇湘水断，宛委山倾。珠沉圆折，玉碎连城。

甫瞻松槚，静听坟茔。千年万岁，椒花颂声。)

These words are the basis of the WanPing ship.

Shangguan Wan’er: Wu Zetian’s secretary, previous servant, one of the most talented poets and authors Ancient China has seen (I’d say she’s the Chinese equivalent of Sappho, really). Dubbed the 巾帼宰相 (Prime Minister) despite not having held any true political position in the front court. Killed during a rebellion despite standing on the ‘politically correct’ side. Princess Taiping took care of her funeral, and wrote her gravestone epitaph.

Ps: (巾帼 jin guo refers to the cloth many women wore on their heads, so generally it denotes women)

Yes, in history, in the end, they were a tragedy, similar to a lot of couples.

Note: this is real history, and this entire relationship is very much not verified within ANY history books. It is simply the imagination/bits of subtle evidence that have been pieced together. That being said, history does often have a habit of pointing fingers at notable females and throwing the whole “Sappho and her friend were roommates” argument. Also, the later Emperor Xuanzong (winner who walked out of the period of political upheaval and went on to rule the Tang Dynasty) was quite against people like Wu Zetian, Wan’er and Taiping holding power, so….

I stand by this ship, to say the least.

So, in modern baihe media, there are some AUs that tell their story in a different way, that showcase a different side of them. Here is a list:

The Forbidden Court 《禁庭》 by Liu Yuan Chang Ning (流鸢长凝) -

A double rebirth novel, historical AU. The story is set within the real historical time period, and uses many notable events from actual history, but changes the details of the story of WanPing so that they can have a happy ending. This is a must read for history lovers, and whilst I was reading The Forbidden Court in order to understand the story better, that was when I looked up the entire mess of Tang Dynasty history during that time.

I would say that this is quite the difficult read to get through without full knowledge of the time period/understanding of politics, so in my efforts, I have written a mini history lesson.

( history lesson (warning: a little long) )

As far as I could tell, Liu Yuan Chang Ning stayed really well to history, and included a lot of stories that were rumored to have come from that special period of Chinese history, so walking in as a history lover it felt like finding a gold mine. It is a little long by my standards, but a lot of problems that WanPing faced were cleverly solved and I think that the ending is really on par with the themes Liu Yuan Chang Ning writes about in general: feminism, confidence that a woman in power would be the same, if not better, and sweetness that the main pair has finally gotten the ending they deserve after two lifetimes.

( Reading the Remnants 《问棺》 2nd arc (spoilers!!) )

*

Cai Shu Yuan 彩书怨 - single episode audio drama

45 minute audio drama that mainly tells the story of WanPing mostly through Shangguan Wan’er’s point of view, including how she navigated the difficult position she was in, how she was killed, and how Princess Taiping grieved for her. Great voice acting, I cried along with it. Also, notably, Cai Shu Yuan is the name of Wan'er's most famous poem, and the most famous lines are 'The leaves flow 'neath the bridge towards Dongting Lake, my thoughts are with you ten thousand li away.' (叶下洞庭初，思君万里馀)

Finally, here are some bilibili 手书 (handdrawn fan videos) of WanPing!
1 (my fave) and

2 (beautiful song)

Hopefully this was of use and made people more interested in WanPing~

edit a day later: I posted another blurb about the gravestone epitaph in more detail

hazevi

Hi, I'm new around and I just wanted to make a small rec post for a novel that I don't see talked about anywhere, even though it is by a somewhat well-known author, Ruo Hua Ci Shu. Anyways, to the point, the novel I'm recommending is Hazy Dawn (晨昏).

This is a novel set within the court of a made up dynasty, where the Mings are the imperial family. Our main characters are Ming Su and Zheng Mi (actually, funny thing about this character's name is that her name is 宓, which has two pronunciations, one is mi but the other has a reading of fu, and the author did in fact say that it could be either one. However, given the different connotations of the characters and just plain sound, I like Zheng Mi more and will be referring to her as such.) Zheng Mi actually died and was reborn into a different body, and that is where the story starts, though at first we the readers don't know why. Still, it has a happy ending.

One thing that I will say about the plot is that when I first came upon it, it seemed eerily similar to the plot of the well known c-drama Nirvana in Fire. For those who want to know more about the premise/Nirvana in Fire, click the spoilers below because I'm going to try and avoid spoiling anything else within this main body. So, without getting into too much spoilers, here's what I'll say are the best things about this novel:

- It's really heartwarming to see Ming Su, the princess, to care so much about the other, Zheng Mi. They grew up together, being qing mei (young play buddies) and the part when they finally earn the ending they deserve is just really endearing

- There is a lot of fast paced action when things happen, and Ruo Hua Ci Shu's pacing is pretty good.

- The side pairing also hit me like a truck and left a VERY big impression on me. Ruo Hua Ci Shu gave them an extra chapter on her weibo, but didn't post it to JJWXC so I actually dug through so much to find the originals.

- The atmosphere and ambience throughout, especially when Ming Su and Zheng Mi meet again and start interacting with each other, playing this little game of probing at each other and Ming Su trying to guess Zheng Mi's identity while Zheng Mi is giving hints, is just really bittersweet and makes the win they get in the end all the more satisfying.

( For those who want more plot/premise and a bit of NiF spoilers: )

Anyways, that's it! If you're interested in reading the raws, here they are on JJWXC

I might translate this one after I finish the things on my plate (two modern novels by Ruo Hua Ci Shu and Yi Zhan Ye Deng) and even then I think I'm being too ambitious but... whatever. Doing my best.

If I need to fix something in regards to the post/tags, please let me know mods!

Have a good day!

Edited 2/23/2024: I found the extra (which is a very long picture strip), here's the link (to imgur)

douqi

One of my quasi-2024 new year reading resolutions (quasi because I never manage to take them very seriously) was to read more of Ning Yuan's work, and The Path of Life (生命之路, pinyin: shengming zhi lu), initially serialised as Revolutionary Road (革命之路, pinyin: geming zhi lu), was the one I decided to start with. This began serialising in 2011, so is one of Ning Yuan's earlier works. The Path of Life is actually two books, labelled 'Season One' and 'Season Two', telling what is essentially a continuous story featuring the same group of main characters.

The Path of Life is centred upon a group of four close childhood friends, who grew up in a small town near Xiamen. Three of them made their way to Beijing shortly after graduating from university, and the fourth has recently joined them. They're all in their late twenties when the story starts. The four friends are:

Yang Youjing: Basically an everywoman. As her friend Ding Youlei (see below) observes, Yang Youjing is neither exceptionally pretty, exceptionally clever, exceptionally nice or exceptionally savvy. She has, however, had quite a number of girlfriends; as the story progresses, she attracts quite a number of admirers, most of them very attractive and competent women. There is a suggestion in the text that it is her very ordinariness that is attractive to these brilliant women. At the start of the novel, she is secretly dating her boss at the media company where she works — a cool, hyper-competent, and very beautiful woman named Wu You. As a teenager, she had a crush on her childhood friend Gu Yizhe (see below), but she's gotten over it now, or so she claims. She's a little spoiled, and (especially at the start of the novel) prone to throwing little tantrums when things don't go her away.
Ding Youlei: Outspoken, brash, does exactly what she likes and damn the consequences, fiercely loyal to her friends, Ding Youlei is easily the most compelling character in the whole novel. She has had what everyone believes to be an unrequited crush on her childhood friend Wang Ruoxi (see below) for as long as she can remember. However, this seemingly hopeless crush has not prevented her from having flings with multiple other women. Ding Youlei's family is the richest in the four friends' hometown; at the start of the novel, she is putting her family's capital to good use by opening a chain of upscale restaurants in Beijing, an enterprise she's remarkably good at — she's one of nature's hustlers, despite never appearing to take anything particularly seriously.
Gu Yizhe: After graduating from university, she went back to their hometown, ostensibly to be with her high school boyfriend. At the beginning of the story, she has just made her way to Beijing, having broken up with said boyfriend. Gu Yizhe is your classic soft-spoken, mild-mannered 'good girl', though as the story progresses, she reveals an unexpected gift for scheming and gentle manipulation.
Wang Ruoxi: Also a 'good girl', but unlike Gu Yizhe, she has a more overtly stubborn, harder edge to her. Her highest aspiration is to live a 'normal' life, and we soon learn that this is in part a reaction to her own mother being an out lesbian — a fact for which she was bullied very badly in her childhood. Semi-estranged from her mother, she hates any suggestion that she herself might be romantically interested in women.

The Path of Life isn't structured like a romance at all: it's less about the development of a romantic relationship and more about the fairly messy and hopelessly intertwined emotional lives of these four women. I'd be tempted to file it under 'women's literature', except that Ning Yuan simply cannot resist her pulp instincts. Towards the last quarter of both 'Season One' and 'Season Two', the mostly slice-of-life story (though it's messy rather than fluffy) takes a sharp turn towards thriller territory, complete with secret criminal pasts, at least one dramatic shootout, and a vengeful, melodramatic crime lord who's the perfect archetype of the toxic lesbian.

( major spoilers; discussion of age gap relationship )

Sexual dynamics for

x_los' eventual spreadsheet: Yang Youjing thinks of herself very much as one of nature's shous, but she does top (the key act being fingering/digital penetration) each of her respective girlfriends at least once on-page. She does not think of giving oral sex as topping, and seems to find it un-gong-like behaviour when Wu You (very much a classic gong) does it to her. Ding Youlei/Wei Jing get by far the most number of explicit sex scenes, but all of them involve a pretty fixed pattern of Ding Youlei as gong and Wei Jing as shou. This leaves one to wonder if, despite her many, many flings, Ding Youlei has ever had an orgasm (though it has to be said that she is a very enthusiastic gong).

Overall I found this a compelling read (especially 'Season Two', which I simply raced through) despite it not being at all in any of my preferred genres. The prose is, I think, somewhat less assured than Ning Yuan's later work, especially in 'Season One', and the slice-of-life nature of the subject matter means that the structure is looser than her more recent, squarely-in-a-genre novels I've read (though I would never accuse Ning Yuan of having very tight plotting). I was also gratified to find further confirmation that Ning Yuan is an Extremely Pulp author, even in a novel that sets out to be mostly slice-of-life. At one point, she even wonders in an author's note: 'Why do I find the melodramatic parts easier to write than the fluffy parts?', which I found to be perfectly on brand.

I read the Chinese original of these novels on JJWXC here and here.

douqi

As I mentioned in this post about the audio drama adaptation, I was quite looking forward to diving into this novel, because I'm famously weak for historical romcoms featuring a princess/cross-dressing prince consort as the main couple. The main plot of Traitors' End can be summarised thus: modern-day woman Gu Qingtang travels back in time, becomes the adopted son and right-hand man of corrupt, ambitious Grand Commandant Nian, and schemes to marry Princess Yin Ning, Emperor Yin Chang'an's youngest sister, for Reasons. Yin Ning, for her part, is Not Amused by this, and attempts to stab Gu Qingtang on their wedding night.

( major spoilers, because it's practically impossible to review the book without them; mention of rape and sexual assault )

I hasten to add that I still really enjoyed this book! Gu Qingtang and Yin Ning's relationship dynamics are a lot of fun, especially in the early part of the book, and Gu Qingtang's many food/boob jokes (readers will not be able to look at peaches or baozi the same way again for a long time) and misuse of classical poetry for innuendo purposes were a delight. Liu Yuan Chang Ning's writing is never short of competent, even if structurally there are things that could be improved on. I am also still looking forward to finishing the audio drama, especially because the author has indicated that she made a number of adaptational changes (and also, once again, because Yi Zhi Zi's 'prince consort voice' is chef's kiss).

I read the Chinese original of the novel on JJWXC here.

douqi

I read 22 baihe novels (and one collection of baihe-adjacent short stories) this year, out of a total of 77 books read (including playtexts and graphic novels). Here's the full list, in order of when I read them.

( Read more; spoilers have been kept to a minimum )

So looking back, I think I've managed to catch up on some pretty classic and popular novels, mixed in with some more niche titles from subgenres I wouldn't typically be super drawn to. For 2024, I'm especially keen to read more work from Ning Yuan and Liu Yuan Chang Ning, and maybe Ruo Hua Ci Shu (despite her letting me down so terribly with the ending to Minister Xie). In fact, I'm slightly toying with the idea of making my way through as much of Ning Yuan's back catalogue as possible over the coming year, maybe at the rate of one Ning Yuan novel per every three baihe novels I read. I'm also interested in reading at least one more each by Yu Shuang and Qing Tang Shuan Xiang Cai, as I found their books unexpectedly enjoyable.

douqi

I've been thinking entirely too much about this upcoming cyberpunk historical baihe novel ever since Ning Yuan said it was going to be her next project, so I've done a quick translation of the summary so more people can think about it entirely too much with me.

When Shen Ni returned home covered in glory, the emperor granted her the position of an official of the first rank, as well as the hand in marriage of the woman she had been in love with ever since her youth, Bian Jin.

Bian Jin had once been the empire's sharpest blade — a weapon in human form whose very name filled their enemies' hearts with terror. But after a string of serious battlefield injuries, she could only stand upright with the aid of a mechanical exoskeleton.

After their wedding, Shen Ni used her training as a machinist to look after Bian Jin and fine-tune her exoskeleton, keeping a record of every single change in the sensitivity readings of every part of her new body. She continued to address Bian Jin as 'shijie', rather than 'wife'.

Each time she made adjustments to Bian Jin's body, Shen Ni would wear gloves. She knew her shijie had an obsession with cleanliness, and hated being touched.

Bian Jin: It's just a prosthetic. There's no need for all this fuss.
Shen Ni: The proprieties must be observed.
Bian Jin: Last night, I kept asking you stop, but you didn't. Was that you observing the proprieties?
Shen Ni: ...I was testing different parts of your body, and making adjustments to their sensitivity settings.
Bian Jin: Are we going to make adjustments to my body again tonight?
Shen Ni: (nonplussed silence)
Bian Jin: Every time my sensitivity readings go up, I'll reward you.

***

Shen Ni straightened her official's hat, and met the 'gaze' of the spybeast hovering in the air. The monster who wanted to destroy the world had finally shown its cold, poisoned claws.

Her human genes summoned her to the aid of the ancient and noble civilisation that had birthed her. She would defend it to her last breath, even if it meant having her guts smeared across the landscape.

Random passerby: Hey, I think the monster who wants to destroy the world might be your wife.
Shen Ni: (nonplussed silence)
Shen Ni: What's there to love about this greedy, corrupt world? Let it be destroyed!

The fall of a degenerate society was close at hand. The land ran red with blood.

Bian Jin, her body now in peak condition thanks to Shen Ni's efforts, placed the point of her sword against Shen Ni's heart. 'Don't you understand?' she said. 'I was just using you.'

Shen Ni, completely drenched in blood, took a step forward. 'And after you're done using me, will you reward me?'

Bian Jin: ...what.

You can read the original summary on JJWXC here. Also, if anyone has any ideas for a fire-themed cyberpunk title that doesn't sound like the title of a romance novel with a classic clinch cover, let me know, I'm all ears.

douqi

I read Waiting for You (余情可待, pinyin: yuqing kedai) more out of a sense that this was a book I ought to read — Min Ran's massive popularity as an author; this novel's massive popularity with the fanbase; the popularity of showbiz romance (of which I had only properly read one very atypical example) as a subgenre among baihe readers generally — rather than any feeling that I would actually enjoy it. As it turned out, I was right: I did not enjoy the novel, although I can perhaps see how it might work for readers who don't have my particular preferences.

The plot of Waiting for You is essentially exes-turned-reunited-lovers courtesy of a handy rebirth and time rewind. The main characters are Ji Youyan, a TV actress who'd been toiling in the mines for some time before finally winning a major acting award and achieving acclaim, and Jing Xiu, a legit major movie star. They met during an idol audition programme, and dated for two years after that before breaking up. At the start of the novel, they've been broken up for five years. Jing Xiu is at her own literal wedding ceremony (to a university classmate of hers, a man named Song Wenyan) when she hears the news that Ji Youyan has died from alcohol poisoning. She abandons her wedding and rushes to Ji Youyan's side, but too late. Then Ji Youyan finds herself waking up, reborn at an earlier point in time — just two years after she broke up with Jing Xiu. She's determined to make amends and win her ex-girlfriend back again, starting with taking part in an acting-focused reality show she and Jing Xiu have both been invited to be judges on.

( Read more; I tried to avoid detailed/major spoilers )

( Somewhat more spoilery bit about the reason for Ji Youyan's rebirth )

So, in short, I did not enjoy this novel and it frustrated me in a number of ways. However, I can see how it would appeal to readers who are after a sort of mostly wish-fulfilment, low-conflict story, with generally good (though not remarkable) prose and characters who are mostly likable (Ji Youyan can be quite entertaining, especially when she's teasing Jing Xiu, or bantering with her assistant, wide-eyed, bad-at-getting-innuendos Lin Yue). Readers who are invested in the social media and celebrity/fan interactions aspects of the entertainment industry will also probably get a lot more out of this novel than I did. I still plan to read Min Ran's other massively popular novel, the age gap romance For the Rest of Our Lives (余生为期, pinyin: yusheng weiqi), but I'm in no real hurry.

I read the Chinese original of the novel on JJWXC here. I'm aware of an English fan translation floating around on the internet, but since quite a lot of is MTL, I will not be dignifying it with a link.

douqi

I posted briefly about the historical novel (with a dash of wuxia, but only a dash) Cover Her Face (遮面, pinyin: zhe mian) a little while ago when it started being serialised. When I saw that the author had finished writing it, I decided to give it a go, mainly because (1) I've never read anything by Qing Tang Shuan Xiang Cai before — even though I know I should, given her prominence in the genre — because she primarily writes contemporary romances; (2) this was a rare historical from her; and (3) it was short. On the whole, I enjoyed it, mainly because I went into it expecting something mostly sweet and uncomplicated and this was exactly what I got.

( Read more; minimal spoilers )

douqi

x_los asked me the other day why I'd picked up this contemporary CEO romance, and I had a bunch of half-formed reasons, none of them super coherent. First, I felt I needed to read at least one Yu Shuang novel (up until this book, I'd read precisely zero), what with her being one of 'Top 10 current baihe authors' on my list, and this is one of her shorter works. Second, judging by the synopsis, I felt it was a novel with a higher inherent level of melodrama than many of the author's other works, and having come off the back of reading a very mannered postwar novel and a profoundly unsatisfying (because lacking in melodrama) anthology of SFFH erotica, I was in the mood for that. Third, I've never actually properly sat down and read a baihe CEO romance (other than Zebra Crossing (斑马线, pinyin: banma xian), which was thoroughly atypical), though I did read many a yanqing CEO romance in my misspent youth, so I felt that was something I needed to remedy. Finally, after my vague dissatisfaction with Snow in the Spring Courtyard (春庭雪, pinyin: chun ting xue), I felt I wanted something for which I would have lower expectations, thus increasing my chances of being pleasantly surprised. And I did, in fact, end up enjoying I Think About You Day and Night more than I was expecting.

( Non-spoilery overview here )

( Slightly more spoilery details here )

I had to resort to a pirate site to read the original (unrevised) version of the novel. The authorised (revised) version of the novel is available here on JJWXC. There is, as far as I know, no English fan translation available.

Note on the title translation: The title in Chinese, 朝思慕暖 (pinyin: zhao si mu nuan), is a riff on the chengyu 朝思暮想 (pinyin: zhao si mu xiang), which pretty much means thinking of someone or missing someone day and night. The lyric 'I think about you day and night' comes from the song 'Happy Together', which has already provided the titles for at least two other pieces of gay media, so I thought why not.

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Having previously finished (and quite liked) a historical novel by Liu Yuan Chang Ning, I decided to give this wuxia novel of hers a go. The premise is fairly straightforward, and basically runs as follows:

Years ago, Shen Yi's entire family was slaughtered before her eyes, and she barely escaped with her life. Now a disciple of the prestigious Tianfo Sect, she vows she'll never rest until she has avenged her family. Things take an unexpected turn when she encounters Ye Lique, the notorious 'witch' who has been terrorising both the orthodox and unorthodox sections of the jianghu, and discovers that their pasts (and fates) might be more closely intertwined than anyone imagined.

( I've tried to avoid spoilers, but I still do need to be able to say something about the book )

I read the Chinese original of the novel on JJWXC. There is, as far as I know, no English fan translation available.

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So I'm not sure who around here is reading in Chinese or interested in doing so (I'm planning to make a suggestion for a reading club soon-ish and will check in more formally then), but a heads up that Qing Tang Shuan Xiang Cai, who normally writes contemporary romance, has started serialising a historical novel which is going to be short (she says she's planning to wrap it up within the month), completely free, and will be mostly sweet and have a happy ending. I thought I would highlight this because so many webnovels are so intimidatingly long!

The title of the novel is Cover Her Face* and so far three chapters have been released. You can read it on JJWXC here. As is often the case, the novel summary is deeply uninformative, but there are jianghu/adventure elements in what has been released so far.

Note: The title of the novel in Chinese is 遮面, which is literally cover/hide + face, and doesn't actually tell us whose face is being covered, so my translation may turn out to be completely wrong, but I'm also very extra and cannot resist a opportunity to make a Duchess of Malfi reference.

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An initial version of this review was originally posted on my personal journal. Again, I thought I might as well clean it up and cross-post it here.

Me: When it comes to baihe subgenres, the ones I care for least are contemporary romance and showbiz. I dislike insta-lust/love. I'm also wary of tragic endings.

Burn: Not only am I all those things, but I'll end up being your personal best baihe novel of 2022, and a strong contender for your personal best novel of 2022 full stop.

( Major spoilers for Burn )

I read the Chinese original of the novel on Changpei. There is an ongoing English fan translation of the novel.

douqi

An initial version of this review was originally posted on my personal journal. I thought I might as well clean it up and cross-post it here.

( Major spoilers for Reading the Remnants )

I read the Chinese original of this novel on Changpei. There are currently two partial English fan translations of the novel available, at least the later of which appears to be ongoing. These can be found here and here.

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douqi - Scrapped (谁将报废) by Lü Bu Wei (吕不伪): Review
douqi - The Wayward Disciple (孽徒) by Jiang Yi Shui (江一水): Review
llonkrebboj - Seeking: Baihe novel recs for MC with delicate health (病弱)
hazevi - WanPing: Tang Dynasty's Sappho and It-Princess couple
hazevi - A Short Recommendation for Hazy Dawn (晨昏 Chen Hun) by Ruo Hua Ci Shu
douqi - The Path of Life (生命之路) 'Seasons One and Two' by Ning Yuan (宁远): Review
douqi - Traitors' End (诛佞) by Liu Yuan Chang Ning (流鸢长凝): Review
douqi - 2023 Baihe Reading Round-Up
douqi - Burning Passions (焚情) by Ning Yuan (宁远): Summary
douqi - Waiting for You (余情可待) by Min Ran (闵然): Review
douqi - Cover Her Face (遮面) BY Qing Tang Shuan Xiang Cai (清汤涮香菜): Review
douqi - I Think About You Day and Night (朝思慕暖) by Yu Shuang (鱼霜): Review
douqi - Snow in the Spring Courtyard (春庭雪) by Liu Yuan Chang Ning (流鸢长凝): Review
douqi - Novel (Kind of) Rec: Cover Her Face (遮面) by Qing Tang Shuan Xiang Cai (清汤涮香菜)
douqi - Review: Burn (烧) by Chu Dao (初岛)
douqi - Review: Reading the Remnants (问棺) by Qi Xiao Huang Shu (七小皇叔)

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