#also I think if Jingyan had the chance to really see him with mcs he would die a thousand deaths

[winepresswrath]

None of this is changing how hype I am for NiF 3, which will apparently feature Wu Lei in some capacity.

[dangermousie]

Heelo mousie! Love your blog! Do you mind recommending some of your favourite Chinese BL novels or shows?

I've seen the untamed and read it. I'm currently reading heaven's official blessing and I saw the donghua. Anything other than these two?

Awww, thank you!

Novels: I am gonna be lazy and literally copy/paste the entire danmei section of my top 10 web novels post (except MXTX’s stuff since you are already reading it.) Let me know if you need help finding any of these.

Lord Seventh - I am only partway through this so far, but it’s already on the list because it’s smart and somehow intense AND laid-back (not sure how this works, but it does) and is honestly just a really really solid and smart period novel, with the OTP a cherry on top of a narrative sundae. Plus, I love the concept of MC deciding he is not going for his supposedly fated love - he’s tried for six lifetimes, always with disaster, and he’s just plain done and tired. When he opens his life in his seventh reincarnation and sees the person he would have given up the world for, he genuinely feels nothing at all. (Spoiler - his OTP is actually a barbarian shaman this time around, thank you Lord!)

Golden Stage - my perfect comfort novel. Probably the least angsty of any danmei novel on this list (which still means plenty angsty :P) It also has a dedicated, smart OTP that is an OTP for the bulk of the book - I think you will notice that in most of the novels in this list, I go for “OTP against the world” trope - I can’t stand love triangles and the same. Anyway, Fu Shen, is a famous general whose fame is making the emperor   antsy. When he gets injured and can’t walk any more, the emperor gladly recalls him and marries him off to his most faithful court lackey, the head of sort of secret police, Yan Xiaohan. The emperor intends it both  as a check on the general and a general spite move since the two men   always clash in court whenever they meet. But not all is at is seems. They used to be  friends a long time ago, had a falling out, and one of the loveliest  parts of the novel is them finding their way to each other, but there is  also finding the middle path between their two very different  philosophies and ways of being, not to mention solving a conspiracy or  dozen, and putting a new dynasty on the throne, among other things. It always makes me think, a little, of “if Mei Changsu x Jingyan were canon.”

Sha Po Lang - if you like a lot of fantasy politics and world-building and steampunk with your novels, this one is for you. This one is VERY plot-heavy with smart, dedicated characters and a deconstruction of many traditional virtues - our protagonist Chang Geng, a long-lost son of the Emperor, is someone who wants to modernize the country but also take down the current emperor his brother for progress’ sake and the person he’s in love with is the general who saved him when he was a kid who is nominally his foster father. Anyway, the romance is mainly a garnish in this one, not even a big side dish, but the relationship between two smart, dedicated, deadly individuals with very different concepts of duty is fascinating long before it turns romantic. And if you like angst, while overall it’s not as angsty as e.g., Meatbun stuff, Chang Geng’s childhood is the stuff of nightmares and probably freaks me out more than anything else in any novel on this list, 2ha included.

To Rule In a Turbulent World (LSWW) - gay Minglan. No seriously. This is how I think of it. it’s a slice of life period novel with fascinating characters and  setting that happens to have a gay OTP, not a romance in a period  setting per se and I always prefer stories where the romance is not the only thing that is going on. It’s meticulously written and smart and deals with  character development and somehow makes daily minutia fascinating. Our   protagonist, You Miao, is the son of a fabulously wealthy merchant,   sent to the capital to make connections and study. As the story starts, he sees his friend’s  servants beating someone to death, feels bad, and buys him because, as  we discover gradually and organically, You Miao may be wealthy and  occasionally immature but he is a genuinely good person. The person he buys is a barbarian from beyond the wall, named   Li Zhifeng. It’s touch and go if the man will survive but eventually he does and You Miao, who by then has to return home, gives him his papers  and lets him go. However, LZF decides to stick with You Miao instead, both  out of sense of debt for YM saving his life and because he genuinely  likes him (and yet, there is no instalove on either of their parts, their bodies have fun a lot quicker than their souls.) Anyway, the two  take up farming, get involved in  the imperial exams and it’s the life of prosperity and peace, until an invasion happens and things go rapidly to hell. This is so nuanced, so smart (smart people in this actually ARE!) and has secondary characters who are just as complex as the mains (for example, I ended up adoring YM’s friend, the one who starts the plot by almost beating LZF to death for no reason) because the novel never forgets that few people are all villain. There is a lovely character arc or two - watching YM grow up and LZF thaw - there is the fact that You Miao is a unicorn in web novels being laid back and calm. This whole thing is a masterpiece.

Stains of Filth (Yuwu) - want the emotional hit of 2ha but want to read something half its length? Well, the author of 2ha is here to eviscerate you in a shorter amount of time. This has the beautiful world-building, plot twists that all make sense and, at the center of it all, an intense and all-consuming and gloriously painful relationship between two generals - one aristocratic loner Mo Xi, and the other gregarious former slave general Gu Mang. Once they were best friends and lovers, but when the novel starts, Gu Mang has long turned traitor and went to serve the enemy kingdom and has now been returned and Mo Xi, who now commands the remnants of his slave army, has to cope with the fact that he has never been able to get over the man who stabbed him through the heart. Literally. This novel has a gorgeously looping structure, with flashbacks interwoven into present storyline. There is so much love and longing and sacrifice in this that I am tearing up a bit just thinking of it. If you don’t love Mo Xi and Gu Mang, separately and together, by the end of it, you have no soul.

The Dumb Husky and His White Cat Shizun (2ha/erha) - if you’ve been following my tumblr for more than a hot second, you know my obsession with this novel. Honestly, even if I were to make a list of my top 10 novels of any kind, not just webnovels, this would be on the list. It has everything I want - a complicated, intricate plot with an insane amount of plot twists, all of which are both unexpected and make total sense, a rich and large cast of characters, a truly epic OTP that makes me bawl, emotional intensity that sometimes maxes even me out and so much character nuance and growth. Also, Moran is my favorite web novel character ever, hands down.

Anyway, the plot (or at least the way it first appears) is that the evil emperor of the cultivation world, Taxian Jun, kills himself at 32 and wakes up in the body of his 16 year old self, birth name Moran. Excited to get a redo, Moran wants to save his supposed true love Shimei, whose death the last go-around pushed him towards evil. He also wants to avoid entanglement with Chu Wanning, his shizun and sworn enemy in past life. And that’s all you are best off knowing, trust me. The only hint I am going to give is oooh boy the mother of all unreliable narrators has arrived!

The novel starts light and funny on boil the frog principle - if someone told me I would be full bawling multiple times with this novel, I’d have thought they were insane, but i swear my eyes hurt by the end of it. I started out being amused and/or disliking the mains and by the end I would die for either of them.

The Wife is First - OK, this one did not make my top 10 web novels but it’s a sweet, fun gay cottagecore fest. Our ML, a royal prince, and his spouse, a smart if delicate aristocrat, keep house, eat noodles, play with their pet tiger, make out and spoil each other rotten, while occasionally fighting battles and outwitting their court enemies. It’s so very mellow. That couple redefines low drama - they are both nice and functional and use their brains. It’s as if a nice jock and a nice nerd got together and then proceeded to be wholesome all over the place.

I mean, the set up could be dramatic - our ML the prince, lost his fight for the throne and is about to be killed. The only person who stayed loyal to him is his arranged husband the aristocrat guy who ML never treated nicely since he resented marrying him (marrying a man in that world is done to remove someone from the ability to inherit the throne.) And yet the husband stood by him not out of love but beliefs in loyalty blah blah. Anyway, he transmigrates back into the past right after their wedding night and is all “I got a second chance OMG! I don’t want the throne what is even the point? I want to live a good long life and treat the only person who stood by me really well!” And he proceeds to do so to the shock of the aristocrat who had a very unpleasant wedding night and generally can tell the man he just married would rather eat nails than be married to him. But soon enough (no seriously, it’s not many chapters at all) he believes the prince is sincere blah blah and then  they get together and they pretty much become cottagecore goals.

In terms of dramas, I only do period dramas (or novels) so I am not the person to be able to recommend any modern BLs. There is a flood of upcoming (hopefully) period BL dramas but it’s relatively thin on the ground now. The two I will recommend is Word of Honor (which is AMAZING) and Winter Begonia (which I just started watching but which owns me already.) I have a tag for both - the one for the former is huge and I cannot recommend either strongly enough. I’ve heard good things about The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, but I am not big on mysteries so haven’t watched it for myself.

In terms of the upcoming BLs, the ones I am most looking forward to are Immortality and Winner Is King, but The Society of the Four Leaves also looks promising.

[wolffyluna]

prime numbers

I love how you picked the option that made me have to make controversial stances about maths XD (1 is only divisible by 1 and itself, fite me don't fight me, I'm not a mathematician.)

1. Tell us about your current project(s)  – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it?

I’ve got two projects on the go.

The first is the nearly finished Wangningxian... fierce corpse maintenance fic? It’s a post-canon fic where Wei Wuxian checks up on how Wen Ning(’s body) is holding up, and officially it’s just Wei Wuxian checking on how his Greatest Creation is going-- but there is a big element of a) guilt and concern over what happened at Jinlintai while he was dead and b) wanting to be close while maintaining some distance, because even if he chose Lan Wangji he is still somewhat in love with Wen Ning.

The fic was originally Ningxian, and it was going to end on a somewhat sad note of them parting and pining for what was not meant to be... but I couldn’t work out how to make that a satisfying ending, and Westwind you are a Good Influence, so it has become Wangningxian featuring an awkward polyamory... it’s not a ‘negotiation’ and it’s more of a ‘proposal of polyamory’ between Lan Wangji and Wen Ning. (The conversation is awkward because Wen Ning and Lan Wangji have different enough assumptions about what’s going on that they are very ‘?????’ about what the other is doing.)

The other project is the Xiao Jingyan sickfic. It’s become this sprawling hc/whump/not-sure-which? thing, featuring being very stoic while Suffering and multiple subplots... But I will admit that this project exists partially as a vehicle for the scene where Jingyan shows up to a meeting with Mei Changsu, and he is upright but he really shouldn’t be, and MCS chews him out about the importance of resting and not killing yourself with a treatable illness because you were too busy running yourself into the ground. (The rest of Su manor looks on and is like “TAKE YOUR OWN ADVICE.”) It’s currently a first draft.

2. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project

One day, I am going to write a chunky Mo Xuanyu POV fic, with themes of agency and slowly losing all your choices and control of your life and grappling with how much that’s actually your fault or other people’s, and it’s going to be great but also tricky to write. (Because Mo Xuanyu. And the research to write Mo Xuanyu well.)

3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)

And that Mo Xuanyu centric fic is going to end with a dramatic confrontation with Nie Huaisang, where Mo Xuanyu has to grapple with the fact the sacrifice summon is the best option vs is it the best option because that’s convenient for Nie Huaisang vs does it even matter, it’s still his best (and more or less only) option.

And it will be so GOOD and SPARKLY and it will need SO MUCH SET UP.

5. What character that you’re writing do you most identify with?

Hmm, that’s a tricky question, because ‘identifying with’ is not quite the thing I do when I’m writing?

But if I had to pick: Wen Ning, I too, have on average a reasonable level of assertiveness and social courage.

7. What do you think are the characteristics of your personal writing style? Would others agree?

I honestly have no clue what other people think of my writing style.

Things that come up a lot in my writing are geology, horses, hair, alliteration and understatement.

Also, nothing is [wiggle hands] wholly majestic. There will be something a bit shitty or subpar or awkward about the most glorious or spectacular places.

11. What do you envy in other writers?

I occaisionally envy other people’s prolificness. I am aware that this is me looking over the fence of my stupidly well irrigated lawn, complaining the that the grass is slightly greener on the other side.

13. Do you share your writing online? (Drop a link!) Do you have projects you’ve kept just for yourself?

I have an ao3, with the same unsername!

I don’t have any projects I’ve kept just for myself, that aren’t unfinished or something like that. For me, personally, I don’t see why I would write something down, as opposed to keeping it in my head, if I wasn’t sort of thinking about sharing it? There are some things I have written outlines for as a method of getting them out of my head-- like how you might deliberately sing a song that’s stuck in your head until the end to get rid of it-- but even then, there’s a good chance I might share them?

17. Do you think readers perceive your work - or you - differently to you? What do you think would surprise your readers about your writing or your motivations?

I have no idea how readers perceive me or my work.

I imagine some people would be surprised that I don’t write for any ~deep~ reason. Apparently a lot of people do, but I don’t. I just find it very satisfying. Like knitting. But with words.

19. Is there something you always find yourself repeating in your writing? (favourite verb, something you describe ‘too often’, trope you can’t get enough of?)

Look, ‘geology’ and ‘horses’  a free space, but even I’m surprised at the amount hair comes up in my writing. Why does it come up so often? No clue! But apparently when I need a shorthand for intimacy, hair brushing is the first thing my brain provides.

23. What’s the story idea you’ve had in your head for the longest?

The oldest not complete WIP is a Silmarillion fic, that’s looking at the Fall of Gondolin version of Maeglin where he ends up being a bit of a party animal after being captured.

The oldest idea that could go in a story is a chunk of worldbuilding about elementals/genius loci that is awaiting a fantasy story to chuck it in. The big thing is that very random things can develop elementals, and these elementals can have wildly different lifespans eg the elemental of a tree versus the elemental of a volcano. Elementals also find other kinds of elementals about as weird as humans find elementals.

(One potential character for whatever that story ends up having elementals may or may not be a bad pun. She’s the young (by rocky elemental standards) elemental of a column of magma that’s pushed through some other rock. She has a romance with one of the other major female characters.)

[sionnac]

Last LYB 2.0 post of ....the next hour the day.  No promises.  EPISODE 24 HAS MADE ME NUTS. DON’T TALK TO ME.  ALL I’LL DO IS BARF LYB AT YOU.  CURSE YOU, LYB, AND YOUR EPISODE 24s.  

LYB 1.0, all the way up to episode 24, I was pretty interested, especially with all the little tidbits here and there -- GRAMMY RECOGNIZING HIM -- NIHUANG RECOGNIZING HIM -- then episode 24 hit and it took my heart and shattered it to little shards when Jingyan insisted thrice that he would never let go of the Chiyan Army case.  MCS was so desperate to get Jingyan to let go of the one thing that mattered most to him and focus on the throne war, but found that after all these years, it was also the one thing that mattered most to Jingyan.  That expression on MCS’s face?  That was my expression.

LYB 2.0 doesn’t have the same fervent impetus behind it, but I’ve in one way or another found myself UNFORTUNATELY IN A SIMILAR HOLE AGAIN REGARDLESS.  

It kind of hurts to see this next gen.  Sigh.  On first glance, PingJing is Lin Shu’s shadow, and PingZhang is JingYan’s shadow.  But if you really pay attention, outwardly, PingJing inherited Lin Shu’s demeanor and charm, but his soul is all JingYan -- dislikes insidious plotting, won’t stay silent at any signs of injustice and corruption he sees, has no desire to play the political games at court.  

PingZhang, on the other hand, inherited JingYan’s exterior demeanor and seriousness, but the way he thinks and acts -- incredibly accurate foresight, creates plans with multiple traps, carefully considers all options available, his seemingly benign actions and questions come with an ulterior purpose, equally as deadly on the battlefield as in a political arena, unrivaled in combat, protects the country’s borders.... starting to sound like someone? He sounds kinda like Mei ChangSu, doesn’t he?  But no. He’s not.  PingZhang’s soul reflects Lin Shu or more precisely.... Lin Shu, if Lin Shu had been given the chance to grow up.

;___;  I didn’t need my heart anyways, LYB 2.

That kind of guy fell in love with a martially gifted, strong-willed woman.  And all three of them inherited the most important part of their predecessors -- a steadfast, courageous, kind heart that loves their people and others and puts them ahead of their own needs.  

Maybe this really is their next lives together.  HA..hAHhaha.. HA.ha. Sob.  Will someone please reincarnate these three into a boring, content life together already?  As companions, friends, lovers -- I DON’T CARE WHAT, JUST SOMETHING BORING AND UNTRAGIC.

In a final note, it still cracks me up that Lin Xie took one look at his boy and went, “You know what.  Let’s just name him “extraordinary ( 殊 )” and call it a day.”   :) :) :) :) :): ): ):   And he was, wasn’t he?  Extraordinary.     

;___;  I didn’t need my heart anyways, LYB 1.