#peerless

[spockandawe]

And finally, the big conclusion! When I was planning to not really binderary, getting copies of these books was my big goal. And then when I did binderary after all, I, uh, ended up with two sets of two books. And let's not even talk about how late these are in the grand scheme of things, these have been in my plans for literal years, and I originally intended to get them done well before official translations started releasing (I'm doing great!!). But here they are! Thousand Autumns and Peerless! TWICE!!!!

Okay. Okay. So here's the thing. These books are long. Thousand Autumns is something like 450k, and Peerless is closer to 550k. I hate splitting cnovels. I didn't want to sand instead of trimming. I wanted to keep these books as pairs (because Peerless has my favorite danmei ship of all time, but doesn't hit as hard without the Thousand Autumns context, and EVERYTHING hits less hard without knowing that yan wushi is out there. existing.)

These goals are not terribly well aligned with the facts! The facts are that those are awfully big books to fit into a single volume, if I want to use my guillotine! This is another driving force behind my small text theme of the month. It made the typesets a goddamn nightmare, and my initial copies of the books were done on half-legal paper, which I've never done before and may never do again. I finished those, and those are... big, heavy books. Not super portable. Time to see if my eyes are good for four point georgia, and spoilers, they ARE.

Set one, the large set, I wanted to use more of my snake leather. I had this GORGEOUS purple and green and black iridescent hide that i was determined to use, and fortunately I had just enough of the perfect fabric to pair with it.

But.... meanwhile, I've been buying peacock fabrics since 2021 for the sake of Feng Xiao. I had to use at least ONE of them! Fortunately, I've hoarded enough fabric that I was able to find a nice harmonious floral fabric to cover thousand autumns, and then had a nice duo bookcloth to make spines for them both! These books are quarter-legal, and the font is genuinely SO small, but still, pleasantly readable for me, my favorite customer 😂

These books were SO MUCH work to typeset snd bind, but I'm still so excited about how both sets came out! Because of my own impatience with repeating myself like, literally two days later, i redid a number of decorative elements in the typeset as well as the binding. Different chapter headers, different dividers, totally different vibes for the endpapers! This was a big project to ask from myself in such short order, especially when I was starting to flirt with burnout, but I genuinely couldn't be happier with the results :D

[web-novel-polls]

Writing propaganda is so difficult for me bc, like, how do I even begin to show it better than lines like “You are the breath-taking view of mountains and lakes in the remaining years of my life, the rising clouds tinged in sunset colours. Now and forever, I will keep on loving you a little more” (4 o’clock flower) or “He loved him so much, missed him so much, he missed him in the barracks, he missed him in battle. In the depths of his shattered memories, he loved him, thought of him, missed him.” (Yuwu) or “If it’s with you, if I can be together with you… I am fearless.” (Where is Our Agreement to Be Arch-Rivals?) or “Only after having met you did I discover that its such a simple thing to be happy” (TGCF) or “In this life, you will be the only one in my heart. In the next life, and the life after that, I will forever remember you, so long as my soul hasn’t scattered.” (Qi Ye) or “To place my life in your hands, even if my end is death, it is something I’ll never regret” (Peerless) or “You are just like my reverse scale. You live, I live. You are my life. Therefore, no matter how difficult things are in the future, or how arduous life becomes, I want you to live” (Nan Chan) or “As long as this ending can be changed, I am willing to die for him a thousand times” (Mist) or “I fantasize about seeing my reflection in your eyes on day, just one look, I’ll be willing to do anything that is asked of me, even pulverizing my body and shattering my bones no matter how many times…” (LHJC) or “Whatever he wants, I’ll give it to him. If he wants my life, I’ll stake my life for him… there’s no betrayal to be had.” (Liu Yao) or “I will always be with you. Life or death, I will bring you home” (2ha) or “This love has always been doomed. Yet, knowing that it’s perpetual doom, that it’s infinite destruction, the moths still throw themselves into the fire until they meet their very deaths” (Cold Sands) or “I hope that you will hate me all your life” (Golden Stage) or “Won’t you turn back and look at me? If you turn back and look at me just one time, even if you were to ask me to climb up to the roof and jump off, I’ll do it.” (GuoMen) or “Whereas Ruan Nanzhu sat at his side, gazing at Lin Qiushi with admiration in his eyes, his whole look a litany of I love you I love you I love you” (Kaleidoscope of Death), or…

[ugukun]

I started reading peerless >:3c

[helenkordart]

Summary of Peerless by Meng Xishi

[unforth]

Another cover reveal!

[nemainofthewater]

Best character surnamed: Feng

Come and vote for the best characters with the same surname!*

What does best mean? It's up to you! Whether you love them, are intrigued by their characters, love to hate them, or they're your '2 second blorbos whose personality you made up wholesale', these are all reasons for you to vote for your favs!

*note, the surnames are not exactly the same in all the cases, as often there will be a different character. I am, however, grouping them all together otherwise things got more complicated.

Propaganda is very welcome! If I’ve forgotten anyone, let me know in the notes.

This is part of a larger series of ‘best character with X surname’ polls’. The overview with ongoing polls, winners, and future polls can be found here

[zazhah]

feng-er's hair growth diary

[luminouslumity]

Ooh, I really like the colors for this one!

[beholding-moth]

Ququ, is that a blush I see?

these sillies are on my brain 24/7 and you can thank @tedkordisanasshole for that :']

[space-cops]

The throne of the Blackthorn Court in disarray after the archfey had an episode of rage and despair that was strong enough to alter her state of being. With a desperate prayer and an altered Plane Shift spell, her twin brother forced the archfey momentarily into the realm of the goddess Myriona. Holding her in the mirror portal, the goddess drew the sorrow from her and began healing the court from the damage she had caused.

[akatsuki-shin]

PRIEST'S "LIU YAO" AND MENG XISHI'S "WU SHUANG (PEERLESS) ARE GETTING OFFICIAL ENGLISH VERSIONS IN 2024

"Liu Yao" will be getting a physical book by indie publisher ROSMEI from Singapore. You can check their Twitter @/Rosmeihey for information regarding their distributors and GOs for non-Singaporean buyers.

"Wu Shuang (Peerless)" will be published by Seven Seas Danmei, so we'll be getting both physical books and e-books.

[spockandawe]

If i had a nickel for every time someone in this book hid politically significant porn in their secret basement, i would have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

[drawulan]

“Shutting you up” kiss 😘

[bellaroles]

I think I made the list before but I can't find it. So I made a new one since I just finished reading Beidou/the Plough

Meng Xi Shi's books signature

The Slow Burn romance is really slow but I love every single little bits of relationship development in every ship so far. Also the payoff is so good! I also love the banter in every one of her books. Very satisfying to read!

Tsundere shou! ( Not always but I think Shen Qiao, Tang Fan, Cui Buqu are these types and also Ling Shu to a certain degree) Though they're under the same category, they're portrayed as very different in personalities and I can't get enough of them. Their respective gong are also very unique and cunning in their own way when it comes to making the shou admit their feelings!

Cross dressings! Hilarity ensues!

Solving mysteries! be it crime investigation, treasure hunting, political machinations, unmasking evil cult or even ruining evil cultivators plan to rule the world etc.

Strong women side characters. Also if they're among the very beautiful then they usually are either evil and end up dead or they find a way out of their predicament on their own.

Spoiler alert: the betrayal! We need at least one scene of either true betrayal (looking at you, Yan Wushi!) or it was just an act (Peerless, the Plough) or qi deviation (Shen Shang)

The last few chapters at least one or both of the main characters fight to the brink of death and yeah their love for each other is reaffirmed because of this but...that's not the true ending though! Go read that in the extras!

I've read 5 series of hers so far and I like them all very much.

Thousand Autumns

14th year of Chenghua

Peerless

Estranged

The Plough

Have Bu Tian Gang on my shelf already. Might start on that next, or All under heaven.

[helenkordart]

"Helena what is this" only the most accurate Peerless fanart ever wdym? 🤨

(redraw of this meme)

[chicshinm]

fengcui and yanshen my beloved

everyone read wushuang and thousand autumns to experience meng xi shi’s beautiful boys