#shang qinghua: i've already killed one person with this book...

[disgracefulthings]

MXTX Gang, bragging about their husbands

Shen Qingqiu: Luo Binghe is an amazing cook!

Wei Wuxian: Well Lan Zhan is a master in musical cultivation!

Xie Lian, who thinks that they're just saying what they like about their husbands: My San Lang has heterochromia!!

Shen Qingqiu: ...

Wei Wuxian: ...

Shang Qinghua: Wait your husband is afraid of straight people??

[touchmycoat]

BOOK RECS BOOK RECS

I've read 3 (and a half) books by this author (Bai Lu Cheng Shuang) now and I'm in LOVE. They seem to be consistently concerned with the question of how love can exist between men and women when society loads them with such systemic power imbalances. The female leads are all charming as hell and super distinctive, and BLCS has this way of concretizing exactly what love is. You get tons of hijinks and shenanigans and sarcastic mental monologues, but in the middle of all that, you also get relationships broken down in realistic, down-to-earth terms. Showing your shitty husband loyalty and apparent love? It's how you keep your ass out of the line of fire, whether or not he actually likes you, duh. Not getting jealous when he shows affection to other women? Why get jealous of insubstantial promises when you can get that dough, or food and shelter. Find out what he needs done and do it for him—make yourself useful and you get leverage. The author sees the problems of patriarchy and finesses the fuck out of them—plays men at their own game until the women walk out with both the monetizable goods and the emotional goods lmfao.

Can't stop won't stop recommending this. Modern woman transmigrates into a novel's minor villainness and sets out to make the main male lead fall in love with her so she can go home and get her end-of-year bonus already. Ji Man makes me heart-horny, I've already raved about it. I'm honestly about to reread it literally in this moment. BLCS is all about practical love—yeah, you can get doki doki about some person, but that's going to go. After it fades, have you learned how to manage that relationship? Do you understand that staying in love is work? Ji Man is so damn SMART, and i love scorpios ;;

I...would actually love to translate this novel because talk about my cup of tea! Widely-hated princess is executed for her sins by the Prime Minister, only she transmigrates into another young lady's body and sets out to clean out all the corrupt politicians and get revenge on the people who got her killed—who of course is the male lead. MC serves mushy nonsense and sex jokes like nobody's business, but it's all an act to keep her by the ML's side. The ML's ADORABLE jesus christ, very Lan Wangji-energy. I lovelovelove Ning Yuxuan from Spring Boudoir, but Jiang Xuanjin pushes all my OTHER buttons. Li Huaiyu is sexy and cute and has a following of men for good reasons. I cried for her when shit started going down, and this novel has one of my favorite slow burn > whump > misunderstandings > ignition progressions in the world.

the book i literally just finished today and spent oh, two hours dripping tears and snot for? Tentative title translation: The World for a Peach Blossom. A Zhao Country princess is to be married to the Southern King (an honorary title for a son of the Emperor) of Wei Country, but on the way, she stumbles into the Wei Prime Minister's plot to kill her for political power. The author writes something like "Shen Zaiye has a hundred ways to get Jiang Taohua killed and Jiang Taohua has a hundred and one ways to convince him not to." Bastard meets bastard, and the political shenanigans are FIERCE. BLCS writes such intricate plot lines that exemplify "the personal is political" fnjdjfndjnf harem women and their relationships and infighting can both dictate and be dictated by the greater "men's world" of politics. The title really says it all—the MC's name is literally peach blossom, and the tug-of-war at the heart of this novel is, when two bastards fighting for the good of their countries meet and fall in love, which will they sacrifice, their love or their countries?

(okay this one was not an easy read though, i'll be real the ML rapes the MC in the very first chapter and while she takes it pretty calmly, it's...a hell of a way to start a relationship. the ending had me fucking bawling for chapters and chapters though, in a good way.)

I'm putting this last 'cause i'll be real i didn't finish it. I picked it up because of the premise: modern woman transmigrates into the Prime Minister of an ancient kingdom who is a major pain in the Emperor's butt. She thinks the PM is a guy, but turns out he's a woman in disguise. Both the Emperor and the Emperor's bff go gay for her, except the Emperor figures out she's a woman first and they fuck about it. It's interesting and funny, and the MC has the charm of Shang Qinghua from Scum Villain—clever enough and good with words, but very much a coward at heart. Emperor's gruff and tough dude who does NOT know he comes off so grumpy. Reasons I put it down...neither the MC nor ML are as clever as the leads in the other novels. The plot lines and pacing also felt kind of sophomoric compared to her other works—the emotional payoffs really weren't all that there for me.