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4.26 AVERAGE
4.26 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
“There are only two paths to choose: To die or to live. To place my life in your hands, even if my end is death, it is something I’ll never regret.”
Don’t you just love reading about two incredibly intelligent people solving mysteries together while constantly trying to make every step difficult for the other?
Wushuang really emphasises countless times how easy it is to find an enemy, but how difficult it is to find a rival that is worthy and Feng Xiao and Cui Buqu really found each other in a sea of thousands.
I think I genuinely could spend hours talking about this novel because I felt the slow-burn between Feng Xiao and Cui Buqu in every single moment of this novel. They started out as simple rivals who tried to challenge the other at every possible turn, but who would’ve expected them to complete each other so perfectly? I adored watching these two work together every step of the way, how they always kept each other on their toes, their bickering was absolutely hilarious and never lots its charm throughout the novel.
It was crazy watching their relationship slowly change throughout the span of this novel, how they started trusting each other, how they started caring for each other and started worrying for their well-being, the increasing gentleness of their touches and the small observations that only a person in love would make. Even so, the fact that they fell in love barely changed their dynamic, they still constantly bicker and tease, but it’s these small changes in their relationship and actions that mean oh-so much.
If you are looking for a romance...this is NOT the place for you. As much as I loved FengCui's dynamic the romance comes way later in the novel and even then it's subtle, but sweet ( Cui Buqu I swear to God give me MORE).
However! Although I'm a big fan of fluffy romantic stories, I still loved this one. I found its plot very interesting and the constant banter between our main characters is so entertaining that you won't even care about anything else.
Ah, and I came here after reading a Priest book so this was a breath of fresh air, less heavy. All in all, I loved it and it made me consider re-trying to read Thousand Autumns, a novel well written I started before by the same author that I dropped because of the cynical ML...
Anyway, give this book a chance, you won't regret it!
4.75/5*
However! Although I'm a big fan of fluffy romantic stories, I still loved this one. I found its plot very interesting and the constant banter between our main characters is so entertaining that you won't even care about anything else.
Ah, and I came here after reading a Priest book so this was a breath of fresh air, less heavy. All in all, I loved it and it made me consider re-trying to read Thousand Autumns, a novel well written I started before by the same author that I dropped because of the cynical ML...
Anyway, give this book a chance, you won't regret it!
4.75/5*
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
a danmei novel i find to be underrated!
i Loved the dynamic between feng xiao and cui buqu! while they loved to antagonize and trip each other up, you could always tell it was never truly malignant.
and not sure if it's just because this is my 9th danmei novel, but the plot of this story felt easy to follow. it had a nice mix of politics, xianxia/wuxia, fighting, and actual story & plot.
truly underrated and i can't wait to purchase and read the physical copies once they start coming out in 2024!
i Loved the dynamic between feng xiao and cui buqu! while they loved to antagonize and trip each other up, you could always tell it was never truly malignant.
and not sure if it's just because this is my 9th danmei novel, but the plot of this story felt easy to follow. it had a nice mix of politics, xianxia/wuxia, fighting, and actual story & plot.
truly underrated and i can't wait to purchase and read the physical copies once they start coming out in 2024!
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
wow. finishing this book was a bigger challenge than finishing the fourteenth year of Chenghua (and that took a while). okay so the good first then the bad.
this was the first danmei novel that's made me cry. and yes this is a good thing because the characters were written so well (both main and side), especially our MC Cui Buqu. man I love that chaos loving worm. I did want to punch him a few times (not as much as I wanted to punch Feng Xiao but more about him later) but regardless of that, he is everything to me. let's start with his name: Cui Buqu- refusing to leave - like come on!!! this man's pure stubbornness at keeping himself alive and doing what must be done is the number one thing I loved most about him. a quote I find describes him to a t:
"he could still protect a few more people like his birth mother, people who were kind and righteous yet were too weak to protect themselves. simply because he was Cui Buqu; his heart was tough and his methods cruel".
he might have questionable ways of reaching his main goal but you bet your ass he's never created a goal for himself that's not been something the other party hadn't deserved. this man's heart is made of pure steel which is what makes experiencing him shedding layers upon layers through the duration of the book that much more special. even after you learn about his past and everything he's been through, the fact that he didn't want revenge, rather justice- that tells you everything you need to know about him. i could keep blabbing about him for hours so let's move on.
our beloved peacock- Feng Xiao. I love him (slightly less than Cui Buqu but no one else can be cbq so). I have less things to say about him than Cui Buqu lmao. I love his germaphobic, self obsessed, insanely talented at martial arts ass. the one thing I liked about his character is that even when he had numerous ways and chances for him to let me down as a character, he never did. and while some aspects of his character is questionable (see: poisoning our MC, all the forced kissing cbq had to go through WITHOUT consent, stabbing cbq etc), he wasn't overall an evil character. I would genuinely pay him to be less confident in his own beauty and skills. if he hadn't done those aforementioned things, maybe I would've appreciated him more. but no one's perfect I guess.
Cui Buqu and Feng Xiao and their rivals to lovers trope was to die for. the slow-burn of their relationship advancing was great because you got to see the little ways they both evolved and let in the other person more and more as time progressed. it was so well done. the slow-burn was perhaps a bit too slow (you really have to read between the lines even at the very end if the book) which didn't really help in me wanting to rip my hair out at them pitting against each other at every given opportunity. their relationship (as described by my beloved Pei Jinghze) was really masochism at its finest. but it's so fun to see them constantly having a go at each other.
another thing I love about mxs' work overall is the badass female characters. I had noticed in Chenghua somewhat but this novel had multiple instances where I was like "yes!! finally good female characters with actual character development!!" there were I think three (that I remember I'm sure there were more) female side characters who literally stole my heart. although one of them was a quite morally grey character (or maybe I just didn't understand her motivation), the other two were on the "good" side (yes even Qiao Xian, I refuse to believe she wasn't good) which I also find with danmei is quite hard to come across. but yes chef's kiss.
the plot, as always, was... really good? I enjoyed how the novel was separated into separate arcs. the clear division between cases was very well done and the cases in themselves were very well written. mxs does tend to history dump a lot in their works and this novel didn't escape that. did I skip through most of the smaller characters' historical backgrounds? maybe. but even if you did, most of the time it doesn't hinder your understanding of the case as you kind of figure it out as cbq and fx goes about figuring it out. and as always the fight scenes were extremely well written. I loved fx's battle scenes and the constant thing he had with other martial artists who'd come and compete with him.
okay now the bad. there's only one lmao. it's the length. while this book was a lot more fast paced and action packed than Chenghua was (I mean it makes sense they're almost two different genres), it still suffered from the same dragged out plot. for what the ending ended up being, we could've easily skipped a few arcs and come to that same conclusion. we didn't need 187 chapters. the beginning of each arc was usually very information heavy so I usually stopped reading at the beginning of each arc because I just couldn't get through it in one sitting. if this novel was maybe 20/30 chapters less, this rating would've been a lot higher.
should you read this book? absolutely. there are some things to be taken into consideration (see: fx doing certain things and the length of the novel), but it was such an amazing journey reading this book. hence my first proper fully fledged review here. don't start reading this novel and anticipate the ending because the ending will disappoint you. read for the journey this novel will take you through with the plot, side characters and the main couple.
this was the first danmei novel that's made me cry. and yes this is a good thing because the characters were written so well (both main and side), especially our MC Cui Buqu. man I love that chaos loving worm. I did want to punch him a few times (not as much as I wanted to punch Feng Xiao but more about him later) but regardless of that, he is everything to me. let's start with his name: Cui Buqu- refusing to leave - like come on!!! this man's pure stubbornness at keeping himself alive and doing what must be done is the number one thing I loved most about him. a quote I find describes him to a t:
"he could still protect a few more people like his birth mother, people who were kind and righteous yet were too weak to protect themselves. simply because he was Cui Buqu; his heart was tough and his methods cruel".
he might have questionable ways of reaching his main goal but you bet your ass he's never created a goal for himself that's not been something the other party hadn't deserved. this man's heart is made of pure steel which is what makes experiencing him shedding layers upon layers through the duration of the book that much more special. even after you learn about his past and everything he's been through, the fact that he didn't want revenge, rather justice- that tells you everything you need to know about him. i could keep blabbing about him for hours so let's move on.
our beloved peacock- Feng Xiao. I love him (slightly less than Cui Buqu but no one else can be cbq so). I have less things to say about him than Cui Buqu lmao. I love his germaphobic, self obsessed, insanely talented at martial arts ass. the one thing I liked about his character is that even when he had numerous ways and chances for him to let me down as a character, he never did. and while some aspects of his character is questionable (see: poisoning our MC, all the forced kissing cbq had to go through WITHOUT consent, stabbing cbq etc), he wasn't overall an evil character. I would genuinely pay him to be less confident in his own beauty and skills. if he hadn't done those aforementioned things, maybe I would've appreciated him more. but no one's perfect I guess.
Cui Buqu and Feng Xiao and their rivals to lovers trope was to die for. the slow-burn of their relationship advancing was great because you got to see the little ways they both evolved and let in the other person more and more as time progressed. it was so well done. the slow-burn was perhaps a bit too slow (you really have to read between the lines even at the very end if the book) which didn't really help in me wanting to rip my hair out at them pitting against each other at every given opportunity. their relationship (as described by my beloved Pei Jinghze) was really masochism at its finest. but it's so fun to see them constantly having a go at each other.
another thing I love about mxs' work overall is the badass female characters. I had noticed in Chenghua somewhat but this novel had multiple instances where I was like "yes!! finally good female characters with actual character development!!" there were I think three (that I remember I'm sure there were more) female side characters who literally stole my heart. although one of them was a quite morally grey character (or maybe I just didn't understand her motivation), the other two were on the "good" side (yes even Qiao Xian, I refuse to believe she wasn't good) which I also find with danmei is quite hard to come across. but yes chef's kiss.
the plot, as always, was... really good? I enjoyed how the novel was separated into separate arcs. the clear division between cases was very well done and the cases in themselves were very well written. mxs does tend to history dump a lot in their works and this novel didn't escape that. did I skip through most of the smaller characters' historical backgrounds? maybe. but even if you did, most of the time it doesn't hinder your understanding of the case as you kind of figure it out as cbq and fx goes about figuring it out. and as always the fight scenes were extremely well written. I loved fx's battle scenes and the constant thing he had with other martial artists who'd come and compete with him.
okay now the bad. there's only one lmao. it's the length. while this book was a lot more fast paced and action packed than Chenghua was (I mean it makes sense they're almost two different genres), it still suffered from the same dragged out plot. for what the ending ended up being, we could've easily skipped a few arcs and come to that same conclusion. we didn't need 187 chapters. the beginning of each arc was usually very information heavy so I usually stopped reading at the beginning of each arc because I just couldn't get through it in one sitting. if this novel was maybe 20/30 chapters less, this rating would've been a lot higher.
should you read this book? absolutely. there are some things to be taken into consideration (see: fx doing certain things and the length of the novel), but it was such an amazing journey reading this book. hence my first proper fully fledged review here. don't start reading this novel and anticipate the ending because the ending will disappoint you. read for the journey this novel will take you through with the plot, side characters and the main couple.