Makes me remember an old, old fic I read on Livejournal quite a long time ago called Elemental. Even though the fic is from almost 20 years ago, I still dig it out to read and remind me of simple times. <3
Tags: slice of life, modern, music, entertainment industry, disabled protagonist, progressive hearing disability, idol x fanboy/assistant, slow burn
Personal rating: 5/5
English publisher: Via Lactea [print] [digital (smashwords)]
Chinese publisher: Changpei (gongzicp)
Not listed on Novel Updates
Personal remarks:
Going into this novel, I had no expectations whatsoever, but it was so surprisingly good. The narrative style is extremely engaging. It’s in first person, but at times the narrator gives you this introspective feeling (sometimes it feels kind of retrospective). I’m normally not into first-person POV, but it works here very well, it hooks you instantly.
Despite leaning into slice of life, the way it’s narrated made me anxious for what’s to come. It makes it extremely easy to connect to Chi Nan (the narrator) and his struggles that come with him suddenly being hit with a diagnosis that stands in the way of his dream and passion. The anxiety that comes with the progressing hearing loss hits harder with every volume. Chi Nan wants to create and experience music, he also wants to be useful to his idol, but the more he does, the more serious his condition becomes.
The text is filled with the passion for music, particularly rock. And I believe it is the main theme of the text: everything revolves around it, it’s not merely a background for romance. In fact, the romance is intrinsically tied to music – in one way or another. A considerable part of the characters’ emotions are shown through the songs, both lyrically and instrumentally. Many of the sweet, love-showing gestures from Lin Sai (ML) are tied to the music-making process.
The romance itself is very subtle, it’s quite possibly the slowest burn I’ve ever read. It’s all in the small gestures, in the music, and (for Chi Nan’s part) in the narration. We can see the line between admiration and love slowly blurring. We see them fall for each other and secretly love each other, but they stay like this until the very last moment, when the confession actually happens.
The lack of scenes after the confession is actually the only thing that I could complain about. Those small parts of the extra chapters that cover it manage to satiate a minuscule part of my desire for more, but I could read another ten volumes of them just existing in each other’s presence and still yearn for more.
The audio drama is also very good. I was delighted that I could also listen to the songs by LOTUS - Rooftop, Black Desert (whoaa), Wish It Is Love, Soul Vibration, and more. I love this story so much!
"Every time I feel like I've lost him, I would look around to find him in front of some window, not too far away from me, and a sense of relief would wash over me as I realize that he is always just somewhere out there near me."
"Every time I go too fast, I will remember that I still have my other half, I can't go too fast, I can't just focus on my own view, on my own adventure, I have to take him with me to see, to explore."
"Every time I feel like I've lost him, I would look around to find him in front of some window, not too far away from me, and a sense of relief would wash over me as I realize that he is always just somewhere out there near me."
"Every time I go too fast, I will remember that I still have my other half, I can't go too fast, I can't just focus on my own view, on my own adventure, I have to take him with me to see, to explore."
The red and blue are so warm and so cold and they're so perfectly lit but more importantly he is so happy to be dragged around and so excited to be with him and that little hand switch means everything to me, the careful way he tugged his hand out but instantly offered the other? Perfect.
I think that one of the things I like about Liushen is how on Shen Qingqiu's end, that's his relationship with the least amount of baggage, and on Liu Qingge's end, it's got the most.
Shen Qingqiu: good old reliable Liu-shidi!
Liu Qingge: we were enemies for decades, I thought you tried to kill me, you saved my life, now I'm questioning everything I ever thought I knew about you, it's like you're a completely different person, or maybe I just never understood what was really going on, who are we to one another now, I wouldn't dare to dream of kissing you under the moonlight except maybe I would
Ooh, Xie Lian for the five random headcanons game? 👀 If someone's already asked about him, then Hua Cheng.
Doing Hua Cheng cause a Xie Lian one already came through! 😊😊
I've talked about this before, but I think he has trauma around his sexual awakening being tied to his beloved suffering. It takes him some time and some coaxing to be truly comfortable expressing desire towards Xie Lian. Early on he tends to make sex entirely *about* Xie Lian, skirting around his own desire as much as he possibly can, but Xie Lian is pretty quick to catch on and is having none of that. (There is much cuddling and comfort.)
He only knew how to read and write at like the equivalent of a kindergarten level until he went into Mount Tonglu: just the barest understanding that gave him just enough to teach himself more with given all that time. (Though his writing never did improve much lol.)
This is based a bit on Eming's design in the donghua. His right eye wasn't just a different colour, it also had uuuhhh... *google break* Exophthalmos? It bulged out of his skull. The heterochromia was just the cherry on top of the bullying sundae.
After he went to find his own remains to cremate, he ended up on a series of side-quests chasing down battlefield looters to get the coral earring back.
Sometimes when Xie Lian gets dragged away by heavenly business and he's bored and lonely, he and Yushi Huang hang out at farmers markets in the human realm
turnnoffyourmind
baratheonpilled
