OH MY GOD. I LOVE THIS ONE SO MUCH.
This is getting like 10/10 from me. Seriously, I mean Qian Qiu was already pretty good, but damn Wu Shuang?!!!
I love it so much that I’m jumping the queue on recs to like post this - I literally just finished it a few hours ago, and I’m doing the rec while it’s still fresh in my memory.
Honestly you don’t have to read Qian Qiu in order to read this, but it’s set in the same universe, and extras show that the CP here and the one in Qian Qiu do meet hahaha. But if you thought Yan Wushi in Qian Qiu was arrogant and cocky enough, you HAVE NOT YET MET FENG XIAO.
Firstly, if you’re looking for huge declarations of love and sacrifice and what not in this universe, you’re not going to get it. Shen Qiao and Yan Wushi’s relationship was CONFIRMED IN THE EXTRAS!!!! But at least there were a lot of extras, you know that they spend a lot of years tgt etc., and there’s a subtle smut scene, but it’s still so like in between the lines, because no one ever says I love you and getting to see ‘I like you’ even is like trying to squeeze out blood from a rock.
The beauty of these two novels is that the characters connect like just like that, they’re literally soulmates, the most compatible for each other in terms of personality, behaviour, principles etc. The same goes for Feng Xiao and Cui Bu Qu in this one.
This entire novel is basically the main CP bantering, pranking and creating trouble for each other, like from start to end, I’M NOT JOKING. Like Cui Bu Qu finds ways to sabotage Feng Xiao, the other is a TERRIBLE PEACOCK AND NARCISSIST OMG HE’S SOOOO VAIN???!!! WHO DOES THE SAME TO CBQ, it’s hilarious. Even the way they supposedly realize they like each other is soooo subtle, and we don’t even get like proper confirmation that they’re together, but they are.
You literally thirst for ANY SIGN that shows that Feng Xiao and Cui Bu Qu like each other, and it’s done so subtly that if you catch it, while it is a small action, you’re possibly going to be flabbergasted like. Damn?!! It’s the equivalent of Victorian-era ankle reveals, but damn, it sure packs a punch when that ankle is revealed.
Difference between Qian Qiu and Wu Shuang is that the former focuses more on the jianghu rivalry and competition between sects with a tinge of royal family feud and schemes, while Wu Shuang is the other way round - Feng Xiao and Cui Bu Qu are officials at court first and foremost, and sect rivalry takes place in the backdrop, but also not frequently.
- If you haven’t read Qian Qiu yet, here’s the rec, and also the donghua is coming out next week on 8 Feb Monday 10am (GMT+8), so honestly, it’s too good to miss!!
A sequel to Qian Qiu, and is set between the last chapter of Qian Qiu and before the last two extras.
Basically Yan Wushi and Shen Qiao helped to get Yang Jian to the throne and also aided in the massacring the Yuwen royal family, which were the ones in power before Yang Jian got to the throne. A recap because it’s important (some cdramas have also done this storyline, this part is accurate to actual irl history) - basically Yang Jian and his wife were officials to the Yuwens and they even married their daughter Li Hua over to the 3rd Yuwen to take the throne, but this Emperor was useless, incompetent and also hated Li Hua. In the end, Yang Jian was convinced to fight for the throne, and basically took the throne from Li Hua’s husband. Technically she should be happy, but if her father didn’t take the throne, she would basically be Empress Dowager, but that didn’t come true. She resents her father a fair amount for that, even though she disliked her husband as well.
This is the background in which Feng Xiao and Cui Bu Qu are dealing with.
Feng Xiao is the head of the Jiejian Bureau (a sort of secret service/secret ops team) who is loyal to the Emperor. He is one of the three big demonic sects’ sect master and is known for his high martial arts skills, but has now sworn allegiance to Yang Jian. On the other side, Cui Bu Qu is the sickly, physically weak and always-on-the-edge-of-death head of the Zuo Yue Bureau, an intelligence agency that is loyal to the Empress Dugu. They’re not enemies, but are in direct healthy competition of each other, and CBQ especially rarely turns up in person, so the Zuo Yue Bureau’s inner workings and members are kept mostly a secret.
Feng Xiao is investigating the murder of a convoy from the Kingdom of Khotan and clues lead him to a master who has recently started giving advice and healing people at a long-time rundown temple. This man is sickly af, and every sentence he says is punctuated with coughs on his bad days, and Feng Xiao brings him back with him to interrogate him, sure that this man is complicit in one way or another. He even poisons this man, Cui Bu Qu, with an addictive substance that will cause excruciating pain should a next dose not be given.
However, Cui Bu Qu has had to survive with his weak body ever since he was born - he has spent no days pain-free, and so is used to being in excruciating pain for long periods of time alone. He doesn’t break, and Feng Xiao starts to wonder if this man, this seemingly extraordinary man, is part of the Zuo Yue Bureau.
As the both of them are forced to solve cases together, while scheming harmlessly (mostly) against each other, they realize that they are embroiled in a larger scheme, where their hidden enemy is looking to kick Yang Jian off the throne, and has set up resources, personnel and more for years waiting for the day to overthrow him.
A plot that has three kingdoms/empires making their moves against the Sui dynasty.
Novel (Online) | Novel (Translations) | Novel (Print) - TW Ver. + CN Ver.
1. 崔不去 Cui Bu Qu - Highly intelligent, firm and determined strategist. It’s not revealed at the start, but later we find out that the Empress and the Emperor value him so much because he was the one who basically convinced them to plot to takeover the throne when they were still hesitant about it (and along with this, at the same time, Yan Wushi and Shen Qiao were also helping them, not that it’s clearly said in this novel, but the timing wise you can put two and two together if you’ve read Qian Qiu).
He’s given the Zuo Yue Bureau, and while he’s always sick and physically weak, as if he might keel over at any time, no one in the bureau doubts him. Whenever he’s around, even if the problem/case/scheme before them is complex, dangerous or cannot be seen clearly, those who follow him always feel rest assured, because it seems like he can always solve everything.
Can smell suspicious things from miles away, very sharp, very keen senses and also has photographic memory. One might think that he’s either very gentle/polite/courteous, which he is most of the time, but more than that, he can be described as merciless when he has to make decisions. He bows to no authority (and technically doesn’t have to given his status), takes no shit, and honestly is a troublemaker.
He gives Feng Xiao as good as it gets when it comes to scheming and pulling one over the other - he’s quiet, but he loves creating trouble, sometimes the bigger the better. Very ambitious, but knows where to apply that ambition.
Has a pretty tragic past, and he gave himself the name Bu Qu (literal translation: won’t/don’t go) for Bu Qu SI (不去死) i.e. I will not die/I refuse to die, because when he was growing up, his family wished him dead, that he was never born, and then did leave him to die, so he escaped and then took this name to remind himself that he may have the weakest body, but he ain’t gonna die and make everyone’s lives easy.
He and Feng Xiao technically get on like a house on fire, because if Feng Xiao pulls one over him, he gives it right back. They’re basically equally on par with each other when it comes to troublemaking, and he knows Feng Xiao’s weaknesses, so loves to torture him (creating a situation where he has to touch a dead body, when Feng Xiao is a germaphobe etc.) - but Feng Xiao knows how to flirt so even Cui Bu Qu gets flustered sometimes.
Most of the time he’s deadpanning and rolling his eyes at Feng Xiao tho.
Come to trust Feng Xiao, and cares about him towards the last 50 chapters especially, and there’s just this wordless trust between them even if they’re throwing barbs at each other most of the time.
2. 凤霄 Feng Xiao - This man is the vainest peacock you’ll ever see. Honestly, as the deadly, incredibly skilled sect master of a demonic sect and head of the Jiejian Bureau that allows him to basically arrest/murder anyone before having to wait for royal decrees for permission to do so - he’s so narcissistic. To enemies, to the Emperor, to Cui Bu Qu, he’s always “Do I look like I will look at a woman who’s uglier than me? And all of them are ugly, because naturally, I am the most beautiful” and variations of these. He’s SO VAIN!!!!
He’s also a germaphobe, doesn’t like to touch bodies, and can only sleep on clean sheets.
While Cui Bu Qu isn’t like slumming it out or dirty by any measure, he does throw up blood quite often, and in normal danmei novels you’ll prolly be like oh Feng Xiao’s heart will ache for his beau - BUT NOPE!! His first reaction is to scowl because it’s DIRTY. Because his clothes/cape is now dirty.
And of course, CBQ loves to make sure that FX stays disgusted - he’ll touch his face after touching a dead body, or giving him a bloodied cape he picked up from the floor and etc.
Real powerful, can singlehandedly take on a number of skilled opponents while protecting CBQ.
However, he falls in love with how witty CBQ is, and this is the only person who is his soulmate (not that he’d ever admit it) - who understands the way he thinks and can not only keep up, but also challenge and give him (nasty) surprises along the way. He actually realizes he likes CBQ first, and then scowls for so long after and laments his terrible taste, but then afterwards takes advantage of CBQ by sneaking in playful kisses etc.
CBQ thinks he’s acting and being his dramatic self again, only to realize a bit later that he actually is willing to sacrifice himself for FX (he doesn’t admit it).
FX loves CBQ for his grit, that he can see deep in CBQ’s bones. He doesn’t once mock CBQ for his weak constitution, because he knows what’s underneath that is the burning desire to live on, to stay in this moment, to tell everyone who wished him to die, to literally go to hell.
Other Things I Liked in the Novel:
OMG where do I even start!!! There were so manny good parts between CBQ and FX it’s unreal, they’re battling each other with wit and sarcasm throughout the book, but anw here are some of my faves:
How they express fondness for each other: Wow, so FX can see through CBQ whenever CBQ does something for him but refuses to admit it for e.g. after CBQ realizes that he does like FX, he goes to the Empress and asks for some Beauty Cream?!! And then gives it to like FX’s subordinate to pass to him but threatens her to not let FX know it’s him, but who is FX?!! FX realizes it immediately, and then goes and teases CBQ about it, and CBQ thinks “I should have just let him die then” because FX is all in his face about it, and then FX gifts him a PAINTED FAN OF HIMSELF!!! IN RETURN!! And CBQ is like ew wtf is this?! But then quietly keeps it in his sleeves after once FX is gone
In the first case, FX has basically threatened CBQ (he doesn’t know his identity yet) to stay with him as they figure out the case, intrigued by his intellect, and at an auction, CBQ makes it difficult for him by yelling that FX has dirty intentions towards him - FX gives back by saying ‘oh but you are so handsome, I just had to have you’ and CBQ goes ‘yes but who can withstand your fetish of whipping us’ along those lines IN PUBLIC!!!! And FX is like …. ‘I thought I was good at this, but you’re even better’
FX confesses first as he piggy-backs an almost-dying CBQ on his back near the end, and CBQ actually already feels slightly better, but decides not to tell him so he can hear the rest of his confession, and then when he wakes up, he pretends he didn’t hear it! And FX is all “CBQ, you bij, when I walk out of here, no matter how much you beg me I will never see you again!” and then CBQ finally laughs - for the first time, he laughs properly, carefree, without a single care in the world, right in front of FX, and his heart just melts
At some point FX pretends to betray him and side with the enemy, even stabs CBQ, but CBQ never once really doubts him? At this point he doesn’t really like him yet, but even then, he knows this is beneath FX and doesn’t blame him for stabbing him lmao
CBQ has FX crossdress once for a case, thinking this would inconvenience him, but does FX the peacock mind?! NO!!! He immediately takes to the role and starts to be the whiniest, most annoying wife to CBQ, and in front of others, makes it difficult for CBQ by saying he’s physically unfit and cannot satisfy her (him) in bed LMAO in PUBLIC again where everyone can hear
The Empress/Emperor consistently want to marry one of the princesses to each of them, and after they confirm their feelings, CBQ avoids FX for like weeks after news breaks out that the Empress is prepared to marry FX off to one of the princesses, and FX angrily stomps to CBQ’s place only to see him inviting another princess to stay at the Bureau, and then they sulk at each other (hidden by veiled insults) and then CBQ kisses him AHHHHH
Their acts of fondness for each other are so subtle and also hidden by a lot of barbs and sneers, but you realize that when you look at their actions, you’re like AWWWW omg!!! And in this entire book, CBQ only initiates the kiss ONCE, but by then you’re like THE HEAVENS HAVE SHOWN ME FAVOUR BY GIVING ME THIS TIDBIT. And you’re like damn CBQ really likes him huh, just from this single kiss alone that you see only in the EXTRAS!!!
