#danmei rec

[pttucker]

Danmei Novel Rec - I Can Do It

Hello there! Do you like social media fics, livestreaming fails, or celebrity-fan interactions? How about age gap relationships with some light idol/fan power imbalance? Relationships with a more experienced, forward, and slightly dominant top and an absolute terror of a bottom who deletes entire decades off the life of his coach but is suddenly "a fairly well-behaved kid" every time his captain is anywhere in the vicinity? Are you interested in an absolutely hilarious, fluffy novel where you get to see your soon-to-be-favorite pro gamers completely demolish another team in multiple League of Legends matches? And then get in trouble for publicly calling them trash.

Well then I have just the novel for you!

I Can Do It (我行让我来) by Jiang Zi Bei (酱子贝)

Jian Rong looks so sweet and innocent here. You'd never know he was Public Enemy Number One for literally every LoL player ever.

...Well, almost every LoL player.

Novel Updates Link

So guess who just read their very first danmei novel? 😊 Which is really weird to think about since I've been reading BL for decades, but I guess it's always been in comic form.

This was probably a bad novel to start with tbh since it was really unbelievably fun (and funny) and had so many tropes I liked, with said tropes being repeated over and over and over again.

Seriously I think Jian Rong gets caught in 4k simping for Lu Boyuan like 40 times, including 20 times by Lu Boyuan himself, and every single time it recharged my life battery for an entire week.

I've probably unintentionally raised the bar for the next novel far too high by reading ICDI before anything else.

That said, I totally recommend this novel if you're like me and adore reading social media AUs on AO3 or like seeing quick-witted, genuinely talented people completely own others (and then get owned in turn by their very own fans lmfao).

It's a really relaxed, cute romance with steady but slow progress (seriously this is a SLOOOOOW burn), where most of the romantic conflicts are pretty much always resolved in the next chapter, if not the same one. That said, the top is actually pretty dang forward and not really all that subtle about his interest (both to Jian Rong and to the world at large) and I loved that the "cool, aloof" character was openly asking his fans for the link to Jian Rong's secret Lu Boyuan simp account on chapter freaking ten.

I will mention that this is only an M-rated, possibly even just 15+ rated, romance so if you're hoping for some hardcore XXX smut to pay off the slowburn, you won't get it here. You will however get some really suggestive text that doesn't try to hide what happened offscreen, as well as being able to see Jian Rong's soul attempt to leave his body after Lu Boyuan buys him ointment for his poor abused you know what. Which Lu Boyuan gives him in front of his own mother. Because he really is that unrepentant.

Most of the tension comes from the actual LoL matches themselves, with the novel really focusing on Jian Rong, AKA Soft, becoming a pro player. So if you are a hardcore romance-focused reader this might not be for you since there are entire chapters dedicated just to describing matches. But trust me, if you're even remotely into that sort of thing they are so, soooo satisfying and the Tiny Salt team does an amazing job of explaining LoL terms for us noobs.

Speaking of which, this novel has been recently announced as being licensed, so if you want to read it on the website I linked, I suggest you get on it pronto!

Anyway, here's some fun scenes to help entice you:

(It was so hard picking just a few)

[Crap wait a sec, look at the first program on the streamer’s taskbar!!!] Jian Rong stared blankly before turning to look at his own taskbar—[StarTV_R-ong’s Personal Homepage] ………it was the homepage of the side account that he had just opened in order to load money onto it. Before Jian Rong could react, someone had already sent out a comment saying that they had successfully found the side account’s personal homepage. Darkness flashed across Jian Rong’s vision. “Wait a moment, I can explain…”

(Narrator Voice) He can't explain.

Jian Rong wasn’t interested in group chats, nor did he know what to say. He swept a glance over the chat before he went to put down his phone and continue playing ranked. [R: @R-ong] [R-ong: Hello everyone, very pleased to meet you all.] A few seconds later. [R-ong: [rose]]

Instant change of attitude. 🤣

"R" is, of course, Road, AKA Lu Boyuan. As you can see, Jian Rong is very well-behaved... for at least one individual.

“You’re… still going to stream?” Ding-ge said hesitantly, “Maybe you shouldn’t stream for the next few days, and don’t look at all that stuff on Weibo or Tieba either. Right now, there are a lot of moronic antis who are stirring things up about you online.” “I’m just going to casually cheat out some gifts.” Jian Rong skillfully adjusted his peripherals. “Also, why does someone else have to stir things up about me? I can do it myself.” Ding-ge still wanted to stop him, but Jian Rong had already pressed down on the “start stream” button. What the eyes don’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve over. Ding-ge covered his eyes and walked away.

Poor Ding-ge. He must have killed three people in his previous life to deserve Jian "I am perfectly capable of starting a fight on my own" Rong in this one.

Jian Rong had just typed out “dumbass” when the practice room door opened. Lu Boyuan had draped a random jacket over himself, and he was wearing a disheveled short-sleeved shirt inside and loose pajama pants on the bottom. The string on the front of his pants weren’t even tied. He stuffed both hands in his pockets and walked over to stand behind Jian Rong. “Insulting someone?” Lu Boyuan had slept for a while, causing some exhaustion to seep into his voice. Jian Rong: “…” He blinked blankly for a moment before he deleted the word he had typed out and said, “No, it was a typo.”

Did I mention earlier that he doesn't only get caught by his fans? He gets caught by Lu Boyuan all. the. time. Doing all kinds of things.

Lmfao rest in peace, Jian Rong.

Yuan Qian: “Don’t worry, it’ll happen soon. Maybe Pine will bring a sister-in-law back for you tomorrow.” Xiao Bai shook his head. “Not a chance. With his poker face, I bet he’ll still be an old single virgin by the time he’s thirty.” Youyou said, “You could just find a girlfriend yourself, problem solved.” Pine raised his eyes.

The side ship! It's not nearly as focused on as the main ship, of course, but it's so sweet and they even have their own little mini story about getting together in the novel extras. 🥰

Upon seeing how many comments Jian Rong was receiving in the barrage, Xiao Bai felt like this marketing tactic was quite effective. He was about to copy it when he saw the number of viewers in his stream suddenly decrease dramatically. In the span of a few seconds, over four thousand viewers dropped. He turned pale with fright. “Damn, I haven’t even shown my socks yet, how come you all ran away! …oh, my ge started streaming? That’s fine then.” The instant Lu Boyuan started his stream, the viewer counts in all the other LoL streams would always drop. Never mind the TTC members, even the other LoL streamers were used to it by now. Lu Boyuan leaned back in his chair, eating his youtiao. His hair was disheveled, and he sat in a careless manner. He was idling on the game client and clicked on the PC version of Happy Fight the Landlord as he chatted lazily with the barrage. “Mn, a task assigned by our manager, marketing the merch.”

I included this one because ngl Lu Boyuan gave me vague "Yoo Joonghyuk getting to actually be a pro gamer" vibes and the feeling of reading a tilted ORV No Scenarios AU was one of the things that first drew me into this novel. (Though I can happily say that Lu Boyuan very quickly became his own person.) That said, I adore canons where you have something of an OP "Protagonist" who's just the best and so I was thrilled to see that ICDI really emphasized Lu Boyuan's fame, talent, and respect in the community.

“The things I said in the interview,” Jian Rong paused for a second. “Will I be penalized for it?” Ding-ge hiked up an eyebrow, somewhat surprised. “Why would you be penalized?” Jian Rong: “I insulted Rish and called him a dog.” Lu Boyuan almost burst out laughing.

Jian Rong is a national treasure, your honor.

Lu Boyuan: “There are security cameras in the stairwell.” Jian Rong immediately went silent. He sucked in a deep breath and raked a hand through his hair. “Forget it then, let’s go back and practice…” Lu Boyuan straightened upright. Before Jian Rong could turn around, Lu Boyuan gripped his wrist and pulled him over to the corner, pressing him against the wall. Not much noise was produced with this movement, and the subpar sound-activated lights swiftly went dark.

😏

(They're just making out.)

(For now.)

[drowning-in-danmei]

Recommendation: Picked up by the Protagonist of a Tormented MC novel

Alright, so this is also a story I have been keeping up to date on the translation. It follows our adorable Zeno, who transmigrates into his favorite novel after finishing it in the real world and being upset with how his beloved protagonist was mistreated and died in the end. 

He transmigrates into a cannon fodder infant, who was supposed to die practically immediately after he transmigrated, but ends up surviving and living with the poor, hardhearted and deeply mistrusting ML who is also a child living on the streets(Xi Wei).

Long story short, while the ML doesn’t trust anyone from a young age, he slowly, and gosh darn I do mean slowly, starts to trust and subsequently fall for our adorable MC. 

I found that the characters and the development between them so far has been slow, and well thought out. It isn’t an immediate fall in love, but a slow, gradual realization for our cold ML. Where our MC is just constantly aware of the people who will eventually betray the ML, and makes every effort to protect his favorite protagonist, while simultaneously not knowing the storm that will eventually brew within the ML’s heart. 

I haven’t finished this novel yet, and it still has about 30 or so more chapters until completion, but the unique characters and story telling make me want to keep up to date on it.

Overall a great novel so far, and one I would recommend to others interested in fantasy type novels with a BL twist.

Here is the link: https://www.novelupdates.com/series/picked-up-by-the-protagonist-of-a-tormentedmc-novel/

[drowning-in-danmei]

Recommendation: The Earth is Online

I honestly would give this title a near perfect score even though its not xianxia.

The MC (Tang Mo- often refereed to as Tang Tang, Brother Tang or Momo depending on who is calling him) and the ML (Major Fu aka Fu Wendou) are an OP power couple. The romance is very, and I mean very, very slow burn (If you think MDZS is bad, you’ve got another thing coming lol) . But it is such a satisfying, slow building relationship that I really don’t mind it. 

Their interactions are adorable and their personalities compliment each others well. They are not overly soft towards others, but you can tell they are really fond of each other, and have developed an unbreakable trust in a time of such uncertainty. And while the novel may make you feel like an idiot for not being able to understand the logic of the MC and ML in clearing the Black tower’s games, it’s very quickly forgotten and replaced by the awe you feel for the author. (Like how they can come up with this content is beyond my small mind and I praise them for their wit and imagination)

On another note, there are quite a few adorable side characters including Chen Shanshan, an adorably smart girl, and Fu Wenshang, Major Fu’s adorable little cousin. 

I will also gladly mention an antagonist who makes the story better imo but whom other people seem to hate immensely lol. Most notably, a character that seems to have a death wish, while simultaneously not wanting to die....like seriously if you don’t want to end up six feet under, stop messing with the power couple. BUT.....that and his messed up personality and the way he acts just makes me love him as an antagonist.  

Anyway, there are about 245 chapters, it should be completed soon on novel updates. If you have time, and want a good story, check it out.

Here is the link: https://www.novelupdates.com/series/the-earth-is-online/