#favourite quotes

[krumpkin]

This is a great quote and it makes me feel far better about being called an ar*ehole so often 😁🤔

[krazykriminal]

"It's not enough to be non-racist, you have to be anti-racist."

—Angela Davis

[alasforher]

- “but the thing is, jumping off cliffs is kinda my thing.”

[fake-married-my-dead-fiance]

I finished reading the novel that The Prisoner of Beauty is based on: The Marquis is Innocent. You can find it here then here and here.

Content warning: most of the sex in this novel is dubcon, but in a very period way. Wei Shao does not have a concept of consent and at first is just like, "That is what a wife is for." Xiao Qiao does not like him, does not want to have sex, but does it anyway because it's her duty as a wife. I thought the author did a good job trying to get into the mindset of people who hated each other in an arranged marriage hundreds of years ago. There is also dismemberment, near SA, and actual SA.

The novel and drama are very different. Xiao Qiao is the reborn soul of a random woman who died at the same time as XQ, but has all of XQ's memories. XQ was originally married to her childhood fiance and became empress, but Wei Shao overthrew the empire and XQ committed suicide with her husband. Also, XQ's cousin was married off to WS but he never accepted her and she died. WS took the throne and made the empress-fate lady his wife. Later, Bi Zhi, who is a rebel, arrows him and he dies young. That is Life 1. Life 2, XQ gets her cousin to elope with Bi Zhi not expecting that she will be forced to marry WS. But then she does.

Anyway, highlights and spoilers below (not explicit):

XQ is called to tend her husband because he was hit with a poisoned arrow (he's so pathetic!):

Wei Shao wondered how he should behave in front of her when she arrived. Is it better to tell her that he is alright so that she no longer has to worry about him, or is it better to make a show to win her pity. This decision was difficult. It was more difficult than going to war and arranging troops. Wei Shao thought for a long time.

When they discover XQ is pregnant:

"Man Man! You are going to give birth to my child! I am going to have a baby too!" His expression was ecstatic and smug. Kisses fell like rain on her forehead, cheeks, and lips. After kissing her for a while, he stopped abruptly.

"I forgot! Just now, you smelled me and threw up!" He released her and carefully put her back on the bed. Then, he got out of bed. He still could not restrain the ecstasy in his heart and walked out quickly...

The bewilderment she felt when she first learned the news, and the strange feeling that she didn't know what it was, suddenly disappeared. From the bottom of her heart, she was finally filled with joy, slowly but thoroughly.

Why the drama title is a good one:

The Qiao family had laid a beauty trap on him. He knew he was caught in the scheme but couldn't help himself. He could only ask for pleasure and satisfaction from her. She brings enough, more than enough, to make him forget the hatred in his heart.

XQ's Aunt being awesome and having her nephew use her as a hostage:

Mrs. Ding said, "That old thing is heartless and unrighteous. He does not recognize my daughter and son-in-law, and I do not take him as my husband, so what blame do I fear from him? There are hundreds of guards and barriers outside. You couldn't escape alone. Hold me hostage and kill your way."

Qiao Ci immediately refused: "How can I endanger you?"

Mrs. Ding shook her head, lovingly stroked Qiao Ci's hair, and said, "Don't worry. Although that old thing and I have long lost the love of husband and wife, I expect he would not dare to kill me in public. When we get out of the city gate, you can escape."

WS just conquered the world but he's more excited about his daughter being born:

But Wei Shao had already wandered into the nothingness. The day before, he had received news from Yuyang. Xiao Qiao gave birth to a daughter successfully. His grandmother named her Fei Fei.

Fei Fei, forget the sorrow.

Wei Shao imagined his daughter's soft little body in his arms, and his gaze unconsciously became gentle. The corners of his lips also curled slightly.

Wei Shao embarked on the road to the north. The war was fierce, and he could not have much leisure time. When he saw the letter, he could no longer restrain his longing for her and the joy of becoming a father that overflowed from the bottom of his steel heart. So much so that he felt he could not hold off any longer.

Wei Shao at one point is convinced XQ is mad at him just because she wants to visit her poisoned father...

Later WS and XQ's father drunk:

She heard her father say: "...... My family Man Man, I'm not boasting, oh. She was beautiful and intelligent. Only a few people can compare to her. She was only ten years old, but people that asked her for marriage reached the threshold ......"

Wei Shao "bang" put down the wine cup: "Who dares to steal her from me?"

Also, the funniest thing is that Wei Shao is like, opium-levels of addicted to Xiao Qiao, but he's all conflicted so he's going to leave her for six months. She is SO EXCITED to have a break from sex and him and his family (she'll be alone at home) and starts all these renovations projects... only for him to return in 3 days to pick her up. She actually refuses to leave and he has to drag her into the carriage.

Wei Shao refuses to take any concubines by saying this:

Annoyed, Wei Shao turned around and said, "If I take the daughter given by Guo Quan today, what if another one comes tomorrow? Do you want me to accept them again? Where do I get the infinite sperm from? No more words!"

But he frequently has sex with XQ like 4 times a night so I think he's lying about not having infinite sperm.

Also, WS comes to XQ and is like, "I love you so much, I'll never hurt your family if you promise never to leave me and to have my children" and she's like, "K." because she still doesn't really like him and he just accepts that!

Anyway, the novel is cool. Check it out.

[mellymelzsworld]

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about dancing in the rain ☔

[1dfanfictionbookcovers]

Tired tired sea by MediaWhore ( @mediawhorefics ) - favourite quotes

it’s easy for them to exist in the same place.

Maybe they're both the kind of lonely that doesn't fully hurt, the kind of lonely that's comforting sometimes. Both of them tucked away against the window, alone but together, in a place the rest of the world has forgotten...

You need time to fall in love with people, but places? You can definitely fall in love at first sight with a place.

[…]how great would that be though. To suddenly reach an age and bam… you’ve got all the grown-up answers.

Sometimes you just need a good rainy day to clean yourself of the bad ones.

Not like everyone else. Not like everyone else at all. You make everything else quiet. Everything else disappears when I look at you.

"The quiet?" It comes out strangled. "Yes... About how much I need it now. How I've been reborn in whispers after a lifetime of thunderous sounds."

But life goes on, even on the days he’s sad.

[…]and he laughs along, never admitting that he needs the escapism right now, needs stories that end with a happily ever after between the heroines and their dashing suitors.

Darling, Dearest, I’m fighting for your kind of quiet.

All my admiration to the way your eyelashes kiss your cheeks.

But I thought… I thought... since I’m deeply in love with you, that maybe it was worth asking if there’s space for me in that already brilliant life of yours?

Fic post

For the covers: here, here and here

[drowsyhousey101]

Day 8: Favourite Quote

"Commodus blames me for his death"

"Why?"

"Probably because I killed him"

- I need to finish reading TOA, I stopped at The Burning Maze years ago (iykyk) and never finished.

Honestly, I don't even remember half of what happens up to that point, but this stuck with me.