#finished danmei

[grimbravado]

#Finished danmei: Joyful Reunion (Xiang Jian Huan/相见欢) by Fei Tian Ye Xiang

My streak of liking danmei with titles that borrow from established cultural references continues. This is a clever title. It would be either deceptive (if you aren’t familiar with the cultural/historical context) or on point (if you do). I expected dissonance, quiet melancholy, and the knife twist where the literal meaning meets the real tone, and it delivers.

Context: “Xiang Jian Huan” is not technically the title of a poem, but the name of a ci tune pattern: a set meter and rhythm used in classical Chinese poetry. These tune names don’t describe the content, so a poem called Joyful Reunion might have nothing to do with joy or reunion. This particular tune pattern is most closely tied to a poem by Li Yu, the last ruler of the Southern Tang dynasty, who was dethroned and lived in spiritual exile writing poems about a homeland that was no longer after his kingdom fell to the Song. The context and emotional undercurrent of his poem Joyful Reunion: Silently, Alone I Ascend the Western Tower is what most Chinese readers would associate this title with imo. (Knowing a bit of Song dynasty history/politics would also enrich the reading experience)

So yes, Joyful Reunion (or as I like to call, Everybody Love Duan Ling) is about the happiness of reunion, but it’s also about people and relationships caught in the churn of dynasty and war, impermanence, loss, memory under siege, reunions overshadowed by parting, joy that arrives tasting bittersweet.

Perhaps more so than any other danmei that I’ve read so far, it is giving Ecclesiastes 3:1–8: To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

What I learned also is that FTYX knows how to write very charming and unique male characters. I like the MC and the ML fine, but I would also have no trouble shipping the MC with quite literally every important man/side character in his life.

[grimbravado]

Reading this one was like sinking into a perfectly warm bath on a chilly day. I enjoyed every second of it. 不问三九 (Bu Wen San Jiu) has a way of writing male leads who are genuinely decent people, warm, thoughtful, and super charming. I’ve read several of her works at this point, and adored every single one. If you’re into dramatic, high-stakes plots, intense action, or “dog blood”, her works probably won’t be your cup of tea. But if you love stories about mature adults navigating real, complex realities and emotions, I highly recommend this one. It’s very romantic. And hot. The characters talk like real people too lol, which is important to me for some reason.

Can’t personally vouch for the English translation, but based on reviews, it seems to be well done.

Wildfire (Bu Wen San Jiu)

Tao Xiaodong had a blind brother. Tang Suoyan, gentle and calm, was his brother’s favourite doctor, and Tao Xiaodong couldn’t help but like

Wildfire

W » 燎原 by 不问三九 Tao Xiaodong had a blind brother. Tang Suoyan, gentle and calm, was his brother’s favourite doctor, and Tao Xiaodong couldn’t

[grimbravado]

#Finished Danmei

I Can Do It by Jiang Zi Bei

Or as I like to call it: I Can I Up. Because the title riffs on “你行你上，不行别BB” - loosely translated as “if you can do it then just do it, if you can’t then shut the f up” or in peak Chinglish: you can you up, no can no BB.

This one was perfect. Not “top danmei of all time” perfect, but perfect in the sense that it checks every single box I want from a danmei on any normal day: a story and romance that move at just the right pace, good chemistry, zero dog blood, genuinely funny dialogue/characters/writing, and a setting that’s both interesting and well-researched (in this case, esports). There’s something so relaxing about video game–themed danmei for me whether it’s MOBAs or MMORPGs and Jiang Zi Bei clearly knows LoL inside out. Jian Rong is a roaring baby tiger in front of everyone else and a total Hello Kitty in front of Lu Boyuan. In my head, I pictured early-twenties Tian Xuning as Jian Rong and Oh Sehun as Lu Boyuan… I don’t care because that mental casting worked. I was eating good.

Two things I wasn’t a fan of: Jian Rong’s age; the very strong antagonistic tone towards SK players.

—不可抗力的分割线—

(AND here we go again. While this entry was sitting in my drafts the past few days, the Jiang Zi Bei topic on weibo has been completely flooded with posts accusing her of lifting too much from real life figures and events, like Faker’s pentakill and JackeyLove’s whole career. People are especially upset over her claim that her characters and plots were entirely original. I can’t tell yet how fair those accusations are, but they don’t seem entirely baseless either. A lot of hurt feelings all around… sigh.)

[grimbravado]

#finished danmei

Deep in the Act

To save Gao Zhun from the shackles of his invisible illness, Fang Chi overcomes obstacle after obstacle, inching closer and closer to his he

This one kind of has all the stuff people complain as missing from priest novels lol: explicit smut, lush sensual detail, and relentless sexual tension, chapter after chapter after chapter… It’s hotter and way more graphic than your average priest/danmei novel. But again, not necessarily more “romantic.”

Weirdly, I’m not sure I’d say I liked it (I had a lot of issues with it) but I enjoyed it. A real mental health professional would probably have a brain aneurysm reading it, though. I was less bothered by the problematic characters and setting, mostly because the whole thing felt more like a stylized stage play than a depiction of real-life events.

The audio drama for this is goated.

[grimbravado]

#finished danmei

These two fall into that rarest of danmei categories: the kind I can actually read before bed and feel comforted.

不问三九’s writing style is pretty distinct. Might be the first danmei author I can recognize just from their sentence structure alone.

Tattoo

On the night of Xiao Ke’s thirtieth birthday, he shared a table while drinking. The person he shared the table with was a cool man who fit a

After Our Divorce, I Still Wore Your Jacket

Yuan Ye and film emperor Fang Shaoyi were married for ten years. After a stamp from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, they got divorced and th

[grimbravado]

#finished danmei

深巷有光/Light In The Deep Ally by Tan Shi

This one didn’t leave a great first impression. The first 20% was a drag. The shou came across as your textbook nice guy with no real charm, and the gong your standard constipated edgelord with a tragic backstory. I get why a lot of people gave up early on, especially because the gong was just that much of an asshole at the beginning. But I had faith in Tai Shi and I think she really delivered. Both characters ended up being way more fleshed out, layered, and lovable as the story progressed.

The middle part was everything I read danmei for. Tan Shi knows how to write romance that feels soo natural, well-paced, and emotionally grounded. The tension, the push and pull, and the bittersweet/sweetsour moments are absolutely delicious. Here we really get the fully fleshed-out version of the entire mental process and emotional journey of an older shou coming to terms with accepting a younger gong. It reminded me of Gu Yun’s change of heart in Sha Po Lang, which actually felt a bit abrupt in comparison.

I was reading this while the Zhang Kangle x Ma Boquan ship was blowing up online lol, and the parallels were impossible to ignore. Alternating between reading this and obsessing over their ship was peak serotonin and exactly what I needed to get through the dumpster fire that was last week.

Light In The Deep Alley

“A reckless and prepared to sting instrumental performer (gong) x a gentle and mature mentor (shou).” On Qin Qingzhuo’s twenty-ninth birthd

[grimbravado]

Just finished 《网恋翻车指南》 by 酱子贝 (Jiang Zi Bei), and it looks like it’s getting an English release soon from Haitang Books. (Haitang Books is a new (?) danmei publisher and apparently not the same as Haitang Literature City, for those wondering). A few quick thoughts:

The original CN title is very forgettable and not even that accurate? The English title is a mouthful to say the least. The story is more like “How to Fail at Catfishing.”

It’s very much in the danmei comfort food category: low stakes, chill, easy to read before bed.

There’s little to no smut, at least the version that I read.

It could’ve been shorter. Probably 20 chapters longer than it needed to be.

I don’t play MMORPGs, so it was fun learning about that world.

Nothing groundbreaking, but it was enjoyable for what it is.