henlo sir m'am uh i wanted to ask if you'd be kind enough to give me a summary on what "2ha" is about? i've seen it around and have wanted to get into it but i'm a wuss and don't like jumping in blindly ; u ;
so 2HA aka ER HA aka THE DUMB HUSKY AND HIS WHITE CAT SHIZUN is a m/m chinese fantasy novel by meatbun (that’s the author’s handle) clocking in at about 300 chapters. it has lots of warnings associated with it which can be found at the start of various chapters. before i go on, here are links to the google drives where you can read it:
it’s going to be made into a live action titled IMMORTALITY and all the art in this post is official concept art from that adaptation. the author also refers to the novel as “this venerable one has been reformed” which would probably make more sense as a title since the novel is not at all what the common title suggests.
it’s basically a time travel fix-it story. the premise is that the evil emperor of the cultivation world, mo ran, dies and is transported back to his 15 year old body before the events that lead to him becoming the worst person in the world. he realizes he has a chance to stop the death of his friend, shi mei, that lead to his descent into evil the first time, and there’s our story–but don’t be fooled. the person he blames for that death is his shizun, chu wanning, and that is the other half of our main pairing.
in their original life, after mo ran made himself emperor and started terrorizing the world, chu wanning was the only cultivator powerful enough to defy him. he took responsibility for mo ran’s descent as his shizun and thwarted him three times before he finally fell to mo ran, in dramatic fashion. he’s an ascetic in all ways, beautiful and cold, purer than pure and without emotion other than being short-tempered (or so it seems). after he fell in the first life, mo ran made him his prisoner and took out both his anger and his lust on his once-shizun, and that’s where most of the warnings for dark content come into play. i’ll let you fill in the blanks.
of course, nothing is as it seems, and the truths mo ran built his previous life begin to fall apart under fresh examination. the most devastating? chu wanning never hated mo ran, and will give anything to protect him–literally–and those stakes couldn’t be higher. we soon learn this redux life isn’t going the way mo ran’s previous one went at all; someone else is getting a chance at a redo, too, and whatever they want, the danger to the people mo ran cares for is vast. he’ll have to get stronger fast to protect the people he needs to–and he’ll have to figure out who that is before it’s too late.
tl;dr and gentle warnings
tl;dr: take an evil emperor forced to relive his teens and twenties who spent much of his previous life exacting revenge on the world in general and chu wanning in specific, a cold shizun who actually feels 800 emotions a day but is too awkward to show any of them, and then throw in a lot of ghosts and demons, epic love, sacrifice, dire misunderstandings, incredible settings, fun side characters, a big mystery, and you’ve got 2HA.
anyway i would be remiss at this point if i didn’t warn a little bit: mo ran really was horrible in his previous life. nothing about this story is sanitized, but it’s also not gratuitous. this is basically character growth: the novel, and both mo ran and chu wanning have to go through hell first to get there. if you like hurt/comfort, you will love this. i actually really enjoyed reading those vignettes on who mo ran used to be and how compelling and yet deeply screwed up his relationship with chu wanning was then. it makes the payoff even better. also, some may find the initial age gap uncomfy since cwn is of ambiguous immortal-beauty age and mo ran starts as a 30+ year old in a 15 year old’s body. i didn’t care or find it distasteful since nothing happens until mo ran is well out of his teens. honestly, i feel like the only thing that really needs to be warned for is the fucking incredible amount of thirst that the main characters go through from chapter 140 on. i never read pining until i read this.
you like the trope where one half of the pairing disdains the other half and blames them for something that wasn’t their fault and then the person being blamed does something self-sacrificial and the blamer realizes how wrong they were and tries to fix it, if you like character growth, if you like hurt/comfort and fluff, if you like fantasy, etc.
jacobvanloon
germansingergirl
theartofmadeline
snowghoul
titsay
izzy806
