if you’re like me and want to eventually make reading your primary way of learning chinese characters, you’ll notice that a lot of the resources online are using simplified characters. new tong wen tang(chrome;firefox) is a browser extension that will help you convert webpages between simplified and traditional chinese. and regardless of the writing system, another helpful extension to have is zhongwen (chrome;firefox), which adds the ability to hover over a chinese character and see a pop-up containing the pinyin and english translation of a word.
before enabling the two extensions (notice how everything is in simplified!):
after enabling new tong wen tang and zhongwen (text has been converted to traditional chinese and doesn’t interfere with zhongwen’s pop-up dictionary):
a lil animation of qi yan and the lil wooden pigs… I really love JWQS/Clear and Muddy Loss of Love and highly rec it!!!! for the good slowburn bittersweet angsty lesbian yearning…
more qijing from jwqs!!! If you still havent heard it theyre wlw enemies to/and lovers the novel is fully translated pls give it a read if ur interested in dark plot heavy drama with palace intrigue and revenge and a whole smart sexy lesbian cast !!!!!!!!!!!
Mousie’s absolutely subjective, very biased Top 10 web novels list
Please note that this is hardly aiming to be objective, if one can even be properly objective about a work of fiction. It is 110% based on my preferences, which means this list is heavy on the angst and has nothing set in the modern day. It is also heavily danmei-centric, even though I read way more het romance than danmei, because for whatever reason, most of the danmei I’ve read has been insanely good.
10. Return of the Swallow - one of the two non-danmeis on this list. Smart and nuanced and with a large cast of characters. Our heroine is a long-lost daughter of the family that is brought back in and has to cope with familial struggles, crazy royals, court intrigue, invasion et al. It’s SO GOOD! There is romance with the sexy smart enemy general but honestly, it’s the heroine that is the main selling point for me.
9. Transmigrator Meets Reincarnator - the only other non-danmei novel on this list, this was my very first web novel and what drew me into this insanity. This is just a ton of fun, probably the lightest novel on this list, not an ounce of angst to be found. But it’s hilarious and features competent heroine and tsundere hero and I will always love it for opening a new world to me. Anyway, our heroine transmigrates into the novel as the female lead. Unlike the original lead though she doesn’t want to seek adventures and angst - she just wants to comfortably live with the wealthy, nice husband heroine has. Alas, said husband is no longer nice since he has previously lived this story where he was betrayed by FL and then transmigrated/reincarnated into the past. Oh well, the heroine opens up businesses and makes friends. And eventually, her husband realizes his wife is way different this time around. This actually doesn’t have much romance, not until close to the end, but this is so fun I don’t care.
8. Lord Seventh - I am only partway through this so far, but it’s already on the list because it’s smart and somehow intense AND laid-back (not sure how this works, but it does) and is honestly just a really really solid and smart period novel, with the OTP a cherry on top of a narrative sundae. Plus, I love the concept of MC deciding he is not going for his supposedly fated love - he’s tried for six lifetimes, always with disaster, and he’s just plain done and tired. When he opens his life in his seventh reincarnation and sees the person he would have given up the world for, he genuinely feels nothing at all. (Spoiler - his OTP is actually a barbarian shaman this time around, thank you Lord!)
7. Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation(MDZS)- oh come on, how are you even on this tumblr if you don’t know MDZS/The Untamed? This was my very first danmei and it’s so much fun! I love everything about it - the unreliable narrator, the looping structure, the main OTP, Wei Wuxian’s laidback, traumatized insouciance, everything. Anyway, the plot in the event you somehow transported here from 2005 is that the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, Wei Wuxian, was defeated by the righteous sects over a decade ago and fell of a cliff to his death. Only now that same Wei Wuxian opens his eyes in another body and everything that was supposed to stay in the past starts again.
6. Heaven Official’s Blessing (TGCF) - people either love its meandering narrative, picaresque structure and cast of thousands, or find it a detriment compared to much more compact MDZS. I love it even more than MDZS for those very qualities. It does have a rock-solid, darling OTP, but what really elevates it to me are the MXTX trademark combo of snarky/light tone hiding a ton of trauma underneath, the insanely intricate world-building, and what it has to say about the nature of grace and goodness. Xie Lian is one of my top 5 web novel characters and probably in top 10 from anywhere. Oh, and while MXTX’s stuff is not as angsty for me as Meatbun’s or even Priest’s, there are always exceptions, and there is one chapter in this novel that pretty much broke me and sometimes I still flashback to it and feel unwell.
Anyway, what is it about? There is a commotion in the heavenly realm - Xie Lian, the Crown Prince of a long-destroyed kingdom, has ascended to Godhood. That in itself is not so exciting. However for Xie Lian this is the third time (!!!!) as he’s ascended and lost his godhood twice prior. And now, the biggest joke of the divine realm is back, throwing the heavenly realm into chaos. And elsewhere, Hua Cheng, one of the four most powerful demons of that Universe, sits up and takes notice.
5. Golden Stage - my perfect comfort novel. Probably the least angsty of any danmei novel on this list (which still means plenty angsty :P) It also has a dedicated, smart OTP that is an OTP for the bulk of the book - I think you will notice that in most of the novels in this list, I go for “OTP against the world” trope - I can’t stand love triangles and the same. Anyway, Fu Shen, is a famous general whose fame is making the emperor antsy. When he gets injured and can’t walk any more, the emperor gladly recalls him and marries him off to his most faithful court lackey, the head of sort of secret police, Yan Xiaohan. The emperor intends it both as a check on the general and a general spite move since the two men always clash in court whenever they meet. But not all is at is seems. They used to be friends a long time ago, had a falling out, and one of the loveliest parts of the novel is them finding their way to each other, but there is also finding the middle path between their two very different philosophies and ways of being, not to mention solving a conspiracy or dozen, and putting a new dynasty on the throne, among other things. It always makes me think, a little, of “if Mei Changsu x Jingyan were canon.”
4. Sha Po Lang - if you like a lot of fantasy politics and world-building and steampunk with your novels, this one is for you. This one is VERY plot-heavy with smart, dedicated characters and a deconstruction of many traditional virtues - our protagonist Chang Geng, a long-lost son of the Emperor, is someone who wants to modernize the country but also take down the current emperor his brother for progress’ sake and the person he’s in love with is the general who saved him when he was a kid who is nominally his foster father. Anyway, the romance is mainly a garnish in this one, not even a big side dish, but the relationship between two smart, dedicated, deadly individuals with very different concepts of duty is fascinating long before it turns romantic. And if you like angst, while overall it’s not as angsty as e.g., Meatbun stuff, Chang Geng’s childhood is the stuff of nightmares and probably freaks me out more than anything else in any novel on this list, 2ha included.
3. To Rule In a Turbulent World (LSWW) - gay Minglan. No seriously. This is how I think of it. it’s a slice of life period novel with fascinating characters and setting that happens to have a gay OTP, not a romance in a period setting per se and I always prefer stories where the romance is not the only thing that is going on. It’s meticulously written and smart and deals with character development and somehow makes daily minutia fascinating. Our protagonist, You Miao, is the son of a fabulously wealthy merchant, sent to the capital to make connections and study. As the story starts, he sees his friend’s servants beating someone to death, feels bad, and buys him because, as we discover gradually and organically, You Miao may be wealthy and occasionally immature but he is a genuinely good person. The person he buys is a barbarian from beyond the wall, named Li Zhifeng. It’s touch and go if the man will survive but eventually he does and You Miao, who by then has to return home, gives him his papers and lets him go. However, LZF decides to stick with You Miao instead, both out of sense of debt for YM saving his life and because he genuinely likes him (and yet, there is no instalove on either of their parts, their bodies have fun a lot quicker than their souls.) Anyway, the two take up farming, get involved in the imperial exams and it’s the life of prosperity and peace, until an invasion happens and things go rapidly to hell. This is so nuanced, so smart (smart people in this actually ARE!) and has secondary characters who are just as complex as the mains (for example, I ended up adoring YM’s friend, the one who starts the plot by almost beating LZF to death for no reason) because the novel never forgets that few people are all villain. There is a lovely character arc or two - watching YM grow up and LZF thaw - there is the fact that You Miao is a unicorn in web novels being laid back and calm. This whole thing is a masterpiece.
2. Stains of Filth (Yuwu) - want the emotional hit of 2ha but want to read something half its length? Well, the author of 2ha is here to eviscerate you in a shorter amount of time. This has the beautiful world-building, plot twists that all make sense and, at the center of it all, an intense and all-consuming and gloriously painful relationship between two generals - one aristocratic loner Mo Xi, and the other gregarious former slave general Gu Mang. Once they were best friends and lovers, but when the novel starts, Gu Mang has long turned traitor and went to serve the enemy kingdom and has now been returned and Mo Xi, who now commands the remnants of his slave army, has to cope with the fact that he has never been able to get over the man who stabbed him through the heart. Literally. This novel has a gorgeously looping structure, with flashbacks interwoven into present storyline. There is so much love and longing and sacrifice in this that I am tearing up a bit just thinking of it. If you don’t love Mo Xi and Gu Mang, separately and together, by the end of it, you have no soul.
1. The Dumb Husky and His White Cat Shizun (2ha/erha) - if you’ve been following my tumblr for more than a hot second, you know my obsession with this novel. Honestly, even if I were to make a list of my top 10 novels of any kind, not just webnovels, this would be on the list. It has everything I want - a complicated, intricate plot with an insane amount of plot twists, all of which are both unexpected and make total sense, a rich and large cast of characters, a truly epic OTP that makes me bawl, emotional intensity that sometimes maxes even me out and so much character nuance and growth. Also, Moran is my favorite web novel character ever, hands down.
Anyway, the plot (or at least the way it first appears) is that the evil emperor of the cultivation world, Taxian Jun, kills himself at 32 and wakes up in the body of his 16 year old self, birth name Moran. Excited to get a redo, Moran wants to save his supposed true love Shimei, whose death the last go-around pushed him towards evil. He also wants to avoid entanglement with Chu Wanning, his shizun and sworn enemy in past life. And that’s all you are best off knowing, trust me. The only hint I am going to give is oooh boy the mother of all unreliable narrators has arrived!
The novel starts light and funny on boil the frog principle - if someone told me I would be full bawling multiple times with this novel, I’d have thought they were insane, but i swear my eyes hurt by the end of it. I started out being amused and/or disliking the mains and by the end I would die for either of them.
Fei Wo Si Cun’s Eastern Palace has been invading my feeling heavily for these past few days. I started reading the novel only a year ago since I’ve heard many good (bad) review of it. Some called it “the ultimate tragic story in the history of romance C-novels”. And that tells A LOT.
Long story short, since I knew that the novel isn’t completely translated I just let it be. Until early this year when I decided to gear up for the release of the drama adaptation, I found the summary spoiler-y page for the rest of the chapters that havent been translated. I read it, and.. I was so devastated…
Li Cheng Yin and Xiao Feng are….that thing… They conspicuously have infiltrated every quarter of my being. That being said I will definitely write more about them. This particular post is just gonna be a simple and summary guide to the Eastern Palace novel and its epilogue+a few additional chapters.
THE WRITING UNDER NUMBER 3 CONTAINS HEAVY SPOILERS, PROCEED ONLY IF YOU HAVE DONE NUMBER 1 AND 2.
How to read Eastern Palace in order.
1.
Let’s start with the translated chapters of Eastern Palace. There are a total of 42 chapters + epilogue chapter in Eastern Palace. Novel Update has them translated up to chapter 25, and here is the link https://www.novelupdates.com/series/eastern-palace/
So we have arrived at the edge of our demise. How could a story be this tragic, how could a character be this cruel. We all hate Li Cheng Yin. We root and cry for Xiao Feng. I was looking for an answer and it happened when an amazing Twitter friend of mine, Riya, who have read the rest of the chapters and the epilogue by herself enlightened me when I asked her opinion on whether Li Cheng Yin have truly loved Xiao Feng or not. She then told me the detailed explanation on what happened in the epilogue. I also then braved to read the epilogue myself.
I’ll give you the link to our Twitter conversation and the original novel (below this summary)
From Pei Zhao chapter, it is said that Li Cheng Yin never believed in the river of forgetfulness. So he was certain he will die with Xiao Feng the first time they jumped into the river. The second time Xiao Feng tried to kill herself, he was ready to jump following her but Pei Zhao held him back.
Pei Zhao also mentioned when he rescued both Li Cheng Yin and Xiao Feng from the river the first time they jumped together, he saw how their hands are tied together with a belt. Pei Zhao thought the prince must be wanting to be together with Xiao Feng in death.
The epilogue is set 30 years after Xiao Feng’s death and is in the POV of Pei Zhao’s son. Pei Zhao also had a daughter named Liu Niang (which eventually ended up together with Li Mu, Li Cheng Yin’s son-this was written as separate short story). From here we learned that Li Cheng Yin had only two kids from different concubines. The two kids were also a daughter and a son, the daughter was named Chaoyang, while the son was named Li Mu (Amu). It is told that Chaoyang received Li Cheng Yin’s full love and was the most carefree and cherished person in the palace.
Li Cheng Yin conferred a title Queen of Mingde for his beloved crown princess Xiao Feng. It is also said that Li Cheng Yin never take anyone as his official empress after he took the throne as The Emperor.
Liu Niang, Amu, and Chaoyang liked to play together and they were close to each other. Li Cheng Yin believed Chaoyang was his daughter with Xiao Feng and told everyone that she really resembled Xiao Feng. In actuality, she wasn’t. Li Niang and Amu once asked a nanny is it true that Chaoyang looked like the late crown princess (Queen Mingde) and the nanny answered she actually did not. The nanny then described Queen Mingde as someone who is so beautiful and although she has thin and pale body, her beauty did not look anything like Central Plains’ women.
Eventually Chaoyang died. Li Niang and Amu were deeply sad about her death but she thought to herself that there was other person that was far more affected by Chaoyang’s death, and that was The Emperor.
Pei Zhao visited The Emperor in his old age and convinced him that Xiao Feng was long dead and Chaoyang was also not her daughter. Li Cheng Yin refused to believe it and kept saying that she was only going back to Xi Liang. Pei Zhao added a little detail by saying that more than 10 years ago he visited Xiao Feng’s grave and the grass was already so full, meaning that Xiao Feng had long gone and The Emperor should accept it
Some other additional details that Riya found from FWSC weibo and other fans’ page
Li Cheng Yin came across Xu Baolin (who was wearing red dress at that time) when he was drunk and fell for her silhouette that reminded him of Xiao Feng. Hence, Xu Baolin is pregnant.
FWSC wrote a deleted scene in the epilogue. Not long after Chaoyang’s death, Li Cheng Yin passed the kingdom to his son and he went to wall from where Xiao Feng jumped. He jumped and successfully took his own life in the same place Xiao Feng died.
The daughter name was named Chaoyang, but her pet name is actually A’Huang. Amu, her half brother liked to call him A’Huang too. It is said that the name A’Huang is based on the phoenix where the other word for phoenix was ‘Feng Huang’. So it might be related to Xiao Feng as well.
On the additional new scenes, it is revealed that Xiao Feng wasn’t actually her birth name and it was something like Malzima. It is the name of a tree with red leaves/maple. Gu Xiao Wu (Li Cheng Yin) told her that maple leaf is called “Feng” in Central Plains hence he gave her the name ‘Xiao Feng’, the ‘Xiao’ was added because there is ‘Xiao’ too in ‘Gu Xiao Wu’.
They had some pets together. She gave him her 2 gerbils to raise. One of them dies and he tries to find another gerbil which looks exactly the same because he didn’t want to break her heart.
Note that both Riya and I read the epilogue with the help of google translate. So please take this with a grain of salt as the translation may not be accurate but it did give a brief and general understanding as to what happened in the epilogue.
Thank you for reading until the end, hope we can be sad together! Also feel free to correct me and tell me if you have come across other posts that have done another translation or brief summary on the epilogue or additional chapters part :D
Oh my God, what is this abomination? How are these my Trash Man and Ji Man?!?!?
How dare they take the single best het web novel I have ever read and turn it into this cheap, candy tinted mess?!?!?
Also, what utter miscasting! I am very fond of Ding Yuxi (loved him in Tiger and Rose, excited to watch him in Seven Lifetimes) but he’s utterly miscast as ice-cold, pragmatic’ Machiavellian aristocrat who gets rid of three emperors and has his own child aborted and concubines killed for terrifying realpolitik reasons. And I suppose Peng Xiaoran is somewhat better but she still has the wrong vibe as even colder than Trash Man, terrifyingly smart, completely detached Ji Man. That novel is so good in its very very slow burn rapprochement of two terrifying sharks - and the joy of watching a master manipulator, a genuine period man with those attitudes towards women, gradually fall for Ji Man’s competence, her ruthlessness, her calmness and her utter indifference to him, and risk everything for her as she remains uncaring for the longest time is unreal. But this pastel sugary nonsense that takes out all the darkness, the complexity and everything that made it good - ugh.
Btw, if I were casting, I’d cast Chen Kun, beautiful and icy and still, as Trash Man and Zhang Ziyi as Ji Man.
NO NO NO! Everything is wrong here. Just make it an original work at this point, don’t drag down Trash Man and Ji Man’s good name.
Totally agree with you re Chen Kun as Trash Man. Or even Jeremy Tsui. I love ZZY in anything period so I’m on board with that. I think even Zhao Liying could work since she’s no stranger to playing unfeeling and overly pragmatic heroines who have hot men simp at their feet.
In today’s edition of fic that I would one day like to write but we both know that day might never come and like…lets just not think about it.
Anyway, ever since I finished reading Tian Guan Ci Fu, which I think was a year ago - my memory do be hazy - I wanted to write something for Yushi Huang and Quan Yizhen, weirdly enough. Like maybe sort of gen/0.001 percent romance type fic where Quan Yizhen works through his grief over Yin Yu and processes emotions all the while doing physical labour on her farms and just idk, enjoying being in a place where everything is exactly what it seems, there’s no artifice and posturing and just Yushi Huang being calm and steadfast but also being like, I will not hesitate to kindly kick your ass into shape. Like a form of cruel to be kind, but its not really cruel.
I think about this as a potential ship or just like a friendship/alliance what have you way too much. Gosh it feels to good to get it out of my head.
