Chinese Novels

I've been gravitating towards modern-day settings in Chinese-language media in general, maybe because they tend to be easier to follow and require less attention... And I think also less distracting to read in translation? I checked out the first chapter of Saye (7S translation) last week and it was a much better experience than, say, Shapolang (7S translation) which I bounced out of because I found the English translation unwieldy.

Plus lately I've found myself more compatible with books that have, idk, more barebones but straightforward writing? Something like 我五行缺你/My Five Elements Lack You by Xizixu but... better. Or something similar to those Japanese mystery/thriller novels (I am open to recs!). And standard novel length because I'm just a very slow reader lol. I'd started one of Ding Mo's novels a while back but it seemed like a multi-volume series so I didn't bother continuing. Not that any of this matters because I'm not reading much of anything these days!