Read-in-Progress Wednesday

[geraineon]

This is your weekly read-in-progress post for you to talk about what you're currently reading and reactions and feelings (if any)!

For spoilers:

<details><summary>insert summary</summary>Your spoilers goes here</details>

<b>Highlight for spoilers!*</b><span style="background-color: #FFFFFF; color: #FFFFFF">Your spoilers goes here.</span>*

(Sorry for the delay! I scheduled this post knowing I'll be away earlier today but the scheduled post didn't work as expected)

Comments

[aurumcalendula]

I'm made a bit of progress on The White Haired [Bride/Witch/Demoness]'s fan translation, although I'm hoping the title character is in it more as it goes on. I'm also read more of The Witch Nichang, To Embers We Return, and Seeking Immortality in Vain's fan translations as they updated recently!

I think To Embers We Return and Seeking Immortality in Vain are my favorite of them at the moment. In the former, the plot w/r/t Highlight for spoilers! *the black box virus* appears to be accelerating and I'm looking forward to *Shen Ni fixing Bian Jin's body, which sounds like it (from the author's notes) will be happening soon *. I'm also still really enjoying the political intrigue (and UST between Song Juguang and Jiang Changbai) in the latter!

[geraineon]

I just looked up. Seeking Immortality in Vain only has four chapters translated so far, right?

[aurumcalendula]

Maybe there's two novels with similar titles? The one I'm following has 36 chapters translated so far.

[geraineon]

Thanks! Yeah, maybe... or maybe it has two tl and one is abandoned XD

[geraineon]

I posted this and then crashed for a few hours... ahaha

I did manage to continue reading Tai Sui a little this week! As usual, poor san-ge (but Xi Ping's nonsense grounds him, so maybe it's a good thing Xi Ping is full of nonsense? idk)

[dancing_serpent]

I finally picked a book up from my huge TBR pile - The Imperial Uncle. I'm well into the 4th chapter, some 100+ pages in, but I'm not really feeling it. I don't know if I should trust in the narrator, I don't know who is supposed to be endgame, don't know which pairing I should root for.

I thought picking a one volume thing would be the best way to get into reading BL cnovels, but maybe this one was the wrong pick. I'm not giving up on this book yet, but I'm getting so much more emotional payoff out of reading fanfic that I've done that for the past two days.

[liliacs]

I'm sorry you aren't clicking with the novel! I haven't read it myself, but I know people who did and they generally say Imperial Uncle isn't very traditional with its romance, including being unclear about the love interest for a while. In most novels, I'd say the main couple is pretty immediately obvious.

I hope your next cnovel read goes better!

[dancing_serpent]

Well, maybe things will develop into a direction more to my taste. Something finally happened that made me a bit more interested - granted, only after about a hundred pages of mostly boredom. I need at least one character to root for when I'm reading, and right now, the narrator might finally start to fall into that category.

[duckprintspress]

As someone who loved The Imperial Uncle, it's definitely not for everyone, and it also very much NOT representative of danmei as a genre.

[dancing_serpent]

It would help me a lot to know who will be endgame/which pairing I'm supposed to root for.

[liliacs]

The love interest is Highlight for spoilers!*Liu Tongyi.*

[dancing_serpent]

I thought so, but wasn't sure. Glad to have it confirmed, even if it's only no. 2 of the interesting options in my opinion.

[duckprintspress]

If this is a request for a spoiler, the endgame ship is Highlight for spoilers!*Jing Chengjun/Liu Tongyi.*

[dancing_serpent]

That was definitely a request for spoilers! *g* Thank you!

[duckprintspress]

:D

[geraineon]

<3 glad you got your answer, but also echoing the others that it is not representative (though I'd say it's also because it's quite old, 2009, so it's not that it's not representative, but it's quite different from recent danmei).

I enjoy it more because I enjoy the main character and the situation he's in.

[dancing_serpent]

Thing is, I have no idea if I can trust the main character. A first person narrator who keeps saying that nothing is his fault? Super suspicious! *g*

[halfcactus]

I listened to the first 2 eps of the Saye audiodrama, got confused (there were a lot of characters in the first ep), got sad when I realized that any audiodrama I get into now will have a lot parts cut, read the first chapter of the English translation, and got distracted because there was a line that confused me (this is a me issue, I'm just easily distracted 😂).

Btw I can never remember if the official English title is Run Wild or Run Free haha but it seems pretty up my alley! 雙A, found family, and SISTERS!!! I hope the cdrama can air at some point because I really liked the actress they cast for the younger sister...

[halfcactus]

Btw the audio drama and novel seem to start at different points! I wonder if the AD will give us flashbacks of the main characters' first meeting - ep1 just starts at school and introduces everyone at once and there were so many dudes I didn't know exactly how many voices I was listening to lololol.

[geraineon]

What is the part that confused you? (not that I've read it, just curious!)

[halfcactus]

Up until this moment, Jiang Cheng's mood had been nothing but rotten tomatoes all the way down, but he found himself sparing a couple glances through the tomato spiral at Gu Fei's hair, which was every bit as eye-catching as his long legs.

It's really nothing big (and also probably reader error), it's just that "tomato spiral" threw me off and made me envision a redhead with a hair whorl with how the sentence was constructed. ^^; I got distracted looking up art AND the raws and forgot to continue the novel haha.

[geraineon]

XD is it not hair with a hair whorl... because that's exactly what I thought too.

[liliacs]

Still reading To Embers We Return. Han Fu is very cool, and I love Li Si and Dou Xuanji's dynamic. The action scenes are also so cool! I'm excited to see Bian Jin get to show off her full potential.

[aurumcalendula]

I can't wait to catch up to where you're at in the story!

(also, I love your icon!)

[liliacs]

It's very fun! The book has definitely only gotten more interesting and exciting as it went on.

(Ty! It's such a pretty book cover.)

[lee_bella]

I finished Wang Ya's Thriller Trainee yesterday. Very heavy on the horror and gore element, which I didn't expect. The main couple is definitely on the unconventional side, and I do like a good "enemies to lovers" story.

Also finished Wang Ya's 降臨 awhile ago. It's self-cest, and the central relationship is surprisingly well written.

[geraineon]

Ah, I have Thriller Trainee on my TBR. There was one period when I was adding a bunch of IF novels... ahaha

good to know that it's a good enemies to lovers story!

[duckprintspress]

I finished vol. 3 of the Global Examination manhua in Chinese and it's kinda killing me that I can't just keep going (but there are only 3 print volumes).

I've got some non-Chinese novels up next in my TBR (I keep rearranging things) but I'll probably be reading TGCF manhua in Chinese starting soon. My next-up novel read is Solo Leveling vol. 4, so I'm still mostly in Korea for novels.

[geraineon]

Manhua or novels, they are all reading~!

Only 3 print volume... will there be more?

[duckprintspress]

idk but probably? Book 3 only came out a few months ago, but I haven't seen pre-orders for vol 4 yet. There's definitely WAY more of the manhua, I've read past what vol. 3 covers even before Bilibili shut down. Unfortunately, the main place I could affordably order print copies from has shut down/disappeared, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do going forward, sigh. The other place I've ordered from previously, it now costs $40 to ship ONE VOLUME. It's insane. I can't afford $60 per book, sigh. I have a work-around for TGCF vol. 6 but everything else I'm sunk.

actually, that'd make a good post for one your days when you do questions stuff. if anyone else here does print vols in Chinese, where and how they get them. (I've used Heartbeat Anime - that's the one that's closed, and Koon Books - that's what is charging a ton for shipping, and Books TW - it can be hard to tell what's simplified vs traditional). I can get physical volumes of TGCF from Kinokuniya USA but they don't carry any other Chinese manhua except MDZS which I'm not interested enough in to buy in Chinese (I'm already buying it in English, that's plenty).

sorry, I'm just babbling. I'm really stressed *sweatdrop*

[geraineon]

No worries! You can make a top level post with these questions anytime! Or would you like me to do it?

[duckprintspress]

I'll do it. :D

[larryhammer]

Still bounding along with Transmigrator Meets Reincarnator, up to chapter 430-odd / 60% in. The love interest (the reincarnator) is so tsundere it goes past ridiculous and tips over into adorbs (though only to read about—in person, he’d be too frustrating to put up with irl).

Did have a laugh-out-loud moment when the MC hired lion dancers to celebrate the grand opening of her restaurant. My kid’s in a youth lion dance troupe, and in addition to the usual Lunar New Year performances has done a fair number of business openings/blessings,* so I knew what to expect. Right up to the standard move of a lion unrolling a red scroll held in its mouth—and instead of a blessing, it’s an ad for the restaurant. 💀☠️

* Most have been for nail salons, but a pho joint has hired them for repeat performances on LNY.

[geraineon]

Lots of characters I find adorable/that I love will be absolutely awful to befriend irl XD

That's cool that your kid is in a lion dance troupe! (I hope that means lots of red packet money!)

[larryhammer]

The kid’s been doing it for six years now, since first grade. Most of the red packet money goes to the Cultural Center — the kids get a dollar after every performance, plus a bigger packet at the end of the year.

[geraineon]

<3

[ehyde]

I'm reading Across Time and Space Detective which has the fun premise of someone in the present being able to communicate with someone 39 years ago, and them working together to solve a heist & murder case that the past character stands accused of (which to the present character is a longstanding unsolved mystery). The author wrote

By the way, the initial idea for this story was to show readers the significant advancements in forensic science over the past thirty years! ><
The true essence of “transcending time” is how old cases that were difficult to solve back then have found breakthroughs with the development of forensic science.
Moreover, I find these newly developed forensic techniques very interesting and want to give readers a bit of insight through my writing.

which I think is very cute.

I like the time travel concept--for the first half of the book it hasn't been too timey-wimey, mostly just discovering things and leaving the timeline intact, but now things are starting to change. They're presumably going to find some way to make the time travel more permanent than just communicating (seeing as they're the main couple) but I'm not sure how yet--other than that since the unsolved case ended with no body found, it should definitely be possible to avoid breaking the timeline too badly.

[halfcactus]

Ooooh that sounds a bit like the kdrama Signal, but with a larger time gap and leads that get together?? I am now also deeply curious about how they make the relationship work. XD

[ehyde]

I haven't seen Signal but I had been thinking it reminded me of the american movie FrInequency and when I looked up Signal, wikipedia tells me that it's inspired by that movie. I also read another cnovel, We Live in Nanjing, that was even more similar down to using the same method of communication (ham radio). In the novel I'm reading now they can just hear each other's voices as long as they're in the same room and there's a rainstorm, and as time goes on they're able to see faint outlines of each other too, I predict they will be able to touch each other soon. It feels a little bit more handwaved but with the detail the author puts into the mystery & forensics I'll excuse some handwavey timetravel lol

[geraineon]

It sounds like a very interesting premise and I hope the story resolves the time gap in a satisfying way!

Love it when authors insert their knowledge/specific interest in their story

[silverblade219]

[just fyi, it looks like the post you scheduled came out today instead of yesterday]

[geraineon]

Thanks for informing!

I guess that's why it didn't work. I scheduled it for the wrong day XD

[shipperslist]

Not sure if this is exactly c-novel reading but at least it's c-novel reading adjacent: I'm slowly working through Catching Chen Qing Ling and so far, it's been interesting!

[geraineon]

cnovel adjacent counts~! glad you found it interesting. I personally found it to be a little of a frustrating read XD (but it might be affected by the fact that I do not actually enjoy CQL)

[shipperslist]

Yeah, I can understand how this is frustrating. There have been places that made me think about the blue curtains meme, but mostly it's been interesting.