Read-in-Progress Wednesday

[geraineon]

This is your weekly read-in-progress post!

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>*

Comments

[larryhammer]

Returned to Bewitching Courtier (媚公卿) by Lin Jiacheng (林家成). This was one of the first c-novel historical romances I read, as well as one of the first rebirth/do-overs, around 10 years ago, but I never finished it because I caught up with the translation around halfway through -- and the translator was slow enough (no shade) that I only recently realized it was complete.

It's more uneven than I remember, but I do like having a rebirth protagonist who is not completely cool and in control just because of her mental age, but who wobbles a bit and makes mistakes. I also like that it's set in a specific historical moment: it starts in 311 CE, during the chaos of the transition from the Western Jin to Eastern Jin, with the sack of Luoyang immanent -- as of chapter 71, it's under siege by the "Five Barbarians" from the north. Our protagonist isn't there, btw, but a refugee traveling south -- presumably she'll eventually end up in the Eastern Jin capital of Jiankang/Nanjing. Or not, we'll see.

[geraineon]

It is nice when a story is set in a specific time in the past. Did you have to reread before continuing where you left off?

[larryhammer]

Yup -- been 10 years, and it turns out I had DEFINITELY forgotten a lot of details. Including just how many love-interests there are. And the identity of the MC's former husband. And the whole family trying to marry her off plot.

[larryhammer]

Okay, just got to events I definitively don't remember, so actually I got only a little more than 1/3 through when I stopped.

FWIW, for the record, this is about 2/3 the length of Journey to the West.

[aurumcalendula]

I'm having fun with my The Beauty's Blade reread (my most recent comments are here). tbh I feel like it would lend itself well to a live-action adaptation.

I was excited to see that both Begging the Heavens in Vain and Dragon Subjugation Incantation's translations updated this week! It feems like the former might be inching towards some romance stuff (it's been mostly focused on politics). With the latter, Highlight for spoilers!* I'm excited by Ruan Li and Luo Qingci's reunion!*

[geraineon]

I'm behind on Beauty's Blade but will try to catch up this week!

[geraineon]

I am still reading The Beauty's Blade 美人剑 by Feng Ren Zuo Shu 封刃作书 (I'm behind the read-along now), The Golden Terrace 黄金台 by Cang Wu Bin Bai 苍梧宾白 (also behind the read-along, though this is my third reread), and despite being behind in both read-alongs (and ONE MORE actually, why do I do this to myself? *stares at Gu Long*), I started Purely by Accident 纯属意外 by Leng Qian Shan 冷千山 (I've read up to chapter 5, and it's been really fun [watching Zisong dig herself a pit again and again XD]), and finished Love Late 遲愛 by Lan Lin 藍淋.

And then I found out that the prequel novel to Love Late has been adapted to the screen twice. The first time as a movie, and in 2026 as a TV series (title: Double Helix). I might actually check this drama out despite not actually being that motivated to watch live action drama at the best of times (I finished... one drama this year, I think?). My interest in Lan Lin is somewhat out of curiosity, since this author started writing before 2014 (that was when the first anti-porn campaign happened)[1]. Anyway, I read spoilers for the novel, and yep that 90s BL flavour is all over it. This is not a bad thing, for after all, I was raised on 80s and 90s toxic BL and shoujosei stuff.

In non-CN books, I am also reading Elif Shafak's The Architect's Apprentice and went into a bit of a rabbit hole down reading up about Mimar Sinan.

[1] Link to an article that talks about the three stages of censorship: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10304312.2024.2357335#d1e310

[aurumcalendula]

This reminds me I should check out the new translation of Golden Terrace. I remember Purely by Accident being fun!