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荒野植被
从始至终只有许言在努力浇灌那片荒野，靠着偶尔出现的海市蜃楼来自我宽慰。 可荒野就是荒野，单凭一个人，永远不可能让它变成绿洲。没有阳光，没有养分，就算将大片大片的植被铺上去，也只不过是等待枯萎而已。 …… 许言不止一次觉得沈植像树，长在那年冬夜路灯旁的皑皑白雪里，长在夏天夕阳余晖下的风里，也长在曾经被放弃灌溉的那片荒野里——很久以后，正如此刻，许言回头再看，原来荒野上已经蓊蓊郁郁铺满植被，而自己再也不用守着海市蜃楼自欺欺人。
- GenresRomanceContemporary
Paperback
Published October 1, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 6, 2025
This is a solid read for anyone new to the wife-chasing crematorium trope. It has mild angst, a good grovel, and a love interest who isn’t a complete scumbag. However, I struggled to connect with the story on a deeper level, primarily due to my issues with the main character (MC). He stayed in the relationship for six years without ever voicing his frustrations, hoping the ML would magically change. What, through silence? Vibes? Telepathy? Instead of having a proper conversation, he let resentment fester and then abruptly walked out, without even officially breaking things off. It felt so childish.
I’m not saying the ML is blameless. He contributes all the emotional depth of a cinder block and treats affection like it’s a limited resource. But to be fair, he’s been like that since day one. MC signed up for this with full knowledge of what he was getting into. And while the ML’s lack of emotional awareness doesn’t excuse his behavior, it does leave room for growth, if either of them had made the slightest effort to communicate. In the end, all their problems boiled down to one thing: a lack of communication. Honestly, if they’d just sat down and had one real conversation, the entire conflict could’ve been resolved in half the time.
This isn't a bad story by any means, and I'd still recommend it to readers who enjoy this particular trope. The grovel is delicious, I have to admit, and the emotional payoff is there if you squint. It’s just that, for me, the lack of real communication made it hard to believe in the relationship’s depth. Still, if you're in the mood for a messy relationship where poor communication is the true villain, this one absolutely scratches the itch.
English Name : Wilderness Vegetation
I’m not saying the ML is blameless. He contributes all the emotional depth of a cinder block and treats affection like it’s a limited resource. But to be fair, he’s been like that since day one. MC signed up for this with full knowledge of what he was getting into. And while the ML’s lack of emotional awareness doesn’t excuse his behavior, it does leave room for growth, if either of them had made the slightest effort to communicate. In the end, all their problems boiled down to one thing: a lack of communication. Honestly, if they’d just sat down and had one real conversation, the entire conflict could’ve been resolved in half the time.
This isn't a bad story by any means, and I'd still recommend it to readers who enjoy this particular trope. The grovel is delicious, I have to admit, and the emotional payoff is there if you squint. It’s just that, for me, the lack of real communication made it hard to believe in the relationship’s depth. Still, if you're in the mood for a messy relationship where poor communication is the true villain, this one absolutely scratches the itch.
English Name : Wilderness Vegetation
April 9, 2025
This was… not quite a ride. More like a mild cruise.
At, what, something like 70 or 80% of the way through the book, I had no idea how they were going to get back together. None at all. It seemed impossible, with Xu Yan’s (justified) wariness and stubbornness and Sheng Zhi’s now demure deference to Xu Yan. And, in truth, I found the last 20 or so chapters… fairly underwhelming.
For how destroyed their relationship was when they parted, from how badly Xu Yan felt, from how horribly Sheng Zhi had treated him and made him feel, from how badly they had miscommunicated and misunderstood each other, from how much guilt was eating Sheng Zhi alive, the ending seemed far too… easy. I don’t know why Xu Yan said they could try dating again. I saw the start of his shifting emotions, yes, with learning about the photos of him Sheng Zhi has always carried with him, but it felt like he moved from mild interest in learning more about the man Sheng Zhi had become to being willing to try to love him again much too quickly. I do understand that part of this jump was due to the idea that neither of them really stopped loving the other one (after all, it only hurts this bad when you do really love someone), so maybe the sudden leap in their relationship is based on that and makes sense to alloromantics? Idk, but I’m always willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the writer that I’m just not picking up on something because of my orientation.
But outside of how quickly they got back together, I really enjoyed this story. The build up was layered and heart wrenching and totally satisfying. I understand where other reviewers are coming from when they say that the real villain of this story is miscommunication, and I don’t disagree, but I also didn’t find the miscommunication to be exaggerated or infuriatingly baseless. Their constant, six year long “cross talk” makes sense. They were misunderstanding each other since day one, and it’s hard to come back from that. And while it’s easy, as an outsider, to say Xu Yan should have brought up his grievances before it got to this point, I understand why he couldn’t — he had been systematically broken down and emotionally stifled that he didn’t feel like he had the right or ability to say anything. And also, sometimes you can’t see how horrible everything is until you’ve reached your breaking point, until you’ve taken a step back and looked at everything without your blinders on, until you’ve given up on trying to make it work. I don’t blame him for never saying anything, and I also don’t 100% blame Sheng Zhi — he never knew how Xu Yan felt and what a relationship was supposed to be like, so of course he couldn’t change. Really, they both just needed time to grow up and the ability to clear the misunderstanding between them.
And I think that’s what makes the ending feel satisfying, despite it all. They do really love each other, and now they’re in a place where they both can love each other equally. They could never have gotten to this point without the complete destruction of what they once had.
At, what, something like 70 or 80% of the way through the book, I had no idea how they were going to get back together. None at all. It seemed impossible, with Xu Yan’s (justified) wariness and stubbornness and Sheng Zhi’s now demure deference to Xu Yan. And, in truth, I found the last 20 or so chapters… fairly underwhelming.
For how destroyed their relationship was when they parted, from how badly Xu Yan felt, from how horribly Sheng Zhi had treated him and made him feel, from how badly they had miscommunicated and misunderstood each other, from how much guilt was eating Sheng Zhi alive, the ending seemed far too… easy. I don’t know why Xu Yan said they could try dating again. I saw the start of his shifting emotions, yes, with learning about the photos of him Sheng Zhi has always carried with him, but it felt like he moved from mild interest in learning more about the man Sheng Zhi had become to being willing to try to love him again much too quickly. I do understand that part of this jump was due to the idea that neither of them really stopped loving the other one (after all, it only hurts this bad when you do really love someone), so maybe the sudden leap in their relationship is based on that and makes sense to alloromantics? Idk, but I’m always willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the writer that I’m just not picking up on something because of my orientation.
But outside of how quickly they got back together, I really enjoyed this story. The build up was layered and heart wrenching and totally satisfying. I understand where other reviewers are coming from when they say that the real villain of this story is miscommunication, and I don’t disagree, but I also didn’t find the miscommunication to be exaggerated or infuriatingly baseless. Their constant, six year long “cross talk” makes sense. They were misunderstanding each other since day one, and it’s hard to come back from that. And while it’s easy, as an outsider, to say Xu Yan should have brought up his grievances before it got to this point, I understand why he couldn’t — he had been systematically broken down and emotionally stifled that he didn’t feel like he had the right or ability to say anything. And also, sometimes you can’t see how horrible everything is until you’ve reached your breaking point, until you’ve taken a step back and looked at everything without your blinders on, until you’ve given up on trying to make it work. I don’t blame him for never saying anything, and I also don’t 100% blame Sheng Zhi — he never knew how Xu Yan felt and what a relationship was supposed to be like, so of course he couldn’t change. Really, they both just needed time to grow up and the ability to clear the misunderstanding between them.
And I think that’s what makes the ending feel satisfying, despite it all. They do really love each other, and now they’re in a place where they both can love each other equally. They could never have gotten to this point without the complete destruction of what they once had.
November 6, 2025
Non official english title: Wilderness Vegetation. Chapters: 64 + 5 extras.
3.75 stars rounded up to 4. I actually thought it'd be less than that at around 80% because the novel was going in circles at times but it ultimately won me over.
The story is about Xu Yan, a guy in his 20s that has been in a relationship with Sheng Zhi for some years. They met back in college and have been living together for a while. Their relationship isn't perfect though and is actually making Xu Yan miserable. Once he decides to stop begging for reciprocity and love, Sheng Zhi will realize that not everything is at he thought.
I think the chasing was great although a bit overdone imo to the point where I wanted the ML to give up earlier and for both to be brought back together by external circumstances. I'm still fine with the final product since I felt the ML worked a lot on himself and their relationship actually showed an evolution, plus both guys individually had an overall decent development.
Now, this might be one of an unpopular opinion, but I think that the novel painted MC as entirely blameless of everything that happened, when in reality he also played a part on the misunderstandings . MC also knew ML was a certain way and still decided to be with him, so while I don't fully justify ML's actions (only a bit given the circumstances, he didn't act like that just because he was evil), I think MC played at least a bit of a part in their doomed relationship.
Onto the things that I thought could've been improved: I wanted more communication and honesty in the final chapters or at least the extras. I understand it could be taken as part of the process of feeling comfortable with each other again, but I believe it would've made the finale more solid. I also wished that the misunderstandings made better sense in the second half because even as someone that likes that trope, it felt very repetitive and even sort of a reach lol, as if they were there to make the story longer without much substance, simply torturing the ML a bit too much in my eyes.
Some parts could have been executed better as well, such as the last reveal. Instead of turning it into info dumping, I would've preferred that it was discovered little by little from MC's pov until the everything falls into place. There's also the thing about the side couple, which honestly I didn't care about and believe it would have been better to give that space to the MCs.
One thing I want in chasing crematoriums is that ML realizes he should let MC go because he's hurting him by trying to get him back and later MC chooses to go back to him on his own volition. I think this one did well on that, although I ironically wanted that decision to be stretched out a bit more after the ML had that realization.
Overall, I liked the couple and was rooting for them anyway. I wanted both guys to be happy and find each other in the middle, so the result was mostly satisfying.
Tags: (might miss some of them)
-POV: third person
-Content warnings:
-Elements:
-Kinks:
-Sexual act(s):
-Dynamic:
3.75 stars rounded up to 4. I actually thought it'd be less than that at around 80% because the novel was going in circles at times but it ultimately won me over.
The story is about Xu Yan, a guy in his 20s that has been in a relationship with Sheng Zhi for some years. They met back in college and have been living together for a while. Their relationship isn't perfect though and is actually making Xu Yan miserable. Once he decides to stop begging for reciprocity and love, Sheng Zhi will realize that not everything is at he thought.
I think the chasing was great although a bit overdone imo to the point where I wanted the ML to give up earlier and for both to be brought back together by external circumstances. I'm still fine with the final product since I felt the ML worked a lot on himself and their relationship actually showed an evolution, plus both guys individually had an overall decent development.
Now, this might be one of an unpopular opinion, but I think that the novel painted MC as entirely blameless of everything that happened, when in reality he also played a part on the misunderstandings . MC also knew ML was a certain way and still decided to be with him, so while I don't fully justify ML's actions (only a bit given the circumstances, he didn't act like that just because he was evil), I think MC played at least a bit of a part in their doomed relationship.
Onto the things that I thought could've been improved: I wanted more communication and honesty in the final chapters or at least the extras. I understand it could be taken as part of the process of feeling comfortable with each other again, but I believe it would've made the finale more solid. I also wished that the misunderstandings made better sense in the second half because even as someone that likes that trope, it felt very repetitive and even sort of a reach lol, as if they were there to make the story longer without much substance, simply torturing the ML a bit too much in my eyes.
Some parts could have been executed better as well, such as the last reveal. Instead of turning it into info dumping, I would've preferred that it was discovered little by little from MC's pov until the everything falls into place. There's also the thing about the side couple, which honestly I didn't care about and believe it would have been better to give that space to the MCs.
One thing I want in chasing crematoriums is that ML realizes he should let MC go because he's hurting him by trying to get him back and later MC chooses to go back to him on his own volition. I think this one did well on that, although I ironically wanted that decision to be stretched out a bit more after the ML had that realization.
Overall, I liked the couple and was rooting for them anyway. I wanted both guys to be happy and find each other in the middle, so the result was mostly satisfying.
Tags: (might miss some of them)
-POV: third person
-Content warnings:
-Elements:
-Kinks:
-Sexual act(s):
-Dynamic:
November 25, 2023
English title: Wilderness Vegetation
I usually love wife chasing crematorium so I was really excited for this one (even though I had to MTL most of it and maybe that was the problem?) but I didn't like it as much as I had hoped. I really liked the first half but then the second half got kind of boring, there was way too much space taken up by other random people and Xu Yan's job. I really enjoyed Xu Yan's resolve to end things and that he wasn't really bitter at all he was just like this is enough, I'm done now. The grovel was pretty good, I even found myself wondering how much longer it was going to last because it was long.
Summary: Xu Yan has liked Shen Zhi since college and they've now been living together for a few years but Xu Yan is always the one putting in effort in the relationship while Shen Zhi remains cold and acts indifferent. The final straw is when Xu Yan found out that Shen Zhi's rich family was forcing him to get engaged to a woman. Xu Yan leaves without saying a word leaving Shen Zhi confused and unbelieving and that's when the groveling starts.
I usually love wife chasing crematorium so I was really excited for this one (even though I had to MTL most of it and maybe that was the problem?) but I didn't like it as much as I had hoped. I really liked the first half but then the second half got kind of boring, there was way too much space taken up by other random people and Xu Yan's job. I really enjoyed Xu Yan's resolve to end things and that he wasn't really bitter at all he was just like this is enough, I'm done now. The grovel was pretty good, I even found myself wondering how much longer it was going to last because it was long.
Summary: Xu Yan has liked Shen Zhi since college and they've now been living together for a few years but Xu Yan is always the one putting in effort in the relationship while Shen Zhi remains cold and acts indifferent. The final straw is when Xu Yan found out that Shen Zhi's rich family was forcing him to get engaged to a woman. Xu Yan leaves without saying a word leaving Shen Zhi confused and unbelieving and that's when the groveling starts.
December 22, 2025
The reason I’ve read this is because I found this song https://youtu.be/WlHrMu_0oJs?si=TEtDz... and the moment I heard the song, I fell in love with it and this song became one of my favorite.
This song is a cover for this novel, I did my best to find it. Read it. And didn’t regret it. Not a second. It was a beautiful story of healing and redemption. But of course it’s not an easy road. I’m not gonna spoil much but all I want to do now is protect this two beautiful broken soul and let them be happy. Don’t worry this is an HE story and my tears flowed most of the chapters. Sigh. It’s the small things that count, so I hope anyone who reads doesn’t mock their misunderstanding because no matter how small it may affect greatly. Both of them has valid point, I’m just happy for both of you, I love you, Shen Zhi and Xu Yan
This song is a cover for this novel, I did my best to find it. Read it. And didn’t regret it. Not a second. It was a beautiful story of healing and redemption. But of course it’s not an easy road. I’m not gonna spoil much but all I want to do now is protect this two beautiful broken soul and let them be happy. Don’t worry this is an HE story and my tears flowed most of the chapters. Sigh. It’s the small things that count, so I hope anyone who reads doesn’t mock their misunderstanding because no matter how small it may affect greatly. Both of them has valid point, I’m just happy for both of you, I love you, Shen Zhi and Xu Yan
January 12, 2025
Rating: 3.5/5- I enjoyed this. Perfect guilty pleasure crematorium read.
There’s significant suffering, though not enough to declare a tear duct spa. I thoroughly enjoyed this though and couldn’t stop once I started.
The story flows well and the finale pah-pah scene is one of the best I’ve read!
Overall it definitely scratched the itch for wife chasing that I had.
There’s significant suffering, though not enough to declare a tear duct spa. I thoroughly enjoyed this though and couldn’t stop once I started.
The story flows well and the finale pah-pah scene is one of the best I’ve read!
Overall it definitely scratched the itch for wife chasing that I had.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews