Let me start by saying I adored this book but understand why some were bored. It's a romantic comedy with a tiny slice of politics and war. It's a nice, fluffy, sweet, adorable, cute and easy read (with some dark cult activities sprinkled in😂) which is exactly what I needed as a book to listen to on my commute and when doing stuff around the house. Minimal brain power needed for this IMO.
Short summary: A misunderstood military prince with a bad (murderous) reputation is supposed to marry the daughter of prominent family of doctors (neither want to) and ends up falling in love with her lazy, head in the clouds, loves-to-sleep brother who is also misunderstood but too lazy to correct people or do anything that isn't absolutely necessary. They go on traveling adventures involving a demonic cult that needs to be eradicated while encountering bandits, plagues, kidnappings, etc.
Liu Xian'An: Sleeping Immortal (more explained in the novel) ,LOVES sleep, daydreams in the 3,000 worlds in his head, quirky, book smart but not experience smart, misunderstood, lazy egg,beautiful, naive in love/relationships, pure, underestimated Liang Shu: Prince, brother to the Emperor, military general, INDULGENT, teasing, doting, green flag, does not hide feelings, little big mischievous
Add this to your list if you like the following: 😴Romantic comedy, a warm hug 😴Character driven 😴Misunderstood characters (both MC and ML) 😴Green flags everywhere-no pride, just cuteness 😴Natural progression of relationship, slowish burn 😴Fade to black spice- might just be me but it felt like there was a lot of sexual innuendo too 😴Ride or die side characters 😴Family bonds/relationships 😴Strong female characters (YAY) 😴Cult activities (some of these are kind of gross) 😴Descriptively written and well translated
It did drag a little for me at the 60-70% mark. Initially the focus was so much on the characters that when the author decided to pay more attention to developing the plot- it was a little too late for me. But overall really enjoyed and was satisfied with the endings and extras.
Maybe spoilers Some things that I found adorable and/or made me laugh: 💙Gao Lin playing matchmater but simultaneously not wanting to see them get too flirty 💙A-Ning being absolutely clueless at times but still full-on supporting LXA 💙A-Ning wanting to write home to LXA's family to inform him of his spring dream- everything works! 💙The blanket exchange! 💙LXA planning a hometown date 💙LXA getting jealous of himself 💙So refreshing seeing honesty and innocence in older adults 💙Both of them having dreams about each other
The short summary is misleading, Liu Xian'an doesn't hate Liang Shu, not even the slightest bit. This novel is an absolute gem. I am a lover of stories like this and just a few chapters through SWRH, I was already in love. It's so interesting and hilarious to me. It’s a great read for anyone who enjoys unique, playful characters and a well-developed plot that stands on its own. I'm giggling because of excitement throughout the book. This might easily be one of my favorite reads of this year so far.
The synopsis doesn’t fully capture the genre-blending aspects of the story, and the author’s skill is impressive, especially with such a fantastic translation. And despite touching on serious themes, the writing has a whimsical quality that makes it stand out. The two main characters have very different personalities, but they naturally complement each other as they travel together, solving mysteries and helping those in need.
Liu Xian'an and Liang Shu’s love is a quiet, transformative bond between two misunderstood souls. Liu Xian'an, a brilliant but detached doctor who is like an immortal, drifts through life, seen as a lazy recluse by the world. His aloofness shields him from connection. Liang Shu, a prince with a ruthless reputation, is the first to break through Liu Xian'an’s barrier. Beneath his cold exterior lies a lonely soul seeking warmth. Liu Xian'an has always wanted to be heard, he's just a baby! Their bond, built on love and mutual understanding, teaches them both to embrace what they once couldn’t. Liu Xian'an’s detachment was no longer something to fear or escape from; instead, it became a quiet space of solace, a refuge where Liang Shu could finally feel seen and heard. And in return, Liang Shu’s need for closeness was met with the gentle understanding of a partner who saw beyond his title, beyond the walls of royalty and reputation, loving him for who he truly was, flaws and all. They're so dreamy!
Their love transcends their differences, creating a partnership that transforms both of them, as they face life’s mysteries side by side. And that's what I love the most with the both of them, because them falling in love with each other and actually being together feels so natural and beautiful. I was really kicking my feet because of them! The way Liang Shu spoils Liu Xian’an, and the way Second Young Master Liu always coaxes His Highness Xiao Wang is enough to send me to eternal bliss. I really love their dynamic! They're so cute, and they are so boyfriends! Ah, I want to talk more about them but I am afraid of spoiling! So I will just keep them in my mind and heart and relish on the sweetness and happiness they both give.
Other background characters are also all adorable and funny as hell. I was never bored on each chapter. And the couple's family are hilarious and lovable too! Aside from being funny, there are also parts where you question your thoughts and life standpoints especially after when you meet Feng Xiaojin, and the Wumeng brother and sister—Yunyou and Yunle. They really made me sad, but we cannot erase the things that they have done. We can only hold on to their scattered ashes in the freest wind, hoping that their future lives would contain the same freedom.
I don't have much complaints, and I know that this story is not perfect but I genuinely loved every bit of it! I especially adored the parts where Liu Xian'an could make his innovative ideas and dreams come true because Liang Shu is there to make it real, always supporting him in everything as long as he can. The plans about the Bai River is a very long and arduous journey but I believe if it's starting from the two of them, it's possible to reach their dreams for the future of next generations. I hope that no war will brew and the common people's stomach are full and warm, always. Ah, I wish a lot more people could read this novel.
The major plus point of this book is the unique MC—a genius with his head in the clouds, who is too lazy to explain himself and clear the misunderstanding people have about him. Combined with the rumored devil General, who is in truth a bit petty and childish, they made a hilarious and entertaining couple, especially in the beginning.
For the rest of the story, they wandered from place to place, throwing fluff and dog food while solving problems and helping people. There’s zero angst, and many times the victories are obtained easily while the details of how it was done are often left out.
General Prince x Genius-Lazy Doctor Not just a green flag .. a green field!
This novel is calming, peaceful, and deeply entertaining. My heart feels full just reading it.
That said, it’s so calming at times that I paused to read other books in between like being served warm tea when I’m craving coffee. More than once, I thought of DNFing it… but every time I opened it again just to shelve it, I’d end up reading more. That’s how good it is.
I adore the main characters. They healed something in me I didn’t even know was broken just by existing as the green flags they are. I love them so much it’s embarrassing.
Also? I highlight everything that makes me feel something. I tried counting ..stopped after 101 highlights by chapter 15. I probably have 300 by now. Not kidding.
The author is either deeply loved or insanely talented because these characters feel like home.
Such a unique wuxia story with lovely (and hilarious) interactions between the main characters and a decent story, though I found the story dragging in the second half of the book.
The MC is Liu Xian’an, a medical genius who's mistaken for being lazy by everyone around him. In fact, the common word on the street is that this second young master of the Baihe Mountain Village would rather commit suicide by jumping into the lake than help to copy books. However, the truth is that he's an absolute genius who has a photographic memory and can read a whole book in minutes, if not seconds, and remember all of it. It's just that he's just too lazy and would rather sleep and go to his dream world rather than be forced to do mundane tasks. As the author describes him, he literally doesn't care at all about his reputation:
If one were to ask Second Young Master Liu if he had heard of his reputation in the world, he had vaguely heard some of it. But he had already half-stepped out of the world of mortals, traveling everywhere under the sun and wandering around the nine provinces. Riding the strong winds was very pleasant, and he sought absolute spiritual freedom in the heavens. How could he be affected by the small rumors of the secular world?
So he didn’t care. He truly didn’t care.
It was quite satisfying to read about his family slowly discovering the truth about his skills.
**Warning: Spoilers Ahead**
The story starts out with the emperor's brother and ML, Liang Shu, visiting the Baihe Mountain Village as he recently got engaged to the MC's sister, Liu Nanyuan. He goes to meet her and make it clear that he's not interested, and happens to meet the MC as well.
Initially the two don't seem compatible at all. Liu Xian’an sleeps for most of the day and even when he's awake, he has his head in the clouds and doesn't care about things in the mortal world. Liang Shu is known for his aggressive and cruel behavior to his enemies and doesn't enjoy philosophical discussions. Their initial interactions consist of LS constantly trying to get a rise out of LXA or at least make him uncomfortable/confused. For example, LS takes the comfortable sleeping spot in Liu Xian’an's carriage and forces LXA to sit uncomfortably for the hours long ride, or when LXA tries to take his pulse, he hides his pulse with his martial arts skills and doesn't let LXA do a check up on him.
However, the two end up working on several cases together and quickly Liang Shu catches on that Liu Xian’an isn't the lazy idiot everyone makes him out to be. In fact, his medical skills don't lose to his brother's, who's famous across the land as a genius doctor, and that's purely from reading all the medical texts they have in their library with absolutely zero practical experience. Finally someone can see past the MC's lazy exterior to the capable person within.
Gradually they become friends and even closer and have the cutest interactions. Liu Xian’an can literally fall asleep in the middle of anything, whether it's walking, talking, or eating. It was cute to watch Liang Shu indulge him in all his lazy behavior rather than forcing him to be a regular human like his family does. LS will set up a warm and cozy rug on the floor just in case LXA falls asleep suddenly, or he'll gladly carry LXA everywhere when he's feeling lazy. So much pure indulgence!
Also the appearance of a naked Liang Shu soaking/bathing in the hot springs in Liu Xian’an's dreams was hilariously amazing. He constantly shows up, and sometimes even the MC can't tell whether he's talking to the real ML or the dream ML. It's thanks to an erotic dream involving the dream Liang Shu that the MC finally realizes his feelings, so dream or not, he contributes to the development of the romance XP
I want to light a candle for Lieutenant General Gao Lin, who has to serve constantly by the ML's side, as the first victim of of the prince's love affair. He and A'Ning (the MC's personal attendant) have had to put up with a lot.
The story was initially interesting as they go around solving different cases like rumors of a plague or the haunting of a village by a female ghost, and eventually all of these cases tie into an evil sect which is very hidden and hard to take down. I slowly lost interest in the story after this part dragged out, since the story is split between where the main characters are at the military camp and what's going on at the Baifu sect. I also don't really understand why the sect was able to attract so many crazy followers who were willing to sell their family and give all their money and gold to the sect. The explanation never really made sense to me. In addition, what happened to some of the side characters on the bad guys side was quite sad. I was expecting the author to put them out of their misery more quickly but some of them really suffered.
Anyways, here are some moments that had me chuckling:
The MC can literally fall asleep while walking :D
From a distance, he saw Liu Xian’an sitting at the table in a trance with a dirty face and sighed deeply: “Young Master, you fell asleep while walking again?”
This tone of voice was not one of surprise, and it could be seen that Second Young Master Liu was a habitual offender in this respect. A-Ning quickly wrung out a handkerchief and wiped his hands and face clean before stuffing him with cakes. Liu Xian’an didn’t open his eyes the whole time. Liang Shu watched in amazement
----------------
Liu Xian'an can see through anything
There is another thing. According to their confessions, the Gu worms this time were concocted by the Great Hierarch himself. After several years of painstaking research, he was already very self-satisfied and claimed that even Master Liu Zhuang of Baihe Mountain Village would not be able to detect it.”
As a result, Second Young Master Liu shattered the conspiracy within half a day of going up the mountain. It could be seen that no matter how these idiots tried, there would be no results. It would be best not to try.
----------------
No one in the MC's family understands their relationship haha
All the disciples of Baihe Mountain Village were fortunate enough to witness their Second Young Master crouching down and acting shamelessly while His Royal Highness Xiao Wang was unmoved and dragged him away. The technique was like a peerless scene of a bandit absconding with a daughter-in-law.
Everyone was stupefied.
Liu Fushu and Liu-furen also looked at each other in blank dismay after hearing this. This……how come they were so close? The only one experiencing pure happiness was Liu Nanyuan. She thought that her second brother was truly capable to have developed such a deep friendship with His Royal Highness Xiao Wang after just becoming acquainted. Then she wouldn’t be forced to marry, would she? Thus, she happily took her little maid and went shopping.
----------------
The MC being too lazy to explain as usual
“For what reason does the prince want to take you to the royal city this time?”
“It’s not a big deal,” Liu Xian’an said. “It’s just that I always had a headache a few days ago, and staying with the prince will make me feel much more comfortable.”
Liu-furen gave him a swat: “Nonsense, why didn’t you tell your father about your headaches? The prince is not a doctor, how could he heal your illness?”
Liu Xian’an sat up a little, and originally wanted to explain, but when he thought that to explain, he would have to reopen that vast and folding world in his mind and then describe it in a way that ordinary people could understand, he immediately felt very tired, ah. It was really too tiring, and completely unnecessary, so he lay back down again and gave a perfunctory: “En.”
Liu-furen asked: “How does the prince heal your illness?”
Liu Xian’an replied: “He makes me talk a lot.”
This sort of therapy would be unbelievable when a normal person heard it, and Liu-furen was even more disbelieving. She decided that her son was too lazy to speak and was talking nonsense. Liu Xian’an also didn’t make any excuses. He was originally just being lazy, so he pulled the blanket over his head and straightforwardly pretended to be asleep. He had often used this trick as a child, and it was still effective now.
----------------
Lolll the prince and Gao Lin had to brainstorm an interesting and intellectual hobby for him
A-Ning ran to find his young master: “Lieutenant General Gao came looking for me just now.” He was almost out of breath. “He said that when the prince was in the northwest, he liked to go to the depths of the desert to view the stars and sky.”
This was a “hobby” that Gao Lin thought up after almost digging out his brain. It was a simple one. Almost everybody would look up at the sky, and it had the same lofty loneliness of playing the xun. Also, one did not just look up at the sky, but it must be accompanied by some thinking, didn’t this immediately raise his quality?
----------------
Their idea of exchanging love tokens is quite unique
Little lovers gave each other handkerchiefs, sachets, and jade pendants to hold in the hand or place in the sleeve with a shy and timid secret joy. Only His Royal Highness Xiao Wang was different. Before clarifying his intentions, he first exchanged the most intimate quilt, covering the whole person from head to toe with a kind of overbearing, arrogant romance that was like the northwest winds.
Unique. Extraordinarily intimate.
----------------
This is how the reader can tell the romance is slowly progressing haha
While changing his clothes, A-Ning asked: “What did you dream about last night? You were smiling the whole time.”
Liu Xian’an thought about it for a while, and replied: “I dreamed about His Royal Highness Xiao Wang. We bathed together.”
A-Ning clapped his hands. Before, he dreamed that His Royal Highness Xiao Wang was bathing alone, but now it turned into a shared bath?
----------------
When the MC's older brother finds out the truth about the MC
Liu Xian’an said: “I said I had read them all, but nobody believed me.” This was not my problem, but your problem.
Liu Xianche looked at the little brother before him and experienced the rare emotion of “shock.” There was a ringing in his ears, as if the world was collapsing. He said in disbelief: “So you memorized all the medical books at that time, but kept it a secret for so many years?”
It was not a lie. After all, no one came to ask him, and there was no shortage of doctors in the village. Liu Xian’an felt that under such circumstances, wasn’t it reasonable for him to hide away and sleep in the waterside pavilion? After all, treating patients was not something he had to do, and it was more comfortable to sleep.
----------------
The same scene but with his sister instead
She stood at the door of the clinic and watched her brother busy with his hands and feet, performing dressing changes and acupuncture in one go. His questioning method was also very professional. This scene was so abnormal that Liu Nanyuan pinched her arm. It hurt, so she asked the person next to her in a rare tone of voice: “D-Da-ge?”
“It isn’t a long story.” Liu Xianche said, “To put it simply, he’s always been good at it. He’s just lazy.”
“Lazy. Is it possible to be so lazy?”
“It is possible. If not for him meeting the prince, he would have been lazy all his life.”
“Hide his medical skills all his life?”
“He didn’t mean to hide them.” Liu Xianche explained again, “He’s just lazy.”
Liu Nanyuan knew that her Er-ge was lazy, but she hadn’t known that laziness could reach this extent. However, there was one thing that she still couldn’t figure out: “But Er-ge hasn’t had even a few classes with us, how could he have ‘always been good at it?’ Clearly, since he was a child…..could it be that there was some outside master who secretly taught him medical skills in the waterside pavilion?”
“There was no outside master, just library books and self-study.”
Liu Nanyuan sucked in a breath of cold air. He could teach himself?
“You and I are not as qualified as Xiao An, so we can only rely on hard work to make up for our shortcomings,” Liu Xianche said. “He is the true genius of the Liu family.”
oh boy!!!!!!! the characters are so unique! i think Liu Xian’an is such an interesting MC with how his aloofness & laziness is portrayed.. (def a mixture of realizing that he’s disassociating and kiind of depressed…) but at the same time his journey on being grounded by Liang Shu is so good! Xiao An’s temperament is so refreshing honestly I haven’t met another character quite like him..
the side characters were also really great! Gao Ling & A’Ning & Cheng Suyue serve as great humor but also really build their friendship group (if it could be considered that but it really gives the vibes) + reoccurring side characters + family members were good!!! really nice to see no dog blooded family disputes… the villains were also written pretty well & given complexity which i really enjoyed!
On that note, i like that the big plot in this novel was about cults! really cool to see that exploration of dealing with troubles inside the home instead of invading empires..
as for the r’ship, Liu Xian’an & Liang Shu are so sticky and sweet!!!!!! they’re complete opposites but they compliment each other very much! their flirting & banter makes me giggle like a school girl they are just so cute…. i love how smooth their r’ship went & how there wasn’t anything dramatic<3
the humor in this novel was also really enjoyable i ended up laughing a lot even on the reread! the author & translator also did really well; i think the translator was able to capture the author’s unique writing style that was very whimsical (?) overall i quite enjoyed this novel a lot, def one of my favs that i hope to have in my hands some day sigh…<3
"Liu Xian’an felt that there was no need to think about it again. He had already come to terms with reality. Liang Shu could not marry others, but could only marry him."
Do you want to read a novel that makes you cry and have sympathy for some of the villains in the book? Read this one. Some of the so called villians here were just another victim of the "main villain"
The summary didn't offer much, so I didn't know exactly what to expect, but IT'S SO GOOD AND FUNNY TOO. MC is so unique, I really want his ability to just sleep literally everywhere.