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Joyful Reunion (Novel) #3
Joyful Reunion (Novel) Vol. 3
TRUTHS LAID BARE
After a narrow escape from the assassin Helan Jie, Duan Ling and Wu Du race back to Tong Pass to carry out their mission: eliminate the treacherous general Bian Lingbai and take control of the fortress on behalf of Southern Chen’s imperial court. Yet their task takes a perilous turn when enemy forces outside the pass, sensing weakness, seize the chance to launch an all-out attack. Duan Ling must use all his wits and everything he learned from his father to hold Tong Pass against the foreign invaders until help arrives.
At the same time, the closer Duan Ling grows to Wu Du, the harder he finds it to keep his true identity as the crown prince a secret. Duan Ling doesn’t want to lie anymore—but revealing too much now might not only jeopardize their mission, but drag them both into terrible danger.
After a narrow escape from the assassin Helan Jie, Duan Ling and Wu Du race back to Tong Pass to carry out their mission: eliminate the treacherous general Bian Lingbai and take control of the fortress on behalf of Southern Chen’s imperial court. Yet their task takes a perilous turn when enemy forces outside the pass, sensing weakness, seize the chance to launch an all-out attack. Duan Ling must use all his wits and everything he learned from his father to hold Tong Pass against the foreign invaders until help arrives.
At the same time, the closer Duan Ling grows to Wu Du, the harder he finds it to keep his true identity as the crown prince a secret. Duan Ling doesn’t want to lie anymore—but revealing too much now might not only jeopardize their mission, but drag them both into terrible danger.
422 pages, Paperback
Published January 20, 2026
22 people are currently reading
162 people want to read
About the author
Fei Tian Ye Xiang
79 books156 followersAssociated Names:
* 非天夜翔
* Arise Zhang
* Fei Tian Ye Xiang
* เฟยเทียนเย่เสียง (Thai Profile)
* 非天夜翔
* Arise Zhang
* Fei Tian Ye Xiang
* เฟยเทียนเย่เสียง (Thai Profile)
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 2, 2025
4.8/5
Holy shit… the incredible battle scenes. The sacrifices Duan Ling had to take, I felt them probably sadder than Duan Ling did. Perhaps it was because he had to face it differently because of his position.
The villians get more evil.
The desperation gets more intense.
The heart wrenching characters get more… just more, okay! LJX I’m watching you!
Chengliu Jun, Zheng Yan, Batu… all of you became my sons, mmk.
immaculate!
And can I add the romance!
The smut… HOT!
Peak!
It was so perfect! Absolutely a 10/10 read!!
Holy shit… the incredible battle scenes. The sacrifices Duan Ling had to take, I felt them probably sadder than Duan Ling did. Perhaps it was because he had to face it differently because of his position.
The villians get more evil.
The desperation gets more intense.
The heart wrenching characters get more… just more, okay! LJX I’m watching you!
Chengliu Jun, Zheng Yan, Batu… all of you became my sons, mmk.
immaculate!
And can I add the romance!
The smut… HOT!
Peak!
It was so perfect! Absolutely a 10/10 read!!
January 24, 2026
I was going to drop a star about halfway through, and then it surged back into absolutely engrossing storytelling. Honestly, I'm way less invested in the romance than I am in the political plot and the huge question of how Duan Ling is going to regain his inheritance and his empire.
The pacing of the romance is just a little bit off. Some of it's great: Wu Du promising to take Duan Ling anywhere in the world he wants, even after he becomes emperor, is fantastic, as is the bone-deep comfort Duan Ling takes from having someone he can truly trust with his entire heart. Other parts are a bit too awkward, with both of them constantly blushing and seeming wildly oblivious about how to actually become a couple.
I would've liked less staring and blushing and more internal angst over what it means for an emperor and an assassin to form a lifelong romantic bond. Wu Du is already promising to stay by Duan Ling's side no matter what, with no expectations as to titles or roles, but even with Duan Ling insisting he will never marry, there will be an immense amount of pressure on him to produce an heir. I don't know if the series will dig into those elements or if the entire arc is just about getting him on his father's throne, without addressing what comes after.
I did like Wu Du's eventual proposal, as awkward as it was - the secondhand embarrassment is a bit too strong - and I absolutely love Duan Ling's increasing inner turmoil over whether he even wants to fight to take his name back from the imposter. He could so easily slip away into the wide, beautiful world, with Wu Du accompanying him as they travel the land and the sea and experience all its wonders. He would never be trapped within a huge, empty palace, lonely and worn thin by all the endless administrative duties that come from being a ruler.
But at the end of the day, it's in his blood: the drive to rule, not out of greed or ambition but because he truly wants to build a better world for the people who trust in him. One of my absolute favorite things is how naturally all his leadership tendencies are shown: he has a brilliant mind, immense practicality mixed with the necessary amount of ruthlessness, but also genuine kindness. People naturally gravitate toward his strength and calm stability; at this point, all four Great Assassins take orders from him without question.
That part was unexpected but wonderful. Changliu-jun features on the cover this time, which is a fitting volume for that, because he's so funny and interesting and likable once he starts spending more time with Duan Ling. In all my nonexistent extra time, I would love to go back and reread this from the start once I'm done, because it does such an incredible job of making you view characters so much differently over time. I'd disliked and distrusted Changliu-jun for a while - which, to be honest, was true of Wu Du at first as well - and had certainly not loathed Cai Yan with my entire being.
He's a good character. I get his motivations; having his fear shown so strongly was a really important way to get into his head and explain his actions. At heart, he's a coward who will tear down anything and anyone to save himself. Which puts him in such stark contrast to Duan Ling, who takes his own money - as a commoner still! - to pole a boat around the flooded city and rescue and dole out food to those who are stranded by the swollen waters.
Even Lang Junxia chides Cai Yan for this in the final pages. Lang Junxia, whose motivations still aren't entirely understandable, but who continues to protect Duan Ling in his own way - keeping secrets from Cai Yan and refusing to take action to kill him with his own hands, although he could've done so many times by this point. (It turns out the poisoning, while brutal, was never intended to be fatal.)
One part that annoys me a bit is how much Duan Ling is stuck on his father's memory, the man he spent a fraction of time with compared to Lang Junxia. I get it; there's a whole theme about True Family and how you'll always recognize and connect with those of your own family line, etc. Which I don't particularly agree with but understand in the context of this story. Still: there should be a whole lot more turmoil in Duan Ling over the loss of the first person he loved, whom he'd thought had loved him and who would protect and care for him.
After all, it was Lang Junxia who played "Joyful Reunion" for him to begin with, and who did so much to shape him into the man he became. There are spikes of Duan Ling wanting to believe in him still, and Wu Du being jealous of it, but it's really not sufficient for the depth of their relationship.
Still, all the political plotting is so edge-of-your-seat compelling, and while I know it'll have to have a happy ending, I find myself holding my breath trying to figure out how it will all turn out.
My biggest worry at this point is possibly that something will happen to Duan Ling's uncle before he has a chance to build a relationship with him. The emperor's loneliness is a striking, important part of the story, and it would be devastating if he never got a chance to know his actual nephew, the young man who has all the good qualities of both himself and his brother.
Also very very curious about what will happen with the prime minister, who is firmly on Duan Ling's side at the moment, and who has done so much to support him...but only because he doesn't know his true identity. While he's working to unseat the fake prince, I don't know if he's honorable enough to support the true one, even if he turns out to be someone he's grown to deeply respect and see a brilliant future for. The issue is that he sees himself pulling the strings of that future, but Duan Ling cannot be controlled...
The final interesting bit in this volume is all the complications around an alliance with the Mongols. Duan Ling never expresses what he would decide about an alliance; his uncle, the prime minister, and the general all opposite it, which means that rationally, he should as well. But what are their reasons for doing so? They seem to think of the Mongols as barbarians, and they were certainly portrayed that way in their rampages across cities.
But they are also working, very hard, to expose Cai Yan's lies and find and restore Duan Ling, which makes it interesting for Duan Ling to be doing so much to destroy the alliance and drive the envoys out of the city.
Plots on plots on plots. I hope his arrow-message made it onto the boat.
The pacing of the romance is just a little bit off. Some of it's great: Wu Du promising to take Duan Ling anywhere in the world he wants, even after he becomes emperor, is fantastic, as is the bone-deep comfort Duan Ling takes from having someone he can truly trust with his entire heart. Other parts are a bit too awkward, with both of them constantly blushing and seeming wildly oblivious about how to actually become a couple.
I would've liked less staring and blushing and more internal angst over what it means for an emperor and an assassin to form a lifelong romantic bond. Wu Du is already promising to stay by Duan Ling's side no matter what, with no expectations as to titles or roles, but even with Duan Ling insisting he will never marry, there will be an immense amount of pressure on him to produce an heir. I don't know if the series will dig into those elements or if the entire arc is just about getting him on his father's throne, without addressing what comes after.
I did like Wu Du's eventual proposal, as awkward as it was - the secondhand embarrassment is a bit too strong - and I absolutely love Duan Ling's increasing inner turmoil over whether he even wants to fight to take his name back from the imposter. He could so easily slip away into the wide, beautiful world, with Wu Du accompanying him as they travel the land and the sea and experience all its wonders. He would never be trapped within a huge, empty palace, lonely and worn thin by all the endless administrative duties that come from being a ruler.
But at the end of the day, it's in his blood: the drive to rule, not out of greed or ambition but because he truly wants to build a better world for the people who trust in him. One of my absolute favorite things is how naturally all his leadership tendencies are shown: he has a brilliant mind, immense practicality mixed with the necessary amount of ruthlessness, but also genuine kindness. People naturally gravitate toward his strength and calm stability; at this point, all four Great Assassins take orders from him without question.
That part was unexpected but wonderful. Changliu-jun features on the cover this time, which is a fitting volume for that, because he's so funny and interesting and likable once he starts spending more time with Duan Ling. In all my nonexistent extra time, I would love to go back and reread this from the start once I'm done, because it does such an incredible job of making you view characters so much differently over time. I'd disliked and distrusted Changliu-jun for a while - which, to be honest, was true of Wu Du at first as well - and had certainly not loathed Cai Yan with my entire being.
He's a good character. I get his motivations; having his fear shown so strongly was a really important way to get into his head and explain his actions. At heart, he's a coward who will tear down anything and anyone to save himself. Which puts him in such stark contrast to Duan Ling, who takes his own money - as a commoner still! - to pole a boat around the flooded city and rescue and dole out food to those who are stranded by the swollen waters.
Even Lang Junxia chides Cai Yan for this in the final pages. Lang Junxia, whose motivations still aren't entirely understandable, but who continues to protect Duan Ling in his own way - keeping secrets from Cai Yan and refusing to take action to kill him with his own hands, although he could've done so many times by this point. (It turns out the poisoning, while brutal, was never intended to be fatal.)
One part that annoys me a bit is how much Duan Ling is stuck on his father's memory, the man he spent a fraction of time with compared to Lang Junxia. I get it; there's a whole theme about True Family and how you'll always recognize and connect with those of your own family line, etc. Which I don't particularly agree with but understand in the context of this story. Still: there should be a whole lot more turmoil in Duan Ling over the loss of the first person he loved, whom he'd thought had loved him and who would protect and care for him.
After all, it was Lang Junxia who played "Joyful Reunion" for him to begin with, and who did so much to shape him into the man he became. There are spikes of Duan Ling wanting to believe in him still, and Wu Du being jealous of it, but it's really not sufficient for the depth of their relationship.
Still, all the political plotting is so edge-of-your-seat compelling, and while I know it'll have to have a happy ending, I find myself holding my breath trying to figure out how it will all turn out.
My biggest worry at this point is possibly that something will happen to Duan Ling's uncle before he has a chance to build a relationship with him. The emperor's loneliness is a striking, important part of the story, and it would be devastating if he never got a chance to know his actual nephew, the young man who has all the good qualities of both himself and his brother.
Also very very curious about what will happen with the prime minister, who is firmly on Duan Ling's side at the moment, and who has done so much to support him...but only because he doesn't know his true identity. While he's working to unseat the fake prince, I don't know if he's honorable enough to support the true one, even if he turns out to be someone he's grown to deeply respect and see a brilliant future for. The issue is that he sees himself pulling the strings of that future, but Duan Ling cannot be controlled...
The final interesting bit in this volume is all the complications around an alliance with the Mongols. Duan Ling never expresses what he would decide about an alliance; his uncle, the prime minister, and the general all opposite it, which means that rationally, he should as well. But what are their reasons for doing so? They seem to think of the Mongols as barbarians, and they were certainly portrayed that way in their rampages across cities.
But they are also working, very hard, to expose Cai Yan's lies and find and restore Duan Ling, which makes it interesting for Duan Ling to be doing so much to destroy the alliance and drive the envoys out of the city.
Plots on plots on plots. I hope his arrow-message made it onto the boat.
January 20, 2026
i get nervous excited and happy whenever i read these volumes. this one is no exception, so much is revealed!!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews