3.75 stars
This system-based danmei was a really great read, and I had heaps of fun being in this world with these characters. I had just enough qualms with it to not be a higher rating, but nonetheless, I had a good time with this story.
The premise: secretly OP husbands keeping their true identities from each other work on opposite sides to protect the world from the System that continuously sends levelers, "Destroyers," from other worlds to attack. Yu Hua, the strongest leveler to have "left" the System and is near god-like in his abilities, hides in plain sight as a humble househusband to You Zhengping, who by nature of his job is Yu Hua's natural enemy. You Zhengping is a Protector, whose duty is using his special abilities to protect the world from the invading Destroyers that the System sends. Should these husbands discover each other's secret identities, their peaceful, mundane daily married life facade may come crumbling apart entirely.
Yu Hua: perfectionist, controlling, yet loving and faithful husband who only wants a peaceful, quiet existence on this world away from the System
Yu Hua looked at You Zhengping and thought, How can he always ruin my plans? When he had decided to go to the end of his life alone, taking the System's power to the grave, You Zhengping had appeared in his life, evoking the idea of dating and marriage in Yu Hua; when he had arranged their first date, You Zhengping had crushed this plan under the wheels of his trendy motorbike; when he had prepared a perfect proposal, You Zhengping had dragged him to the Bureau of Civil Affairs to obtain a marriage license; when he had decided to oppose the System alone, You Zhengping once again disturbed his flawless plan.
Xiao You was the assembly of all the accidents in his life.
You Zhengping: messy, brash, clumsy, and bold yet soft and loving toward his perfect husband, also only wants a peaceful, safe world in which he can go home to his husband's delicious homemade dinner
The deeper his understanding of Yu Hua, the more clearly You Zhengping realized that his love at first sight for Yu Hua originated in attraction at his innermost being, originated in the prompting of instinct. A person like this, imperfect, full of little shortcomings that couldn't detract from his inner strength--You Zhengping loved Yu Hua's good qualities, but it was his shortcomings he found adorable.
The positives:
-The overall premise of secret hidden identities between a married couple who only want a peaceful life with each other was entertaining and fresh, and watching Yu Hua, an all-powerful being, damn near lose his mind trying not to expose his slowly unsealing abilities and reveal his identity prematurely to his husband and the other Protectors was funny.
-I love this author's writing, and I'm excited to pick up more of their work. It's straightforward, refreshing, decently paced, humorous, and every character (even side characters) is fully fleshed out and three dimensional.
-Every side character gets lots of attention, especially all of the "destroyers" who become allies eventually and work with Yu Hua and Zhen Li's studio. Each character has their own personality, they get backstory and development, and they all had interesting and unique special abilities.
-The romance element between Yu Hua and You Zhengping was wholesome, very sweet, and really hit on those "old married couple" vibes. They truly just wanted to protect the little, mundane peaceful life they crafted together, despite all the secrets between them and the pressures from their circumstances to make them natural enemies. The way these two speak to and speak of each other held so much tenderness, respect, and genuine love and made it abundantly clear how much they supported each other despite their flaws and shortcomings.
The negatives:
-This book is rather long-winded. Not only is it about 1400 pages (122 chapters and 3 extras), but a lot of those pages could have been cut down. I'd argue almost halved, to be honest. There's quite a bit of repetition in the beginning chapters as the author is trying to establish their sense of humor and the comradery between You Zhengping and his squad of Protectors--lots of scenes of just office humor, the boys being boys hanging out and making jokes. As the plot develops, there's often over-explanations of abilities or System-specifics that could have been more concisely written.
-Formulaic, and at times predictable. Any time a new Destroyer enemy appears, it follows a similar script to the previous instance. Although each Destroyer is unique in character and ability, you quickly learn that every enemy that appears will soon be instantly humbled by Yu Hua's god-like powers and his uncanny ability to bend (threaten) every one of them to become his subordinate (employee). Although this employment contract with Yu Hua is inevitable for almost every single Destroyer that enters their world, just knowing that that would be their fate was actually pretty funny.
-The System specifics got very meta and convoluted by the end chapters. I've definitely seen this before, when you bend the laws of physics, spatial physics, time traveling, and incorporating other worlds, it gets difficult to keep that clear image of what's going on and trying to muddle out any sort of logic. I've found that it's best to glaze through these chapters, to not try too hard to make sense of them, and that works for me XD
-The second-to-last arc felt so much more "final" than the final arc, especially as it deals with a huuuuuge thousand-year separation (via time travel) between Yu Hua and You Zhengping following a multi-part massive battle with not just one, but five Destroyers that the System sent simultaneously. In comparison, the final arc felt anti-climactic, and the wide range of the Protectors abilities that were used in the second-to-last arc are not used at all in the final arc. Even You Zhengping kind of disappears from the final arc, even though he apparently was off doing something equally as important as Yu Hua.
-The secret identities and who knew what about whom were so difficult to keep track of. Not only do Yu Hua and You Zhengping keep their identities hidden from each other, the more characters that are added on, the more secret identities the two have to assume and switch between. It got nearly impossible to keep track of what each character knew of every other character, and at some point it actually got to be irrelevant. In a very late chapter, one Destroyer (Yuan Luori) discovers the true identity of a Protector (Cen Xiao), but by the point the hidden identity was practically useless and didn't serve narrative function or have any consequences for the secret having been revealed. This maybe could have been smoothed out, but I won't lie, it added to the chaos and shenanigans. It was just messy to keep track of.
All in all, I really enjoyed this book. Yes it was long, and much of it could have been condensed, but the characters and the world really drew me in. Yu Hua's ultimate goal of protecting the little life he waited thousands of years to build with his beloved You Zhengping was so endearing that I couldn't help but root for him, even when his dark side showed.
Today has been another trifling, mediocre, peaceful day.