Qi Ci was persecuted, sold into a brothel, humiliated and beaten. To put it even worse, he was poisoned with a Gu worm, and if he didn’t had sex, he would be dead by the next morning.
His fate was so miserable!
However, under such a miserable circumstance, he met Bian Zhonghua.
Once they became acquaintances with each other, and Bian Zhonghua helped Qi Ci with the Gu worm, Bian Zhonghua accidentally found out that the young man he met by chance, was in fact, a Prince who was exiled years ago!
So, Bian Zhonghua helped Qi Ci become the Prince, and naturally, he became his Secret Servant. However, it’s hard to just be his Secret Servant, ah.
On the first night, Bian Zhonghua recited the Qingxin mantra a thousand times. On the second night, he copied the Pranja Sutra a thousand times. On the third night, Bian Zhonghua…. Bian Zhonghua was losing his mind!
Damn it! There’s nothing else he can use to eradicate this desire?!
On the other hand, Qi Ci felt like he was losing his mind as well!
I was intrigued by the name of the book and decided to give it a try because of that. It started out strong, and the dynamics between the MC and ML were really cute, but after a while the story got messy and it felt like the author was trying to cram too much into a story that wasn't very long.
The story follows Qi Ci, a guy with really bad luck who ends up in a brothel, and Bian Zhonghua, a demon hunter who saves QC from said brothel while he's there to kill a demon. BZH quickly recognizes QC as a long lost prince from some jewelry left to him by his mother, and the two return to the capital city together and become friends along the way.
I really liked Qi Ci's character. He was just the sweetest boi who can't ignore someone in need. He's suffered so much in this life but doesn't let that bring him down and make him jaded. He and BZH are a good match for each other.
If the author had just focused on the romance and the history between the MC and ML, I think that would've been fine. But there's random stuff thrown in that felt extra, like some light political intrigue (the MC isn't even the Crown Prince so I found it completely unnecessary) and a side couple that I personally didn't care too much for.
The reveal of the truth came far too late as well imo. There was so much hinting and blatant foreshadowing and talk about BZH's missing third soul and destroyed neidan that it was frustrating to have to wait until the end of the story for the whole truth of their relationship. The story of their past itself was beautiful, but I really wish it was revealed sooner. The story felt a bit chaotic without it, especially since some things were never explained, like how QC was revived at the bottom of the lake or how QC was reborn to begin with.
The story had a strong beginning and end, but the middle part was a bit of a mess and honestly I was forcing myself to keep reading. A bit disappointing as I really enjoyed another book by the same author (How to Survive As a Villain), but this story was nowhere as good as that one.
Eu não sou o maior fã desse/a autor/a em específico (questão de gosto mesmo) então não botei muita fé nessa novel quando comecei a ler. Surpreendentemente, nenhum dos pontos da escrita de Yiyiyiyi que me incomodavam anteriormente, me incomodaram aqui. Na verdade, eu senti que sua escrita nessa novel era muito mais amadora, muito mais fácil de se compreender e completamente viciante.
É um romance realmente doce e divertido de se ler, os personagens são cativantes e o universo é abrangente.
Os pontos negativos aqui são: o universo, por consequência de ser abrangente, não recebe toda a atenção e desenvolvimento que merece, o/a autor/a às vezes tem umas epifanias e acaba causando furos no enredo por se esquecer que determinado local ja teve determinada importância na história. Outra coisa é que eu senti que a história dos protagonistas poderia ser mais aprofundada;
(eu achei emocionante e chorei um bocado mas durante toda a novel você tem certa impressão de como era o relacionamento deles antes do ?primeiro? encontro, por isso causa certa estranheza e dependendo do seu nível de afeto por uma boa angústia, te causa decepção.)
No geral acho uma leitura muito válida, principalmente se você não tiver nenhuma obrigação pendente e só queira esvaziar um pouco a mente
The first chapter of this novel is probably the strongest first chapter ever from a storytelling perspective. The first 30 chapters are basically a masterpiece. The whole first half is very very enjoyable.
The second half though is a boring, predictable, at times incomprehensible mess.
Considering how short the novel is, it has A LOT going on. There's the main couple, but there's also a side couple. There's the overarching xianxia plot, but there's also the political subplot. And there's also an ocasional supernatural mystery solving storyline.
The good thing is - all those storylines are wrapped up rather neatly with basically no loose ends. On the other hand, the novel is really short for how much potential material it could have, so we don't get too much details in any of the storylines.
The character aspect started out strong, but then the characters lost their individuality somewhere around the mid point. I also wasn't a huge fan of the revelation of their previous lives (turns out they've known each other all along!!), I figured their past around chapter 45, but the author dragged with the explanations til the very end, so later chapters were really boring.
The title has nothing to do with the story at all, sigh. Yi Yi Yi Yi just probably showing his humor. But I totally love it, especially the side characters.