Today, I want to introduce you guys to another Chinese BL novel that I just completed as well and I know it is a little bit unhealthy to consume so much BL novels in a short period. Anyway, this book comes from the same author of Mo Dao Zu Shi or Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation and Heaven Official’s Blessing which I really like since her books focus more on the development of the characters rather than the smudge senses (ofc if u want, can find it on the extra chapters).
The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System has a different tone than the other two novels of hers. It is more light-hearted from the perspective of our main character, not our main lead since the main character knows everything beforehand so to him it is quite predictable. Without further ado, let’s get into the spoiler-free review. I will divide it into Synopsis, Characters, Writing, Rating, and personal view.
Type: Web novel
Book titles: The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, 人渣反派自救系统
The story follows Shen Yuan who transmigrated into Shen Qingqiu’s body who is the scum villain of the novel that he was reading at that time. Moreover, Shen Qing Qiu did not have a good ending because he was made into a human stick by his student (Luo Binghe) who has been abused by him since he was young. After knowing the ending of everyone and including himself, he started to find a way to change his tragic ending since he cannot go back to his real world (he died of food poisoning) and that is when you see how the story progress in contrast with the plot of the novel. Binghe is not abused by Shen Qingqiu anymore and Qingqiu has started to take good care of Binghe more than anyone. He still needs to complete his task in accordance with the system by pushing Binghe down to hell （魔主）。
P.S. The system is something that stuck with him and it will alert Shen Qingqiu if he did something out of character (OOC) and give punishment for failing the task. There are punishment, incentive, and level up by adding or reducing the score basically it is a game that you play.
Character:
Shen Qingqiu
Shen Qingqiu: Actually, I don know how to describe his character other than someone from a modern world transmigrate to the novel he was reading. He’s a bit oblivious to the feeling Binghe has toward him since he always goes back to the plot of the novel as a reference without knowing that his transmigration has changed the plot of the story. Therefore, you can say that his dumb or whatever, but I guess he is just a normal person like us whose final goal is to survive in this world.
Luo Binghe
Luo Binghe: I think the fact that he is still the young Binghe after the plot twisted with Shen Yuan (in the body of Shen Qingqiu) came into his life, he didn’t change a thing. For this reason, I believe he just needs someone to love him and care about him. (SPOILER ALERT: he hugged a corpse for five years.)
Writing:
In terms of complexity, I would say it’s a medium for me since I read in the original writing style, some of the vocabs might be a lot hard for me to understand as someone who studying Chinese as their third language but overall everything is okay.
Rating:
I would give it 4 out of 5 stars since the book series is great for some light read but I don feel connected with the main character that much. It would be a good read for someone who is not interested in a depressing story and it’s quite short compare to others.
Personal View:
Well, I would say this type of genre is something I still need to get used to since it has the concept of the teacher-student relationship which I am not totally against but I find it a bit uncomfortable to read when they develop feeling for one another. It is quite interesting to note that in Chinese novels and dramas, this concept is quite common and appears to be okay and cute (sometimes). I want to give this book a try since I don like the concept but I want to be open-minded enough and learn to accept that this relationship is okay.
P.S. if you are interested in the donghua or animation of this story, you can check out this website but they only have Chinese subtitles.
How everything goes so far for you guys? My internship is nearly coming to the end and I have so many things to say and write about but I could not find the time to sit down and write about what has been happening to me for the past few months. If one day I decide to upload that blog or have the courage enough to write about it, I will let you guys know about it beforehand. But for now, let’s just keep it to the book review, something little bit lighthearted.
Without further ado, in today’s blog, I am going to introduce you guys to another book called The Oath of Love. If you guys watch Chinese drama, you might know about the famous actor “Xiao Zhan” and his upcoming drama is the drama that was adapted from this novel. However, I have been anticipating for that drama for a year now and it still has not come out yet so I decided to read the novel first to get the grasp of the plot before continuing my long to await drama (tbh I also wanna know how good the plot? Is it sth I like since Chinese modern drama is not my cup of tea).
Fortunately, I really enjoy reading this novel. First of all, it is convenient to consume in a short period of time. Second, the whole story is not cheesy basically not the Chinese trope that I saw everywhere. Third, the characters are really mature for their ages, you can say that they are the people you can find in real life. Okay, I’ve been rumbling around for too long now, so let’s get into the review which is like old-time will be divided into a synopsis, characters, writing, and rating.
Synopsis:
The novel follows a love story between Gu Wei (doctor) and Lin Zhi Xiao (research student). Due to the sickness of Zhi Xiao’s father, she has to take care her father in the hospital for months and that is when she met Gu Wei, the doctor of her father, and from that on they start to develop their feeling for each other. However, it is not like the over sweetness and unrealistic like some novels, their feeling and interaction does not make you feel like it is too fake or what Chinese people use to say 偶像剧. I just want to stress that the gap between them is 6 years since Zhi Xiao is still a university student at that time. The whole story follows the journey of them from strangers to lovers, from being single to married, and how their family has involved in their relationship which is something you can find in real life as well. I am just gonna tell you at this point for now.
The Oath of Love
Character:
Gu Wei （顾魏）
Gu Wei is a doctor of Zhi Xiao’s father. According to the novel, he is 28 years old but very mature and I keep picturing Xiao Zhan as him since he played this role. I enjoy the way the author describes his appearance which is really suited to the Xiao Zhan’s appearance. First, the author describes Gu Wei as a very tall, skinny kind of person; he has very beautiful eyes that could just capture your heart in just a minute. Besides his appearance, his interaction with Zhi Xiao is so warm and cozy that remind you of someone that is down to earth and take very good care of him and the people around him. From the female perspective, he is a man of a few words and looks innocent enough in the first place however, when getting to know him, he can be spicy with a tamper.
Gu Wei
Lin Zhi Xiao （林之校）
I like her personality since the beginning especially as someone who is still in the university, she is mature enough for her age when making decisions. Her attitude toward her boyfriend is also respectful. For example, when dealing with his ex-girlfriend who still has feelings for him, she did not ask him to never see her again but she said that she can’t tell his ex-girlfriend what to do and it is not her place to make any decision for him. He is the one who should make it clear not her. I admire this type of character really much.
Lin Zhi Xiao
Writing:
I would say the wordings are easy for people like me to read since it is a modern setting novel. There ain’t any words like in the wuxia or xianxia’s world-building that I might need to check the dictionary on my phone or google translate. The pace might be a bit abrupt in the first chapter since the story starts right where they are in the hospital. I nearly forgot that the storytelling style is a daily journal from the female perspective and at the end of each chapter there would be a few sentences of them talking to one another while reading the diary. For the romance, I don find it too sweet. First of all, they are like a normal couple who has work and study that keep them busy so a normal couple might not have times to meet each other every day. Even the long-distance relationship, there ain’t any drama between them like most stories where there are cheating, falling in love for someone else, cannot live without each other. Maybe because of this writing style, it makes their relationship more believable for me.
Rating:
I would give it 4.5 out of 5 stars since I love the story and the pace of this novel. It is something that you can finish in one sitting. It is a light-hearted novel not too deep of a plot so you can still enjoy without getting yourself workup because of one novel. I think due to the mature relationship between the characters, I find theirs to be realist especially the transition from strangers to girlfriend/boyfriend and a married couple. However, the half star that I did not give is some of the writing does not make sense to me or maybe because of the different background of mine and Chinese people, so the slang or phrase might get lost.
Do I recommend this book?
I would recommend it to someone who likes to read some realistic relationship interaction and maybe who needs to escape from all those cutesy romance.
P.S. I hope that the drama can stick to the original story or something like this.
In 2020, things changed a lot. People stay at home during the lockdown. Study changes from the physical classroom to an online classroom. Therefore, for the past 6 months, I have been studying at home for nearly 24 hours a day. Fortunately, I also exposed to too many different things especially drama and Chinese novels (it doesn’t seem productive shhh) but at least I read something.
Today I want to share with you the list of books I want to read in 2020 but can’t promise that I can finish them all.
Educated: I bought it for a while now but haven’t had enough time to pick it up right now. I am in the middle of obsessing over BL novel.
12 Years of A Slave: a powerful novel based on the true story of a black American.
Heaven Official’s Blessing: why not finish all of MXTX’s books?
Lord Seventh: It would be my first time reading Priest’s books and the rating of this book is also very high.
Peerless: The same author as Thousand Autumns and I really like her writing style and comedy between the characters.
I guess only these four books for now. For Mo Dao Zu Shi, I already watched the drama (too many times to count), read extra chapters, and some parts of the books. So I might not read the entire series.
A Cozy Place 