This was a rather unique reading experience when it comes to Chinese web novels. The Way of Choices seems to capture that, web novel-wise, uncommon feeling of subtlety and grandness. It's kind of hard to put into words, because this “feeling” seems to be an integral part of character design and even the very description of this novel's world setting seems to be permeated by an intangible feeling of vagueness.When I first started reading this, I inevitably ended up wondering why does this feel so refreshing and, dare I say, somewhat new. The answer came around when I was 400 chapters in. It was, first and foremost, the writing style or maybe it could also be attributed to the quality of translation. It is very unusual for a web novel author to keep the pace of a narrative stable. Mainly due to a constant pressure of being forced to churn out multiple chapters per week. That's why I surmise that Mao Ni shifu wasn't writing it on the go. The story development feels unhurried and even somewhat lethargic at the start. This may scare off some less patient readers, but for me this was a rather welcome novelty. The author isn't galloping through the plot to get to the action packed tidbits and there are no redundant characters. Most, if not all, secondary characters are fleshed out and distinct. Mao Ni seems to mostly adhere to the famous Chekhov's gun principle: "Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there." That proverbial rifle does indeed go off. The plot remains very consistent and inconsequential details are rather scarce. Of course, the validity of this observation depends on how deep one is willing to interpret.The main character deserves his own paragraph. Chen Changsheng feels like an old man trapped in a youthful body. The author emphasises his candour and naivete, but at the same time also mentions that naivete can be cruel. Chen Changsheng has an otherworldly feeling to him and mostly retains his untainted image throughout the novel. It is also very unusual for the main character of xianxia to not be a power fantasy vessel. That's why secondary characters feel so important. The main character doesn't act alone and his friends do play a major role in his achievements. Chen Changsheng relies on different people to accomplish things, that's why plot development doesn't feel like the usual deus-ex escapade, especially when compared to a lower quality xianxia novels.I also want to mention the dialogues and they are everything but straightforward. Nothing, I repeat, nothing definitive escapes the lips of most, if not all, secondary characters. They speak in riddles and metaphors. Let me quote directly from the novel: “Silence is also a sort of stance”. Much to my amusement, literally “everything” is a sort of stance in this novel. The narrative is filled with implicit messages and deliberately vague undertones. More often than not, characters express themselves non-verbally and Mao Ni does a good job at conveying the ambience of a non-verbal conversation between characters. This creates the aforementioned feeling of vagueness and ambiguity which is more common in drama. The only thing that I found unsatisfactory is the ending. It felt like the author was about to bring this to a definitive conclusion, but then, all of a sudden, changed his decision and wrote chapter 1186, which feels like an unnecessary information dump created only to serve as a future foundation for a sequel. Up until chapter 1186 the novel felt beautifully vague, never slipping into a pit of explicit fact dropping, but then... Oh well, nothing is truly perfect.In conclusion, The Way of Choices is a great novel. It's very deep and sometimes feels more like a theatrical performance than a web novel. If you want to take a break from unsophisticated power fantasy xianxias, this novel is for you.
