Okay, full disclosure: there is zero dialogue in this entire passage. Not a single word spoken by any character. And somehow, I don't even miss it. Because the narrative voice is so distinct that I don't need characters talking to feel like I know who's telling this story. Yan Qing's inner voice comes through in the details she chooses to include. The cold corn dish recipe? That's practical, no-nonsense Yan Qing. She's not writing a cookbook — she's documenting a method she's figured out and wants to remember. The tone is instructional but warm, like someone showing you how to make something they genuinely love. Then there's the grape assessment: "They weren't as large as cultivated Kyoho grapes, being wild and slightly nutrient-deficient, but their flavor was exceptional." That's not just description — that's opinion. She's making a value judgment, and it's honest. Wild > cultivated in taste, even if cultivated wins on size. That's a character trait right there: she values substance over appearance. The line about the bears is my favorite example of voice. "The two bears didn't need supervision—they spent all day in the creek, catching a fish whenever hungry." Read that again. "Didn't need supervision." She's not worried about them. They're fine. They're capable. This is a woman who has accepted that her companions are wild animals who can take care of themselves, and she's not threatened by that. That's a very specific kind of confidence. And the winter vegetable prediction — "easily a hundred times better" — that exclamation point at the end? That's enthusiasm. That's someone who has tasted the future and is already looking forward to it. The narrative voice here is confident, practical, quietly optimistic, and deeply rooted in physical experience. I don't need dialogue when the prose itself sounds like a person.
Okay so let me just talk about Xie Cheng for a second because this man is absolutely unhinged and I am here for it. The way he handles the morning-after situation is just chef's kiss perfection. He doesn't even try to be nice about it—he just casually throws the phone at her and says "Planning to delete the video and frame me? Or afraid your fiancé might see it?" Like bro, you're sitting there in a towel with scratches on your waist and you're worried about a video? The audacity is unreal. But here's what actually got me—the reveal that he faked being poor for four years. "The poverty was fake, the identity was fake—only the name was real." That line hit me like a truck. So everything Wen Yan thought she knew about him, every moment she felt guilty for leaving him, every reason she chose Qi Siye over him—it was all built on a lie he deliberately constructed. He played her. He let her fall for him, let her make the "right" choice to leave him for someone richer, and then he watched her get engaged to someone else while he sat there pretending to be the poor boy from Europe. And the scratches on his waist? Red marks from fingernails. He's not even denying it. He's basically saying "yes I marked you and yes I recorded it and yes I'm proud of it." This man is a menace. A gorgeous, cold, manipulative menace but a menace nonetheless. Meanwhile Wen Yan's reaction is just... devastating in a different way. She says "I don't regret it" when he asks if she regrets leaving him. But then internally she thinks "The four years I spent with you are what I regret most." The gap between what she says and what she feels—that's where the real character work is. She's trapped between pride, resentment, and whatever unresolved thing she still has for him.
Okay, so the Xue father and son storyline is absolutely unhinged and I need to process this. The father literally slaughtered people for their hearts because his son told him he was the reincarnation of a Literary Star and needed nine fresh hearts to ascend to immortality. Nine hearts. NINE. And the father just... went out and learned to slaughter pigs first, then moved on to humans. The seamstress got rejected because the son was picky about gender, then three beggars were eaten and found to have no flavor, and THEN he decided scholars' hearts would be perfect because of the ink and book fragrance. That is some next-level delusion right there. But the twist — and this is the part that made me sit up — Xue Yan was never human. He was a weasel spirit wearing a human body the whole time. When he swallowed his own father's heart, he shed the human form and the weasel escaped. The father died with unseeing eyes, still believing in his son. The weasel's final line to him was basically the cruelest thing possible: "Foolish mortal, your son died long ago." Meanwhile, the Taoist priest Zhongliguan shows up to capture the weasel, but here's the thing — he's the same priest from Buju Mountain's Tianshi Temple who could hear Eighteenth Lady but never told her. And now he can SEE her. His cultivation base apparently hit some threshold. That's a thread I want to see pulled later. The Ghost Bride story is introduced as a nested narrative within the narrative — Yellow-robed Guest telling his story to the group. He escaped because the Ghost Bride only loves handsome men in their prime of sixteen, and he was over thirty. That's both hilarious and terrifying. The imagery of red candles turning green and spirit money ash flying through the hall is genuinely creepy. I'm already invested in whatever the Ghost Bride subplot is going to become.
I can't tell you how excited I am to be reading another one of your books on here ❤️ I'm already hooked with just the first five chapters. I can't wait to read more because I know how good your imagination is.
The realistic portrayal of hardship and resilience makes this novel unforgettable
I don’t read many books, but when I started reading this one, I found it relatable. Chapter 1 had a great hook. I can’t judge the book yet, but you should keep it up. Don’t worry about what others say—just focus on your story.
Please upload all the chapters hate the privilege chapters
I think the story has potential the wold is impressive as much as the first chapter tells us about the world I would like the writer to upload chapters quickly so I can get to know how it goes. The thing is I can't be sure just by reading the first chapter
I love the way the writer uses simple words .it makes it easier to understand unlike some other novels.
it's a good start , i really like the way it's going, I definitely read until end
Thanks for continuing the translation! Why is this so hard to find though? Typing the exact title doesn't have it show up and trying to find it by only typing in my german empire is hard too. Make sure to follow it or you may lose it!
this book is pretty much meant to be a way for me to have fun and see what people think of my work and how i could improve it