I need to talk about Qi Lian because honestly she broke my heart in these chapters and I can't stop thinking about it. She's been married for THREE YEARS and can't have a child, and the whole village is gossiping about her. 'It's just that your belly really isn't cooperating.' 'Why haven't you given the Song family a grandson yet?' These women are cruel, and the text doesn't even need to exaggerate—it's bad enough as written. Qi Lian's eyes 'welled up with tears' and she just stands there taking it. But what hits me most is the layer of secret desperation underneath. She has twenty copper coins saved up. Twenty. She's been scrimping and saving to buy a child-bearing talisman from a sorceress on South Mountain. This is a woman who has been told she's failing at her most basic role, and she's willing to turn to folk magic because the medical doctor told her 'there's nothing wrong with her body—perhaps it was just a matter of waiting for the right timing.' That line is devastating. The doctor gave her hope, and hope is worse than despair when you're this lonely. And then Song Yanyan 'accidentally' prevents her from going. Qi Lian comforts herself: 'waiting a little longer wouldn't hurt. She could always find another chance.' Another chance. As if the sorceress will still be there. As if twenty copper coins will be enough next time. As if fate will be kinder. I also can't ignore the Song Yueping and Zhai Cuihong thread. He's so hopelessly in love he slept in a woodshed on a cold night and brought home a quilt she gave him like it was a treasure. 'At night, Cuihong had even brought him a quilt—so warm!' This boy is eighteen and completely smitten, and his mother is furious because she sees how vulnerable he is. The family dynamics here are so rich and layered. Every character wants something, and every character is hurting in their own way.
Okay so this whole sequence with Ye Xiaoyun trying to get Bei Qinghuan to pose as some mysterious old Chinese medicine doctor is genuinely hilarious and also kind of brilliant plotting. Think about it — Ye Xiaoyun has this crush on Representative Jing, wants him to come to the infirmary more often, and her solution is to bring in a 'mysterious doctor' to create drama and indebtedness. That's such a specific, character-driven scheme. It's not just random comedy; it's a girl using whatever tools she has to get closer to someone she likes. And then the whole thing falls apart because Representative Jing doesn't believe in old Chinese medicine doctors at all! The irony is delicious. But then — plot twist within a twist — Bei Qinghuan runs into Jing Xiao, the orderly, and tries to PITCH her services to HIM instead. She's already pivoting from 'I'm doing this for my friend' to 'actually, this guy looks like he has money, let me monetize this.' And then she accidentally exposes herself by being so bad at lying about being a mysterious doctor. Her negotiation with Jing Xiao is comedy gold: she starts at five yuan, drops to four, almost offers three, and he keeps shooting her down with increasingly insulting descriptions of young Chinese medicine practitioners. The scene where he says 'A pity. The average Young Chinese Medicine Practitioner is ignorant, timid, and only has eyes for money' and she's standing there thinking 'I was ABOVE AVERAGE, thank you very much' — I literally laughed out loud. The subplot threading through all of this is her arranged engagement to Qin Zhenghua. She asks about Mei Suqin's health records under the guise of checking if the future mother-in-law is healthy, but the narration tells us straight up: 'That family was lacking in virtue, and that was something she couldn't mend.' Oof. That's a quiet but devastating line that reframes the entire engagement as something Bei Qinghuan is walking into with her eyes open. The plot is setting up multiple tensions simultaneously — the fake doctor scheme, the arranged marriage, her mother's side dish business, and her dream of opening an acupuncture clinic. All of these threads are pulling in different directions and I am HERE for it.
The chapter structure here is clever in a way that almost goes unnoticed. You've got the dinner date scene—tense, formal, lots of contract talk—then a hard cut to the Xie Zhiqiu confrontation which is pure adrenaline, and then BAM, half a month passes. That time skip is where I think the author really earns their keep. Instead of dragging out the awkward 'what are we now' phase that plagues so many romance novels, they just... skip it. And then they show us what that half month looked like from BOTH sides simultaneously. Yin Lan drowning in work, sleeping at the office, finally remembering to text. Zhou Guchuan tormenting his subordinates with impossible deadlines while staring at his phone. The parallel structure is brilliant because it creates dramatic irony—we know he's suffering just as much as she is, even though neither would admit it. The pacing also works on a micro level. The restaurant scene moves slowly, deliberately, with all this atmospheric detail about the sandalwood and the lattice windows and the carved doors. Then the confrontation is fast, sharp, violent. Then the half-month passage is almost clinical in its brevity. Then Yin Lan's text message hits and the pace accelerates again with Xiao Chen's internal meltdown. The author knows exactly when to slow down and let us breathe and when to hit us with speed. My only minor complaint is that the transition between Yin Lan's perspective and Zhou Guchuan's could've been slightly smoother, but honestly, the Xiao Chen scenes serve as a perfect bridge. They give us Zhou Guchuan's emotional state without needing to head-hop directly.
Been a fan of their earlier work and the concept is refreshing this story is in good hands
I LOVEE ITSS, I CANT WAIT FOR IT TO UPDATEMMMNZKSKSKA
? So hear me out. The book is fantastic especially since it has a tight pacing and doesn't stray away to subplots immediately. The characters are defined from the very first chapter, not much errors and a beautiful story to look forward to. Definitely a must read as it'll keep you on your toes!
author, more uploads please
Seems interesting. First arc is like the movie "The Cabin In The Woods". The whole setting is alternate history but weird. So worth a read.
Very good novel. Is already one of my favorites and has the potential to surpass the greats like ORV and RI. If you haven’t checked it out I recommend you to do so.
If you like me enjoy a story that have some depth to the characters but still is fast paced enough that you feel every chapter is moving the story forward in an intriguing way, then start reading already? I like the concubines, the powerstrugels and the politics of it. There are a lot of intimate scenes all beautifully written from a female gaze. I felt to begin with that there was too many of these scenes, but later on it comes clear it’s important for the development of the characters and not just for the sake of it, and they luckily becomes less frequent (I’m at chapter 56 currently). So keep reading!
Shameless author here, giving my book a five-star rating.This is my first book, so there are going to be a lot of mistakes. I will make sure to learn from them and try to improve as the chapters continue. Btw, thanks for supporting my work, dear sect members!I really appreciate every review, collection, and comment.Zain, the MC of the story, is an apathetic character who hates himself. Not only that, but the world hates him too. Once, he always wanted to die but couldn't because he had many responsibilities. However, when he was finally free and about to die, he learned something that reignited his will to live and take revenge for everything. But this time, the world is trying to kill him.So, this is not the story of a protagonist but of a coward who just wanted to live for revenge...He is inspired by Guts and my first fiction main character, so yeah, there will be a lot of action and brutal fights.Thanks for everything, and congratulations on joining the "Fallen Sect."[ Failing Is A Blessing ]
The premise is really intriguing and seems to be well-thought. And the author is able to maintain the tension throughout the chapters, along with the usual cliffhangers (hate it or love it).The apocalyptic setting is a nice respite from the abundance of “gates” with which these types of stories are usually laden. And the golden finger seems to encourage step-by-step and reasonable progression, which I personally prefer, rather than dumping overpowered skills or items at the whim that gets old fast unless the writing is top-notch.Although there are still only a few chapters at the time of writing this review, I’m looking forward to seeing how the story develops and what role Leon will assume in this sort of dystopian world. Good luck, author!