How to Survive As a Villain (2024)

Transmigration novels are my biggest guilty pleasure.

To be honest, I didn't expect much from this book, but it turned out to be really good.

The novel has about the same amount of light-heartedness and angst. Sometimes it gets very dark very quickly. There are like 40 consequtive chapters in the middle which are pure emotional suffering that I really liked.

The MC's inner conflict is on point. After transmigrating he goes back and forth from being his own person to assuming the position of the body he's transmigrated into. At places he seemingly can't understand who he really is. Like in the arc with the war/surrender he loses himself completely, and regains his individuality only after escaping from politics. But even then he easily slips into another persona if he's reminded of his body's identity. This all makes the whole transmigration aspect much more realistic.

Special mentions to writing of the mental state of a monarch whose country lost in a war. Angsty to the extreme. The romantic tension was amazing as well.

Storytelling-wise, this book is also really good. It omits all the unnecessary scenes, so every single scene in the novel is impactful and interesting. There are really no places where I as a reader got bored.

The only part of the book that didn't hold up to everything else was the last 20 or so chapters - they were very predictable, had a ton of unnecessary drama, there was also an unnecessary antagonist. The way the doppelganger was used was disappointing as well (when the doppelganger was first introduced to the plot, I thought the author was going for something mind-blowing, but alas, it turnes out in the most predictable way).

But also, that very last bit had a lot of fluff and some of the best jokes in the whole book, so yeah, this novel is actually really good.

The author has at least two other novels, and I need to read them asap.

When I started it I was enjoying but past 60% of it, I realised how we have lost our direction and the pace. Overall another of my fun, silly little danmei that pushed me out of a slump.

No duden jóvenes que TODOS nos merecemos que alguien nos sonría como XYA le sonríe a YHQ y que alguien nos ame tanto como YHQ ama a XYA (y viceversa).

Solo diré: Espléndida, está en mi top.

I'll keep this review short since I've read a few other fantastic reviews on here that are way better than what I could write. This story was much more romance heavy than I anticipated which was perfect after reading the slow AF burn Thousand Autumns. The one gripe that I have is the 30ish chapters (the chapters are fairly short) of miscommunication/misunderstanding in the middle of the book that about killed me. I had to look for a spoiler to see if it lasted for the entirety of the book because I cannot handle that. The angst definitely increased but the cuteness and fluff did as well.

What I loved:
❤️Xiao Yu'an and Yan Heqing were THE cutest!
❤️Multiple gay relationships including a W/W
❤️The confessions- absolute perfection!
❤️XY's eagerness and nervousness, being bold then being shy- he is just the best (reminds me a little of Song Qingshi from MISVIL)
❤️The sweet sacrifices they made for each other without the other one knowing
❤️The humor
❤️The overall range of emotions this book made me feel

What I didn't love:
❌The miscommunication/misunderstanding in the middle and a little right before the end. I love angst but if it's miscommunication, it needs to be resolved quickly and/or not be the cause any major harmful events.

I read a fan translation of the complete novel immediately after finishing Vol. 1 of the official English licensed book by Rosmei because I was hooked and too impatient to wait. I loved their comments and notes at the end of each chapter almost more than I liked Rosmei's!

Okay, this review was not short 🙄

'𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘧 𝘮𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘭 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦. 𝘐𝘧 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦, 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶.'

I was on reddit looking for recommendations of authors who write better than the usual danmei standard, and this author was recommended. Picked this up, but I found her prose pretty standard. Nevertheless, I read most of this book. This starts out with lots of comedy and then the tragedy hits later on. The tropes are similar to The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System: Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong (Novel) Vol. 1 and the like, where the main character transmigrates into the villain and then in an attempt to save himself and prevent his future murder by the protagonist (the love interest), he is exceptionally nice to the protagonist, who then falls in love with him.

For this specific type of transmigration narrative, there is usually some sort of big misunderstanding in the middle where our main character may fake his death causing lots of angst before reconciling with the love interest. Part of the main character's arc is realizing that this transmigrated world is real and not just a romp.

These elements were all present here. One thing I do like about this author is how short her chapters are. They tell the event and they move on, so you don't have a lot of dragged out filler content. I still found this novel to be a bit too long, but overall, this is a good pick if you like the 'transmigrated into the villain' trope with comedy and angst.

BEWARE of SPOILER

I came across the manhua and it was so good and yet the update was a bit slow. So, I decided to do some searching and I hit the jackpot. The manhua was adapted from a novel. Even though the novel was still in the process of translation at the time but, it was a bit further than the manhua.

The ML was like any other ML. He was stoic and cool and reserved. In short, he's like any other ML in most novels and dramas nowadays. The MC, however, was the opposite of him. Xiao YuAn was the head of his family. Since he was young, he was groomed to handle business and of course, memorized all the lines that a tyrannical president should say when he met his lover. Unfortunately, Xiao YuAn had no interest in any of it. Whenever he had free time, he spent it reading novels. And one of the novels was a stallion novel about the ML, Yan HeQing, who formed a harem while making his way to the top of the world.

Long story short, Xiao YuAn transmigrated into the novel as one of the villains. He was the king from the North that opposed Yan HeQing who was from the South. Knowing the bad ending of the cannon fodder character, Xiao YuAn decided to change the course of the event even at the cost of his life. Instead of being remembered as the scum king, he wanted to contribute something in Yan HeQing quest to unite the countries.

Not once in his life that he ever imagined instead of a harem, Yan HeQing only wanted him. It was sweet because, in front of Xiao YuAn, Yan HeQing was like a different person.

I would like it if the novel was also adapted into a drama even knowing that it won't have the LGBTQ tag as it wasn't permitted by some country. Better bromance than none I guess.

That Time I Got Reincarnated as the Homosexual Villain of a Straight Harem Novel
All my years of laughing at isekais and young adult romance novels have caught up to me. Karma is deliciously evil and now I, a literary snob, found myself reading an absolutely insane transmigration novel. My ancestors are surely rotating in their graves with enough power to bring electricity to a small village.
Well, enough of these laments. I stumbled across hsav while searching for danmei that has lesbian side couples. I was simply curious if such a thing exists. In any other situation I doubt I would have touched the novel, but somehow, bored out of my mind, I read it despite cringing at the insane few chapters.
HSAV is a bit of a parody novel. I read through the first few chapters without comprehending much (what the hell is an evil president quote even?) and only persevered through the beginning of the actual story because I was curious about what would happen. As it stands, curiosity killed the cat and I found myself actually emotionally invested. The tone of the story in the beginning doesn't prepare you for the kind of real emotions involved later. I got attached to all the wrong characters who ended up dying of course. The shock about the realness of this world is doubly experienced by both the reader and the isekai'd protagonist, who until then is seen being mostly carefree in this world he has been transported to.
For the first half of the novel you have the honor of watching the main character be impossibly dense - he's convinced the male lead hates him while at the same time he's trying to set him up with who he remembers are the wives in his harem in the original novel. Spoiler alert: the male lead is not interested in any of the women anymore. Hilariously the main character refuses to realize that in "taking over the plotline of the wives" he is becoming... the wife.
As for the characters I'd say the male lead is a bit shallow. We don't know that much about him beyond his bullheaded dedication to the main character. Otherwise even the main character has good character building and has a compelling backstory despite the crazy few chapters from before he was isekai'd.
And of course I can't not mention the humor and references. Throughout the whole novel our main character proceeds to terrify these poor (early middle ages? ancient? not sure about the time period) side characters by reciting Marx and Mao and singing Chinese pop songs in what I have no doubt is the typical ahjeossi at karaoke voice. I'd like to thank the author also to teaching me more about marxian dialectics than my four years at a liberal arts college. Also are all the authors of danmei secretly Chinese literature majors? How is it that there's constant literary references even in this work. Either China is doing something right when it comes to literature education or university professors over there write isekais in their spare time.
I gave this three stars but please consider it praise. It is simply that I'm comparing it to the other danmei I've read and that is being compared to books I read in general.

all the angst was worth it !!! XYA and YHQ are so fucking cute i love them sm （＾∇＾）after everything they went through, their love is so pure and devoted, LITERAL SOULMATES indeed !! reading the last extra made me so emotional, i’m so glad everyone is having a good life even if they are not together in the same universe (ᵔᴥᵔ) they truly deserve it, specially my queen hong xiu♡

[This review doesn't make justice to the book and its characters.]
I used to see from time to time advertisements of the manhua based on this novel on Tapas in those days when I spent my time mostly on Tapas and Radish reading manhwa and Korean novels but because the title was translated differently, later on when I got into danmei and Chinese novels and I saw that other fans like How to Survive As a Villain, I needed some time to understand the connection. Now, I'm so glad that I didn't read the manhua adaptation during the dark age of my reading career. In this way, I was able to get the full experience reading the novel could give to its new readers.
The pacing of the novel is incredible. I had the feeling that things were happening both slow and fast. I mean it was like so many things have happened already but I didn't have the feeling that so many things have happened.
The romance between the main characters was also one of the best I've ever read [phrase I didn't want to use ever again]. They're star-crossed lovers but their relationship was so natural. What I mean is that in so many novels featuring star-crossed lovers characters tend to be so over the top that their relationship would often seem/be abnormal, supernatural, unnatural or outright unrealistic while in How to Survive As a Villain the love between the main characters is deeply engraved into them but it's not tha crazy kind even though both of them have done some things that may make you think the opposite. Most of those things were due to circumstances and done with consideration. If you ask me, the only realy abnormal occasion was when Yan Heqing opened his wounds on purpose in order to stay with Xiao Yuan longer but he's neither the first, nor the last person that would resort to self-harm when feeling depressed and/or under pressure. There's no toxicity or (self-)destructiveness, or whichever of the darker sides of love between Yan Heqing and Xiao Yuan. Just pure beautiful love. [Minor cases of jealousy don't count. They're inevitable.]
The process of Yan Heqing and Xiao Yuan falling in love with each other was pretty much like the pacing of the novel. So natural that you just can't understand when exactly they fell in love even though that it was clear that they were on the path to fall in love and not just because of the premise and the tags. I had both the feeling that it was slow and that it was fast.
What's more both main characters are quite mature and with keen understanding of their own situation and feelings. Xiao Yuan may seem a little bit unaware sometimes but his previous dwellings in the realm of love were so unfortunate that it actually makes sense for him to become a little bit unaware when it comes to his own love life not to mention that he was quite influenced by the original novel on which the world he was transported to after his death was based. So even this seemed natural.
Yan Heqing, the protagonist of the original novel, got the protagonist halo and excellent and extraordinary character and abilities but unlike many other main characters doesn't give the feeling 'impossible to see outside fiction, imagination, dreams or psychiatric hospital'. Chances are that a man like him really doesn't exist but he lacks the aura of such. He just seems real. Xiao Yuan got more quirks than him but he seems as real as him though for him it's more normal given that he's the one transported into a novel.
The novel was also rather excellent as 'historical fiction' kind of novel. I just don't know how else to call it. If you forget about the transmigration the novel is not really fantasy and got historical setting. Either way, what I mean is that the conspiracies, the court intrigue, the wars and all the political conflicts in the novel were excellently executed. At least, that's what I think. I found them to my taste and that's enough for me.
The other couples that appeared in the novel were also good. The same goes for the other relations that appear in the novel like family, friendships, master-disciple and so on.
The whole thing is that everything in this novel seem so natural and real something I believed that I'd never think about a transmigration novel. Often, even if the novel is good, realistic and able to get you so immersed in itself that you'd forget about the real world, you still have the feeling of living in fiction, fantasy, imagination. On the other hand, How to Survive As a Villain even though it's about transportation into a novel, gives the impression for possibility, reality.
There is darkness in the novel and as expected of star-crossed lovers novel there is a lot of darkness around the main characters that prevents them from just living happily for a long time but the novel itself just lacks the vibe of [absolute] desperation. The main characters got inner strength that even in their darkest days would prevent them from falling completely into the dark.
I highly recommend this novel. Finding novels like How to Survive As a Villain make not giving up on reading romances worth it. Because of it, now I'm almost convinced that novels that involve transmigration into a novel may not be as bad as manhwa made me think.
P.S. Yan Heqing is currently one of my favourite danmei characters together with Hua Cheng and Chu Wanning.
P.P.S. I've never thought there would be a character I consider to be as shameless as Wei Wuxian.

I enjoyed it sm! it seems a bit long with over 200 chapters, but they're short and fly by really quickly. it has a perfect balance of fluff and angst, and is very well constructed, both narrative, as well as character-wise. highly recommended~!

Los capítulo 80-90 y 170-195 son una tortura y mi corazón se rompía con cada palabra, es de los danmei con los que más he llorado por personajes secundarios, la historia está preciosa y la verdad agradezco el HEA, porque ya no podía con mi alma.

Siempre juro que va a ser mi último angst y luego vuelvo buscando justo ese tag en las historias 🤧

I finished this book quite a while ago, but now I can’t remember much of it. It can be a sign of mediocrity, or my own declining memory. Still, I think I enjoyed reading it, so for the benefit of doubt, I leave it at 4 stars.

currently Chapter 208

I wasn't expecting much when I picked up this story, but it ended up being a delightful read. Plus I was blown away by the quality of the translations by Foxholic and the many notes the translator included for all of the idioms and poetic references. I really appreciated her going the extra mile!

At it's core, it's a transmigration story. The MC, Xiao YuAn, transmigrates into a historical stallion novel after his death as the cannon fodder emperor of the Northern Kingdom who dies a painful death in the original novel after he abuses the protagonist, the captured prince of the Southern Yan Kingdom, Yan Heqing. To avoid the same fate, he treats the captured prince well as soon as he wakes up in the novel world and eventually makes the prince an Imperial Bodyguard. Little does he know, the protagonist, who eventually ends up with a whole harem of women in the original story and has such a strong body to do the deed ten times in a night, falls for him after all of his loving care.

**Warning: Spoilers Ahead**

It was hilarious to watch the whole story unravel slowly around Xiao YuAn, and it's so obvious to the reader what's going on, but he's completely clueless and trying desperately to stick to the original storyline. You would imagine he'd get the hint when the first and second female leads end up falling in love with each other and eloping back to the second female lead's home kingdom, but no, he doesn't give up by the time the third female lead makes her appearance. You gotta give Xiao YuAn an A for effort XP

In the first arc of the story, I thoroughly enjoyed reading how XYA's countless attempts to get YHQ together with his "love interests" kept failing and he ends up playing the part of the female lead each time instead. Eventually though, I started getting frustrated due to the lack of communication between them. They each speak in half sentences that can be interpreted with different meanings instead of clearly stating their thoughts, so once YHQ's uncle, who wants to break them up, is there to stir up trouble, then they end up separating because of all the misunderstandings.

I was glad to see them finally reunite in a distant village, when XYA finds YHQ buried in the mud half dead. Again, XYA tries to get the story back on track by pretending to be the third female lead and even changes his voice to a girl's voice, but YHQ does not cooperate with him at all until he gets his vision back and realizes his savior is actually XYA and not a girl. Then he turns into the most obedient and coquettish patient ever XP But I enjoyed this arc because FINALLY they get over their misunderstandings and YHQ even confesses his feelings!!

I won't say much for the rest of the book since it's more plot driven now that the MC and ML have gotten together, but there were surprisingly some heart wrenching and angsty moments still. Despite all that, I still enjoyed the book to the end. It was moving to see how much they love each other, and for the year that XYA was gone, I can't imagine how devastated YQH must've felt.

There are plenty of extras as well. Some of them were quite fun, especially the first side story where XYA woke up in his original body in the modern world and YHQ "transmigrates" to the modern world.

Overall I'd recommend this story to anyone who enjoys a good transmigration danmei. It may look long at 200+ chapters, but the chapters are quite short, so they fly by pretty quickly.

Bom demaisss, personagens ótimos, muito sofrimento mas com a dose certa de felicidade para nos consolar, amei amei amei. Enredo muito envolvente e bem desenvolvido, não foi cansativo em momento nenhum, e isso considerando que é uma novel bem grandinha.
Me quebrou, mas espero que o volume dois me conserte 👍

Ps: beeem menos censurada do que eu esperava.

.......

(Resenha a partir da morte do Xiao YuAn aos extras finais)

Ai ai...Decepcionada. Eu amei o primeiro volume, em parte porque o enredo e os personagens eram bons e em parte porque eu confiei que todas as minhas reclamações seriam resolvidas neste volume. E não foram.
A autora odeia personagens secundários, os que não morreram foram esquecidos por ela totalmente e mencionados apenas nos extras finais, ainda assim de forma insatisfatória. O enredo foi inexistente nesse volume, fraco fraco e fraco. Os extras deles em outro mundo, fraquissímos, só li porque tive medo de perder algo, mas não fez a miníma diferença. Muitos buracos foram deixados no enredo.
Frustrante. Ao todo ainda acho que a novel completa vale a pena a leitura, porque a primeira parte é muito boa.

3.5

"You'll have to stay with me for a lifetime."

i started reading this novel back in august, and i read around 170 chapters in a single day, then proceeded to never touch this story again. to be honest, there was no real reason why. i was expecting more angst and it turned out to be fluff and happiness and warm feelings but i loved that. i suppose i had to pause it for a while because i wasn't as entertained anymore, but then today i picked up the novel again and FINISHED IT. i'm really happy that i did, too, cause i really love xiao yuan and yan heqing. their relationship is adorable, their dialogues are everything, and they're so effortlessly funny they deserve props. it might seem like 3.5 is a rating a bit too low, but i do think the novel drags on a bit. aside from that, it's a really cute story and i like it very much!!!!!

Edit: Manhwa title "To be or not to be"

I really liked this - although it's a transmigration novel similar to SVSSS, it also clearly stands on its own.

Also, must every single book in the danmei genre be filled with sorrows and tragedies??? I know something must happen in order for the action to move forward, but damn, my feels 😭🥹💔

This book was pretty fun! Lots of humor with the transmigration and various misunderstandings, and a fair bit of angst with the romance. Xiao Yuan isn't as ridiculous as Shen Qingqiu, but he's still pretty oblivious. The chemistry between Xiao Yuan and Yan Heqing is pretty amazing once they have things figured out. The translation is also excellent.

3.8

Xiao Yuan is literally me

Vol 2

Really funny. I enjoyed reading this.

Due stelle proprio tiratissime per questa novel che, quasi fino all'ultimo, mi ha fatta penare non poco. Non... Non ho ben capito quale fosse il punto della storia né dei personaggi a dir la verità, né sono particolarmente certa di apprezzare questo metodo di "narrazione". Le do due stelle perché alla fine della fiera ho sicuramente letto di peggio, ma potessi tornare indietro sceglierei sicuramente di impiegare il mio tempo in altro - né mi sento di consigliarne la lettura al prossimo.
Lo stile di scrittura è molto - troppo? - semplice, e i capitoli perlopiù brevi, che tutto sommato è un punto a favore perché almeno la lettura - benché noiosa, visto che per più di 12O capitoli non succede un emerito / niente / - almeno risulta veloce e scorrevole. Insomma, una buona fyccina. E credo che la colpa sia solo relativamente da attribuire alla traduzione, ma chissà...
Ci ha messo moltissimo - decisamente troppo - ad ingranare, ma quando l'ha fatto mi è piaciuta abbastanza. Avevo sentito tessere parecchie lodi sullo smut, ma in realtà anche quello mi ha lasciata di un'indifferenza astrale. I personaggi alla fine della fiera sono anche abbastanza carini, ma non direi proprio che ne è valsa la pena. Peccato.

I was itching to read other danmei not written by MXTX or Meatbun.
I saw that a few people mentioning this was similar to SVSS so that got me interested.

I feel similarities stop at MC being transmigrated into a stallion novel. To me SVSS was written much better and I preferred the humour there. Honestly, the book took awhile to get interesting and I was hooked for a bit but afterwards it went downhill. The issues seem to just be a repeating pattern which straight up frustrating. Personally I can't enjoy MLs that don't speak much. It felt like MC is doing a monologue... I read danmei for the romance so I do very much need conversation between the two characters.

I will skip reading the extras because I have already pushed myself too much to finish this book.

I liked this one. It depicted characters that weren’t supposed to like each other, but found themselves in each other’s spheres time and time again. More than that, they chose to develop a relationship even though it opposed the narrative. It’s not a particularly unique transmigration story, but it was comedic and enjoyable. I do wish the author developed the side characters more and fully flushed out the plot. However, from a book I wasn’t expecting anything from, the political intrigue was a nice surprise.

I recommend if you don’t want to think too much, and you like transmigration stories.

2. try:

a little too much misunderstanding in the first half, but this was fun

1. try:

dnf @ ??? no idea how far I got
again, I completely forgot I started this and at this point I'm still too deep into svsss to even think about reading another transmigration novel, so who knows, maybe I'll try again at some point, but definitely not now

Beautifully written.....

The main character is so annoying.... acting like a cartoon character almost the time. it became painful to read.

I cried, I laughed, I sobbed, I felt absolutely delirious from the cocktail of mixed feelings I had inside of me.

This novel was something I took up in an act of spontaneity and I was immediately entranced by everything - by the subversion on some transmigration cliches (this is the first time I've read about a transmigrated male lead who immediately spilt the beans on his actual identity.), by how the male lead was someone I rooted for because of his effortless humour and his personality, by the introduction of male/male relationships and female/female relationships and even more.

And then everything changed?!!?!

It started out so fluffy and sweet, I was holding my hand to my heart so many times because of how adorable certain scenes were.

Ten chapters later, I'd be holding my head in my hand, wondering where everything started to so HORRIBLY, TERRIBLY WRONG. There were times that I'd think, "Oh, this is rock bottom," and then something else tragic would happen and then I'd think, "Nope, this was actually deeper than rock bottom." And the cycle just continues. After a certain point, I was. feeling mild trauma when I came across a nice scene because then I was just thinking, "Ok, well what's going to happen now?"

This is not a novel to be taken lightly. Dear reader, if you dare to read, do not and I repeat do not look up any spoilers. Trust me. I need a small word with the author because someone needs to pay my therapy bills because when I say this is a rollercoaster of a story, that's an understatement.

But dear reader, please give this story a chance because it is truly one of the best I have ever read, I'm actually so surprised not that many people have come across it before. Some of the things that I loved were:

A. The relationship between the two male leads - soft, sappy (sometimes horny) power couple. And the blurb might imply that it's a black and white shou/gong scenario but honestly, there's so much complexity to their relationship. And so much love. And so much care.

B. The MAIN LEAD - my baby, Xiao Yu-An. He's one of my favourite characters ever, not only for his ability to face bad situations with humour and determination. I can never guess what he's going to say sometimes. His tragic backstory only highlights the ever-there smile on his face.

C. It's a free-for-all situation here - there's love everywhere. There are Male/Male relationships, Women/Women relatiionships, Male/Women relationships - the diversity was nice considering that most yaoi novels are basically like: here's a story, 99% of its characters are all gay men and the 1% that are women or even worse, straight are evil and frothing with jealousy.

D. The transmigration aspect was so well done and so very refreshing. Unlike most other transmigration novels and cannon fodder novels, Xiao Yu-An was legitimately burderned with the problem of whose body he took over and it was an issue for the entire novel. He didn't get a do-over but he did the best that he could.

E. The humour. This story is 50% pain, 50% laughter.

F. The character development of former 'harem' members - one of my pet peeves with some of these Chinese novels is sometimes the demonisation of harem members but here, you really root for these women. They have so much to offer than being one of numerous beauties in a harem, forced to never leave the Imperial palace.

G. The quality of the translation was excellent so credit to Foxaholic. The novel read smoothly and was almost grammatically perfect. The footnotes were precise. And some of the comments left behind from the translator are a definite plus.

I can keep going through the rest of the alphabet on why How To Survive A Villain is worth praise and glory but it's something that should be experienced by everyone else.

P.S. There's a happy ending. ;)

N.B. My favourite chapter: 135.["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>

Actual rating: 4.5 stars

Xiao YuAn (MC) is my precious cinnamon roll and I won't take any criticisms on him. And Yan HeQing (ML) is just the sweetest, his heart never wavering despite all the challenges life threw at him.

I've read a number of transmigration novels and I think this is the first I've read where at least someone knew that he wasn't the original person and was in fact a transmigrated soul. It was something new to me and that's why I like it so much. I loved the development of XYA's relationship with YHQ because from the start, he had told YHQ about the truth and for some time, YHQ was the only person he could be himself with. They got to know each other and trust each other which would later be the foundation of their strong and healthy relationship. And even though YHQ would at first seem like he would be the possessive type, he respected XYA and treated him as an equal.

And with how XYA protected him and wanted the best for him, it was no surprise that YHQ eventually grew fond of him. But because they were (sort of) enemies, it took them a long time before they were able to be together happily. They went through many ups and downs to reach their happy ending. This was also because XYA was a bit slow to realize how he felt for YHQ because he was convinced that YHQ hated him and wanted to kill him but when they made their feelings clear, it was obvious that they were made for each other and they were very sweet together. Yeah, they had misunderstandings due to lack of proper communication in the beginning but honestly I didn't mind it at all because I really enjoyed the angst that resulted from it.

Speaking of, this novel was not only angsty but also humorous. And although the story may seem kind of crack-ish at first, it actually has a solid plot with good pacing and development. It's not as heavy or as political as other historical novels but there was not a moment while reading that I thought the story was boring or too slow. I also really like the characterization of the side characters as well and I felt like they really helped to complete and add more to the story. The side characters being LGBT+ was also a really pleasant surprise. Each character had its purpose and some had tragic and heartbreaking endings while others lived happily ever after, but in the end, everyone had a happy ending in the extras and side stories which made me happy.

Even though the story wasn't very long, the characters became very dear to me and I'll probably re-read the story in the manhua, To Be or Not to Be.