ShortCircuit

HE is that other lover, LOL.

Well, Joe was taking it as if he was having a relationship with a normal human being and Ming was only seeing a silhouette of his favourite untouchable actor while at the same time ACTING as if he was in the relationship too.

I wasn't pleased they ended up together, but what can you do, it's danmei. The number I've seen broken relationships in danmei no matter how dark the couple's ways is very close to zero.

Huge spoilers, don't read unless you really want to know.


It was ZY's mother, who learned they were lovers when Ji MingXuan accidentally revealed it (he wanted to chase ZY away from his sister). The thugs were to destroy his hands, not necessarily kill him - and they did, and he's a painter.

MingXuan knew where they were 'cause he was keeping a close eye on them and could identify the warehouse they kept him in, but he didn't arrive soon enough.

He fell in love with SM when he went to check on him after rescuing him, and found SM in a psychosis break that he didn't get out of for six months IIRC. He took care of him for those six months and fell really hard, but Shen Mo, in his mad mind, thought he was ZY all the time. And when SM finally healed enough to understand he wasn't ZY, he made a deal with Shen Mo, who couldn't support himself anymore, in order to keep him safe and not have him go back to being mad.

He's jealous of himself 'cause he can't remember. YET.

He's not having feelings of being inferior, he's confused because of his PTSD and random memories he can't understand. The body remembers from time to time what the mind forgot.

There is zero resemblance outside Mr Ji having glasses, LOL. Shen Mo isn't a doormat (nor does he make soup), he's a PTSD victim of both those guys, and there'll eventually be a reckoning.

Finally had the time to sit and watch and it completely delivers. They're faithful to the novel and hit the right mood for it. Also, Rao ZiHao (Shen Mo's actor) has the perfect blend of fragility and stubborness (and he's so freaking smol. I want to take him and hug him and call him George).

I have a very good feeling about this.

Is it just me or does Hou MingXuan (MingXuan's actor) look kind of like Huang XiaoMing, LOL? When he tilts his head a certain way and the light hits his face, he definitely looks very similar...

I love the ED song, the OP, not so much.

So far, so good, keeping fingers crossed.

Actually he did (in the novel, and in the drama, too). ZX/Joe fell for MingXiu/Ming thinking it was reciprocal, Ming acted like he WANTED to be with him and did all the right things, except for when Wang YuDong/Tong was around.

It doesn't come through in the drama, but ZX/Joe is quite older than MX/Ming. He's been alone a long time, had his relationships and breakups, he's mature. He actually looks on MX/Ming as on a favoured and precious youth who is allowed some mistakes when it comes to love, 'cause he's too young to know better. But MX/Ming is actually quite cold - towards ANYBODY and EVERYBODY who isn't Tong or his older brother. He never takes ZX/Joe as a person, complete with a soul and feelings than can be hurt, he sees him as a walking talking sex doll.

I don't know if one needs to read the novel, but Ming is a freaking psychopath. IMHO it got through very clearly in the drama, too.

ZX/Joe is the one who breaks it off cleanly as soon as he realizes there's nothing between them but a fetish attraction. In his second life, he goes out of his way to avoid MX/Ming, it's MX/Ming who keeps butting in, now looking for another shadow of the man he used to love. He never changed AT ALL.

So nope, it's not MC's doing. He was genuine and wanting to commit, and the ML was in it only for his own selfish desire and couldn't care less about the MC.

Scum I tell you. I wanted him to drop dead so many times, LOL.

She had THE best jewelry in the first three seasons of AC. I always remembered that whole-body gold chain (wanted one for myself, LOL).

Congratulations and all health to the mother and child! (And an easy delivery!)

So... the MC falls for the ML truly while the ML is seeing another man in him. (One makes love, the other has sex.) The MC has his one lifetime chance to make something big of himself and the ML robs him of it to help his one-sided love interest. If that's not betrayal, then what is.

Once MC is reborn, the same dynamic takes place, only this time the MC knows the deal and is paid for it ('cause the first time around, he had nothing for himself from that relationship). The ML STILL loves another man, and still doesn't care for the MC - though this time, the other man is the MC's past self. Double betrayal.

In the drama, at least Joe goes to Ming's face and yells at him while his body is being burned for burial, and that rang so true to me - Ming was finally crying for past Joe, and did it even matter any more?! In the novel, Zhou Xiang had a lot more agency than in the drama. He broke it up cleanly with MingXiu ASAP when he realised who Ming was actually in love with, and Ming went mad. The way he basically kept him prisoner in his home when Zhou Xiang HAD to go to that press op OR ELSE was a madman's act. And then obviously ZX directly died because of it. When his second life came around, ZX tried as hard as he could never to cross paths with Ming again, and couldn't. And then Ming became obsessed with HIM. But when they find the bones, Ming's family becomes involved and ZX is a lot more calmer than drama Joe, since he's always been one of reason and decisive action. That doesn't mean he doesn't hurt. Particularly as he doesn't owe Ming anything, and it's Ming who can't never let go of anything but keeps hurting his actual lover for phantasms.

For a danmei, it does make sense because a lot of danmei is abusive. But for normal relationships... that first realisation he was basically a puppet for Ming's fantasy of making love to another man would completely break any chance of redemption. And the novel does go on in detail on how Ming NEVER allows ZX to turn while they're making love, coarsely so, and goes even worse in his second life, because he DOESN'T care. At all. Not even pretending. The only one who's in love is always ZX.

So yeah. Ming is the freakiest red flag (and I've read many of them LOL). I hoped he'd get dealt his own worst hand but well, it's danmei, gotta have a HEA.

That poster is fire and the story reminds me of Megan Whalen Turner's "The Thief" (and if you haven't read the Queen's Thief series, go read it now.)

ABH looks amazing. I hope this delivers.

This is a really hard question, LOL. I have way too many favourites. But here goes.

Transmigration/xianxia: the only obvious example is Scum Villain's Self-Saving System by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (she also wrote MDZS). Irrate commenter on a stallion novels gets so mad he chokes and dies and goes to the novel world where he happens to become one of the less important villain characters LOL. And he knows how the villain died, so he does EVERYTHING he can to not go that way. But the world is set up with a System and the MC can't go out of character because he'll lose too many points and die forever. So he just has to go about changing the novel carefully. In the mean time, because he's actually a good guy, he gets the complete and focused attention - and love - of the ML, who he just can't get rid of LOL. So now the novel turns from stallion novel to danmei novel, to the complete surprise of Shen QingQiu.

This is a hilarious story, because the MC knows all the tropes and his inner voice NEVER stops hahaha. There's a first season donghua on it, but it's been years and they didn't release a sequel yet :( There's no live action (and probably can't be too soon 'cause China). Maybe you already read it? But anyway, that's one of the best transmigration xianxia out there. Highly recc'ed.

Also, I love How to Survive as a Villain - over-stressed guy commits suicide after learning he has an incurable disease and passes over to a novel he has just read. But he's the villain, and the protagonist is locked up in his dungeons being tortured right at that time! So poor MC hurries up to save him and take him to the palace (where he's a degenerate Emperor) only for the ML not to give an inch and still consider him his dire enemy. Events unfold and over time, the ML comes around but at the same time... nobody wants the MC around at all.

This is dogblood. There is a lot of humour in it, but also so much pain, and the poor MC hurts so much (ML can be very stupid at times). Highly rec'ced also.

Transmigration back in time / rebirth: I can't help myself, this sub-genre is my favourite, I have many of these that I really like.

Rebirth of a movie star: An actors dies and is reborn ten years in the past, knowing the future. So in order not to repeat the mistakes of his former self, he sells himself to his agency's boss. In the process, he gets a surprise child (this is not mpreg, it's not his kid and the kid was born the normal way, this is "our" world), a surprise lover (because the boss liked him back already) and gets his revenge.

This is beautifully written and translated, and there are some angsty moments but it's true love (for when you're not in the mood for abuse). Also highly recc'ed.

Still rebirth and normal time/world, but the guys are basically calculated killers:

Little madman's guide to acting good: Everything that could go wrong in MC's life, did go wrong. When he dies at his family's tombs, he gets sent back in time to when he could still mend things. The trouble is - he's just not right in the head anymore. He can, and does save his family, but keeps the cold and suspicious personality he gained in his previous life, and it shows. His love interest, who also died untimely, is drawn into MC's orbit sooner, and the MC has to control all the variants to make sure nothing goes wrong again.

This is kind of a hard read, if you're into it for the romance. There is romance, but the main plot is actually the kid taking his slow revenge, plotting and hiding from everyone, including his family, because he can never trust anyone again. TBH, I loved it. Romance is good, plot is better.

Glory after rebirth (xianxia): MC is drawn into a plot and his whole family is killed along with him. The one who supposedly set it all up should be the ML, who was betrothed to him before his birth and presumably wants to break it off (but the MC's family tried to use that relationship to save him and thus doomed all of them). Unexpectedly the MC is reborn years in the past, right before the plot of accusing him unfolded and manages to escape it and turn the blame to the guilty party. Then he methodically and mercilessly destroys everything and everyone who was involved in his former life's trials. When he's done - or almost done - his fiancee comes back and while the MC treats him with caution and keeps away, the ML wants to know his unknown future wife he didn't know about ('cause MC, as it would go, tried to break the bethrothal and thus the ML finally found out about it, LOL).

This is a very long and complicated one, it involves some secret tribes and secret powers, but I love myself some unbothered killer who just wakes up one minute remembering his past life just as the set up is going around him and in two minutes flat turns it on the people who want to harm him, LOL.

Now, Omegaverse... My absolute favourite (from what I've read so far) is Indulging in Wine (sometimes TLed as Intoxicated). This is an actual world-transmigration, where an Omega is drugged by his date into going in heat, runs away from that man and accidentally passes through a rip in space to our world (we're obviously not ABO). His pheromones smell like wine, so when he accosts a man, the man thinks he's drunk, but he still takes him home and trounces him about (well, he's in heat. He can't help it). The Omega then goes away and some time later he discovers he's pregnant. He goes back to the ML to ask what should he do and the ML treats him like he's crazy (I mean...) until the doctor confirms the pregnancy LOL. And then they just try to come to an understanding.

So I'm cheating a bit, since there's only one Omega in this world, and the ML is not Alpha. But I love this story. The ML is a psychopath (like, seriously, he can't love and doesn't even know how to show any emotion) and the Omega is kind of meek, compared to a normal youth. But there's a magic to the story and it's worth it.

If you're okay with not so angsty ABO, there's always Accidental Mark (also transmigration to a novel world), where the ML is taken to that world to play a villain and rape the drugged MC who then would be basically enslaved and plot his revenge on escaping, etc. But the ML decides the MC needs to be nurtured and raised to be a good actor instead and goes about it very business-like, without marking him. Then the MC starts getting ideas of his own about the ML, LOL.

This is cute, TBH. At some point, the ML is wondering how to approach the MC to talk about maybe getting together, and the MC is already naming their kids in his mind LOL.

For ABO, I'd more easily rec Low Tide in Twilight - a manhwa - feat. Alpha gangster top and desperate and depressive Omega with a younger dependent kid brother that is toxic AF. Or for more toxic non-ABO manhwa LOL, I guess Painter of the Night or Jinx would take the top.

AAAAAAND if you're okay with more than transmigration... There's NOBODY who does toxic like Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou (Meatbun doesn't eat meat) who wrote the infamous Dumb Husky and his White Cat Shizun (2ha or hyx, this is the other pillar of danmei next to MDZS - the drama is Immortality, that we'll never see T_T) and also Remnants of Filth and a few others. She likes to eat toxic in a toxic sandwhich. If you just want toxic, 2ha is is.

But, other than toxic, there are also amazing stories where the protagonists hate each other on sight then fall so hard they shake the world. The best of them IMHO is Ballad of Sword and Wine (Qiang Jin Jiu) that starts with the ML kicking the MC so hard he leaves him with life-long bad health and ends with the both of them making love on the Imperial Throne. The MC is a little viper and I love him (does it show?) and the ML is a heroic figure who doesn't know how to stay away LOL.

And then there's Thrice Married to Salted Fish - this is a tale of a love that lasts through three lives of the ML. Whenever he dies and breaks his lover's heart, he comes back and marries him again (and this is a very dangerous habit, 'cause the MC is also a little killer who won't tolerate anyone but the ML. On some conditions.

I have this need to continue but I'll be here the whole night LOL. Let me know if I've answered in any acceptable manner, hahaha, I tend to rant when talking about favourite books.

ETA OMG WAIT I FORGOT!!

Sooo. How about almost pure wuxia porn, LOL? If yes, You've Got Mail! is your book. This is hilarious and I love it - there's some fetish sex BUT! The story is about a lonely man who decides to have sex before he's 40 then kill himself but once he gets the magic of dik (and more precisely, of dik piks! LOL) suicide isn't so interesting. Then the ML notices him, shows him how it's done and expects the MC to be in awe (which he is, he's nicknaming ML's dik LOL) while the MC is going to go about his own life, ML-less, happy with his newfound dik pik trove in Ancient China. The moods on the ML cannot be described LOL.

This is one of my happy-place novels hahaha. It would be hehehe. But I love the MC, poor little turtle that he is. Highly rec'ced too!

There are way too many with that trope, LOL. Transmigration/isekai is full of back-to-the-past, novel-transmigration, system-world, game-transmigration, rebirth (this is THE greatest trope, LOL, I love faceslapping :) ), mpreg-transmigration, the whole ABO 'verse (yes it includes side-world transmigration, why not LOL).

Since I've watched TU (by mistake) and found MDZS, I fell into the danmei rabbit hole and danmei has been my staple reading for years now (I'm a reader). There are so many novels I loved (I could tell you the plots for most of them, and in detail for those I was mad about LOL) it's hard even to make a rec list :D

If you want a look-see, Chrysanthemum Garden for example has hundreds of danmei already TLed or in process, LOL. And there are so many good TLers out there, it's a pity people don't find all these amazing (and DIFFERENT) stories that are at the tip of their fingers :D

According to the Gaga synopsis, they might have changed some things so be warned of that too, LOL. I do hope they didn't change too much, otherwise it'll turn into a completely different story...

Myself, I already circled back and I'm now reading mostly farming rebirth danmei LOL. Some are pretty good, though it's not usually my cup of tea. Lots less stress though and usually the shou is always in control. I like the power bottoms :D

Shen Mo was a painter. He had an affair with Zhou Yang when he was a student, and ZY's family paid some thugs to kidnap him and break his hands. ZY was promptly whisked away from the country and SM was left waiting for him in their room, hoping he'd be saved. Nobody came until Ji MingXuan, who's sister is now involved with ZY, paid a visit to make sure that Shen Mo won't make a fuss (they were told a completely different story than the truth). (ETA Forgot to add, it was JMX who saved Shen Mo from the thugs).

He finds Shen Mo completely out of his mind, eating moldy bread (because he's in a psychosis and can't tell reality from imagination) and mistaking JMX for ZY. At first JMX is repulsed by SM's state and he leaves telling SM he'd come back - only to return the next day and find SM in the exact same place, outside, waiting for him because his mind is completely broken by the assault and ZY's betrayal.

So then JMX first brings him food, then cares for him, all the while playing along with SM's psychosis in order to keep him as sane as possible, and then eventually he falls for SM and they make love.

And then SM remembers the past and comes out of his psychosis. He doesn't know who this man is and why is he playing like they're lovers, so he rejects him and then JMX threatens him with ZY's wellbeing to make him stay with him (JMX) and be safe. He gets him a job, officially, but his actual "job" is to be JMX's plaything.

This is an abusive story, so yes they do it in that state, too. ('Cause the first time wasn't normal either, with SM not knowing who JMX is). And yes, it does read like rape even if Shen Mo doesn't physically fight back. So be warned.

Then ZY comes back from abroad, now engaged to JMX's sister, and SM finally learns who exactly set up the assault where he lost his ability to paint.

Eventually, JMX comes clean with his feelings, and after a somewhat longish separation, they're reunited and start anew in a more healthy manner. Shen Mo had moved on and opened a small shop of his own, and even started painting again with the other hand, and when they meet again, he can stand up for himself and face JMX equally.

I highly recommend the novel, it's very abusive but also very good. And the HEA is earned, I think. It's already been published in English officially, but the fan TL might still be somewhere around.

Oh yes, Sistah... trust me, I know :D

There's a novel they're basing it on. Do you want plot spoilers?

Like Everyone Hates the Substitute Until He's Reborn, LOL? Or The Substitute Awakens?

And then there are those where they're brothers (though not twins) but it's still a fight for their lives anyway?

Danmei has all the tropes and toxic relationships you'd want. (And people complain about My Stand-In LOL.)

Weeeell, TECHNICALLY, there's ONE walking gay. The other one is a carried gay, LOL. (Carried on their back, carried princess style, carried caveman-style. I see a lot of being carried in A-Zai's future LOL, A-Lie seems prone to carrying him).

You ARE aware that there are about two dozen cdramas that are called Glory, or Glory-something, or the more than two dozens called Blossom-something, or Legend of... whatever, etc?! They are NOT that inventive when it comes to English titles, LOL. I don't suspect them of trying to link it to TLOF. And you even aknowledge the story is similar to a lot others that came before, why would they need to copy that series or try to get compared with it, LOL?!

The world ended 22 days AGO in the first scene. DAYS. Not years. There hasn't been a lot of time for everything to go empty. Except for obvious pin-point destruction (fires, explosions, impact craters or whatever) that might have happened in the little time that passed, there's little yet to build a completely settled post-apocalyptic world.

And again, this drama is NOT about post-apocalypse, it's supposedly a love story. Where do you see that marketing about it being a zombie drama, LOL?

Oh anyway, everyone decides based on their own likes and perceptions, not every drama is for everyone. I myself might not like it in the end, but I'll just stick with it as long as I like it, just as everybody else can do :) I hope you find a drama you like better, soon.