#affair webnovel

[top-pleng]

"Upon hearing a single note, I could immediately identify the song. And that familiar voice... there was only one person it could belong to." 😭😭😭

[anon-apple]

Hot Soup and Soft Bread 13

Table of Contents and Synopsis <- Chapter 12 Read on WordPress

Chapter 13: Soymilk and Fried Dough I

T/N: New chapter title! One of my favorite breakfast combos~[1]

The next morning, Zhou Cunqu woke up before Zhong Qiuyan. He dug himself out of Qiuyan’s arms and took a deep breath. With one finger, he grazed Qiuyan’s face, then he rubbed his ear, and then he leaned in and planted a kiss on his lips. Qiuyan, still half-asleep, laughed and said: “Some people act like a pervert first thing in the morning.”

Cunqu said: “The alarm’s about to go off.”

Qiuyan opened his eyes, looked at the clock, and sat up. Then he lay back down, drew Cunqu into his arms, and started messily kissing him. The alarm then really went off.

Qiuyan got up once again. He stood amid the piles of books and stretched. Cunqu suddenly stretched out his leg and lightly pressed his foot against his underwear. Qiuyan almost fell on top of the books. Cunqu started chuckling.

Recently, Da Yu did actually go to study hairdressing at a trade school. He spent the money to buy a fake head; he heard that from long hair to short hair you could cut it 300 different times. When he was on break, he went to find Qiuyan at the bus station to get lunch together. Qiuyan sat under the shade of a tree deep in thought. Da Yu hit him and asked: “What are you thinking about?”

Qiuyan bluntly replied, “About things that happen in a bed.” He asked if Da Yu had any experience. The latter rebuked, “How could I have experience on what it’s like between two men.”

Qiuyan grumbled, “I knew I couldn’t depend on you.”

After a bit, Da Yu cleared his throat and asked a bit awkwardly: “How far have you two gotten?”

Qiuyan also cleared his throat. He replied with a red face, “Not telling.”

A couple of days ago, when Qiuyan stayed over, he and Cunqu were kissing against his bed. And he got hard from the kissing. Cunqu laughed as he said, “Really impressive.”

Ever since they started dating, Qiuyan had only gone as far as feeling around underneath Cunqu’s pajamas. That day he pressed Cunqu beneath him, bit the side of his neck, and grinded against him. Cunqu slid his hand under his underwear. Qiuyan immediately stopped moving; he didn’t even dare to breathe. Cunqu stroked him, his head pressed against Qiuyan’s chest. Qiuyan couldn’t last for long. Cunqu pressed his lips against his ear and said: “Little virgin.”

Reminiscing to this point, he suddenly said to Da Yu: “It was oddly exciting.”

Da Yu yelled: “Who asked!”

After meeting up with Zhou Pianyan, Qiuyan asked Cunqu if they wanted to move the time of their walk to earlier and try to go outside when it’s still day. Liu Xiaoying had a calligraphy class at the school for the elderly in the afternoons twice a week. One of those days was coincidentally Qiuyan’s day off from work. They had lunch together. Xiaoying went back to her room for a midday nap and then headed out right after. Qiuyan had recently bought two new outfits for Cunqu that fit better. He hugged Cunqu’s waist and said, “Our family's kid needs to eat more. And be less picky. Or he’ll get beat.”

Cunqu laughed. Nowadays even if he didn’t have an appetite he would force himself to eat something.

Qiuyan tugged Cunqu’s hand and said: “It’s really hot outside in the afternoon. Just listen to those cicadas.” He stuck a small fan in Cunqu’s hand. And so Cunqu held that pink mini fan and walked slowly downstairs with Qiuyan. The new resident on the fourth floor was a family of three. The child was a chubby little kid around four or five years old who was attending a kindergarten nearby. 

That day, teacher Zhuang’s place on the third floor had its door open. A few people were talking inside. Cunqu was a little nervous. Qiuyan squeezed his hand and said, “Look at me, don’t look over there.”

They walked down to the first floor. Perhaps because it was too hot out, the Go table of the “Double Yolk Egg” grandpas was there, but they were not. Qiuyan and Cunqu sat down at their chairs. They didn’t speak for a while, and instead blankly stared at the garden in front of them. A few dragonflies flew by in the garden. It was an incredibly ordinary scene, but Cunqu suddenly felt like he was in a dream. A dream where he didn't shut himself up for two years. A dream where this was just any other summer day of the 29th year of his life.

Qiuyan spoke up from the side, telling him that the city’s art museum had a large glass lotus pond. These few days were the last days of their flowering season, and a bunch of people were there to take photos. He asked Cunqu if he wanted to take a look.

Cunqu was still watching the dragonfly in front of him. He lightly said, “That was designed by our team.” Qiuyan turned to look at him. He leaned against his chair and said with his head lowered, “It was designed by me…”

--

Teacher Zhuang passed away. When one did the math, she was even younger than Liu Xiaoying by two years. Xiaoying went to attend her funeral at noon. Cunqu sat at the dining table eating a set meal that Qiuyan had ordered for him. When Qiuyan called him, a lot of noise and bustle came from the other end of the call. He asked, “Are you eating?”

Cunqu replied: “I’m eating right now.”

It sounded like Qiuyan ran to somewhere more quiet, and he continued to ask: “Does it suit your taste?”

Cunqu said: “It’s not bad.” He made an effort to finish the majority of his bowl of rice. Right now, he didn’t just want to persist for Xiaoying’s birthday celebration. He also wanted to try his best to become a lover worthy of Zhong Qiuyan. 

After Qiuyan heard Cunqu say that, he suddenly flicked Cunqu’s forehead, saying: “‘Obsessive try-hard disorder’, get away from my ge’s body. Ge is already the most perfect person in this world.”

Cunqu held his forehead and laughed.

When Xiaoying returned back home, she was visibly fatigued. She sat down on the couch and massaged her own leg. Qiuyan eagerly ran over and helped her massage her shoulders. Xiaoying rambled on about her and Teacher Zhuang’s revolutionary friendship. The two of them both started off as teachers in a small rural town. Then they were transferred to the city’s First Elementary School. After that, the school was renamed Experimental Elementary School. One became the academic administration director, the other the vice principal, all the way until retirement. 

Teacher Zhuang had a loud voice. She was very serious and didn’t date until pretty late. Her husband was the younger cousin of  Qi Wenxian, Xiaoying’s husband. The two men passed away one after the other. Teacher Zhuang and Xiaoying had joked that they had “returned to the single life.”

The first year that Cunqu isolated himself, Xiaoying headed over to Teacher Zhuang’s place to cry every time she felt down, then she would return to her place and make food for Cunqu with a smile. When Teacher Zhuang was diagnosed with dementia and was sent to a care facility, Xiaoying stood outside the building and watched her old friend get taken away by the facility’s vehicle. In mental confusion, Teacher Zhuang kept crying. She reached out a hand towards Xiaoying and asked through her tears: “Didn’t mom say it was time for dinner? Where are they taking me? Go tell my mom that I’m being taken away.”

Xiaoying had held her hand with red-rimmed eyes.

Xiaoying came back to her senses after losing herself for a bit in the memories and suddenly said to Qiuyan: “After people get old, they turn into useless baggage.”

Qiuyan said: “Who said that? Liu Xiaoying you are a very useful, very extraordinary lady.”

Xiaoying started laughing and placed her hands on her hips: “Of course.”

She turned her head and saw Cunqu standing at the door watching her. She smiled and said: “Grandma is fine.” She stood up and slowly walked to Cunqu and hugged him, repeating: “Grandma is fine.”

-> Chapter 14

Footnotes

[1] There is no agreed-upon translation for 油条 (Yóutiáo) (wikipedia). I’ve seen “fried dough”, “fried dough stick”, “oil stick,” “fried chinese donut”. Essentially, it’s a large stick of airy dough that’s deep fried. It’s oily, crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside from the gluten. It’s an extremely common and popular breakfast food especially in combination with (and dipped into) soy milk or congee. [2] Qiuyan jokingly referring to Cunqu as the “kid” here. Qiuyan has this habit of tacking on “our family’s” (我们家) when he’s talking about Cunqu. Rather than its literal meaning, it’s an affectionate descriptor which conveys a little bit of possessiveness too. And it’s not odd to address in third-person someone you are directly talking to in Chinese. [3] Cicadas are louder when it’s hotter. Not sure why or if it’s actually scientifically true, just something people including me have observed lol

T/N: Is grandma fine though...is grandma fine?? Reading this, I cried. Translating this, I think I cried again. Editing this, I'm about to cry the third time! Something about the thought that Teacher Zhuang and Xiaoying had been friends ever since they were girls, young women, working together in the same place for decades, marrying men who were cousins, settling down and living just one floor away from each other, being close friends, confidantes, practically sisters...and then Xiaoying having to watch her lose herself to the inevitability of dementia, brought away because she couldn't take care of herself, and then eventually passing away. Like, just, fuck. Maybe that's just something that people get used to at this age, but just as a reader I feel so much pain, but also so much fear, because it's not just that you're losing someone so near and dear to you, you're also seeing a version of how you might end up in a few years, a few months.

[myreputatioooon]

i love pretty pictures and visuals that do all the imagination for me but given how many webnovels that are out there and how often manhwa manga and manhua are adaptions of webnovels which are much further into completion I may considering having an affair on webcomics with webnovels

sans isekai union of course, nobody could ever make me leave girlie

[obstinaterixatrix]

so there’s the obvious angle of bl as primarily a genre directed to an audience of straight women and the imposition of heterosexist schemas/narratives as a natural consequence of that context (possibly consciously but mostly subconsciously), but another angle I’ve been toying around with is the idea of some of the standard semi-miserable dynamics/tropes as—on a metanarrative level—some shade of psychosexual revenge fantasy. I’m going to sound insane for a second

caveat that this language is gonna be very binary because I’m going by really broad categories and also I’m gonna basically be talking about porn so like, nsfw text. also this is specifically about manga, romance novels/webnovels are its own category and I don’t know shit about videos.

anyway, something that’s kind of interesting is the broad dynamics of straight smut for straight men have a somewhat equal level of pleasure for male and female characters (excluding subtypes that are explicitly dub/noncon-focused). meanwhile, straight smut for straight women has a significant emphasis on sex being more pleasurable for the ‘top’ and more taxing for the ‘bottom’; there’s a split between the romantic fantasy of ‘being prioritized and everything feeling amazing’ vs ‘wild passionate affair that tends to lean into dubcon dynamics’ (because of the complicated relationship a vast majority of women have with sexuality and therefore part of the romantic fantasy involves some kind of force involved) (yknow bodice rippers etc). I feel like the split is still pretty heavily skewed towards the latter rather than the former. anyway, other than the ‘romantic fantasy’ element, it’s somewhat interesting to consider the broad dynamics of m/f smut for straight men vs straight women in terms of: yeah there’s a lot of women that talk about unsatisfying sexual encounters with men and not having a partner that was aware of her needs. so on a different level, these two different romantic fantasies for these two different audiences kind of mirror the… collective cultural experience, to some extent.

to go into pretty baseless psychoanalytical speculation, that’s why I think one element of bl dynamics is some subconscious/subtextual revenge by having a male character in the ‘bottom’ role—this has him play out the role of a ‘woman’. (not in a specifically homophobic way, although a heterosexist society is inherently homophobic). like I think readers get some kind of satisfaction seeing sex suck for men in a way it sucks for women (narratively and culturally). I don’t think it’s necessarily the main reason, but I feel like it contextualizes some audience engagement. and it’s been really interesting to see the shift in genre over the years, as society has become… marginally less homophobic, and there has been an increase of bl written to be more mindful/complex about incorporating ‘Gay People Exist In The Real World And Not Just As A Narrative Proxy’ (the yaoi -> bl transition, though it’s impossible to fully separate them as distinct categories). actually that reminds me, akiko mizoguchi has a thesis in english I’ve been meaning to read—there was an actual for real museum exhibit in japan about BL that was really thorough and I think mizoguchi wrote a full ass book but it’s only in japanese 😔 I think there was data from someone who’s been cataloguing statistic on every ship that shows up in doujin events or something crazy like that? goddamn. anyway this also doesn’t incorporate bl as a genre that initially had primarily queer women as creators but that’s out of scope and actually I forgot where I was going with this and I wanna go do something else now bye

[jb1writes]

Tiffany and Becky find themselves entangled in a love affair that tests their own desires and those around them in this gripping tale. As their passionate, connection grows, they soon realize that their relationship has its own consequences.

When friends and family members learn about their secret romance, they must confront their own prejudices and biases. There are those who are supportive, while others are driven to do the unthinkable in an effort to tear the two women apart.

[redbunnydragon]

He compartido 13.310 publicaciones este 2022

¡Son 231 más que en 2021!

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Longest Tag: 139 characters

#and ive been trying to make a story with all the consorts but is so hard to balance out their personalities and not end up just bashing one

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Honduras fucking expresidente just got sentenced to jail. Is the day the entire nation has bien waiting for so long! Happy Valentines Day fellas!!!

15 notas. Fecha de publicación: 14 de febrero de 2022

4

Sharp Ones

Pairing: Sir Sonnaught x Latil

Spoilers: up to chapter 413 of the webnovel, but I tried to kept them at minimun as usual.

Summary: A platonic figth.

After a stressful evening loaded with diplomatic affairs, Latil was feeling sore by sitting on her butt the entire day. She stole a glance at Sir Sonnaught by her side. Ever since she knew about his feelings, he got more solemn during work hours, as to not disturb her, but sometimes she can feel his gaze on her.

Sometimes she steps up to hug him when she gets too stressed. He always hugs her back and comforts her, making little circles with his thumb on her shoulder and brushing her hair with his fingers. She would take a deep breath and bury her face close to his heart. She always separates herself from him after a minute or two and resume working. Sometimes he would have a blush on his cheeks that makes his hair stand out more, other times he would look worried, a concerned gaze on his features, and today was one of those days.

“We haven’t practiced in a while. Does Your Majesty want to go to the training grounds with me?”

It didn’t matter if she pulled an all-nighter, paperwork would be longer than that. She groaned.

“Yes please! I need to lash out at anything”

A playful smile rose to his lips. It was close to midnight, the arena used for practicing was mostly empty, only her cup bearer and a couple guards were awaiting them at the entrance.  She remembered one of the first swords fights they had and how angry she was at Anaktcha for looking down on her during a banquet. It was a warm night just like this one, and she had found him walking with her brother, her brother had the idea of the sword fight, and Sonnaught quietly agreed, once in the arena she had unleashed her anger at him, with full force, and he was struck with admiration at her tenacity ever since.

Looking back at her opponent at hand, whose smile grew larger by the second, she felt relieved to have him by her side.

Her first blow went to his left flank and he promptly blocked it, tilting his sword upwards as to make her loose her balance. She didn’t fall for the trick and smiled, taking a step back and unleashing another attack to his right side. This time around he blocked again and moved his sword further to the right, making her move one step forward into him.

He enjoyed this, having her this close, at arm’s reach.

Their blades made a circle, fighting for dominance still on their right side, while they were looking into each their eyes. Instead of doing a pass back, she took another step closer, only an inch away from him, their swords were pressing themselves with force almost at the base, her sword pushing towards them, his, pushing it away,

“This is dangerous Your Majesty, you know we shouldn’t be this close.” He said with a playful smile.

“Do you mean in this particular fight or do your words have another intention?”

“I’m talking about our swords; they’re too close to our necks, I would never harm you, but also I don’t want you to do this with a real opponent, or anybody else, for that matter.”

Despite making sense in this context, she could not help but to take his words out of context, even if no one else would do at first hearing them.

‘If he can do this then so can I’

“Do you wish for my sword to only clash with yours, Sir Sonnaught?”

“I would love it if you only desired to fight me.”

He moved his sword down and then back up in a swift movement, and her sword went flying to the other side of the arena. None of them moved. She looked at the sword on the ground and back at him. The full moon was shining above his head, and his gaze was full of affection.

She hugged him by the neck and he placed his free hand on her small back. She moved her right hand to remove a hair strand on his forehead, caressing his temple and moved her fingertips down to his jaw.

She pressed his chin with her thumb, and an urge to kiss him overcame her. He felt the same urge. She tiptoed to get closer to his face, and he took it as a cue to slowly move his head down, a small smile on his lips.

He kissed her tenderly and her hand came down from his neck to grab the hand on his sword, he was still gripping it right next to them but as soon as he felt her hand on his, dropped the sword to the side.

He grabbed her by the waist and spun her around, her head adobe his, looking into her eyes.

“You have no idea, how much I dreamed about this moment, but it was never like this.”

She laughed softly and arched an eyebrow at him, she will indulge him for a little longer.

“Is that so? what happened in your dreams”

Her feet were still on the air, and her face on his eye level. He spoke in a soft voice, almost a whisper, to her ear.

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[top-pleng]

another little tidbit from the novel. you know the bra that Pleng bought Wan? she used the prize money that she won from that music contest in order buy it. the first thing in her life that she ever bought using money she actually earned and wasn't just given by her parents... and it was for Wan.

[tentytarts]

he sought comfort from the flowers

[hanreisoundshenry]

New story at Choices. You are for your job interview as Nanny, for a CMO of a large biotech company, you enter her office and see your future boss sitting like this?

And you think you'd ever think of anything rated PG?

This effing scene screams Evil Mayor Regina Mills mixed with Evily sexy Lena Luthor whose name is SAM (Hot CFO Sam Arias). The writer of this new choices story (for the girl LI) must be a fan of swanqueen, supercorp AU fanfiction because it feels that way! Loool

[olderthannetfic]

Do you have any thoughts about how monetization of fandom has affected Japan? With the longstanding establishment of doujins and Comiket, but also how authors are more encouraged to do serial-numbers-filed-off web novels. And paradoxically, with Japan having no Fair Use exception.

--

An interesting question. I think the focus on physical products makes for a very different situation. In both Japan and oldschool Media Fandom zine-focused spaces, it's quite obvious why the buyer needs to cover the printer's bill. A few top people are making actual money off of their fanworks, but a lot of the exchange of money is about the thing you're acquiring being a physical item that inherently costs cash to produce. Not the creator's labor: cash.

How much I personally like the space tends to depend on how many lower tiers of talent have a seat at the table. Is it possible to do baby's first doujin/zine? With the doujin printing prices in Japan, I'd argue yes. With people sometimes swapping their products, I'd again argue yes. Same for many parts of oldschool media fandom. Much less true for people drumming up patreon supporters or for recent zines I've seen.

When you look at recent zine efforts by English speakers on tumblr/twitter, they tend to be these ultra glossy affairs with an expectation that everything is pro-level already. Japan is overall much clearer that while some doujin artists are pros, it's also a place new talent develops, and not every single person is A++++ right out of the gate.

--

I'm not as familiar with webnovels in Japan. Honestly, I don't know if that's so terribly different from the West except that the dominant market here is for short novels published in one go rather than for fully serialized stories. (Series-oriented genres like urban fantasy or mystery are, however, are a big seller.)

I am speaking, of course, of the "m/m romance" genre and other indie romance and related fields, especially stuff sold via Kindle Unlimited. The het stuff is fandomy enough, but look at the m/m, and you'll hardly find an author who didn't get their start via fic. They usually don't connect their pseuds to their fandom activities, but I went to the industry conference, GRL, a couple of years ago, and an author there told me she feels like a total outsider for not coming from fandom.

Honestly, I wish the people trying to make rent with their writing would look into this way of monetizing writing. The US has a BL industry. It's just in its infancy. A lot of fandom doesn't seem to have noticed (or less charitably, doesn't think they can compete) and thus "has" to sell fic if they want to monetize writing.

--

I think DIY vibes and people acting like fellow fans and not treating everyone as potential subscribers rather than potential friends can mix with money. It just depends if there's some space for new people starting out and if the money is more tied to things like covering a printer's bill rather than being more like a bookstore or like patreon. A low barrier to entry is very important. This could mean everyone being on the same webnovel site but only the better people making money or it could mean cheap printing options an average person could save up for without preorders.

Anybody have thoughts? I'm reasonably familiar with things in Japan, but I wouldn't say I'm an expert by a long shot.

[rarepears]

Original novel idea for a Chinese webnovel style plot

I haven't seen this yet in a Chinese webnovel, but if you know of a novel with this idea, send it over to me! I want to read it!

-

I would like to read a Chinese webnovel where the MC transmigrates into a book he's read (or maybe a sister/classmate/coworker read and then told MC the general plot) and the MC ends in the body of a official - some sort of magistrate/mayor/provincial official - of the region where the book's protagonist lives.

On one hand, this means that MC doesn't have many interactions with the book protagonist. In the book, MC's position only appears in a couple chapters, perhaps to reward the book protagonist for some discovery or perhaps to judge a trial involving MC and his family.

MC basically gets to play (very distant) bystander and guardian angel to the book protagonist while he manages the political affairs and his new family.

I mean, what official doesn't have a couple concubines and a wife already in Chinese webnovels if the official isn't the book protagonist? So of course MC has to figure out how to deal with all his new wife and concubines as well as manage the issues between his ladies and mother. He's lucky that he has no kids yet... but his mother is also pressuring him to have kids soon which is the source of all the MIL and daughter-in-law conflicts going on.

[simkjrs]

thinking nostalgically about when the english orv fandom was just me and my 10 friends and anyone i could pull into reading the webnovel. too many people have read it now though its big enough for a sizeable chunk of the fans to have grown brain fungus. sad state of affairs

[redbunnydragon]

Sharp Ones

Pairing: Sir Sonnaught x Latil

Spoilers: up to chapter 413 of the webnovel, but I tried to kept them at minimun as usual.

Summary: A platonic figth.

After a stressful evening loaded with diplomatic affairs, Latil was feeling sore by sitting on her butt the entire day. She stole a glance at Sir Sonnaught by her side. Ever since she knew about his feelings, he got more solemn during work hours, as to not disturb her, but sometimes she can feel his gaze on her.

Sometimes she steps up to hug him when she gets too stressed. He always hugs her back and comforts her, making little circles with his thumb on her shoulder and brushing her hair with his fingers. She would take a deep breath and bury her face close to his heart. She always separates herself from him after a minute or two and resume working. Sometimes he would have a blush on his cheeks that makes his hair stand out more, other times he would look worried, a concerned gaze on his features, and today was one of those days.

“We haven’t practiced in a while. Does Your Majesty want to go to the training grounds with me?”

It didn’t matter if she pulled an all-nighter, paperwork would be longer than that. She groaned.

“Yes please! I need to lash out at anything”

A playful smile rose to his lips. It was close to midnight, the arena used for practicing was mostly empty, only her cup bearer and a couple guards were awaiting them at the entrance.  She remembered one of the first swords fights they had and how angry she was at Anaktcha for looking down on her during a banquet. It was a warm night just like this one, and she had found him walking with her brother, her brother had the idea of the sword fight, and Sonnaught quietly agreed, once in the arena she had unleashed her anger at him, with full force, and he was struck with admiration at her tenacity ever since.

Looking back at her opponent at hand, whose smile grew larger by the second, she felt relieved to have him by her side.

Her first blow went to his left flank and he promptly blocked it, tilting his sword upwards as to make her loose her balance. She didn’t fall for the trick and smiled, taking a step back and unleashing another attack to his right side. This time around he blocked again and moved his sword further to the right, making her move one step forward into him.

He enjoyed this, having her this close, at arm’s reach.

Their blades made a circle, fighting for dominance still on their right side, while they were looking into each their eyes. Instead of doing a pass back, she took another step closer, only an inch away from him, their swords were pressing themselves with force almost at the base, her sword pushing towards them, his, pushing it away,

“This is dangerous Your Majesty, you know we shouldn’t be this close.” He said with a playful smile.

“Do you mean in this particular fight or do your words have another intention?”

“I’m talking about our swords; they’re too close to our necks, I would never harm you, but also I don’t want you to do this with a real opponent, or anybody else, for that matter.”

Despite making sense in this context, she could not help but to take his words out of context, even if no one else would do at first hearing them.

‘If he can do this then so can I’

“Do you wish for my sword to only clash with yours, Sir Sonnaught?”

“I would love it if you only desired to fight me.”

He moved his sword down and then back up in a swift movement, and her sword went flying to the other side of the arena. None of them moved. She looked at the sword on the ground and back at him. The full moon was shining above his head, and his gaze was full of affection.

She hugged him by the neck and he placed his free hand on her small back. She moved her right hand to remove a hair strand on his forehead, caressing his temple and moved her fingertips down to his jaw.

She pressed his chin with her thumb, and an urge to kiss him overcame her. He felt the same urge. She tiptoed to get closer to his face, and he took it as a cue to slowly move his head down, a small smile on his lips.

He kissed her tenderly and her hand came down from his neck to grab the hand on his sword, he was still gripping it right next to them but as soon as he felt her hand on his, dropped the sword to the side.

He grabbed her by the waist and spun her around, her head adobe his, looking into her eyes.

“You have no idea, how much I dreamed about this moment, but it was never like this.”

She laughed softly and arched an eyebrow at him, she will indulge him for a little longer.

“Is that so? what happened in your dreams”

Her feet were still on the air, and her face on his eye level. He spoke in a soft voice, almost a whisper, to her ear.

“In my dreams I was always the one stealing a kiss from you, I never dared to imagine that it would be the other way around”

Latil clicked her tongue.

“I have never stole anything from you”

“Yes, you have”

“No, I have not!”

“Well, why is my heart no longer mine, but yours then?”

She suppressed an embarrassed chortle.

“Maybe I should” she said lowering her face again “only duel you”

[2cute]

NEW MUSE !!  meet beejal chaudhry, aka bee :) any pronouns, bisexual, 25 years old. she’s a novelist and has written many best sellers, but also writes trashy fun webnovels under a penname and denies any allegations from both fans of her webnovels and her published work. she mainly writes in the (high) fantasy genre, but has dabbled in contemporary. how, you may ask, has our lovely bee written so many books (approximately ten, 6 of them being part of trilogies, along with her webnovels) at such a young age? well. you see, she has the unique ability to create ‘avatars’ or clones of herself. when she makes an avatar, she must give them some of her memories. when the avatar comes back to her and merges with her again, she retrieves those memories again and gains the skill her avatar learned in the meantime. however, unbeknownst to her, she did have a mishap in the early days of the discovery of her avatar creating abilities: she made an avatar and gave it a few of her... more important memories. 

backstory wise, she’s the result of an affair between a high profile politician and a famous actress. she lived with neither, instead having grown up in an apartment alone being looked after by nannies that came and went. no one answered her questions, and eventually she got tired of asking.

personality wise, bee is harsh, loud, and easily excitable. she has a tendency to be very edgy and is incredibly proud of that. it’s embarrassing. thinks highly of herself. #1 goal is to be on a reality tv show one day just for the kicks. people that meet her either absolutely love her or very much hate her.

[top-pleng]

I kind of don't want to compare Wan to Ek cause Wan's love for Pleng is actual love vs. Ek's "love" for Wan being just pure possessive obsession. He doesn't care for Wan in the same way that Wan does for Pleng, but I do feel like both of them have similar levels of obsessive love for their targets of affection and I think in a lot of ways the novel kind of has Ek serve as a foil to Wan.

More spoilery novel thoughts below the cut.

When Ek threatened Wan and Pleng with a gun, Wan was extremely nonchalant about the whole thing ... like disturbingly chill in how she stood against him and did not seem afraid of the gun at all. And that was because that Wan argued that she knew without a doubt that because Ek loved her, that he'd never hurt her like that.

Ek's "love" for Wan is monstrously evil and possessive—he married Wan despite knowing that she didn't love him and he raped her when she wouldn't have sex with him—but Wan seems to understand him and his feelings well enough to know that he wouldn't actually kill her. And that instead, he would try to kill himself to hurt her and her relationship in another way.

That's utterly deranged thinking, but it's thinking that Wan understood immediately, which was why she reacted quickly and was able to change the trajectory of the bullet when she intervened.

I really hate to say it, but Wan and Ek are actually extremely similar in a lot of ways. As fucking deranged it is to marry a man in the hopes of seeing your true love who you haven't seen in over ten years at the wedding ... it is also fucking deranged to marry a woman you supposedly love when you know her sole reason for marrying you is so that she can see the person she really loves. I wonder if part of the reason that Wan remained by Ek's side for so long wasn't only because Pleng had picked him, but because a part of her felt a little bit understood by him.

He does constantly dismiss Wan and Pleng's feelings towards each other and their relationship with one another, of course. He is still, after all, a homophobic violent misogynist who views the lesbian relationship between the two as "non-threatening" up until the end of the novel when he realizes that Wan was genuinely incapable of ever loving him.

But he was also probably the only person in Wan's life who could even begin to understand the pain that Wan was going through. In the special chapters, Wan mentions that he offered her comfort and hope about the idea of Pleng returning. He dismisses the relationship because they're both women, but simultaneously, he understands the depth and intensity of it.

And I think Wan was partly able to tolerate his feelings towards her for so long, because she felt understood by him in a sense and because she might have felt she understood him.

She loved Pleng enough to want to remain only a friend for the rest of their lives. She only became emboldened in her feelings and flirting when she realized that Pleng felt the same way towards her. I think maybe, initially, she thought that Ek's feelings towards her were the same. That he loved her enough to be satisfied with a friendship. That he loved her enough to want to care and protect her, but of course that wasn't the case.

Because the similarities between Ek and Wan are fairly surface level when it comes down to it, because while both are obsessive, possessive, and ultimately toxic, Ek cares more about having Wan than he does about Wan's safety and well-being.

Ek tried to kill himself in order to hurt Wan. Which directly contrasts against Pleng and Wan. In the novel, Pleng mentions contemplating suicide in the past but she doesn't act on it for fear that Wan would learn of it and it would hurt her, lead to her own death. And at the end of the novel when it seems like Wan is on the verge of killing herself—as implied in a note that she left for Pleng to spitefully hurt her (Wan's love is more "pure" than Ek's, but both still have malicious streaks)—but while she considers it, she ultimately decides to not kill herself because she wouldn't want to hurt Pleng like that.

Ek's love for Wan foils Wan's love for Pleng in this sense, because it demonstrates that while Wan is selfish, obsessive, possessive, and deranged that she is still a caring and loving partner and that ultimately her love for Pleng is fueled by a genuine love for all of Pleng whereas Ek only loved Wan as a possession to be owned and only loved the parts of her that were palpable to him.

[azdoine]

Chapter 1 - The Piglet

(This is an amateur translation of Tóng Shī’s My Disciple Eats Too Much, a girls’ love cultivation webnovel. Index post here.)

In all the world between heaven and earth, there were three different realms. One realm belonged to humanity, the flickering children of mortality; one realm belonged to daemons, those strange and uncanny creatures of mystery; and one realm belonged to the immortals themselves, who had transcended humans and daemons both.

Both humans and daemons were capable of mastering the arts and ascending to immortality, but in all the immortal realm, no more than three hundred had ever attained apotheosis and taken their place in the heavens, and only a thousand more rogues lived on the outskirts of their society.

Of course, that count made no measure of the Three Grand Immortals. Known as Grand Immortals Nántán, Fúyù, and Lúhuá, and led themselves by Grand Immortal Nántán, the three of them sat in the seat of power and held an authority above all others. Together, they managed the many affairs of the immortal realm, both big and small.

Of the three, Grand Immortal Fúyù was without a doubt the most carefree. When she first completed her journey to immortality, she set aside all those common practices she’d picked up along the way and returned to her true passion, the thing she wanted to do with her life more than anything else in the world: raising pigs!

Her beauty, too, was exceptional, for it was said that she was the loveliest in all the immortal realm - and it was no simple thing for her to stand out in that crowd, for although there weren’t many immortals, they were one and all a people known for their refinement.

That such a peerless beauty would love nothing more than to all but wallow in the mud with the pigs she raised wasn’t something other people could understand...

Even Lúhuá himself couldn’t quell his reservations. He had come to visit his fellow Grand Immortal at her home in seclusion, and his reluctance to turn his back on the piglet she was holding in her arms was written all over his face.

“Fúyù,” he said. “You’ve been doing this for such a long time that you’ve already raised thousands of pigs just to die. Are you really so stubborn and set in your ways that you want to go on and hurt this creature, too?”

Fúyù was quite serious in the face of Lúhuá’s condemnation. “How do you know that I won’t keep this one alive?” she asked.

“It’s what happens every time you get a new pig,” Lúhuá said, looking rather sorry for Fúyù’s new charge and the life it was going to lead. “No matter what I try and say to you about it.”

As Lúhuá spoke, the piglet in question began to stir, wriggling and fussing about in Fúyù’s arms until she gave in at last. Pursing her lips, she fell silent and began to pet her pig.

However, no matter how Fúyù tried to comfort her new charge, it remained anything but calm, struggling with its whole being as if to get away from her!

Lúhuá couldn’t help but crack a smile. “Look!” he said, unable to contain himself. “It also knows about the terrible ending you have in store for it - it won’t go out without a fight!”

Fúyù simply nodded her head, continuing to comfort the piglet in her arms. “All living things are born to the course of their fates. Whether it lives or dies - either way, what happens will be ordained.”

The snort of protest the piglet let out made its thoughts on that matter quite clear, but Fúyù continued undeterred:

“See, I’m sure the creature agrees with me.”

Bah! If this creature had a destiny, then obviously it was destined to stand and fight!

Of course, regarding the piglet, it might have been better not to regard it as a common ‘piglet’ at all. Instead, one had to understand that although it indeed had the body of a pig, its soul was that of a human.

While the piglet’s body had been born to a farmhouse sow only a few months ago, its soul came from much further afield, belonging to a modern young woman named Shū Táng.

From the time she was born, Shū Táng had always been a rather sickly child. As a schoolgirl, she was often absent from her classes on medical grounds, and only graduated with great difficulty. When she finally passed her entrance exams and made it into university, her illness only intensified - but by then, she had long since grown accustomed to the presence of death in her life. As she was being wheeled into the operating room for treatment, she even went so far as to flash her surgeons a cutesy ‘V’ for victory.

Needless to say, she did not emerge victorious.

After the surgery was over, all her doctors could say was that she simply hadn’t had the will to live; in the end, they were powerless to save someone who hadn’t wanted to be saved.

All her life, she felt the weight of her illness bearing down on her until she was just too exhausted to go on; isolated by her disease, she was left friendless, and her family was no comfort to her when she only felt like a burden around their necks. By the end, she often thought that maybe it was for the best if she finally died after all.

In those days, she imagined that she would sup of oblivion before crossing over to her next life, never to live with illness or its bitter memory ever again. But when her soul left her body at last, there was no elixir to wash away what had come before for her, and no place for her spirit to go but into the piglet she now inhabited.

As far as she was concerned, the only one who understood what she was going through was the infamous Marshal Tiānpéng himself!

But it wasn’t all bad. As far as piglets went, she wasn’t just healthy; she excelled, standing out amongst the crowd of her peers, hogging the best of her mother’s milk and feeling like the winning piglet of her litter.

It was a pity, then, that this self-satisfied life of hers couldn’t last forever, for it came to pass one day that she was purchased by a woman in a veil. As this mysterious woman took her home, she realized that her new owner was nothing short of an immortal - and not just any immortal at that, but the awesome and famous Grand Immortal Fúyù.

This new life of hers… oh! She’d thought she was lucky after all, to be brought in from the cold as an immortal’s own pet pig!

Perhaps if she hadn’t learned the truth of things from Lúhuá, she would still be so upbeat.

Grand Immortal Fúyù pinched her fingers together, molding a spell of quiescence between her fingertips and pressing it to Shū Táng’s forehead, who immediately fell into a great stillness.

“Báihuāhuā must be worn out from all the hustle and bustle of today. I’m going to take it to bed for a nice rest - while I’m gone, please, make yourself comfortable, Grand Immortal Lúhuá.”

Having said this, Fúyù departed with pig in tow in the blink of an eye, leaving behind only her helpless friend Lúhuá and the faint scent of a pigsty upon the air.

In an instant, person and pig reappeared within a bedroom, and Shū Táng managed to put a hoof to her pounding little heart. Before she could even so much as dwell upon the mortifying name she’d just been given, the room around her beckoned, and she drank it in with wide eyes.

Not only was it the exquisite palace of an Immortal, but it was also the first time she’d ever seen such an antique chamber for real, and she was absolutely brimming with curiosity.

Fúyù quirked a smile as she saw her piglet looking around the room, and she gave it a few pats on the head, feeling very pleased.

It seemed that this new piglet of hers really was quite clever. She would definitely be able to raise this one to adulthood for sure!

Unfortunately, however, she wasn’t being too careful with her strength as she absentmindedly pet her new charge, and Shū Táng let out a whimper of uncomfortable alarm, held fast by Fúyù’s spell. Though she wanted nothing more than to throw out her little legs and leap entirely from her embrace, she could hardly take a single step.

When she wasn’t actually harmed, her fear fell away, but the discomfort of the situation still spurred her to escape, and she tried with all of her might to work her legs.

Suddenly, a sound like crashing jade rang out in her mind, and in an instant, Fúyù’s spell lost all its power over her. Her legs started into a leap, and she almost fell to the ground.

Frowning a bit, Fúyù gathered the piglet back up into her arms. Again, a tawny golden light came to a point at her fingertips, and she pressed the spell to the top of the piglet’s head - who continued to struggle for a moment, but gradually slowed.

After tucking the piglet in and making it cozy and comfortable in its den, Fúyù considered her spellwork. In a flash, she reappeared once more at Lúhuá’s side.

“I see you still haven’t left.”

Seeing Fúyù empty-handed, Lúhuá schooled his face into a look of shock. “Is it really…? It’s dead already!?”

Fúyù paid no attention to his taunts, however, and wore a look of puzzlement as she spoke to him.

“Báihuāhuā isn’t like the other pigs I’ve raised. My settling spell wasn’t fully useful against it.”

“But you’ve been practicing that magic to the point of perfection against your pigs for years, so how can that be…?” Lúhuá cut himself off. “Wait. Who is Báihuāhuā?”

Slowly raising her eyebrows, Fúyù fixed Lúhuá with a look of disgust. “Báihuāhuā is the pig you just saw. Or have you really forgotten it already?”

Pinned down beneath the beautiful immortal’s contemptuous stare, Lúhuá choked up and went red with humiliation. “Hey, you’ve given your pigs countless names over the years! So maybe I forgot for a moment - what’s there for me to be ashamed of!?”

Seeing him like this, Fúyù took her seat in her bejeweled chair, propping her chin up in her hand and putting him out of her mind in favor of more useful contemplations.

“Alright already-!” Lúhuá huffed helplessly, moving to sit beside her and considering the problem aloud. “Look at it this way - beings naturally able to break spells are rarely seen, but that certainly doesn’t mean they don’t exist, right? Seven hundred years ago, a child was born in the mortal world who was naturally able to absorb the energies of heaven and earth, and he was also able to unravel simple spells from a young age. But despite his blessings, when he was sent to a sect of cultivators to further his insight, he spent the rest of his life trying and failing to advance, and his natural talents came to be of no particular importance in the scheme of things.”

Saying this, he casually reached for a cup of tea laid out on the table, and took a sip of it before continuing. “You needn’t worry yourself so. Maybe your piglet has a bit of spiritual insight, and it can dissolve a few simple spells - the world we live in is full of mystery, so it’s really not all that surprising that a pig like Báihuāhuā might come to exist.”

Fúyù removed her hand from her cheek, considering him seriously. Then she said, very slowly, right as Lúhuá took another sip: “That was Báihuāhuā’s tea you just drank.”

Pffft! Tea sprayed from Lúhuá’s lips as he spat it all out, dropping the teacup to the table and aggressively wiping his mouth. Getting up to go, he spoke angrily: “I’ll be taking my leave!”

Fúyù nodded her head in agreement and waved him farewell. It was only after he’d left, riding away upon the winds themselves, that she turned her attention to the teacup and realized she’d probably offended him with it.

After all, he was one of the Three Grand Immortals - and he wasn’t her, at that. If word got out that he’d shared a cup of tea with a pig, he’d be mocked relentlessly!

Fúyù sighed gloomily to herself. She really was quite slow to pick up on things.

After thinking for a while, she called a servant to her side, instructing the girl to bring Lúhuá some minor gifts in apology.

It was shameful to say, but she was always half a beat slow on the uptake when it came to people and problems. She knew it was a flaw of hers, but it wasn’t something that she could fix.

There were those who said that Grand Immortal Fúyù was like a lukewarm stone - that for all she was an exceptional beauty, she was also or only beautiful in the manner of a stone. Those who didn’t know the facts of the matter imagined she was unapproachable, her temperament as hard as forbidding rock. But they could scarcely have imagined the truth.

In truth, their poetry was her reality, for Fúyù was one among the countless kinds of daemons - a precious stone which had practiced the arts until it ascended to immortality, gaining human awareness and form in the process. She was named after flowers and precious stones not because she had any pretensions to culture and elegance, but because her real body was a jade ornament that had been carved into the shape of a lotus blossom.

In all the immortal realm, only Nántán and Lúhuá knew this about her, and the two of them were her closest and only real friends for it.

Though, the two of them still couldn’t understand why a piece of jade would enjoy raising pigs so much…

Fúyù let out a faint sigh, riding the winds to the vegetable garden she kept and tended to with her own two hands. There, she pulled a pair of white radishes from the earth, casting a cleansing spell upon them and taking them back to her bedroom.

In the bedroom, a weary Shū Táng was already fast asleep after the day she’d had. Seeing the soundly sleeping pig, Fúyù set her radishes down on a plate and sat beside the creature, closing her eyes and beginning to meditate.

When Shū Táng awoke at last, batting her fuzzy eyes, she was immediately greeted by the image of a beauty deep in meditation.

When they first met, the immortal’s face was covered, and so Shū Táng hadn’t been able to get a good look at her - but even the glimpse she’d gotten of the woman’s eyes had struck her to the core. Afterwards, she’d only wanted to escape, and so she hadn’t had the time to look at Fúyù clearly even if she had removed her veil.

But now, Shū Táng saw Fúyù again, and it was all she could do to catch her breath in silence - for this woman’s face was perfection. Even the best plastic surgeons, given free rein to make art from the human visage, couldn’t have created something so flawless in every way.

However, before she’d gotten her fill of the sight, the beauty opened her eyes, long lashes casting a shadow over her face and occulting her expression.

Shū Táng let out a little groan, chastising herself for her offensive moment of infatuation with the woman, but quickly forgot the matter in favor of more important things. With a little hum, she tried to make her hunger clear - and to her surprise, the beauty watching over her understood immediately. In an instant, the piglet was facing a big, soft, white, radish.

Although it wasn’t the mother’s milk it craved most, the piglet still opened its mouth and took a bite out of the vegetable. As Shū Táng chewed, her tail wagged happily behind her.

As it turned out, the white radishes were sweet!

================================================

Nántán’s name is written with the characters 南, ‘south’, and 檀, referring to the timber and the rich purple-red color of certain sandalwoods and rosewoods.

Fúyù’s name is written with the characters 芙, a fragment used in expressions signifying flowers, and 玉, referring to jade and other beautiful precious stones.

Lúhuá’s name is written with the characters 庐, for a rudimentary hut or lodge, and 华, referring to magnificence, exaltation, flowering,and similar.

Shū Táng’s name is written with the characters 舒, denoting physical relaxation (i.e. of posture or arrangement), and 棠, or ‘cherry apple’ (a variety of crab-apple physically reminiscent of cherry fruit, as the name suggests). Her name obeys Chinese name order, with 舒 (Shū) as her surname and 棠 (Táng) as her given name; most two-word names in this story should obey this name order.

Marshal Tiānpéng (i.e. Zhu Bajie) is a major recurring character in Journey to the West. Once a commander of vast armies in Heaven, he fell to his vices and was banished for his crude and impertinent sexual advances upon the goddess of the moon. After his exile from Heaven, he was subsequently reborn as a half-man-half-pig creature, the state in which he is found by the protagonist of the epic novel.

‘Báihuāhuā’ is Fúyù’s pet name for her new pig, of course. It means ‘shining white’ and is written with the characters 白, here meaning something like ‘white’ or ‘pure’ or ‘snowy’ or ‘bright’, and 花花, which means ‘beautiful’ (and is a reduplication of the 花 character for flowers and floral blossoms).

For clarity’s sake, the varying use of she/her and it/its pronouns for Shū Táng is present in the original text, and I’ve made a deliberate choice to try and carry that over in my own narrative voice. (If nothing else, it’s sometimes useful as a tool to avoid the gay pronoun problem.)