This is less a dogblooded crematorium novel as it is a quarter life crisis manifesting into a toxic relationship. MC starts off a scum playboy lazy young master, who has basically given up on contributing to society and spends his days pursuing relationships for the thrill of the chase and the honeymoon phase before dumping them for the next best thing.

The beginning of the novel is quite humorous, as MC puts his smooth talking skills to use on the ML, who piques his interest at first glance. ML is an... more>> upright and pure-hearted professor, and he falls relatively quickly despite his initial disinterest thanks to MC's unrelenting pursuit. Though their relationship progresses quickly, MC has a lot of walls up that cause a lot of conflict between them as ML can tell that MC's hiding things from him.

MC has a lot of internal conflict as he starts coming to terms with how he feels about ML, and he also struggles enormously with his own self worth and life purpose. While he puts on a confident facade around others, his inner critic voice is very loud, and he's scared of being unlovable, which leads to him pushing people away before he can get hurt. Though ML's love is sincere and asks for nothing of him, MC is unable to fully reciprocate due to his fear of rejection.

ML is really one of the best gong MLs out there, and I loved how he stayed true to himself by not accepting any less than the love he deserved. He has a solid moral code and is one of the most kind and compassionate MLs out there. When MC opened up, he was always there to listen and provide gentle comfort and feedback. It only made it that much more intense when MC pushed him to his breaking point, as his nature really is so kind.

After things finally blow up, MC's redemption arc is relatively short but very meaningful. He doesn't do anything I would deem unforgivable while in a relationship with ML, so I found timeline to be suitable. There's no infidelity on MC's part, just some gaslighting and an extreme lack of proper communication. Once MC is able to accept his faults and also acknowledge his own worthiness for love, the two are able to truly reconcile.

Really a beautiful healing novel, with equal parts laughter and pain. My heart hurt multiple times for MC, as despite his scum behavior, his inner voice was so relatable and also depressing. The pacing of this novel is quick but it's perfect for them. Definitely a new favorite for me! <<less

Ignore the low rating, this novel is really good!

This is the story of how a scum top-turned-bottom navigates the path of redemption. Our MC, Xu Juan, evident from the synopsis, is a playboy scum who seems to have no other purpose in life other than playing around and drowning in debauchery, until he meets the ML.

Honestly, the MC is quite horrible in the beggining. He plays with the ML, making him fall in love with him while denying all the feelings that start budding in his heart. He's selfish, wishy... more>> washy, indecisive, and can't really commit. It isn't until the ML finally snaps and had enough with the MC's behavior and they break up does the MC finally realize what he really wants and repents.

Now, even though the MC wasn't quite likeable in the beggining, he started to grow on me. I loved seeing his journey from becoming a lazy good for nothing young master to finally being someone who starts finding himself, discovering his interests and actually working hard for the things he loves and overall trying to be a better person to the people he loves, and of course all of this doesn't happen overnight.

if I could be honest, I did relate to the MC quite a bit. While I described the MC as a scum, in all honestly he was just very lost, and also stuck in a quarter life crisis. He was on the journey to find himself and who he truly was and what he really wanted, but as we can see that didn't end up very good lol.

I do think that the ML fell in love quite quickly, even the ML admits this himself, but this didn't really bug me. The ML is honestly so adorable and my favorite type of gong 😩.

Is it a perfect story? No, but it's a good one.

(P.S. The smut is really hot haha) <<less

I don't know why the rating is so low?! This is a really good novel. The first couple of chapters weren't so interesting, since I thought it's was going to be a dogblood novel with a scum MC and a suffering ML. But while it has the trope of scum man seduces innocent white flower and betrays him, then later chases him back, this isn't a dogblood novel at all. Instead, it's a realistic take on how love can gradually make a person change his perspective and priorities in life.

The... more>> MC is a playboy who sleeps with people and then drops them afterwards, but he's not a bad person, just someone from a rich family who's been spoiled a lot and tried to find his own way in life, but got a bit lost on the way. He's a cute, flirty character who's a bit devious, but actually wears his heart on a sleeve and falls pretty quickly for the ML. He also has a conscience and that's the real reason (along with his selfishness and tendency to paint a spotless picture of himself to the ML) that pushes the relationship into a crisis. The ML doesn't save him or actively guide him to become a better person, he does that on his own and then chases the ML honestly.

The ML is a college professor who's bent by the MC. He falls very quickly and has a very sincere love for the MC, even though he's also part tsundere and has a temper like a young girl. Him and his dynamic with the MC reminded me somehow of Chu Wanning from 2Ha. Even though the stories are very different, he has a bit of the same vibe: a serious teacher who falls hard once he falls, who's forever faithful, but has a strong bottom line that can't be crossed, plus a bad temper and thin skinned. I like that he's the gong and not the shou, since he's the shy one in the relationship (well, most of the time, he does become braver later on) while the MC shou is mostly the domineering one.

The characters are well-written, and the story flows well, never drags and makes you want to read the whole thing in one go.

Afterthought:

After I had time to think about it, I realized the CP gave me serious 2Ha vibe - if you strip the cultivation setting, tons of TWs of violence/mu*der/gore/r*pe away, put the characters in a modern, purely realistic setting and reverse their bed roles. You still get the MC's redemption and the earnestness of the ML, although not the student-teacher relationship (but the ML still acts a bit like that towards the MC). The MC and ML were really what made the story work so well, they were endearing, fully-fleshed out characters who felt very real. <<less

I decide to read this because it said to have a scum shou, I was very curious but didn't expect much because I thought a scum shou wouldn't be that bad like a scum gong danmei but I'm wrong! Xu Juan (MC) is very capable to be a scum character, he's a playboy, plays around with women and men, only knows how to seek pleasure and doesn't believe in true love. There are so many parts that he broke Pei Yu (ML) 's heart because he kept lying to him.... more>> Honestly even when I know I was reading a scum danmei, I can't help but feeling very sorry to Pei Yu.

This danmei is so refreshing for me, it's so hard to find anything like this one so I'd say please read this danmei! It's so good I might rereading this again someday! <<less

So relatable! Everyone’s been in a relationship probably experienced this. When both parties loves each other yet don’t know how to communicate to fix the problem.