"We are but mere lodgers while alive; we only return to our true home in death." Chen Xing murmured, "What you buried was just a layer of skin that was being exploited by someone else. His yin and yang souls had returned to the heavens the moment he died."
"Look, the stars are eternal." Chen Xing looked up. The dark prison transformed into an endless night sky. "Every single one of us is a creature within this river."

• • Chen Xing (MC) : This boy is a walking chaos but that's what makes him so likable as a character (at least for me). Since he's destined to die young and has luck that defies all sense of logic, he's quite naive to the world and too trusting, besides, it also comes from the fact that he's young and has lived in seclusion for most of his life. He makes a lot of witty remarks and it's very smart despite sometimes taking decisions that are... let's leave it at not that good lmao. Quite the likable MC if you don't mind these traits.

• • Xiang Shu (ML) : The extremely handsome, extremely strong and extremely irritable love interest of Dinghai! Xiang Shu comes off as an introvert that, contrary to CX, doesn't really trust the people around him and it's very skeptical of things due to his past. He's also very smart but he's the type of 'think don't say' regarding his feelings about the different events. Also, to leave this review mostly spoiler free, he might seem a bit too 'perfect' but that's also later explained in the novel. Overall, a nice ML that has more to him than great looks.

• • MC-ML: I loved how they were always bickering and being salty with each other considering how different their personalities and circumstances were when they met, it's a nice touch to not have them get along well in the beginning. Also, it was great for the MC to mature before starting with the romance part of the novel (yes, it's a slow burn), even more so considering how the ML is four years older. Although some people don't like how they start being more 'soft' with one another after realizing their feelings, I believe that considering their circumstances and ages, it was a sweet touch to see them go from fighting every five minutes to enjoying each other's company (it's good development if you ask me).

• • Between other characters: I've got to admit that I really like how this novel explored the different kinds of relationships that can exist, from childhood friends, rivals in love, misunderstandings between people, unrequited love, found friendships, fated meetings, etc. It does contain a nice array which helps build up the plot other than just having romance between the MC-ML.

• • the first 70 or so chapters were pretty great. The story was well written and engrossing and so were the characters. The main plot (traveling around a fantasy version of 4th century China, including visiting various groups and cultures inhabiting it) was really exciting and interesting. The relationship between the main couple and the conflict between them was also interesting and heartwrenching, and I was excited to know how it will be resolved.

• • the ML (xiang shu) was for the most part a great character throughout the story, and his deadpan attitude was very entertaining to read about. Even when the story itself became pretty lackluster, he still had some great moments.

• • some of the side characters managed to be great throughout and have their stories brought to good conclusions. I especially liked Murong Chong, Che Luofeng and Wen Che.

• • first and foremost, somewhere around the middle of the story, and exacerbated by the
    Spoiler

    time travel back to the beginning

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    in chapter 89 or so, all the dramatic tension the story worked so hard to build up was pretty much wiped away. From then on reading the story became really boring, since it was pretty clear our protagonists were going to win and how. They were always a few steps ahead of the villain, so everything was pretty much assured even when the author tried to throw in a few weak curveballs.

• • related to this and it might just be a personal preference of mine or a cultural difference, but I feel like the author relied way too much on supernatural explanations, especially in later chapters. The morality of the story also became more and more black and white, and flattened a lot of the stuff I found interesting in earlier chapters. Also the
    Spoiler

    contrast between the first timeline, where most of the secondary characters died and the second one, where basically none did was too great

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    and so the happy ending felt a bit flat and unrealistic.

• • nothing in the story was affected by these changes more than the main couple. They went from two interesting characters with a great dynamic to
    Spoiler

    everything about them basically being explained by supernatural fate. The reason they met? They were fated! The reason they fell in love? They couldn't help it, they were fated! I get that this is a very common romantic plot, but there's "these two are fated for eachother" as a figure of speech and then there's the ML's jealousy being explained as an instinctive response to the fact that if he didn't exist, the second ML would've been the MC's fated person. Yes, even the pettiest of emotions was somehow because of
    supernatural fate

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    . Again, this just might be a personal preference, but it was still really disappointing, especially since they were solidly written for most of the story so it wasn't even needed as an explanation for why they would like eachother.