In My Opinion,

4.0 to boost the rating, but I would honestly give a 3.5. As a work by a new author, it’s decent. The vocabulary and prose are fine, and the story flows well.

The translation mixes up pronouns, repeats words, and has slight grammatical errors, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed with an editor and proofreader, especially compared to other stuff on this website. So good work translator, thank you for the hard work.

Towards the end, the story seems slightly rushed, compared to the chapters of relationship building before.... more>> Could be intentional on part of the author, to emulate how tragedy and suffering seem to come so quickly and in one fell swoop, but who knows.

In terms of characters, the main characters are decently explored into, with their emotions and thoughts having a logical flow. As for side characters, it seems that the author has a penchant for an unnecessary deep dive into the psyche into the side cast without further continuation, especially for the whole pov and reasonings behind character Shen’s actions— of which this dive is not explored into in any further way later on, except for a one liner on how he gloats upon the main characters’ suffering. Lin Ran, the childhood side character to comment upon the MCs’ relationship, is completely discarded after her arc ends and is never brought up again. Qin He’s biological father instigates a plot point, but after that is over he is also never brought up again. Yu Cheng’s brother, oddly enough, is not treated as anything other than a convenient way for Yu Cheng to buy clothing, find information, and a catalyst for Yu Cheng’s emotional fluctuations. For the amount of word-time he has, he has a sparse amount of character exploration. He is shown to be reliable, smart, caring, but all in such vague ways it is as if he is more a collation of character descriptions than anything else. The most personality he shows is towards the end of the story, when he is shown to have knowledge on his brother’s situation and is sympathetic towards the MCs’, but even then that is all he does— he gives Yu Cheng the information he needs, and that is all. Was there no push back on his side at all, if he was shown to be so caring towards his brother?

With so many different characters and cast to have their perspectives on the situation, it is odd of the author to add in a complete stranger as Extra 3’s POV— it is understandable, and a clear message is shown, but the choice to use this POV out of nowhere, and without any other involved party’s view on the final situation feels out of place, to say the least.

The commentary/critique on societal expectations and values is admirable and done well, however the ability in such parts compared to the rest of the story seem jarring. The latter part of the story seems the best written, and detailed— but the execution of the former part of the story drags it down. Despite being such a simple, linear story, the themes are clearly communicated while the critique of “normal (ity) ” is written smoothly and understandably.

This is a BE. Fully and wholly BE. Don’t go into this expecting fantastic work or your worldview to be broken, but it is very compassionate, and written with heart. The author seems to have experiences with such issues, and if you want something that can make you cry, or think a bit more clearly on how bigotry can affect manifest in such harmful ways and how it can warp people’s handling of ‘love’, then you might want to read this story.

Thanks to the author and translator (s). Hope this helped you, reader. <<less