Meng Zhong Shen

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“I hereby swear to give you my full loyalty; to never betray you for as long as I live.”

Tags: loyal love, dystopia, modern fantasy, drama, angst, BE

Trigger warnings: war, mentions of torture, major character death

First person MC (female); the pairing is her brother (Li Xi) and an unnamed ‘he’. The relationship is between Li Xi and the unnamed man.t

The title, ‘Life Is But A Dream’, is a liberal translation. A more direct alternative would have been ‘body in a dream’. Notes for this translation choice may be found at the end of the story’s translation.

The tenses might seem odd / contradictory in this story. This is not the translator’s mistake, but due to a mismatch in the characters’ perceptions. Please see the endnotes for an explanation.

There are also multiple layers of flashbacks, which will be separated by “…” in the fan translation (which was last edited September 2025).

Associated Names
One entry per line
Life is but a Dream
The Body in a Dream
梦中身
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    Sloffins
    Sloffins rated it
    February 14, 2025
    Status: Completed
    Ah, I can't say I was a fan of this one. At all. Even though it was a short one shot, I was itching for the page to just be over with. It felt like an eternity reading.

    One thing I can say is that I liked the idea of hearing the love story from the point of view of someone who was not apart of the main pairing. It's a new thing that I have never seen yet before, and I was interested in how it would do. Sadly, this... more>> short story disappointed. Maybe it was the storyline. I felt like it did not play well. Possibly if it was taken a different way.

    I know it was meant to be a short and quick story, but there was still no set up to what the story was even about. It was difficult to read and quite confusing. I also felt like war was being romanticized, and it left a bad taste. There was some view switching that was abrupt and some relationships are confusing.

    I've read a few of the short stories by Ru Si Wo Wen. One I liked, two I have not. I can say that I think their writing plot is poor, but they have interesting characters and themes, but I do not think I am a fan of how they decide to write these out. However, the two I disliked were by the same translator and the one I liked was by a different one, so I guess I'm not sure if it's the author or something lost in translation. <<less
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