The original Shen Qingqiu is especially compelling because of his tragic backstory. He's a victim of the circumstances he was raised in, and a classic case of wrong place, wrong time. Honestly, I would have loved if the original Shen Qingqiu wasn't treated as some irredeemable villain and immediately offed to make way for the main character. It feels especially cheap when everyone just accepts that Shen Qingqiu magically became a better person overnight so we can just forget what the original Shen Qingqiu was like.

The romance of the MC and ML can be said to be built on misunderstandings. Although, that is not entirely the case. The ML appears to have fallen for the MC quite early on, but the MC only really decided to accept the ML quite late, somewhere around chapter 80 or so? At that point the MC proved his decision to stay with the ML through some... really painful sexy time...I winced inwardly at that part.

It was quite touching to see the ML's dedication towards the MC. (Dude hugged a corpse to sleep for 5 years wtf.) The earlier parts (before the system forced the MC to push the ML into the abyss) was this mutual happy daily life arc. Both parties were content with life as teacher and student. At this point, ML was a really devoted student and his fondness might not have crossed into love yet. Either that or he just hadn't realised his feelings yet.

Then came the 'I'm back from the abyss!' arc. It kind of threw the MC of guard since the ML came back faster than expected. But oh well, he went with it and tried to awkwardly avoid the ML as much as possible thinking that his student hated him for kicking him into the abyss. (As per the original story) The two kind of fell out because of this, so when MC was being framed for some crime ML failed to defend him, resulting in the MC being thrown into jail. After escaping with some help, the MC travels to a city and has a dream along the way. In the dream, he abruptly realises the cause for the strange the point gaining method thus far. This part was honestly gold. The rationalisation that the MC used to figure it out plus the ever so helpful kiss from the ML had me rolling on the ground in laughter for a good while.

Then MC fakes his death, leaving our little puppy devastated. Of course he returns after 5 years, but many thins have changed by then. This final arc helps to fill up some plot holes, introduce us to a deadpan father who says ridiculous things and give our side characters a little spotlight. The ending is a happy one despite all the hardships our MC and ML had to face. The troll system continues to troll, but at least it was kinda helpful towards the end. We are also treated to some extras including an interview where 'interesting' questions are asked about the MC and ML's relationship, as well as a an occasion where the original ML (the one from the harem stallion novel) and the puppy love ML are swapped. No, original ML didn't kill MC on the spot, but it was so damn funny how the MC realised that the ML was a different one. (Really? Your technique in bed is too good to be him?)

Come to think of it, a lot of the misunderstandings stemmed from the MC's initial over reliance on the original story's plot. Because of that, he kept misreading the ML, causing much suffering on both their parts. The MC also realises this near the end, thinking that if only he understood how the ML actually felt all this time, they could have avoided so much pain and suffering.

The ML hug The MC dead body for 5 years. Creepy!. I am not a fan of Yandere, but The ML puppy love towards The MC really cute and I can`t really hate him. I love him even more ƪ (♥ﻬ♥) ʃ

The Original Shen Qingqiu has a really sad past *damn ninjas cutting onions! (ಥ﹏ಥ)
I cry a bucket of tears when I thought his elder brother had died. The original Shen Qingqiu thought that his elder brother is abondoning him, but he didn`t. And because of that, his elder brother is so loyal towards him (I won`t spoiler who he is, but you can totally guess it 😁)

kiss him several times against his will, lock him in a house against his will, and apparently sleep (or more?!) with his corpse for the 5 years he was presumed dead..... against his will

MC has stated again and again: he can't go back to his original world because his original body is dead. That's why he was panicking in one of the chapters where he was about to get sent back to his original world after failing a task. Instead, he exchanged his points and opted for a punishment aka getting transported into the original Luo Binghe's universe and having his limbs cut off.

From the beginning, one of the biggest themes in this story is Qingqiu's inability to understand that Binghe is different from the original novel's. Even after creating a more positive relationship with him in hopes of saving his own skin, Qingqiu still thinks of Binghe as the original, with the original's tastes, eventual personality, etc. This is the root of basically all of their misunderstandings.

This can be seen early on through how he observed the original novel's members of Binghe's harem even when Binghe and the plot has deviated from that already. I would say that Qingqiu is at least somewhat able to see Binghe as slightly different from the original novel's when he was still a young untainted sheep, though as Binghe pointed out later in the Huan Hua, nothing he does personally after falling into the Abyss could make Qingqiu change his mind, because at that point, he already saw Binghe as the carbon copy of the original. I personally don't believe this started after the Abyss, but rather right at the moment before he pushes Binghe in. Even though the System forces Qingqiu to do it with the threat of his own life (20, 000 points overkill), the fact is that as Binghe pleaded him to listen, Qingqiu was looking into the future and not at the present Binghe.

Sure, Qingqiu could have probably handled it differently. It's possible he could have told Binghe that he is in danger now with his demonic blood released, and if he wants to be able to get more powerful and control it while also staying out trouble from the human world, he must go down the Abyss. But I doubt those ideas even crossed his mind. Qingqiu was already thinking too far ahead, with a concrete idea of who Binghe should be already in his head. Qingqiu even said it himself, that he never really considered himself as part of the story, but rather an outsider looking in. Even when he grew attached, he never truly differentiated novel verse and his verse.

This isn't necessarily criticism, as I'm just stating that these are all the reasons why Qingqiu acts the way he does, and it's part of the story inherently. And I personally cannot fault Qingqiu for it entirely. After all, to him, all of this was just a novel, all of these characters are part of that novel, and all he wanted to do from the beginning was to survive. To him, it was all inevitable. A flaw perhaps, in his character. But that's a pretty understandable flaw.

Especially after Qingqiu died which... uh, yeah. Pretty much expected.

One part of the story not to my tastes was the non-con scene, which was non/dub-con for both characters essentially. Warning, it's at chapter 80. Context is that Mo Xin (Binghe's sword) starts to muddle his mind and that happens. However, Binghe stopped in the process and started crying when he realized Qingqiu was in pain which caused the latter to go "... why are YOU crying??? Why am I, the victim, now comforting the assaulter???"

It made sense, or at least had some relevance to the plot/story (Binghe's sword is a bit of a beep) but yeah. Still might be triggering to some so warning right here.

I do wonder why non/dub-con is such a popular thing in the bl community is. I see it in yaoi manga, in c-novels, in webtoons. Wonder why it has become the norm almost? History and society influence? Especially in the Eastern hemisphere. Like, its almost celebrated to an extent, or just very common.

I think it's cleverly structured (love the restrictions in the beginning to keep the MC in "character" ha. that was pretty smart), and I enjoy how the system isn't overwhelmingly present but is more used a plot device to move things forward occasionally. It doesn't feel like this universe is some sort of weird game to the MC where he's just detached. In fact, my favorite moment is when the MC realizes he's been treating ML like a chess piece. Sure, he always has had real feelings for ML, but in that moment, he realizes that he didn't have to strictly adhere to the "system, " and realizes the true impact of his actions on ML. I think he sees ML for who he is for the first time, instead of some caricature of a harem king from the original novel.

Another interesting plot point is that in the end, the "villain" is ML's deep insecurities over being his perceived abandonment by the person he loves. Which is truly subversive because the final boss isn't some overpowered dude that the characters have to take down, but rather a truly intangible thing that is only overcome with love (or okay...a badly written smut scene...). It's in line with the way the whole novel seems to be dismantling genres and labels.

But my favorite aspect is that ML isn't cool at all and is just a overpowered crybaby. And that is depicted as "happiness" instead of being a demonic overlord that has 3000+ wives. Like yea, ML is super useless and a crybaby but **** it! He's happy, infinitely more happy than having all the power in the world and basically any pretty girl he wants.

Only disappointment is that it's never really revealed to ML about MC's true identity (like how he's transmigrated blah blah). Like yo...i have a hard time believing that ML and MC can be in a relationship w/o this coming up accidentally at some point. But else wise - a super super interesting BL novel. So many tropes are dismantled (and ok ****, I kno, BL tropes are EVERYWHERE in the novel but at least the het tropes are dismantled??) and it makes for a refreshing, touching read.