This novel is incredible. It's also incredibly underrated-- perhaps it's the length, perhaps it's the historical aspect, perhaps it's the writing, but in fact this novel is phenomenal and honestly one of the best novels I've read. I honestly could believe there lived a Shen Liangsheng and a Ch'in Ching, and that they fell in love and lived until they were seventy three. I could believe they could've existed, and their stories were only buried because of just how many people lived on this earth. Furthermore, the translation is brought to us by Ayszhang, who also translated Brother, meaning that it is top-notch and with plenty of supplementary materials for context. Every day I'm thankful we got any tangstory novels translated. As far as I know, this isn't a webnovel and only exists in print.

But what is Till Death Do Us Part? Till Death Do Us Part is a novel about two men falling into-- something, in a time right before turmoil. It started with a pair of fallen glasses in the middle of a crowd in front of a cinema: Ch'in Ching met Shen Liangsheng. What followed was an emotional drama-- love but not, close but distant, a push and pull; two men young and perhaps a bit foolish, a bit proud, trying to fit together but can't quite smooth their edges. But what is the individual in the churning tides of societal upheaval? What first started as a romance and a drama quickly becomes a story about love in times of change, and what truly matters in the end. Pride, wealth, they all get washed by the steady torrent of the river of time. At the end of their long lives, they die together in a small house under the loving care of a small but close family.

It's not a tangstory novel without a copious amount of smut, and the smut is, as always, just good. It doesn't have the same telephone-game tinge to it the way most BL smut does-- it's very organic, active, passionate, detailed. They also serve as emotional development moments and showcasing of it across the course of the relationship, from its fiery beginnings to its domestic ends.

I recommend this to be read after Living to Suffer, if only because I find Living to Suffer to be an excellent preview, so to speak, to what kind of people Ch'in Ching and Shen Liangsheng were. A morally upright, humorous and kind, compassionate teacher, a wealth-minded, focused and cold young businessman, these are them, in a sense, in a futuristic setting. But unlike in Living to Suffer, where Shen Liangsheng is swayed far too late and their mutual demise is a certainty, here they finally get to complete their journey that spanned two lifetimes.

Shen is a douche in a first half and the beginning of chapter 8 made me truly believe that there were ninjas cutting onions all around me... I wanted to hate Shen so bad...

Directly from the story.. read at your own risk:

... he wasn't actually a simpleton. Although he didn't know what Shen Liangsheng saw in him, he did understand that the man didn't actually like him as much as he had pretended to in the weeks prior. However understanding that did little to stop him from falling.

So just bear with the suffering, he said to himself. You wanted this yourself after all- you're the one who fell for him.

By chapter 10, I kept wishing that the Ching wasn't as smart as he was, because his simple lines about just how low his expectations were worse than any heart-wrenching angst that the author could have written instead.

Then in chapter 13, he is hidden upstairs like he is a dirty little mistress- away from the public and never to be known to anyone else... And although Ching seemed to fine with it all, my fighting instincts were rising faster than the sea levels due to global warming.

When we reach chapter 15, we have the "punishment" that honestly wouldn't be that bad, until you see the context. You also remember their first time when all Ching could feel was faint disdain along with every amorous action. My hate for Shen was also riding high at this point.

Chapter 17 and the whole garbage about the apartment made me want to seriously just drop the book.

And then war happens.

Chapter 18 is like a brick to the Shen-hating face of mine.. From there on you'll have a real hard time even disliking the man...

I'm going to stop here with- this is a very very well written and translated story about two men who fell in love when the morality of that day and age and every circumstance was against them... Quite angsty and the gong can be a piece of shit- but you won't regret reading it. Keep tissues on hand.

I'm going to be completely honest here- about 20 chapters are about their relationship development- so they can be heavy but great.. But then the intense stuff starts... All I'm going to say about this is that it's a sad kind of happy ending and boy did they have to work for it.

Yet, he had the strange feeling again that he was lost in space and time. It was as though he had been blindfolded as he wandered along the path, touching each blade of grass and each tree trunk until his destination, but when he turned around to look back at the way he had come, what he saw was not what he had pictured in his mind’s eye.

It was summertime in the dream. He was sitting with Ch’in Ching on the couch in the lounge; it seemed to be the scene of their first farewell.

However, what he said were the words he could not say the second time around...

“Ch’in Ching, I love you. Don’t leave.”

“But Shen Liangsheng, ” the Ch’in Ching in his dream retorted as though surprised, wearing a peculiar expression. “Why would I want that?”

He didn’t know how to answer and, indeed, felt there was nothing more to be said.

Oh, so that’s not what he wanted.

But if his heart was not what the man wanted, then he really had nothing else to give.

“You say I should go...”

Shen Liangsheng was on his knees like Ch’in Ching and was at a loss. Then after what seemed like minutes, he asked in a puzzled tone as though he really did not know the answer,

“But with you here... where else do you expect me to be?”

MC owed the gong and made him suffer in LtS so in this life the MC had to repay him owo. Basically the story goes like this: ML is a player, he hooks up with MC, rejects MC, time-skip, and somehow he changed and then just HE we live together grow old together sappy ending...I don't see why he changed and his reasonings which made their love very superficial. The typical playboy scum chasing after his lover after recognizing he loves him after a timespan. He also lied about his feelings (when he rejected mc) which is annoying but he never redeemed himself by apologizing to MC or he never acknowledged it himself (if my memory is correct). I don't see why anyone would like him besides being attracted by his looks + monies.

They go through push and pull when war arrives, and ML being business-minded pro-Japanese and MC being a Chinese patriot, they separate. Over the following year, ML treats it as a "silent war, " but eventually MC is to move away, and ML realizes his feelings as MC is about to leave him for real, so to speak. He doesn't confess his feelings, however, as he thinks MC has moved on. In the next following months after that, ML attempts to forget MC, doing business overseas, but when a flood hits where MC lives, he rushes back and rescues MC. They then get back together, and ML abandons thoughts of moving out of the country, promising to stay with MC forever.

We get a few chapters of bliss and happiness, then, China is liberated from the hands of the Japanese, and the communist era begins. ML gives all his properties to the government, and for a while, things are okay as he's praised for it. The author goes into a full overview of Communist China. To put it short, MC and ML struggle. They subsist of porridge and food stamps; ML is apprehended by the government and subject to torture and beatings, MC, as a teacher, is pulled out onto the streets and subject to "struggle sessions" where students were incited to beat their teachers. Their house is vandalized, and bricks are thrown through the window. Life continues on like this, until the last chapter. The pair die in old age (ML of cancer, with MC following in grief) , and join each other on the dreamy road in their past-life forms, walking off into the horizon.

The book was deeply enjoyable up until the post-war communist revolution starts. Then, it just becomes hard to read. It's really well-written, but, having read the prequel, I can't help but feel desolate. Their sufferings in the previous life, seem no less than their sufferings in this life. I suppose what the author tries to emphasize here, is that, this time, they have each other.

But I can't help but think, realism is great and all, but this book was supposed to feel happier. IMO, realism works best for BE novels. True, in this life, the protagonists lived each day content, even as they suffered. Yet, I couldn't help but hope, that they didn't have to go through this. With how they suffered in their previous lives, the new life would be easy after they resolve their romantic differences. That they could live in blissful wealth, to want for nothing, without struggle. Because they deserve it.

Yet, the characters still suffer. This time, they support each other through historical tragedy, as they are beaten down and ab*sed by the Communist government and its people. As they've done nothing wrong, but are punished nevertheless.

The ending is poetic and beautiful, as they meet in the afterlife in their past forms, but... between the ending and the first half of the book, it read to me as a tragedy. A muted tragedy, where the reader can only watch as the text passes by, as the main characters are given no place to escape. Because you can't escape a country that's walled itself off from the world.