I seriously don't get the 4.3 rating on this... this would be a 2 star at best. And it really sucks because the PREMISE of this novel is really interesting! Basically, this is an entertainment ABO universe and our MC is a actor and has a condition where he is in heat everyday AND he can enter the ML's dreams (without knowing it) and gain relief from his heats- which had the potential to make this a heart-wrenching (MC suffering yay) yet cute story with unique interactions between the 2 leads. But the writing and plot are so bad that the author's creativity legit went to waste. ... more>>

My problem isn't that this novel is fluff. But I don't want to be given a pile of sugar when I order a cake. There is no substance after the first 30ish chapters, and worst of all, the characters go OOC. Tong Che (MC) was characterized as a cold beauty with a kind heart who is able to survive in the entertainment industry by his own talents and wit (and he has the inner strength to endure daily heats and is also harming his body with suppressants rip). But upon getting together with the ML, he legit lost his brain (and I lost all my brain cells reading their interactions) and his heat problem was immediately cured? Therefore eliminating an interesting plot device before developing it? 

The lost potential makes me cry and the difference between the first 30 ch and the ones after makes me wonder if the author saw readers demand fluff and just folded. Examples: MC was pushed and spilled wine on ML. He took the blame and handled the situation elegantly; it was a well written interaction and there was even a joke before it happened, between ML and his manager, that if someone were to spill wine on the ML, it would be such a cliche moment (if ya know ya know). However, in the later half of the book our leads were put into an escape room and magically MC can't even think for himself now, and this is a theme as the novel progresses cause apparently the author thinks that being dumb is cute... it could be, but I can't forgive the OOC of a perfectly interesting character. It was lowkey frustrating cause like one reason I read BL is to escape the chauvinistic male and incapable female tropes that permeate BG literature (...we don't talk about the fact that some BL leads are even worse). 

Speaking of the ML... like this novel, Mu Hanzhang had potential. However, he fell in love too fast for it to be believable- especially because his whole schtick is that he has been in the entertainment industry for so long and is immune to seduction blah blah blah, so basically also OOC. I like the cold, rich CEO/actor/guy trope a lot actually, but I really hated the way the author fleshed out this character (or didn't). My main gripe was with the way ML's feelings were written: "his heart was relieved"; "the knot in his heart disappeared". First of all, I'm personally annoyed by reading "his heart..." 3 times every chapter- like is there no other way to write feelings?? Second, ML has some LIFELONG trauma that is just magically healed by a single sentence from MC (same with MC actually). Bruh. Sadly, this trauma-as-an-aesthetic-plot-device is something I've kinda gotten used to seeing from novels, and it's usually ok since I can't and don't think it's necessary to demand every author to make a character's trauma into the main point of the book (and sometimes you don't want to read heavy trauma in a fluff novel!). But it really wasn't done well in this book.

TLDR: wasted potential, OOC, boring writing, sweetness without substance, MC becomes s*upid and ML becomes boring (like truly so cliche). TL was ok! I appreciate their hard work, but it did seem to be edited MTL.  <<less

1.5 star. Unreadable in the sense that you will tear out your hair in annoyance from the repetitive writing, bland character interactions, and nonsensical plot. Then you will push yourself to keep reading because you have run out of survival/infinite flow books and the premise of the book has so much potential to be good....but you soon realize that you are not that strong and drop the book after the second arc. Then you go back and read the reviews, patting yourself on the back for avoiding the brunt of this dumpster fire of a novel :) ... more>>

Or is that just my experience?

As I said, I stayed for the potential. I'd say that the world was a pretty standard death game situation. But the "aesthetics" of the characters really caught my attention. The vibe of the main CP was very much my taste: Weak to strong MC who is loyal and a little self-sacrificing x a cold OP ML who is also quite sacrificing and caring to his loved ones (i guess I'm just missing wangxian). Meng Xinghe (ML) is also such a pretty name omg- in fact, the naming game for all the important characters in this novel is very strong haha. The vibe of the potential side CP (or at least I was shipping them lol. someone lmk if they actually got together in the end) was also really good too: cute and dumb pure boi x experienced, ruthless, and slightly sadistic fake doctor. 

Notice how I said I liked the "vibe" of the CPs. That is because the repetitive writing destroyed any chemistry between any two characters. 

Blow-by-blow critique: The intro to the MC's situation was ok even though I wish that his truama (?) after his BFF's (ML) death was described more. I just know that he can't go outside, which is sufficient, but I think that if I had more details, I would have been more attached to MC.

But once we enter the death game setting, everything starts falling off. The first arc wasn't horrible, but it sets the tone for future arcs: illogical and repetitive. It consists of blandly described confusion, Tang Mianmian (aka MC's streamer friend who also got s**ked in, aka "cotton candy", aka above-mentioned cute and dumb pure boi) grabbing MC's arm and running away, some horror, a death, MC and TMM being scared and shouting at the top of their lungs about everything, gets jumpscared, MC grabbing TMM's arm and running away only to find that TMM had been swapped with the monster (which was actually pretty scary), narrowly escaping, MC and TMM being scared but somehow finding the most important clues, gets jumpscared, MC grabbing TMM's arm and running away only to find that TMM had been swapped with the monster (again!), another death, gets jumpscared, MC grabbing TMM's arm and running away only to find that TMM had been swapped with the monster (no, I did not copy and paste, but the author sure did), gets s**ked into super hard level [insert previous montage of activities] almost dies, gains a prop, exits instance. 

Side note on the prop: it is some type of live streaming prop that is never really used or explained. I legit don't know what it is for because the author only has MC pull it out when he needs some emergency funding with no mention of it in between. Like MC is a streamer in real life so this prop would be a really good way for him to show his charm right? I don't get why it isn't incorporated into later plot in a more coherent way. 

Also, I swear I've never read this much running in a single novel. It honestly becomes ridiculous, and when they were running, my mind was just looping the "Why are you running" meme lmao. But seriously, repeating the same situation in the same arc? It's a no for me.  

And I'm so sad that TMM was reduced to a loud, vomiting (can't believe that's his most prominent descriptor), comic relief who doesn't have anything going on as a character. The only justice was that he had the same garbage dialogue as the other main characters... we take what we can get. 

Speaking of character interactions, I'd liken it to a turn based game (Honkai Star Rail anyone?) where the characters and enemies attack in turns, slowing fights down for a more relaxed gameplay experience. This absolutely does not work for engaging dialogue- and especially not for a horror/action novel like this one. It feels extremely clunky to read and everything happens so robotically, which is why I can't invest in the CPs :(

It was so dry that I had to make headcannons up to keep myself excited- esp for my fav CP: Tang Mianmian and Duan Hongzhen <3

Ok on to the second arc. MC and TMM meet the ML and his team of three in their next instance. There was also a lot of running away in this arc. This is arc is where everything got really frustrating. All the "cannon fodder" players were so unrealistically dumb and unnecessary (like the human trafficker who kept trying to traffic this kid instead of trying to survive.  The author mentioned her so many times that I thought she and the kid would play a key part in the puzzle... but no they were just there and then they died. what was the point of that??)

The dialogue. oh my god the dialogue. the MC kept saying "I don't expect the veterans to help me", the veterans kept saying "Don't expect us to help you", but that was after ML helped MC multiple times? God why. Like the author obviously wants us to think that MC is smart; MC and ML join forces to solve the case, but rather then enjoying the thrilling interactions between the leads, I was just scratching my head as to how MC turned from a weak-but-lucky chicken to Tangqiu Holmes. There is no basis for his sudden increase in IQ- so much so that he was solving the case rather than the veterans. Just absurd. 

And then I couldn't take it anymore :) <<less

2 stars. I started this 2 years ago and dropped it around the mermaid arc (drop a comment if it gets better later or smth), so this review won't be as detailed as the others since I only have vague memories of what I read... however the bad points have remained ingrained in my head till this day so imma just rant. ... more>>

It wasn't horrible, as in: the writing was good, TL was good, world-building was good, instances were kinda fresh and exciting. BUT. The infidelity kink that the author had going on is not my thing. 

MC gets pulled into a survival game (like any other unlimited flow novel) and has to roleplay correctly to complete the level and not die. Sounds interesting! Except for the fact that the ML put fragments of his soul into the instances as the characters that the MC has to woo (the summary gives u an idea). The ick for me was that the MC was trying to woo multiple ML's at the same time (and each soul had a different identity every instance so they were basically different people) and trying to make sure that the MLs don't find out. Just imagine reading an infinite flow novel about the MC leading 5 people on at the same time... like that is just cruel and NOT funny or sexy to me? The main thing that made this so uncomfortable to read is how the ML's soul fragments are different every instance and don't retain their memories, hence why they appear as different people to me. I don't see how a genuine romance can develop when the MC is forced to play with each characters' feelings and get into flash relationships with fragments them.

I almost forgot, but in mermaid arc, the author acknowledges how MC has his "foot in two boats (or rather 5 boats)" which is a chinese expression for cheating.... 

TLDR: justified cheating wrapped up into a mediocre infinite flow book <<less

Ok this review took longer because I knew I needed to have the receipts- as in quotes- to back me up. ... more>>

This book is a solid 3.5 stars for me, and the best one on this list. I think the main CP of Lin Yan and Jing Yuanzhou is so adorable/smexy/A+ etc. I also love that Jing Yuanzhou is clear about his sexuality from the very beginning of the novel! I'd read a novel singularly focused on their relationship any day. 

My complaints are mostly personal preference on the writing of the non-relationship/gaming and team interactions part AND translation/translator. From the plethora of 5 star reviews, I guess I expected more than what I got. But even if i went into it blind, I don't think I would have gotten through the book. 

First off, MC's team is quite cute- although a little stuck in their tropes. MC spends the first 20ish chapters picking up teammates which was pretty entertaining, but I feel that because the author was juggling so many characters at once, the teammates come off a bit flat and boring. This is also exacerbated by the author throwing the team right into action before they've had time to gel together (like they've never played together ever? or even met each other...). This makes their flawless teamwork very strange, and I don't think the author does a good job of making me care about the characters - like there's an angsty teen, a tr*sh-talk "king", subversive/fierce looking healer, and cute (?) kid. They feel non-relevant to the story despite the author's best efforts... Basically the vibe is: conflict is nonexistent/nonsignificant, but the things that do happen aren't interesting enough without it. So yes, this is a fluff/non-angsty novel. But it's not a comfortable read for more reasons than one. 

A BIG problem is the MOBA game that the author made up, Burning Hot. It's always risky to make up the game in an esports novel as it's a huge point of reader immersion, not to mention how it usually takes up a large portion of the novel. Burning Hot wasn't properly described so all the gaming portions were either confusing or boring. "FOG" (a great novel btw!) also had this problem but its saving grace was the simplicity of the game and the lack of multiple characters per position. Burning Hot is very similar to League of Legends but unlike "I Can Do It" which directly uses League (making it easy to Google characters and other information that helps with immersion and resolves confusion), BH has a bunch of made up characters, positions, maps and strategies that readers have to try and visualize. For ex: the healer's signature character is a "big-breasted healer named Cocoa". Like what skills does she have? What does she even look like? In contrast, in I Can Do It, if someone says their signature character is LeBlanc, I can find out all the details about LeBlanc if I choose and I won't be so confused. I don't know why the author didn't straight up use LoL. I did drop this novel, so I don't know if Burning Hot has some thematic significance- like the game did in FOG- but I sure hope so because otherwise Burning Hot was not worth the author's creative braincells. 

I saw many reviewers rave about Bi Yaohua's (tr*shtalk king) tr*sh-talking skills... and um no. His roasts are poorly translated and sound non-sensical. I'll get into the translation after these examples of BB's tr*shtalk:

1) "[GH.BB: Is our Abyss your father? Are you playing with tadpoles to find your mother before the game starts?]"

2) "Although I have never easily recognized a fool as a son, it is the responsibility of everyone to call the mentally disabled. If you squeeze then love will still be lost" 

3) “Oh, you are shameless enough to say you are a passerby? Thank you, I was laughed at. How old are you? Let’s not mention the passersby who aren’t passersby. These days, the average person on the Internet is a sunspot. Brother tr*sh Talk will send you a sentence. The front leads the way while the back goes straight to the grave. Is this enough rhyme? Is it freestyle, please look.”

Its pretty obvious that the translation is edited MTL, because coming from a native speaker, there are is a lot of weird wording and sentences seem to be direct translations from Chinese sentences (as in no restructuring sentences to fit English standards, no retranslation of Chinese words/phrases to make sense to English speakers). For example with another one of BB's roasts: 

"You just need to touch your upper and lower lips together to speak. It’s better to show you how to roll and get lost. After all, normal people use walking which is too difficult to learn. Of course, some people speak too much and their legs get broken. They can’t walk and can only roll." --> "It doesn't take much effort to talk tr*sh, so it's better to show you how to scram. After all, normal people can walk away, which is more difficult to learn. Of course, some people run their mouths too much and get their legs broken. They can't walk and can only roll (scram) away". In my opinion, this phrase sounds perfectly fine/pretty cool if spoken in Chinese but kinda clunky in English. It's definitely hard to translate this and I don't blame the translator for not wanting/being able to translate all of BB's full-of-slang roasts. It just doesn't make for an enjoyable read. However, I was a little disappointed at the spelling mistakes and some easily translatable sentences being left in MTL format. I feel like that's just sloppy work being posted :( The reason I expected better is because RainbowTurtle, the translator, is a "senior" in this circle; I have personally been reading their work since their Chrysanthemum Garden days and that is why I felt pretty confused about the quality of this novel's translation. Seems lazy compared to their other stuff... 

Said easily translatable sentences (I believe that these can be easily reworded by even non-fluent speakers)

"Chatting on the public screen is so pleasant!" --> It feels so pleasant to chat on the public screen

“No, I wouldn’t be so relieved without Brother Gun following me as support.” --> No, I wouldn't have been able to play in such a relaxed way without Bro Gun following me as support

"Jing Yuanzhou was especially easygoing about the situation. “It’s okay to look at the match.” ---> ...."It's ok if we keep watching the match"

"A faint smile that made people think easily was floating on his face." --> a faint smile that aroused people's imagination, was floating on his face 

Also... leaving unformatted translation notes in the text? 

--> Ex: “Are you sure this isn’t a [tn content=”rotten peach blossom”]love affair[/tn] you left behind?”; [tn content=”chicken soup”]feel good motivational stories. This term is often used disparagingly because the stories don’t really change people’s lives[/tn]

Lowkey my most difficult review so far. Def a felt a little guilty in the beginning for even disliking the translation since translators do us, English novel readers, such a big service. Also had conflicting feelings for going against the reviews and wondering if I was being too picky. But then I realized that it's important to myself, if no one else, to express my opinion.

I get that translators have their own methods for translating and different priorities (preserving the original prose vs rewording it to fit english standards for instance), but to me, RainbowTurtle's translation really missed the mark for me this time. And because it made the novel even harder to read, I have no qualms about bringing it up. 

TLDR: lackluster translation, the MOBA game BH, a core part of the story, was confusing. Main couple was super cute but not enough to carry the story. Fluffy and on the nose. Not bad but not good.  <<less

3 stars. When I look back at this novel, I can only remember the frustrating parts. It's a shame because there was some really exciting world-building and interestingly crafted main and side characters (interesting in theory but not in execution tho...). The plot was also decent. ... more>>

The premise: world where yaos (chinese demons) and humans exist in semi-harmony- with humans not knowing yao exist of course. MC is a yao that just came down from the mountain (country bumpkin lol) and wants to join civilization, MC is the head of the yao "police bureau" and a dragon. There has been a resurgence of evil yao. The 2 leads solve mysteries together and stop the world from ending while Fu Li (MC) tries to figure out what kind of yao he is. Ok, so with such an awesome plot how did things go wrong? 

Answer: Fu Li. This man's characterization is all over the place- like I can't even say that he's OOC because was he ever in character?? We kinda get introduced to a naive (about the human world), kind, OP baby yao who wants to... take the civil service exam? find his family? idk i felt like he just floated through the novel with no growth. But back to his personality... Fu Li is shown to be naive but kind, a typical protagonist for a semi-serious/fluffy novel, but then something happens and he fights another dragon (one of ML's relatives) and eats his tail, crippling the dragon (it literally lost its tail... and in its human form its legs were shown to be amputated). Drinking the dragon blood also triggered a change in Fu Li... but this entire incident was legit glossed over?? For a MC who is supposed to be kind, or at the very least not cruel, how did he not feel even the tiniest amount of regret for his actions? The only word I could think of to describe MC is: fake. He is oblivious but knows exactly what he's doing, innocent but cruel on the inside, kind but apathetic. This would be an interesting character if the author meant to write him that way, but I can tell from the difference in the first few chapters vs the rest of the book, that Fu Li's Gary Stu character had accidentally become a green tea B just because the author kept trying to show how badass he was. 

Furthermore, MC is emotionally stunted for no reason... like he was raised by human-like yao so he should know how to feel feelings? It makes it very hard for me to like him because of his lack of empathy, which also make his actions extremely confusing. Like, why is he beating someone up? I don't know! He was just "at the scene"... all 27465 times some yao needed to be beat up. The author tries to make taking the civil service exam his motivation for becoming a yao detective, but that quickly devolves into a gimmick as well. I have no idea who or what he cares about, thus making it difficult for me to understand his motivation for anything.

MC's low EQ becomes even less cute when the author tries to develop the relationship between MC and ML. I was really hoped that Fu Li had some emotional seal and it would be lifted somehow and he would actually emote. But alas, there was no emotional development. 

There was a past life thing where the ML, as a human, fell in love with MC. ML died and reincarnated (which was very sweet and angsty). However, as far as I can tell, Fu Li legit has no genuine feelings for the ML both then and now- well he thought ML was amusing as a human "pet" and cute as a "baby" dragon if that counts. And even when he fell in "love" with ML in the present, we get multiple scenes of him being very dismissive of past/human ML's sacrifice, a sacrifice that caused present ML to suffer greatly (ML refused to reincarnate to wait for MC, only doing so when he thought he was dead. This ruined his good fate and he suffered a lot of abuse in his early life). It's a damn shame because Zhuang Qing is a very well-written character. His cold and rich CEO appearance contrasts with his pettiness and his dragon-like love for shiny things (he dives into a pile of treasure when he thinks no one is looking lmao). He also loves very deeply- in both lives. The author wrote him beautifully. I think I cried a little when ZQ thought FL was dead and was grieving for him... 

Reviewer WallEyeKnee wrote "You thought that this story was about a yaoguai struggling his way to become a great person in human society. No it was chinese digimon playing house in human world". Their whole review was spot on, but I just have to point out that while the world-building is genuinely interesting and a lot of cool references to mythical creatures, the author's fixation on having Fu Li face slap everyone creates so much filler and takes away from the pros of the novel. I do not need to hear about how rich Fu Li is every 3 chapters (legit every 3 chaps, the author has Fu Li take something precious out of his qiankun pouch and act like he doesn't know that it's valuable). I do not need to read 20 chapters about Fu Li beating a level SSS monster up and then saying "when I was young, I was considered weak. this generation of yao are so lazy!". I also don't want to read Fu Li calling Zhuang Qing young/a baby/babying him- it was really cute and funny at first, but it started getting really repetitive and insensitive towards ML imo. I was hoping that the ML would pass his tribulation and be like "do u still think i'm a kid now?" or smth corny to tie the joke in with their new relationship... but nothing of the sort happens. MC is like: baby, baby, still baby... oh now I'm dating him! Like does the MC have the capacity to learn social cues? Apparently not, because the author kept writing the same situation and same dialogue for him over and over again. I think my underlying gripe is that the author turned a perfectly good novel premise into half a good novel (despite my rant, I enjoyed some of it) and half wish-fulfillment for pre-teen readers. 

Not an insult cause I know I would have eaten this novel up a few years ago haha. I would prob still be bothered by a lot of things that I mentioned, but I wouldn't have been so frustrated as to blacklist this book as a whole. So I'm just gonna conclude this by saying that this was not my taste but you should still consider reading it because there are a lot of good parts to this book as well. 

TLDR: dislikable MC with inconsistent characterization, no character growth, too many characters that it kinda messes up the good world-building, ok plot, panders to audience so much that it makes the book repetitive, good TL, author is not a bad writer... but something happened here. Read if you want; you might like it. <<less