Discussion of the book

 Yuki:

chapter 19! :D I will keep reading haha ^_^ It's pretty tragic so far T_T Hope things look up for the poor guy soon. 

AHHH YESSSS.... THE PAIN... THE BEAUTY OF THE BOOK ALL LIES IN THE PAIN XDXDXD.... IF U ARE A MASOCHIST, THIS WILL BE UR BIBLE...

(I'll stop being dramatic and let u read XD lmao... enjoyyyy... because of u, I am rereading it now ;D)

 tsukimii:

I read 2ha up to ch.119 as of now.

Meatbun makes a series of purposeful decisions that I really enjoy, especially a series of narrative choices. We're forced to see this (at first) chokingly limited world through Mo Ran's eyes, but part of the beauty is watching that world broaden over time. They utilize dramatic irony and omniscient perspective for angst and stream of conscious for character-reader connection. I thought it was smart!

The protagonist, Mo Ran, is an idiot, but an extremely charming and charismatic idiot at that. Even Meatbun deigns to make fun of how dumb Mo Ran is, but it's clear as day that they nonetheless treasure Mo Ran as a character, and eventually, he does change and turn over a new leaf. I adore the slow-burn and the pining. I want it all.

I want to talk to someone about this novel... well, I'm going to start ch.120.

HEYYYY! I love the way u worded out the beauty of the book. Couldn't have said it better! And I must say, Mo Ran is one of the most intricate and deepest characters I've ever read! (And I have read a LOT of books thus far in life).... But Mo Ran from 2HA and Xie Lian from HOB steal the top two spots for me!

Mo Ran is the kind of character that you are numb to at first, but the numbness is caused due to the extreme emotions (both positive and negative)  he instills in the readers who are reading him. And this is all the talent of the author, who I will soon start worshipping at this rate.

To say that the book only gets better is not a lie! The angst, the pain, the romance, the innocence, the development of the plot.... you have a LOT coming for you and to look forward to. If you need a fangirl, we are here, and I'm here :)

 Kup Xun:

I finished reading the book long ago! I personally feel there are going to be some major changes in the characters of Shi Mei and Mu Yan Li. The gender switch in live adaptation is screaming spoilers. Just read the whole conversation lol... YuWu is still getting translated, right? After 2HA I pretty much don't care if it's a MTL, but last time I checked even the MTL was getting updated.

The live adaptation sure has a ton of changes, but as long as the plot remains more or less the same, idts there'd be much of a backlash... and the Yuwu MTL is complete! It's also very good compared to 2HA's MTL! If you want it, let me know!

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=12cvvVU_XBz60nmIJV9UfRIe9SFpxtuXu

ENJOY!

And I heard that abt HYX too!!!

 Magblueroses:

HEYYYY! I love the way u worded out the beauty of the book. Couldn't have said it better! And I must say, Mo Ran is one of the most intricate and deepest characters I've ever read! (And I have read a LOT of books thus far in life).... But Mo Ran from 2HA and Xie Lian from HOB steal the top two spots for me!

Mo Ran is the kind of character that you are numb to at first, but the numbness is caused due to the extreme emotions (both positive and negative)  he instills in the readers who are reading him. And this is all the talent of the author, who I will soon start worshipping at this rate.

To say that the book only gets better is not a lie! The angst, the pain, the romance, the innocence, the development of the plot.... you have a LOT coming for you and to look forward to. If you need a fangirl, we are here, and I'm here :)

Thanks! I wasn't sure if I could express why I liked it. I think the writing style and the fact that every little thing and detail matters, like the branch of the peach blossom. A branch is just a branch until you breathe meaning into it. It really hits me different!

(Briefly speaking about Xie Lian though, I'm glad you feel that way. I was talking to a friend about this, and for one, he does show symptoms of struggling with PTSD; he's never diagnosed, but he definitely suffered through trauma, and it affects him even today. I feel there's a good amount of people who dismiss him because he's "nice". He's actually far from nice... he just seems so traumatized and exhausted after 800 years that he figures it's best to not wallow in anger, and when he smiles, he doesn't feel kind as much as he feels like a shell of his former self. People say he's dense, when it's more accurate to say he has probably known all along, like the person he first met was Hua Cheng and that Hua Cheng liked him, but he just thinks so little of himself. He's almost similar to Chu Wanning in some aspects.)

I think Mo Ran is plenty complex! In both lives, he's not very honest, and so the reader can't take his words at a surface level, and I'm a fan of this unreliable narrator aspect. For example, Taxian-Jun claims over and over how much he "hates" Chu Wanning, yet continues to share a sex life with him, takes more or less extreme measures to keep him alive, and feels a deep loneliness once he's gone. In some aspects, he is simple, but the fact that his simplicity of his caused him to become the world's most feared villain and the most faithful, dedicated lover adds this nuance to him.

I think at first, I didn't feel much? I felt bad for him in ch.1, but when he reincarnates, he just seems like a rather immature teen who struggles with nightmares he wants to forget. As a character, he's reasonably developed. Redemption starts with acknowledgement, which can take time in and of itself. I think I really started to feel for him a lot more when he wallows in confusion on why and how he could do something so horrific in the past life. I think it's probably that Mo Ran is leading more or less a "normal life" (although it seems like he's acting like a teen to not blow his cover, I think he ends up getting swept up to the point he doesn't really have to act anymore, haha) until he struggles himself, and so emotions are racked up.

I'll fangirl, yes! I don't have a lot of people I can talk this story about, so I'll probably come here time and time again and ramble or fangirl, haha.

 Magblueroses:

Replying to your take on Xie Lian, the reason I called him 'deep' and 'intricate' as a character is because of all the reasons u just mentioned. :') He's suffered through sooo much, it's almost unreal how he got back to smiling as he does with HuaHua... I've read reviews that said 'XL doesn't seem to be in control of his emotions since he's always smiling' but many fail to realize the reason behind each smile of his! Now that I brought up the topic of 'deep and intricate' characters, even Xue Yang is one of them XD (I'm sorry for going off-topic)

It's okay! I think it's a case of getting so tired over time that he figured smiling is better than holding onto grudges. He's an immortal god, after all, and so a natural death of old age can't put him at peace... also, to add on, Xie Lian is extremely unreliable as a narrator. There are things he notices but doesn't reveal to the reader until x chapters later. Like, wow, just how repressed are his thoughts that he, as a narrator, can't even reveal his thoughts to us? That's really something, haha.

Xue Yang strikes me as a highly amoral character, so you can't really look at him just from his present actions and claim he's a terrible psychopath (he did care for Xiao Xingchen in his own little, twisted, and amoral way). His actions and beliefs are shaped from his childhood, which was clearly without a sliver of guidance. So, who is to blame? Of course, Xue Yang probably caused his own downfall in some aspects, but society was the one who casted him aside, and so when he grew up, he became a "deviant" to society. No kidding. Anyway, the point is Xue Yang is not a good person and did terrible things, but (1) he does act as a foil for Wei Wuxian -- in fact, I believe MXTX said at some point that Xue Yang was supposed to be the protagonist, but then they made a character that "branched off" from Xue Yang to be the protagonist instead: Wei Wuxian -- and (2) he's probably one of the most prominent characters that tackles this theme of societal perception.

 Magblueroses:

When it comes to Mo Ran, for me, his character revolves around the mistakes he made. The unforgivable ones, as well as the innocent ones. I'm not gonna delve too deep into this since ur still just halfway through, but his love, his hate, his everything is just soo well written and I can't get him out of my head.

In the beginning, I disliked him. I didn't hate him, but Mo Ran just didn't sit well with me... but as I kept reading, going through Mo Ran's thoughts as he's trying to figure out his emotions and give them a name, seeing him hate his Shizun to the bone but figuring out that he might have made a mistake somewhere... watching him go through all the trials... On the way, I fell in love with his character before his negatives were even disposed of.

And one reason I am adamant about people reading this book is to see them go through the various emotions Mo Ran puts them through!

I think in my case, Mo Ran didn't really sit well with me fully, but he was still charming in his own way, so it wasn't like I would drop the book because he's so dislikable in the first 90 some chapters, and isn't that the point as well? It's a redemption story. He's not going to change until something (Xue Meng yelling some sense into Mo Ran and Chu Wanning's death) incites him to do so.

I'm totally vibing with Mo Ran 2.0 though! I love how he still has this sort of mischievous streak in him but is clearly more mature and more respectful to Chu Wanning. I just read through the scene where Chu Wanning initiates a duel against Mo Ran before Nan Gongsi and Song Qiutong's wedding. The way they accommodated each other to make the fight fair was so great! It shows how they see each other more as equals, symbolically.

Chu Wanning, ah Chu Wanning. I want to hug him so badly. He has such low self-esteem, and he deserves love and hugs! I think the times when Meatbun pulls off that "Mo Ran thought this-and-that. Meanwhile, Chu Wanning thought so-and-so" is genius, but seeing such a disparity between each other and how self-deprecating they are makes me cry on the inside.

I'm getting closer to the human translation as of now (ch.151)... I'm kind of on the fence about reading MTL, but I probably will at some point if the translation updates are like very slow, haha. I will probably also try to read other novels I've had in mind in between updates, haha.

 Magblueroses:

Heyyy! So I made a discussion with the pdf of a really well edited MTL version... tho it's not as good as Rynn's translation, it is really good. Better than the MTL version I was succumbed to reading (I really wish I came across this edited MTL sooner)... So check that out!

I will probably check it out! It's just I also had other novels I wanted to read, so I figured I'd sort of take a break from 2ha at the halfway point (up to ch.151) and read some of those! Last time I tried to binge through a long story that goes heavy on emotions, I just felt sort of burnt out in the middle and just sort of dropped it... so I plan to sort of wait on that, at least for a while.

For now, I'm trying to distance myself from the story and characters a bit, and then go back into it eventually. Then rant over here more, haha. (I will probably watch the drama though, even during my "break".)

 Magblueroses:

Mo Ran 2.0.... he's just PERFECT. Period. I have nothing more to say about him.

And about CWN's self-esteem... he and Hua Cheng need to take some lessons together.... Like maybe meet the counsellor once in a while... but again, Mo Ran and Xie Lian exist so, we need not worry about them too much. And Meatbuns writing, in both ERHA and Yuwu, her only two books, as far as I know, is incredible. She knows how to stab her audience, mend the wound, and stab at the exact same point again... I am currently in the process of building her a shrine XD

I'm just impressed at how he turned over a new leaf. Just the whole concept of that level of dedication makes me a bit teary because it's just so moving. Also, the book of letters he wrote in the past five years for Chu Wanning was so, so moving. I love it so much! I really felt for Chu Wanning there.

Oh, also, I love the farming arc. It's very filler, but I have no complaints. I know shit's about to get crazy at some point in this story, so I find it nice to relish in just something so mundane as farming... and Chu Wanning learning to farm with Mo Ran as his teacher? Who doesn't want that! It may be filler, but it's good filler.

Yes, right!? Can I have a crossover between 2ha and Heaven Official's Blessing, please? I need that hurt-comfort material a lot.

I think Meatbun does have more stories out than 2ha and Yuwu, but I think those two are her most popular works. Who knows when she'll come out with her third masterpiece, haha.

 Magblueroses:

It'd be a lie if I said I liked Mo Ran straight off the bat. Of course, I was excited to read him since the beginning, I also was attracted to the protagonist halo surrounding him, but as a character, if Mo Ran (Taxian Jun)  was a real man, irrespective of the situations he's been in, I would have despised him. But that's another thing I admire about the book XD... We still like him despite all of this and that's just the author's talent and our weakness to resist the hypnosis. I really hope Meatbun releases another book soon.

I happen to like sort of chaotic characters, and Mo Ran pretty much describes that vibe in the beginning of the story. He's not the most likable overall in the beginning, but how can one expect him to become good right off the bat?

Yeah, I would feel the same! Taxian Jun did some truly despicable things. His actions seemed to stem from a lustful desire that's based in a true love... but that's still no excuse for basically anything he had done. I couldn't help but feel for him a bit in the end of the 0.5 timeline though, like when he was trying to become his past self but can't even remember or wear his old clothes or which side he wore the hair clip (?).

What I find impressive as well is that it seemed that neither Chu Wanning nor Xue Meng really hated Taxian Jun fully, in the end. Like, they both seemed to know that Taxian Jun was Mo Ran, and they wanted Taxian Jun to go back to being Mo Ran. Both Chu Wanning and Xue Meng had obvious reasons to hate Taxian Jun, of course, but they both had moments that showed that they still wanted to see the positive in him, if that makes sense?

Is there a completed translation available somewhere ?