The 2nd volume of the novel had even more of all the things I love - battle scenes! Military strategies! Palace/royalty with it's backstabbings, plottings, schemes & power plays! And of course - romance. Wohooo!!!!!! :D
Our beloved heroes Bai PingTing & Chu BeiJie continue to struggle with their loyalty/love issues...well, Beijie does, PingTing had it all figured at the end of vol1, but even so, not a moment of it was boring or repetitive. The story progresses further ~
The ending of the previous book already showed us a bit of He Xia's (who's by the way, sort of a childhood friend of PinTing's, they grew up together, didn't feel like mentioning it before) meddling which resulted in bad news for our dear couple ;(
This one has even more of meddling. >.< Really. If no one interfered with them they could happily live together, but alas, power hungry people, are power hungry and so not just He Xia but 3 countries now try their best to separate PingTing & BeiJie O.o
Guess that's the fate of those who excel above...
I do believe in my enthusiasm I didn't properly describe our two heroes, their personality. Hmmm...what I love most about each of them:
PingTing - her intelligence, of course! I love intelligent, strong female leads! And while part of her is always aware of every situation, her military tactician mind at work, she's also a girls that's in love for the 1st time...buuuut it doesn't turn her into an annoying brat! Did I say wohoooo? Well let me add YAAAAAAAAAAAAY! Go girl!
BeiJie - hmmm I'd say his most awesome characteristic (aside from being an awesome general, like, super awesome, beyond awesome...I wonder if such generals really lived in the past...probably 1 or two did every few centuries...his military skillzzzz are AWEsome!) is his devotion to PingTing. Despite him being lead to believe the worst of her, he still wouldn't let go of her. ...now that I say it like that it sounds kind of not complimenting at all...ok, let me put it this way - all those stories of wars fought over 1 woman? He's the guy who did it :D Might sound bad or foolish being said like that, but once one reads the novel, the context gives it all flesh and understanding. Also, BeiJie's not the one who started it, he's simply retaliating. Oh, well, just know that BeiJie's a great guy :D
Oooooh and let's not forget the sidekicks - there are some really great sidekicks & bff's! No betrayals or backstabbings from those! Yay for true friendships! Or well, some really loyal servants! XD
If one would ask me to describe it in few sentences it would be this: It had me hanging by the edge with suspense. It brought tears to my eyes despite knowing the truth.
Off to 3rd and final part! :D
P.S. Ah. So apparently original release was in 7 volumes. Later re-releases made it into 4 and 3 volumes. I'm reading the 3 volume release ;)
-------- ~~~~~~~~~~ ----------- ~~~~~~~~~~ -------- Update: Officially 2nd re-read, in reality...who remembers XD After this re-read felt like adding some more:
.*. Every person has a breaking point. The line after which it simply ceases to matter. It differs for every person in both the way it may come to be & how long till that point, but once it's there... .*. Heartbreak. If one does not know what it is, you will after you read this part of the novel. .*. Tears. Doesn't matter that I already know the tearful part will come and have read it countless times, it still makes me cry every time. That's powerful writing right there. And I'm not exactly of the crying variety either, so that also speaks for both the authors way with words and the mastery of the plot. .*. A smile. Amidst all that sorrow a smile is brought forth. Faint thou it may be, but it is there. Life.
This book seriously needs to get an official translation so that other people, many & many of them, could know the masterpiece it is. It needs to go down in history. For centuries!
Me pareci¨® muy interesante. Me hubiera gustado ver en profundidad como se desarrollaba todo... dicho esto, la realidad es que no voy a leer la novela ?
As my first Chinese web novel, this absolutely blew me away. I came in expecting a sappy romance but was instead inundated with military strategy, historical and cultural knowledge and a healthy dose of humor sprinkled in. This story made me all the more interested in reading The Art of War by Sun Tzu. This is how you write a strong female lead. They don't need to be physically fighting and unrealistically flipping opponents left and right with a flick of their wrists or whatever. Bai Pingting shall linger in my memory for some time to come... So glad this was my first Chinese novel. It's shall always hold a special place in my heart.
Also known as "A Lonesome Fragrance Waiting to be Appreciated," this is a historical fiction coupled with a mixture of politics, tactics, bloodshed, and romance.
I have forgotten when and how I found this novel. It seems so long ago but even while it was still in the process of being translated into English I knew without a doubt that I will stick with this novel through the end because it was a gem. Beautiful even when hidden meanings, flavor and placement of words in Chinese were stripped and was replaced with a more understandable English. It has a blend I found completely endearing but what really strucks me the most is the profound way love and loyalty were shown, and the idea that one can learn to 'appreciate' oneself when one receives appreciation, hence the title. But the beauty of this novel does not end with addressing love and loyalty, it also speaks about freedom in every sense, the freedom to laugh, to choose happiness as an individual, and most importantly, the freedom to love. Gu fang bu zi shang showcased various themes ranging from the core of our soul up to patriotism. Throughout the novel, heartbreaks and tragedies circled the question: who will you choose, the future of your country or the love of a woman? Selflessness or selfishness? These do not only concern our protagonists but also the characters introduced in this novel. We were presented with multidimensional characters who reacted with varying degrees of love, pride, envy and more. Some, we will never understand but there are those we can sympathize.
I know some people consider romance as a "meh" genre but if ever any of you ever stumble on this piece of art, please, do try to read this because among other else, love, here, is realistic. Heartwrenchingly so, with deceptions and lies playing a role with the conclusion of a pair's love story.
Sigh. It was a fun read. Everytime I stop reading it was only because I have to reluctantly do something. You just can't stop reading until you know that Bai Pingting is going to be okay.
I was a little bit disappointed that Pingting had changed. Where was the strong, smart, and sassy girl that was present in volume 1? She was replaced by a submissive, timid girl who's own happiness was on the hands of a man. I know that the situation between couples is different from before and that the women today are way more empowered, but I just can't help give a disapproving sigh. Luckily (or unfortunately for Pingting), a series of events transpired to bring out her wits again.
I loved Pingting and Beijie in volume 1 but disliked them in the beginning of volume 2. It was only during the last half of the story the both of them grow as a character. Beijie was still the same lovestruck and handsome man. If all of the men in this world had half of Beijie's fierce loyalty and love for Pingting, we women wouldn't be so troublesome in the first place (Just kidding!... Or not haha).
And dammit! There were a lot of obstacles in the progress of Pingting and Beijie's rel't. It was like nothing good ever happened to the both of them (aside from Beijie realizing that he truly and deeply loves Pingting). It was kind of depressing and frustrating.
There were enough twists and turns to make you feel dizzy after reading. It definitely kept me on my toes since the plot was unpredictable. Some lines for me were too cheezy but it was okay. Overall, I still enjoy reading this series. I just hope there's a happy ending.
I didn't like the first part of this book so much because I kinda miss the strong Pingting from the previous volume but I do understand that she fell in love and sometimes, people do change a bit when they fall in love. But aside from that little complaint, I still enjoyed this volume a lot.
On a side note, I was googling about this book when I read that it will have a drama adaptation. it has already started filming last May. I was so excited to read that. Coz this novel will be so good if adapted very well. Additional to that, they casted Wallace Chung (!!!) as Chu Beijie and Angelababy as Bai Pingting. I LOVE the casts (although Angelababy seems to be too pretty to be Bai Pingting but whatever). This made me even more excited.
Volume 2 - basically a lot of heart break and a fair amount of violence against women. If you are in for volume 1 - then you'll stay for volume 2 and 3.
I was re-reading this because it is being made into a 50 episode tv series with the English title of "General and Me" with Angelababy and Wallace Chung. The trailer is up on YTube and it looks very good!
Sigh. A girl can dream a good romance (means IRL: Less heartache, less drama, less pain, less tears, less misunderstanding, less seperation, less waiting, more meeting, a lot simpler than the book ha ha ha)
The art is beautiful, the story is good. I love the portrayal of such an intelligent female character. I am equally happy with the passion and desire of the enemy general towards her.
4.5 I would have given this a 5, but Chu Bei Jie was very brutal towards Bai Ping Ting in the book when he held her captive. I watched the show before I read the book and saw lots of differences. I really liked the show much better, made CBJ more romantic and not a cruel killer as he is portrayed in the book. Since I read the translated version of the book, there were lots of mistakes and probably did not translate very well into English. Over all this book was great, though I thought the show was much better.