This was extremely frustrating to read, as the previous comment suggests, miscommunication was heavily abused as a plot device in this story. The premise and their back story held out for a more sentimental outlook on the progression, but the only thing we get are impulsive emotional miscommunications + bad timing. The historical setting aside, the story focused too much on the couple, other characters were really only relevant when the misunderstandings were to happen there wasn't even an inkling of a red thread. All in all overly dramatic, unrealistic and badly written.

... Last updated on December 16th, 2023, 8:35am

This is a polarizing one. It has many of the sweet spots I always look for in yaoi - powerful seme, mpreg, uke runs away... But it didn't quite satisfy me as much as I expected. So what's the catch? for one, the art is wonky, it starts marginally okay (but the seme was drawn gorgeously), and then drops a notch in quality for season 2, but while not unbearable, could have been a bit better. Secondly, the plot holes are huge here, and the world building simply stops existing after some time. I never figures out when was this happening? Was it in the 1920s? But why do they have modern guns then? What country is this? What is the power structure? What about Li Shao's family? His military background? So many questions that never get a proper answer and ti irked me quite a bit. Also, the time span of the manhwa is weird as heck. How much time does it pass between chapters? Do other events, not shown in the manhwa, happen in between due to the passage of time? And since the uke is a male prostitue, where are his clients?

These logistical problems aside, this manhwa also abuses the miscommunication and serendipity trope s bit too much IMHO. While I understand that one of the major points here is that we have two emotionally closed of, difficult people trying to communicate and failing at it time and time again, I still think this was taken to a too extreme limit. Some moment you'll just want to bash the uke's head to the wall, considering his totally irrational responses to things happening arround him. But okay, he is characterised as a man who purposefully put a lid on his expectations and happiness, as to not be dissapointed time and time again in his unfortunate life. And the seme, I really don't know what his problem is, but I can see the type of a man he manifests - a overtly rational, cold blooded, rigid and stern person hard on himself and everybody else. His parents are mentioned several times but never shown and I didn't like this - I truly wanted to see them, so see how they cope with having such a uptight son who can't seem to relax, and then easily falls prey to his passions and lusts.

I don't know exactly why, but this never became as good as it could have been. The main story was pretty good, and a great starting point to develop several quality storylines. Uke and seme together, uke and Director Jin, uke and his clients, seme and his military background.. But somehow all of hthis slips, and we get a often highly unsatisfying uke/seme push and pull. While, I repeat, I understand what they were getting at, it was low in the satisfaction stakes and high in frustration stakes. This opinion is highly subjective, but I truly think, objectively, they have crossed a fine line into oblivion. And the pace veers wildly between slow and fast, so this only added to by frustration.

Overall, it's still inetresting enough to warrant a reading, but not good enough as it should have been!