There are 2 people whom Mu Huan Qing does not ever want to meet again – first is the Emperor who messed up her life with his lousy matchmaking skills (he has none to be accurate), and second is the Honorable Duke of Zhen Yuan, who was ordered to marry her (no thanks to the first).
Because of this marriage, he cannot marry his beloved cousin and his sweetheart can only ever be his concubine at best. Although he has no choice over his own wife, he can choose to ignore and disregard the woman he marries, even exile her to live in the countryside.
And despite being abandoned and giving birth to a daughter, Mu Huan Qing is neither discouraged nor afraid. She does not love Fu Yan Lin in the first place and can empathize his dislike of her. Furthermore, his lack of concern gives her the opportunity to live the way she wants so it is actually not too bad a thing.
Faced with these 2 seemingly parallel lines who are contented to stay apart, just how is a meddling demon supposed to get them back together?
I must state upfront that most novels seems the same to me these days. I am not sure if I am really numb, or if the novels I read are really mediocre, but I am just not very reliable in differentiating very good from good (or even bad) novels, that’s all I’m saying.
This story is actually quite mediocre in my opinion but despite that, I enjoyed reading this story and would recommend it if you are looking for a short novel set in ancient times. It is not very angsty but it is enough for you to feel sorry for Mu Huan Qing. She is resourceful and strong – she calls herself a daughter of the grasslands –with a heart and mind as wide as the grasslands itself. Despite being forced into marrying the “most eligible bachelor” of her time and ended up suffering, she is still able to carve out a niche for herself. And though Fu Yan Lin is a louse for the first half of the story, he did shine through in the second half and win Mu Huan Qing over with his sincerity.
Besides the main couple, I like the side characters too. This is the second story of a trilogy where the running theme is a demon (He Guan) who is supposed to help fated lovers get together. He Guan used to be a drop-dead gorgeous man who for whatever reason, ended up trapped in a hairpin after he died. Each time he is ‘awaken’, his job is to repair the red-thread of the destined woman who spills blood on his hairpin. This story started when he gets awaken by a 3-year old (Mu Huan Qing’s daughter). When he realized what is going on, he freaks out as he wonders just how he is supposed to fixed the love life of a toddler, ha-ha.
In the first story of the trilogy, he is pretty weak and can only manifest as an eye most of the time. After he has repaired enough red threads, he gains more power and can appear as a butterfly then subsequently, as a human being. He plays a very small role in this story but his interactions with Dou Dou are pretty cute. The author mentioned in the afternote that they will be the next OTP in the third installation of the Demonic Hairpin series and I’m looking forward to the next book. Hope you like this story!
Its good! Short yet flowing well
I love the way story flowing fast
And the dialogue between her child with the demon
OMG keep me smiling while reading this!
I just finished reading this through the miracle? curse? of machine translation and if it can shine through that fog, it’s good. Lightweight but with a lot of background on the different characters and their motivation. I’d look for the other books in the series.
I enjoyed the story. Simple and sweet. What is the next novel in this series ? Is it published yet ?
How did the ML fall for MC??? I mean she is being exiled
Rena, he falls for her after they meet again. During her exil.
Can anyone tell me the titel of the first book of this series, please?
The first novel is 伴君如伴虎 (direct translation is something like: To love my husband is like loving a tiger). The third novel is 姑娘来收妖 (The Maiden tames the Demon).
Does anyone know the Vietnamese title for this? Or the other novels: To love my husband is like loving a tiger or The Maiden Tames the Demon?
Just read this book! Not that big of a fan. These two people were vividly-painted characters. I love the female lead’s unflappable and calm nature. She is able to deal with adversaries as they come and emerge victorious – very admirable. The fact that she singlehandedly brought up her child was also another feat that not many could do. But when you paint such a dynamic character, you need to match her with an equal – and that is where the male lead falls short. Sure, he is handsome, sharp, cunning – your regular C-novel male lead. But at the beginning, he wasn’t into the female lead at all. They existed on 2 parallel lines, not crossing even though they were married. And he pretty much allowed her to be exiled even though he knew she wasn’t guilty. Now, she took it graciously and negotiated some very intriguing terms. Now, the male lead, if he had any sense at all, will dig further to understand her motivations (even if he had no interest in her at all). He did not and they were not in contact for 4 whole years. Then when they met again, they clashed and when he found out about her and the child, he kinda made a switch and decided that he liked her. Then he started to pursue her. And she eventually caved. Wpuld have loved to see how they clashed as individuals and how they matched. And the part about his cousin was iffy too. Didn’t fully explain how their relationship ended and it was glossed over.
The little girl and He Guan didn’t really push these 2 together much – he orchestrated their initial meeting but after that it was pretty much the male lead doing the work.