Dandere General and his Lord / The General Is Often Bullied Till He Cries 将军总被欺负哭 by 龚心文 Gong Xin Wen (HE)

This is my virgin attempt at reading a novel written by 龚心文 (Gong Xin Wen), and although I cannot, for the life of me, recall why I picked up this novel, I am happy to report that I am extremely, extremely pleased that I did! Now, the premise / setting of the novel really isn't something special, or out of the ordinary - our female lead, Cheng Qian Ye, is a modern female who traveled through time, and found herself right smack in the middle of a coup, with her twin brother, the Lord of Jin, having been overthrown and poisoned to death. As the Princess of Jin, our female lead is left with no choice but to commit suicide by hanging herself, in order to preserve the 'dignity' of the royal family of Jin - and, it is under such circumstances that our female lead is forced to impersonate her brother, and take the role of the Lord of Jin.

However, times are hard, and, having assumed the role of the Lord of Jin, our female lead finds herself right smack in the middle of the Warring States Period, when various warlords have declared their defiance (and rebellion) against their foreign ruler, and are scrambling to assemble troops to conquer as much land as possible. Our female lead, being a modern female who has lived her life in peace-time, is unfortunately clueless about ancient warfare, and how to govern, or lead, a country. However, not all hope is lost, as, having time traveled from the modern times, she has been granted a "special ability" - an uncanny ability to see the auras, abilities, and characters of various people manifested as solid "colors" which form halos around such people. The more outstanding, and capable the person is, the 'clearer', brighter and sharper the colors are; and it is under such circumstances that our female lead meets our male lead - Mo Qiao Sheng - a lowly slave belonging to a fellow warlord, who constantly emits a bright, austere Cerulean blue. As a lowly slave who had completed an outstanding performance in the latest battle, Mo Qiao Sheng is placed in the unfortunate situation of being "offered" as a 'play-thing'/'object of curiosity' from his owner to the fellow warlords for pleasure, and, just as our male lead has lost all hope and is in the throes of despair, our female lead steps in and 'claims' him for that night (thus saving him from humiliation and torture under the hands of her other fellow warlords).

As the novel progresses, our female lead gradually adopts a more positive mindset, and embarks on her journey to strengthen the country of Jin (by making full use of her ability to canvass around herself people of outstanding and extraordinary capabilities). Whilst our female lead does indeed possess a 'golden finger' that allows her to resolve all issues with ease (which I typically dislike in my novels), I find myself being able to better accept this in The General Is Often Bullied Till He Cries, as the author has offered a relatively satisfactory explanation for the female lead's smooth sailing journey. All in all, an extremely easy read with an interesting premise and supremely cute interactions between our leads.