SVSSS Read Along

[x_los]

excaliburedpan and I both happen to be reading this danmei book at the moment, so I thought I'd throw up a post for any comments if anyone wants to read along now or later, and shove my locked-twitter read-along thoughts somewhere more accessible. I'm going to break it up by blocks of chapters, then do an Overall Thoughts subsection. Assume spoilers. 

There are 81 novel chapters, then Extras. 

Comments

Chapters 51-55

[x_los]

此梦堪怜 【This Piteous Dream】
春山遗恨 【Eternal Regret of Chunshan】

Here the Faelcity translation (a WIP) stops and we switch back to the second of the three translations:

Chapter 53: Master and Disciple Meet Again
Chapter 54 – Unhappy Reunion
Chapter 55 – Life Under House Arrest

Re: Chapters 51-55

[x_los]

- 'Shen Qingiu’s worldview that had already been set for the past twenty-plus years' this is interesting, bc he's spent like 11 years here (3 teaching Binghe, 3 Abyss/Huan Huan period, 5 body maturing), so '20 plus' rather than '30 plus' puts his death pre-20?

arguably, he's not counting the maturation period--how conscious was he during that, if at all? And the book ran over 4 years, and was done when he died. Did he START reading this at like 15?

- Whelp I’ve reached the end of this whole first partial translation, and with it, the embarrassing ballad, which is the height of comedy

- Can’t believe he RAN to a brothel to try and fuck the gay away (his pretexts are such shit—what reputation protection, ppl already thought you went to brothels??), only to get ballad blocked

- 30 year old gay virgin, this walk in closet of a man

- yeah that worm was indeed Binghe's fucked-face cousin, who has since unfucked his face. Still not sure how he knows this is SQQ in a different body, but ok.

- 'Who wrote this ballad? What mountain was Chunshan referring to?

Qing Jing Peak?

Cang Qiong Mountain?

The Cang Qiong Mountain sect can wipe out your entire family, okay?!'

tfw you were not prepared for the explicit filk

- omfg this brothel snake plot is so good?? bc people don't pay attention to servants/girls/prostitutes. what a champ.

- "A sharp hiss came from the enormous snake’s mouth, and it shook its head and thrashed its tail in the street. Shen Qingqiu decided to draw him away from places where there were a lot of people, and he quickly leaped lightly onto its head. As long as the snake went in the wrong direction or was about to crash into pedestrians or houses, Shen Qingqiu would jab the fan into the side of its head. The snake’s scales were like armor, creating an enormous rumbling noise as it crawled along the floor. Shen Qingqiu often had to pour large amounts of spiritual energy into the fan to make it change direction, and so he forcefully drove the snake outside of the town."

you say you're not gay but then you spend the afternoon riding the big snake's head in public w h a t i s t h e t r u t h

- I never see Qi Qingqi in fic and it's a fucking shame because she is GREAT. qi qingqi came from fucking Meishan, where the bitch factory is, and I love that for her.

- Binghe's ENTIRE 'get shizun back' plan is based on believing SQQ will get away from his captor, suspect/hear the peak is getting fucked, RUN back and intervene. every step is based on SQQ being v proactive: his agency is key, &he constantly downplays it

- 'Liu Qingge said: “You’re afraid of being a burden on Cang Qiong Mountain sect but Cang Qiong Mountain sect isn’t necessarily afraid of this burden.”

Luo Binghe sneered: “How many unbroken ribs do you have left?”'

THIS CUNT

- "Shang Qinghua started. “You really have some good eyes, truly a faithful reader of mine. I’ll tell you, originally, I planned on unfolding the framework of the plot to set Bing-ge’s dad as the BOSS, but as I was writing, my computer died and I lost my outline, and a ton of the details were lost. And at the time the reviews section all wanted a different plotline, the battle of Bing-ge invading a hundred flowers, you understand. A whole hundred sacred flower spirits who had never seen a man since birth, and he dealt with all of them. Cucumber bro, you know how much I suffered to write the hundred flower buds blooming in concert section, but you still roast me…”"

...all this from poor back-up habits.

- I love that any time SQQ does anything cool like the sword hold Binghe is just fucking jazzed like 'yes, threaten my life baby, VERY hot--'

Re: Chapters 51-55

[x_los]

I think it's interesting that in his original world, Yuan was really alienated from his own desires: an intelligent person rendered detached and quite unambitious. IN SVSSS, however, he grows out of a lot of his laziness (and much of that wasn't quite quite laziness so much as a lack of purpose) and grows up: this transmigration absolutely gives Yuan himself.

He does well enough as a teacher that NYY and MF are both way more trained than they ever used to be and fervent in his defence. We know from the dream sequences that SQQ trained Binghe extensively. (Mari suggests there was a fair amount of group training as well, because in the extras other students know his teaching methods.) He 'read a lot', and a lot of what he read was: bestiaries, which come into play. (Mari comments that the time skips make it very easy to undermine SQQ's work.) He launches himself back into the pitch of cultivation world drama the second he has a new body, on behalf of Peak students.

I feel we can't trust the majority of SQQ's commentary on himself, about his feelings or his actions. Instead we're left relying on the evidence of the text: how the world reacts to him, and the consequences of his actions. For me, the whole crux of the narrative is that SQQ doesn't know himself well and constantly underplays his own importance. I struggle to think of plot events where he's not very engaged and active, except while in mourning (he's even a bit mad at NYY for not mourning LBH enough) and, arguably, in denial about what's coming directly pre-Abyss. If he's deeply in denial about his feelings/others' feelings for him, I think you have to accept that as a phenomenon with a lot of other related ramifications for him.

Even a thought like 'oh I can get Binghe to cook for me' is always sliced through with guilt and embarrassment, and something of a joke at his own expense, even as it's earnest: something he wants, and something Binghe wants to do, and potentially a good idea to build a bond between them and make him safer (people are compassionate towards those they've helped--there's a chance Binghe would later feel taken advantage of because he'd done this, but largely people are inclined to be kind to and see good in others' they've aided).