Thought this was surprisingly slow but I don’t really mind given how seven seas divides danmei novels. Anyway, more relationship dynamics are established. We get to follow Gu Mang’s POV at around the 50? 60% mark? Not to be dramatic but it was a game changer. As entertaining and interesting as Mo Xi is, there is only so much of his POV I can take. So we get a diff flavor of angst now. Delicious. There are some more threads that I’m waiting for the story to pick up on so I feel like it’s impossible to rate this any higher. It is what it is. 

Btw as much as I appreciated the Hong Shao arc, the mystery was a slog and a half to get through with minimal payoff. Yes, it helped demonstrate how messed up the Liao Kingdom is and create more tension surrounding that mystery. It also gave us a glimpse into Mo Xi’s personality and his and Gu Mang’s past and the Yue Clan family dynamics, but the latter three were established in much better and more efficient ways outside of that arc. There’s really not much we accomplished from that. I’m not saying the arc was pointless. It just could have used some editing at the beginning.

There aren’t really many loose threads from that arc either. And the ones that weren’t fully resolved are either not very compelling or the story is taking way too long to pick up on them again in favor of Gu Mang gaining his memories at a somewhat unprecedented rate. Did I miss something??