Chinese GL

I read 19 baihe novels and two baihe novellas this year. Here's the full list in order of when I read them, with links to my reviews where available.

( Read more; spoilers have been kept to a minimum )

If I were giving out awards:

Best reads: To Embers We Return, Ravenous, The Little Alpaca.
Compact and compelling: Scrapped, A Broken Bough.
Fun and mostly light: Hunger. Lust.
Biggest letdowns: Above the Fates, The Wayward Disciple.
LET ME EDIT YOU: In Love with a Substitute.

The Guest (嘉宾, pinyin: jiabin) turned out to be very different from I Think About You Day and Night (朝思慕暖, pinyin: zhao si mu nuan), the last Yu Shuang novel I read. Clocking in at a slim (by webnovel standards) 82k words, it's rather muted in terms of mood, and strives for realism rather than the indulgent drama stylings of I Think About You Day and Night. Unlike the latter novel, it has a tragic ending.

The main character of The Guest, from whose (fairly tight) POV much of the novel is told, is Lan Yan, an interior designer who has just returned to China from Canada, where her mother lives and where she went to university (she also finished her high school education there, though she started that in China, for reasons that will become obvious). At the start of the novel, Lan Yan is approached by a high school classmate, Chen Lin, who wants Lan Yan to redecorate the apartment she's just bought with her fiancé, which they plan to move into right after their impending wedding. Chen Lin also brings Lan Yan a second client: Jiang Jinyue, another high school classmate, who is also Lan Yan's high school girlfriend. Like Chen Lin, Jiang Jinyue is also recently engaged (to a man named Yu He) and she, too, wants Lan Yan to redecorate the apartment they'll be moving into after their wedding. And while Lan Yan is clearly still very hung up on her relationship with Jiang Jinyue, Jiang Jinyue has seemingly put it all behind her, and treats Lan Yan as if she were just another old friend from high school.

( Read more; some spoilers )

I read the Chinese original of the novel here on JJWXC. The novel is named after the song 'The Guest' by the Chinese singer Zhang Yuan, which is sung from the perspective of a man who has been invited to attend his ex-girlfriend's wedding.