Honestly I picked up Zhen Hun just because I got headache reading the first 20 chapter of Sha Po Lang, and I didn’t want to continue Mo Du just yet, because the translation was only up to 69^th chapter, and I didn’t want to get a cliff hanger in the middle of a case story. I didn’t know how or why I watched the drama first; it was just randomly popped out on my Twitter timeline, and I was like “oh, so there’s a drama for this? It wouldn’t hurt to watch it and not get attached with it, would it?”

And that, folks, how I couldn’t get rid of Bai Yu and Zhu Yi Long’s face out of my mind until today.

(Warning: this is a Long rant)

Zhen Hun, or alternatively, Guardian, is a danmei novel written by Priest. There’s a drama adaptation of it, you can easily search it up on Youtube (bless.) (There will be another Priest adaptation coming up, either this year or the year after this, titled Legend of Fei. It’s not a BL, if it’s not your preference.) There’s no official English translation of the novel, as far as I know, but the fan-translation is already completed! You can find it on Twitter easily enough, I guess. You can find the summary of the book here: https://www.novelupdates.com/series/guardian/ because I suck at writing summary and I don’t want to add 500 words just for summary lol sorry.

Let’s just dive into the review, and please mind there will be spoilers inside!

Drama Adaptation

Guardian the Adaptation is ok, though honestly speaking, Chen Qing Ling (MDZS drama adaptation) has done better in several aspects. Well, you cannot actually compare them together, but, like, in the way the drama was shot, or the wardrobe, or the soundtrack, generally I would vote CQL higher than Guardian. Not that I have something against Bai Yu and Zhu Yi Long singing, no. Both adaptations are also presenting their female characters more than the original novel does! Now, that’s what we call a plus point.

Apparently, because I also watch Mo Dao Zu Shi’s drama before I actually read the novel, I sort of expecting Zhen Hun to be similar. Chen Qing Ling’s storyline is basically the same as how the novel goes; even making it better in several aspects, despite of the censorship. I’m talking about how the female characters are badass in the adaptation, when in the novel they are barely there, yes. I was enjoying the show, and cried once (at the end of the series), and I decided to pick up the novel because 1) I was confused with several things in the drama, and 2) the fan-translation is just finished several days before I finish the adaptation! I thought, like MDZS and other novel-adaptation film/series, the book would clear up several confusions of mine.

Oh, I was wrong.

Confused Reading Experience

Plot-wise, how the adaptation goes doesn’t really stray far from the book. Or, maybe it does stray that far? It is like if Little Red Riding Hood’s fox is actually a kraken instead of actual fox, and the grandma is actually an alien instead of a human; and the scriptwriter keeps the story of how Little Red is going to her Alien Grandma’s house and meets a Kraken, but altering several things like Little Red’s scarf is Yellow, and the Kraken doesn’t eat Alien Grandma and pretend to be her like in the actual story, but waiting for the Little Red outside the house instead.

I believe that small story doesn’t really explain things, huh. I will try my best to explain how the drama somehow alter a few—no, a Lot of things. Mainly it’s about the characters; it’s like the scriptwriter writes a whole new character out of the original one. It’s almost like a fanfiction, honestly.

For example, the scriptwriter keeps how Zhao Yunlan is Kunlun, but they make it that Zhao Yunlan transported back centuries ago to be a fake Kunlun (because the original Kunlun is, I don’t remember, dead?) and that’s how Shen Wei remembers him as Kunlun. In the book, Zhao Yunlan is Kunlun. He is the incarnation of Kunlun the mountain god. Another example is that Chu Shuzhi is written as a Dixingian criminal, while in the book he is actually a Corpse King.

Ha, I forgot the major difference that can make the drama become a whole another story and not an adaptation: Aliens!

In the drama-verse, the world’s inhabitants are Dixingian (a different species of human; they are born with special abilities, different in each person, like controlling fire or superpower) and Haixingian (basically normal human). In the novel-verse everyone is human. There are ghosts and deities, and Zhu Hong is still a snake-shifter, but basically it’s your average modern alternate universe with a dash of mythological concept.

Yes, the best word to conceptualise the difference is maybe with calling the drama adaptation the fanfiction of novel Guardian. Which bring us to the next topic, on how the reduction (can I say it as a reduction???) of the plot and story are actually taking out all the interesting part of the novel. I am glad, really, really glad, for deciding to pick up the novel and not sticking only to the adaptation, because, boy, I will miss a Lot of things.

The Novel

While the drama adaptation seems like a modern detective drama with a dash of supernatural beings and aliens (don’t forget the alien, folks!) the novel is actually about Chinese mythology. If I have to take a western example here, perhaps it is Rick Riordan’s books. Percy Jackson and the Olympians series is a rewrite of Greek Mythology; while Zhen Hun is a rewrite of Chinese creation story.

Okay, a quick disclaimer: from here please correct me if I am wrong, because honestly I have no idea and not familiar at all with Chinese mythology; the story of Zeus’ cannot keeping his pants for himself pops out more than the story of how Pangu creating earth. I am as confused as a chameleon in a bag of Skittles while reading this, because I was too lazy to go back and forth to Wikipedia as I read and ended up not understanding anything. Up until the day I write this, I haven’t had the time to read Chinese mythology page on Wikipedia; it’s already opened in my tab for a week now, unread. It’s not like I want to review the storyline, though. It’s just another episode of ‘I didn’t expect this in a bl novel’ and me falling deeper and deeper into this abyss.

Just like what I wrote in my live-reading thread on Twitter, the adaptation doesn’t do the story justice! To summarize, it’s a beautiful creation story, with sprinkles of romance here and there between two deities that not supposed to be together, and together, heroically saving the world from crumbling down, literally. I’d say you need to at least familiarise yourself with Chinese mythology first, at least knowing the god’s name and what they do, for a smoother reading experience and drown yourself in the Angst of chapter 105.

Honestly, I cannot write much on how the story goes because I am still 70% confused, though I get the big picture and figure out the storyline. This is definitely going into my re-reading list, after SVSSS, and after I read and familiarise myself with Chinese mythology.

It’s just—sigh. The story is beautiful, it’s absolutely great, with the reincarnation and all, and how Zhao Yunlan get to see how Shen Wei is created from nothingness (not really nothingness, but still, nothing), and there’s this scene where Zhao Yunlan is in the deep of darkness, which immediately reminded me of Narnia’s creation scene in The Magician’s Nephew.

I guess a donghua adaptation will be able to explore the story more, and maybe this time actually stick to the actual storyline. I’m absolutely aware of the limitation of drama adaptation, and the production team giving us Shen Wei transporting himself to Dixing is already good. Donghua adaptation, then, can make the impossibles in drama adaptation become possible, lol.

The Characters and Other Technical Things

I feel like Zhen Hun is not a character-driven work. What I mean by that is that Zhen Hun is more to the plot, more to the external conflict rather than internal conflict. It’s different from Heaven Official’s Blessing, in which I decide that it’s a character-driven work, because the internal conflict is very significant to the plot.

It doesn’t mean that Zhen Hun’s character is written badly, though! Both the main characters are round and dynamic characters, especially Shen Wei. I like how Shen Wei is subtly written as a scary and possessive person (person???), and his actions are somewhat borderline creepy. Hm, wait, I feel like he can pass as a vampire in Twilight-verse, because he is very polite and able to conceal himself from creeping—no, watching over Zhao Yunlan’s Kunlun reincarnation for ages. Wow, Shen Wei, totally not creepy.

Plus point for this novel: the papapa scene is there, but it’s your usual fade-to-black scene. It’s plus point for me because I don’t have to read a painful sex scene without lubrication or preparation first! (side eyeing MDZS)

Another thing that I like is how Priest writes her story. Maybe this is Asian-literature thing, but I keep getting the feeling of watching anime in words. This time, it’s the usage of POV in between the scenes. The novel is written in third person knows-it-all POV, and Priest uses this to navigate between the scenes. It’s basically a jump-cut, like this excerpt from chapter 7.

Context: Guo Changcheng passes out (because it’s only chapter 7, he’s basically a newbie, lol), and Zhao Yunlan with Daqing leave him and investigate a grudge spirit on the rooftop. Zhao Yunlan is almost thrown off of the rooftop, and Prof Shen is saving him. (Excerpt taken from RainbowSe7en fan-translation)

“He [Zhao Yunlan] glances at Professor Shen, who makes no reaction, and so the Chief supports the fragile girl by the shoulder and brings her downstairs.

Downstairs, the unconscious Guo Changcheng is still lying flat on the ground. Daqing the cat runs forward and wakes him up with a few mighty cat punches.”

See, it’s your usual jump-cut, but it feels endearing somehow. I don’t know how to explain it clearly, but it’s great. I love this feeling.

Another thing that I like, still taken from RainbowSe7en fan-translation:

“The air conditioner makes a soft clanking sound, and switches to warm air mode.”

The context here is the Ghost Slayer a.k.a. Shen Wei enters the room, and because he is from Hell, the temperature automatically drops with him; it becomes chilly.

Quoting myself on my live-reading thread, ‘this detail is somehow very endearing; like, there’s some old fancy ghost slayer lord coming and making everything cold like dementor but the aircon is unbothered. And switches to warm air mode.’

If I remember correctly, there’s a lot of narration like this later in the story. Somehow it creates a sense of isolation, especially in this scene, and it’s a smart narration to describe how this person who just come in is otherworldly, told in the point of view of inanimate object, and how this inanimate object also adjusting to Shen Wei’s chilliness with switching itself to warm mode. But, also, because it’s an inanimate object, it doesn’t have anything to do with this newcomer, the aircon just need to switch to warm mode because it’s too chilly, and it’s just its job to switch to warm mode if the air temperature is too low.

I don’t know if that make sense, but I love that scene. I don’t know why.

Overall,

Zhen Hun is great, absolutely love it, maybe coming second or third in my top danmei list, after TGCF obviously. This novel adds my pettiness to learn Chinese so I will be able to read this in its original language, but, man, Chinese is hard.

Trigger warning? I don’t think there are note-worthy trigger warning applies here. A very, very subtle hint of Corpse King in a relationship with human, but it’s barely there. Oh, there’s a mention of Corpse King devouring corpse if I’m not mistaken, but it’s only a single scene. Also, Zhao Yunlan himself is a big warning for people who don’t like flirty people bullshiting here and there, lol. Also maybe Shen Wei’s creepiness, lol.

I may be re-read this again, after getting some knowledge on Chinese mythology, lol. I don’t mind re-reading this, though! It has been a fun read, it’s light enough if you don’t consider the whole creation story and mythological aspect of it or if you are already familiar with it. The chance of me re-reading this is definitely higher than me re-reading 2ha.

Next up in my danmei list: another Priest work! Still waiting for Mo Du, but I will pick up something else in the process. I don’t want to read Sha Po Lang yet… It’s heavy with political affair, my brain is overwhelmed!