Those sanpaku eyes were long and narrow, tilted like willow shoots. There was viciousness in his charm and coldness in his delicacy.

- Yuwu, Chapter 13: Murong Lian

Shen Zechuan gives me Murong Lian vibes with how he can turn anything anyone says into something sexual AND I HATE THAT FOR ME

some dilfs dudes from Yu Wu

(Y)uwu: Remnants of Filth

Or, the novel I told myself I'd read the first 20 chapters of one night and then read the first 75 and then it was the wee hours of the morning. Oops.

It might be my favorite Meatbun novel thus far, though CFC is not finished yet, so we shall see. The angst was just perfectly my taste (chapter 56 killed me), so I was drawn in from the beginning, even if I was pretty consistently like this throughout reading: 

Gu Mang and Mo Xi are like an AU of Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji (with a little Jin Guangyao mixed into Gu Mang, imo). Bratty demonic-cultivation-associated boy and righteous boy who turns out to be horny for bratty boy whom the world hates. There are even Jin Guangshan, Jin Ling, and Jiang Cheng-esque characters. But, it’s not the same story, though there might be some inspiration. Each character feels completely their own, with realistic strengths and flaws and compelling goals driving them forwards through a terribly cruel world. No one established complex character was fully evil. 

The main two, Gu Mang and Mo Xi, were both instantly likable, pitiable, and easy to root for. The characters I hated at first (like Murong Lian) got fully explored to the point where it was impossible not to see them as human. And even though some twists with certain characters were obvious (Mengzhe not being a healer, for one; Meatbun really doesn’t trust healers does she?) the ultimate reveals were still satisfying. Mengzhe, again, in particular felt like it worked because it was an anticlimax... she wasn’t a Shi Mei-esque final villain, and there was still much good in her, but she was also not the saint she feigned being. But, that saintly part of her was still enough for her to not only achieve her goal (ruling), but to be encouraged to do better. 

The major twist was of course the fact that Gu Mang was no traitor at all. Not only did I feel this twist was earned, but ultimately necessary (the best kind of twist): it resonated with the themes, reinforcing them by offering us a new perspective. I'm actually not sure it would have worked for the story to keep him as guilty, if only because him being innocent actually offered far more of a challenge for Mo Xi than for him to be guilty. Gu Mang’s innocence made Mo Xi question exactly what/who his loyalty was to, and what really counted as betrayal. It made him realize he was a betrayer in many senses, and that was fascinating to me (yes, Gu Mang was my boy, but I loved Mo Xi too!). 

As for other side characters... Yue Chenqing was a precious baby, and Murong Chuyi and Jiang Yexue were definitely a side ship. As I read, I found myself comparing them to Mei Hanxue and Xue Meng from 2ha, so I thought, it’ll stay subtext. And then. It didn’t. And then. Surprise, they’re brothers but no one knew. And then. Surprise, one’s controlling the other. And then, surprise, they die together. But their deaths were so, so beautiful that I found myself actually crying as I read. 

While Jiang Yexue may have died a villain who needed to be stopped, he died knowing that he was loved, even for one moment, by the person he most wanted to love him in Murong Chuyi. In fact, Murong Chuyi’s sacrificial death to stop Jiang Yexue was an act of love, because he knew Jiang Yexue would be horrified if free from the demonic influence, because he knew Jiang Yexue was better than this. In stopping him, Murong Chuyi showed him that he too remembered the boy he spoke to in the snow that day. Their love story was clearly a tragic reflection of Gu Mang and Mo Xi’s, and so well integrated into the overall plot. Genuinely one of the most beautiful scenes I’ve read in fiction. 

Speaking of the boys who turned out to be brothers, the story offers interesting commentary on birth status and class, and even gender at times. Murong Lian and Gu Mang are brothers, yet one is a slave and one is not. Jiang Yexue and Yue Chenqing are brothers, but Jiang Yexue is scorned for being a bastard--yet he is still treated better than Gu Mang, because he wasn’t born a slave. And then you have Murong Chuyi, who is adopted into the family, but because of his blood is never fully accepted as a member of the family--and then it turns out he is a member of the family, conceived from his father’s r*pe of a poor girl, but no one even knew. 

Yet, class and blood are often performances more than anything else, as is loyalty towards a country. Lu Zhanjing might’ve been the one literally under control of the Zhenlong Chess Formation, but was not literally every character a part of a chess game? Even the ones who assumed they were chess masters ended up becoming pawns to another chess master. 

There was no end to a tangled web of players, and if you play the game of war and politics, you more often than not lose your freedom. You become a slave to a game master, and you don’t even know who it is you’re really serving. That’s fascinating political commentary. 

Of course, like Meatbun's other two novels, Yuwu makes copious use of alchemy:

the first chemical wedding/sex scene post-reuniting is literally taking place because of primal instincts on a demonic bat island, and I lost count of how often the term “primitive” was used.

Murong Lian is the body character to accompany the mind/soul and heart/spirit ones in Gu Mang and Mo Xi respectively;

Gu Mang is also associated with white, silver, water, and his mind is carved out;

Mo Xi is associated with red, gold, fire, and Gu Mang stabs his heart.

Meatbun seems to have an affinity for animal alchemical symbolism and within that an affinity for birds. There are so. many. phoenix references; Yue Chenqing is called the Little White Bird, etc. 

Of course, the reversal stone is literally the philosopher’s stone. 

I’ve spoken before about how I love seeing how a writer evolves through multiple works: you often see repeated elements or tropes that become increasingly refined, and you learn at least a little bit about what questions they ponder and what aspects of humanity they find fascinating. So I loved reading Yuwu after 2ha, and I’m even more excited to see where Meatbun goes with Case File Compendium now. 2ha’s sometimes clumsy thematic balance between the pure idealism of the love between the main couple she portrays and the bitter realism of the world was much better struck in Yuwu (which isn’t necessarily to say that I think Yuwu is technically better: 2ha was also a more ambitious novel in a lot of ways, and I’m still amazed that was her first!). While the flower twist bothered me in 2ha, the twists in Yuwu were fully earned, so I’m hopeful that the same will be the case for Case File Compendium. 

I talked about this briefly once before, but there's an element to Meatbun's writing that is... well, I know she herself called it melodrama, but I'm actually not sure that's exactly what I'd call it. Melodrama implies something unearned. I'd call it more 'heightened reality,' like what Dostoyevsky used in his works, wherein the stories--be they set in fantasy settings or a mirror of the real world like CFC--have exaggerated stakes and exaggerated character emotions to meet those stakes. However, the point of these exaggerated emotions isn't to wring out cheap tears from a reader, but instead used as a way to comment on the human being as a creature.

There's an element of the... again, for lack of a better term, I'll resort to 'Freudian id' (which again is better applied to patterns in stories than real life) to her writing. She's not afraid of writing about the very limits and depths a human heart can sink to, the edges of what a human mind and body can endure. It's certainly not to everyone's taste (trigger warnings are good), but there's something that resonates within me there, something real and honest, in a way that many novels peddling realism nowadays but doing so under a shiny gloss that makes them marketable (in the western market specifically) just don't hit. The rank ugliness makes the beauty shine brighter.

There's also an element I've noticed in her novels: it always comes back to the main couple in her stories. Every plot twist, character motion, is connected to their destiny as lovers, and while that's genuinely a technical positive (tight and neat writing), sometimes it can almost feel a little too much? I just am kind of like... let Princess Mengzhe have both sacrificed herself to heal Mo Xi and be poisoning Gu Mang, rather than Gu Mang have healed Mo Xi. (But, for this reason, I loved the inclusion of Lu Zhanjing’s character. He was loving and loved Gu Mang, and Gu Mang loved him (like a brother), and he was good.) Thematically, though, I get that every moment coming back to them ties into the idea of destiny, which is a Thing in her novels. This is an opinion and not a quality thing, to be clear: I am in general less prone to like the concept of fate/destined lovers than I am to like the existentialism of, say, MXTX’s novels. But if you do prefer destined lovers, it’s hard to do it better than Meatbun does. 

So anyways, yeah, highly recommend. 

Hi! I love everything you post and I think you're just so delightful! Wanted to ask - is yuwu worth the read? How does it compare to 2ha?

2ha spoilers //

hey anon!! ahhh you're so sweet, you're delightful too!!! ♥

I think yuwu definitely is worth the read!! compared to 2ha.... definitely more painful... lmao! there are some lighter arcs in 2ha that help make the pain more tolerable (farm arc, the chapters in the island after the wedding/when ranwan get together etc etc), and yuwu doesn't have any of that.... so it's pretty much all the pain in 2ha with little to no reprieve...........

if you're into how meatbun torture us (I know I am), then totally go for it! there's some political intrigue in it (not priest levels of intrigue, but intrigue still), and 2ha easter eggs!! so many of them!!!!!!!! 😭 also ..............omegaverse elements........?? yuwu is DELICIOUS

and the main couple............. DELICIOUS.......................... ximang is so so good............ so painful, I love them. also murong lian. the worst boy. I love him. let the world know I love him tons 🥺

ps: I never got to post these but here’s a pic of my (very messy) shelf with yuwu & 2ha physical version standees!!! I’m still waiting on 2ha vol 2 so these are all vol 1……… I have to get another shelf to put them once yuwu vol 2 releases too (which will be in November I think 😭)!

I read Yu Wu because I saw one of your posts but like can you help clarify the relationship between Jiang Yexue & Murong Chuyi? With all the reveals near the end, aren’t they blood-related?

Hey anon! Yeah, they're half brothers (and brothers to Yue Chenqing too). Murong Chuyi is the son of Yue Juntian with one of the Chu sisters from lin'an. Murong Chuyi had no idea about it until the trip to lin'an and if I'm not mistaken Jiang Yexue didn't know either, I think he died believing Chuyi was his adoptive uncle. Correct me if I'm wrong tho.

Alright, finished Yu Wu, so now we have our character breakdowns!

Our Main Cast:

Murong Lian: I am so serious when I say that a sad (not even tragic, just fucking “sucks I guess, dude” sad!) backstory and working with the MCs towards a mutually beneficial goal IS NOT A REDEMPTION ARC.

Yue Chenqing: a lesson in why ignorance is NOT bliss and you should NOT blindly follow whatever your elders say. (Especially if your “respectable elder” is a known rapist with children he don’t even know about under his own roof falling in love with each other 😬). I expected that he’d experience some traumatic bullshit, but holy shit?

Jiang Yexue: I knew there was something off about him, but holy shit????? Hope he rots in hell, but also, he was obviously tainted by that dark cultivation he took in to save his brother’s life, so maybe the real villain who needs to rot in hell is their rapist daddy 💁🏽‍♀️

Murong Chuyi: I knew he liked Yue Chenqing deep down and that something must have happened to make him turn on Jiang Yexue, but holy shit???? Anyways, hope he gets to beat that fool’s AND his rapist daddy’s asses in the afterlife before reincarnating into the most peaceful next life. (On another note, wtf is up with meatbun and jumping into blood pools????)

The emperor: I CALLED IT! A MOTHERFUCKING SNAKE AND A COWARD 🗣🗣🗣 IF YOU TRUSTED HIM AT ANY POINT, DON’T TALK TO ME 🗣🗣🗣

Guoshi of Liao/Hua Po’an: everyone is afraid of this super ultra powerful, seemingly invincible guoshi and ain’t none of y’all stopped to think, “wow, this is suspicious; wonder if that one villain IN ALL OUR STORIES maybe didn’t die, especially since we keep seeing hints that the one who “killed” him and died with him is ALSO not dead!” What foolishness… Anyways, man had plans on plans and still couldn’t predict human kindness, what a tool lmao

Princess Mengze: everyone was playing 3D chess with politics but bitch was on 4D; I was shook 😳

Gu Mang: MY BOY! Wwx if he was written into a trauma porn novel. Stuck. To. His. Convictions!!! Every reveal of his was a whammy on top of a whammy 😭😭😭 Thought he was out here being Naruto-level foolish without the protagonist halo, but he was really out here playing 4D chess on human morality with the best of them! GIVE HIM HIS FLOWERS 💐 💐💐

Mo Xi: love how he loves Gu Mang. Hate how goddamn naive he is. At some points, instead of feeling emotionally overwhelmed, I was just getting secondhand embarrassment. Would obviously NOT survive a political intrigue novel.

Honorable mentions:

Lu Zhanxing: his death fucking suuuuuucked, but he was a real one.

Li Wei: standing up to the emperor’s men to protect your lord, LET’S GOOOOOOOOOO

Lan’er (Changfeng-jun’s daughter): they didn’t have to do her like that… (also, is she still alive???? We just kinda drop her and never check back in????)

Madam Jiang/Su Yurou: wish I could be this unbothered in the face of conflict, while having the balls to defy the most terrifying not-quite-human in the known world 😭 glad she survived 💙

Jiang Fuli: fuck, I’m glad HE survived! He deserves it!

Hong Shao: she walked into death bravely and heartbrokenly, and I wish she didn’t have to. I hope she and Li Qingqian reincarnate into a better life where they grow to be the old man and hag together, like she dreamed…

Li Qingqian: the way he found out that in attempting to save Hong Shao, he had actually killed his love AND that her murderer “was” the man who saved him? I’m glad Su Yurou got to tell him the truth, and I hope he was able to reunite with Hong Shao in the afterlife

My thing with Yu Wu/Remnants of Filth:

The novel feels too much like it attempts political intrigue mixed in with cultivation action, and it fails at the former while making the latter weaker as a result. Also, the action is undercut too much by Mo Xi’s quite frankly boring domestic issues, and his internal struggles get old real quick when it doesn’t feel like growth happens for a while. In 2ha, I only accepted this seemingly stagnant growth in Mo Ran because of the back-to-back missions that kept piling and all the never-ending action. Also, 2ha is twice as long, and my reading benefitted from me being able to skip to Mo Ran acting like he had sense, which was halfway through the story; 1,500 more pages of story was left to sit wit Mo Ran 2.0.

In Yu Wu, it’s split up by hundreds of pages of “let’s give Gu Mang chores!” “Let’s convince people I don’t want to protect Gu Mang by always trying to publicly protect him!” “Let’s cry about how amnesiac Gu Mang is so different from old Gu Mang!” “Oh look, more chores!” Mo Xi doesn’t feel like he starts acting with sense until the last 600 pages, of which we get another, what, 100 pages of domestic fluff? And then we pingpong back and forth between real shit and domestic fluff with amnesiac Gu Mang pt. 2 before the climax begins. There’s not enough time for me to sit with a Mo Xi putting clues together (for which he doesn’t, he’s just told things) and he and Gu Mang working as a team, or at least one of them competently trying to discover shit (which tbh would only be Gu Mang, but unfortunately the narration is mostly stuck to Mo Xi…).

I also can’t fully enjoy Mo Xi struggling with his morals, love for Gu Mang, and hatred of Gu Mang’s “treachery” when the only sure actions he takes makes him look like an idiot waiting to be slaughtered by the rest of the imperial court. I mean, grievously injuring yourself as if that’s something Gu Mang would want or that it would help his cause in any way, then waltzing into a torture session sanctioned by the emperor that was occurring while you were injuring yourself for no goddamn reason to rescue the most hated man in your country? I almost died of secondhand embarrassment, like??? Why would Meatbun make him do something so idiotic???? When Chu Wanning rescues Mo Ran from his execution in 2ha at the hands of the descendants of the gods who nobody in the cultivation world dared to go against, he took Mo Ran to hide, and they were both shunned by the greater cultivation world (but not by the people who knew them and their goodness). In Yu Wu, Meatbun was right to say that Mo Xi’s 3-day “house arrest” was a mind-boggling and anticlimactic conclusion to PUBLICLY GOING AGAINST THE EMPEROR, HOLY SHIT. Like, Meatbun obviously wanted to include political intrigue, but girl you cannot write political intrigue!!!

And on that note: I feel like we are given vital pieces of information entirely too late. Gu Mang having a mother figure he looked up to could have probably been mentioned at least once earlier than it was. In 2ha, we learn about Mo Ran’s background early on, but it’s how the story begins to change with more detail and color that we readers find out that, though we’ve known this story from the beginning, we didn’t actually know shit about Mo Ran’s story. In Yu Wu, we’re told Gu Mang is an orphan with only another similarly-aged slave as a friend; Aunt Li comes in way too late to really reap the satisfaction of foreshadowing. More hints about Princess Mengze’s true nature could have either 1) been dropped earlier or 2) been dropped better (having a servant say that a woman giving up on her feelings feels “too fake” sounds more like misogyny than a hint…). The treachery of the emperor, ugh… now for me, the “hints” that he was gonna be a bad guy looked exactly like the hints that Murong Lian was gonna be redeemed, and I didn’t like that one bit. Murong Lian does get redeemed, and the emperor dies a villain. The emperor being cruel and callous in public but a simpering mess in private felt like it should have been reversed, because him treating his court like entertainment did not give me the “I fear for their approval” vibe that was apparently the emperor’s whole hangup. And going back to Murong Lian: that wasn’t a redemption arc. “Mommy didn’t like me” is not a redemption arc to redeem a character WHO GLEEFULLY TORTURES SLAVES AND IS GLEEFULLY AN ENSLAVER, and Meatbun should know better because no character in 2ha that did anything comparable to Murong Lian got redeemed or forgiven by in-novel characters. So wtf happened here?

Also, the thing that was never fully redeemed for Murong Lian and also my biggest gripe of the book: Gu Mang. I absolutely love his character. Love how his hidden memories are hiding like actual layers of secrets upon secrets. Love finding out what he was truly thinking and going through, but I hate how OTHER PEOPLE have to put the pieces together for Mo Xi because he’s too much of an idiot blinded by his own emotions to think about anyone’s motivations and be proactive in discovering the truth. But the worst thing is how Gu Mang gets put into so many situations of torture by every character, including Mo Xi, for seemingly no reason other than us readers getting to watch him be tortured as an amnesiac who acts like a child. Most of the time I felt like that Simpsons meme where the kids are begging for someone to stop being beat cause “he’s already dead!” Anytime a new character showed up that Mo Xi didn’t already trust, I would think “oh great, another Gu-Mang-gets-tortured! arc…” That’s not enjoyable, for me. Especially given at the end, Gu Mang is actually revealed to be one of the smartest, most tenacious characters in the whole book. Mo Xi’s character feels weak next to that, and it makes the whole book feel weak as a result.

This would have likely been a better read if the narration followed Gu Mang instead of Mo Xi.