The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish
by Xue Shan Fei Hu
Genres: Fantasy, Light Novels, RomancePages: 443
Series: The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish #4
Rating:
Synopsis:STILL WATERS RUN DEEP
With their union blessed by the emperor and four baby heirs in tow, Prince Jing is well on his way to clinching the position of crown prince. But Li Yu canât pat himself on the back for a job well done just yet! Prince Jingâs crafty brother still lurks in the shadows plotting against him.
As Li Yu dives deeper into the sixth princeâs schemes, he uncovers a dastardly conspiracy that ripples from Prince Jingâs childhood, forming a tsunami poised to plunge the imperial palace (and its allies) into total chaos! Li Yu will have to use all the fishy tricks at his disposal if he wants to keep his new family safe!
The fourth volume of The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish brings the whole thing to an end and wraps it up neatly with a bow, but dang, there’s a lot that happens in this volume still. After all, Prince Jing isn’t the crown prince yet, Li Yu still wants to have another baby, and there are those mysterious secrets that the fish-scamming system keeps showing him.
In general, I loved it. The babies are adorable, Li Yu and Mu Tianchi’s bond has become really strong (if sometimes in need of a tad more communication), and the political plot all works out and some of the secrets start to make sense.
I did want to address one thing, though: in this volume, the disabled tyrant is cured, in fact. Mu Tianchi’s mutism isn’t genetic, but has been caused by a low-dose poison he was given at birth. Once the poison is discovered and cured, he begins to be able to speak. You could argue that this is plot-necessary because otherwise he couldn’t become the emperor (at least not without becoming a tyrant), and also that Chinese culture isn’t in quite the same place about stuff like disability — but it’s still worth knowing, and worth knowing as well that there’s a brief mention of Li Yu telling the children that Mu Tianchi isn’t “different”, he’s “just sick”, implying it would be bad if he was disabled.
In the series as a whole, Li Yu never looks down on Mu Tianchi for being mute, and Mu Tianchi is always very capable — it’s just that it’s unacceptable for the emperor’s heir to be unable to speak. That said, that scene where Li Yu tries to explain away disability so as not to make the children think their dad is “different” suggests the author might treat permanent disability quite differently. So tread with care: there are some not-great attitudes toward disability swimming around the edges of the story and occasionally casting some shadows.
There are a few things that don’t entirely add up, plot-wise — e.g. the babies’ paternity was already confirmed on birth: Mu Tianchi offered his own blood for it rather than disturb Li Yu for his, I remember that scene clearly. Was that never communicated to the emperor? Not that he ever seems to genuinely doubt the children’s paternity anyway, but that whole bit is never mentioned as a reason why.
…But mostly I just loved it, really. It’s very sweet.
Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)
