Mistakenly Saving the Villain

by Feng Yu Nie

Synopsis:

SOME MISTAKES ARE DESTINY

After a dramatic confrontation with An Long, Song Qingshi and Yue Wuhuan finally begin to speak openly about their feelings. Their relationship deepens—an oasis of tenderness in a world that has offered them little peace.

But shadows remain. Even with treatment, Yue Wuhuan’s illness still festers, and Song Qingshi faces his own sickness: the slow collapse of his cultivation. Worse yet, the system—the mysterious voice that first bound him to this story—is far from satisfied with his failure to save the “right” person.

As the truth behind Song Qingshi’s biggest mistake unravels, so does reality itself. Perhaps he and Yue Wuhuan are nothing more than puppets of fate, destined to be twisted and broken by the heavens. Is anything in the world strong enough to break that cycle?

Volume three of Mistakenly Saving the Villain opens on that horrible cliffhanger, and predictably the two of them solve it in the most stupid possible way, by not talking about it properly and just sort of sliding into a relationship anyway. I say this as someone who basically did that in my own relationship with my now-wife, to be clear: I am affectionately talking about it as the most stupid possible thing.

I love that Song Qingshi is not actually as ignorant of what Yue Wuhuan is thinking and feeling as he sometimes seems, and that he works out what Yue Wuhuan is doing, coaxes him to act on his feelings, and starts helping him distinguish between what is real and what is his trauma/illness. So far it hasn’t much stopped Yue Wuhuan getting worse, because Song Qingshi doesn’t do a good job of boundaries, but… Yue Wuhuan’s unhinged devotion to Qingshi is what we’re here for, right?!

This volume then… goes places. It’s quite the ride, and I have no idea how this is all going to wrap up: the system has reasserted itself (sort of), and we get a glimpse of the bigger picture, a whole bigger tangle that Yue Wuhuan (or whatever he’d like to be called now) and Song Qingshi are part of, which I assume will round things off.

I’m trying not to say too much because a) I’m not sure I’m fully following everything yet and b) I don’t want to spoiler the wild ride for anyone else. But I’m enjoying it a lot and very eager for the last volume in October.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

Mistakenly Saving the Villain

by Feng Yu Nie

Synopsis:

A mission gone wrong and a villain in need of serious therapy await in this heart-rending drama—finally available in English!

When medical student Song Qingshi dies and wakes up in a historical fantasy novel, he’s tasked with rescuing the tragic protagonist from a life of misery. There’s just one problem—he has no idea who the protagonist is.

Instead of saving the hero, Song Qingshi accidentally rescues Yue Wuhuan, an enslaved man renowned for his striking beauty and trained in the art of seduction. Now determined to help his traumatized new patient heal, Song Qingshi offers everything he can: Medicine, therapy, emotional support, even a shared bed—strictly for his patient’s well-being, of course.

But Yue Wuhuan wants more than healing. He wants revenge. And most of all, he wants Song Qingshi all to himself.

As enemies close in—and even heaven itself turns against them—Song Qingshi isn’t trying to change the story. He’s just trying to save the one person who needs him most.

Volume one of Feng Yu Nie’s Mistakenly Saving the Villain sets up a pretty fun scenario: a young man (a former medical student) who has died of motor neurone disease ends up transmigrating into the world of a novel, tasked with saving the protagonist….

Problem is, he isn’t genre-savvy at all, and ends up saving a man intended to be a minor antagonist at most, who should have simply died earlier in the story. Without knowing that, and committed to “getting a good grade”, Song Qingshi settles into his new role, blending modern medicine with the cultivation world’s techniques to try to nurse Yue Wuhuan back to health.

The two of them get close as Song Qingshi tries to heal him, but it’s slow going because Yue Wuhuan has suffered a lot of trauma, and has both physical and psychological healing to do. Progress is hindered by Song Qingshi’s friend, An Long, who seems to have ulterior motives, and by the fact that Yue Wuhuan considers himself dirty and tainted from all that has happened to him, and holds back information from Song Qingshi in order to avoid frightening/upsetting him.

It’s fairly dark, due to the aforementioned trauma, and Yue Wuhuan isn’t a straightforwardly good guy: he can be, for Song Qingshi, and he was certainly deeply, deeply wronged… but he’s more than a little unhinged. Mind you, Song Qingshi matches that energy, going to absurd lengths to protect and defend Yue Wuhuan. I enjoy both of them greatly, despite Yue Wuhuan’s sometimes erratic behaviour.

Despite that dark background, it all goes past quite lightly because there’s a touch of humour to it through Song Qingshi’s misunderstandings. I found it a lot of fun to read, and because I happen to know a couple of spoilers due to people comparing it to the love story of Heaven Official’s Blessing, I’m very curious how that’s all going to connect up.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)