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Audiobook Update Friday · 29 May
殺死瑪麗蘇
殺死瑪麗蘇
メアリー・スーを殺して
乙一
Mandarin
Translated from Japanese

I listened to 無線電對講機, this one was very short. I was surprised to see an adult protagonist, most of the other main characters are all teenagers or children, at least in the short stories I’ve read by this author so far. I liked this one a lot! The voice acting is so good too, it’s really a shame that I could not find the name of the narrator… So annoying.

Post Friday · 29 May
Genshin Impact
Version: Luna VII · 虚空劫灰往世书

I’ve been extremely efficient in Genshin today! I can’t believe I completed everything I had planned: I finished the event, did the Liyue part of the Temple of Space WQ, did Durin’s Witch’s Homework and completed a run of IT. I only got 6 flowers, the worst I ever did… I usually get full flowers on the highest mode, except for last time and this time. To be fair, I haven’t tried hard, maybe I’ll do another run this weekend to try and get at least the next elixir. But for now I just wanted to complete a run to get the primogems so I don’t need to stress about it.
I also used all my condensed resin in SO to farm the new artifacts and I got a full set for Nicole. It’s far from being perfect, she only has 3500 Atk right now… I don’t know how much she needs, but it’s probably not enough. Oh well, I’m happy she has the set now!
The only thing is that I can’t find the motivation to continue the AQ.

Exploration Friday · 29 May
Genshin Impact
Version: Luna VII · 虚空劫灰往世书
Luna VI
逢归的谶羽
Region 空之神殿 (kōng zhī shén diàn)
World Quest 山中好长日 (shān zhōng hǎo cháng rì)
Current chapter: 天堂
A serene landscape features a traditional Chinese-style pavilion overlooking a lotus pond with a wooden deck and a tea set in the foreground.
44%

I finished the Liyue part of the WQ, 生命万岁, it was really great! I loved the painting puzzles, they were very inventive and beautiful. Dialogues were easier too compared to Sumeru. Overall, I preferred the Liyue part over the Sumeru one, both for the landscape and the puzzles.
And with this, I finally reached 40% on the two regions combined, so 100 primogems acquired!
I still haven’t explored the newly unlocked Pavillon of Paintings, so I’ll do that next.

Story Friday · 29 May
Genshin Impact
Version: Luna VII · 虚空劫灰往世书
Luna VII
虚空劫灰往世书
Event 幻友绮旅 (huàn yǒu qǐ lǚ)

I finished the event, it was so sweet! It might just be one of my favourite events I played in the game. It even had me tearing up in the last chapter :sun:

Post Friday · 29 May

Readmoo reading challenge update

I reached the five books mark on the Readmoo Reading Challenge and got my first badge!!

A vertical label for a 2026 reading challenge displays a graphic of a basket of grapes and wheat with the text Martini at the bottom.

As someone who started reading in Chinese not long ago, participating in an online reading challenge and getting to the first badge feels like a huge achievement! It goes up to 15 books, but I’m pretty certain now that I won’t make it. It’s fine though, because my goal has always been to try and go for the 10 books mark.
I read the five books listed in the “Normal” category, which are books of medium length (between 100,000 and 130,000 characters), so now I only have the long and short books to choose from. Given that we’re nearing the middle of the year already, I think that reading 5 more books will be possible, but it also depends on what other books I read in Chinese. I already decided to go for 暗黑者 as my next read, and this one is a very long one! And if I decide to start a Gu Long novel before the end of the year (which I probably will do), then it will certainly take one entire month if not more to finish.
The books of the challenge I read so far have all been excellent. Two authors I already knew, and three were new to me, so this allowed me to discover more authors and add more books to my wish list. So even if I were to stop now, it would still be a great experience.

Post Friday · 29 May

Next read in Chinese: 暗黑者2

I chose my next book in Chinese: I’m finally going to continue the 暗黑者 series by Zhou Haohui.
The problem is that I read the first volume in January, and I don’t remember the story well… I really hope there’s some kind of recap in the second volume (I guess there probably is), but if not, I can find my notes (they must be in a notebook somewhere).
This second volume, 宿命, is very long: 429,000 characters… that’s three times the length of most Taiwanese novels I’ve been reading lately. Thankfully, it should be easy to read (at least the first volume was!), and it’s in Simplified Chinese, so my reading pace is faster too.
And no need to buy anything because I’m going to read it on 微信读书.

Post Friday · 29 May

Bought my next Japanese book

I bought Zoo2 by Otsuichi on Booklive. Of all the things I had to do today, this should have been the fastest, but it took me ages to pay. I had to renew my payment method, and nothing worked, and it took me like 30 minutes to add my card and buy my book. So frustrating to lose time with this kind of things… :jiong-distressed:

★★★★★

매일 죽어야 하는 X was a very entertaining and easy to read short novel! It’s a time loop novel and the protagonist, Donghyeon, is suffering from amnesia, so the goal is not only to know why the time loop happens, but also to understand why our main character is where he is: a juvenile detention center.
This setting makes the story even more interesting and opens the door for ambiguous feelings towards Donghyeon. There are also some reflexions about the possibility of redemption, but mostly the novel is just a fast-paced and suspenseful thriller.
I really loved the end too.

100%

Finished! Last chapter was great, I was afraid at some point that the story would take a turn I personally would have found disappointing, but it didn’t in the end, and I liked the conclusion very much.

Story Thursday · 28 May
Genshin Impact
Version: Luna VII · 虚空劫灰往世书
Luna VII
虚空劫灰往世书
Event 幻友绮旅 (huàn yǒu qǐ lǚ)

I played through chapter 2, it was so so cute and so so funny!!! I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard in a Genshin story. The whole party is just adorable :heart::heart::heart: I constantly had a big smile on my face while playing the story.
So far, I’m 100% loving the event story more than the AQ.
After playing chapter 2, I’m even more annoyed at the weapon skin. If it had to be a skin (and not a real weapon), and if it had to be recycled design, they could have at least made a version per weapon type so that all the “Little Witches” could equip it as a souvenir of their adventure…

Birthday Mail Thursday · 28 May
Genshin Impact
Version: Luna VII · 虚空劫灰往世书
Fischl
WordReadingDefinition
烹饪 pēng rèn cooking; culinary arts
调料 tiáo liào condiment; seasoning; flavoring
盐分 yán fèn salt content
精进 jīng jìn to forge ahead vigorously

Since I switched the game to Chinese, the content I’m fearing the most might be just that: Fischl’s birthday mail…
Mmmh,,, nope, too hard… I’m just reading Oz’s part!

76%

Finished chapter 4!
Time loop novels can easily become repetitive, but this one is fast pace and each day feels different. I like that our protagonist is trying everything to understand the situation and change his fate.
However, the story might take a direction I won’t like as much… we’ll see!

Review Thursday · 28 May
★★★★★

It’s the first book I read by this author, and I really loved it. However, there are one or two things that prevent me from listing it among my favourite books.
The plot is very intriguing, especially the beginning that sounds like SF almost, and I must say that the story stays engaging until the end. However, I do think that the setting was a bit long. You can argue that this is inevitable given that there are a lot of things to settle before deductions and investigation can really start, but that’s my point: I think that there might be too many mysteries happening at once, and some only get addressed later in the novel.
Second point is the end, it was good for sure, but I’m kind of skeptic still. Too many variables, too complicated, overall simply the same thing as my first point: too many elements.
But I value the entertaining aspect of genre fiction very high, and this novel was really suspenseful and engrossing, especially the second part.

Update Thursday · 28 May
100%

Finished the last chapter!! As expected, it was impossible to put down, and I read the whole chapter in one-go.
However, I must say that the end did not entirely convinced me… everything sounds so complicated…

Post Thursday · 28 May

Daily reading goals

Plan for today

  • Finish 錯置體. I basically only have the “solution” chapter left, where everything will be revealed, so I’m probably going to read it in one sitting!
  • Just one chapter of 매일 죽어야하는 X. I’m not sure if I’ll have time for it, but I saw that the next chapters are rather short and the book is very easy to read.
Post Thursday · 28 May
Reverse: 1999
Version: 3.5 · The Turquoise Serpent Club

I probably won’t be playing much Reverse this new patch… I might even skip the story and character stories, we’ll see… There are so many things to do in Genshin right now, I don’t have time for two games, and R1999 has always been a side game. I also really want to go back to Where Winds Meet, so given that I’m not hyped at all for the this patch (not specially looking forward to the story, it’s also not a main story I think, and I’m skipping both characters anyway), it’s a good time to take a break.

Vocabulary Thursday · 28 May
Genshin Impact
Version: Luna VII · 虚空劫灰往世书
WordReadingDefinition
众目睽睽 zhòng mù kuí kuí (idiom) (under) the public eye; the stares of many people

This is another word I had in my Anki, I can’t remember where it came from, but I do remember that it’s one of the most recent words I added to Anki before completely moving on to my new flashcards.
It’s funny how I thought stopping Anki would be the end of the world, and now that I did completely abandon the system for a new one, I’m actually relieved that everything is faster now and more efficient. The words I was still in the process of learning will eventually come back and I can integrate them in the new system like this one.

Story Wednesday · 27 May

Cheng Heguang story

I finished Cheng Heguang’s story, it really was a last minute thing, but I haven’t played Reverse much lately.
I loved his story very much, I usually love Reverse character stories and anecdotes, but I find that they’ve become more contemplative lately? I like introspection, but rather than having the character recall the past in a contemplative way, I prefer just having an episode of the past as story. That’s exactly what Cheng Heguang’s story was, and I love it. It has a good plot, we learn about key moments of his past, learn about his character and personality… A story that has an engaging plot and allows us to know and understand the character better… that’s the best in my opinion.

Story Wednesday · 27 May
Genshin Impact
Version: Luna VII · 虚空劫灰往世书
Luna VII
虚空劫灰往世书
Event 幻友绮旅 (huàn yǒu qǐ lǚ)

I was so tired of the AQ, I decided to start the event story to distract myself, and yeah, it worked! I only played until the mini-games presentations (I’m so happy these were voiced), but I liked the beginning, it was very funny and cute, and it’s nice to get to know Prune!
Yeah I guess that rather than discussing Sumeru lore with grown-ups, I prefer to play with children and their imaginary friends…
And also, I love Qiqi :heart-blue::heart-blue::heart-blue:
I only played one game of each, I love the Yaoyao/Qiqi one and the Sayu one too! Combat was good too, much better than what we had last time (I’m not super fan of the “interrupt combat to use a mechanic” type of game). As for Klee’s… I guess I just still haven’t gotten the hang of it…