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A review by khyie
黄金台 (Golden Stage) by 苍梧宾白 (Cang Wu Bin Bai)
4.75
Ahhhhhh, this story massacred me. I had so many feelings while reading this. From my indignant fury with the Emperors and the nobility of this world, to my heart melting over just how good Yan Xiaohan and Fu Shen were to each other, and my sincere appreciation over the healthiness of their relationship. Continuing in the vein of FLFL, these two actually talk to each other! They communicate! They love each other but they don't stop functioning without the other in their lives. Golden Stage does take a bit to pick up in the beginning because it does kind of feel like a lot of info dumping but when it picks up, it unfolds into a beautiful relationship and a whole lot of political and wartime shenanigans. Fu Shen might not be in the best place politically at the start of this novel, but he doesn't remain that way and both Yan Xiaohan and Fu Shen are very powerful and very capable people and it's just so damned nice to read a Chinese webnovel where the relationship actually feels balanced.
Also balanced, healthy, and beautiful is their intimate relationship. Fu Shen gives just as good as he gets and the pages are almost entirely blissfully free of him acting like shrinking virginal shou or complaints after every act of intimacy of being broken because the gong was too rough with him. I think it did makes it's appearance once, maybe twice, but there were circumstances around it and every time he willingly went into it and often instigated their encounters.
The extras were also good, especially the one about Fu Tingxin and the Prince of Su.
Also balanced, healthy, and beautiful is their intimate relationship. Fu Shen gives just as good as he gets and the pages are almost entirely blissfully free of him acting like shrinking virginal shou or complaints after every act of intimacy of being broken because the gong was too rough with him. I think it did makes it's appearance once, maybe twice, but there were circumstances around it and every time he willingly went into it and often instigated their encounters.
The extras were also good, especially the one about Fu Tingxin and the Prince of Su.
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual assault
Minor CW for a dubcon scene Yan Xiaohan gets dosed with an aphrodisiac and Fu Shen has to sleep with him to help treat the symptoms. There were plenty of indications prior that both Yan Xiaohan and Fu Shen were only interested in consensual sex (!!! actual mentions of consent as a concept even!!!) and were willing to have sex with each other and Fu Shen doesn't feel pressured. Yan Xiaohan's main reservation about the whole matter was that he couldn't remember what had happened and thought he had slept with someone other than Fu Shen. Once it's clear the act was done with his husband, he's fine with it. Overall, I felt the whole situation was handled about as well as could be handled with drug induced sex