Gu Fang Bu Zi Shang

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Genre: Romance, Shoujo, Action and Historical (possibly tragedy?? The main ship survives, don't worry)

Background information:
Gu Fang Bu Zi Shang was an manga adaptation off a Chinese internet novel and as all adaptations go, it is nowhere as good as the actual story. If anyone happens to be Chinese, I would recommend reading the novel first before reading the manga, because names written in English can be very confusing.

Story background information:
There are four countries in total, let us call them A, B, C and D.
The main character Pingting is the military strategist of country A (Guile) and is very loyal to her master named He Xia, ... a very talented general of military forces of Guile. He Xia's arch nemesis is the young general of country B (Donglin) Chu Beijie.

The story starts with Pingting getting separated from her master and abducted by slave sellers during a siege. To protect herself, she lies about her identity and ends up sold to a rich family in Guile. Pingting, who was anxious to return to her master's side, was eager to escape from the rich family. Fortunately or should I say unfortunately, the family's young lady befriends her and made Pingting dress as her so she would be able to meet her secret lover. As Pingting was pretending to be the young lady, she meets Chu Beijie who becomes very romantically interested in her. By a strange turn of events, Pingting becomes Beijie's maid at his mansion while hiding her true identity.

(Then a lot of things happen, this is pretty much where the manga is updating from but a lot of things happen afterwards. I feel bad leaving it here because it doesn't sound that interesting but I will promise you, when the manga updates, hell it is going to be A LOT of stuff)

The story was quite interesting as a shoujo manga, however, there were a few existent plot holes. As someone who read the novel, I noticed quite a bit of interesting bits that were neglected in the manga as well as new characters introduced who were never mentioned before. No matter what, it was still a very good attempt of adaptation.

Character wise, Pingting's character is a combination of intelligent, dark and cheery. She is very loyal to her master, to the point she neglects herself and it was very interesting to see the things in her eyes. She isn't annoying and is quite an interesting character. Gu Fang Bu Zi Shang's characters all have their individual personalities that make them stand out, not a single person is neglected, I would say the characters were done quite well.

Art, okay, the art IS FANTASTIC. No more comments about it.

Overall, I would give it around 8-9, the plot and the characters were good, it is just not as good as the novel adaptation. I would strongly recommend this story to any romance or shoujo fan. As someone who loves long-haired guys and historical romance, this manga for me was amazing. So read! ^^

Summary: The author begins the story with some sort of siege. The main character is first introduced to us as a mistaken wife of some rich family to be sold off (aka human trafficking). Her real identity remains a mystery but it is indicated that she has had no real working experience. We come to know of her real personality (calculating) when some gentleman inquires about her Qin (instrument from ancient China) playing. With humorous undertones, their relationship develops, however, unknown to him are lurking secrets that she must keep if she wishes to keep her life. And, of course, lies upon lies form as ... she remains in enemy territory. Just who exactly is this "master" she serves and will her developing feelings for Zhen Beiwang interfere will her duties?

The art isn't the best I've seen but it's easy on the eyes. Really can't complain.

As for the characters, I love how the heroine is very intelligent and talented and although she is slightly manipulative, she does have a conscience and strong sense of duty and justice. In the story, however, she is said to be plain looking with a nice body but honestly speaking, she looks pretty enough to me (this seems to happen a lot). Her love interest, on the hand, is very handsome, successful and almost as calculating as she is….almost ;) But there are some implications of his cold and possessive personality as well. Sadly, there has been no character development at all. Why you may ask? Because only 6 chapters have been released and it's too soon for that to happen.

A not-so typical romance where partners stand on more equal grounds. Just like the main character, Ping (I think? The girl has many aliases), this manga entices and then ignores; leaving you wanting more.

This is a historical manga but if you've come looking for action, move on; it's more about deception and mental warfare.

Side-note: This is also a novel which I found to my delight because I couldn't help but want more. You can read it here:
http://ckmscans.halofight.com/t147-read-this-first#388

It picks up on page 9 of chapter 6.