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Guo Changcheng’s first day at the Special Investigations Department of the Public Security Bureau was certainly not what he expected; it started late at night when he had to go to HR, and later in the day he joined Director Zhao Yunlan for an investigation. During the investigation, while Zhao Yunlan had to drag around his useless nepotism intern, he meets with Shen Wei, a university professor who has his own secrets and to whom Zhao Yunlan feels undeniable attraction.

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Thoughts

I got Guardian Volume 1 because it’s priest. I also expected very little because it’s priest.

Among all the authors I’ve read, priest is the most consistently inconsistent for me in what I think, and Guardian Volume 1 falls somewhere in the middle.

It’s inevitable that I would compare it to Mo Du, or Silent Reading, which is my absolute favourite title by the same author that I’ve read so far, but the two are clearly very different from each other, and I find Guardian to have a very odd pacing, at least when divided the way it is. If I look at Arc 1 and Arc 2 as entirely separate books, it’s easier to accept, but I just find the pacing confusing.

The story isn’t captivating to me either, although there are comedic moments, and Guo Changcheng’s role seems entirely to be the comic relief of the series. I don’t know whether to laugh at him or pity him. Poor boy. I do appreciate Daqing’s existence in the story — there’s nothing wrong with a talking fat cat.

While I like the cover, the illustrations aren’t anything impressive in my book. (Pun unintended.) As in, I don’t find them to be pleasing to my eye. Some, I think, look quite awkward.

The ship itself isn’t really my thing, either. Both Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei sort of make me feel really awkward about the entire thing, and Zhao Yunlan is extremely obnoxious. For me, it’s just hard to like them, both individually and as a ship.

All in all, I wasn’t particularly fond of the book. I wouldn’t recommend reading it because there are many other things I think are more worth reading.

Naturally, though, I’m also buying Volume 2 because did you really expect me not to when the very second sentence in my thoughts section included “I expected very little”? I’ll probably end up writing a review of that and Volume 3 as well.