Review: This baihe novel is as short as it is sweet

Whether you’re feeling a little burned out from long romances or just looking for something soft and fresh, The Time I Found Out the Heroine of a Certain Top Post Was Me is the perfect interlude for you.

*this review contains minor spoilers*

On the Chinese web novel battleground, longer is better—at least, if you’re the author.

With a higher word count, the longer you stay on the rankings, the better you get paid, and the more likely your work generates points and collection.

But the length of a novel can be a double-edged sword. As a story progresses, it becomes harder for the author to generate new ideas and for readers to stay invested.

The momentum might slow to a crawl, or your favorite characters might find themselves tangled in convoluted misunderstandings that have long outstayed their welcome.

But whether you’re feeling a little burned out from long romances or just looking for something soft and fresh, The Time I Found Out the Heroine of a Certain Top Post Was Me is the perfect interlude for you.

At only eleven chapters long and 15,021 Chinese characters, it’s the rare baihe novel you can consume in one (responsible) sitting.

When an online friend shows Tao Ci a post that has gone viral on the internet, Tao Ci quickly realizes that the “heroine” of the post is herself and that the author is her college friend (and secret crush) Zhong Ningyi.

As Tao Ci reads more of Zhong Ningyi’s posts, we get both her and Zhong Ningyi’s perspectives on certain events that have happened in the past, and despite the novel’s short runtime, we actually learn a lot about Tao Ci.

Tao Ci is the type of “true” tomboy protagonist we rarely see in baihe novels, someone who has blunt mannerisms, hangs out with guys, and likes to play video games at the internet café. She just hasn’t worked up the courage to confess to Zhong Ningyi yet.

Both Tao Ci and Zhong Ningyi feel like real young adults, and in a genre that’s often defined by wish-fulfillment, I find myself relating to Tao Ci and Zhong Ningyi in a way I don’t necessarily do with their more privileged counterparts.

But if I had to level one criticism at the novel, it would be that we didn’t linger on Zhong Ningyi enough. We spend so much time in Tao Ci’s head that her character development feels lopsided when compared to her love interest’s, a fate I suspect is inevitable given the length of the novel and the structure of its synopsis.

With that being said, I would still happily recommend The Time I Found Out the Heroine of a Certain Top Post Was Me to anyone who’s in the mood for a cozy comfort read. It’s the perfect novel to devour on a breezy spring day or next to the fireplace in the winter.

I’d also love to see more of Yi Zhi Hua Jia Zi’s works translated into English. She’s a popular and prolific baihe writer on jjwxc, and her most collected novel Please Support the CP Between Me and the Director recently received a radio drama adaptation on Fanjiao.