This manhua scratches my rare C-Drama itch (but make it gay). 

If you haven’t heard of it already, Bai Lijin Among Mortals is a popular web series serialized on Chinese comic publisher Bilibili Manhua, where it regularly ranks as one of the most (if not the most) popular baihe manhua on the site.

The premise of Bai Lijin Among Mortals follows the eponymous Bai Lijin, a fairy who is cast down to the mortal realm after she accidentally destroys a glass lamp at the Heavenly Queen’s birthday party.

But when I read Bai Lijin Among Mortals, I’m not here for Bai Lijin. I’m here for her friend (and frenemy) Qin Buyi and Gu Mengqi, two seemingly ordinary mortals who happen to share an electric sexual tension…with each other.

Bai Lijin Among Mortals isn’t the deepest baihe manhua out there, to be sure, but it doesn’t claim to be.

While the main pairing’s plotline follows romance genre conventions related to fate, destiny, and supernatural powers, the secondary pairing (or perhaps deuteragonist pairing) between Qin Buyi and Gu Mengqi revels in more down-and-dirty tropes—and captures the vibes perfectly.

Can you name all of them here?

Qin Buyi and Gu Mengqi are childhood friends who grew up in the same neighborhood. Despite being older, Qin Buyi has always been the more carefree and outgoing of the two.

She thinks of Gu Mengqi as a younger sister, and she happily shares her apartment with Gu Mengqi when the blonde decides to enroll in a university nearby.

But little does Qin Buyi know, the seemingly cold stoic, and studious Gu Mengqi has a secret: She’s nurtured feelings for Qin Buyi ever since they were young.

*cue internal screaming*

If you’re a sucker for emotionally repressed characters struggling with their feelings (like me), then I promise that Gu Mengqi will have your soul in a death grip, and she won’t let go.

This year, Bai Lijin Among Mortals is approaching its fifth anniversary, which means that the manhua has been serializing for quite a long time. Both the main pairing and secondary pairing have officially gotten together—and been together—for a while, and the story has recently been churning out plot points for the main characters to confront in their established relationships.

At the same time, the narratives of the main pairing and secondary pairing split so early into the manhua’s run that it’s surprisingly feasible to focus on just one couple’s relationship drama as a reader.

This tends to be how I approach the series, as unfortunately the relationship between Bai Lijin and Lin Muxi…just doesn’t interest me very much. I’ve never been a big fan of adult characters with childlike personalities (such as Bai Lijin herself) in romantic relationships.

Despite this, I still adore the secondary pairing enough to come back to the manhua every few months and catch up on what they’ve been up to (the answer usually oscillates somewhere between tense, emotional drama and often surprisingly sexy fluff), which is a feat I find impressive in its own right.

Finally, according to writer and artist Viva and Julys, Bai Lijin Among Mortals is currently on its second to last volume, which means that now is a great time to jump on the manhua’s metaphorical train before it comes to its final stop.

If you know some Chinese, you can read the series officially on Bilibili’s site. I also recommend following the manhua’s creators and SuperTopic on Weibo, as Viva and Julys will often post fanservice on their feeds, and there’s a large community of fans of the series.

The official English translation used to be hosted on the defunct international Bilibili Comics website, but you can still find fan translations floating around on the internet. However, the quality seems to come and go depending on the translator, so your mileage may vary.

But this is a manhua, and some of these panels speak for themselves, if you know what I mean…