Guardian is urban fantasy danmei (Chinese m/m). I bought my copy new.
Review:
This starts with Guo Changcheng reluctantly going to his first day of work at a job his second uncle, a higher ranking official at the Ministry of Public Security, arranges for him. Guo Changcheng is too timid to call and ask if the time he's supposed to show up for work, 2:30 am, is a typo, so he shows up at 2:30 am deciding that, if it's a mistake, he'll come back at 2:30 pm as well.
The time is not a typo, and the job isn't at all what Guo Changcheng expects. The Special Investigations Department of the Ministry of Public Security deals with strange and unusual cases. Zhao Yunlan, Guo Changcheng's new boss, is a bit of a mess in his personal life but highly skilled at his work. He's also one of the department's few living, human employees.
In the first half of this volume, Zhao Yunlan drags Guo Changcheng along to an investigation of the murder of a Dragon City University student. The investigation brings Zhao Yunlan into contact with Shen Wei, an attractive instructor at the university (Zhao Yunlan is canonically bisexual).
In the second half of this volume, Zhao Yunlan accompanies one of his employees, a spirit named Wang Zheng, to Qingxi Village, the place where her bones are buried, along with several other SID employees. Zhao Yunlan is happy to come across Shen Wei, who's on a trip to the area with several of his students.
I enjoyed this immensely. The urban fantasy aspects were intriguing, and Zhao Yunlan was an appealing character, a bisexual disaster who'd drink himself stupid over a failed romance but who was extremely competent when it came to supernatural matters. He had some kind of health issues that weren't discussed in depth, but I'm sure it'll become more important in future volumes. I was a bit curious about whether this series would end up featuring a love triangle, since there were signs that the Soul-Executing Emissary was attracted to Zhao Yunlan - slight spoiler, but this thankfully wasn't a love triangle.
I wonder, will Guo Changcheng prove to be more important later on, or is he just there for comic relief and to give the author a reason to explain how the supernatural stuff works? Poor guy, but he's doing his best.
I look forward to seeing where this series goes.
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