Book Review: You Dare Marry Me, I Dare Marry You (你敢娶我敢嫁) – Xin Xin Xiang Rong (欣欣向荣)

You Dare Marry Me, I Dare Marry You

Title: You Dare Marry Me, I Dare Marry You (你敢娶我敢嫁)
Author: Xin Xin Xiang Rong (欣欣向荣) (Flourishing)
Published: Unpublished, Completed online June 2012

At 64 chapters and 4 side stories, You Dare Marry Me, I Dare Marry You is a story with a female lead who is confident, knows what she wants, and isn’t afraid to speak her mind (one of my favorite types.) It’s quite amusing as we see the male lead, a complete playboy, stumble around trying to gain her favor.

We start off meeting the male lead, Hu Jun (胡军,) who basically declares that he was never going to marry or, even if he did, that he would definitely whip her into shape; There was no way he was going to turn out like his three close buddies — at the beck and call of their wives. Little did he realize that he was going to meet his match that very night by getting pulled over during a drunk driver check. Not knowing who she had entangled herself with, Xi Zi (西子,) our female lead, does her duty as a newbie traffic cop and impounds Hu Jun’s car. Turns out Hu Jun is a Deputy Chief Commissioner (high ranking) and her audacity ends up intriguing him more than angering him. Through a mishap, and on their parents’ insistence, the two end up together in a fake marriage.

While the marriage might have started out fake, the two slowly learn to love and support each other. Xi Zi learns that Hu Jun might not completely be the playboy she had originally pegged him for. And Hu Jun becomes the one who is wrapped around Xi Zi’s fingers, getting angry when her ex comes to call and treating her like a porcelain doll when she gets injured on duty.

What’s this story does well is creating appealing characters. Hu Jun is a riot as he tries to figure out his feelings towards Xi Zi, while trying to tamper down his manhood. Xi Zi is extremely cool headed and takes things that happen in great stride, not dwelling on the unnecessary. In fact, her reaction after their first bedroom scene together was quite surprising, yet quite within character. Speaking of bedroom scenes, there are quite a number in this story and are fairly descriptive, which might or might not be everyone’s cup of tea.

The first half of this story where they got to know each other and tried to figure each other out to be more interesting than the latter half. There were definitely some story arcs towards the end that were not necessary and didn’t achieve much purpose for the leads, besides landing them in the bedroom again. Overall, this is a light read with a happily-ever-after ending that will satisfy.

Read or Not: Read for the romance and likable characters. Skip for the R-rated content.

Excerpt:

“Xi Zi, how come it’s you?”

Feeling someone walk over next to her, she thinks its the lawyer and turns her head to see Hu Jun. Xi Zi doesn’t hold herself back. Her little eyebrows crease up with a woosh, startling Hu Jun. He isn’t able to figure out what this feeling is. The whisper inside him asks, can the blind date that his family’s queen (mom) found him be Xi Zi? No way!

The corners of Hu Jun’s mouth raises and he sits his butt down right in front of Xi Zi. Xi Zi glares at him, and then looks over him at her old man. She keeps her anger under control and takes a deep breath; her body leans slightly forward, not forgetting to keep a reserved smile at the the corners of her mouth, and lowers her voice and says with clenched teeth, “Hu Jun, we aren’t at work right now. Go do what you’re suppose to be doing. I have business here.”

Xi Zi hasn’t had the chance to glare at Hu Jun to go away before she sees her old man stand up and start walking over. Xi Zi stares straight ahead blankly, watching her old man walk over, walk in front of Hu Jun and introduces himself very naturally, “I am the girl’s father. What’s your name? How old are you? Where do you work…”

He stands up and answers very respectfully, “My name is Hu Jun, I work for the city’s traffic office.”

Hu Jun glances at Xi Zi sitting across from him who has on a completely relaxed and peaceful expression. His eye flash, “Uncle (sign of respect), Xi Zi and I are coworkers. We are…”

At this point, he purposely pauses and Xi Zi’s eyes suddenly open wide and stare at him. Stopping there will clearly cause unnecessary misunderstandings about their relationship. She quickly explains,

“Dad, we aren’t…”

She isn’t done speaking when Madame Hu walks over with a completely satisfied smile on her kind face and directly greets Xi Zi’s old man, “Hello, I am Hu Jun’s mother…”

As they sit in the VIP room of Jin Jiang, Xi Zi still has not figured out how things developed like this.

The two elders will simply not allow her to explain, making this, originally, extremely ordinary blind date develop into somewhat of a formal meeting of the parents event.

Xi Zi glances at Hu Jun next to her and looks directly into his ruffian-like gaze. Xi Zi leans over slightly and quietly says, “Hu Jun, if this thing becomes too big, it’ll be really hard for us to put an end to it. Look at your mom’s interest. Do you actually want to marry me?”

Hu Jun raises his eyebrows in delight and also leans over and says next to her ear, “What about it? I’m not afraid to marry you, yet you’re afraid to marry me?”

Xi Zi might have lost the battle but will not lose her dignity, she smiles with clenched teeth — a bit of a terrifying smile, “If you dare marry me, then I dare marry you.”