Books with a Strong Jianghu Flavor, by Someone Who's Really Been in the Underworld 江湖味道浓重的书，真实混过江湖。
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Overseas Turmoil: The Path of a Crime Lord 海外风云之枭雄路途
My name is Lin Feng. I’ve encountered, witnessed, and experienced many industries and incidents that people would rather keep hidden. So many people have been lured overseas by high-paying jobs, only to die. So many have died because their desires could never be satisfied. This synopsis can’t do the story justice. Read the novel to find out more.
8kReads9.1Score65714d adds
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Underworld Storm: The Uncrowned King 黑道风云：无冕王侯
(First person, period setting, underworld) A big brother? A big brother isn't some glamorous, all-powerful emperor who does whatever he pleases. A big brother is just the guy who picks up the tab. The underworld? It's brotherly loyalty, deceit and betrayal. It's a place that strips the tenderness from gentle-hearted men and hardens them, and turns green young boys into grizzled old gangsters. My name is Zhao Qingfeng. I've been around the underworld, and I was once a big brother!
37.3kReads9.2Score3.9k14d adds
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The Northern City Kingpin 北城枭雄
Formerly titled The Northern City's Underworld Boss, also known as Tales of the Northeastern Underworld. They say the underworld is all about human relationships and worldly ways, but have you ever seen the real underworld? The underworld is dangerous, but the human heart is even more dangerous. Spring ice is thin, and human nature is thinner still. The underworld is nothing more than a game of chess. Once you enter the game, you can no longer control your own fate. I will use my own experie
266.1kReads9.5Score15.4k14d adds
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The Jianghu: What Is It, Really? 江湖，到底是什么？
[Pure Underworld] [The Jianghu of the 1980s] Where there are people, there are grudges; where there are grudges, there is a jianghu; people are the jianghu! It used to be called the jianghu, but now it's called society! When the storms had passed, Lang Aowen knelt once more before the sacred image of Guan Yu, holding three sticks of incense high above his head. Only one question remained in his heart: The jianghu, what exactly is it? [Serious Warning: The characters and plot in this book are
1.7kReads—Score10114d adds
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The Youth of Two Generations 两代人的青春
My name is Li Sunan, and I'm a complete... bastard. Please take a moment, settle in, and let me tell you the whole story. From my godfather, Li Zhen, to my second uncle, Cui Lijun, and then to my own dark life. From 1990 to 2020. Thirty tumultuous years in a small city in Northeast China. One act ends, and another begins. Two generations rise and fall, knowing both glory and disgrace. There are no all-powerful crime bosses here. Just a bunch of little people struggling at the bottom... The road
2.2kReads6.9Score10314d adds
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Underworld Storms: Qiao Si's Strategists, Xiao Ke and Wang Wei Fan 黑道风云之乔四军师小克王伟范
He was Qiao Siye’s strategist, known as the Brains. Only five-foot-three, he had an exceptionally quick mind, earning him the nicknames Little Zhuge and Ghost Six among the underworld. He wasn’t known for violence, but for his sense of honor and loyalty. Born into poverty, he started out as a bathhouse scrubber and worked his way up to become one of the Three Musketeers of Bingcheng, even driving the city’s first Mercedes-Benz 560. Follow the turbulent life of Wei Wan, the Little Master of Bingc
167.7kReads8.7Score9.2k14d adds
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- 7 Underworld Storms: Zhang Yue 黑道风云之张岳 He is the staunchest believer in the code of the underworld, fiercely loyal to his brothers to the point of obsession; he believes most in repaying every blow, dealing with his enemies with ruthless finality; he holds fast to his fighting spirit, staying true to himself to the very end. He is Zhang Yue, the underworld boss known as the Pale-Faced Scholar. 10.9kReads8.1Score60814d adds
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The Golden Age of the Gangland: A Blood-Red Underworld 黑帮盛世：血色江湖
(Not a mindless power fantasy. Underworld, urban setting, no invincible hero, first person, tight logic, humorous writing. Read with caution if that’s not your thing!) A cursed, tragic fate. A life in the underworld that cannot be escaped. A band of brothers who stand together through life and death, and a dark life longing for redemption. You’ve never endured years of hardship, so of course you can’t understand the underworld in my heart. My story begins after I get out of prison in Ice Cit
112.1kReads9.3Score8.3k14d adds
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The Sequel to Three Gates Street 三门街前后传
The Three Gate Street: Before and After, also known as The Complete Tale of the Eight Swords, Seven Heroes, and Sixteen Noble Men, is a long Qing dynasty chivalric novel by an anonymous author. The book has thirty-three chapters and around 280,000 characters. Set during the Zhengde era of the Ming dynasty, it tells of the eunuch Liu Jin and the corrupt minister Shi Hongji, who seize power, wreak havoc in government, and persecute loyal officials. The story follows heroes and heroines such as Hon
45Reads8.5Score—14d adds
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Tales of the Northeast: Women Who Climbed Over the High Walls of Grand Estates 东北往事之翻过深宅高墙的女人们
In 1946, on the black soil of Northeast China, Chunxiang, daughter of tenant farmer Wang Mazi, marries Liu Laogen, the landlord's son. Her father receives several acres of good farmland and dozens of silver dollars as a handsome betrothal gift. She thinks she has married into wealth and will live a secure life as a young madam, but Liu Laogen has a hidden ailment, and their marriage proves to be one in name only. Chunxiang is determined to escape the prison that has trapped her, but her greedy f
55.2kReads8.7Score3.1k14d adds
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Dragon Head 龙头
For the sake of the goddess, I crossed the big shot in the county. To stay alive, I fought my way up, one step at a time, until I became the boss... One day, the hidden dragon will find the rain it needs. With a single roar, it will shift the mountains and rivers and move the Big Dipper. Stories of the underdog rising to the top will always set the blood racing.
27.2kReads9.0Score2.7k14d adds
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Demon Slayer of the Frozen Abyss 寒渊诛魔
I'm pleased to recommend my new book, Dustblade Suppresses the Palace Gate. Old friends and new, come join us in a world of wuxia, where the imperial court stands tall and the rivers and lakes stretch far and wide. Ordinary people lead extraordinary lives. They pursue vengeance and justice with abandon, and fight for their homeland and family. Each person pushes forward with all their might for the wishes they hold dear.
14.9kReads8.7Score1.3k14d adds
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My First Half of Life: A Bloody Underworld 我的前半生：血色江湖
[The rating just came in and it’ll keep rising, so don’t let it scare you off! This book is entirely handcrafted, and writing it isn’t easy. Hope you enjoy it!] Eight years in the army, decorated for valor, only to have his future stolen by a substitute! He moves to the city for work and tries to keep his head down, but is forced into a dead end! His brother goes to prison, and his sworn brother dies a tragic death. Good people have no way out, while the wicked run rampant! He abandons the strai
1.4kReads8.4Score13714d adds
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The Pinnacle of Black Power 黑权顶点
(Ignore the rating. This is a black-market thriller with guaranteed thrills.) Qin Hui only wants to sell watermelons in peace, earn a little money, and find himself a wife. But the street thugs at the market bully him until he can barely get by. At the end of his rope, he finally picks up a watermelon knife and strikes back. “A man needs either money or power. Better to stand up and fight than live like a spineless loser.” An ordinary man transforms into a big shot, eventually reaching unima
17.1kReads8.5Score1k14d adds
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Who Rules the Changing Tides of the Martial World? 江湖之谁主浮沉
“Northeastern Gangland,” “No Mindless Shenanigans,” “Based on Real Cases” A group of young people, driven by a moment of recklessness, set out on a path unlike any they had taken before... From Xiao Yao's days of loafing around to gradually growing up and setting off down the point of no return, making a living in the underworld... Family, friendship, and love all become entangled... Some die... some go to prison... and others... A new story, a new beginning. Come witness the rise of a true crim
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Learning Feng Shui from Third Grandpa 跟着三爷爷学风水
Born into a family of Feng Shui practitioners, I became someone who defies fate the moment I entered the world of Yin-Yang Feng Shui. As one strange event after another unfolded, I learned to recognize fortune and misfortune, ward off disaster, and handle everything with ease. To all the brothers, sisters, uncles, and aunties passing by, please leave a book review here! Remember to comment, too! Thank you! If you like learning, remember to bring your brain along. There’s plenty of useful informa
34.1kReads8.8Score2.9k14d adds
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Crouching Tiger 卧虎
A hidden dragon rises from the depths and devours all things; a crouching tiger commands the mountains and guards a thousand frontiers! When I was little, the strange older girl next door always asked me to help wash her. When I got a little older, she taught me how to be a real man! Twenty years of flashing blades, eighteen years of changing seasons. The black throne may change hands, but true kingship belongs only to madmen who dare to dance with the devil!
14.6kReads7.7Score2.9k14d adds
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The Thief's Way 贼道
My name is Xiao Wu. I was a wild child no orphanage could keep in check. At nine years old, I charged into this dog-eat-dog world. I saw through it then: living was like clinging to a moving train. You either held on or fell and were crushed to pieces. The first steamed bun I stole wasn’t because I was hungry. I wanted to see whether these hands that picked pockets could grab fate by the throat. The juvenile detention center, the shelter, and the detention center were my schools. The thieves wer
84.3kReads9.6Score10.6k14d adds
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Be the Cruelest One 做最狠的那个
Who says an ordinary person can't climb to the heavens one day? It was a chaotic era, an era full of opportunities, and, above all, an era when the one with the strongest fists could fill his belly. Don't look down on a poor young man, and don't go around bullying honest people. Otherwise, you might not even get the chance to regret it.
1.3kReads6.5Score—14d adds
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- 20 The Underworld’s Final Ballad 黑道绝响 (Original title: Black Road, Final Echo) What is the underworld? Is it really not about fighting and killing, but about the ways of human relationships? Wrong. Only those who can still stand after all the fighting and killing have the right to talk about human relationships. My name is Luo Ping. I witnessed the so-called underworld in a corner of the southwest go from its golden age to its decline, until at last its echoes faded away. This is my story, and a glimpse into one corner of the underw 51.3kReads9.4Score5.6k14d adds
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The Dragon Lifts Its Head 龙抬头
The goddess who used to look down on me is now applying for a job at my company… When the tiger returns to the mountain, the land will run red with blood; When the dragon rises, even the Yellow River will flow backward!
65.8kReads9.0Score8.2k14d adds
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- 22 The Tiger Emerges from the Mountain 虎出山 (Original Title: The Tiger Emerges from the Mountain) After accidentally killing an old hoodlum, Li Hu spends three years in prison. When he gets out, underworld boss Hong Weijun seeks him out and immediately gives him a bar... At the same time, the police approach him, hoping he will help them send Hong Weijun to prison... 63.8kReads9.5Score8.4k14d adds
- 23 The Number One Brother 一哥 The short drama A Brother is now streaming on Hongguo, with a surprise in store! I used to be a gang boss. Now I’m just a food delivery rider. Ever since I could remember, my father, a former soldier, had been a drunk with a nasty temper. Whenever he got drunk, he liked to beat my mother, often leaving her black and blue. Later, my parents divorced, and while trying to earn money for tuition, I went astray! I had no choice back then. Now, I just want to be a good person! 32.1kReads9.3Score1.7k14d adds
- 24 1980: A New Order in the Underworld 一九八零：江湖新秩序 What is the martial world? Wherever there are people, there will be conflict! The strong survive, and the weak perish. That is the martial world! Relive the 1980s and pay tribute to a youth long gone! This is the story of Han Yue, and how he rose from the bottom to the top of the provincial capital, only to fall again! The road through the martial world is treacherous. Everyone survives by their own wits! Hold on, and you can make something of yourself. Give up, and you're out... (This book is p 4.4kReads8.7Score28314d adds
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The Officialdom Game 官奕
My name is Wei Zilong, and I’ve spent my career in government. Through my story, I want to show everyone what the political arena is really like... When you’re in public service, you can’t always control your own fate. If you never weather a storm, how can you ever mature?
12.9kReads7.6Score1.1k14d adds
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- 26 Tales of Liangzhou: Underworld Turmoil 梁州往事之黑道风云 The jianghu has never been just about fighting. It is about navigating human relationships and weighing the pros and cons. After years moving through the gray areas, I have seen the warmth and coldness of human nature, and witnessed betrayal and scheming time and again. With no one to rely on in my youth, I endured a bitter, hard life. Some took a wrong turn and ended up behind bars, their lives ruined before they were halfway through. I clawed my way up from the very bottom of society, swallowi 141Reads6.3Score—14d adds
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Underworld Tyrant: Those Who Follow Me Prosper, Those Who Oppose Me Perish! 黑道暴君：顺我者昌，逆我者亡！
[Class Beauty, I’m out of prison. You’ll pay for what you did!] Framed by the class beauty he loved, Wang Erchui was wrongfully imprisoned for three years. The misery of prison transformed the once-ordinary boy into a hardened man. But it was only after getting out and seeking revenge that he gradually realized there was a terrifying story behind it all. The truth was, it wasn’t that love affair that had ruined his life. It was a vast, carefully woven web of darkness. His enemies had already ris
9.6kReads8.9Score58714d adds
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- 28 The Underworld's Turbulent Road 黑道风云江湖路 What is the Dao? It does not arise because of one person's goodness, nor perish because of one person's evil. Good and evil are determined by people; rise and fall are determined by fate. The people of the world think they are fighting for money, power, or pride. Only in the end do they understand that they were fighting for nothing but illusion. The Dao knows no black or white. All living beings are within the game. (Note: This book is extremely realistic and even somewhat oppressive. Re 136.5kReads9.2Score9.4k14d adds
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I Saved a Stunning Beauty, and She Tried to Hack Me with a Knife by the Bed 救了绝色美女，她在床边拿刀砍我
Chu Lingtian is a legendary man known as the "Grim Reaper Wolf King." He returns to the city for a top-secret mission, never imagining that on his very first day back, he will spend the night with a beautiful woman named Liu Bingxue. Afterward, Liu Bingxue takes him home and passes him off as her boyfriend. But it turns out she has a twin sister, Liu Huohuo. The older sister is cold and aloof, while the younger is uninhibited. Sharing a room with these twin beauties is certainly thrilling. After
11.5kReads8.7Score1k14d adds
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Wanderer of the Jianghu 浪人江湖丨
No System, no rebirth, no transmigration: A terrible plague swept through my village and claimed every life, leaving me as the sole survivor by sheer luck. After the disaster, I went to a nearby town and begged for a living... until one day, a swordsman appeared and led me into the martial world, a place I had never expected to enter after resigning myself to a lifetime as a beggar.
1.5kReads8.8Score12014d adds
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The Dustblade Guards the Palace 尘锋镇阙
The protagonist is both righteous and wicked, neither wholly good nor evil, and will stop at nothing to achieve his goals! He takes revenge on the spot. If he can’t get even right away, he’ll find a way to do it later. No saintly do-gooder, no brainless characters! Rescuing a gravely wounded noble on a snowy night draws him into the martial world, the power struggles at court, and the conflict between good and evil, as he investigates the secrets of the Imperial Bones. Welcome, new and longtime
2.9kReads6.0Score18414d adds
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The Bloody Underworld: Thirty Years of Organized Crime in North China 血色江湖：华北黑道三十年
[Underworld + First Person + Period Setting] What is the underworld? It’s a place where even if you win in the end, you still feel like you’ve lost. No matter how much you gain, it can never make up for what you’ve lost. My name is Jiang Qiyao. I witnessed thirty years of the underworld’s rise and fall across North China, watching one boss after another rise to power, then fall. After thirty years in that world, I can’t call myself a good person, but at least I haven’t become completely rotten.
3kReads6.7Score13314d adds
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I’m No Punk: Three of Us Together 我不是小混混之三人行
Determined not to become a thug, he knows that those who walk different paths cannot work together. Brotherhood, and the revival of the Eight Gates of the underworld. Is a sinister force behind it all, or is something far worse on the horizon...?
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After Prison, I Just Want to Live a Quiet Life 出狱后，我只想平平安安过日子
[The world is too deep for me. I just want to make something of myself.] My name is Ma Tengfei. I had just finished the college entrance exams when I got into a fight and was sent to prison for three years, missing my chance to go to college. A death-row inmate named Uncle Ming told me there were three kinds of people in this world: those above everyone else, courted by the masses and living lives others envy; those in the middle, scurrying around like ants and fighting one another just to survi
6.4kReads7.5Score44314d adds
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- 35 My Life in the Underworld of Cardsharps: Unstoppable 我的老千江湖之所向披靡 A showdown between professional cardsharps isn't just about winning or losing. It can mean the difference between life and death. My name is Lin Lingdong. I'm a professional cardsharp and a powerful gang boss who commands respect throughout the underworld. As the saying goes, one thought can lead to heaven, another to hell. The underworld is a place where the strong prey on the weak, and in the world of cardsharps, you can get rich overnight or lose everything just as fast. Where do we go from h 3.9kReads8.2Score18614d adds
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The Swindler: Through Fire and Water for You, Uncle! 老千：赴汤蹈火啊，二叔！
If you learn the art of cheating, you’ll see me as a mayfly sees the heavens. My name is Feng Shiqi, a veteran swindler who came out of the mountains. PS: The best quit-gambling novel on the whole internet, and the most wholesome swindler story online. ⚠️ Don’t open it at night, or you won’t be able to sleep.
18.5kReads8.4Score1.6k14d adds
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The Storms of Beicheng 北城风云
Synopsis: (This story is entirely fictional. Its original title was Northern City’s Turmoil.) What is the jianghu? Wherever there are people, there is a jianghu, and wherever there is a jianghu, there is conflict! The jianghu is about fighting, killing, and the law of the jungle, but it’s also about human relationships and social conventions. This book will take you back to the jianghu of the 1980s and 1990s, where you’ll witness the extraordinary path of Chen Yanan, a generation’s ruthless hero
13.1kReads9.4Score1.1k14d adds
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Thirty Years in the Jianghu (Seven-Volume Set) 江湖三十年（全七册）
Dai Gou spent his life roaming the martial world. Over several decades, he witnessed all kinds of scams and cons. In his later years, he gave up that life and revealed its tricks and rules to the world, hoping to keep future generations from being swindled. These scams include human trafficking, fortune-telling, artificially aging antiques, theft, card sharping, beggar gangs, cheating at games, confidence schemes, and honey traps... After decades of hard knocks, Dai Gou finally became the boss o
4.3kReads9.6Score76314d adds
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- 39 The Gangster Tycoon Who Rose from the Hutongs 胡同里杀出来的流氓大亨 Previously published under the titles Dragon City Years and Thirty Years in a Bloodstained Underworld. This is a lawless age where every corner is ruled by a big shot. This is the story of a naive young man who turns into a bloodthirsty beast just to survive. This is an underworld tale full of thrills and passion! Welcome to the 1980s… 40.4kReads9.2Score3.8k14d adds
- 40 The Bee, The Toad, The Swallow, and The Sparrow 蜂麻燕雀 In the early years of the Republic, society was in turmoil and warlords fought among themselves, yet the world of the jianghu was flourishing like never before. Among its many scams, the Four Schools of Bees, Hemp, Swallows, and Sparrows stood at the forefront. An old feud stirred up a storm of bloodshed across the jianghu. By a twist of fate, Meng Xiaoliu, a poor-born young man, got caught up in it. A con left his family shattered: his mother hanged herself, and his father went to prison. To av 16.7kReads9.6Score2.4k14d adds
- 41 The Crooked Path 走偏门 [Adapted into the short dramas Fishing in the Shadows, Taking the Crooked Path, and The Mastermind; and the animated dramas Fishing in the Shadows: Drifting North, A Crooked Road to Comeback, A Thousand Faces in the Underworld, and Tales of a Shady Deal. Check them out if you’re interested.] What is the crooked path? Those who walk it seek a way to survive for themselves and plot certain doom for others. Once you step onto this path, it stretches as deep as the sea. You’ll roam far and wide, mix 23.7kReads9.1Score3.7k14d adds
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The Qing Dynasty's First Butcher: Prince Yu Dodo 清朝第一屠夫：豫亲王多铎
Dodo, the fifteenth son of Qing Taizu Nurhaci, was known as the Qing Dynasty’s most infamous butcher. So why was he granted a place in the Imperial Ancestral Temple? This is the story of Dodo’s fierce life, returning once more to the bloody age of Later Jin, as well as the love stories of those who lived through it.
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Tales of Dragon City: Stories of a Small Town 龙城往事之小城故事
A realistic portrayal of northeastern China from the late 1980s to the present, full of grudges, grievances, and social change. Follow a group of impressionable young people as they face a host of challenges and opportunities and discover what it means to grow up. Realistic fiction, not a wish-fulfillment story, with a slow build.
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When Daylight Ends, the Killing Begins 昼尽而杀
Hong Kong, 1994. Three kingpins, two gangs, police officers, wealthy businessmen, officials, the media, hostesses, assassins, and ordinary people are all caught up in power struggles amid the surging tides of the times. No one can escape, and no one can hide. Fate is never in our own hands. Whether your eyes are open or shut, when night falls, people die.
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- 45 Bloodshed in the Black Abyss 黑渊血戮 (Realistic + Period Setting + Underworld + Political Battles) What is the underworld? It is an endless abyss. Once you take a single step into it, you’ll be trapped forever, with no way out. To make a name for yourself in the underworld, you have to be ready to end up dead in the street or locked away for life at any moment. Now, let me take you back to the late 1980s and show you how the son of a worker gets dragged into this dark abyss and rises step by step to become a crime boss of his era. 898Reads—Score—14d adds
- 46 The Most Evil Jianghu 极恶江湖 (Realistic fiction, historical setting, underworld feuds, business and political battles. No harem, and not a wish-fulfillment novel! This book is divided into domestic and overseas sections. The domestic section moves at a slower pace and has a stronger period feel, while the overseas section is fast-paced and intensely exciting. You can read either section on its own with no problem.) The evil of the underworld lies in the human heart! Books are full of talk about benevolence and righteousness 23.6kReads8.3Score3.6k14d adds
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Godfather of the Underworld: Planting My Flag in Mong Kok 黑道教父：从旺角插旗开始
Hong Kong is in turmoil, and crime lords rise on every side! Chen Kun is a low-ranking 49er in the 14K triad, with no power or influence. But he's both clever and brave, fearless, and full of brotherly loyalty. With the New World and Wo Shing Wo watching him like tigers, and the ruthless, bloodthirsty Big Circle Gang closing in, he's caught in the maelstrom of a chaotic era. His only way to survive is to risk his life. He rises through bloody underworld battles and makes a name for himself on th
299Reads8.3Score—14d adds
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Heaven Does Not Answer 天不应
Three myriad mounds of yellow earth and white bones, a sword's light like a shadow, the moon like wine. The spring breeze cuts through all the world's troubles. Tell me, peach blossoms, will you turn white-haired too? In the year 547 of the Yong'an era, a pitch-dark snowstorm fell over Kuhai County, a border county in southern Qi. In a dilapidated temple outside the county, Wen Chaoshen found a crippled woman, gravely injured and on the verge of death. He thought she was merely a refugee in dist
84.5kReads9.1Score6.1k14d adds
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- 49 EN The Reticent Blade 刀不语 Someone once asked me, “What is the jianghu?” I thought for a moment. I thought of a jug of rough wine on the table, a distant figure walking away beneath the setting sun, a grave beneath the moon, and the cigarette burning down to ash in my hand right now. That person asked again, “Where is the jianghu?” I smiled and looked out the window. There were countless jianghus out there. One person is a story. Two people make a jianghu. 28kReads9.3Score3.2k14d adds
- 50 Fish of the World 天下游鱼 By the Canglan River, a young man wears a straw raincoat and bamboo hat, holding wine in one hand and a fishing rod in the other. His heart has no place in the world, yet he finds himself in the jianghu... I come from a place beyond knowing. I want to see this world, just as unknown to me... 91.4kReads9.0Score8.9k14d adds
