The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System, volume 2, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

The second volume of the official version of scum villain is finally out!! obviously I read the whole thing the very day I got my hands on it.

This volume starts at the point where Luo Binghe returns from the endless abyss, though, and wowwww had I ever forgotten the degree to which Shen Qingqiu acts against his own interests in this part of the story. He's SO convinced he understands lbh due to having read the original PIDW that he makes no efforts to actually communicate, and his silences and dismissive statements are guaranteed to make sure lbh can't see the truth of what's in sqq's heart!

I spent a lot of time slamming this volume shut because I couldn't bear to read about sqq's latest bad choices, lol. My heart panged to see how much lbh was clearly hurt by sqq's treatment of him! And sqq couldn't even see how much he was hurting lbh, despite how much sqq cares about him!!

I mean, don't get me wrong, lbh makes some bad choices too (....the implications of necrophilia are definitely stronger than I remembered, among other things!!), but sqq is the worst (affectionate).

This book was a lot easier to read back when I didn't actually care about sqq or lbh :P

Anyway, a lot of the actual events of this part of the story had kind of flowed by me without registering when I first read the fan translation, so I found myself generally surprised by a number of plot developments, oops. Also I was much worse at keeping track of secondary characters, and now I'm charmed by a lot of them. (yang yixuan, for example!)

Many things in this volume to delight and infuriate and now we all have to wait for MONTHS before the next volume is released and I am already dying!

Where the Wild Ladies Are, by Aoko Matsuda, translated by Polly Barton

This is a collection of short stories translated from Japanese, and inspired by traditional Japanese ghost stories, from what I understand, so I am absolutely confident I'm missing nuance and implications since I don't know any of the stories it's based on -- but you know what, this was an entirely charming book even coming in cold as an outsider.

The stories feature an exuberant mixing together of living people and ghosts, of people who have supernatural talents and people who don't, all just living their lives (or their deaths, lol) and being themselves. Some of the stories intertwine with each other, with characters who are minor background characters in one becoming the main character in another, giving you different perspectives on things in a fun way, but each story is complete in itself. The overall impression one gets is that the author just likes people, even the ones who are irritating or who make bad choices or who don't like other people themselves, and it's a very cheering sort of impression to come away with.

Thanks to skygiants for the recommendation!