Happy Danmei Friday!! This week I’m back with another modern danmei, Riverbay Road Men’s Dormitory Vol 1. This book rocked my world and really changed the trajectory of my danmei journey. In this video, I discuss my favorite parts, who I’m shipping, and my predictions for volume two!
Video Notes:
Please note, these are my rough notes for recording! Grammatical errors will exist!
Cold Open
When a gay director tries to transition to being a novelist, he’s told by an editor that it’s clear he doesn’t know people . His character’s are “too fake.” Not being one to quit, Zhang Yuwen hatches a plan to get to other gay men more. This genius plan? Disguise himself as an editor who is doing a friend a favor. He rents out his apartment on Riverbay Road to four gay men, all carefully screened by him to get a distinct story. Of course, each man has their own secret they are keeping too. Add in a seemingly straight love interest, the plan is clearly changing before Zhang Yuwen’s very own eyes.
Welcome
Welcome back to TWOA and Happy Danmei Friday! This week I’m excited to talk about volume one of Riverbay Road Men’s Dormitory by Fei Tian Ye Xiang also known as Arise Zhang.
This video has spoilersssssss so be warned!
Discovering RBMD
As a newbie into danmei, I preordered RBMD after seeing it promoted by Seven Seas Entertainment. I was especially interested because it was a modern title and I really love modern settings
What I Liked
Each character POV: I’ve always loved stories featuring a robust group of friends/people where you get glimpses of each of their thoughts. I think this story does a great job of managing the MC Zhang Yuwen’s thoughts about everyone and everyone’s inner thoughts and true feelings. It’s always interesting because Zhang Yuwen doesn’t have the completely picture so his assumptions aren’t always correct.
Gay dynamics from a male perspective: A lot of people are under the impression all BL is written by women, but Fei Tian Ye Xiang is a man and as someone who has been reading a lot of different BL, i can see a big difference. Let’s pull over for a little disclaimer: if you’ve been consuming my content for a long time, you know I NEVER talk about TopsxBottoms. that being said: I am mentioning this in the next segment because it is a part of the story. Something this story talks a lot about is the dynamics of Tops/Bottoms according to Zhang Yuwen. A big thing for him is how he’s always been a top but he would not mind trying bottoming for the right person or switching. He also sees tops/bottoms in a gender-role type way without explicitly saying so. He “Casts” the guys in the apartment based on these roles and a lot of the guys talk about their wants in a partner based on this too. This comes up a lot in the story. It was interesting as a reader seeing this point of view, because its not one that is common from what I’ve seen. I dont have a lot of thoughts on the specifics because I’m not a gay man nor do I live in China, where this is also taking place and I feel that plays a role too.
Surprise Love Interest for MC: Something that isn’t mentioned in the synopsis is that there is a 6th person who comes into the story that does not live in the house. Hou Sichen is a seemingly straight man who is a client of one of the boarders, Chen Hong. It’s pretty obvious as a reader he is coming on hard to Zhang Yuwen. But since Zhang Yuwen believes him to be straight, he doesn’t see it until they are set up on a blind date, at Hou Sichen’s request. I liked that this was not mentioned in the synopsis, because it’s a pleasant surprise. It also creates a challenge for Zhang Yuwen because he can’t be completely honest with Hou Sichen or he’ll reveal that he’s been lying about who is really is.
Surprise Pairings between roommates: One of my favoriteeeeee parts of the story has been the “surprise” pairing that takes place almost towards the end of the story that completely changes the way I was reading the story.
So we have the boarders: Zheng Weize -a younger, broke streamer who is looking to fall in love, with ANYONE! But pretty early on he sets his eyes on Chang Jinxing.
Chang Jinxing is the “described” playboy of the house, who is a photographer struggling to get by. he flirts a lot with Zheng Weize and is kind of giving him false hope.
To be honest, I thought they were end game because something that i always do is go read the last few sentences of a book and at the end, Chang Jinxing kisses him for NYE. But I didn’t have the contect that I do now!
There’s Yan Jun, the single dad, who is pinning over Zhang Yuwen so we don’t think that will go anywhere.
And then Chen Hong, the fitness trainer who seems the most removed from the group romantically.
But midway through, Chen Hong and Chang Junxing end up basically hooking up?!?! It caught me ALL THE WAY off guard!!!!! They were so hot together and I definitely feel like theres MORE to come between them.
Also at the end, when Yan Jun is describing his ideal partner during the truth or date game, he’s basically describing Zheng Weize. Zheng Weize is also really hands on with the baby.
Im keeping my fingers crossed that both these dynamics come to fruition because now I’m invested!
Questions I want Answered in the Next Volume:
What is Hou Sichen hiding?
i dont think he’s in a relationship or maybe I’m really hoping he’s not!!! But who the hell is he on the phone with???
Yan Jun x Zheng Weize??
I need this pairing to having some moments!
When and how will this all blow up??
All the lies have me on edge but especially Zhang Yuwen’s because who the fuck wants to secretly be observed so i writer can learn about feelings and human emotions?! like be so serious Zhang Yuwen!!! its a pretty messed up thing for him to do and while i think some of the roomates (like Chen Hong and Zheng Weize) wont take it as personally, I can see Yan Jun being really hurt because he does have feelings for him.
I also think the lie will cause issues with Hou Sichen he’s been pursuing Zhang yuwen a certain way and it turning out that Zhang Yuwen is very rich and successful will blidnside him.
Conclusion
Overall this series is incredible and I’m a little sad it is only two volumes! Luckily, volume soon comes out in July so I wont have to wait too long to see what happens. This series reminds me of a BL manhwa Too Close for Comfort which was also adapted into a BL k drama called Oh! Boarding House. Just with less messy dynamics.
This series also was my introduction to Fei Tian Ye Xiang , who I didnt realize also wrote Legend of Exorcism which i unwrapped in a previous video but haven’t read yet. I’ve already started To Rule in a Turbulent World series which I’ll cover in a future video, along with LoE. I’ve also preordered the other titles of his licensed by Seven Seas.
