The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)

by R.F. Kuang

But Tikany township in Rooster Province was a village of farmers and peasants.

A hundred test booklets were opened with a flapping noise, like a flock of sparrows taking off at once.

Lock up the store. Hang up the laundry. Take this packet of opium to the neighbors and don’t leave until you’ve scalped them for twice what we paid for it.

“She’s not from the brothel, you idiot,” Auntie Fang snapped. “Sit down. Show some respect to Matchmaker Liew.”

This is mulan

bright and falsely saccharine. “Would you like to hear why?” Rin clutched the edge of her chair and stared at Matchmaker Liew’s red lips. “No.”

I love Rin already

Since infanticide was frowned upon in Tikany, the Fangs had put Rin to use as a shopgirl and opium runner since she was old enough to count.

Then she shoved a packet of stolen opium under her shirt and ran.

The Keju tests for a deep knowledge of history, advanced mathematics, logic, and the Classics

Well, fuck the heavenly order of things. If getting married to a gross old man was her preordained role on this earth, then Rin was determined to rewrite it.

In Nikan, a tutor’s success was tied to his reputation for Keju results.

She might let faults go unacknowledged for years, and then strike with a well-placed poisonous pellet. But Rin had covered her tracks.

“Give him more and more until he is fully dependent on it, and on you. Let it destroy his body and mind. You’ll be more or less married to a breathing corpse, yes, but you will have his riches, his estates, and his power.”

This woman is diabolical

The military academy at Sinegard was the most prestigious institution in the Empire, a training ground for future generals and statesmen. It rarely recruited from the rural south, if ever.

History was the easiest to learn. Nikan’s history was a highly entertaining saga of constant warfare. The Empire had been formed a millennium ago under the mighty sword of the merciless Red Emperor,

created a unified state of unprecedented size. It was the first time the Nikara people had ever conceived of themselves as a single nation.

His many heirs turned the country into a bloody mess during the Era of Warring States that followed, which divided Nikan into twelve rival provinces.

Of all Nikan’s attempted conquerors, the Federation of Mugen had come the closest. The island country had attacked Nikan at a time when domestic turmoil between the provinces was at its peak.

took two Poppy Wars and fifty years of bloody occupation for Nikan to win back its independence.

The Empress Su Daji, the last living member of the troika who had seized control of the state during the Second Poppy War, now r...

The Nikara Empire had proven itself historically unconquerable. But it was also unstable and disunited, and the current spell of peace held no promise of durability.

She still had to bring herself up to speed on the more abstract trigonometric theorems, which she assumed mattered for naval battles, but she found that learning those was pleasantly straightforward.

COULDNT BE ME

Because it’s not his pear tree, Rin thought immediately. Because the owner might be Auntie Fang and break his head open with a shovel.

Lmaooo

predetermined canon of twenty-seven books.

i have issues w canon lit

also couldn’t see why he had insisted on writing in the most irritatingly verbose manner possible.

Bro this is so real wheN u read scholarly articles

“The scholar had to find a way to stay awake. So he pinned the end of his braid to the ceiling, so that every time he drooped forward, his hair would yank at his scalp and the pain would awaken him.”

“You’re almost there, Rin. Just a little further. Please do not commit spousal homicide.”

Lmao

So Rin kept a candle by her books, dripping hot wax on her arm if she nodded off.

Not sure having open fire when youre sleepy isthe smartest idea

The day she took the exam, her arms were covered with burn scars.

The monastic orders were gone now, but the gods remained: numerous deities that represented every category from sweeping themes of love and warfare to the mundane concerns of kitchens and households.

the White Tiger, the Black Tortoise, the Azure Dragon, and the Vermilion Bird.

they represented the four cardinal directions,

They blinked at each other. Slowly Rin removed the incense stick from her nostril. “Hello,” she said. “I’m praying.” “Please leave,” he said.

IM SCREAMING

Her name was at the very top of the scroll. She hadn’t placed in the top ten. She’d placed at the top of the entire village. The entire province.

good way to get robbed, murdered, or eaten. Sometimes all three—and sometimes not in that order.

Eaten?! I beg ur pardon

The Red Junk Opera was a religious cult of bandits and outlaws famous for their attempts on the Empress’s life after the Second Poppy War.

“Beware of fake currency. You can tell a silver’s not an imperial silver if it lands Red Emperor–side up ten throws in a row.

She had made it all the way across the country to a place she had spent years dreaming of, only to discover a hostile, confusing city that despised southerners. She had no home in Tikany or Sinegard. Everywhere she traveled, everywhere she escaped to, she was just a war orphan who was not supposed to be there. She felt so terribly alone.

He straightened up. “And don’t ever come back to the south. You’re better than that.”

Rin took two steps toward the boy and punched him in the face.

I was so hopin she socked him

Rin and Nezha were the last ones to the main hall—a

Why do i frel like they might end up being friends

“Welcome to Sinegard. I am Jima Lain. I am grand master of this school,

and then brought his finger up to his eyes to examine the discharge. He glanced up suddenly, caught Rin staring at him, and smirked. She hastily looked away.

Uhh ok

“I’m Niang,” offered the girl to Rin’s left. She had a round, friendly face, and she spoke with a lilting accent that belied her northern heritage, though it was nowhere as indecipherable as the Sinegardian dialect. “I’m from the Hare Province.”

“Venka,” she said begrudgingly. “Dragon Province, but I grew up in the capital.”

“Brown as cow manure.” Rin’s nostrils flared. “I went out in the sun once. You should try it sometime.”

Ki is nothing but plain energy. The same energy that flows through your lungs and blood vessels. The same energy that moves rivers downstream and causes the wind to blow.”

You have a limited quantity of energy in your body. No amount of training will allow you to accomplish superhuman feats.

“You can do what average humans think impossible. Martial arts is about action and reaction. Angles and trigonometry. The right amount of force applied at the proper vector. Your muscles contract and exert force, and that force is dispelled through to the target.

This is why we call this past century the Age of Humiliation.”

And so Nikan split into the Twelve Provinces, each headed by one Warlord. For most of recent history, the Warlords have been preoccupied with fighting each other. Until—” “The Poppy Wars,”