Case File Compendium Vol. 2 by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Case File Compendium by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou

In volume 2, He Yu, the university student with a rare mental disorder, and Xie Qingcheng, a professor of medicine and He Yu’s former doctor, continue their toxic relationship. And it gets really bad here.

The beginning is fine, and it seems the men will slowly but surely work through their misunderstandings, hatreds, hurts and homophobia into a friendship of sort. But then the shadowy criminal organisation on the background decides to purge their ranks at the university campus, and the men get drawn in.

Xie Qingcheng realises these are the people who killed his parents and he’ll stop at nothing to find the truth. But the organisation isn’t willing to divulge it, and they throw Xie Qingcheng under a social media bus. The video they surface makes He Yu question everything that took place when Xie Qingcheng was his doctor and he comes to a conclusion that the only person who he thought cared for him never did.

It leads to his mental disorder to flair up, and to a huge confrontation with Xie Qingcheng. What follows is a graphic, very much non-consensual bedroom scene that destroys what goodwill Xie Qingcheng might have built towards his former patient. He’s a proud, unyielding man, and it’s difficult to see how their relationship could recover from this.

This was a good volume, but sad and uncomfortable. We learn more about He Yu’s childhood and it makes one want to throttle everyone who was responsible for his wellbeing. That he’s as functional as he is, is a miracle. The way he chooses to act out his pain isn’t acceptable, but it’s in line with his character and the men’s angry relationship and powerplays, and it fits the tone of the book insofar as such actions can, leaving the reader both sad and angry. That being said, if such scenes make you uncomfortable, you can skip it. The aftermath is understandable even without reading it.

The background story with the organisation is a bit over the top and sort of unnecessary, even if their actions push the men around. And there was a revelation about it that I didn’t see coming. The cast of characters was smaller than in the first volume, keeping things simpler, the plot was more straightforward and advanced in a fast pace, and the ending wasn’t a cliffhanger, though it didn’t conclude anything either. And I absolutely have to find out how anything can be salvaged between the men after this volume.