[Chinese BL novel] 软饭硬吃[重生] / It's hard to eat soft rice

After reading most of the novel I decided it deserves getting a separate post, because when I mentioned this novel earlier, I was basically at the initial stage of reading and had no idea that things will turn out like this.

Mpreg btw. My initial thoughts were the same as with the synopsis, we have Xu QingHe as our MC, he was reborn. We could say that his past life was messed up pretty badly and it felt like all the bad luck befell on him. Misfortune started when he entered the wrong room, but with his messed up look he was caught by paparazzi and his image fell. He couldn't ptove himself, his company did not help. Trying to get any kind of job he was greeted with difficulties before accident after accident ruined his face and later his leg was broken and he lost his life. I also thought that we'd stay away from the past events and things would play differently, but who knew that the past holds so many secrets XQH had no idea about.

This novel was ups and downs for me. Ups is that how it played past and present in the present time (about this in spoiler section), downs for me were probably the portrayal of ML Pei ShengYe.. no, it should be wrong to say his portrayal, it's their portrayal, because PSY is casual domineering president, quite ruthless, but he changes with time, yet one thing I didn't like is their relationship in front of the kid (one particular thing - having s* when the kid is asleep, even 3 meter wide bed will not help the situation to me, I don't like it, I loathe it).

Okay, back to the novel and to realize why I think it worked well when it came to playing past and present together I must present spoilers, lots of them. because this story is more moved not by events (though there are loads of them), but more by relationships between, which are the main force that moved the story and were responsible for some events.

/~SPOILERS~/

Not really big spoilers, I won't retell the stories, but some things are mentioned that ar efun to explore yourself. 

At first when XQH is reborn, it's the fateful night when he slept with PSY. But now he is not panicked, more like dismissing. Because the paparazzi who squatted near the hotel destroyed his reputation in previous life he did not rush. He met with his agent and suggested to terminate the contract, after all this pimping agent was no good. XQH also sent him to court for withholding payment etc. Termination went smoothly, he lost almost all his saving and left the most important for last - getting ready for pregnancy. In his last life he had no idea he could give birth and due to all stresses lost his child, it also caused contravercy to him, but he wanted to keep the child. Now he was more laid-back and thought he'd stay away from everything and everything will be fine. But the child's father arrived, he inadvertantly heard it from another person, his cousin, who saw XQH in the hospital and just wanted to help, but later found out he was pregnant (Btw pregnancy wasn't treated as something really big in the hospital).

In a second XQH is married and accomodated in the villa, raising his baby. Everything starts peacefully before he is involved in several big struggles.

RELATIONSHIPS:

• Pei ShengYe. ML is a huge businessman, he comes from a prominent background, he came to power quite early and ruled with iron fist. One person who definitely has high IQ. He doesn't naively trust people, but doesn't paranoidly avoids others as well. If one doesn't touch his interests (not meaning in business only, but especially XQH), they they will reap what they sow. He has quite domineering characteristics as he is the person who is adapted to being in charge, but with time he changes and becomes more attentive and a little softer. He is the type that is not particularly happy to have children, the one who could be happy in a two-person world. So he is quite dismissive of his son in comparison to loving XQH, but it doesn't mean he's irresponsible.  Taking care of the kid etc. he can do it. But he lacks in fatherly love (if it's about his childhood, who knows, we don't dwell, but I believe it bears responsibility). The only thing that got to me was them having intercourse when their kid was sleeping a meter away. And I know the kid is too small to understand things, but no matter what they should have avoided it, especially when they have a large villa with too many rooms. This part chopped off a chunk of my good impression. Tbh I don't really know why it was made into mpreg, but it worked.
• Grandma and the Lu family. Because with start with PSY's mother's family. His mother died when he was young, she committed suicide, because she was mostly driven mad by her relationship with her husband and their failed marriage. This is why I say it had an effect on him. Grandma is the kind person who accepted XQH and especially loved her great grandson a lot and took care of him when both parents were busy. Mother Lu is PSY's aunt, she was also taking care of them, even if she was more of a side-character. But Lu Wenkang, PSY's cousin, is often mentioned, especially in the beginning of the novel, because he helps a lot and despite his image, involved in family business. There is also a girl Lu Wenxin, but she's not mentioned often. Lu father is skipped.
• Pei family. We get to know them on the surface very early, but we meet these coinceited family members who think they're better than others. Pei grandma looks majestic, but as we later find out, although she cares about some upbringing etc. but she failed to bring up her sons to be decent human beings. Starting from PSY's father. He is now in prison, thanks to PSY, but he deserved for his failed business practices. He also had too many illegitimate children and relationships (thus PSY's mother's depression). Other PEi member, except younger generation, looked like nothing and were easily fooled by the biggest villain of the book - Qin Zhen. They tried to play the elders card, but it doesn't work with ShengYe, to him they're clowns. Only in crisis he took over, but the rest of the family was reduced to dust. It is not mentioned much after that, except one cousin - Pei Qinwei. He is one of those who moved to China and took position of the manager, although he was not in the close circle and was left out when it came to dealing with another villanous character - Shen Xinyu.
• Qin Zhen. Will be the biggest and craziest villain. He's not really into the face as a villain, but he is often present in the talks. Because he is responsible for a lot of discrediting online which were directed at XQG, also several accidents and even kidnapping. But this guy is completely mad. He is also responsible for XQH's death, but XQH himself had no idea why this guy targeted him, before he remembered the last scene of his life - where PSY was mentioned to be dead in the explosion. In last life XQH had no idea, but in this life he was still targetted. At first we think it is connected to Shen Xinyu who QZ finds a "better" match. But later the target switches and it's more like QZ basically can't deal with PSY, after all PSY ruined his business in retaliation. This is also where XQH's fear of dogs is explained, because he was intimidated by trained dogs, which were in QZ's posession. QZ and who he is is the part of the puzzle we find out who is responsible for miserable life of XQH in the past. And basically the reason why he was targetted (of course it's because of PSY). Although XQH at that time was purely an unknowing victim. I personally loved the last chapters before QZ capture, since it's not him being saved, but XQH managed to defend himself in that situation, even wounding QZ, which was a really big pay-off for all the trouble QZ caused during the novel.
• Shen Xinyu. At first Shen Xinyu is presented as a scheming actor with great reputation. But in the first meeting it is inevitable to find out that Shen Xinyu is not a soft persimmon. He used unknown means to attract a neighbor's dog to attack XQH who was holding a flower pot that was just presented to him by SXY, you can't say anything, no evidence, but targetting is obvious. And XQH was pregnant at that time and was barely weeks away from giving birth. But later because of this incident and XQH being surrounded by bodyguards there were also several finds during the recording, SXY presents contained medicine that could stimulate. This uncovered one of the past events, because this actor previously acted frivously and ruined XQH's reputation even further. But in this life these medicine were avoided and the same actor even joined XQH's company later. So this SXY is not an innocent hard-working person at all. There are a lot of schemes and they all seem insidious. At first we had an impression that QZ is like a supporting male role that holds SXY in high regards and thinks of him as a white moonlight, but later in the novel these images shattered when we figure that thei relationship is quite business-like but with dark secrets. They're not a pair, but to get resources SXY was responsible for delivering several stars whose life was ruined. The servaillance was used as a last step into ruining SXY's reputation. XQH could have used it earlier, but when he found out that SXY was responsible for hiring those paparazzi who ruined his life, he took actin into dismantling SXY's "good" reputation online. This was quite a move I'd say. XQH wanted SXY to feel what it's like to get your reputation ruined for nothing. After all in his last life he was targetted and not helped and most of it probably came from SXY and QZ. His end is not explained tbh, but he escaped being imprisoned after QZ got him a double and sent him abroad, after all the two had business dealings together. But with his reputation ruined there was no place for him in this country.
• XQH's mother. This was the biggest change for me in entire novel. The thing about rebirth novels is, as you may have read a lot, is that character retaliate against people a lot and sometimes those people, who were responsible for something in previous life, did nothing in this life yet. The biggest change I think lies with XQH's mother. When we first hear from her it feels like she's in dismissive relationship with XQH, she's a remarried woman, she took oil bottle, her husband had a son from the first marriage and they had a child together. But XQH often spent time outside and was kept outside - without a reason. So at first XQH couldn't come in terms with his mother, because she wasn't there when he needed her the most in his last life. As it happens before they first visited one big truth was revealed, his step-brother, the older one, was revealed to have thoughts about XQH and he had them since XQH was quite young. This is the reason why his mother tried to keep him away, after all I could understand the situation, if this gets out who knows whose reputation will be ruined more, after all her husband, despite having a big fight with his son, did not dismiss him completely and would have defended him pouring dirty water on XQH's head. During the first visit PSY managed to talk XQH's mother into divorce, because he saw her unfavorable situation at home. Surprisingly, his younger step-brother, Zhang Lizhe, left with them. The fight started because her husband dismissed her own son as not needing any property, he was also pretty homophobic etc. As it happens, XQH's mother had had enough and decided to divorce right there. She spent her earned money on this family, had to cook and wash after working and had no saving for her own son. Her work was for nothing. Not to mention as we find out after her husband's kidnapping, he had a woman outside who gave birth to a daughter and was treated better than her second child. The kidnapping was targetted at XQH of course and this step-father, Zhang Xinwei, confessed to kidnappers that he has a rich step-son. This was the last knot that was untangled in XQH's heart. He realized that this kidpanning happened in the previous life, but his mother was still married, had no idea about affair and called him for money, but at that time he was riddled with scandals and had no money, so she said some pretty harsh words to him. But now from a different angle, his mother was shocked to be called by a mistress to call for ransom. After all Zhang Xinwei not only has this, but photos of young XQH taken secretely by stalking elder brother. Although Zhang Xinwei was saved, but had a new hole in his leg thanks to PSY who went to deal with the situation. This is why our impression of XQH's mom changes, after all she loves her child, but she's afraid of what might happen to him at home, she has nothing to offer, just make sure to keep him away and even his little brother is rather cute, although we start as thinking he's a brat, but he loves his mother, was aware of the situation at home and knew how to care for his mother. Thus they stayed in the capital with XQH and PSY, but they lived separately and XQH'd mom didn't want to be completely dependant, so she worked while Zhang Lizhe went to school.
• Pei Qingxu. Our star boy. Nicknamed Zaizai, he was more of a mascot, cute though. But XQH truly loved his son, after all losing his son was the biggest regret of his and Zaizai was always present somewhere in the background. Just a happy little boy like any other, playing and having fun. Because the span of the novel covers only few years, Zaizai is still a kid wearing diaper when it's over. PSY is always intimidating, so he even intimidates Zaizai a bit, but actually Zaizai is one of few who is not afraid of him, just only when PSY acts stricter not to let the little boy off the rails. But in general Zaizai is a cute mascot.
• The HAREM. It's a joke of the novel, because after PSY created a whole company for XQH's acting career, XQH managed to recruit a lot of people to his company with time. Even joked about it online by netizens. They shared a lot of resources and most of the first batch (were acquainted at the show) was basically acting as a friends group and they had a lot of fun. Most prominent would be Fan Yihan, he was more like in conflict with XQH, but they became bickering friends later on and FYH is a great friend. The only one who did not jump the companies. Partially it's just friendship, one person was recruited because he helped XQH in previous life. Personally, I liked that this chat continued through the entire novel, because many do not hold onto the friendship relationships and it's a pity.
•  Love relationship. This one I think is a bit vague. Because XQH wasn't attracted at first, it was more PSY's infatuation. At first we are made to believe that PSY was ready for nurturing, but later we figure out that even if they would have started at that, PSY would switch them and upgrade their relationship pretty quickly. It is vague because the attraction seems to be from the first meeting, when XQH was still drunk and flirted with PSY. And as we know, if PSY won't allow you to be near, he will kick you out, thus he was pretty like a clean blank paper before XQH. I can't say that XQH held some great redeemable qualities to even them up, but sometimes XQH is described as a bit of a silly goose, but not stupid. He is kind at heart, but can retaliate against villains. Anyway, he's quite lively and ordinary at first. There is no emphasis of him being so absolutely great. Like he worked to improve acting skills and singing, so he's not the "I know it all" type of character. Although the novel has such title, but he never used power to win only male leads, he played characters he saw fitting to his progress. he also had enough problems which were brought by their relationship, after all it were all PSY's enemies and rotten peach blossoms who came to him. So they come together, at first seemingly because of the child, but later XQH is attracted to his man and some events make this bond stronger. Btw there is enough innuendo to s* scenes, if someone cares, I don't.

This is it. I want to draw a bigger emphasis on making changes in the past and present that were shown through XQH and his mother's relationship. As I said usually people get retaliated even if they did nothing, some people truly deserve it, like for example step-father who kept a mistress, or villains QZ and SXY, they did enough evil to be put down. But as we know some relationships are not clear, such as this pair of mother and son, and I found it most exciting part, because sometimes I feel like a person can grow and let go of their grudges, not to fall in love with enemies, but simply let go of revenge, step out of the misery. But sometimes relationships can change depending on the situation as this novel showed. And more importantly, some grivances came from something unknown. XQH had no idea about the situation, so at that time he felt betrayed, but when he analyzed the situation he realized the truth behind it. This what impressed me the most and was so different from other novels where people don't explore these things and only one idea - you betrayed me, you won't be better - exists in them.

The only questionable part of the novel to me was that several entertainment companies had the same ending. Like XQH's previous company was revealed to openly pimp artists (XQH one of them, thus his scandal). One of the main perpetrators was quite a big star. But almost the same happened to Shen Xinyu's company. Where SXY was the one responsible for getting artists (by all means). Not mad at it, but felt like copy-paste situation.

RATE: 3,5/5. Don't look at such a low rate as it seems, I chipped off part of it for s* near the kid (personal preference of dislikes), the rest of the story was quite fine and pretty entertaining. It's just not everything was perfect, so here we have it. I rarely give 5, to me 4 out of 5 is already the highest praise to the novel.