[SHORT REVIEWS] #8

Or "Pending/bookmarked novels" edition :D Note: upcoming, bookmarked, unfinished because of hiatuses, being on-going etc. No honestly, considering hundreds of bookmarked novels I have no idea when I will come around them or will I ever even do it or they will stay there unread. But some of the novels were added for a reason or two, like I was in a stage of reading certain novels, but some were left behind, next is that I liked the synopsis and might read it later.. but considering that summaries are often not corresponding to the content or straight out misleading, this I think is also a trap ahahaha. Let's do this! Note: I will skip on covers that are default JJ covers. So if a cover is missing it's not that I'm bad, but it's a basic cover.

万魔之父 by 蜀七

(mtl: Father to thousands of demons)

[BL] This is UPCOMING. I had this on the list for forever and I'm not even sure the author will come around this novel, but I still left it pending because the synopsis got me going. It tell a story in interstellar setting about a man named Mingze who was sentenced and sent to a plant Devil's Island, to be an entertainment for people watch him being tortured live, but the demons on this island called him Father. The cover is also chosen pretty, but author been writing about e-sports novel as their latest and they have a bit of fatigue signs where they don't update often in last months. So who knows if it'll ever see the light. I have several of such upcoming novels, some of them actually started serialization, that's why I don't lose hope (;_;)

当了十年反派后我穿回来了 by 梨蓝蓝

(mtl: I wore it back after being a villain for ten years)

[BL] UPCOMING. I think it's gonna be a long wait. One of those I'm not sure will ever see the light of day. If I ever meet a similar outline I might read it too, but I really liked the concept of wearing books and going back to original "plot". The story promises something like this: Wen Linyu grew up weak in both body and mind, but he wore a cultivation plot where he became a villain. From the loss to being tempered he finally returned to his original world. Now who would dare to raise their hand against this seemingly "country bumpkin" that was picked up by his parents and not get a strong fist in return. Author has a lot of writing going on and who knows if it's a pitfall.

错把反派仙尊当成拯救对象 by 陈森森

(mtl: Mistaking the villain Immortal Lord as the target of salvation)

[BL] Completed. Been pending for forever too. Probably because it has the cultivation setting I've been holding back on reading. I don't know sometimes these settings are not my favorite. But I see this author has several plots of "being mistaken". The general idea of it is: Bai Chenyu travels to the bloody script, his target is to save the protagonist shou and protect him, he does what he is told, but system told him that he chose the wrong person and saved the villain. After the escape plan and finally finding the protag the villain Immortal Lord found him.

被退婚后，我嫁入豪门冲喜了 by 甘洄

(mtl: After my engagement was broken off, I was overjoyed to marry a wealthy family)

[BL] I think I know why this was pending. At first it might have been upcoming, but then it was serialized and seeing from he dates it's been fully completed only a month ago. Also the title is a bit off, since the "happy" marriage we're talking about is marrying someone who is sick to give the joy. Like all those plots where protag marries a comatose person. That kind of "happy" marriage. The story is supposed to be like this. Jian Xia's family faced a crisis, his engagement was broken off and he was offered a really good deal by the Fu family, so he agreed. Everyone waited fro Jian Xia to be a widow and a nanny for notorious Fu Hanyun, but things were different from expectations. Sounding very cliche, but who cares, also the rating on JJ are not bad :) But I've read at least one novel from this author, so it wasn't bad, I guess this is why I gave them a go.

蚀骨美人 by 夜雨行舟

(mtl: Bone erosion beauty)

[BL] Been pending for a reason, it was on-going when I started reading it and then it entered a long hiatus, I thought it was going to be dropped, but later it was picked up and completed. I even put a note that I finished reading at chapter 98, but believe it or not I can't remember a single thing. I've read too many things in-between, so I was waiting for completion and also for the mood to arrive. But at least I remember that I liked it, thus I was reading it despite the "on-going" status. Also I believe the cover was changed, but not sure. Synopsis: Xie Mian died and signed a contract to be the most beautiful and terrifying NPC in the reincarnation world. After the contract was over he returned to his original world where Xie Mian was riddled with black materials online and netizens asked him to leave the entertainment, but suddenly he was supported by many bosses. The settings were interesting, thus I started to read and I think because of MC's personality I continued. But honestly, beats me I really can't remember a thing :D

走红后豪门大佬成了我粉头 by 雁飞行

(mtl: After becoming famous, wealthy people became my fans)

[BL] This one was pending for a reason that it was still on-going while I was reading, so I stopped at chapter 102 and the total count is 133+extras. And because I happen to read it more than a year ago I remember too little, but I can still give the overall idea :) Jiang Fang was sent to be a monk, not really, his health from birth was quite weak, so it was advised to send him to recuperate, this lasted for years. Now the monk sent him home, but he was not close to his parents or his younger brother, since the lived separately for years. His younger brother debuted and had to bring a brother on the show, so instead of a fake one he invited the true one. Jiang Fang agreed for numeneration, but not because he is money-loving person, he needed funds for his own lab. As one doesn't know Jiang Fang is a highly achieving student. ML Cheng Si comes from a wealthy family, his sister alarmed the Cheng family for spending a load of money on chasing stars, Cheng Si was tasked to deal with it, but unknowingly became a fan of Jiang Fan himself. From what I remember it's basically brothers coming together after years of separation and because Jiang Fang is more mature he also makes Jiang Qi pull his s*it together. Cheng Si and Jiang Fan get to know each other through this online relationship. So it was on okay story, nothing fancy. This is why i don't think I'll complete it, even if only few chapters are left for me to read.

今天的修罗场也很热闹 by 关尼尼

(mtl: The Shura field is very lively today)

[BL] I think I know why I might have put it on hold, because it has chasing wife into crematorium and ML was quite toxic in his last life. But the thing is that MC is a task person, he comes into this world with a target as his mission, his first target was Yan Huan. He spent a long time by this person's side, but his heart was never moved (not really true). He also had a White Moonlight in his heart, so even at a critical moment he saved Zhou Lu and not him. Ironically White Moonlight is just a shit pit that used him for his status, while his little painter Chen Qi failed his mission and died on a hospital bed. The novel starts very cliche, MC fails in his chase and is riddled with sickness, dies alone. While ML finally finds out that he's been played with by the man he cherished and the one who truly loved him is not here anymore. After rebirth Chen Qi chooses a different target, while Yan Huan is reborn. So this is the gist of this story. But again, because of the toxicity of ML in the past it was put aside. I've read several novels like these and they're mostly similar.

本路人今天也在路过男主片场 by 宿星川

(mtl: I passed by male protagonist's set today)

[BL] This has a pretty interesting setting, but I'm not sure about the content. Yet the summary is as follows. There is a boy group, name them ABCDE, while four are protagonists of their own stories, while the E (Yi Wan) is a passer-by figure. A is a reborn person, switched at birth. Involved with Shura fields and crematoriums every day. B is a top scorer, but actually he came from the past, so his paintings/calligraphy are praised. C is a person with super powers, every night he travels through plots of his movies, thus claimed as one of the greatest actors. D is an Infinite Stream player, he disappears sometimes to go to the dungeons, but because of it he is famed in extreme sports and strange things happening around him. E is... really just a passer-by, but he is forced to be involved with everyone.

完美反派[快穿] by Madaao

(mtl: Perfect Villain)

[BL] Reason for pending.. well, it's still on-going. I added it a long ago, it started in '21 and in '23 it's still not over, and it's not like it accumulated a lot of content (200+ chapters) but the chapters are lengthy (avg. 8k characters, when usually they post 3k). But the reason I added it is because it was QT and also the premise was promising: Ze Ming was sentenced to 30,000 years in prison and the system sent him an invitation to be a villain in the plots, or more likely choose one from three options: become good, continue the original plot or choose a stable life. While Ze Ming chose the forth - being a perfect villain.

备胎他人设崩了[快穿] by 猫八先生

(mtl: The spare tire is broken)

[BL] Reading the synopsis I think I know why I left it pending, because it's the same old weird MLs who chase their wives, even if they did many bad things before. Was I in a phase or something. Anyway, the story is about Cheng Muyun, he is like a person with no heart, used to overcome love tribulations, but he left a mess after himself, was pushed into the punishment world and later send to re-do the things he did. Because of the plane crash described in the synopsis of the first world I realized what it was, but the impression is vague~~ and it may be not it at all, because this type of situation was used by other too. This is why I put it down after finishing the first arc. Honestly, some of the bookmarked novels don't sound bad, but other I think were from a phase of let's see who chases their wives and how.

灵异爽文中的工具人觉醒了 by 兔月关

(mtl: Tool man in the supernatural novel is awakened)

[BL] "Knowing the plot" type of novel, since the MC Bai Zhan drems that he is actually a wealthy son, who was switched at birth by his biological parents because of feudal superstitions and his fate was to go back and face all type of calculation. Bai Zhan refused to do it while he had loving parents, but he was hit by a supernatural system that issued tasks, one of the first was to go and find himself a gong. I remember I started it and reached the part where MC really went to the cemetery, so you can guess what type of gong will be :) Anyway, it had a fine start, but beats me why I put it on hold.

全世界都为我神魂颠倒[穿书] by 言西早早

(mtl: The whole world is fascinated by me)

[BL] It is one I put on hold after reading the summary. But nw wasting a bit of time reading beginning and then.. reading the ending to get the idea, I'll move it to the dropped folder. For a simple reason, within first few chapters I didn't like the humor and the MC gave off oblivious vibes I don't like. Reading the ending it basically confirmed it that MC still kept on calling himself and ML socialist brotherhoodthe backtracking. Maybe it's a joke, but I don't get it. The summary was as follows: Xiao Ran crossed into a male protag plot and he was playing a small cannon fodder. But Xiao Ran who ran for his career with the art of flattery saved himself from being disabled in the first meeting against male protag. But the system issued a task, either follow the lines or receive a punishment, which is basically him turning into a puddle as if he was drugged at the touch of protag. I don't like when authors pick up straight men for characters in a BL novel and MC straight out said that he wanted to marry a wife in his original world. Now he has a body that is perfect for a shou, what to do. He treated everyone as a brother which was annoying, while other people also pretended as such but still vying him.. I mean I felt bad about how it was set. I can understand when a character who never loved and never cared about gender finds a male lover, but when someone who says hetero shit is converted I am like 'nope'. DROPPED.

白莲替身他人设崩了[穿书] by 风雪添酒

(mtl: Bai Lian's stand-in collapsed today)

[BL] This story is engaging, especially the MC, but I made a pause, which I suppose lasted for a long time. But what can I do, sometimes I get tired from reading when things reach chapters 70+ and I need a break :D What happened here? Lin Jianqiu traveled into a script of a cannon fodder, someone who was used as a stand-in, but when the White Moonlight appeared of course he was pushed out. Now Lin Jianqiu arrived and was standing on the sideroad with nothing but few dimes in his pocket. Original owner would deem impossible for him to do dirty work, so he had a grim ending, but Lin Jianqiu is not like that. This is what bought me with such MC, although he had nothing at least he knew that having too much dignity will not allow him to survive, but actually although it felt like he has no dignity when doing things, actually he also felt very strong-hearted, like nothing can beat him. This is the what I find different with the modern people, many consider it not worthy of them doing something that started to be called a "dirty" job, some basic jobs like a plumber, electrician and such to me are more valuable than some cheap influencer on IG that did nothing for anyone tbh. Thus I can't see anything bad about what Lin Jianqiu went through. But one thing is for sure, I'll have to re-read the first half when I get back to it lol.

天生富贵骨 by 木兮娘

(mtl: Born to be rich)

[BL] Well, this is mostly a story-driven novel, because the main emphasis was on the MC Luo Bai, who strived to get the place where he lived to get better. He arrived to "serve the plot", but arrived years later, so while he was doing good deeds the supposed-to-be main protag was close to him for a long time. Well, it is connected to agriculture, because the young Luo Bai helped people to organize at first and many things happened under his advice. I've read half of the story, but then again sometimes if I do pause and especially in cases when I switch to something else I may never return, it's such a bad habit.

我地下有人 by 咖啡色的团子

(mtl: There is someone undergound)

[BL] The reason for pending is simple. It's not completed yet, it was on hiatus and the ending is really dragging to be finished for some time. But I did start it and reached ch28. It is a story about Qi Yue, a civil servant from underworld, he finally can retire and his new body is a true master that is retreived to be married off. But what he likes is that his new husband attracts ghosts like a magnet, so you can imagine a bit of comedy situation between the two, he's feared by ghosts and his husband attracts ghosts. I remember the beginning a bit, because the body he possesed was offed by a ghost and his family, something was wrong with his body, so he lived with the master, but the formation at the house was tempered with resulting with an accident and the master was no longer there. Biological parents actually use formations to rob luck and accumulate wealth so they don't care about anything else, they also have a smaller child who had a ghost stuck to him and they didn't care. From here the story started.

炮灰女配发财后[快穿] by 三花夕拾

(mtl: After the cannon fodder female partner gets rich)

[BG] I've started this last year, same year it suddenly went on a year-long hiatus. And I started only because I've read other novels from this author. I just like to read QT with counterattack plots. But unfortunately it went silent and now I'm not sure what will happen, usually novels after a long hiatus don't get much, because I can understand that passion might go out in such a long period. The summary is like many others, we have Gu Xi who should be cannon fodder role in the story, so she changes fate not to have a sad ending. The other big QT novel I read from them sounds like "She quit being a doormat".

穿成反派女配她姐后我十项全能了 by 别寒

(mtl: After dressing up as a villain female partner's sister she can do decathlon)

[BG] Female protag is from a welthier family, but has a frail body, now she crosses into the novel, female partner's older sister. Both sisters lost their parents, but were left with inheritance, but because of loos of control original  Shen Lu spent money lavishly, but also was emotionally simple and could not turn on the right track. Protag crosses when both she and her sister are in school, she's much older than the future female partner, who is now just a small cub in comparison. I stopped at ch55 and that's a third of the story, so I have no idea about the romance. But the basic idea behind the third I read from my foggy memory is a simple relationship between two sisters. I think they might have even met the small heroine of the book too. Anyway, Shen Lu changed her ways and it also helped Shen Youyou. I know myself, I might have been a little bored, but I know it wasn't a bad story. It also has high ranking and rates on JJ.

虐文女主娇宠日常 by 时衿

(mtl: Daily pampering of sadistic novel's heroine)

[BG] The premise might sound quite interesting, because the heroine He Wei was reborn for 10 times and it rebirth is always triggered by something, like she can't be bullied, cannot be cheated on etc. But when I started and it I didn't like the MC, you know how you don't click with MC's temperament :) she didn't sound to me like a person who is bound by a system and went through so many rebirths. The first scene starts from a break-up where the male protag, who is her boyfriend, cheats on her in the house, it's rain and thunder outside so they haven't noticed her, so she pulls.. antique standing near the exit? What is this showing off? So she breaks up and leaves and thinks about that it'll be her tenth death.. this is why I can't understand the psychology of MC that was described. Anyway, and then she orders his driver to BUMP into her, she's nto hit, but scared, thus she meets male protag's half-brother, our ML. And he's like "You finally broke up". So I'm like, I'm not ready for this, I'm out. If you deem this interesting everyone can happily try it out, I'm no judge if it's good or not, but I don't like forced plots like when MC has to go through something and not go apeshit on everyone.

绿茶女配真的不想红 by 糖丸丸

(mtl: Green tea girfriend doesn't want to be popular)

[BG] Su Chenyu finally sat in the position of the queen and overpowered the emperor to death, but once she opened her eyes and traveled into supporting female character. She poured some green tea in front of reporters when they asked her about her fiance who escaped the engagement to find his white moonlight and decided to be a vase in entertainment and earn money easily. I know I will re-read this one, even if I stopped at ch55 (total 119+extras), but the memory should be freshened up. Yet I was hooked by her actions in the summary and they were the same in the novel, no cheating. I even took notes that it was interesting and funny. But you can see from the chapter number where I stopped that I have a problem reaching this stage, I can get distracted :) Nowadays I try to really either finish the novel, or at least read first part and the last if I'm not feeling it, or I drop it with confidence, not this falf-assed attitude lol :D

大佬们也跟着穿回来了[娱乐圈] by 青梅酱

(mtl: The big guys also came back with me)

[BL] I've read part of it, it's basically a pampered life after wearing it back. Basically Lin Jingran entered entertainment industry along with another person, they managed to develop feelings, but when another became popular you can guess that things changed. Lin Jingran wore a pampered prince script in the ancient times where his royal brothers loved him, but he met unfortunate accident and wore it back. But found that some people looked exactly like those he knew in ancient times. And yeah they are his brothers who now are different people from the industry and they could help him get on track and the pampered life continues, so very laid-back story I'd say :)

我的婆婆是重生的[七零] by 香酥栗

(mtl: My mother-in-law is reborn [70s])

[BG] You can guess by the title, mother-in-law is reborn after an accident, because she saw changes of times and now she decided to lead her family to prosperity and who doesn't agry show the iron fist. And one of her daughters-in-law saw this as a dream, so she basically had the attitude of sticking to this golden thigh. So you can guess where it goes. I think someone in the comments said that it's more like a double heroine. Anyway, sounds okay and has good ratings, but I think I was not in the mood for this type of story when I started it and left it for later or never. It's also long (219+extras).

Well, let's leave with this many for now :) There are still many more, but I've been collecting this for two days already ahaha Honestly, I look at myself and think - I'm such a hoarder. Some of these been collecting dust for a long time (literally more than a year), should I take an attitude of being fated or not fated then :D

[Chinese BG novel] 穿成男主早死的亲妈[玄学] by 夙夜笙歌 / Crossing into male protagonist's mother who died early*

(*title is mtl'd)

I wonder why I never came around writing a review on this one even if I completed reading it, now I regret not doing it, because my memory about it is not so fresh anymore. But at least I'll try to recollect it as much as I can.

Luo Wenshu crossed as a mother of a male protagonist. Now the protag is still a small carrot head, lovely and sensible child, but without his mother of course things will change. He would have crossed a thorny path. Because of their drastic situation she takes upon herself earning the money, but protag takes care of finances (first of all he knows a lot, but also it is connected to money and cause and effect stuff in taoism, so you understand). At first she was actually targetted by the heaven, thus the funny description of her escaping different small disasters from time to time, but later things changed, of course it has to do with protag.

If I'm not wrong her first was actually action against a water ghost and here things start to roll, because there's a story behind that ghost.

One of her first clients she helps ends up even becoming one of her disciples later. Because the aura in this world is thin she can't cultivate much, but she's still much stronger than the rest.

Protag also becomes close to metaphysics earlier due to Luo Wenshu. This is why the heaven was angry at first but later things changed, some of the meetings were fateful for the protag in the original story, it is part of his future, so she inadvertantly changed it, but later he joined the path to taoism and things changed. He still went through many adventures with his new mom.

On their adventure path they meet a big conspiracy connected to holes in space on Earth. Through them strange creatures crossed to Earth, they're on the level of powerful ghosts that are not easy to handle. There is also the case of disappearance among underworld workers, like the place where she lives with her son is so flooded with different ghosts because the Black guard (I forgot how they call it) disappeared and new one was only appointed. Luo Wenshu even tricked the guy to allow her son send ghosts on their path to the underworld and being a messanger. Anyway, the metaphysics part was entertaining.

The case is huge and the story involves different cases, but this is the main one, others are different small ones. But of course fear not, because Luo Wenshu is this amazing. No really, although she's omnipotent, but not in obnoxious way, it's quite okay. And also it's a sort of destiny, because in her own world she had a period where she traveled to the world for experience and build her own belief, so guess what she managed to find when she accidentally stumbled on almost broken temple? Yes, it was her own temple. She built her power on a belief of other people, one thing is to come to the temple, be sincere and put a stone on the wall, only those who are sincere can put it, otherwise it will roll down. So her temple is free to visit and had free incense and such. The family she helped (the guy who became her disciple later) is one of those that became rich, but they got involved in this and renovated the road to the temple and the area around, so they were the first to push it forward. I thought this twist was quite cool.

What really bought me I think is that Luo Xingyu, our carrot head, started using the network and started the blog, he always mentioned his mother, because he knew right away that his mother is not there anymore, he witnessed her not breathing and later Luo Wenshu came in. They came to terms at first, after all she is now here and they're legally bound to each other, thus their life together started. Luo Wenshu allowed them to meet for the last time and never forbid him from remembering his mother, she also couldn't compare to his mother in terms of a loving relationship. She tried the best she could to support and guide, she cared in her own way. The most gratifying thing was that he came out of this grief with time and also felt close to Luo Wenshu as a mom. But there are no sloppy scenes like in movies with tears and words like I love you, I love you too.

Now that I think about it, after thinking for a while I remembered a lot, the only thing that I completely forgot is Luo Wenshy went back to her own world when things were basically clear, if she used that crossing to her own advantage. But I still remember that one of those "gods" that descended through the hole she made into a pendant and it looked like an octopus with all the right texture :) I really remembered a lot.

RATE: 4/5. For entertainment.

[Chinese BL novel] 我再也不敢爱你了[重生] by 暗色星云 / I dare not love you again [Rebirth]*

(*title is mtl'd)

A tear-jerker in a true sense.

I think that original synopsis is misleading in important details, because it describes a situation as if one person followed another, while the true situation was more complicated. So I'll again use my poor skills and try to describe how it was. So at first the general idea.

Synopsis: Lin Shu died in fire. As he spent the past month in torture of mental hospital he went through many emotions: rage, remorse, regret and numbness. He truly believed that Qin Yuchi, his lover, testified against him as an act of hatred. Qin Yuchi deserved to hate him, as Lin Shu thought, because he did many bad things he regretted. But God was not forgiving, he gave him the chance to be reborn before he met Qin Yuchi. The proud and arrogant Lin Shu resigned from the long-desired post at the helm of the Lin family and gave it to his half-brother who craved it so much, so he framed him in his last life. But he still had his wealth, what accumulated in years of work and investing, he felt he escaped Qin Yuchi by not meeting, but at this point nothing seem to matter in his life and he felt into slump and self-doubt, why he was given the chance to be reborn. But maybe God really felt they deserved the second chance.

Note: Psychological counseling in this novel, like other things are quite nonsense, keep that in mind.

This is a great emotional entanglement instead of some story-driven plot. I think plot-wise too little happens in the story itself, but emotional motivation in the end is explained in great detail. What we don't know at first is that despite deep remorse Lin Shu holds deep in his heart, both parties have a hand in how their relationship developed. Basically, it started from the wrong step and spiraled into abyss for the two of them.

I would call this novel more of a psychological journey on the path to healing. It really has little plot tbh.

let's start from beginning and how Lin Shu was reborn. Because he spent a month being tortured and was truly disappointed at the last moment Lin Shu felt quite sick psychologically when he was reborn. He left the Lin family and the fuss that Lin company faced to his half-brother Lin Qinxi. This half-brother liked to stick sticks when they did business concerning the Lin family, because of his status of beloved son born to the "true love". Little is said about their family, so you can infer only from small details and details are really small. Because of his condition, that blatantly resembles depression, Lin Shu excused himself being on vacation, while he didn't care about the Lin family, after all his personal investment paid off more than annual pay from the Lin business, he actually entered a slump situation. His heart was filled with great remorse and regret about things he did in the previous life. Because of their first meeting and how it ended Lin Shu did use the toxic way he was brought up by his father (grab everything you want, no matter how you do it), so he managed to hurt Qin Yuchi badly and basically trapped him with no way out. But Qin Yuchi treated him with col violence too. Many thing Lin Shu did later were under the guise of "doing it for the other person's good", but was it good. It wasn't before he was convicted and later bailed out because his father forged mental illness certificate he realized that the case of Qin Yuchi's sister and also the death of Taozi was blamed on his head and Qin Yuchi might have waited for his revenge hour. Despite deep love he was disappointed. In his new life he knew how toxic his actions were and eventually he realized that they were lovers for a long time, but they knew little about their true selves. Lin Shu thought he will never Yuchi again and then help Taozi to survive and maybe have a chance to save Yuchi's sister and this is part of his remorse, but in general he was in a slump, he didn't want to do anything, he lost the aim in life. This time he and Yuchi still met each other, but Yuchi gave a different feeling and he had no idea what it was.

On the other side Yuchi, who suffered trauma from falling, started to have weird dreams, where he saw a young man, but dreams happened to be true, there is a man named Lin Shu. He tried to get close but always met with a cold shoulder.

Lin Shu did not know how to react, in previous life he was this wanton and arrogant man, but now he was a coward that wanted to hide in his shell, he didn't know how to face Yuchi with all the things he did, he knew he did not deserve. Only later little by little when either he or Yuchi made steps to meet 'accidentally" he wanted to take a step closer when he hid in his shell again when he accidentally learned that Yuchi only had a dream about him, but those dreams did not contain all the sins he comitted.

But what was unexpected is that after a serious accident, Yuchi recovered his memory completely and instead of hate, his emotions were more complicated.

From Yuchi's side they did meet at a party, Yuchi was attracted but they started from the wrong foot. Lin Shu almost cornered him. At first Yuchi did hate Lin Shu, but did not realize that slowly he fell in love, but by this time treateing Lin Shu with cold violence, being constantly silent became a habit, he did not know how to talk. And he continued to dance on Lin Shu's bottom line.

What became a breaking point was the night he was called out. It was his mistake to go in the middle of the night and lie about it. When Lin Shu was convicted it was his mistake to not wait for the bail out, but to trust and transfer Lin Shu from police to mental hospital. Who had known that Lin Gang, Lin Shu's father did the same thing before. While he bribed the doctor to keep Lin Shu safe, instead he was tortured under direction of Lin Qinxi, so Lin Shu's condition became worse and worse, he could not move or speak and was a puppet in others' hands. It was a mistake that Yuchi realized later, that he didn't speak, that he should have said everything abou his feeling, that he should have waited that he shouldn't have trusted others, otherwise Lin Shu would not be dead. And even if it was eventually roven, nothing about Lin Shu and himself could be washed back to innocence. Thus Yuchi decided to end it all falling off the cliff in the car Lin Shu gave him, but instead came to rebirth timeline.

Both of them were sorry for each other, that they made so many wrong choices, but their love was maddening and they couldn't leave each other.

This is where pseudo-science comes in, because both Lin Shu and Yuchi go for treatment and they talk about their previous life experience. They become a pillar of each other on the way to heal themselves. They now try to communicate and correct all the mistakes they have made, all the silence and violence and toxicity.

This is why I say it's mot of emotional journey, because there's basically little plot which concerns the reason why they were framed and how they retaliated in this life, it felt almost too easy.

And it's good that it's short, 60 chapters or so, because it has a lot of tear-jerking moments of deep remorse and being guilty.

Someone in the comments said - how Lin Shu could be depressed and have outbursts - and I say why not? In general Lin Shu lost any desire to live, but still was hanging on, some ties were sill keeping him, but sometimes he jumped from hyper-action to complete slump, tiredness. He did not care and did not see how time passes, things seemed meaningless. There's a lot going on.

Yuchi was no better, because when he thought that Lin Shu will be out he heard news of Lin Shu's death and slowly he pieced together things that allowed him to realize that it was wrong to believe anyone and allow himself to carried away with the stream. Yuchi's situation is also peculiar because he has a control-freak father, theur family was bankrupted a long time ago and survived with the help of Yuchi, but he still acted with face-saving tactics and also did not treat his children as a normal parent would. From his his forbearance was born and this allowed him to continue being silent and allow their situation to deteriorate, although at one point Yuchi really fell in love with Lin Shu and wanted to change things.

Many things in this plot, or more like emotional plot exist just to serve it, so beware. In general it's a pretty sad story with two people going completely mad because of each, but also unable to be without each other.

RATE: 3/5. It's absolutely not bad, with the only difference that such novels give me sadness and headaches. The only thing might be author's approach to mental health, which is partially okay and partially sounds not that good. Good because they started to come out of the shadow of the past life and not good is because their dependence on each other by the end of the book is too strong (meaning that they can't be too far apart from each other and might not survive without each other, which doesn't sound healthy). So it's an okay novel (3=okay) :).

[Chinese BG novel] 拿了狗血剧本后我看见了弹幕 by 板栗子 / Seeing the barrage after taking a bloody script*

(*mtl'd title)

I'll say it right away, after reaching a certain point I simply skipped to the ending, because I did not appreciate the settings.

Synopsis: Gu Yin wakes up and sees what is called "barrage" and it seems that her life is the novel that these viewers watched, not to mention she is a main character in this ancient bloody script. She's been on the verge of divorce with her husband, who refused to divorce, but was always on the hot search with another woman. And only with the barrage she starts to figure things out.

The setting of this novel is indeed quite ancient and bloody. When I read it my main thought was - to deceive the enemy you must first deceive your friends. And this is what her husband Shen Nianlin was doing. She was completely oblivious to his plans, but I think it still brought her emotional discomfort, otherwise she wouldn't have offered to divorce. His deceit made her stop believing in him and all his actions were interpreted as schemes and quibbles. I do not support that they did not tell her anything from the beginning. To me that is the biggest mistake of the entire novel and even the comments and ratings are directed to criticize it because of it. After all it's not the movie 'Overboard' where deceit had a logical explanation. But not here.

I can explain some things in this one, but they do not justify anything to me.

Would it be possible for Gu Yin to figure things out without the barrage? No. I think not. Before she saw the barrage she was convinced that her husband might cheat on her, this situation continued for months and she offered to divorce, but only with barrage she had an epiphany to openly ask the supposed "mistress" a provocative question and caught her that she lied. This shed a new light on the situation, but it still felt bad. After all she lived in his rumors for a year, everyone around heard those rumors and they spread, so even if he eventually changes, it does not change the fact that everyone on the network will see her as the wife you cheated on and Shen Nianlin's label of the cheating husband will stuck with him forever. Because you can't explain that you used this supposed-to-be mistress as a shield to divert attention of your enemies. To emotionally hurt your woman you say you love so passionately. The thing is, with or without knowing Gu Yin was in danger. At least knowing she could have been prepared and would not go through many misunderstandings. After all her heart and body are connected to her husband and even if he comes back she can't refuse him, but the rumors of the mistress exist between them. 

Not to mention this mistress became more daring, what type of domineering president are you that you have to have a shield and be so loud about it, but when you warn her ou have to do it several times and not do anything about it and also you can't simply deal with your enemy. Pathetic. This novel should have a different title and it should be - My husband's bad choices to create ancient bloody script.

In many other cases through the barrage Gu Yin got info that helped her to build a different picture and maybe there was still some trust left because of it.

But again, if it wasn't for the barrage things would have been way worse and that is what gets to me. I suppose otherwise there would be no ancient bloody script.

Because I read the ending I know why they were attacked and what happened, but to me it still is not enough reason to be in the situation they ended up.

/~SPOILERS~/

Tbh just read the spoilers, this story is too irritating to follow.

Chestnut is not suitable for mystery tbh when it comes to some event like what happened and the reasoning of "innocent victim" is used not only here but in another novel. And this innocent victim is Gu Yin. She was abroad and they had fun, she was asked to borrow a drone and unbeknown to her this drone captured a scene of some gang boss murder. She had no idea, but the drone is hers and the video was also encrypted on her computer. Thus the accident on a cruise ship where Shen Nianlin was injured and stayed in a coma afterwards and she was quite fine physically, but no one was close to find out that her memories were tampered with and she forgot her lover and that she just gave birth to a child. The one who tampered with her memory was her closest cousin, but he did it for a reason, yet he did not fully understand what type of danger she faced tbh. So she forgot partially the things that happened and this is why I don't understand why they wouldn't tell her. Instead her child grew up for three years without his mother, two years without his father. Why wouldn't you just tell her. Maybe she has the potential of a lioness who can protect her child and her husband. After all the one who knew about the two of them was her mother and she helped to cover up her amnesia too, but always sounded like she covered up for the scumbag before Gu Yin had the barrage to help and then her memories back. The Wang Siqi was chosen as a shield to redirect attention of Shen Nianlin's brother who also posed as a danger... but again, other domineering CEOs don't find such relatives as a trouble, why everyone has to be this law-abiding citized suddenly and do things cleanly, but instead hurt many people surrounding them. After all living for entire year in the rumors of your husband I'm pretty sure isn't a fun thing as a result of his "protection" (if it wasn't Chestnut, because they write with a note of disregard to making things depressing, but imagine things like depression, trust issues etc.) I find it especially funny because one day you will have to tell Gu Yin everything and as a result Gu Yin basically figured things out herself through the barrage.

This is why I don't like bloody scripts. At least pour some logic into them.

RATE: 2/5. I do not agree with it.

[MOVIE] Talk to me (2022)

To be honest I was a bit impressed. It felt like the team who created this movie is quite young and many actors to me are unknown (except for the one who played the mother), but the acting from youngsters is actually truly wonderful.

The story is quite simple, yet it's not bad and the movie is shot nicely.

But this horror movie is more like a metaphor to drug abuse when one couldn't cope with the loss of a loved one. And I mention it so openly because it felt like this idea was put forward quite early: visually through the seanse(s) and verbally through the mother's monologue. And from that point I couldn't get rid of it and could not watch it as a horror movie, because many consequent episodes only solidified it as a fact to me. Before that, a second is given to the synopsis.

Synopsis: A bunch of teenagers were swept at the parties by new fun - a hand that is said to belong to a medium. The ritual allows you to connect to the otherworld and open the door for demons to enter the body and experience new thrill. There is a time limit for the ritual though, so in case the time exceeds the limit the demon might stay. Mia, who could not cope with the loss of her mother, joins such a party and volunteers to experience the thrill, but her time exceeded the limit.

Visuals: The reason I say it's very much like allegory to drug abuse starts from the choice of make-up. When Mia allowed the demon to come in her reaction was simply a copy of a person who got high (not that I'm an expert, but I don't live under a rock, just the act itself and the visually enlarging eyes).

This shot comes before her eyes become almost completely black. And I don't know they always have this strange rugged make-up around eyes and the mouth.

Funnily, when it comes to others around her, they don't seem surprised, except very few who had no idea what is going on they simply hadd too much fun.

These parties have two core figures who are responsible for carrying the hand, which could be called the current owners of the hand. Truly feels like allowing a sheep into pack of wolves who are on the same side enter the den and someone will tell you - try it~, it won't hurt.

And Mia's ecstatic reaction afterwards, what else should I add? :) Isn't it obvious?

But somehow when the mother mentioned Mia taking drugs it nailed it for me, from that point I couldn't see it as a horror. Despite the ghosts/demons, despite the cool sfx make-up that looked disgusting, meaning done really well.

The fun might be fun, but the demon might have been playing tricks on Mia at that time, because demons lie, so we can assume there are two choices: 1) During that party it was Mia's mother; 2) It was another demon knowing that Mia misses her mother and she's most vulnerable to be trapped.

So their personal party ends really badly, because Mia refuses to let the arm go, while the boy was posessed and in the end he wounded himself really badly. Again, made me think one of the shows, but I forgot which one where they met a person acting crazy (like zombies in the apocalyptic movies), but those were obviously substances.

Of course this episode shocks everyone, but Mia's reaction of stupor is the hardest (honestly, the actress did a wonderful job). She seeks answers and is not afraid of connecting with the hand without help of others. But is there a truth in what the arm can offer? And can you believe in what the demon says?

So yeah, quite a simple play of the demon who indulged Mia into believing that her mother did not commit suicide and did not leave her, although all proves were presented to her, but when you refuse to believe, you won't believe. In the end she was convinced to do something to the boy who was injured, but as a result he was saved by his sister, but /~spoilers~/ she did not escape. At first it feels like she woke up, but we know soon that no one sees her and she's now on the other side.

The only thing I did not like at the very end is the need to show Mia sitting across a bunch of people, that scene where she sees stretched out hand above a candle and takes it was enough to end with the dark screen. Don't make it so obvious that now she's in a spirit form and was lured here.

As a horror it's not scary, but having that strong homage this movie is played almost like a drama, which you can interpret.

RATE: 7/10. Great camera work, a bit simplistic story, but it's okay, great acting, sfx make-up is awsome. The granny at the end though. In general it's quite watchable :) 

[Chinese BG novel] 娱乐圈女王还是我[重生] by 板栗子 / I'm still the queen of entertainment*

(*title is mtl'd)

Synopsis: Jin Mi died young at the age of 23, the last thing she remembers in her groggy mind is that someone entered her home. When she woke up it was 20 years later, she was now in a body of a female idol who just comitted suicide because of a male idol, but in front of her bed sat a handsome man who claimed to be her husband. Situation promised to be intriguing. But what completely blew her mind was that she was murdered in her own home, but it was staged as overdose and no one said a word about the man who barged in.

Thus such interesting settings were presented. Tbh at first I was thrilled, because it's a rebirth, but in the future and also there was a promise to have a mystery why she died. But my expectations were set too high and the novel did not deliver to me. Even if I'm well aware that Chestnut does not write dramatic plots, everything is nice and easy, but there was no real investigation, the reason for the murder though was too over the top and a bit full of loopholes. So to me this question of who and why dragged for the entire novel btw and the answer we get is right at the very end.

One note though, the last part of the novel I read with a splitting headaches, someone in the house makes renovations and they drilled for half a day and this thing helps develop headache for me, so my overall impression was even worse than this, so don't mind. I'll talk about few spoilers here though to show my point.

/~SPOILERS~/

Storyline: The Career Path. The novel did not have the best start for me, I personally don't like when the original host, meaning original Meng Canran, was described as thoughtless idiot who chased a male idol, she was also lacking in talent both in singing and acting. Sure thing these things work as a springboard for Jin Mi herself, but I don't like when original host is almost downgraded and laughed at by everyone. Sure thing that when Jin Mi will act then consequently it is Meng Canran who will become popular, not Jin Mi herself. But still that need to write such beginnings is not for me. But we continue.

Because she was confused at first she signed as Jin Mi and later changed her tune refusing to continue calling herself Jin Mi not to get into trouble. She and Xie Chi were on the verge of divorce, but this signature put the process on hold, which is explained later as if Xie Chi suspected Meng Canran being sent by the Wang brothers. Who are these Wang brothers, explained much later and their involvement in Jin Mi's case too.

So we start at such a low point in career. Jin Mi is a part of a girl group, but she doesn't want to stay and singing is not her forte. It helped that she changed cores and instead of entire network cursing her for openly expressing love it was revealed that this male idol and the C position girl were dating, so it shifted attention from her to these two. But because the company wanted to shift blame and did nothing when it came to solving PR crisis Jin Mi took at as a chance to terminate the contract. Because she needed money and did not want to contact either Meng family or her husband she thought of herself, Jin Mi. She had a load of money when she was at the peak of her career. She found their old house and coincidentally she was found by her mother. The two of them covered their relationship as if she now became Aunt Pan's goddaughter.

Mind you, Jin Mi did not start any investigation of her own case, probably because it felt too fishy and it would alert people, especially with her new identity. After all there was an intruder but she was ruled out as overdose. Here I want to ask if the murderer was too prepared, I mean you barge in, but what you do if the person wakes up. When I read the final chapters I thought to myself that things could be way different and the way author wrapped it up was a bit of a 'no' for me. But otherwise we wouldn't have ou romance okay~

Getting her original money it helped her terminate the contract and also set up her own studio, she did it with the help of her previous agent, who had a bit of unfortunate fate after Jin Mi died. Because it was a frame up, only parents and agent believed in Jin Mi but there were others who used money to accuse her that it was indeed the case (although I think I understand why her parents did not start sueing for defamation, because the case was strange and at that time anyone hardly believed it, rumors are a horrible thing). Her agent is now 20 years older and a mother of two, her husband openly cheats and she acts a bit bleak. Jin Mi's return put her old character of resolute person into action again. Btw her agent did not guess that Meng Canran is Jin Mi, many people felt that she has the spirit of Jin Mi but nothing more.

With the two of them they started from an acting show where, because of the previous comparison to the spicy acting of Meng Canran she received a great deal of attention. At least it opened the door to her favorite acting. She refused the chance to star in some big production due to friction between her and executives during a dinner, but instead she chose a low-budget mystery drama titled the Last Suspect, but original title is Amnesiac Queen (it is one of Chestnut's novels released earlier now used as a script). Despite young crew it didn't bother her, this show later of course became a huge success.

This show and Jin Mi's hot search physique opened doors for other projects.

The variety show actually helped her to connect with an actor who played with Jin Mi before, but now he's a senior, he also helped to promote her and she starred in a movie right after the show. Btw the director also has connection to the old Jin Mi. So while others wanted to see her ending badly, she got better and better and the past was slowly forgotten. Well, at least in such cases of changes the network starts to make theories if her original actions were a cover-up etc.

Btw there were few stumbles, but because of Chestnut loving a laid-back storyline they wre not critical. First was an actress that was supposed to be promoted in the acting variety show, but because of unfair judging it dropped a shadow on the show and many shady things were revealed later on. The other one was the second actress from the same company as the previous one (belonging to the Wang brothers) whose agent is Jin Mi's previous assistant, who also accused Jin Mi of taking drugs after her death. At this point if you haven't guessed that Wang brothers had a hand in it, then I bless you to open your mind. They cut off Jin Mi's magazien resources, in the end they chose another magazine which was on the edge of bankruptcy, but because Jin Mi came into contact with Xu family's grandson, Shangshang, she was allowed to wear award-winning necklace for the photoshoot and the sales were amazing in comparison, so 2:0. The last stumble was not serious, as it happened, because at that time when her and Xie Chi's marriage was exposed, they already had a good relationship and did not want to divorce, on the contrary they became stickier and the dog food was fed left and right.

Jin Mi, who had a great career in front of her was the winner of it all.

Storyline: Xie Chi. XC actually has a deeper connection to Jin Mi as we find out later on. At first it feels strange why such a person investigates Jin Mi's case, since he was quite young when things happened. But around 30+ chapters it becomes evident that Xie Chi was one of the few who was in contact with Jin Mi before her accident, He saw her and also saw a strange waiter who sneeked around her room. So after reading the news he tried to report it, but no one believed him, with no influence and power he could do nothing. The two met on a cruise ship, XC hurt himself when he fell and refused to call for his parents, instead Jin Mi offered help and this is how they got to know each other for this moment.

Jin Mi could not connect the two before she saw photos of the small Xie Chi. And at this moment it hit her that unlike several other men who considered themselves her biggest fans, but still either believed the report or did not believe it yet did nothing, this small encounter made then young boy grew up with the idea of getting her justice. So you can guess that at this moment Jin Mi was incredibly touched.

In the beginning Xie Chi's marriage was nothing more but a business marriage, although he didn't mind having a good relationship, but who asked for Meng Canran to have such settings and she acted like a monster. Honestly, anyone would be repulsed by her action of not even wanting to be in the presence of her husband, but yet he was the one who helped her to debut. After the accident when Meng Canran took pills she waved this world good bye and Jin Mi arrived. Of course Jin Mi is different, she is more open, humorous, positive, likes to bicker etc. She became friends with the Samoyed dog Coconut and acted differntly from original Canran. 

At first Xie Chi thought it was some type of scheme, after all they and Wang btrothers had enmity and they tried to investigate Canran again, but things were unpredictable. She had no connection, it was as if person was reborn. But this Canran attracted him much more.

Considering that entire Chestnut's universe is a shared universe, Xie Chi dilluted the market of cool, handsome CEOs. He is quite a reliable guy, he is also generous and if original Canran did not act with such an open disgust things might be different. But otherwise there's no destined romance, so we wish Canran a better love in next life. On the conrary maybe Xie Chi saw what attracted him to Jin Mi originally that is why things turned from having a casual good relationship to love. Although I still think the setting is a being weird. Not to mention the past, but also their connection started from Xie Chi's only very CEO setting is his insomnia and Jin Mi just sleeping next to him cured it. Ahahhaa

Storyline: Romance. I suppose what initially attracted Xie Chi when he saw original Jin Mi was her beauty and the glimpse of her character, that she was kind despite her high position in the entertainment industry and blinding glamore. So I suppose this is what pushed him to find the truth. But because he only caught a glimpse he did not guess that the original Jin Mi is now in front of him, so he fell in love with the woman who was next to him before the mystery of Jin Mi was revealed, but basically it didn't matter who, it was the woman in front of him who made his heart beat.

ALSO! I personally do not agree when people criticize when there is a solid base for romantic feelings or not. IT DOESN'T MATTER. People can start feeling affection towards the other person without any strong event in life. E.g. if ML saves FL. In this case I can argue that her feelings are nothing more than the feeling of thrill at that moment. You can rule it out either way, this is not even an argument tbh. So the feelings between the two just came around. If you call it shallow.. then what is deep? :) Many relationships do not need to be too profound to be reliable. Here is such example. At first to Jin Mi her husband was just a handsome guy and she could do with it or without, but seeing that he is the only one except her parents or agent to believe and fight for her she knew about his righteous heart. Good guy card goes to... XIE CHI! *cough-cough* You can discover many good traits without spending 300 pages describing them and Xie Chi was relaible.

Like previous novels this one has a more casual approach to relationships where two people just come together with the mutual attraction, nothing hardcore. Also this falls under the category of slowburn, because things develop into this direction by the last third of the book.

Storyline: Murder mystery. The biggest spoilers folks.

Although when you read a bit you understand that things are inevitably connected with the Wang brothers, since they are mentioned in connection to Jin Mi too often and when Jin Mi herself remembers the events on that cruise ship the suspicion grows stronger.

This mystery stays a mystery for the entire novel btw, so only at the very end we find out WHO but don't really get a explanation WHY. 

At first Jin Mi remembers the cruise ship in connection to Xie Chi. Later when she hears more about Wang brothers she remembers that she had a dinner with them on a cruise ship, she couldn't shirk from it, but she still left early.

Next thing is when Jin Mi remembers that for protection she had a voice recorder in her beg, she completely forgot about it, but when she came to her apartment the recorder was missing, so she ruled out this recorder was taken away. Basically it solidified the motive, but to me it wasn't enough. Why you may ask? Because compared to the Wang family back then Jin Mi might have been a big star, but her background was insignificant, they could have simply threatened her and that would be it. This is why I say that otherwise we wouldn't get the destined romance.. This reasoning is a bit weak to me.

Jin Mi had no idea that she might have recorded something, thus she was mainly a victim. Thus we find out who did it by the end, but the why is not fully answered, like yeah there was a recording, but the contents were not explained, which is a bit of a bummer and a let down.

The one who was mentioned a lot in the novel was Wang brother's crony who escaped when thought they might deal with him too, but when Jin Mi saw him she knew it wasn't him. When he was finally arrested the Wang brothers were taken away and the one who was responsible for murder was on the loose for a moment. Was there a need in this episode or not, but because they met coincidentally and this is more like a moment of liberation that now Jin Mi could protect herself.

I still put the last fig leaf on this big spoiler :)

So the motive that was not exlained in greater detail was a bit let down for me, since the mystery was kept till the end and the next part which I think was unnecessary was Shangshang's ability to predict future. Shangshang is a boy belonging to the Xu family, he's a smart 5 yo. He was sent to Xie Chi and Jin Mi when they had a quarrel. This kid can predict future, Jin Mi thought it was a system too. But I saw no need in it, because in two scenes it was "crucial" to me it was questionable why put it there, after all these two secenes could be rewritten with the same result. First was the ex-assistant, the one who grew in power under Wang brothers protection, Shangshang saw him badmouthing about his godmother - Meng Canran. Last one was prediction that Jin Mi will meet the guy on the loose. But honestly to be on the safe side she could just have something to protect her btw, after all for some reason she had utility knife which she used, so I saw no need in this prediction ability. It was weird and unnecessary. You could just leave the boy who managed to get two people together. Because his role in creating opportunity for the two to be parents for some time allowed them to imagine if they like such a picture. If it wasn't for these things that stuck as a thorn in my side I would enjoy this novel more tbh.

RATE: 3,5 / 5. It was a bit of a let-down, but it was okay.