(*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.
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