[Chinese BL novel] 首富穿书后只想当咸鱼 by size5 / The richest man wants to be a salted fish after wearing a book*

(*title is mtl'd)

Cover is not included, because it's a default cover and it's boring.

Summary: The original summary is very misleading, which I'm not a fan of. When summary is different from the content I actually hae anticipation of things mentioned in the summary, but reality and imagination are too far off. Gu Bai was the richest man in his last life, he died suddenly and wore a book, things he knew were limited - he was a cannon fodder and this is a family fighting for inheritance novel he read ages ago. After arriving he did not participate in the initial fighting after their father faked his death and left the Gu family, before he was called back to marry. His spouse in name only is Chu Zeshen, coming from a renowned family in S city. They initially agreed to be a contracted couple, but later Zeshen developed feelings for Gu Bai and chased him.

I'd say right away, I picked it up in-between reading another novel which was quite long, but I did not expect I'd be so bored. First of all summary on JJ does not represent the novel and did not meet expectations. Second of all the summary on JJ is pretty bad to me, because it felt like Zeshen threw documents around just for Gu Bai to read them and find if they're good or not. But this happened only very few times in the novel itself, so Zeshen never used Gu Bai to this extent, on the contrary, he is used to helping Gu Bai dealing with his family. Thirdly, there was no substantial thrill going on, the romance was okay, but everything seemed underwhelming and the emphasis on "being lazy" repeatedly mentioned in the novel makes you care less and less. Indeed doing nothing and getting money is the ultimate dream of all people, but sometimes I really dislike salted fish characters that are truly lazy in everything they do, by the end of the novel I started to skip a lot of text and it didn't really matter.

Gu family structure:

Gu Haisheng - the father of the family, in the beginning he used his fake death to probe the attitude of his four children. He used Gu Bai mostly as a scapegoat and not really intending giving his equity.

Gu Jiazi and Gu Ruilin - eldest daughter and son. Born in the first marriage, their mother divorced and immigrated, keeps in contact with her children, but is not mentioned much. 

Gu Bai (original) - born in the second marriage, the marriage didn't last long, his mother divorced and also immigrated, does not keep in contact with original owner, thus he became a marginal figure.

Gu Bai (transimgrated) - lost his parents at an early age, then took Gu family into his hands, but was hindered a lot by the never-ending chain of "relatives" who came to show their presence and wanting to have a piece of Gu family, worked his entire life before travelling into the book, was the richest man, but did not enjoy any of the benefits.

Gu Yi - born in the third marriage, her mother is the current mistress of the Gu family. She was often instigated by her mother to treat other siblings as enemies, but later because of some events she knew that only the current Gu Bai was actually good to her and won't do anything bad.

Chu family structure:

Chu Zeshen - the current head of the Chu family, lost his parents at a young age, was trained by his grandparents before taking the position of an heir.

Grandpa Chu - lovely grandfather tbh, he liked Gu Bai, was very open-minded and was that needed family to Gu Bai.

Chu Peiwen - Zeshen's uncle. His father is grandpa Chu's brother. So his family is like a second room. Has no business talent, but instigated a lot of trouble, was demoted due to extramarital affair. His family was broken apart when this came to light in front of his family members.

Mocha - Gu Bai's dog (original), border collie, but was cared for and loved by Zeshen and the Chu family a lot. Handsome boy who is smart and likes praise :)

Storyline:

Is too simple. When Gu Bai arrived he moved out. He basically didn't want to do anything. Later he was invited to meet the future husband Chu Zeshen, knowing that it won't be a bad thing he agreed, they started as a contract couple and basically lived together and Mocha. Chu granda was very fond of Gu Bai. Later it became evident that Zeshen fell in love, but they don't have any backstory, he just fell in love when married. They developed naturally, because Zeshen was very attentive and took initiative to be caring. As a result when things came to light a lot of time passed, but they basically came together in a day, since they were already natural, but now love was involved. From time to time several mentioned above members appeared, but it wasn't anything big. The uncle of the Chu family was sent away, everyone except his family knew about his affair. Only much later when Gu and Chu held a cooperative banquet/marriage announcement, he dared to come back, but then at the scene his affair was mentioned to his family, his wife knew, but children did not, so family fell apart at the scene.

Gu brother and sister also came from time to time, but I'd say their methods are clumpsy, they Ruilin wanted to send his lover to seduce Zeshen and later involve him in a scandal, but things did not go their way, even final drugging incident was quite underwhelming, because Gu Bai and Zeshen are not kids who are easily led by their noses. Anyway, this incident failed but the relationship of the second child with a man was exposed instead. He wanted to stir trouble from abroad with Chu Peiwen, but it failed.

In the end very uneventful novel, spent mostly on a couch where Gu Bai liked to lounge. And the mentioning of being lazy is just suffocating. Lazy here and lazy there. Even his attempts from escaping and fishing at work are not cute. That's why I don't like his character, either be a salted fish or do something. It's not like he's not smart. No one like him would be able to see mistakes in a document he saw for the first time without any background what this plan is for, the company estimates etc. Me being sarcastic indeed, because it's also stupid how Zeshen is described as business tycoon, but Gu Bai noticed mistakes he missed.

RATE: 2,5/5. All those stars are given to the author just for the sake of romance and that characters ar enot brain-dead and don't act like routine mosnters, but the entertainment value of this novel to me is 0. It has no ups an downs, no stakes, just a lazy novel like it's protagonist. This novel is also unlucky, because the novel I've been reading and took a pause is super entertaining. And I mind you, this novel is 92 chapters long, so it's even more staggering that something this long is nothing more than.. this. 

[Chinese BL novel] 被退婚后，我嫁入豪门冲喜了 by 甘洄 / After breaking off engagement I married into a wealthy family*

(*title is mtl'd)

Synopsis: Jian Xia faces a predicament. The Internet is full of revelations that his ex-fiancee is with someone else. And not to mention the fiancee's family, who they considered family friends for years, backstabbed them in business and now the Jian family is in ruins, facing debts. Not to mention XiaXia's mother always had a heart disease and the stress led her to be hospitalized and waiting for an operation. When facing the family crisis and betrayal from all sides Fu Hanjun from the Fu family proposes a marriage, to "celebrate" him due to his "poor health". XiaXia decided to agree, not knowing yet that the one in front of him will shower him with care and tenderness and show what a true love is.

Despite unimaginative summary the book itself is quite lovely. Long to my taste, but lovely.

Storyline:

Quite simple I'd say, nothing fancy, but the style is nice and I especially like that many of emotional ends and entanglements were tied tightly at the end, like evryone has their own ending described. It has several simple lines: 1) is the emotional line between MC and ML and the 2) is the career line, mostly XiaXia's. We go from their initial agreement between the two, XiaXia getting help in his career, which picks up due to Hanjun finding several good roles that waited for him for several years. Btw Hanjun's name translates as Hanyun too, I don't know which is correct so I use what is used most often. On the other side he meets several foes, like the person with whom his fiancee cheated with, some inexplicable love rivals etc. But it won't distract him from slowly working hard to reach new heights. And we mainly focus on acting career (like no variety shows thank God). From Hanjun's side things are easier, he used sickness as means to connect with XiaXia and not make him repulsed at first, but it also was used as means against the old cancer in the Fu family and the second room, which eyed Fu family property. All events are put together not in a dramatic way, even if some things are happening but they're non-threatening and pass easily, so it becomes quite an easy-going story. At least there is no emphasis on drama to make things so hardcore that it will make readers cry or it doesn't make things too thrilling, so you would sit on edge. Quite a lot of smart moves and logical moments that I've met while reading. But again I still find it long (126 chapters + extras).

Characters and their Relationships (spoilers included):

Jian Xia. He is a very nice character. Like the one you'd see and say - he's a very, very good boy. He loves his parents, he is filial, but has a strong heart and ability to let go of grudges, he doesn't seek revenge, sees no point in bad-mouthing etc. which is very open-minded. He is kind, but not to the point of stupidity, he cares about relationships and doesn't forget his friends when he can, which is rare in such novels. Like his status rose, but he also helped his close roommates to ascend along with him. He is also hard-working and self-aware, while others say he's already good, but inside he knows he has room to grow. Acting wasn't his first choice, but he achieved popularity with the first book he played as a teen, yet he didn't lose himself in the limelight and chose studying and his family before the accident made him seek work in the industry again. Now he stills strived for the better. But in general he is a very calm personality.

Jian Xia's parents and uncle family. His parents are quite good, they were the ones who started the business, when the uncle and his family were nothing but simple people who joined, when turmoil started they cleaned themselves from everything, so only XiaXia's parents bore the debt, but also demanded on getting things that were left. Seeing such betrayal from relatives was devastating (personally I think it's better never to work with relatives if you're not 100% sure about their integrity). In the end the uncle family was acting annoying here and there, thinking their child also had a chance with Hanjun (psychos), but the last blow came from the cousine Jian Lin, who joined the entertainment for vanity, but created no splash even as Jian Xia's relative, in the end he thought of seeling XiaXia to investor for a role, but XiaXia was not stupid and caught the incostistency at the moment and did not go to the appointment, instead Jian Lin was retaliated. Playing the victim card the uncle family demanded compensation for whatever reason (it wasn't XiaXia's fault to begin with), but seeing survaillance they shut up and the two families broke up completely.

Fu Hanjun. He loved XiaXia for years. Their first meeting to him was fateful, by this time he saw too many people who wanted to flatter him or seek benefits, they never saw him as a person. Put together the fact that he grew up without parents who loved him dearly, but died in a car accident, it was hard for him who saw no sincerity. But XiaXia was different, when they first met he treated him like any other person and did not pay too much attention, even his cousin Fu Cong got more attention as XiaXia's classmate. But from that time Hanjun fell in love with those clear eyes. At first he wanted to wait and pursue righteously, but who knew that athe comming-of-age part it was announced that XiaXia is engaged. As one who loves him, he wanted for XiaXia all the best. And even the Summer entertainment was created to support XiaXia. He took any chance to support from the shadows, before the Wei family betrayal and backstabbing, now he saw the chance to be with XiaXia and protect him.

Fu Cong, second room, Wan family and Wan Baiqing. Fu Cong is the only person from his family who is self-aware, he even expressed these things clearly, that Hanun has more business acumen than his father and sitting and having dividents is also good. This is why he was unscathed in entire turmoil. Second room is Hanjun's uncle (brother of his father) and aunt. They had ambitions, but basically it was the aunt's idea (she comes from more humble background, so she has eyes on top of her head). She also helped her sister who married the Wan family to rise along with Fu (basically without Fu family they're nothing). Wan Baiqing you can say had several years to grow up along with Hanjun, he fell in love and considered himself the only one acceptable but never confessed, his love was morbid, it was more like possessiveness instead, he also saw benefits from this. But he was wrong to touch or even think of touching XiaXia, in the end he left the stage quite late in the book, but a lot happened slowly by that time. SInce Hanjun decided to clean the Fu family, which means getting rid of people who also leaked many things outside, Wan family was untouched at first, they were left with no orders, but later because they broke the agreement they suffered the consequences and the one who is at fault was Wan Baiqing, he released the news to Zhou Li about Hanjun's sickness and Zhou Li used Wei Cheng to confront XiaXia and it was captured by reporters and it brought quite a stir. Wan Baiqing's actions not only angered Hanjun, but he also disdained his attitude.

Wei Cheng. Pretty annoying ex that appeared from time to time. Weak man who shifted blame and emphasized that he wasn't aware of his father's action, but still added salt to the wound when betrayed XiaXia with another man. He's been mopping for entire novel and regretted his choice, but I'm happy author gave XiaXia the closure of this incident, he could not forgive what they did, after all it not only involved business, but a human life, his mother. The one who played with him was Hanjun friend, he is in the same business which is much larger. What i liked is that no one is bankrupt in a day, the process took time.

Zhou Li. A narrow-minded self-centered character that thinks that he's above others. he hates XiaXia simply because he was compared to him once and with a good deal he played his cards badly. Even if he was too petty and allowed the scandal to brew, but it backlashed in the end and bit him back because the fact that he intervened as a mistress came to light. He wanted to squeeze XiaXia out of the crew, but who knew, Hanjun invested, Wei had problems and divested, crew changed, script changed and it was a step to couterattack. Zhou Li tried several times to buy trolls or lead public opinion (but it was not as one-sided and brain-dead as in many novels thankfully), but it was to no avail. Because fo losing composure he was exposed and it sevred as a major hit to his career. On the contrary XiaXia payed no attention to him, while Zhou Li was eaten alive by jealousy. As a result his resources were worse and worse each time and he couldn't compose himself and change, instead he still acted impulsively at times or jumped into traps laid out by others and his career came to nothing. Because his family was deeply connected to Wei business they also faces crisis and were backstabbed like the Jian family. As a result he became from something to nothing.

XiaXia's roommates. This part of the novel I particularly liked, because first of all we have friends, which is rare instead of having friends after filming, they also did not act like monsters in front of each other. One of them was tin and yang but after facing struggles he realized how bad his actions were and instead he changed for better. All four has achieved a decent success in their careers, mostly because of XiaXia intervention.

Fan Ling. He appears few times, but has several crucial scenes. he was neighbor with Jian family before, now he is a supermodel. He also liked XiaXia but was always late. But he is also a good person because he can step back and be respectful without noise when he saw that XiaXia was happy. There was some accent that Lin Qing, XiaXia's friend had some friction with him, but there was no sub-plot dedicated to them.

Many other side-characters. Mostly consist of family mambers, like Fu grandpa. Or those who serve where they live. XiaXia's agent and assistant. And also their two pets, cat and a dog, which is cute.

Relationship.

I think it was treated quite delicately. Although there were some repetitions here and there, but the overall impression is quite good. Hanjun was always gentle, respectful and kind, even if you know he would be happy with XiaXia accepting him emotionally and physically, but he waited for a long time before XiaXia accepted him and revealed that he liked him (good half of the novel, be prepared) and he wasn't impatient in any way or thinking weirdly like other CEO who are all - oh, I want him. Thankfully no CEO disease. In the end XiaXia, who is slow about emotions, relaized that he's very comfortable being with Hanjun, unlike Wei Cheng who was more of an obligation, he was happy that things happened as they happened and he found person who truly cared for him. After he realized that Hanjun likes him too he confessed and they became happy together, both connected in body and soul. This allowed XiaXia to experience true happiness and love. Their interactions are truly comforting. And although XiaXia might be slow on emotions he still realized few things about himself, their relationships, what he can do, what he should do. Like he would not film during thunderstorm period, he will happily be together each minute they can, provide all his emotions and care.

I truly liked the part mentioned in the end when XiaXia faced Hanjun always wanting him to give him something, he changed his mind instead of being burdened when he realized that Hanjun does this not because of giving, but that he doesn't treat him as an outsider and he also can share the burden with him.

RATE: 4/5. All in all a good read, very comforting and relaxing. Great attention to details and emotions. Although it sounds silly at first, but it's all nicely wrapped up. Very comforting that many things were not done in a second, like they like to say in a CEO novels, which is complete unreal bs. Very good characters, who don't follow the template. Story and emotions don't leave you burdened with them. The only thing I can say against is that it's long XD I said it thrice I think.

[Chinese BG novel] 绿茶女配真的不想红 by 糖丸丸 / Green tea heroine doesn't want to be popular

(*title is mtl'd)

I must say I read this novel previously, reached ch 55 and put it on hold for some reason. Decided to pick it up these days and finished it rather quickly and when I reached ch 55 and then fully read the novel I finally remembered that I might have reached 60-chapter-burn-out as I call it and read last few chapters. And it was the mistake to miss the fun in the last 1/3 of the novel. But it's also a problem of the author that I think they took too long to reach that stage.

So what's the deal? Su Chenyu is a step away from completing her plan, killing the Dog Emperor, becoming the queen, choose new ruler and live her leisure life. But she suddenly dies and travels to modern times, her memory integrates with Su Chenyu, a daughter of a wealthy Su family who was lost at the age of 3. But her family strangely might have stopped looking for her, because after adopting a daughter Su Qianyu they poured all their grievances and love into her. Even the boy with whom Chenyu had baby kiss slowly forgot the fact that he was the one who lost Chenyu and his promises to himself were also forgotten.

Now it's the scene of engangement, where Gu Weixi went to look for Qianyu just because he saw her a pale photo. The two families wanted to downplay the entire thing, but who is Chenyu, she is the queen who battled the entire harem to stay safe, she can play these people like clowns. So she faced everyone and blessed the two for them to be happy, exposing the entire thing.

From there her path as Chenyu, the popular star began.

Note: Chenyu travels with the system, for some reason author decides on making Chenyu accumulate screams (literal screams), so she can support and later change her cannon fodder time. Strange setting but who am I to judge :)

Storyline. 

We start off from engangement banquet, as said Chenyu reveals that GWX is gone and she as a good sister blesses him and Qianyu to be together. Now everyone knows the two are a pair of scumbags and dogs. The family isn't happy, but Chenyu doesn't care. Their emotions are indeed influenced by the system of Qianyu, but it doesn't make them better. Chenyu moves away from the Su family house and starts her school life and entertainment life. The thing is Qianyu came to entertainment under guidance, Weixi followed her to be together, Chenyu who was brainwashed that the two will be together followed Weixi, but was nto supported by family and basically was unknown. Company terminated contract with her, but funnily work came to her herself.

As a transparent person she went to variety show, having a life in a rural area. Her skills conquered the entire group. She didn't show herself as completely weak, but also didn't come as completely strong. It's as if she played the strong hand with a fearful face, literally :) The effect of the show was really good, although I find it vague how she got it. Later she came into contact with Mr. Bo, he saw her playing darts and thought she was interesting, so he invited her, but she impressed him with the qin play, later took her to a gathering where she defeated one of notorious players named Mad Dog, Mr. Min. The dude does not think like any other person, he found her later and the live broadcast they did on the roof went outside the circle. But later the fact that she had foreign fans was forgotten and never mentioned. Her collaboration with Mr. Bo came to fruition and he found her agent and assistant with the goal to later sign her to the company for development. For now she only found jobs like variety shows, in the entire novel she took parts in three. Rural life, solving mysteries and extreme life. Rural life was episodic, but brought her new fans, mysteries were not mentioned in details, but this is where she met Fu Qinxu, one of the men who attracted her. And later was the extreme life which brough her the biggest popularity and was the craziest (but this type of show hardly will happen in RL so :) ). I say free-wheeling because outside this side of career, other things were going into different directions. Like she went uni, but it wasn't mentioned much, only the guy she met there came out from time to time. She also went to a bar randomly where she met two several guys, one of them initially was her target, but when he became serious she distanced herself. Sometimes things were picked up and then put down. Like she invested into a haunted house to accumulate screams after the mystery variety show, it was mentioned from time to time. But it didn't really matter to the story. There is also situation about her family, she was never really involved with them and they never came out to play a bigger role. For her they were a bunch of strangers she did not care about and if their life good or bad did not matter to her, Also the story of her family was nto wrapped up at the ending, like showing who is doing what. The same goes for ex-fiance, it felt like half-way through he evoked some memories and the promise he made when he was a kid, but due to Qianyu he forgot it all and now felt remorse, but it felt like nothing and resulted into nothing, but the reason for losing her as a kid was really ficked up He just left her at some random store and went to deal with punks they met. Like what? The girl was actually loved, but again Qianyu's system made everyone replace their feelings. Partially, I hate such characters, they're selfish and fucked up, but I like when authors makes them villains, because they are.

Extreme life was a big variety show project, because it started as survival, but turned into a big play where participants were made to believe they intruded on a territory of locals and were chased and killed. Since Chenyu was more collected and ready she noticed something wrong and realized that it's a fake show. But the chase was exciting for the public, it also exposed a girl who aimed at Chenyu several times. This part was indeed fun. Although unreal. Bizarre thing is that Chenyu went back with a rooster.

After several shows she finally decided to debut as an actor. What was funny is that the director could see she was acting, not feeling the role, but they still hired, but also the great thing after being criticized Chenyu became really serious about acting and made a great progress as a true actress on the set. 

From here her acting career also started. Because she conquered a bunch of old guys at another gathering, she got the lead role in an action movie with martial arts. Here she could do a lot of stuff she was known for. It was said in extras that her acting career thrived and she became a well-known household name.

If you want to know if the ending will have something connected to Dog Emperor and Qianyu, then I will answer yes. To make it entertaining, but not spoil things. So if you don't want spoilers.. it's better to not read further.

Su Chenyu. She has a very cheerful personality actually. You could say she is fearless, because she lived through many dangers. For her people in modern times don't pose any threat, so she likes this place a lot. Her only pity is that she can't have her own harem. But this point later changes due to ML.

Dog Emperor and Su Chenyu's past (w/spoilers). Tbh I spent like half the novel wondering, will the Dog Emperor come out? He was mentioned too many times, but it all revolved around the skills she learnt because of him. She really disliked him. But not to the point of deep hatred, it's a deep dislike. She always felt like she's on a tightrope, every step should be calculated not to get herself in danger. Dog Emperor is moody, sometimes sounds mental ,because his mood can change any second and also he can say vile thing or comforting things, while doing something opposite. As it happens Chenyu initially was a maid at the Shuhou's residence, she was saved by him and not wanting to leave she earned her way to stay at the mansion. She was taught a lot by Shuhou, but then she was included into draft list and went to the pallace. From then she couldn't come back again. This is where her biggest dislike for the eperor lies, she wanted just to have enough food and clothes, she lived happily with Shuhou, even if it wasn't anything romantic and he also was strict. But then she spent every braincell to fight his women in the harem and also to achieve position that nobody cared about, but instead Dog Emperor made her a queen and she stood on the cusp of the storm. Also I promised not to spoil what will happen to him, so you better read it yourself.

Romance? At first i thought this would be like a non-CP novel actually, because she could flirt with men here and there, it was the result of her life experience. First she was a maid, then she entered the harem and had to serve one man, she did not truly enjoy anything when it came to men. I'd say there is a lot of free-wheeling in the first half, you can highly doubt if it's even a romance novel (it is), because Chenyu basically acts as if casting net for handsome guys around her. Yet she has the bottom line in this world, flirt is flirt, but getting serious needs her to take responsibility. 

ML (w/SPOILERS)

If you take the entire harem of men Chenyu met, it's not obvious who the ML is until later parts. Then something happens. Initially it was unknown if someone from her kingdom will come, before Shuhou appeared. Fu Qinxu was the one who inherited the memories of Shuhou. Thing is at first Mr. Fu was interested in Chenyu himself, but now both personalities combined together. And Shuhou RongYu actually lived with Chenyu in his heart for years. He had to be restrained, because he lived with the country as his mission and he had to assist the Emperor, but this Emperor was the one who took the woman he cared about into the harem and he was always a step late. Now in the modern world he had no scruples and he decided to show his love for her. For Chenyu her feelings were not as romantic back at the mansion, she just felt it was not worthy of an Emperor to aim at his trusted minister, but now their feelings changed. Chenyu was ready for healthy love, past and present care combined, this is why she was not against coming together with Fu Qinxu. 

Misses.

The biggest miss is that author may pick and put down things at any time, you have no idea what to expect next. There are some obvious points that might happen (like confrontation with Qianyu for example), but you have no idea which line will be let go and when. So there is a feeling of having loose ends at the end. Sometimes there are things that are too random, like at the filming set of her first series there was a girl who wanted to befriend Chenyu and also use assistant to dig dirt, but was never mentioned again. Or foreign fans. Stuff like that.  

Also author gives no definite description when it comes to characters, you may be bored from starry eyes and sword eyebrows, but at least give me an age. Sometimes they give, but those are side-cicks. I thought Mr. Bo was older, but he was not. Sometimes I lacked from simple facial descriptions or age descriptions. It's not like characters are faceless, but sometimes descriptions weren't enough. Like I have no idea how Qianyu looks like or many others. 

RATE: 3,5/5. At least it was exciting enough, but I find author took a bit long on some things and some exciting stuff was left for later parts, which was unexpected tbh.

[Chinese BG novel] 白月光才不稀罕渣男们呢 by 挠时光/ White Moonlight doesn't care about scumbags

(*mtl'd title)

There is one particular thing that actually attracted me to the heroine and that is she acknowledged their inbalance in the relationship when she finally started to fall in love, that maybe in her previous state she wouldn't mind being given without return, but when in love she can't really do much for the person she likes and is openly pampered by him.

But before diving deeper, we're traditionally start with synopsis. The summary on the site can't be called misleading, but the story is far from being as light-hearted and joking as the summary shows. And that is He Zhiqi saw a strange dream in which she was in the conflict with three men who previously were her admirers, in few years she was away they found a girl named Jiang Yuan to be her substitute, so when she came back they told her that now she's not the first in their hearts. He Zhiqi who saw this dream said: I'm not rare.

Author stressed that the novel won't revolve around Jiang Yuan and there won't be anything ngeative about it, so they preempted people from lashing at Jiang Yuan as a character. And indeed, when you finish the novel you realize how little her character is involved with the story. Basically it's a story, but also an emotional journey of He Zhiqi.

ML is Huo Zhiqi, they sound similar but use different characters :) I think it's one of very few times when I see MC and ML have same sounding names.

We'll start from good things, I guess?

He Zhiqi does come back from abroad, but her goal in life is completely different and is not even mentioned in the summary and the plan is big, to get her own father down, better get rid of him. For this purpose she wanted to use one of the men she knew, but because of the dream she changed her target and suddenly when Huo Zhiqi appeared she choce him. With very few interactions between them she actually realized that he also is good to be a partner in love. So as proactive as she is she offers for them to be together. Huo Zhiqi is someone who held her in his heart for a very long time, so he agreed. Her love doesn't start deep and only with his care and him acting not as many men around her, her heart slowly turns biased and she even feels guilty that one day everything may disappear, but she planned for too long to let her plans go to waste and let her father who did so many wrong things go. Without explaining much she and HZQ reached tacit understanding for her to achieve success and indeed her father goes in. But HZQ doesn't leave her as she expected, on the contrary he always emphasized that he actually knows her true self, which is actually true. HZQ and her first met each other when they were little, her mother died and now her stepmother gave birth to a son, she was at a loss and wanted to do something, so she plucked orchids. The strange boy joined and helped her. Later they met each other when they were left behind and accompanied each other. In the end, because she met with the malice of human heart at a young age she opened eyes to him too, that not all people are kind, relatives included and that she hated cowardly people. It impacted him a lot. Thus he knew her very well, that her perfect image is a disguise she used from childhood, but the more people liked her, the more chips she had to protect herself. It played in her favor. Other might call it that she raised fish, but she was kind to many and wasn't ambiguous. Some of her friends understood it, but some who saw her as a woman did not. Three mentioned suitors in the summary included.

The first was Yin Qin, loudest of her suitors who even proposed but was rejected. How others he didn't really understand her and thought that some of his tactics of forcing her or showing that there are many people who love him will let her face the truth. In two years he became a popular traffic and fans loved him, so in an accident the opinion of his fans was truly against him. At the first stage Jiang Yuan appeared a bit as earning her share from these fat sheeps. But Yin Qin was involved in several scandals where he overturned, later he was reported for plagiarism and later went mad with Jiang Yuan and was arrested in the end. He exited the picture.

Yun Yue was the second, Zhiqi treated him as her brother actually, but had no idea he will find a substitute. In the end she can wave goodbye to this brother and find new, his previous tactics of being coquettish or seeking attention did not work on her. 

Qin Yuanming is the third, he was responsible for her death in her dream, but he is also the most perverse. At first he used some underhanded tactics, but later when was reported he disappeared before returning for his final stage, his love was morbid, but of course he also did not understand her completely and thought he was her best option.

Huo Zhiqi on the contrary knew her true face, that she cared the most about herself due to her life experience, she didn't want a man to give her anything, she wanted to take it herself. But HZQ managed to give her respect and care and love and trust that finally hooked her heart. This is why when she finally realised that she changed and was ready to move forward with HZQ she realized that he does the most in their relationship and she can't return much to him, she can't cook, except for composing music and playing instruments she seem to be not adapted to basic life. She tried to slowly change and also be more opened with him.

There was a lot of emphasis on her emotional journay.

As for her upbringing and what made her like that. Her father had a White Moonlight in his heart who died, he chose her mother because they looked really alike, thus she hated substitutes a lot. But because of business he drove her mother crazy. After remarrying everything went fine, before Jiang Yuan was found, she happened to be his illegitimate daughter, but the story goes deeper, her mother is the long-lost sister of her own mother, both fell victims to Zhiqi's father. Zhiqi was wary of this new sister at first, but she did not blame her as many expected, she hated her father more for betrayal and using others as substitutes. And Jiang Yuan herself arrived not to act like a demon, she actually liked her sister. But she wasn't used much in the story as a character.

What I didn't like. Author being vague. Like the details of her mother's condition wasn't shown explicitly and were talked about in the passing, so I really didn't give a damn about her motiovation for revenge. And revenge is such a big deal about the story. But it also ends up being vague, only once mentioned that her father grew poppies etc. Like it's a big deal, why not emphasize, but no, again I really didn't give a damn about him. At first he was really shown as a scumbag who cared for no one when he brough Jiang Yuan into teh family, but later he was like a passer-by. I don't know, maybe because author wasn't dwelling into details the story at times felt empty. Although the emotional part between the two was so full. Even Qin Yuanming in the end, he felt like a villain with several tactics here and there, but what were the charges, who knows... 

RATE: 3/5. In general it was okay, I applaude that FL acknowledges that her man does a lot for her and doesn't take everything for granted. But the vagueness at times and lack of details led me to not be emotionally invested in the story.