[Chinese BG novel] 七零之改嫁死对头 by 松鼠醉鱼 / Re-married to her rival*

A very heart-warming story with a cute couple.

Summary: Zhan Aiping did not understand why she was reborn, to be honest she did not have any regrets, even if her life was bumpy. Her ex-husband happened to be a scum, her children inherited their father's unscrupulous means and when Zhan Aiping sent him to prison they left her one by one. She was in a slump of her life, this is when she met her old friend, childhood sweetheart, Gu Sheng, they grew up together and knew each other since childhood, but who knew their meeting at this advanced age was so fateful and they fell in love and got married. They lived like rivals when they were children, but now her old man Gu managed to heal her heart and make her happy. Now she is reborn before the marriage and she may not cancel the marriage, but she will definitely change the groom.

Gu Sheng loved Zhan Aiping for a long time when suddenly he got an offer from the girl he liked to get married.

Although I don't usually read setting in the 70-80'ss, but this one is a calm and cute family novel. Although I accept the fact that I read it dioganally not to get too bored.

You could say the obstacle in the face of ex-husband is not an obstacle at all, Zhan Aiping got rid off of him pretty soon, the reason why she was led astray was simple, she grew up in a household where her mother was a female soldier and was very demanding, not like a mother but more like a leader that puts pressure on their children, her father remarried to a new woman after their mother's death and with new stepmom you'll get a stepdad, she lacked family love but she also had high demands due to her upbringing, she had amazing scores in medical school and was a close student to a professor, but then she met with her first life and death situation in life and it broke her mentality. She quite being a military doctor and became a teacher under the soft quidance of her fiance. In her previous life she quit many things to be a housewife and a promising surgeon lost its' former glory, but little did she know that her husband had a child prior to the marriage and concealed the fact, but did not think it was a big deal and asked her to accept the child years later when she found about it.

Now she could make up for years that she missed her old husband Gu.

Zhan Aiping also wants to follow him to southern province and she became a doctor at a local small hospital. You could say she's starting at grassroots. But now that years passed and she's not a little girl anymore she is filled with a baggage of knowledge and she can bring many benefits to those who surround her.

Her life with Gu Sheng is a truly happy life, he indeed liked her, but did not confess and everyone around them were doubtful about their future married life, one switched partner too son and another agreed to marry this quick. But the married life was filled with nothing but sweetness. Gu Sheng is loving and caring, thoughtful and can be a good friend along being a good husband. They're truly a great match. She loved her Gu Sheng for who he is.

The novel is mostly their life in teh family compond and their slow steps towards the future. There are a lot of characters, thus I'd say it's like slice-of-life and a family novel. So many characters.

Zhan Aiping's family:

Zhan Bo - father

Aunt Zhu, Zhu Jiaorong - second wife, always wants to get rid off children from the first wife, brought her daughter into this marriage

Zhan Mingzhao - Aiping's biological younger brother, he left for the art troupe earlier than her leaving the house to another provine

Zhan Aijia - step-sister, always envious of Aiping's beauty and success, but also nto very smart. To compete with her sister for men she found a man older than her with three sons to be a stepmom, thinking she will have a great life :)

Zhan Mingkang - youngest son of this marriage

Gu Sheng's family (they're a mixed family, like military, art etc.):

Gu Ze'an - father

Qin Ying - mother

1st child - the eldest, lives away he's in politics

2nd and 3rd are twins - soldier and navy

4th son is into art (yes I don't bother to name everyone)

daughter Gu Xiangyi - came to southern province to work in the city hospital to become more independent

Gu Sheng is the youngest in the family.

Gu Sheng's and Aiping's children:

Gu Chen and Gu Yuan - brother and sister twins born in the first year of marriage, born beautiful and well-behaved.

Family compound:

Shen Liqing and Wang Youli, young couple that came a bit later than Gu Sheng and Aiping, they've been pen pals and liked each other later, Liqing is like a salted fish, lives in her fantasies about pastoral life, but she is very positive. They managed to get pregnant along with others.

Jiang Rui and Qin Lanfang, one is commander working with Gu Sheng and another is a sister to Qin Yanfang, who works as a nurse with Zhan Aiping. Lanfang had a bad leg and was fixed by Aiping, Aiping was also their matchmaker, because Captain Jiang liked Lanfang for years. They also got pregnant along with Liqing and others.

He Lingling and Xie Shu, were neighbors of Zhan and Gu before moving, loving but quarreling couple. Became better when she got pregnant along with others. Has little connection with Aiping. But her husband was one of several men who copied Gu Sheng's work of "how to take care of your wife".

Director Li, Li Yuxia, she works as women's representative who mediates between couples and such. Actually, was the first to get pregnant in the chain of happy events. But she is advanced in age, so she doubted Aiping in her diagnosis, so when it was confirmed she felt ashamed.

Hospital (township health center to be exact):

Dean Hao

Dr. Zhou, barefoor doctor who was responsible for Chinese medicine and orthopedics before Aiping came along. Married to his wife Meng Xiaoyun. He's an older doctor.

Qin Yanfang, works as an accountant. She actually had an upcoming marriage, but because her fiance's family wanted to marry her sister to a fool she broke up the relationship decisively, later they were bickering with Dr. Zhao a lot and eventually got married. Aiping was right about the two.

Dr. Zhao, new doctor of gastroenterology, but was poisoned on the first day of work because he likes wild mushrooms. This became a meme, at first he wanted to tranfer due to shame, but then stayed and even had frienemies relationship with Qin Yanfang, which led to marriage.

Zhu Hui, became a nurse and works to become anesthesiologist in their growing hospital. Was married to a soldier named Luo, but divorced when she found out that her mother-in-law covered up a cheating scandal between her youngest son and the first daughter-in-law and brought two children, who were supposed to be Captain Luo's biological sons, but were actually his nephews. Although Luo was not aware, but Zhu Hui still got divorced to live a happier life.

Professor Sun and his wife Qi Shuwan, Aiping was his student, but she was ashamed to appear in front of her teacher, they changed their relationship and accepted each other as godparents. Now that she's not in the army it won't raise suspicions.

It's not a pastoral life, but Zhan Aiping came to this small hospital and knew she can bring changes, this is the time when people lacked knowledge, hospitals lacked talents, there was a lot to do. She wasn't in a hurry, step by step along the way she promoted scientific knowledge as means to dispell rumors about herself. She published collection of stories she created to enlighten people in the village. She also worked on her own book to make her knowledge about surgery available. She agreed to have lectures in the local medical school.

With her help their small hospital also grew and expanded little by little.

Their small couple was an example for others how to live and how to bring up their children, especially when the whole compound became pregnant one after another. It's a small bessing that he knowledge she accumulated for years now can be applied to those in need.

As for the relationship  it actually wasn't as sweet as some imagine, it's a sweet bickering, they can be open-minded towards each other, make jokes, feel fun, so it's all still sweet but not stale.

The way the family compound and hospital people got along actually reminded me of the old days, people weren't so preoccupied about their future partners, no one had so many things on their minds, life was simpler and married life too. Things have changed a lot, of course it was inevitable for things to change, this is why everything about marriage and partners is not so free-wheeling.

But the rest of people I can do without. Like it's fun to watch people "competing" in moderation in good humor, but at other times people simply like to show off how well someone is married off or who is smarter or who is better, which is tiresome and sometimes even hateful and stupid. This type of mentality is alien to me, this constant show off. Imagine someone lost their child, for example, and another person shows off children and grandchildren. Just an example that it's not humane.

RATE: 3/5. If you like the novel you won't mind the length and occasional people who want to compare this and that, then you will like it, but if it gets on your nerve then it will feel long. 

[MOVIE] Office romance (Eng subs)

Part 1

Part 2

Office romance I find one of the best classics in the cinema. I honestly love older movies, eastern or western it doesn't matter, because there is something about them, some honest passion for making movies when directors didn't think about any agenda, but make a good movie.

The video is taken from official YouTube channel and it also has English subs, which is great plus. I love that one can re-watched beloved films in this day.

Office romance is a movie that tells a story about an average worker, Novoselcev, and his immediate director (head manager in modern language), Kalugina. He's given not such an honest idea to flirt with her to let her see the prospect of giving him a raise (but it's not as vulgar as it'd be in modern movie, it's really just a flirt, I'd say it's only an attempt ahaha). Novoselcev fails miserably, because he's not really a confident person to begin with and their interaction that was forced by the situation allows him to see her true self. Not a rigid director that has nothing in her life except work, but a woman.

It's interesting how their relationship tranforms both of them, especially her.

I love how actors played in those years. Unlike nowadays there were many actors who you'd say did not look like actors and this is the main point to me, their appearance was mallable and that's what an actor should be, they should look like someone you can imagine playing different professions/roles. Sometimes there are those who are not afraid of changing themselves to fit the role, others not so much.

[Chinese BG novel] 我在人间直播算命[玄学] by 墨尔玉 / I live broadcast fortune telling

(*title is mtl'd)

Summary: An Ru inherited the temple after her master's passing. She just graduated the university, but her goal is the recovery of the delapitated temple with no piligrims. Returning she thought of ways how to support the temple and one of the fastest ways happened to be live broadcasting. From that point she embarked on the road of reviving metaphysics in the world and helping people.

What I liked the most! It was the non-conventional way of solving troubles An Ru came across. Talking about it later in more details, but this novel is generally is very humorous, despite some family drama from live broadcasting, but like villains that are solved easily or things that are resolved, everything has a milder tone and is not directed to have this big conspiracy where everyone is fighting against it or family drama being depressing.

The summary also feels a bit vague and what really happened and why it was enjoyable.

First of all, An Ru has a detached personality. She is beautiful, but very calm and is not stained with human fireworks, basically she doesn't really care about anything, but has a kind and righteous heart. She is the perfect example of the flower on the high mountain, but she is not indifferent or oblivious to the human world. You will never see her having a big change of emotion on her face, but she will always help those in need. Calm water. She is also really good with her cultivation (for a reason).

Second of all, I liked the system and rules set by the author. Since metaphysics can be different An Ru's set of actions is like this. Firstly, money. Looking at the fortune is like looking at the secret and everything has a price, looking at it will give you a backlash/karma, thus she set a price of a lowest reward on the platform and the money will be the ones receive the backlash (her account is the only one that doesn't share with the platform, because the platform knows she is powerful and what she said is true and they don't want to go out of business :D). Then she donates the money to do good deeds, so you can say those money are "washed" away. And because she's proficient she can also see who really needs it, thus she is not stained with bad deeds. She donates almost her entire income for doing meritorious deeds. The rest of course is spent on the temple and the business she opened is actually self-reliant. As for talismans, she draws them always alone, because she needs to invite the gods. As for the live broadcast, she reads faces or photos. In later part her cultivation grows stronger. Not to mention originally her soul shines like a light bulb. As for how her broadcast does things is also interesting, she opens a lottery and says that whoever is destined will appear and mainly people with fates will appear. Same goes for things outside. When her live broadcast evolved she also made dealings with the Underworld, thus she had connections with Special Bureau and the Underworld.

Thirdly, the "business". This is the funniest part. Because in this world there is not enough babies for reincarnation a lot of people stay in line for many years (thus the underworld in this novel is very developed at least in terms of entertainment and following the Internet and of course they follow An Ru), thus there are many ghosts on earth in the yang world. Because many of them do not want to go to the underworld and some have grievances that need to be washed, she opened business one by one. First was the haunted house, next was a monster house with fairies and won't spoil the rest. The funny thing is that ghosts are happy to work and this is the joke most of the time (even when dealing with the villains), most ghosts don't have income or food, because many people are atheists and no one sacrifices for their ancestors anymore, this leads to many ghosts being "poor". An Ru offered them a job, they created a system and even helped people get rid off of the yin energy at the exit. Other fairies also have interesting stories how they came to An Ru. Also because of her involvement with giving ghosts jobs and also the slow infiltration of metaphysics with the public, you could say even knowing people had positive outlook and both sides were quite harmonious.

Ghosts are fans and among the yang world there are many fans. But are quite cute. Barrage occupies also a lot of space and everyone developed into interesting traditions, like being a "destined person" is a bad omen, there is always something bad awaiting. So not winning is like a good sign and the barrage even celebrates it. Barrage greets people appearing as unlucky person :) They always lament how An Ru only calculates three people every ten days. Anyway, barrage is very personable in this story. Unlike many trolling barrages I think the one in this novel is the mildest and cutest.

The main two lines I'd say would be live broadcasting, which occupies the most space, and the villain organization. But do not fret, the way she deals with villains does not have any tension at all. Example in spoilers.

As for the live broadcasting, there are ton of different stories, so many that it's hard to pick a direction. Looking at luck, looking at marriages or if someone hit a ghost or was plotted against. But the inetersting thing, her live broadcasting received not only attention from the masses and she slowly became the top anchor, but also help from above, country and the underworld joined hands and it is all connected to the prophecy and the people from above were waiting to promote metaphysics by the right person, so the public won't panic and create chaos. Although prophecy sounds big and it seems like a bid danger is coming, but when you read it, it reads mostly like a comedy. So, funnily or not, when people found the Underworld is real they started to help their ancestors or ancestors could apply for connecting in dreams with descendants, other people like criminals knowing there is hell actually stopped doing bad things and switched to doing good things to even out their karma.

As for the villains, it's better to read it yourself. The one at the beginning is an evil organization the special bureau was after, but with An Ru the dealing with them was not as hard. Which is comedic since An Ru is not a humorous personality at all. The only thing that I found a bit off is that after dealing with them there was a lot of text left, there is another situation at the end of the book, but actually I stopped reading at ch183 (total # of chapters: 239) simply because the story after dealing with villains always changes, there's so much space, what will it be next? Another villain or just live broadcasting? So that part was not as fascinating, but wasn't bad, but when you have a lot of stories and don't stop at the right time it will feel oversaturated. Though villains may not be much of a threat, but they occupy so much and feel like main danger, so after the danger passes you relax as a reader.

/~SPOILERS~/

The most non-conventional way of dealing with ghost was as follows. They were offered jobs with housing. It sounded like a pyramid scheme at times ahaha but basically they were lured with rhethoric - Do you want to spoil your karma? Do you not want to spoil your reincarnation by doing bad things or even more, your soul dissipate? Come to us to work, we will provide with housing, wages and benefits. Basically this is how they dealt not only with ghosts but with other entities. One of the main side-characters is a river dragon, but he slept for too long and had no idea that world outside changed. He was instigated by a villain to use hiw wrath, but instead the little zombie girl by An Ru's side asked him if he is ready to fight and miss on the good food and entertainment. Anyway he was fed with chips and he was amazed, because hundreds years ago spices were not available and sacrifices were not as tasty. The dragon changed his nature, after opening up his river, he became a resident of An Ru's temple, was eating, sleeping and having fun, also took part in recruiting a lot of people, including ghosts, beasts and even star lords. It was funny how he acted as best HR manager. An Ru's temple had no living person actually, which is hysterical. First was a ghost who stayed to wash away her karma, tne there is a zombie girl, then there are ghosts they caught but they went to work in ghosts houses etc. Then there was a lamp containing soul left from the tom raiding, later the dragon joined the team. So no living people actually lived in her temple. Ahaha :D

As for the villains, the first one as mentioned was the organization that used metaphysics to do evil. Their biggest plan was connected to stars and the Big Dipper, so there's a lot of stars and some astronomy present. Doesn't sound bad for laymen.

/~/

RATE: 4/5. I don't agree with the length, but at least I liked a lot of what it offered. Funny characters, interesting ideas about what to do with ghosts, how to solve the problems, how to deal with villains. In many ways it is a well-thought novel. It was a lot of fun to read it!

[MOVIE] Pokrovsky gates

Part 1

Part 2

[Chinese BG novel] 我在恋综拆cp by 诸葛扇 / I'm in love with cp*

(*title is mtl'd) Previous title was Love variety show observer.

I LOVED IT!! Honestly, it was so entertaining, so hysterical and at times even touching. What a wild roller-coaster. Ahaha to sum it up in one sentence, I will quote the novel:

"How could a couple with no problems be on a crappy program like "Which CP is your favorite"?"

Summary: Shi Ge is a time-traveller who is ready to retire, she had few things to ask for, being beautiful like no one else and being rich, everything else could be thought of later. But who knew she landed and occupied the body of Shi Ge, Miss Asia, she is not rich and is now being splashed with dirty water on the network in retaliation for being a "misterss" in her best friend's relationship. But no one knows and wants to listen that she's not a mistress, she refused her friend's boyfriend advances and instead tried to talk sense in her friend, since this boyfriend is notorious playboy in the industry. Instead her friend backstabbed her, she believed the cheater and instead poured dirty water on her friend, she had no evidence but people still believed her due to her status. Her boyfriend has power and status so he banned Shi Ge and sent her to a love variety show to be a joke. Before the first issue Shi Ge arrived and witnessed this mess. Even the promised wealth hasn't arrived yet, due to system's intervention she became long-lost daughter of the wealthiest Mu family and her now brother was her task previously and he played as his mother to save the boy. Mu Shifeng was so happy to see his mom again, but instead of taking her back he applied mom's teaching - earning their own things, so he only sponsored his mom through other means :'D

These are the basic settings for this story, but the main story itself isn't about Shi Ge herself, I'd say about the show, about variety of people, their sudden fates and the twists of life and Shi Ge's is one of them. It might come across as crazy the way how things develop at times, but actually the twists in stories are really interesting and sometimes unexpected, all CPs that appeared on this variety show were jeopardized during the show. Many houses fell and many CPs overturned. Shi Ge is not indispensable from these revelations, but it is not done bluntly, sometimes she acts like a fool to eat the tiger. Very rarely she did nothing and people used the show to become the Weekend Show for overturning.

You could say that this novel has a lot of "melon" to consume, but it's so exciting and also the story is ups and down. But it also has a human touch at times, so it's not only melons for the sake of shock value.

We are only spectators of these fates.

It has the fate like many novels where FL arrives and is blackened on entire network and it also follows the path of people slowly discovering Shi Ge and the story is overturned about her too. But first of all she does not reveal it about herself, though she could many times, but she doesn't care, it's almost her wish to be banned and go home and inherit wealth. So you can guess she is dismissive of the star career. But so it happened that the program became more popular and people were waiting for her to share more melons. Even the revelations about her story happened much later and under the influence of other well-intentioned people. And eventually people found out that her friend is so love-minded (more like love brain) and can forgive her cheating boyfriend again and again. But did Shi Ge interfere in this relationship is questionable. Oh yeah, another point, don't wait for her to be righteous to the point of being a Holy Mother, she's not, she acts according to her own wishes and does not have the image of justice warrior. She clears these things in passing. After all she can't fully let it go when she knows those things she unearthed, but, as she said, she waits for her retirement and wants to enjoy life after all the worlds she experienced.

Also another funny thing, maybe another three characters get more or less character development during the entire novel. The emotional blogger, the host and the director of the show. Director's story is hysterical, I'd say he went from ripping his hair and watching CPs being dismantled, the show is super popular, but no one wants to come, offending these couples is offending people in the same industry, later he had a mental breakdown and instead tried to drag others on his pirate ship by making the hashtag #who doesn't come to the show is fake popular, also leaked people who paid liquidated damages and escaped the program. Later while ripping his hair too, but now he wasn't scared of anyone, after all no one except him is ready to handle this mess. Even if the show is the most popular. I actually find Director Zheng kinda cute this way ahahaha. Quote: 

"Director Zheng laughed, he doesn’t care.

He spent a lot of effort to invite this couple and then they terminated the contract, and then the topic "Everyone who dared not appear on "Which CP is your favorite" defaulted to being fake." became a hit.

Since they themselves are guilty, what does he care about?

Break it down, break it down.

Let's destroy it together, he doesn't care!

Hahaha.

Director Zheng smiled with his hands on his hips.

The assistant director looked at Director Zheng, who had gone from slightly insane to extremely insane, and silently took out the talisman he had gone to a temple in the suburbs to get.

Bodhisattva protects you from all evil." 

But this show slowly made the card house of entertainment slowly crumble, so many people were taken, investigated, involved (the one who blacked Shi Ge included ahaha). maybe it will reach long-needed rectification.

To prove that twists are unexpected and real I should spoil few episodes, there are too many, so it won't be a big deal to spoil one or two.

/~SPOILERS~/

In one of the earliest episodes we have a married couple, in the show the wife finds out that her daughter isn't her daughter, she belongs to her husband and his mistress, but this mistress is crazy, she's a doctro and after kidnapping the daughter she used plastic surgery on her own and sent it to live a life of luxury, but tossed the real daughter somewhere. Only on this show the wife found out the truth. Good news, the girl was later found accidentally.

Another example. A couple with domestic violence. The man controlled his wife and she accused him during live broadcast, but the twist is about make-up artist that helped conceal her marks, she is sister's victim and this victim was tortured in school by none other that abused wife. So it happens that she was unruly in her youth, supported by her gangster father and was unscrupulous, she left many people disabled and bullied and tortured everyone around her. Only with police reinforcement and a case, her father escaped, but fearing retaliation she and her mother also escaped. MUA's sister went insane due to bullying, so she prepared such a plan, she knew this man had violent tendencies and tortured his first wife, so she especially spent time and money to put two together and later was hired as MUA to follow and witness the poor state of this girl as her retribution, but the story was uncovered during broadcasting.

Or another one. An actress of niche films was boycotted by her fans and her future prospects were ruined due to intervention and now she had nothing more to do but find a reliable partner. She was found by her old classmate who now claimed to become rich. He was showing off here and there, but during the broadcast Shi Ge asked where he earned his money, he had no education nor skill etc. As it happenes when he traveled he witnessed an accident and there was no one around, but the car full of dead people also had cash and diomond which he took, he came back and proclaimed to be rich. He also spilled the beans himself, because Shi Ge fooled him with a story that the diomond on the proposal ring belong to a high official who was on the run. He bought it and was too scared to deny.

So this how it went. In some cases two parties are no better in some cases one party is oblivious to the actions of another party. There are so many stories.

/~/

What I also wanted to mention, due to broadcast being live there is a lot of barrage and I must say that not all barages come across as sane, but actually as a reader we know that couples will have a problem, but the audience actually has authentic reactions and they are fans (or not), even if the house collapses afterwards. But they come across as thoughts of average program viewers, not some clever Sherlocks on the network that can predict future, so many of reactions are at this moment reacting to what is happening and have no idea what is going to happen next (like many dismiss those with bad reputation or like those with good, then their perception overturns again and again), which can be appreciated. Even if some people's reaction may sound like they have no brains, but actually it's we as readers know that those CPs will crash the next moment and people's believing in them is a wasted effort.

And last two words about romance. Since it belongs to the category. Don't expect anything outstanding, the romance isn't the center of this story. Maybe the love of others is, but not the one that belongs to Shi Ge. You will find her "love interest" if you read this novel, I will warn anyone that it's not a typical story when it comes to them. You have to cross mountains and rivers, read two thirds of the novel to reach the point of some development, but even so the relationship is very background, but it doesn't mean you will dislike it without a doubt.

RATE: 4,5/5. I haven't been this excited and hyped for a long time. Many novels can be categorized as good, but it's been a long time since I've read something so fast-paced and felt so upbeat during reading. This can be categorized as a rare gem.

The biggest miss why I shaved stars, though it can be omitted, is that the show has VCR and live broadcasting, but the events happen as if what happens in the VCR is live broadcasting. Every couple is live broadcasting and introduced, later they play the tape of a date etc. And everyone comments, but then something happens and the revelations happen in the scenes like broadcasting and following after people, so this part was confusing, maybe because of mtl.. or not :)

[Chinese BG novel] 豪门太太重生后摆烂了 by 蓝天蓝蓝 / Wealthy wife changes after being reborn

(*title is mtl'd)

Summary: Luo Zhengzheng lived her life as a widow for more than ten years and suddenly was accused of being a mistress on the Internet. A popular actress Su Zhilan said that she used means to interfere in her marriage with Gu Shi, if it wasn't for her then they could be a happy family. The Internet believed it. Before making things clear she was reborn when her husband was still alive.

Unusual settings to me, because it's my first time seeing that the heroine is reborn and she is in a relationship/marriage, she has no feud with her husband and you could say they live a comfortable life (including the bed). But unlike him who still has loving and respectful attitude towards his wife, after all Zhengzheng has been a widow for a long time and her mentality changed and she entered old couple mode in advance. Usually rebirth involves many things like regrets and such, but I can't say it is evident here. It's more like she happened to be reborn. And although her husband's early departure can be said to be a sad thing, but they survived through it with her mother-in-law and her son.

At first it is not explained why and under which circumstances she was reborn (maybe an accident) she was only preoocupied with her remaining family finding the recording pen she had left after the meeting with Su Zhilan, which had her motive making a fuss online.

After she was reborn she had a more profound feeling about others and about herself, there are bits and pieces about her past life, though not much, because she wasn't as confident when she just married and her story is outright Cinderella version, she comes from a simple family and married the most promising son from the Gu family. But now she had no scruples as her previous self and was more free-wheeling and open-minded. It also allowed some changes in the family matter of the Gu family tot ake place.

I assume initially in the previous life they had no closeness like in this life, maybe they never reached closeness between four wives at all. But now things changed. And I mention the four wives since they occupy quite a lot of space and after a while you understand that it is the focus of attention, the family focus. At first judging from the official synopsis on JJ I thought it would be more of a career novel and a lot of people envying Zhengzheng on her success, but it isn't, there is more family focus and the drama she invested in actually don't have as much description or focus. And also even if there are those who have wary attitude, but at least her three sister-in-laws don't have negative feelings about her.

The four wives. To understand wives you need to explore the Gu family from top to bottom:

Gu Boyuan, father of the family, chairman of the Gu Group. His wife, Ye Li, chairman of the Ye Group.

Gu Hualuo, eldest daughter of the Gu family, born to Gu Boyuan's first wife, she is married outside (to a person named Zheng), has friction with her father and step-mother, mostly because of her step-mother. Very prickly and conceited, while Ye Li was never a bad step-mother to begin with, but it didn't stop the Gu daughter being prejudiced. As Zhengzheng mentioned that in her previous life Hualuo's husband cheated, had mistress and children outside, so she also invested in her husband and lost dowry. But I don't really like her portrayal as she is having eyes above her head and also looks down on Zhengzheng, but people can be smart and become better, even if their background isn't much. Althought she had such a harsh portrayal partially I felt sorry for her because she couldn't see people and did not understand the importance of united family.

Gu Ming, eldest son of Gu Boyuan, also son from the first marriage. As explained later is a bit of a chauvinist. Is not as talented and does not have much of a business acumen even though works at Gu. His wife, Wang Yaning, comes from a worse background, but she comes from the family of scholars, had strict education and you can call her conservative. They have a son, Chengrui.

Gu Xian, the second son, also the son from the first marriage, could be called incompetent, but has a bit of a jealous character. Was caught having online affair by his wife, this episode brought all wives together a lot. His wife, Liu Hanyue, comes from a wealthy family, although they are in a bit of decline, she is more willful and arrogant, but she is definitely not bad, since she knows principles and bottom lines. They have no children at the beginning of the story.

Gu Ling, third brother, has more humble backstory, it isn't explained if his was born between two marriages, but he has the status of illegitimate son, but Ye Li never treated him badly, so I assume he was tossed to Gu Boyuan between first and secon marriage. His mother dropped him and left. He is smarter than his eldest brothers, a bit ambitious, but has awkward status. His wife, Yu Shuang, comes from a family that prefers boys over girls, you could say that her background is humble. They have a daughter and a son together (Chenghui and Chengze). Zhengzheng's son likes this little cousin, since he's the youngest and he bacame an "older brother".

Gu Shi, was born in the second marriage to Ye Li, now he works at the Ye group and leads it to prosperity. Is descriped as more elegant than a walking hormone, wears spectacles, you call it a gentle scum? Also handsome and fit. Respects his wife and does many things to show that she is cherished (what she didn't realize in previous life) and has a status in his heart. He definitely likes her. Had car accident in previous life, thus he left early. He and Zhengzheng have a lovely son, Chengjia.

Summarizing the wives. You can see that unlike many novels about wealthy family, this does not have conceited characters within the family. And half of them come from average backgrounds tbh. But no one points fingers in the end that Zhengzheng's parents farm. On the contrary their family is quite united, at least from the wives' side for sure. Her in-laws love the organic products her family sends to the in-laws. No one basically comes around with their head held high and nose reaching the sky.

The only ones like these are only their eldest sister Hualuo and Su Zhilan, they think highly of themselves and don't admit her achievements and think that if you came from the mudleg, then you will stay mudleg all your life. Funny, because in the first scene we know that Su family went bankrupt and she entered entertainment industry with notion that she is such a beaten by life young lady, but she is not afraid of hardships, but if you think carefully, you won't need such a high-paying job as a star to walk through hardships. Another ironic thing, in this rebirth it is Liu Hanyue who is a lady and is not afraid of hardships, so she came first and her story is true and not a market strategy.

After the novel started Liu Hanye started a chat group for four wives. Mainly these were small discussion before Zhengzheng started working with TV dramas. Here Liu Hanyue, who was angry with her husband came to realization that she needs to do something meaningful in her life and she joined Zhengzheng as an actress, but her attitude, which was ready to learn and go through hardships what changed my initial opinion about her and I must say I really liked her after that. After all she was more arrogant and unlikable when the story started, but later she changed and showed that she knows that willful is one thing, but if you do something, you need to do it with seriousness. The other two wives, although they were more down to earth seeing the development of the two other wives felt that they can do something with their career too. This is actually good. But unfortunately it wasn't as easy, won't spoil what happened, but for Yu Shuang it's already harder, since at the begiining she was pregnant with a child and now had a small child tot ake care of. Zhengzheng for example does not consider herself as a strict and strong woman, like her mother-in-law for example, she respects them, but knows she can't be like that. She started doing things simply because she was quite passive in her previous life. At first it was also connected to the first scenes in the novel when Su Zhilan presented "love letters" presumably written by Gu Shi to her. She didn't ask him about those at first, but due to one situation they actually talked about letter and only then figured out that she was simply cheated, her husband isn't a person to write letters, he would better use actions to showcase himself. And he explained that he also had no time to write them. This was one of the misunderstandings that were resolved. His openness in discussion of Su Zhilan, who was his ex-fiancee, demonstrated his attitude towards her and as he said "Su Zhilan and her brother are not good people". Well, at least the misunderstandings were solved, but we still start on a low point between the two, doesn't mean they don't love each other, it's simply because Zhengzheng is now forty in her mind and she lived for too long without her husband. She never re-married for her son and eventually you could say she turned into a monk ahahaha. Gu Shi is visibly caring about his wife, even if he has a face that doesn't show much emotion.

So this is how it is, the whole story is more of a family story with daily interactions, travels, small conflicts and jobs. There is no emotional drama. As mentioned above Zhengzheng is an old cadre and she knows her husband, so she never buys provocations if they comes her way. This everything is more free and easy.

And the point of it all.. maybe the excellent healthy family environment? Newly developed trust between women, help between women, aspiring for something more than home. But it does not bear such weight actually. Even if Zhengzheng and Hanyue strive for it, it does not come across as if author insists on it more and more, many things come in the passing.

As for the romance I don't know if you should exect a lot. It's actually a loving relationship, although we get a low start due to Zhengzheng's mentality, but we also might get a glimpse at those past things and get a summary, such as: Zhengzheng didn't truly realize her husband's feelings for herself during her first and hardest period of being in the family, they might have also had no time of showcasing his potential, but he's a very good husband then and now. There is just no overbearing passion. But Gu Shi is a very good husband, like unbelievably good :)

As for the importance of such read, it's up for you to decide. I found it a calm and good passing read. At least Gu Shi is really cute. Also, his name might be Gu Chi, after all I don't know the correct, but seeing that it sounds like gucci, I stuck with the first version ahahaha.

RATE: 3,5/5.

[AMBIENCE] Dreamy Paris Cafe

 

[SHORT REVIEWS] #9

回溯 by 二月竹

(mtl: Backtracking)

[BL] On-going. Summary: Xu Huizhou's mother committed suicide when he was 4 and his father left the same way when he was 5, he was tossed around, family was emptied out and he was thrown into orphanage. Soon rumors spread that he had a suicide gene. Only four close friends from the orphanage reached out to him. He really considered them the closest people, but they were the ones who killed him.

The permise of this story is refreshing. XHZ did not die in a true sense and also had no idea who pushed him from the cliff during the outing (not really possible for all four, too crowded?), but all four testified that he committed suicide and all four brought his "suicide note". But XHZ actually did not die, he spent a lot of time under the cliff and was found, thus he survived. XHZ knew it was impossible to return back home like this, no one will believe that he was plotted against, thus he decided to wait for the best opportunity. Ten years later the former four friends became "prominent", one was a famous singer, another married a wealthy family, third one owned a company and the last was famous in the field of psychiatry. Seemingly well-off people built their hapinness on the bones of one person. If there is a murder there must be a motive. Initial hint is that XHZ must have uncovered their "secrets", but what those secrets are is not known at the beginning, only small episodes are thrown out. But there is also an undertone of morbid obsession of at least 3 of the above-mentioned (one keeps a lover with the same eyes, one keeps a pen and another also has a souvenir).

Ten years later at 28 Xu Huizhou comes back to China to implement his plan of revenge. He does not confront anyone openly, but lays out his actions cleverly. You know he had collected a huge amount of information about these four people and now will deal with them according to long-term observation and calculation. I think the way it is slowly revealed is quite fascinating, so I have quite some expecations towards it. This type of novel brings a lot of satisfaction factor when it comes to bringing foes to justice.

女配开始发疯以后 by 挠时光

(*mtl: After female supporting role starts to go crazy)

[BG] Completed. Summary: Lu Fanning felt that her life was a disaster. Her parents after the birth of the oldest daughter felt they would be happy to have a boy and waited for a boy, but when Fanning was born as a girl they were filled with disappointment. For this reason they preferred the eldest daughter and constantly PUA'd the youngest, even the oldest daughter herself put herself into a higher position. But then Fanning had a dream where she was told that she is a peacock blood and should release her inner self from shackles that others put on her. So her family noticed that Fanning changed, no longer caring about the family of three who wanted to use her. Fanning used to work in the editorial, the work her famly insisted on instead of fashion design she so longed for before, while her sister joined entertainment industry and was praised from top to bottom by their parents. She married Ying Shaoyuan for some time, but their marriage was empty and at some point the divorce seemed to be imminent, but she had no idea that her husband had a problem of severe social fear. So peacock and social fear joined hands. The family is quite unreasonable in this novel, they want benefits, but are not ready to share some warmth, even insist of leaving everything to the eldest. Her sister also wanted to become popular, while parents were praising her to heaven she was not as popular as they said, but later overturned as a Neptune raising fish (thanks to Shaoyuan). In general it's a short story that Fanning changed her ways, stopped being a pushover, she also figured out things about her husband and basically helped him to adapt, eventually they fell in love. So it's a HE. Anyway, I stopped midway and then read the ending to get the gist of it, because at some point I felt a little bored. Some of the books I will mention in this post will be the same. I found them all on the last search, since it's been a while since I made a new finds search. After all books are updated frequently. RATE: 3/5. Good relationship, but I can't judge the entertainment value, after all I got bored myself and used the skip.

维持女配的尊严 by 淅和

(*mtl: Maintaining the image of the female supporting role)

[BG] Completed. Summary: Wen Shuangmu was reborn, finding out that she is in the campus novel with constant Shura field among heroine admirers. Because it's a campus novel I'm wary of it a bit. The moment Shuangmu opens her eyes she is at the point of teh car accident and rushes towards the school to take the exam. A bit extreme beginning. But also what makes me wary is the presence of the system. I'm not a huge fan when the system has tasks to do. The summary also mentions that it's a villain growth system and also female supporting system used by the ML. What I don't like with the systems that require doing tasks is when it comes to emotions. FL might do tasks, but it doesn't mean she loves the target, while the target might really fall in love with her, so I find such relationships appearing out of nowhere tbh.

和三个叛逆弟弟一起上综艺 by 竹外疏狂

(*mtl: Being on a variety show with three rebellious brothers)

[BG] On-going. From the author of the "all villain show" that I loved a lot. Here we have Gu Qi who comes to the show in view of rumors about her involvement with three men. Who are actually her relatives, thus the book title. Because it's still on-going and had a small stumble along the way, I'm simply waiting for it to be finished to start reading. I've been burnt by several on-going novels that were on hiatus for too long, so I try to wait for completion. At least I have some expectations.

路人甲心声泄露后被反派全家团宠了 by 夕朝南歌

(mtl: After the passerby's innermost feelings were leaked, he was favored by the villain's entire family)

[BL] On-going. Summary: Ye Leyao died suddenly after staying up late. And he traveled to a world full of books. Good news is that each family member is a boss, bad news is that all of the have bad ending. One day the entire Huo family suddenly started hearing the inner voice of their youngest adopted son, but what they heard shocked them to the core. What does it mean their second brother is not the biological father of his white moonlight's child, what does it mean that the third son will get into trouble and where does this childhood sweetheart that comes to break up their parents even comes from?! Day after day Leyao was eating melons that were connected to different plots and.. the entire Huo family was inadvertantly eating those melons along with him. Strange thing, not only the Huo family was hearing Leyao, but also the acclaimed actor Qin Yao. Might not sound new and I also recently found a BG novel with similar premise, but there is a difference. Leyao actually eats melons that concern himself and his family, occasionally when he joined a variety show he could eat melons of others, but at least there is some connection between him and it progresses even the connection between him and Qin Yao, unlike the BG novel I've mentioned, there the girl just eats melons of other people.

炮灰美人他不干了[重生] by 甘洄

(mtl: He quits being a cannon fodder beauty)

[BL] On-going. Summary: The novel itself is more serious than its' cover. I don't know why author decided to choose such an anime-style cover when the content can be called depressing. Ye Zhiqiu is reborn 10 years back in time, right before the fateful night when he saw his future husband Qi Xin. This was originally a day of glamour and celebration for the flamboyant, but it was also his beginning to disappearing out of fashion circle, spending 10 hard years supporting husband's brand and in the end getting divorce papers, since his husband who grew up sucking his blood and PUA'd him did not need him anymore. Only much later Ye Zhiqiu found out who was a friend and who was an enemy. He grew up under the care of his stepmother and she was the biggest villain in his life who slowly ruined him. So this is what the novel is about. Ye Zhiqiu comes back and wants to drive everyone who acted against him mad, he wants revenge. This novel has potential in being satisfying, because unlike one-dimensional villains of such stories, this stepmother is truly disgusting, she came along when Zhiqiu was really young and from the early days she controlled him psychologically, even under the guise of care no one would be able to say a word against her. Though many wealthy people would not bye her narrative. Zhiqiu truly cared for his family, but who knew they would treat him like that in the end. Thus Zhiqiu decided to use some tricks of carrot and stick against them too. He first took off with his career, stepping in and helping a declining company in need, next found allies who would help him to develop in new energy field and become rivals with his father's company, then he used the sent Qi Xin who acted for the sake of investment and trained him as a dog, not to mention how he walked around other members. Patience and calculation. The initial chapters are satisfying. I'm waiting for it to be completed for further reading. Oh yeah, ML appears quite early, his name is Qin Jianhe, a big boss of a big brand.

虚情真爱 by 板栗子

(mtl: False love)

[BG] Completed. Another story by Chestnut. Summary: Yu Shi had a job in her university, being Fu Yishi's fake girlfriend to escape marriage. Then one day Yu Shi disappeared and Mr. Fu believed that she took money from his mother and disappeared. A year after disappearance Mr. Fu travels to an island and finds a restaurant opened by none other than the missing girlfriend. Mr. Fu may have faked relationship, but he fell in love with his fake girlfriend. Anyway, I've been waiting for it to be completed and as a result it is quite short (only 55ch long), so I may read it in the nearest future, if I won't stick to something else.

[Chinese BL novel] 钓系美人和偏执大佬联姻了 by 应祁/ Fishing beauty marries the paranoid boss*

(*title is mtl'd)

Summary: Gu Qichi passed through, but he had no freedom of his body. His memory starts from his return to biological parents and ends at the moment of his death. He was reborn many times, but every time he was locked in this body like cage and could only watch with anguish how his life was ruined under the guise of invisible hand. But on this fateful night he suddenly felt like he could move and took over the control. This night he was framed by the so-called good brother, in the end he was despised by his parents for being promiscuos. Instead he bumped into Bo Yu and spent the night and the gears of fate began to turn.

Gorgeous cover and touching story, if you read enough, but the content is definitely not new. This is why I skipped most part and read the finale.

And because I'm this bad, there will be spoilers in the review right off the bat.

At first you might be even repulsed by their possessive and morbid passion towards each other. Bo Yu finds Qichi early on and proposes marriage, at first Qichi of course thought of refusing, but seeing it was Bo Yu he agreed. Bo Yu's possessiveness felt almost perverse when you start reading and it also felt strange as if he fell in love just from spending one night together. But if you read the story behind, you will understand that there is quite a reason for their obsession. Soon enough Qichi also shows his strange side, so they both have these unexplained strong feelings towards each other. And to understand it of course I need to share biggest spoilers, although I say the idea behind it is not new, but at least it is touching and their feelings stop looking too dark.

/~SPOILERS~/

Gu Qichi never transmigrated, he is the original Gu Qichi and he is a protagonist of this "world". But the tragic events of his first life made him close off himself and he lived through 17 of such "scripts" before finally awekening. The one who "transmigrated" was actually the fake young master, he used his time from young to adult to become close to the parents and also later frame the true young master and cause his demise. But in that life Qichi and Bo Yu loved each other and Bo Yu spent years to find any ways to "make a wish" for Qichi to be reborn. He grasped at any straw and one of these straws was his pious worship at each step of the temple. In this awekened timeline he did not have the memory of the past at first, but subconsciously he loved Qichi deeply, so they came together soon.

This is why I say the idea is not new, that one person pays what they can to help their loved person return, but it's still very touching reading about such sacrifice and thus their obsession with each other becomes less And I mean it, I read striking like at the beginning.

Funnily, I really remember these moments and the story behind their relationship, but the story itself left my head completely. I really need to write reviews and write down some ideas when they're fresh instead of waiting when I read something different in intermission and completely forget what it was all about.

And I've read half of it, but later kind of let it go. Judging from the chapter names they actually came into view of public and even half of the novel is dedicated to a variety show. Mainly I wasn't as interested at this point and skipped to the ending.

But anyone who is interested can give it a try, if the style will be to your taste.

RATE: 3/5. But the cover is indeed gorgeous, I think I saw similar style, I need to look into it/artist.

[Chinese BL novel] 大佬，咱不离婚了（穿书） by 遥的海王琴 / Boss, let's not get divorced!*

(*title is mtl'd)

Summary: Zheng Shu transmigrated into a novel where he was nothing else, but a cannon fodder. Young master who is actually the richest second generation was fooled by his "lover", divorced for him and with the help of "caring" relatives the entire Zheng family business quickly declined. Because this cannon fodder also oppressed main protag shou, protag gong sent his company to bankruptcy and there was nothing left for the former richest young master in the end. Zheng Shu had a car accident and traveled into this world on the fateful day of signing the divorce papers, looking at capable and handsome nominal husband he said "Stop! I can still redeem myself!".

What I liked the most right off the bat, there is not obvious underline that original Zheng Shu basically fell victim to other people's schemes and what is devastating, people who could have helped him didn't do due deligence. This includes our ML and it also includes the original housekeeper.

The family connection of the novel are also intricate.

So the novel starts from the divorce scene. Some ask - why he didn't divorce then? First of all it's not that easy, he himself has no business acumen, so it is easy for the ML, Yu Sinian, to come forward, he was the one who brought the company to its' heights. Divorce that involves power division isn't that easy, it can easily break such a big company into fractions. And even if Zheng Shu wanted to liquidate his assets it's also not that easy. Original Zheng Shu grew up without mother, who died when he was young or father, who was constantly busy. It is easy for a young mind that did not build defense mechanism against scheming to be swayed, this happened with the "lover" who found original Zheng Shu, Lin Xi. He used Zheng Shu for profit and there wasn't much left for feelings, while original Zheng Shu treated his lover really well tbh. Yu Sinian did a big mistake that he forgot that he married Zheng Shu at 19 when he was still so young and not understanding the battles at the shopping mall. There is also housekeeper Uncle Qin whose fault isn't less, as a family figure he should have guided the young master towards enlightment, but instead it felt like he indulged original Zheng Shu, so he would be happy (this includes actually supporting his affair with a lover = extramarital affair). Uncle Qin isn't a bad guy, he had no bad motive, but he is too bad at educating. Thus the result lies in everyone. And this is what I applaude that original might have existed as a fool in others' eyes, but he wasn't described as such.

Zheng Shu is also a rich second-generation. But he wasn't as absurd, but he could act domineering when needed. Because he knew what he was worth he decided to leave things and save this marriage. In this case he completely cut off previous indulgement, was always on call, was attentive and mostly he was openly chasing Yu Sinian. Although at times he felt shy, but in the end he knew how to be proactive and was like a little beaming sunshine against the coldness of Yu Sinian as an ice block.

Zheng Shu took great care of Yu Sinian, if things happened he always informed what was happening and why, he also returned home early even if Yu Sinian was on a business trip. All in all he was keeping his word. he showed his sincerety in transferring what he had to Yu Sinian, which helped in start-up capital for his new company.

He returned assets he spent on Lin Xi, which uncovered the truth behind Lin Xi's relationship and Zheng Shu's cousin. In the end he actually picked up the entertainment company that was originally opened for Lin Xi and started it as his career. Because he had nothing else but money, so he spent it on scripts he checked and people who went through trials and training.

Slowly feelings between Zheng Shu and Yu Sinian started to change and Yu Sinian did not stay completely untouched by Zheng Shu's care. Although at first of course he went through thinking a lot about their relationship. After all he knew only original Zheng Shu and did not want to be one in the fish pond and eventually be forgotten, he treated feelings seriously and only Zheng Shu with his openness subverted his opinion (and mine too), because he did not give up on this relationship and thought they can be happy together. Initially he didn't think about great love, but it became great later.

Their combination is quite cute, when together Zheng Shu tries to act like a cutie, although can be demanding pepper to let the relationship progress, but outside some people forget that he is still a domineering young master and can kick asses. So he also jumps around cutely when he wants to protect Yu Sinian and leave him as this untouched flower on a high mountain who does not need to deal with things unworthy of him. Yu Sinian on the contrary isn't only a block of ice, he uses business as punishment for those who dare to bully Zheng Shu, so he is also a scary person. Anyway I found their combo quite cute.

/~SPOILERS~/

The main storyline also involves Yu Sinian's origins and main protag gong. They are acually cousins, and come from the same family, Xie. Yu Sinian's mother was sent to marry a man she did not love, but also who was prone to domestic violence. Although Xie Zhang came from a prominent family, he was incompetents and used violence as means to vent, because Yu family had a younger brother who came to mediate. In the end when Yu Sinian was five they escaped from  the hospital and met Zheng Shu's mother, who took them in and later sent them abroad with her husband. They considered this meeting fateful, since at that time Zheng Shu, the long-awaited child was conceived. They supported mother and son and eventually Mr. Zheng asked Yu Sinian to marry his son, because he knew what harm would bring his son leaving him alone against the gangster relatives. Thus Sinian married Zheng Shu out of gratitude for care, but nothing else. You can imagine that Zheng Shu who just lost his father did not want that.

The stories are also such a small world. Xie Chengfeng lost his parents in an accident, but he felt that this was man-made, but because the old man Xie was too face-saving the case was closed. He joined hands with Sinian in the small fight against other two sons of the old man, who actually were perpetrators in his parents' accident.

The story is even narrower world because original protag shou, his uncle was in a relationship with Yu Sinian's mother, but they were separated and had a deep misunderstanding about the day they wanted to elope.

RATE: 3,75/5. Light-hearted and lovely. Great combo and chemistry between MC and ML. It was quite funny, I left out many things that happened that deserve the read by yourself :)

[AMBIENCE] Snowy Mountains at Sunset

 

[Chinese BL novel] 白月光手撕替身剧本后[重生] by 惗肆 / After Bai Yueguang tore up the stand-in script*

(*title is mtl'd )

Summary: Jian Jinzhao till the last moment of his life could not comprehend that he was betrayed by his closest people. One is a friend with whom they shared the career troubles and another is a friend with whom he was acquainted since childhood. But these people pushed him as a scapegoat and pulled him down from the altar with accusations of money laundering. Their life was fine, the company was fine, they even found someone similar to Jian Jinzhao to take over, but Jian Jinzhao was devastated. The next moment he was reborn two years prior the accident.

It's a double-rebirth novel. MC and ML are both reborn.

Also it is well-crafted, easy to digest content. There is nothing super outstanding or new tbh, but it doesn't mean it's a bad novel. After all it's a seasoned author and now they can pull up a good story. I've read it almost in one seating, so it's very easy-going instead of thrilling drama. There are ups and downs, but they are easily solved not to make readers wait for too long and feel devastated.

JJZ was reborn for a week at the beginning of the novel, he was still in a bad state of mind and was tortured by nightmares every night. When he had a meeting with one of the perpetrators of his previous life, TV drama actor Qin Ye, he announced his withdrawal from their common company and setting up a new one. The reason wasn't given too clearly at first and the other party thought JJZ had a temper fit, but JJZ did what he promised, terminated contract with the company, sold his shares and fired his agent. His agent under the name of JJZ found and pimed newcomers, but since JJZ had no evidence he did not tear up completely and just left. As you can guess the company tried to bring troubles to JJZ's new company but it was in vain.

After that meeting with Qin Ye JJZ met with Yu Yan in the hotel, a young and promising actor in his previous life who seemed to be plotted during the wine bureau, he decided to help and this became the beginning of their relationship. Yu Yan is the ML and he is 9 years younger. Because JJZ knew that Yu Yan will become prosperous he did not object to him joining his new company.

JJZ and his first and former agent Ji Jia established the new comany and hired several newcomers from professional background with the idea of training and development. Yu Yan was more experienced and won his first role in the audition of the recently returned director Wen. In his previous life Yu Yan also played in the movie 'Mud' and became a household name as the youngest best actor.

For the company to be on track and gain a strong foothold and be a "clean" it came through several purgings, you can also consider them the ups and downs of the story. Like for example newcomer Qi Zhou who wanted to take shortcuts, but was shot down in the revelations. The previous company who took many attempt in muddying water also came defeated in the online confrontation several times. And since the previous company of JJZ was involved in money laundering some story behind it was also revealed. By "clean" company we can compare the two. For this we also need to have the insight into who is JJZ and his "friends". JJZ's parents are scholary family, his dad is a professor and his mother is into caligraphy, he always had bottom line and principles in the entertainment industry, so he may not be liked by capital due to his principles (thus the conflict with those who wanted to launder money). On the contrary Qin Ye came from the average background and had a bit of inferiority comlex, he was ready for sacrifice unlike JJZ thus he was involved in transactions. His childhood friend Lang always wanted to compete with JJZ, thus he joined the company and was in the upper management, but he always protected his own interests (thus he betrayed JJZ in the previous life rather quickly). Since JJZ is a principled person he wanted his staff and those he wanted to bring to have integrity of an artist and they went through several tribulations to finallize who went and who stayed. So the clash of the JJZ and the big capital is the main final conflict you could say. But JJZ in this life is not alone.

Yu Yan came with a purpose, since he was reborn he was happy that JJZ was still there and he changed his course of actions from previous life and joined JJZ's company, he also openly came to chase people and proclaimed love, which slowly made JJZ warm up to these feelings. For Yu Yan JJZ is an emotional support and not only a lover, so the story is more like double-healing. The reason for it is simple, Yu Yan is a product of love between two famous people in the entertainment circle, but the happy life didn't last long, the feelings on the screen could not be applied in real life and cohabitation, plus both were having their careers as their priority, in the end Yu Yan was nothing more but a left-behind child who was cared by a nanny. Although his material things never lacked, but he lacked love. Although his nanny cared for him and he grew up with nanny's son, but when he became sensible he did not have much affection for a reason. In his own opinion the nanny got paid and her son, whom she indulged, actually was vain and used everything Yu Yan used and created the image of a rich person and never clarified. This nanny's son is none other than Song Yu, the person who was found to replace JJZ. This is a bit of a spoiler, but it is revealed when he appears on the scene anyway. Song Yu is the basic green tea character, but it's a good thing he did not matter in the story much and his parading in front of MC and ML did not bring any success and everyone treated him as a fake and a joke. After all no matter how he emphasized on their "close" relationship, there was not much sincerity in his actions. On the contrary it was JJZ on the screen who brought Yu Yan to his senses and he fell in love with this person and he decided to join entertainment world to join hands with the person he cares about and this time he promised everything to keep the person he loved safe. Thus we have the double-healing process, JJZ slowly comes out of the shadow of his previous life, finally gains confidense, slowly warms up with Yu Yan and walks bravely towards the future.

PS: The cover was drawn beautifully, completely represents the image of JJZ in the novel, he always wears glasses (chain glasses included).

RATE: 4/5. Simply good-looking and well-crafted. Very fast-paced. Does not dwell on things and at times there might be an impression that there is not enough depth, but it can only be applied to some events or conflicts, the characters themselves got enough space to showcase what they are.