(*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.
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