Gu Qi had a nightmare. She saw her own brother jumping off the building and she couldn't save him, her cousin looked at her with pity in his eyes but nothing else, another cousin actually always found them noisy and had no such family feelings towards them. Because they all were just cannon fodders or unimportant roles in a novel with a heroine and hero having a wonderful life, but they as "villains" have to go. Waking up Gu Qi did not believe it at first, before a system appearing in her head told her that it's all true and she can now save herself and her brothers. But what to do? The variety show that was the start of their demise was still signed by her company on her behalf, she didn't want to involve any of the brothers, but had no choice and chose the one with the least involvement, but who knew that on the show she saw other two brothers appearing.
At first viewers of the variety show called "Troublesome brothers and sisters"* had a lot to say about these people, but the more they watched, the more they realized that all these people are not what they initially thought.
LOVED IT! Truly liked this novel and happily binged it in few days.
It has the same feel as the previous "Villain Show", but it does not repeat itself, the same feel is about the situation, like the vicious cannon fodder who changes her fate, we start the story with good humor, we don't know the full storyline, but we have the same brooding feeling that our characters might have been through something we don't know yet, scandals breake out, slap back happens, we find out more about our characters, family scandals break out too and it is interspersed with lots of humor from the variety show and a lot of barrages.
I can divide this novel into phases: 1) Villain phase (variety show + barrages + scandals); 2) Heroine enters the game (variety show+filming+scandals and slap backs); 3) Villain phase again and big family drama (variety show + filming + final scandal breaks out); 4) Heroine conclusion.
This novel is more about family (as you might have guessed), there is a romance included, but it's not the main focus and comes much later, the main focus is the initial conflict between four siblings and how they dealt with it. But for a good sibling novel it's truly lovely.
Here I'd like to share my opinions and spoilers of what happened and what I thought about it.
/~SPOILERS~/
The novel starts with not overloading the reader with the original novel plot, why siblings have such tense relationship etc. I think author smartly feeds the information bit by bit.
We know that Gu Qi has feelings for her brothers, but they are so far in a strange situation, because Gu Qi had seen those nightmares and figured some of the attitudes she had no idea her brothers had:
Jiang Lechuan - he is Gu Qi's bialogical younger brother (there is no real emphasis on ages btw, but they're not too far apart). He is a bit stupid and naive young man, has a peculiar brain circuit. He always believed that his sister had a good life, but he could not comprehend why she refused to come back home, they had tense fights, but he still truly loved his sister, yet he couldn't express it well.
Wen Renjing - he can be described as a smiling tiger, he can be mean-mouthed, but he doesn't touch Gu Qi, thus Gu Qi could not understand him sometimes, he wasn't mean to the point of evil, he just liked provocation and adding fuel to the fire, but he never truly provoked her, only those around her, she was always puzzled why.
Mu Yuan - a young genius boy, the youngest, because his family cared about Gu Qi so much, she cared for this younger brother in return, she always thought that he just doesn't like to talk, but it was in her dream that she saw a bit of disdain towards her, so she had no idea what had she done to make him feel that way.
Everyone had their own situation. But to explain is better to start from last to first, because that's the order how we understand and dig into the characters in the story.
Mu Yuan has kind parents, but not just kind, but holy mother and father, because they felt sorry for everyone yet their own son did not give them headaches they used their entire time being kind to others. Only later Gu Qi realized that she was benefactor of such attention, at least she tried to give back kindness but had no idea at what expense it came. Mu Yuan maybe had some expectations before, but now he has brainwashed and rationalized himself to the point where he doesn't care, but actually he does. When Gu Qi stopped caring for him as before he slowly realized his feelings, that he did care for this relationship, but was too scared for her to leave too, after all they were not biological brother and sister, but no one told him that one person can care for many and she has love for all her brothers, so he eventually simply tolerated them. His temperament is opposite to his parents, he doesn't like communication, he is mostly mute and doesn't like anyone. Only his sister is the main force in his life.
Wen Renjing actually knew about Gu Qi's situation from the very beginning, unlike the silly goose Lechuan, he knew that what sister Gu Qi told her family was the truth, but her family did not believed her or didn't want to believe and sent her back. He had a certain pity for Gu Qi, although she didn't really need it because she is not a pitiful characters, but rather smart and strong. She had kindness in her heart. The conflict between them was mostly born because of his mother. They lost their father when he was younger, at that time they were considered wealthy, later their situation changed with the Jiang parents and they lost their status. His mother always had this paranoia that everyone looks down on them, even if his acting career allowed her to return to the former glory it did not disappear. She still had poor health and persecution paranoia, so everyone just let her be and let her educate or scold.
Backstory: This is one of the family scandals that broke out (but there was no obvious conslusion to it, like we don't hear what happened to Jiang father, Gu Qi's and Lechuan's biological father). As it turns out Wen Renjing's father took his brother to work for the big boss, alsmo named Jiang, later a conflict broke out and Jiang father pushed his brother in a fight, they concealed this fact and played it as comitting suicide, shifting blame from one brother to another. Wen Renjing did not suspect his uncle and aunt to be like that, but later he heard his mother strange mumbles and he decided to investigate and indeed he did, he informed Gu Qi later, just because he trusted her judgement won't interfere, but he was troubled that his relationship with siblings that was developing in such a positive direction might be over by then, but he still had to seek justice for his father and he did.
Jiang Lechuan. He is a bit of a silly goose, because he doesn't play tricks or games, he doesn't understand undercurrents and doesn't assume evil about others. He couldn't understand why his sister refused to return back home to him and his parents, but Gu Qi refused to give a decent explanation. Gu Qi would rather bear infamy, because her initial goal was to protect her brother from filth. Only later when the big scandal broke out and she was accused of school violence Gu Qi had to come out and he sowly realized that his sister did not live the life of fine clothes and good food, she was also a victim of constant bullying and manipulation, while the Jiang family showed off patched up and dressed up Gu Qi to the world that she lived a good life. He always thought that his sister entered the Jiang family as a playMATE, but her role was only a playTHING. Her life was a true hell and she went through physical and emotional abuse under the hands of Jiang Zhiyu, Jiang family daughter and he treated both sibling fairly well, because he was that naive and Gu Qi never showed him any flaws. It also involved his parents and he realized why Gu QI despised their parents, because they sent her in, because they knew what she went through, because if it was his turn he would go though the same. His family was that cold-blooded towards their children, they rushed towards wealth and they got it, but at what cost. When the scandal about brothers fighting and killing each other broke out he found out that all the wealth he took for granted was basically earned in such a bloody way, but he did not feel resentful towards Wen Renjing, becaus ethe other person broke that illusory peace of their family, he felt sorry that he had no idea and hurt his relative so much. because he's such a kind-hearted person and also just at heart.
Backstory: There is an insinuation that Jiang family (GQ+JLC parents) misappropriated public funds, but it was a trap set by Jiang Anguo (Jiang Zhiyu's father), later the Jiang family became the lap dog, since they had this handle, but also because Jiang Zhiyu was so cruel she asked for one child as playmate, but her goal was to torture people. Gu Qi sent herself in instead of her brother, but Jiang family never returned her back, so she was fostered from childhood to adulthood under the "care" of Jiang siblings. Jiang family wanted wealth and status, so they could sacrifice their children. They did not appear often in the novel and had few scenes, but they were only about how they thought Gu Qi was ignorant and basically wanted to continue sacrifice Gu Qi. It all was like that before the scandal broke out.
Phase 1. Villain arc, beginning. The suicide girl scandal. How Gu Qi survived at the Jiang house.
Jiang Zhiyu should be the biggest "villain" of this novel in a sense of her character, she always treated Gu Qi as an enemy and also someone who should obey her as a thing, she was always spoiled though her life and always got what she wanted, always had condescending attitude towards people, was violent, abusive and actually mentally disturbed (as we get from details). She sponsored the show Troublesome brothers and sisters just to praise herself, but did not expect all four siblings getting together, so the focus often shifted to Gu Qi and she became marginal character. There were several attempts at trying to disturb and use Gu Qi's "weaknesses" against her, but she had no idea that Gu Qi was smarter since she was a child, she played along with Zhiyu and created an image of a victim who is afraid of Zhiyu, so she could leave her alone, so her weaknesses did not exist, she was not disturbed by the appearance of famous "playboy", former Gu Qi's classmate, Gong Xuanan.
But one person among guests was indeed disturbed, she was Ning Xi, a young female idol who had strained relationship with her sister, always acted a bit green tea and actually wanted to revenge her best friend who comitted suicide by jumping off the building. Her suspects were Meng Yu's (friend) classmate, one of them happaned to be Gu Qi. She at first blamed Gu Qi for not taking action, but when the story broke out and Gu Qi was accused of bullying Meng Yu, it was Ning Xi who came forward and they both revealed the truth of those years. Through Meng Yu's diary public could hear the desperate story of a young girl who was harassed by the famous playboy (Gong Xuanan), later this boy spread rumors about her, but because Meng Yu was a king girl she didn't fight back, then Jiang Zhiyu was asked as a helper and bullying continued for years, it became Meng Yu's nightmare. The only person wo "helped" her was Gu Qi, at that time she was Jiang Qi, she was also a victim of Zhiyu and taught her that the fastest way and safest is to pretend, she helped to bully Meng Yu on the surface, but actually Meng Yu never sustained substential harm. All was good and the graduation was just in front of them, but a scandal broke out. Not to be implicated Zhiyu humiliated Meng Yu at her own house, Meng Yu was desperate, but her family did not protect her, her father was working for the Gong family. Meng Yu was too devastated and decided to end her life. Zhiyu was sent abroad to avoid the scandal. All went well before she decided to expose it, but exposed herself in return. Her stardom was over, but the life of a wealthy lady still continued. And her hatered for Gu Qi did not diminish, but she also had time to poke her brother Jiang Fengzhi at his sore spot, that Gu Qi refused her family arrangement to reconcile both families and marry Fengzhi.
Now about life of Gu Qi at the Jiang family. As you can guess she lived in a small room, isolated, she was always supervised (like her communication devices) and had to follow Zhiyu's script to survive. The only thing that kept her going was Lechuan's childish family portrait and the next best thing was Fengzhi's companionship, before she realized that her sincerety was fed to a dog. She might have hated Fengzhi for his deceit, playing with her feeling, playing the role of a sad boy of a wealthy family, but for quite some time Fenzhi's feelings became real, but his plan of saving the beauty continued to fail, even if he loved, he did not stop his sister, because it was in his favor. And when he realized it, it was too late. Fengzhi wasn't the last person to whom Gu Qi regretted trutsting so much, but what can you do, sometimes you can not guess people. At that time she was too young and still had naive thought. But later she realized that no matter how this person acts, she simply can't trust him and what he did was simply bad. This is a sample of her thoughts of his attitude towards him. Quote: "In your opinion it's just a dog, its' life and death don't matter. Anyway, it's just to pass the time. It's just like me back then, right?"
Phase 2: The appearance of the heroine. Confrontation.
Shen Anran. She is the protaginist of this supposed to be novel, but things did not go to the initial development. The biggest secret about the two of them is that they both know the "plot", but the biggest difference is what they did with this knowledge. They both are the sides of the opposite. Shen Anran uses her brother, Gu Qi saves her brother, they both have unfeeling families. Gu Qi tries to change her fate, Shen Anran went with the flow. Gu Qi found just before the show, the appearance of the system confirmed it (btw the system appears only few times and is just a mascot, so you easily forget about it and it doesn't appear at the end). Of course she didn't want to see her relatives in such a state, she loved her brothers, so she started to make attempts at changing herself and expressing her love, everyone who saw her thought she was cold-faced, but who knew her better, knew that she was soft-hearted and kind. But Shen Anran was a complete opposite. She found out earlier. Her family situation is a bit complicated thanks to promiscuous life of her father, she belongs to the second wife, the first wife gave birth only to girls, but the second wife gave birth to a boy and Shen Anran, under the light of her brother she entered the Shen family (you can consider the mistress becoming main palace, but only after previous leaves). Her brother was not smart, but he was a boy, she made him do everything against his will for the sake of their status and prosperity in this family. She also accepted the fact that she was a protagonist and one day she will become a mistress of the Jiang family, her partner would be Jiang Fengzhi. She lived under these arrangements and followed what she was told to do, used her ability of making men feel sorry for her and thus she secured several cooperations, but because she was young and not that good at it, she showed many loopholes, which resulted in her bullying. Later she entered entertainment industry to escape her father's arrangement, and she also had connections through Shen Wei, who is her uncle and also a famous director. She joined the show just for the sake of finally meeting Jiang Fengzhi, but the person did not come, also because by that time the scandal about his sister broke out and they withdrew from the show. And Jiang Lechuan who in original story should had fallen at first sight did not follow the script. Obviously, now all four of them joined the show, they also developed better feelings for each other and became clower, Gu Qi also tried to change her style of communicating with her brothers. In the end this was a failed attempt.
But for Shen Anran who lived such a preoccupied life of intrigue Gu Qi became an imaginary enemy, since in her dreams Gu Qi was just a cannon fodder.
So the confrontation started. More liek Shen Anran started it.
Because Gu Qi finally said goodbye to her previous company and did not need to follow any of the company arrangements, through Wen Renjing she came into contact with the company that was controlled by 5 directors. She auditioned for the position of new actress and had two other contestants, one was obviously Shen Anran and another was He Quanyi, who is in competitive relationship with Gu Qi. Gu Qi actually won the place by her talent, but Shen Anran was signed because of her uncle, Shen Wei. But He Quanyi who had seen too many white flower girls fought back and released a full interview including Gu Qi's part, which was omitted previously and it stirred the contraversy.
In the end the "conflict" was brushed off as misunderstanding, both will be signed.
But Shen Anran actually continued to make moves here and there, just as the basic instinct of - others who should have been lower than me can not be above me.
At one point when Gu Qi was about to starting working with arrived director Xie Yun, Shen Anran paid for another scandal which involved Gu Qi's former agent, again. When everyone thought she was finished he released broadcast and said some ambiguous things, but for the former friendship Gu Qi did not do anything, but this time she released the truth. She indeed considered them and his girlfriend family, she even took many bad jobs that paid enough to support the girl through operations and paying medical expenses, but when this girlfriend died her agent changed, found new love pretty soon an changed his tune too. Entire network saw his true face. Although it felt like he knew that Gu Qi will answer like this and will clean this last bit, so it was a contradictory kindness mixed with meanness.
Second episode of the variety show where Shen Anran appeared with her brother was again ill-meaned towards Gu Qi and involved acting. But Gu Qi still became victorious. Yet the confrontation did not end.
Both Xie Yun and Shen Wei's crew started filming at the same time and the chose Gu Qi and Shen Anran respectively. Shen Wei's face was hurt by this incident so he acted a bit despicable and even poached Xie Yun's male protagonist. It again sent hit searches across the network. But Gu Qi solved it by inviting a famous actor.
Gu Qi did not realize why Shen Anran had such feelings towards her, she did not do anything, and even helped her once, but it all came to such tactics.
Shen Anran lived for such a long time under these "fate" arrangements and didn't want to fix anything, even if things seemed to go out of control she tried to arrange them like that.
Actually, her role in the novel I think is not as strong as Zhiyu even. She is most like a contrast to Gu Qi and other characters who do not want to live for others.
Oh, the one time Gu Qi helped was at the engagement party where Jiag Zhiyu and Gong Xuanan were announces, after all the scandal hit them hard and it was only two families who could come out with solution like that.
Phase 3. Villain arc, the finale. Big family drama. The secret of the Jiang and Gong families. ML.
Song Shiqing. The official ML of the story. He appears at the engagement party where Wen Renjing and Gu Qi came as partners but Lechuan appeared as well. here Gu Qi saved Shen Anran from Zhiyu humiliating her. When leaving the exited by the back door, but she noticed a man in bushes who was holding a Samoyed. By this time we know that Zhiyu has abusive tendencies and she abuses animals too, so Song Shiqing wanted to save this Samoyed puppy. Gu Qi went with his mad plan. And even if they were interfered on their way, the puppy still was saved. Eventually Gu Qi was so attracted by it that she decided to adopt it, after all previously she couldn't protect herself, let alone anyone else, but now she can. After hearing her two brothers added two puppies. What can you do they always competed in weird places. Eventually Mu Yuan helped Gu Qi make decision and she kept all three.
But this is how Gu Qi and Song Shiqing got acqainted. Also Lechuan knew Shiqing since back then, but they were in "confrontation" he refused to share.
Shiqing is a legend of entertainment world, he acted well, he sang and danced well, was really good at studying, went to vareity shows, but later disappeared.
Now he appeared again on the show and he had a purpose, he wanted Gu Qi to act with him, pretend to be his girlfriend and his purpose was to make Jiang Zhiyu see Gu Qi happy and eventually marry Gong Xuanan just to continue torture Gu Qi because then they will become in-laws. Why? Because Song Shiqing has another status. Illegitimate son of the Gong family.
But why did he do it? For revenge. He wanted Mrs Gong to pay the price for her continuous persecution and torture of his adoptive mother, Song Xuemei. He wanted the scandal of that year and the truth out in public, but to achieve this goal to reach the peak, he needed both Zhiyu and Xuanan married. Yes, it might sound as despicable means, but when you know that these two are villains who never repented, you don't really feel sorry for them.
So why Zhiyu and Xuanan? Here comes the big family drama. Zhiyu and Xuanan are the true twins.
Here is the real family tree:
-----------------------------------
| |
| Jiang Anguo --(married)-- Song Xielian ----(former lovers)---- Gong Wei --(married)-- Mrs Gong
| | | |
| (adopted son) (illegitimate daughter) (true illegitimate son)
| Jiang Fengzhi --(fake twins)-- Jiang Zhiyu -----------(real twins)----------- Gong Xuanan
|
(sister, adoptive moter)
Song Xiemei
|
(true legitimate son)
Song Shiqing
Song Xielian and Gong Wei were former lovers, she was pregnant with twins, she gave birth at the same clinic as Mrs Gong switched her son with Song Shiqing, threatened her sister to adopt him and never say a word about his true origins and she bore this infamy for the rest of her life as mistress. She told her husband that boy from twins died, so they adopted a boy from relatives, so basically Jiang Anguo did not have his own children with her. After this birth Song Xielian could not give birth again. Mrs Gong on the contrary loved son and did not want anyone to threaten his position, so she decided not to give birth again. She raised Gong Xuanan, but he was not smart and was a waste, but still was her son.
Song Xiemei died from years of torture under Mrs Gong who refused to let them go. After that Song Shiqing knew the truth. Song Xiemei was the kindest woman to him, even if she was threatened by her own sister ad knew that her sister could do anything to them she kept this secret, but did not act on Song Shiqing.
So it was Song Shiqing's move, to use Zhiyu's character to marry her off to her own brother, then after a while to announce that he was the true son.
Knowing Mrs Gong she would check it and after checking she was so devastated that she disclosed even the most shameful secret, marrying two children. She did not believe her husband this time. But all her actions did not make Song Shiqing come back.
This big family drama ended with the following: Song Xielian escaped abroad. Jiang Anguo announced his devastation, so they separated themselves from the actions of his wife. Jiang Fengzhi always had known this secret, so he did not act in accordance to Zhiyu's wishes and disliked her. But he was untouched. Gong Wei became sick. Mrs Gong liquidated most of her assets. Jiang Zhiyu and Gong Xuanan were kicked out, but later were sent to mental institution. Under stimulation Zhiyu cut Xuanan's family jewels and committed suicide. Xuanan was mostly not as mentally disturbed but then he collapsed.
Song Shiqing stayed out of it.
Gu Qi was not surprised by what happened to Zhiyu, considering Zhiyu's character.
Phase 4. The heroine, conclusion. New beginning.
After such a big commotion everything seems to become quiet again. The only thing that was left was Shen Anran and her uncle. There is nothing big to discuss here, but among the commotion we can guess that the movies continued to be filmed side to side. And then they were released. Because of the rush after success, Shen Wei's work as a director became a flop. Obviously :) On the contrary Xie Yun's story became authentic female story with Gu Qi leading. Of course they came out victorious out of this confrontation.
What happened to Shen Anran?
Well, several times Shen Anran wanted to create opportunities between herself and Jiang Fengzhi, but the other person did not see her. At other night she followed him and even playd the scene of waking up in the same bed in the morning, but Fengzhi is not stupid and saw through all her calculations and eventually she broke down and asked how is she different from Gu Qi, but at that time Fengzhi asked her - what are you? She still could not think that her appearance did not disturb his feelings and this plan of using sleeping in the same bed against him completely ruined any initial good will.
The man and actor who helped Anran to vent her anger, but basically played under her arrangements accidentally heard her true self and was the last to leave.
Even her own brother did not want to live for someone his entire life.
because she was eager for success she accepted the trap contract Zhiyu had for Gu Qi and when the scandal broke out her position was in jeopardy and she had to pay liquidated damages that wiped her savings and left her in debt. Her uncle helped her, but she still had eprsecution paranoia that Gu Qi did it on purpose, she knew but she didn't help or warn her.
She acted like this entire time and one episode really sent me off. Anran paid people to follow Gu Qi and they wanted to use video of Gu Qi visiting actor they then hired for male lead and pour dirt on her, but Anran stopped it, because she went through the same, but gave an excuse. So then she says she doesn't owe Gu Qi anything. Miss mam, you did not stumble upon this video by accident, you paid people to take it and you stopped them from spreading it, that's a mess. And she often acted in this self-reasoning.
For them it's an open ending, career on decline after a big box office flop.
As for Song Shiqing and fake romance. It became true romance.
