Summary: Gu Chen was once a traveler of thousands worlds, after being a big boss in many stories it was the time for him to retire and the character he occupied is nothing more but a passer-by that won't be remembered.
He lived well in seclusion on a mountain, the nominal husband was abroad, he ignored his "family" members who wanted to use his marriage to gain more benefits through him, he was ready to shoot a love variety show that was sent by jealous former classmate of original owner, he wanted to do things quickly and quit and continue his retirement life. But some small problems arose one after another, so he had to come out an help. And slowly the legend of unfathomable Mr. Gu appeared and grew rapidly.
What I really liked is how this novel played on brain power of people's ability to create legends and also how prejudice played the role.
Although Gu Chen is indeed good, but the legend about him reached far and wide and felt much greater to what he did, so the interesting connection of circumstances created almost an urban legend.
So what was the situation?
Initially, Gu Chen landed as this passer-by character, he didn't really care to be so transparent. It actually played to his advantage. But it also because of his family situation that it was ideal for him and played a role later on. Gu Chen was an unwanted child between Father Gu and Mother Qi. Mother Qi married Father Qi because she is an ambitious woman, but she soon realized that he will never allow her into the company, so she divorced when original Gu Chen was born, she remarried soon after and when Gu Chen was old enough she sent him to a boarding school and basically never saw him, everything about him was mostly handled by assistants. Father Gu did not believe Gu Chen was his blood and didn't care about this son, he married several women and wanted to prosper. Then came a chance when Gu Chen grew up and graduated, he was used as a chess piece in a marriage with the Li family and his partner is Li Tingqin, the current head of the Li family, who wanted to enter the south through this marriage.
Li Tingqin actually isn't so cold-hearted, at that point he didn't care who to marry, but he wouldn't treat his partner badly.
Gu Chen landed at the time when the contract with variety show was already signed, but he didn't care, he wouldn't lose a piece of meat if he appeared and was compared.
Du Ruiqing, or the former classmate, wanted to use Gu Chen as a backboard and even cut off Gu Chen's face, but little did he know that it would play into Gu Chen's favor later on.
Original Gu Chen was timid and introverted, but this Gu Chen is a retired cadre. many people did not get it at first, how one person appear in a love variety show, but Sherlock netizens discovered many secrets about Gu Chen, like his talet for calligraphy or expensive tea etc.
Then he managed to appear on the show and started communicating with his husband, because it was part of agreed terms later on. Li Tingqin could not help but pay attention to his husband, at first because he was away and had preconsived idea about Gu Chen's character he felt like he takes care of the child who needs protection and even his desire not to appear on screen as his social phobia. Such misunderstandings lasted a long time.
Then he was called back by the old man Li, grandpa, but the legend of him existed. There was a mess between Gu Chen and one of the former bullies who is a rich second generation dude, who promised to ban Gu Chen and explained that Gu Chen is not some big boss. But then Li Tingqin intervened and this dude disappeared, but it was put on the head of Gu Chen, thus the legend grew bigger.
Later several things happened. He helped the second sister who is a movie director, because her crew was left without important male actor and she saw Gu Chen exercising with the sword.
Next when Gu Chen helped another member of the Li family it was signed as elder Gu, thus the legend of the Gu family, that actually never existed and it was one person, started to grow. But why the elder? Because of prejudice that younger generation could not give a sound advice, so it was brushed off as an elder giving advice.
Gu Chen helped two residents of the show with small advice on inheritance, but they blew it out of proportion. Another resident was helped by him to play a game, but so he would not pester him to play together, he asked Li Tingqing to find him teammates and later they were hired by a club and even won a championship.
Through brother Li Jiashu he helped a company that was on the verge of bankruptcy, thus another figure like Professor Gu appeared, since again people are prejudiced and they don't believe a young person of Gu Chen's age could be of help, it must have been a professor. But Jiashu was asked not to reveal Gu Chen's identity, thus this legends grew out of proportion.
Then he himself needed Gu Chen's help, so young master Gu was added to non-existent Gu geneology.
He also helped defend Li company from cyber attack. So by this time at least some people at the helm of Li found out that Li Tingqin's partner is so great. But to them it was obvious, because by that time the legend of the Gu family existed for some time.
This legend actually allowed Gu Chen later disassociate from the biological parents.
Jiashu actually noticed that Gu Chen was not the original Gu Chen, he thought he was an agent sent by state. Gu Chen did not confirm or denied his ideas, but at least confirmed they're not the same person. Thus Jiashu actually decided to protect Gu Chen's identity even more, but shared his guess with Li Tingqin, so he would treat his wife better. Tingqin actually figured it too after hearing Jiashu's theory, but he realized the core.
Their relationship actually grew and expanded. At first it was just a bit respectful, after all Tingqin had an attitude towards children and not a spouse, but Tingqin was eventually charmed by the fact that his partner feels so close to him in spirit, but with Gu Chen he also felt relaxation. They slowly made progress from pure acquaintances to legal husbands. But it felt like Tingqin fell more in this relationship, though it doesn't matter.
And the last part is exactly coming out to the public when now everyone knew about new husband of Li family head, but now it existed shrouded in mystery of Gu family.
Actually Gu Father and Qi Mother wanted to use this connection to their advances (they did not realize that all this was done by their son, because they had the heaviest prejudice towards original Gu Chen) and wanted to bind Gu Chen, but by now people did not believe them at all and thought that Gu family and Qi family just wanted to use this trick to recognize relatives, but Li family acted united actually and everyone refused this connection and more importantly none of them could produce evidence that Gu Chen was their son, they tried so hard to erase his existence all his life that now it was completed. No documents, no photos, they can't even sue because it sounded ridiculous. And Li family along with Gu Chen made a move against the two families and used people on both sides who further helped with the notion that Gu Chen has nothing to do with them. Like in Gu family Gu Chen's half-brother denied that he knew who Gu Chen was, he knew only two other of his brothers who grew together. From another side stepson of Qi Mother also hinted that she was a bit delusional, so eventually he could remove her from position that belonged to his family.
So this is the part and idea that I liked, the possibility of creating an urban legend, although it's not true, but no one will know.
As for the writing style, it feels a bit naive, like re-imagining of wealthy families and cool characters. You know when people don't really dwell or even want to be more detailed is when they don't explain anything. Like when they talk business they only use word "business" or "project", sometimes authors don't even mention which industry the family belongs to. Something similar happened here. Maybe most detailed was the garbage disposal negotiation, it felt like author might be connected or read something. But the rest of it is vague.
Also, Gu Chen's character may be described as great, but at first you don't really get this idea, they're more complemented by others because he gave the basic idea any other elder would have given and only when it came to technology and such you may say he's cooler, but the feeling is still not enough since these things are vague. Or overall level seems to be lowered down just to uplift Gu Chen, this is my impression.
Overall, short read. May be skipped if you don't feel for it.
RATE: 3/5.
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