The cover is not only beautiful, but also meaningful, which is rare. There will be a scene in a variety show where MC plays a clown. But in general it's also his smirking face that fully represents MC's character when we meet him and know him better.
Summary: Qi Jiashu won the Best Actor, but he had the habit of travelling after filming and now he boarded the plane which traveled to the island. When the plane lost control and crashed Qi Jiashu found himself in a new place, which looked pretty much like a fanfiction from his black fan, where Qi Jiashu was not a famous actor, but a cannon fodder, worse than a vase and also blackened on the network for hyping CP with his teammate, who is more talented than him.
Looking at the situation it wasn't as bad as he thought, he didn't mind if the company would hide him, since he reached heights of being the best actor he didn't need the recognition, but the situation and the need of temporary survival made him open for business again. Unlike the original Qi Jiashu who only had the same name, he acquired more skills through life and could show it off. He knows how to sing, dance, play instruments, compose. Not to mention that he has a face of an angel, but can say the dirtiest things. He is very glib too. As a result when people were waiting for him to flop, he became more and more popular.
But then he came across a person who had a special status in the entertainment industry, Wen Shu, best actor. Yet this person looked a lot like Jiashu's ex-boyfriend from his previous life.
This is the story of Jiashu, who is too thick-skinned to care what people say about him, but so far he has some unfinished business to do in the entertainment industry, including, but not limited to: dealing with his company and especially his agent, finding out if Wen Shu is the same person and.. is this world even real?
This novel has shining points and of course it's not without fault, but mainly it was really good.
Shining points: This topic is always subjective, but to me maybe this one of the few novels (from all that I've read so far) where MC actually has an ex-boyfriend, meets a person who looks like his ex, but also has a dilemma if it's the same person or not. For the context, his ex-boyfriend left him without substantial reason, so he bore a bit of emotional grudge. When he thought he finally forgot the person he meets Wen Shu who is very much alike and not at the same time. Just like him when he arrived, he found the same face in the mirror, but had small difference like a mole on his cheek. So there is a lot going on when it comes to emotional "drama".
Another shining point to me is MC's character, which isn't entirely good and isn't entirely bad. I found him quite charismatic tbh, he also reminded me of the previously reviewed "cured from terminal illnesss when my ex went bankrupt", where MC is also likfe a fox that is thrown in a chicken coop. It looks docile, but it's not.
Actually nice secondary characters, especially Wen Shu's cousin Wei Xinzhou, who is such a lively and nice character.
Possible dissatisfactions: The length of it all, it felt a little longer than it could or should. Although the idea of behind Jiashu and Wen Shu's relationship is nice, but there seem to be a bit too much repetition of the same notion exploring this topic from time to time. Confrontation with some characters either fell through or felt abrupt (more details below).
Characters.
Qi Jiashu. MC. Formed his a little bit perverse character due to his upbringing, more like how he grew up. So although he looks like a cute dude who is liked by everyone, but deep inside he has this perverse and black-bellied vibe, which I found intriguing. His parents died in a car accident, he survived in that car. To get his parent' inheritance you can guess that he came under the care of relatives, but was treated poorly. He escaped on his own and then rellocated to the orphanage where he was on his own for most of the time, he did not care if he will be adopted but one day he was found by a couple who adopted him, for a year, before they got their own child and "could not feed two mouths". As a result he was excluded on his return and even had several near-death experiences due to pranks. This changed his mentality and psychology. And from now on those who try to stumble him will find themselves in predicaments. Later he grew up and depended on hismelf, before one day a man came into the bar where he sang and offered him a phone number which will allow him to enter the entertainment industry. He did and he became popular as a singer and later as an actor. Later he met the man and they became close, they started dating and loved each other, but one day the man left without a decent reason why. It was a blow for Jiashu, especially since his romance was caught by paparazzi and they were caught off-guard and now some people ridiculed them too. Later he became a prominent actor and then there was the plane crash.
Black fanfiction Qi Jiashu. This Jiashu had a totally different life experience. Mostly because in original world his past was a mystery. He was born out of wedlock by a woman named Qi Wan, she worked as a single parent and married a teacher when Jiashu was five. Next year he had a sister and somehow he became this marginalized character in the family. Which Jiashu didn't understand, since he saw Qi Wan and his step-father, who were both really gentle people and would not let the child suffer like this. So this black fanfiction Jiashu had low self-esteem. He worked hard and was spotted by a medium-size company, for his face he was put into draft even before any decent training, so he was a complete blank person, but was ridiculed for that. Later they fried CP with another teammate to boost popularity, but for him it backfired. Next another boy under the name Lu Meng, who had a good background, often received resources that originally belonged to Qi Jiashu. His agent also was a scumbag. So the boy worked, but had no decent income, was blackened but had no help. This fanfiction Jiashu had a bad ending because of this small character Lu Meng.
Wen Shu. ML. Everyone considered him a walking robot. He was polite and decent at all times and only changed when filming. He comes from a very good background. Their family is already a third generation of rich, but his past is a bit sad. His parents are in business marriage, so they did not pay attention to him much when he grew up, he also had an accident because of his father's lover. So he had no love for his parents or relatives (except grandparents). Then he didn't want to follow the path they chose for him and became an actor, sometimes thinking that he was waiting for someone. Many consider him as a big goal. Wen Shu was actually not affected by emotions for the longest of times, but then he met Jiashu and found himself always following Jiashu and paying attention to him. Jiashu happaned to be a big flirt, who could say things without holding back or shame. Slowly he realized that he paid too much attention to Jiashu and it meant only one thing - he fell in love. Wen Shu may be a cold-faced walking air conditioner to others, but to Jiashu he is a double-standard, he is attentive, caring, gentle, loving and overall a great partner.
Wei Xinzhou. The most prominent secondary character from the bunch, firstly he is related to Wen Shu (both of their mothers are sisters) and he is also a very positive, silly and cute person that lightened up the atmosphere.
Other secondary characters that appeared more or less and had some influence were agents from both sides, Qi Wan as Jiashu's mother along with step-father and half-sister and also Wen family appeared several times.
The rest of character are passing foes.
Plotline.
I'd consider two as main lines. One is a career line and another is a relationship line, which actually got a decent chunk of space.
Career-wise. Jiashu had to do business, because he had no money and his contract did not expire yet, so he had to be opened for business again, but it allowed him to gain his first popularity. After all he changed.
He also saved Wen Shu's assitant Mimi at the beginning (which was the actual popularity boost for him), who became first seat viewer of their relationship development. But it also triggered their relationship.
Later Jiashu took part in variety shows and also started filming. Meanwhile, knowing what his agent did he played along, since he wanted the bad guys off the production line, he sued this agent but also played a role in arrest of a mixed-race producer named Erasme, who loved to soil artists.
The one dissatisfaction here is that boy Lu Meng. His basic conclusion was that he got none unlike the agent or producer, although he jumped a lot. Later we don't hear from him. I'm sitting and having such a mess inside my head, as if I'm mixing it with another novel tbh ahaha. Like was it him who wanted to jump the ship and he pretended to care for the team, but he did not...but I might really mix it, because the last scene I remember with him was the party where he wanted to hug producer's leg, his family was decent, but had no connections. Same party where this Erasme producer met Jiashu for the first time and Lu Meng was forgotten. But we don't hear from this boy again, although he made so much trouble.
Later Jiashu did not join any company and found an agent for himself and they started filming again. Basically because his popularity grew after that variety show and saving the assistant incident, he did not want to finish it all abruptly, he still cared for fans. He auditioned and filmed and soon took part in the moive where Wen Shu alsom starred. He had his own reasons of getting closer and he succeeded.
Continuing with career, several shows and the reveal of Jiashu's acting skills allowed him to gte better roles. He always took either challenging roles or those he did not have before, he didn't care how big the role was.
Which included the role in the same-sex movie along Wen Shu, this is where they finally came together.
Several incidents allowed the popularity of their CP grow with time. First it was the 'Black Gold' movie, next it was this literary film and also a cameo from Wen Shu where Jiashu starred as the male lead. This allowed their romance being well-received when they basically blew their own cover during a broadcast. By that time both were prominent figures and people blessed them.
The last part includes the originis of Jiashu of this world, like who is his father etc. A bit lackluster part tbh.
Romance.
Is very different tbh. Usually, no one has an ex, but here it's a main point. Wen Shu looks like "that person" in Jiashu's past. You can guess from him mentioning it a lot that he truly cared about that relationship and it left a mark on his heart. Next thing he knows is that Wen Shu looks like that person, but actually has different temperament and has a different feeling about him, even face. But he had this urge to find out if Wen Shu was the same person, so he flirted and teased and eventually Wen Shu was ready to move, but Jiashu cut him off, saying that he can sleep, but there will be no love. He basically wanted to act cruel, since he was disappointed not finding the traces of that person in Wen Shu. Later they came together again, Wen Shu could not foget Jiashu, even if they parted badly, but he still decided to give it a try. Eventually they did come together and in Jiashu's mind he thought that he let go of his first love and finally could fall in love again, but..
SPOILERS
I don't place it separately as usual, since it becomes obvious even from description and the hint that two men look the same that Wen Shu and "that person" are connected. And they indeed are. It become apparent only later. Same as Jiashu finds himself kind of assimilating with his previous face, he also finds that Wen Shu often has sparkles like his ex and his is basically torn thinking is he the one or is he not. Why is it important? Again, Jiashu often remembers those times with his ex, meaning it was a huge deal for him and for his character being left behind like that was also a huge deal he could not forgive. So his new love looked like old love and it fucked up with his head. Not to mention this world also had episodes that had a sense of deja vu and he could nto decide if this world was real or not. And which world was real?
As it hapens both are real. One has Jiashu, other had Wen Shu. When Wen Shu was little he was poisoned and he traveled to the world of Jiashu, he lived and loved but eventually had his memory of original world back and knew he is going to die in this world, he decided to leave on his own and not implicate Jiashu. Jiashu dies and travels to the world of Wen Shu, which also had his character, so he believed it was the black fan literature, but it was not. Wen Shu also got his memories back from both worlds and assimilated. They had a small conflict because of this, but by this time Jiashu was not as aggressive towards the past and being left behind and decided to give themselves a second chance, since they came together even in this life. So they became happy.
Although the two world theory was a bit messy at times and had a bit of repetitive tone, since it was mentioned a lot, after all the sense of deja vu, what is real, but I don't think it was executed that well. Author could have spent more time on emphasizing the love and hurt of his last life to highlight why Jiashu cared, hated and loved.
End of spoilers~
So although this novel is far from perfect, but it had decent characters and decent parts. Especially some movie scenarios were actually a real tear-jerkers, which sometimes feels rare in novels when authors pay decent amount of attention to movie plots that MCs take part in.
RATE: 4/5. For the feels, Jiashu and novelty.
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