Summary: Xu Huizhou's mother committed suicide when he was 4 years old, year later at 5 his father also committed suicide. The last bits of wealth were taken away by relatives and after tossing around he ended up in an orphanage. This is the place where he met his four friends he treated like relatives. Because rumors spread that he had a suicide gene he was never adopted, but he watched all four of his friends being taken away eventually. It seemed that they won't see each other again, but years later they reunited at school. Becoming friends again.
Who knew that during the graduation trip these friends will send him to hell and push him down the cliff.
Four of his friends returned with his "suicide note" that claimed his fatigue with life and they sadly told everyone that because of his mother and father way of passing it weighed down on him, so no wonder.
But Xu Huizhou survived. In that primal forest he managed to survive before he was being saved by passing rangers.
Ten years later Xu Huizhou returns for one and one goal only - revenge.
Ten years later his four friends are prominent figures, one "married" into wealthy family, one became a popular idol, one was the general manager and heir to a big group and the last one bcame a prominent figure in psychology. All four lived a good life.
The first time Lu Su met Xu Huizhou he noticed a red flower tattoo on his ankle.
Next time they met his third uncle brough Xu Huizhou back to Lu family as his son who grew up outside.
Then he found Xu Huizhou's puprose.
Note: The surviving issue and the legal part of the novel all serve the novel, so even if there are misses author themselves admit to it. But this doesn't make this novel less exciting.
TW: death, violence.
This is an ultimate REVENGE + THRILLER novel in my opinion. The romance is present in the novel, but it's more subtle and the character's story is more prominent. But it doesn't make their feelings less profound.
The Plot.
I was very excited when I finished reading it, I didn't care to look out for possible misses, because in general I found this novel very well written and layered.
Talking about the plot I will only scrape the surface, because I think one should enjoy it without any spoilers involved.
The beginning of the book seems like we start blank, because of the plot summary we get the primal idea of what happened, but we actually don't know about the main motive behind the actions of four people. Did they collude together or there is something else to it? When I was reading of course I thought about how it would be particularly ridiculous for all four people to stand at the edge of the cliff and push Xu Huizhou down and author did not disappoint. The motivation behind each person is slowly revealed piece by piece. With that we also get the psychological portrait of all four people. But because we get it we actually don't feel bad for them by the end.
The silliest comment I've seen on JJ under this novel that said that it's good, but why involve law? And I thought "how silly", making Xu Huizhou a lawyer is such a brilliant idea.
It's not really a spoiler, because this information appears in first chapters. Xu Huizhou described his survival and also what happened after he woke up. He remembers that night with a blur, because he could guess that there was something in the water he drank, which allowed him drop the guard and eventually be pushed down. This happened in a pretty artistic place, a field of red spider lilies, thus the tattoo he got later.
After surviving and being brough to recuperate he finds the news about himself and finds that his existence was basically erased, meaning his files from orphanage and high school were erased, which make us think this can't be done by an average boy his age. The news claimed that his friends brought his suicide note back, no investigation was held and he was erased. Returning back in this battered state would be futile, he was just a weak high schooler who had no means to fight back and it would be hard to accuse his friends of homicide, thus Xu Huizhou returns ten years later as a prominent lawyer. From the novel you can guess why he chose this path, because his trust in others is non-existent, he makes plans and makes back-up plans, but the main stage he doesn't want to leave to anyone, he wants to uphold justice for himself with his own hands, he knows that he is the only one who can't be bought. Thus he chooses the Lu family as his starting point and faked to be the illegitimate son growing up outside, many things come together later. Another thing is - sentences for attempted murder and homicide are different, so you can guess his choice of concealing his identity.
The way Xu Huizhou knows his enemies is actually on another level, since they once were closest people he played on this fact and used it to his advance. The way in evolved felt quite natural actually and partially I found it quite logical, it also represented another part of psychological portrayal of these four people. After all Xu Huizhou looks so much like their dead "friend", he just looks like a mature version, but one thing is to doubt and another thing is strong belief that this friend could not survive the fall down the cliff.
I also loved parts of what each person's fate was, when you look back you get the feeling that it was quite symbolical and meaningful. Because at first the motivation behind the act is too obscure, but when things get revealed one after another you can guess that this accident was not simple. And Xu Huizhou striked where it hurt the most and took away things people cared about the most.
The Cast.
Xu Huizhou. Our MC. Now prominent lawyer. Very smart. His only miscalculation in life was trusting people he considered family, now he returned to pay back tenfold.
Lu Su. ML. in the open everyone knows him as a waste and a playboy, perfect disguise for him to survive before he upholds justice for the accident that took away the lives of his parents. He was the only one who completely dug into who Xu Huizhou really is, but developed feelings and both of their purposes did not conflict each other. He had enough justice and compassion in his heart to let Xu Huizhou go and even help him.
Song Minyan. The one who married into the wealthy Lu family. The same Lu family Lu Su belongs to. He is a basic money worshiper, he married into wealthy family because it was his dream to be wealthy and never care about money. Even if he doesn't have much feelings for his husband, he married for status. You can see from his actions that he despises poor and praises rich. Ironically he created a fund that worked on supporting mountainous areas and poor students etc. Did charity work just for status too.
Shen Yuche. He became a very popular idol and his influence as domestic star was portrayed simply but effectively, fans everywhere, his ads are plastered in every corner, he makes domestic entertainment news boil with his every move. But he is also a psycho. You will easily get the feel that he is abnormal. He considers himself very smart too. He chases Lu Su to the point of obsession and thinks one say Lu Su will belong to him. In everyone's words he is a precious sunny boy, but those in the know actually know he acts better than anyone else, uses every means to be popular and perfect, but disdains everyone who worships him, all his fans included. So you can guess that he likes to play with people.
Gu Mengcheng. The heir to the Daguan Group led by the Gu family. You may ask - why he was orphaned? Because he was an illegitimate son, but it is evident that in his family boys are favored over girls and he is the one who became the heir to the group. He is obsessed with the past Xu Huizhou and finds ton of subsitutes, his assistant is the one of them. Xu Huizhou got close to him through a small case of resettlement that was involved Daguan Group, eventually catching the attention of Gu Mengcheng and leading him out. Gu Mengcheng is the only one who always wanted to become lovers with Xu Huizhou. The "love" of others is different.
Ji Xiuqi. The bystander as I call him. He was adopted by the Ji family and became the perfect son in the eyes of others. In school he was always second behind Xu Huizhou, they were good friends. After finishing studies and being the best in eyes of others he opened his own consulting clinic. The only thing odd about him was an old pen that he used all this time, a sentimental gift from his dead friend. Living a perfect life of a perfect and successful son before he met Xu Huizhou.
As one can guess Xu Huizhou's name originally wasn't Xu Huizhou, he chose it for himself after he survived. It was his new identity. The real name is mentioned later, so it was fun to wait for it to be revealed.
The Relationship.
Starts from seduction. But not in a true sense, it actually sounds more like undercurrent flirting, subtle as a touch of a feather. Lu Su meets Xu Huizhou before he enters the family. Later he probes into Xu Huizhou's origins and slowly puts the pieces of the puzzle together. Although Xu Huizhou made it impossible to dig into his past, but everything leaves traces. Xu Huizhou eventually didn't mind that Lu Su might have guessed his purpose. They did not pierce this piece of paper for a long time. But Lu Su developed feelings for Xu Huizhou early on, he just fell in love for that unfathomed man, he could understand why others also fell under his pants. He wasn't a heartthrob that everyone chased, but he was just a charming cold-faced man. At first it was lus, but later his feelings were deeper, since he wanted to know more about the man he eventually figured Huizhou's past and it also made him feel heartache. Actually they come together much later in the novel, but you can feel Huizhou's feelings through his trust, because previously he did not trust anyone and now they shared the common goal. Their relationship actually is really good to me, so touching.
/!~SPOILERS~!/
Now my favorite part, I can't help but share, because I think the idea is simple, but brilliant.
It is a string that is connected to others strings and by pulling it, it eventually involved all the particiants of the event.
This is the final part of the novel that was also included in the beginning, many parts of this novel were used in the final part, so it's not like a separate revenge for each person, but a final big blow. So for this final part we should mention the case of reporter Zhang.
Reporter Zhang was the only person who wanted to investigate the case of the top scorer who committed suicide, but he met an accident and his reporter card was revoked and he was banned in the industry. This involved the bribery of editor-in-chief who changed the article by reporter Zhang and banned him in the industry. Reporter Zhang was too busy to survive to care about the case and the highschooler was forgotten. But who bribed him and why? Editor-in-chief was bribed by someone from Daguan Group and the reason was simple, one of participants in that case was Gu Mengcheng, heir of Daguan Group.
This is why I say it's simple and brilliant idea, he didn't file case against the four people in the name of Li Zhan, his true name and his apst identity. He used the case of this reporter to bring the case of Li Zhan to light. In this case he could call on witnesses, who were Gu Mengcheng, Shen Yuche, Song Mingyan and Ji Xiuqi respectively. Although only three of four left by that time.
By this time he aslo achieved his goal of getting closer to the four people, getting rid of Song Mingyan with the hands of others, playing with Shen Yuche like he liked to play with others, making Gu Mengcheng crazy about him and getting him involved with others, letting Ji Xiuqi separate from his family control and finally sticking out from his cowardly shell because of love and guilt.
It was so good, chef's kiss.
And this is why I say their ending is symbolic.
Song Mingyan loved money as his life. he was adopted by a wealthy family as he wished and lived in luxury before family went bankrupt. His father went to other places and Song Mingyan grew up wanting to be rich again. He despised being poor. For this he went to many places where rich people could be present and eventually caught up with Lu Yian, they hooked up and got married. Lu Yian believed Song Mingyan was chaste and clean, but it wasn't the case. Song Mingyan was the one who pushed Li Zhan down the cliff, his motivation was plain and stupid. He believed that Li Zhan wrote that report letter that disclosed his relationship with his mentor, who had a family. So many of his credentials were achieved through bed. Li Zhan saw them by cioncidense and he never would disclose it in a report letter, but this letter was forged, yet Song Mingyan was fooled and believed it. His act of pushing Li Zhan was witnessed by two people, Shen Yuche and Ji Xiuqi. Huizhou infiltrated Lu family just for him and Lu Su. He played along and took him out during outing to a school he supported, because Song Mingyan loved wild mushrooms Huizhou easily took advantage of it and drugged him. When Son Mingyan was sick he took him to a hospital, the same one where the wife of his mentor lived. This is so good actually, Huizhou supported this exact school for years, just for the sake of taking Mingyan there, getting him sick and then taking him to the hospital where the wife was recuperating. Creating a coincidence he let the wife, mentor, Mingyan and Li Yian meet. The wife erupted from concealing the events of the past and confronted thwetwo. Li Yian of course was furious and Mingyan was severly beaten by him, later locked at home. Huizhou played the role of a perfect man in the eyes of Mingyan, who looked at his own bowl and wanted to eat outside, he did not suspect Huizhou when his identuty of not being Li Zhan was cleared and even thought Huizhou was attracted to him, so he wanted to jump to another boat. This happened after he was his scandal was on the news and the news which kept the two together were also disclosed, Lu Yian was infertile. Which only parents and Mingyan was aware of. Mingyan was chased out and rellocated into a small apartment. Because of the possibility of digging out the Li Zhan case through Song Mingyan he was silenced and it all was orchestraed as if he committed suicide by jumping. You get it? He jumped from a high place, because he pushed Li Zhan down. Symbolic. By this time it was unknown who did it, but someone he knew.
Shen Yuche. The psycho one. It's not even a secret that he's abnormal. He is the type who wanted Li Zhan to be the closest person to him, not in the intimate sense, but was also jealous of Li Zhan immensely. To him Li Zhan was a perfect person, but Shen Yuche was a calculating and sigusting even as a kid. His family went bankrupt, so he was sent to the orphanage, he refused to admit being the child of his parents, so he created a fasle story for himself. His father was sentenced and his mother was outside. Shen Yuche played the role of a perfect sunny brother, but also was obviously manipulating things. or example the spread of Li Zhan's parents committing suicide was thanks to him, but he cried and said he didn't think other would spread it. He found it out by coincidence. Later when someone wanted to adopt Li Zhan he dropped a flower pot of the woman's head. he loved to play, was extremely selfish. He chose loving parents for himself. When he was in school he already became a trainee and wanted to have this perfect image in the eyes of others without a single stain, thus the truth about his life experience was wiped out. Later meeting Li Zhan in school they continued their friendship, Li Zhan also saw his meeting with his biological mother on his 16th birthday, he also saw Shen Yuche's indifference when his mother was hurt emotionally and got into an accident next to this street. He also was the one who wrote the report letter and the fake suicide note, he faked it and framed Li Zhan so Song Mingyan will do something to him. Although he was extremely jealous, he never did anything with his own hands, he always used others. But because once he did it himself at the very end, he was caught. He co-existed with love and hate, but it also felt like love and hate should come on his terms, yet no blemish must be left. He was jealous of Li Zhan who also witnessed his shame, so he thought he was the smartest and made up such a plan. Symbolic is that Huizhou played with him the same way, he sent several e-mails from unknown address and intensified his unrest, caused his fall of image. Thus Yuche for the longest time had suspicion about other people. He suspected Mingyan, thus he hinted at Mengcheng to get rid of him. Then he thought it was other people, so he was in constant stress. He saw Huizhou as Li Zhan's copy and fake, he also witnessed the development between Huizhou and Lu Su. So he was jealous and wanted Huizhou gone, since he was so close to Li Zhan and did not take him seriously and witnessed his embarrassment. At first he used person who had a grudge against Huizhou, but when it failed he decided to do it himself. Thus he was caught. The one who liked to play with others was played around. I love how he ended up, his image was ruined, his popularity brought popularity to this case, but before he was judged in case of attempted murder he was brought as a witness into the case of reporter Zhang. I adored the scene where Gu Mengcheng realised that he was played with by Yuche and hit him with the gavel and in the last moment before he lost consciousness he saw Huizhou using the secret sign language only the two of them know, confirming that he was indeed Li Zhan as he suspected. The blow to his head made him into a vegetable, but as Huizhou said - I believe in a doctor who said that people in a coma are conscious, but they feel like being closed in their body like in a black box, thus he wished him to be closed in the place he hated most.
Gu Mengcheng. Was infatuated with Li Zhan. It's almost like morbid obsession, but Li Zhan was the only one he couldn't really touch. He had other relationships, which were either beneficial to him or just for fun, but he still couldn't let go of Li Zhan. So he had an idea of drugging Li Zhan, which happened. So he thought he was involved in Li Zhan's case and it was because of him that Li Zhan had an accident and fell down. Because he was the only one who did not witness how Song Mingyan pushed Li Zhan down he was led astray and used by Yuche. So when others like Mingyan and Yuche offered to forge the suicide note he did not respond and acquitted, because he really believed it was an accident, but if someone will find his involvement he will be done for as the future heir of Gu family. His grandfather was the one who bribed the editor-in-chief and cleaned Mengcheng of his involvement. Mengcheng did not investigate or was suspicious of others, so he took this burden upon himself in his heart. Others who witnessed the whole thing did not clear the misunderstanding and Yuche who knew about Mengcheng drugging the water used it to his own advance in case of Mingyan. He threatened Mengcheng who eventually paid to dispose of Mingyan, so Mengcheng was involved in the suicide case eventually. Because of his obsession with Li Zhan he had relationships with substitutes, he was a wealthy hire who could do anything, so I find it symbolic that he was deprived of everything after he went in. Huizhou actually did not expect that Mengcheng would hurt Yuche in court, but actually with his agressive and impulsive personality it was quite logical.
Ji Xiuqi. Mengcheng was jealous of Xiuqi, since he thought Li Zhan refused him and had a relationship with Xiuqi, which was not the case. Both were close friends, confidantes you may add. But Xiuqi also had dark thoughts about Li Zhan. It has nothing to do with love, but Li Zhan's excellence. Li Zhan was not adopted and worked his way through hardships, he managed to be first when he also was working to support himself. Xiuqi was adopted by the Ji family, they are a scholar family with many students and due time it become evident that he was basically brainwashed into being the first one, if you're not first in the exam then you're a failure. Li Zhan once noticed the pills Xiuqi took, which should stimulate brain cell work, so his achievement had such sacrifice. But Li Zhan was still first in grade and his parents were disappointed. It must be noted that Ji family had a child who committed suicide, so Xiuqi took his place. Because he was afraid of disappointing his parents he was only a witness in the case of Li Zhan, since the path to his success was clear now. Very weak motivation to be a bystander, but you can guess he was unwell mentally. Funnily became a psychotherapist. Huizhou played on his guilt to separate Xiuqi slowly from his parents and make him rebel against the arranged life that was prepared for him. he was also the only one to whom Huizhou confessed that he was Li Zhan and also pointed out that he was not only a bystander, but also took part in it, like he gave the idea of report to Yuche, chose this strange place for vacation, which aggravated his sense of guilt. By this time Xiuqi was deeply in love with Huizhou and wanted to atone through him, protect and love. In the end he confessed in court and provided evidence that confirmed that Li Zhan did not commit suicide, but was pushed down, Mengcheg drugged Li Zhan and Yuche witnessed it in the field of spider lilies.
After reading you kind of get the roles of these four: murderer, manipulator, witness and a scapegoat.
This is the main outline of the story and the role of each person in this case. I found the idea of slowly revealing each person's involvement quite exciting and in a way the ending was like dog eats dog in the most gruesome way. You realize that initially they were not friends, they were friends of Li Zhan, but not with each other. They had a certain grudge against each other after the incident, which had such a result.
But because they had those long-term prospects in mind, no one disclosed that it wasn't an accident. And this is what makes this novel good, this friendship they so insist on wasn't perfect, they are flawed people with flawed character and it made the situation not one-sided.
/~/
Anyway, I think this novel was quite awesome, I'm happy I waited for it to be finished and waited for the right time and mood to read it. The thrill it gave me was something I haven't felt for a long time. And the love between the two was so good.
RATE: 5/5.
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