Summary: After rebirth Shen Xici felt like he kept on picking up people in need. Disheveled director who tried to raise funds for his movie. Drunk co-star who wanted to breakthrough. And a wounded man, his best friend from previous life.He hirried director to edit the movie, which then became box office champion. He asked the actress to change roles, after which the actress thanked him for opening her eyes.As for the friend. he let him sleep on the couch in the small rental home, but later even if he had no couch in his new home his friend brought his own.
I decided to borrow the mood and the content of the original summary. This story has #: swapped babies story, entertainment industry. A bit like a healing process involving MC, because of his condition.
I fully recommend it, it was well-structured, nicely written and overall it was fun. I like how the characters were portrayed, how the story evolved. How this cliche stereotypical situation of swapped babies was presented in unique light. It had fun, it had feelings, it had a bit of drama. But it's actually comfortable to read, yet you still can feel sympathetic.
Before moving to spoilers and more detailed explanation what made me like it so much, there is a need to mention overall situation of MC, Shen Xici and the "fake" boy Xu Lingjia.
Shen Xici died early, he was still so young. What he remembers from his last life isn't much. His adoptive father was abusive who died in a puddle, his mother was neglecting and acted like mad always talking to posters of a little boy. His biological parents chose the fake (I don't call him young master since they're nto a ealthy family). And Shen Xici as the biggest victim was actually chased by JiaJia's fans who created all types of rumors about him, how he ruined a perfect family. They loved him because JiaJia appeared on a parent-child variety show, which pushed his stardom.
But what exactly is behind this perfect facade of a "perfect" family that chose non-biological son over their own flesh and blood? (Note: parents have a reason for their actions, it's not simply because they have no brains).
The only good time Shen Xici remembered were connected to his friend Sheng Shaoyan. The heir to a wealthy family. They spent several wonderful years before he passed.
/-SPOILERS-/
To get it out of the way, Shen Xici has a rare genetic disease, CIP, in other words he doesn't feel pain. He has one of the forms, if you read more you will realize that he most likely could have an "acquired" type, developed due to beatings of his adoptive father when an individual copes with a huge amount of pain which eads to the individual adopting to the feeling, which eventually led him losing sense of pain overall. My assumption. But in general it has a point in story.
If you are aware of this disease, you will catch on early on, since Xici has all the routine done, which is recommended for people who have it.
Now back to the main plot. I'm lost at which part to start to express what I liked. But let's start from the beginning.
Shen Xici lived with his adoptive parents for years, because of his father's death and his mother's neglect he was by himself, if it wasn't for a generous fortune-telling granda He who appeared in the story later, who knows where Xici would have ended up. From age 12 to 18 he lived on campus, but later needed money and dropped out of medical school, which he chose for the sake of his own condition.
He is handsome, smart and now that he is reborn he is more stable, he had his own idea of finally having a family when he found biological parents in previous life, but seeing the true face of his own parents he came to terms with himself and is more mature.
Shen Xici is currently filming a movie, he and Xu Lingjia are in the same crew.
But Lingjia acted weirdly and stole the undercover agent role from him. Xici guessed almost immediately that Lingjia might have been reborn just like him, but it was not the case, Lingjia believed he saw precognitive dreams and saw the future, and because in the future he was badly scolded for his role of a mute boy, but Xici was praised for the role of undercover agent he decided that he is the son of heaven and his future is limitless, he will steal everything from Xici and use all the opportunities to raise to the top.
Big Red Flag.
This is the first part that I particularly liked, which showcases how people perceive differently same situations. For example Xici rememberes being chased by Lingjia's fans before the movie even filmed (his adoptive mother found Lingjia, but this time she did not appear), but Lingjia rememberd how his life was full of ridicule from viewers because of his acing skills, that his role of a mute was shallow and it was also cut a lot due to his bad acting, but he still managed to ride the hype accusing Xici of cutting his role.
This just showcases how pampered and spoilt Lingjia is. His parents are not that famous, more like outdated stars, but they still have some popularity and wealth and connections, they've been in this business for so long. More than that, Lingjia's godmother is the producer of the movie they're filming, she also hold a high position of Lingjia's company and supports nepotism, providing Lingjia with all types of resources. All in all, he doesn't see the hard work done by people around him, how others supported him, but all he saw was negative.
Lingjia always saw problems with something external. He knew that Shen Xici won an award for his role, that means the role is good and his role is shit and did not even consider that his role was shit because his acting skills were bad.
On the contrary Shen Xici was not bothered by the power dynamics on the set. Even if someone stole a role others will be bought milk tea and cakes and everyone will forget it. He even had to hold his assistant on the crew Lan Xiaoshan (one of supporting roles) back.
But unlike Lingjia who has no idea what a good role is, Xici brought more life to the role of the mute boy, his ideas towards the script and acting not only allowed the director Wan Shan to appreciate him, but expand the role and adapt his ideas.
This is also when Xici quite fatefully met the wounded Sheng Shaoyan, he remembered that in previous life he heard rumors and from Shao himself about the power struggle in the Sheng family and was targetted by his second uncle. To prevent it he took Shao back home. But almost instantly compromised his own position. He knows that Shao lost memories, but he also knows that he will recover a month later. And he let it slip that Shaoyan is allergic to garlic, so he can't eat it. Because they were friends Xici let his guard down. But now it was inevitable the prospects of Shaoyan recovering and suspecting him. But saving Sao was worth it for him.
Actually Shao lived this month with misconception that he and Xici were in a relationship. Xici did not make any advances, it's just people around them were making such comments that Shao believed this idea. He knew that he lost memories, but as he saw it he tried to not let it slip. But in the end they spent this month cultivating relationship, not only Shao fell in love with Xici, but Xici always felt how lonely it would be to lose a person he cares about the most. Also it was inevitable to notice that Xici cares about his health a lot (I mean I watched House M.D. and I still remember that episode with a teenage girl who had this disease, thus I noticed that symptoms were the same).
This has a misunderstanding trope, but it's not annoying.
Actually, during the filming Lingjia tried to make up some moves against Xici but it failed, he also thought things through and realized that he is in much higher position and he shouldn't care, another flag, since Xici became his obsession almost. Lingjia instead decided to do it differently, have a metaphysics persona which backfired instantly. He said that one crew member will have a bloody disaster, but when it never came he asked why he is not in the hospital? It was hard not to think that Lingjia could have created this accident just to prove himself.
After he smoothed this accident he tried to make another move, against male lead Zhong Yue, who is a popular actor and Lingjia knows he will film a box office movie. But how to create connection? He knew that Zhong Yue was allergic to star fruit, so he changed the juice cup. Zhong Yue went into allergic shock while Lingjia, although scared but appeared epinephrine injection. Of course he was treated as a savior and benefitted a lot from it for some time. Before the "truth" resurfaced. Although there was no direct evidence (after all actor had no idea about his allergy himself) but it was a fact someone changed the juice and the one benefitting was Lingjia. His role in the movie was instantly dropped, public and fans were outraged, but he still was defended.
This led to his current role being cut as well.
Although he crawled out of this incident, but it still marred his reputation.
Which leads to one of the things I like in rebirth novels - not everything will turn out well just because you know the things that will happen in future.
Also because of this the public is not one-sided when it comes to Lingjia and Xici situation (we're still far away from the exposure, it will happen in the end).
Another secondary character, may not appear frequently but she has her own impact is Wen Yage. She is a co-star actress (mentioned in the summary). She at first acted like a basic character in such novels, seeing Shaoyan wanting to sponsor him and promote him. But actually she has a nice backstory and is not a bad character. On the contrary she helped Xici in previous life and he knew more about her. This is why later he honestly told her that she should change roles and try to find someone who will not shot a movie where only her charm is shown, like a dream through a lense of a man, but who will film her as a woman.
This is how they spent their time filming, Lingjia always thought of something bad, Wen Yage teased the two men Shao and Xici, Shao spent his time thinking he's mooching off his bf, tried to be better, while Xici spent his time perfecting the role of the mute boy filling this role with life and details.
A lot of beautiful moments, which all led to the day when Shaoyan got his memories back.
At first he disappeared. Although Xici was sad and lonely, but he knew what his choice was, all the details he revealed made him too suspicious. But Shaoyan was already deeply in love and at some point he returned and they easily reconnected, not touching the topic of how Xici knew it all.
After finishing filming Xici actually had a fateful meeting with a director who looked like savage. He read his script and had an idea in his had - this director was plagiarized in last life, because his movie came out changed but under a different person. Btw this is also a secondary character mentioned in the summary and that will play a role in the novel, more like a note of humor, ths guy is overall really hilarious.
This is how two poor guy (Xici is always poor and there are a lot of jokes about it) looked around for investment and started working on this movie and how Xici always rushed Director Lu Jiming to edit the movie, since he was sure another copy-movie was also in the making.
And the one who took the copy movie is you guessed it - Xu Lingjia. Since he remembered what made money and the other role he received as a "savior" was gone, he decided to make his own legend and was too believing. Although arrogant but stupid.
Because he tried to prove himself he even signed a gambling contract, which at that moment I knew will be their downfall. The guy is too full of himself. And when it came to his family, even if they helped him deal with Xici, he still acted paranoid about it. But it led him further down the drain actually. One wrong move led to another wrong move. He depended on his family and godmother, but also resented them as if they had to give him everything he wanted, while at one point they did give him a sound adivce of stoping, but he was too riled up to listen to reason.
I skip on several instances of hot searches either with some rumors, frame-ups etc. where Shen Xici turned the tide around as if he had some metaphysical body, but actually it's thanks to the help of people around and especially Sheng Shaoyan. They cover up period of how they filmed in the mountains and later movied to their own crew of true and copied movie.
It's not a big mystery that Lingjia will fail in his escapade, he was so naive to believe the rival of his godmother in the company, instead his deed were revealed again and again. With only rags of reputation left before the movie came up and people saw two almost identical movies. But Xici's crew had prove that their script is original, but Lingjia's crew was not. The situation escalated that company bit the director who bit back. And this is where the melon field started with the climax of a finale when Zhou Suli (Lingjia's biological mother) appeared, all disheveled and manic believing the rotten parents ruined her precious son, otherwise how could he wish his own mother was dead, she jumped into the river, Lingjia saw it. The parents instantly tried to separate themselves, but Lingjia revealed some of the past truths of what they did during their career and how they ruined several people just to climb up, so no one will come out of this alive.
These news were all over the internet for weeks after that. The only person never mentioned - Shen Xici. He had his own protective person who will not allow others to scrutinize him.
Basically, Shen Xici did nothing for the entirety of this novel to maliciously discredit Lingjia, the only thing he did was to protect himself from rumors, but he never attacked, Lingjia ruined his own life with his own hands, his ass was licked by fans for so long that he forgot that he is just an average-looking idiot. And he knows only how to act despicable. Like his parents.
And this is what is revealed in the end and explains why these three chose each other - interests. But more like they knew handle of each other.
On the other hand Xici and Shao developed for months. At first Xici acted overly familiar which allowed Shaoyan to fall in love despite his amnesia. After recovering at first Shaoyan thought Xici was either fishing or was playing at something (thus the title), at least he had an agenda. But later he realized that he helped him out of kindness, not because of his wealth etc.
Slowly they reconnected and kept in touch, after Shaoyan realized his feelings he started to slowly invade Xici's personal space bit by bit. And Xici couldn't resist since he had memories of past and present. You could call it a slow burn, because they developed for some times, especially Xici who longed for connection but also resisted due to his condition. Shaoyan knew it all and made his own choice. So even if Xici was afraid he would be near.
I must add that even if Sheng Shaoyan had some possessive tendencies, but Shen Xici is the one who is super insecure and who would not refuse such passion.
But of course I think it's the best to discover this novel fully on your own.
I just like the few ideas that were presented in here, although they may seem random. Not everything will turn out as you wish even if you know what will happen, future is dynamic. We see the world differently.
I think the part where characters were portrayed through others or their own actions were done well.
Like the insidiousness of the Cheng mother, you could feel that Lingjia learnt it from someone.
Lingjia's parents could see that their son was mean but did not stop him.
If they could do these things - they could do others.
It's an interesting fact that Xici's biological mother went to that mountain because she wanted to whitewash herself from fraudulent donation news, not because she wanted to do charity out of her good heart.
In the end you look at it and think - it's good that Grandpa He told him he had weak fate with his relatives. If he was part of that family and they knew his disease, who knew how'd they use their own son for money and fame. It's good he didn't live with anyone, except Shaoyan.
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Fully liking it, small flaws passed me by. I enjoyed it a lot and recommend it for others to experience it.
RATE: 5/5.
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