(it's strange how the cover is way too far from the content of the novel)
Summary: Lin Meng had nightmares for a week and the content of those nightmares was the same - her husband will fall in love with someone else and chase her out with nothing. But it felt weird, although the nightmare felt real she couldn't believe her husband Zhu Yushen would do such a thing. Before she heard that he got a new secretary. In a fit she decided to spend his money like water and what is the best way to do it? Of course is to support those wasting money with dreams in entertainment industry.
Well, I'll be honest from the start, this is a re-read for me, I noticed I read it probably few years prior but never actually made a post about it. And although it's a light and sometimes humorous story with more time spent on a career than romance, but I'd still say it's mid and has many parts that I think could have been made either better or changed.
Romance is the weakest part of this story.
First of all it is very in the background, I must say I felt nothing for the two. They say they lived together since school and now Lin Meng is a wealthy wife, but she actually helped her husband build his business and retired to recuperate at home when the company was on the right track. Which shows she knows when to give way to people. There are a lot of memories of theirs here and there, but they're so sparse, like three idle hairls on a bald head.
But this good impression to me is shattered when she believed in dreams.
I am honestly not a big fan when female characters are shown to have little to no faith in their husbands when seeing some dreams (it's one thing to be reborn, but dreams? really?), she truly believed he can cheat on her. And the fact that those dreams were fake an planted by the transmigrating girl, aka secretary, do not make the whole thing better. Note: this girl is not worth mentioning, since she appeared only few times and then went offline, since her mission failed.
The only redeemable part is when they finally sat and talked she accepted that part of the problem with their failed marriage lies with her too, since she did not try to fix things up and was basically waiting for him to notice that something is wrong. Girl, he's a man, what are you trying to make him notice? That's a pipe dream.
So I think this "conflict" and the result were squeezed out of author's ass. It's so bizarre.
I honestly thought that girl was bored out of her mind at home and instead of talking to her husband decided best tactic is to silently wait for him to notice something is amiss.. girl, are you serious?
Anyway, they did divorce in the story only later for Zhu Yushen to pursue her again.
Tbh the guy is the boss of the company, busy day and night, he can't simply stand up and leave, unlike many CEOs in novels that seem to have all the time in their lives.
So yeah, romance is like a sore thumb here.
As for career. This is another thing that baffled me at one point.
First of all her big idea to spend their own money (at that time the girl even justified the ilogical dream to herself, I mean she had a lot of assets in her name, she can't leave with nothing).
So okay she starts spending money on projects but the joke of it all is that she always makes money back one way or another.
People and public eventually praise her for her desire to make good movies, while she continues wishing to lose money. But of course she refuses to just make bad movies. At least not without a principle.
But here's a catch - it becomes a joke that is repeated too many times.
Even her desire to spend money continues when she's divorced.
Girl, your assets are now yours, you are going to bankrupt yourself. Please let your logic and some common sense return.
At this point I really wanted to shake her, because the joke was taken too far for too long and by that time I felt it was necessary for her to change her mind. By this time a lot of people depended on her (not only employees, but actually a whole set of directors whom she fed her idealistic bullshit script, in case she's gone what are they to do?), a lot of good projects were produced (but she self-sabotaged when it came to promotions, in many cases she was on the verge of losses if the punch line wasn't about her PR manager Xiao Wang who is a bringer of good news appear every time and tell Lin Meng that something took turn for the better), she gave hope to so many people, they basically worship her, but she still is all about losing money for the most part of the novel.
I think the timing for her change of mind is the worst.
One thing to note I do remember some parts of this novel because it actually became memorable:
- Her first project she fully sponsored but also brought in all her riches to make rich look rich;
- Later she invested in a movie of a director who made flops before 10-year silence;
- Like her investment in projects that has new ideas, good scripts and it was non-mainstream;
- Part of the story belongs to a director whose daughter was fired from one production because she had too many of he rown ideas and did not listen to director, she sent two directors in hopes of setting Dream Ent. for losses, not being aware this was Lin Meng's goal, but of course she got what she deserves later on;
- Part of the story involves another meddler in the face of the company that decided Dream Ent. is their rival and they released movies and projects that were profitable, but of average quality (just to make a quick buck) and were often compared as a result;
- She also invested in a big-budget movie that indeed reached her goal for losses (she was divorced by that time though) but it made a big splash later;
- Because of one those series her company was granted to make a tribute movie which was about infrastructure, which I found unique among many stories.
This was a rare case when I remembered the projects more than anything else.
Partially because of such a big influence of movies and debate it also brings up a question of viewers and good movies. Tbh at times it feels like author wants to express how viewers may condemn bad movies, but actually like slop a lot. They wants the artistry, but when it comes to it to them it feels too heavy. Actually contradictory as reality.
This is why I would put the novel somewhere in the mid, not too outrageous, but not completely a lost cause. I just don't agree with timing of things and how the romance was handled.
But for people who like light-hearted and fast-paced books with a lot of showbiz and career this must be a good choice. If they have nothing better to read though.
Once again, I don't want to say that FMC was so outrageous, she is actually one of few who accepted her mistakes, it's just the way she was portrayed dealing with her husband and their relationship made it weird to me, I'm totally for her to go out and become a boss of her own.
From the point of view of showbiz it was interesting, it doesn't follow the path of just sharing a name and not even explaining what the movie / show is about. So props for trying to make it interesting.
RATE: 3/5.
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