Very cliche title, very cliche situation of fake / true young masters switched at birth, but still I can eat it and do it with relish.
This author wrote several stories before and I read some of them and the experience shows that they take good are of their stories and put a lot of thought into storyline and especially emotional part.
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Li An had a tragic life experience, his family he lived with turned against him when they found out he was not their biological child, but they also did not let him go before squeezing the last bit of worth he had, even the things he created and accumulated by himself had to be given away because the "true master suffered", but did he really suffer? The parents and family were collectively blind to the viciousness of the true young master or they shared the same black blood of scheming and deceiving as he had, thus they never cared. Eventually true young master got what he fought for and the entire family stood with their backs straights while the bones of Li An were cracking and crumbling under their feet. The victim to their cruelty.
Li An died in winter.
Li An returned in autumn. before him was the face of his fiance who tried to talk him into signing equity tranfer. Li An looked at this face that disgusted him and thought to himself - I need to wait, I can wait, because I need to pay you back. All of you.
I must say that I finished it really fast and I liked it.
Almost all the stories about the true/fake young master trope seemed to have explored this topic through and through and wrote so many stories that some parts feel like they're routine of these plots. But despite some of the predictable parts I can read it with relish if it's written well.
Plot is the classic revenge story. With Li An returning he plans for his family's demise, while planting a lot of traps step by step and does it behind the scenes, while his family does not even suspect him until the very end.
Along the way he finds a man who gave him love and pulled him out of the dark world and allowed him to feel happiness again. Guan Lan became everything to him.
The Plot.
It follows a step by step plan of Li An who uses the knowledge of his family's business and future to lay out several traps before fully closing the net. Not to mention he managed to do it like a roller-coatser when his family slowly rose from the ashes and almost thought they'd make it through after the first big crisis they faced before plunging into a greater darkness.
Why Li An did it?
Spoilers~ It become apparent from early on when Li An thinks about the death of his parents and the way Li Jiaqi (true young master) always described himself as a victim that something is not right.
In his first life he was a soft persimmon who truly loved his family and didn't want to hurt them, he also always believed that all those years meant something, he had no idea the malice in the souls of his adoptive parents may be so deep.
After his death he thought a lot about the details and now he had a chance to face the truth. The death of his parents is in direct correlation to Li Jiaqi, who lied about Li An's parents being abusive, he cause the car accident which led to Li An's parents death and escaped from the scene later, enrolled himself into the orphanage and later found the second family who adopted him, of course the cycle of being ungrateful repeated itself.
But Li An found out the truth. And remembered what the adoptive parents did to him in his past life and what Li Jiaqi did to his grandpa after he died. Li An was drugged and died in the snow, but because prior Li Jiaqi used his newly-found influence online to create a narrative Li An's reputation from bad became even worse. Li family playd a victim saying Li An chose the wrong patha nd it's all his doing, thus he died and they became they biggest beneficiary of this situation.
So the hatred he felt towards the Li family was hard to describe, he wanted Li Jiaqi dead.
This is why he used the projects and scandals at first to rob his family of business. When Li Jiaqi who failed to participate in audition that made him rise to fame in previous life managed to join another crew, Li An created a narrative for him and tied him closely to the Li family. The illusion really worked and Li Jiaqi really believed he became someone, only to face the scandal of his family using internet celebrities signed under their company for gains.
Of course it led to the first scandal and it also made Li Jiaqi face it with his family, so his first role was ruined.
Some time later when the family thought they're going to make it through and Li Jiaqi finally got another role after spending his entire fortune to make connections, they faced the second and bigger scandal that left the entire family in ruins, it's the final scandal before the face-off.
In revenge stories I do prefer morally gray characters who plan behind-the-scenes and usually stay in the shadows till the grand finale, it's better to never showed that it was you who did it.
But this time around it was impossible but this time Li An was so ready to rip off Li family's face in front of the public and let them feel what he felt when he was cyber-bullied, not to mention all the curel things they said about his parents saying it's good they died, since they believed they bullied their son.
As for Emotional Side.
I really liked how it was done, to me it was the best part.
Not really the romance, but the portrayal and journey of each character.
Li An let go of the past, he did not let go of revenge, but more his state of mind changed. With his grandfather he realized what it's like to have a family, with Guan Lan he felt what a true love is.
He never white-washed himself as a complete victim of circumstances, he knew he was blameless, since he was also switched at birth, but it was his upbringing and his good heart that allowed others to trample on it. He knew his own blame in all of this.
But honestly a lot of what he said how he went through these things made me sentimental and teary-eyed.
The significance of some things was delievered through simple things and they were working for me. Like the simple description of Li An holding the hands of his grandfather and describing how hard his time was, losing both daughter and son-in-law, spending years looking for the lost child. Although a lot of it is descriptive and rather bluntly explained, like others around the old man would be mentioned to say - what a hard fate, but I don't know I truly felt for the situaion through those simple descriptions like withered hands.
Guan Lan is not described in detail but actually has the classic sad CEO past, honestly I may be joking but the way it is described.. maybe I was so sentimental but it really got to me when his past was explained in more detail, even if we knew most of it.
To him Li An also became the source of new faith, he made him feel alive, his heart was beating once again, he also thought that he will never find peace in this life, will be like a working robot that just did what needed to be done to get to his final goal and just continue existing.
As for the Li family, I must say I liked Li Jiaqi's portrayal. He is a complete selfish and disgusting bastard, what author managed to do is to fully convey how psychotic that person is. The way he planned, the way he thought he schemed well against Li An, they way this envy and jealousy consumed him and led him to his final doom. His is the epitome of ungrateful wretch, but he always played a victim and thought it's going to be like that for the rest of his life.
Because of who he is and we know he is comletely selfish even towards his own biological parents we share not an ounce of pity for him. This is why I think author managed to make the actions and consequences pretty balanced.
Li parents were more of a different story, but the result of those hardships made you realize that no matter what they're not far from Li Jiaqi. Xiao Qiurong, adoptive mother of Li An, she started to regret how things turned out. She may be the best mom, but also ignores that other kids had parents too or they're human beings too. This is why there is little pity to have for her plight. Li Tianen, the adoptive father, is more of a background character, but actually the root of the switched babies accident, because it's his then lover did the deed.
Li Ping had a very different path fom last life. In last life he stood strongly on the side of his parents and younger brother, but this time with disillusionment when it came to his parents he did not want to take part in what his parents did, but he was also powerless, since he could not really go against them till the very end. He blamed himself for cowardice and lack of strength. But when everything was over he was the one who took off and disappeared to have a new life, unlike mother and son who were left behind still being consumed by hatred.
I like it when stories have characters leading a completely different path from the past, it shows that people may have different fates. Although Li Ping was not the main target of Li An, he was till included and of course was burnt by the second scandal.
Overall it was a decently-built story. Surely it was predictable, but it didn't matter to me. I thought the whole path the characters took was interesting to follow and author really knows what she does even with such worn out tropes.
Great journey, good story for people who like a good emotional story, with favorite tropes, with a drop of melodrama.
RATE: 5/5. I was quite satisfied with my reading experience.
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