- #1
This is a silly sweet romance novel with a corporate espionage backdrop. The enemies are numerous to the point that many confrontations are only hinted at after they have been handled by one of the MC’s family members. Only the most insidious of the enemies are able to slip this net of protection and show up in front of the MC.I think this was a reasonable usage of various Gary Stu characters. The main characters may be OP, but the enemies are organised, more numerous than them, and working from behind the scenes. The subplots ferret out the identities of these enemies overtime throughout the entire novel.The MCs can’t just instakill most of these enemies just by knowing their identity either. The first revealed enemy actually takes a very long time to be caught despite the strength of the MCs. The enemies who attempt anything illegal are also usually turned over to the custody of the police to be punished according to the law, which is rather rare in this type of novel.This overall shows one point I really appreciate: these business conflicts started before the novel began and will continue long after. There is not a major antagonist coordinating every bad event that happens to the MCs here, only inevitable competition. The happy ending you expect at the end of a fluffy novel is one the protagonists struggle and fight for before finally getting to relax at the end. In this novel, it’s clear that the protagonists will continue fighting together side-by-side for their continued happiness. The feeling as this story comes to a close is that this is only their beginning. I appreciate the subtlety of such a happy conclusion.The main couple have an interesting duality that clearly reflect upon each other. The MC is used to showing his rough edge to survive, despite his internal gentleness. He in this new world will finally be outwardly expressing his true nature now that he isn’t living on knife’s edge. The ML on the hand expresses an equally cold cordiality to all acquaintances. ML is actually ruthless at heart, both to himself and others. It’s the MC who will teach him kindness. The beauty of this couple is that they are very similar in nature despite being very different people. Over this novel they will start to soften their edges and adapt to each other, showing utmost tenderness to their partner. Of course, anyone who endangers them or their relationship must be prepared to face their sharpest edges.The ML is one of the most patient ‘overbearing CEO’ I have seen. He realises his feelings pretty early, but avoids rashly acting upon them or pressuring the MC. There are some pretty obvious attempts to seduce the MC, but nothing overbearing. He tries very hard to be gentle and give the MC enough space to explore his own feelings to the point that the ML even plays along with the MCs attempts at being the Gong. He pampers the MC cautiously. He’s rather possessive, but he’s afraid to hurt or scare the MC. He reveals his true colors only when he panics due to making a mistake. Yes, that’s right. Our ‘overbearing CEO’ not only makes mistakes, he also acknowledges that they happened and tries to make up for it.The MC on the other hand is a bit more... all over the place. He grew up being very carefully protected by his brother, but his brother could not fully protect him from the subpar environment he and the MC were subjected to as orphans. He still had to teach the MC to protect himself. The two could only accept situations such as the MC accompanying his brother to his workplace, a bar. This exposed the underage MC to the wretched sides of humanity. He has only been able to maintain his kind heart due to the protection of his brother. He is only more protected after his transmigration with the support of 5 big bosses (family+lover). He’s truly lucky to be protected to this extent, yet he also wants to stand on his own two feet. He’s an adult who spent 5 years of bitterness after the death of his brother. He doesn’t want others to go through the same, so he doesn’t reject his new family and tries to protect them in his own way while embarking on his own career. I say he’s all over the place as a character because his temperament changes under crisis are even more obvious than the ML. On one hand, he is a bitter 25 year old musician, alcoholic, and smoker. On the other, he’s an innocent young man with a deep instinct to rely and depend on others. He will show no mercy to those he wants to reject and even somewhat disdains men who try to ‘entangle’ him. Yet... he craves and gets easily attached to the MLs pampering. He’s just as possessive as the ML. He’s content to breeze by and not think too deeply about things 90% of the time. He gets very serious when he does decide to put effort into thinking deeply. It’s at these times that his temperament from his last life is revealed. He will quietly pull out a smoke and even sometimes reveal his own aggressiveness.One thing I suspect after reading to the end:Spoiler
This isn’t directly implied in the story, but I suspect that the entire Qiao family in the original story was calculated and killed off. The strongest indicator of this is that the MCs dead parents are revealed to look like his new parents. This begs the question: what else is similar? This plot seems like less of a world inside a book and more like a parallel reality. If that is so and his father was just as rich before death, what happened to the inheritance? How did these two come to practically live out of a bar? If the inheritance was stolen, it wouldn’t be shocking if the perpetrator decided to make the two brothers disappear. Their deaths are a sudden illness and a car accident. Qiao Zhen hasn’t had such a random terminal illness. It doesn’t seem natural for Qiao Sheng to have such a thing despite the bodies being the same. A different soul doesn’t seem like it would effect someone’s physiology. Of course, I could be wrong. Qiao Sheng grew up in a bad environment which could have impacted his health.
[collapse]My only regret is that we don’t get to see MC show his fighting skills off to the ML; there are only a few confrontations and even fewer who notice the MC’s skills.