打火机与公主裙 长明灯

by Twentine

加微信[soweinc]每天分享好书和来自全球的书友一起学习交流.并且微信好友价格低至5折 .
《打火机与公主裙2：长明灯》(Twentine)

作者:Twentine
出版社:江苏凤凰文艺出版社

装订方式:平装
版次:第1版
开本:32
出版时间:2017-08-01
用纸:轻型纸
页数:304
语种:中文
丛书名:
类目:青春文学|爱情/情感

Paperback

First published August 1, 2017

Reviews

[Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not the type to like reading modern Chinese novels but this one is well written. I really like how mature the relationship between the leads are despite the circumstances. 5/5 stars

☆ I listened to the audiobook ☆

Audiobook

[Beiyu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful story

[Noorilhuda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book: 2*
TV Series: 3.5*

BOOK 2: ETERNAL FIRE (2017):

Li Xun gets out of jail after 8 years (in the TV series, he is released after 3 years on good behavior & valuable service such as creating a software system for efficient prison management). He's 28 years old.

He is penniless and jobless, a convict with a violent rap sheet, & has zero educational & professional milestones to show in his out-dated resume. Everyone from his former life has moved on to bigger, better things while he has to start from zero once again.



The reader finds out that Gao betrayed Li Xun in 3 ways: 1) by taking unilateral control of L & P misusing the authority (& trust) Li Xun placed on him as caretaker of the company; 2) by changing its core product from internet medical system to gaming, to make instant, fast money, plagiarizing foreign content. 3) by making Fang Chief Financial Officer. Fang was the guy Li Xun held responsible for his sister’s death (as unreasonable as that may be), blinding him in one eye & going to prison for it.



Gao is a rich, successful & famous man, seen on the red carpet regularly, engaged to a famous 'influencer'. He is still inherently insecure about himself & his abilities, highlighted by his behavior in the meeting where Li Xun doesn’t say a single word, making Gao nervous. Gao even makes a crass offer of ‘repaying’ Li Xun for his services to ‘help him’, an offer Li Xun quietly rejects, again by saying nothing.

Li Xun has a plan & goes to Ren Di whose band is now rich, famous & successful. She & her bandmate Jincheng/Xiao Luizi are in an on-again off-again relationship & she is dissatisfied with making easy money by catering to fan base than by doing creative, original, risky work.

He asks for the share of profit that she promised him when he invested in her band back in college. Though nothing is set in stone or in writing, Ren Di agrees to give him money. This shows her calibre as a person & friend. She does throw zingers his way by telling him that Zhu Yun is happy & getting married to a painter.

Li Xun is quietly unhappy about this but says nothing, and to show him that Zhu Yun has moved on, Ren Di arranges for them to meet under false pretenses.

Meanwhile, Zhu Yun still has dreams about him:



She still thinks about & believes in him & speaks of herself as his girlfriend to men interested in her. Even after 8 years, he is the only man for her, & she is waiting for him only. Over the years, she has traveled to Europe & back to China a lot of times but never went to see Li Xun in prison, devoting herself instead to her familial duties & her studies, while simultaneously researching for Li Xun’s dream project: internet medical system, that she was a part of under L & P.



She is unaware of Gao’s betrayal & believes that he produces games ‘to keep the company afloat’, an act that she couldn’t overturn since she had no shares in L&P anymore.

All that changes when she runs into Li Xun, in a meeting arranged by Ren Di. Zhu Yun arrives with the painter ‘to give Ren Di’s money to someone’ & finds out the person is Li Xun. Li Xun brushes her off & goes away, making it clear that he doesn’t want anything to do with her.



This is when the story really starts: Zhu Yun puts two & two together: that Li Xun is not a millionaire via L&P, Gao deceived him and Fang is in L&P. She instantly tries to ingratiate herself in the low-grade company ‘Feiyang’ that Li Xun applied to, making sure they hire him, if they want to hire HER.



She becomes his knight in shining armor, by protecting him & his interests, devoting herself totally to his cause & revenge & future, to show him she’ll never leave his side.



In the book, she comes across as uni-laterally obsessed with him, as if she’s sorry for his losses & wants to do some good. [In the TV series, she is more balanced, driven by love, loyalty, a huge guilt at being unable to stop him, & a strong sense of justice & career goal. But the huge chasm between Li Xun’s post-prison status & hers did make me think, that after having a degree from Cornell University, being a master in various programming languages, with million yuan income job offer in U.S., & a no-fuss life, & stress-free suitor like Tian The Painter, she DOES sacrifice her comfortable life as set by her parents & pedigree to create her own path, a life of struggle, with the man she has chemistry with & wants to work with (& marry). Watching her in a rundown B-grade startup (‘Feiyang’) with a low-paying job, working the nights away, just because being with him gives her life joy & meaning, was revolutionary. But Li Xun never thanked her. So I did feel sorry for her.]



He maintains his distance & is cruel [That office scene in TV series, where he shames her for loving & 'betraying' him was difficult to digest].

She shows him how to communicate better & how to be a team leader & bring out the best in people without antagonizing them. But I do feel he & 'Feiyang' employees took her (& her higher qualifications) for granted.

In the book, SHE is the one who develops the award-winning game 'Invincible General' recognizing the historical inaccuracies instantly. But in the TV series, Li Xun corrects her knowledge on Chinese history & gaming tech, and HE is the one who accepts the award on HER BEHALF, & then HE gives a speech while she's made to watch from the seats wearing a tacky dress he bought! I didn't like this AT ALL. There was no need to diminish her work & award just to make him look tall. Surely she could've given the mic to him after making her award speech:



You will pity Zhu Yun’s parents a bit, since Li Xun is now less of a catch than he was 8 years ago. No respectable, status-conscious household would accept a convict as their son-in-law, & her parents don’t.

In fact, Zhu Yun’s mother introduces & recommends boys from ‘good families’ for marriage constantly: there’s Aunt Jiang’s son Wang Yuxuan, the painter Tiang Xiuzhu, & then there was Wu, the physics researcher. Zhu Yun makes excuses to get out of all such meetings.

All hell breaks loose when her mother finds out that she is once again part of Li Xun’s circle.

Chapter 46's nasty verbal attack by Mrs. Zhu against Li Xun is recreated in the series' Ep.36:

When the mother finds out they are not only working together but living together too, she refuses to give permission for marriage & tells Li Xun to get out of their daughter’s life once & for all.

Li Xun replies: “You are Zhu Yun’s mother. Whether I like to listen to what you say or not, I have to listen. I just said, you can put forward any conditions. I’ll try my best to satisfy.”

Mrs. Zhu, full of spite & hate, says: “We are not snobby and unreasonable family. Our requirement for future son-in-law is that as long as he has a happy family that is equal in social status to us. My daughter has never made any mistakes since childhood, so her husband should be clean as well. That’s not too much, right? If you can do something to remove the stains on your file and invite your parents to come and sit together with us and talk it over, I think I can agree. What’s your opinion?”

Li Xun sniggers, looks at her with cold condescension & says: “Zhu Yun has the ability to change the world. You just want her to listen to you.”

This cool putdown by Li Xun showed his view on Zhu Yun & her family. It's one of my favorite scenes from the series, but quote wasn't in the book, where he simply left without saying anything.

Meanwhile, the reader finds out that Li Xun ‘forgave’ terminally ill Gao (who survives the brain tumor but suffers a divorce) & lets go of the past, with the help of Zhu Yun. ‘Feiyang’ acquires L&P 6 years later. (Feiyang's ‘comic’ employees Dong, Zhang, Hou Ning & Liu, were irritating). I don’t remember what happened to Fang Zhijing after the sale (but in the series he goes to jail for financial irregularities).



EPILOGUE:

Chapters 55 & 56 serve as an epilogue of sorts, the reader finds out about Li Xun & Zhu Yun’s life over the following decades: They get married abroad (without her parents’ approval or participation). They have 3 children, 2 boys & 1 girl: Li Siqi, the eldest, became a movie star & starred as his own father; Li Yucheng, son, went into politics, and the daughter Li Yueling, inherited the family business.

And what was the family business? China's largest internet medical company. Li Xun worked day & night for 30 years & when his health declined (he always had a back problem), he retired & lived abroad with Zhu Yun. He died at 66. Zhu Yun died at 80.

‘Mr. Li Xun is regarded as one of the most powerful data experts of China, who made outstanding contributions to the development of China's Internet medical care.’ - news reporters.

You wonder what was the reaction & behavior of Zhu Yun’s parents over his distinguished status, hard-earned success & place in their daughter’s life, if not China?

The reader finds out (through the incredibly irritating son Li Siqi, who is called ‘most like his father’ but is nothing like him) that though Mr. & Mrs. Zhu had met their son-in-law ‘by chance’ several times (because of the grandkids), Mrs. Zhu never spoke to him even once. And the first time he stepped into her parents’ house was after 10 years of marriage, usually waiting in the car for Zhu Yun & the children to come out.

Mrs. Zhu, the mother-in-law, passes away when Li Xun is 50 years old (by then, married to Zhu Yun for 20 years), but as Li Siqi tells a reporter:

“During that time, whenever grandma called me by my first name, she never used my last name, not even once.”

So her petty/biased mother never accepted him. Wow!



MEMORABLE QUOTES:

- 田修竹抱着手臂。“我一直觉得你太勉强自己。你总是很着急，好像迫不及待想把时间过完。但生活是用来体会的，不是用来消耗的。世界那么美好，没有人必须过得很辛苦。你把自己圈住了。”
Tian Xiuzhu crossed his arms. "I always feel that you push yourself too hard. You are always anxious, as if you can't wait to finish the time. But life is for experiencing, not for consuming. The world is so beautiful, no one has to live a hard life. You Trapped yourself.”

- 她总固执地认为，他还在受罪，她就没有资格活得轻松。
She always stubbornly believed that as long as he was still suffering, she was not qualified to live an easy life.

- 一辆出租车停在公司门口，车上下来个男人，身材高大，一身黑衣，他单肩背着行李袋，也是黑的，整个人像抹不开的雾。
A taxi stopped in front of the company, & a man got out of the car. He was tall & dressed in black. He was carrying a duffel bag on one shoulder, which was also black. His whole figure looked like a fog that could not be wiped away.

- 朱韵平静地补充：“他是例外，全世界我只能跟他不要脸。”
Zhu Yun added calmly: "He is an exception. I can only be shameless with him in the whole world.”

- 母亲：“那当然，他爸爸我也认识，一直到他曾祖父那辈都是搞科研的。我可不会像你一样大街上随便就挑个人出来。”
朱韵很想顶撞一句——谁说李峋是大街上随便就能挑出来的，你去挑个试试。
Mother: "Of course. I also know his father. He was engaged in scientific research until his great-grandfather's generation. I won't just pick someone out on the street like you."
Zhu Yun wanted to contradict her - who said Li Xun could be picked out casually on the street? Go pick one and give it a try.

- 蒋怡不禁想到，之后李思崎在全盛之年息��，带着妻子周游世界，是否是想接着扮演父辈的角色，代替将一生奉献给工作的父母去过另外一种人生呢。
Jiang Yi couldn't help but wonder, after Li Siqi retired in his prime & traveled around the world with his wife, did he want to continue to play the role of his father & live another life in place of his parents who devoted their lives to work.

- 不知过了多久，在董斯扬以为不会有回应的时候，李峋忽然低声说：“如果人死的时候真有走马灯的环节，她大概会是我这辈子见的最后一人。”
声音浅浅，淡如轻烟，宛然自语呢喃。
I don't know how long it took, but when Dong Siyang thought there would be no response, Li Xun suddenly whispered: "If there really is a revolving door when people die, she will probably be the last person I see in my life."
The voice was shallow, as light as smoke, as if he was whispering to himself.



他一个人久了，永远知道自己该干什么，不会寂寞无聊，空虚以度。
He has been alone for a long time & always knows what he should do, & he will not be lonely, bored or empty.

- “你不用跟我讲他有什么理想目标，一个野孩子，没爸没妈，又蹲了六年监狱，他就是有通天的本事也没用，他跟我们家根本不是一个世界的人！”
"You don't need to tell me what ideal goals he has. He is a wild child with no parents and no mother. He has been in prison for six years. Even if he has extraordinary abilities, it is useless. He is not from the same world as our family at all!”

- 他看着她，低声说：“朱韵，我对家庭一直没有什么概念。对我来说婚姻就是一场漫长的恋爱。我很早以前就说过，谈恋爱最重要的是开心。我不希望你牺牲很多东西才跟我在一起，我希望你能开心。”
“那你呢？”朱韵只关心最后一句，顷刻反问他，“你跟我在一起开心吗？”
李峋脸上总算不那么严肃了，弹弹烟，笑着说：“还不赖。”
朱韵心想，这就够了。
He looked at her and whispered: "Zhu Yun, I have never had any concept of family. To me, marriage is a long love. I have said a long time ago that the most important thing in a relationship is to be happy. I don’t want you to sacrifice a lot to be with me, I hope you can be happy.”
"What about you?" Zhu Yun only cared about the last sentence and immediately asked him, "Are you happy being with me?"
Li Xun's face finally became less serious. He flicked his cigarette & said with a smile, "It's not bad."
Zhu Yun thought, this is enough.



- 可她就是觉得很静，静得好像能听到窗外每片雪花的声音。落到屋顶的，落到树上的，还有落到地面的……她觉得自己能区分出这其中细微的差别，就好像她能从李峋每一个眼神，每一个神态，每一句话中，体会他全部的真意。
But she just felt very quiet, so quiet that she could hear every snowflake outside the window. Those that fell on the roof, those that fell on the trees, & those that fell on the ground... She felt that she could distinguish the subtle differences among them, as if she could read every look, every expression, & every word of Li Xun, realize all his true meaning.



THE TV SERIES (2022):

I like the 36-episode Chinese drama series starring Chen Feiyu & Zhang Jangyi as Li Xin & Zhu Yun. Meaningful story, great chemistry between leads who have simple avatars & ideals, good acting by support cast, good production values, great music & songs seamlessly fitting the scenes. The plot holes can be forgiven.

The drama speaks of class differences, social stigmas, personality clashes & betrayals, corporate exploitation & ability to do good via technology, apart from a cracking romance (& chemistry) that continues over the course of 7-8 years. It is about being brave personally & professionally, going against the grain & not selling out. It even ends on a note of non-traditional ‘family’ replacing the conditional support of real family. It is also an allegory of a system that tries to label talented people negatively just because they aren’t born in the ‘right’ neighborhood or with ‘right’ parents or do not have ‘socially acceptable’ behavior or have a criminal past, especially as teenagers, & how that 'accident of birth' or 'bad luck' is supposed to determine the rest of their lives & choices.

Li Xun’s achievements (despite his background, imperfections, mistakes & legal troubles) are remarkable & make him a pioneering visionary as opposed to the play-it-safe Gao and Zhang. His supreme belief in himself is contagious. On the other hand, Zhu Yun is a smart, brilliant, brave & passionate woman who chooses to have her own life, love & career than the one set for her by her parents & societal expectations.

Episodes 1-2 and 23-36 feature contents of Book 2. The series does a much better job (than the book) of showing Li Xun & Zhu Yun's growth as characters, as human beings, as leaders & as lovers.

But the rebuilding of their connection was neglected & deficient. Gao, Xu Lina, Ren Di, Hou Ning & Flying Heart Company’s employees got more screen time. The leads' had mostly serious work conversations. Their casual hangouts as 'colleagues' felt awkward because of denial of past intimacy. Stoic, melancholic guilt was shown more than playful affection. I missed (their campus-like) warm joy. She stood up to him as his equal & loved him more than vice versa. He never verbalized any need for her, didn't fight for her or share plans with her, didn't thank her or (really) apologize & though he did seem to want to kiss her hard, he never made a move on her. In fact, they get together only AFTER she sacrifices her reputation for his win & he realizes she's 'worth' more than his goal:"I'm not at loss if you're by my side". She deserved more overture from him than ambiguity. All of their scenes in Ep. 35-36 (patch-up, make-out, marriage, house), though good, felt rushed.

This was Li Xun's journey of 'including' Zhu Yun & others in his life. I particularly loved the picture given below which shows their 'unconventional family' but is also revealing in another respect: look at how many people surround Li Xun from every phase of his life, who he didn't give up on & who didn't give up on him: his boyhood friend/schoolmate, his college friend, his prison mate, his office mates & of course the wife he met along the way. He is not alone or without support anymore & he welcomes it. Plus, this rag tag group of friends & colleagues genuinely accepted & supported each other through thick & thin, irrespective of class, status or financial ups & downs:



I liked the series. Not the book.

[I google translated the Chinese language book directly, as given on zhenhunxiaoshuodotcom, though an English-translated option is available on mtlnoveldotcom which I think is hard to understand & not very well-translated.].

Images Credit: mydramalist.com

Book 1 Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Review on Youtube: https://youtu.be/y-liJJ208Cc?si=NdAgG...

[Martina · Rating 5 out of 5]

No tengo palabras, estoy destrozada.

Me puso tan triste que narraran después de la muerte de Zhu Yun y Li Xun y que hablaran de su historia... no podía parar de llorar. No sé si este sea el mejor libro escrito pero sí sé lo que me hizo sentir y son tantas emociones que no las puedo describir en su totalidad. Su historia de amor, adversidad, venganza y superación me tocó el corazón en lo más profundo. Sé que está historia será imposible de olvidar y que siempre tendrá un lugarcito especial reservado solo para ellos.
Muy pocas historias provocan esto en mí, y muy pocos personajes llegan a marcarme tanto pero Zhu Yun y Li Xun lo lograron. Se convirtieron en personajes muy queridos e importantes para mí. Los amo mucho. Me conmovió muchísimo el desarrollo de cada uno de manera individual, junto a toda su evolución y el paso de los años que tuvieron gran impacto en ellos como personajes. Son personajes tan reales y complejos que se me hizo difícil no poder empatizar con ellos. Los entendía, a ambos y son unos de los personajes más parecidos a la realidad que he leído. Quizás por eso me afectó mucho la historia o no sé, a lo mejor simplemente la historia en sí me conmovió.

Y para qué hablar de su historia de amor. Es hermosamente desgarradora. Te hace suspirar como también sufrir, con ellos tienes todo tipo de altibajos y nunca te aburres. Lo tienen todo. Rápidamente me robaron el corazón y pasaron a ser unas de mis parejas favoritas, estoy encantada y destruida a partes iguales. Ambos sentimientos predominan en mí y es imposible no tenerlos después de leer toda su historia. La forma en que contra todo lucharon por su amor, a pesar de los obstáculos y los problemas, siguieron luchando el uno por el otro. No se rindieron ni tampoco dieron un paso atrás cuando las cosas se supieron difíciles, simplemente estaban cansados de perder tanto tiempo (en especial después de que Li Xun fue a la cárcel durante 6 años y Zhu Yun fue obligada a salir del país). Solo querían un poco de paz y ser felices juntos como no pudieron serlo la última vez. Sentí tanta alegría cuando ambos al fin lograron estar juntos y hacer lo que querían, quizás no de la forma en que soñaron o imaginaron, pero algo es algo.

Nunca olvidaré esta historia, me gustó demasiado en su totalidad. Siento que estaré un buen tiempo obsesionada con ellos.

Lo único que quizás no me gustó, o bueno, no es que no me haya gustado sino que se me hizo un poco innecesario (quizás para mi pobre corazón, que no podía soportar tanto). Y me refiero a que contaran partes de la historia de Li Xun y Zhu Yun a través de su hijo después de que murieron. Dios, no podía dejar de llorar, me destrozó el corazón leer eso. Sé que en algún momento tenían que morir, ya estaban mayores pero uno nunca quiere pensar en eso cuando termina un libro de romance, ¿o me equivoco? Al menos a mí me gusta fantasear que son felices por siempre y nunca envejecen ni mueren. Me hace sentir feliz, engañada, pero feliz. Y leer eso simplemente rompió mi burbuja y me hizo ser realista, así que no podía dejar de llorar. En especial por la parte final del libro, cuando recrean la escena en que Li Xun y Zhu Yun se ven por primera vez y se conocen. Ahí rompí a llorar como un bebé.

En fin, le doy 5/5 por todo esto. Estos libros me hicieron sentir de una forma muy linda. Son muy especiales para mí ahora, como mi lugar seguro y no creo que eso cambie. Así que pienso que se merece tener una puntuación 5/5 de mi parte. No muchos libros logran llegar a ti de esta manera, y si tienes la suerte de encontrarte con algunos, atesóralos. No hay nada como este tipo de sentimiento.

[Yao · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the Mandarin version when I was younger and it was my favorite romance at the time.
Now I'm in my 40s and because of Twentine's (the original author) latest work and its main character's faint resemblance of Li Xun (the ml), it triggered something in me that made me decide to revisit this book.
I wasn't sure what I was trying to prove. Did I go in with the notion that I've outgrown my younger idealist self and I've updated my perspective on love? Was I ready to discard my rose colored lenses and examine what I had considered the purest form of romantic love depicted in this book with a more surgical eye?
It turns out, I can't be objective when it comes to this. Li Xun is a flawed character with many layers. Zhu Yun's love and royalty to him know no bounds. I acknowledge that there's toxicity in their relationship and that he's awful at communicating. He loves her in the only way he knows how. Her love nurtures the child in him so he can be the man that he is.
Do I want a relationship like theirs? F*ck no.
Do I think their love is absolutely beautiful and it burns so bright and yet somehow it's everlasting and yet all these contradictory points for some reason make sense? Heck yeah.
Twentine's writing style is lean and crispy.With a precision that will unfortunately be lost in translation.

[Beatriz Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to read the novel before watching the tv show, and it was an amazing idea.
It is a story about growing up, finding what you like to do and who you want to be.
The book gave me a clear idea of who Zhu Yun was and I was fascinated with her dynamic with Li Xun from the beginning.

A light read that I would recommend to everyone!

[月缘敏锐 · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5