Growing up in an orphanage since he was a child, Tao Mu, who had suffered so much, never thought that his life was actually a result of picking up the wrong script.
Eighteen years ago, two children were born at the same time, but due to the negligence of the medical staff their name tags were switched. Tao Mu, who was supposed to be born in a wealthy family, was sent to an orphanage instead.
Eighteen years later, the mistake was discovered. Tao Mu originally thought everything could go back on track. However, his parents and siblings who were supposed to be the closest family disliked him deeply, lovers and friends also turned their backs on him.
Receiving such a shock, Tao Mu completely revealed his dark side, becoming a vicious cannon fodder that everyone hated. In the end he found himself utterly isolated and committed suicide by jumping off a building.
After being reborn, Tao Mu was surprised to find that he actually lived in a book. The male protagonist in the book was the Silly White Sweet** who was the other baby that he had mistakenly switched identities with. As for him, he was just the vicious cannon fodder encountered by the Silly White Sweet in his sweet and pampered life.
Tao Mu: f*ck this plot, and f*ck this stereotypical routine. I won’t be playing along in this life!
In other words, this is a dog blood story of a highly provoked cannon fodder no longer mistreating himself to please anyone after being reborn. Instead he will be relying on himself to build an entertainment empire that will catapult him to the top.
The narration of this novel is so long-winded, I have to admit I had to skimmed a lot and I'm pretty sure I didn't miss that much that shouldn't be missed anyway. The author took almost 300 chapters to convey what she wanted to when in my opinion, that was too unnecessarily long. Despite skimming, it still took me more than a week to finish. It put me quite on a little bit of a slump and it's not worth it. Quite a forgettable story for me as well. Very disappointing.
Note: Rebirth/Reborn: a person is born again as another living being. It can be a human or animal. Reincarnation: a person shows the same signs and mannerisms of the previous.
1st Life - The origin of all troubles to come In the first life, Tao Mumu was jealous of Shen Er, who have everything going for him. While he was an orphan, Shen Er was raised in a happy family surrounded by friends and admirers. Tao Mumu became obsessed with Shen Er and even thought that if given the chance to be Shen Er, he could do it better. Shen Er falls in love with a guy and tragically, the guy was only with him to destroy him and his family. His mother and sister blamed him with his sister hating him the most. Shen Er met a tragic end. Tao Mumu cast black magic on Shen Er, stealing his good luck halo.
2nd Life up to Nth Live With black magic helped, Tao Mumu got swapped with Shen Er after birth. Tao Mumu then became Shen Yu while Shen Er became Tao Mu. At the age of 18, both will cross paths and the birth switch will be known. Shen Yu with the stolen halo will always rise to the top and Tao Mu will meet a tragic end. However, the ending of each life varied according to the changes made by Shen Yu and Tao Mu. It could be Shen Yu's death followed by retaliation against Tao Mu or Tao Mu's death followed by retaliation against Shen Yu. Their ending was somehow always at the age of 28.
In every reincarnation, Shen Yu will regress while Tao Mu will progress. In short, little by little, the halo stolen by Shen Yu, will go back to Tao Mu. And so, during the nth reincarnation, Tao Mu had enough.
Recent Life The story started with Tao Mu having memory of his previous life. He decided to stop pursuing Shen's family recognition and started his own happiness. He tried to avoid the surname Shen at all costs. However, the story plot will somehow drag him to them. Toward the end of the story, the stolen halo managed to 'go back' to Tao Mu. Most of the main characters had a dream of all the life they had lived. We, as readers also found out the reason for their actions in every life.
In short, Tao Mumu's obsession with being Shen Er started all of this, and Shen Er's obsession with being accepted by his family led to the tragic end of each life. And so, when Tao Mu let go of that obsession, the plot derailed.
Summary of my thought: I like what the book was trying to discuss. We always believe that the grass was greener on the other side. Tao Mumu thought that he could do better than Shen Er. He ridiculed Shen Er for not being a true young master. Why work so hard when you have family friends and supporting characters that could do all that for you? And he was proven wrong in his recent life. Without hard work, even with the abundance of resources, he was nothing. In short, you can change identity with anyone but, you'll never be able to carry the same charm as them.
The writer also had an obsession. They prefer to tell readers instead of showing it. And so, we had to go through long paragraphs and repeated information. I skimmed most of it.
What an amazing story. I know some people didn't like the verbosity, but I personally loved how detailed the author's descriptions were. There were a couple times when the author repeated descriptions, but for the most part, I felt they really added to the realism of the story. The translator probably wanted to muffle the author during some of the descriptions, but I really appreciated the hard work on the translator's part.
The next thing that really solidified this novel as one of my favorites was the explanation for the rebirth. I loved it. Some commenters said it explained why he had no expectations for his birth family, but I think it's more than that. It shows how useless it is to compare yourself to others and envy what other people have. Rather than wasting energy on being jealous of someone else for how their privileged upbringing allowed them to have a blessed life, put that energy towards creating the best life possible (and enjoying it). Railing about the unfairness of the world is a waste of energy - of course it's unfair. Comparison and jealousy is a losing game, and will make even great successes feel like losses. I thought this moral was so profound and applied so well to the world today. There will always be people born with better genetics or background or circumstances, but what does that have to do with me? I just need to focus on living my life to the best of my ability.
The other lesson I thought was very meaningful was appreciating other's help. If someone else provides help, it doesn't matter how condescending it might feel, or how it barely requires any effort on their part, it's help they didn't need to give. Nobody owes it to anyone to be generous people. It's strange to feel that someone hasn't done enough just because they gave a little, but not "enough" (whatever enough means). Have people benefited from even the little charity they gave? If so, then just accept the charity with grace.
This also highlights one major difference between the Mc and Shen Yu. While Shen Yu would quickly go to others to ask them to help or be generous, that was the extent of it. He rarely did anything generous himself. This kind of generosity is at most virtue signaling with no substance. Forgive others, give to others, help others, but don't think that telling others what to do is the same as doing it yourself.
Finally, I think some might also see this story as an advocate for abandoning "family of origins" in favor of non-birth family. But I don't think that's the lesson here. It's more about how people should appreciate the love of the people who have spent the most effort in raising and loving them. They might get on each other's nerves - people tend to do that when they are around each other often. They might fuss or nitpick or make a bunch of stifling suggestions - that all stems from the fact they actually care. People who never bother to fight or raise contradicting opinions with someone just don't feel close enough or care enough to do so.
Finally, this book isn't prefect. I'm petty tolerant of (though still don't like) patriotism, especially in Chinese novels. I think some authors put it in to help them minimize the chances of getting censored. However, this book takes it to the extreme, especially towards the end. Some of the first movies and TV series the Mc participated in were vaguely interesting, but towards the end, the author just ran out of ideas and waxed poetic about the handsomeness of soldiers. First off, I think movies with only action and little plot are some of the least interesting movies out there. Secondly, why describe the soldier TV series and movie both so vaguely and in such detail? I got quite sick of hearing how amazing the fighting and explosions were. If you're going to skim over the plots, skim over the shooting as well.
Aunque me gusto la novela, siento que hubo varios detalles que no me gustaron: 1-. Hay muchos personajes que al inicio parecen importantes pero que después fueron dejados de lado. No lo digo por los personajes que obviamente después no se deberían tener en cuenta por el tipo de contacto de la relación, sino por los amigos y “hermanos” en los que dice confiar más pero que desde antes de la mitad de la novela ya los deja de mencionar. 2-. Me recordó mucho al libro “La historia interminable”. Ya que de manera recurrente comienza a narrar eventos futuros que se desglosaron de un punto de la historia para al final decir que eso era cosa de después. No fue tanto porque contara puntos futuros, sino porque no tenían mucha relación con la historia principal, eran largos y al final parecían divagaciones del autor. 3-. Mucho contexto. En bastantes ocasiones el autor “divagaba” o se explayaba demasiado en argumentos que, en mi opinión, se podían explicar en una mucho menor cantidad de párrafos ya que incluso llegaba a parecer que se salía de la historia para contar otra. Pese a todo ello, es una historia que me gustó.
More of a 3/3.5 since I got bored 3/4 through, but 4 because I enjoyed all the parts I did read. Slight twist from the standard "villain is reborn" novel/ "protagonist is actually evil and real protagonist gets everything back".
Liked it a lot more rereading but have to say, this is one character I want to have his own novel and better ending, even if he's not a great person. Lovely couple...now who's going to be my LXH? XD
More like 2.5 It was okay. Very dog blooded and unbelievably Gary Stu. But that's what I wanted to read. So it was all okay. There were some mind boggling plot twists at the end so that was a nice bonus. I would only recommend this if you are in no mood to read anything that use up any brain power or if you're in a mood to read these certain type of books. Otherwise you might not enjoy it all that much.
Review coming soon —————————————————————————— Have I got a physics test tomorrow that I have not studied for? Yes. Have I got 4 books from the library that I’ve already renewed 5 times because I couldn’t be bothered to read them? Yes. Have I got 7 newly bought books sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read? Yes. Did I really just start another web-novel for no reason? Yes.