The first time I met him, it was at an extremely chaotic place with blood and sweat strewn everywhere. A voice whispered softly into my ear, “Tell the police that you didn’t see anything, understood?”
The second time I met him, it was at the road by the seaside. He was on a sports car; a Chinese man with a hot lady accompanying him.
The third time I met him, it was at a Halloween party. In the darkness, he lowered his body, and I could feel his breath on my face, and his scent drifting towards me from mere inches away. It was a mixture of leather and smoke – a heady, irresistible smell.
The youthful feelings we once had – they will fade away along with the passage of time. Lifting one’s head, lowering one’s head, fate begins, and fate ends – in the end, when we look back into the past, we can no longer recognize our past selves. However, subsequently, I never ever met a person who, like him, loved me like his life.
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This is a story relating to how an initially young and carefree student (Zhao Mei) falls in love with a man who came from a complicated background (Sun Jia Yu). The story takes place in Ukraine back in 2002-2003; thus, there would be the occasional gun fight and other triad activities. It was a pretty messy time, and given the line of work Sun Jia Yu works, it is no surprise that we encounter kidnappings, backstabbing and tenuous alliances.
The male lead, Sun Jia Yu, was initially a playboy who doesn’t appear to take his relationships very seriously – and our female lead is no exception. The initial attitude he adopts towards the relationship appears to be a more cavalier one, although it does, subsequently, change into a relationship of a more serious nature. He’s a rather guarded person, having been through numerous betrayals in his life, and thus it takes some time for him to truly warm up to the relationship.
The female lead, Zhao Mei, is a female student who falls head over heels for our male lead, and slowly manages to find a place for herself in his heart. That said, her innocence, coupled with Sun Jia Yu’s constant protection of her, results in her still being extremely naïve despite having a partner who exploits the grey areas of the law in his work. One thing about Zhao Mei, however, that I have an issue with is how she got together with Sun Jia Yu (who was her friend’s ex-boyfriend), as she wasn’t able to be honest and upfront with her friend until circumstances forced her to confess to her friend.
Although I find both leads to be rather flawed and not extremely likable, their relationship journey nevertheless remains a rather memorable one, which is why I decided to post this after some deliberation.
The story is OK. More like sad ending rather than bad ending for me.
Ever since I found out that Alibaba would do a movie adaptation of the novel, I’ve been chanting for Wallace Huo to get the male lead role.
Everyone in this story is flawed for one reason or the other but I didn’t dislike any of them (except for one). I usually don’t read stories with BE and this story was melancholic from the beginning to the end and yet, I still finished it because it was written well. It’s not a happy story but it’s kind of… for a lack of a better word, beautiful. Makes one sigh at the end.
@ lidge
Wallace Huo? Haha I must say I haven’t actually imagined him in the role of Sun Jia Yu but after watching him in the drama adaptation of Love Him If You Dare I have a much better impression of his acting… I agree that the ending’s more of a sad one than a bad one, but I didn’t know if there were any tags for sad endings ^^;;
@ Tea.Thyme
I agree that everybody in this story is flawed and that although I can’t say I liked most of the characters I don’t really dislike any of them either. They are all governed by their self-interests and I cannot really condemn any of them (except that one person) for any of their actions. That said, I just couldn’t bring myself to agree with how the female and male lead handled their relationships with the male lead’s ex-girlfriend.
Also, like you said, it’s not a happy story so the sad ending could be predicted from miles away – so in that sense at least the ending isn’t a “shocker”.
SE for sad endings? that’s what I’ve always used ^_^
This book is an oldie right? It’s pretty famous among Viet readers. But I haven’t read it for fear of tragedies >_<
@ hamster428
Okay I’ll adopt SE for sad endings next time!! Thanks for the heads up ^^
Yeah this book is pretty old, but I saw the male lead’s name pop up quite a few times on some Chinese forums, so I thought it might be worth a read! I tend to like happier novels too! But perhaps because I wasn’t terribly attached to the characters (in that I didn’t LOOOOVE them) so I wasn’t too sad that they didn’t have a happy ending….? ^^;;;;;
I don’t think you need to change. It is understood BE means sad ending. If the ending is happy, it would be HE. Any unclear ending or a book with more than 1 strong male leads will have OE. I think we should stick to these 3 major category to avoid confusion as it has always been like this here.
Yes, this book is very popular with the mainland Chinese but I can’t read anything with sad ending. I think the male lead is very popular bcos of his ending.
Actually I read somewhere the other Wallace was offered this role. I hope he won’t accept and give this role to WH 😛
I very vaguely remember reading this novel, if I remember correctly it’s only got around 10 chapters so it is a pretty short read, a good thing when it comes to angsty novels XD I do remember it to be very dark in the way it was set, and you’re already prepping yourself for some angst when you find out what line of work the male lead is in, and what the female lead’s friend gets up to.
Personally I feel quite detached from the characters, when I usually have a firm favourite in novels, but here I’m always stuck in between, neither liking them nor disliking them. The male lead is the sacrificial type. With the way he protects the female lead, and then the ending he gets after all that’s happened, I can see why many readers come to love him, I myself wouldn’t say I love him but he does make a memorable character in his own right. The female lead…we do see her mature and grow stronger (well kind of) throughout the story, but in the end, she is still far too naive. The way she finds out about his ending too…all I can say is that I completely agree with Tea.Thyme, it really does make one sigh at the end.
@dramasbooksandtea & @xia0xiao1mei
From what I remember, I believe the novel started out in past tense already with the female lead recalling how they had met and there was the vibe that she eventually loses him. Not to mention, the title of the novel is pretty sad itself. A literal translation would be something like, “There once was a person… who loved me like life”. T_T I think that really prepared my heart for all the sadness.
I struggled for a couple days about this novel. I can handle a bit of angst (obstacles and what not) but it has to be a happy ending but I read this anyways because the title was so pretty (even though it’s sad). The story kind of ended up like that as well. It had its sad moments and they don’t actually end up together but I feel like it is kind of a win as well. At least they both found someone who loved each other with every fibre of their being. So despite what ultimately happened, they both know that they were loved. I think that was what made it less sad.
As for the friend, I find the relationship between the male lead and her to be a bit confusing after they broke up. From what I understand, it seems that the male lead tried his best already? (Although it was probably not the best idea to hook up with the female lead.) When he discovers that she is in trouble, he offers her advice and help more than once. As for the female lead, I can understand how she would struggle to tell her friend. I am not sure that even if she had told her sooner the situation would have been very different as her roommate is very, very sensitive about him. She hates him for not loving her and she probably hates how he loves her roommate.
Sun Jiayu… I didn’t think I would like this book, but I’m surprised myself by how much I was drawn into it once Zhao Mei and Sun Jiayu got together.
I also thought Zhao Mei was a little naive too. Especially the part at the end when she truly believed Lao Qian would have given up so much money just to spend one night with her.
Then I suddenly realised that when I was reading the part where she made the deal with Lao Qian, I myself didn’t become suspicious with this deal. I just thought Lao Qian wanted everything of Sun Jiayu’s, including his woman, hence his high price tag for one night with Zhao Mei.
I guess Zhao Mei is naive… but after thinking it through, so am I. If I were in her shoes, I’d be equally easy to trick & deceive. Alone in Odessa, a foreign country, totally blur, only stumbling into the darker side of the law because of a chance meeting…
The 番外 with Sun Jiayu was really sad though… Why didn’t he get one last meeting with Zhao Mei?
In a way it also reminds me of Fei Wo Si Cun’s 佳期如梦, where Jiaqi also left at the end, and didn’t spend the final days by Ruan Zhengdong’s side. :(( But at least Jiaqi left by choice, whereas Zhao Mei only discovered everything later…