Chinese Reliving My Youthful Days 重生似水青春

Discussion in 'Novel Pickup Request' started by kkgoh, Mar 21, 2019.

  1. kkgoh

    kkgoh Well-Known Member

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    Name: 重生似水青春 ("Reliving My Youthful Days" ... I'm totally making that up since no one has)
    Raw Link: https://www.uukanshu.com/b/73605/
    NU Link: N/A
    Genre: Seinen, Slice-of-Life, Romance
    Why It Should Get Picked Up:
    This time for real, I think this is worth picking up. I've at least read ahead to Chapter 60 raws :whistle:

    It's a clean, simple, hyper-realistic, second-chance nostalgia novel of time-travel back to 2001 when the MC was age 18.
    No isekai, no System superpowers, no OPness, no loli, nada. Pretty much slice-of-life. Which is exactly what would happen if YOU went back to your childhood and tried to responsibly change the past for the people that mattered to you.
    That's INCREDIBLY refreshing.

    This novel is ranked #2 all-time on Qidian's "Modern-day" genre recommendations ... almost 12 million recs. Written 2018. Yes, again I know the odds of translating something currently on Qidian is pretty low. Just thought this was worth recommending.

    Translators note
    - Work doesn't seem that difficult. Writing is clean, sentence structures are easy enough
    - Currently 796 chapters, still ongoing
    - Chapters are about 2000 characters/words each, not too long, no excessive exposition, nonsensical conversations or other attempts to make word counts.
    - Very Asia-specific pop-culture references (up to Chapter 60 at least), suggest adding links for readers.


    Description:
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    An earnest-but-average man in his 30s (yea yea I know I've used this line many times, but that's just how most Chinese protagonists are) Shen Da Peng laments about his life choices after a high-school reunion when he inevitably meets Truck-kun.
    And so starts the MC's adventure into the past as he tries to correct his life and the people he cares for. But he starts realizing the difficulty of the task ahead and the need for caution due to the butterfly-effect.

    The writing is detailed and realistic, just what you'd imagine when a mature 30-something yr old time travels and has to change history despite not being a genius/having any resources. Plot moves along fairly quickly day-by-day.

    Nostalgia nostalgia nostalgia, like the kdrama "Reply" series, or IRAS. No excessive references since MC is not trying to supplant future entertainers (as far as Chapter 60 at least), although you can easily lookup YouTube videos for some of the pop-culture references.
    MC is from my generation, which is why I really enjoy reading this.
     
    Last edited: Mar 21, 2019
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  2. kkgoh

    kkgoh Well-Known Member

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    Ugh ... so I'm thinking of retracting this request ... again.

    Up to Chapter 500. I have way too many misgivings about this novel, on the verge of abandoning it.
    Rating it at best 3.5+ / 5. Even 同桌凶猛 was more entertaining and I decided to retract that.
    I swear the next time I post a request is when I've read most of the novel first.

    Massive spoilers below.
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    (1) Pseudo-harem
    It's fine if MC attracts multiple women who like him. But it's incredibly annoying when there are FIVE of them including the supposed FL (Cao Meng Yuan), and countless chapters are devoted to each of these women.
    At every turn, MC keeps claiming that he's committed to FL, but makes no sincere attempt to distance himself from the others.
    He doesn't even bother to respectfully reject them outright, instead relying entirely on "avoidance" and "silence". This inevitably continues to lead the women on, and author/MC repeatedly states that that can't be helped. That's an as*hole right there.

    This ranks 0/10 in terms of maturity, which is a big issue when this novel is supposed to have a mature MC. I'm fairly disgusted with this hypocrisy.

    (2) FL is a useless pathetic Princess Peach
    FL is a stereotypical Juliet from a prestigious family, but for some reason she just passively accepts her fate and can't/won't go against main family's decision for arranged marriage to someone else.
    The reason?
    Nope, it's not FL's-powerful-family-threatens-MC's-life. It's not even FL's-family-is-threatened-by-evil-fiance.
    It's because her OWN Grandpa is a bigwig, only wants to make social connections, and can easily influence her father's career in government.
    Of all the stupid reasons out there, this ranks at the top.

    It's repeatedly stated that FL's father wants her to be happy and he's working hard to rise to a higher position, just so he can have a say in his daughters marriage. Both FL's parents also acknowledge that her fiance is a complete useless douchebag/scumbag and thus are loathe to have their daughter married to him. WTF???
    So maybe FL's father can just choose NOT to work in a position that sacrifices your daughter's happiness?

    This development makes all the other women around MC so much better, especially because several of them know what they want, actively make sacrifices for the MC and do their best to pursue him. FL has done NOTHING for the MC in 500 chapters. Zero.

    (3) Nonsensical arc structure and story development
    First 450 chapters are devoted to MC in last year of high school. Yes, 1 day spans > 1 chapter. That's how slow the progress is.
    Eventually MC goes to a faraway college to be with FL.

    Only surprise! In the next chapter FL is sent to a different college due to the machinations of her family. And she doesn't have the courage to inform the MC, and an entire chapter is devoted to her lamenting "woe-is-me". Not even a text message/phone-call. What kind of pathetic person is this?? It's takes MC almost 20 chapters to realize she's not in the same college, and even then he only blames her family, not the FL.

    WTF? This novel is starting to feel like some kinda weird cuckholding story, esp since MC is left stuck with the other female characters.
    This whole novel should have been condensed and ended by chapter 400-500.

    (4) Realistic to a fault
    So this is the awkward part.
    We (readers) want a novel that's realistic, but it becomes a problem when it makes the MC underwhelming.
    MC sets up businesses with long-term potential (think Alibaba and all the various megahit Chinese products). But he's constantly schemed and outschemed by ruthless evil competitors. And yet MC likes to say that he should "keep his head down", "avoid confrontations" and "avoid the limelight".
    Why? There's no reason. We're just supposed to accept it because MC keeps saying so. Somehow it's supposed to be a positive thing for MC not to reveal that he's the real owner behind all these huge startups. Which is just ABSURD. This is the year 2001/2, even in China they respect the concept of top 20-under-20, 30-under-30.
    The end result is MC is constantly on his back foot because everyone thinks he's a pushover and targets him regardless of whether he's in the limelight, author writes himself completely into a corner, and eventually has to rely on deus-ex-machina around Chapter 440-450 to solve all the accumulated problems from the previous 400+ chapters. WTF?

    (5) Is this a newbie author, maybe it'll get better?
    I highly doubt it. And I should've researched into this earlier, my bad.
    Male author has apparently been writing since 2006, over 10 yrs and 5 books, looks like mostly romance genre. Which means his writing has matured, this is more or less his peak.
    And no this dude is NOT Fabio o_O
    http://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2016/0713/c404024-28551397.html

    (6) Odd Fillers
    I suspect all the random female love interests around the MC are just used as filler. When author can't think of a way to progress the plot, he just creates characters that have mild/lengthy meaningless interactions with MC. That's how all the episodes between MC and females have been.
    Author likes to drop a lot of bureaucratic jargon which has little to no bearing on the MC. From how local governments are run, the concept of political favors, corruption, etc. Multiple chapters devoted to political machiavellianism. A huge push by MC towards developing environmental products, which doesn't actually make that much money.
    Almost certainly a ploy to appeal to Chinese authorities/censorship laws.
     
    Last edited: Mar 27, 2019
  3. parzivalkdg99

    parzivalkdg99 Member

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    Most of the 2nd Chance CN novels I read ended up with MC having wife before rebirth then still ending up with other women..plural..adding to the mix
     
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  4. kkgoh

    kkgoh Well-Known Member

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    Yea I never really understood why those novels have that setting. Encouraging "polygamy" of some sorts?

    I didn't mention it earlier, but the MC in 重生似水青春 had an average girlfriend in his past life. He claimed he felt a sense of solidarity/connectedness, but didn't think their feelings were mutual love but more of respect (they couldn't find anybody else). And therefore he reasoned that it was "ok" for him to go pursue a new love interest (FL) this time. That was literally the phrasing.

    So you're right, that should have given me a BIG warning sign that the relationships in this novel would be ambiguous and crappy.
     
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  5. Wujigege

    Wujigege *Christian*SIMP*Comedian

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    Any novel over 300 chapters will lose its way.
    It is not rocket science.
    Given your rave reviews after reading less than ten percent of the story.
    I was wary.
    I wasn't surprised at all.
    The only novels that need so many chapters are epics or stories with multiple protagonists
     
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