YAY!

Straightforward and loyal F1 racer x Beautiful and gentle female actress 🏁🎥

Another highly recommended book I picked up because of a post that said the characters reminded them of Ziyi and Xiaolin (the dynamic). Since I had a great time with 《八千里路》 (“Eight Thousand Miles), I decided to give it a try. I normally don't go for stories where the FL is many years older than ML (姐狗 stories), but this one had a age gap that was five years, which was my limit so it was fine.

The book title is 《春山喧》 (= which literally translates to “Spring Mountain Noise") and mean the mountains are filled with lively sounds during springtime. Never read anything by this author before (name is 彼呦 Bi You), but I loved the way she wrote the story.

This was the short synopsis the author used. It explained a bit how our FL and ML met:

During her most popular year, Wen Wanning was filming in Northeast China. On a snowy night, at minus twenty degrees Celsius, her van broke down halfway up a mountain. Shortly after getting of the phone with the repair shop, a scratched Santana drifted around a bend against the wind, screeching to a halt in front of her. Ling Ye was seventeen then. His old schoolbag was carelessly tossed into a snowdrift; screwdrivers and wrenches outnumbered his textbooks. His school uniform collar was pulled up high, his long eyelashes were a bit frosted, and a pair of dark eyes, indifferent as knives. In a moment of impulsiveness, Wen Wanning brought him back to Shen Cheng (Shanghai). She took Ling Ye to get a hearing aid, accompanied him to Disneyland, watched him break new records on racetracks throughout Shen Cheng (Shanghai), and was hailed as a prodigy by top European racing scouts. At twenty-one, Wen Wanning discovered a star in the sand. She had always thought she would be the celebrity sister behind the world champion. Until the day after her graduation play, she suddenly sobered up from her hangover, remembering how she had shamelessly tried to kiss those tight, thin lips the night before. And Ling Ye, who usually doesn't like to talk, didn't dodge.

The slowburn romance were delicious. So the above synopsis is like a throwback, and the story starts off with a reunion of them two after not seeing each other for six years. At this time Wanning's acting career has already hit rock bottoom due to a false accusation from the higher-ups and everyone turned against her. We know how it is in the ugly and cruel entertainement industry. This happened five years ago but she had a small turning point after a step mother/step son romance drama where she played the step mother, got some traction online. She even earned a weibo hot search that called her the national step mother xD

Anyway, due to this small popularity she was invited to participate in a healing/slow variety show where Ling Ye, now a talented F1 driver, was also invited to.

Seeing their push and pull during the variety show, how Ling Ye finally confessed and how Wanning finally faced her true feelings for him aaaahhhhh Definitely a 双向救赎 as well! So much details on the variety show as well, that it felt like I was actually watching it, the descriptions of the fan community, the F1 scene, the behind the scenes of the recording of a show, the marketing that the celebrities had to do for the show etc. I was invested and sat until the end! It's just so good and so real, I have no words for it. Time actually flew by when I was reading this novel.

Ling Ye did have some puppy tendencies as well which matched the 姐狗 dynamic, so when he actually called Wanning by her name and not just "jie jie" was a huge turning point. The mystery behind his tattoo was also quite surprising because I didn't pick up on that until it was revealed. Everyone thought it was zipper teeth but it was not that simple. Cool detail.