The Most Pleasant Thing to Hear (I Hear You) 最动听的事 by 师小札 Shi Xiao Zha (HE)

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• Bei Erduo (whose given name literally means “ear”) has just returned to her home city as a failed business owner. She was asked by her friend to fill in on a Internet couples’ reality show. One of the couples has suddenly bailed out so she is filling in and will be posing as a couple with Ye Shuwei, a man she had never met prior. Coincidentally, neither of them has ever dated anyone before. The show becomes a huge hit, and to help out her friend, she continues acting out the couple role with him, but slowly, they fall for each other.

• I’ve read a few of this author’s novels and characters are generally the same. The male is always a very high IQ, lower EQ, and arrogant guy, often with a little bit of black belly, kind of like Bo Jinyan in Ding Mo’s Close Your Eyes, so he will say things and not care at all what people think. The girl is usually a more average girl, thinks normally, not dummy, not overly smart. This author usually starts off great but then midway through, I find she drags and she’ll often insert melodrama and angst into her stories near the end for what seems like just the sake of it.

  This novel is supposed to be much better writing, so I’m giving it a try. I started the first few chapters, and I kind of agree. The main characters grow more on you than the ones from her other novels, the guy’s EQ isn’t quite as low as the others male leads. It’s supposed to be sweet, sweet, and more sweet all the way to the end with no angst. So far, the secondary “evil” character is annoying as heck, to the point that she’s unrealistic, but the leads are cute, and their height difference of 30cm is adorable.

  Still going into this tentatively, based on my previous experience with this author. Will let you know what my overall thoughts are later. (But those chibis are so cute. I kind of want the book just for the chibis.)

• I notice from reading 2 of her books, her minor characters, especially girls are crazy, annoying and like to YY.

• The cover is also very nice & the plot is refreshing.

  Hey who is who & which parts are the chibis relate to? I can’t see properly but Ye Shuwei has a cat in his coat in the chibi? I dun think I read that he keeps any animal. I remember he is only interested in sleeping & playing games at home lol. He is really a nerd, even his occupation is so nerdy.

  He is a bit of a hybrid b/w belly black & mensao. I dun know why but I like him & read this book page by page until chapter 10 or more. He is very cool & not clingy like some male leads. He is also rather quiet but when he does speak, he’ll surprise u. I hope it’ll hold my interest until the very end. At times, I do feel annoyed with him like Erduo. He also seems boring but he’ll also do the right thing at the right time & so sweet to Erduo like peeling prawns for her, buying her food etc. I like Erduo especially her name.

  I can’t be bother with Erduo’s enemy as she is currently harmless & that poor girl has a crush on Shuwei. Erduo’s best fren & her boss, plus Shuwei’s colleagues are pretty well-written & realistic. Even Erduo’s parents are rather interesting to read. Hate her mum but can still relate to her. The plot & characters are pretty engaging.

  I feel this author can write better & has better plot than Big Zhu. It is very common for books to have online interactions lately. Those nicknames are really a mouthful but their comments are hilarious.

• You’ll find out about Ye Shuwei’s love for cats later.

  I’m nearly done, and I love the OTP all the way. The annoying enemy gets worse and worse. At first, I was indifferent, but it’s to the point that everything stereotypically evil about her exists. I like Erduo’s best friend and her crush on the boss, but the author snuffed out that romance too early. I know it’s supposed to be in contrast to Erduo/Shuwei’s pure love where they don’t allow things like career, etc to complicate their relationship, but I feel like it barely happened and then it ended. Wish she had did more. Really dislike Erduo’s mom. She gets worse before she gets a little better at the very end. I thought I would like her dad or at least understand him, but when he physically appears, his lack of a backbone with his ex-wife and the way he treats Erduo like a barely pubescent teenager after he finds out that she is dating someone kind of turned me off. I mean, how hard is it to sit your daughter down and talk to her about your concerns instead of pretending that the bf doesn’t exist? Don’t hate the dad, but he frustrates me.

  Big Zhu has a good knack for words, which is why I keep going back to her stories, but I feel like her plot lines need to be tightened as well (like how Proud tended to be draggy in the second half). Sometimes, I feel like I’m floating around in her stories and can’t figure out what the point is. But this author was the same for me in her earlier novels, and she’s gained my favour now because of this story, so maybe Big Zhu will do the same.

• What? The fren didn’t end up with her boss, sob sob? Oh, she always has a crush on ppl but never dare to voice her feelings. I find it so sweet when she was injured & the boss took care of her in the hospital. Aiya, why must contrast the r/s with the lead instead of parallel? I gonna deduct point bcos the 2nd pair didn’t end up 2gether.

  Urgh, sorry, I never like the dad fr Erduo’s description. He even hand washes his wife clothes, so off putting. Ya he is nice but so no back bone. The mum married him on the rebound & never truly loves him bcos she can’t see him as her equal. Actually this kind of spineless man is a good match for strong & dominant woman like Erduo’s mum. I’ve seen plenty in my life.

• Nope, I wish the boss and her friend came to something.

  I feel like at some point in time, the story just needed to end. They did not need to drag out the parent disapproval thing. But overall, I still read it to the end and didn’t drop it. There’s so many stories that seem to be really great and once the couples are together, it’s like the author’s just feel like feeding the readers candy but we can’t figure out what the point of the story is. Proud, this one, to name a few, but thankfully, the beginning of these few are at least interesting enough and I liked the characters enough that I read to the end.

• I’ve sort of finished it in b/w falling asleep lol. I started to feel bored after they started to date. Dun really like to read abt her mum, dad & annoying so-called fren. Anyway Bong will like him since he is so devoted, 1 woman 1 life lol. At the beginning I find him rather interesting & cool but later feel that he is too sticky & boring, so desperate to get married lol.

  Aiya why the last chap has him injured then turned out to be a false alarm? I dun like it like that, rather forced. Oh, my book is missing the epilogues.

  Anyway it is still pretty good and interesting.