1. When Nan Chu was sixteen years old, a horrific fire engulfed her home. Trapped in her room, Nan Chu was close to losing her consciousness when she saw a man, decked out in his uniform, emerging from the flames.
2. As the female lead in the upcoming movie My Cannon Fodder Ex-Boyfriend, Nan Chu was invited to participate in a variety show to promote her movie. Requested to call up her ex-boyfriend as a penalty for losing a game on the variety show, Nan Chu dialled Lin Lu Xiao’s number. With all eyes focused on her, and the audience waiting patiently with abated breath. Du… Du… Du…. After ringing for three times, the person on the other line rejected her call.
Every single star blazing in the night sky, represents a martyr who had sacrificed his life — Nan Chu
My life belongs to my country, but my heart belongs to her — Lin Lu Xiao
[Ebook][Radiodrama][Eng Translation][Drama]
As mentioned in my earlier review for Thirty Percent Wild 三分野, 耳东兔子 has, in recent years, been steadily establishing herself as a trustworthy author which one can rely on to deliver simple, sweet, fluffy novels. In this novel, our male lead, Lin Lu Xiao, is a gruff and taciturn captain of a firefighting squad, who first meets our female lead, Nan Chu, when he rescues her from the flames that engulfed her home. The two separate, and it is only years later when they reunite (and our novel starts proper).
Our male lead, being a firefighter, possesses great love and pride for his country, and it is precisely this country-loving spirit that motivates and pushes him to continue down the path of firefighting despite the low pay, high risks, and “discrimination” he suffers on a near-daily basis. Our female lead, on the other hand, is a stubborn, opinionated and independent girl who starts out as a minor actress with little to no works to her name, and a horrible reputation to boot. She falls in love with our male lead almost instantly, and gradually, through the process of getting to know him, and falling in love with him, betters herself as a person. The male and female lead experiences various ups-and-downs in their relationship, from the initial push-and-pull, to the subsequent (obvious) mismatch in income levels and jobs, to the male lead being “scandalized” by the various anti-fans of the female lead upon being uncovered as her boyfriend, to their break-up and subsequent patch-up. The story is relatively well-paced, and makes for a pretty easy read; unfortunately, however, this premise (the “tough” man vs the “independent and opinionated” woman) has been explored to death, and this story is just one of the many well written novels that have similar premises – which is why I’ve only rated this novel 3.5 – 4 stars.