I went on reading more than half of the story without knowing who's the gong and who's the shou—letting me read it despite me mostly reading only shou MC novels (But I guess such a novelty is nice sometimes). But anyway, the tropes are kinda repetitive since MC is always questioned for his ability and skills due to his overly young age which is not quite in line with the norms of people with the same achievements as him. The cycle basically goes like this: MC joins a show/program/competition that requires him to show off his painting skills--->He's too young!--->People starts questioning his reliability, saying things like he bought his achievement with money cause of the previous reason, as well as being raised in the countryside--->MC faceslaps them--->Fan-climbing galore. For some reason, they don't seem to learn their lesson?

As with other novels like this, patriotism can be seen in many aspects of this novel. Things such as Huaxia faceslapping a mere country that dared not raise their heads since ancient times and Sakura Island are quite prevalent here. Also, why go out of the way to describe a master painter for 'Sakura Island' as having shaved head, yellow skin, having a moustache on top of mouth, and unremarkable?

The so-called 'main antagonist' in this novel, the ori-book MC (Qi Lele) is just a spoiled attention-seeking brat. He's basically just a petty person who can't stand others, especially the 'real young master of the family', being better than him. He even goes as far as destroying the MC's reputation and luring another rich second-gen to trick ori-host into losing a million from gambling in Macau.

Lastly, ML—at first I actually thought he was the gong LMAO. I mean, he gives off typical cool gong vibes (at least based on what I read before). But hey, the height gave a reason to suspect (with novel gongs generally having higher stature than shous). ML had a crush on MC since their last life as Liang Loudan and Fu Yi. This sentiment seems to be reciprocated, though Fu Yi seemed to be clueless about his own feelings. ML, Zhong Chen, started suspecting MC as another transmigrator quite early on, even suspecting that MC is his Master, gradually falling in love. This seems great, but the romance is a slow-burn. Most of the romance plot is basically ML trying to seduce wood MC into going out with him.

One thing I'm not reconciled with is: when did they confess their past-life memories to each other?! Like seriously, ML found out early on but had no intentions to confess as he believes that it will drive MC away from him. MC found out nearing the end of the novel (at chapter 100s) but I don't think he also had any intentions to tell the ML. They basically just spent time together concealing the fact that they both remember their past-lives. It was not until the end that the MC returned victorious from an international ink painting competition that he tould the ML, 'Loudan (ML's previous life name), will you marry me?'. What was the ML's reaction at that time? Was he surprised? Excited? Terrified of the fact that the MC knows that he was concealing his past-life identity despite bearing knowledge of it??? The extra is just about their married life, ML retiring to be a homecook, and MC's older brother and former admirer getting married together. It was a fastforward of 7 years.

There is also a little extra about MC's previous demise as the painting saint Fu Yi in a village in the ancient times. It was a bittersweet (for me, I guess, since I'm very sensitive) since it showed the MC's regrets of not being able to personally finish and deliver his final masterpiece to his apprentice, whom he made a promise to. It's actually sad how poverty and lack of medical technology back then claimed the lives of many.

What really made me mad was how the Qi family treated Qi Lele after MC started getting more and more famous. They decided to adopt him after finding out that he wasn’t actually related to them. I can't highlight this enough. They adopted him. He is now once again their child. Like sure, he was a real white lotus but that is just how he had been raised by the Qi family. How dare they just about abandon him like that when he was facing challenges and they wanted to curry favor with MC. If they didn't like how he behaved then correct his behavior. Throwing him away like that was just not something any decent human being would do.

both the MC and ML transmigrated from ancient China.

If you want to be fair, you can give more, not take away. He deserved punishment for the crap he pulled, but I think he wouldn't have done half of it and could've grown up if he wasn't losing everything left and right like he was afraid to. To be fair, he himself caused some of the relationship problems, but honestly.... understandably so to an extent. There was actually a decent potential for him and the arranged marriage bf, but the author decided to make them both scum.

I felt bad for the mom, because she tried, but fell into the very human pit of trusting the people around her and the "fake's" articulation. Brother.... was also rather s*upid but didn't actually do anything terrible. I think it's super natural to trust and like the person you raised/grew up with more than a random stranger, but it's just not fair to MC. The dad though... scum, and prideful on top of that. I have no doubt he has some care for his biological issue and people attached to his name, but it's not familial care, and it's not love. But they also all effed up towards the "fake"- really randomly too- before they knew about the things he was up to, they started taking stuff away and I think this drove the kid up the wall. Granted, early in the novel, the mom and brother actually treated him really well, and it's sad that he kept going down the wrong path. But by the middle/end it really seemed like he was just a placeholder for a son/brother that could be discarded and replaced.

To be fair, he was suddenly no longer a ‘real’ member of a family that had raised him for 18 years. They even took his room away - both at home and at the family compound - and I would be salty, too.