Old Bao Looks Up: Your Son Has Your Back

(Over a million words, so there’s plenty to enjoy.) The pacing is somewhat slow.

Modern-day overworked office drone Lin Mo regrets all the sacrifices Old Bao made in "Father and Son Bao", and despises Bao Guowei for being utterly beyond help. By an unexpected twist, he is reborn as Bao Guowei in the 1930s, at age sixteen. Bao has just been publicly reprimanded by his school for repeating a grade and is about to disdainfully reject the shoes Old Bao brought him in front of everyone. •

Core goals: Two storylines run in parallel: 1) Help Old Bao stand tall and hold his head high, escape his humble fate, and enjoy a comfortable old age; 2) Use modern knowledge to make his way through the turbulent Republican era, in his studies, career, and connections, and face-slap everyone who looked down on the father and son. •

Emotional core: “Mutual salvation.” The protagonist helps Old Bao make up for a lifetime of regrets, while Old Bao’s fatherly love heals the protagonist’s loneliness from his previous life. The story rejects the original’s “twisted father-son relationship” and creates an equal bond in which they stand up for each other. •

Historical setting: A small town in Jiangnan in the 1930s, then Shanghai and Nanjing. The story focuses on the era’s hardships, including entrenched class barriers and impoverished livelihoods, making the protagonist’s rise all the more compelling.