Against the Current in 2002

I miss the era of Dongguan's "massage parlors," when the city's top official led the way by opening hotel massage parlors, providing city-wide massage services and everyone enjoying themselves immensely. If the protagonist doesn't go deep into the front lines, he'll have let Dongguan down. He might as well go to Shenzhen and have tea with Master Ma!

I think this author is quite young; they must have been too young to remember 2002. A factory worker earning over 5000 yuan in 2002? You must be oversleeping.

Honestly, this book is truly toxic. The first 100-odd chapters are alright, but the rest is absolutely terrible.

Feeling the plot was too bland, the author added a series of bizarre and unpredictable twists, turning what could have been a high-scoring story into a disaster. For example, the female protagonist, He Shuishui, a factory worker, suddenly finds herself with a wealthy father in a major city. To avoid competing with her brother for the family fortune, she goes to work in a factory in Dongguan.

It's easy to be swayed by praise. I just finished praising him and he's already changed his tune. The moment I opened the floodgates, the male lead was already heading down the path of a scumbag. Why do these books always shift the blame onto women?

Having read several hundred chapters, to be honest, the plot is decent, and the writing is fairly smooth. However, I feel the author lacks common sense in many aspects. For example, regarding smartphones, in 2007 China, a smartphone boom was impossible. At that time, mainland China was still largely using 2G networks. The smartphone boom only occurred after the rollout of 3G networks.

He's written over 140 chapters, has nearly ten million followers, has a girlfriend, and is still a virgin.

My long-held hunch has come true; the author really is going to change the female lead. No wonder she never gets to have her way with the main character. I guess the author thinks Shui Shui isn't pretty enough, or her background and education aren't good enough.

Now I know why this book didn't do well. Even after being reborn and having a career, a huge portion of it is devoted to trivial matters: this friend broke up, that friend got married, heartbreak, being scammed—that takes up 80% of the book. Only the rest is about the business world.

I read two completed rebirth novels. The first half of both books was really good, but they gradually fell apart later on. Since they were about ordinary people, they didn't necessarily have to end up incredibly powerful. Ordinary people have their own happiness; they don't always end up sitting alongside the national boss.