Chinese Web Drama: The Story of Souls (炮灰攻略)
Broadcast Date: 7/10/2018
Total Episodes: 20

Episode 1
As a college student who is the pride of her boxing team, Lily could never understand her father’s love for sappy romance novels. With a bright and frank personality, our heroine’s only troubles in life are how to get her father to stop telling her about his latest addiction and how to get ready for her next boxing match.
Instinctively running after the thief when she saw a young man getting robbed, Lily successfully subdues the thief only to get hit by a truck right after she saw that the bag the thief had taken contained only sappy romance novels.

Waking up to find herself in an unfamiliar world, after some confusion, Lily eventually figures out that she has somehow ended up in the romance novel her father has been addicted to lately.

Turns out, as the book guardian fairy Wan Wan explained to her, Lily’s body was badly damaged in the accident and Lilly’s only hope of staying alive is to dive in and out of different storybooks as tragic secondary characters to fulfill their wishes. (The tragic secondary characters’ fates are usually…tragic. Which means these characters have a lot of resentments. To absolve their resentment so she can use those resentments as “energy” to repair her body, Lily has to fulfill the wishes those secondary characters have concerning that particular story. Our heroine won’t meet the book fairy until the end of episode one but for ease of summary writing I am switching up the order a bit.)
First Mission:
Lily’s first’s body’s name: Chun Lan
Identity: The trusted maid to the Governer’s wife.
Setting: The chaotic period of the early 1900s China.
Host body’s original tragic ending: Entrusted by the governer’s wife to give a treasure map to her brother, Chun Lan tries to fulfill her mistress’ dying wish but was killed by a soldier who coveted her beauty.
Mission: Have the soldier killed and get the map to the governor’s wife’s brother.
Hero of the book: Ye Chong Jin, the handsome young general who is trying to save the town’s people.

Encountering the same vile soldier who killed the original Chun Lan, Lily was able to take the gun from the man and give him a sound beating. Startled by the sound of clapping, Lily turns to see the story’s hero, Ye Chong Jin watching the whole thing with a group of solider. Instead of arresting Lilly for hitting a soldier, Ye Chong Jin shoots the vile soldier dead on the spot THEN saves Lily from getting crushed by a pile of wood. Before sending Lily on her way, Ye Chong Jin warns her the town is dangerous and gives Lily his own handgun for protection.

Finding her way to where the governor’s wife’s brother is at, Lilly is first surprised to meet Ye Chong Jin again then alarmed once she realizes he is about to walk into a trap. Calling out a warning in time to save Ye Chong Jin from getting shot, Lily herself is unfortunately shot in the process. Grabbing the governor’s brother-in-law as he is trying to make his escape in the chaos, Lily ignores her gunshot wound and successfully fulfills the governor’s wife’s dying wish by giving the map to him.

Blinking in confusion when she sees black smoke appear out of thin air and is sucked in by the bracelet on her wrist, Lily is stunned when she then finds herself in a library looking room. The next part is where the book fairy Wan Wan explains he was the young man that was robbed but by the time he arrived at the car accident scene he only had time to save her by sending her into the books.

Episode 2-3 Second Mission
Second body’s name: Tang Yu Ling
Identity: Ye Chong Jin’s wife
Setting: Yap, we are still in the same book as the first mission much to our heroine’s dismay
Host body’s original tragic ending: After marrying Ye Chong Jin due to an alliance between their two families (so not a love match), Yu Ling was left spending her wedding night alone when Cheng Jin was called away to the battlefield. While Cheng Jin was away for the next three months, a spy from his enemy’s side has befriended his new wife. Clueless that her best friend is hoping to poison her husband by her own hands, Yu Ling brings Chong Jin a bowl of soup on his first night back only to accidentally poison herself when she took a sip to test the soup’s temperature and ends up spending the rest of her life lying on the bed with half of her body paralyzed. To make Yu Ling’s resentment even bigger, her “best friend” ends up falling in love with her husband later.
Mission: To have Ye Chong Jin personally kill the “best friend” Yang Rong.

Lily shows up in Yu Ling’s body right when she took a sip of the poisoned soup and immediately spit out the offending liquid in her mouth. Intrigued by his wife’s unexpected action then her subsequent change in personality, Chong Jin’s own attitude of disinterest quickly became one of deep fascination.

Trying to figure out a way to expose Yang Rong’s true identity while dodging her wifely duties at the same time, Lily ends up confronting Yang Rong when she tried to kill Zhang Qi Zheng (the governor’s wife’s brother from episode 1). Stunned to learn from Lily that the one that really killed her family (the governor and his wife) were not Chong Jin but Chong Jin’s enemy she has been working for, Yang Rong promptly asks Chong Jin to allow her to join his side.

 

Shaking her head when she saw Yang Rong has obviously fallen in love with Chong Jin just as the story was written, Lily sighs at the thought that Yang Rong will have even more chances to develop a romance with Chong Jin now that they work together. Taking Lily’s apprehension concerning Yang Rong as a sign that his wife is jealous, a very pleased Chong Jin finally admits to Lilly that he has long held a girl in his heart. Completely surprised as she listens to Chong Jin recounts his meeting with a girl named Chun Lan years ago, Lily realizes with amazement that the girl Chong Jin is talking about is her! Almost certain that somehow his wife is the girl he met years ago, Chong Jin confronts a flustered Lily about her true identity. (Chong Jin made the connection because when Lily confronted Yang Rong, her little speech was actually Chong Jin’s own words but they were words he had said years ago, words only Chun Lan would know.) Deciding the best course of action is to pretend total ignorance, Lily pretends to be mad and runs out.

Episode 4
Determined to avenge her family, Yang Rong offers to play a double agent for Chong Jin AND offers herself up as well. Taking Yang Rong’s offer to play a doubt agent, Chong Jin frankly rejects her second offer after making it clear that he doesn’t need anyone else other than his wife.
Clueless that the romance she is afraid would develop between Yang Rong and Chong Jin had met a quick death because of her, Lily shows up at Chong Jin’s office with a pot of chicken soup as an excuse to visit. Immensely pleased that Lily still seems to be extremely wary of Yang Rong hanging around him, Chong Jin tells Lily that as his wife, it is only natural she would be jealous of a new female employee so she is completely welcome to check up on him every day.

Protesting that she must have suddenly developed a headache when Chong Jin then suggests that perhaps it is time for Lilly to fulfill a certain wifely duty, Lilly runs out of the door only to come right back when she sees Yang Rong in a sticky situation with her past comrades.

Breaking into a happy smile to see Chong Jin showing up just in time to save her from a certain death, Yang Rong tries again to give the young general a long list of reason why he should ditch Lily for her. In the middle of rejecting Yang Rong yet again while she is coming up with more reasons why he should change his mind, both Chong Jin and Yang Rong look up as a clueless Lily runs in with a brick in hand. Her bubble of happiness cruelly popped once she learned from Lily that Chong Jin had only shown up because he was dragged there by her, Yang Rong laughs bitterly as she watches Chong Jin tenderly pulls Lily close him and walks off.

Much displeased to show up at Chong Jin’s office only to find him in a suggestive pose with Yang Rong, Lily soon has bigger things to worry about once Chong Jin tells her that he will be leaving town and she alone will be left in charge. Protesting that she can’t possibly do what he is asking of her, Lily’s words were immediately silenced once Chong Jin reminds her that she can always choose to do “other” wifely duties.

Episode 5
While Chong Jin is gone, Lily has done a good job at holding down the fort but falls right into Yang Rong’s trap when she storms in declaring that Chong Jin has been severely wounded after getting into a gunfight with the enemy general. Showing up with his men to find Lily being held at gunpoint, Chong Jin jumps into action the moment Lily manages to free herself. Standing in shock as Chong Jin kills off the enemy general, his soldiers then sends the last bullet into her body, Yang Rong dies still lamenting Chong Jin should’ve chosen her over Lily.

Before Chong Jin can celebrate his reunion with Lily, things take another drastic turn when Lily notices the enemy general is still alive and is aiming his gun at Chong Jin. Losing his perpetual cool composure as Lily jumps out to take the bullet meant for him and he is left holding her broken body in his arms, Chong Jin alternate between ordering and pleading with Lily to not leave him. Both surprised when Chong Jin’s hand touches Lily’s bracelet and snippets of memories suddenly come back to them, Lily looks up at Chong Jin as he finally calls her real name “Lily!”. Somehow able to see Lily’s spirit as she separated out of Yu Ling’s body, Chong Jin forcefully puts Lily’s spirit back but it was no use since our heroine has finished her mission and her spirit is soon whisked away.

Confused when she wakes up to find herself back in her room in her own world, Lily wonders if what she experienced was real or if it was all a dream. Going through her day with a sense of déjà vu except for this time, the book fairy didn’t show up so the robbery never happened. Shaking off her jumbled thoughts, Lily heads to school to report to her boxing coach. Trying to go about her day like normal, Lily can’t help but feel like something is off especially when little clues keep popping up all over such as 1. A friend of hers casually mentioning she should bring her brother along to an event. (Lily doesn’t have a brother…not one she remembers anyway. Don’t worry, our two leads are not blood related.) 2. Peering closely at some past pictures of her boxing team on an outing, Lily notices a very familiar face…Ye Chong Jin’s.

Standing in front of her locker as she ponders if everything she experienced was a dream, Lily looks up to find her surrounding suddenly changed again and she has dived into yet another book.

Episode 6 will give quite a few more clue about Chong Jin’s real identity and the reason for our two leads’ shared memories. In this next mission, our heroine will be a newbie actress and Chong Jin will show up as the big boss in the entertainment business.

Ninja’s First Impression:
This one was such a pleasant surprise since I really did go in with a low expectation. However, as pleased as I am with the show, it is not without flaws. In fact, I can think of many right off the top of my head. For example, while the two leads’ acting is good, the same can’t be said about the minor characters. Also, the show doesn’t take itself seriously at all, so the show often has exaggerated storylines, some poor editing and less sophisticated looking sets.

 

Yet, even with all those flaws or perhaps because of them, The Story of Souls has a wacky fun comic vibe to it. The story itself could’ve easily felt cheesy and ridiculous but instead, I found myself laughing and completely pulled in. With a twenty episode count, the pacing of the show is pretty fast, especially for a C-drama. It of course doesn’t hurt at all that the show is quite generous with heart melting scenes between our two leads as well.

 

Like I mentioned in Friday Drama Roundup, with this one being a web drama I am not holding out hope it will be picked up by the big sites for subbing….which is why I felt guilty enough to write a five-episode summary instead of just a synopsis. I will apologize in advance if I put anyone onto the frustrating path of watching The Story Of Souls raw and has to play the “guess what they are saying” game.

 

 

 

 

 

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