It feels like Meili has stunted mental growth. Perhaps he has brain development issues or a trauma or perhaps just from living on a tiny island with barely any connection to the rest of the world.
As for the mom, she is dying. This might be the last time for her to do this as she is going to a hospice for pain relief and to die peacefully...
I did read enough to get all that. But living on a small island or trauma is reaching as for why Meili may be mentally stunted. In fact assuming the character is mentally stunted rather than poorly drawn is perhaps just giving too much credit. If we as readers are having to think up likely explanations to explain a character just doesn't fit the his description, and trying to rationalize away the discrepancy, the fault lies with the writing this many chapters in.
I also did get the main plot points, which though cliché and trope, are fine. Hardly unusual in manga to have someone ending up living with someone else because of dead or dying parents. That wasn't my problem. My mother also died of cancer, so it isn't like I don't get it. So I can also understand the two of them spending their last night in one room together. Yet somehow I just didn't get that vibe from it. Neither in the way she asked him, or in the way he accepted. Perhaps something was lost in translation(s), especially considering all the multiple cultural gaps- Korean to Chinese to Western- where in the original text and culture it is clear what exactly the meaning is.
Hi there, I'm the translator and it did feel lost in the chinese version as well. It felt that they didn't show what Tian Hu proposed to the mom, when she asked him to leave MeiLi under his care. What it felt like, was that they talked more than was shown to us, and later, in the story they will show us what was that.
Also, the author is well-aware of how she's stating MeiLi's personality, because in the futures chapters we can see others characters realizing how naive, inocent MeiLi is, and even trying to help him, or pointing it out to Tian Hu, so he can help MeiLi develop himself. Even thought that I feel the plot develops a bit slow, I think that's why there are so much people giving up on this. And because of the slow pace, people jump to conclusion that his will have a lots of drama because of the mess stated in the first chapters (the marriage, the sick mom), when it hardly will be drama, really. Although I feel that this plot and story has the "korean tv drama" cliché. If you have watched korean dramas, then it's typical rich dependable man, the poor girl, the evil mom, and such.
But it's just up to the people taste, and is to them to decide whether give this an oportunity or not.
Yeah, he seems to act way like a child. A man wouldn't normally let himself be carried by another man or get very close to each other with no dirty thoughts or ideas of what that situation could be interpreted to. Like imagine grabbing a friend's dick with an innocent mind and you have no idea that it would seem perverted. Hopefully there would be character developments and where he can stand by himself.
Damn it, this means I won't like this, I am already on chapter 5 and irritating tendencies are showing. I don't know why well constructed reviews are thumbed down. When did the world become so butthurt. I miss the days when people wrote reviews that allowed anyone who was picky to skip over the story. Cliches get very tiring.
Well, first I want to thank you for replying. Personally, from what you wrote, I don't think MeiLi is just drawn as an "innocent and naive" 20 yr old. He does seem worse than that, to the point of seeming mentally wanting. Had he been made younger, say 15-6, a lot of the story would make more sense. Nor does his mother treat him like a full grown man, but as a child. Most people in most countries would expect someone who was 20 to be able to look after themselves, even if they were somewhat innocent and naive.
As for typical Korean drama types and plot tropes, they can be fun if handled right, as with all clichés and tropes. The problem is when it isn't and the cliché or trope is so obvious and you can see the story element writing itself out with not much to surprise you. But in the end I think my problem isn't with use of tropes so much, but really that the characters just don't seem to act as they should. And not just MeiLi, as wrote in my OP. So I wonder did the author perhaps get the same sort of feedback and try to incorporate it in the story, since it comes rather late by the sound of it.
I don't know if you'll like it or not, but I agree with you wholeheartedly about the way people thumb down. They think it is the same as disagreeing, but it isn't. It is saying that they don't like that you made that comment, which basically means they don't think even a well argued critique is allowed. Just because they liked manga or whatever, you can't make a comment that disagrees with their opinion. I don't have to like every opinion stated, or even agree with them, but in most cases I see nothing wrong in people having the right to say how they felt. I thumb down when it gets offensive or crosses some other line in being disrespectful. That doesn't happen too often.
I got through 6 chapters of the manwha and then gave up. Not because I didn't like the plot as such, but because there just seemed to be a level of immaturity in several different ways. First off, characters; take Meili who doesn't seem to be anything like 20 yrs old. And at 20 shouldn't he be able to look after himself? Xiao Shun also seems to act and think like a preteen. Then take either scenarios or plot devices which seem immature. Like a mother wanting her grown son to sleep with her (quite innocently, but still!), and just the very handling of the cliché plot elements, which were downright heavy-handed. Buried under all this was a promise of a good story. IDK- maybe this is a first effort by a young author. If it is I do hope they keep at it, and perhaps rewrite this someday, with the same basic plot, but more nuanced characters and more subtle handling of the same tropes and clichés.