Jiang Meng
Jiang Meng (江猛) is a fictional character from the hit Taiwanese drama Devil Beside You (惡魔在身邊). The character was played by Taiwanese actor Mike He (賀軍翔). He was based on the character Takeru Edogawa from the manga The Devil Does Exist by Mitsuba Takanashi.
| Jiang Meng 江猛 | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | Episode 1 |
| Last appearance | Episode 20 |
| Created by | Mao Xun Rong |
| Portrayed by | Mike He |
| In-universe information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Student |
| Family | Yuan Chuan Rang (brother) |
| Nationality |  Taiwan |
Biography
Jiang Meng was born to a mean, workaholic father who was the President of the university that Jiang attended and a stay-at-home mother. He has one younger brother who frequently picked on him. As his father was constantly working and would always promise Jiang that he would take him to the fair when he was small, only to always break his promise, Jiang learned to not depend on his father. The constant broken promises led the young boy to losing trust in his dad. Additionally, Jiang's mother soon gave up trying to have a family as her husband was never at home. Eventually, the couple divorced. Jiang cried at length about losing his daddy and, when his mother decided to take his brother Yuan Chuan Rang instead of him, he felt he had lost what he called 'Mother Love'. Due to his harsh childhood, Jiang's personality soon transitioned into that of a 'Devil'—until he met Qi Yue.
Personality
Though known as the "Devil" in the story, Ah Meng is known to love his friends and family deeply. He is protective of his classmates; this led him to beat up his middle school basketball teacher when the teacher mocked a student who could not play because he was too big. The mocked student was Yang Ping, who would later become Ah Meng's best friend. Ah Meng is also protective over Li Xiang, a classmate often bullied because of her arrogant and condescending attitude. He often would save her from being attacked. It was later revealed that Li Xiang, once she reached college, would pay people to beat her up to attract his attention. However, Ah Meng never reciprocated her feelings.
As Ah Meng's younger brother was always sick as a child, Ah Meng felt that his mother ignored him. His mother would often blame him for everything that happened, including her marriage to his father. He was jealous of his brother and hated him.
Talking about his feelings and emotions is often difficult for Ah Meng as he is not used to do so with people in general. However, when he and Qi Yue begin their relationship, he slowly opens up.
Relationships
Qi Yue
Ah Meng's only romantic relationship is with Qi Yue, his stepsister to-be. His grandmother, however, tried to arrange a marriage with a girl called Meidi, hoping he would forget Qi Yue. Li Xiang also showed interest in Ah Meng.
Ah Meng's love for Qi Yue is complicated because he withheld his true feelings. When they first met, he teased her and made fun of her; however, he soon moved away and ignored, causing her to get frustrated and angry with him. However, Ah Meng repeatedly rescues her whenever she has an emotional crisis or is in danger. After the breakdown of the relationship between Qi Yue and her previous boyfriend Yuan, caused by Ah Meng, the two start a relationship unbeknown to their parents.
Balancing his status as Qi Yue's brother as well as boyfriend is not easy because Qi Yue's mother, whom Ah Meng's dad is courting, often tells him stories about Qi Yue and Ahsen, the guy she first had a crush on. When Ahsen tries to take Qi Yue away from him, Al Meng grows frustrated and angry, then aggressive and threatening. Although at first Ahsen became Ah Meng's prime opponent, he gave up on Qi Yue after finding out that Qi Yue did not have a crush on him anymore.
Ah Meng made many promises to Qi Yue, but is seen to break all of them except for their Christmas promise, which he promised her that he will give her happiness during the Christmas season. Though the two never break up, they almost do when Ah Meng decides to go with his mum to Italy. A year later, though, he came back to give Qi Yue her "happiness" during Christmas.
Meidi
Once Ah Meng's grandmother had caught on, she immediately arranges for Ah Meng to marry Meidi. Shy with an innocent aura, Meidi is an innocent character in the drama that no one wants to hurt. She first meets Ah Meng while walking across the street and falls, dropping her glasses. He saves her when a car almost hits her, causing her to fall in love with him though she cannot see him without her glasses.
She cancels the wedding arrangement as she does not know it that Ah Meng is her bethrothed. However, while on a basketball training trip, she falls into a lake so Ah Meng jumps in to save her. She drops her contact lens in the water and recognizes that it was Ah Meng who saved her before. She also knew about this because Ah Meng was missing a button on his jacket that Meidi had picked up when he saved her the first time. She becomes attached to him and tries to impress him with her Japanese, as she is fluent in it, only to find that he doesn't care. She later picks up a moonstone ring that Ah Meng bought for Qi Yue's birthday and knows that he likes someone else. Ah Meng's friends hint to her that Ah Meng likes someone else, supposedly the "moon" as "moon" in Chinese is a homophone of "Yue" from "Qi Yue". Meidi finally figures it out, but does not reveal to Qi Yue and Ah Meng until Qi Yue confesses. Meidi then says she gives her 'blessing' to Big Sister and Ah Meng.
Weak and fragile, Ah Meng often scolds Meidi for her dependence on others. She is also dependent on chocolate, notably Ferrero Rocher. Before she exits the drama altogether, Ah Meng throws a pack of gum after the car that she was in, telling her that she does not always have to depend on chocolate whenever she is sick.
References
- Jiang Meng at IMDb