Gu Jiaojiao stared at the old wooden roof for a long time, still unable to snap out of her daze.
'I just attended a family dinner, had a couple of extra drinks, and went upstairs to rest for a bit... and I transmigrated into a book?'
'And the man I slept with.'
'I thought he was the suitor my parents had picked out for me!!!'
'As it turned out... though, it wasn't that far off!'
Like all transmigrators, Gu Jiaojiao had absorbed all of the original owner's memories. Based on how events were unfolding, she knew she had been transported into a period novel she had recently been reading.
The novel's author was her cousin, who had written the book out of sheer jealousy toward her.
Her cousin's looks were average, and their families' financial situations were worlds apart. She was likely resentful that even though their fathers were brothers, one family was filthy rich while the other was a hopeless case. One of them had lived the life of a pampered heiress since childhood, while the other lived the life of an ugly duckling, falling short in every regard. And so, her cousin had secretly written a book, using Gu Jiaojiao's name to create the ultimate, vicious female antagonist.
When Jiaojiao found out, not only did she not mind, she even read the book with great relish. She quite enjoyed the sight of her cousin's frustration—hating her guts but being utterly powerless to do anything about it.
But she had never imagined that she would actually transmigrate into the book herself.
To vent her dissatisfaction, her cousin had made the Gu Jiaojiao in the book an almost perfect replica of her—except that the character's personality was the polar opposite of her stunning looks.
The book was set in a parallel universe, taking place in the 1970s of Xia Country. Her cousin had fabricated the entire world for the sole purpose of making the female antagonist suffer in a "justified" way.
In the book, the original owner was an educated youth sent down to the countryside to join the Qingshan Team. There were others in her group, and one young man in particular—refined, wearing a white shirt, and exuding a scholarly air—immediately captured her attention.
The novel's Gu Jiaojiao fell in love with the male lead, Yun Hao, at first sight. In order to win him over, she slaved away for him, doing his laundry and cooking his meals. She was even willing to pay for his dates with the female lead, and she did so gladly...
But the male and female leads were the canon couple. Their relationship progressed by leaps and bounds, and they soon announced their plans to get engaged at the end of the month. When Gu Jiaojiao heard the news, for some unfathomable reason, she came to believe that the male lead secretly had feelings for her and just hadn't realized it himself.
To get a reaction out of Yun Hao and make him realize his true feelings, she decided to seduce a man even more handsome than him, purely to make him jealous.
Having only recently arrived in the countryside to join the Qingshan Team, Gu Jiaojiao had no idea that Leng Yuan was a local hoodlum feared by everyone in the village.
It wasn't that Leng Yuan was a particularly bad person; rather, he was ruthless, fierce, and mercilessly cold. His eyes were devoid of emotion. The way he looked at people, it was as if he were staring at a dead object. To meet his gaze was to be filled with terror.
The villagers all feared him and wished they could stay as far away from him as possible. The team leader had no choice but to allocate a plot of land at the foot of the mountain for Leng Yuan, making him move there to live far away from the village.
His personality wasn't the only factor; his family background also played a part.
The Leng Family had once been a great household, not just wealthy but also influential.
The Leng Family was known for its philanthropy. During a famine, they opened their granaries and saved many lives. Later on, they exhausted their fortune to protect the family.
Even so, the Leng Family's patriarch passed away not long after.
Even Leng Yuan's parents were reported for secretly hoarding gold. Although nothing was found during the search, they were still sent away to perform hard labor in an even more desolate region.
The female antagonist seized on this, knowing that with his tarnished family background, no one would intervene even if he were wronged.
This made her even bolder, and she went so far as to drug Leng Yuan directly.
But Leng Yuan would rather freeze in the river all night than touch her, which utterly enraged the female antagonist.
The very next day, she went to the County Town and reported Leng Yuan for hooliganism.
Back then, hooliganism was a very serious crime. Coupled with Leng Yuan's poor family background, this caused him to suffer immensely.
Watching Leng Yuan suffer, the female antagonist gloated inwardly and went right back to pestering Yun Hao.
This female antagonist was lazy, gluttonous, and malicious. She was blind in both eye and heart, stupid beyond belief, and her despicable schemes were endless.
She had yet to realize that her false accusation had truly enraged Leng Yuan.
Before long, the female antagonist became the target of Leng Yuan's brutal revenge. Not only was she forced to watch helplessly as the male and female leads found their happiness together, but Leng Yuan also intervened to cut off her chance of returning to the city, leaving her with no choice but to toil in the fields for survival.
But the original owner was completely incapable of manual labor. After two years of hardship in the Qingshan Team, she ultimately starved to death on a cold winter night.
By the time she was discovered, her body was already stiff.
The book described that after the female antagonist's death, Leng Yuan walked past her body without even bothering to spare it a sideways glance.
Recalling his sinister expression and those eternally emotionless eyes... Gu Jiaojiao's legs trembled involuntarily.