After finishing her livestream, Mu Cheng glanced at her watch showing two in the morning. She kicked off her high heels and rubbed her long but aching calves that had been standing for five straight hours.
Tonight, she sold 6,000 pieces of clothing and earned a considerable income, though her legs seemed to get thinner the longer she stood.
After graduating with a master’s degree, Mu Cheng originally worked at a foreign automobile company. However, with the rapid rise of new energy vehicles, the foreign company withdrew from the domestic market, leaving her unemployed.
After spending two months at home reading novels, she was introduced by her best friend to a livestream company where she became a fashion host.
Relying on her stunning beauty, porcelain-white skin, 170-centimeter height, full chest, slim waist, and long legs, Mu Cheng carved out her own path in the livestream industry.
The price of making money was waking early and sleeping late, standing for hours while talking nonstop.
After washing up and changing clothes, Mu Cheng took the elevator downstairs while scrolling through an unfinished novel on her phone, rereading its most exciting chapter.
Suddenly, the elevator lights went out, and the elevator dropped violently.
Terrified, Mu Cheng threw away her phone and frantically pressed the buttons, but the elevator did not stop at any floor.
Following emergency elevator safety instructions, she pressed herself against the wall of the elevator cabin and let out a horrifying scream—
“Ah!”
When she opened her eyes again, Mu Cheng found herself lying on a large heated brick bed.
A handsome man with sharp brows and well-defined features was leaning over her.
His thin lips wandered recklessly along her neck and shoulders, leaving a tingling numbness on her delicate skin.
Mu Cheng never expected that before death, the grim reaper would grant her one last physical experience.
Still, what kind of romantic setting was this rustic countryside kang bed and the colorful candy-wrapper ceiling decoration?
Yet the man before her was undeniably attractive. Mu Cheng instinctively wrapped her arms around his sturdy shoulders.
“Handsome, what’s your name?”
Gu Yunche instantly regained clarity.
He shook his head before looking at Mu Cheng with disgust.
The man’s white shirt hung half open, his cheeks slightly flushed. The desire in his eyes was impossible to hide, making Mu Cheng momentarily dazed.
She had seen many handsome men before, but someone this good-looking with such a perfect physique was rare.
This grim reaper really treated her well—letting her enjoy something good before death!
The only problem was how obvious the man’s disdain for her was.
“Mu Guiying, what exactly did your aunt put in the wine she gave me?”
While hurriedly climbing off the bed, Gu Yunche fastened the buttons of his white shirt. His exposed muscles were firm and glistening with a thin layer of sweat.
Mu Cheng gulped unconsciously.
Back in university, she had dated the campus heartthrob, whose looks and body were already considered excellent, but he still could not compare to the man before her.
Wait… what did this handsome man call her?
Mu Guiying?
What kind of strange roleplay was this?
Cosplaying Mu Guiying and Yang Zongbao from The Generals of the Yang Family?
No… wait.
Could he have said Mu Guiying?
The vicious supporting female character from the novel The Military Officer’s Second Marriage: Wild Pampering?
Scenes of the elevator falling flashed through Mu Cheng’s mind.
At that moment, the page on her phone had still been displaying the death scene of the villainess Mu Guiying, who was assaulted and killed aboard a smuggling ship while trying to flee overseas.
Mu Cheng never imagined she had transmigrated into a novel!
And she had transmigrated into the year 1984 so recklessly. Worse still, she was not the heroine, but merely cannon fodder in the original story!
Taking a deep breath, Mu Cheng stared blankly at the dignified yet resolute man before her.
Pointing at his waist, she stammered,
“Y-You… are you Gu Yunche?”
Gu Yunche snorted coldly. He swiftly tucked his shirt back into his trousers and tightened his belt.
“Comrade Xiao Mu, I originally thought that after being reformed in the countryside, you would turn out differently from your parents. That’s why I listened to my mother and came to pick you up. I never expected you to be this… shameless and despicable.”
That was right.
This man was the male lead of the novel—a young regimental commander from a capital army division, a second-generation military officer with impeccable family roots, the heroine Bai Lin’s salvation, and Mu Guiying’s former husband who despised her for five years—Gu Yunche.
Gu Yunche’s mother and Mu Guiying’s mother had once been classmates and close friends. During the political movement, Mu Guiying’s grandparents were persecuted to death one after another, while her biological parents were studying abroad. Upon learning of the domestic situation, they never dared return.
Mother Gu, who also studied chemistry, had wanted to adopt Mu Guiying, but the circumstances at the time made it impossible.
Over the years, Mother Gu had continuously supported Mu Guiying financially.
Now that Mu Guiying was nearly eighteen and household registration policies had begun to loosen, she asked her son Gu Yunche to bring the unregistered Mu Guiying back to the capital and help settle her there.
The Gu family truly meant well.
But Mu Guiying’s actions in the novel repaid kindness with hostility. Not only did she entangle herself with their son, she also turned the Gu family into the laughingstock of the military compound.
Only after the two divorced and Gu Yunche remarried the heroine Bai Lin did he finally begin living a sweet and happy life.
In the end, Gu Yunche rose to the rank of army commander, while Bai Lin became the commander’s wife.
When their daughter was born, the villainess Mu Guiying died silently aboard a smuggling ship.
When news of her death arrived, Gu Yunche celebrated by setting off twenty strings of firecrackers in the courtyard, rejoicing that the “plague god” had finally been sent away.
At this moment, the redness on Gu Yunche’s cold face had faded. Looking at the dazed Mu Guiying, he seemed to wish he could skin her alive.
Thinking of the plot, Mu Cheng’s mind went blank for a moment.
She recalled that this chapter involved Mu Guiying trying to change her fate by seducing the male lead. She tricked Gu Yunche into drinking tiger-bone wine that Old Man Wang next door had brewed for three years.
However, the wine had indeed been drugged—but Mu Guiying herself had not added the drug.
In the original novel, after successfully sleeping with Gu Yunche, Mu Guiying ran to the east side of the village with disheveled hair and messy clothes, crying for an entire afternoon—
“Commander Gu assaulted me! I can’t go on living! Someone help me seek justice! If Commander Gu refuses to take responsibility, I’ll hang myself!”
In the end, the village secretary stepped in to settle the matter, and Mu Guiying and Gu Yunche registered their marriage in the county town.
After obtaining their marriage certificate, Gu Yunche brought Mu Guiying back to the capital, beginning five years of a miserable sham marriage.
Recalling this, Mu Cheng quickly buttoned up her clothes.
Clearing her throat awkwardly, she spoke with guilt and helplessness.
“Commander Gu, you should leave quickly. My aunt gave me that wine because she wanted to extort money from you.”
Gu Yunche’s expression froze. He looked Mu Guiying up and down.
Mu Guiying was very beautiful, but the way she had deliberately seduced him earlier was completely different from her current righteous expression. It was obvious she knew what was going on and was merely playing tricks.
Gu Yunche glared at her fiercely.
“Don’t play games with me. Otherwise, I’ll write a report accusing you of immoral conduct.”
If that happened, she truly would never be able to leave.
Mu Cheng nodded desperately.
“Commander Gu, don’t worry. I promise I’ll keep my mouth shut.”
Gu Yunche did not want to remain in the room for even another minute. He turned to leave.
But Mu Cheng grabbed his sleeve.
“Commander Gu, please don’t abandon me. If you don’t take me away this time, I’ll die here.”
She was telling the truth.
Since childhood, Mu Guiying had been fostered in her distant aunt’s countryside home. The aunt only agreed to raise her because she intended to marry her off to her mentally disabled eldest son.
Drugging the wine was part of the aunt’s plan to extort money from Gu Yunche after the deed was done. She was certain that an educated and high-status man like Gu Yunche would never want an illiterate village girl like Mu Guiying and would simply pay to settle the matter.
That way, after losing her “purity,” Mu Guiying would no longer dare reject the aunt’s foolish son, and the aunt would also gain enough money to marry off her younger son.
Gu Yunche glanced at the earnest expression on Mu Guiying’s face.
Without saying a word, he pulled open the door and left.
Watching him go, Mu Cheng sighed helplessly.
She looked around the room.
The house was shabby, messy, and filthy. Even the thin washed-out white floral shirt and gray pants she wore felt unbearable.
She gave a bitter laugh.
“After wearing so many fashionable new outfits before, who would’ve thought they’d become an unreachable past? Mu Cheng, you really brought this upon yourself.”
No.
She was no longer Mu Cheng.
Now, her name was Mu Guiying.
Suddenly, the door was pushed open.
A middle-aged woman with a fleshy face walked in. Her eyes immediately turned toward the large kang bed, only to find Mu Guiying sitting alone at its edge…