[Author’s Note: Search engines generally define a “flash marriage” as one occurring within a year; in this story, the flash marriage happens in about a month. Marriage is just the seasoning; building a career is the ultimate destination for my female leads!
Update Nov 14, 2025: Getting married doesn’t mean one has to have children. If you want to read a story about raising kids, please look elsewhere. I can’t believe someone gave a two-star review just because the female lead doesn’t have kids—where’s the logic in that! Update Jan 09, 2026: Since some readers cannot accept a female lead who doesn’t have children, I am reminding you again: the female lead will not have children. If you like child-rearing stories, please move on.
Further update: Stop asking why someone would get married if they don’t want kids! Why must marriage and the womb be shackled together? Who else do these chains bind besides women? I support the freedom of emotions, desires, and choices for women! A “strong female lead” does not equal “cutting off all love and emotion.”
In the first hundred chapters, family, romance, and career progress together. The career arc officially begins in Chapter 29; the career-focused chapter titles are clearly marked! After Chapter 100, the career arc accounts for 70%, and after Chapter 200, it’s 90%. We are currently at Chapter 500, the late stage, and I’m almost worried you’ll get bored of all the career-building.
I have tried my best to list the warnings clearly. I have no intention of trying to please everyone, so please don’t complain that the first few dozen chapters aren’t entirely about the career. Thank you.
Meeting here is fate. I wish all my “precious juices” (readers) great fortune and luck.
The female lead follows only her own will and possesses high agency. She will not wrong herself in work, romance, or life, and she certainly won’t let herself be taken advantage of.
Note: The female lead is transmigrated! Transmigrated! She is under no obligation to be a “nanny” and solve problems for others when they lose out, including her family.
For readers who love “No CP” (No Couple) stories, please note: this story has a male lead. He will appear in her life. In the first hundred chapters, he is not just a background character, but after the setting changes in Chapter 200, they will be long-distance.
However, there is no trace of the male lead in her career. Her promotions and raises are achieved solely by herself. The highlights all belong to Little Xia!
The female lead’s parents are traditional “good parents.” Family matters are handled realistically, without dramatic “bloody knife in, red knife out” breakups.]
Summer, 1963.
Her mind had been wandering the entire way, but it didn’t stop Xia Baozhu from finding her way back to her small courtyard.
The original owner’s memories were already etched into her bones. Or rather, she was already Xia Baozhu.
The courtyard gate was wide open.
As soon as she stepped inside, Xia Baozhu heard the helpless voice of the original owner’s second brother, Xia Chang’an: “Grandma, please stop buzzing in my ear. You’ve been at it for two or three hours since we finished lunch. Give a man a break!”
“Hah! Look at you, a dung beetle on the roof beam, putting on airs for your grandma! You’re an unemployed bum with nothing better to do than pass gas; you should be hiding under your covers and thanking your lucky stars that someone’s keeping you company.”
“Who keeps company like this? You’re like someone chewing on a fart and never finishing it, just repeating the same three sentences over and over: ‘Is Baozhu back yet? When is Baozhu coming back? When is Baozhu getting married?’ Baozhu, Baozhu, Baozhu—it never ends! Are you the grandmother, or is Baozhu your grandmother? Don’t take it the wrong way, but it looks like you’re about to get on your knees and kowtow to her!”
“Well, look at you, reversing the natural order! I think your backside is itching for a beating. I’m going to wait right here for your father to get off work and tell him everything. We’ll see how he handles you, you useless thing. You’ve got no talent but a whole pile of nonsense.”
Xia Chang’an was caught by his weakness. “Grandma! My dear grandma, please don’t drive a wedge between us. Dad has been looking at me sideways lately; please don’t add fuel to the fire.”
Xia Baozhu pushed the door open and locked eyes with her grandmother, who was standing there with a fierce face and hands on her hips.
Grandma Xia also shared the surname Xia. She had fled a famine to Xiaoliucun with her parents when she was a child. Her relatives were all gone, and to get a meal, she became Grandpa Xia’s child bride. Having no name of her own, she naturally took the surname Xia and was named Xia Ruyi.
Just as Xia Baozhu was hesitating, wondering how to address her, Grandma Xia’s face suddenly transformed into a radiant smile. She rushed forward with surprising agility, grasping Xia Baozhu’s arms and inspecting her closely. Like an Oscar-winning actress, her expression shifted as she raised a hand to wipe away a tear.
With trembling lips, she said, “Grandma’s darling! Grandma’s heart and soul! You’re finally back! You’ve grown thin! What godforsaken person sent my little granddaughter to the countryside to suffer? Oh, it’s breaking Grandma’s heart!”
The corners of Xia Baozhu’s mouth twitched.
Don’t misunderstand—it was shock.
She forced herself into “drama queen” mode, wiped away a Schrödinger’s tear of her own, and sniffed. “Grandma, you’re the one who loves me most! But you mustn’t say things like that anymore. Our family belongs to the glorious worker-peasant class. Going to the countryside for labor is no different from coming back to the village to see you—it’s what we of the working class should do.”
Grandma Xia slapped her thigh in heartache. “Grandma just pities you—you can’t carry anything or lift a heavy load. Working under that scorching sun could have ruined you. If you got too tanned, how would you find a husband? The boy from the Teng family wouldn’t have looked down on you, would he? Thankfully, your little face is still fair and rosy. Grandma could die happy right now. Baozhu, I’ve been thinking… since your fiancé can’t get married while he’s in university, how about we hold an engagement banquet first?”
Here it was. The turning point.
Xia Baozhu pursed her lips in feigned shyness. “Grandma! I’m only nineteen. I’m in no hurry to marry. My older sister isn’t even married yet. Besides, didn’t our two families already have an engagement dinner before?”
Grandma Xia took her hand and spoke earnestly. “Listen to your grandma. Your sister’s marriage can be settled in a heartbeat, but you need to hold onto your own affairs tightly. Don’t let the duck that’s already at your lips fly away! We’ll organize an engagement feast right under the neighbors’ noses. Once it’s common knowledge in the family compound, I doubt he’ll dare back out after he graduates. We’re not looking to be wasteful; even just two tables would do. The main thing is to make sure the Tengjia doesn’t forget their roots. Your grandfather didn’t sacrifice himself for nothing.”
As she finished, the old lady broke into sobs again, her tears flowing and stopping as easily as a faucet.
Xia Baozhu was speechless. This old lady certainly had a few tricks up her sleeve. In the book, the male lead really did try to back out after graduating university, and it was only after Grandma Xia made a massive scene that he behaved.
Meng Shuting hadn’t gone into great detail, but Xia Baozhu guessed that because it was a “special period” in history, the Tengjia couldn’t afford a scandal. Back then, being labeled as someone who abandoned their fiancée—especially out of ingratitude—was a dangerous title that could easily lead to being publicly denounced.
Yes, “in the book.”
She, Xia Baozhu, had actually transmigrated into a book.
As someone who believed in science and never in ghosts or gods!
She! Had! Transmigrated!
She had landed in the body of the cannon-fodder female supporting character, Xia Baozhu, in a period novel. Meng Shuting, that big-mouthed girl, ahhh!
Meng Shuting was her childhood best friend and her business partner. Before she transmigrated, the two of them were vacationing on an island.
At the time, Meng Shuting was lying on a beach chair, a drink in her left hand and her phone in her right, swinging her feet as she happily read a novel.
Before long, she seemed to encounter something extraordinary. She sat up abruptly and burst into wild laughter. “Zhu-Zhu! You better pack your bags and memorize this whole book—get ready to transmigrate!”
Xia Baozhu was confused and firmly refused. “I wouldn’t trade my current life for anything. Not for a princess, a county lady, an empress, or an empress dowager—nothing!”
Her main job was stable and easy, and her side business made steady money. Even if she could transmigrate to become an emperor in ancient times, she wouldn’t want to go.
Meng Shuting suppressed her laughter. “Keep dreaming. You share a name with the male lead’s cannon-fodder ex-wife in this period novel. She’s also called Xia Baozhu.”
Xia Baozhu leaned against the edge of the pool, casually pushing her goggles onto her head. “Don’t panic. Just a cannon-fodder ex-wife. If I’m not the female lead, I’m not going.”
Then, sensing something was off, she asked, “If the male lead’s ex-wife isn’t the female lead, then who is?”
Wasn’t the standard trope usually something like “Crematorium for Chasing the Wife,” where the guy realizes she’s his true love only after the divorce? Followed by a frantic chase after the ex-wife who ran away with his child? Then they reunite only to face a car accident and both get reborn?
Meng Shuting looked like she had swallowed something bitter as she explained the plot. “I’ve only read a dozen chapters. Besides the ex-wife he just divorced, he’s currently flirting with at least three other women. But he has to choose one to help save his parents—they were caught doing something wrong and sent down to a farm. The Xia Baozhu in the book was apparently kicked out by her own family and came back with her son to beg him for help, only to have a breakdown when she caught him in bed with another woman.”
Xia Baozhu didn’t care about the plot. Her eyes widened as she caught the main point: “Wait, why are you reading a ‘stallion novel’ (male harem novel)??”
“Ahem, I clicked on it from a short video. It cut off at a crucial plot point and left me itching with curiosity. I had to click in to see what kind of garbage this was!”
Xia Baozhu: “…”
“If I recall correctly, the book you clicked on yesterday featured a female lead who was constantly harassed by the scumbag’s sidekicks and relatives, suffering endless grievances and torture, only to end up happily married with kids to that same scumbag?”
The painful memory hit Meng Shuting. She swore once again: “From now on, if there’s no kicking the scumbag to the curb, slapping the trashy man’s face, or surrounding herself with handsome men, I absolutely won’t read it! I swear!”