Fresh off her livestream, Mu Cheng glanced at her watch showing 2 AM. She kicked off her high heels and rubbed her slender yet sore calves after standing continuously for five hours.
She had sold 6,000 pieces of clothing tonight—a decent income, though her legs grew thinner from all the standing.
After graduating with a master’s degree, Mu Cheng had worked at a foreign-owned automotive company. However, with the sudden rise of new energy vehicles and foreign companies withdrawing from the domestic market, she found herself “unemployed.”
After spending two months at home reading novels, a close friend referred her to a livestreaming company as a fashion host.
Relying on her stunning looks, porcelain-smooth skin, 170 cm height, and the advantages of a full bust, slender waist, and long legs, Mu Cheng carved out a unique path in the livestreaming world.
The cost of making money was rising early and working late, standing there chattering nonstop.
After washing up and changing clothes, Mu Cheng took the elevator downstairs, scrolling through her phone to reread the most exciting chapters of an unfinished novel.
Suddenly, the elevator lights went out, and the elevator plummeted.
Terrified, Mu Cheng dropped her phone and frantically pressed the buttons, but the elevator didn’t stop on any floor.
She assumed the emergency posture inside the elevator car and let out a blood-curdling scream—
“Ah!”
When she opened her eyes again, Mu Cheng found herself lying on a large kang bed.
A handsome man with striking features and a chiseled jawline was leaning over her.
His thin lips were exploring her neck and shoulders in a haphazard manner, sending tingling sensations through her delicate skin.
Mu Cheng hadn’t expected the underworld minions to grant her one last physical experience before death.
But what kind of roleplay scene was this with a rustic kang bed and a ceiling decorated with colorful candy wrappers?
Still, the man before her was a feast for the eyes. Instinctively, Mu Cheng clung to his robust shoulders.
“Handsome, what’s your name?”
Gu Yunche’s consciousness instantly cleared.
He shook his head, then looked at Mu Cheng with disgust.
The man before her had his white shirt half-off, his cheeks slightly flushed, and desire evident in his eyes—yet Mu Cheng felt dazed.
She had seen plenty of good-looking men, but one as exceptionally handsome and well-built as this was rare.
The underworld minions had treated her well, letting her enjoy a final indulgence before death!
But the man’s disdainful expression was unmistakable.
“Mu Guiying, what kind of wine did your aunt give me?”
Gu Yunche hurriedly got off the kang while buttoning his white shirt, his exposed muscles well-defined and glistening with a light sweat.
Mu Cheng couldn’t help but swallow hard.
In college, she had dated a campus heartthrob with decent looks and physique, but he was nothing compared to the man before her.
But what had he called her?
Mu Guiying?
What kind of twisted joke was this?
A cosplay of Mu Guiying and Yang Zongbao from “The Yang Family Warriors”?
Wait—could he have meant Mu Guiying?
The villainous female side character Mu Guiying from the novel “The Military Youth’s Second Marriage: Spoiled with Love” that she had been reading?
The scene of the elevator plummeting flashed through her mind.
Her phone screen had been on the part describing the villainess Mu Guiying being brutally assaulted and killed in the hold of a smuggling ship while trying to flee abroad.
Mu Cheng never imagined she had transmigrated into the novel!
She had traveled back to 1984, and in such a careless manner—she wasn’t the female lead, but the cannon fodder from the original story!
Mu Cheng took a deep breath, staring blankly at the noble yet resolute man before her.
She pointed at his waist and abdomen.
“You… are you Gu Yunche?”
Gu Yunche snorted coldly, quickly tucking the previously pulled-out shirt hem into his trousers and fastening his belt.
“Comrade Mu, I originally thought you’d be different from your parents after your rural re-education. That’s why I listened to my mother and came to pick you up. I never expected you to be so… despicable and shameless.”
That’s right!
This man was the male lead of the novel – the young regimental commander of a capital army brigade, a genuine second-generation military officer, Bai Lin’s savior, and Mu Guiying’s ex-husband who had despised her for five years – Gu Yunche.
Gu Yunche’s mother and Mu Guiying’s mother were classmates and close friends. However, Mu Guiying’s grandparents were purged during the political movement and passed away one after another, while her biological parents were studying abroad. Upon learning about the domestic situation, they dared not return.
Though Gu’s mother, also a chemistry student, wanted to adopt Mu Guiying, the circumstances at the time didn’t permit it.
Over the years, Gu’s mother had been providing financial support to Mu Guiying.
As Mu Guiying was about to turn eighteen and household registration policies were somewhat relaxed, she asked her son Gu Yunche to bring the unregistered Mu Guiying back to the capital for settlement.
The Gu family genuinely had good intentions!
But Mu Guiying’s actions in the book were truly repaying kindness with enmity – not only did she seduce their son, but she also turned the Gu family into the laughingstock of their compound.
It wasn’t until their divorce, when Gu Yunche remarried the female lead Bai Lin, that he finally found marital bliss.
In the end, Gu Yunche rose to the rank of army commander, while Bai Lin became the army commander’s wife.
When their daughter was born, the villainess Mu Guiying quietly died on a smuggling boat.
When news of Mu Guiying’s death arrived, Gu Yunche set off twenty full strings of firecrackers in the courtyard to celebrate finally getting rid of this “jinx.”
At this moment, Gu Yunche’s stern expression suppressed his blush as he glared at the dazed Mu Guiying, wishing he could skin her alive.
Recalling the plot from the book, Mu Cheng’s mind went blank for a moment.
She remembered this chapter’s content: Mu Guiying, wanting to change her fate, desperately tried to seduce the male lead after tricking Gu Yunche into drinking the three-year-old Tiger Whip Wine brewed by Grandpa Wang next door.
However, that Tiger Whip Wine had been spiked, though Mu Guiying wasn’t the one who added the extra ingredients.
In the original story, after Mu Guiying successfully slept with Gu Yunche, she ran to the east end of the village with disheveled hair and clothes, wailing all afternoon –
“Regiment Commander Gu raped me! I can’t go on living! Someone please stand up for me! If Regiment Commander Gu doesn’t take responsibility, I’ll hang myself with a rope!”
Eventually, the village party secretary intervened to settle the matter, and Mu Guiying registered her marriage with Gu Yunche at the county town.
After obtaining the marriage certificate, Gu Yunche brought Mu Guiying back to the capital, where Mu Guiying began five years of tumultuous married life.
Recalling this, Mu Cheng quickly buttoned up her clothes.
She cleared her throat and pleaded with both guilt and helplessness.
“Regiment Commander Gu, you should leave quickly. That wine was given to me by my aunt-in-law – she wanted to extort money from you.”
Gu Yunche paused, looking Mu Guiying up and down.
Mu Guiying was very beautiful, but her deliberate seduction earlier and her righteous demeanor now were like two completely different people. This showed she was in on the scheme – she was just playing tricks.
Gu Yunche glared hatefully at Mu Guiying.
“Don’t play games with me, or I’ll write a report accusing you of improper conduct.”
That way, she would truly be unable to leave.
Mu Cheng nodded desperately in assurance. “Don’t worry, Regiment Commander Gu, I promise to keep my mouth shut.”
Gu Yunche didn’t want to stay in this room for even one more minute. He turned to leave.
But Mu Cheng grabbed his sleeve.
“Regiment Commander Gu, please don’t abandon me. If you don’t take me away from here this time, I’ll die here.”
She was telling the truth.
Mu Guiying had been fostered with her distant aunt in the countryside since childhood. This barely-related aunt had only taken her in to marry her off to the aunt’s mentally disabled eldest son.
The aunt had drugged the wine intending to extort money from Gu Yunche after the deed was done. She was certain that Gu Yunche, with his education and status, would look down on the illiterate Mu Guiying and would pay to settle the matter.
This way, the dishonored Mu Guiying wouldn’t dare reject her foolish son, and she would also have money to get a wife for her second son.
Gu Yunche glanced at Mu Guiying’s earnest face.
Without a word, he pulled the door open and left.
Seeing him leave, Mu Cheng sighed in resignation.
She looked around.
The room was dilapidated, messy, and filthy, just like her faded dacron white blouse with red flowers and gray pants.
She smiled bitterly. “After wearing so many new styles before, who would have thought they’d become an unreachable past. Mu Cheng, you’ve really brought this upon yourself!”
No, she wasn’t Mu Cheng anymore. Now she was called Mu Guiying.
Suddenly, the door was pushed open.
A middle-aged woman with a fierce-looking face entered. Her eyes went first to the large kang bed, but only Mu Guiying was sitting there alone by the edge…