The smell of cheap, burning incense was the first thing to reach her. It was thin and bitter, mixed with the damp scent of rotting timber.
An Yimei opened her eyes, her head throbbing with a dull, heavy ache. She blinked once, twice, staring blankly at dark wooden beams stretching across a low ceiling.
This was not her apartment. The soft mattress she fell onto every night after exhausting fourteen-hour shifts at her finance job was gone. Beneath her body was only a thin, hard cotton pad resting on a wooden bed frame.
She sat up slowly, pressing a hand against her forehead.
Drinking.
She remembered coming home late, skipping dinner for the third day in a row, and opening a bottle of cheap liquor to numb the burning pressure in her chest. She remembered tossing herself onto her bed, still wearing her work clothes, completely exhausted.
So where was she now?
Her eyes swept across the tiny room. The space was small and bare. Pale morning light filtered through wooden window frames covered with thin paper. The dark brown wardrobe near the wall looked like an antique piece from a historical drama set.
An Yimei pushed the rough blanket aside and stepped onto the cold floor. But the moment her feet touched the ground, she froze.
Her body felt completely wrong.
She felt light, short, and fragile. She raised her hands to her face and stared. Her fingers were small, slender, and unnaturally pale completely different from her own tired, coffee-stained hands.
Her heart began to race. "No..."
She hurried over to a small wooden dressing table near the corner, where a polished bronze mirror sat resting on a stand. She leaned forward to look at her reflection, and her breathing stopped entirely.
The girl in the mirror was not her.
She looked barely seventeen years old. Her face was small and delicate, framed by thick black hair that fell past her waist like silk. Her skin was unusually fair, making her dark eyes appear large and deep. Her frame was remarkably petite—a fragile, soft-looking girl who looked like she could be easily broken by a strong gust of wind.
She looked harmless, weak, and defenseless.
"What is this..." she whispered, her voice higher and softer than her own.
Before she could step back, a sharp chime echoed directly inside her mind.
[Congratulations, Host.]
An Yimei gasped, stumbling back until her waist hit the edge of the table.
[Welcome to "The Switched Marriage".]
A translucent blue screen materialized out of nowhere, floating directly in front of her eyes.
[You have successfully transmigrated into the body of An Yimei, the neglected illegitimate daughter of the An family.]
"What is that?!" An Yimei blurted out, her mind scrambling for logic.
[I am System 009, but Host may call me Nine.]
An Yimei reached out to touch the screen, but her fingers passed right through the light. "System? Transmigrated? What kind of joke is this? Who am I? Where am I?"
[Current location: Mu Village.]
[Current identity: An Yimei, second daughter of Master An.]
The words on the screen made her mind freeze.
The Switched Marriage.
It was a web novel she had skimmed online a few weeks ago during her late-night subway rides home. The plot was full of family drama, betrayal, and revenge.
Two sisters. A switched marriage arrangement. A crippled husband who later becomes a feared military general. A lazy drunkard who was supposed to become a scholar. And a jealous legitimate sister who eventually kills everyone in a fit of rage.
"No..." An Yimei whispered, her face turning pale. "No, this is a dream."
[Host’s transmigration is confirmed. Host passed away in the modern world six hours ago.]
An Yimei stood frozen. "Passed away? I’m dead?"
[Cause of death: acute heart failure brought on by severe alcohol poisoning and extreme overwork.]
The room fell completely silent.
An Yimei stared at the blue box. She remembered skipping meals for days, living on black coffee, and ignoring the squeezing pain in her chest just to hit quarterly financial targets. She had worked herself to death at twenty-eight years old, only to wake up inside a doomed web novel.
She took a slow, deep breath, forcing her modern, analytical mind to take control. Panic would not bring her back to life.
She slowly sat down on the edge of the bed and looked at the glowing screen. "If I’m already here, what do you want from me?"
[Main Mission Activated: Bind to the Husband Favorability System.]
[Host’s primary goal is to increase target Bai Zhengyu’s love rate to 100%.]
[Failure to complete the mission will result in permanent soul erasure.]
An Yimei narrowed her eyes. "Bai Zhengyu... the crippled husband."
She remembered the book’s plot clearly now. In the original timeline, her legitimate older sister, An Yulan, proudly chose the eldest grandson, Bai Zhengyu, because he was handsome and expected to inherit the family’s land. Meanwhile, the timid illegitimate daughter, An Yimei, was forced to marry the second grandson, Bai Wenliang, a lazy, gambling drunkard.
But after the wedding, An Yulan discovered Bai Zhengyu’s right leg was severely crippled. Disgusted and furious, she spent years bitterly hating him. Meanwhile, the original An Yimei suffered silently, working herself to exhaustion, selling her hairpins, and paying off debts to force Bai Wenliang to study.
Against all odds, Bai Wenliang eventually passed the exams and became a scholar. But on the day he returned in glory, An Yulan went mad with jealousy. She poisoned her younger sister and killed herself.
Neither sister lived to see what happened next: without An Yimei to manage his life, the scholar Bai Wenliang lost his title in a month and died in a ditch. Meanwhile, war broke out, and the "crippled" Bai Zhengyu healed his leg, joined the army, and rose to become the empire’s most terrifying General.
Now, time had reset. An Yulan had reborn with her past memories intact, and she was currently throwing a tantrum to switch the marriages—desperately trying to hand over the "crippled" Bai Zhengyu to An Yimei while taking the "future scholar" for herself.
An Yulan was foolishly trading away a future military titan for a lazy, useless drunkard.
A transparent status box appeared in front of An Yimei:
[TARGET: Bai Zhengyu]
[Love Rate: 0%]
[Status: Strangers]
[System Rewards: Medicine, Silver, Food, Business Upgrades]
"What about my shop?" An Yimei asked sharply. "In the book, my father gives me a dying tea house in East Market as my dowry."
[The system supports all financial independence efforts. Business tools will unlock as love rate increases.]
"Good," An Yimei said softly, her delicate face settling into a cool, sharp expression. "I won’t depend on anyone. I will make my own money."
[Notice: The marriage switch is taking place right now in the Main Hall. System 009 entering standby mode.]
The blue screen dissolved into tiny spots of light and vanished.